1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1963rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 963rd year of the , the 63rd year of the , and the 4th year of the decade.
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Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), Japan's first serialized animated series based on the popular manga, debuts on Japanese television station Fuji Television.
Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney, Australia.
George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama. In his inaugural speech, he defiantly proclaims "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!"[1][2]
The steam locomotive Flying Scotsman (British Railways No. 60103) makes its last scheduled run, before going into the hands of Alan Pegler for preservation.
January 18 – Due to severe winter conditions the twelfth elfstedentocht skating tour in the Netherlands turns into an almost total disaster. Of the 9,294 participants only 69 manage to finish, making this the heaviest elfstedentocht ever held.
January 22 – France and West Germany sign the Élysée Treaty.
January 26 – The Australia Day shootings rock Perth; 2 people are shot dead and 3 others injured by Eric Edgar Cooke.
January 28 – Black student Harvey Gantt enters Clemson University in South Carolina, the last U.S. state to hold out against racial integration.
January 29 – French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the European Common Market.
February[]
Main article: February 1963
February 5 – The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the basic tenets of European Union law.
February 8 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy Administration.
February 10 – Five Japanese cities located on the northernmost part of Kyūshū are merged and become the city of Kitakyūshū, with a population of more than 1 million.
February 19 – The publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique launches the reawakening of the Women's Movement in the United States as women's organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.
February 21 – An earthquake destroys the village of Marj, Libya, killing 900.
February 28 – Dorothy Schiff resigns from the New York Newspaper Publishers' Association, feeling that the city needs at least one paper as New York's 83-day newspayer strike ensued. Her paper, the New York Post, resumes publication on March 4.
March[]
Main article: March 1963
March
The divorce case of The Duke and Duchess of Argyll causes scandal in the United Kingdom.
March 4 – In Paris, six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle pardons five, but the other conspirator, Jean Bastien-Thiry, is executed by firing squad several days later.
March 5 – In Camden, Tennessee, country music superstar Patsy Cline (Virginia Patterson Hensley) is killed in a plane crash along with fellow performers Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and Cline's manager and pilot Randy Hughes, while returning from a benefit performance in Kansas City, Kansas, for country radio disc jockey "Cactus" Jack Call.
March 17 – Mount Agung erupts on Bali, killing approximately 1,500.
March 18 – Gideon v. Wainwright: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that state courts are required to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who cannot afford to pay their own attorneys.
March 21 – The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of United States Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy.
March 23 – Dansevise by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann (music by Otto Francker, text by Sejr Volmer-Sørensen) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 for Denmark.
March 27: British Rail network, as it would have become, if "Beeching axe" plans had been fully implemented (only bolded rail lines would have remained).
March 27 – In Britain, Dr. Richard Beeching issues a report, The Reshaping of British Railways, calling for huge cuts to the country's rail network.
March 28 – Director Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds is released in the United States.
April 3 – Southern Christian Leadership Conference volunteers kick off the Birmingham campaign (Birmingham, Alabama) against racial segregation in the United States with a sit-in.
April 7 – Yugoslavia is proclaimed to be a socialist republic, and Josip Broz Tito is named President for Life.
Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth and others are arrested in a Birmingham, Alabama protest for "parading without a permit".
The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish Straits. Although severely damaged, both vessels make it to port.
April 14 – The Institute of Mental Health (Belgrade) is established.
April 15 – 70,000 marchers arrive in London from Aldermaston, to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.
April 16 – Martin Luther King, Jr. issues his "Letter from Birmingham Jail".
April 20 – In Quebec, Canada, members of the terrorist group Front de libération du Québec bomb a Canadian Army recruitment center, killing night watchman Wilfred V. O'Neill.
April 21–April 23 – The first election of the Supreme Institution of the Bahá'í Faith (known as the Universal House of Justice, whose seat is at the Bahá'í World Centre on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel) is held.
April 22 – Lester Bowles Pearson becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Canada.
Thousands of blacks, many of them children, are arrested while protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor later unleashes fire hoses and police dogs on the demonstrators.
Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a 3-stage rocket with a maximum flight altitude of more than 62 miles (the only sounding rocket developed in Germany).
May 4 – The Le Monde Theater fire in Dioirbel, Senegal kills 64.
