February 1963

February 1, 1963 (Friday)

A convent school collapsed in the town of Biblián, in Ecuador, during chapel services during a heavy rainfall. An estimated 450 people, mostly schoolgirls, were buried in the rubble, and 104 were killed.

Middle East Airlines Flight 265, with 14 people on board, was struck by a Turkish Air Force C-47 airplane with 3 people, as the airliner was descending for a landing at the airport in Ankara. Plunging from an altitude of 7,000 feet, the wreckage of Flight 265 fell into Ulas Square, killing another 87 people and injuring 200.

A double-headed train rammed into a passenger train, exploded and caught fire at Nogales, Veracruz, Mexico, killing 17 people and injuring 63.

The United States Army activated the 11th Air Assault Division (Test) to test the concept of helicopter assault by ground forces.

February 2, 1963 (Saturday)

The world record for the pole vault was broken by Pentti Nikula of Finland, after having been held by a succession of Americans for almost 35 years. Nikula cleared the bar at 4.94 meters (16 feet,  8 ³⁄₄ inches) using a fiberglass pole.

General Ivan Serov was dismissed from his job as Director of the GRU and replaced by Pyotr Ivashutin.

South Korea's Democratic Republican Party was founded by Kim Jong-pil. Kim was forced into exile three weeks later, on February 24.

The Beatles went on tour at the bottom of an eight-act bill headed by 16-year-old singer Helen Shapiro.

Born: Eva Cassidy, American singer (died 1996)

Died: Patrick Kerwin, 73, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada since 1954.

February 3, 1963 (Sunday)

In the Nicaraguan general election, evidence of massive impending fraud caused the Traditional Conservative Party, led by Fernando Agüero Rocha, to abandon its loyalist stance and to call for a boycott of the 1963 elections. The result was a victory for René Schick Gutiérrez, considered a puppet of Luis Somoza and the Somoza family that had ruled since 1932.

On orders from Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Operation Coldstore was carried out in Singapore, with the arrest of more than 150 journalists, labor and student leaders, and members of political parties that opposed Lee's People's Action Party (PAP). The detainees were kept at the Outram Road Prison for three months; with the leaders of the Barisan Sosialis and other parties forced out of campaigning, the PAP would capture 2/3rds of the seats in the parliamentary elections, and maintain control thereafter.

Canadian Minister of National Defence Douglas Harkness resigned in disagreement over the nuclear policies of Prime Minister Diefenbaker, triggering the collapse of the rest of the ministry.

February 4, 1963 (Monday)

The SS Marine Sulphur Queen, a tanker with a crew of 39 and a cargo of molten sulphur, was heard from for the last time, two days after its departure from Beaumont, Texas en route to Norfolk, Virginia. Contact between the ship and its owner, Marine Transport Lines, Inc., was lost and the ship was reported missing two days later. Debris from the tanker washed ashore in Florida, but a search by U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy airplanes did not locate the ship. The story of the disappearance of the tanker would be the first wreck described in the Argosy magazine article (by Vincent Gaddis) "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle", although an investigating panel concluded that the ship, structurally unsound and burdened by its heavy cargo, broke in half during a storm.

The UK Football Association decided to postpone the fifth and sixth rounds of the 1962–63 FA Cup because of delays caused by the severe winter.

February 5, 1963 (Tuesday)

The Canadian House of Commons voted 142-111 in favor of a resolution of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Parliament was dissolved the next day by Governor-General George Vanier, and elections were scheduled for April 8.

Travel, as well as financial and commercial transactions, by United States citizens to Cuba were made illegal by the John F. Kennedy Administration.

Died:

Abd el-Krim, 77, Moroccan nationalist who fought for independence against France and Britain after Morocco had become a French protectorate in 1911

Barnum Brown, 90, American paleontologist who discovered the first documented Tyrannosaurus rex remains in 1902.

February 6, 1963 (Wednesday)

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara appeared at a nationally televised press conference from the White House to show proof, with photographs from U-2 spy planes, that all offensive missiles had been removed from Cuba.

Died: Piero Manzoni, 29, Italian artist, died of a heart attack

February 7, 1963 (Thursday)

In one of New Zealand's worst road accidents ever, a bus crashed after its brakes fail nearing the top of the southern descent of the Brynderwyn Range, killing 15 of the 35 people on board. The bus, bringing back a group of Maori people from a welcome for Queen Elizabeth's visit to Waitangi, plunged over a 130-foot embankment, and evoked memories of a December 24, 1953, train crash that killed 151 people who were on their way to Auckland to welcome the Queen to New Zealand.

In the first ballot to select the new leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, Harold Wilson received 115 votes, George Brown 88, and James Callaghan 41. Since no candidate got a majority of MP votes, a second round would be held on February 14 between Wilson and Brown.

"Please Please Me", The Beatles first single to be sold in the United States, was released by Vee-Jay Records. Only 7,310 copies of the record were bought.

February 8, 1963 (Friday)

A military coup by the Ba'ath Party's Iraqi-wing overthrew the Prime Minister of Iraq, Abd al-Karim Qasim. General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr became the new Prime Minister and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif became President.

