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1963 (disambiguation)
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Timeline for 1963 |
1957 • 1958 • 1959 • 1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969 |
1963 was a year.
Events
Dated
January - June
On 11 February, the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday visited EMI Studios to see the Beatles recording their first album, only to discover they were in an altered reality where music had been stolen by the god Maestro. After visiting an alternate 2024, the Doctor and Ruby were able to discover the chord to banish Maestro, with some assistance from John Lennon and Paul McCartney. According to one account, the First Doctor and Susan Foreman were living in Shoreditch at this time. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])
Late March was, according to one account, when the TARDIS materialised in the junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane, owned by I.M. Foreman, in the Shoreditch area of London, disguised incongruously as a police box. While the First Doctor attempted repairs and worked out a plan for safely disposing of the Hand of Omega on Earth so no-one could find and misuse it, his granddaughter Susan Foreman registered at the nearby Coal Hill School against his wishes. Britain, meanwhile, was in the grip of an unusual cold wave. (PROSE: Time and Relative [+]Loading...["Time and Relative (novel)"])
On 1 April, the First Doctor fought off an invasion by the Cold. (PROSE: Time and Relative [+]Loading...["Time and Relative (novel)"])
In May, using the pseudonym "John Rutherford", the Seventh Doctor was elected as an independent member of Parliament on a platform of nuclear disarmament. He retained his seat until the next general election in October 1964. (AUDIO: 1963: The Assassination Games [+]Loading...["1963: The Assassination Games (audio story)"])
One account had Susan Foreman date her and her grandfather's arrival in London to June, four months before October, and that Susan's first term at Coal Hill was the autumn term in 1963. (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth [+]Loading...["Hunters of Earth (audio story)"])
In the summer of 1963, the First Doctor was put on trial for the murder of the werewolf Roberta Sampson. The Second, Third, Fifth and Eighth Doctors served on the jury, all using pseudonyms, and gradually convinced the other jurors of the First Doctor's innocence. (PROSE: The Juror's Story [+]Loading...["The Juror's Story (short story)"])
July - October
In the summer, the Eighth Doctor and Sam Jones visited London. They met Fitz Kreiner and discovered that Charles Roley had amassed a group of individuals who were all descended from the test subjects of the Benelisan robot Azoth. The Doctor defeated Azoth, but was too late to save the descendants. He was forced to kill all of them, including Fitz's mother Muriel Kreiner. On the run from the police and without any living family, Fitz decided to leave London and travel with the Doctor and Sam. (PROSE: The Taint [+]Loading...["The Taint (novel)"])
According to one account, Susan said she had been at Coal Hill since the start of the autumn term. (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth [+]Loading...["Hunters of Earth (audio story)"]) Another account stated she enrolled in late March. (PROSE: Time and Relative [+]Loading...["Time and Relative (novel)"])
On 8 August, the Great Train Robbery took place. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary [+]Loading...["Time Traveller's Diary (novel)"])
In October, the TARDIS landed on the Queen Mary, a ship the Fourth Doctor found to be full of ghosts. (PROSE: Ghost Ship [+]Loading...["Ghost Ship (novel)"])
On 22 October, whilst at a bar, Susan witnessed a human mutate into an alien. She and the Doctor followed a trail that led to Raldonn, an alien trying to mutate humans to use as pilots for his spacecraft. (COMIC: Operation Proteus [+]Loading...["Operation Proteus (comic story)"]) Susan was abducted by the Threshold. (COMIC: Ground Zero [+]Loading...["Ground Zero (comic story)"], COMIC: Operation Proteus [+]Loading...["Operation Proteus (comic story)"])
The Imperial Daleks came to Earth in order obtain the Hand of Omega. Davros ordered that the First Doctor be exterminated. While the First Doctor was contemplating where to put the Hand, a Dalek tried to shoot him. The Seventh Doctor interfered and used his umbrella to make the First Doctor trip and evade the beam. He then pushed the Dalek into a bus. (COMIC: Time & Time Again [+]Loading...["Time & Time Again (comic story)"])
In late October, the First Doctor made arrangements with a Shoreditch funeral parlour to bury the Hand of Omega in a nearby graveyard. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"])
November
On 10 November, the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (AUDIO: 1963: The Space Race [+]Loading...["1963: The Space Race (audio story)"])
Nemesis approached Earth before the assassination of John F. Kennedy and, the Seventh Doctor implied, influenced it to happen. (TV: Silver Nemesis [+]Loading...["Silver Nemesis (TV story)"])
22 November
