The following events occurred inJanuary 1963:

• In the United States, the #1 ranked (and unofficial college football champion)USC Trojans and the #2Wisconsin Badgers met in the1963 Rose Bowl before a crowd of 98,696 people. At the time, American college football's national championship was determined by theAssociated Press andUPI polls taken at the end of the regular season. The first and second ranked teams happened to be the respective champions of theBig Six Conference (now thePac-12 Conference) and theBig Ten Conference. USC won 42–37, holding off a fourth quarter, 23-point rally by Wisconsin.^[1]
• Osamu Tezuka'sTetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), Japan's first serialized animated series based on the popularmanga, was broadcast for the first time. It premiered on Japanese television stationFuji TV.^[2]
• The U.S. city ofChesapeake, Virginia, was created from a merger of the city ofSouth Norfolk and the remainder of surroundingNorfolk County, Virginia.^[3]
• Died:
  • Robert S. Kerr, 66, U.S. Senator for Oklahoma since 1948 and oil multi-millionaire, nicknamed "the uncrowned King of the Senate".^[4] Kerr, who had been in Doctors Hospital inWashington, D.C., for three weeks from a "virus ailment", suffered a fatalheart attack "while sitting on a bed talking to his physician."^[5]
  • Dr. Gilbert Bogle, 38, research scientist with Australia's governmental scientific agency,CSIRO, was found dead along with Margaret Chandler, the wife of a colleague. Both were apparently overcome by poisonous fumes in bushland near theLane Cove River, Sydney.^[6][7]

• TheBattle of Ap Bac inSouth Vietnam began, and was the first time thatViet Cong forces stood and fought against a major South Vietnamese attack. At the outset, Viet Cong ground fire shot down aUnited States ArmyUH-1attack helicopter and four U.S. ArmyCH-21 transport helicopters as they arrived at theirlanding zone.Republic of Vietnam Air ForceC-123 Provider transport planes dropped about 300 South Vietnameseparatroopers later in the day.^[8] Despite outnumbering the Viet Cong 4 to 1, and having American armor, artillery and helicopters, "what should have been an ARVN victory turned into an exercise of everything that was wrong with the South Vietnamese army".^[9][10][11]
• Seventeen people were killed in an explosion at the Home Packing Company inTerre Haute, Indiana.^[12][13]
• Born:
  • Edgar Martínez, Puerto Rican American baseball player, five-timeSilver Slugger Award (between 1992 and 2003) for best performance as third baseman and designated hitter, 2019 enshrinee in theNational Baseball Hall of Fame; inNew York City^[14]
  • David Cone, American baseball pitcher, 1994 AL Cy Young Award winner, three-time MLB strikeout leader who pitched a perfect game in 1999; inKansas City, Missouri^[15]

• Died:
  • Dick Powell, 58, American actor and singer, died fromlymphatic cancer one day after his pre-recorded introduction to the stories of his anthology series,The Dick Powell Show, had been telecast. The show would continue for the rest of the season under the same name with various celebrities hosting, but without Powell's introductions.^[16]
  • Jack Carson, 52, Canadian-American comedian and character actor, died fromstomach cancer.^[17]

• At a press conference in Ottawa, U.S. Army GeneralLauris Norstad's answer to a reporter's question set in motion a series of events that would bring the downfall of Canadian Prime MinisterJohn Diefenbaker. General Norstad had recently retired as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. Asked byCharles Lynch^[18] of theOttawa Citizen whether he was saying that Canada's refusal to accept nuclear weapons for its airplanes meant "that she is not actually fulfilling her NATO commitments", General Norstad said, "I believe that is right."^[19][20]
• Thirty-two Soviet civilians from Siberia forced their way into the United States Embassy in Moscow, describing themselves as "persecuted Christians" and seeking political asylum. After embassy officials told the group that they could not stay, the people were placed on a bus and taken away by Moscow police.^[21] The 6 men, 12 women and 14 children were sent back toChernogorsk that evening, after the U.S. Embassy received assurances that the group would get "good treatment".^[22]
• Contact with the AmericanMariner 2 space probe was lost after 128 days of data transmitted from the planetVenus and from theSun. Attempts from Earth on January 8 to restart transmission, failed, and the craft was not found during searches made on May 28 and August 16.^[23]
• The "Big Freeze of 1963" in theUnited Kingdom caused the cancellation of all but three of the scheduled third round matches of the1962–63 FA Cup.^[24][25] The blizzard was "the worst snow in Britain's 100 years of recorded weather history".^[26]
• NASA made tentative plans to extend theMercury 9 flight from 18 to 22 orbits.^[27]

