1963

Events in 1963 78

• 1868 – 1963 W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) Died 27 August 1963, aged 95 W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian and civil rights leader who co-founded the NAACP and championed Pan-Africanism. He spent his final years in Ghana after growing disillusioned with racial progress in the United States. He died in Accra on the eve of the March on Washington.
• 1874 – 1963 Robert Frost (1874-1963) Died 29 January 1963, aged 88 Robert Frost was an American poet celebrated for his depictions of rural New England life in plain, accessible language. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and read at John F. Kennedy's presidential inauguration in 1961. He died in Boston at age 88.
• 1881 – 1963 Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) Died 3 June 1963, aged 81 Pope John XXIII led the Catholic Church from 1958 and convened the Second Vatican Council, which brought sweeping reforms to church practice. Known for his warmth and humility, he was widely mourned across religious lines. He died of stomach cancer at the Vatican.
• 1882 – 1963 Georges Braque Cubism · France Georges Braque (May 13, 1882 – August 31, 1963) was a French painter who co-founded Cubism with Picasso. His fragmented, multi-perspective compositions transformed Western painting and influenced every major art movement that followed.
• 1889 – 1963 Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) Died 11 October 1963, aged 74 Jean Cocteau was a French poet, filmmaker and artist known for works including the film Beauty and the Beast and the novel Les Enfants Terribles. He worked across nearly every artistic medium and was elected to the Academie francaise. He reportedly died of a heart attack upon hearing of Edith Piaf's death the same day.
• 1890 – 1963 Adolphe Menjou (1890-1963) American actor, a byword for suave elegance on screen from A Woman of Paris to Paths of Glory.
• 1894 – 1963 Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) Died 22 November 1963, aged 69 Aldous Huxley was an English writer best known for the dystopian novel Brave New World. He spent his later years in California writing about psychedelics, mysticism and human potential. His death was overshadowed by the assassination of John F. Kennedy on the same day.
• 1894 – 1963 ZaSu Pitts (1894-1963) American actress, the tragic heroine of Greed who became a much-loved comedian.
• 1895 – 1963 Richard Barthelmess (1895-1963) American actor, D. W. Griffith's leading man and a nominee at the very first Academy Awards.
• 1895 – 1963 Paul Hindemith German neo-classical composer German composer and theorist who developed a neo-classical style. His Mathis der Maler Symphony and Ludus Tonalis are among his most celebrated works.
• 1898 – 1963 C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) Died 22 November 1963, aged 64 C.S. Lewis was a British writer and scholar best known for the Chronicles of Narnia children's books and his works of Christian apologetics. He taught at Oxford and Cambridge for most of his career. Like Aldous Huxley, his death was overshadowed by the assassination of John F. Kennedy the same day.
• 1899 – 1963 Francis Poulenc French modernist composer French composer of the group Les Six, known for his songs, chamber music and the opera Dialogues of the Carmelites.
• 1904 – 1963 Dick Powell (1904-1963) American singer, actor, director and producer, from Warner musicals to Philip Marlowe and Four Star Television.
• 1908 – 1963 Simone de Beauvoir French philosopher and writer De Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex, a foundational feminist philosophical work examining gender and society.
• 1910 – 1963 Jack Carson (1910-1963) Canadian-American actor, the brash comic foil of Warner Bros. films in the 1940s.
• 1915 – 1963 Edith Piaf (1915-1963) Died 11 October 1963, aged 47 Edith Piaf was a French singer known for dramatic torch songs including "La Vie en Rose" and "Non, je ne regrette rien". She rose from a difficult childhood in Paris to become France's most celebrated chanteuse. She died of liver cancer near Paris.
• 1917 – 1963 JFK US president, assassinated John F. Kennedy was the 35th US President, navigating the Cuban Missile Crisis before his assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
• 1917 – 1963 John F. Kennedy 35th President — assassinated in Dallas John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – Nov 22, 1963) was the 35th President 1961-1963, the youngest elected at 43 and first Catholic. He navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis and launched the space race, before being assassinated in Dallas.
• 1924 – 1963 Sabu (1924-1963) Indian actor who became an international star as a boy in Elephant Boy and The Thief of Bagdad.
