1963

This article is about the year 1963. For other uses, see 1963 (disambiguation).

1963

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century 20th century 21st century
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
Years:	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966

1963 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1963 MCMLXIII
Ab urbe condita	2716
Armenian calendar	1412 ԹՎ ՌՆԺԲ
Assyrian calendar	6713
Baháʼí calendar	119–120
Balinese saka calendar	1884–1885
Bengali calendar	1370
Berber calendar	2913
British Regnal year	11 Eliz. 2 – 12 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2507
Burmese calendar	1325
Byzantine calendar	7471–7472
Chinese calendar	壬寅年 (Water Tiger) 4659 or 4599     — to — 癸卯年 (Water Rabbit) 4660 or 4600
Coptic calendar	1679–1680
Discordian calendar	3129
Ethiopian calendar	1955–1956
Hebrew calendar	5723–5724
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2019–2020
- Shaka Samvat	1884–1885
- Kali Yuga	5063–5064
Holocene calendar	11963
Igbo calendar	963–964
Iranian calendar	1341–1342
Islamic calendar	1382–1383
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 38 (昭和３８年)
Javanese calendar	1894–1895
Juche calendar	52
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4296
Minguo calendar	ROC 52 民國52年
Nanakshahi calendar	495
Thai solar calendar	2506
Tibetan calendar	阳水虎年 (male Water-Tiger) 2089 or 1708 or 936     — to — 阴水兔年 (female Water-Rabbit) 2090 or 1709 or 937

1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1963rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 963rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 63rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1960s decade.

Events

January

Main article: January 1963

• January 1
  • Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), Japan's first serialized animated series based on the popular manga, is broadcast for the first time, on the Japanese television station Fuji Television.
  • Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney, Australia.
• January 2 – Vietnam War – Battle of Ap Bac: The Viet Cong win their first major victory.
• January 8 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
• January 9 – A total penumbral lunar eclipse is visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and is the 56th lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 114. Gamma has a value of −1.01282. It occurs on the night between Wednesday, January 9 and Thursday, January 10, 1963.
• January 13 – 1963 Togolese coup d'état: A military coup in Togo results in the installation of coup leader Emmanuel Bodjollé as president.
• January 17 – A last quarter moon occurs between the penumbral lunar eclipse and the annular solar eclipse, only 12 hours, 29 minutes after apogee.
• January 22 – France and West Germany sign the Élysée Treaty.
• January 25 – A large annular solar eclipse covered 99.5% of the Sun and a narrow path at most 19.6 km (12.2 mi). It was visible in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Madagascar, and was the 26th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 140. Gamma had a value of -0.48984.
• January 26 – The Australia Day shootings rock Perth; 2 people are shot dead and 3 others injured by Eric Edgar Cooke.
• January 28 – Black student Harvey Gantt enters Clemson University in South Carolina, the last U.S. state to hold out against racial desegregation.
• January 29 – French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the European Common Market.

February

Main article: February 1963

• February 5 – The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the basic tenets of European Union law.
• February 8 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy Administration.
• February 10 – Five Japanese cities located on the northernmost part of Kyūshū are merged and become the city of Kitakyūshū, with a population of more than 1 million.
• February 11
  • The Central Intelligence Agency's Domestic Operations Division is created in the United States.
  • The Beatles record their debut album Please Please Me in a single day at the Abbey Road Studios in London.
  • American-born poet Sylvia Plath commits suicide in London.
• February 12 – Northwest Airlines Flight 705 crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing all 43 aboard.
• February 14 – Harold Wilson becomes leader of the opposition Labour Party in the United Kingdom; in October 1964 he becomes prime minister.
• February 19 – The publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique launches the reawakening of the Women's Movement in the United States as women's organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.
• February 21 – The 5.6 M_w Marj earthquake affected northern Libya with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing 290–375 deaths and 375–500 injuries.
• February 27 – Juan Bosch takes office as the 41st president of the Dominican Republic.

March

Main article: March 1963

• March – The divorce case of The Duke and Duchess of Argyll causes scandal in the United Kingdom.
• March 4 – In Paris, six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle pardons five, but the other conspirator, Jean Bastien-Thiry, is executed by firing squad several days later.
• March 5 – In Camden, Tennessee, United States country music superstar Patsy Cline (Virginia Patterson Hensley) is killed in a plane crash along with two other performers and Cline's manager and pilot Randy Hughes, while returning from a benefit performance in Kansas City, Kansas, for country radio disc jockey "Cactus" Jack Call.
• March 6 – The first frost-free day in the U.K. after many months of one of the coldest recorded winters in history.
• March 17 – Mount Agung erupts on Bali, killing approximately 1,500.
• March 18 – Gideon v. Wainwright: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that state courts are required to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who cannot afford to pay their own attorneys.
• March 21 – The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
• March 22 – The Beatles release their first album, Please Please Me, in the United Kingdom.
• March 23 – "Dansevise" by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann (music by Otto Francker, text by Sejr Volmer-Sørensen) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 for Denmark.
• March 27 – In Britain, Dr. Richard Beeching issues a report, The Reshaping of British Railways, calling for huge cuts to the country's rail network.
• March 30 – Indigenous Australians are legally allowed to drink alcohol in New South Wales.
• March 31 – The 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike ends after 114 days.

April

Main article: April 1963

• April 1 – The long-running soap opera General Hospital debuts on ABC Television in the United States.
• April 3 – Southern Christian Leadership Conference volunteers kick off the Birmingham campaign (Birmingham, Alabama) against racial segregation in the United States with a sit-in.
• April 7 – Yugoslavia is proclaimed to be a socialist republic, and Josip Broz Tito is named President for Life.
• April 8 – The 35th Academy Awards ceremony is held. Lawrence of Arabia wins Best Picture.
• April 9 – British statesman Sir Winston Churchill becomes an honorary citizen of the United States.
• April 10 – The U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher sinks 220 mi (190 nmi; 350 km) east of Cape Cod; all 129 aboard (112 crewmen plus yard personnel) die.
• April 11 – Pope John XXIII issues his final encyclical, Pacem in terris, entitled On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty, the first papal encyclical addressed to "all men of good will", rather than to Roman Catholics only.
• April 12
  • Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth and others are arrested in a Birmingham, Alabama protest for "parading without a permit".
  • The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish Straits. Although severely damaged, both vessels make it to port.
• April 14 – The Institute of Mental Health (Belgrade) is established.
• April 15 – 70,000 marchers arrive in London from Aldermaston, to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.
• April 16 – Martin Luther King, Jr. issues his "Letter from Birmingham Jail".
• April 20 – In Quebec, Canada, members of the terrorist group Front de libération du Québec bomb a Canadian Army recruitment center, killing night watchman Wilfred V. O'Neill.
• April 21–23 – The first election of the Supreme Institution of the Baháʼí Faith (known as the Universal House of Justice, whose seat is at the Baháʼí World Centre on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel) is held.
• April 22 – Lester Bowles Pearson becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Canada.
• April 28 – 1963 general election is held in Italy.
• April 29 – Buddy Rogers becomes the first WWWF Champion.

May

Main article: May 1963

• May 1
  • Persipura Jayapura association football club is founded.
  • The Coca-Cola Company introduces its first diet drink, Tab cola.
• May 2
  • Thousands of black people, many of them children, are arrested while protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor later unleashes fire hoses and police dogs on the demonstrators.
  • Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a 3-stage rocket with a maximum flight altitude of more than 62 miles (the only sounding rocket developed in Germany).
• May 4 – The Le Monde Theater fire in Dioirbel, Senegal kills 64.
• May 8 – Huế Phật Đản shootings: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam opens fire on Buddhists who defy a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha, killing 9. Earlier, President Ngô Đình Diệm allowed the flying of the Vatican flag in honour of his brother, Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục, triggering the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.
• May 13 – A smallpox outbreak hits Stockholm, Sweden, lasting until July.
• May 14 – Kuwait becomes the 111th member of the United Nations.
• May 15 – Project Mercury: NASA launches Gordon Cooper on Mercury-Atlas 9, the last Mercury mission (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb tells Congress the program is complete).
• May 22 – A.C. Milan beats Benfica 2–1 at Wembley Stadium, London and wins the 1962–63 European Cup (football).
• May 23 – Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union.
• May 25 – The Organisation of African Unity is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• May 27 – The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's second studio album, and most influential, opening with the song "Blowin' in the Wind", released by Columbia Records in the United States.

