What happened in 1963

World7

• Jan 17A last quarter moon occurs between the penumbral lunar eclipse and the annular solar eclipse, only 12 hours, 29 minutes after apogee.
• Jan 25A large annular solar eclipse covers 99.5% of the Sun and a narrow path (at most 19.6 km (12.2 mi)). It is visible in Chile, Argentina, South Africa and Madagascar, and is the 26th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 140. Gamma has a value of -0.48984.
• Jun 20Establishment of the Moscow–Washington hotline (officially, the Direct Communications Link or DCL; unofficially, the "red telephone"; and in fact a teleprinter link) is authorized by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.
• Aug 30The Moscow–Washington hotline (a direct teleprinter link) is inaugurated by U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
• Sep 29The second period of the Second Vatican Council in Rome opens.
• Oct 10Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed on August 5, takes effect.
• Dec 4The second period of the Second Vatican Council closes.

Japan2

• JanAstro Boy begins airingOn January 1, Tezuka Osamu's anime began on Fuji TV. It was Japan's first weekly 30-minute TV anime, and it kept up with the weekly schedule by drawing fewer frames. It also aired in the United States as Astro Boy.
• Nov 9Tsurumi rail accident: A triple train disaster in Yokohama kills 161.

North America26

• Mar 5Country music star Patsy Cline is killed in a plane crash along with country performers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and manager Randy Hughes, during a flight from Kansas City, Missouri, back to Nashville.
• Apr 8The 35th Academy Awards ceremony is held. Lawrence of Arabia wins Best Picture.
• Apr 20In Quebec, Canada, members of the terrorist group Front de libération du Québec bomb a Canadian Army recruitment center, killing night watchman Wilfred V. O'Neill.
• May 15Project Mercury: NASA launches Gordon Cooper on Mercury-Atlas 9, the last Mercury mission (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb tells Congress the program is complete).
• Jun 4President of the United States John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to continue issuing silver certificates.
• Jun 20War film The Great Escape (starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough) is premiered in London.
• Jun 26John F. Kennedy gives his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin, Germany.
• Aug 28Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of at least 250,000, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It is, at that point, the single largest protest in American history.
• Sep 15American civil rights movement: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in Birmingham, Alabama, kills 4 and injures 22.
• Sep 24The United States Senate ratifies the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• Oct 1U.S. President John F. Kennedy toasts Emperor Haile Selassie at a luncheon in Rockville, Maryland.
• Nov 1Arecibo Observatory, a radio telescope, officially begins operation in Puerto Rico.
• Nov 22Assassination of John F. Kennedy: In a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, U.S. President John F. Kennedy is fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, and Governor of Texas John Connally is seriously wounded at 12:30 CST. Upon Kennedy's death, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes the 36th president of the United States.
• Nov 29U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
• Dec 3The Warren Commission begins its investigation into the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.

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Europe11

• Jan 22France and West Germany sign the Élysée Treaty.
• Mar 4In Paris, six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle pardons five, but the other conspirator, Jean Bastien-Thiry, is executed by firing squad several days later.
• Mar 22The Beatles first album Please Please Me was released in the UK and became a huge commercial success.
• Mar 23"Dansevise" by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann (music by Otto Francker, text by Sejr Volmer-Sørensen) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 (staged in London) for Denmark.
• Apr 11Pope John XXIII issues his final encyclical, Pacem in terris, entitled On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty, the first papal encyclical addressed to "all men of good will", rather than to Roman Catholics only.
• Jun 21Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope.
• Jul 26An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (present-day North Macedonia) leaves 1,800 dead.
• Aug 8The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.
• Aug 24First games played in the Bundesliga, the primary professional Association football league in West Germany, replacing the Oberliga.
• Nov 711 German miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days in what becomes known as the "Wunder von Lengede" ("miracle of Lengede").
• Nov 23The long-running sci-fi television series Doctor Who premieres on BBC TV in the United Kingdom.

USSR / Russia2

• Jun 16Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman into space.
• Aug 5The United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Asia12

• Jan 2Vietnam War – Battle of Ap Bac: The Viet Cong win their first major victory.
• May 8Huế Phật Đản shootings: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam opens fire on Buddhists who defy a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha, killing 9. Earlier, President Ngô Đình Diệm allowed the flying of the Vatican flag in honour of his brother, Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục, triggering the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.
• Jun 3Huế chemical attacks: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam rains liquid chemicals on the heads of Buddhist protestors, injuring 67 people. The United States threatens to cut off aid to the regime of Ngô Đình Diệm.
• Jun 11In Saigon, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức commits self-immolation to protest the oppression of Buddhists by Ngô Đình Diệm's government.
• Jul 7Double Seven Day scuffle: Secret police loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, attack American journalists including Peter Arnett and David Halberstam at a demonstration during the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.
• Aug 21Xá Lợi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, vandalise Buddhist pagodas across South Vietnam, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead. In the wake of the raids, the Kennedy administration by Cable 243 orders the United States Embassy, Saigon to explore alternative leadership in the country, opening the way towards a coup against Diệm.
• Sep 16Malaysia is formed through the merging of the Federation of Malaya and the British crown colony of Singapore, North Borneo (renamed Sabah) and Sarawak.
• Sep 18Rioters burn down the British Embassy in Jakarta, to protest the formation of Malaysia.
• Oct 7Buddhist crisis: Amid worsening relations, outspoken South Vietnamese First Lady Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu arrives in the US for a speaking tour, continuing a flurry of attacks on the Kennedy administration.
• Oct 24Fire at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome in an R-9 Desna underground missile silo; seven people are killed.
• Nov 21963 South Vietnamese coup: Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnamese President.
• Nov 61963 South Vietnamese coup: Coup leader General Dương Văn Minh takes over as leader of South Vietnam.

Middle East1

• Sep 23King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals is established by a Saudi Royal Decree as the College of Petroleum and Minerals.

Latin America1

• Oct 31963 Honduran coup d'état: A violent coup in Honduras pre-empts the October 13 election, ends a period of reform under President Ramón Villeda Morales and begins two decades of military rule under General Oswaldo López Arellano.

Africa5

• Jan 131963 Togolese coup d'état: A military coup in Togo results in the installation of coup leader Emmanuel Bodjollé as president.
• May 25The Organisation of African Unity is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• Oct 2Nigeria becomes a republic; The 1st Republican Constitution is established.
• Dec 10Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom, as a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
• Dec 12Kenya gains independence from the United Kingdom, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister.