Events of 1963

January

• January 1 – Bogle-Chandler case: CSIRO scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney.
• January 14 – George C. Wallace becomes governor of Alabama. In his inaugural speech, he defiantly proclaims "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!"
• January 14 – The locomotive Flying Scotsman (British Railways No. 60103) makes its last scheduled run, before going into the hands of Alan Pegler for preservation.
• January 12 – France and Germany sign the Elysée Treaty.
• January 26 – The Australia Day shootings rock Perth, Western Australia; 2 people are shot dead and 3 others injured by Eric Edgar Cooke.
• January 28 – African American 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 EEC.

February

• 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 12 – Northwest Airlines flight 705 crashes in the Florida Everglades killing everyone aboard.
• February 11 – The CIA's Domestic Operations Division is created.
• 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 – An earthquake destroys the village of Barce, Libya, killing 900.
• February 27 – Juan Bosch takes office as the 41st president of the Dominican Republic.
• February 27 – Female suffrage is enacted in Iran.
• February 28 – Dorothy Schiff resigns from the New York Newspaper Publisher's Association, feeling that the city needs at least one paper. Her paper, the New York Post, resumes publication on March 4.

March

• March – Iron Man debuts in Marvel Comics's Tales of Suspense #39.
• March – The divorce case of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll causes scandal in the United Kingdom.
• March 4 – In Paris, 6 people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle pardons 5 of them but the other conspirator is executed by firing squad a few 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 16 – Mount Agung erupts on Bali, killing 11,000.
• March 18 – Gideon v. Wainwright: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the poor must have lawyers.
• March 21 – The Alcatraz Island federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay closes; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

• March 22 – The Beatles release their first album Please Please Me.
• 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. Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the UK's rail network.
• March 31 – The 1962 New York City newspaper strike ends after 114 days.

April

• April 3 – SCLC volunteers kick off the Birmingham campaign against segregation 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.
• April 10 – The U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher sinks 220 miles east of Cape Cod; all 129 crewmen die.
• April 12 – Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth and others are arrested in a Birmingham protest for "parading without a permit".
• April 12 – 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 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 – A general election is held in Italy.
• April 29- Buddy Rogers becomes the first WWF Champion.

May

• May 1 – The Coca-Cola Company debuts its first diet drink, TaB cola.
• May 2 – Thousands of African Americans, 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.
• May 2 – 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 – Dr. No, the first James Bond film, is shown in U.S. theaters.
• May 8 – Hue Vesak 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 nine. Earlier, President Ngo Dinh Diem allowed the flying of the Vatican flag in honour of his brother, Archibishop Ngo Dinh Thuc.
• May 13 – A smallpox outbreak hits Stockholm, Sweden, lasting until July.
• May 15 – Mercury program: NASA launches Gordon Cooper on Mercury 9, the last mission (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb tells Congress the program is complete).
• 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, released by Columbia Records.

June

• June 3 – Hue chemical attacks: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam pours chemicals on the heads of Buddhist protestors. The United States threatens to cut off aid to Ngo Dinh Diem's regime
• June 3 – Pope John XXIII dies.
• June 4 – President John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110.
• June 5 – The first annual NHL draft is held in Montreal, Quebec.
• June 10 – The University of Central Florida is established by the Florida legislature.
• June 11 – In Saigon, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Ðức commits self-immolation to protest the oppression of Buddhists by the Ngo Dinh Diem administration.
• June 11 – Alabama Governor George C. Wallace stands in the door of the University of Alabama to protest against integration, before stepping aside and allowing African Americans James Hood and Vivian Malone to enroll.
• June 11 – President John F. Kennedy delivered 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 is convicted in 1994).
• June 13 – The cancellation of Mercury 10 effectively ends the Mercury program of United States manned spaceflight.
• 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 21 – Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope.
• June 22 – The Beatles played at the Borough Theatre in Abergavenny.

