WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO SEPTEMBER 1963
Find out what all happened May to September 1963

Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space. (15. May 1963)

American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi. (18. August 1963)

Swissair Flight 306 crashes near Dürrenäsch, Switzerland, killing all 80 people on board. (4. September 1963)

The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, drafted shortly after his arrest on April 12th during the Birmingham Campaign advocating for civil rights and an end to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The letter was in response to "A Call for Unity": a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods, following his arrest, and became one of the most-anthologized statements of the civil rights movement. (19. May 1963)

The second period of the Second Vatican Council opens. (29. September 1963)

Movement of 15 Khordad: Protests against the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In several cities, masses of angry demonstrators are confronted by tanks and paratroopers. (5. June 1963)

The Centre for International Industrial Property Studies (CEIPI) is founded. (6. September 1963)

The Buddhist crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attack protesting Buddhists in Huế, South Vietnam, with liquid chemicals from tear-gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments. (3. June 1963)

Xá Lợi Pagoda raids: the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalizes Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead. (21. August 1963)

Equal Pay Act of 1963 aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex (see Gender pay gap). It was signed into law on June 10, 1963 by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program (10. June 1963)

Sarawak achieve independence. (22. July 1963)

A protest against pro-Catholic discrimination during the Buddhist crisis is held outside South Vietnam's National Assembly, the first open demonstration during the eight-year rule of Ngo Dinh Diem. (30. May 1963)

Great Train Robbery: in England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal £2.6 million in bank notes. (8. August 1963)

Buddhist crisis: As a result of the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, the US State Department cables the United States Embassy, Saigon to encourage Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals to launch a coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem if he did not remove his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. (24. August 1963)

North Borneo (now Sabah) achieve a self governance. (31. August 1963)

16-year-old Pauline Reade disappears on her way to a dance at the British Railways Club in Gorton, England, the first victim in the Moors murders. (12. July 1963)

John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would revolutionist American society. Proposing equal access to public facilities, end segregation in education and guarantee federal protection for voting rights. (11. June 1963)

The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government. (24. June 1963)

Lord Denning releases the UK government's official report on the Profumo Affair. (25. September 1963)

CBS Evening News becomes U.S. network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes. (2. September 1963)