1963

Events

January

• January 1 - Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead, in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney, Australia.
• January 2 - Vietnam War - Battle of Ap Bac: The Viet Cong win their first major victory.
• January 9 - A total penumbral lunar eclipse is visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia, and is the 56th lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 114. Gamma has a value of −1.01282. It occurs on the night between Wednesday, January 9 and Thursday, January 10, 1963.
• January 13 - 1963 Togolese coup d'état: A military coup in Togo results in the installation of coup leader Emmanuel Bodjollé as president.
• January 17 - A last quarter moon occurs between the penumbral lunar eclipse and the annular solar eclipse, only 12 hours, 29 minutes after apogee.
• January 19 - Soviet spy Gheorghe Pintilie is removed from his position as Deputy Interior Minister of the Romanian People's Republic, as a step in ensuring Romania's political independence; the Workers' Party Politburo discusses way of neutralizing "Soviet intelligence networks which Gheorghe Pintilie had coordinated."
• January 22 - France and West Germany sign the Élysée Treaty.
• January 25 - A large annular solar eclipse covers 99.5% of the Sun and a narrow path. It is visible in Chile, Argentina, South Africa and Madagascar, and is the 26th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 140. Gamma has a value of -0.48984.
• January 26 - The Australia Day shootings rock Perth; 2 people are shot dead and 3 others injured by Eric Edgar Cooke.
• January 29 - French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the European Common Market.

  February

• 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 12 - Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing all 43 aboard.
• February 14 - Harold Wilson becomes leader of the opposition Labour Party in the United Kingdom; in October 1964 he becomes prime minister.
• February 21 - The 5.6 Marj earthquake affects northern Libya with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing 290–375 deaths and 375–500 injuries.
• February 27 - Juan Bosch takes office as the 41st president of the Dominican Republic.

  March

• 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 - Country music star Patsy Cline is killed in a plane crash along with country performers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and manager Randy Hughes, during a flight from Kansas City, Missouri, back to Nashville.
• March 17 - Mount Agung erupts on Bali, killing approximately 1,500.
• March 22 – The Beatles first album Please Please Me was released in the UK and became a huge commercial success.
• March 23 - "Dansevise" by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 for Denmark.
• March 30 - Indigenous Australians are legally allowed to drink alcohol in New South Wales.

  April

• April 6 - The Kingsmen record their influential cover of "Louie Louie" in Portland, Oregon, released in June.
• April 7 - Yugoslavia is proclaimed to be a socialist republic, and Josip Broz Tito is named President for Life.
• April 8 - The 35th Academy Awards ceremony is held. Lawrence of Arabia wins Best Picture.
• April 10 - The U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher sinks east of Cape Cod; all 129 aboard die.
• April 11 - Pope John XXIII issues his final encyclical, Pacem in terris, entitled On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty, the first papal encyclical addressed to "all men of good will", rather than to Roman Catholics only.
• April 12 - 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 is established.
• 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 21-23 - The first election of the Supreme Institution of the Baháʼí Faith is held.
• April 22 - Lester Bowles Pearson becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Canada.
• April 28 - 1963 general election is held in Italy.
• April 29 - Buddy Rogers becomes the first WWWF Champion.

  May

• May 1 - The Coca-Cola Company introduces its first diet drink, Tab cola.
• May 2 - Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a 3-stage rocket with a maximum flight altitude of more than .
• May 4 - The Le Monde Theater fire in Dioirbel, Senegal, kills 64 people.
• May 8 - 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, triggering the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.
• May 13 - A smallpox outbreak hits Stockholm, Sweden, lasting until July.
• May 14 - Kuwait becomes the 111th member of the United Nations.
• May 15 - Project Mercury: NASA launches Gordon Cooper on Mercury-Atlas 9, the last Mercury mission.
• May 22 - A.C. Milan beats Benfica 2–1 at Wembley Stadium, London and wins the 1962–63 European Cup.
• May 23 - Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union.
• May 25 - The Organisation of African Unity is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

  June

• June 3 - 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.
• June 4 - President of the United States John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to continue issuing silver certificates.
• June 5 - The first annual National Hockey League Entry Draft is held in Montreal, Canada.
• June 11 - In Saigon, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức commits self-immolation to protest the oppression of Buddhists by Ngô Đình Diệm’s government.
• June 12 – Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers is assassinated by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith
• June 13
• * The cancellation of Mercury-Atlas 10 effectively ends the United States' crewed spaceflight Project Mercury.
• * The New York Commodity Exchange begins trading silver futures contracts.
• June 15 - The AC Cobra makes its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It will go on to win its class the following year.
• June 16 - Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman into space.
• June 17 - In Abington School District v. Schempp, the US Supreme Court ruled that compulsory prayer and Bible-reading violated the First Amendment.
• June 19 - Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, returns to Earth, landing in the Soviet Union.
• June 20
• * Establishment of the Moscow–Washington hotline is authorized by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.
• * Swedish Air Force Colonel Stig Wennerström is arrested as a spy for the Soviet Union.
• * War film The Great Escape is premiered in London.
• June 21 - Pope Paul VI succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope.
• June 26
• * John F. Kennedy gives his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin, Germany.
• * David Ben-Gurion is replaced by Levi Eshkol as prime minister of Israel.

  July

• July 1 - ZIP codes are introduced by the United States Postal Service.
• July 5 - 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 African National Congress leaders.
• July 19 - American test pilot Joe Walker, flying the X-15, reaches an altitude of 65.8 miles, making it a sub-orbital spaceflight by recognized international standards.
• July 26
• * An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia leaves 1,800 dead.
• * NASA launches Syncom 2, the world's first geostationary satellite.
• July 30 - The Soviet newspaper Izvestia reports that British diplomat and double agent Kim Philby has been given asylum in Moscow.

  August

• 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 14 - A huge and devastating forest fire hits the region around Paraná State, Brazil. According to government documents, two million hectares are lost to burning and 110 persons perished.
• August 15 - Trois Glorieuses: President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of Congo after a three-day uprising in the capital, Brazzaville.
• August 15- King of Prussia Mall opens to the public in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area and is one of the top ten largest malls in the U.S.
• 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.
• August 24 - First games played in the Bundesliga, the primary professional Association football league in West Germany, replacing the Oberliga.
• 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. It is, at that point, the single largest protest in American history.
• August 28 - Philips introduces the Compact Cassette primarily for dictation and voice recording purposes. By 1965, hardware improvements eventually allow for it to reliably function as a music format.
• August 30 - The Moscow–Washington hotline is inaugurated by U.S. President John F. Kennedy.