• 1925 – 1963 Medgar Evers (1925-1963) Died 12 June 1963, aged 37 Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist and NAACP field secretary who organized voter registration drives and boycotts in Mississippi. He was shot and killed outside his home in Jackson by a white supremacist. His murder galvanized the civil rights movement, and his killer was not convicted until 1994.
• 1932 – 1963 Patsy Cline (1932-1963) Died 5 March 1963, aged 30 Patsy Cline was an American singer who helped bring country music to mainstream pop audiences with hits like "Crazy" and "I Fall to Pieces". She died in a small plane crash in Tennessee along with fellow performers. She is regarded as one of the most influential vocalists in country music history.
• 1960 – 1963 Dominate British pop before the Beatles In the years before the Beatles, Cliff Richard and the Shadows dominated British popular music — a period now seen as the prelude to the British Invasion that The Shadows themselves had helped make possible.
• 1961 – 1963 Kennedy presidency 35th President — assassinated 1963 John F. Kennedy served as the 35th President from January 20, 1961 until his assassination on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. He managed the Cuban Missile Crisis, established the Peace Corps and committed the US to landing on the Moon.
• 1963 "Dance On!" reaches #1 "Dance On!" became another UK chart-topper, part of the run of instrumental hits that defined British pop before the Beatles.
• 1963 "Foot Tapper" reaches #1 "Foot Tapper" became their fourth UK number one, taken from the film "Summer Holiday" with Cliff Richard.
• 1963 – 2001 35 world records -- the habit of excellence Between 26 May 1984 (5.85m, Bratislava) and 31 July 1994 (6.14m, Sestriere), Bubka sets 35 world records: 17 outdoor, 18 indoor. The frequency and the method are distinctive: he typically raises the record by 1cm at a time, clears the new height on his first or second attempt, then stops -- a practice that maximises the appearance fees and record bonuses attached to each new mark, while preserving energy for competition. Critics call it cynical; supporters call it rational. Either way, the cumulative effect is a decade of continuous record-setting that changes the perceived limits of the event.
• 1963 Beatlemania erupts in Britain Screaming fans, sold-out tours, national hysteria By the end of 1963, Beatlemania had gripped Britain. The Beatles performed for the Royal Family at the Royal Variety Performance, appeared on TV to tens of millions, and had four songs in the UK Top 20 simultaneously. The press coined the term "Beatlemania".
• 1963 – 1974 Black holes confirmed From theoretical curiosity to observed reality Einstein's general relativity predicted black holes in 1916, but they were dismissed as mathematical artifacts. The discovery of quasars (1963) and pulsars (1967) — both objects requiring extreme gravity — made black holes plausible. The term "black hole" was coined by John Wheeler in 1967. By the 1970s, X-ray binaries like Cygnus X-1 provided compelling evidence. The first direct image of a black hole was captured in 2019.
• 1963 Botvinnik loses title to Petrosian Final world championship match Tigran Petrosian defeated Botvinnik convincingly in 1963. This time FIDE had abolished the rematch rule, ending Botvinnik's championship era for good.
• 1963 – 2022 Coolio (1963-2022) Died 28 September 2022, aged 59 American rapper whose Gangsta's Paradise topped charts worldwide in 1995.
• 1963 JFK assassinated JFK assassinated John F. Kennedy was shot while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas on 22 November 1963 and died within the hour. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and then killed on live television two days later by Jack Ruby. The Warren Commission found Oswald acted alone, a conclusion disputed ever since.
• 1963 Quasars discovered The most luminous objects in the universe In 1963, Maarten Schmidt at Caltech identified 3C 273 as a quasi-stellar object (quasar) at an enormous cosmological distance — a galaxy with an active supermassive black hole at its centre, outshining an entire galaxy of stars. Quasars provided the first evidence for supermassive black holes and revealed the universe's early history through objects visible across billions of light-years.
• 1963 – present Sergey Bubka -- the greatest pole vaulter Sergey Nazarovich Bubka (born 4 December 1963, Luhansk) is the greatest pole vaulter in history and one of the most dominant athletes of the 20th century. Between 1984 and 1994 he broke the world record 35 times -- 17 outdoors, 18 indoors -- becoming the first man to clear both 6.00m and 6.10m. He won six consecutive World Championships titles (1983-1997), the only athlete ever to win six titles in the same event. His outdoor record of 6.14m (Sestriere, 1994) stood for 26 years until Armand Duplantis cleared 6.15m in 2020; his indoor record of 6.15m (Donetsk, 1993) stood for 27 years. After retiring from competition he became President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (2005) and an IOC member (2008), surviving the Russian invasion of his country while continuing his administrative role.
