January
Main article: January 1964
January – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
January 5
U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President.
In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the 15th century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople meet in Jerusalem.
January 7 – A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba.
January 8 – In his first State of the Union Address, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty".
January 9 – Martyrs' Day: Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian civilians in the Panama Canal Zone precipitate a major international crisis, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers.
January 10 – Introducing... The Beatles is released by Chicago's Vee-Jay Records to get the jump on Capitol Records' release of Meet the Beatles!, scheduled for January 20. The two record companies fight over Vee-Jay's release of this album in court.
January 11 – United States Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government).
January 12
Zanzibar Revolution: The predominantly Arab government of Zanzibar is overthrown by African nationalist rebels; a United States Navy destroyer evacuates 61 U.S. citizens.
Routine U.S. naval patrols of the South China Sea begin.
January 13 – In Manchester, New Hampshire, 14-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment case "Coolidge vs. New Hampshire (1971)."
January 16
Musical Hello, Dolly! opens in New York's St. James Theatre.
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, resigns from NASA.
January 17 – John Glenn announces that he will seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Ohio.
January 18 – Plans to build the New York City World Trade Center are announced.
January 20 – Meet the Beatles!, the first Beatles album from Capitol Records in the United States, is released ten days after Chicago's Vee-Jay Records releases Introducing... The Beatles. The two record companies battle it out in court for months, eventually coming to a conclusion.
January 22 – Kenneth Kaunda is inaugurated as the first Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia.
January 23
Pope Paul VI institutes the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. During this celebration the Pope reminds the universal Church that still today salvation comes to everyone. It continues to be celebrated every Fourth Sunday of Easter also known as Good Shepherd Sunday.
Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly 2 years after its passage by the United States Senate, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
Arthur Miller's After the Fall opens Off-Broadway. A semi-autobiographical work, it arouses controversy over his portrayal of late ex-wife Marilyn Monroe.
January 27
France and the People's Republic of China announce their decision to establish diplomatic relations.
U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, 66, announces her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
January 28 – A U.S. Air Force jet training plane that strays into East Germany is shot down by Soviet fighters near Erfurt; all 3 crew men are killed.
January 29–February 9 – The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.
January 29
The Soviet Union launches 2 scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.
Ranger 6 is launched by NASA, on a mission to carry television cameras and crash-land on the Moon.
January 30 – General Nguyễn Khánh leads a bloodless military coup d'état, replacing Dương Văn Minh as Prime Minister of South Vietnam.
January 8: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty
February
Main article: February 1964
February 1 – The Beatles vault to the #1 spot on the U.S. singles charts for the first time, with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", starting the British Invasion in America.
February 3 – Protesting against alleged de facto school racial segregation, Black and Puerto Rican groups in New York City boycott public schools.
February 4
The Government of the United States authorizes the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, outlawing the poll tax.
February 5 – India backs out of its promise to hold a plebiscite in the disputed territory of Kashmir. In 1948, India had taken the issue of Kashmir to the United Nations Security Council and offered to hold a plebiscite in the held Kashmir under UN supervision.
February 6 – Cuba cuts off the normal water supply to the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in reprisal for the U.S. seizure 4 days earlier of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida.
February 7
A Jackson, Mississippi jury, trying Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963, reports that it cannot reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial.
The Beatles arrive from England at New York City's JFK International Airport, receiving a tumultuous reception from a throng of screaming fans, marking the first occurrence of "Beatlemania" in the United States.
February 9 – The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, marking their first live performance on American television. Seen by an estimated 73 million viewers, the appearance becomes the catalyst for the mid-1960s "British Invasion" of American popular music.
February 11
Greeks & Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) severs diplomatic relations with France because of French recognition of the People's Republic of China.
February 17
Wesberry v. Sanders (376 US 1 1964): The Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
Gabonese president Léon M'ba is toppled by a military coup and his archrival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place. However, French intervention restores M'ba's government the next day.
February 23 – Chrysler's second generation hemi racing engine debuts at the Daytona 500. The 426 hemi-powered Plymouth of Richard Petty (#43) wins. Hemi-powered Plymouths finish 1-2-3.
February 25 – Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Florida, and is crowned the heavyweight champion of the world.
February 26 – U.S. politician John Glenn slips on a bathroom rug in his Columbus, Ohio apartment and hits his head on the bathtub, injuring his left inner ear, and prompting him (later that week) to withdraw from the race for the Democratic Party Senate nomination.
February 27 – The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
February 29 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that the United States has developed a jet airplane (the A-11), capable of sustained flight at more than 2,000 miles per hour (3,200 km/h) and of altitudes of more than 70,000 feet (21,000 m).
March
Main article: March 1964
March 4 – Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted by a federal jury of tampering with a federal jury in 1962.
March 6
Constantine II becomes King of Greece, upon the death of his father King Paul.
Malcolm X, suspended from the Nation of Islam, says in New York City that he is forming a black nationalist party.
March 9
New York Times Co. v Sullivan (376 US 254 1964): The United States Supreme Court rules that under the First Amendment, speech criticizing political figures cannot be censored.