June

Main article: June 1963

• June 3 – Huế chemical attacks: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam rains liquid chemicals on the heads of Buddhist protestors, injuring 67 people. The United States threatens to cut off aid to the regime of Ngô Đình Diệm.
• June 4 – President of the United States John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to continue issuing silver certificates.
• June 5 – The first annual National Hockey League Entry Draft is held in Montreal.
• June 10 – In the United States:
  • President John F. Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law.
  • President John F. Kennedy delivers his American University speech, "A Strategy of Peace", in Washington, D.C.
  • The University of Central Florida is established by the Florida legislature.
• June 11
  

  Thích Quảng Đức's self-immolation
  • In Saigon, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức commits self-immolation to protest the oppression of Buddhists by the Ngô Đình Diệm administration.
  • Alabama Governor George Wallace stands in the door of the University of Alabama to protest against integration, before stepping aside and allowing black students James Hood and Vivian Malone to enroll.
  • President John F. Kennedy broadcasts a historic Civil Rights Address in which he promises a Civil Rights Bill and asks for "the kind of equality of treatment that we would want for ourselves".
• June 12
  • Medgar Evers is murdered in Jackson, Mississippi. (His killer, Byron De La Beckwith, will be convicted in 1994.)
  • The film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton, is released in the United States.
• June 13
  • The cancellation of Mercury-Atlas 10 effectively ends the United States' manned spaceflight Project Mercury.
  • The New York Commodity Exchange begins trading silver futures contracts.
• June 15 – The AC Cobra makes its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It will go on to win its class the following year.
• June 16 – Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman into space.
• June 17 – Abington School District v. Schempp: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that state-mandated Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional.
• June 19 – Valentina Tereshkova the first woman in space, returns to Earth, landing in the Soviet Union.
• June 20
  • Establishment of the Moscow–Washington hotline (officially, the Direct Communications Link or DCL; unofficially, the "red telephone"; and in fact a teleprinter link) is authorized by signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.
  • Swedish Air Force Colonel Stig Wennerström is arrested as a spy for the Soviet Union.
• June 21 – Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope.
• June 23 – Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room opens at Disneyland, premiering the first Audio-Animatronics in the park.
• June 26
  • John F. Kennedy gives his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin, Germany.
  • David Ben-Gurion is replaced by Levi Eshkol as prime minister of Israel.

July

Main article: July 1963

• July 1 – ZIP codes are introduced by the United States Postal Service.
• July 5 – Diplomatic relations between the Israeli and the Japanese governments are raised to embassy level.
• July 7 – Double Seven Day scuffle: Secret police loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, attack American journalists including Peter Arnett and David Halberstam at a demonstration during the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam.
• July 11 – South Africa: police raid Liliesleaf Farm to the north of Johannesburg, arresting a group of African National Congress leaders.
• July 12 – Pauline Reade (16) is abducted by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in Manchester, England, the first victim of the Moors murders; her remains are located in July 1987.
• July 19 – American test pilot Joe Walker, flying the X-15, reaches an altitude of 65.8 miles (105.9 kilometers), making it a sub-orbital spaceflight by recognized international standards.
• July 26
  • An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (present-day North Macedonia) leaves 1,800 dead.
  • NASA launches Syncom 2, the world's first geostationary (synchronous) satellite.
• July 30 – The Soviet newspaper Izvestia reports that British diplomat and double agent Kim Philby has been given asylum in Moscow.

August

August 28: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Main article: August 1963

• August 5 – The United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• August 8 – The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.
• August 14 – A huge and devastating forest fire hits the region around Paraná State, Brazil. According to government documents, two million hectares (4.94 million acres) were lost to burning and 110 persons perished.
• August 15 – Trois Glorieuses: President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of Congo after a three-day uprising in the capital, Brazzaville.
• August 18 – American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
• August 21 – Xá Lợi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, vandalise Buddhist pagodas across South Vietnam, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead. In the wake of the raids, the Kennedy administration by Cable 243 orders the United States Embassy, Saigon to explore alternative leadership in the country, opening the way towards a coup against Diệm.
• August 22 – American test pilot Joe Walker again achieves a sub-orbital spaceflight according to international standards, this time by piloting the X-15 to an altitude of 67.0 miles (107.8 kilometers).
• August 24 – First games played in the Bundesliga, the primary professional Association football league in West Germany, replacing the Oberliga.
• August 28 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of at least 250,000, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It is, at that point, the single largest protest in American history.

September

Main article: September 1963

• September 1 – Establishment of language areas and facilities in Belgium comes into effect. This will become the foundation for further state reform in Belgium.
• September 5 – British showgirl Christine Keeler is arrested for perjury for her part in the Profumo affair. On December 6 she is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
• September 6 – The Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) is founded.
• September 7 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
• September 10 – Sicilian Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano is indicted for murder (he is captured 43 years later, on April 11, 2006).
• September 15 – American civil rights movement: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in Birmingham, Alabama, kills 4 and injures 22.
• September 16 – Malaysia is formed through the merging of the Federation of Malaya and the British crown colony of Singapore, North Borneo (renamed Sabah) and Sarawak.
• September 18 – Rioters burn down the British Embassy in Jakarta, to protest the formation of Malaysia.
• September 23 – King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals is established by a Saudi Royal Decree as the College of Petroleum and Minerals.
• September 24 – The United States Senate ratifies the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• September 25
  • The Denning Report on the Profumo affair is published in Great Britain.
  • In the Dominican Republic, Juan Bosch is deposed by a coup d'état led by the military with civilian support.
• September 29
  • The second period of the Second Vatican Council in Rome opens.
  • The University of East Anglia is established in Norwich, England.

October

Main article: October 1963

• October 1 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy toasts Emperor Haile Selassie at a luncheon in Rockville, Maryland.
• October 2
  • Nigeria becomes a republic; The 1st Republican Constitution is established.
  • The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in the United States issues its final reports to President Kennedy.
• October 3 – 1963 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.
• October 4 – Hurricane Flora, one of the worst Atlantic storms in history, hits Hispaniola and Cuba, killing nearly 7,000 people.
• October 7 – Buddhist 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.
• October 8 – Sam Cooke and his band are arrested after trying to register at a "whites only" motel in Louisiana. In the months following, he records the song "A Change Is Gonna Come".
• October 9 – In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.
• October 10 – Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed on August 5, takes effect.
• October 14 – A revolution starts in Radfan, South Yemen, against British colonial rule.
• October 16 – Ludwig Erhard replaces Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of West Germany.
• October 19 – Alec Douglas-Home succeeds Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• October 24 – Fire at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome in an R-9 Desna underground missile silo; seven people are killed.
• October 28 – Demolition of the 1910 Pennsylvania Station begins in New York City, continuing until 1966.
• October 30 – The car manufacturing firm Lamborghini is founded in Italy.
• October 31 – 1963 Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum gas explosion: 81 die in a gas explosion during a Holiday on Ice show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indianapolis, United States.