July

• July 1 – ZIP Codes are introduced in the U.S.
• July 5 – Diplomatic relations between the Israeli and the Japanese governments are raised to embassy level.
• July 5 – The Roman Catholic Church accepts cremation as a funeral practice.
• July 7 – Double Seven Day scuffle: Secret police loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, attack American journalists including Peter Arnett and David Halberstam at a demonstration during the Buddhist crisis.
• July 12 – Pauline Reade, 16, is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady in Manchester, England.
• July 26 – An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia leaves 1,800 dead.
• July 26 – NASA launches Syncom, the world's first geostationary (synchronous) satellite.
• July 30 – The Soviet newspaper Izvestia reports that Kim Philby has been given asylum in Moscow.

August

• August 5 – The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
• August 8 – The Great Train Robbery of 1963 takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.
• August 18 – American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
• August 21 – Xa Loi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalise Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
• August 21 – Cable 243: In the wake of the Xa Loi Pagoda raids, the Kennedy administration orders the US embassy in Saigon to explore alternative leadership in South Vietnam, opening the way towards a coup against Diem.
• 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.

September

• September – Marvel Comics releases the first ever X-Men comic book
• September 5 – British prostitute Christine Keeler is arrested for perjury. On December 6 she is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
• September 6 – The Centre for International Industrial Property Studies (CEIPI) is founded.
• September 7 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
• September 10 – 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 16 – In Fort-Lamy, Chad, demonstrations are quelled with 300 dead.
• September 18 – Rioters burn down the British Embassy in Jakarta, to protest the formation of Malaysia.
• September 23 – King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals is established by a Saudi Royal Decree as the College of Petroleum and Minerals.
• September 24 – The U.S. Senate ratifies the nuclear test ban treaty.
• September 25 – The Denning Report on the Profumo affair is published in Great Britain.
• September 29 – The second period of Second Vatican Council in Rome opens.
• September 29 – The University of East Anglia is established in Norwich, England.

October

• October 1 – Nigeria becomes a republic; The 1st Republican Constitution is established
• October 1 – In the U.S., the President's Commission on the Status of Women issues its final reports to President Kennedy.
• 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 were arrested after trying to register at a "whites only" motel in Louisiana. In the months following, he records 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 nuclear test ban treaty, signed on August 5, takes effect.
• October 10 – 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 19 – Alec Douglas-Home succeeds Harold Macmillan as British Prime Minister.
• October 30 – Lamborghini was founded.
• 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 officially begins operation.
• November 2 – 1963 South Vietnamese coup: South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated following a military coup.
• November 6 – Vietnam War: Coup leader General Duong Van Minh takes over as leader of South Vietnam.
• November 6 – Laura Welch causes a car accident that results in the death of Michael Dutton Douglas in her hometown of Midland, Texas.
• November 7 – Wunder von Lengede: In Germany, 11 miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days.
• November 9 – Miike Coal Mine explosion: In Japan, a coal mine explosion kills 458 and sends 839 carbon monoxide poisoning victims to the hospital.
• November 9 – A triple-train disaster in Yokohama, Japan kills 161.
• November 10 – Malcolm X makes a 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 Dartford Tunnel opens in the U.K.

• November 22 – The Beatles' second U.K. album, With The Beatles, is released
• November 22 – Writers Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis died
• November 22 – John F. Kennedy assassination: In Dallas, Texas, United States President John F. Kennedy is shot to death, Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded, and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes the 36th President. All television coverage for the next three days is devoted to the assassination, its aftermath, the procession of the horsedrawn casket to the Capitol Rotunda, and the funeral of President Kennedy. Stores and businesses shut down for the entire weekend and Monday, in tribute.
• November 23 – John Kilbride, 12, is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady in Great Britain.
• November 23 – The first episode of the BBC television series Doctor Who is broadcast in the United Kingdom. A reference to this date is later included in one episode of the spinoff Torchwood
• November 23 – The Golden Age Nursing Home Fire kills 63 elderly people near Fitchville, Ohio.
• November 24 – Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy, is shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas on live national television. Later that night, a hastily arranged program, A Tribute to John F. Kennedy from the Arts, featuring actors, opera singers, and noted writers, all performing dramatic readings and/or music, is telecast on ABC-TV.
• November 24 – 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 – U.S. President Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Schools around the nation do not have class on that day, millions watch the funeral on live international television.
• November 29 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.
• November 29 – Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8 carrying 118, crashes into a wooded hillside after taking-off from Dorval International Airport near Montreal, killing all on board (the worst air disaster for many years in Canada's history).

