| January 1963 | The Big Freeze of 1963 begins, with temperatures reaching as low as -16C (3.2F) in places. The ice and snow finally starts to thaw in early March. |
| 14th January 1963 | The locomotive ‘Flying Scotsman’ makes its last scheduled run before being handed over to Sir Alan Pegler for preservation. |
| March 1963 | The divorce case of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll causes scandal in the United Kingdom. |
| 4th March 1963 | Six people are sentenced to death in Paris for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle pardons five of the convicted, but the other conspirator is executed by firing squad a few days later. |
| 22nd March 1963 | The Beatles release their first album, “Please Please Me“. |
| 27th March 1963 | Dr. Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the United Kingdom's rail network. |
| 15th April 1963 | 70,000 marchers arrive in London from Aldermaston, to demonstrate against nuclear weapons. |
| 21st June 1963 | Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd Pope. |
| 5th July 1963 | The Roman Catholic Church accepts cremation as a funeral practice. |
| 8th August 1963 | The Great Train Robbery of 1963 takes place in Buckinghamshire. £2.6 million is stolen, but thirteen men are later convicted and jailed for the crime. |
| 29th September 1963 | The University of East Anglia is established in Norwich. |
| 19th October 1963 | Alec Douglas-Home succeeds Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister. |
| 18th November 1963 | The Dartford Tunnel opens. |
| November 22 1963 | U.S. President John F. Kennedy is shot to death in Dallas. Texas Governor John B. Connally is also seriously wounded and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson takes over as the 36th President. All television coverage for the next three days is devoted to the assassination, its aftermath, the procession of the horse-drawn casket to the Capitol Rotunda, and the funeral of President Kennedy. Shops and businesses shut down for all three days in tribute. |
| 23rd November 1963 | The first episode of the BBC television series “Doctor Who” is broadcast. A reference to this date is later included in one episode of the modern spin-off “Torchwood”. |
| 24th November 1963 | Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy, is shot dead by Jack Ruby on live television in America. The hastily arranged programme “A Tribute to John F. Kennedy from the Arts“ is also broadcast on ABC, featuring dramatic readings and music performed by various actors, opera singers, and noted writers. |
| 26th December 1963 | “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” are released in America, marking the beginning of full-scale ‘Beatle-mania‘. |