November

Main article: November 1963

• November 1 – Arecibo Observatory, a radio telescope, officially begins operation in Puerto Rico.
• November 2 – 1963 South Vietnamese coup: Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnamese President.
• November 6 – 1963 South Vietnamese coup: Coup leader General Dương Văn Minh takes over as leader of South Vietnam.
• November 7 – 11 German miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days in what becomes known as the "Wunder von Lengede" ("miracle of Lengede").
• November 8 – Finnair aircraft OH-LCA crashes before landing at Mariehamn Airport on Åland.
• November 9 – Two disasters in Japan:
  • Miike coal mine explosion: A coal mine explosion kills 458 and sends 839 carbon monoxide poisoning victims to the hospital.
  • Tsurumi rail accident: A triple train disaster in Yokohama kills 161.
• November 10 – Malcolm X makes an historic speech in Detroit, Michigan ("Message to the Grass Roots").
• November 14 – A volcanic eruption under the sea near Iceland creates a new island, Surtsey.
• November 16 – A newspaper strike begins in Toledo, Ohio.
• November 18 – The first push-button telephone is made available to AT&T customers in the United States.

November 22: Assassination of John F. Kennedy.

• November 22
  • Assassination 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. A few hours later, President Johnson is sworn in aboard Air Force One, as Kennedy's body is flown back to Washington, D.C. Stores and businesses shut down for the next four days, in tribute.
• November 23
  • Moors murders: John Kilbride (12) is abducted by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in the north of England.
  • The first episode of the BBC television series Doctor Who is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
  • The Golden Age Nursing Home fire kills 63 elderly people near Fitchville, Ohio, United States.
• November 24
  • Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy, is shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas, an event seen on live national television.
  • Vietnam War: New U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically.
• November 25 – State funeral of John F. Kennedy: President Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Schools around the nation cancel classes that day; millions watch the funeral on live international television. Lee Harvey Oswald's funeral takes place on the same day.
• November 29
  • U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
  • Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8 crashes into a wooded hillside after taking-off from Dorval International Airport near Montreal, killing all 118 on board, the worst air disaster for many years in Canada's history.
  • Foundation stone for Mirzapur Cadet College is laid in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
• November 30 – 1963 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with an increased majority to an unprecedented eighth term in office, defeating the Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell. (This would be the final lower house election won by Menzies, who would retire from office during the term as the longest-serving Prime Minister in Australian history; he would be replaced by Harold Holt.)

December

Main article: December 1963

• December 1 – Wendell Scott becomes the first African-American driver to win a NASCAR race at Speedway Park
• December 3 – The Warren Commission begins its investigation into the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.
• December 4 – The second period of the Second Vatican Council closes.
• December 5 – The Seliger Forschungs-und-Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH demonstrates rockets for military use to military representatives of non-NATO-countries near Cuxhaven. Although these rockets land via parachute at the end of their flight and no allied laws are violated, the Soviet Union protests this action.
• December 7 – The first instant replay system to use videotape instead of film is used by Tony Verna, a CBS-TV director, during a live televised sporting event, the Army–Navy Game of college football played in Philadelphia, United States.
• December 8
  • A lightning strike causes the crash of Pan Am Flight 214 near Elkton, Maryland, United States, killing 81 people.
  • Frank Sinatra, Jr. is kidnapped at Harrah's Lake Tahoe.
• December 10
  • Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom, as a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
  • In the United States, the X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program is cancelled.
  • Chuck Yeager narrowly escapes death while testing an NF-104A rocket-augmented aerospace trainer when his aircraft goes out of control at 108,700 feet (nearly 21 miles up) and crashes. He parachutes to safety at 8,500 feet after vainly battling to gain control of the powerless, rapidly falling craft. In this incident he becomes the first pilot to make an emergency ejection in the full pressure suit needed for high altitude flights.
• December 12 – Kenya gains independence from the United Kingdom, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister.
• December 20 – The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials begin.
• December 21 – Cyprus Emergency: Inter-communal fighting erupts between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
• December 22 – The cruise ship TSMS Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira, with the loss of 128 lives.
• December 25
  • Walt Disney releases his 18th feature-length animated motion picture The Sword in the Stone, about the boyhood of King Arthur. It is the penultimate animated film personally supervised by Disney.
  • İsmet İnönü of the Republican People's Party (CHP) forms the new government of Turkey (28th government, coalition partners; independents, İnönü has served ten times as a prime minister, this is his last government).
• December 26 – The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.
• December 31 – Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland dissolves.

Date unknown

• David H. Frisch and J.H. Smith prove that the radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by their motion (see Einstein's special relativity and general relativity).
• The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment for the defense of the United States is fully deployed.
• The TAT-3 transatlantic communications cable goes into operation.
• Ivan Sutherland writes the revolutionary Sketchpad program and runs it on the Lincoln TX-2 computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Construction of Moscow's Ostankino Tower begins.
• The IEEE Computer Society is founded.
• The Urdu keyboard is standardised by the Central Language Board in Pakistan.
• Harvey Ball invents the ubiquitous smiley face symbol.
• The iconic Porsche 911 is first produced.
• The Reformed Druids of North America is founded.
• The 1955 film Oklahoma!, an adaptation of the famed Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, is re-released.
• Hergé's The Castafiore Emerald is published.
• Marvel releases their Superhero assembly team The Avengers

Births

January

James May

José Mourinho

• January 4
  • Dave Foley, Canadian actor and comedian
  • Till Lindemann, German singer (Rammstein)
• January 5 – Jiang Wen, Chinese actor, film director and screenwriter
• January 6 – Paul Kipkoech, Kenyan long-distance runner (d. 1995)
• January 10 – Kira Ivanova, Soviet Russian figure skater (d. 2001)
• January 14 – Steven Soderbergh, American film director
• January 15 – Bruce Schneier, American cryptographer, cyber security expert, and writer
• January 16 – James May, English motoring journalist and television show host
• January 17 – Kai Hansen, German power metal guitarist and singer
• January 21 – Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian basketball player
• January 23 – Gail O'Grady, American actress
• January 25 – Fernando Haddad, Brazilian academic and politician
• January 26
  • José Mourinho, Portuguese football manager
  • Andrew Ridgeley, English singer

February

Michael Jordan

Larry the Cable Guy

Seal

William Baldwin

• February 2 – Eva Cassidy, American vocalist (d. 1996)
• February 3 – Gretel Killeen, Australian journalist
• February 4 – Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss alpine skier
• February 6
  • David Capel, English cricketer (d. 2020)
  • Cláudia Ohana, Brazilian actress and singer
• February 12 – John Michael Higgins, American actor and voice actor
• February 14
  • Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor and director
  • Alex Perry, Australian fashion designer
• February 15 – Shoucheng Zhang, Chinese-American physicist (d. 2018)
• February 16 – Claudio Amendola, Italian actor, television presenter and director
• February 17
  • Jinggoy Estrada, Filipino politician, actor and film producer
  • Michael Jordan, American basketball player
  • Larry the Cable Guy, American actor and comedian
• February 18 – Rob Andrew, English rugby union player
• February 19 – Seal, English singer
• February 20 – Charles Barkley, American basketball player
• February 21 – William Baldwin, American actor, producer and writer
• February 22 – Vijay Singh, Fijian golfer
• February 23 – Reza Abdoh, Iranian-American director and playwright (d. 1995)
• February 25 – Merab Katsitadze, retired Georgian professional football player
• February 27 – Virginie Boutaud, Brazilian singer and actress (Metrô, Virginie & Fruto Proibido)

March

Rick Rubin

Vanessa Williams

Quentin Tarantino

• March 1
  • Miss Shangay Lily, Spanish drag queen, writer, actor, and director (d. 2016)
  • Thomas Anders, German singer
• March 2
  • Anthony Albanese, Australian politician
  • Tuff Hedeman, American PRCA World Champion Bull Rider
• March 3 – Martín Fiz, Spanish long-distance runner
• March 4 – Jason Newsted, American bassist
• March 8 – Juan Gilberto Funes, Argentine footballer (d. 1992)
• March 9 - Jean-Marc Vallée, Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter (d. 2021)
• March 10
  • Rick Rubin, American music producer
  • Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, Italian politician
• March 11
  • Azem Hajdari, Albanian student leader (d. 1998)
  • Alex Kingston, English actress
  • David LaChapelle, American photographer
• March 12
  • Farahnaz Pahlavi, Iranian princess
  • Jake Weber, British actor
  • Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian runner
• March 13 – Fito Páez, Argentine musician
• March 14
  • Bruce Reid, Australian cricketer
  • Mahiro Maeda, Japanese animator
• March 15 – Bret Michaels, American rock singer (Poison)
• March 16 – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (d. 2002)
• March 17 – Alex Fong, Hong Kong actor
• March 18
  • Ratna Pathak, Indian film actress
  • Vanessa Williams, American beauty queen, actress and singer
• March 20 – Kathy Ireland, American model and actress
• March 21 – Ronald Koeman, Dutch football player and manager
• March 22
  • Marty Natalegawa, Indonesian diplomat
  • Martín Vizcarra, Peruvian engineer and politician, 67th President of Peru
• March 23 – Jose Miguel Gonzalez Martin del Campo, Spanish football player
• March 25 – Andrew O'Connor, English actor, comedian, magician, television presenter and executive producer
• March 26 – Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Japanese writer
• March 27
  • Dave Koz, American jazz musician
  • Quentin Tarantino, American actor, director, writer and producer
  • Xuxa, Brazilian television personality
• March 28
  • Chieko Honda, Japanese voice actress (d. 2013)
  • Bernice King, American activist, lawyer, and minister
• March 30 – Panagiotis Tsalouchidis, Greek footballer
• March 31 – Stephen Tataw, Cameroonian footballer (d. 2020)

April

Graham Norton

Rafael Correa

Garry Kasparov

Eric McCormack

Conan O'Brien

Jet Li

• April 3 – Sarah Woodward, English actress
• April 4
  • Siraj Raisani, Pakistani politician (d. 2018)
  • Dale Hawerchuk, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2020)
  • Graham Norton, Irish comedian and talk show host
  • Frank Yallop, Canadian footballer
• April 6
  • Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador
  • Clark Spencer, American film producer, businessman and studio executive
  • Shaun Toub, Iranian-born American actor
• April 8
  • Julian Lennon, British musician, son of John Lennon
  • Dean Norris, American actor
• April 9
  • Marc Jacobs, American fashion designer
  • Erdal Tosun, Turkish actor (d. 2016)
• April 10 – Doris Leuthard, Swiss politician and lawyer
• April 11
  • Mavis Agbandje-McKenna, Nigerian-born British biophysicist and virologist (d. 2021)
  • Chris Ferguson, American poker player
• April 13 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player
• April 15
  • Beata Szydło, Prime Minister of Poland
  • Diosdado Cabello, Venezuelan politician
• April 16 – Jimmy Osmond, American singer
• April 18
  • Universo 2000, Mexican professional wrestler (d. 2018)
  • Eric McCormack, Canadian actor
  • Conan O'Brien, American television entertainer and talk show host
• April 21 – Roy Dupuis, Canadian actor
• April 22 – Blanca Fernández Ochoa, Spanish ski racer (d. 2019)
• April 23 – Mohammad Ali Ramazani Dastak, Iranian politician (d. 2020)
• April 26 – Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor
• April 27– Russell T Davies, Welsh television producer and writer
• April 28 – Beate Grimsrud, Norwegian novelist and playwright (d. 2020)
• April 29 – Mike Babcock, Canadian ice hockey coach

May

Natasha Richardson

Mike Myers

Viktor Orbán

• May 2 – Yoram Yosefsberg, Israeli actor and voice actor
• May 5 – James LaBrie, Canadian vocalist (Dream Theater)
• May 8 – Anthony Field, Australian musician, actor, songwriter and producer (The Wiggles)
• May 9 – Gary Daniels, British martial artist and actor
• May 10
  • Rich Moore, American film and television animation director, screenwriter and voice actor
  • Lisa Nowak, American naval flight officer and NASA astronaut
  • A. Raja, Indian politician
• May 11
  • Roark Critchlow, Canadian actor
  • Natasha Richardson, British-American actress (d. 2009)
• May 16 – Mercedes Echerer, Austrian actress and politician
• May 21 – Kevin Shields, Irish-American singer (My Bloody Valentine)
• May 24
  • Michael Chabon, American author
  • Joe Dumars, American basketball player
• May 25
  • Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian
  • Eha Rünne, Estonian shot putter and discus thrower
• May 26
  • Clive Cowdery, English insurance entrepreneur
  • Musetta Vander, South African actress
• May 29 – Débora Bloch, Brazilian actress
• May 31 – Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary

June

Bernard Cazeneuve

Jason Isaacs

Johnny Depp

Jeanne Tripplehorn

Helen Hunt

George Michael

• June 1 – David Westhead, English actor and producer
• June 2 – Bernard Cazeneuve, Prime Minister of France
• June 3 – Alessandra Karpoff, Italian voice actress
• June 4
  • Sean Fitzpatrick, New Zealand rugby union player
  • mossimo giannulli, American fashion designer
• June 5 – Joe Rudán, Hungarian heavy metal singer
• June 6 – Jason Isaacs, British actor
• June 9 – Johnny Depp, American actor and film director
• June 10 – Jeanne Tripplehorn, American actress
• June 11 – Chic Charnley, Scottish footballer
• June 12 – Warwick Capper, Australian rules footballer
• June 13 – Bettina Bunge, German tennis player
• June 14 – Rambo Amadeus, Montenegrin singer-songwriter
• June 15
  • Helen Hunt, American actress
  • Lourdes Valera, Venezuelan actress
• June 17 – Greg Kinnear, American actor
• June 18
  • Juan Chioran, Argentine-Canadian actor
  • Rumen Radev, President of Bulgaria
• June 19 – Laura Ingraham, American television host
• June 21
  • Cherie Gil, Filipino actress
  • Tiger Huang, Taiwanese popular singer
  • Rene Medvešek, Croatian actor
  • Jan Pinkava, Czech director and writer
• June 22
  • Randy Couture, American mixed martial arts fighter and actor
  • Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler
  • John Tenta, Canadian wrestler (d. 2006)
• June 23
  • Marianne Berglund, Swedish road racing cyclist
  • Laureen Harper, wife of Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper
  • Shin Ji-ho, South Korean politician
  • Liu Cixin, Chinese science fiction writer
  • Márcio França, Brazilian lawyer and politician
  • Colin Montgomerie, Scottish golfer
• June 24
  • Preki, Serbia-born American footballer
  • Sükhbaataryn Batbold, Mongolian politician
  • Jascha Richter, Danish single and songwriter, frontman of Michael Learns to Rock
• June 25
  • Doug Gilmour, Canadian hockey player
  • Yann Martel, Canadian author
  • George Michael, British singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
• June 26
  • Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian businessman, activist and oligarch
  • Farukh Ruzimatov, Russian ballet dancer
• June 27
  • Gerrit Plomp, Dutch football defender
  • Miroslav Šindelka, Slovak director, writer and producer
• June 28 – Wisit Sasanatieng, Thai film director and screenwriter
• June 29
  • Anne-Sophie Mutter, German violinist
  • Thomas W. Gabrielsson, Swedish actor
  • Mark Bourneville, New Zealand rugby league player
  • Rupert Graves, English actor
  • Yngwie Malmsteen, Swedish guitarist, composer and bandleader
  • Vladimir Vermezović, Serbian football player and coach
  • Judith Hoag, American actress

