October 20, 1962 – November 21, 1962
China and India fight a Himalayan border war over Aksai Chin and present-day Arunachal Pradesh, ending in a unilateral Chinese ceasefire.
The Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka opens as the world's first high-speed railway line.
China detonates its first atomic bomb at Lop Nur, becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
A campaign of rapid industrialisation and collectivisation leads to a great famine that kills tens of millions.
Mao Zedong launches a decade-long political movement that brings social upheaval, persecution and the destruction of cultural heritage.
A tropical cyclone strikes East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people, one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 20th century.
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first people confirmed to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.