Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Fifty Years Ago This Month: December 1963

Just under the wire...

December 1963 was a relatively slow month, certainly when compared to the previous month.

News:
12/3 - The Warren Commission begins investigating the JFK assassination.
12/7 - Instant replay was invented, and debuted at the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia.
12/8 - Frank Sinatra Jr was kidnapped at Harrah's Lake Tahoe in Nevada.
12/10 - Chuck Yeager was nearly killed during a test flight.


Music:
In the US, the #1 song in December 1963 (all 4 weeks) was "Dominique" by The Singing Nun.  The #2 song for 2 weeks was "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen.  (Beatles! Hurry up and get here!)

Over in the UK, the top songs were the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You", along with "Glad All Over" by the Dave Clark Five, and "You Were Made for Me" by Freddie and the Dreamers.




Movies:
Notable movies released in December 1963 were "Charade" (starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn),  and Disney's animated "The Sword in the Stone".  (It was the next-to-last animated movie personally supervised by Walt Disney.)


Births:
12/18 - Actor Brad Pitt
12/19 - Actress Jennifer Beals
12/26 - Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, in Denmark.


Deaths:
12/02 - Actor Sabu Sabu - age 39
12/14 - Singer Dinah Washington - age 39
12/26 - Professional wrestler "Gorgeous" George Wagner

No comments:

Post a Comment