• An express train crashed into the rear of a standing passenger train atMeghnagar,Madhya Pradesh, India. Eight passenger cars were crushed or caught fire after an explosion. At least 38 people were confirmed dead and 90 injured.^[28]
• The Soviet Union successfully launchedLuna E-6 No.2, but a malfunction kept the craft from going beyond low Earth orbit. Seven days later, the decay of the orbit would cause thesatellite to re-enter and burn in the atmosphere.^{[29][self-published source?]}
• TheManned Spacecraft Center (MSC) directedMcDonnell Aircraft Corporation to study requirements forspace rendezvous experiments on the second and thirdProject Gemini flights.^[30]
• Born:
  • Till Lindemann, German singer, songwriter and poet (Rammstein); inLeipzig, East Germany
  • Dave Foley, Canadian-American actor; inEtobicoke,Ontario^[31]
• Died:Yusuf Izzuddin Shah, 72,Sultan of Perak since 1948. He received the posthumous title of "Marhum Ghafarullah".^[32]

• The military government ofPeru began a nationwide roundup of suspected Communists, arresting more than 300 people accused of plotting subversion.^[33]
• In New York City, the musicalCamelot closed after 873 performances and a Broadway run of more than two years.^[34]
• Died:
  • Stanisław Jaros, 30, Polish electrician and would-be political assassin, convicted of attempting to kill Polish leaderWladyslaw Gomulka and Soviet leaderNikita Khrushchev, was executed by hanging.^[35]
  • Rogers Hornsby, 66, American baseball player and manager, inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame
  • Erik Strandmark, 43, Swedish film actor, was killed in a plane crash.

• Voters in Braziloverwhelmingly rejected a parliamentary form of government in aplebiscite, and approved a strong executive system under PresidentJoão Goulart.^[36] Only 2,073,582 were in favor of retaining the ministerial system, while 9,457,448 voted against it.^[37]
• The Shah of Iran launched his six-pointWhite Revolution for ending illiteracy, reforming agriculture and industry, advancing women's suffrage, and nationalization of forests.^[38]
• The British musicalOliver!, based on theCharles Dickens novelOliver Twist, made its debut on Broadway, at the Imperial Theatre, and ran for 774 performances.^[39]
• Born:
  • Tony Halme, Finnish professional wrestler who worked for WWF (nowWWE) andMMA (d. 2010); inHelsinki
  • Paul Kipkoech, Kenyan long-distance runner (d. 1995); inKapsabet^[40]

• Theprice of mailing a letter in the United States rose from four cents to five cents, with a 25% increase in the price of afirst class stamp. The increase was the first since August 1, 1958, when the price had changed from three cents to four.^[41]
• Final acceptance tests were conducted on the U.S.Project Mercuryspace flightsimulator atEllington Field inTexas. The equipment had been moved from Virginia'sLangley Field toHouston. The MSC and the Farrand Optical Company conducted the acceptance tests.^[27]
• The Soviet national airlineAeroflot launched its service to Cuba fromMoscow toHavana, usingTu-114 turboprop airplanes.^[42]
• Died:Arthur Edward Moore, 86, Australian politician,Premier of Queensland from 1929 to 1932

• Leonardo da Vinci'sMona Lisa was exhibited in the United States for the first time, at theNational Gallery of Art inWashington, D.C., in an event attended by President Kennedy and 2,000 other guests of honor. The masterpiece was on view for 27 days in Washington, during which 674,000 visitors came to see it, then moved on to theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York from February 6 to March 4.^[43]
• MSC outlined requirements for McDonnell to use for Gemini aborts in orbit. These included onboard controlled reentry for all aborts, except for guidance and control system failure; onboard selection emergency abort target areas; navigational accuracy to a 2-mile (3.2 km) radius error at the point of impact; and crew capability to eject from thespacecraft with theparaglider deployed.^[30]