On 22 November, the assassination of John F. Kennedy took place, witnessed by the Ninth Doctor. (TV: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"], PROSE: Have You Seen This Man? [+]Loading...["Have You Seen This Man? (short story)"]) According to one account, the assassination was created by the Renegade Time Lord Berenyi, who engineered Lee Harvey Oswald's personal history so that he would kill the president. A Designer, a time travelling mercenary who affected changes to the timeline, Berenyi was hired to engineer the assassination. She was with Oswald when he shot Kennedy. (PROSE: Untitled [+]Loading...["Untitled (DWM 171 short story)"])
According to another account, Oswald was incorrectly arrested as the culprit and the true assassin was James Stevens. The Master attempted to use Francis Cleary - a brainwashed UNIT soldier from 1971 - to prevent the assassination to change history, but was prevented from doing so by James Stevens, who witnessed his future self carry out the murder. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"])
Also on that day, (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"]) Sarah Jane Smith went to London with her aunt Lavinia. While in Shoreditch, Sarah wandered away from her aunt and into Totter's Yard, where she found the First Doctor's TARDIS, but dismissed it as just a police box. (PROSE: Playtime [+]Loading...["Playtime (short story)"])
Just after Sarah left, Coal Hill School teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright followed Susan home from the school. They discovered the TARDIS in 76 Totter's Lane. Fearing the consequences, the First Doctor abducted them. (TV: "An Unearthly Child" [+]Part of An Unearthly Child, Loading...{"namedep":"An Unearthly Child (1)","1":"An Unearthly Child (TV story)"}) The Doctor retained his library card from Shoreditch Library, which was due to expire this month, though he never bothered to renew it. (TV: The Vampires of Venice [+]Loading...["The Vampires of Venice (TV story)"])
After this, the disappearance of the two teachers was noticed, but all thought Ian and Barbara had eloped. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy [+]Loading...["The Face of the Enemy (novel)"])
Six-year-old Gerry Billing, who had become separated from his family on the London Underground while they were on a Christmas shopping trip into London, overheard the confrontation between the Doctor, Ian and Barbara and, looking for a policeman to help him, approached the TARDIS and touched it just before it disappeared. As the Doctor had been working on the TARDIS' telepathic circuits, a psychic link was initiated between Gerry and the TARDIS, causing him to have visions of the Doctor's adventures in his dreams for years afterward. A policeman found Gerry after the TARDIS had departed, and he was reunited with his worried parents. (PROSE: Imaginary Friends [+]Loading...["Imaginary Friends (novel)"])
After 22 November, the Spacefleet fighter Tisiphone, which had fallen into a temporal rift in 2547 during a battle with Daleks, exited the temporal rift near Earth space. Its crew, led by Admiral Isaac Summerfield II, escaped to England. (PROSE: Return of the Living Dad [+]Loading...["Return of the Living Dad (novel)"])
23 November
On 23 November, the Fourth Doctor and K9 Mark II returned to Totter's Lane to retrieve a Heshrax insect which he had been tracking the day that he left. While there, they met Debbie, Susan's best friend from Coal Hill School. Debbie, who turned fifteen that day, was concerned about Susan's sudden disappearance as she knew that Susan would never miss her birthday. She had met the First Doctor on one occasion but the Fourth Doctor did not recall seeing her before. He also did not remember Susan ever mentioning Debbie but admitted that he was not always the best listener. He told Debbie that Susan decided to stay on 22nd century Earth but then amended this by adding that he chose for her, expressing the hope that this decision was for the best. Debbie was thankful that she met the Doctor as, while she knew that she would never see Susan again, she could at least live her life safe in the knowledge that she was safe in the future rather than spend it wondering what happened to Susan and fearing the worst. (PROSE: Those Left Behind [+]Loading...["Those Left Behind (short story)"])
Jorjie Turner was sent from 2050 to 23 November 1963. She was retrieved by K9 Mark 2 and Starkey; together they saved William Pike from being arrested by Barker, preventing Darius Pike from being erased from history. (TV: The Cambridge Spy [+]Loading...["The Cambridge Spy (TV story)"])
A creature called the Shroud attached itself to Earth soon after the assassination of the president and fed off people's grief all around the world. The Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald stopped the alien before it could take over the planet, and the whole event was written off as a chemical attack. (PROSE: Shroud of Sorrow [+]Loading...["Shroud of Sorrow (novel)"])
After defeating the Decayed Master in an alternate timeline, the First Doctor visited Bob Dovie with Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, and Susan Foreman. Later, Dovie was visited by the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Zoe Heriot. Dovie was then visited by the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, the Fourth Doctor and Leela, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown, and the Seventh Doctor and Ace. Dovie grew increasingly annoyed with each encounter and was very angry when he was visited by the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard. (AUDIO: The Light at the End [+]Loading...["The Light at the End (audio story)"])