July

Brigitte Nielsen

Phoebe Cates

Letsie III of Lesotho

Matti Nykänen

Martín Torrijos

Lisa Kudrow

• July 1
  • Naser Khader, Danish-Syrian politician
  • Igor Zhelezovski, Belarusian speed skater
  • Zhang Zhicheng, Chinese fencer
• July 2 – Faiq Al Sheikh Ali, Iraqi lawyer and politician
• July 3 – Zainudin Nordin, Singaporean politician
• July 4
  • Henri Leconte, French tennis player
  • R.S. Thanenthiran, Malaysian politician and businessman
• July 5
  • Edie Falco, American actress
  • Zbigniew Hoffmann, Polish politician
• July 6 – Sorin Matei, Romanian high jumper
• July 7
  • Othman Abdul, Malaysian politician
  • Vonda Shepard, American pop/rock singer, songwriter and actress
  • Doug Dunakey, American golfer
  • Fermín Alvarado Arroyo, Mexican politician
  • Janni Larsen, Danish female darts player
  • José María Larrañaga, Peruvian swimmer
  • Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Indian filmmaker and screenwriter
• July 8
  • Michael Cuesta, American film and television director
  • Luis de Jesús Rodríguez, Dominican attorney, businessman and entrepreneur
  • Dmitry Pevtsov, Russian actor
• July 9 – Marc Mero, American amateur boxer and professional wrestler
• July 10
  • Fatemeh Goudarzi, Iranian actress
  • Ian Lougher, British motorcycle racer
  • John Altschuler, American television and film producer and writer
• July 11
  • Al MacInnis, Canadian ice hockey player
  • Manuel Marrero Cruz, Cuban politician; Prime Minister of Cuba
  • Lisa Rinna, American actress
• July 12
  • Bertus Servaas, Polish entrepreneurr
  • Aleksandr Domogarov, Russian actor
  • Andrés Roemer, Mexican diplomat
• July 13
  • Kenny Johnson, American actor, producer, and model
  • Spud Webb, American basketball player
• July 14 – Wouter Bos, Dutch politician
• July 15
  • Steve Thomas, British-Canadian retired ice hockey player
  • Brigitte Nielsen, Danish actress
  • Joy Smithers, Australian actress
• July 16
  • Phoebe Cates, American actress
  • Mikael Pernfors, Swedish tennis player
  • Srečko Katanec, Slovenian football manager and player
  • Goran Pandurović, Serbian footballer
• July 17
  • Suha Arafat, widow of Yasser Arafat
  • King Letsie III of Lesotho
  • Matti Nykänen, Finnish ski jumper (d. 2019)
• July 18 – Martín Torrijos, President of Panama
• July 19
  • Sándor Wladár, Hungarian swimmer
  • Bertrand Burgalat, French musician, composer and producer
• July 20
  • Alexander Zhulin, Russian ice dancing coach and competitor
  • Gbenga Aluko, Nigerian politician
  • Adoni Maropis, Greek-American actor
  • Roy Cheung, Hong Kong actor
• July 21 – Giant Silva, Brazilian national basketball player, mixed martial artist and professional wrestler
• July 22
  • Joanna Going, American actress
  • Rob Estes, American actor
  • Emilio Butragueño, Spanish football player
• July 24 – Karl Malone, American professional basketball player
• July 27 – Donnie Yen, Hong Kong actor and martial artist
• July 28 – Beverley Craven, British singer-songwriter
• July 29
  • Jim Beglin, Irish football commentator
  • Alexandra Paul, American actress, activist, health coach, and former model
• July 30
  • Lisa Kudrow, American actress
  • Chris Mullin, American basketball player, coach, and executive
  • Gisèle Meygret, French fencer (d. 1999)
  • Mandakini (aka Yasmeen Joseph), Indian Bollywood actress
• July 31
  • Fatboy Slim, English DJ, musician, and record producer
  • Martin H. Wiggers, German economist, editor, author and businessman

August

James Hetfield

Whitney Houston

Sridevi

Emmanuelle Béart

Glória Pires

Mohammed VI of Morocco

Hideo Kojima

Miro Cerar

• August 1
  • Coolio, American rapper
  • Demián Bichir, Mexican-American actor
  • John Carroll Lynch, American actor and film director
• August 3
  • Tasmin Archer, English singer
  • James Hetfield, American musician (Metallica)
• August 4 – Keith Ellison, American politician and lawyer
• August 5
  • Mark Strong, English actor
  • Doris Schröder-Köpf, German journalist
• August 6 – Kevin Mitnick, American computer hacker
• August 7
  • Hiroaki Hirata, Japanese voice actor
  • Harold Perrineau, American actor
  • Wendy van der Plank, Welsh actress
• August 9 – Whitney Houston, American singer (d. 2012)
• August 13
  • Sridevi, Indian actress (d. 2018)
  • Édouard Michelin, French businessman (d. 2006)
  • Valerie Plame, American writer and spy novelist
• August 14 – Emmanuelle Béart, French actress
• August 15
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexican film director, producer and screenwriter
  • Valery Levaneuski, entrepreneur, politician and political prisoner
• August 16 – Christine Cavanaugh, American actress and voice actress (d. 2014)
• August 17 – James Whitbourn, British composer
• August 18 – Heino Ferch, German actor
• August 19
  • Marcos Palmeira, Brazilian actor
  • John Stamos, American actor
  • Joey Tempest, Swedish singer-songwriter (Europe)
• August 21
  • King Mohammed VI of Morocco
• August 22 – Tori Amos, American singer
• August 23
  • Glória Pires, Brazilian actress
  • Hans-Henning Fastrich, German field hockey player
  • Laura Flores, Mexican actress, hostess and singer
  • Park Chan-wook, South Korean film director and screenwriter
• August 24 – Hideo Kojima, Japanese director, screenwriter, video game designer and video game producer
• August 25 – Miro Cerar, 10th Prime Minister of Slovenia
• August 26
  • Liu Huan, Chinese singer
  • Michael Tao, Hong Kong actor
• August 30
  • Michael Chiklis, American actor
  • Phil Mills, British racing driver
• August 31 – Todd Carty, Irish actor

September

Dan Povenmire

Geert Wilders

• September 1 – Carola Smit, Dutch musician
• September 2 - Tio Pakusadewo, Indonesian actor
• September 6
  • Betsy Russell, American actress
  • Geert Wilders, Dutch politician and critic of Islam
• September 8 – Li Ning, Chinese gymnast
• September 9 – Markus Wasmeier, German alpine-skier
• September 10
  • Randy Johnson, American baseball player
  • Jay Laga'aia, New Zealand-Australian actor and singer
  • Gabriel Tiacoh, Ivorian sprinter (d. 1992)
• September 11 – Gabriela Goldsmith, Mexican actress
• September 12 – Michael McElhatton, Irish actor and writer
• September 14 – Robert Herjavec, Canadian businessman, investor and television personality
• September 16
  • Andréa Beltrão, Brazilian actress
  • Richard Marx, American pop/rock singer
• September 17 – Masahiro Chono, Japanese professional wrestler
• September 18
  • Christopher Heyerdahl, Canadian actor
  • Dan Povenmire, American animator, producer and voice actor
• September 19
  • Jarvis Cocker, English rock musician (Pulp)
  • David Seaman, English football goalkeeper
• September 21
  • Cecil Fielder, American baseball player
  • Angus Macfadyen, Scottish actor
  • Mamoru Samuragochi, Japanese impostor
• September 25 – Tate Donovan, American actor and director
• September 29
  • Dave Andreychuk, Canadian hockey player
  • Les Claypool, American bassist (Primus)

October

Elisabeth Shue

Tom Cavanagh

Farin Urlaub

Lauren Holly

Johnny Marr

Rob Schneider

• October 1
  • Mark McGwire, American baseball player
  • Iriana Joko Widodo, 7th First Lady of Indonesia, wife of Joko Widodo
• October 2 – Maria Ressa, Filipina American campaigning journalist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 4 – Marcelo Buquet, Uruguayan-Mexican actor, previously model
• October 5 –Dame Laura Davies, English golfer
• October 6 – Elisabeth Shue, American actress
• October 10
  • Anita Mui, Hong Kong singer (d. 2003)
  • Daniel Pearl, American journalist (d. 2002)
  • Jolanda de Rover, Dutch swimmer
• October 11 – Ronny Rosenthal, Israeli footballer
• October 12 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese anime director (d. 2010)
• October 14 – Alan McDonald, Northern Irish footballer
• October 19
  • Prince Laurent of Belgium
  • Sinitta, Anglo-American singer
• October 20
  • Domingos Simões Pereira, 16th Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau
  • Gisela Kozak, Venezuelan writer and essayist.
  • John Storgårds, Finnish conductor and violinist
  • Julie Payette, Canadian astronaut and Governor General of Canada
• October 21 – Marisa Orth, Brazilian actress, singer and TV host
• October 22 – Brian Boitano, American figure skater
• October 23 – Wilson Yip, Hong Kong actor and director
• October 25 – John Levén, Swedish bassist (Europe)
• October 26 – Tom Cavanagh, Canadian actor and director
• October 27
  • Sergey Smiryagin, Russian freestyle swimmer (d. 2020)
  • Feyyaz Uçar, Turkish footballer
  • Farin Urlaub, German singer, band Die Ärzte
  • Marla Maples, American actress and television personality
• October 28 – Lauren Holly, American actress
• October 31
  • Johnny Marr, English musician
  • Dermot Mulroney, American actor
  • Rob Schneider, American actor, comedian and film director

