Timeline 1963
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1963 Jan 1, In Arizona Betty Smithey (20) murdered Sandy Gerberick, a 15-month-old girl she had been babysitting. Smithey was convicted and sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of parole. In 2012 she was granted parole by the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.
(abcNews, 8/14/12)
1963 Jan 2, Viet Cong downed five U.S. helicopters in the Mekong Delta; 30 were reported to be dead.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1963 Jan 2, In San Francisco a gas pipeline leak at Nevada and Crescent Ave. in Bernal Heights caused a blast that left 9 firefighters injured and led to heart attack death of Battalion Chief Frank Lamey (63).
(SSFC, 6/26/11, p.A1, 16)
1963 Jan 2, Dick Powell (b.1904), American film star, producer and director, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Powell)
1963 Jan 3, Jim Everett III, football player, was born: quarterback: Purdue Univ., LA Rams [Pro Bowl: 1990], New Orleans Saints, San Diego Chargers.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1963 Jan 3, Telstar by The Tornadoes
Bobby’s Girl by Marcie Blane
Go Away Little Girl by Steve Lawrence
Don’t Let Me Cross Over by Carl Butler & Pearl (Dee Jones).
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1963 Jan 5, "Camelot" closed at the Majestic Theater, NYC, after 873 performances.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1963 Jan 5, "Carnival!" closes at Imperial Theater, NYC, after 719 performances.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1963 Jan 6, "Oliver!" opened at Imperial Theater NYC for 774 performances.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1963 Jan 6, Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins (1906-1986) began on NBC. The show continued to 1988.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Kingdom)(AP, 1/6/03)
1963 Jan 8, President John F. Kennedy attended the unveiling of the Mona Lisa on loan at America's National Gallery of Art.
(HN, 1/8/99)(MC, 1/8/02)
1963 Jan 11, The 1st discotheque opened, Whiskey-a-go-go in LA.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1963 Jan 13, Togo’s first president, Sylvanus Olympio, was killed by a military junta led by Gngassigbe Eyadema (29). Eyadama suspended the constitution and instituted direct military rule. Nicholas Grunitzky succeeded Olympio. Gnassingbe went on to become the country's military dictator, ruling for nearly four decades during which time he celebrated the day of Olympio's assassination as a national holiday.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A12)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)(AP, 3/3/10)
1963 Jan 14, George C. Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama with a pledge of "segregation forever."
(AP, 1/14/98)
1963 Jan 14, President of France Charles de Gaulle announced the French veto on Britain's application to join the European Common Market, the forerunner of the European Union. De Gaulle said the British government lacked 'commitment' to European integration.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/present_timeline_noflash.shtml)
1963 Jan 16, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev made a visit to the Berlin Wall from the East Berlin side, then delivered an address to the Communist leadership of East Germany at the SED Party Congress.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1963#January_17.2C_1963_.28Thursday.29)
1963 Jan 16, Nikita Khrushchev claimed the USSR had a 100-megaton nuclear bomb.
(http://tinyurl.com/jmsrovc)
1963 Jan 22, Gen. Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco-German "reconciliation treaty," aka the Elysee friendship treaty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93Germany_relations)(AP, 1/22/18)
1963 Jan 24, In Maine a B-52 bomber encountered turbulence strong enough to snap off the vertical stabilizer, causing it to crash onto the side of Elephant Mountain. Seven crew members died. Gerald Adler survived along with the pilot, Lt. Col. Dan Bulli, after spending 20 hours on the mountainside.
(AP, 5/25/13)
1963 Jan 25, Wilson Kettle (102) died, leaving 582 living descendents.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1963 Jan 28, Jean Felix Piccard, Swiss explorer, died on his 79th birthday.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1963 Jan 29, The first members of football's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.
(AP, 1/29/98)(www.profootballhof.com/hof/years.jsp)
1963 Jan 29, Poet Robert Frost (b.1874) died in Boston at age 88. In 1999 Jay Parini published "Robert Frost: A Life." Lawrance Thompson authored a 3-volume biography (1966-1976).
(AP, 1/29/98)(SFEC, 4/18/99, BR p.3)
1963 Jan 29, Kuwait’s constitution came into force as the new National Assembly convened. but only a select few were eligible to vote. Power rested with the royal family.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/gulf/kuwait-legislature.htm)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.40)
1963 Jan, The San Francisco produce market, begun in 1875 and displaced by development, moved from the Embarcadero to the Bayview.
(SFC, 5/15/12, p.C5)
1963 Jan, Gen. Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco-German "reconciliation treaty."
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)
1963 Jan, British investigative reporter Peter Earle (d.1997 at 71) uncovered the call-girl ring run by osteopath Stephen Ward. The investigation snowballed into the Profumo scandal that revealed Minister of War, John Profumo, involved in an affair with Christine Keeler, who was conducting a simultaneous affair with a Soviet military attaché. The scandal brought down the government of PM Harold Macmillan. The events were dramatized in the film "Scandal."
(http://spartacus-educational.com/PRprofumo.htm)(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B8)
1963 Feb 4, In Canada's Yukon territory a small plane piloted by Ralph Flores crashed shortly after takeoff from Whitehorse. The pilot and passenger Helen Klaben (1941-2018) survived the crash and endured 49 days of subzero temperatures before they were rescued.
(SFC, 12/13/18, p.C5)
1963 Feb 6, The United States reported that all Soviet offensive arms are out of Cuba.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1963 Feb 7, The "Mona Lisa" was unveiled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1963 Feb 8, In Iraq the Baath Party first took power. Right-wing Baathists succeeded in mounting a coup and executed PM Gen. Abdel Karim Qassim. Abdul Salam Arif came to power. This was followed by a massacre of thousands of peasants, communists and trade unionists. The Arab Baath Socialist Party pulled off the coup and ruled Iraq for 9 months.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D4)(AP, 5/26/03)(AP, 7/13/03)(NW, 9/8/03, p.32)
1963 Feb 9, 1st flight of Boeing 727 jet.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1963 Feb 11, A CIA Domestic Operations Division was created.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1963 Feb 11, Sylvia Plath (30), American writer, committed suicide by gas in London after Ted Hughes left her for another woman. Her autobiographical novel "The Bell Jar" was published this year. She had been married to English poet Ted Hughes (d.1998), who in 1998 published a 198 page book of verse "Birthday Letters" based on their relationship. The woman for whom Hughes left Plath committed suicide 5 years later. Plath’s 1981 "Collected Poems" won a Pulitzer Prize. The Plath book of poems "Ariel" was published after her death. In 2000 her uncensored diaries: "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath," were edited by Karen V. Kukil. Carl Rollyson authored “American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath" (2013). Andrew Wilson authored “Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted" (2013).
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.C5)(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A25)(SFEC, 11/12/00, BR p.1)(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.F5)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.84)
1963 Feb 12, Argentina asked for the extradition of ex-president Peron.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1963 Feb 15, Ken Lynch recorded "Misery." It was the 1st Lennon-McCartney song recorded by someone else.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1963 Feb 16, 1st round-trip swim of Straits of Messina, Italy, was made by Mary Revell of US.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1963 Feb 17, Michael Jordon, Chicago Bulls basketball player, was born. He led the Bulls to three consecutive NBA titles and was considered by some to be the greatest basketball player ever.
(HN, 2/17/99)
1963 Feb 19, The Soviet Union informed President Kennedy it would withdraw "several thousand" of an estimated 17,000 Soviet troops in Cuba.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1963 Feb 20, Moscow offered to allow on-site inspection of nuclear testing.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1963 Feb 22, Moscow warned the U.S. that an attack on Cuba would mean war.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1963 Feb 27, The USSR said that 10,000 troops would remain in Cuba.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1963 Feb-Mar, The US military, while conducting biological weapons tests, sprayed Bacillus globigii from aircraft near Fort Sherman Military Reservation in the Canal Zone.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A3)
1963 Mar 1, 200,000 French mine workers went on strike.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1963 Mar 3, Senegal adopted a constitution.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1963 Mar 4, William Carlos Williams (b.1883), American physician and poet, died in Rutherford, NJ. In 2011 Herbert Leibowitz authored “Something Urgent I Have to Say to You": The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.68)
1963 Mar 4, Six people got the death sentence in Paris plotting to kill de Gaulle.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1963 Mar 5, A private plane crash near Camden, Tenn., claimed the lives of country music performers Patsy Cline (30), "Cowboy" Copas and "Hawkshaw" Hawkins, as well as pilot Randy Hughes, Cline's manager.
(AP, 3/5/08)
1963 Mar 6, Jimmy Lee Smith and Gregory Powell (d.2012 at 79) abducted 2 Los Angeles police officers from a Hollywood street, drove them to an onion field in Bakersfield and shot officer Ian Campbell to death. Officer Karl Hettinger managed to escape. Smith served 19 years for his role in the case before he was paroled. In 1973 Joseph Wambaugh authored “The Onion Field," a novel based on the murder. The novel was turned into a film in 1979.
(SFC, 6/28/05, p.B8)(SFC, 8/14/12, p.A4)
1963 Mar 12, US House granted former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill honorary U.S. citizenship.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1963 Mar 13, China invited Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to visit Peking.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1963 Mar 16, Phung Vuong, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List), was born in Saigon, Vietnam.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1963 Mar 16, William Beveridge (b.1879), British economist and social reformer, died. He is perhaps best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services (known as the Beveridge Report) which served as the basis for the post-World War II Welfare State put in place by the Labour government.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Beveridge)
1963 Mar 17, In Indonesia eruptions of Mount Agung volcano on Bali killed 1,184 people.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(AP, 12/3/17)
1963 Mar 18, Vanessa L. Williams, 1st black Miss America (1983), singer, was born in Millwood, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1963 Mar 18, The US Supreme Court made its Gideon v Wainwright ruling which said poor defendants have a constitutional right to an attorney. Gideon had been forced to defend himself in Florida in Jan 1962, and petitioned the Supreme Court to hear his complaint.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.D4)(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.A31)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.39)
1963 Mar 19, In Costa Rica, President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged to fight Communism.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1963 Mar 19, Algeria demanded that France negotiate on ending nuclear testing in Algerian Sahara.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1963 Mar 20, The 1st "Pop Art" exhibition was held in NYC.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1963 Mar 21, The Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
(SFC, 6/29/96, p.E4)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/21/97)(HN, 3/21/98)
1963 Mar 21, Boxer Davey Moore was killed by Sugar Ramos in Dodger Stadium during a nationally televised boxing match. In 1964 Bob Dylan wrote his song “Who Killed Davey Moore?"
(www.answers.com/topic/davey-moore)
1963 Mar 22, British Minister of War John Profumo denied having sex with Christine Keeler. The Profumo call girl scandal almost toppled the government. Profumo, a leading British Conservative and minister for war, was discovered to have been involved with Keeler, a call girl who was also dealing with a Soviet attaché. Valerie Hobson (d.1998 at 81), his actress wife, stood by him after the scandal. A 1995 Masterpiece Theater TV play was based on these events.
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(WSJ, 12/28/95, p. A-5)(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.D5)(MC, 3/22/02)
1963 Feb 20, Rolf Hochhuth's "Der Stellvertreter" (The Representative) premiered in Berlin. The work indicted Pope Pius XII for Nazi complicity during WW II. The Catholic Church was outraged at the portrayal of Pius XII as a war criminal. An English translation by Richard and Clara Winston was published as “The Deputy: A Play," by Grove Press in 1964. In 2002 The Deputy was made into the film “Amen." by Costa Gavras.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deputy)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.73)
1963 Mar 21, The Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last 27 inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
(SFC, 6/29/96, p.E4)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/21/97)(SSFC, 2/17/13, DB p.42)
1963 Mar 27, John F. Kennedy met with King Hassan II of Morocco.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1963 Mar 28, Alec A. Templeton (52), composer, pianist (Alec Templeton Time), died.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1963 Mar 31, LA ended streetcar service after 90 years.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1963 Mar, Spider-Man was introduced by Marvel Comics with 700 copies. It was written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko. Their character was first introduced in 1962.
(SFC, 7/8/04, p.B9)(SFC, 2/15/14, p.E4)
1963 Mar, In San Francisco the 4,000-plus seat Fox Theater at 10th and Market, designed by Thomas Lamb and opened in 1929, was demolished.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.C2)(SFC, 12/10/21, p.A11)
1963 Mar, Pakistan and China signed a historic border agreement. Three years later, the two countries agreed to construct a road that would provide a hitherto non-existent road-link for mutual benefit. In 1978 the Karakoram Highway from Kashgar, China, to the edge of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, was completed.
(www.pakpost.gov.pk/philately/stamps2003/karakoram_highway.html)
1963 Mar, Norman Borlaug, plant breeder, arrived in India and began testing new varieties of Mexican wheat, whose yields were shown to be 4-5 times better than Indian varieties. In 1970 he won the Nobel Prize for his development of high-yield wheat varieties for which he was dubbed father of the "Green Revolution."
(SFC, 10/15/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/3/02, p.A1)(Econ, 12/24/05, p.30)
1963 Mar, In Syria the pan-Arab Baath party staged a coup. Hafez Assad played an important role. Amin Hafez 1920-2009) was brought to power by the military coup only to be overthrown three years later.
(WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A30)(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A11)(AP, 12/18/09)
1963 Apr 1, The daytime television drama "General Hospital" and "Doctors" premiered on ABC.
(AP, 4/1/98)(OTD)
1963 Apr 1, Most of New York City's daily newspapers resumed publishing after settlement was reached in a 114-day strike. Workers of the International Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after began on December 8, 1962.
(AP, 4/1/08)(OTD)
1963 Apr 2, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King began the first non-violent campaign in Birmingham, Alabama.
(AP, 4/2/99)
1963 Apr 6, The United States and Britain signed an agreement under which the Americans would sell Polaris A-3 missiles to the British.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1963 Apr 7, Yugoslavia proclaimed itself a Socialist republic.
(HN, 4/7/97)
1963 Apr 8, Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son, singer (Too Late for Goodbyes), was born.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1963 Apr 8, In the 35th Academy Awards "Lawrence of Arabia," Anne Bancroft and Gregory Peck won.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1963 Apr 9, British statesman Winston Churchill was made an honorary U.S. citizen.
(AP, 4/9/97)(HN, 4/9/98)
1963 Apr 10, The USS Thresher nuclear-powered submarine failed to surface 220 miles east of Boston, Mass. The disaster claimed 129 lives.
(www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-t/ssn593.htm)
1963 Apr 11, John XXIII put forth his encyclical "On peace in truth, justice, charity and liberty."
(MC, 4/11/02)
1963 Apr 12, Police used dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama.
(HN, 4/12/98)
1963 Apr 13, Gary Kimovich Kasparov, world chess champion (1985-2000), was born in the USSR.
(MC, 4/13/02)(SFC, 1/16/04, p.D19)
1963 Apr 18, Dr. James Campbell performed the 1st human nerve transplant.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1963 Apr 27, San Francisco real estate developer Marvin L. Sheldon said he wants no negroes in any of the homes he has built in Golden Gate Heights. He recently rejected a $39,950 offer by Wilt Chamberlain, star of the San Francisco Warriors, for a home.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.50)
1963 Apr 27, Cuban premier Fidel Castro arrived in Moscow.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1963 Apr 28, In the 17th Tony Awards: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum won.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1863 Apr, In Venezuela the hostilities of the Federal War ended with negotiations for the Treaty of Coche, singed on May 22. This was the biggest civil war Venezuela had had since its independence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_War)
1963 May 1, James Whittaker became the 1st American to conquer Mount Everest as he and a Sherpa guide reached the summit.
(AP, 5/1/03)
1963 May 3, In Birmingham, Alabama, police Commissioner Bull Connor unleashed dogs and high-powered fire hoses on boycott-bound school children.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 3/1/98, Z1 p.1)
1963 May 6, A Pulitzer prize was awarded to Barbara Tuchman (Guns of August).
(MC, 5/6/02)
1963 May 7, The United States launched the Telstar II communications satellite. It made the first public transatlantic broadcast.
(HNQ, 5/3/99)(AP, 5/7/00)
1963 May 8, "Dr. No" premiered in US.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1963 May 8, JFK offered Israel assistance against aggression.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1963 May 8, Problems with the Buddhists began in Hue, Vietnam. The Diem Government decided to demonstrate its strength by enforcing a law against the display of flags other than the national flag. In defiance, the Buddhists lined the streets flying their flags regardless of the new law; this defiance turned bloody when troops fired into the crowd, killing nine. Diem now claimed that the Buddhists were affiliates of the Communists and tightened security around the more active pagodas.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWvietnam.htm)
1963 May 11, "Puff The Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary hit #2.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1963 May 11, Racial bomb attacks took place in Birmingham, Alabama.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1963 May 12, There was a race riot in Birmingham, Alabama.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1963 May 15, Peter, Paul & Mary won their 1st Grammy (If I Had a Hammer).
(MC, 5/15/02)
1963 May 15, U.S. astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off atop an Atlas rocket aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program. He orbited Earth 22 times and manually piloted his craft to a pinpoint splashdown.
(AP, 5/15/97)(WSJ, 11/7/97, p.A1)(HN, 5/15/98)
1963 May 16, After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth in Friendship Seven, ending Project Mercury.
(HN, 5/16/98)
1963 May 18, "Beast in Me" closed at Plymouth Theater in NYC after 4 performances.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1963 May 18, "If You Wanna Be Happy" by Jimmy Soul hit #1.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1963 May 18, In the 89th Preakness: Bill Shoemaker aboard Candy Spots won in 1:56.2.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1963 May 18, It was reported that American Airlines has approved a new contract allowing its stewardesses to keep flying until they are 33, take a ground job when they reach 32, or retire at 32 with severance pay.
(SSFC, 5/19/13, p.46)
1963 May 20, A fire in New Jersey burned out of control and killed 7 people. Nearly 1,000 were left homeless as the fire moved 9 miles in 6 hours on what was called Black Saturday.
(SFC, 5/20/09, p.D8)
1963 May 20, Sukarno was appointed president of Indonesia.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1963 May 20-1963 May 23, In East Pakistan a cyclone killed about 22,000 along coast of the Bay of Bengal.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1863 May 22, The Treaty of Coche was signed in Venezuela. Arms were laid down from the Federal War and a general assembly called at Victoria, which elected Juan Chrisostomo Falcon as president and Antonio Leocadio Guzman as vice president. The latter was at the same time secretary of the treasury, and went to London to negotiate a loan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Guzm%C3%A1n_Blanco)
1963 May 25, "Hot Spot" closed at Majestic Theater in NYC after 43 performances.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1963 May 25, The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by Chad, Mauritania & Zambia. Emperor Haile Selassie was among the key African leaders who founded the Organization of African Unity. He oversaw the maiden meeting of the continental body. In 2001 it was replaced the African Union.
(AP, 5/25/97)(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A12)(AP, 2/10/19)
1963 May 27, Jomo Kenyatta was elected 1st prime minister of Kenya.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1963 May 28, Down Jones went public. 110,000 shares of Dow Jones common stock were sold to the public.
(WSJ, 8/1/07, p.B6)(www.scripophily.net/dowjocoinde.html)
1963 May 28, Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin (60), composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1963 May 29, Lisa Whelchel, actress (Blair-Facts of Life, Mickey Mouse Club), was born in Fort Worth, TX.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1963 May, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (32), psychology professors, were fired from Harvard for experimenting with psychedelic drugs. Alpert later traveled to India and returned as Ram Dass. In 1971 Alpert authored "Be Here Now" and in 2000 published "Still Here – Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying."
(SFC, 12/21/96, p.A12)(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A2)
1963 Jun 1, R.C., "El Watusi" by Ray Barreto peaked at #17 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1963 Jun 1, R.C., "I Love You Because" by Al Martino peaked at #3 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1963 Jun 1, R.C., "It's My Party" by Lesley Gore peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1963 Jun 1, R.C., "Two Faces Have I" by Lou Christie peaked at #6 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1963 Jun 1, Governor George Wallace vowed to defy an injunction ordering integration of the University of Alabama.
(HN, 6/1/98)
1963 Jun 1, Kenya assumed internal self rule. This was later celebrated as Madaraka Day.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.P3)
1963 Jun 3, Pope John XXIII died at the age of 81, ending a papacy marked by innovative reforms in the Roman Catholic Church. He was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.
(AP, 6/3/97)
1963 Jun 5, John Profumo (1915-2006), British Minister of War, resigned due his relations with Christine Keeler. [see mar 22]
(AP, 3/10/06)
1963 Jun 5, A state of siege was proclaimed in Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini was arrested.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1963 Jun 7, The Rolling Stones made their 1st TV appearance.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1963 Jun 7, Zasu Pitts (65), actress (Wedding March, Life With Father), died.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1963 Jun 9, JFK named Winston Churchill a US honorary citizen.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1963 Jun 9, A US Equal Pay Act was enacted.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1963 Jun 10, JFK signed an equal pay for equal work law for men & women.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1963 Jun 11, JFK said segregation is morally wrong & that it is "time to act."
(SC, 6/11/02)
1963 Jun 11, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Florida for trying to integrate restaurants.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1963 Jun 11, Federal troops were used to force Alabama Gov. George Wallace to accept black students, Vivian Malone Jones and James Wood, at the Univ. of Alabama. In 1996 George Wallace apologized in a formal ceremony. Gen'l. Henry V. Graham (d.1999 at 82) of the National Guard escorted Wallace from the doorway at Foster Auditorium.
(WSJ, 5/13/96, p.A-16)(SFC, 10/11/96, p.A3)
1963 Jun 11, Greek Premier Constantine Caramanlis resigned in protest of King Paul's state visit to Britain.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1963 Jun 11, Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
(AP, 6/11/97)(www.buddhistinformation.com/self_immolation.htm)
1963 Jun 12, One of Hollywood's costliest failures, "Cleopatra," starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison, premiered in New York.
(AP, 6/12/98)
1963 Jun 12, Medgar Evers (37), leader (field director) of the NAACP in Mississippi, was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson by the KKK. An informant in the KKK, Delmar Dennis (1940-1996), later served as a key prosecution witness in convicting Byron De La Beckwith for the slaying. Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001 at age 80. A book by Bill McIlhany titled “Klandestine" recounts the story. In 1996 Whoopi Goldberg starred in the film “Ghosts of Mississippi" as the widow of Medgar Evers. In 1998 Willie Morris wrote “The Ghosts of Medgar Evers: A Tale of Race, Murder, Mississippi, and Hollywood."
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C5)(NYT, 6/7/96, p.B14)(AP, 6/12/97)(SFEC, 2/1/98, BR p.5)(SFC, 1/22/01, p.A22)
1963 Jun 15, "Sound of Music" closed at Lunt Fontanne Theater in NYC after 1443 performances.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1963 Jun 15, Israeli premier David Ben-Gurion resigned.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1963 Jun 16, The world's first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok VI.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1963 Jun 17, The US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to strike down rules requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public schools. The case began in 1956 when Edward L. Schempp (d.2003), on behalf of his son, objected to a 1949 Pennsylvania law requiring 10 Bible verses each day followed by the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
(AP, 6/17/97)(HN, 6/17/98)(SFC, 11/24/03, p.A18)
1963 Jun 17, British House of Commons debated the John Profumo-Christine Keeler affair, which involved the defense minister and the call-girl he shared with a Russian agent.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1963 Jun 17, John Cowper Powys (b.1872), English author, died. In 2007 Morine Krissdottir authored “Descent of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys." His 10 novels included “Wolf Solent," the story of a young man’s rebellion against the modern world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cowper_Powys)(WSJ, 9/8/07, p.P9)
1963 Jun 18, 3,000 blacks boycotted Boston public school.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1963 Jun 19, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova returned to Earth after spending nearly three days as the first woman in space.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/98)
1963 Jun 20, The United States and Soviet Union signed an agreement in Geneva to set up a hot line communications link between the two superpowers and a treaty was signed limiting nuclear testing. It came about because of the Cuban missile crises, which began on October 22, 1962. The Hot Line was not used until the Six-Day War of 1967.
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(AP, 6/20/97)(HN, 6/20/98)(HNPD, 10/18/99)
1963 Jun 21, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was chosen to succeed the late Pope John XXIII as head of the Roman Catholic Church. The new pope took the name Paul VI.
(AP, 6/21/97)
1963 Jun 21, France announced it would withdraw from the NATO fleet in the North Atlantic.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1963 Jun 21, Levi Eshkol began serving as Israel’s 3rd prime minister.
(Economist, 9/22/12, p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Eshkol)
1963 Jun 23, Bryon De La Beckwith VI (1920-2001) was initially arrested for the June 12 death of Medgar Evers. He was thereafter twice tried for this offense in 1964. The first trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial on February 7, 1964. The second trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial on April 17, 1964. In 1994, he was tried by the state in a new trial based on new evidence, convicted of the murder by a mixed jury, and sentenced to life in prison.
(https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ms-supreme-court/1046038.html)
1963 Jun 24, 1st demonstration of home video recorder was at the BBC Studios in London.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1963 Jun 26, President Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he made his famous declaration: "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) at the Berlin Wall. Rumors later spread that the misplaced article "ein" made an exact translation to say "I am a jelly donut."