The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.
March 10
Soviet military forces shoot down an unarmed reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany; the 3 U.S. flyers parachute to safety.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Ambassador to South Vietnam, wins the New Hampshire Republican primary.
March 12 – Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam.
March 13 – The New York Times misreports that 38 neighbors of Kitty Genovese, 28, fail to respond to her cries, as she is being stabbed to death in Queens, New York City, prompting investigation into the bystander effect.
March 14 – A Dallas, Texas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
March 15 – Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor marry (for the first time) in Montreal.
March 18 – Approximately 50 Moroccan students broke into the embassy of Morocco in the Soviet Union and staged an all‐day sit-in protesting against sentencing of 11 people to death for the alleged assassination attempt of King Hassan II of Morocco.
March 19 – The American Geraldine Jerrie Mock is the first woman to fly solo around the world from March 19 to April 17.
March 20–June 6 – The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development takes place.
March 20 – The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
March 21 – Non ho l'età by Gigliola Cinquetti (music by Nicola Salerno, text by Mario Panzeri) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 for Italy.
March 26 – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara delivers an address that reiterates American determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid, in its war against the Communist insurgency.
March 27 (Good Friday) – The Great Alaskan earthquake, the second most powerful known (and the most powerful earthquake in the United States) at a magnitude of 9.2, strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
March 28
King Saud of Saudi Arabia abdicates the throne.
Radio Caroline becomes the United Kingdom's first "Pirate" radio station, broadcasting from a ship anchored just outside UK territorial waters on the east coast.
March 30 – Merv Griffin's game show Jeopardy! debuts on NBC; Art Fleming is its first host.
March 31 – The military overthrows Brazilian President João Goulart in a coup, starting 21 years of dictatorship in Brazil. It ends in 1985.
April
Main article: April 1964
April 2 – Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, 72, mother of Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody, is released on $450 bond after spending 2 days in a St. Augustine, Florida jail, for participating in an anti-segregation demonstration there.
April 4
The Beatles hold the top 5 positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in America, an unprecedented achievement. The top songs in America as listed on April 4, in order, are: Can't Buy Me Love, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and Please Please Me.
Three high school friends in Hoboken, N.J., open the first Blimpie on Washington Street.
April 8: Gemini 1 launched.
April 6 – Jigme Palden Dorji, premier of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, is shot dead by an unidentified assassin in Puncholing, near the Indian border.
April 7 – IBM announces the System/360.
April 8
Four of 5 railroad operating unions strike against the Illinois Central Railroad without warning, bringing to a head a 5-year dispute over railroad work rules.
Gemini 1 is launched, the first unmanned test of the 2-man spacecraft.
From Russia with Love premiers in U.S. movie theaters.
April 9 – The United Nations Security Council adopts by a 9–0 vote a resolution deploring a British air attack on a fort in Yemen 12 days earlier, in which 25 persons were reported killed.
April 10 – Demolition of the Polo Grounds sports stadium commences in New York City.
April 11 – The Brazilian Congress elects Field Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco as President of Brazil.
April 12 – In Detroit, Malcolm X delivers a speech entitled "The Ballot or the Bullet"
April 13
The 36th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
Sidney Poitier is the first African-American to win an Academy Award in the category Best Actor in a Leading Role in Lilies of the Field.
April 14 – A Delta rocket's third-stage motor ignites prematurely in an assembly room at Cape Canaveral, killing 3.
April 16
The Rolling Stones release their debut album, The Rolling Stones.
Sentences totaling 307 years are passed on 12 men who stole £2.6m in used bank notes, after holding up the night mail train traveling from Glasgow to London in August 1963 – a heist that became known as the Great Train Robbery.
April 17
In the United States, the Ford Mustang is officially unveiled to the public.
Shea Stadium opens in Flushing, New York.
April 19 – In Laos, the coalition government of Prince Souvanna Phouma is deposed by a right-wing military group, led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay. Not supported by the U.S., the coup is ultimately unsuccessful, and Souvanna Phouma is reinstated, remaining Prime Minister until 1975.
April 20
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, simultaneously announce plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.
Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, a key event for the anti-apartheid movement.
BBC2 starts broadcasting in the UK.
April 22
British businessman Greville Wynne, imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 for spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.
April 22: 1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964 New York World's Fair opens to celebrate the 300th anniversary of New Amsterdam being taken over by British forces under the Duke of York (later King James II) and being renamed New York in 1664. The fair runs until October 18, 1964 and reopens April 21, 1965, finally closing October 17, 1965. (Not sanctioned, due to being within 10 years of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, some countries decline, but many countries have pavilions with exotic crafts, art & food.)
April 24 – The Swedish warship Vasa, sunk in 1628, is raised from the waters of Stockholm harbor.
April 25 – Thieves steal the head of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark (Henrik Bruun confesses in 1997).
April 26 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
May
Main article: May 1964
May 1 – At 4:00 a.m., John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz ran the first computer program written in BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language which they created. BASIC was eventually included on many computers and even some games consoles.
May 2
Senator Barry Goldwater receives more than 75% of the votes in the Texas Republican Presidential primary.