November

Gabby Concepcion

Ming-Na Wen

Nicollette Sheridan

• November 1
  • Rick Allen, British rock musician (Def Leppard)
  • Mark Hughes, Welsh football player & manager
  • Katja Riemann, German actress
• November 2
  • Brian Kemp, American politician, 83rd Governor of Georgia
  • Craig Saavedra, American filmmaker
  • Borut Pahor, incumbent President of Slovenia
• November 4 – Lena Zavaroni, Scottish entertainer (d. 1999)
• November 5
  • Tatum O'Neal, American actress and author
  • Gabby Concepcion, Filipino actor
• November 7 – John Barnes, Jamaican-born English footballer
• November 8 – Paul Butcher, American football linebacker
• November 10
  • Hugh Bonneville, British actor
  • Mike Powell, American long jumper
• November 11 – Billy Gunn, American professional wrestler
• November 15 – Benny Elias, Australian rugby league player
• November 18 – Peter Schmeichel, Danish-born football goalkeeper
• November 19
  • Jon Potter, British field hockey player
  • Terry Farrell, American actress
  • Peter Schmeichel, Danish football player
• November 20 – Ming-Na Wen, Macanese-American actress
• November 21 – Nicollette Sheridan, English actress
• November 22
  • Winsor Harmon, American actor
  • Brian Robbins, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
• November 23
  • Erika Buenfil, Mexican actress, TV host and singer
  • Yoshino Takamori, Japanese voice actress
• November 25 – Holly Cole, Canadian jazz singer
• November 27 – Dave Prichard, American guitarist (d. 1990)
• November 28 – Matt Parkinson, Australian comedian, actor, radio presenter, and game show personality

December

Juan Carlos Varela

Benjamin Bratt

Brad Pitt

Jennifer Beals

Til Schweiger

• December 2 – Ann Patchett, American novelist
• December 4 – Sergey Bubka, Ukrainian pole vaulter
• December 7
  • Mark Bowen, Welsh footballer
  • Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Malaysian politician
  • Paul Dobson, British voice actor
• December 8
  • Greg Howe, American guitarist
  • Toshiaki Kawada, Japanese professional wrestler
• December 9
  • Empress Masako, Empress of Japan
  • Bárbara Palacios, Miss Universe 1986
• December 12
  • Juan Carlos Varela, Panamian politician and 37th President of Panama
  • Ai Orikasa, Japanese voice actress
• December 13
  • Uwe-Jens Mey, German speed skater
  • Jake White, South African rugby coach
• December 14
  • Cynthia Gibb, American actress
  • Vytautas Juozapaitis, Lithuanian baritone, professor and television host
• December 15 – Helen Slater, American actress, singer and songwriter
• December 16
  • Benjamin Bratt, American actor
  • Jeff Carson, American singer
  • Bärbel Schäfer, German television presenter and talk show host
• December 18
  • Pauline Ester, French singer
  • Rikiya Koyama, Japanese voice actor
  • Charles Oakley, American basketball player
  • Brad Pitt, American actor and film producer, co-founder of Plan B Entertainment
• December 19
  • Jennifer Beals, American actress
  • Til Schweiger, German actor
• December 20
  • Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo
  • Joel Gretsch, American actor
• December 21
  • Donovan Ruddock, Jamaican Canadian former professional boxer
  • Govinda Ahuja, Indian actor and politician
  • Jacques Simonet, Belgian politician (d. 2007)
  • Chua Tian Chang, Malaysian politician
• December 22
  • Vladimir Flórez, Colombian cartoonist
  • Bryan Gunn, Scottish footballer
  • Russell Lewis, British child actor and television writer
  • Luna H. Mitani, Japanese-American Surrealist painter
• December 23 – Donna Tartt, American author
• December 24
  • Sanjay Mehrotra, Indian entrepreneur
  • Caroline Aherne, English actress, comedienne and writer (d. 2016)
• December 26 – Lars Ulrich, Danish rock drummer (Metallica)
• December 29
  • Graciano Rocchigiani, German professional boxer (d. 2018)
  • Francisco Bustamante, Filipino billiard player
  • Sean Payton, American football coach
• December 30 – Kim Hill, American Christian singer
• December 31 – Azalina Othman Said, Malaysian politician

Deaths

Further information: Category:1963 deaths

January

Dick Powell

Sylvanus Olympio

Mohammad Ali Bogra

Robert Frost

• January 2
  • Jack Carson, Canadian actor (b. 1910)
  • Dick Powell, American actor (b. 1904)
• January 5 – Erik Strandmark, Swedish film actor (b. 1919)
• January 6 – Frank Tuttle, American film director (b. 1892)
• January 7 – Erik Lundqvist, Swedish athlete (b. 1908)
• January 9 – Enea Bossi, Sr., Italian-born American aerospace engineer and aviation pioneer (b. 1888)
• January 10 – Franz Planer, European film cinematographer (b. 1894)
• January 13
  • Sonny Clark, American jazz pianist (b. 1931)
  • Sylvanus Olympio, Togolese politician, 1st President of Togo (assassinated) (b. 1902)
  • Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Spanish writer (b. 1888)
• January 14 – Gustav Regler, German socialist novelist (b. 1898)
• January 15 – Cesare Fantoni, Italian actor and voice actor (b. 1905)
• January 18
  • Hugh Gaitskell, British politician, leader of the Labour Party (b. 1906)
  • Edward Charles Titchmarsh, British mathematician (b. 1899)
• January 20 – Fyodor Terentyev, Soviet Olympic cross-country skier (b. 1925)
• January 21 – Al St. John, American actor (b. 1893)
• January 23
  • Mohammad Ali Bogra, Pakistani statesman, politician and diplomat, 3rd Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1909)
  • Józef Gosławski, Polish sculptor and medallic artist (b. 1908)
• January 24
  • Otto Harbach, American lyricist and librettist (b. 1873)
  • Kenneth Western, part of The Western Brothers (b. 1899)
• January 25 – Marion Sunshine, American actress (b. 1894)
• January 26 – Ole Olsen, American actor (b. 1892)
• January 27 – John Farrow, Australian-born American film director (b. 1904)
• January 29
  • Anthony Coldeway, American screenwriter (b. 1887)
  • Robert Frost, American poet (b. 1874)
  • Lee Meadows, American baseball player (b. 1894)
  • Isaías de Noronha, 13th President of Brazil (b. 1874)
• January 30
  • Jane Gail, American silent movie and stage actress (b. 1890)
  • Francis Poulenc, French composer (b. 1899)
• January 31 – Alasgar Alakbarov, Azerbaijani actor (b. 1910)

