January 14, 1963. George C. Wallace becomes governor of Alabama. In his inaugural speech, he defiantly proclaims “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!”

April 7, 1963. Yugoslavia is proclaimed to be a socialist republic, and Josip Broz Tito is named President for Life.

May 15, 1963. NASA launches astronaut Gordon Cooper on Mercury 9, the last mission for the Mercury program. Cooper lands in the Pacific after 22 orbits of the earth in his Mercury capsule.

June 3, 1963. 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 government in South Vietnam. Dinh Diem’s forces continue to persecute Buddhists, vandalizing Buddhist pagodas and arresting Buddhist priests.

June 16, 1963. Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.

August 8, 1963. The Great Train Robbery of 1963 takes place in Buckinghamshire, England. 2.6 million pounds in used banknotes is stolen from the Glasgow-to-London mail train. Although several of the thieves are eventually caught, the bulk of the money is never recovered.

August 28, 1963. 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 protestors.

November 2-6, 1963. South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated following a military coup. Coup leader General Duong Van Minh takes over as leader of South Vietnam.

November 14, 1963. A volcanic eruption on the ocean floor near Iceland creates a new island, Surtsey.

November 22, 1963. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. Also on this day, author and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis dies at his home, the Kilns in England, and the author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley. dies in hospital, also in England. This coincidence was the inspiration for Peter Kreeft’s book Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley.

December 12, 1963. Kenya becomes independent from British rule, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister.

Children’s nonfiction for 1963: We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson. Reviewed at Ms. Yingling Reads.