(AP, 6/26/97)(HN, 6/26/98)(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A25)
1963 Jun 27, Pres. Kennedy spent his 1st full day in Ireland.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1963 Jun 27, Henry Cabot Lodge was appointed U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1963 Jun 27, USAF Major Robert A. Rushworth reached an altitude of 53.9 miles in the X-15.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15)
1963 Jun 28, Khrushchev visited East-Berlin.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1963 Jun 30, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was crowned as Pope Paul VI, the 262nd head of the Roman Catholic Church. The softly spoken cardinal from northern Italy held Saint Peter's chair for 15 years in a difficult period for the Roman Catholic Church. Paul VI continued the Second Vatican Council launched by his predecessor Pope John XXIII in 1962, winding it up in 1965 and implementing its numerous reforms, including efforts to dialogue with other religions and a greater role for lay people.
(AP, 6/30/97)(AP, 10/14/18)
1963 Jun, Martin Luther King led the “Walk to Freedom" in Detroit, Mi.
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.84)
1963 Jul 1, The U.S. Post Office inaugurated its five-digit ZIP codes. The Zoning Improvement Plan was initially developed by Robert Aurand Moon (d.2001 at 83).
(AP, 7/1/97)(HN, 7/1/98)(SFC, 4/16/01, p.A22)
1963 Jul 2, President John F. Kennedy met Pope Paul the Sixth at the Vatican, the first meeting between a Roman Catholic US chief executive and the head of the Catholic Church.
(AP, 7/2/00)
1963 Jul 2, Juan Marichal (25), pitcher for the SF Giants, dueled for 16 innings with Warren Spahn (42), of the Milwaukee Braves in a 5-hour game at Candlestick. Willie Mays hit the 428th pitch of the night over left field.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/sports/baseball/02nohit.html)
1963 Jul 4, Naturalization ceremonies began to be held annually at Monticello, Virginia.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A3)
1963 Jul 8, Reports were made of Charlie Finley's intention to move KC A's baseball team to Oakland.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1963 Jul 8, US banned all monetary transactions with Cuba.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1963 Jul 12, French Pres. Charles de Gaulle pronounced that "Treaties are like roses and young girls -- they last while they last."
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A11)
1963 Jul 25, The United States, the Soviet Union and Britain initialed a treaty in Moscow prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in space or underwater.
(AP, 7/25/97)
1963 Jul 25, Ugo Cerletti (b.1877), Italian neurosurgeon, died. In the 1930s he and Lucio Bini pioneered the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), electric shock, to cure patients of depression.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.78)(www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/511.html)
1963 Jul 26, In San Francisco The Fly Trap restaurant at 73 Sutter St. closed to make room for the 43-story Wells Fargo Tower.
(SSFC, 7/21/13, p.42)
1963 Jul 26, Skopje, Yugoslavia, was destroyed by earthquake and over 1,000 were killed.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1963 Jul 27, Garrett A. Morgan (86), inventor and founder of the Cleveland Call, died.
(ON, 3/02, p.12)
1963 Jul 30, British spy Kim Philby was discovered in Moscow. Philby, writer for The Economist, who spent six years filing dispatches from the Middle East, was discovered to be a spy and defected to the Soviet Union.
(WSJ, 6/6/95, p.A-14)(MC, 7/30/02)
1963 Jul, Interest Equalization Tax was a domestic tax measure implemented by US President John F. Kennedy. It was meant to make it less profitable for US investors to invest abroad by taxing the interest on foreign securities.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest_Equalization_Tax)
1963 Jul, Serial killers Myra Hindley (d.2002) and her boyfriend, Ian Brady (the Moors Murderers), began abducting, molesting and killing children. The pair were caught in Oct, 1965. Between 1963 and 1965 they lured five children and teenagers to their deaths, burying four of them on remote moorland near Manchester.
(AP, 11/16/02)(AFP, 8/17/12)
1963 Aug 3, James Hetfield, heavy metal rocker (Metallica-Helpless), was born.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1963 Aug 3, Carlo Imperato, actor (Fame), was born in Bronx, NYC.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1963 Aug 3, Allan Sherman released "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda."
(SC, 8/3/02)
1963 Aug 3, Beatles made a final performance the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1963 Aug 3, Phil Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, committed suicide. His wife, Katharine Graham (1917-2001), took over as publisher. She published her autobiography in 1997: "Personal History."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Graham)(SFEC, 2/9/97, BR p.1)
1963 Aug 5, The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a Limited Test Ban Treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, space and underwater. Public pressure helped JFK signed the ban on atmospheric atom bomb tests.
(AP, 8/5/97)(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.D1)
1963 Aug 8, Britain's "Great Train Robbery" took place as thieves made off with 120 mailbags with 2.62 million pounds in banknotes. 15 men under Bruce Reynolds (d.2013) held up the Glasgow to London Royal Mail (Glasgow-Euston train) and took off with $7.2 mil in sterling. They badly beat up train driver Jack Mills. He never returned to work and died seven years later without making a full recovery. Ronald Biggs claimed to be one of the 15 men and later lived freely in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His share of the robbery was $2.8 mil but he was arrested just four weeks after the robbery. He escaped from Wandsworth Prison in 1965 and was still wanted in Britain. Only 1/8 of the money stolen was ever recovered. Dinner at home with Mr. Biggs could be purchased for $50. In 1994 Biggs published an autobiography. In 1999 a video game was developed based on the event. Biggs (71) returned to Britain in 2001 and in 2009 he was up for parole. Reynolds spent five years as a fugitive. On his return to Britain he was caught by police and sentenced 25 years in prison for the train heist, of which he served just 10. Reynolds published a memoir titled "Autobiography of a Thief" and became a consultant on a crime film.
(SFE, 10/1/95, p.T-8)(AP, 8/8/97)(WSJ, 11/4/99, p.A28)(WSJ, 5/7/01, p.A1)(AFP, 7/1/09)(AP, 2/28/13)
1963 Aug 11, The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. said San Francisco’s Parkmerced community, with a population of some 8,000, will be open to negroes.
(SSFC, 8/11/13, DB p.42)
1963 Aug 13, A 17 year-old Buddhist monk burned himself to death in Saigon, South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1963 Aug 18, James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1963 Aug 19, NAACP Youth Council began sit-ins at lunch counters in Oklahoma City.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1963 Aug 19, Newsweek quoted Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu (1924-2011), official hostess of the South Vietnamese government, offering to light the match of the next Buddhist monk suicide.
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Madame_Ngo_Dinh_Nhu)(NW 8/19/63)(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A1)(AP, 4/27/11)
1963 Aug 21, Martial law was declared in South Vietnam as police and army troops began a crackdown on Buddhist anti-government protesters.
(AP, 8/21/08)
1963 Aug 22, The X-15 aircraft set an altitude record of 67 miles.
(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1963 Aug 23, Beatles released "She Loves You" in UK.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1963 Aug 24, Pres. Kennedy allowed a cable to be sent to Ambassador Lodge in Vietnam that backed a military coup against Pres. Diem. Kennedy gave tacit approval for a coup against Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. Diem was killed Nov 2.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A2)(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.41)
1963 Aug 26, Orders came from Washington to destroy all cables sent to Saigon, South Vietnam, back to Aug 24.
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.42)
1963 Aug 27, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (b.1868), sociologist, influential leader of black Americans, founder of the National Negro Committee which eventually became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, died in Accra, Ghana at the age of 95. He coined the phrase "double consciousness" to describe the black survival skill of moving between the black and white American cultures.
(WUD, 1994, p.439)(SFEC, 3/22/98, BR p.5)(HNPD, 2/23/99)(HNQ, 5/11/99)
1963 Aug 27, Cambodia severed ties with South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1963 Aug 28, The civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew 200-250,000 demonstrators and was the occasion for King’s "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It was organized by Bayard Rustin (1912-1987). In 1997 a biography of Rustin by Jervis Anderson was published: "Bayard Rustin: The Troubles I’ve Seen." The 1997 play "Civil Sex" by Brian Freeman was based on Rustin’s life. Rev. Thomas Kilgore Jr. (d.1998 at 84) helped organize the march on Washington. Martin Luther King led marches on Washington and Selma, Alabama. His chief lieutenant was Andrew Young who in 1996 wrote: "An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America." Activist and later congressman John Lewis (1940-2020) was the youngest speaker.
(WSJ, 11/6/96, p.A21)(SFEC, 1/26/97 BR, p.4)(WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A14)(AP, 8/28/97)(SFC, 2/7/98, p.21)(HN, 8/28/98)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.74)
1963 Aug 28, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge connecting Seattle & Bellevue opened.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1963 Aug 30, The hot line, a rapid communications link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow went into operation to avoid miscalculations during an emergency.
(AP, 8/30/97)(HNPD, 10/30/99)
1963 Aug 30, Guy Burgess (b.1911), British spy for the USSR, died in Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Burgess)
1963 Aug 31, Dick Gibson (d.1998), jazz lover, held his first Gibson Colorado Jazz Party at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen. He flew in some of the world’s top jazz musicians and began an annual Labor Day weekend tradition that lasted 30 years.
(WSJ, 3/20/07, p.D6)
1963 Aug 31, George F. Braque (81), cubist painter, died in Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1963 Sep 1, Turkey moved politically closer to Europe with the Treaty of Ankara. It reduced duties and implicitly recognized Turkey’s right to join the European Economic Community.
(http://tinyurl.com/tgab2)(WSJ, 9/7/04, p.A10)(WSJ, 10/6/04, p.A17)
1963 Sep 2, "The CBS Evening News" was lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.
(AP, 9/2/97)
1963 Sep 2, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers.
(AP, 9/2/97)(HN, 9/2/98)
1963 Sep 3, Louis MacNeice (b.1907), northern Irish poet, died. His name was often subsumed under the collective name of Macspaunday, which referred to the generation of politically-committed 1930s poets: MacNeice, Stephen Spender, W.H. Auden and C. Day-Lewis. MacNeice’s collected poems were published in 2007.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.89)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_MacNeice)
1963 Sep 5, In San Francisco burlesque patrons viewed the last show of the President Follies at 60 McAllister St.
(SSFC, 9/1/13, DB p.42)
1963 Sep 7, The Beatles made their 1st US TV appearance on ABC’s Big Night Out.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1963 Sep 7, American Bandstand moved to California and aired once a week on Saturday.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1963 Sep 7, The National Professional Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, Ohio.
(AP, 9/7/97)
1963 Sep 9, In Italy a landslide into Vaiont Dam emptied a lake and killed 3-4,000 people.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1963 Sep 9, Alabama Gov George Wallace served a federal injunction to stop orders of state police to bar black students from enrolling in white schools.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1963 Sep 10, 20 black students entered public schools in Birmingham, Tuskegee and Mobile, Ala., following a standoff between federal authorities and Gov. George C. Wallace. President John F. Kennedy federalized Alabama's National Guard to prevent Governor George C. Wallace from using guardsmen to stop public-school desegregation.
(AP, 9/10/97)(HN, 9/10/98)
1963 Sep 13, "Outer Limits" premiered on ABC TV. It was partly written, produced and directed by Leslie Stevens (d.1998) and ran to 1965.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.C2)(MC, 9/13/01)
1963 Sep 13, The last bucket of concrete was poured on the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River to form Lake Powell. It marked the beginning of a 290 mile stretch of the river from the dam through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead. It was built to provide power to six Western states. The lake filled by 1980. [last source says the lake filled within 5 years]
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.E-3)(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A10)(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.A1)(NH, 9/97, p.40)
1963 Sep 14, Mary Ann Fischer of Aberdeen, S.D., gave birth to four girls and a boy, the first surviving quintuplets in the United States.
(AP, 9/14/03)
1963 Sep 15, The Alou brothers-Felipe, Matty, & Jesus-appeared in the San Francisco outfield for 1 inning.
(http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=20238)
1963 Sep 15, The Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four young black girls (Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Collins, and Cynthia Wesley) were killed in the bombing as they prepared their Sunday school lesson on "The love that forgives." Later on the same day James Ware (16) and his brother Virgil (14) were shot at while bicycling home. Virgil was killed. Another James Ware went on to become a US district judge and falsely used the James and Virgil Ware story for self promotion. Judge Ware withdrew from a new appointment to the SF 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1997 after he admitted that he was not the same James Ware. In Birmingham, Alabama, police dogs were set on peaceful, Black demonstrators. The 1997 film "Four Little Girls" by Spike Lee was a documentary of the church burning in Alabama. In 1977 Robert Chambliss (d.1985) was tried and convicted of murder. Suspect Herman Cash died in 1994. In 2000 Thomas E. Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry (d.2004) turned themselves in after they were indicted by a state grand jury. In 2001 Thomas Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Cherry was convicted May 22, 2002, and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.1)(SFC, 8/16/96, p.D11)(SFEC, 3/16/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 5/18/97, DB p.45)(SFC, 11/6/97, p.A9)(AP, 9/15/97)(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)(NW, 5/27/02, p.43)
1963 Sep 16, The science-fiction anthology series "The Outer Limits" premiered on ABC. It ran to 1965.
(AP, 9/16/98)(SFEM, 2/28/99, p.4)
1963 Sep 16, The Federation of Malaysia was formally established. Sabak (Sabah) and Sarawak, Britain’s colonies on Borneo, joined the Malayan peninsula to form Malaysia with Tunku Abdul Rahman (60) as prime minister. The federation formed under bitter opposition from Indonesia, which refused to recognize the country and waged a guerrilla war against it. Race riots erupted between ethnic Malays and the Chinese majority.
(PC, 1992, p.988)(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.C10)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.60)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.39)
1963 Sep 17, "The Fugitive," starring David Janssen, premiered on ABC. It was written and produced by Roy Huggins (d.2002). Kimble was cleared on the Aug 29, 1967, and narrator William Conrad announced "the day the running stopped." In 1993 Ed Robertson authored the companion book ""The Fugitive Recaptured." In 1993 a film was made based on the TV series with Harrison Ford as Kimble.
(AP, 9/17/98)(WSJ, 10/16/00, p.A32)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.B5)
1963 Sep 18, "The Patty Duke Show" premiered on ABC television.
(AP, 9/18/03)
1963 Sep 18, USSR orders 58.5 million barrels of cereal from Australia.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1963 Sep 20, In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Kennedy proposed a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition to the moon. Pres. Kennedy stayed at New York’s Carlyle Hotel and received a "leggy babe" under Secret Service escort.
(AP, 9/20/97)(WSJ, 10/22/01, p.A17)
1963 Sep 20, California’s legislature passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act, the state’s first law prohibiting racial discrimination in housing. It was authored by Assemblyman Byron Rumford (d.1986) of Oakland. The Proposition 14 referendum on November 3, 1964, saw a 2-to-1 vote in favor of repeal of the Rumford Act. It was restored in 1966 when the California Supreme Court ruled that Proposition 14 was illegal.
(http://tinyurl.com/oe2tz73)(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.20)(SFC, 7/27/15, p.E2)
1963 Sep 23, Annual report of 1996 reported that Becton Dickinson stock was first listed on NYSE.
(AR, 1996, p.2)(Calendar 1/97)
1963 Sep 24, The U.S. Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing.
(AP, 9/24/99)
1963 Sep 25, Juan Bosch (1909-2001) was toppled in the Dominican Republic by the army shortly after being elected. His plans for land reform would have split up sugar plantations owned by generals.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)(SFC, 11/2/01, p.D6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Bosch)
1963 Sep 26, Lee Harvey Oswald traveled on a Continental Trailways bus to Mexico.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1963 Sep 27, Lee Harvey Oswald visited the Cuban consulate in Mexico.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1963 Sep 27, At 10:59 AM census clock, the US population was recorded at 190,000,000.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1963 Sep 28, "New Phil Silvers Show," debuted on CBS-TV.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1963 Sep 28, Murray The K, a NY DJ played "She Loves You" on the radio.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1963 Sep 29, "The Judy Garland Show" premiered on CBS.
(AP, 9/29/04)
1963 Sep 29, The situation comedy "My Favorite Martian" premiered on CBS. It starred Bill Bixby and Ray Walston (d.2000 at 86). The show ran to 1966.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A17)(AP, 9/29/03)
1963 Sep 29, The second session of Second Vatican Council opened in Rome.
(AP, 9/29/97)
1963 Sep, The Federal Hourly Minimum Wage was set at $1.25 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1963 Sep, The Treaty of Anakara on reducing duties implicitly recognized Turkey’s right to join the European Economic Community.
(WSJ, 10/6/04, p.A17)
1963 Oct 1, Mark McGwire was born. He later became a baseball 1st baseman, AL rookie of year 1988, Oakland A's, Cards, 70 home run record.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1963 Oct 2, Defense Sec. Robert McNamara told Pres. Kennedy in a cabinet meeting that: "We need a way to get out of Vietnam." McNamara proposed to replace the 16,000 US advisors with Canadian personnel.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A2)
1963 Oct 2, W. German Chancellor Adenauer condemned western grain shipments to USSR.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1963 Oct 3, Meredith Wilson’s Broadway musical “Here’s Love," featuring Dom DeLuise, opened at the Shubert Theater. The show close on July 25, 1964.
(SFC, 5/6/09, p.A9)(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3024)
1963 Oct 4-8, Hurricane Flora, killed 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti. Hurricane Flora killed an estimated 7-8,000 people.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A2)(MC, 10/4/01)
1963 Oct 7, President Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a limited nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union. Testing was outlawed in the atmosphere, underwater and in outer space.
(AP, 10/7/97)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1963 Oct 7, Bobby Baker resigned as Senate Democratic secretary after being charged in a 300-thousand-dollar civil suit with using his influence for personal monetary gains.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1963 Oct 8, Remedios Varo (b.1908), Spanish-born surrealist painter, died in Mexico. Walter Gruen, her 11-year lover and promoter, collected her work and in 1987 attempted to get copyright protection. A Mexican judge denied his request due to Varo’s failure to get a formal divorce from French poet Benjamin Peret. In 1999 the Mexican government tried to seize the paintings on behalf of Mexico but faced a claim by next of kin niece Beatriz Varo. By 2005 Mr. Gruen agreed to give his entire collection to the Mexican government if it gets named after his deceased daughter.
(http://tinyurl.com/b87uu)(WSJ, 9/20/05, p.A1)
1963 Oct 9, British premier Harold MacMillan resigned.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1963 Oct 9, A dam in Piave valley of Italy, broke and about 2,000 died. [see Sep 9]
(MC, 10/9/01)
1963 Oct 9, In South Africa indictments began for the Rivonia trial and resulted in the jailing of Nelson Mandela and Govan Mbeki. In 1999 Glenn Frankel authored "Rivonia's Children." White activists (Joe Slovo and his wife Ruth First, Rusty and Hilda Bernstein, and Anna Marie and Harold Wolpe) of the South African Communist Party, involved in the trial, fled into exile. The trial was named after the area where the ANC members were arrested.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivonia_Trial)(WSJ, 10/4/99, p.A40)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A26)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A18)
1963 Oct 10, A dam burst in Italy, and over 3,000 died. [see Sep 9, Oct 9]
(MC, 10/10/01)
1963 Oct 11, A National Security Action memorandum that recommended plans to withdraw 1,000 US Military personnel by the end of the year was approved. The memo followed McNamara’s return from a trip to South Vietnam.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A2)
1963 Oct 11, Jean Cocteau, French author (La Voie Humaine), surrealist poet, artist and film director, died at 73. His lover Lean Marais later published a biography of Cocteau called "L’Inconcevable Jean Cocteau." In 2003 Claude Arnaud authored the biography "Jean Cocteau."
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1963 Oct 11, Johan Nordstrom (b.1871), Swedish immigrant and co-founder of the Nordstrom department store chain, died in Seattle.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Nordstrom)
1963 Oct 11, Edith Piaf (b.1915), French singer (No, I don't regret anything), died of cancer. In 2007 the biopic film “La Vie en Rose," with Marion Cotillard as Piaf, was produced. In 2011 Carolyn Burke authored “No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89dith_Piaf)(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.G5)
1963 Oct 12, Archaeological digs began at Masada, Israel.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1963 Oct 13, "Beatlemania" was coined after Beatles appeared at Palladium.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1963 Oct 15, Stanley Milgram of Yale Univ. published his groundbreaking article “Behavioral Study of Obedience." in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. His experiments, begun in 1960, created a paradigm for considering how cruel people can be when they are obeying orders.
(SSFC, 7/4/04, p.M6)(SAM, 10/08, p,24)
1963 Oct 15, In South Korea Park Chung-hee was elected president as the candidate of the newly created Democratic Republican Party. He narrowly defeated former President Yun, the candidate of the Civil Rule Party, by just over 156,000 votes—a margin of 1.5 percent.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee)
1963 Oct 19, Beatles recorded "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
(MC, 10/19/01)
1963 Oct 20, Cleveland’s Jim Brown surpassed the NFL single-season career rushing record of 8,378 yards set by Joe Perry in 1958. By game’s end Brown had 8,390 yards.
(www.profootballhof.com/history/general/rushers/index.jsp)
1963 Oct 20, Alec Douglas-Home formed a British government.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1963 Oct 22, Brian Boitano, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1988), was born in Mountain View, Calif.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1963 Oct 22, 225,000 students boycotted Chicago schools in a Freedom Day protest.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1963 Oct 22, Britain’s "National Theatre Company," founded under Laurence Olivier, opened with Hamlet. In 2017 Nicholas Hytner authored “Balancing Acts: Behind the Scenes at the National Theater."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_National_Theatre)(Econ 5/6/17, p.75)
1963 Oct 23, Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park," premiered in NYC. [see Oct 24]
(MC, 10/23/01)
1963 Oct 24, "Barefoot in the Park" by Neil Simon opened on Broadway. [see Oct 23]
(SFEC, 9/29/96, BR p.5)
1963 Oct 25, Anti-Kennedy "WANTED FOR TREASON" pamphlets scattered in Dallas.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1963 Oct 28, In NYC the demolition of Penn Station, completed in 1910, began.
(www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON004.htm)(WSJ, 1/12/07, p.W8)
1963 Oct 31, Pres. John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act, which aimed to close asylums and treat mental disorders more like illnesses and less like crimes.
(Econ, 7/11/15, SR p.7)(http://tinyurl.com/pe447ha)
1963 Oct 31, J. Edgar Hoover's last meeting with President John F Kennedy.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1963 Ocr 31, In San Francisco the Black Cat café, located in the Canessa Building at 708-710 Montgomery St., closed down for the last time as the state Supreme Court refused to hear its case and lower courts refused to reinstate its liquor license because it catered to homosexuals.
(SFC, 11/15/14, p.C2)
1963 Oct 31, On Halloween night leaking propane gas exploded and killed 64 at the "Holiday on Ice" show at the Indiana State Fair Grounds in Indianapolis.
(http://tinyurl.com/npsda6j)
1963 Oct, Pres. Kennedy spoke with Mayor Daley of Chicago to get congressman Roland Libonati to vote the Party line. The conversation was recorded.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.43)
1963 Oct, Algeria and Morocco engaged in a brief border conflict called the Sand War. It resulted largely from the Moroccan government's claim to portions of Algeria's Tindouf and Béchar provinces. This led to a heightened tensions between the two countries for several decades.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_War)
1963 Nov 1-1963 Nov 2, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother were assassinated in a military coup. Coup leader Duong Van Minh explained that "They had to be killed… Pres. Diem was too much respected among simple, gullible people in the countryside." A 3rd brother was later tricked into surrendering to US forces and was turned over to coup leaders and killed by firing squad. Col. Nguyen Van Thieu helped organize the coup that killed Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem.
(AP, 11/2/97)(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.42)(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)(SFC, 10/1/01, p.B2)
1963 Nov 3, San Francisco police arrested 48 protesters at Mel’s Drive-In at 3355 Geary Blvd. They claimed that Mel’s, owned by Supervisor Harold Dobbs, refuses to hire Negroes for non-menial jobs.
(SSFC, 11/3/13, DB p.42)
1963 Nov 5, Tatum O'Neal, Mrs. John McEnroe, (Paper Moon, Little Darlings), was born in LA, Cal.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1963 Nov 7, The film "It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" premiered at Hollywood’s new Cinerama Theatre in a lengthy 195 minute version.
(WSJ, 2/13/02, p.A1)
1963 Nov 9, Twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and 160 people died in a train crash.
(AP, 11/9/97)
1963 Nov 12, James P. Hosty Jr., FBI agent, had been tracking Lee Harvey Oswald for counterintelligence purposes and had visited Oswald’s wife to establish Oswald’s location On this day Hosty received a note from Oswald to leave Marina Oswald alone. In 1996 Hosty wrote: Assignment: Oswald, a memoir of his FBI role tracking Oswald.
(SFC, 6/3/96, BR p.5)
1963 Nov 14, Greece freed hundreds who were jailed in the Communist uprising of 1944- 1950.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1963 Nov 14, Iceland got a new island when a volcano pushed its way up out of the sea five miles off the southern coast.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1963 Nov 15, Roger Mealman, Clifford Toycen Jr., and Robert Burns Jr. robbed a bank in Sacramento of $45,000 and headed east. They shot and killed HP officer Glenn Carlson along Highway 40. All 3 were soon arrested and sentenced to life in prison. The Highway 267 bypass was later named after CHP officer Carlson.