Amy Pond, living in New York, sent a letter on this date, in which she talked about her time with the Eleventh Doctor. Yasmin Khan later managed to obtain the letter for use in the Thirteenth Doctor's book. (PROSE: A Short History of Everyone [+]Loading...["A Short History of Everyone (novel)"])
Late November
From 29 to 30 November, the Doctor returned to Shoreditch in his seventh incarnation to finish incomplete business and collect the Hand of Omega and aid the Intrusion Counter-Measures Group, the British Army's predecessor to UNIT. ICMG set up the evacuation of civilians from a three-mile radius of a fight between Renegade and Imperial Dalek factions over the Hand, an event which saw activity in 76 Totter's Lane and Coal Hill School. Humans aware of the events that occurred later called this the Shoreditch Incident. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"], PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"])
During the events of the Shoreditch Incident on 30 November, Charlie Smith also briefly encountered Ace near Coal Hill, after he had fallen through a space-time tear in 2016. He encountered a guard on duty on the school, and had to flee from Imperial Dalek forces. He was rescued by Andrea Quill, just as ICMG forces showed up to deal with the Daleks within Coal Hill. (AUDIO: In Remembrance [+]Loading...["In Remembrance (audio story)"]) Clive Finch's father, Gary Jonathan Finch, was attached to the ICMG and he was killed during the incident. (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"])
Eighteen minutes before the Seventh Doctor and Ace arrived in Shoreditch, their future selves visited Totter's Lane and found that the name on the gate had changed to "I M Forman". Ace confirmed that this was how it was spelled the last time they were here, alerting the Doctor that temporal disruptions were affecting history. (PROSE: The Algebra of Ice [+]Loading...["The Algebra of Ice (novel)"])
December
On 6 December, British Army sergeant Mike Smith was buried. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) When Ace and the Doctor were leaving Shoreditch after the funeral, the Doctor noted that there had been a temporal anomaly at the school that would need to be dealt with on a day in 2016. The Doctor was distracted, however, by another occurrence (possibly a Bandril timeship), but Ace was sure to remember the exact date so that she could deal with it in the future. (AUDIO: In Remembrance [+]Loading...["In Remembrance (audio story)"])
In early to mid December, the Seventh Doctor and Ace again assisted the Intrusion Counter-Measures Group, this time dealing with the Starfire Incident. (AUDIO: 1963: The Assassination Games [+]Loading...["1963: The Assassination Games (audio story)"])
On 22 December, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa visited Switzerland, where they solved the mystery of a school haunting and prevented the Spillager invasion of Earth. (AUDIO: Winter for the Adept [+]Loading...["Winter for the Adept (audio story)"])
A few days before Christmas, Hawkins hired Joseph Galloway to clear out Totters Lane. While doing so, Galloway found the Blessing Star. (PROSE: The Rag & Bone Man's Story [+]Loading...["The Rag & Bone Man's Story (short story)"])
Undated
The First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan went to Earth and stayed for five months (TV: "An Unearthly Child" [+]Part of An Unearthly Child, Loading...{"namedep":"An Unearthly Child (1)","1":"An Unearthly Child (TV story)"}, COMIC: Operation Proteus [+]Loading...["Operation Proteus (comic story)"]) although other sources said six months, (PROSE: Matrix [+]Loading...["Matrix (novel)"]) nine months (PROSE: The Rag & Bone Man's Story [+]Loading...["The Rag & Bone Man's Story (short story)"]) or thirteen months. (PROSE: Time and Relative [+]Loading...["Time and Relative (novel)"])
The Seventh Doctor met up with the First Doctor in a Shoreditch alley and gave him the Hand of Omega. (PROSE: Echoes of Future Past [+]Loading...["Echoes of Future Past (short story)"])
What's My Line? was hosted by Eamonn Andrews and ran on British television from 1951 to 1963, each Sunday at 8:30pm. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"])
River Song briefly visited Totter's Lane to catch a glimpse of the First Doctor. The Doctor saw her and threatened her with his cane for trespassing. River quickly escaped with her vortex manipulator. (GAME: The Eternity Clock [+]Loading...["The Eternity Clock (video game)"])
Harold Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and was succeeded by Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Both men were members of the Conservative Party. (AUDIO: The Pelage Project [+]Loading...["The Pelage Project (audio story)"])
In Liverpool, the Tenth Doctor took Martha Jones to watch the Beatles perform. Whilst they were returning to the TARDIS, Martha was teleported to an alien planet. (COMIC: Signs of Life [+]Loading...["Signs of Life (comic story)"])