February

Abd al-Karim Qasim

Sylvia Plath

Fernando Tambroni

Rajendra Prasad

• February 1
  • Louis D. Lighton, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1895)
  • Wyndham Standing, English actor (b. 1880)
• February 2 – William Gaxton, American vaudeville, film and theatre performer (b. 1893)
• February 6
  • Abd el-Krim, Riffian political and military leader (b. 1882)
  • Piero Manzoni, Italian artist (b. 1933)
• February 8
  • George Dolenz, American actor (b. 1908)
  • Ernst Glaeser, German writer (b. 1902)
• February 9 – Abd al-Karim Qasim, Iraqi general, 24th Prime Minister of Iraq (executed) (b. 1914)
• February 11 – Sylvia Plath, American poet and novelist (b. 1932)
• February 15
  • Edgardo Donato, Uruguayan tango composer and orchestra leader (b. 1897)
  • Louis J. Gasnier, French film director (b. 1875)
  • Bump Hadley, Major League Baseball pitcher (b. 1904)
• February 16
  • Else Jarlbak, Danish film actress (b. 1911)
  • László Lajtha, Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and conductor (b. 1892)
• February 18
  • Monte Blue, American actor (b. 1887)
  • Beppe Fenoglio, Italian writer (b. 1887)
  • Fernando Tambroni, Italian politician and 36th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1901)
  • Tokugawa Iemasa, Japanese politician, 17th head of the Tokugawa shogunate (b. 1884)
  • Zareh I, Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia (b. 1915)
• February 19 – Benny Moré, Cuban singer (b. 1919)
• February 20
  • Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian conductor (b. 1914)
  • Jacob Gade, Danish violinist and composer (b. 1879)
  • Bill Hinchman, American baseball player (b. 1883)
• February 22 – Arthur Guy Empey, American soldier (in British service), author, screenwriter and actor (b. 1883)
• February 24 – Herbert Asbury, American journalist and writer (b. 1889)
• February 25 – Melville J. Herskovits, American anthropologist (b. 1895)
• February 28
  • Rajendra Prasad, Indian politician, 1st President of India (b. 1884)
  • Eppa Rixey, American baseball player (Cincinnati Reds) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1891)

March

Patsy Cline

William Beveridge

Thoralf Skolem

Henry Bordeaux

• March 1 – Irish Meusel, American baseball player (b. 1893)
• March 4 – William Carlos Williams, American writer (b. 1883)
• March 5
  • Patsy Cline, American singer plane crash (b. 1932)
  • Ludde Gentzel, Swedish film actor (b. 1885)
  • Cyril Smith, Scottish actor (b. 1892)
  • Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Egyptian intellectual and anti-colonial activist (b. 1872)
• March 6 – Robert E. Cornish, scientist (b. 1903)
• March 7 – Joachim Holst-Jensen, Norwegian film actor (b. 1880)
• March 11
  • Ignat Bednarik, Romanian painter (b. 1882)
  • Joe Judge, American baseball player (b. 1894)
• March 16
  • Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria (b. 1883)
  • William Beveridge, British economist (b. 1879)
• March 17
  • Thomas Lennon, screenwriter (b. 1896)
  • Lizzie Miles, American blues singer (b. 1895)
• March 18
  • Sir Hubert Gough, British general (b. 1870)
  • Wanda Hawley, American actress (b. 1895)
• March 20 – Manuel Arteaga y Betancourt, Cuban Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1879)
• March 21 – Felice Minotti, Italian film actor (b. 1887)
• March 22
  • Cilly Aussem, German tennis champion (b. 1909)
  • Abraham Ellstein, American composer (b. 1907)
  • Mihály Székely, Hungarian bass singer (b. 1901)
• March 23 – Thoralf Skolem, Norwegian mathematician (b. 1887)
• March 25 – Felix Adler, American screenwriter (b. 1884)
• March 26 – Jean Bruce, French writer (b. 1921)
• March 27 – Harry Piel, German actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer (b. 1892)
• March 28
  • Antoine Balpêtré, French film actor (b. 1898)
  • Frank J. Marion, American motion picture pioneer (b. 1869)
• March 29
  • Pola Gojawiczyńska, Polish writer (b. 1896)
  • Henry Bordeaux, French writer and lawyer (b. 1870)
• March 31
  • Harry Akst, American songwriter (b. 1894)
  • Sir Harold Franklyn, British army general (b. 1885)

April

Alma Richards

Saint Gaetano Catanoso

Felix Manalo

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi

• April 1 – Agnes Mowinckel, Norwegian actress and stage producer (b. 1875)
• April 3 – Alma Richards, American Olympic gold medalist (b. 1890)
• April 4
  • Gaetano Catanoso, Italian Roman Catholic priest and saint (b. 1879)
  • Jason Robards Sr., American stage and screen actor, heart attack (b. 1892)
  • Oskari Tokoi, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (b. 1873)
• April 6
  • Mario Fabrizi, comedian and actor, stress-related illness (b. 1924)
  • Otto Struve, Russian–American astronomer (b. 1897)
• April 7 – Amedeo Maiuri, Neapolitan archaeologist (b. 1886)
• April 9
  • Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist (b. 1891)
  • Benno Moiseiwitsch, Jewish-Ukrainian pianist (b. 1890)
  • Xul Solar, Argentine painter, sculptor, writer (b. 1887)
• April 11 – Nando Bruno, Italian film actor (b. 1895)
• April 12
  • Felix Manalo, 1st Executive Minister, Iglesia ni Cristo (b. 1886)
  • Herbie Nichols, American jazz pianist and composer (b. 1919)
• April 14
  • Abdel Messih El-Makari, Egyptian Coptic Orthodox monk, priest and saint (b. 1892)
  • Arthur Jonath, German Olympic athlete (b. 1909)
  • Kodō Nomura, Japanese novelist and music critic (b. 1882)
  • Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, Indian historian, writer and scholar (b. 1893)
• April 23
  • Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel historian and politician, 2nd President of Israel (b. 1884)
  • Ferruccio Cerio, Italian film writer and director (b. 1904)
  • Paul Fejos, Hungarian film director (b. 1897)
  • Harry Harper, American baseball player (b. 1895)
  • Don C. Harvey, American television and film actor (b. 1911)
  • Frederick Peters, American film actor (b. 1884)
  • William Lewis Moore, American postal worker (b. 1927)
• April 24
  • Rino Corso Fougier, Italian air force general (b. 1894)
  • Leonid Lukov, Soviet film director and screenwriter (b. 1909)
• April 26 – Roland Pertwee, English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor (b. 1885)
• April 27 – Kenneth Macgowan, American film producer (b. 1888)
• April 30
  • Giovanni Grasso, Italian film actor (b. 1888)
  • William C. Mellor, American cinematographer, heart attack (b. 1903)
  • Bryant Washburn, American film actor, heart attack (b. 1889)

May

Herbert Spencer Gasser

Mehdi Frashëri

• May 1 – Lope K. Santos, Filipino writer, Father of Philippine National Language and Grammar (b. 1879)
• May 2 – Van Wyck Brooks, American literary critic and writer (b. 1886)
• May 5 – Mohamed Khemisti, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria (assassinated) (b. 1930)
• May 6 – Monty Woolley, American actor (b. 1888)
• May 7 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American engineer and physicist (b. 1881)
• May 11 – Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
• May 12
  • Robert Kerr, Canadian Olympic athlete (b. 1882)
  • A. W. Tozer, American Protestant pastor (b. 1897)
• May 16 – Oleg Penkovsky, Soviet military officer & spy (b. 1919)
• May 18 – Ernie Davis, American football player, first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy (b. 1939)
• May 24 – Elmore James, American blues guitarist (b. 1918)
• May 25 – Mehdi Frashëri, Albanian politician, 15th Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1872)
• May 29 – Netta Muskett, British novelist (b. 1887)
• May 31 – Edith Hamilton, German-born author (b. 1867)