Some 400–1,000 students march through Times Square, New York and another 700 in San Francisco, in the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War. Smaller marches also occur in Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi, are kidnapped and beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their badly decomposed bodies are found by chance 2 months later in July, during the search for 3 civil rights workers – Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
May 4 – The United States Congress recognized Bourbon whiskey as a "distinctive product of the United States".
May 7
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
At a mail rockets demonstration by Gerhard Zucker on Hasselkopf Mountain near Braunlage (Lower Saxonia, Germany), 3 persons are killed by a rocket explosion.
May 9 – South Korean President Park Chung-hee reshuffles his Cabinet, after a series of student demonstrations against his efforts to restore diplomatic and trade relations with Japan.
May 11 – Terence Conran opens the first Habitat store on London's Fulham Road.
May 12 – Twelve young men in New York City publicly burn their draft cards to protest the war; the first such act of war resistance.[1][2]
May 19 – The United States State Department says that more than 40 hidden microphones have 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, is kidnapped while leaving her car in front of her Paris home; she is found unharmed the next day in a farmhouse 27 miles (43 km) from Paris.
Pablo Picasso paints his fourth Head of a Bearded Man.
May 24–25 – The crowd at a football match in Lima, Peru riots over a referee's decision in the Peru-Argentina game; 319 are killed, 500 injured.
May 26 – Nelson Rockefeller defeats Barry Goldwater in the Oregon Republican primary, slowing but not stalling Goldwater's drive toward the nomination.
May 27 – Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru dies; he is succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri.
May 28 – The Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is released by Arab League.
June
Main article: June 1964
June 2
Senator Barry Goldwater wins the California Republican Presidential primary, making him the overwhelming favorite for the nomination.
Five million shares of stock in the Communications Satellite Corporation (Comsat) are offered for sale at $20 a share, and the issue is quickly sold out.
June 3 – South Korean President Park Chung-hee declares martial law in Seoul, after 10,000 student demonstrators overpower police.
June 6 – With a temporary order, the rocket launches at Cuxhaven are terminated.
June 9 – In Federal Court in Kansas City, Kansas, army deserter George John Gessner, 28, is convicted of passing United States secrets to the Soviet Union.
June 10 –
The U.S. Senate votes cloture of the Civil Rights Bill after a 75-day filibuster.
The Deacons for Defense and Justice (Black self-defense organization) is founded in Jonesboro, Louisiana.
June 11
Greece rejects direct talks with Turkey over Cyprus.
In Cologne, Germany, Walter Seifert attacks students and teachers in an elementary school with a flamethrower, killing 10 and injuring 21.
June 12
Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton announces his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination, as part of a 'stop-Goldwater' movement.
Nelson Mandela and 7 others are sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa, and sent to the Robben Island prison.
June 16 – Keith Bennett, 12, is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. As of 2013, his body has not been recovered.
June 19 – U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, 32, is seriously injured in a private plane crash at Southampton, Massachusetts; the pilot is killed.
June 20 – The Ford GT40 makes its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It does not see its first victory, however, until 1966. At the same event, the AC Cobra wins its class in its second Le Mans appearance.
June 21
Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, are murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, by local Klansmen and a deputy sheriff.
Spain beats the Soviet Union 2–1 to win the 1964 European Nations Cup.
Jim Bunning pitches a perfect game for the Philadelphia Phillies, the first in the National League since 1880.
June 26 – Moise Tshombe returns to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from exile in Spain.
June 29 – Manx Radio commences broadcasting from Douglas, Isle of Man after receiving its first Low power broadcast licence from the United Kingdom's General Post Office.
July
Main article: July 1964
July 2 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, abolishing racial segregation in the United States.
July 6 – Malawi receives its independence from the United Kingdom.
July 8 – U.S. military personnel announce that U.S. casualties in Vietnam have risen to 1,387, including 399 dead and 17 MIA.
July 10 – The Beatles return to Liverpool in triumph after their successful U.S. tour, just in time for the premiere of their film A Hard Day's Night. Since 2008, this day is celebrated as Beatles Day in Liverpool, Hamburg and other cities.
July 16 – At the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, U.S. presidential nominee Barry Goldwater declares that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice", and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue".
July 18
Six days of race riots begin in Harlem.
Judith Graham Pool publishes her discovery of cryoprecipitate, a frozen blood clotting product made from plasma primarily to treat hemophiliacs around the world.
"False Hare" is the final Warner Bros. cartoon with "target" titles.
July 19 – Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
July 20
Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attack a provincial capital, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
The National Movement of the Revolution is instituted as the sole legal political party in the Republic of the Congo.
July 21 – Race riots begin in Singapore between ethnic Chinese and Malays.
July 22 – The second meeting of the Organisation of African Unity is held.
July 24 - There is a minor criticality accident at a United Nuclear Corporation Fuels recovery plant in Wood River Junction, Richmond, Rhode Island. 37-year-old Robert Peabody dies two days after the incident.
July 27 – Vietnam War: The U.S. sends 5,000 more military advisers to South Vietnam, bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
July 31 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the Moon (images are 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from Earth-bound telescopes).
August
Main article: August 1964
August 1
The Final Looney Tune, "Señorella and the Glass Huarache", is released before the Warner Bros. Cartoon Division is shut down by Jack Warner.
Emancipation Day in Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Jamaica – celebration of the end of slavery in these former and continuing British colonies in the Caribbean.
August 4
American civil rights movement: The bodies of murdered civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found.
Vietnam War: United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks one gunboat, while the other two leave the battle.
August 5
Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – Aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The Simba rebel army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo captures Stanleyville, and takes 1,000 Western hostages.
August 7 – Vietnam War: The United States Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.
August 8 – A Rolling Stones gig in Scheveningen gets out of control. Riot police end the gig after about 15 minutes, upon which spectators start to fight the riot police.
August 13 – Murderers Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Anthony Allen become the last people to be executed in the United Kingdom.
August 16 – Vietnam War: In a coup, General Nguyễn Khánh replaces Dương Văn Minh as South Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, drafted partly by the U.S. Embassy.
August 17 – Margaret Harshaw, Metropolitan Opera soprano, sings the role of Turandot in Puccini's opera Turandot at the New York World's Fair.
August 18 – The International Olympic Committee bans South Africa from the Tokyo Olympics on the grounds that its teams are racially segregated.
August 20 – The International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (Intelsat) began to work.
August 22
Fannie Lou Hamer, civil rights activist and Vice Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, addresses the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention, challenging the all-white Mississippi delegation.
Goalkeeper Derek Foster of Sunderland becomes the youngest-ever player to play in the Football League, aged 15 years and 185 days.
August 24–27 – The Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City nominates incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson for a full term, and U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate.
August 27 – Walt Disney's Mary Poppins has its world premiere in Los Angeles. It will go on to become Disney's biggest moneymaker, and winner of 5 Academy Awards, including a Best Actress award for Julie Andrews, who accepted the part after she was passed over by Jack L. Warner for the leading role of Eliza Doolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady. Mary Poppins is the first Disney film to be nominated for Best Picture.
August 28–30 – Philadelphia 1964 race riot: Tensions between African American residents and police lead to 341 injuries and 774 arrests.
September
Main article: September 1964
September 2 – Indian Hungry generation poets are arrested on charges of conspiracy against the state and obscenity in literature.
September 4 – The Forth Road Bridge opens over the Firth of Forth.
September 10 - The African Development Bank (AfDB) is founded.
September 11 - In Jacksonville, Florida, John Lennon announces that the Beatles will not play to a segregated audience.
September 14
The third period of the Second Vatican Council opens.
The London Daily Herald ceases publication, replaced by The Sun.
September 16 – Shindig! premieres on the ABC, featuring the top musical acts of the Sixties.
September 17
Goldfinger opens in the UK.
Bewitched, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, premieres on ABC.
September 18 – In Athens, King Constantine II of Greece marries Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, who becomes Europe's youngest Queen at age 18 years, 19 days.
Jonny Quest premieres on ABC; featured voices include Mike Road, Tim Matheson, Don Messick, John Stephenson, and Danny Bravo.
September 20 – At the autumnal equinox, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) is founded in England.
September 21
The island of Malta obtains independence from the United Kingdom.
The North American XB-70 Valkyrie makes its first flight at Palmdale, California.
September 24 – The Warren Commission Report, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, is published.
September 25 – The Mozambican War of Independence is launched by FRELIMO.
September – Pete Townshend of The Who destroys his first guitar in the name of auto-destructive art at the Railway Hotel, London.
October
Main article: October 1964
October – Dr. Robert Moog demonstrates the prototype Moog synthesizer.[3]
October 1
Three thousand student activists at University of California, Berkeley, surround and block a police car from taking a CORE volunteer arrested for not showing his ID, when he violated a ban on outdoor activist card tables. This protest eventually explodes into the Berkeley Free Speech Movement.
The Shinkansen high-speed rail system, the world's first such system, is inaugurated in Japan, for the first sector between Tokyo and Osaka.
October 2 – The Kinks release their first album, Kinks.
October 5
Twenty-three men and thirty-one women escape to West Berlin through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh begin an 8-day visit to Canada.
October 10–24 – The 1964 Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo.
October 12 – The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits. The flight is cut short and lands again on October 13 after 16 orbits.
October 14 – American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.
October 14–15 – Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power.
October 15
The Labour Party wins the parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom, ending 13 years of Conservative Party rule. The new prime minister is Harold Wilson.[4]
Craig Breedlove's jet-powered car Spirit of America goes out of control in Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and makes skid marks 9.6 km long.
The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the visiting New York Yankees 7–5 to win the World Series in 7 games (4–3), ending a long run of 29 World Series appearances in 44 seasons for the Bronx Bombers (also known as the Yankee Dynasty).
October 16
Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister after leading the Labour Party to a narrow election win over the Tory government of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, which had been in power for 13 years and had four different leaders during that time.[5]
596: The People's Republic of China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang.
October 18 – The New York World's Fair closes for the year (it reopens April 21, 1965).
