The following events occurred in March 1963:
March 1, 1963 (Friday) The Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) proposed building an orbiting space station, with a capacity for 18 people, to be built with hardware already under development for the Apollo program. The proposal included modifying an Apollo spacecraft, currently designed for three astronauts, to carry as many as six at a time to the station. NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden told the House Committee on Science and Astronautics the station, an obvious project after the lunar landing program ended, would be needed for human exploration of other planets. Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, came into existence following the ratifications of a treaty signed on December 13, 1960, by West Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, the United States, Australia, and Luxembourg. Died: Felice Casorati, 79, Italian painter, sculptor and printmaker
March 2, 1963 (Saturday) Pakistan's Foreign Minister (and future Prime Minister) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto signed a formal agreement with China's Foreign Minister, Chen Yi, in Beijing to confirm the boundary between the two nations. Pakistan gave up of Kashmir property that was also claimed by India, while gaining of land from China. The first attempt at liver transplantation in a human being was made by a team in Denver, led by Dr. Thomas Starzl. The patient, an unidentified 3-year-old child, died shortly after the surgery. On July 23, 1967, Dr. Starzl would perform the first liver transplant where a patient survived for longer than one year. Born: Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia since 2022; in Darlinghurst, Sydney Tanyu Kiryakov, Bulgarian Olympic pistol shooting champion and gold medalist in 1988 and 2000; in Ruse
March 3, 1963 (Sunday) General Ricardo Pérez Godoy, the President of Peru and leader of a four-man military junta that had taken power on July 18, 1962, was overthrown by the other three members of the junta, including his Defense Minister, General Nicolas Lindley Lopez. General Lindley pledged to organize new presidential elections and to return Peru to civilian rule."New Peru Chief Pledges Election", Miami News, March 4, 1963, p1 The parliamentary election in Monaco was won by the National and Democratic Union, which captured 17 of the 18 seats on the National Council. There were 3,096 voters who participated in the tiny principality.Dieter Nohlen and Philip Stöver, Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook (Nomos, 2010) p1357 In a referendum in Senegal, voters agreed to abolish the office of Prime Minister of Senegal."Elections in Senegal" African Elections Database Born: Khaltmaagiin Battulga, 5th President of Mongolia from 2017 to 2021; in UlaanbaatarPresident Battulga Khaltmaa
March 4, 1963 (Monday) In Paris, six people were sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. Three of the men— Georges Watin, Serge Bernier and Lajos Marton— had eluded capture and were tried, convicted and sentenced in absentia. Lt. Col. Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, Lt. Alain de Bougernet, and Jacques Prevost were put on death row. De Gaulle would pardon all but Bastien-Thiry, who would be executed by firing squad on March 11. For the first time, the election for the office of Chairman of the Tribal Council of the Navajo Nation was contested among multiple candidates. Paul Jones, who had been the chief executive for the semi-sovereign Navajos since 1955, was defeated by Raymond Nakai, a radio announcer employed in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Mona Lisa was displayed in the United States for the last time, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City closed at 9:00 p.m. The painting was loaded onto a ship the next day for its return to Paris and the Louvre Museum. A break in the nearly three-month-long New York City newspaper strike saw the New York Post become the first of nine daily papers to settle with striking printers and to resume publication. Kuwait was admitted to the United Nations by unanimous vote of the General Assembly, after the Soviet Union dropped its opposition to the emirate's membership. Born: Jason Newsted, American musician, best known as the bassist of heavy metal band Metallica from 1986 to 2001; in Battle Creek, Michigan Died: Édouard Belin, 86, French inventor of the wirephoto process that allowed photographs to be transmitted to newspapers for reprinting. William Carlos Williams, 79, American poet
March 5, 1963 (Tuesday)
In Camden, Tennessee, 30-year-old country music superstar Patsy Cline (Virginia Patterson Hensley) was killed in a plane crash along with fellow performers Harold "Hawkshaw" Hawkins, 41, and Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas, 49, and their manager, Randy Hughes, who was piloting the Piper Comanche airplane. The four were returning to Nashville from a benefit performance in Kansas City, Kansas, for country radio disc jockey "Cactus" Jack Call and had taken off in bad weather after refueling at Dyersburg, Tennessee. Gemini Project Office and contractors agreed on general rules for the final phase of the upcoming rendezvous mission. Docking would start after the Agena target vehicle came within range of the Gemini spacecraft's sensors, and automatic and optical terminal guidance would back each other up. Docking would be attempted by the 3rd orbit of the two spacecraft, at the lowest altitude (apogee). Because of range radar tracking limitations, no midcourse corrections would be made during orbits 4 through 11 if the first try failed. A second try would be made after the 12th orbit. In case of extreme errors, the Agena would be maneuvered to bring it within the Gemini spacecraft's reach. NASA Headquarters published a study on the ejection of an instrument package from an orbiting spacecraft, for both visual and electronic observation experiments. If successful, the observation acuity could be determined to assist the rendezvous portion of the Project Gemini flights. In China, the "Learn from Lei Feng" campaign was instituted by Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong, making a hero of the 21-year-old soldier who had been accidentally killed on August 15, 1962. Born Joe Exotic (stage name for Joseph Schreibvogel), American tiger breeder and convicted felon; in Garden City, Kansas
March 6, 1963 (Wednesday) Great Britain's longest, coldest winter in the 20th century started to end, with the ground being snow-free for the first time since the blizzard over the Christmas period. Many places saw their first frost-free night of the year and since before Christmas. The south saw temperatures rise above freezing and into the low 60s Fahrenheit (17 °C). Prime Minister Robert Menzies of Australia opened the new Monaro Shopping Centre, one of the first shopping malls in Australia, in Canberra. In 1989, the structure would be expanded and become the Canberra Centre.CanberraHistory.org.au Construction began on the Unisphere, a diameter Earth globe and the symbol of the 1964 World's Fair in New York.