(SFC, 4/27/01, p.A1,10)(SFC, 11/16/13, p.C4)
1963 Nov 15, Fritz Reiner (74), Hungarian-US conductor (Chicago Symphony Orch), died.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1963 Nov 15, Argentina voided all foreign oil contracts.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1963 Nov 16, Touch-tone telephone was introduced.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1963 Nov 20, A Senate investigating committee held hearings on the growing TFX scandal where General Dynamics had received a $7 billion contract in 1962.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.B7)
1963 Nov 21, President Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, began a two-day tour of Texas.
(AP, 11/22/03)
1963 Nov 21, Robert Stroud, "bird man of Alcatraz", died at the federal prison in Springfield, Mo. His canary studies were done at Leavenworth, Kansas, and included the book "Stroud’s Digest of Diseases of Birds." He also worked on a critical history of the US prison system (Looking Outward).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_of_Alcatraz)(AHHT, 10/02, p.22)(SSFC, 9/22/02, p.A8)
1963 Nov 21, Roman Catholic Vatican Council authorized the use of vernacular instead of Latin in the Sacraments.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1963 Nov 21, India launched its first rocket from Thumba in Kerala state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumba_Equatorial_Rocket_Launching_Station)
1963 Nov 22, A Senate committee heard testimony about an alleged $100,000 cash payoff to Vice-President Johnson in connection with the General Dynamics TFX contract. After the assassination of JFK there was no follow up.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.B7)
1963 Nov 22, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, had been in office two years, 10 months and two days, when an assassin's bullet ended his life in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy, on a pre-campaign trip to supposedly hostile Texas, had been greeted warmly by enthusiastic crowds at every stop. Upon their arrival in Dallas, President and Mrs. Kennedy, accompanied by Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife, were driven slowly through the downtown streets on their way to a scheduled speech at the Dallas Trade Mart. At 12:30 p.m., as the open limousine traveled through Dealey Plaza past the Texas School Book Depository, Kennedy was shot. Within the hour, Kennedy was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital and by 2 p.m., Dallas police had arrested Lee Harvey Oswald as the suspected assassin. At 2:38 p.m. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.
(HNPD, 11/22/98)
1963 Nov 22, John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Texas Gov. John B. Connally was seriously wounded. Rufus Youngblood (1924-1996), a Secret Service agent, shielded VP Johnson from possible gunshots with his body. Johnson rewarded him by promoting him over time to the No. 2 position in the Secret Service. Ruby used a .38 Colt Cobra purchased at Ray’s Hardware and Sporting Goods in Dallas run by Lawrence Brantley (1921-1996). From the address that President Kennedy never got to deliver in Dallas: "If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be no help."
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(AHD, p. 931)(SFC, 10/4/96, p.B2)(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)(AP, 11/22/97)
1963 Nov 22, Two amateur films recorded the assassination of Pres. Kennedy. A 24 ½ sec. video by Orville Nix Sr. and Abraham Zapruder, a dress manufacturer, captured the assassination on video tape. In 1981 David Lifton published "Best Evidence," on the medical evidence of the assassination. In 1993 Gerald Posner published "Case Closed," a book on the Warren Commission report. In 1998 new testimony was released that a 2nd set of pictures was taken at the autopsy that were never made public. In 2007 David Talbot authored “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years." In 2007 Vincent Bugliosi authored “Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy."
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A5)(SFC, 10/25/98, p.D5)(SFC, 11/23/00, p.A11)(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M1)(WSJ, 5/19/07, p.P8)
1963 Nov 22, Dr. Charles Andrew Crenshaw, a 3rd year surgical intern at Dallas’ Parkland Memorial, tended Kennedy and placed him into a coffin. In 1992 Crenshaw (d.2001) authored "JFK: Conspiracy of Silence" and insisted that Kennedy had 4 gunshot wounds, including one from the front and that the neck wound had been tampered to look like an exit wound.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A25)
1963 Nov 22, Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit was slain by Lee Harvey Oswald 45 minutes after Pres. Kennedy was shot when he called Oswald over for questioning. Oswald was arrested inside the Texas Theater, 321 W. Jefferson Blvd., just before 2pm.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A5)(SFC, 10/25/98, p.D5)(SSFC, 11/17/13, p.M5)
1963 Nov 22, New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello was acquitted. He was prosecuted by Bobby Kennedy and Bobby later said that Marcello was behind the murder of JFK.
(SFEC, 6/7/98, Par. p.8)
1963 Nov 22, Aldous L. Huxley (69), English author (Devils of Loudon, Brave New World), died in Los Angeles.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ahuxley.htm)
1963 Nov 22, C.S. Lewis, English author the Narnia series and other books, died of osteoporosis. In 2005 Alan Jacobs authored “The Narnian," a biography of Lewis. In 2013 Alister McGrath authored “C.S. Lewis--A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet."
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/cslewis.htm)(WSJ, 10/15/05, p.P13)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.88)
1963 Nov 23, President Johnson proclaimed Nov. 25 a day of national mourning as JFK's body lay in repose in East Room of White House.
(AP, 11/23/01)
1963 Nov 23, Sixty-three elderly people, most of them sleeping, were killed by a fire destroying the one-story Golden Age Nursing Home near Fitchville, Ohio.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1963 Nov 23, "Doctor Who," the long-running British sci-fi series, debuted in England.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1963 Nov 24, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy in front of TV cameras in the garage of the Dallas Police Department. Ruby used a .38 Colt Cobra purchased at Ray’s Hardware and Sporting Goods in Dallas run by Lawrence Brantley (1921-1996). Sometime earlier Oswald had made an attempt to murder right-wing Gen’l. Edwin A. Walker. In 2002 Thomas Mallon authored "Mrs. Paine’s Garage and the Murder of John F. Kennedy."
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)(AP, 11/24/97)(HN, 11/24/00)(WSJ, 1/18/02, p.W8)
1963 Nov 25, Assassinated President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A bronze casket that was used to transport JFK to Washington was flown off the Maryland-Delaware coast and dropped into a 9,000 feet deep military dump site.
(AP, 11/25/97)(HN, 11/25/98)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A3)
1963 Nov 28, In The Flintstones episode titled "KLEPTOMANIAC PEBBLES", Pebbles' tendency to take anything that isn't nailed down is exploited by jewel thief Baffles Gravel.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, R.C., "She Loves You" by the Beatles returned to #1 on the U.K. pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, The first million copy record prior to release "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, Linda Darnell divorced Merle Robertson.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, The Crusher beat Verne Gagne in St Paul, to become NWA champ.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, Just six days after the assassination of President Kennedy, President Johnson announces that the Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, will be renamed "The John F. Kennedy Space Center." Residents voted in 1973 to change the name back to Cape Canaveral.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)(HN, 11/28/98)
1963 Nov 29, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren head of a commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
(AP, 11/29/97)(HN, 11/29/98)
1963 Nov, Pres. Kennedy approved a probe to see whether relations with Fidel Castro could be improved. In 1999 Mark J. White edited "The Kennedy's and Cuba: The Declassified Documentary History."
(WSJ, 11/15/99, p.A48)
1963 Dec 2, Sabu Sabu (39), actor (Sabu Dastagir), died of a heart attack in Chatsworth, California. He was born in Karapur, Mysore, India, on January 27, 1924, beginning his movie career at the age of 13. His films included “Elephant Boy" (1937); “Drums" (1938); “The Thief of Baghdad" (1940); “Jungle Book" (1942) and “Arabian Nights" (1942).
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0754942/)
1963 Dec 4, In Brazil Sen. Arnon de Mello (1911-1983), the father of future president Fernando Collor, shot and killed Senator Joseph Kairala of Acre in the Senate, but was never tried. The intended victim was Mello’s political enemy Senator Silvestre Pericles.
(Econ, 7/28/12, p.31)(http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnon_Afonso_de_Farias_Melo)
1963 Dec 7, During the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast as CBS re-showed a one-yard touchdown run by Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh. Navy beat Army, 21-15.
(AP, 12/7/03)
1963 Dec 8, Three fuel tanks exploded when a jetliner, struck by lightning, crashed near Elkton, Maryland. 81 people died. This was the only case of a lightning caused crash.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1963 Dec 9, Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped. Frank Sinatra Sr. ransomed his kidnapped son, Frank Sinatra Jr., for $240,000. Barry Keenan, who set up the kidnapping, was a classmate of Nancy Sinatra. He served 4 1/2 years in prison and went on to become a successful real estate developer.
(SFC, 9/7/98, p.B6)(MC, 12/9/01)
1963 Dec 10, Walter Cronkite re-aired a CBS News report from London on the Beatles. It had been 1st filed on Nov 22, the day JFK was assassinated.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, Par p.18)
1963 Dec 10, Zanzibar was granted independence by the United Kingdom and became a constitutional monarchy under the Sultan.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sultans_of_Zanzibar)
1963 Dec 12, Frank Sinatra Jr. returned after being kidnapped.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1963 Dec 12, Kenya gained independence from Britain and the Kenyan African National Union Party (KANU) began ruling. Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, was the first president and served until 1978. The Kikuyu and closely related Meru and Embu groups comprised some 28% of Kenya’s people. Kenya’s population at this time was under 8 million. This was later commemorated as Jamhuri Day. Kenya’s first vice president was Oginga Odinga, the father of Raila Odinga.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A8)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP,12/12/97)(SFC,12/23/97, p.D4)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A12)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.87)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.49)(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.P3)(Econ, 8/12/17, p.35)
1963 Dec 13, Capital records signed a right of 1st refusal agreement with Beatles.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1963 Dec 14, The Baldwin Hills dam in Los Angeles, Ca., broke. The released water destroyed 65 homes and left 5 people dead.
(http://damsafety.water.ca.gov/about.htm)
1963 Dec 14, Dinah Washington (b.1924), known in the 50s as "Queen of the Harlem Blues," died of barbiturate poisoning in Detroit. In 2004 Nadine Cohodas authored “Queen: The Life and Times of Dinah Washington."
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.M1)
1963 Dec 20, The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays. Four thousand crossed the great wall of Berlin to visit relatives under a 17 day Christmas accord.
(AP, 12/20/98)(HN, 12/20/98)
1963 Dec 20, The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, known in German as der Auschwitz-Prozess, or der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess, (the "second Auschwitz trial") was a series of trials running from 20 December 1963 to 19 August 1965, charging 22 defendants under German criminal law for their roles in the Holocaust as mid- to lower-level officials in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death and concentration camp complex.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Auschwitz_trials)
1963 Dec 21, The Turk minority rioted in Cyprus to protest anti-Turkish revisions in the constitution.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1963 Dec 22, The official 30 days of mourning ended following the assassination of President Kennedy.
(AP, 12/22/99)
1963 Dec 24, New York’s Idlewild Airport was renamed JFK Airport in honor of the murdered President Kennedy.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1963 Dec 24, Greeks and Turks rioted in Cyprus.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1963 Dec 26, Beatles released "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There."
(MC, 12/26/01)
1963 Dec 26, "Gorgeous George" Wagner, perfumed and pampered wrestler, died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1963 Dec 28, Abbott Joseph Liebling (b.1904), American journalist and writer, died. “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." In 1980 Raymond Sokolov authored the biography “Wayward Reporter."
(www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/AbbottJoseph.htm)(SSFC, 11/21/04, p.E3)
1963 Dec 28, Paul Hindemith (b.1895), German composer (Composer's World) and violist, died. His work included "Cardillac."
(WUD, 1994, p.672)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)(MC, 12/28/01)
1963 Dec 30, Alessandra Mussolini, actress (Ferragosto OK), was born in Naples, Italy.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1963 Dec 30, Congress authorized the Kennedy half dollar.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1963 Dec, US Cpl. Jerry W. Parrish (19) deserted to North Korea and later died there of natural causes.
(SFC, 8/16/04, p.A5)
1963 Konrad Fischer (1939-1996) founded the Capital Realism art movement in Germany. It was a figurative painting style that was a response to American Pop Art.
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.B2)
1963 Lucien Freud painted "Man’s Head (Self-Portrait III)."
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.1)
1963 Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (b.1929) led in the creation of installation art with her show: “Aggregation: One thousands Boats Show," at the Gertrude Stein gallery in NYC. It featured a rowing boat filled with phallic sculptures installed in a room papered with 999 black-and-white photographic reproductions of the work.
(Econ, 2/4/12, p.84)
1963 Pan Tianshou, a traditional-style Chinese painter, created "Red Lotus."
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)
1963 Andy Warhol created his image "Large Triple Elvis."
(NH, 6/01, p.48)
1963 Andy Warhol painting created his painting “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)." In 2013 it sold for $105 million at an auction in NYC. This was a new record for a Warhol painting.
(SFC, 11/14/13, p.A9)
1963 Hannah Arendt authored "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil."
(WSJ, 8/31/99, p.A22)
1963 Harold Barnett and Chandler Morse wrote "Scarcity and Growth." They documented price declines through history to indicate an increased availability of natural resources rather than a growing scarcity.
(WSJ, 4/22/97, p.A22)
1963 Nora Beloff (1919-1997), British political writer and foreign correspondent, wrote "The General Says No: Britain’s Exclusion from Europe."
(SFC, 2/24/96, p.A17)
1963 Alton L. Blakeslee (d.1997 at 83) wrote "Your Heart has Nine Lives" with Dr. Jeremiah B. Stamler. He was the chief science writer for the Associated Press (AP) for 3 decades.
(SFC, 5/14/97, p.A22)
1963 John Campbell Bruce (1906-1996) wrote "Escape From Alcatraz". It was based on a true 1962 escape. The book was turned into a film in 1979.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.20)
1963 John le Carre (b.1931 as David Cornwell) authored “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold."
(Econ, 5/18/13, IL p.19)
1963 Donald Davidson (d.2003 at 86), Prof. of Philosophy at UC Berkeley, authored "Actions, Reasons and Causes."
(SFC, 9/4/03, p.A23)
1963 John Fowles (1926-2005), English novelist, authored "The Collector."
(Econ, 11/1/03, p.82)(SFC, 11/8/05, p.B5)
1963 The "Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan (1921-2006) was published.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A21)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A6)
1963 Milton Friedman (1912-2006) and Anna Jacobson Schwartz authored “A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960." They argued that the US depression of the 1930s was the result of an inept Federal Reserve.
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A15)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.80)
1963 Richard Jennings, Prof. at UC Boalt School of Law, co-authored with Harold Marsh Jr. "Securities Regulation - Cases & Materials," the 1st casebook on securities regulation.
(SFEM, 8/22/99, p.A22)
1963 Prof. Peter Kennedy (1923-2006) co-wrote the textbook “Pathology of Domestic Animals."
(SFC, 8/10/06, p.B7)
1963 Dr. Ivo John Lederer (d.1998 at 68) authored "Yugoslavia at the Peace Conference." He was the founder and director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.D4)
1963 Abraham Maslow, a pioneer of humanistic psychology, wrote "Eupsychian Management, A Journal." It described the management style he witnessed at Non-Linear Systems. He labeled it "enlightened management" to describe work conditions that incorporated synergy and led to individual "self-actualization."
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.B1)(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.B1)
1963 Ernst Mayr wrote "Animal Species and Evolution."
(NH, 2/97, p.69)
1963 Mary McCarthy authored her novel “The Group." It followed a group of Vassar graduates from 1933 to the start of WWII.
(WSJ, 4/19/08, p.W8)
1963 William McPhee authored “Formal Theories of Mass Behaviour."
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.80)
1963 James Michener (d.1997 at 90) wrote his novel "Caravans," the fruit of wide-ranging trips to Afghanistan in the mid-1950s.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.W8)
1963 "The American Way of Death" by Jessica Mitford (d.7/24/96) was published. It was an expose of the funeral industry in the US. A revised edition was published in 1998.
(SFC, 6/30/96, Zone 1 p.3)(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR p.1)
1963 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, later senator and ambassador, authored "Beyond the Melting Pot," a description of the ethnic groups in NYC.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A2)
1963 Sir Lawrence van der Post (1906-1996) wrote "The Seed and the Sower." It was filmed in 1983 as Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence with David Bowie.
(SFC, 12/17/96, p.B4)
1963 Dawn Powell published the novel "The Golden Spur."
(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR p.5)
1963 Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., former head of General Motors Corp., authored "My Life With General Motors."
(F, 10/7/96, p.132)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.123)
1963 Ezra Solomon (d.2002 at 82), Stanford economics professor, authored "The Theory of Financial Management."
(SFC, 12/21/02, p.A22)
1963 Jim Thompson authored his novel "The Grifters." It was made into a film in 1990.
(WSJ, 8/27/01, p.A13)
1963 Charles Webb authored his novel "The Graduate." It was turned into a movie in 1967.
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.B1)
1963 The English satirical musical “Oh, What a Lovely War!" was directed by Joan Littlewood (1914-2002) and based on Alan Clark’s “The Donkeys" (1961), a scathing examination of British First World War generals.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Littlewood)
1963 The musical show "110 in the Shade" was based on the Richard Nash play "the Rainmaker."
(USAT, 11/12/99, p.1E)
1963 The George Balanchine choreographed the ballet "Bugaku."
(WSJ, 10/21/99, p.A20)
1963 Flemming Flindt created a dance work titled "The Lesson" based on a 1951 work by Eugene Ionesco.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.E-1)
1963 William Prince (1913-1996) played the lead role in Edward Albee’s play: "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe."
(SFC, 10/11/96, p.A24)
1963 World Press, an hour-long weekly roundup of international news stories analyzed by a panel of political analysts, debuted on KQED. Panel members, who were political science analysts specializing in each specific global area, each brought a newspaper for round table discussion. It was developed by San Francisco Supervisor Roger Boas.
(SFC, 2/14/17, p.C4)
1963 Julia Child made her TV debut as "The French Chef" on Boston's WGBH-TV. PBS picked up the show a year later.
(SFEM, 8/10/97, p.23)
1963 The TV series “Captain Amos Burke," later renamed “Amos Burke: Secret Agent," featured Gene Barry (1919-2009). The show continued to 1966.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.C5)
1963 The TV show The Saint featured Jackie Collins.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, Par p.14)
1963 Virginia Graham (d.1998) led the "Girl Talk" TV talk show until 1969.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.B6)
1963 Keith Andes (1920-2005) played the role of an amazing sleuth on the TV sitcom “Glynis." Glynis Johns played his wife.
(SFC, 11/29/05, p.B7)
1963 The TV costume game show "Let's Make a Deal" premiered and ran for 16 years in daytime and 10 years in prime time. It was hosted by Monty Hall and co-created by Stefan Hatos (d.1999 at 78).
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A22)
1963 The TV show "My Favorite Martian" starred Bill Bixby and Ray Walston (d.2000 at 86). The show ran to 1966.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A17)
1963 George Fenneman (1919-1997) began to host the TV show "Your Funny, Funny Films" on ABC. It was a forerunner to "America’s Funniest Videos."
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.A26)
1963 The first edition album "Introducing the Beatles" was produced and sold for $9,600 in 1997.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.D5)
1963 Sandy Bull (d.2001 at 60) released his 1st album "Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo." It became an underground classic.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.D6)
1963 Johnny Cash recorded his hit tune: "Ring of Fire."
(SFC, 9/13/03, p.A12)
1963 Keith Colley made a hit with "Enamorado."
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.D1)
1963 Gunship pilot James P. 'Bull' Durham (1927-2004), balladeer of the Vietnam War, recorded 10 songs about SAC in the Vietnam era. In 1971 he recorded 12 songs collected during his Vietnam tour of duty.
(www.historynet.com/james-p-bull-durham-true-balladeer-of-the-vietnam-war.htm)
1963 The Crystals made a hit with their songs “Da Doo Ron Ron" and “Then He Kissed Me" written by Ellie Greenwich (1940-2009) in collaboration with producer Phil Spector and her husband Jeff Barry.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Then_He_Kissed_Me)
1963 Koerner, Ray & Glover released their landmark album: "Blues, Rags and Hollers." Dave "Snaker" Ray, guitarist, died in 2002.
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.A23)
1963 Bob Merrill wrote the hit song "People."
(WSJ, 2/2/00, p.W8)
1963 "Deep Purple" by Nino Temple & April Stevens won the Grammy best rock-n-roll recording.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, DB p.38)
1963 The Kingston Trio made a hit with "Greenback Dollar" written by Hoyt Axton (d.1999 at age 61).
(SFC, 10/27/99, p.C4)
1963 John Corigliano composed his 4-movement Violin Sonata.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.E3)
1963 Bob Dylan’s 2nd album, "The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan," was released. Four songs were removed for the officially released version. Nat Hentoff wrote the liner notes.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 12/29/04, p.D8)
1963 The Herbie Hancock song "Watermelon Man" became a hit with a version by Mongo Santamaria (d.2003).
(SFC, 2/5/03, p.A22)
1963 Bob Gibson (1932-1996) co-wrote "Abilene" with J.D. Laudermilk, Lester Brown and Albert Stanton.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A21)
1963 The Kingsmen recorded their hit song "Louie, Louie." It became a major hit in 1964. It was written in 1955 by Richard Berry and recorded by Berry with the Pharaohs in 1957. The Kingsmen sold their rights in 1968 for a percentage of future licensing fees. The fees were not paid and the band filed suit in 1993. They won a 1995 judgement and a 1998 appeal.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A19)(SFC, 4/11/98, p.C5)
1963 Sonny Bono, songwriter, met Cherilyn (Cher) Sarkasian La Piere, singer, at a Hollywood coffee shop. The pair went on to record "I Got You Babe," The Beat Goes On," and "All I Ever Need Is You." Bono wrote the Jackie DeShannon hit of this year "Needles and Pins."
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.A11)
1963 Marvin Gaye sang "Hitch Hike."
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D1)
1963 Al Hirt (1922-1999), New Orleans trumpet player, made a hit with his instrumental "Java." He won a 1964 Grammy best nonjazz instrumental for the tune.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.C4)
1963 Clement Dodd opened his record studio at 13 Brentford Road, Kingston, Jamaica, and soon began recording Bob Marley and the Wailers.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.80)
1963 Martha and the Vandellas sang "Heat Wave."
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D1)
1963 Curtis Mayfield (b.1942) and the Impressions had a hit with the song "It's All Right."
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C1)
1963 Wayne Newton (22) made a hit with “Danke Schoen."
(SSFC, 11/16/14, DB p.46)
1963 Roy Nichols (d.2001 at 68) joined Merle Haggard’s band the Strangers. He helped create the Bakersfield sound.
(SFC, 7/5/01, p.D2)
1963 Jack Nitzsche (d.2000) made his solo recording "The Lonely Surfer." He went on to compose over 30 film scores.
(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.49)
1963 The Ronettes singing trio made a hit with "Be My Baby," written by Ellie Greenwich (1940-2009) in collaboration with producer Phil Spector and her husband Jeff Barry. It epitomized the famed "wall of sound" technique of its producer, Phil Spector.
(AP, 2/13/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellie_Greenwich)
1963 Ruby and the Romantics had a hit with “Our Day Will Come," co-written by Mort Garson (1924-2008) and Bob Hilliard.
(SFC, 1/16/08, p.B9)
1963 The Singing Nun made a hit with "Dominique." The song praised the 13th century crusade against the Cathars. It was written by Noel Regney. His 1962 poem "Do You Hear What I Hear" was recorded by Bing Crosby.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(SFC, 11/28/02, p.A30)
1963 Dusty Springfield recorded "I Only Want to Be With You."
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C6)
1963 Stevie Wonder sang "Fingertips (Part 2)."
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D1)
1963 Jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson began recording for Blue Note.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, DB p.32)
1963 Miles Davis heard Tony Williams playing drums with saxophonist Jackie McLean and hired him. Williams stayed with Davis until 1969. Their recording included "E.S.P.," "Nefertiti and "Filles de Kilamanjaro."
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.B2)
1963 Frank Zappa wrote his rock opera "I Was a Teenage Maltshop."
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.M3)
1963 David M. Solinger (1906-1996), the first non-Whitney president of the Whitney Museum, led a drive as a trustee to construct the granite building on the Upper East Side of NY by Marcel Breuer. In 1966 he succeeded Flora Whitney Miller as president.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.C2)
1963 L.M. Boyd began a column of odds and ends for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It was picked up by the SF Chronicle in 1968 and called "The Grab Bag." Boyd retired at the end of 2000 after 40 years of writing.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.D3)
1963 The “Bill Dana Show," on which Dana played Jose Jimenez as a hotel bellhop, began airing on NBC and continued to1965.
(SFC, 6/21/17, p.D8)
1963 The 59-story Pan Am building on Park Ave. was completed. Walter Gropius was the principal designer. In 2004 Meredith D. Clausen authored “The Pan Am Building."
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A26)(WSJ, 12/9/04, p.D10)
1963 In NYC Frank Lloyd (d.1998 at 86) opened the Marlborough Gallery. He was involved in the 1970s Rothko art scandal.
(SFC, 4/8/98, p.B2)
1963 Harvey R. Ball (d.2001 at 79), advertising executive, created the yellow smiley face (happy face) for the Massachusetts based State Mutual Life Assurance Company of America. He was paid $45 for the artwork and never applied for a trademark or copyright. In 2006 Darrin M. McMahon authored “Happiness: A History."
(SFC, 4/17/01, p.A20)(Econ, 1/14/06, p.82)
1963 In Daly City, Ca., the First National Bank of Daly City opened. It was later renamed the First National Bank of Northern California.