October 21 – The film version of the hit Broadway stage musical My Fair Lady premieres in New York City. The movie stars Audrey Hepburn in the role of Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison repeating his stage performance as Professor Henry Higgins, and which will win him his only Academy Award for Best Actor. The film will win seven other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but Audrey Hepburn will not be nominated. Critics interpret this as a rebuke to Jack L. Warner for choosing Ms. Hepburn over Julie Andrews.
October 22
Canada: A Federal Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects a design to become the new official Flag of Canada.
A 5.3 kiloton nuclear device is detonated at the Tatum Salt Dome, 21 miles (34 km) from Hattiesburg, Mississippi as part of the Vela Uniform program. This test is the Salmon phase of the Atomic Energy Commission's Project Dribble.
October 24 – Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.
October 26 – Eric Edgar Cooke becomes the last man executed in Western Australia, for murdering 8 citizens in Perth between 1959 and 1963.
October 27 – In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rebel leader Christopher Gbenye takes 60 Americans and 800 Belgians hostage.
October 29 – A collection of irreplaceable gemstones, including the 565 carats (113.0 g) Star of India, is stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
October 31 – Campaigning at Madison Square Garden, New York, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson pledges the creation of the Great Society.
November
Main article: November 1964
November 1 – Mortar fire from North Vietnamese forces rains on the Bien Hoa Air Base, killing four U.S. servicemen, wounding 72, and destroying five B-57 jet bombers and other planes.
November 3
United States presidential election, 1964: Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote.
The Bolivian government of President Víctor Paz Estenssoro is overthrown by a military rebellion led by General Alfredo Ovando Candía, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
November 5 – Mariner program: Mariner 3, a U.S. space probe intended for Mars, is launched from Cape Kennedy but fails.
November 9 – The British House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain.
November 10 – Australia partially reintroduces compulsory military service due to the Indonesian Confrontation.
November 13 – Bob Pettit (St. Louis Hawks) becomes the first NBA player to score 20,000 points.
November 19 – The United States Department of Defense announces the closing of 95 military bases and facilities, including the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and Fort Jay, New York.
November 21
Second Vatican Council: The third period of the Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.
The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (the world's longest suspension bridge at this time).
November 24 – Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries capture Stanleyville, but a number of hostages die in the fighting, among them Evangelical Covenant Church missionary Dr. Paul Carlson.
November 28
Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 space probe from Cape Kennedy toward Mars to take television pictures of that planet in July 1965.
Vietnam War: United States National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor, agree to recommend a plan for a 2-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam, to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
France performs an underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria.
December
Main article: December 1964
December 1
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz takes office as President of Mexico.
Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam (after some debate, they agree on a 2-phase bombing plan).
December 3
Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest about 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover of and massive sit-in at the Sproul Hall administration building. The sit-in most directly protested the U.C. Regents' decision to punish student activists for what many thought had been justified civil disobedience earlier in the conflict.
The Danish football club Brøndby IF was founded as a merger between the two local clubs Brøndbyøster Idrætsforening and Brøndbyvester Idrætsforening. The club has won the national championship Danish Superliga 10 times, and has won the national Danish Cups six times since the club joined the Danish top-flight football league in 1981.
December 6 – The 1-hour stop-motion animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the popular Christmas song, premieres on NBC. It becomes a beloved Christmas tradition, still being shown on television more than 40 years later.
December 9 – A Love Supreme recorded by John Coltrane with his quartet at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, United States[6]
December 10 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
December 11 – Che Guevara addresses the U.N. General Assembly.[7]
December 12 – Jamhuri Day: Kenya becomes a republic, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first President.
December 14 – Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (379 US 241 1964): The U.S. Supreme Court rules that, in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishments providing public accommodation must refrain from racial discrimination.
December 15 – The Washington Post publishes an article about James Hampton, who has built a glittering religious throne out of recycled materials.
December 18
In the wake of deadly riots in January over control of the Panama Canal, the U.S. offers to negotiate a new canal treaty.
The deadly Christmas flood of 1964 begins; It becomes one of the most destructive weather events to affect Oregon in the 20th century.
December 21
The James Bond film Goldfinger begins its run in U.S. theaters. It becomes one of the most successful and popular Bond films ever made.
The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark makes its first flight.
December 22
Comedian Lenny Bruce is sentenced to 4 months in prison, concluding a 6-month obscenity trial.
A cyclone in the Palk Strait destroys the Indian town of Dhanushkodi, killing 1800 people.
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird makes its first flight at Palmdale, California.
December 23 – Wonderful Radio London becomes the United Kingdom's fourth "Pirate" radio station, broadcasting from MV Galaxy (a former US Navy minesweeper) anchored off the east coast of England, with an American-style Top 40 ("Fab 40") playlist of popular records.
December 24 – Bombing of the Brinks Hotel in Saigon.
December 26 – Lesley Ann Downey, 10, is abducted by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in Manchester, England.
December 27 – The Cleveland Browns defeat the Baltimore Colts, 27-0, in the National Football League Championship Game.
December 30 – United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) established as a permanent organ of the UN General Assembly.
