1963 History/Videos

1963 The biggest news from 1963 was the assassination of the US President Kennedy on November 22nd which thrust Lyndon Johnson into the role of president and the murder two days later of Lee Harvey Oswald by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. This was a difficult time to become president with the mounting troubles in Vietnam where the Viet Cong Guerrillas had now killed 80 American Advisers and the continued campaign for civil rights by the black community caused violent reactions from whites including Mississippi, Virginia and Alabama where the black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was arrested. Films included "The Birds" and "The Great Escape" and popular TV programmes "The Virginian" and "Lassie". ladies fashion clothes and hairstyles included fur boots and towering hair do's for evening wear. In music the beginning of Beatlemania after they release "I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There" and "Meet the Beatles". 

 

What Events Happened In 1963

U.S. 

  • Indiana State Fair Coliseum Explosion kills 74
Kennedy Assassination
  • President John F Kennedy assassinated in the United States
More Information and Timeline For Kennedy Assassination 
1. John F. Kennedy assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas 
1a. 1:00 PM CST the 35th President of The United States John Fitzgerald Kennedy is declared dead at Parkland Hospital's Trauma Room 
2. Suspects description is given to Dallas Police 
3. 13:35 CST Dallas police officer, J. D. Tippit called Lee Harvey Oswald ( Matches Suspects description ) over to the patrol car. 
4. Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed Dallas police officer, J. D. Tippit 
5. 13:37 CST Oswald enters a nearby movie theater without buying a ticket 
6. 13:40 CST Oswald is arrested by police officer, M.N. McDonald 
7. Oswald is charged later that evening with the murder of President John F. Kennedy and Officer J. D. Tippit 
8. Jack Ruby murders John F. Kennedy's suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald During the transportation of Oswald from Dallas Police Headquarters to the Dallas County Jail on November 24th live on television. 
9.President Lyndon Baines Johnson sworn in as President on Air Force One at Love Field Airport in Dallas just over two hours after President Kennedy assassinated 
The ten-month investigation by the commission set up by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, The Warren Commission, 1963–1964, concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald before he could stand trial Conspiracy theories are still expounded and discussed in books and the media nearly 50 years after the Kennedy Assassination and range from the The Soviet KGB to the United States CIA, 


World 

  • World Religions status: 890 million Christians, 200 million Buddhists, 365 million Hindus, 13 million Jews
Beatlemania The Early Years
  • Beatles Release I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There and Meet the Beatles

More Information and Timeline For The Early Years of Beatlemania 
1a. October 5th 1962 Beatles release first single in UK "Love Me Do" reached Number 17 in UK charts 
1b. April 27th 1964 Beatles release single in U.S.A. "Love Me Do" reached Number 1 in US charts 
2a. January 11th 1963 Beatles release second single in UK "Please Please Me" reached Number 1 in UK New Musical Express Chart 
2b. February 25th 1963 Beatles release second single in U.S.A. "Please Please Me" with "Ask Me Why" on the B-side, no impact on US Charts 
2c. January 3rd 1964 Beatles re-released single in U.S.A. "Please Please Me" with "From Me to You" on the B-side, reached number 3 in the US Hot 100
3a. November 29th 1963 Beatles release single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" with "This Boy" on the B-side which charts at Number 1 in UK 
3b. November 29th 1963 Beatles release single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" with "I Saw Her Standing There" on the B-side which charts at Number 1 in the US Hot 100 
4. Following TV shows, press interviews, and a weekly radio show in the UK the term Beatlemania is born 
5. Beatlemania took hold in the United States after The Beatles performed live on The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday February 9th, 16th and 23rd 1964 
The Beatles could do no wrong from 1963 to when they split in late 1969 with fans accepting and embracing each change in music style, I was lucky enough to be a teenager in those years and looking back now 50 years later it was a great time in popular culture to be a teenager. 


Technology

  • AT&T introduces touch tone phones
  • Flymo Sells first Hover Mower
  • The first prototype Learjet takes off
  • Zip codes implemented in US
  • Lava Lamp or The Astro Lamp Launched by Edward Craven Walker

Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use )
Tape Cassette Netherlands ( Philips ) used to record and play audio 
Pull Tab Can As Used For Soda U.S.A. Alcoa Company



Popular Culture 1963

This was the year an Insurance firm State Mutual Life Insurance invented the Smiley Face found on anything and everything around the world including T Shirts , it's popularity was at it's peak in the 1960's
  • The Beatles release their first album Please Please Me.
  • The first episode of the BBC television series Doctor Who is broadcast
  • Bob Dylan walks off the Ed Sullivan show
  • Beatles Release I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There and Meet the Beatles which is the beginning of Beatlemania.
  • Beatle's Release "She Loves You" in UK which goes to Number 1 for 4 weeks August 23rd

Popular Films

  • Cleopatra
  • The Longest Day
  • Lawrence of Arabia
  • Mutiny on the Bounty
  • To Kill a Mockingbird

Check out our Television Programmes From The 60s whenever possible we have included a trailer to jog your memory.Series trailers and more information are found on the decade they started.

Popular Musicians

  • The Beatles
  • Roy Orbison
  • Buddy Holly
  • The Drifters
  • Jim Reeves

Popular TV Programmes

  • Coronation Street
  • The Andy Griffith Show
  • The Flintstones
  • Mister Ed
  • The Avengers
  • The Dick Van Dyke Show


Major World Political Leaders

Australia Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies 
Brazil President João Goulart 
Canada Prime Minister John Diefenbaker till April 22, 
Canada Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson from April 22, 
China Chairman of the People's Republic of China Liu Shaoqi 

France President Charles de Gaulle 

Germany Chancellor Konrad Adenauer Till 16 October 
Germany Chancellor Ludwig Erhard From 16 October 
India Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru 

Italy Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani Till 21 June 
Italy Prime Minister Giovanni Leone From 21 June 
Italy Prime Minister Giovanni Leone Till 4 December 
Italy Prime Minister Aldo Moro From 4 December 
Japan Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda 
Mexico President Adolfo López Mateos 
Russia / Soviet Union 
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev 
South Africa Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd 
United States President John F. Kennedy Till November 22, 
United States President Lyndon B. Johnson From November 22, 
United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan Till 19 October 
United Kingdom Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home From 19 October