October 1962
month of 1962
The following events occurred in October 1962:
October 1, 1962 (Monday)
Johnny Carson took over as the permanent host of NBC's The Tonight Show, a position that he would hold for 30 years. After Groucho Marx introduced him at 11:30 p.m., Carson and his sidekick Ed McMahon shared the stage with the first guests, Joan Crawford, Rudy Vallee, Ned Brooks (of Meet the Press), Tony Bennett, the Phoenix Singers and Tom Pedi. Carson would host his last Tonight show on May 22, 1992. Earlier in the day on NBC, at 2:00 p.m., another famous host made his debut on The Merv Griffin Show; Griffin's first guest was comedian Shelley Berman.
The Lucy Show, Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy, premiered on American TV on CBS at 8:30 p.m. with the episode "Lucy Waits Up for Chris". Based on Irene Kampen's novel Life Without George, the show placed I Love Lucy stars Ball and Vivian Vance in the roles of widow Lucy Carmichael and divorcee Vivian Bagley, along with children. The show would run for 6 seasons before ending its run on March 11, 1968.
James Meredith, the first black student to enroll at the all-white University of Mississippi, registered for classes while escorted by U.S. Marshals. Meredith's first class was in Colonial History, and only 12 of the 19 students registered attended.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “October 1962” is month of 1962. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through October and month, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “month of 1962” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11001253. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1992 and 1968.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “October 1962”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow October 1962 primary sources, October 1962 archive and October research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “October 1962”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “October 1962” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.