Main article: January 1964
January – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
January 5
U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President.
In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the 15th century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople meet in Jerusalem.
January 7 – A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba.
January 8 – In his first State of the Union Address, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty".
January 9 – Martyrs' Day: Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian civilians in the Panama Canal Zone precipitate a major international crisis, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers.
January 10 – Introducing... The Beatles is released by Chicago's Vee-Jay Records to get the jump on Capitol Records' release of Meet the Beatles!, scheduled for January 20. The two record companies fight over Vee-Jay's release of this album in court.
January 11 – United States Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government).
January 12
Zanzibar Revolution: The predominantly Arab government of Zanzibar is overthrown by African nationalist rebels; a United States Navy destroyer evacuates 61 U.S. citizens.
Routine U.S. naval patrols of the South China Sea begin.
January 13 – In Manchester, New Hampshire, 14-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment case "Coolidge vs. New Hampshire (1971)."
January 16
Musical Hello, Dolly! opens in New York's St. James Theatre.
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, resigns from NASA.
January 17 – John Glenn announces that he will seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Ohio.
January 18 – Plans to build the New York City World Trade Center are announced.
January 20 – Meet the Beatles!, the first Beatles album from Capitol Records in the United States, is released ten days after Chicago's Vee-Jay Records releases Introducing... The Beatles. The two record companies battle it out in court for months, eventually coming to a conclusion.
January 22 – Kenneth Kaunda is inaugurated as the first Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia.
January 23
Pope Paul VI institutes the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. During this celebration the Pope reminds the universal Church that still today salvation comes to everyone. It continues to be celebrated every Fourth Sunday of Easter also known as Good Shepherd Sunday.
Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly 2 years after its passage by the United States Senate, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
Arthur Miller's After the Fall opens Off-Broadway. A semi-autobiographical work, it arouses controversy over his portrayal of late ex-wife Marilyn Monroe.
January 27
France and the People's Republic of China announce their decision to establish diplomatic relations.
U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, 66, announces her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
January 28 – A U.S. Air Force jet training plane that strays into East Germany is shot down by Soviet fighters near Erfurt; all 3 crew men are killed.
January 29–February 9 – The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.
January 29
The Soviet Union launches 2 scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.
Ranger 6 is launched by NASA, on a mission to carry television cameras and crash-land on the Moon.
January 30 – General Nguyễn Khánh leads a bloodless military coup d'état, replacing Dương Văn Minh as Prime Minister of South Vietnam.
January 8: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty
February
Main article: February 1964
February 1 – The Beatles vault to the #1 spot on the U.S. singles charts for the first time, with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", starting the British Invasion in America.
February 3 – Protesting against alleged de facto school racial segregation, Black and Puerto Rican groups in New York City boycott public schools.
February 4
The Government of the United States authorizes the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, outlawing the poll tax.
February 5 – India backs out of its promise to hold a plebiscite in the disputed territory of Kashmir. In 1948, India had taken the issue of Kashmir to the United Nations Security Council and offered to hold a plebiscite in the held Kashmir under UN supervision.
February 6 – Cuba cuts off the normal water supply to the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in reprisal for the U.S. seizure 4 days earlier of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida.
February 7
A Jackson, Mississippi jury, trying Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963, reports that it cannot reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial.
The Beatles arrive from England at New York City's JFK International Airport, receiving a tumultuous reception from a throng of screaming fans, marking the first occurrence of "Beatlemania" in the United States.
February 9 – The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, marking their first live performance on American television. Seen by an estimated 73 million viewers, the appearance becomes the catalyst for the mid-1960s "British Invasion" of American popular music.
February 11
Greeks & Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) severs diplomatic relations with France because of French recognition of the People's Republic of China.
February 17
Wesberry v. Sanders (376 US 1 1964): The Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
Gabonese president Léon M'ba is toppled by a military coup and his archrival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place. However, French intervention restores M'ba's government the next day.
February 23 – Chrysler's second generation hemi racing engine debuts at the Daytona 500. The 426 hemi-powered Plymouth of Richard Petty (#43) wins. Hemi-powered Plymouths finish 1-2-3.
February 25 – Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Florida, and is crowned the heavyweight champion of the world.
February 26 – U.S. politician John Glenn slips on a bathroom rug in his Columbus, Ohio apartment and hits his head on the bathtub, injuring his left inner ear, and prompting him (later that week) to withdraw from the race for the Democratic Party Senate nomination.
February 27 – The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
February 29 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that the United States has developed a jet airplane (the A-11), capable of sustained flight at more than 2,000 miles per hour (3,200 km/h) and of altitudes of more than 70,000 feet (21,000 m).
March
Main article: March 1964
March 4 – Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted by a federal jury of tampering with a federal jury in 1962.
March 6
Constantine II becomes King of Greece, upon the death of his father King Paul.
Malcolm X, suspended from the Nation of Islam, says in New York City that he is forming a black nationalist party.
March 9
New York Times Co. v Sullivan (376 US 254 1964): The United States Supreme Court rules that under the First Amendment, speech criticizing political figures cannot be censored.
The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.