December

• December 3 – The Warren Commission begins its investigation.
• December 4 – The second period of 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 8 – A lightning strike causes the crashing of Pan Am Flight 214 near Elkton, Maryland, killing 81 people.
• December 8 – Frank Sinatra Jr. is kidnapped at Harrah's Lake Tahoe.
• December 10 – In the United States, the X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program is cancelled. Also on this date: Chuck Yeager "while testing an NF-104A rocket-augmented aerospace trainer, he narrowly escaped death when his aircraft went out of control at 108,700 feet (nearly 21 miles up) and crashed. He parachuted to safety at 8,500 feet after vainly battling to gain control of the powerless, rapidly falling craft. In this incident he became the first pilot to make an emergency ejection in the full pressure suit needed for high altitude flights.”
• December 12 – Kenya becomes independent, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister.
• December 19 – Zanzibar gains independence from Great Britain as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
• December 21 – Cyprus Emergency: Inter-communal fighting erupts between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
• December 22 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles 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 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 – I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There are released in the U.S., marking the beginning of full-scale Beatlemania.

Undated

• Heavy snow results in many houses and buildings collapsed by heavy snow on roofs in northwestern Japan. At least 231 reported died. (from January to February). An express train delayed 106 hours 30 minutes arrived at Tokyo, because of heavy snow and adverse weather.
• 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 is fully deployed.
• TAT-3 cable goes into operation.
• Construction of Moscow's Ostankino Tower begins.
• Harvey Ball invents the ubiquitous smiley face symbol.
• The Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) is founded.
• The IEEE Computer Society is founded.
• The Urdu typewriter keyboard is standardised by the Central Language Board in Pakistan.

Births

January

• January 2 – David Cone, American baseball player
• January 2 – Edgar Martínez, American baseball player
• January 4 – Till Lindemann, German rock musician (Rammstein)
• January 13 – Jiang Wen, Chinese actor
• January 13 – Tim Kelly, American rock musician (Slaughter) (d. 1998)
• January 14 – Steven Soderbergh, American film director
• January 16 – James May, English motoring journalist and television show host
• January 18 – Ian Crook, English footballer
• January 20 – Firebreaker Chip, American professional wrestler
• January 21 – Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian basketball player
• January 21 – Detlef Schrempf, German basketball player
• January 23 – Gail O'Grady, American actress
• January 24 – Arnold Vanderlyde, Dutch boxer
• January 26 – Chin Siu Ho, Hong Kong actor
• January 26 – José Mourinho, Portuguese football manager
• January 26 – Andrew Ridgeley, English musician
• January 26 – Riddell Akua, Nauruan politician
• January 30 – Thomas Brezina, Austrian author

February

• February 2 – Eva Cassidy, American vocalist (d. 1996)
• February 3 – Gretel Killeen, Australian journalist
• February 4 – Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss alpine skier
• February 9 – Travis Tritt, American country singer
• February 10 – Tony Reno, Swedish rock drummer (Europe)
• February 11 – Diane Franklin, American actress
• February 17 – Michael Jordan, American basketball player
• 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
• February 22 – Vijay Singh, Fiji golfer