Britain's Royal Navy conducted the world's first experimental trials of a vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing aircraft aboard an aircraft carrier, testing the Hawker Siddeley P.1127 prototype aboard HMS Ark Royal.

February 9, 1963 (Saturday)

The Boeing 727 made its first flight. Pilot S.L. Wallick, copilot R.L. Loesch and flight engineer M.K. Schulenberger took the plane aloft from the company's airfield at Renton, Washington.

The Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, Archbishop and leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and a Roman Catholic cardinal, was allowed by the Soviet Union, departing Lviv by train. He would never return, dying in 1984.

Died: Abd al-Karim Qasim, 48, former Prime Minister of Iraq, was executed by a firing squad, one day after being overthrown and only hours after a brief court-martial.

February 10, 1963 (Sunday)

Five Japanese cities located on the northernmost part of Kyūshū were merged to become the city of Kitakyūshū, with a population of more than one million.

U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, taking up a challenge made by his brother, the President, for U.S. Marines to meet Teddy Roosevelt's standard for hiking 50 miles within three days, completed the distance in 17 hours and 50 minutes.

Born: Smiley Culture, British reggae singer and DJ, as David Victor Emmanuel in South London (died 2011)

February 11, 1963 (Monday)

The CIA's Domestic Operations Division was created.

The Beatles recorded the ten songs of their debut album Please Please Me in a single, 13-hour session at the Abbey Road Studios.

Died: Sylvia Plath, 30, American poet, novelist and short story writer, and author of The Bell Jar, committed suicide at her apartment in London by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes from her gas oven.

February 12, 1963 (Tuesday)

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705, a Boeing 720-051B, broke up in mid-air during a severe thunderstorm and crashed into the Florida Everglades west of Miami, Florida, shortly after takeoff from Miami International Airport, killing all 43 people on board. The plane took off from Miami at 1:35 pm local time, bound for Chicago, and was cleared to climb to a higher altitude to avoid a thunderstorm, but a 1:48, was broken apart by downdrafts at an altitude of 10,000 feet and crashed.

Construction work began on the Gateway Arch at St Louis, Missouri. The 620-foot-tall structure, commemorating St. Louis as the "gateway to the West", would be completed on October 28, 1965.

An inquiry into the death of Sylvia Plath ruled that it was suicide.

Born:

Jacqueline Woodson, American children's author, in Columbus, Ohio

Allison Rosati, American journalist and news anchor, in Dover, Delaware

February 13, 1963 (Wednesday)

Residents of the Rwenzori Mountains in the Toro Kingdom region of southwestern Uganda rebelled against the government and declared independence of a state they called the Republic of Ruwenzuru. The Toro independence movement was defeated in 1970, and a majority of the secessionist leaders were murdered in 1972.

An earthquake occurred off the coast of Taiwan, near Su-ao, Yilan County. It had a magnitude of M_w 7.3 and killed three people.

February 14, 1963 (Thursday)

The Coca-Cola Company introduced its first low calorie soft drink, TaB, test marketing it in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Harold Wilson was elected leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, defeating George Brown, Baron George-Brown 144-103 in the second ballot, and putting Wilson in line to be the nation's next Prime Minister when general elections took place.

The Indian Air Force received its first batch of Soviet fighters, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s.

Syncom 1 became the first satellite to be placed into geosynchronous orbit, but its communications equipment was knocked out permanently in the process of being aligned to coincide with the rotation of the Earth.

February 15, 1963 (Friday)

Television was introduced in Singapore, with one hour per week of programming initially, increasing by April to five hours of programming each weeknight, and 10 hours each on Saturday and Sunday.

The Dutch liner Maasdam struck the wreckage of SS Harborough at Bremen, West Germany and was holed. All 230 passengers and 276 crew were rescued by the German ship SS Gotthilf Hagen. The Maasdam had been three days away from inaugurating direct service between West Germany and the United States.

The Tandy Center Subway, the only privately owned subway in the United States, opened in Fort Worth, Texas. It would cease operations in 2002.

February 16, 1963 (Saturday)

The Treaty of Kayes was signed between Mauritania and Mali, at the Malian capital, Bamako, ending a border dispute between the two nations.

At Melodifestivalen 1963, Sweden selected its entry for the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest: "En gång i Stockholm", sung by Monica Zetterlund.

Died: László Lajtha, 70, Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and conductor

February 17, 1963 (Sunday)

Toru Terasawa of Japan set a new world record for fastest time in the marathon, winning the Beppu Marathon in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 16 seconds.

Turkey accepted the proposal to remove the remaining Jupiter nuclear missiles based there by the United States, with the last of the weapons taken out by April 24; nuclear defense of Turkey would be replaced by Polaris submarines.

African-American activist W. E. B. Du Bois renounced his American citizenship and became a citizen of Ghana, six months before his death.