• A relatively raretotal penumbral lunar eclipse took place, with the Moon passing entirely within the penumbral shadow without entering the darker umbral shadow.^[44]
• Flight Operations Division set requirements for the remote stations of the Gemini worldwide tracking network.^[30]
• Born:
  • Monika Bittl, German writer, journalist and screenwriter; inBeilngries,Bavaria
  • Michael Everson, American-Irish linguist, script encoder, typesetter, type designer and publisher; inNorristown,Pennsylvania

• TheSoviet Air Forces space program of selected its secondcosmonaut group of 15 men to train for future Soyuz missions. The group includedVladimir Shatalov (Soyuz 4, 8, and 10),Anatoly Filipchenko (Soyuz 7 and 16),Georgy Dobrovolsky (Soyuz 11),Yury Artyukhin (Soyuz 14),Lev Dyomin (Soyuz 15),Aleksei Gubarev (Soyuz 17 and 28) andVitaly Zholobov (Soyuz 21).^[45]
• The American filmCape Fear, directed byJ. Lee Thompson, was finally released in the United Kingdom, but only after Thompson agreed to 161 cuts of dialogue ordered by the censors of theBritish Board of Film Classification in order to avoid an "X" rating.^[46]
• Representatives of MSC, McDonnell, and theEagle-Picher Company reviewed plans for developing thesilver-zinc batteries for theGemini spacecraft. McDonnell concluded that a four-battery installation, if closely monitored, would be adequate.^[30]
• Titan II flight N-15 was launched fromCape Canaveral. It was the second to achieve significantly reduced levels of longitudinal oscillations by means of propellant tank pressurization.^[30]
• Duma Nokwe, the Secretary-General of theAfrican National Congress, fled from South Africa before he could be arrested under the nation's Sabotage Act.^[47]
• Emmett Hall, the Chief Justice of the Saskatchewan Supreme Court, was sworn in as a justice of theSupreme Court of Canada.^[48]
• Died:Tadeusz Szeligowski, 66, Polish composer, educator, lawyer and music organizer

• Two people in China, an 18-year-old fisherman and his seven-year-old younger brother, were fatally injured after the man took home a piece of radioactivecobalt-60 that had been dropped on farmland owned by theAnhui Agricultural University inHefei. The cobalt-60 radiation level was measured at 43petabecquerel. Over a period of almost nine days before the sample was recovered, the man was exposed to 806grays of radiation and died on January 23. His brother died two days later from exposure to 40 grays.^[49]
• The Beatles released "Please Please Me" in the United Kingdom, with "Ask Me Why" as theB-side. The group would perform the song on TV two days later on the ITV programThank Your Lucky Stars. "Please Please Me" would become the first Beatles' single to reach #1 in the UK.^[50]
• The Project Engineering Field Office (located at Cape Canaveral) of the Mercury Project Office outlined 17 specific changes to Mercury spacecraft 20 (MA-9) after its receipt at Cape Canaveral from McDonnell Aircraft.^[27]

• At the Australian National Athletics Championships in her home town of Perth, Western Australia,Margaret Burvill set a new world record of 23.2 seconds in the women's 220 yard dash.^[51]
• Born:Nando Reis, Brazilian musician and producer; inSão Paulo

• Sylvanus Olympio, the 60-year-old President ofTogo, was assassinated. Olympio apparently was seeking refuge at the United States Embassy inLomé, next to the presidential palace.^[52] U.S. Ambassador Leon B. Poullada said that "the body, riddled by several bullets, was found crumpled only three feet from the embassy's gate".^[53] The President's killer, ColonelÉtienne Eyadéma, would assume the presidency in 1967 and hold the office until his death in 2005.^[54]
• Born:Peter Scully, Australian convicted murderer and pedophile; inMelbourne^[55]

• The Manned Spacecraft Center presented the proposal to NASA Headquarters that the ground light visibility experiment ofWally Schirra'sMercury 8 mission be repeated for Mercury 9, with the short-range objective of determining the capability of anastronaut to visually evaluate a ground light of known intensity while in orbit, as seen from the spacecraft at varying distances from the light source. A long-range goal was for lights from Earth to be used as a signal to provide advanced spacecraft with an Earth reference point.^[27]
• George C. Wallace was sworn in asGovernor of Alabama. In hisinaugural speech, he defiantly proclaimed "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say 'segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.' Let us send this message back to Washington, that from this day we are standing up, and the heel of tyranny does not fit the neck of an upright man."^[56][57][58]
• MSC assumed complete responsibility for theGemini target vehicle program fromMarshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). All other NASAAtlas-Agena programs were transferred toLewis Research Center in order to allow MSFC to concentrate on developing theSaturn rocket to consolidateAtlas rocket technology at Lewis.^[30]
• A fire killed 105 of the 250 people on the Indonesian tourist ferryboatDjandji Raja as it was traversing the Toba Lake in North Sumatra. The broke out in the engine room of the ferryboat, then caused a fuel tank to explode. Word of the accident did not reach Jakarta until five days later.^[59]
• The Rolling Stones, withMick Jagger, guitaristsKeith Richards andBrian Jones, pianistIan Stewart, bass guitaristBill Wyman and drummerCharlie Watts first played together as a group, with a performance atThe Flamingo Club in theWest End of London.^[60][61]
• A month before she would commit suicide,Sylvia Plath was able to realize the publication of her first and only novel,The Bell Jar, by theHeinemann company.^[62]
• France's PresidentCharles de Gaulle indicated in a press conference that he would veto the application of the United Kingdom to join theCommon Market.^[63][64]
• The locomotiveFlying Scotsman (British Railways No. 60103) made its last scheduled run, before going into the hands of Alan Pegler for preservation.

• In hisState of the Union address at a joint session of the U.S. Congress, President Kennedy called on Congress to pass legislation to lower income taxes as a means of stimulating the economy. Kennedy called for individual tax rates, ranging from 20% to as much as 91% for the highest brackets, to be cut to a range of 14% to 65%, and for the corporate rate to be cut from 52% to 47%.^[65] The bill would not become law until after Kennedy's death, signed by his successor, PresidentLyndon B. Johnson on February 26, 1964.^[66]
• TheKatanga Crisis came to an end asMoise Tshombe declared the end of his attempt to secede from the Congo, and ordered a surrender to the United Nations forces.^[67]
• Forty-seven workmen in India were killed, and another 62 injured, while working underground atNaraj, in theOrissa state.^[68]
• Died:Cesare Fantoni, 58, Italian film actor

• Soviet PremierNikita Khrushchev visited theBerlin Wall from theEast Berlin side, then delivered an address to the Communist leadership ofEast Germany at the SED Party Congress. Khrushchev stated bluntly that the Wall had accomplished its purpose of stemming the exodus of citizens from the nation and stabilized the East German economy, and added that further Soviet economic assistance would not be forthcoming. "Neither God nor the devil will give you bread or butter if you do not manage it with your own hands," Khrushchev said, adding that East Germany "must not expect alms from some rich uncle".^[69]
• Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom resumed diplomatic relations, more than six years after the two nations had closed their embassies during the 1956Suez Crisis.^[70]
• The1963 NBA All-Star Game was played at Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The Eastern Conference team beat the Western Conference, 115–108.^[71]
• Born:James May, British television presenter; inBristol
• Died:
  • Gilardo Gilardi, 73, Argentine composer, pianist and conductor
  • Ike Quebec, 44, American jazz saxophonist, died fromlung cancer.^[72]

• NASA AdministratorJames E. Webb andUnited States Secretary of DefenseRobert S. McNamara signed a new agreement on the division ofDepartment of Defense (DOD) and NASA management responsibilities in Cape Canaveral area. TheU.S. Air Force would continue as single manager of theAtlantic Missile Range and NASA'sLaunch Operations Center would manage theMerritt Island Launch Area, north and west of existing DOD installations.^[30]
• U.S. Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy made "his first, and last, appearance as a lawyer in a courtroom", participating in the oral argument before theUnited States Supreme Court inGray v. Sanders, regarding whether thecounty-unit system of voting that had been used in the U.S.State of Georgia was unconstitutional.^[73]
• TheSkyvan passenger and cargo carrying aircraft, designed in Northern Ireland by theShort Brothers aerospace company, made its first flight, taking off from itsSydenham, Belfast airfield.^[74]
• Died:Johannes Sejersted Bødtker, 83, Norwegian banker and patron of the arts