• 1963 12th Elfstedentocht — De Hel van '63 Winner: Reinier Paping — national hero The most brutal Elfstedentocht ever held. On 18 January 1963, temperatures dropped to -18°C with a devastating east wind and snowstorms. Of 9,292 starters, only 69 finished the race — less than 1%. Reinier Paping won and became an instant national hero. The race is remembered as "De Hel van '63" — The Hell of '63.
• 1963 – present Hakeem Olajuwon The Dream Known for his "Dream Shake" footwork; led the Rockets to back-to-back titles in the 90s.
• 1963 Kim Philby defects to the Soviet Union British double agent flees Beirut for Moscow British intelligence officer Kim Philby, under suspicion as a Soviet mole, disappeared from Beirut and resurfaced months later in Moscow. He had spied for the Soviet Union for decades as part of the "Cambridge Five" spy ring. His defection was a major embarrassment for British intelligence.
• 1963 – present Michael Jordan Basketball player, businessman, b. 1963 Michael Jeffrey Jordan (b. 1963) — widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time. Six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, five MVP awards, two Olympic gold medals, and a cultural impact — through Air Jordan, 'The Last Dance' and beyond — that reshaped global sport and business.
• 1963 – present Michael Jordan Air Jordan 6-time NBA champion and Finals MVP; widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time.
• 1963 The Feminine Mystique published Betty Friedan's book helps launch second-wave feminism Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique challenged the idea that women could only find fulfillment as housewives and mothers. It became a bestseller and is widely credited with sparking the resurgence of the American feminist movement. Friedan went on to co-found the National Organization for Women.
• 1963 – present Charles Barkley Sir Charles 1993 MVP known for his rebounding and outspoken personality.
• 1963 Patsy Cline killed in a plane crash Camden, Tennessee Dies at 30 with Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins.
• 1963 Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes Notorious island prison shuts down after 29 years The federal government closed Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, citing high operating costs and crumbling infrastructure. The prison had held notorious inmates including Al Capone. It later became a popular tourist site and national recreation area.
• 1963 Please Please Me Debut album recorded in one day — March 22, 1963 The Beatles' debut album Please Please Me was released on March 22, 1963. Most of it was recorded in a single marathon session on February 11, 1963. It reached number 1 in the UK and stayed there for 30 weeks, replaced only by their second album.
• 1963 Beeching Report recommends mass rail closures British Railways plan cuts a third of the network Richard Beeching's report to the British government recommended closing thousands of miles of loss-making railway lines and stations. The resulting cuts, carried out over the following years, eliminated rail service to many small towns. The report remains a byword for controversial infrastructure cuts in Britain.
• 1963 – present Quentin Tarantino Video clerk to auteur, in ten films Quentin Tarantino learned cinema from behind the counter of a video shop in Manhattan Beach rather than at film school, and it shows in everything he has made: nonlinear structure, long talk before sudden violence, and a magpie appetite for spaghetti westerns, blaxploitation and Hong Kong action. He has said since the beginning that he will stop at ten films. He is currently at nine.
• 1963 John Rostill joins on bass April 1963 Brian Locking left the band in April 1963 to devote himself to his religious work as a Jehovah's Witness. John Rostill joined as bassist — he would become a significant songwriter for the band over the following decade.
• 1963 USS Thresher sinks with all hands Nuclear submarine lost during deep-diving trials The US Navy nuclear submarine USS Thresher sank in the Atlantic Ocean during test dives, killing all 129 crew and shipyard workers aboard. It was the worst submarine disaster in history at the time. The loss led to sweeping changes in submarine safety standards.
• 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade Young protesters confront police dogs and fire hoses Thousands of Black schoolchildren marched in Birmingham, Alabama to protest segregation, and police commissioner Bull Connor ordered fire hoses and police dogs turned on them. Televised images of the violence shocked the nation and pressured city leaders into a desegregation agreement. The campaign became a turning point in the civil rights movement.
