1964

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

Years: 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 - 1964 - 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

Events

January 1 - Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland dissolved
January 3 - Senator Barry Goldwater announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for President.
January 7 - A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announced the sale of 450 busses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba.
January 8 - In his first State-of-the-Union address, President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
January 9 - Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian mobs in the Canal Zone brought a major international crisis and caused deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers.
January 11 - US Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous for one's health. First such statement from US government.
January 12 - The predominantly Arab government of Zanzibar was overthrown by African nationalist rebels. A U.S. destroyer evacuated 61 Americans.
January 16 - Hello Dolly! opens in New York City's St. James Theatre.
January 16 - John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth and now 42, resigned from the space program and announced the next day that he would seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Ohio.
January 20 - Meet the Beatles, the first Beatles album in the United States, is released
January 23 - Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly two years after the measure had been passed by the United States Senate 77-16, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
January 27 - France and Communist China announced their decision to establish diplomatic relations.
January 27 - Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-Me.), 66, announced her candidacy for the Repubican nomination for President.
January 28 - A U.S. Air Force jet training plane that strayed into East Germany was shot down by Soviet fighters near Erfurt. All three crew men were killed.
January 29 - The Soviet Union launched two scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.
January 30 - The junta that had ruled South Vietnam since the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem was itself toppled from power in a bloodless coup led by Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khanh.
January 30 - Ranger 6 is launched by NASA. Its mission is it to carry television cameras and to crash-land on the moon.
February 3 - In protests against alleged de facto school segregation, public schools were boycotted by black and Puerto Rican groups in New York City.
February 6 - Cuba cut off the normal water supply to the United States naval base at Guantanamo in reprisal for U.S. seizure 4 days earlier of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida.
February 7 - A jury trying Bryon De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers reported in Jackson, Mississippi that it was unable to agree on a verdict, resulting in a mistrial.
February 10 - Nationalist China announced that it was breaking diplomatic relations with France because of French recognition of Communist China.
February 11 - Greeks & Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus.
February 11 - Taiwan drops diplomatic relations with France.
February 17 - In Wesberry v. Sanders the United States Supreme Court rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
February 26 - John Glenn slipped on a bathroom rug in his Columbus, Ohio apartment and hit his head on the bathtub, injuring his left inner ear, and prompting him (later that week) to withdraw from the race for the Senate nomination.
February 27 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
February 29 - President Johnson announced that the United States had developed a jet airplane (the A-11), capable of sustained flight at more than 2,000 MPH and of altitutes of more than 70,000 feet.
March 4 - Jimmy Hoffa, President of the Teamsters, was convicted by a Federal jury of tampering with a Federal jury in 1962.
March 8 - Malcolm X, suspended from the Nation of Islam, said in New York City that he was forming a black nationalist party.
March 10 - Soviet Union military forces shot down an unarmed reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany; the three U.S. flyers parachuted to safety.
March 10 - The New Hampshire primary was won by Henry Cabor Lodge, Ambassador to South Vietnam.
March 26 - Defense Secretary Robert McNamara delivered an address that reiterated the United States determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid in its war against Communist insurgency.
March 27 - One of the worst earthquakes in modern history struck Alaska, killing 117; it had a magnitude of at least 8.4 on the Richter scale.
April 2 - Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, 72, mother of Governor Endicott Peabody of Massachusetts, was released on $450 bond after spending two days in jail in St. Augustine, Florida, because of her participation in an anti-segregation demonstration there.
April 5 - Jigme Dorfi, Premier of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan was shot dead by an unidentified assassin in Puncholing, near the Indian border.
April 7 - IBM announces the System/360.
April 8 - Four of five railroad operating unions struck the Illinois Central Railroad without warning to bring to a head the five-year dispute over railroad work rules.
April 9 - The United Nations Security Council adopted by a 9-0 vote a resolution deporing a British air attack on a fort in Yemen 12 days earlier in which 25 persons were reported killed.
April 11 - The Brazilian Congress elected General Humberto Castelo Branco as President of Brazil.
April 19 - The coalition government of Laos, headed by Prince Souvanna Phouma was deposed by a right-wing military group led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay.
April 20 - President Lyndon Johnson in New York and Soviet Premier Krushchev in Moscow announced simultaneously plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.
May 2 - Senator Barry Goldwater received more than 75% of the votes in the Texas Republican Presidential primary.
May 7 - A Pacific Airlie F-27 crashed near Dublin, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reported that a recorded tape indicated that the pilot had been shot.
May 9 - South Korean President Chung Hee Park reshuffled his Cabinet after a series of student demostrations against his efforts to restore diplomatic and trade relations with Japan.
May 19 - The United States State Department said that more than 40 hidden microphones had been found embedded in the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
May 23 - Mrs. Madeline Dassault, 63, wife of a French plane manufacturer and politician, was kidnapped as she left her car in front of her Paris home; she was found unharmed the next day in a farmhouse 27 miles from Paris.
June 2 - Senator Barry Goldwater won the California Republican Presidential primary, making him the overwhelming favorite for the nomination.
June 2 - Five million shares of stock in the Communications Satellite Corp. (Comsat) were offered for sale at $20 a share, and the issue was quickly sold out.
June 3 - South Korean President Chung Hee Park declared martial law in Seoul after 10,000 student demonstrators overpowered police.
June 9 - In Federal Court in Kansas City, Kansas, army deserter George John Gessner, 28, was convicted of passing United States secrets to the Soviet Union.
June 12 Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton announced his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination, as part of a 'stop-Goldwater' movement.
June 19 - Senator Edward Kennedy, 32, was seriously injured in a private plane crash at Southampton, Massachusetts; the pilot was killed.
June 22 - Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, were murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
July 8 - U.S. military personnel announced that U.S. casualties in Vietnam had risen to 1,387, including 399 dead and 17 MIA.
Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
September 14 - Opening of third period of Second Vatican Council
October 14-15 - Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev assumes power.
November - Lyndon Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater in the U.S. presidential election
November 21 - Closing of third period of Second Vatican Council