Born: Michael Jordan, American basketball player, five time NBA Most Valuable Player Award for the National Basketball Association (in 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998), and later owner of the NBA Charlotte Hornets team; in Brooklyn, New York

February 18, 1963 (Monday)

Mount Agung, a dormant volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali, became active again for the first time in 120 years. Its lava flow would destroy villages in the vicinity and kill more than 1,000 people.

Born: Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin ("Udin), Indonesian journalist murdered in 1996. The date of his birth was considered unlucky in the Javanese calendar as it fell on a kliwon Monday.

February 19, 1963 (Tuesday)

The publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique launched the reawakening of the Women's Movement in the United States as women's organizations and consciousness-raising groups spread.

The results of the 1962 population census of Nigeria were found to be so inaccurate that Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa announced that the count was being scrapped and that a new census would take place later in the year.

Born:

Seal, black British pop music singer, as Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, in Paddington;

Laurell K. Hamilton, American writer (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter), in Heber Springs, Arkansas

Died: Émile Armand, 90, French anarchist

February 20, 1963 (Wednesday)

Der Stellvetreter, by West German playwright Rolf Hochhuth, premiered in West Berlin at the Volksbühne. The play, which would be translated into 17 languages, was described as a revival of documentary theatre and based on the thesis that Pope Pius XII was a participant in the Holocaust by failing to speak out against it; the hero of the work was Kurt Gerstein, the Nazi SS Officer who attempted to make the Pope aware of the genocide.

Born:

Charles Barkley, American NBA player and league MVP in 1993, in Leeds, Alabama

Ian Brown, British alternative rock singer for The Stone Roses, in Warrington

Died: Ferenc Fricsay, 48, Hungarian-Austrian conductor (stomach cancer)

February 21, 1963 (Thursday)

Telstar 1, the first privately financed satellite, became the first satellite to be destroyed by radiation. Telstar had been launched from the United States eight months earlier on July 10, 1962, one day after the U.S. had conducted a high altitude nuclear test, and the increased concentration of electrons in the Van Allen radiation belt had caused the communication satellite's transponders to deteriorate.

An earthquake destroyed the city of Al Maraj, Libya. Measuring 5.3 magnitude, the quake lasted for 15 seconds collapsed 70 percent of the town's buildings and killed between 300 and 500 people, and left 12,000 homeless.

The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party sent a formal letter to the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, proposing a summit between the two in order to settle their differences. China would respond favorably on March 9.

Operation Plowshare: A nuclear test blast of 3 kilotons took place at the Nevada test site in the US.

Klein's Sporting Goods of Chicago received a shipment of Mannlicher–Carcano rifles from Crescent Firearms Company of New York, including rifle #C2766, which would be used to kill John F. Kennedy.

February 22, 1963 (Friday)

China and Pakistan signed an agreement to settle the 280-mile-long border between China's Xinjiang region and Pakistan's Gilgit–Baltistan area, with 775 square miles being relinquished by China to Pakistan.

The fictional Pebbles Flintstone was "born" in The Blessed Event episode of the cartoon The Flintstones.

Born: Devon Malcolm, Jamaican-English cricketer, in Kingston

February 23, 1963 (Saturday)

General Ne Win, the President of Burma, ordered the nationalization of all that country's banks. At 1:00 in the afternoon, tanks were sent to the various financial institutions in Rangoon and the private management was forced by troops to relinquish the vaults to the Army.

Canadian politician Marcel Chaput called a press conference to announce the opening of the office of the Parti républicain du Québec (PRQ).

Born: Bobby Bonilla, American MLB player, in New York City

Died: Robert Leroy Cochran, 77, American politician and 24th Governor of Nebraska

February 24, 1963 (Sunday)

Jonny Nilsson won the 10,000m speed skating event to win the World Allround Speed Skating Championships in Japan, with Knut Johannesen second and Nils Aaness third.

February 25, 1963 (Monday)

The Greek cargo ship SS Aegli sank in the Aegean Sea with the loss of all but one of her 22 crew.

An unnamed ferry collided with a Japanese cargo ship off Kobe and sank. Of the 64 people on board, nineteen were rescued, seven killed and 38 reported missing.

February 26, 1963 (Tuesday)

A final piece of debris from the decaying orbit of Mars 2MV-4 No.1 re-entered the earth's atmosphere.

February 27, 1963 (Wednesday)

Juan Bosch took office as the 41st president of the Dominican Republic. His democratically elected government would exist for less than seven months, and be overthrown by a military coup on September 25, 1963.

Female suffrage was enacted in Iran.

Died: Makonnen Endelkachew, 72, Prime Minister of Ethiopia 1943 to 1957.

February 28, 1963 (Thursday)

Chicago alderman Benjamin Lewis of the 24th Ward, the first African-American to be elected to the Chicago City Council, was found murdered at the Ward's Democratic Headquarters, two days after being overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term. Lewis had been handcuffed and then shot four times in the back of his head. The murder was never solved.

Dorothy Schiff resigned from the New York Newspaper Publisher's Association, saying that the city needed at least one paper operating during the newspaper strike. Her newspaper, the New York Post, would resume publication on March 4.

Died: Rajendra Prasad, 78, the first President of India, who served from 1950 to 1962