• 1963 – present Lamborghini Italian supercar manufacturer founded Ferruccio Lamborghini created Lamborghini to compete with Ferrari in the luxury sports car market. The company became famous for radical styling, powerful engines and iconic supercars such as the Miura, Countach and Aventador.
• 1963 – 2009 Natasha Richardson (1963-2009) Died 18 March 2009, aged 45 Richardson was a British actress and member of the Redgrave acting family, known for films including Nell and the Broadway revival of Cabaret, for which she won a Tony Award. She died from injuries sustained in a skiing accident in Quebec. Her death prompted widespread attention to the risks of head injuries in skiing.
• 1963 Organisation of African Unity founded Newly independent African states form a continental body Representatives of 32 African states signed a charter in Addis Ababa establishing the Organisation of African Unity. The body aimed to promote solidarity among African nations and support the end of colonial rule across the continent. It was the forerunner of today's African Union.
• 1963 Bob Dylan releases The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Blowin' in the Wind The album that made his name, with Blowin' in the Wind, A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall and Masters of War.
• 1963 John Profumo resigns in sex-and-security scandal British war minister admits lying to Parliament British Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigned after admitting he had lied to Parliament about an affair with Christine Keeler, who was also linked to a Soviet naval attache. The scandal badly damaged Harold Macmillan's government. It remains one of Britain's most notorious political scandals.
• 1963 Self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc Buddhist monk burns himself to death in Saigon protest A Buddhist monk set himself on fire at a busy Saigon intersection to protest the South Vietnamese government's persecution of Buddhists. Photographs of the act were published around the world and embarrassed the Diem government. The event deepened the political crisis that led to Diem's overthrow later that year.
• 1963 Cleopatra premieres in New York Elizabeth Taylor epic becomes the costliest film yet made The historical epic Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, premiered after a famously troubled and expensive production. Its enormous budget nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox despite strong box office returns. The film's off-screen romance between Taylor and Burton drew as much attention as the movie itself.
• 1963 Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space Soviet cosmonaut orbits Earth aboard Vostok 6 Valentina Tereshkova launched aboard Vostok 6, becoming the first woman to fly in space. She orbited the Earth 48 times over three days before landing safely. No other woman would fly in space for nearly two decades.
• 1963 Pope Paul VI elected Giovanni Battista Montini succeeds John XXIII Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was elected pope, taking the name Paul VI, following the death of John XXIII. He continued the Second Vatican Council and would go on to reshape Catholic liturgy and ecumenical relations. His papacy lasted until 1978.
• 1963 – present Karl Malone The Mailman 2-time MVP and 3rd all-time in NBA career points scored.
• 1963 Skopje earthquake devastates Macedonian capital Major quake kills over a thousand people A powerful earthquake struck Skopje, then part of Yugoslavia, killing over a thousand people and destroying much of the city. International aid poured in and the city was largely rebuilt with modernist architecture. The disaster prompted major advances in earthquake-resistant urban planning.
• 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed US, UK and USSR agree to end atmospheric nuclear testing The United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater. It was the first major arms control agreement of the Cold War, though underground testing continued. Dozens of other nations later joined.
• 1963 Great Train Robbery Gang steals a fortune from a Royal Mail train in England A gang of robbers stopped a Glasgow-to-London mail train in Buckinghamshire and stole over 2.6 million pounds, an enormous sum at the time. Most of the gang were later caught and given long prison sentences, though some evaded capture for years. The heist became one of Britain's most notorious crimes.
• 1963 – 2012 Whitney Houston (1963-2012) Died 11 February 2012, aged 48 American singer and actress and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, known for hits including "I Will Always Love You." She was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Beverly Hills, with drowning and heart disease as contributing factors.
• 1963 Stevie Wonder tops the charts with Fingertips Youngest number one At 13 he becomes the youngest artist with a Billboard number one.
• 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Mass civil rights demonstration in the US capital Some 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. to demand civil and economic rights for Black Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the Lincoln Memorial steps. The march built pressure that helped secure passage of the Civil Rights Act the following year.
