1962

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• On 2 March, the army seizes power in Burma.

• On 3 July, Algeria becomes independent from France.

• On 9 October, Uganda achieves independence from Britain, with Milton Obote as prime minister. He declares the country a republic, outside the Commonwealth, a year later.

• The world is on brink of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis. It begins on 22 October when President John F Kennedy announces that American aircraft have spotted a Soviet nuclear missile base being built in Cuba. After Kennedy issues an ultimatum to the Soviets to remove the missiles, and declares a naval blockade to prevent further delivery of weapons, the Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev backs down on 28 October.

• The Telstar communications satellite, launched on 10 July, allows the first satellite television transmissions from Britain to the US and vice versa.

• American scientist Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, an early example of environmental polemic, critical of the use of harmful pesticides.

• American artist Andy Warhol develops the pop art movement, using images from consumer culture such as Campbell's soup cans.

• British pop group The Beatles has its first hit with 'Love Me Do'.

• Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich gives a rare glimpse of the hardships of life under Stalin.

• The American film To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Gregory Peck, is one of the few cinematic works to reflect the racism endemic in US society.

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