(https://www.fnbnorcal.com/about-us)
1963 San Francisco featured topless waitresses.
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)
1963 Barbara Epstein (1928-2006), Jason Epstein, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick founded the NY Review of Books.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.79)
1963 Marcus Raskin and Richard Barnet co-founded the DC-based liberal Institute for Policy Studies think tank.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Policy_Studies)(SFC, 12/28/17, p.D5)
1963 The Oral Roberts Univ. in Tulsa, Okla., founded by Oral Roberts (1918-2009), was chartered.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.C5)
1963 Albert Lippert (d.1998 at 72), a garment executive, first took a successful Weight Watchers diet class with Jean Nidetch (1923-2015) on Long Island. They expanded the program into a company and sold public stock in 1968. In 1978 the operation was sold to H.J. Heinz for $72 million. The program remained unchanged until 1997 when a point system replaced selections from food groups. Its diet classes were sold to in 1999 for $735 million to private European investment company Artal Luxembourg.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Nidetch)(WSJ, 6/12/97, p.B4)(SFC, 3/4/98, p.C4)
1963 Ikko Tanaka founded his Ikko Tanaka Design Studio and began establishing himself as one of the most successful graphic designers in the field.
(Hem, 4/96, p.8)
1963 Harriet Schaffer (d.1998 at 65), a pioneer in early childhood education, began her career at the Tic Toc Nursery School in Richmond, Ca. Under her leadership Tic Toc became a pilot school for the newly created federal Head Start program.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.C2)
1963 Al Davis (33) took over as head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W39)(SFC, 1/22/03, p.A10)
1963 The North course for golf at Kaanapali on Maui was designed by Robert Trent Jones.
(Hem, 4/96, p.42)
1963 Eugene Paul Wigner (1902-1995), Hungarian-born mathematician and physicist, won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
(HN, 11/17/00)(MC, 11/17/01)
1963 Giorgos Seferis (1900-1971), Turkish-born Greek poet, won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Seferis was the pen name of Georgios Seferiades
(AP, 10/8/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgos_Seferis)
1963 Sir Andrew Huxley (1917-2012), British neurophysiologist shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Alan Hodgkin and John Eccles.
(Econ, 6/16/12, p.102)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Huxley)
1963 Pres. John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act, which aimed to close asylums and treat mental disorders more like illnesses and less like crimes.
(Econ, 7/11/15, SR p.7)
1963 Federal troops were used to force Alabama Gov. George Wallace to accept black students at the state’s university. [see 1962]
(WSJ, 5/13/96, p.A-16)
1963 Richard Nixon selected Leonard Garment, New York lawyer, as a special consultant. Garment published his personal memoir in 1997 "Crazy Rhythm."
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A12)
1963 The US Congress passed the Equal Pay Act that banned gender-based wage discrimination.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1963 The US Supreme Court ruled in Ker v California that police may enter someone’s home without a warrant and without knocking or announcing themselves.
(Econ, 7/13/13, p.73)
1963 The US Board of Geographic Names banned the word "Nigger" from appearing on any federal map.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A20)
1963 The American CIA developed a manual for counterintelligence interrogation for use in Vietnam.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A3)
1963 George Joannides, a CIA agent, was in charge of the Revolutionary Students Directorate (DRE), one of the most powerful Cuban anti-Castro organizations in Miami. A few months before the assassination of JFK the DRE had significant contacts with Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald tried to infiltrate the New Orleans branch of the DRE.
(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M5)
1963 Winston Scott served as American CIA station chief in Mexico during the time that Lee Harvey Oswald visited the Cuban Embassy there. In 2008 Jefferson Morley authored “Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA." Morley proposed that Scott later covered up CIA operations that involved Oswald.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKscottW.htm)(WSJ, 3/20/08, p.D7)
1963 Mildred and Ray Connett (d.1997) opened the 90-acre Glen Eden Sun Club, a California nudist resort.
(SFC, 4/21/97, p.A20)
1963 San Francisco's Presidio was declared a National Historic Landmark.
(SSFC, 12/1/19, p.A13)
1963 The Chinese Historical Society of America opened in SF. It was the first of its kind in the country.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.6)
1963 In California the 400-foot high Cold Spring Canyon Bridge was built on Highway 154 to carry travelers from San Marcos Pass into the Santa Ynez Valley. By 2009 at least 48 deaths from suicide off the bridge were recorded.
(SFC, 7/24/09, p.D7)
1963 The first Renaissance Pleasure Faire was held in southern California. In 1967 it expanded to the SF Bay Area. By 2008 some 150 such events were held across the US.
(SFC, 7/22/98, p.D1)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.44)
1963 Hyron Spinrad of UC Berkeley and others found only a trace of water vapor in the thin atmosphere of Mars and confirmed that liquid water on its cold surface was almost impossible.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A17)
1963 The Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant began generating power for consumers in Northern California. It was shut down in 1976.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.C4)(SFC, 7/17/04, p.B2)
1963 In Florida two white gas station attendants were murdered in Port St. Joe. Two black men were convicted twice by all-white juries in the murders and spent nine years on death row. Curtis "Boo" Adams, a white man, later admitted to the murders. In 1998 Freddie Pitts (54) and Wilbert Lee (62) received $500,000 each from the state for wrongful conviction.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A2)
1963 In Louisiana Henry Montgomery (17) shot and killed a white police officer. He was soon convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Two years later the state Supreme Court revisited the case and in a new trial he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In 2012 the US Supreme Court decided Miller v. Alabama, in which the Court held that mandatory sentencing schemes requiring children convicted of homicide to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole violate the Eighth Amendment. In 2018 a three-member parole panel voted 2-1 to keep Montgomery in prison.
(www.oyez.org/cases/2015/14-280)(Econ, 10/17/15, p.31)(SFC, 2/20/18, p.A5)
1963 Ralph Roberts, former marketer of Muzak and owner of a belts and suspenders company, and his partners, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky, purchased for $500,000, a 1,200-subscriber cable TV operator in Tupelo, Mississippi, called American Cable Systems. In 1969 it was incorporated in Pennsylvania and renamed Comcast, a name Ralph invented by combining the words communications and broadcasting. The company went public in 1972.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_J._Roberts)(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.I6)
1963 Billie Sol Estes (b.1925)), Texas swindler, was convicted on federal charges. He served 6 years of a 15 year sentence. In 1979 he was convicted of tax fraud and served 4 more years.
(SFC, 5/16/13, p.D5)
1963 Madalyn Murray O’Hair, leader of United Secularists of America (American Atheists), took credit for a suit filed against the government that ultimately led to the removal of the Bible and sponsored prayer from public schools. She and her family disappeared in Aug, 1995 with more than $600,000 in funds from her various organizations. Her diaries, some 2,000 pages, were scheduled to be auctioned in 1999.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A4)(SFC, 1/12/99, p.A4)(SFC, 5/27/99, p.A3)
1963 Stanley H. Durwood, founder of AMC Entertainment, first split a Kansas City theater in half and invented the multiplex cinema theater.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.52)
1963 Chrysler became the majority holder of Simca. By 1970 it changed the name to Chrysler France.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1963 Coca-Cola launched its Tab soft drink.
(SSFC, 10/21/18, p.D2)
1963 GM introduced the Malibu, named after the California city, as a top line option on various 1964 Chevelles.
(WSJ, 4/1/09, p.A20)
1963 GM opened a 380-acre assembly plant in Fremont, Ca., GM closed the plant in 1982.
(SSFC, 2/28/10, p.D1)
1963 Studebaker halted production of its cars. Some 4,000 employees lost their company pensions as the firm permanently closed its plant in South Bend, Ind. This led to the passage of the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 2/14/02, p.B1)(Econ, 7/11/15, p.28)
1963 Edward Walker (d.2000) began marketing his invention called the "Astro lamp." It later became known as the lava lamp.
(SFEC, 8/20/00, p.B9)
1963 The Proctor & Gamble Company purchased the SF based Folger Coffee. In 1994 P&G closed the Folgers plant in South San Francisco, the brands last presence in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1963 Herb Sandler, a NY lawyer, and Marion Sandler, a Wall Street analyst, bought the 2-branch World Savings and Loan Association (later Golden West Financial corp.) of Oakland, Ca., for $3.8 million. They sold the company in 2006 to Wachovia for $24.2 billion.
(SFC, 5/9/06, p.C1)
1963 American Sugar Refining Company changed its name to American Sugar Company.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1963 The Lestoil Co. of Holyoke, Mass., began selling its liquid cleaner in special-edition reproduction glass flasks, which resembled 19th century whiskey flasks. The special edition ended in 1964.
(SFC, 5/28/08, p.G2)
1963 McDonald’s logo "Speedee" was dropped in favor of Ronald McDonald. The company hit the 1 billion mark in this year.
(SFC, 7/3/96, z-1 p.7)(WSJ, 11/13/98, p.B1)
1963 Alan Maxwell Pottasch (1927-2007), adman for Pepsi-Cola Co., launched the “Pepsi Generation" ad campaign.
(WSJ, 8/4/07, p.A4)
1963 Richard Trentlage, Indiana songwriter, wrote the TV jingle “I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener," and had it sung by his kids.
(WSJ, 8/11/07, p.A6)
1963 The W.R. Grace company began operating the Zonolite Mountain vermiculite mine and continued to 1990. The vermiculite was naturally mixed geologically with asbestos. By 2009 at least 200 people died of asbestos related diseases and hundreds more were sickened.
(SFC, 5/9/09, p.A6)
1963 J.L. Wade (1913-2007) built his first purple martin bird houses in Griggsville, Illinois. In 1965 he authored “What You Should Know About the Purple Martin," which became a bestseller among ornithologists. Wade claimed that each bird ate some 2,000 mosquitoes per day.
(WSJ, 6/23/07, p.A8)
1963 Quasars, Quasi-Stellar Radio Sources, powerful astrophysical sources of light, were first discovered. Maarten Schmidt first observed the object called 3C273 and found that it was racing away from Earth at 30,000 miles per second. Prof. Jesse Greenstein (d.2002 at 93) and Maarten Schmidt led quasar research and began to realize that quasars were the most distant objects in the universe.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.A9)(NH, 5/97, p.66)(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.32)(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A24)
1963 Astronomer Gail Smith discovered a strange intergalactic gas cloud near the Milky Way. It became known as Smith’s cloud. In 20 million to 40 million years the cloud will smash into the outer part of the Milky Way.
(http://stardate.org/radio/program/smiths-cloud)
1963 Protons and neutrons were given structure; quark theory was proposed. Murray Gell-Mann at Caltech and George Zweig at CERN proposed small building blocks for particles and call them quarks and aces. Gell-Mann took the quark name from a James Joyce phrase in Finnegan's Wake: "three quarks for muster Mark."
(NG, May 1985, p. 645)(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A2)
1963 George Grover (1915-1996), nuclear physicist, solved a heat-transfer problem by developing the first working heat pipe.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, p.C12)
1963 Ray Dolby, while working in India, conceived of separating recorded sound into 2 channels as a means to strip away unwanted tape recording noise. His 1st prototype was completed in London in 1966.
(SFC, 3/29/04, p.D1)
1963 A vaccine for measles became available. In the previous decade some 450,000 cases were reported in the US with about 450 deaths per year.
(SFC, 12/22/06, p.A18)
1963 At the Mayo Clinic the kidney transplant program began and the artificial kidney center opened.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1963 Dr. Michael DeBakey came out with his interthoracic pump, a device to pump blood in lieu of the heart. De Bakey made history this year by installing an artificial pump to assist a patient's damaged heart.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, Z1 p.2)(www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/coo0pro-1)
1963 The Fogarty Embolectomy Catheter, invented by Dr. Tom Fogarty to remove clots in arteries, was first used successfully.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.A17)
1963 Drs. Vincent J. Freda (d.2003 at 75) and John G. Gorman of Columbia Univ. discovered that if an Rh-negative woman was given an injection of a vaccine called Rhogam, her body would not attack her fetus' blood cells. Up to this time the 15% of women in birth with Rh-negative blood and a Rh-positive father faced the potentially fatal hemolytic disease.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.A29)
1963 The first liver transplant was performed by a surgical team led by Dr. Thomas Starzl of Denver, Colorado.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_transplantation)
1963 Profs. Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks, engineers at the Univ. of Michigan, created the 1st working hologram. Pieter van Heerden of Polaroid Research Labs pioneered the holographic principle.
(MT, Summer/04, p.8)(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.28)
1963 W.D. Hamilton (d.2000 at 63) published his theory of "inclusive fitness" in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. A 2nd paper followed in 1964. He set out to explain the evolutionary basis of altruism and the apparent contradiction between survival of the fittest and behavior that benefits kin.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D8)
1963 Laetrile, a purported anti-cancer drug, was temporarily banned. It was invented by Ernst T. Krebs (1877-1970) from a derivative of amygdalin, an extract of apricot pits.
(SFC, 9/12/96, p.A26)
1963 America's bald eagles were estimated to be down to about 417 nesting pairs because of of the eggshell-thining phenomenon caused by the DDT pesticide, banned in 1972. By 2021 the bald eagle population had recovered to an estimated 74,400 nesting pairs.
(SSFC, 4/11/21, p.A18)
1963 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was founded. It is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUCN_Red_List)
1963 US Country music singer Patsy Cline (Kline) died in a plane crash.
(WSJ, 8/29/96, p.B1)(Hem., 4/97, p.69)
1963 Charles T. Fisher (1880-1963) died. He and his brother Frederic J. Fisher (1878-1941) established the Fisher Body Co. in 1908. They sold their operations to GM in 1926.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1963 Robert Lee Frost (b.1874), poet, died at age 88.
(MT, Win. ‘96, p.5)(WUD, 1994, p.571)
1963 Aldous Huxley (b.1894), English author, died. His books included "Brave New World." In 2001 Ivan R. Dee published "Aldous Huxley: Complete Essays: Volume IV, 1936-1938."
(AP, 7/13/97)(AP, 7/26/98)
1963 David Low (72), British political cartoonist, died.
(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.D7)
1963 Pu Ru, master Chinese calligraphy artist, died in the US.
(WSJ, 12/7/00, p.A24)
1963 Martin Ramirez (b.1895), institutionalized Mexican-born artist, died in DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn, Ca. He had been institutionalized since 1931 after being diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia. His last 15 years were spent at DeWitt, where much of his art was created.
(SFC, 7/14/07, p.E10)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.104)
1963 Theodore Roethke, poet, died at age 55. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for "The Waking," a collection of 3 earlier books.
(MT, Summer 01, p.2)
1963 Alfred Sessler (b.1909), WPA artist, died.
(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A20)
1963 Mohamed Khider (1912-1967), Algerian politician, went into exile in Switzerland, bringing $12-14 million of party funds with him, saying they would be used to finance a political opposition to continue the "genuine" nationalist tradition of the FLN.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Khider)
1963 In Austria a Vienna Convention produced a treaty that protected the right of individuals jailed in a foreign land to contact their national consulate.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.A3)
1963 Vaclav Havel, later president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Rep. (1990-2003), published his first play: “The Garden Party." It was first performed at the Theatre on the Balustrade in Prague.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.B1)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.32)
1963 The British sci-fi TV series Dr. Who began. It reach the US in 1978. It featured a space traveling Doctor who was hundreds of years old from the planet Gellifrey. He used a London police call box as the external form of his space vessel. The interior was spacious with comfortable Edwardian touches.
(SFC, 5/14/96, E-1)
1963 Britain relaxed laws on betting. Gambling as a result moved off tracks to betting shops. By 2006 attendance at dog races fell to some 3.6 million from a high of 38 million in 1936.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.74)
1963 The military junta of Burma (later Myanmar) nationalized the banks.
(Econ, 10/25/14, p.75)
1963 Mobutu, chief of staff of the army of Congo-Kinshasa [later Zaire], visited the US White House as a guest of Pres. Kennedy.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)
1963 Carlos Julio Arosemena, president of Ecuador, was deposed in a military coup.
(AP, 3/5/04)
1963 Eritrea began a war for independence against Ethiopia.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A14)
1963 The EU signed a trade deal in Yaounde, Cameroon, to keep markets open to former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands (ACP).
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.78)
1963 France erected giant concrete buildings to house a growing working class and North African immigrants. These included the “Cite des 4,000" in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve.
(WSJ, 11/14/05, p.A1)
1963 A glorified food blender was a product of the French restaurant supply giant Robot-Coupe. In 1973 Carl Sontheimer (d.1998 at 83) introduced his redesigned Cuisinart at a show in Chicago.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B4)
1963 French retailer Carrefour SA invented hypermarkets, huge emporiums that combined the wares of supermarkets and department stores.
(WSJ, 11/30/06, p.A1)
1963 French residents of Monaco became liable for French taxes.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.85)
1963 The paleolithic site of Lascaux, by the village of Montignac, France, was closed to the public by Andre Malraux, minister of cultural affairs, due to environmental damage caused by large numbers of tourists.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p.489)
1963 Ludwig Erhard, head of the Christian Democratic Union, replaced Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor and served to 1966.
(AP, 11/21/05)
1963 In Greece Andreas Papandreou became a government minister under his father George, a centrist premier.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.B6)
1963 In Honduras Col. Oswaldo Lopez Arellano (1921-2010), with the backing of the military, ousted civilian President Ramon Villeda Morales.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A8)(AP, 5/17/10)
1963 India’s huge Bhakra dam was built in Himachal Pradesh. It brought 7 million hectares of northwest India under irrigation.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.28)
1963 Ray Dolby, while working in India, conceived of separating recorded sound into 2 channels as a means to strip away unwanted tape recording noise. His 1st prototype was completed in London in 1966.
(SFC, 3/29/04, p.D1)
1963 India’s space program began in Trivandrum, Kerala, in this year. The Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Trivandrum was named for the father of Indian rocketry.
(NG, 5/88, p.598)
1963 In Indonesia a new anti-subversion law was instituted with penalties of death or 20 years in prison.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A14)
1963 Indonesia passed “Law number 4" to sanction fierce censorship. It was lifted for the press in 1999.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.43)
1963 Sovereignty over West Papua was transferred from the Netherlands to Indonesia. A UN approved referendum, involving some 1,000 handpicked pro-Jakarta Papuans, ratified the annexation in 1969.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A23)
1963 The western part of the island of New Guinea, Irian Jaya, became a province of Indonesia. It was formerly a Dutch territory called West New Guinea, Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea. A West Papua pro-independence movement began and by 2004 an estimated 100,000 civilians had died in the struggle.
(WUD, 1994, p.1623)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)
1963 Left leaning students sympathetic to Iran’s former PM Mohammed Mossadeq, deposed in 1953, founded Mujahedin e-Kalq (People’s Mujahedin of Iran).
(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.A10)
1963 Iraq renounced its claim laid to Kuwait.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A9)
1963 In Israel activated the main components of its Dimona nuclear plant. At the time the government claimed that Dimona was a textile plant.
(Econ, 5/21/16, p.40)
1963 Japan’s Shimano Corp. introduced a cold forging plant to press precision parts for bicycles using dies and high pressure to form metal at room temp.
(Hem, 8/96, p.34)
1963 Kenya gained independence from Britain and the Kenyan African National Union Party began ruling.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A8)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1963 The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) was established to regulate films.
(http://kfcb.co.ke/)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.42)
1963 In Lesotho Moshoeshoe II was crowned king.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.14A)
1963 The three provinces of Libya, Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the south, and Tripolitania in the west, were abolished and the country became a unitary state.
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/148654/Cyrenaica) (Econ, 1/10/15, p.22)
1963 The population of Malawi was estimated at about 3.75 million.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1963 In Guadalajara, Mexico, Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala (b.1878), co-founder of the Congregation of the Servants of St. Margaret Maria and of the Poor, died in the Santa Margarita Hospital she helped found. Zavala, aka Madre Lupita, had decided at 22 to dedicate herself to helping the sick. Her religious mission played out during a period of tension between church and state, when tens of thousands of people were killed during a 1926-1929 uprising by Roman Catholic rebels against anti-clerical laws. She was beatified in 2004 by Pope John Paul II. In 2013 she was canonized as a saint by Pope Francis.
(AP, 4/24/04)(AP, 5/12/13)
1963 In Mexico during the administration of Lopez Mateos soldiers took part in the mutilation killing of a leader of coffee farmers in the community of El Ticui. The event was documented in a 2006 government report on Mexico’s “dirty war."
(AP, 2/27/06)
1963 Lou Ottens (1926-2021) and his team at Philips, the Dutch electronics company, introduced the cassette tape as a way to play music in a portable fashion. The invention revolutionized the music business.
(NY Times, 3/11/21)
1963 Islamabad replaced Karachi as the capital of Pakistan.
(http://wikitravel.org/en/Islamabad)
1963 Roland Rowland (d.1998) became chief executive of the London and Rhodesia Mining and Land Co. (Lonrho). Over the next 30 years "Tiny" turned it into a conglomerate with more than 1000 subsidiaries in over 60 countries.
(SFC, 7/28/98, p.A20)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.62)
1963 Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) ended a federation with Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.63)
1963 In Senegal the Grand Mosque of Touba, home to the tomb of Sheikh Amadou Bamba, was completed. It was begun in 1926, a year before Bamba’s death.
(SSFC, 12/15/13, p.P3)
1963 In South Africa Albie Sachs was jailed without charges for 168 days. He described his experience in the book: "The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, z1 p.7)
1963 In South Africa Arthur Goldreich (1929-2011), who helped the anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela hide out on a farm by posing as his employer, was arrested. Goldreich and his family pretended to be the owners of a farm on the outskirts of Johannesburg that was the ANC underground headquarters in the 1960s. The raid on the farm led to the Rivonia Trial, and decades in prison for Mandela. Goldreich and three others escaped from a downtown Johannesburg police station and made it out of South Africa disguised as a priest. He eventually settled in Israel.
(AP, 5/25/11)
1963 South Africa conducted a joint nuclear test with Israel, but the Israelis did not confirm the report.
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A2)
1963 Andrew Mlangeni (1925-2020) returned to South Africa and became a member of the high command of the ANC's armed movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Nelson Mandela had selected him to join five other men in the first group of South African anti-apartheid activists to be sent to China for training.
(BBC, 7/22/20)
1963 Josef Brodsky was tried by a Soviet judge on a charge of parasitism. The judge asked Brodsky: "Who gave you the authority to call yourself a poet?" Mr. Brodsky replied: "No one. Who gave me the authority to enter the human race?"
(G&M, 2/2/96, p.A-22)
1963 The Soviet Union planned to harness hydroelectric power and feed a huge aluminum smelter in Tajikistan.
(WSJ, 7/2/98, p.A1)
1963 In Switzerland Werner Thomas, accordionist, began performing a tune he’d written in the late 1950s at his restaurant in Davos. The tune later became known worldwide as the chicken dance.
(WSJ, 7/16/01, p.A1)
1963 The Muslim Brotherhood was banned in Syria following the Baath party coup.
(Econ, 2/18/12, p.50)
1963 In Vietnam the Battle of Ap Bac was fought.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)
1963 Aden (South Yemen) was amalgamated with the British protectorate to form the Federation of South Arabia which resulted in rioting.
(www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/yemen.htm)
1963-1964 "The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964" by historian Michael R. Beschloss was published in 1997.
(SFC, 10/6/97, p.A2)
1963-1964 In Afghanistan Zahir Shah demanded Daoud's resignation. Dr. Mohammad Yusof became Prime Minister.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)
1963-1965 This period is covered by Taylor Branch in his 2nd volume of 3 on the civil rights era: "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years." The 1st volume "Parting the Water" was published in 1988.
(WSJ, 1/16/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 1/25/98, BR p.1)
1963-1966 In 2017 thousands of files from the US Embassy in Jakarta covering this period were made public after a declassification review that began under the Obama administration. They revealed new details of US government knowledge and support of an Indonesian army extermination campaign that killed several hundred thousand civilians during anti-communist hysteria in the mid-1960s.
{Indonesia, USA}
(AP, 10/17/17)
1963-1968 Lester B. Pearson, Liberal Party, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Canada.
(CFA, '96, p.81)
1963-1968 Jozef Lenart (d.2004) served as prime minister of Czechoslovakia.
(AP, 2/12/04)
1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson served as the 36th President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96h, photo)
1963-1969 Denys Rackley (d.1998 at 76), Carthusian monk, helped build the only American monastery of the Carthusian order, the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration in Arlington, Vt. He trained at the Carthusian order’s mother house in La Grand Chartreuse, France, where the order is supported by the sale of its Chartreuse liqueur.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1963-1972 Jose Mujica was a leader of the leftist Tupamaro guerrillas who fought Uruguay's governments during this period. In 2009 Mujica was elected president.
(AP, 1/29/11)
1963-1973 The 1975 US Church committee report on CIA activity in Chile included a chronology that covered this period.
(http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/churchreport.htm)
1963-1974 Dr. Charles Weldon served in Laos as the chief medical officer for USAID. In 1999 Weldon authored "Tragedy in Paradise: A Country doctor at War in Laos."
