January 1962 - January 15, 1962 (Monday)

January 15, 1962 (Monday)

• After the United Kingdom sought to join the European Economic Community, the Meteorological Office first began using Celsius temperature values in its public weather information, following the Fahrenheit values. In October, the Celsius values were listed first, and by January 1, 1973, when the government entered the EEC and completed its conversion to the metric system, Fahrenheit numbers were only used occasionally.
• Portugal abandoned the U.N. General Assembly due to the debate over its East African colony in Angola.
• The Derveni papyrus, written in about 340 BC, was discovered in a cist that had been buried at the site of the Greek city of Derveni, near Thessaloniki. The oldest surviving manuscript in Europe, the papyrus roll contained a commentary on philosophy and religion.
• A 13-year old boy testified before a Chicago juvenile court judge and confessed to setting the Our Lady of the Angels School fire that had killed 92 children and 3 nuns on December 1, 1958 in Chicago. The boy said that he had asked to be excused from class, then tossed lit matches into a cardboard waste barrel filled with paper. After an investigation, the court concluded that the evidence did not support the boy's confession, and no charges were ever filed.
• Died: Kenneth MacKenna, 62, American actor and film director