1963

Year 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1963

January

• January - Beginning of Britain's "Big Freeze", which lasts into April.
• January 1 - Bogle-Chandler case: CSIRO scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney.
• January 14 - George C. Wallace becomes governor of Alabama. In his inaugural speech, he defiantly proclaims "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!"^[1][2]
• January 14 - The Flying Scotsman in its British Railways guise as No. 60103 makes its last scheduled run before going into the hands of Sir Alan Pegler for preservation.
• January 22 - France and Germany sign the Elysée Treaty.
• 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 EEC.

February

• 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 had been merged and became City of Kitakyūshū, which population was more than one million.
• February 11 - The CIA's Domestic Operations Division is created.
• February 21 - An earthquake destroys the village of Barce, Libya, killing 500.
• February 27 - Juan Bosch takes office as the 41st president of the Dominican Republic.
• February 27 - Female suffrage is enacted in Iran.
• February 28 - A large cloud that some say resembles the face of Jesus is seen on Sunset Mountain, Arizona.

March 21: Alcatraz closes

March

• March - The divorce case of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll causes scandal in the United Kingdom.
• March 4 - In Paris, 6 people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle pardons 5 of them but the other conspirator is executed by firing squad few 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 16 - Mount Agung erupts on Bali, killing 11,000.
• March 18 - Gideon v. Wainwright: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the poor must have lawyers.
• March 21 - The Alcatraz Island federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay closes; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

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 22 - The Beatles release the album Please Please Me.
• 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 - In Britain, Dr. Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the UK's rail network.

April

• April 3 - SCLC volunteers kick off the Birmingham campaign against segregation with a sit-in.
• April 7 - Yugoslavia is proclaimed to be a Socialist republic, and Josip Broz Tito is named President for Life.
• April 10 - The U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher sinks 220 miles east of Cape Cod with all hands (129 dead).
• April 12 - Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth and others are arrested in a Birmingham protest for "parading without a permit".
• April 12 - The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits. Although both vessels are severely damaged both can make it to port.
• 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 Quebec terrorist group, the Front de libération du Québec, bomb a Canadian Army recruitment center, killing night watchman Wilfred V. O'Neill.
• April 21-April 23 - 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.
• April 22 - Lester B. Pearson becomes Canada's 14th prime minister.
• April 28 - A general election is held in Italy.
• April 29- Buddy Rogers becomes first WWF Champion.

May

• May 1 - The Coca-Cola Company debuts its first diet drink, TaB cola.
• May 2 - Thousands of African Americans, many of them children, are arrested while protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Sheriff Eugene "Bull" Connor later unleashes fire hoses and police dogs on the demonstrators.
• May 2 - 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 - Le Monde Theater fire, Dioirbel, Senegal, 64 killed.
• May 8 - Dr. No, the first James Bond film, was shown in U.S. theaters.
• May 13 - A smallpox outbreak was recognized at Stockholm, Sweden, lasting until July that year.
• May 15 - Mercury program: NASA launches Gordon Cooper on Mercury 9, the last mission (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb tells Congress the program is complete).
• May 23 - Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union.
• May 25 - The Organisation of African Unity is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

June

• June 3 - Pope John XXIII dies.
• June 4 - President John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110.
• June 5 - First annual NHL draft is held in Montreal, Quebec.
• June 10 - University of Central Florida established by Florida legislature.
• June 11 - In Saigon, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Ðức commits self-immolation to protest the oppression of Buddhists by the Ngo Dinh Diem administration.
• June 11 - Alabama Governor George C. Wallace stands in the door of the University of Alabama to protest against integration, before stepping aside and allowing African Americans James Hood and Vivian Malone to enroll.
• June 11 - President John F. Kennedy makes a historic civil rights speech, in which he promises a Civil Rights Bill, and asks for "the kind of equality of treatment that we would want for ourselves."
• June 12 - Medgar Evers is murdered in Jackson, Mississippi (his killer is convicted in 1994).
• June 13 - Cancellation of Mercury 10 effectively ends the Mercury program of United States manned spaceflight.
• June 16 - Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman, into space.
• June 17 - Abington School District v. Schempp: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that state-mandated Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional.
• June 21 - Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope.

July

• July 1 - ZIP Codes are introduced in the U.S.
• July 5 - Diplomatic relations between the Israeli and the Japanese governments are raised to embassy level.
• July 5 - The Roman Catholic Church accepts cremation as a funeral practice.
• July 12- 16-year-old Pauline Reade is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady in Manchester, England
• July 26 - An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia leaves 1,800 dead.
• July 26 - NASA launches Syncom, the world's first geostationary (synchronous) satellite.
• July 27 – Indonesian Confrontation: Indonesian president-for-life Sukarno declares that he will crush Malaysia.
• July 30 - The Soviet newspaper Izvestia reports that Kim Philby has been given asylum in Moscow.