March

• March 1 – Dan Michaels, American record producer and saxophonist (The Choir, The Swirling Eddies)
• March 1 – Russell Wong, American actor
• March 2 – Tuff Hedeman, American PRCA World Champion Bull Rider
• March 3 – Martin Fiz, Spanish long-distance runner
• March 4 – Jason Newsted, American rock bassist (Voivod)
• March 4 – Daniel Roebuck, American actor
• March 4 – Janey Lee Grace, British singer, author, television presenter and radio disc jockey
• March 5 – Joel Osteen, American televangelist and son of John Osteen
• March 6 – Gary Stevens, American jockey
• March 7 – Kim Ung-yong, Korean child prodigy
• March 12 – Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian runner
• March 13 – Fito Páez, Argentine musician
• March 14 – Bruce Reid, Australian cricketer
• March 15 – Bret Michaels, American rock singer (Poison)
• March 17 – Nick Peros, Canadian composer
• March 17 – Michael Ivins, American rock bassist (The Flaming Lips)
• March 17 – Alex Fong, Hong Kong actor
• March 18 – Vanessa L. Williams, American beauty queen, actress, and singer
• March 20 – Paul Annacone, American tennis player and coach
• March 20 – Kathy Ireland, American model and actress
• March 21 – Ronald Koeman, Dutch football player and manager
• March 21 – Shawn Lane, American guitar virtuoso (d. 2003)
• March 22 – Susan Ann Sulley, British musician
• March 26 – Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Japanese writer
• March 27 – Charly Alberti, Argentinian musician
• March 27 – Quentin Tarantino, American actor, director, writer, and producer
• March 27 – Xuxa, Brazilian television personality
• March 29 – Elle Macpherson, Australian supermodel
• March 30 – Eli-Eri Moura, Brazilian composer, conductor and music theorist

April

• April 3 – Criss Oliva, American metal guitarist (savatage)
• April 4 – Jack Del Rio, American football player and coach
• April 4 – Graham Norton, Irish comedian and talk show host
• April 4 – Frank Yallop, Canadian footballer
• April 6 – Andrew Weatherall, English disc jockey
• April 8 – Julian Lennon, British musician son of John Lennon
• April 9 – Joe Scarborough, American newscaster
• April 10 – Warren DeMartini, American rock guitarist (Ratt)
• April 10 – Doris Leuthard, Swiss Federal Councillor
• April 11 – Chris Ferguson, American poker player
• April 12 – Michael English, American Christian singer
• April 13 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player
• April 16 – Jimmy Osmond, American singer
• April 17 – Joel Murray, American actor
• April 18 – Eric McCormack, Canadian actor
• April 18 – Conan O'Brien, American television entertainer and talk show host
• April 20 – Derryl murphy, Canadian Science Fiction author
• April 21 – Ken Caminiti, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• April 21 – Roy Dupuis, Canadian actor
• April 24 – Tõnu Trubetsky, Estonian rock musician (Vennaskond)
• April 26 – Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor
• April 26 – Colin Scotts, Australian-born American football player
• April 27 – Cali Timmins, Canadian actress
• April 27 – Russell T Davies, Welsh television producer and writer
• April 30 – Michael Waltrip, American race car driver

May

• May 1 – Benjamin LaGuer, American inmate proclaiming innocence for more than two decades
• May 2 – Ray Traylor, American professional wrestler ("Big Bossman") (d. 2004)
• May 5 – James LaBrie, Canadian vocalist (Dream Theater)
• May 8 – Anthony Field, an Australian musician and actor. He is best known as a member of the children's group The Wiggles and the 1980s and 90s band The Cockroaches.
• May 9 – Barry Douglas Lamb, English musician, author, and preacher
• May 9 – Gary Daniels, British martial artist and actor
• May 11 – Natasha Richardson, English actress (d. 2009)
• May 12 – Jerry Trimble, American actor and martial artist
• May 16 – Jon Coffelt, American artist
• May 16 – Mercedes Echerer, Austrian actress and politician
• May 19 – Yazz, English singer
• May 23 – Wally Dallenbach Jr., American race car driver and announcer
• May 24 – Joe Dumars, American basketball player
• May 24 – Rich Rodriguez, American football coach
• May 25 – Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian
• May 25 – Eha Rünne, Estonian shot putter and discus thrower
• May 26 – Clive Cowdery, English insurance entrepreneur