The Beatles released their first two albums. (GAME: City of the Daleks [+]Loading...["City of the Daleks (video game)"]) One of these contained the song "Love Me Do", which Susan Foreman considered to be the most important song of the five years before 1963. (PROSE: Time and Relative [+]Loading...["Time and Relative (novel)"])
Sometime before Kennedy's assassination, the Cybock Imperium stole the Time-Gun of Rassilon from a Judoon containment facility on Janizzar. They brought it back to Las Vegas, where they had established themselves in the criminal underworld as the Kronos Family. After kidnapping members of the Wolf Pack and Clara Oswald, the Kronos Family became involved in a gang war with the Dragotta Family. (COMIC: Gangland [+]Loading...["Gangland (comic story)"])
Romana II's edition of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James was published. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Malkin Place [+]Loading...["The Haunting of Malkin Place (audio story)"])
Ashley ab Hugh was found staring at a sculpture in his private collection of art. He had been tearing strips of flesh from his face and sticking them to the outside of the sculpture. He was taken to hospital, and died three weeks later from septicaemia. (PROSE: The Beauty of Our Weapons [+]Loading...["The Beauty of Our Weapons (short story)"])
Mrs. Smith, an usherette, saw the Doctor and his granddaughter in the Ritz Theatre on Totter's Lane, but told them to leave after the Doctor continually and rudely pointed out inaccuracies in a film about the fall of Rome. In early 2005, Mrs. Smith wrote about her encounter on whoisdoctorwho.co.uk, thinking that the Ninth Doctor may have been related to the grey-haired Doctor she met. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man? [+]Loading...["Have You Seen This Man? (short story)"])
Births and deaths
Dated
On 29 March, seventeen-year-old Lizzie Lewis was murdered by Ed Morgan in Cardiff. (TV: Ghost Machine [+]Loading...["Ghost Machine (TV story)"])
On 23 November in London, a man was stabbed in an alleyway with a flick knife. His murderer was never found. Elsewhere in the city, a baby boy was born. He was named John Fitzgerald after the late President Kennedy. (AUDIO: 1963 [+]Loading...["1963 (audio story)"])
Undated
Harvey was born. (PROSE: Bennelong Point [+]Loading...["Bennelong Point (short story)"])
Jody Lockhart was born. (GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"})
Other
The Eleventh Doctor told Amy Pond that London was the coolest place in the universe in 1963 due to the Beatles, Sean Connery as James Bond, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Mary Quant, John Steed and Cathy Gale. (GAME: City of the Daleks [+]Loading...["City of the Daleks (video game)"])
Other realities
In John Smith's possible future, he died, leaving behind Joan, his children and their children, all safe. (PROSE: Human Nature [+]Loading...["Human Nature (novel)"])
In a parallel universe, Terry Nation created the Daleks for the TV show Doctor Who. (COMIC: The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who [+]Loading...["The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who (comic story)"])
In the original timeline, Kennedy lived past 1963 and became a very inspirational figure of the 1960s. Enemy life-spores infected Kennedy during his second term in office and almost used the psychic energy surrounding him to rewrite Earth's history, but he died of a heart attack in 1967 before that could happen. An agent of the Great Houses erased this timeline by organising the Kennedy assassination. (PROSE: The Annotated Autopsy of Agent A [+]Loading...["The Annotated Autopsy of Agent A (short story)"])
Alternate timelines
On 25 July, while on a fishing trip to an island to the Pacific Ocean, the Fifth Doctor discovered that the TARDIS had materialised in an alternative timeline in which World War II had never ended. After being held at gunpoint by an American fighter pilot native to this timeline named Angus "Gus" Goodman, the Doctor offered him the chance to get off the island, which was Japanese territory. Goodman accepted the Doctor's offer and became a short-lived companion. (COMIC: Lunar Lagoon [+]Loading...["Lunar Lagoon (comic story)"], COMIC: 4-Dimensional Vistas [+]Loading...["4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)"]) However, he was killed by the Moderator, a hitman in the employ of Josiah W. Dogbolter, before he could be returned to the United States of America in his timeline. (COMIC: The Moderator [+]Loading...["The Moderator (comic story)"])
In an alternate timeline where the Cybermen allied with Rassilon to take over history, they attacked the First Doctor on the day that he was supposed to leave Earth with Susan, Ian, and Barbara. (COMIC: Prologue: The First Doctor [+]Loading...["Prologue: The First Doctor (comic story)"])
The Daleks, using the Eye of Time to change history, exterminated humanity, ravaging and conquering Earth. This timeline was averted by the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond. (GAME: City of the Daleks [+]Loading...["City of the Daleks (video game)"])
Behind the scenes
- Both A History of the Universe and The Dalek Handbook date the events of The Daleks to circa 1963, based on the assumption that the First Doctor was able to return Ian and Barbara to the right time period after An Unearthly Child, but not to the right place. Peaceful Thals Ambushed!, on the other hand, suggests an in-universe date of 2064.