He walked in a birdie on No. 9 for a front side 31 then topped it with an eagle on 18 for a back side 32 and the new U.S. Open single-round record relative to par (-9).
Despite his epic day, Thomas is one shot behind Brian Harman, who shot a 67.
Joining Thomas in joint second place is countryman Brooks Koepka and England's Tommy Fleetwood (both 68).
In the first 116 stagings of the US Open, only six players had reached 10 under par at any point.
The last six majors have been taken by first-time winners.
Glance down the U.S. Open leaderboard, and golf fans will see some familiar names.
McIlroy was never in the short grass from the 11th hole to the end on Thursday when he opened with a career-worst 78, and he didn't do almost enough in the second round until it was far too late.
Kentucky native Thomas became the youngest golfer to shoot 59 on the PGA Tour, which came in the opening round of his Sony Open victory in Honolulu. I knew going into it that it was either going to go in or be close to going in. "But I'm just excited to give myself a great chance to win this golf tournament". Tomorrow's going to be fun.
"The majors have a different feel and sound to the roars and to hear the crowd go insane when I holed that putt on 18 was really cool", said Thomas, whose back-to-back wins in Hawaii in January included an opening 59 in the Sony Open.
And it is another milestone in a remarkable start to 2017 for Thomas.
And then Friday, a 94-year-old man at the tournament for the first time stopped breathing while in a grandstand on the sixth hole and died of what Washington County officials said appeared to be natural causes.
Harman takes US Open lead after day three
The other four 63's were all shot on par 71 courses. "It will be a pleasure to go out on a Sunday trying to win a major". And it's especially hard to win a first major when you're the rabbit, setting the pace for the opening two days.
"We had two other guys shoot in the 60s that day", Miller said.
"It doesn't matter how long, how whatever the course is", Thomas said about the longest course in major championship history.
"Obviously, I enjoy going low". I got out of position, but it's the attitude, it's the grit that matters at the end of the week. "I'm like, 'Let's get to 8, let's get to 9, ' whatever it is".
Once again golfers were taking full advantage of a softened Erin Hills layout left defenseless by overnight rain, attacking the pins with gusto. For the first time since the world rankings debuted in 1986, the top three players all had missed the cut at a major.
Dustin Johnson. Rory McIlroy. The setup is more like a tough tour event than a U.S. Open course.
For Justin Thomas, Sunday's U.S. Open final round could be even more historic.
If his hot pink trousers were not enough, Thomas finished in style. He grabbed his putter and pointed it out to his left just as the ball dropped into the cup.
Casey laid up in the rough, took two chops to get out of more rough behind the 14th green, and staggered away with a triple-bogey 8 that might have ruined his day at Erin Hills.
CINKING IN: Stewart Cink had a bad start to the third round of his 20th U.S. Open. "But when you're visually looking down the fairway, I think when you're trying to aim at a target at a normal golf course, with normal width fairways, there's some pressure into hitting the fairway because it is a lot narrower than we have out here".
Louis Oosthuizen is making the biggest move the morning in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills. If somebody does it tomorrow to win the U.S. Open by one, that's the specialness of my round.
"It's so nice to be playing on my anniversary that we're moving our anniversary officially this year to Tuesday", Cink said.
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