March 10
Soviet military forces shoot down an unarmed reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany; the 3 U.S. flyers parachute to safety.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Ambassador to South Vietnam, wins the New Hampshire Republican primary.
March 12 – Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam.
March 13 – The New York Times misreports that 38 neighbors of Kitty Genovese, 28, fail to respond to her cries, as she is being stabbed to death in Queens, New York City, prompting investigation into the bystander effect.
March 14 – A Dallas, Texas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
March 15 – Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor marry (for the first time) in Montreal.
March 18 – Approximately 50 Moroccan students broke into the embassy of Morocco in the Soviet Union and staged an all‐day sit-in protesting against sentencing of 11 people to death for the alleged assassination attempt of King Hassan II of Morocco.
March 19 – The American Geraldine Jerrie Mock is the first woman to fly solo around the world from March 19 to April 17.
March 20–June 6 – The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development takes place.
March 20 – The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
March 21 – Non ho l'età by Gigliola Cinquetti (music by Nicola Salerno, text by Mario Panzeri) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 for Italy.
March 26 – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara delivers an address that reiterates American determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid, in its war against the Communist insurgency.
March 27 (Good Friday) – The Great Alaskan earthquake, the second most powerful known (and the most powerful earthquake in the United States) at a magnitude of 9.2, strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
March 28
King Saud of Saudi Arabia abdicates the throne.
Radio Caroline becomes the United Kingdom's first "Pirate" radio station, broadcasting from a ship anchored just outside UK territorial waters on the east coast.
March 30 – Merv Griffin's game show Jeopardy! debuts on NBC; Art Fleming is its first host.
March 31 – The military overthrows Brazilian President João Goulart in a coup, starting 21 years of dictatorship in Brazil. It ends in 1985.
April
Main article: April 1964
April 2 – Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, 72, mother of Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody, is released on $450 bond after spending 2 days in a St. Augustine, Florida jail, for participating in an anti-segregation demonstration there.
April 4
The Beatles hold the top 5 positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in America, an unprecedented achievement. The top songs in America as listed on April 4, in order, are: Can't Buy Me Love, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and Please Please Me.
Three high school friends in Hoboken, N.J., open the first Blimpie on Washington Street.
April 8: Gemini 1 launched.
April 6 – Jigme Palden Dorji, premier of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, is shot dead by an unidentified assassin in Puncholing, near the Indian border.
April 7 – IBM announces the System/360.
April 8
Four of 5 railroad operating unions strike against the Illinois Central Railroad without warning, bringing to a head a 5-year dispute over railroad work rules.
Gemini 1 is launched, the first unmanned test of the 2-man spacecraft.
From Russia with Love premiers in U.S. movie theaters.
April 9 – The United Nations Security Council adopts by a 9–0 vote a resolution deploring a British air attack on a fort in Yemen 12 days earlier, in which 25 persons were reported killed.
April 10 – Demolition of the Polo Grounds sports stadium commences in New York City.
April 11 – The Brazilian Congress elects Field Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco as President of Brazil.
April 12 – In Detroit, Malcolm X delivers a speech entitled "The Ballot or the Bullet"
April 13
The 36th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
Sidney Poitier is the first African-American to win an Academy Award in the category Best Actor in a Leading Role in Lilies of the Field.
April 14 – A Delta rocket's third-stage motor ignites prematurely in an assembly room at Cape Canaveral, killing 3.
April 16
The Rolling Stones release their debut album, The Rolling Stones.
Sentences totaling 307 years are passed on 12 men who stole £2.6m in used bank notes, after holding up the night mail train traveling from Glasgow to London in August 1963 – a heist that became known as the Great Train Robbery.
April 17
In the United States, the Ford Mustang is officially unveiled to the public.
Shea Stadium opens in Flushing, New York.
April 19 – In Laos, the coalition government of Prince Souvanna Phouma is deposed by a right-wing military group, led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay. Not supported by the U.S., the coup is ultimately unsuccessful, and Souvanna Phouma is reinstated, remaining Prime Minister until 1975.
April 20
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, simultaneously announce plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.
Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, a key event for the anti-apartheid movement.
BBC2 starts broadcasting in the UK.
April 22
British businessman Greville Wynne, imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 for spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.
April 22: 1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964 New York World's Fair opens to celebrate the 300th anniversary of New Amsterdam being taken over by British forces under the Duke of York (later King James II) and being renamed New York in 1664. The fair runs until October 18, 1964 and reopens April 21, 1965, finally closing October 17, 1965. (Not sanctioned, due to being within 10 years of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, some countries decline, but many countries have pavilions with exotic crafts, art & food.)
April 24 – The Swedish warship Vasa, sunk in 1628, is raised from the waters of Stockholm harbor.
April 25 – Thieves steal the head of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark (Henrik Bruun confesses in 1997).
April 26 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
May
Main article: May 1964
May 1 – At 4:00 a.m., John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz ran the first computer program written in BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language which they created. BASIC was eventually included on many computers and even some games consoles.
May 2
Senator Barry Goldwater receives more than 75% of the votes in the Texas Republican Presidential primary.