• Severe winter conditions in theNetherlands eliminated 9,225 of the 9,294 ice skating participants in the nation's annual "eleven city tour", theelfstedentocht. Only 69 people finished the 200 kilometres (120 mi) round trip that starts and ends atLeeuwarden by way ofSneek,IJlst,Sloten,Stavoren,Hindeloopen,Workum,Bolsward,Harlingen,Franeker, andDokkum.
• The French automobile manufacturerSimca was taken over by the American automakerChrysler, which purchased a controlling interest of the 18,000 employee company in order to increase its presence in Europe.^[75]
• Died:
  • Edward Titchmarsh, 63, British mathematician who contributed theTitchmarsh convolution theorem, theTitchmarsh theorem onHilbert transform, theTitchmarsh–Kodaira formula on differential equations, and theBrun–Titchmarsh theorem.
  • Hugh Gaitskell, 56, the leader of Britain'sLabour Party, died of kidney failure caused bylupus erythematosus^[76]
  • Johnny Moyes, 70, Australian cricketer and radio commentator

• Hermine Braunsteiner, formerly a supervising warden at theRavensbrück concentration camp, and known as "The Stomping Mare" because of her use of steel-studded jackboots to kick inmates, became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Acting on a tip from Nazi hunterSimon Wiesenthal,The New York Times would expose her past in 1964. Her citizenship would be revoked in 1971, and in 1973 she would be extradited to West Germany for trial as a war criminal. In 1981, she would be sentenced to life imprisonment. Released after 15 years for health reasons (including, ironically, the amputation of her leg), she would die in 1999.^[77]
• Born:Caron Wheeler, British soul singer; inActon, London^[78]
• Died:Thomas Kennedy, 75, American labor leader who succeededJohn L. Lewis as President of theUnited Mine Workers of America in 1960, died at his home inHazleton, Pennsylvania. His deputy,Tony Boyle became the new UMWA President until an election could be held.^[79]

• The "Konfrontasi", literally a confrontation betweenIndonesia and the proposed union of the former British colonies ofMalaya,Sarawak,Sabah andSingapore as the Federation ofMalaysia, was declared in a speech by the Indonesian Foreign Minister,Subandrio. Indonesia shared a border with Sarawak and Sabah on the island ofBorneo, and opposed their incorporation into a larger nation. Although avoiding a direct war with the United Kingdom, which maintained bases on Borneo, Indonesia engaged in skirmishes along the Sarawak border, and 37 bombings at various locations in Singapore. The war would come to an end with the signing of a treaty onAugust 11, 1966, after the overthrow of Indonesia's PresidentSukarno by GeneralSuharto.^[80]
• FatherVincent Pallotti (1796–1850), founder in 1835 of the Roman Catholic organization called thePallottines, was elevated to sainthood byPope John XXIII.^[81]
• Born:
  • David Baszucki, Canadian-born American entrepreneur, engineer, and software developer best known as the co-founder ofRoblox and CEO ofRoblox Corporation; inWinnipeg,Manitoba^[82]
  • Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė, Lithuanian actress; inVilnius,Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union

• NASA AdministratorJames E. Webb and U.S. Defense SecretaryRobert S. McNamara established a joint NASA-DOD Gemini Program Planning Board.^[30]
• Television Singapura started television test transmissions in Singapore.
• Born:Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian-American NBA player and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee; inLagos