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.A23)
1963-1994 King Hussein of Jordan (1935-1999) held at least 55 secret meetings with leading Israelis including at least seven prime and foreign ministers.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.88)
Go to 1964
Return to home
1963 Jan 1, In Arizona Betty Smithey (20) murdered Sandy Gerberick, a 15-month-old girl she had been babysitting. Smithey was convicted and sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of parole. In 2012 she was granted parole by the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.
(abcNews, 8/14/12)
1963 Jan 2, Viet Cong downed five U.S. helicopters in the Mekong Delta; 30 were reported to be dead.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1963 Jan 2, In San Francisco a gas pipeline leak at Nevada and Crescent Ave. in Bernal Heights caused a blast that left 9 firefighters injured and led to heart attack death of Battalion Chief Frank Lamey (63).
(SSFC, 6/26/11, p.A1, 16)
1963 Jan 2, Dick Powell (b.1904), American film star, producer and director, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Powell)
1963 Jan 3, Jim Everett III, football player, was born: quarterback: Purdue Univ., LA Rams [Pro Bowl: 1990], New Orleans Saints, San Diego Chargers.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1963 Jan 3, Telstar by The Tornadoes
Bobby’s Girl by Marcie Blane
Go Away Little Girl by Steve Lawrence
Don’t Let Me Cross Over by Carl Butler & Pearl (Dee Jones).
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1963 Jan 5, "Camelot" closed at the Majestic Theater, NYC, after 873 performances.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1963 Jan 5, "Carnival!" closes at Imperial Theater, NYC, after 719 performances.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1963 Jan 6, "Oliver!" opened at Imperial Theater NYC for 774 performances.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1963 Jan 6, Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins (1906-1986) began on NBC. The show continued to 1988.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Kingdom)(AP, 1/6/03)
1963 Jan 8, President John F. Kennedy attended the unveiling of the Mona Lisa on loan at America's National Gallery of Art.
(HN, 1/8/99)(MC, 1/8/02)
1963 Jan 11, The 1st discotheque opened, Whiskey-a-go-go in LA.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1963 Jan 13, Togo’s first president, Sylvanus Olympio, was killed by a military junta led by Gngassigbe Eyadema (29). Eyadama suspended the constitution and instituted direct military rule. Nicholas Grunitzky succeeded Olympio. Gnassingbe went on to become the country's military dictator, ruling for nearly four decades during which time he celebrated the day of Olympio's assassination as a national holiday.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A12)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)(AP, 3/3/10)
1963 Jan 14, George C. Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama with a pledge of "segregation forever."
(AP, 1/14/98)
1963 Jan 14, President of France Charles de Gaulle announced the French veto on Britain's application to join the European Common Market, the forerunner of the European Union. De Gaulle said the British government lacked 'commitment' to European integration.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/present_timeline_noflash.shtml)
1963 Jan 16, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev made a visit to the Berlin Wall from the East Berlin side, then delivered an address to the Communist leadership of East Germany at the SED Party Congress.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1963#January_17.2C_1963_.28Thursday.29)
1963 Jan 16, Nikita Khrushchev claimed the USSR had a 100-megaton nuclear bomb.
(http://tinyurl.com/jmsrovc)
1963 Jan 22, Gen. Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco-German "reconciliation treaty," aka the Elysee friendship treaty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93Germany_relations)(AP, 1/22/18)
1963 Jan 24, In Maine a B-52 bomber encountered turbulence strong enough to snap off the vertical stabilizer, causing it to crash onto the side of Elephant Mountain. Seven crew members died. Gerald Adler survived along with the pilot, Lt. Col. Dan Bulli, after spending 20 hours on the mountainside.
(AP, 5/25/13)
1963 Jan 25, Wilson Kettle (102) died, leaving 582 living descendents.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1963 Jan 28, Jean Felix Piccard, Swiss explorer, died on his 79th birthday.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1963 Jan 29, The first members of football's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.
(AP, 1/29/98)(www.profootballhof.com/hof/years.jsp)
1963 Jan 29, Poet Robert Frost (b.1874) died in Boston at age 88. In 1999 Jay Parini published "Robert Frost: A Life." Lawrance Thompson authored a 3-volume biography (1966-1976).
(AP, 1/29/98)(SFEC, 4/18/99, BR p.3)
1963 Jan 29, Kuwait’s constitution came into force as the new National Assembly convened. but only a select few were eligible to vote. Power rested with the royal family.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/gulf/kuwait-legislature.htm)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.40)
1963 Jan, The San Francisco produce market, begun in 1875 and displaced by development, moved from the Embarcadero to the Bayview.
(SFC, 5/15/12, p.C5)
1963 Jan, Gen. Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco-German "reconciliation treaty."
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)
1963 Jan, British investigative reporter Peter Earle (d.1997 at 71) uncovered the call-girl ring run by osteopath Stephen Ward. The investigation snowballed into the Profumo scandal that revealed Minister of War, John Profumo, involved in an affair with Christine Keeler, who was conducting a simultaneous affair with a Soviet military attaché. The scandal brought down the government of PM Harold Macmillan. The events were dramatized in the film "Scandal."
(http://spartacus-educational.com/PRprofumo.htm)(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B8)
1963 Feb 4, In Canada's Yukon territory a small plane piloted by Ralph Flores crashed shortly after takeoff from Whitehorse. The pilot and passenger Helen Klaben (1941-2018) survived the crash and endured 49 days of subzero temperatures before they were rescued.
(SFC, 12/13/18, p.C5)
1963 Feb 6, The United States reported that all Soviet offensive arms are out of Cuba.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1963 Feb 7, The "Mona Lisa" was unveiled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1963 Feb 8, In Iraq the Baath Party first took power. Right-wing Baathists succeeded in mounting a coup and executed PM Gen. Abdel Karim Qassim. Abdul Salam Arif came to power. This was followed by a massacre of thousands of peasants, communists and trade unionists. The Arab Baath Socialist Party pulled off the coup and ruled Iraq for 9 months.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D4)(AP, 5/26/03)(AP, 7/13/03)(NW, 9/8/03, p.32)
1963 Feb 9, 1st flight of Boeing 727 jet.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1963 Feb 11, A CIA Domestic Operations Division was created.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1963 Feb 11, Sylvia Plath (30), American writer, committed suicide by gas in London after Ted Hughes left her for another woman. Her autobiographical novel "The Bell Jar" was published this year. She had been married to English poet Ted Hughes (d.1998), who in 1998 published a 198 page book of verse "Birthday Letters" based on their relationship. The woman for whom Hughes left Plath committed suicide 5 years later. Plath’s 1981 "Collected Poems" won a Pulitzer Prize. The Plath book of poems "Ariel" was published after her death. In 2000 her uncensored diaries: "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath," were edited by Karen V. Kukil. Carl Rollyson authored “American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath" (2013). Andrew Wilson authored “Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted" (2013).
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.C5)(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A25)(SFEC, 11/12/00, BR p.1)(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.F5)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.84)
1963 Feb 12, Argentina asked for the extradition of ex-president Peron.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1963 Feb 15, Ken Lynch recorded "Misery." It was the 1st Lennon-McCartney song recorded by someone else.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1963 Feb 16, 1st round-trip swim of Straits of Messina, Italy, was made by Mary Revell of US.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1963 Feb 17, Michael Jordon, Chicago Bulls basketball player, was born. He led the Bulls to three consecutive NBA titles and was considered by some to be the greatest basketball player ever.
(HN, 2/17/99)
1963 Feb 19, The Soviet Union informed President Kennedy it would withdraw "several thousand" of an estimated 17,000 Soviet troops in Cuba.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1963 Feb 20, Moscow offered to allow on-site inspection of nuclear testing.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1963 Feb 22, Moscow warned the U.S. that an attack on Cuba would mean war.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1963 Feb 27, The USSR said that 10,000 troops would remain in Cuba.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1963 Feb-Mar, The US military, while conducting biological weapons tests, sprayed Bacillus globigii from aircraft near Fort Sherman Military Reservation in the Canal Zone.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A3)
1963 Mar 1, 200,000 French mine workers went on strike.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1963 Mar 3, Senegal adopted a constitution.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1963 Mar 4, William Carlos Williams (b.1883), American physician and poet, died in Rutherford, NJ. In 2011 Herbert Leibowitz authored “Something Urgent I Have to Say to You": The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.68)
1963 Mar 4, Six people got the death sentence in Paris plotting to kill de Gaulle.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1963 Mar 5, A private plane crash near Camden, Tenn., claimed the lives of country music performers Patsy Cline (30), "Cowboy" Copas and "Hawkshaw" Hawkins, as well as pilot Randy Hughes, Cline's manager.
(AP, 3/5/08)
1963 Mar 6, Jimmy Lee Smith and Gregory Powell (d.2012 at 79) abducted 2 Los Angeles police officers from a Hollywood street, drove them to an onion field in Bakersfield and shot officer Ian Campbell to death. Officer Karl Hettinger managed to escape. Smith served 19 years for his role in the case before he was paroled. In 1973 Joseph Wambaugh authored “The Onion Field," a novel based on the murder. The novel was turned into a film in 1979.
(SFC, 6/28/05, p.B8)(SFC, 8/14/12, p.A4)
1963 Mar 12, US House granted former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill honorary U.S. citizenship.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1963 Mar 13, China invited Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to visit Peking.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1963 Mar 16, Phung Vuong, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List), was born in Saigon, Vietnam.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1963 Mar 16, William Beveridge (b.1879), British economist and social reformer, died. He is perhaps best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services (known as the Beveridge Report) which served as the basis for the post-World War II Welfare State put in place by the Labour government.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Beveridge)
1963 Mar 17, In Indonesia eruptions of Mount Agung volcano on Bali killed 1,184 people.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(AP, 12/3/17)
1963 Mar 18, Vanessa L. Williams, 1st black Miss America (1983), singer, was born in Millwood, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1963 Mar 18, The US Supreme Court made its Gideon v Wainwright ruling which said poor defendants have a constitutional right to an attorney. Gideon had been forced to defend himself in Florida in Jan 1962, and petitioned the Supreme Court to hear his complaint.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.D4)(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.A31)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.39)
1963 Mar 19, In Costa Rica, President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged to fight Communism.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1963 Mar 19, Algeria demanded that France negotiate on ending nuclear testing in Algerian Sahara.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1963 Mar 20, The 1st "Pop Art" exhibition was held in NYC.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1963 Mar 21, The Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
(SFC, 6/29/96, p.E4)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/21/97)(HN, 3/21/98)
1963 Mar 21, Boxer Davey Moore was killed by Sugar Ramos in Dodger Stadium during a nationally televised boxing match. In 1964 Bob Dylan wrote his song “Who Killed Davey Moore?"
(www.answers.com/topic/davey-moore)
1963 Mar 22, British Minister of War John Profumo denied having sex with Christine Keeler. The Profumo call girl scandal almost toppled the government. Profumo, a leading British Conservative and minister for war, was discovered to have been involved with Keeler, a call girl who was also dealing with a Soviet attaché. Valerie Hobson (d.1998 at 81), his actress wife, stood by him after the scandal. A 1995 Masterpiece Theater TV play was based on these events.
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(WSJ, 12/28/95, p. A-5)(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.D5)(MC, 3/22/02)
1963 Feb 20, Rolf Hochhuth's "Der Stellvertreter" (The Representative) premiered in Berlin. The work indicted Pope Pius XII for Nazi complicity during WW II. The Catholic Church was outraged at the portrayal of Pius XII as a war criminal. An English translation by Richard and Clara Winston was published as “The Deputy: A Play," by Grove Press in 1964. In 2002 The Deputy was made into the film “Amen." by Costa Gavras.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deputy)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.73)
1963 Mar 21, The Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last 27 inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
(SFC, 6/29/96, p.E4)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/21/97)(SSFC, 2/17/13, DB p.42)
1963 Mar 27, John F. Kennedy met with King Hassan II of Morocco.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1963 Mar 28, Alec A. Templeton (52), composer, pianist (Alec Templeton Time), died.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1963 Mar 31, LA ended streetcar service after 90 years.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1963 Mar, Spider-Man was introduced by Marvel Comics with 700 copies. It was written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko. Their character was first introduced in 1962.
(SFC, 7/8/04, p.B9)(SFC, 2/15/14, p.E4)
1963 Mar, In San Francisco the 4,000-plus seat Fox Theater at 10th and Market, designed by Thomas Lamb and opened in 1929, was demolished.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.C2)(SFC, 12/10/21, p.A11)
1963 Mar, Pakistan and China signed a historic border agreement. Three years later, the two countries agreed to construct a road that would provide a hitherto non-existent road-link for mutual benefit. In 1978 the Karakoram Highway from Kashgar, China, to the edge of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, was completed.
(www.pakpost.gov.pk/philately/stamps2003/karakoram_highway.html)
1963 Mar, Norman Borlaug, plant breeder, arrived in India and began testing new varieties of Mexican wheat, whose yields were shown to be 4-5 times better than Indian varieties. In 1970 he won the Nobel Prize for his development of high-yield wheat varieties for which he was dubbed father of the "Green Revolution."
(SFC, 10/15/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/3/02, p.A1)(Econ, 12/24/05, p.30)
1963 Mar, In Syria the pan-Arab Baath party staged a coup. Hafez Assad played an important role. Amin Hafez 1920-2009) was brought to power by the military coup only to be overthrown three years later.
(WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A30)(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A11)(AP, 12/18/09)
1963 Apr 1, The daytime television drama "General Hospital" and "Doctors" premiered on ABC.
(AP, 4/1/98)(OTD)
1963 Apr 1, Most of New York City's daily newspapers resumed publishing after settlement was reached in a 114-day strike. Workers of the International Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after began on December 8, 1962.
(AP, 4/1/08)(OTD)
1963 Apr 2, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King began the first non-violent campaign in Birmingham, Alabama.
(AP, 4/2/99)
1963 Apr 6, The United States and Britain signed an agreement under which the Americans would sell Polaris A-3 missiles to the British.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1963 Apr 7, Yugoslavia proclaimed itself a Socialist republic.
(HN, 4/7/97)
1963 Apr 8, Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son, singer (Too Late for Goodbyes), was born.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1963 Apr 8, In the 35th Academy Awards "Lawrence of Arabia," Anne Bancroft and Gregory Peck won.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1963 Apr 9, British statesman Winston Churchill was made an honorary U.S. citizen.
(AP, 4/9/97)(HN, 4/9/98)
1963 Apr 10, The USS Thresher nuclear-powered submarine failed to surface 220 miles east of Boston, Mass. The disaster claimed 129 lives.
(www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-t/ssn593.htm)
1963 Apr 11, John XXIII put forth his encyclical "On peace in truth, justice, charity and liberty."
(MC, 4/11/02)
1963 Apr 12, Police used dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama.
(HN, 4/12/98)
1963 Apr 13, Gary Kimovich Kasparov, world chess champion (1985-2000), was born in the USSR.
(MC, 4/13/02)(SFC, 1/16/04, p.D19)
1963 Apr 18, Dr. James Campbell performed the 1st human nerve transplant.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1963 Apr 27, San Francisco real estate developer Marvin L. Sheldon said he wants no negroes in any of the homes he has built in Golden Gate Heights. He recently rejected a $39,950 offer by Wilt Chamberlain, star of the San Francisco Warriors, for a home.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.50)
1963 Apr 27, Cuban premier Fidel Castro arrived in Moscow.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1963 Apr 28, In the 17th Tony Awards: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum won.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1863 Apr, In Venezuela the hostilities of the Federal War ended with negotiations for the Treaty of Coche, singed on May 22. This was the biggest civil war Venezuela had had since its independence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_War)
1963 May 1, James Whittaker became the 1st American to conquer Mount Everest as he and a Sherpa guide reached the summit.
(AP, 5/1/03)
1963 May 3, In Birmingham, Alabama, police Commissioner Bull Connor unleashed dogs and high-powered fire hoses on boycott-bound school children.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 3/1/98, Z1 p.1)
1963 May 6, A Pulitzer prize was awarded to Barbara Tuchman (Guns of August).
(MC, 5/6/02)
1963 May 7, The United States launched the Telstar II communications satellite. It made the first public transatlantic broadcast.
(HNQ, 5/3/99)(AP, 5/7/00)
1963 May 8, "Dr. No" premiered in US.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1963 May 8, JFK offered Israel assistance against aggression.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1963 May 8, Problems with the Buddhists began in Hue, Vietnam. The Diem Government decided to demonstrate its strength by enforcing a law against the display of flags other than the national flag. In defiance, the Buddhists lined the streets flying their flags regardless of the new law; this defiance turned bloody when troops fired into the crowd, killing nine. Diem now claimed that the Buddhists were affiliates of the Communists and tightened security around the more active pagodas.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWvietnam.htm)
1963 May 11, "Puff The Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary hit #2.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1963 May 11, Racial bomb attacks took place in Birmingham, Alabama.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1963 May 12, There was a race riot in Birmingham, Alabama.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1963 May 15, Peter, Paul & Mary won their 1st Grammy (If I Had a Hammer).
(MC, 5/15/02)
1963 May 15, U.S. astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off atop an Atlas rocket aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program. He orbited Earth 22 times and manually piloted his craft to a pinpoint splashdown.
(AP, 5/15/97)(WSJ, 11/7/97, p.A1)(HN, 5/15/98)
1963 May 16, After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth in Friendship Seven, ending Project Mercury.
(HN, 5/16/98)
1963 May 18, "Beast in Me" closed at Plymouth Theater in NYC after 4 performances.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1963 May 18, "If You Wanna Be Happy" by Jimmy Soul hit #1.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1963 May 18, In the 89th Preakness: Bill Shoemaker aboard Candy Spots won in 1:56.2.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1963 May 18, It was reported that American Airlines has approved a new contract allowing its stewardesses to keep flying until they are 33, take a ground job when they reach 32, or retire at 32 with severance pay.
(SSFC, 5/19/13, p.46)
1963 May 20, A fire in New Jersey burned out of control and killed 7 people. Nearly 1,000 were left homeless as the fire moved 9 miles in 6 hours on what was called Black Saturday.
(SFC, 5/20/09, p.D8)
1963 May 20, Sukarno was appointed president of Indonesia.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1963 May 20-1963 May 23, In East Pakistan a cyclone killed about 22,000 along coast of the Bay of Bengal.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1863 May 22, The Treaty of Coche was signed in Venezuela. Arms were laid down from the Federal War and a general assembly called at Victoria, which elected Juan Chrisostomo Falcon as president and Antonio Leocadio Guzman as vice president. The latter was at the same time secretary of the treasury, and went to London to negotiate a loan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Guzm%C3%A1n_Blanco)
1963 May 25, "Hot Spot" closed at Majestic Theater in NYC after 43 performances.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1963 May 25, The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by Chad, Mauritania & Zambia. Emperor Haile Selassie was among the key African leaders who founded the Organization of African Unity. He oversaw the maiden meeting of the continental body. In 2001 it was replaced the African Union.
(AP, 5/25/97)(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A12)(AP, 2/10/19)
1963 May 27, Jomo Kenyatta was elected 1st prime minister of Kenya.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1963 May 28, Down Jones went public. 110,000 shares of Dow Jones common stock were sold to the public.
(WSJ, 8/1/07, p.B6)(www.scripophily.net/dowjocoinde.html)
1963 May 28, Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin (60), composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1963 May 29, Lisa Whelchel, actress (Blair-Facts of Life, Mickey Mouse Club), was born in Fort Worth, TX.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1963 May, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (32), psychology professors, were fired from Harvard for experimenting with psychedelic drugs. Alpert later traveled to India and returned as Ram Dass. In 1971 Alpert authored "Be Here Now" and in 2000 published "Still Here – Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying."
(SFC, 12/21/96, p.A12)(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A2)
1963 Jun 1, R.C., "El Watusi" by Ray Barreto peaked at #17 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1963 Jun 1, R.C., "I Love You Because" by Al Martino peaked at #3 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1963 Jun 1, R.C., "It's My Party" by Lesley Gore peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1963 Jun 1, R.C., "Two Faces Have I" by Lou Christie peaked at #6 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1963 Jun 1, Governor George Wallace vowed to defy an injunction ordering integration of the University of Alabama.
(HN, 6/1/98)
1963 Jun 1, Kenya assumed internal self rule. This was later celebrated as Madaraka Day.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.P3)
1963 Jun 3, Pope John XXIII died at the age of 81, ending a papacy marked by innovative reforms in the Roman Catholic Church. He was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.
(AP, 6/3/97)
1963 Jun 5, John Profumo (1915-2006), British Minister of War, resigned due his relations with Christine Keeler. [see mar 22]
(AP, 3/10/06)
1963 Jun 5, A state of siege was proclaimed in Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini was arrested.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1963 Jun 7, The Rolling Stones made their 1st TV appearance.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1963 Jun 7, Zasu Pitts (65), actress (Wedding March, Life With Father), died.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1963 Jun 9, JFK named Winston Churchill a US honorary citizen.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1963 Jun 9, A US Equal Pay Act was enacted.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1963 Jun 10, JFK signed an equal pay for equal work law for men & women.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1963 Jun 11, JFK said segregation is morally wrong & that it is "time to act."
(SC, 6/11/02)
1963 Jun 11, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Florida for trying to integrate restaurants.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1963 Jun 11, Federal troops were used to force Alabama Gov. George Wallace to accept black students, Vivian Malone Jones and James Wood, at the Univ. of Alabama. In 1996 George Wallace apologized in a formal ceremony. Gen'l. Henry V. Graham (d.1999 at 82) of the National Guard escorted Wallace from the doorway at Foster Auditorium.
(WSJ, 5/13/96, p.A-16)(SFC, 10/11/96, p.A3)
1963 Jun 11, Greek Premier Constantine Caramanlis resigned in protest of King Paul's state visit to Britain.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1963 Jun 11, Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
(AP, 6/11/97)(www.buddhistinformation.com/self_immolation.htm)
1963 Jun 12, One of Hollywood's costliest failures, "Cleopatra," starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison, premiered in New York.
(AP, 6/12/98)
1963 Jun 12, Medgar Evers (37), leader (field director) of the NAACP in Mississippi, was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson by the KKK. An informant in the KKK, Delmar Dennis (1940-1996), later served as a key prosecution witness in convicting Byron De La Beckwith for the slaying. Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001 at age 80. A book by Bill McIlhany titled “Klandestine" recounts the story. In 1996 Whoopi Goldberg starred in the film “Ghosts of Mississippi" as the widow of Medgar Evers. In 1998 Willie Morris wrote “The Ghosts of Medgar Evers: A Tale of Race, Murder, Mississippi, and Hollywood."
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C5)(NYT, 6/7/96, p.B14)(AP, 6/12/97)(SFEC, 2/1/98, BR p.5)(SFC, 1/22/01, p.A22)
1963 Jun 15, "Sound of Music" closed at Lunt Fontanne Theater in NYC after 1443 performances.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1963 Jun 15, Israeli premier David Ben-Gurion resigned.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1963 Jun 16, The world's first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok VI.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1963 Jun 17, The US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to strike down rules requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public schools. The case began in 1956 when Edward L. Schempp (d.2003), on behalf of his son, objected to a 1949 Pennsylvania law requiring 10 Bible verses each day followed by the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
(AP, 6/17/97)(HN, 6/17/98)(SFC, 11/24/03, p.A18)
1963 Jun 17, British House of Commons debated the John Profumo-Christine Keeler affair, which involved the defense minister and the call-girl he shared with a Russian agent.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1963 Jun 17, John Cowper Powys (b.1872), English author, died. In 2007 Morine Krissdottir authored “Descent of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys." His 10 novels included “Wolf Solent," the story of a young man’s rebellion against the modern world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cowper_Powys)(WSJ, 9/8/07, p.P9)
1963 Jun 18, 3,000 blacks boycotted Boston public school.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1963 Jun 19, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova returned to Earth after spending nearly three days as the first woman in space.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/98)
1963 Jun 20, The United States and Soviet Union signed an agreement in Geneva to set up a hot line communications link between the two superpowers and a treaty was signed limiting nuclear testing. It came about because of the Cuban missile crises, which began on October 22, 1962. The Hot Line was not used until the Six-Day War of 1967.
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(AP, 6/20/97)(HN, 6/20/98)(HNPD, 10/18/99)
1963 Jun 21, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was chosen to succeed the late Pope John XXIII as head of the Roman Catholic Church. The new pope took the name Paul VI.
(AP, 6/21/97)
1963 Jun 21, France announced it would withdraw from the NATO fleet in the North Atlantic.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1963 Jun 21, Levi Eshkol began serving as Israel’s 3rd prime minister.
(Economist, 9/22/12, p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Eshkol)
1963 Jun 23, Bryon De La Beckwith VI (1920-2001) was initially arrested for the June 12 death of Medgar Evers. He was thereafter twice tried for this offense in 1964. The first trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial on February 7, 1964. The second trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial on April 17, 1964. In 1994, he was tried by the state in a new trial based on new evidence, convicted of the murder by a mixed jury, and sentenced to life in prison.
(https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ms-supreme-court/1046038.html)
1963 Jun 24, 1st demonstration of home video recorder was at the BBC Studios in London.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1963 Jun 26, President Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he made his famous declaration: "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) at the Berlin Wall. Rumors later spread that the misplaced article "ein" made an exact translation to say "I am a jelly donut."