March 7, 1963 (Thursday) The 58-story-tall Pan Am Building (now the MetLife Building) opened at 200 Park Avenue in New York City. With more than three million square feet of floor space, it was the largest commercial office building in the world at the time of its completion. The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), a militant organization seeking to make Quebec independent of the rest of Canada, made its first attack, firebombing a wooden building in Montreal at the Canadian National Railway. The first horse race meeting in England since December 23, 1962, took place, after scheduled races had been called off due to the severe winter conditions. The Gemini Program Planning Board created an ad hoc study group to compare NASA and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) objectives for the Gemini program and to recommend DOD experiments for inclusion in the Gemini flight program. The group would present its final report to the Board on May 6.
March 8, 1963 (Friday) The 8 March Revolution took place in Syria as a military coup deposed President Nazim al-Kudsi and restored the Ba'ath party, led by Salah al-Din al-Bitar to power.Hopwood, Derek. Syria 1945–1986: Politics and society. Unwin Himan ltd., 1988: p.45."Syrian Rebels Name New Premier", Miami News, March 9, 1963, p1 Paul Caraway, the U.S. High Commissioner of the Ryuku Islands, suggested that the Ryukyuan people weren't competent enough to govern the island. Outraged government workers began a campaign for Caraway to be removed from office. Despite the dissatisfaction with his administration, Lieutenant General Caraway would remain in office for another 16 months until retiring from the U.S. Army. For the first time in British history, the 25 members of the Scots Guards, personal protectors for Queen Elizabeth II, walked off of their jobs. The grievance, reportedly, was that there was "too much spit and polish"."25 Scots Guards Go AWOL To Avoid Spit And Polish", Miami News, March 9, 1963, p1 Died: Jack Anglin, 46, American country music singer, lost control of his car near Madison, Tennessee, while driving to Nashville to attend a memorial service for Patsy Cline, and died of a fractured skull.
March 9, 1963 (Saturday) Mohammed Daoud Khan resigned after nine and a half years as Prime Minister of Afghanistan, at the request of his cousin, King Mohammed Zahir Shah, who instituted a constitutional monarchy. Daoud would overthrow the King on July 17, 1973, and become the first President of Afghanistan, and would be assassinated on April 28, 1978. In what one author describes as "arguably the most infamous cop-killing of all time", two Los Angeles policemen were kidnapped after pulling over a car driven by Gregory Powell. After their car was stopped at Gower Street and Carlos Avenue in Hollywood, Powell and his accomplice, Jimmy Lee Smith, disarmed the two policemen, Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, forced them into their car, then drove them to an onion field in Kern County, California. Powell shot Campbell five times, but Hettinger escaped. In 1973, Author Joseph Wambaugh would write The Onion Field, a bestselling book about the kidnap and murder. An explosion killed 16 employees of the Stepmann Metalworks in Belecke, a section of Warstein in West Germany, and injured 40 others. The Église Saint-Germain, Royère-de-Vassivière, was designated a monument historique by the French government. Eglise Saint-Germain
March 10, 1963 (Sunday) The first air show for the "Confederate Air Force", a group dedicated to preserving World War II aircraft, took place, in Texas. The organization was renamed the Commemorative Air Force in later years.Thomas F. King, A Companion to Cultural Resource Management (John Wiley & Sons, 2011) Born: Rick Rubin, American record executive and record producer who co-founded Def Jam Recordings; in Long Beach, New York Died: Brian O'Higgins, 80, Irish politician and leader of Sinn Féin from 1931 to 1933"Prominent Irish Poet, Patriot Dies at 80", Baltimore Sun, March 11, 1963, p. 13
March 11, 1963 (Monday) The second half-scale test vehicle in the Gemini Paraglider Development Program was destroyed while being tested. The paraglider concept was retained but its the development program was reoriented. By May 5, paraglider would be downgraded to a research and development program and all three earlier paraglider contracts would be terminated. An unidentified flying object, described as a "hazy white light", was seen by hundreds of residents of the "Big Island" of Hawaii, where it hovered for more than five minutes. Born: Alex Kingston, English actress; in Epsom, Surrey Died: Jean Bastien-Thiry, 35, French military officer and engineer, was executed by firing squad after being convicted of attempting to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle on August 22, 1962.
March 12, 1963 (Tuesday)