June

• June 5 – Joe Rudán, Hungarian heavy metal singer
• June 6 – Jason Isaacs, British actor
• June 9 – Johnny Depp, American actor
• June 12 – Warwick Capper, Australian rules footballer
• June 13 – Bettina Bunge, German tennis player
• June 15 – Helen Hunt, American actress
• June 16 – James Fullington, American professional wrestler ("The Sandman)
• June 17 – Greg Kinnear, American actor
• June 18 – Bruce Smith, American football player
• June 20 – Amir Derakh, American musician
• June 22 – Randy Couture, American mixed martial artist
• June 23 – Colin Montgomerie, Scottish golfer
• June 24 – Mike Wieringo, American comic-book artist (d. 2007)
• June 24 – Preki, Serbia-born American footballer
• June 25 – Doug Gilmour, Canadian hockey player
• June 25 – George Michael, English singer
• June 26 – Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian businessman, former Komsomol activist and oligarch
• June 29 – Anne-Sophie Mutter, German violinist
• June 30 – Yngwie Malmsteen, Swedish guitarist, composer, and bandleader

July

• July 4 – Christopher George Kennedy, American son of Robert F Kennedy
• July 6 – Miguel De Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, Basque separatist
• July 11 – Lisa Rinna, American actress
• July 16 – Norman Cook English Big Beat musician (Fatboy Slim)
• July 16 – Phoebe Cates, American actress
• July 17 – Letsie III, King of Lesotho
• July 17 – Matti Nykanen, Finnish ski jumper
• July 18 – Allen Sarven, American professional wrestler (Al Snow)
• July 24 – Julie Krone, American jockey
• July 24 – Karl Malone, American basketball player
• July 26 – Andy Timmons, American guitarist
• July 27 – Donnie Yen, Hong Kong actor and martial artist
• July 28 – Gregory Henriquez, Canadian architect
• July 29 – Graham Poll, English football referee
• July 29 – Jim Beglin, Irish football commentator
• July 30 – Lisa Kudrow, American actress
• July 30 – Chris Mullin, American basketball player and executive

August

• August 1 – Coolio, American rapper
• August 2 – Laura Bennett, American fashion designer
• August 3 – Tasmin Archer, English singer
• August 3 – James Hetfield, American rock singer (Metallica)
• August 4 – Gary King, British disc jockey
• August 6 – Kevin Mitnick, American computer hacker
• August 7 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, son of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (d. 1963)
• August 8 – Stephen Walkom, Canadian ice hockey official and executive
• August 9 – Whitney Houston, American singer
• August 19 – John Stamos, American actor
• August 19 – Joey Tempest, Swedish rock singer (Europe)
• August 22 – Tori Amos, American singer
• August 23 – Hans-Henning Fastrich, German field hockey player
• August 23 – Kenny Wallace, American race car driver
• August 24 – Hideo Kojima, Japanese video-game director
• August 26 – Michael Tao, Hong Kong actor
• August 26 – Liu Huan, Chinese singer
• August 30 – Michael Chiklis, American actor
• August 30 – Paul Oakenfold, British disc jockey
• August 30 – Phil Mills, British race car driver
• August 31 – Reb Beach, American rock guitarist (Winger, Whitesnake)
• August 31 – Todd Carty, British actor

September

• September 1 – Carola Smit, Dutch musician
• September 6 – Geert Wilders, Dutch politician
• September 6 – Mark Chesnutt, American country musician
• September 7 – Eazy-E, American West Coast rapper and record producer (d. 1995)
• September 8 – Li Ning, Chinese gymnast
• September 10 – Randy Johnson, American baseball player
• September 11 – Joey Dedio, American actor
• September 12 – Norberto Barba, American cinematographer and film director
• September 16 – Richard Marx, American pop/rock singer
• September 17 – Masahiro Chono, Japanese professional wrestler
• September 19 – Jarvis Cocker, English rock musician (Pulp)
• September 21 – Cecil Fielder, American baseball player
• September 21 – Angus MacFadyen, Scottish actor
• September 23 – Jackie Pearcey, English politician
• September 28 – Steve Blackman, American professional wrestler
• September 28 – Dan Forden, video game music composer Mortal Kombat
• September 29 – Dave Andreychuk, Canadian hockey player
• September 29 – Les Claypool, American rock bassist and singer (Primus)

