July 1963

[July 1], 1963 (Monday)

• ZIP Codes were introduced in the United States, as the U.S. Department of the Post Office kicked off a massive advertising campaign that included the cartoon character "Mr. ZIP", and the mailing that day of more than 72,000,000 postcards to every mailing address in the United States, in order to inform the addressees of their new five digit postal code. Postal zones had been used since 1943 in large cities, but the ZIP code was nationwide. Use became mandatory in 1967 for bulk mailers.
• The crash of a Varig DC-3 airliner in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state killed 15 of the 18 people on board. The flight was approaching the airport at Passo Fundo on the second-leg of a scheduled trip from Porto Alegre when it impacted trees.
• Kim Philby was named by the Government of the United Kingdom as the 'Third Man' in the Burgess and Maclean Soviet spy ring.
• Died: Abdullah bin Khalifa, 53, Sultan of Zanzibar since 1960, died two days after undergoing emergency surgery. He was succeeded by his son, Jamshid bin Abdullah, the last to hold the title.

  [July 2], 1963 (Tuesday)

• In a speech while visiting East Berlin, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev endorsed the idea for the first time of a treaty to ban atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Khrushchev criticized the idea of sending inspectors to verify compliance, but said that "Since the Western powers obstruct the conclusion of an agreement banning all nuclear tests, the Soviet Government expresses its willingness to conclude an agreement banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water."
• Mohawk Airlines Flight 121, a Martin 4-0-4, crashed on takeoff at Rochester, New York, in the United States, killing 7 of the 43 people on board and injuring all 36 survivors. The plane was flying to White Plains, New York and, according to a witness "just as the craft began roaring down the runway for a take-off torrents of rain and hail pummeled it."
• Baseball pitchers Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants, and Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves faced off against each other in a National League baseball game that one author would later call "the greatest game ever pitched". Tied 0–0 after nine innings, the game was won in the 16th by the Giants on a home run by Willie Mays.
• The 13th Berlin International Film Festival concluded. The Golden Bear was jointly awarded to Il diavolo by Gian Luigi Polidoro and Bushidô zankoku monogatari by Tadashi Imai.
• Brian Sternberg, the world record holder for the pole vault, broke his neck after falling from a trampoline, and was left a quadriplegic.
• Liberace and Barbra Streisand opened a run of shows at the Riviera in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Died: Alicia Patterson, 56, American editor and publisher who founded the newspaper Newsday in 1940 for New York's Long Island; of complications following surgery for an ulcer

  [July 3], 1963 (Wednesday)

• All 23 passengers and crew on New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 were killed when the Douglas DC-3, flew into a vertical rock face in New Zealand's Kaimai Ranges near Mount Ngatamahinerua.
• The 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, turning point of the American Civil War, was celebrated with a re-enactment of Pickett's Charge.
• Died: Povl Baumann, 74, Danish architect

  [July 4], 1963 (Thursday)

• The Constitution of Austria was amended to ease the 1919 act that had declared that "In the interest of the security of the Republic the former holders of the Crown and other members of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen are banished from the country", providing an exception for descendants of the former monarchs if they elected to "expressly renounce their membership of this House".
• Born:
• *David Joyner, American "in-suit performer" known for physically portraying Barney the Dinosaur on the PBS children's TV series Barney & Friends from 1991 to 2001 and as the title character in Hip Hop Harry; in Decatur, Illinois
• *Ute Lemper, German singer and actress, 1998 Olivier Award winner; in Münster, West Germany
• *Jan Mølby, Danish footballer with 33 caps for the Denmark national team; in Kolding
• *Christopher G. Kennedy, U.S. businessman and eighth child to Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy; in Boston
• Died: Bernard Freyberg, 74, Governor-General of New Zealand from 1946 to 1952

  [July 5], 1963 (Friday)

• A delegation from the People's Republic of China, led by Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, departed from Beijing on a train bound for Moscow, to attend talks in an effort to repair the poor relations between the Chinese Communists and Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The talks, intended to mend the Sino-Soviet split, would break down on July 14 when the Soviets published a rebuttal to Chinese charges that the Soviets had departed from the Communist ideology.
• The U.S. Senate set a new record for briefest session by meeting at 9:00 a.m., and then adjourning three seconds later. There were only two Senators present for the meeting. The previous record for brevity had been a five-second meeting on September 4, 1951.
• The sale of liquor, by the drink, was legal in the U.S. state of Iowa for the first time in more than 40 years, with "a restaurant in the lakes resort area in northwest Iowa" becoming the site of the first legal drink.
• Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Leone won on a vote of confidence in the Italian Senate, 133-110.
• McDonnell Aircraft Corporation began the first phase of Spacecraft Systems Tests on the instrumentation pallets to be installed in Gemini spacecraft No. 1. Gemini's inertial guidance system computer was integrated with the rest of the control systems, and all spacecraft wiring was found to be compatible with the computer, and operating with complete accuracy.