June

Pope John XXIII

Pedro Armendáriz

Antony Thachuparambil

Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala

• June 3
  • Pope John XXIII (b. 1881)
  • Nâzım Hikmet, Turkish poet (b. 1902)
• June 6 – William Baziotes, American painter (b. 1912)
• June 7 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (b. 1894)
• June 9
  • Antony Thachuparambil, Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic priest and servant of God (b. 1894)
  • Jacques Villon, French painter (b. 1875)
• June 10 – Anita King, American actress and race-car driver (b. 1884)
• June 11
  • Thích Quảng Đức, Vietnamese Buddhist monk (suicide) (b. 1897)
  • Syed Abdul Rahim, First Indian national football manager (b. 1909)
  • Alfred V. Kidder, American archaeologist (b. 1885)
• June 12
  • Medgar Evers, American civil rights activist (b. 1925)
  • Andrew Cunningham, British admiral (b. 1883)
• June 17
  • Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, British Field Marshal (b. 1883)
  • Robert James Hudson, Governor of Southern Rhodesia (b. 1885)
  • John Cowper Powys, British novelist (b. 1872)
• June 18 – Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican actor (b. 1912)
• June 19 – Amy Hannah Adamson, Australian principal (b. 1893)
• June 24 – Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, Mexican Roman Catholic religious professed and saint (b. 1878)
• June 27 – John Maurice Clark, American economist (b. 1884)
• June 28 – Frank Baker, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1886)

July

• July 1 – Sultan Abdullah bin Khalifa of Zanzibar (b. 1910)
• July 4 – Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, British army general and Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1889)
• July 6 – George, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1899)
• July 7 – Frank P. Lahm, American aviator (b. 1877)
• July 14 – Rasmus Hatledal, Norwegian topographer and military officer (b. 1885)
• July 22 – Albertus Soegijapranata, Indonesian Jesuit priest (b. 1896)
• July 27 – Garrett Morgan, American inventor (b. 1877)

August

Georges Braque

• August 1 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (b. 1908)
• August 4 – Tom Keene, American actor (b. 1896)
• August 10 – Estes Kefauver, American politician (b. 1903)
• August 11
  • Clem Bevans, American actor (b. 1880)
  • Tanxu, Chinese Buddhist monk (b. 1875)
• August 14 – Clifford Odets, American dramatist (b. 1906)
• August 17 – Richard Barthelmess, American actor (b. 1895)
• August 20 – Joan Voûte, Dutch astronomer (b. 1879)
• August 22 – William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, British businessman and philanthropist (b. 1877)
• August 23 – Larry Keating, American actor (b. 1896)
• August 24 – James Kirkwood, Sr., American film director (b. 1875)
• August 27
  • W. E. B. Du Bois, American civil rights activist (b. 1868)
  • Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, Indian founder of the Khaksar Movement (b. 1888)
• August 30 – Guy Burgess, British spy, one of the Cambridge Five (b. 1911)
• August 31 – Georges Braque, French painter (b. 1882)

September

Edwin Linkomies

• September 4 – Robert Schuman, French statesman, a founding father of the European Union (b. 1886)
• September 9 – Edwin Linkomies, 25th Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1894)
• September 11
  • Claude Fuess, 10th Headmaster of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts (b. 1885)
  • Richard Oswald, Austrian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1880)
  • Suzanne Duchamp, French painter (b. 1889)
• September 17 – Eduard Spranger, German philosopher and psychologist (b. 1882)
• September 19 – David Low, New Zealand cartoonist (b. 1891)
• September 25
  • Alexander Sakharoff, Russian dancer and choreographer (b. 1886)
  • Kurt Zeitzler, German Army officer (b. 1895)
• September 30 – Paul Alexiu, Romanian general (b. 1893)

October

Gustaf Gründgens

Jean Cocteau

Björn Þórðarson

• October 4
  • Lloyd Fredendall, American general (b. 1883)
  • Kate Gordon Moore, American psychologist (b. 1878)
• October 7 – Gustaf Gründgens, German actor (b. 1899)
• October 9 – Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Anhalt (b. 1938)
• October 10 – Édith Piaf, French singer and actress (b. 1915)
• October 11 – Jean Cocteau, French writer (b. 1889)
• October 15 – Alan Goodrich Kirk, American admiral (b. 1888)
• October 20 – Diana Churchill, daughter of Winston Churchill (b. 1909)
• October 21 – Jean Decoux, French admiral, Governor-General of French Indochina (1940-1945) (b. 1884)
• October 24
  • Karl Bühler, German psychologist and linguist (b. 1879)
  • Beverly Wills, American actress (b. 1933)
• October 25
  • Roger Désormière, French conductor (b. 1898)
  • Björn Þórðarson, 9th Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1879)
  • Karl von Terzaghi, Austrian civil engineer and "father of soil mechanics" (b. 1883)
• October 28 – Jack E. Bairstow, American politician and lawyer (b. 1902)
• October 29 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (b. 1890)
• October 30
  • Domhnall Ua Buachalla, Irish politician (b. 1866)
  • Saburō Hyakutake, Japanese admiral (b. 1872)
• October 31 – Henry Daniell, English actor (b. 1894)

November

Ngô Đình Diệm

John F. Kennedy

Lee Harvey Oswald

• November 1
  • Hồ Tấn Quyền, South Vietnamese navy officer (assassinated) (b. 1927)
  • Lê Quang Tung, South Vietnamese military officer (assassinated) (b. 1923)
  • Elsa Maxwell, American gossip columnist and hostess (b. 1883)
• November 2
  • Ngô Đình Diệm, South Vietnamese politician, 1st President of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) (assassinated) (b. 1901)
  • Ngô Đình Nhu, South Vietnamese politician (assassinated) (b. 1910)
• November 4 – Pascual Ortiz Rubio, Mexican politician, substitute President of Mexico 1930-1932 (b. 1877)
• November 5 – Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet (b. 1902)
• November 12
  • José María Gatica, Argentine boxer (b. 1925)
  • John R. Hodge, United States Army general (b. 1893)
• November 15 – Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (b. 1888)
• November 16 – Albert H. Pearson, American politician (b. 1920)
• November 19 – Carmen Amaya, Spanish dancer (b. 1918)
• November 21 – Robert Stroud, American prisoner, known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz" (b. 1890)
• November 22
  • Wilhelm Beiglböck, German Nazi physician at Dachau concentration camp (b. 1905)
  • Aldous Huxley, British writer (Brave New World) (b. 1894)
  • John F. Kennedy, American politician, 35th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1917)
  • C. S. Lewis, Irish-born British critic, novelist (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Christian apologist (b. 1898)
• November 23 – John Baumgarten, American businessman and politician (b. 1902)
• November 24 – Lee Harvey Oswald, American assassin of President John F. Kennedy (murdered) (b. 1939)
• November 26
  • Gheorghe Băgulescu, Romanian general and diplomat (b. 1886)
  • Amelita Galli-Curci, Italian opera singer (b. 1882)
• November 28 – Ernesto Lecuona, Cuban composer (b. 1896)
• November 30
  • Phil Baker, American comedian and radio personality (b. 1896)
  • Cyril Newall, 1st Baron Newall, British Air Marshal and State servant, 6th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1886)

December

Theodor Heuss

Dinah Washington

• December – Andy Kennedy, Northern Ireland footballer (b. 1897)
• December 2
  • Sabu Dastagir, Indian-American actor (b. 1924)
  • Thomas Hicks, American runner (b. 1875)
• December 5 – Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer (b. 1905)
• December 10 – K. M. Panikkar, Indian scholar, diplomat and journalist (b. 1895)
• December 12
  • Theodor Heuss, German politician, 5th President of Germany (b. 1884)
  • Yasujirō Ozu, Japanese filmmaker (b. 1903)
• December 14
  • Hubert Pierlot, Belgian lawyer and jurist, 32nd Prime Minister of Belgium, leader of the Belgian government in exile (b. 1883)
  • Dinah Washington, American jazz/blues singer (b. 1924)
• December 15 – Rikidōzan, Korean-born Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1924)
• December 21 – Jack Hobbs, English cricketer (b. 1882)
• December 25 – Tristan Tzara, French poet (b. 1896)
• December 26 – Gorgeous George, American professional wrestler (b. 1915)
• December 28
  • Paul Hindemith, German composer (b. 1895)
  • A. J. Liebling, American journalist (b. 1904)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Eugene Wigner, Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen
• Chemistry – Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta
• Physiology or Medicine – Sir John Carew Eccles, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley
• Literature – Giorgos Seferis
• Peace – International Committee of the Red Cross, League of Red Cross Societies