October

• October 1 – Mark McGwire, American baseball player
• October 5 – Laura Davies, English golfer
• October 5 – Ronni Le Tekrø, Norwegian guitarist (TNT)
• October 6 – Elisabeth Shue, American actress
• October 10 – Anita Mui, Hong Kong singer (d. 2003)
• October 10 – Daniel Pearl, American journalist (d. 2002)
• October 10 – Jolanda de Rover, Dutch swimmer
• October 12 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese anime director
• October 12 – Alan McDonald, Northern Irish footballer
• October 17 – Norm Macdonald, Canadian comedian
• October 22 – Brian Boitano, American figure skater
• October 23 – Thomas Di Leva, Swedish singer
• October 23 – Wilson Yip, Hong Kong actor and director
• October 25 – John Levén, Swedish bassist (Europe)
• October 26 – Natalie Merchant, American singer, songwriter, and musician
• October 27 – Feyyaz Uçar, Turkish footballer
• October 28 – Mark Kwok, Hong Kong actor
• October 28 – Lauren Holly, American actress
• October 30 – Kristina Wagner, American actress
• October 31 – Fred McGriff, American baseball player
• October 31 – Johnny Marr, English musician

November

• November 1 – Rick Allen, British rock musician (Def Leppard)
• November 1 – Katja Riemann, German actress
• November 2 – Craig Saavedra, American filmmaker
• November 4 – Lena Zavaroni, Scottish entertainer (d. 1999)
• November 11 – Kip James, American professional wrestler
• November 13 – Vinny Testaverde, American football player
• November 15 – Benny Elias, Australian rugby player
• November 18 – Dante Bichette, American baseball player
• November 19 – Terry Farrell, American actress
• November 19 – Jon Potter, British field hockey player
• November 19 – Peter Schmeichel, Danish football player
• November 21 – Nicollette Sheridan, English actress
• November 22 – Winsor Harmon, American actor
• November 23 – Troy Hurtubise, Canadian inventor
• November 25 – Holly Cole, Canadian jazz singer
• November 25 – Bernie Kosar, American football player

December

• December 2 – Ann Patchett, American novelist
• December 3 – Terri Schiavo, American right-to-die cause célèbre (d. 2005)
• December 4 – Sergey Bubka, Ukrainian pole vaulter
• December 7 – Mark Bowen, Welsh footballer
• December 8 – Toshiaki Kawada, Japanese professional wrestler
• December 8 – Greg Howe, Americal guitarist
• December 13 – Jake White, South African rugby coach
• December 13 – Uwe-Jens Mey, German speed skater
• December 14 – Cynthia Gibb, American actress
• December 16 – Benjamin Bratt, American actor
• December 16 – Jeff Carson, American singer
• December 18 – Pauline Ester, French singer
• December 18 – Brad Pitt, American actor
• December 21 – Jacques Simonet, Belgian politician (d. 2007)
• December 22 – Bryan Gunn, Scottish footballer
• December 22 – Luna H. Mitani, Japanese-American Surrealism painter
• December 23 – Jim Harbaugh, American football player
• December 23 – Donna Tartt, American author
• December 26 – Lars Ulrich, Danish-born rock drummer (Metallica)
• December 29 – Francisco Bustamante, Filipino billiard player
• December 29 – Sean Payton, American football coach
• December 30 – Kim Hill, American Christian singer

Deaths

January

• January 2 – Jack Carson, Canadian actor (b. 1910)
• January 2 – Dick Powell, American actor (b. 1904)
• January 5 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (b. 1896)
• January 6 – Frank Tuttle, American film director (b. 1892)
• January 7 – Erik Lundqvist, Swedish athlete (b. 1908)
• January 13 – Sonny Clark, American jazz pianist (b. 1931)
• January 13 – Sylvanus Olympio, 1st President of Togo (b. 1902)
• January 18 – Edward Charles Titchmarsh, British mathematician (b. 1899)
• January 21 – Al St. John, American actor (b. 1893)
• January 23 – Józef Gosławski, Polish sculptor and medallic artist (b. 1908)
• January 24 – Otto Harbach, American lyricist and librettist (b. 1873)
• January 26 – Ole Olsen, American actor (b. 1892)
• January 28
  • John Farrow, American film director (b. 1904)
  • Jean Piccard, Swiss-born chemist and engineer (b. 1884)
• January 29 – Robert Frost, American poet (b. 1874)
• January 30 – Francis Poulenc, French composer (b. 1899)