Dr. No, the first James Bond film, is shown in U.S. theaters.
Huế Phật Đản shootings: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam opens fire on Buddhists who defy a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha, killing 9. (Earlier, President Ngô Đình Diệm allowed the flying of the Vatican flag in honour of his brother, Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục.) Start of Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.
CVS Pharmacy opens in Lowell, Massachusetts.
May 12 – The Shanty is established in New Castle, Indiana.
May 15 – Project Mercury: NASA launches Gordon Cooper on Mercury-Atlas 9, the last mission (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb tells Congress the program is complete).
May 22 – A.C. Milan beats Benfica 2-1 at Wembley Stadium, London and wins the 1962–63 European Cup (football).
Huế chemical attacks: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam rains liquid chemicals on the heads of Buddhist protestors, injuring 67 people. The United States threatens to cut off aid to the regime of Ngô Đình Diệm.
In Saigon, Buddhist monkThích Quảng Đức commits self-immolation to protest the oppression of Buddhists by the Ngô Đình Diệm administration.
Alabama Governor George Wallace stands in the door of the University of Alabama to protest against integration, before stepping aside and allowing blacks James Hood and Vivian Malone to enroll.
President John F. Kennedy broadcasts a historic Civil Rights Address, in which he promises a Civil Rights Bill, and asks for "the kind of equality of treatment that we would want for ourselves".
Establishment of the Moscow–Washington hotline (officially, the Direct Communications Link or DCL; unofficially, the "red telephone"; and in fact a teleprinter link) is authorized by signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.[5][6]
Swedish Air Force Colonel Stig Wennerström is arrested as a spy for the Soviet Union.
June 21 – Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope.
Diplomatic relations between the Israeli and the Japanese governments are raised to embassy level.
July 7 – Double Seven Day scuffle: Secret police loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, attack American journalists including Peter Arnett and David Halberstam at a demonstration during the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.
July 11 – South Africa: police raid Liliesleaf Farm to the north of Johannesburg, arresting a group of ANC leaders.
July 12 – Pauline Reade (16) is abducted by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in Manchester, England, the first victim of the Moors murders; her remains are located in July 1987.
July 19 – American test pilot Joe Walker, flying the X-15, reaches an altitude of 65.8 miles (105.9 kilometers), making it a sub-orbital spaceflight by recognized international standards.
August 28: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Main article: August 1963
August 5 – The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
August 8 – The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.
August 15 – Trois Glorieuses: President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of Congo after a three-day uprising in the capital, Brazzaville.
August 18 – American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
August 21 – Xá Lợi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, vandalise Buddhist pagodas across South Vietnam, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead. In the wake of the raids, the Kennedy administration by Cable 243 orders the United States Embassy, Saigon to explore alternative leadership in the country, opening the way towards a coup against Diệm.
August 22 – American test pilot Joe Walker again achieves a sub-orbital spaceflight according to international standards, this time by piloting the X-15 to an altitude of 67.0 miles (107.8 kilometers).
August 24 – Bundesliga, as known well for professional football league of world, first games in West Germany, replacing from West German Oberliga.[citation needed]
August 28 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of at least 250,000, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
September[]
Main article: September 1963
September 1 – The language border in Belgium is fixed. This will become the foundation for the further federalization of the county.
September 5 – British prostitute Christine Keeler is arrested for perjury for her part in the Profumo affair. On December 6 she is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
September 6 – The Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) is founded.
September 7 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
September 10 – Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano is indicted for murder (he is captured 43 years later, on April 11, 2006).
September 15 – American civil rights movement: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in Birmingham, Alabama, kills 4 and injures 22.
September 16 – Malaysia is formed through the merging of the Federation of Malaya and the British crown colony of Singapore, North Borneo (renamed Sabah) and Sarawak.
September 18 – Rioters burn down the British Embassy in Jakarta, to protest the formation of Malaysia.
September 23 – King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals is established by a Saudi Royal Decree as the College of Petroleum and Minerals.
September 24 – The United States Senate ratifies the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Nigeria becomes a republic; The 1st Republican Constitution is established.
In the U.S., the President's Commission on the Status of Women issues its final reports to President Kennedy.