• 1963 Moscow-Washington hotline established Direct communication link created after the missile crisis The United States and Soviet Union established a direct teletype link between the White House and the Kremlin, prompted by communication delays during the previous year's Cuban Missile Crisis. The "red telephone" became a lasting symbol of Cold War crisis management. It was first used during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
• 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing Ku Klux Klan bombing kills four Black girls in Birmingham A bomb planted by Klansmen exploded at a Black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls preparing for Sunday service. The attack came weeks after the city's desegregation agreement and drew national outrage. It became one of the defining atrocities of the civil rights era.
• 1963 Federation of Malaysia formed Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak unite The Federation of Malaya merged with Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak to form the Federation of Malaysia. Indonesia and the Philippines objected, and Indonesia launched a low-level military confrontation against the new state. Singapore would separate to become independent in 1965.
• 1963 Hurricane Flora devastates Haiti and Cuba One of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes on record Hurricane Flora stalled over Haiti and Cuba for days, dumping catastrophic rainfall and causing widespread flooding. The storm killed several thousand people, mostly in Haiti, making it one of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes of the 20th century. Cuba's agricultural sector suffered severe losses.
• 1963 – 2020 Brian "Licorice" Locking's later years Jehovah's Witness work After leaving the Shadows in 1963, Brian "Licorice" Locking devoted his life to work as a Jehovah's Witness, making occasional appearances at reunions and on recordings with former bandmates over the following decades. He died peacefully on 8 October 2020 at the age of 81.
• 1963 – 2003 Anita Mui (1963-2003) Died 30 December 2003, aged 40 Anita Mui was a Cantopop singer and actress often called the Madonna of Asia, with some 30 films and dozens of albums to her name. She continued performing during treatment for cervical cancer, giving a final series of concerts weeks before her death.
• 1963 From Russia with Love — Sean Connery Bond travels to Istanbul to obtain a Soviet decoding device, pursued by SPECTRE assassin Red Grant and the deadly Rosa Klebb. Widely regarded as one of the finest entries in the series — tighter, more grounded and more genuinely thrilling than its predecessor. Budget: $2 million. Box office: $78.9 million.
• 1963 Harold Macmillan resigns as British prime minister Ill health ends Macmillan's premiership Harold Macmillan announced his resignation as British prime minister on health grounds, weeks after the Profumo scandal had weakened his government. He was succeeded by Alec Douglas-Home. Macmillan had led Britain for nearly seven years.
• 1963 Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem South Vietnamese president killed in a military coup South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Nhu were captured and killed by army officers during a coup that the United States had tacitly encouraged. The coup ended Diem's increasingly unpopular rule and plunged South Vietnam into political instability. It came three weeks before the assassination of President Kennedy.
• 1963 Lyndon B. Johnson sworn in as US president Johnson takes office hours after Kennedy's assassination Lyndon B. Johnson took the presidential oath aboard Air Force One in Dallas just hours after John F. Kennedy was shot. He would go on to push through major civil rights and social welfare legislation. Johnson was elected in his own right the following year.
• 1963 With The Beatles Second album — November 22, 1963 With The Beatles was released on November 22, 1963 — the same day as President Kennedy's assassination. It became the second album to sell a million copies in the UK, replacing their own debut at number 1.
• 1963 Sergey Bubka born in Luhansk Sergey Bubka is born in Voroshilovgrad (renamed Luhansk after Ukrainian independence) in the Donbas region of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His father is a soldier; the family is working-class. Luhansk will later become the centre of Russian-backed separatist conflict after 2014 and under full Russian occupation after 2022 -- a grim irony for Ukraine's greatest sporting ambassador, who will spend much of his later life advocating for Ukrainian sport and sovereignty on the international stage.
• 1963 Zanzibar gains independence from Britain Sultanate becomes independent ahead of 1964 revolution The Sultanate of Zanzibar became independent from Britain as a constitutional monarchy. Weeks later, in January 1964, a revolution would overthrow the sultan and the islands would soon merge with Tanganyika to form Tanzania. The brief independent period was marked by tension between Arab, African and Asian communities.
• 1963 Kenya gains independence from Britain Jomo Kenyatta becomes prime minister of a new nation Kenya became independent after decades of British colonial rule and the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s. Jomo Kenyatta, previously imprisoned by colonial authorities, became the country's first prime minister. Kenya would become a republic the following year.