February

• February 1 – Wyndham Standing, English actor (b. 1880)
• February 6 – Piero Manzoni, Italian artist (b. 1933)
• February 8 – George Dolenz, American actor (b. 1908)
• February 9 – Abd al-Karim Qasim, Prime minister of Iraq (b. 1914)
• February 11 – Sylvia Plath, American poet and novelist (suicide) (b. 1932)
• February 16 – László Lajtha, Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and conductor (b. 1892)
• February 18
  • Monte Blue, American actor (b. 1887)
  • Tokugawa Iemasa, Japanese politician, 17th head of the former Tokugawa shogunate (b. 1884)
• February 20 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian conductor (b. 1914)
• February 28 – Eppa Rixey, American baseball player (b. 1891)

March

• March 4 – William Carlos Williams, American writer (b. 1883)
• March 5 – Patsy Cline, American singer (I Fall To Pieces) (air crash) (b. 1932)
• March 10 – Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, Novel prize winner (b. 1888)
• March 11 – Ignat Bednarik, Romanian painter (b. 1882)
• March 16 – Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria (b. 1883)
• March 18 – Wanda Hawley, American actress (b. 1895)
• March 22 – Cilly Aussem, German tennis champion (b. 1909)
• March 23 – Thoralf Skolem, Norwegian mathematician (b. 1887)
• March 28 – Alec Templeton, Welsh composer (b. 1909)
• March 30 – Aleksandr Gauk, Russian conductor and composer (b. 1893)

April

• April 3 – Alma Richards, American athlete (b. 1890)
• April 4 – Jason Robards, Sr., American actor (b. 1892)
• April 6 – Otto Struve, Russian-born astronomer (b. 1897)
• April 7 – Amedeo Maiuri, Neapolitan archaeologist (b. 1886))
• April 9 – Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist (b. 1891)
• April 9 – Benno Moiseiwitsch, Jewish-Ukrainian pianist (b. 1890)
• April 12 – Felix Y. Manalo, First Filipino Executive Minister of the Iglesia ni Cristo (b. 1886)
• April 13 – Luis Somoza Debayle, 50th President of Nicaragua (b. 1922)
• April 14 – Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, Great Indian Historian, Writer, Scholar (b. 1893)
• April 14 – Arthur Jonath, German athlete (b. 1909)
• April 30
  • William C. Mellor, American cinematographer (b. 1903)
  • Bryant Washburn, American actor (b. 1889)

May

• 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 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 – Bobby Kerr, Canadian runner (b. 1882)
• May 12 – Aiden Wilson Tozer, American Protestant pastor (b. 1897)
• 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 31 – Edith Hamilton, German-born author (b. 1867)

June

• June 1 – Alfred V. Kidder, American archaeologist (b. 1885)
• June 3 – Pope John XXIII (b. 1881)
• June 3 – Nazim Hikmet, Turkish poet (b. 1901)
• June 7 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (b. 1900)
• June 9 – Jacques Villon, French painter (b. 1875)
• June 10 – Anita King, American actress and race car driver (b. 1884)
• June 11 – Thich Quang Duc, Vietnamese Buddhist monk (suicide) (b. 1897)
• June 12 – Medgar Evers, African-American civil rights activist (b. 1925)
• June 18 – Pedro Armendariz, Mexican actor (suicide) (b. 1912)
• June 27 – John Maurice Clark, American economist (b. 1884)

July

• July 6 – Georg, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1899)
• July 10 – Teddy Wakelam, English sports broadcaster and rugby union player (b. 1893)
• July 12 – Slatan Dudow, Bulgarian film director (b. 1903)
• July 18 – Jack Solomon, American restaurateur (b. 1896)