August

• August 5 - The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
• August 8 - The Great Train Robbery of 1963 takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.
• August 18 - American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
• August 21 - Xa Loi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalises Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
• 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

• September 5 - British prostitute Christine Keeler is arrested for perjury. On December 6 she is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
• September 6 - The Centre for International Industrial 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 16 - In Fort-Lamy, Chad, demonstrations are quelled with 300 dead.
• September 18 - Rioters burn down the British Embassy in Jakarta, to protest the formation of Malaysia.
• September 23 - King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals is established by a Saudi Royal Decree as the College of Petroleum and Minerals.
• September 24 - The U.S. Senate ratifies the nuclear test ban treaty.
• September 25 - The Denning Report on the Profumo affair is published in Great Britain.
• September 29 - The second period of Second Vatican Council in Rome opens.

October

• October 1 - Nigeria becomes a republic; The 1st Republican Constitution is established
• 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 were arrested after trying to register at a "whites only" motel in Louisiana. In the months following, he recorded A Change Is Gonna Come (song).

• 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.
• October 10 - The nuclear test ban treaty, signed on August 5, takes effect.
• October 10 - From Russia With Love is shown in UK cinemas.
• October 31 - 74 die in a gas explosion at a coliseum in Indianapolis, United States.

November

• November 1 - Arecibo Observatory officially begins operation.
• November 2 - 1963 South Vietnamese coup: South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated following a military coup.
• November 6 - Vietnam War: Coup leader General Duong Van Minh takes over as leader of South Vietnam.
• November 7 - Wunder von Lengede: In Germany, 11 miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days.
• November 9 - Miike Coal Mine explosion: In Japan, a coal mine explosion kills 458 and sends 839 carbon monoxide poisoning victims to the hospital.
• November 9 -A triple-train disaster in Yokohama, Japan kills 161.
• November 14 - A volcanic eruption under the sea near Iceland creates a new island, Surtsey.
• November 15 - Conductor Fritz Reiner dies. On his next Young People's Concert, scheduled to be telecast November 29, Leonard Bernstein, a former pupil of Reiner's, will pay tribute to him.
• November 16 - A newspaper strike begins in Toledo, Ohio.
• November 18 - The Dartford Tunnel opens in the U.K.

Nov.22: Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as U.S. President after assassination of John F. Kennedy.

• November 22 - John F. Kennedy assassination: In Dallas, Texas, United States President John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes the 36th President. All television coverage for the next three days is devoted to the assassination, its aftermath, the procession of the horsedrawn casket to the Capitol Rotunda, and the funeral of President Kennedy. Stores and businesses shut down for the entire weekend and Monday, in tribute.
• November 22 - C. S. Lewis dies.
• November 22 - Aldous Huxley dies.

• November 23 - 12-year-old John Kilbride is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady
• November 23 - The first episode of the BBC television series Doctor Who is broadcast in the United Kingdom. A reference to this date was later included in one episode of the spinoff Torchwood
• November 23 - The Golden Age Nursing Home Fire kills 63 elderly people near Fitchville, Ohio.
• November 24 - Alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, is shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas on live national television. Later that night, a hastily arranged program, A Tribute to John F. Kennedy from the Arts, featuring actors, opera singers, and noted writers, all performing dramatic readings and/or music, is telecast on ABC-TV.
• November 24 - 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 - U.S. President Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Schools around the nation do not have class on that day, millions watch the funeral on live international television.
• November 29 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.
• November 29 - Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8 carrying 118, crashes into a wooded hillside after taking-off from Dorval International Airport near Montreal, killing all on board (the worst air disaster for many years in Canada's history).

December

• December 3 - The Warren Commission begins its investigation.
• December 4 - The second period of 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 8 - A lightning strike causes the crashing of Pan Am Flight 214 near Elkton, Maryland, killing 81 people.
• December 10 - In the United States, the X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program is cancelled.
• December 12 - Kenya becomes independent, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister.
• December 19 - Zanzibar gains independence from Great Britain as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
• December 21 - Cyprus Emergency: inter-communal fighting erupts between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
• December 22 - The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira, with the loss of 128 lives.
• December 25 - Walt Disney releases his 18th feature-length animated motion picture The Sword in the Stone, about the boyhood of King Arthur. It is the next-to-last animated film personally supervised by Disney, but it has not become one of his greatest hits.
• December 26 - I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There are released in the U.S., marking the beginning of full-scale Beatlemania.

Undated

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• Heavy snow results in many houses and buildings collapsed by heavy snow on roofs in northwestern Japan. At least 231 reported died. (from January to February). An express train delayed 106 hours 30 minutes arrived at Tokyo, because of heavy snow and adverse weather.
• David. H. Frisch and* J. H. Smith prove radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by their motion. (See Einstein's special relativity and general relativity).
• Full deployment of SAGE, the semi-automated ground environment.
• TAT-3 cable goes into operation.
• Construction of Moscow's Ostankino Tower begins.
• Harvey Ball invents the ubiquitous smiley face symbol.
• The Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) is founded.
• The IEEE Computer Society is founded.
• Urdu typewriter keyboard standardised by Central Language Board in Pakistan.

Births

January-February

• J