what was happening in 1963 around the world
1963
March 4 -- In Paris , six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle . De Gaulle pardons five , but the other conspirator , Jean Bastien - Thiry , is executed by firing squad several days later . March 5 -- In Camden , Tennessee , country music superstar Patsy Cline ( Virginia Patterson Hensley ) is killed in a plane crash along with fellow performers Hawkshaw Hawkins , Cowboy Copas and Cline 's manager and pilot Randy Hughes , while returning from a benefit performance in Kansas City , Kansas , for country radio disc jockey `` Cactus '' Jack Call . March 17 -- Mount Agung erupts on Bali , killing approximately 1,500 . March 18 -- Gideon v. Wainwright : The Supreme Court of the United States rules that state courts are required to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who can not afford to pay their own attorneys . March 21 -- The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes ; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy . March 22 -- The Beatles release their first album , Please Please Me , in the United Kingdom . March 23 -- Dansevise by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann ( music by Otto Francker , text by Sejr Volmer - Sørensen ) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 for Denmark . March
March 4 -- In Paris , six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle . De Gaulle pardons five , but the other conspirator , Jean Bastien - Thiry , is executed by firing squad several days later . March 5 -- In Camden , Tennessee , country music superstar Patsy Cline ( Virginia Patterson Hensley ) is killed in a plane crash along with fellow performers Hawkshaw Hawkins , Cowboy Copas and Cline 's manager and pilot Randy Hughes , while returning from a benefit performance in Kansas City , Kansas , for country radio disc jockey `` Cactus '' Jack Call . March 17 -- Mount Agung erupts on Bali , killing approximately 1,500 . March 18 -- Gideon v. Wainwright : The Supreme Court of the United States rules that state courts are required to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who can not afford to pay their own attorneys . March 21 -- The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes ; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy . March 22 -- The Beatles release their first album , Please Please Me , in the United Kingdom . March 23 -- Dansevise by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann ( music by Otto Francker , text by Sejr Volmer - Sørensen ) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 for Denmark . March