July 7, 1963 - The death toll on the nation’s highways passed the record for a four-day Fourth of July holiday weekend today. With reports still coming in, The Associated Press reported 525 traffic deaths, which surpassed the total of 509 killed over a four-day Fourth in 1961. Drownings and other accidents took the holiday death total to 815. Although the 525 auto-death figure is a record for a four-day July Fourth weekend, it fell far short of the record of 706 for a four-day weekend, set over the Christmas holiday in 1956.
