WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 1963
Find out what all happened May to December 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)

Wunder von Lengede: In Germany, eleven miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days. (7. November 1963)

Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention. (19. July 1963)

The iconic Bluenose II was launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The schooner is a major Canadian symbol. (24. July 1963)

Execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged in Scotland, UK. (15. August 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)

Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith. (12. June 1963)

A day after South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem announced the Joint Communique to end the Buddhist crisis, a riot involving around 2,000 people breaks out. One person is killed. (17. June 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)

The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens. (1. November 1963)

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech (28. August 1963)

Ciaculli massacre: a car bomb, intended for Mafia boss Salvatore Greco, kills seven police officers and military personnel near Palermo. (30. June 1963)

The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigns in a sex scandal known as the Profumo affair. (5. June 1963)

Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space. (16. June 1963)

The 1963 South Vietnamese coup begins (1. November 1963)

American Joe Walker in an X-15 test plane reaches an altitude of 106 km (66 mi). (22. August 1963)

Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. (25. December 1963)

South Vietnamese soldiers of Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine. (8. May 1963)

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI. (21. June 1963)

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