Robert Gordon Menzies is knighted in 1963.

In 1963, Indonesia begins to seize Dutch property on West Irian, the Western half of New Guinea, after the Dutch prove intransigent in negotiations.

US president John F. Kennedy has, by 1963, increased the US military presence in South Vietnam to over 16,000 advisors.

After nine years of warfare, Diem begins to explore negotiations with the North.

He is overthrown by a US-backed military coup d’etat on November 1, 1963 and assassinated the following day, along with his brother.

JFK is assassinated in Dallas three weeks later.

Within days of taking office, his successor, US president Lyndon Baines Johnson, reverses JFK’s decision to withdraw US personnel by the end of 1965.

Much intercommunal fighting occurs in Nicosia along the line separating the Greek and Turkish quarters of the city (known later as the Green Line).

Turkish Cypriots are not concentrated in one area, but live throughout the island, making their position precarious.

Vice President Kiicuk and Turkish Cypriot ministers and members of the House of Representatives cease participating in the government.

North of Nicosia, Turkish forces occupy a strong position at St. Hilarion Castle, dominating the road to Kyrenia on the northern coast.

The road becomes a principal combat area as both sides fight to control it.

The atmosphere on Cyprus is tense.

Serious violence erupts in Nicosia on December 21 , 1963, when a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stops a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter.

A hostile crowd gathers, shots are fired, and two Turkish Cypriots are killed.

As the news spreads, members of the underground organizations began firing and taking hostages.

Makarios advances a thirteen-point proposal designed, in his view, to eliminate impediments to the
functioning of the government, on November 30, 1963.

The thirteen points involve constitutional revisions, including the abandonment of the veto power by both the president and the vice president, an idea that certainly will be rejected by the Turkish Cypriots, who think of the veto as a form of life insurance for the minority community.

Kiicuk asks for time to consider the proposal and promises to respond to it by the end of December.

Turkey rejects it on December 16, declaring the proposal an attempt to undermine the constitution.

Some Greek Cypriots believe the constitutional impasse can be ended through bold action.

Accordingly, a plan of action—the Akritas Plan—is drawn up sometime in 1963 by the Greek Cypriot minister of interior, a close associate of Archbishop Makarios.

The plan's course of action begins with persuading the international community that concessions made to the Turkish Cypriots are too extensive and that the constitution has to be reformed if the island are to have a functioning government.

World opinion has to be convinced that the smaller community has nothing to fear from constitutional amendments that give Greek Cypriots political dominance.

Another of the plan's goals is the revocation of the Treaty of Guarantee and the Treaty of Alliance.

If these aims are realized, enosis will become possible.

If Turkish Cypriots refuse to accept these changes and attempt to block them by force, the plan foresees their violent subjugation "in a day or two" before foreign powers can intervene.

...63 Faysal, supported by the royal princes, the 'ulam'a, and the National Guard—into which the Ikhwan had eventually been absorbed—is once more given executive powers.

In 1963, Sa'ud is forced to spend a considerable amount of time abroad for medical treatment, and in his absence domestic opposition intensifies against him.

Adult male Al Thani also receive government positions in addition to allowances.

This fuels the antiregime resentment already harbored by, among others, oil workers, low-ranking Al Thani, dissident shaykhs, and some leading individuals.

In response to a fatal shooting on April 19, 1963, by one of Shaykh Ahmad ibn Ali's nephews, these groups form the National Unity Front.

Calling a general strike, the front demands a reduction of the ruler's privileges, recognition of trade unions, and increased social services.

Ahmad ibn Ali responds by jailing fifty leading individuals and exiling the front's leaders.

He also institutes some reforms, eventually including the provision of land and loans to poor Qataris.