October 3 – 1963 Honduran coup d'état: A violent coup in Honduras pre-empts the October 13 election, ends a period of reform under President Ramón Villeda Morales and begins two decades of military rule under General Oswaldo López Arellano.
October 4 – Hurricane Flora, one of the worst Atlantic storms in history, hits Hispaniola and Cuba, killing nearly 7,000 people.
October 8 – Sam Cooke and his band are arrested after trying to register at a "whites only" motel in Louisiana. In the months following, he records the song "A Change Is Gonna Come".
October 9 – In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.
Assassination of John F. Kennedy: In a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, U.S. President John F. Kennedy is fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, and Governor of TexasJohn Connally is seriously wounded. Upon Kennedy's death, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President of the United States. A few hours later, President Johnson is sworn in aboard Air Force One, as Kennedy's body is flown back to Washington, D.C. Stores and businesses shut down for the entire weekend and Monday, in tribute.
English-born writer Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, dies of cancer in the United States.
Irish-born theologian and writer C. S. Lewis, author of works including The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity, dies of renal failure at his home in Oxford (England).
Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector is released.
Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy, is shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas, an event seen on live national television.
Vietnam War: New U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically.
November 25 – State funeral of John F. Kennedy: President Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Schools around the nation cancel classes that day; millions watch the funeral on live international television.
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8 crashes into a wooded hillside after taking-off from Dorval International Airport near Montreal, killing all 118 on board, the worst air disaster for many years in Canada's history.
Foundation stone for Mirzapur Cadet College is laid in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
December[]
Main article: December 1963
December 3 – The Warren Commission begins its investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
December 4 – The second period of the Second Vatican Council closes.
December 5 – The Seliger Forschungs-und-Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH demonstrates rockets for military use to military representatives of non-NATO-countries near Cuxhaven. Although these rockets land via parachute at the end of their flight and no allied laws are violated, the Soviet Union protests this action.
December 7 – Tony Verna, a CBS-TV director, debuts an improved version of instant replay during his direction of a live televised sporting event, the Army–Navy Game of college football played in Philadelphia. This instance is notable as it was the first instant replay system to use videotape instead of film.
In the United States, the X-20 Dyna-Soarspaceplane program is cancelled.
Chuck Yeager narrowly escapes death while testing an NF-104A rocket-augmented aerospace trainer when his aircraft goes out of control at 108,700 feet (nearly 21 miles up) and crashes. He parachutes to safety at 8,500 feet after vainly battling to gain control of the powerless, rapidly falling craft. In this incident he becomes the first pilot to make an emergency ejection in the full pressure suit needed for high altitude flights.
December 12 – Kenya gains independence from the United Kingdom, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister.
December 19 – Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom, as a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
December 21 – Cyprus Emergency: Inter-communal fighting erupts between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
December 22 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira, with the loss of 128 lives.
Walt Disney releases his 18th feature-length animated motion picture The Sword in the Stone, about the boyhood of King Arthur. It is the penultimate animated film personally supervised by Disney.
İsmet İnönü of the Republican People's Party (CHP) forms the new government of Turkey (28th government, coalition partners; independents, İnönü has served 10 ten times as a prime minister, this is his last government).
David H. Frisch and J.H. Smith prove that the radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by their motion (see Einstein's special relativity and general relativity).
The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment for the defense of the United States is fully deployed.
The TAT-3transatlantic communications cable goes into operation.
Ivan Sutherland writes the revolutionary Sketchpad program and runs it on the Lincoln TX-2 computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Construction of Moscow's Ostankino Tower begins.
The IEEE Computer Society is founded.
The Urdu keyboard is standardised by the Central Language Board in Pakistan.
Harvey Ball invents the ubiquitous smiley face symbol.
The Reformed Druids of North America is founded.
The 1955 film Oklahoma!, an adaptation of the famed Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, is re-released.
The iconic Porsche 911 is first produced.
Conference Premier football club Welling United is formed.
Births[]
January[]
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↑Tracker, "Footprints Tracker", August 2012, p. 46.
↑Larsen, Jeffrey A.; Smith, James M. (2005). "Hot Line Agreements (1963, 1971, 1984)". Historical Dictionary Of Arms Control And Disarmament. Scarecrow Press. p. 107.
↑Kahn, David (1996). The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet. Simon and Schuster. p. 715.
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