1963: Difference between revisions

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); 4660 or 4453; — to —; 癸卯年 (Water Rabbit); 4661 or 4454
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

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

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Revision as of 17:35, 20 May 2019

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

January 1
- Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), Japan's first serialized animated series based on the popular manga, debuts on 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.
- The Camden railway line closes.
January 2 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong win their first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
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 13 - Coup d'état in Togo results in the assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio.
January 14
- George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama. In his inaugural speech, he defiantly proclaims "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!"^[1]^[2]
- The steam locomotive Flying Scotsman (British Railways No. 60103) makes its last scheduled run, before going into the hands of Alan Pegler for preservation.
January 18
- Due to severe winter conditions the twelfth elfstedentocht skating tour in the Netherlands turns into an almost total disaster. Of the 9,294 participants only more than 60 manage to finish, making this the heaviest elfstedentocht ever held.
- Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the U.K.'s Labour Party, dies and is replaced by acting leader George Brown.
January 22 – France and West Germany sign the Élysée Treaty.
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 integration.
January 29 – French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the European Common Market.

February

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;^[3] 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.
- Female suffrage is enacted in Iran.
February 28 – Dorothy Schiff resigns from the New York Newspaper Publishers' Association, feeling that the city needs at least one paper as New York's 83-day newspaper strike ensued. Her paper, the New York Post, resumes publication on March 4.

March

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, country music superstar Patsy Cline (Virginia Patterson Hensley) is killed in a plane crash along with fellow performers Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas 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 28 – Director Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds is released in the United States.
March 30 – Indigenous Australians are legally allowed to drink alcohol in New South Wales.^[4]
March 31 – The 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike ends after 114 days.

April

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,^[5] 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 Bahá'í Faith (known as the Universal House of Justice, whose seat is at the Bahá'í 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 (wrestler) becomes the first WWWF Champion.

May

May 1 – 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).
- The Beatles have their first Number One placing in the U.K.. They remain at the top for seven weeks from today with "I Feel Fine".
May 4 – The Le Monde Theater fire in Dioirbel, Senegal kills 64.
May 8
- Dr. No, the first James Bond film, is shown in U.S. theaters.
- 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.
- CVS Pharmacy opens in Lowell, Massachusetts.
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 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

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.
- Pope John XXIII dies.
June 4 – President John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue silver certificates.
June 5 – The first annual National Hockey League Entry Draft is held in Montreal.
June 10 – President John F. Kennedy delivers his American University speech, "A Strategy of Peace", in Washington, D.C.
June 10 – The University of Central Florida is established by the Florida legislature.
June 10 – President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law.
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, would be convicted in 1994.)
- The film Cleopatra is released.
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 would 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.
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.^[6]^[7]
- 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, East Germany.
- David Ben-Gurion is replaced by Levi Eshkol as prime minister of Israel.

July

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 5 – The United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.^[8]
August 8 – The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.
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.^{[citation needed]}
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

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

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 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
- The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed on August 5, takes effect.^[8]
- The second James Bond film, From Russia with Love, opens in the UK.
October 14 – A revolution starts in Radfan, South Yemen, against British colonial rule.
October 16 – The thousandth day of John F. Kennedy's presidency.
October 17 – 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 – 74 die in a gas explosion during a Holiday on Ice show at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum in Indianapolis.

November

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 the Åland Islands.
November 9 – Two disasters in Japan:
- Miike coal mine explosion: A coal mine explosion kills 458 and sends 839 carbon monoxide poisoning victims to 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: 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. 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.
- English-born writer Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, dies of cancer in the United States.
- Irish-born theologian and writer C. S. Lewis, author of works including The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity, dies of renal failure at his home in Oxford (England).
- Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector is released.
- The Beatles' second UK album, With the Beatles, is released.
November 23
- Moors murders: John Kilbride (12) is abducted by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in 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.
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 – Australian federal election, 1963: 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

December 3 – The Warren Commission begins its investigation into the assassination of 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 – Tony Verna, a CBS-TV director, debuts an improved version of instant replay during his direction of a live televised sporting event, the Army–Navy Game of college football played in Philadelphia. This instance is notable as it was the first instant replay system to use videotape instead of film.
December 8
- A lightning strike causes the crash of Pan Am Flight 214 near Elkton, Maryland, 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 10 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