World History 1962

About the history of the world in 1962, thalidomide causes flipper babies, the Second Vatican Council convenes, the Cuban Missles crisis.

TWO CENTURIES OF WORLD HISTORY: 1778-1978

1962

* In Europe and the U.S., pregnant women who had been prescribed a sedative known as thalidomide began to deliver deformed babies, some with flippers instead of limbs.

Oct. 13 The Second Vatican Council, convened by Pope John XXIII to break down the barriers separating Christians of different denominations and to overhaul the creaking structure of the Catholic Church, opened in Rome. The pope watched the proceedings on closed-circuit TV from his Vatican apartment.

Oct.-Nov. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. flirted with nuclear was over the presence of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended when Moscow dismantled the bases in exchange for President Kennedy's pledge not to invade Cuba again.

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