• Addressing an Institute of Aerospace Science meeting in New York, George von Tiesenhausen, Chief of Future Studies at NASA's Launch Operations Center, stated that by 1970 the United States would need an orbitingspace station to launch and repair spacecraft. The station could also serve as a crewed scientific laboratory. In describing the 91-metre (299 ft) long, 10-metre (33 ft) diameter structure, von Tiesenhausen said that the station could be launched in two sections usingSaturn C-5 vehicles. The sections would be joined once in orbit.^[83]
• In Paris, PresidentCharles de Gaulle of France and ChancellorKonrad Adenauer of West Germany signed theElysée Treaty, the first bilateral pact between the French and German nations. "In the century prior to the treaty", it would be observed later, "France and Germany had been on opposite sides in three wars: the Franco-Prussian War, World War I and World War II."^[84] The treaty provided for the nations' leaders to meet at least twice a year, and the foreign and defense ministers to meet four times a year.^[85]
• McDonnell Aircraft Corporation reported to the MSC on its "white paint patch experiments" and their effect on temperature of theMercury spacecraft. The recorded temperatures during the flights were cooler at points directly beneath the patch and on a corresponding point inside the spacecraft. McDonnell calculated that white painted spacecraft were advantageous for extended-range missions.^[27]
• Died:Ralph Hudson, 42, American murderer, became the last person to be executed by the U.S. state ofNew Jersey. Hudson had stabbed his wife to death after getting an early release for Christmas.^[86]

• ThePascagoula (MS) Chronicle, whose publisher,Ira B. Harkey Jr., was alone among white newspaper owners in Mississippi in taking a stand against racial segregation, was saved from financial ruin when a newsman for the New York City radio stationWNEW urged his listeners to subscribe to the paper. Dee Finch called attention to Harkey's courageous stand and loss of revenue, said that he was going to buy a subscription to theChronicle, and invited others to do likewise. In the first day, 750 New Yorkers pledged to subscribe, and advertising agencies announced plans to encourage their clients to buy ad space in the newspaper.^[87]
• Three months after the U.S. and the USSR almost went to war during theCuban Missile Crisis, the Turkish government announced the deactivation and removal of its arsenal of American-suppliedJupiter missiles fromTurkey, six days after Italy had announced their phaseout of the Jupiters. The missiles in Turkey, armed with nuclear warheads and within striking distance of cities in the Soviet Union, had been one of the reasons for the Soviet placement of missiles in Cuba.^[88]
• BritishMI5 agentKim Philby, who was secretly working for the Soviet Union as adouble agent for theNKVD, disappeared after having a drink with a colleague at a hotel inBeirut. Five months later, onJuly 30, the Soviet Union would announce that he had been given asylum there and would confirm his identity as a Soviet spy.^[89][90]
• TheSino-Indian War formally came to an end after India's Parliament, theLok Sabha, voted to approve the terms for peace with China, concluding the war between the world's two most populous nations. China had withdrawn its troops the previous month.^[91]
• A strike began at theFlorida East Coast Railway and would become the longest in railroad history, not ending until nine years later on February 1, 1972. Strike activity would not completely end until April 9, 1976.^[92]
• The first democratic elections in the history ofKuwait took place, although limited to men only. There were 205 candidates for the 50 available seats in the National Assembly.^[93]
• Born:Su Tong (pseudonym for Tong Zhonggui), Chinese author; inSuzhou
• Died:
  • Gustave Garrigou, 78, French racing cyclist who won the1911 Tour de France
  • Muhammad Ali Bogra, 53, 3rdPrime Minister of Pakistan from 1953 to 1955

• A B-52C bomber, carrying two nuclear weapons and on airborne alert for the U.S. Air Force, lost itsvertical stabilizer inturbulence, broke up in midair andcrashed into Elephant Mountain inPiscataquis County, Maine. Seven of the nine-man crew were killed, and one of the unarmed nuclear bombs fell from the plane and broke apart on impact on a farm. A part of that bomb, containing enriched uranium, was never located, "even though the waterlogged farmland in the vicinity was excavated to a depth of 50 feet".^[94]
• Died:Otto Harbach, 89, American lyricist and librettist

• Speaking to the Canadian House of Commons on whether Canada would or would not accept nuclear weapons for its combat aircraft, Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker made a speech that subsequent historians would describe as "most baffling",^[95] "next to incomprehensible"^[96] and full of "long, evasive, rambling... incoherent statements".^[20] "However," the Canadian Press (CP) would write, "at no point in his two-hour speech did Mr. Diefenbaker say definitely whether Canada has rejected or accepted a nuclear role for Canadian forces."^[97]
• Alarge annular solar eclipse covered over 99% of the Sun, creating a dramatic spectacle for observers in a narrow path at most 19.6 kilometres (12.2 mi) wide; it lasted just 25.24 seconds at the point of maximum eclipse.
• The lowest ever temperature inKosovo (at the time part of Yugoslavia) was recorded in the city ofGjilan, −32.5 °C (−26.5 °F).
• Died: SirIsaac Shoenberg, 78, Russian-born British inventor who pioneered the development of an all electronic television receiver.