(AP, 6/26/97)(HN, 6/26/98)(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A25)
1963 Jun 27, Pres. Kennedy spent his 1st full day in Ireland.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1963 Jun 27, Henry Cabot Lodge was appointed U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1963 Jun 27, USAF Major Robert A. Rushworth reached an altitude of 53.9 miles in the X-15.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15)
1963 Jun 28, Khrushchev visited East-Berlin.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1963 Jun 30, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was crowned as Pope Paul VI, the 262nd head of the Roman Catholic Church. The softly spoken cardinal from northern Italy held Saint Peter's chair for 15 years in a difficult period for the Roman Catholic Church. Paul VI continued the Second Vatican Council launched by his predecessor Pope John XXIII in 1962, winding it up in 1965 and implementing its numerous reforms, including efforts to dialogue with other religions and a greater role for lay people.
(AP, 6/30/97)(AP, 10/14/18)
1963 Jun, Martin Luther King led the “Walk to Freedom" in Detroit, Mi.
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.84)
1963 Jul 1, The U.S. Post Office inaugurated its five-digit ZIP codes. The Zoning Improvement Plan was initially developed by Robert Aurand Moon (d.2001 at 83).
(AP, 7/1/97)(HN, 7/1/98)(SFC, 4/16/01, p.A22)
1963 Jul 2, President John F. Kennedy met Pope Paul the Sixth at the Vatican, the first meeting between a Roman Catholic US chief executive and the head of the Catholic Church.
(AP, 7/2/00)
1963 Jul 2, Juan Marichal (25), pitcher for the SF Giants, dueled for 16 innings with Warren Spahn (42), of the Milwaukee Braves in a 5-hour game at Candlestick. Willie Mays hit the 428th pitch of the night over left field.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/sports/baseball/02nohit.html)
1963 Jul 4, Naturalization ceremonies began to be held annually at Monticello, Virginia.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A3)
1963 Jul 8, Reports were made of Charlie Finley's intention to move KC A's baseball team to Oakland.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1963 Jul 8, US banned all monetary transactions with Cuba.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1963 Jul 12, French Pres. Charles de Gaulle pronounced that "Treaties are like roses and young girls -- they last while they last."
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A11)
1963 Jul 25, The United States, the Soviet Union and Britain initialed a treaty in Moscow prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in space or underwater.
(AP, 7/25/97)
1963 Jul 25, Ugo Cerletti (b.1877), Italian neurosurgeon, died. In the 1930s he and Lucio Bini pioneered the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), electric shock, to cure patients of depression.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.78)(www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/511.html)
1963 Jul 26, In San Francisco The Fly Trap restaurant at 73 Sutter St. closed to make room for the 43-story Wells Fargo Tower.
(SSFC, 7/21/13, p.42)
1963 Jul 26, Skopje, Yugoslavia, was destroyed by earthquake and over 1,000 were killed.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1963 Jul 27, Garrett A. Morgan (86), inventor and founder of the Cleveland Call, died.
(ON, 3/02, p.12)
1963 Jul 30, British spy Kim Philby was discovered in Moscow. Philby, writer for The Economist, who spent six years filing dispatches from the Middle East, was discovered to be a spy and defected to the Soviet Union.
(WSJ, 6/6/95, p.A-14)(MC, 7/30/02)
1963 Jul, Interest Equalization Tax was a domestic tax measure implemented by US President John F. Kennedy. It was meant to make it less profitable for US investors to invest abroad by taxing the interest on foreign securities.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest_Equalization_Tax)
1963 Jul, Serial killers Myra Hindley (d.2002) and her boyfriend, Ian Brady (the Moors Murderers), began abducting, molesting and killing children. The pair were caught in Oct, 1965. Between 1963 and 1965 they lured five children and teenagers to their deaths, burying four of them on remote moorland near Manchester.
(AP, 11/16/02)(AFP, 8/17/12)
1963 Aug 3, James Hetfield, heavy metal rocker (Metallica-Helpless), was born.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1963 Aug 3, Carlo Imperato, actor (Fame), was born in Bronx, NYC.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1963 Aug 3, Allan Sherman released "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda."
(SC, 8/3/02)
1963 Aug 3, Beatles made a final performance the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1963 Aug 3, Phil Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, committed suicide. His wife, Katharine Graham (1917-2001), took over as publisher. She published her autobiography in 1997: "Personal History."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Graham)(SFEC, 2/9/97, BR p.1)
1963 Aug 5, The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a Limited Test Ban Treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, space and underwater. Public pressure helped JFK signed the ban on atmospheric atom bomb tests.
(AP, 8/5/97)(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.D1)
1963 Aug 8, Britain's "Great Train Robbery" took place as thieves made off with 120 mailbags with 2.62 million pounds in banknotes. 15 men under Bruce Reynolds (d.2013) held up the Glasgow to London Royal Mail (Glasgow-Euston train) and took off with $7.2 mil in sterling. They badly beat up train driver Jack Mills. He never returned to work and died seven years later without making a full recovery. Ronald Biggs claimed to be one of the 15 men and later lived freely in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His share of the robbery was $2.8 mil but he was arrested just four weeks after the robbery. He escaped from Wandsworth Prison in 1965 and was still wanted in Britain. Only 1/8 of the money stolen was ever recovered. Dinner at home with Mr. Biggs could be purchased for $50. In 1994 Biggs published an autobiography. In 1999 a video game was developed based on the event. Biggs (71) returned to Britain in 2001 and in 2009 he was up for parole. Reynolds spent five years as a fugitive. On his return to Britain he was caught by police and sentenced 25 years in prison for the train heist, of which he served just 10. Reynolds published a memoir titled "Autobiography of a Thief" and became a consultant on a crime film.
(SFE, 10/1/95, p.T-8)(AP, 8/8/97)(WSJ, 11/4/99, p.A28)(WSJ, 5/7/01, p.A1)(AFP, 7/1/09)(AP, 2/28/13)
1963 Aug 11, The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. said San Francisco’s Parkmerced community, with a population of some 8,000, will be open to negroes.
(SSFC, 8/11/13, DB p.42)
1963 Aug 13, A 17 year-old Buddhist monk burned himself to death in Saigon, South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1963 Aug 18, James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1963 Aug 19, NAACP Youth Council began sit-ins at lunch counters in Oklahoma City.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1963 Aug 19, Newsweek quoted Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu (1924-2011), official hostess of the South Vietnamese government, offering to light the match of the next Buddhist monk suicide.
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Madame_Ngo_Dinh_Nhu)(NW 8/19/63)(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A1)(AP, 4/27/11)
1963 Aug 21, Martial law was declared in South Vietnam as police and army troops began a crackdown on Buddhist anti-government protesters.
(AP, 8/21/08)
1963 Aug 22, The X-15 aircraft set an altitude record of 67 miles.
(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1963 Aug 23, Beatles released "She Loves You" in UK.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1963 Aug 24, Pres. Kennedy allowed a cable to be sent to Ambassador Lodge in Vietnam that backed a military coup against Pres. Diem. Kennedy gave tacit approval for a coup against Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. Diem was killed Nov 2.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A2)(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.41)
1963 Aug 26, Orders came from Washington to destroy all cables sent to Saigon, South Vietnam, back to Aug 24.
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.42)
1963 Aug 27, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (b.1868), sociologist, influential leader of black Americans, founder of the National Negro Committee which eventually became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, died in Accra, Ghana at the age of 95. He coined the phrase "double consciousness" to describe the black survival skill of moving between the black and white American cultures.
(WUD, 1994, p.439)(SFEC, 3/22/98, BR p.5)(HNPD, 2/23/99)(HNQ, 5/11/99)
1963 Aug 27, Cambodia severed ties with South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1963 Aug 28, The civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew 200-250,000 demonstrators and was the occasion for King’s "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It was organized by Bayard Rustin (1912-1987). In 1997 a biography of Rustin by Jervis Anderson was published: "Bayard Rustin: The Troubles I’ve Seen." The 1997 play "Civil Sex" by Brian Freeman was based on Rustin’s life. Rev. Thomas Kilgore Jr. (d.1998 at 84) helped organize the march on Washington. Martin Luther King led marches on Washington and Selma, Alabama. His chief lieutenant was Andrew Young who in 1996 wrote: "An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America." Activist and later congressman John Lewis (1940-2020) was the youngest speaker.
(WSJ, 11/6/96, p.A21)(SFEC, 1/26/97 BR, p.4)(WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A14)(AP, 8/28/97)(SFC, 2/7/98, p.21)(HN, 8/28/98)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.74)
1963 Aug 28, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge connecting Seattle & Bellevue opened.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1963 Aug 30, The hot line, a rapid communications link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow went into operation to avoid miscalculations during an emergency.
(AP, 8/30/97)(HNPD, 10/30/99)
1963 Aug 30, Guy Burgess (b.1911), British spy for the USSR, died in Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Burgess)
1963 Aug 31, Dick Gibson (d.1998), jazz lover, held his first Gibson Colorado Jazz Party at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen. He flew in some of the world’s top jazz musicians and began an annual Labor Day weekend tradition that lasted 30 years.
(WSJ, 3/20/07, p.D6)
1963 Aug 31, George F. Braque (81), cubist painter, died in Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1963 Sep 1, Turkey moved politically closer to Europe with the Treaty of Ankara. It reduced duties and implicitly recognized Turkey’s right to join the European Economic Community.
(http://tinyurl.com/tgab2)(WSJ, 9/7/04, p.A10)(WSJ, 10/6/04, p.A17)
1963 Sep 2, "The CBS Evening News" was lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.
(AP, 9/2/97)
1963 Sep 2, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers.
(AP, 9/2/97)(HN, 9/2/98)
1963 Sep 3, Louis MacNeice (b.1907), northern Irish poet, died. His name was often subsumed under the collective name of Macspaunday, which referred to the generation of politically-committed 1930s poets: MacNeice, Stephen Spender, W.H. Auden and C. Day-Lewis. MacNeice’s collected poems were published in 2007.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.89)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_MacNeice)
1963 Sep 5, In San Francisco burlesque patrons viewed the last show of the President Follies at 60 McAllister St.
(SSFC, 9/1/13, DB p.42)
1963 Sep 7, The Beatles made their 1st US TV appearance on ABC’s Big Night Out.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1963 Sep 7, American Bandstand moved to California and aired once a week on Saturday.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1963 Sep 7, The National Professional Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, Ohio.
(AP, 9/7/97)
1963 Sep 9, In Italy a landslide into Vaiont Dam emptied a lake and killed 3-4,000 people.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1963 Sep 9, Alabama Gov George Wallace served a federal injunction to stop orders of state police to bar black students from enrolling in white schools.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1963 Sep 10, 20 black students entered public schools in Birmingham, Tuskegee and Mobile, Ala., following a standoff between federal authorities and Gov. George C. Wallace. President John F. Kennedy federalized Alabama's National Guard to prevent Governor George C. Wallace from using guardsmen to stop public-school desegregation.
(AP, 9/10/97)(HN, 9/10/98)
1963 Sep 13, "Outer Limits" premiered on ABC TV. It was partly written, produced and directed by Leslie Stevens (d.1998) and ran to 1965.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.C2)(MC, 9/13/01)
1963 Sep 13, The last bucket of concrete was poured on the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River to form Lake Powell. It marked the beginning of a 290 mile stretch of the river from the dam through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead. It was built to provide power to six Western states. The lake filled by 1980. [last source says the lake filled within 5 years]
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.E-3)(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A10)(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.A1)(NH, 9/97, p.40)
1963 Sep 14, Mary Ann Fischer of Aberdeen, S.D., gave birth to four girls and a boy, the first surviving quintuplets in the United States.
(AP, 9/14/03)
1963 Sep 15, The Alou brothers-Felipe, Matty, & Jesus-appeared in the San Francisco outfield for 1 inning.
(http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=20238)
1963 Sep 15, The Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four young black girls (Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Collins, and Cynthia Wesley) were killed in the bombing as they prepared their Sunday school lesson on "The love that forgives." Later on the same day James Ware (16) and his brother Virgil (14) were shot at while bicycling home. Virgil was killed. Another James Ware went on to become a US district judge and falsely used the James and Virgil Ware story for self promotion. Judge Ware withdrew from a new appointment to the SF 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1997 after he admitted that he was not the same James Ware. In Birmingham, Alabama, police dogs were set on peaceful, Black demonstrators. The 1997 film "Four Little Girls" by Spike Lee was a documentary of the church burning in Alabama. In 1977 Robert Chambliss (d.1985) was tried and convicted of murder. Suspect Herman Cash died in 1994. In 2000 Thomas E. Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry (d.2004) turned themselves in after they were indicted by a state grand jury. In 2001 Thomas Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Cherry was convicted May 22, 2002, and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.1)(SFC, 8/16/96, p.D11)(SFEC, 3/16/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 5/18/97, DB p.45)(SFC, 11/6/97, p.A9)(AP, 9/15/97)(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)(NW, 5/27/02, p.43)
1963 Sep 16, The science-fiction anthology series "The Outer Limits" premiered on ABC. It ran to 1965.
(AP, 9/16/98)(SFEM, 2/28/99, p.4)
1963 Sep 16, The Federation of Malaysia was formally established. Sabak (Sabah) and Sarawak, Britain’s colonies on Borneo, joined the Malayan peninsula to form Malaysia with Tunku Abdul Rahman (60) as prime minister. The federation formed under bitter opposition from Indonesia, which refused to recognize the country and waged a guerrilla war against it. Race riots erupted between ethnic Malays and the Chinese majority.
(PC, 1992, p.988)(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.C10)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.60)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.39)
1963 Sep 17, "The Fugitive," starring David Janssen, premiered on ABC. It was written and produced by Roy Huggins (d.2002). Kimble was cleared on the Aug 29, 1967, and narrator William Conrad announced "the day the running stopped." In 1993 Ed Robertson authored the companion book ""The Fugitive Recaptured." In 1993 a film was made based on the TV series with Harrison Ford as Kimble.
(AP, 9/17/98)(WSJ, 10/16/00, p.A32)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.B5)
1963 Sep 18, "The Patty Duke Show" premiered on ABC television.
(AP, 9/18/03)
1963 Sep 18, USSR orders 58.5 million barrels of cereal from Australia.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1963 Sep 20, In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Kennedy proposed a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition to the moon. Pres. Kennedy stayed at New York’s Carlyle Hotel and received a "leggy babe" under Secret Service escort.
(AP, 9/20/97)(WSJ, 10/22/01, p.A17)
1963 Sep 20, California’s legislature passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act, the state’s first law prohibiting racial discrimination in housing. It was authored by Assemblyman Byron Rumford (d.1986) of Oakland. The Proposition 14 referendum on November 3, 1964, saw a 2-to-1 vote in favor of repeal of the Rumford Act. It was restored in 1966 when the California Supreme Court ruled that Proposition 14 was illegal.
(http://tinyurl.com/oe2tz73)(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.20)(SFC, 7/27/15, p.E2)
1963 Sep 23, Annual report of 1996 reported that Becton Dickinson stock was first listed on NYSE.
(AR, 1996, p.2)(Calendar 1/97)
1963 Sep 24, The U.S. Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing.
(AP, 9/24/99)
1963 Sep 25, Juan Bosch (1909-2001) was toppled in the Dominican Republic by the army shortly after being elected. His plans for land reform would have split up sugar plantations owned by generals.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)(SFC, 11/2/01, p.D6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Bosch)
1963 Sep 26, Lee Harvey Oswald traveled on a Continental Trailways bus to Mexico.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1963 Sep 27, Lee Harvey Oswald visited the Cuban consulate in Mexico.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1963 Sep 27, At 10:59 AM census clock, the US population was recorded at 190,000,000.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1963 Sep 28, "New Phil Silvers Show," debuted on CBS-TV.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1963 Sep 28, Murray The K, a NY DJ played "She Loves You" on the radio.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1963 Sep 29, "The Judy Garland Show" premiered on CBS.
(AP, 9/29/04)
1963 Sep 29, The situation comedy "My Favorite Martian" premiered on CBS. It starred Bill Bixby and Ray Walston (d.2000 at 86). The show ran to 1966.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A17)(AP, 9/29/03)
1963 Sep 29, The second session of Second Vatican Council opened in Rome.
(AP, 9/29/97)
1963 Sep, The Federal Hourly Minimum Wage was set at $1.25 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1963 Sep, The Treaty of Anakara on reducing duties implicitly recognized Turkey’s right to join the European Economic Community.
(WSJ, 10/6/04, p.A17)
1963 Oct 1, Mark McGwire was born. He later became a baseball 1st baseman, AL rookie of year 1988, Oakland A's, Cards, 70 home run record.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1963 Oct 2, Defense Sec. Robert McNamara told Pres. Kennedy in a cabinet meeting that: "We need a way to get out of Vietnam." McNamara proposed to replace the 16,000 US advisors with Canadian personnel.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A2)
1963 Oct 2, W. German Chancellor Adenauer condemned western grain shipments to USSR.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1963 Oct 3, Meredith Wilson’s Broadway musical “Here’s Love," featuring Dom DeLuise, opened at the Shubert Theater. The show close on July 25, 1964.
(SFC, 5/6/09, p.A9)(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3024)
1963 Oct 4-8, Hurricane Flora, killed 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti. Hurricane Flora killed an estimated 7-8,000 people.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A2)(MC, 10/4/01)
1963 Oct 7, President Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a limited nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union. Testing was outlawed in the atmosphere, underwater and in outer space.
(AP, 10/7/97)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1963 Oct 7, Bobby Baker resigned as Senate Democratic secretary after being charged in a 300-thousand-dollar civil suit with using his influence for personal monetary gains.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1963 Oct 8, Remedios Varo (b.1908), Spanish-born surrealist painter, died in Mexico. Walter Gruen, her 11-year lover and promoter, collected her work and in 1987 attempted to get copyright protection. A Mexican judge denied his request due to Varo’s failure to get a formal divorce from French poet Benjamin Peret. In 1999 the Mexican government tried to seize the paintings on behalf of Mexico but faced a claim by next of kin niece Beatriz Varo. By 2005 Mr. Gruen agreed to give his entire collection to the Mexican government if it gets named after his deceased daughter.
(http://tinyurl.com/b87uu)(WSJ, 9/20/05, p.A1)
1963 Oct 9, British premier Harold MacMillan resigned.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1963 Oct 9, A dam in Piave valley of Italy, broke and about 2,000 died. [see Sep 9]
(MC, 10/9/01)
1963 Oct 9, In South Africa indictments began for the Rivonia trial and resulted in the jailing of Nelson Mandela and Govan Mbeki. In 1999 Glenn Frankel authored "Rivonia's Children." White activists (Joe Slovo and his wife Ruth First, Rusty and Hilda Bernstein, and Anna Marie and Harold Wolpe) of the South African Communist Party, involved in the trial, fled into exile. The trial was named after the area where the ANC members were arrested.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivonia_Trial)(WSJ, 10/4/99, p.A40)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A26)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A18)
1963 Oct 10, A dam burst in Italy, and over 3,000 died. [see Sep 9, Oct 9]
(MC, 10/10/01)
1963 Oct 11, A National Security Action memorandum that recommended plans to withdraw 1,000 US Military personnel by the end of the year was approved. The memo followed McNamara’s return from a trip to South Vietnam.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A2)
1963 Oct 11, Jean Cocteau, French author (La Voie Humaine), surrealist poet, artist and film director, died at 73. His lover Lean Marais later published a biography of Cocteau called "L’Inconcevable Jean Cocteau." In 2003 Claude Arnaud authored the biography "Jean Cocteau."
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1963 Oct 11, Johan Nordstrom (b.1871), Swedish immigrant and co-founder of the Nordstrom department store chain, died in Seattle.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Nordstrom)
1963 Oct 11, Edith Piaf (b.1915), French singer (No, I don't regret anything), died of cancer. In 2007 the biopic film “La Vie en Rose," with Marion Cotillard as Piaf, was produced. In 2011 Carolyn Burke authored “No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89dith_Piaf)(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.G5)
1963 Oct 12, Archaeological digs began at Masada, Israel.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1963 Oct 13, "Beatlemania" was coined after Beatles appeared at Palladium.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1963 Oct 15, Stanley Milgram of Yale Univ. published his groundbreaking article “Behavioral Study of Obedience." in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. His experiments, begun in 1960, created a paradigm for considering how cruel people can be when they are obeying orders.
(SSFC, 7/4/04, p.M6)(SAM, 10/08, p,24)
1963 Oct 15, In South Korea Park Chung-hee was elected president as the candidate of the newly created Democratic Republican Party. He narrowly defeated former President Yun, the candidate of the Civil Rule Party, by just over 156,000 votes—a margin of 1.5 percent.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee)
1963 Oct 19, Beatles recorded "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
(MC, 10/19/01)
1963 Oct 20, Cleveland’s Jim Brown surpassed the NFL single-season career rushing record of 8,378 yards set by Joe Perry in 1958. By game’s end Brown had 8,390 yards.
(www.profootballhof.com/history/general/rushers/index.jsp)
1963 Oct 20, Alec Douglas-Home formed a British government.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1963 Oct 22, Brian Boitano, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1988), was born in Mountain View, Calif.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1963 Oct 22, 225,000 students boycotted Chicago schools in a Freedom Day protest.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1963 Oct 22, Britain’s "National Theatre Company," founded under Laurence Olivier, opened with Hamlet. In 2017 Nicholas Hytner authored “Balancing Acts: Behind the Scenes at the National Theater."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_National_Theatre)(Econ 5/6/17, p.75)
1963 Oct 23, Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park," premiered in NYC. [see Oct 24]
(MC, 10/23/01)
1963 Oct 24, "Barefoot in the Park" by Neil Simon opened on Broadway. [see Oct 23]
(SFEC, 9/29/96, BR p.5)
1963 Oct 25, Anti-Kennedy "WANTED FOR TREASON" pamphlets scattered in Dallas.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1963 Oct 28, In NYC the demolition of Penn Station, completed in 1910, began.
(www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON004.htm)(WSJ, 1/12/07, p.W8)
1963 Oct 31, Pres. John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act, which aimed to close asylums and treat mental disorders more like illnesses and less like crimes.
(Econ, 7/11/15, SR p.7)(http://tinyurl.com/pe447ha)
1963 Oct 31, J. Edgar Hoover's last meeting with President John F Kennedy.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1963 Ocr 31, In San Francisco the Black Cat café, located in the Canessa Building at 708-710 Montgomery St., closed down for the last time as the state Supreme Court refused to hear its case and lower courts refused to reinstate its liquor license because it catered to homosexuals.
(SFC, 11/15/14, p.C2)
1963 Oct 31, On Halloween night leaking propane gas exploded and killed 64 at the "Holiday on Ice" show at the Indiana State Fair Grounds in Indianapolis.
(http://tinyurl.com/npsda6j)
1963 Oct, Pres. Kennedy spoke with Mayor Daley of Chicago to get congressman Roland Libonati to vote the Party line. The conversation was recorded.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.43)
1963 Oct, Algeria and Morocco engaged in a brief border conflict called the Sand War. It resulted largely from the Moroccan government's claim to portions of Algeria's Tindouf and Béchar provinces. This led to a heightened tensions between the two countries for several decades.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_War)
1963 Nov 1-1963 Nov 2, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother were assassinated in a military coup. Coup leader Duong Van Minh explained that "They had to be killed… Pres. Diem was too much respected among simple, gullible people in the countryside." A 3rd brother was later tricked into surrendering to US forces and was turned over to coup leaders and killed by firing squad. Col. Nguyen Van Thieu helped organize the coup that killed Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem.
(AP, 11/2/97)(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.42)(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)(SFC, 10/1/01, p.B2)
1963 Nov 3, San Francisco police arrested 48 protesters at Mel’s Drive-In at 3355 Geary Blvd. They claimed that Mel’s, owned by Supervisor Harold Dobbs, refuses to hire Negroes for non-menial jobs.
(SSFC, 11/3/13, DB p.42)
1963 Nov 5, Tatum O'Neal, Mrs. John McEnroe, (Paper Moon, Little Darlings), was born in LA, Cal.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1963 Nov 7, The film "It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" premiered at Hollywood’s new Cinerama Theatre in a lengthy 195 minute version.
(WSJ, 2/13/02, p.A1)
1963 Nov 9, Twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and 160 people died in a train crash.
(AP, 11/9/97)
1963 Nov 12, James P. Hosty Jr., FBI agent, had been tracking Lee Harvey Oswald for counterintelligence purposes and had visited Oswald’s wife to establish Oswald’s location On this day Hosty received a note from Oswald to leave Marina Oswald alone. In 1996 Hosty wrote: Assignment: Oswald, a memoir of his FBI role tracking Oswald.
(SFC, 6/3/96, BR p.5)
1963 Nov 14, Greece freed hundreds who were jailed in the Communist uprising of 1944- 1950.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1963 Nov 14, Iceland got a new island when a volcano pushed its way up out of the sea five miles off the southern coast.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1963 Nov 15, Roger Mealman, Clifford Toycen Jr., and Robert Burns Jr. robbed a bank in Sacramento of $45,000 and headed east. They shot and killed HP officer Glenn Carlson along Highway 40. All 3 were soon arrested and sentenced to life in prison. The Highway 267 bypass was later named after CHP officer Carlson.