  [July 6], 1963 (Saturday)

• The Roman Catholic Church relaxed itse ban on cremation as a funeral practice, when Pope Paul VI issued the Instruction that "the burning of the body, after all, has no effect on the soul, nor does it inhibit Almighty God from re-establishing the body", although the decision would not be revealed until May 2, 1964.
• Elections were held in Jordan for the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the National Assembly. All of the candidates were independent, in that political parties were banned at the time, and the results, as with most of the elections in Jordan to that time, were "poorly documented" and not officially published.
• Blood Feast first premiered at the Bellevue Drive-In in Bellevue, Illinois. Composed, shot, and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, the film is considered to be the first Splatter film, a sub-genre of horror noted for its graphic depictions of on-screen gore.
• The Vanoise National Park, located in the department of Savoie in the French Alps, was designated France's first National Park.
• A partial lunar eclipse took place.
• Died: George, Duke of Mecklenburg, 63, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz since 1934. He was succeeded by his son Georg Alexander.

  [July 7], 1963 (Sunday)

• In the first round of Argentina's presidential election, Dr. Arturo Illia won a 25 percent plurality of the popular votes and 169 of the 476 Electoral College votes, seventy short of a majority. Another physician, Dr. Oscar Alende, finished with 16.4%, and former General Pedro Aramburu was third. On July 31, electors for several of the other parties would vote for Illia, giving him 270 electoral votes. Dr. Illia's Radical Civic Union Party won only 72 of the 192 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and Illia did not try to forge a coalition with the other parties.
• Seven people, including four children, were killed, and 17 injured, when a pilotless FJ-4 Fury jet fighter crashed into gatherers at a family reunion at the Green Hills Day Camp in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The pilot had ejected after the plane malfunctioned while he was attempting to land at the nearby Willow Grove Naval Air Station, and the jet crashed into a baseball field, killing one man, then skidded into a bathhouse where 50 people had been swimming or standing around the pool.
• In a fight between South Vietnamese government police and U.S. reporters, secret police loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked American journalists including Peter Arnett and David Halberstam at a demonstration during the Buddhist crisis.
• Died: Frank P. Lahm, 85, U.S. aviation pioneer who became, in 1909, the first military aviator after being selected by the U.S. Army to receive instruction on the Wright Flyer by Wilbur Wright.

  [July 8], 1963 (Monday)

• The British comic strip Fred Basset was introduced, starting with its first appearance in the Daily Mail. Created by Scottish cartoonist Alex Graham, the strip, about the adventures of a basset hound, is syndicated worldwide.
• The British cargo ship Patrician sank off of Gibraltar after colliding with the U.S. ship Santa Emilia. Thirty-four of the 37 crew were rescued by Santa Emilia, but three men died.
• McDonnell warned NASA that the capacity of the Gemini Guidance Computer was in danger of being exceeded. The original function of the computer had been limited to providing rendezvous and reentry guidance, but other functions had been added, requiring an immediate review of computer requirements. In the meantime, it advised International Business Machines to delete one of the added functions, orbital navigation, from computers for spacecraft Nos. 2 and 3.
• Members of the 1963 American Everest Expedition team were awarded the Hubbard Medal by U.S. President John F. Kennedy for their achievement.

  [July 9], 1963 (Tuesday)

• The "20-point agreement" to create the Federation of Malaysia, effective September 16, was signed in London by the UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and representatives of four of the five intended members of Malaysia: the Federation of Malaya, the Crown Colony of North Borneo, State of Sarawak and the state of Singapore. The fifth member, the British protectorate over the Sultanate of Brunei, declined to join the Federation. The state of Singapore would be expelled from the Federation of Malaysia on August 9, 1965 and would become an independent republic.
• Gemini astronaut candidates began testing of the "human centrifuge" equipped to simulate the command pilot's position in the spacecraft. The testing was for evaluation of pilot controls and displays required for launch and reentry of a Gemini mission, along with the seat and pressure suit operation under acceleration, and the restraint system. Training was completed on July 12. The participants were generally satisfied but recommended minor changes.
• The G2C Gemini pressure suit made by David Clark Company proved unsatisfactory because the torso could be stretched out of shape and a visor guard had made the helmet too large to wear during use of the escape hatch.