• Specialty assignments were announced by the Manned Spacecraft Center for its astronaut team:L. Gordon Cooper,Alan B. Shepard, pilot phases ofProject Mercury;Virgil I. Grissom,Project Gemini;John H. Glenn,Project Apollo;M. Scott Carpenter, lunar excursion training;Walter M. Schirra, Gemini and Apollo operations and training; andDonald K. Slayton, continuing asCoordinator of Astronaut Activities. Assignments of the nine new flight-crew members selected on September 17, 1962, were as follows:Neil A. Armstrong, trainers and simulators;Frank Borman, boosters;Charles Conrad, Jr., cockpit layout and systems integration;James A. Lovell, Jr., recovery systems;James A. McDivitt, guidance and navigation;Elliot M. See, Jr., electrical, sequential, and mission planning;Thomas P. Stafford, communications, instrumentation, and range integration;Edward H. White II, flight control systems; andJohn W. Young, environmental control systems, personal and survival equipment.^[27][30]
• The "British Pools Panel" was first used to address instances, in the betting on Britain's soccer football matches, where a scheduled match was postponed. On the first weekend, when 55 games were called off because of freezing temperatures, the panel of former players and referees "predicted" what the results would have been had the match not been postponed, essentially making up results that would be accepted for determining whether a betting line had been picked successfully.^[98] Originally, the five-member Panel only intervened if 30 or more matches were called off; later, the panel would convene if any match were postponed.^[99]
• The Rules Committee for American organizedbaseball voted unanimously (9–0) to increase the size of thestrike zone beginning with the 1963 season. The new rule specified that a pitched ball was a strike if it traveled in the "space above home plate which is between the top of the batter's shoulders and his knees when he assumes his natural position". The prior rule in 1950 measured the zone from a player's armpits to the top of the knees.^[100] Although the number of walks decreased, so did the number of home runs, particularly in theAmerican League, where attendance declined.^[101]
• The Shah of Iran'sWhite Revolution of six reforms, including the right of women to vote, was overwhelmingly approved in a nationwide referendum by the six million male voters; the election was believed by observers to have been fraudulent.^[102]
• OnAustralia Day inPerth, Australia, two people were shot dead, and others injured, by multiple murdererEric Edgar Cooke.^[103]
• Born:
  • José Mourinho, Portuguese-born professional soccer football team manager who has won league titles in four countries, forF.C. Porto in Portugal (2003, 2004);Chelsea F.C. in England (2005, 2006);Inter Milan in Italy (2009, 2010); andReal Madrid C.F. in Spain (2012), as well as two UEFA championships (2004, 2010); inSetúbal^[104][105]
  • Andrew Ridgeley, British singer for the 1980s pop duoWham!; inWindlesham,Surrey^[106]
• Died:
  • Ole Olsen, 70, American vaudeville comedian, and half of theOlsen and Johnson comedy team. In 1938, Olsen andChic Johnson had created the musical, and later the 1941 film,Hellzapoppin'.
  • SirMaurice Hankey, 85, the first person to hold the post ofCabinet Secretary in the United Kingdom when it was created in 1916.

• Lee Harvey Oswald used the alias "A. J. Hidell" for the first time, ordering a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver through the mail from Seaport Traders, Inc., of Los Angeles. He would use the Hidell name in ordering other weapons, including the Mannlicher–Carcano rifle that would be used in November to kill U.S. President Kennedy.^[107]
• TheAero Commander 1121business jet made its first test flight, atNorman, Oklahoma. In 1968, the manufacturing rights would be sold to Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI), nowIsrael Aerospace Industries, which manufactured the jets under the nameWestwind.^[108]
• Born:Søren Gade, DanishSpeaker of the Folketing since 2022; inHolstebro
• Died: PrincessAdisaya Suriyabha, 73, member of the Thai royal family (a daughter ofChulalongkorn, King Rama V of Siam)