(SFC, 4/27/01, p.A1,10)(SFC, 11/16/13, p.C4)
1963 Nov 15, Fritz Reiner (74), Hungarian-US conductor (Chicago Symphony Orch), died.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1963 Nov 15, Argentina voided all foreign oil contracts.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1963 Nov 16, Touch-tone telephone was introduced.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1963 Nov 20, A Senate investigating committee held hearings on the growing TFX scandal where General Dynamics had received a $7 billion contract in 1962.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.B7)
1963 Nov 21, President Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, began a two-day tour of Texas.
(AP, 11/22/03)
1963 Nov 21, Robert Stroud, "bird man of Alcatraz", died at the federal prison in Springfield, Mo. His canary studies were done at Leavenworth, Kansas, and included the book "Stroud’s Digest of Diseases of Birds." He also worked on a critical history of the US prison system (Looking Outward).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_of_Alcatraz)(AHHT, 10/02, p.22)(SSFC, 9/22/02, p.A8)
1963 Nov 21, Roman Catholic Vatican Council authorized the use of vernacular instead of Latin in the Sacraments.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1963 Nov 21, India launched its first rocket from Thumba in Kerala state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumba_Equatorial_Rocket_Launching_Station)
1963 Nov 22, A Senate committee heard testimony about an alleged $100,000 cash payoff to Vice-President Johnson in connection with the General Dynamics TFX contract. After the assassination of JFK there was no follow up.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.B7)
1963 Nov 22, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, had been in office two years, 10 months and two days, when an assassin's bullet ended his life in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy, on a pre-campaign trip to supposedly hostile Texas, had been greeted warmly by enthusiastic crowds at every stop. Upon their arrival in Dallas, President and Mrs. Kennedy, accompanied by Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife, were driven slowly through the downtown streets on their way to a scheduled speech at the Dallas Trade Mart. At 12:30 p.m., as the open limousine traveled through Dealey Plaza past the Texas School Book Depository, Kennedy was shot. Within the hour, Kennedy was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital and by 2 p.m., Dallas police had arrested Lee Harvey Oswald as the suspected assassin. At 2:38 p.m. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.
(HNPD, 11/22/98)
1963 Nov 22, John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Texas Gov. John B. Connally was seriously wounded. Rufus Youngblood (1924-1996), a Secret Service agent, shielded VP Johnson from possible gunshots with his body. Johnson rewarded him by promoting him over time to the No. 2 position in the Secret Service. Ruby used a .38 Colt Cobra purchased at Ray’s Hardware and Sporting Goods in Dallas run by Lawrence Brantley (1921-1996). From the address that President Kennedy never got to deliver in Dallas: "If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be no help."
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(AHD, p. 931)(SFC, 10/4/96, p.B2)(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)(AP, 11/22/97)
1963 Nov 22, Two amateur films recorded the assassination of Pres. Kennedy. A 24 ½ sec. video by Orville Nix Sr. and Abraham Zapruder, a dress manufacturer, captured the assassination on video tape. In 1981 David Lifton published "Best Evidence," on the medical evidence of the assassination. In 1993 Gerald Posner published "Case Closed," a book on the Warren Commission report. In 1998 new testimony was released that a 2nd set of pictures was taken at the autopsy that were never made public. In 2007 David Talbot authored “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years." In 2007 Vincent Bugliosi authored “Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy."
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A5)(SFC, 10/25/98, p.D5)(SFC, 11/23/00, p.A11)(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M1)(WSJ, 5/19/07, p.P8)
1963 Nov 22, Dr. Charles Andrew Crenshaw, a 3rd year surgical intern at Dallas’ Parkland Memorial, tended Kennedy and placed him into a coffin. In 1992 Crenshaw (d.2001) authored "JFK: Conspiracy of Silence" and insisted that Kennedy had 4 gunshot wounds, including one from the front and that the neck wound had been tampered to look like an exit wound.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A25)
1963 Nov 22, Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit was slain by Lee Harvey Oswald 45 minutes after Pres. Kennedy was shot when he called Oswald over for questioning. Oswald was arrested inside the Texas Theater, 321 W. Jefferson Blvd., just before 2pm.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A5)(SFC, 10/25/98, p.D5)(SSFC, 11/17/13, p.M5)
1963 Nov 22, New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello was acquitted. He was prosecuted by Bobby Kennedy and Bobby later said that Marcello was behind the murder of JFK.
(SFEC, 6/7/98, Par. p.8)
1963 Nov 22, Aldous L. Huxley (69), English author (Devils of Loudon, Brave New World), died in Los Angeles.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ahuxley.htm)
1963 Nov 22, C.S. Lewis, English author the Narnia series and other books, died of osteoporosis. In 2005 Alan Jacobs authored “The Narnian," a biography of Lewis. In 2013 Alister McGrath authored “C.S. Lewis--A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet."
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/cslewis.htm)(WSJ, 10/15/05, p.P13)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.88)
1963 Nov 23, President Johnson proclaimed Nov. 25 a day of national mourning as JFK's body lay in repose in East Room of White House.
(AP, 11/23/01)
1963 Nov 23, Sixty-three elderly people, most of them sleeping, were killed by a fire destroying the one-story Golden Age Nursing Home near Fitchville, Ohio.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1963 Nov 23, "Doctor Who," the long-running British sci-fi series, debuted in England.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1963 Nov 24, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy in front of TV cameras in the garage of the Dallas Police Department. Ruby used a .38 Colt Cobra purchased at Ray’s Hardware and Sporting Goods in Dallas run by Lawrence Brantley (1921-1996). Sometime earlier Oswald had made an attempt to murder right-wing Gen’l. Edwin A. Walker. In 2002 Thomas Mallon authored "Mrs. Paine’s Garage and the Murder of John F. Kennedy."
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)(AP, 11/24/97)(HN, 11/24/00)(WSJ, 1/18/02, p.W8)
1963 Nov 25, Assassinated President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A bronze casket that was used to transport JFK to Washington was flown off the Maryland-Delaware coast and dropped into a 9,000 feet deep military dump site.
(AP, 11/25/97)(HN, 11/25/98)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A3)
1963 Nov 28, In The Flintstones episode titled "KLEPTOMANIAC PEBBLES", Pebbles' tendency to take anything that isn't nailed down is exploited by jewel thief Baffles Gravel.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, R.C., "She Loves You" by the Beatles returned to #1 on the U.K. pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, The first million copy record prior to release "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, Linda Darnell divorced Merle Robertson.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, The Crusher beat Verne Gagne in St Paul, to become NWA champ.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1963 Nov 28, Just six days after the assassination of President Kennedy, President Johnson announces that the Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, will be renamed "The John F. Kennedy Space Center." Residents voted in 1973 to change the name back to Cape Canaveral.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)(HN, 11/28/98)
1963 Nov 29, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren head of a commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
(AP, 11/29/97)(HN, 11/29/98)
1963 Nov, Pres. Kennedy approved a probe to see whether relations with Fidel Castro could be improved. In 1999 Mark J. White edited "The Kennedy's and Cuba: The Declassified Documentary History."
(WSJ, 11/15/99, p.A48)
1963 Dec 2, Sabu Sabu (39), actor (Sabu Dastagir), died of a heart attack in Chatsworth, California. He was born in Karapur, Mysore, India, on January 27, 1924, beginning his movie career at the age of 13. His films included “Elephant Boy" (1937); “Drums" (1938); “The Thief of Baghdad" (1940); “Jungle Book" (1942) and “Arabian Nights" (1942).
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0754942/)
1963 Dec 4, In Brazil Sen. Arnon de Mello (1911-1983), the father of future president Fernando Collor, shot and killed Senator Joseph Kairala of Acre in the Senate, but was never tried. The intended victim was Mello’s political enemy Senator Silvestre Pericles.
(Econ, 7/28/12, p.31)(http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnon_Afonso_de_Farias_Melo)
1963 Dec 7, During the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast as CBS re-showed a one-yard touchdown run by Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh. Navy beat Army, 21-15.
(AP, 12/7/03)
1963 Dec 8, Three fuel tanks exploded when a jetliner, struck by lightning, crashed near Elkton, Maryland. 81 people died. This was the only case of a lightning caused crash.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1963 Dec 9, Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped. Frank Sinatra Sr. ransomed his kidnapped son, Frank Sinatra Jr., for $240,000. Barry Keenan, who set up the kidnapping, was a classmate of Nancy Sinatra. He served 4 1/2 years in prison and went on to become a successful real estate developer.
(SFC, 9/7/98, p.B6)(MC, 12/9/01)
1963 Dec 10, Walter Cronkite re-aired a CBS News report from London on the Beatles. It had been 1st filed on Nov 22, the day JFK was assassinated.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, Par p.18)
1963 Dec 10, Zanzibar was granted independence by the United Kingdom and became a constitutional monarchy under the Sultan.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sultans_of_Zanzibar)
1963 Dec 12, Frank Sinatra Jr. returned after being kidnapped.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1963 Dec 12, Kenya gained independence from Britain and the Kenyan African National Union Party (KANU) began ruling. Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, was the first president and served until 1978. The Kikuyu and closely related Meru and Embu groups comprised some 28% of Kenya’s people. Kenya’s population at this time was under 8 million. This was later commemorated as Jamhuri Day. Kenya’s first vice president was Oginga Odinga, the father of Raila Odinga.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A8)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP,12/12/97)(SFC,12/23/97, p.D4)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A12)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.87)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.49)(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.P3)(Econ, 8/12/17, p.35)
1963 Dec 13, Capital records signed a right of 1st refusal agreement with Beatles.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1963 Dec 14, The Baldwin Hills dam in Los Angeles, Ca., broke. The released water destroyed 65 homes and left 5 people dead.
(http://damsafety.water.ca.gov/about.htm)
1963 Dec 14, Dinah Washington (b.1924), known in the 50s as "Queen of the Harlem Blues," died of barbiturate poisoning in Detroit. In 2004 Nadine Cohodas authored “Queen: The Life and Times of Dinah Washington."
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.M1)
1963 Dec 20, The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays. Four thousand crossed the great wall of Berlin to visit relatives under a 17 day Christmas accord.
(AP, 12/20/98)(HN, 12/20/98)
1963 Dec 20, The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, known in German as der Auschwitz-Prozess, or der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess, (the "second Auschwitz trial") was a series of trials running from 20 December 1963 to 19 August 1965, charging 22 defendants under German criminal law for their roles in the Holocaust as mid- to lower-level officials in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death and concentration camp complex.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Auschwitz_trials)
1963 Dec 21, The Turk minority rioted in Cyprus to protest anti-Turkish revisions in the constitution.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1963 Dec 22, The official 30 days of mourning ended following the assassination of President Kennedy.
(AP, 12/22/99)
1963 Dec 24, New York’s Idlewild Airport was renamed JFK Airport in honor of the murdered President Kennedy.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1963 Dec 24, Greeks and Turks rioted in Cyprus.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1963 Dec 26, Beatles released "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There."
(MC, 12/26/01)
1963 Dec 26, "Gorgeous George" Wagner, perfumed and pampered wrestler, died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1963 Dec 28, Abbott Joseph Liebling (b.1904), American journalist and writer, died. “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." In 1980 Raymond Sokolov authored the biography “Wayward Reporter."
(www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/AbbottJoseph.htm)(SSFC, 11/21/04, p.E3)
1963 Dec 28, Paul Hindemith (b.1895), German composer (Composer's World) and violist, died. His work included "Cardillac."
(WUD, 1994, p.672)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)(MC, 12/28/01)
1963 Dec 30, Alessandra Mussolini, actress (Ferragosto OK), was born in Naples, Italy.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1963 Dec 30, Congress authorized the Kennedy half dollar.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1963 Dec, US Cpl. Jerry W. Parrish (19) deserted to North Korea and later died there of natural causes.
(SFC, 8/16/04, p.A5)
1963 Konrad Fischer (1939-1996) founded the Capital Realism art movement in Germany. It was a figurative painting style that was a response to American Pop Art.
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.B2)
1963 Lucien Freud painted "Man’s Head (Self-Portrait III)."
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.1)
1963 Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (b.1929) led in the creation of installation art with her show: “Aggregation: One thousands Boats Show," at the Gertrude Stein gallery in NYC. It featured a rowing boat filled with phallic sculptures installed in a room papered with 999 black-and-white photographic reproductions of the work.
(Econ, 2/4/12, p.84)
1963 Pan Tianshou, a traditional-style Chinese painter, created "Red Lotus."
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)
1963 Andy Warhol created his image "Large Triple Elvis."
(NH, 6/01, p.48)
1963 Andy Warhol painting created his painting “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)." In 2013 it sold for $105 million at an auction in NYC. This was a new record for a Warhol painting.
(SFC, 11/14/13, p.A9)
1963 Hannah Arendt authored "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil."
(WSJ, 8/31/99, p.A22)
1963 Harold Barnett and Chandler Morse wrote "Scarcity and Growth." They documented price declines through history to indicate an increased availability of natural resources rather than a growing scarcity.
(WSJ, 4/22/97, p.A22)
1963 Nora Beloff (1919-1997), British political writer and foreign correspondent, wrote "The General Says No: Britain’s Exclusion from Europe."
(SFC, 2/24/96, p.A17)
1963 Alton L. Blakeslee (d.1997 at 83) wrote "Your Heart has Nine Lives" with Dr. Jeremiah B. Stamler. He was the chief science writer for the Associated Press (AP) for 3 decades.
(SFC, 5/14/97, p.A22)
1963 John Campbell Bruce (1906-1996) wrote "Escape From Alcatraz". It was based on a true 1962 escape. The book was turned into a film in 1979.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.20)
1963 John le Carre (b.1931 as David Cornwell) authored “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold."
(Econ, 5/18/13, IL p.19)
1963 Donald Davidson (d.2003 at 86), Prof. of Philosophy at UC Berkeley, authored "Actions, Reasons and Causes."
(SFC, 9/4/03, p.A23)
1963 John Fowles (1926-2005), English novelist, authored "The Collector."
(Econ, 11/1/03, p.82)(SFC, 11/8/05, p.B5)
1963 The "Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan (1921-2006) was published.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A21)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A6)
1963 Milton Friedman (1912-2006) and Anna Jacobson Schwartz authored “A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960." They argued that the US depression of the 1930s was the result of an inept Federal Reserve.
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A15)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.80)
1963 Richard Jennings, Prof. at UC Boalt School of Law, co-authored with Harold Marsh Jr. "Securities Regulation - Cases & Materials," the 1st casebook on securities regulation.
(SFEM, 8/22/99, p.A22)
1963 Prof. Peter Kennedy (1923-2006) co-wrote the textbook “Pathology of Domestic Animals."
(SFC, 8/10/06, p.B7)
1963 Dr. Ivo John Lederer (d.1998 at 68) authored "Yugoslavia at the Peace Conference." He was the founder and director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.D4)
1963 Abraham Maslow, a pioneer of humanistic psychology, wrote "Eupsychian Management, A Journal." It described the management style he witnessed at Non-Linear Systems. He labeled it "enlightened management" to describe work conditions that incorporated synergy and led to individual "self-actualization."
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.B1)(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.B1)
1963 Ernst Mayr wrote "Animal Species and Evolution."
(NH, 2/97, p.69)
1963 Mary McCarthy authored her novel “The Group." It followed a group of Vassar graduates from 1933 to the start of WWII.
(WSJ, 4/19/08, p.W8)
1963 William McPhee authored “Formal Theories of Mass Behaviour."
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.80)
1963 James Michener (d.1997 at 90) wrote his novel "Caravans," the fruit of wide-ranging trips to Afghanistan in the mid-1950s.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.W8)
1963 "The American Way of Death" by Jessica Mitford (d.7/24/96) was published. It was an expose of the funeral industry in the US. A revised edition was published in 1998.
(SFC, 6/30/96, Zone 1 p.3)(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR p.1)
1963 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, later senator and ambassador, authored "Beyond the Melting Pot," a description of the ethnic groups in NYC.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A2)
1963 Sir Lawrence van der Post (1906-1996) wrote "The Seed and the Sower." It was filmed in 1983 as Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence with David Bowie.
(SFC, 12/17/96, p.B4)
1963 Dawn Powell published the novel "The Golden Spur."
(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR p.5)
1963 Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., former head of General Motors Corp., authored "My Life With General Motors."
(F, 10/7/96, p.132)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.123)
1963 Ezra Solomon (d.2002 at 82), Stanford economics professor, authored "The Theory of Financial Management."
(SFC, 12/21/02, p.A22)
1963 Jim Thompson authored his novel "The Grifters." It was made into a film in 1990.
(WSJ, 8/27/01, p.A13)
1963 Charles Webb authored his novel "The Graduate." It was turned into a movie in 1967.
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.B1)
1963 The English satirical musical “Oh, What a Lovely War!" was directed by Joan Littlewood (1914-2002) and based on Alan Clark’s “The Donkeys" (1961), a scathing examination of British First World War generals.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Littlewood)
1963 The musical show "110 in the Shade" was based on the Richard Nash play "the Rainmaker."
(USAT, 11/12/99, p.1E)
1963 The George Balanchine choreographed the ballet "Bugaku."
(WSJ, 10/21/99, p.A20)
1963 Flemming Flindt created a dance work titled "The Lesson" based on a 1951 work by Eugene Ionesco.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.E-1)
1963 William Prince (1913-1996) played the lead role in Edward Albee’s play: "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe."
(SFC, 10/11/96, p.A24)
1963 World Press, an hour-long weekly roundup of international news stories analyzed by a panel of political analysts, debuted on KQED. Panel members, who were political science analysts specializing in each specific global area, each brought a newspaper for round table discussion. It was developed by San Francisco Supervisor Roger Boas.
(SFC, 2/14/17, p.C4)
1963 Julia Child made her TV debut as "The French Chef" on Boston's WGBH-TV. PBS picked up the show a year later.
(SFEM, 8/10/97, p.23)
1963 The TV series “Captain Amos Burke," later renamed “Amos Burke: Secret Agent," featured Gene Barry (1919-2009). The show continued to 1966.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.C5)
1963 The TV show The Saint featured Jackie Collins.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, Par p.14)
1963 Virginia Graham (d.1998) led the "Girl Talk" TV talk show until 1969.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.B6)
1963 Keith Andes (1920-2005) played the role of an amazing sleuth on the TV sitcom “Glynis." Glynis Johns played his wife.
(SFC, 11/29/05, p.B7)
1963 The TV costume game show "Let's Make a Deal" premiered and ran for 16 years in daytime and 10 years in prime time. It was hosted by Monty Hall and co-created by Stefan Hatos (d.1999 at 78).
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A22)
1963 The TV show "My Favorite Martian" starred Bill Bixby and Ray Walston (d.2000 at 86). The show ran to 1966.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A17)
1963 George Fenneman (1919-1997) began to host the TV show "Your Funny, Funny Films" on ABC. It was a forerunner to "America’s Funniest Videos."
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.A26)
1963 The first edition album "Introducing the Beatles" was produced and sold for $9,600 in 1997.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.D5)
1963 Sandy Bull (d.2001 at 60) released his 1st album "Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo." It became an underground classic.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.D6)
1963 Johnny Cash recorded his hit tune: "Ring of Fire."
(SFC, 9/13/03, p.A12)
1963 Keith Colley made a hit with "Enamorado."
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.D1)
1963 Gunship pilot James P. 'Bull' Durham (1927-2004), balladeer of the Vietnam War, recorded 10 songs about SAC in the Vietnam era. In 1971 he recorded 12 songs collected during his Vietnam tour of duty.
(www.historynet.com/james-p-bull-durham-true-balladeer-of-the-vietnam-war.htm)
1963 The Crystals made a hit with their songs “Da Doo Ron Ron" and “Then He Kissed Me" written by Ellie Greenwich (1940-2009) in collaboration with producer Phil Spector and her husband Jeff Barry.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Then_He_Kissed_Me)
1963 Koerner, Ray & Glover released their landmark album: "Blues, Rags and Hollers." Dave "Snaker" Ray, guitarist, died in 2002.
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.A23)
1963 Bob Merrill wrote the hit song "People."
(WSJ, 2/2/00, p.W8)
1963 "Deep Purple" by Nino Temple & April Stevens won the Grammy best rock-n-roll recording.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, DB p.38)
1963 The Kingston Trio made a hit with "Greenback Dollar" written by Hoyt Axton (d.1999 at age 61).
(SFC, 10/27/99, p.C4)
1963 John Corigliano composed his 4-movement Violin Sonata.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.E3)
1963 Bob Dylan’s 2nd album, "The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan," was released. Four songs were removed for the officially released version. Nat Hentoff wrote the liner notes.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 12/29/04, p.D8)
1963 The Herbie Hancock song "Watermelon Man" became a hit with a version by Mongo Santamaria (d.2003).
(SFC, 2/5/03, p.A22)
1963 Bob Gibson (1932-1996) co-wrote "Abilene" with J.D. Laudermilk, Lester Brown and Albert Stanton.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A21)
1963 The Kingsmen recorded their hit song "Louie, Louie." It became a major hit in 1964. It was written in 1955 by Richard Berry and recorded by Berry with the Pharaohs in 1957. The Kingsmen sold their rights in 1968 for a percentage of future licensing fees. The fees were not paid and the band filed suit in 1993. They won a 1995 judgement and a 1998 appeal.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A19)(SFC, 4/11/98, p.C5)
1963 Sonny Bono, songwriter, met Cherilyn (Cher) Sarkasian La Piere, singer, at a Hollywood coffee shop. The pair went on to record "I Got You Babe," The Beat Goes On," and "All I Ever Need Is You." Bono wrote the Jackie DeShannon hit of this year "Needles and Pins."
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.A11)
1963 Marvin Gaye sang "Hitch Hike."
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D1)
1963 Al Hirt (1922-1999), New Orleans trumpet player, made a hit with his instrumental "Java." He won a 1964 Grammy best nonjazz instrumental for the tune.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.C4)
1963 Clement Dodd opened his record studio at 13 Brentford Road, Kingston, Jamaica, and soon began recording Bob Marley and the Wailers.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.80)
1963 Martha and the Vandellas sang "Heat Wave."
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D1)
1963 Curtis Mayfield (b.1942) and the Impressions had a hit with the song "It's All Right."
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C1)
1963 Wayne Newton (22) made a hit with “Danke Schoen."
(SSFC, 11/16/14, DB p.46)
1963 Roy Nichols (d.2001 at 68) joined Merle Haggard’s band the Strangers. He helped create the Bakersfield sound.
(SFC, 7/5/01, p.D2)
1963 Jack Nitzsche (d.2000) made his solo recording "The Lonely Surfer." He went on to compose over 30 film scores.
(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.49)
1963 The Ronettes singing trio made a hit with "Be My Baby," written by Ellie Greenwich (1940-2009) in collaboration with producer Phil Spector and her husband Jeff Barry. It epitomized the famed "wall of sound" technique of its producer, Phil Spector.
(AP, 2/13/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellie_Greenwich)
1963 Ruby and the Romantics had a hit with “Our Day Will Come," co-written by Mort Garson (1924-2008) and Bob Hilliard.
(SFC, 1/16/08, p.B9)
1963 The Singing Nun made a hit with "Dominique." The song praised the 13th century crusade against the Cathars. It was written by Noel Regney. His 1962 poem "Do You Hear What I Hear" was recorded by Bing Crosby.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(SFC, 11/28/02, p.A30)
1963 Dusty Springfield recorded "I Only Want to Be With You."
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C6)
1963 Stevie Wonder sang "Fingertips (Part 2)."
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D1)
1963 Jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson began recording for Blue Note.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, DB p.32)
1963 Miles Davis heard Tony Williams playing drums with saxophonist Jackie McLean and hired him. Williams stayed with Davis until 1969. Their recording included "E.S.P.," "Nefertiti and "Filles de Kilamanjaro."
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.B2)
1963 Frank Zappa wrote his rock opera "I Was a Teenage Maltshop."
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.M3)
1963 David M. Solinger (1906-1996), the first non-Whitney president of the Whitney Museum, led a drive as a trustee to construct the granite building on the Upper East Side of NY by Marcel Breuer. In 1966 he succeeded Flora Whitney Miller as president.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.C2)
1963 L.M. Boyd began a column of odds and ends for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It was picked up by the SF Chronicle in 1968 and called "The Grab Bag." Boyd retired at the end of 2000 after 40 years of writing.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.D3)
1963 The “Bill Dana Show," on which Dana played Jose Jimenez as a hotel bellhop, began airing on NBC and continued to1965.
(SFC, 6/21/17, p.D8)
1963 The 59-story Pan Am building on Park Ave. was completed. Walter Gropius was the principal designer. In 2004 Meredith D. Clausen authored “The Pan Am Building."
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A26)(WSJ, 12/9/04, p.D10)
1963 In NYC Frank Lloyd (d.1998 at 86) opened the Marlborough Gallery. He was involved in the 1970s Rothko art scandal.
(SFC, 4/8/98, p.B2)
1963 Harvey R. Ball (d.2001 at 79), advertising executive, created the yellow smiley face (happy face) for the Massachusetts based State Mutual Life Assurance Company of America. He was paid $45 for the artwork and never applied for a trademark or copyright. In 2006 Darrin M. McMahon authored “Happiness: A History."
(SFC, 4/17/01, p.A20)(Econ, 1/14/06, p.82)
1963 In Daly City, Ca., the First National Bank of Daly City opened. It was later renamed the First National Bank of Northern California.
