MISCELLANEOUS 1963
Collected here are other bits of trivia concerning the year 1963, including Debuts & Departures, Cost of Living, Pop Culture notes, etc....
Debuts in 1963:
The iconic yellow-and-black "Smiley" face, created by artist Harvey Ball
Valium Audio Cassettes
Washington-to-Moscow "Hot Line" Liver Transplants U.S. Zip Codes Steel tennis raquet frames Existence of quasars discovered Lava Lamps
ASCII (or American Standard Code for Information Interchange) established. This allowed computers to talk to each other and eventually made the internet possible. We here at The Class of 1963 are eternally grateful!
Departures in 1963:
| R.I.P. |
* |
R.I.P. |
* |
| Rogers Hornsby |
Frank Tuttle |
Dick Powell |
Jack Carson |
| 1-5-1963 |
1-9-1963 |
1-21-1963 |
1-21-1963 |
| athlete |
film director |
actor |
poet |
| Robert Frost |
Sylvia Plath |
William Carlos Williams |
Patsy Cline |
| 1-29-1963 |
2-11-1963 |
3-4-1963 |
3-5-1963 |
| poet |
poet |
poet |
singer |
| Ted Weems |
Medgar Evers |
Clifford Odets |
W.E.B. DuBois |
| 5- 6-1963 |
6-12-1963 |
8-18-1963 |
8-27-1963 |
| bandleader |
civil rights activist |
playwright |
author-activist |
| Adolphe Menjou |
Aldous Huxley |
John Fitzgerald Kennedy |
Dinah Washington |
| 10-29-1963 |
11-22-1963 |
11-22-1963 |
12-14-1963 |
| actor |
author |
U.S. President |
singer |
| R.I.P.
| * |
R.I.P. |
* |
The Pitiful Fate of the Wikiped
1963 was the last known sighting (off the coast of New Guinea) of the gluttonous, slow-witted Wikiped bird. The cowardly creature lived off the spoils of other more intrepid hunters rather than foraging on its own and thus hastened it's own eventual demise.
The Year of the Hare
According to the Chinese Zodiac, 1963 was the Year of the Hare (or Rabbit). Other Years in the Rabbit cycle: 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1975, 1987, 1999 and 2011.
Cost of Living
In the U.S. of 1963, these were the average costs of various items:
1 gallon of milk: $1.04
a loaf of bread: .21�
an automobile: $2,300
1 gallon of gas: .25�
a new home: $30,000
average U.S. yearly income: $5,623
The Marvel Age of Comics
Several mainstays of the colorful world of comic book superheroes hit the newsstands in their first issues in 1963, including:
The Amazing Spider-Man #1, March 1963
The Avengers #1, September 1963 (featuring the original line-up of Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1, May 1963 (WWII Sgt. Nick Fury was later turned into a James Bondian superspy in 1965) 
The Uncanny X-Men #1, September 1963 (featuring Professor Xavier, Cyclops, The Beast, Marvel Girl, Angel and Ice-Man)
In addition to those first issue debuts, the "Master of the Mystic Arts", Dr. Strange, made his first appearance in issue #110 of (fittingly enough) Strange Tales, June 1963 and the invincible Iron Man made his bow in Tales of Suspense #39, March 1963
Meanwhile, over at rival D.C. Comics, in what would become an annual tradition for the next 20 years, the first crossover between the Golden Age "Justice Society" and the Silver Age "Justice League" occurred in Justice League of America issues #21-22, August/September 1963.
In addition, Aquaman met Mera (who would later become his bride) for the first time in #11 (October 1963) of his own title and the fantastic exploits of The Doom Patrol began in the pages of My Greatest Adventure #80, June 1963
The House That Ronald Built
While McDonalds restaurants had been selling fast food fare to the public since the late 1950's, the clown-faced pitchman known to the world as Ronald McDonald made his tv debut in a 1963 commercial where he was portrayed by future NBC "Today" show weatherman Willard Scott.
Fictional 1963 in TV and Film
On the nostalgiac N.B.C. family drama American Dreams, the first few episodes were set in late 1963. Two of the actresses in the series were actually born that year: Gail O'Grady (born 1-23-1963), who plays Helen Pryor and Virginia Madsen (born 9-11-1963), who plays Rebecca Sandstrom.
In the long-running C.B.S. military drama J.A.G., Lead character Lt. Commander Harmon "Harm" Rabb, Jr. (played by actor David James Elliot), a naval aviator turned lawyer, was born on October 25th, 1963, according to the television character's backstory.
In the 1978 horror film "Halloween", 6 year-old Michael Myers murders his sister Judith on October 31st, 1963 and is institutionalized. His escape 15 years later resulted in further mayhem and many, many sequels...
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