1962 ... What a Year!

1962 is an interesting year in film with a mixture of art-house classics and crowd pleasing blockbusters. French New Wave was still going strong, Hollywood epics got even more epic, and scratching films became an artistic expression ... somehow.

What else was going on in the world, then? Here's a lowdown:

• Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon ... it overshoots by about 4.5 Mount Everests. Somebody loses his/her job.
• Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a game. No decisions were made afterwards.
• Ranger 4 reaches the Moon ... in pieces.
  
• Something important happens in Malaysia.
• The first Wal-mart opens. America will never be the same again.
• Marilyn Monroe dies. Beauty becomes a relative term.
• Cuban missile crisis. Otherwise known as "Whose dick is bigger?" contest.
• Big Freeze in Britain. Meanwhile, in 2011 Britain is going through the Big Moist.