August

• August 1 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (b. 1908)
• August 2 – Oliver La Farge, American writer (b. 1901)
• August 4 – Tom Keene, American actor (b. 1896)
• August 9 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, American infant son of President and Mrs. Kennedy
• August 10
  • Estes Kefauver, American politician (b. 1903)
  • Ernst Wetter, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1877)
• August 11 – Clem Bevans, American actor (b. 1879)
• August 17 – Richard Barthelmess, American actor (b. 1895)
• August 18 – Clifford Odets, American playwright (b. 1906)
• August 20 – Joan Voûte, Dutch astronomer (b. 1879)
• August 22 – William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, British businessman and a philanthropist (b. 1877)
• August 23
  • Glen Gray, American saxophonist and conductor (b. 1900)
  • Larry Keating, American actor (b. 1896)
• August 24 – James Kirkwood, Sr., American film director (b. 1875)
• August 27 – Allama Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, Indian founder of the Khaksar Movement (b. 1888)
• August 27 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American civil rights activist (b. 1868)
• August 30 – Guy Burgess, British spy, one of the Cambridge Five (b. 1911)
• August 31 – Georges Braque, French painter (b. 1882)

September

• September 3 – Louis MacNeice, Irish poet (b. 1907)
• September 11 – Suzanne Duchamp, French painter (b. 1889)
• September 12 – Modest Altschuler, Belarus-born American composer (b. 1873)
• 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)
• September 25 – Kurt Zeitzler, German Army officer (b. 1895)

October

• October 7 – Gustaf Gründgens, German actor (b. 1899)
• October 10 – Édith Piaf, French singer (b. 1915)
• October 11 – Jean Cocteau, French writer (b. 1889)
• October 25 – Roger Désormière, French conductor (b. 1898)
• October 29 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (b. 1890)
• October 31 – Henry Daniell, English actor (b. 1894)

November

• November 1
  • Elsa Maxwell, American gossip columnist (b. 1883)
  • Le Quang Tung, Vietnamese military leader (b. 1923) (assassinated)
• November 2 – Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam (b. 1901)
• November 15 – Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (b. 1888)
• November 21 – Robert Stroud, American prisoner and Alcatraz "Birdman" (b. 1890)
• November 22 – Aldous Huxley, English writer (Brave New World) (b. 1894)
• November 22 – John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (b. 1917)
• November 22 – C. S. Lewis, Irish-born British writer (Mere Christianity) (b. 1898)
• November 24 – Lee Harvey Oswald, American assassin of President John F. Kennedy (b. 1939) (assassinated)
• November 26 – 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)

December

• December 2
  • Sabu, Indian-American actor (b. 1924)
  • Thomas J. Hicks, American runner (b. 1875)
• December 5 – Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer (b. 1905)
• December 12 – Theodor Heuss, 5th President of Germany (b. 1884)
• December 12 – Yasujiro Ozu, Japanese filmmaker (b. 1903)
• December 14 – Dinah Washington, African-American jazz/blues singer (b. 1924)
• December 15 – Rikidōzan, Korea-born Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1924)
• December 21 – Jack Hobbs, English cricketer (b. 1882)
• December 25 – Tristan Tzara, French poet (b. 1896)
• December 28 – Paul Hindemith, German composer (b. 1895)
• December 28 – A. J. Liebling, American journalist (b. 1904)
• December – Andy Kennedy, Northern Ireland footballer (b. 1897)

Nobel Prizes

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

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Lawrence of Arabia, Sam Spiegel
• Best Foreign Language Film: Les Dimanches de Ville d'Avray, France
• Best Documentary Feature: Black Fox: The True Story of Adolf Hitler, Louis Clyde Stoumen
• Best Director: David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia
• Best Actor: Gregory Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird
• Best Actress: Anne Bancroft, The Miracle Worker
• Best Supporting Actor: Ed Begley, Sweet Bird of Youth
• Best Supporting Actress: Patty Duke, The Miracle Worker
• Best Original Screenplay: Ennio De Concini; Alfredo Giannetti; Pietro Germi, Divorzio all'italiana
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Horton Foote, To Kill a Mockingbird
• Best Original Score: Lawrence of Arabia, Maurice Jarre
• Best Original Song: Days of Wine and Roses from Days of Wine and Roses, Music by Henry Mancini; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Notes