Categories
1963

Social History 1963 #23

Monday 22 April 1963 

Seven thousand Britons will quit these shores permanently next month and sail on five ships to Australia. “Most of them decided to migrate during the Big Freeze,” an Australia House official said yesterday. “This is the largest number of migrants to sail for Australian ports in any one month this year.”

A boom in Britain’s birth rate, expected to soar to 900,000 a year in England and Wales soon, is spotlighting a big problem – a shortage of midwives. New midwives will be required to man the 6,500 extra beds planned for maternity hospitals in England and Wales by 1975. 

The surest way to get yourself talked about as a hostess this summer is to place a bent cucumber on the dining table. The Tomato and Cucumber Marketing Board have banned the sale of bent and crooked cucumbers, so you will have to grow your own.

The newest fashion shade in nylons is a very pale cream, which tends to make legs look like quart bottles of milk. Maybe that’s why shops are reporting that women are sticking to the darker shades.

Football: Division One Results – Everton 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0. Leicester City 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1. Top three – Everton played 37 points 52. Leicester City 38 – 52. Tottenham Hotspur 37 – 50.

Television highlights: Panorama – the World Fair in New York. All Our Yesterdays – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, plus Don Bradman’s Australian cricketers. Cristobal and Company – film serial from France.

Radio highlights: World Top Pops. Music for Dancing.

Weather: Sunny, warm, rain later. Outlook – rain, sunny spells. 16c, 61f.

Tuesday 23 April 1963 

Experience with Telstar satellite communications in recent months has far exceeded expectations, the Post Office’s Director-General Sir Ronald German said yesterday. It is hoped that an operational system of communications using satellites could be set up well before 1970.

Gambling games may be introduced into Britain’s self-service stores. Cash prizes would be on offer, up to £35, and possibly television sets. Housewives would be given numbered discs according to how much they spend. If the numbers match a certain combination they will win a prize.

Private motoring is on the way out, a road safety expert said yesterday. The future lies in taxi services and private hire, either self-drive or chauffeur-driven. It costs around £7 a week to run a family car, which represents half the weekly income of many workers. This places a strain on family budgets.

British driver Jim Clark in a Lotus M25 won the 155-mile international race at Imola, Italy yesterday at an average speed of 99.3 mph. Joseph Siffert of Switzerland was second, Bob Anderson of Britain was third.

Football: draw for the semi-finals of the Welsh Cup – Swansea Town v Newport County, Borough United v Hereford United.

The final of the Football League Cup will be between Aston Villa and Birmingham City.

Television highlights: Shakespeare – Soul of an Age. Mind Behind Murder. 7.29 pm – 7.30 pm News.

Radio highlights: Sociology. Silvikrin Time. 

Weather: rain then sunny intervals. Outlook – mainly dry, rather warm. 15c, 59f.

Wednesday 24 April 1963 

The biggest battery of television cameras to be used in Britain for an outside broadcast will cover the Royal Wedding today. Sixty cameras will be watching for millions of viewers in Britain and Europe. Princess Alexandra is marrying Mr Angus Ogilvy. There will be no close-ups of Princess Alexandra during the ceremony, and the cameras will be masked when she makes her vows.

New powers to enable the South African government to detain African leaders “this side of eternity” were announced by Mr Vorster, Minister of Justice, in Cape Town, yesterday. The idea of indefinite detention is to avert any potential crisis.

A rail strike is now “odds on”. The three-day strike has been called in response to redundancies caused by the Beeching Axe.

Women who wear skirts three inches above their knees and wear make-up “up to the eyebrows” will be banned from tenpin bowling, Britain’s largest bowling organisation ABC said last night. A spokesman added, “Bowling is a family sport. We don’t want the centres being used as coffee bars.”

Police were called when 45-year-old Thomas Fitzpatrick of Glasgow went to a laundrette and started to strip. He later said, “I didn’t want to offend anyone. I just wanted to get my washing done.” Magistrates fined him £2 for being drunk and disorderly.

Television highlights: The Royal Wedding – Princess Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy  (four and a half hours on the BBC, four and a half hours on ITV). Labour Party Broadcast. Top of the Form.

Radio highlights: On the Sunny Side of the Street. Teddy and Pearl.

Weather: mainly dry and sunny. Above average temperatures. Outlook – similar. 16c, 61f.

Thursday 25 April 1963 

Exports of British drugs and medicines topped the £50,000,000 mark last year – a record. Australia was the best market, taking £4,600,000 worth of drugs. Exports to Common Market countries went up an eighth, to £5,000,000.

Federal Marshals clubbed, kicked and spat upon student prisoners on a “torture slab” after the 1962 rioting at the University of Mississippi, claims a report by the State Legislature Committee. The charges were denied by Washington.

Tory MP Captain Henry Kerby is to ask the Home Secretary to make details of a “call-girl service operating in the West End of London” available so that the people involved can be assessed for tax.

New arrivals in Discland this week – Billy J Kramer, Erkey Grant, Freddie and the Dreamers, Group X and David Hamber. Freddie Garratty of Freddie and the Dreamers was a milk roundsman until he got an audition with the BBC. The group make their debut with If You’ve Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody.

Everton’s league title hopes were jolted last night when Arsenal held them to a 1 – 1 draw at Goodison Park. Meanwhile, Jimmy Greaves was sent off in Tottenham Hotspur’s 2 – 1 victory away to OFK Belgrade in the European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final, first leg.

Television highlights: Crackerjack with Adam Faith. Alfred Hitchcock Hour. What the Papers Say.

Radio highlights: The Twenties to the Twist. What Happened to Commitment?

Weather: cloudy, sunny intervals. Outlook – mainly dry, sunny spells. 13c, 55f.

Friday 26 April 1963 

A big row is brewing up over the new American-style tenderised beef now reaching some shops. Animals are injected with juice from the paw-paw melon. Some people in the trade see dangers. They think that unscrupulous firms could use the process to disguise tough old beef as new meat.

A gas board man has been told that if he doesn’t draw his pay by cheque instead of cash he will be sacked. Meter collector Walter Lee said, “I have a right to choose whether I’m paid by cheque or pay packet and I’m sticking to that right.” A gas board spokesman said, “We have adopted a payment by cheque system and there can be no exceptions.”

Master bakers have said that Christmas Day should always be on the fourth Sunday in December, followed by Monday and Tuesday as fixed holidays. They also said that Easter Sunday should be on the fourth Sunday in March and Bank Holidays at quarterly intervals with August Bank Holiday scrapped. 

A lorry jammed under a railway bridge yesterday and held up traffic on the Great West Road at Brentford. The driver let the air out of his tyres and eased the lorry through.

Marcel Bois, one of France’s top football referees, loves English crowds. He said, “When they don’t like the referee they just boo. On the Continent they go beserk. And, at times, it is very unhealthy for the referee.” He should go to Millwall sometime. 

Television highlights: Boxing’s Night of the Year – the 1963 Amateur Boxing Championship Finals. Adventure – David Attenborough in the Northern Territory of Australia. Out of Town with Jack Hargreaves.

Radio highlights: Sheep Shearing in Tasmania. Honey Hit Parade.

Weather: mainly dry and sunny. Outlook – similar. 14c, 57f.

Available for pre-order, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on over thirty occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.