."You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."
Patsy Cline was flying home to Nashville from a performance in Kansas City, Kansas, when her plane crashed near Camden, Tennessee.
Gordon Cooper was the first astronaut to sleep while in orbit.
Medgar Evers killer was not brought to justice until 1994.
In March, U.S. Millitary Assistance Command, Vietnam, Commander General Harkins declared that "the military phase of the war can be virtually won in 1963."
Ted Kennedy was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts in his brothers' former seat.
The Beatles made their last appearance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
Sep 11th - Drummer Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best of the Beatles
Sep 22nd - Bob Dylan plays NYC Carnegie Hall
Sep 24th - US Circuit Court of Appeals orders Meredith admitted to University of Miss
Sep. 27 – Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring is released, giving rise to the modern environmentalist movement.
Oct 1st - James Meredith became 1st black at U of Mississippi
Oct 1st -- astronaut Walter Schirra completed six earth orbits in the Sigma 7 spacecraft and landed "on the dime" in the Pacific.
Oct 1st -- East German police shoot down a West Berlin tunnel digger and prevent a British officer and two ambulances from giving medical aid on the east side of the wall.
Oct 14th - US U-2 espionage planes locate missile launchers in Cuba
Oct 22nd - JFK addresses TV about Russian missile bases in Cuba
Oct 24th - Cuban missile crisis: US blockade of Cuba begins
Oct 28th - Cuban missile crisis: US President Kennedy receives letter from Soviet Leader Khrushchev suggesting agreement
Nov 7th - Richard Nixon tells press he won't be available to kick around any more after losing election for Governor of California
Nov 7th -- Ted Kennedy is elected to the Senate seat formerly held by his brother.
Nov 7th -- Eleanor Roosevelt dies
Nov 11th – Demi Moore is born
Dec 8th - 114-day newspaper strike begins in NYC
Dec 15th - Vaughn Meader's "1st Family" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 12 wks
Jan 7th - 1st class postage raised from 4 cents to 5 cents
Jan 10th -- "The First Family" sets a record, selling more than any other record album to date, 4 million
Jan 11th -- In his inaugural address, Alabama Governor, George Wallace, proclaims "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever."
Jan 29th – Robert Frost dies
February 15 – A Miami to Chicago jet airliner carrying 43 persons crashes in south Florida’s Everglades shortly after takeoff. The plane was a Boeing 720B. No one survived
Feb 17th – Michael Jordan is born
Feb 17th -- "The Femonine Mystique" by Betty Friedan is published
Feb 25th - Beatles release their 1st single in US "Please Please Me" (it fails to make the Billboard Hot 100)
Mar 5th – Patsy Cline dies in a plane crash
Mar 8th -- The Defense Department issues a draft call for 10,000 in May. It’s the same number called in April. All will serve in the army… President Kennedy orders the selective service to defer all fathers with the exception of doctors, dentists and veterinarians. Draft- aged dads previously classified as 1-A will now be a 3-A
Mar 21st - Alcatraz federal penitentiary in SF Bay closed
Apr 9th - Winston Churchill becomes 1st honorary US citizen
Apr 21st – Michael E. De Bakey implants artificial heart in human for first time at Houston hospital
May 5th – the final manned mission of the Mercury program was launched from Cape Canaveral. Astronaut Gordon Cooper completed 22 earth orbits.
May 12th - Race riot in Birmingham, Alabama
Jun 1st -- Teamster’s Union president James R. Hoffa and seven other men are indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago
June 3rd – Pope John XXIII dies
Jun 5th – British War Secretary John Profumo resigns due to scandal over affair with Christine Keeler
Jun 8th - American Heart Association is 1st agency to campaign against cigarettes
Jun 10th - US President JFK signs law for equal pay for equal work for men & women
Jun 11th - Gov Wallace tries to prevent blacks registering at University of Alabama
Jun 12th – Medger Evers shot and killed in Jackson, Mississippi by a member of the White Citizens’ Council.
Jun 16th -- The Soviet Union sends the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova into space
Jun 17th - Supreme Court rules against Bible reading/prayer in public schools
Jun 18th - 3,000 blacks boycott Boston public school
Jun 21st - Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds John XXIII
Jun 26th - US President John Kennedy visits West Berlin "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner";or is it "I am a doughnut")
Jul 1st - US postal service institutes (Zone Improvement Plan) zip code
Jul 5th - 1st Beatle tune to hit US charts, Del Shannon "From Me to You" at #87
Jul 8th - US bans all monetary transactions with Cuba
Jul 15th – Firefighters use hoses to break up demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama.
Jul 23rd -- American armed helicopter pilots in South Vietnam begin taking a full combat role in the war against Communist guerrillas.
Jul 25th - US, Russia & Britain sign nuclear Test ban treaty
Aug 3rd - Beatles final performance at Cavern Club in Liverpool
Aug 7th - Jacqueline Kennedy becomes 1st US First Lady to give birth (Patrick Kennedy) since Mrs Cleveland
Aug 9th -- Infant son of President & Mrs. Kennedy dies of hyaline membrane disease
Aug 8th - Great Train Robbery in England, £2.6 million ($7.3 million)
Aug 18th - James Meredith becomes 1st black graduate from U of Mississippi
Aug 21st - Martial law declared in South Vietnam, following raids on Buddhist pagodas
Aug 28th - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream speech" addressing civil rights march at Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC
Aug 30th - Hotline communication link between Pentagon (Washington) and the Klemlin (Moscow) installed
Aug 30th -- Two more Americans die in Vietnam, bringing the total deaths to 54.
OTHER MAJOR EVENTS
James Meredith
At the end of September, James Meredith became the first black admitted to the University of Mississippi, but not without considerable resistance. Although the Supreme Court had supported an Appeals Court ruling that Meredith could not be denied admittance, University officials and Mississippi Governor, Ross Barnett vowed to maintain the segregated status of the university. When Meredith was brought on campus on September 30th, a riot ensued and eventually President Kennedy sent in federal troops. In the end, James Meredith was admitted, attended classes, and received a degree the next year. While the number of casualties from the riot is unknown it was reported that over 200 of the troops were injured and two civilians were killed.
BIRMINGHAM
In May of '63, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was leading a protest campaign in Birmingham, Alabama aimed at desegregating public areas. As arrests mounted and the jails filled, the leaders of the movement appealed to Birmingham students to join in the protest. On May 3rd, the police unleashed powerful water hoses and attack dogs on the students. The subsequent national publicity put enough pressure on the local officials to make some concessions, but Birmingham remained a hot spot of the civil rights movement.
VIETNAM
The Kennedy administration had consistently supported the efforts of the South Vietnam government to resist the communist forces seeking to overthrow it. But by the summer of 1963, the United States was having misgivings about the government it was supporting as their were wide reports of brutal violations of civil rights and discrimination, especially against Buddhists. On June 11th, a Buddgish monk, Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire on a public street in Saigon in protest of the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. A photo of the event circulated worldwide. President Kennedy commented, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.”
President Kennedydeclared Winston Churchill an honorary U.S. citizen -- the first person to be so recognized.