• African American studentHarvey Gantt enteredClemson University inSouth Carolina, the last U.S. state to hold out against racial integration. "South Carolina is the only state," the Associated Press reported, "which, to this day, had preserved segregation in public schools at all levels."^[109] Gantt's entry into the university was described as peaceful, and it was reported that "On the surface, Gantt was being treated by students and college officials alike as just another newcomer."^[110] Most South Carolina public schools did not integrate until the 1970s.^[111]
• The fourth, and final, book by authorJ. D. Salinger was published.Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction were two novellas put together in one novel, which had both previously appeared in print in the magazineThe New Yorker.^[112]
• The city ofVista, California, was incorporated.^[113]
• Died:John Farrow, 58, Australian born American film director and winner of 1957 Academy Award for his screenplay inAround the World in Eighty Days, died of a heart attack.^[114]

• At a launch guidance and control coordination meeting on January 29 and 30,The Aerospace Corporation described three Titan II development flight failures that had been caused by problems in the General Electrical Mod III airborneradio guidance system. Although these failures did not appear to be the result of inherent design faults that might react on theGemini program, Aerospace felt that a tighterquality assurance program was needed: "GE has a poor MOD III (G)quality control program, basically poor workmanship."^[30]
• France vetoed the United Kingdom's application for entry into the Western Europe'sEuropean Economic Community (EEC), known as the "Common Market".^[115] The move had been hinted at earlier by PresidentCharles de Gaulle earlier. Since admission to the Common Market would have required a unanimous vote of the member nations, Foreign MinisterMaurice Couve de Murville moved to adjourn negotiations indefinitely. The UK would be admitted to the Common Market on January 1, 1973, almost ten years later.
• The first inductees into thePro Football Hall of Fame atCanton, Ohio, were announced.
• Born:Octavian Teodorescu, Romanian rock musician and composer who performs under the stage name "Octave"; inBucharest^[116]
• Died:
  • Robert Frost, 88, popular American poet and four-time Pulitzer Prize winner^[117]
  • Lee "Specs" Meadows, 68, American MLB baseball pitcher who led the National League in wins in 1926 and who was one of the first players to wear glasses while playing.

• TheU.S. State Department took the unusual step of issuing a press release critical of one of America's closest allies, in rebuttal to the speech by Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker about his nation's Canadian nuclear policy. Responding to Diefenbaker's January 25 statement that the two nations had been negotiating for "two to three months or more", the U.S. statement said that "the Canadian Government has not as yet proposed any arrangement sufficiently practical to contribute effectively to North American defense".^[118] Diefenbaker accused the U.S. of interfering with Canada's domestic affairs and temporarily recalled the Canadian ambassador from Washington.U.S. Secretary of StateDean Rusk would issue an apology two days later for the tone of the comments, whichThe New York Times described as "ill-considered and unusually blunt".^[119][120]
• Gemini Project Office asked NASA Headquarters for authorization to use preflight automatic checkout equipment for Project Gemini. The Mercury Program had been successful in everything except meeting schedules, in which lengthy checkout time was a major obstacle. Automatic checkout equipment cut down the time required to test components in Gemini. MSC flight mission directorGeorge M. Low asked that four automatic checkout stations be provided for Project Gemini as quickly as possible. Initially approved, the use of automatic checkout equipment in the Gemini program would subsequently be dropped as an economy measure.^[30]
• Died:
  • Edward A. Carter, Jr., 46, African-American U.S. Army sergeant who would be posthumously given theMedal of Honor for his heroism shown on March 23, 1945, died fromlung cancer. Carter, unfairly accused of being a Communist, was shunned by the Army after World War II, and the medal would not be voted for him by Congress until 34 years after his death.^[121]
  • SirPelham Warner, 89, English cricketer known as "The Grand Old Man of English Cricket"; English National team captain in 1903–04 and 1905–06; President of MCC; author and founder ofThe Cricketer magazine.
  • Francis Poulenc, 64, French composer

• Major GeneralH. W. G. Wijeyekoon resigned asCommander of the Ceylon Army.^[122]
• Mexico announces its bid for the1968 Summer Olympics.^[123]

Media related toJanuary 1963 at Wikimedia Commons

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