Art, Culture & Fashion

1964 in film
- My Fair Lady
- Mary Poppins
- Dr. Strangelove
- A Hard Day's Night, starring The Beatles
1964 in literature
1964 in music
- January 18 - The Beatles appear on the Billboard magazine charts for the first time
- February 7 - The Beatles arrived on their first visit to the United States
- February 9 - The Beatles make their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show
- February 11 - The Beatles have their 1st live appearance in US in the Washington DC Coliseum
1964 in sports:
- January 29 - 1964 Winter Olympic Games open in Innsbruck, Austria
- March - Capitol Records is bombarded with requests for heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay's album, I Am the Greatest, following Clay's defeat of Sonny Liston in February
- May 2 - Northern Dancer, first Canadian-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby
1964 in television
- April 30 - Television sets manufactured as of this date are required to receive UHF channels.
- The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan show, breaking television ratings records

Births

January 6 - Henry Maske, German boxer
January 7 - Nicolas Cage, actor
January 12 - Jeff Bezos, president of amazon.com
January 13 - Penelope Ann Miller, actress
February 5 - Laura Linney, actress
February 5 - Duff McKagen, Guns N'Roses
February 15 - Chris Farley, actor, comedian (+ 1997)
February 18 - Matt Dillon, actor
March 9 - Juliette Binoche, actress
July 3 - Joanne Harris, author
July 24 - Barry Bonds, baseball player
August 25 - Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician
September 2 - Keanu Reeves, actor
September 29 - Les Claypool, bassist of Primus
November 11 - Calista Flockhart (actress: Ally McBeal)

Deaths

January 15 - Jack Teagarden, musician
January 17 - T.H. White, author
January 29 - Alan Ladd, actor
February 25 - Grace Metalious, writer
February 27 - Orry-Kelly, costume designer
April 5 - Douglas MacArthur,General of the U.S. Army
May 27 - Jawaharial Nehru, Prime Minister of India
June 25 - Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect
July 1 - Pierre Monteux, conductor
August 28 - Gracie Allen, actress, comedienne
September 3 - Stewart Holbrook, American author
September 28 - Harpo Marx, comedian, the Marx Brothers
October 15 - Cole Porter, American composer
December 1 - J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist

Technology

John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz create BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language that has been included on many computers and even some games consoles
First Moog synthesizer designed by Robert Moog

Nobel Prizes