1963 in Singapore

The following lists events that happened during 1963 in Singapore.
 * Singapore was a 14th State of Malaysia beginning 16 September 1963.

Incumbents

 * Yang di-Pertuan Negara – Yusof Ishak
 * Prime Minister – Lee Kuan Yew

January

 * 6 January – The OG factory is officially opened.
 * 20 January – Confrontation was announced.

February

 * 2 February – Operation Coldstore was mounted to stop communist influence, resulting in 113 people being arrested.
 * 15 February – At 6:00pm SST, Channel 5 was launched as its first pilot television service as "TV Singapura". The channel operated 1 hour and 40 minutes monochrome service on black and white during its daily test transmissions from 6:00pm to 7:40pm SGT. After the image of the state flag and the playing of the national anthem, Majulah Singapura, Minister for Culture, S. Rajaratnam, became the first person to appear on Singapore TV, announcing that "Tonight might well mark the start of a social and cultural revolution in our lives." Following his speech, the first television programme in Singapore was a 15-minute documentary produced by TV Singapura called TV Looks at Singapore. It was followed by two cartoons, a news report and newsreel, a comedy show and a local variety show. At the time, it was estimated that only one in 58 persons in Singapore owned a TV set, and the pilot service offered only 1-hour and 40-minutes of broadcasting per day on Channel 5.

March

 * 13 March – The Civilian War Memorial will be built at Beach Road.

April

 * 2 April - At 7:15pm SGT, President Yusof Ishak officially inaugurated the regular television service as "TV Singapura Channel 5" with expanded its broadcast day to four hours per-night daily broadcasts from 7:15pm until 11:15pm SGT before gradually brought forward to 6:30pm SGT in September showing programmes in Singapore's four official languages.
 * 22 April – City Hall riot.

May

 * 1 May – The Public Utilities Board is formed to manage electricity, water and gas.
 * 25 May – The Ngee Ann College is officially opened, changing name from Ngee Ann Technical College and finally present-day Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

June

 * 16 June – The first tree in Singapore is planted in Farrer Circus by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, which is a mempat tree.

July

 * 9 July – The 20-point agreement, submitted by North Borneo, was signed by the UK government and representatives of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore in the run-up to the creation of the Federation of Malaysia.
 * 12 July - Pulau Senang prison riot.

August

 * 8 August – The National Theatre is opened.
 * 25 August – A rally was held in City Hall.
 * 28 August – A report to improve education was released.
 * 31 August – Singapore declared its independence from the United Kingdom, with Yusof bin Ishak as the head of state (Yang di-Pertuan Negara) and Lee Kuan Yew as prime minister; sixteen days later, Singapore would join the Federation of Malaysia, but would declare independence again on 9 August 1965. On the same day, the 1963 State Constitution is adopted.

September

 * 7 September – City Developments Limited is formed as a property group.
 * 16 September – Malaysia is formed from Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore.
 * 21 September – The PAP wins the 1963 State Elections, defeating the Barisan Sosialis and UMNO.

November

 * 13 November – The Singapore Association of Trade Unions (SATU) is refused registration for being prejudicial to Singapore's national security, leading to its eventual dissolution.
 * 23 November – TV Singapura Channel 8 was officially formal full launched at 7:40pm SGT as Singapore's second television channel with 1 hour and 25 minute daily broadcasts from 7:40pm until 10:05pm SGT.

Births

 * 12 April – Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.
 * 16 April – Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for Health.
 * 20 September – Ivan Heng, Stage actor, director, founder of W!LD RICE.
 * Koh Buck Song – Writer, journalist.
 * Heng Siok Tian – Art educator.
 * Yang Lina - Actress (d. 2010).

Deaths

 * 14 February – Lim Hak Tai – Pioneer artist, art educator (b. 1893).
 * 18 August – Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill – Last British director of Raffles Museum (present day National Museum of Singapore) (b. 1911).
 * Haji Ambo Sooloh – Businessman of Bugis descent (b. 1891).