(https://www.fnbnorcal.com/about-us)
1963 San Francisco featured topless waitresses.
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)
1963 Barbara Epstein (1928-2006), Jason Epstein, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick founded the NY Review of Books.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.79)
1963 Marcus Raskin and Richard Barnet co-founded the DC-based liberal Institute for Policy Studies think tank.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Policy_Studies)(SFC, 12/28/17, p.D5)
1963 The Oral Roberts Univ. in Tulsa, Okla., founded by Oral Roberts (1918-2009), was chartered.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.C5)
1963 Albert Lippert (d.1998 at 72), a garment executive, first took a successful Weight Watchers diet class with Jean Nidetch (1923-2015) on Long Island. They expanded the program into a company and sold public stock in 1968. In 1978 the operation was sold to H.J. Heinz for $72 million. The program remained unchanged until 1997 when a point system replaced selections from food groups. Its diet classes were sold to in 1999 for $735 million to private European investment company Artal Luxembourg.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Nidetch)(WSJ, 6/12/97, p.B4)(SFC, 3/4/98, p.C4)
1963 Ikko Tanaka founded his Ikko Tanaka Design Studio and began establishing himself as one of the most successful graphic designers in the field.
(Hem, 4/96, p.8)
1963 Harriet Schaffer (d.1998 at 65), a pioneer in early childhood education, began her career at the Tic Toc Nursery School in Richmond, Ca. Under her leadership Tic Toc became a pilot school for the newly created federal Head Start program.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.C2)
1963 Al Davis (33) took over as head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W39)(SFC, 1/22/03, p.A10)
1963 The North course for golf at Kaanapali on Maui was designed by Robert Trent Jones.
(Hem, 4/96, p.42)
1963 Eugene Paul Wigner (1902-1995), Hungarian-born mathematician and physicist, won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
(HN, 11/17/00)(MC, 11/17/01)
1963 Giorgos Seferis (1900-1971), Turkish-born Greek poet, won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Seferis was the pen name of Georgios Seferiades
(AP, 10/8/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgos_Seferis)
1963 Sir Andrew Huxley (1917-2012), British neurophysiologist shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Alan Hodgkin and John Eccles.
(Econ, 6/16/12, p.102)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Huxley)
1963 Pres. John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act, which aimed to close asylums and treat mental disorders more like illnesses and less like crimes.
(Econ, 7/11/15, SR p.7)
1963 Federal troops were used to force Alabama Gov. George Wallace to accept black students at the state’s university. [see 1962]
(WSJ, 5/13/96, p.A-16)
1963 Richard Nixon selected Leonard Garment, New York lawyer, as a special consultant. Garment published his personal memoir in 1997 "Crazy Rhythm."
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A12)
1963 The US Congress passed the Equal Pay Act that banned gender-based wage discrimination.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1963 The US Supreme Court ruled in Ker v California that police may enter someone’s home without a warrant and without knocking or announcing themselves.
(Econ, 7/13/13, p.73)
1963 The US Board of Geographic Names banned the word "Nigger" from appearing on any federal map.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A20)
1963 The American CIA developed a manual for counterintelligence interrogation for use in Vietnam.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A3)
1963 George Joannides, a CIA agent, was in charge of the Revolutionary Students Directorate (DRE), one of the most powerful Cuban anti-Castro organizations in Miami. A few months before the assassination of JFK the DRE had significant contacts with Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald tried to infiltrate the New Orleans branch of the DRE.
(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M5)
1963 Winston Scott served as American CIA station chief in Mexico during the time that Lee Harvey Oswald visited the Cuban Embassy there. In 2008 Jefferson Morley authored “Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA." Morley proposed that Scott later covered up CIA operations that involved Oswald.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKscottW.htm)(WSJ, 3/20/08, p.D7)
1963 Mildred and Ray Connett (d.1997) opened the 90-acre Glen Eden Sun Club, a California nudist resort.
(SFC, 4/21/97, p.A20)
1963 San Francisco's Presidio was declared a National Historic Landmark.
(SSFC, 12/1/19, p.A13)
1963 The Chinese Historical Society of America opened in SF. It was the first of its kind in the country.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.6)
1963 In California the 400-foot high Cold Spring Canyon Bridge was built on Highway 154 to carry travelers from San Marcos Pass into the Santa Ynez Valley. By 2009 at least 48 deaths from suicide off the bridge were recorded.
(SFC, 7/24/09, p.D7)
1963 The first Renaissance Pleasure Faire was held in southern California. In 1967 it expanded to the SF Bay Area. By 2008 some 150 such events were held across the US.
(SFC, 7/22/98, p.D1)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.44)
1963 Hyron Spinrad of UC Berkeley and others found only a trace of water vapor in the thin atmosphere of Mars and confirmed that liquid water on its cold surface was almost impossible.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A17)
1963 The Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant began generating power for consumers in Northern California. It was shut down in 1976.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.C4)(SFC, 7/17/04, p.B2)
1963 In Florida two white gas station attendants were murdered in Port St. Joe. Two black men were convicted twice by all-white juries in the murders and spent nine years on death row. Curtis "Boo" Adams, a white man, later admitted to the murders. In 1998 Freddie Pitts (54) and Wilbert Lee (62) received $500,000 each from the state for wrongful conviction.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A2)
1963 In Louisiana Henry Montgomery (17) shot and killed a white police officer. He was soon convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Two years later the state Supreme Court revisited the case and in a new trial he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In 2012 the US Supreme Court decided Miller v. Alabama, in which the Court held that mandatory sentencing schemes requiring children convicted of homicide to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole violate the Eighth Amendment. In 2018 a three-member parole panel voted 2-1 to keep Montgomery in prison.
(www.oyez.org/cases/2015/14-280)(Econ, 10/17/15, p.31)(SFC, 2/20/18, p.A5)
1963 Ralph Roberts, former marketer of Muzak and owner of a belts and suspenders company, and his partners, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky, purchased for $500,000, a 1,200-subscriber cable TV operator in Tupelo, Mississippi, called American Cable Systems. In 1969 it was incorporated in Pennsylvania and renamed Comcast, a name Ralph invented by combining the words communications and broadcasting. The company went public in 1972.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_J._Roberts)(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.I6)
1963 Billie Sol Estes (b.1925)), Texas swindler, was convicted on federal charges. He served 6 years of a 15 year sentence. In 1979 he was convicted of tax fraud and served 4 more years.
(SFC, 5/16/13, p.D5)
1963 Madalyn Murray O’Hair, leader of United Secularists of America (American Atheists), took credit for a suit filed against the government that ultimately led to the removal of the Bible and sponsored prayer from public schools. She and her family disappeared in Aug, 1995 with more than $600,000 in funds from her various organizations. Her diaries, some 2,000 pages, were scheduled to be auctioned in 1999.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A4)(SFC, 1/12/99, p.A4)(SFC, 5/27/99, p.A3)
1963 Stanley H. Durwood, founder of AMC Entertainment, first split a Kansas City theater in half and invented the multiplex cinema theater.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.52)
1963 Chrysler became the majority holder of Simca. By 1970 it changed the name to Chrysler France.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1963 Coca-Cola launched its Tab soft drink.
(SSFC, 10/21/18, p.D2)
1963 GM introduced the Malibu, named after the California city, as a top line option on various 1964 Chevelles.
(WSJ, 4/1/09, p.A20)
1963 GM opened a 380-acre assembly plant in Fremont, Ca., GM closed the plant in 1982.
(SSFC, 2/28/10, p.D1)
1963 Studebaker halted production of its cars. Some 4,000 employees lost their company pensions as the firm permanently closed its plant in South Bend, Ind. This led to the passage of the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 2/14/02, p.B1)(Econ, 7/11/15, p.28)
1963 Edward Walker (d.2000) began marketing his invention called the "Astro lamp." It later became known as the lava lamp.
(SFEC, 8/20/00, p.B9)
1963 The Proctor & Gamble Company purchased the SF based Folger Coffee. In 1994 P&G closed the Folgers plant in South San Francisco, the brands last presence in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1963 Herb Sandler, a NY lawyer, and Marion Sandler, a Wall Street analyst, bought the 2-branch World Savings and Loan Association (later Golden West Financial corp.) of Oakland, Ca., for $3.8 million. They sold the company in 2006 to Wachovia for $24.2 billion.
(SFC, 5/9/06, p.C1)
1963 American Sugar Refining Company changed its name to American Sugar Company.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1963 The Lestoil Co. of Holyoke, Mass., began selling its liquid cleaner in special-edition reproduction glass flasks, which resembled 19th century whiskey flasks. The special edition ended in 1964.
(SFC, 5/28/08, p.G2)
1963 McDonald’s logo "Speedee" was dropped in favor of Ronald McDonald. The company hit the 1 billion mark in this year.
(SFC, 7/3/96, z-1 p.7)(WSJ, 11/13/98, p.B1)
1963 Alan Maxwell Pottasch (1927-2007), adman for Pepsi-Cola Co., launched the “Pepsi Generation" ad campaign.
(WSJ, 8/4/07, p.A4)
1963 Richard Trentlage, Indiana songwriter, wrote the TV jingle “I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener," and had it sung by his kids.
(WSJ, 8/11/07, p.A6)
1963 The W.R. Grace company began operating the Zonolite Mountain vermiculite mine and continued to 1990. The vermiculite was naturally mixed geologically with asbestos. By 2009 at least 200 people died of asbestos related diseases and hundreds more were sickened.
(SFC, 5/9/09, p.A6)
1963 J.L. Wade (1913-2007) built his first purple martin bird houses in Griggsville, Illinois. In 1965 he authored “What You Should Know About the Purple Martin," which became a bestseller among ornithologists. Wade claimed that each bird ate some 2,000 mosquitoes per day.
(WSJ, 6/23/07, p.A8)
1963 Quasars, Quasi-Stellar Radio Sources, powerful astrophysical sources of light, were first discovered. Maarten Schmidt first observed the object called 3C273 and found that it was racing away from Earth at 30,000 miles per second. Prof. Jesse Greenstein (d.2002 at 93) and Maarten Schmidt led quasar research and began to realize that quasars were the most distant objects in the universe.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.A9)(NH, 5/97, p.66)(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.32)(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A24)
1963 Astronomer Gail Smith discovered a strange intergalactic gas cloud near the Milky Way. It became known as Smith’s cloud. In 20 million to 40 million years the cloud will smash into the outer part of the Milky Way.
(http://stardate.org/radio/program/smiths-cloud)
1963 Protons and neutrons were given structure; quark theory was proposed. Murray Gell-Mann at Caltech and George Zweig at CERN proposed small building blocks for particles and call them quarks and aces. Gell-Mann took the quark name from a James Joyce phrase in Finnegan's Wake: "three quarks for muster Mark."
(NG, May 1985, p. 645)(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A2)
1963 George Grover (1915-1996), nuclear physicist, solved a heat-transfer problem by developing the first working heat pipe.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, p.C12)
1963 Ray Dolby, while working in India, conceived of separating recorded sound into 2 channels as a means to strip away unwanted tape recording noise. His 1st prototype was completed in London in 1966.
(SFC, 3/29/04, p.D1)
1963 A vaccine for measles became available. In the previous decade some 450,000 cases were reported in the US with about 450 deaths per year.
(SFC, 12/22/06, p.A18)
1963 At the Mayo Clinic the kidney transplant program began and the artificial kidney center opened.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1963 Dr. Michael DeBakey came out with his interthoracic pump, a device to pump blood in lieu of the heart. De Bakey made history this year by installing an artificial pump to assist a patient's damaged heart.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, Z1 p.2)(www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/coo0pro-1)
1963 The Fogarty Embolectomy Catheter, invented by Dr. Tom Fogarty to remove clots in arteries, was first used successfully.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.A17)
1963 Drs. Vincent J. Freda (d.2003 at 75) and John G. Gorman of Columbia Univ. discovered that if an Rh-negative woman was given an injection of a vaccine called Rhogam, her body would not attack her fetus' blood cells. Up to this time the 15% of women in birth with Rh-negative blood and a Rh-positive father faced the potentially fatal hemolytic disease.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.A29)
1963 The first liver transplant was performed by a surgical team led by Dr. Thomas Starzl of Denver, Colorado.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_transplantation)
1963 Profs. Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks, engineers at the Univ. of Michigan, created the 1st working hologram. Pieter van Heerden of Polaroid Research Labs pioneered the holographic principle.
(MT, Summer/04, p.8)(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.28)
1963 W.D. Hamilton (d.2000 at 63) published his theory of "inclusive fitness" in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. A 2nd paper followed in 1964. He set out to explain the evolutionary basis of altruism and the apparent contradiction between survival of the fittest and behavior that benefits kin.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D8)
1963 Laetrile, a purported anti-cancer drug, was temporarily banned. It was invented by Ernst T. Krebs (1877-1970) from a derivative of amygdalin, an extract of apricot pits.
(SFC, 9/12/96, p.A26)
1963 America's bald eagles were estimated to be down to about 417 nesting pairs because of of the eggshell-thining phenomenon caused by the DDT pesticide, banned in 1972. By 2021 the bald eagle population had recovered to an estimated 74,400 nesting pairs.
(SSFC, 4/11/21, p.A18)
1963 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was founded. It is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUCN_Red_List)
1963 US Country music singer Patsy Cline (Kline) died in a plane crash.
(WSJ, 8/29/96, p.B1)(Hem., 4/97, p.69)
1963 Charles T. Fisher (1880-1963) died. He and his brother Frederic J. Fisher (1878-1941) established the Fisher Body Co. in 1908. They sold their operations to GM in 1926.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1963 Robert Lee Frost (b.1874), poet, died at age 88.
(MT, Win. ‘96, p.5)(WUD, 1994, p.571)
1963 Aldous Huxley (b.1894), English author, died. His books included "Brave New World." In 2001 Ivan R. Dee published "Aldous Huxley: Complete Essays: Volume IV, 1936-1938."
(AP, 7/13/97)(AP, 7/26/98)
1963 David Low (72), British political cartoonist, died.
(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.D7)
1963 Pu Ru, master Chinese calligraphy artist, died in the US.
(WSJ, 12/7/00, p.A24)
1963 Martin Ramirez (b.1895), institutionalized Mexican-born artist, died in DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn, Ca. He had been institutionalized since 1931 after being diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia. His last 15 years were spent at DeWitt, where much of his art was created.
(SFC, 7/14/07, p.E10)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.104)
1963 Theodore Roethke, poet, died at age 55. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for "The Waking," a collection of 3 earlier books.
(MT, Summer 01, p.2)
1963 Alfred Sessler (b.1909), WPA artist, died.
(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A20)
1963 Mohamed Khider (1912-1967), Algerian politician, went into exile in Switzerland, bringing $12-14 million of party funds with him, saying they would be used to finance a political opposition to continue the "genuine" nationalist tradition of the FLN.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Khider)
1963 In Austria a Vienna Convention produced a treaty that protected the right of individuals jailed in a foreign land to contact their national consulate.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.A3)
1963 Vaclav Havel, later president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Rep. (1990-2003), published his first play: “The Garden Party." It was first performed at the Theatre on the Balustrade in Prague.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.B1)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.32)
1963 The British sci-fi TV series Dr. Who began. It reach the US in 1978. It featured a space traveling Doctor who was hundreds of years old from the planet Gellifrey. He used a London police call box as the external form of his space vessel. The interior was spacious with comfortable Edwardian touches.
(SFC, 5/14/96, E-1)
1963 Britain relaxed laws on betting. Gambling as a result moved off tracks to betting shops. By 2006 attendance at dog races fell to some 3.6 million from a high of 38 million in 1936.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.74)
1963 The military junta of Burma (later Myanmar) nationalized the banks.
(Econ, 10/25/14, p.75)
1963 Mobutu, chief of staff of the army of Congo-Kinshasa [later Zaire], visited the US White House as a guest of Pres. Kennedy.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)
1963 Carlos Julio Arosemena, president of Ecuador, was deposed in a military coup.
(AP, 3/5/04)
1963 Eritrea began a war for independence against Ethiopia.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A14)
1963 The EU signed a trade deal in Yaounde, Cameroon, to keep markets open to former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands (ACP).
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.78)
1963 France erected giant concrete buildings to house a growing working class and North African immigrants. These included the “Cite des 4,000" in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve.
(WSJ, 11/14/05, p.A1)
1963 A glorified food blender was a product of the French restaurant supply giant Robot-Coupe. In 1973 Carl Sontheimer (d.1998 at 83) introduced his redesigned Cuisinart at a show in Chicago.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B4)
1963 French retailer Carrefour SA invented hypermarkets, huge emporiums that combined the wares of supermarkets and department stores.
(WSJ, 11/30/06, p.A1)
1963 French residents of Monaco became liable for French taxes.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.85)
1963 The paleolithic site of Lascaux, by the village of Montignac, France, was closed to the public by Andre Malraux, minister of cultural affairs, due to environmental damage caused by large numbers of tourists.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p.489)
1963 Ludwig Erhard, head of the Christian Democratic Union, replaced Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor and served to 1966.
(AP, 11/21/05)
1963 In Greece Andreas Papandreou became a government minister under his father George, a centrist premier.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.B6)
1963 In Honduras Col. Oswaldo Lopez Arellano (1921-2010), with the backing of the military, ousted civilian President Ramon Villeda Morales.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A8)(AP, 5/17/10)
1963 India’s huge Bhakra dam was built in Himachal Pradesh. It brought 7 million hectares of northwest India under irrigation.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.28)
1963 Ray Dolby, while working in India, conceived of separating recorded sound into 2 channels as a means to strip away unwanted tape recording noise. His 1st prototype was completed in London in 1966.
(SFC, 3/29/04, p.D1)
1963 India’s space program began in Trivandrum, Kerala, in this year. The Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Trivandrum was named for the father of Indian rocketry.
(NG, 5/88, p.598)
1963 In Indonesia a new anti-subversion law was instituted with penalties of death or 20 years in prison.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A14)
1963 Indonesia passed “Law number 4" to sanction fierce censorship. It was lifted for the press in 1999.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.43)
1963 Sovereignty over West Papua was transferred from the Netherlands to Indonesia. A UN approved referendum, involving some 1,000 handpicked pro-Jakarta Papuans, ratified the annexation in 1969.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A23)
1963 The western part of the island of New Guinea, Irian Jaya, became a province of Indonesia. It was formerly a Dutch territory called West New Guinea, Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea. A West Papua pro-independence movement began and by 2004 an estimated 100,000 civilians had died in the struggle.
(WUD, 1994, p.1623)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)
1963 Left leaning students sympathetic to Iran’s former PM Mohammed Mossadeq, deposed in 1953, founded Mujahedin e-Kalq (People’s Mujahedin of Iran).
(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.A10)
1963 Iraq renounced its claim laid to Kuwait.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A9)
1963 In Israel activated the main components of its Dimona nuclear plant. At the time the government claimed that Dimona was a textile plant.
(Econ, 5/21/16, p.40)
1963 Japan’s Shimano Corp. introduced a cold forging plant to press precision parts for bicycles using dies and high pressure to form metal at room temp.
(Hem, 8/96, p.34)
1963 Kenya gained independence from Britain and the Kenyan African National Union Party began ruling.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A8)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1963 The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) was established to regulate films.
(http://kfcb.co.ke/)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.42)
1963 In Lesotho Moshoeshoe II was crowned king.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.14A)
1963 The three provinces of Libya, Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the south, and Tripolitania in the west, were abolished and the country became a unitary state.
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/148654/Cyrenaica) (Econ, 1/10/15, p.22)
1963 The population of Malawi was estimated at about 3.75 million.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1963 In Guadalajara, Mexico, Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala (b.1878), co-founder of the Congregation of the Servants of St. Margaret Maria and of the Poor, died in the Santa Margarita Hospital she helped found. Zavala, aka Madre Lupita, had decided at 22 to dedicate herself to helping the sick. Her religious mission played out during a period of tension between church and state, when tens of thousands of people were killed during a 1926-1929 uprising by Roman Catholic rebels against anti-clerical laws. She was beatified in 2004 by Pope John Paul II. In 2013 she was canonized as a saint by Pope Francis.
(AP, 4/24/04)(AP, 5/12/13)
1963 In Mexico during the administration of Lopez Mateos soldiers took part in the mutilation killing of a leader of coffee farmers in the community of El Ticui. The event was documented in a 2006 government report on Mexico’s “dirty war."
(AP, 2/27/06)
1963 Lou Ottens (1926-2021) and his team at Philips, the Dutch electronics company, introduced the cassette tape as a way to play music in a portable fashion. The invention revolutionized the music business.
(NY Times, 3/11/21)
1963 Islamabad replaced Karachi as the capital of Pakistan.
(http://wikitravel.org/en/Islamabad)
1963 Roland Rowland (d.1998) became chief executive of the London and Rhodesia Mining and Land Co. (Lonrho). Over the next 30 years "Tiny" turned it into a conglomerate with more than 1000 subsidiaries in over 60 countries.
(SFC, 7/28/98, p.A20)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.62)
1963 Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) ended a federation with Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.63)
1963 In Senegal the Grand Mosque of Touba, home to the tomb of Sheikh Amadou Bamba, was completed. It was begun in 1926, a year before Bamba’s death.
(SSFC, 12/15/13, p.P3)
1963 In South Africa Albie Sachs was jailed without charges for 168 days. He described his experience in the book: "The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, z1 p.7)
1963 In South Africa Arthur Goldreich (1929-2011), who helped the anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela hide out on a farm by posing as his employer, was arrested. Goldreich and his family pretended to be the owners of a farm on the outskirts of Johannesburg that was the ANC underground headquarters in the 1960s. The raid on the farm led to the Rivonia Trial, and decades in prison for Mandela. Goldreich and three others escaped from a downtown Johannesburg police station and made it out of South Africa disguised as a priest. He eventually settled in Israel.
(AP, 5/25/11)
1963 South Africa conducted a joint nuclear test with Israel, but the Israelis did not confirm the report.
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A2)
1963 Andrew Mlangeni (1925-2020) returned to South Africa and became a member of the high command of the ANC's armed movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Nelson Mandela had selected him to join five other men in the first group of South African anti-apartheid activists to be sent to China for training.
(BBC, 7/22/20)
1963 Josef Brodsky was tried by a Soviet judge on a charge of parasitism. The judge asked Brodsky: "Who gave you the authority to call yourself a poet?" Mr. Brodsky replied: "No one. Who gave me the authority to enter the human race?"
(G&M, 2/2/96, p.A-22)
1963 The Soviet Union planned to harness hydroelectric power and feed a huge aluminum smelter in Tajikistan.
(WSJ, 7/2/98, p.A1)
1963 In Switzerland Werner Thomas, accordionist, began performing a tune he’d written in the late 1950s at his restaurant in Davos. The tune later became known worldwide as the chicken dance.
(WSJ, 7/16/01, p.A1)
1963 The Muslim Brotherhood was banned in Syria following the Baath party coup.
(Econ, 2/18/12, p.50)
1963 In Vietnam the Battle of Ap Bac was fought.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)
1963 Aden (South Yemen) was amalgamated with the British protectorate to form the Federation of South Arabia which resulted in rioting.
(www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/yemen.htm)
1963-1964 "The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964" by historian Michael R. Beschloss was published in 1997.
(SFC, 10/6/97, p.A2)
1963-1964 In Afghanistan Zahir Shah demanded Daoud's resignation. Dr. Mohammad Yusof became Prime Minister.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)
1963-1965 This period is covered by Taylor Branch in his 2nd volume of 3 on the civil rights era: "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years." The 1st volume "Parting the Water" was published in 1988.
(WSJ, 1/16/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 1/25/98, BR p.1)
1963-1966 In 2017 thousands of files from the US Embassy in Jakarta covering this period were made public after a declassification review that began under the Obama administration. They revealed new details of US government knowledge and support of an Indonesian army extermination campaign that killed several hundred thousand civilians during anti-communist hysteria in the mid-1960s.
{Indonesia, USA}
(AP, 10/17/17)
1963-1968 Lester B. Pearson, Liberal Party, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Canada.
(CFA, '96, p.81)
1963-1968 Jozef Lenart (d.2004) served as prime minister of Czechoslovakia.
(AP, 2/12/04)
1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson served as the 36th President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96h, photo)
1963-1969 Denys Rackley (d.1998 at 76), Carthusian monk, helped build the only American monastery of the Carthusian order, the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration in Arlington, Vt. He trained at the Carthusian order’s mother house in La Grand Chartreuse, France, where the order is supported by the sale of its Chartreuse liqueur.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1963-1972 Jose Mujica was a leader of the leftist Tupamaro guerrillas who fought Uruguay's governments during this period. In 2009 Mujica was elected president.
(AP, 1/29/11)
1963-1973 The 1975 US Church committee report on CIA activity in Chile included a chronology that covered this period.
(http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/churchreport.htm)
1963-1974 Dr. Charles Weldon served in Laos as the chief medical officer for USAID. In 1999 Weldon authored "Tragedy in Paradise: A Country doctor at War in Laos."
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.A23)
1963-1994 King Hussein of Jordan (1935-1999) held at least 55 secret meetings with leading Israelis including at least seven prime and foreign ministers.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.88)
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