1963
	2 January	The entire USAF and VNAF force at Bien Hoa was committed to Operation Burning Arrow, an hour-long air strike against Viet Cong targets in the Ap Bac/Tay Ninh areas. The strike was followed by air drops and a trooplift by Piasecki H-21 helicopters.
	28 February	The first Minuteman ICBM squadron (10th SMS) became operational at Malmstrom AFB, MT.
	17 June	The first woman in space, a Russian, is circling the earth at a distance of more than 100 miles. She is Valentina Tereshkova, 26, formerly an amateur parachute jumper.
	20 June	The United States and the Soviet Union decided to open a hot line betweeen the White House and the Kremlin. It would be for use 'in time of emergency' to reduce the risk of war by accident, miscalculation or failure of normal communications.
	27 June	Kennedy visits Berlin and at least 1,250,000 delirious West Berliners gave him the wildest welcome of his political career. A great roar rose from a sea of people before the City Hall when he said, in halting German "Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a Berliner).
	july	By the end of July 1963, the Su-15 Flagon was officially presented to the Soviet Air Force officials and later delivered to another airbase for final governmental tests and possible approval of the project. Here, real missile launches at real targets took place. Even the marshal of the USSR's Air Force E. A. Savickiy made several take offs and landings.
	25 july	A Partial Test Ban Treaty, banning the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, outer space or under water, was signed.
	16 October	During Operation Greased Lightning, a B-58A Hustler (61-2059) of the 305th Bombardment Wing, Bunker Hill AFB, Il set a new world record time of 8hr 35min 20sec flying 8,028 miles non-stop from Tokyo to RAF Greenham Common, Berkshire.
	20 November	Service use of the F-4C Phantom began at MacDill AFB, FL, initially with the 4453rd CCTS for training and then with the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing. Three more wings in TAC received F-4C's in the following years.
	22 November	President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. His alleged killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was himself murdered two days later by club-owner Jack Ruby on live TV. Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.
	31 December	President Johnson approved the deployment of Lockheed U-2's to Vietnam, where the 4028th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron began operating them out of Bien Hoa two weeks later.
	31 December	At the end of the year (shortly before formal US involvement in the region) a total of 117 USAF aircraft had been deployed to Vietnam.