Some 400–1,000 students march through Times Square, New York and another 700 in San Francisco, in the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War. Smaller marches also occur in Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi, are kidnapped and beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their badly decomposed bodies are found by chance 2 months later in July, during the search for 3 civil rights workers – Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
May 4 – The United States Congress recognized Bourbon whiskey as a "distinctive product of the United States".
May 7
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
At a mail rockets demonstration by Gerhard Zucker on Hasselkopf Mountain near Braunlage (Lower Saxonia, Germany), 3 persons are killed by a rocket explosion.
May 9 – South Korean President Park Chung-hee reshuffles his Cabinet, after a series of student demonstrations against his efforts to restore diplomatic and trade relations with Japan.
May 11 – Terence Conran opens the first Habitat store on London's Fulham Road.
May 12 – Twelve young men in New York City publicly burn their draft cards to protest the war; the first such act of war resistance.[1][2]
May 19 – The United States State Department says that more than 40 hidden microphones have 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, is kidnapped while leaving her car in front of her Paris home; she is found unharmed the next day in a farmhouse 27 miles (43 km) from Paris.
Pablo Picasso paints his fourth Head of a Bearded Man.
May 24–25 – The crowd at a football match in Lima, Peru riots over a referee's decision in the Peru-Argentina game; 319 are killed, 500 injured.
May 26 – Nelson Rockefeller defeats Barry Goldwater in the Oregon Republican primary, slowing but not stalling Goldwater's drive toward the nomination.
May 27 – Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru dies; he is succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri.
May 28 – The Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is released by Arab League.
June
Main article: June 1964
June 2
Senator Barry Goldwater wins the California Republican Presidential primary, making him the overwhelming favorite for the nomination.
Five million shares of stock in the Communications Satellite Corporation (Comsat) are offered for sale at $20 a share, and the issue is quickly sold out.
June 3 – South Korean President Park Chung-hee declares martial law in Seoul, after 10,000 student demonstrators overpower police.
June 6 – With a temporary order, the rocket launches at Cuxhaven are terminated.
June 9 – In Federal Court in Kansas City, Kansas, army deserter George John Gessner, 28, is convicted of passing United States secrets to the Soviet Union.
June 10 –
The U.S. Senate votes cloture of the Civil Rights Bill after a 75-day filibuster.
The Deacons for Defense and Justice (Black self-defense organization) is founded in Jonesboro, Louisiana.
June 11
Greece rejects direct talks with Turkey over Cyprus.
In Cologne, Germany, Walter Seifert attacks students and teachers in an elementary school with a flamethrower, killing 10 and injuring 21.
June 12
Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton announces his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination, as part of a 'stop-Goldwater' movement.
Nelson Mandela and 7 others are sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa, and sent to the Robben Island prison.
June 16 – Keith Bennett, 12, is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. As of 2013, his body has not been recovered.
June 19 – U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, 32, is seriously injured in a private plane crash at Southampton, Massachusetts; the pilot is killed.
June 20 – The Ford GT40 makes its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It does not see its first victory, however, until 1966. At the same event, the AC Cobra wins its class in its second Le Mans appearance.
June 21
Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, are murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, by local Klansmen and a deputy sheriff.
Spain beats the Soviet Union 2–1 to win the 1964 European Nations Cup.
Jim Bunning pitches a perfect game for the Philadelphia Phillies, the first in the National League since 1880.
June 26 – Moise Tshombe returns to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from exile in Spain.
June 29 – Manx Radio commences broadcasting from Douglas, Isle of Man after receiving its first Low power broadcast licence from the United Kingdom's General Post Office.
July
Main article: July 1964
July 2 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, abolishing racial segregation in the United States.
July 6 – Malawi receives its independence from the United Kingdom.
July 8 – U.S. military personnel announce that U.S. casualties in Vietnam have risen to 1,387, including 399 dead and 17 MIA.
July 10 – The Beatles return to Liverpool in triumph after their successful U.S. tour, just in time for the premiere of their film A Hard Day's Night. Since 2008, this day is celebrated as Beatles Day in Liverpool, Hamburg and other cities.
July 16 – At the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, U.S. presidential nominee Barry Goldwater declares that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice", and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue".
July 18
Six days of race riots begin in Harlem.
Judith Graham Pool publishes her discovery of cryoprecipitate, a frozen blood clotting product made from plasma primarily to treat hemophiliacs around the world.
"False Hare" is the final Warner Bros. cartoon with "target" titles.
July 19 – Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
July 20
Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attack a provincial capital, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
The National Movement of the Revolution is instituted as the sole legal political party in the Republic of the Congo.
July 21 – Race riots begin in Singapore between ethnic Chinese and Malays.
July 22 – The second meeting of the Organisation of African Unity is held.
July 24 - There is a minor criticality accident at a United Nuclear Corporation Fuels recovery plant in Wood River Junction, Richmond, Rhode Island. 37-year-old Robert Peabody dies two days after the incident.
July 27 – Vietnam War: The U.S. sends 5,000 more military advisers to South Vietnam, bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
July 31 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the Moon (images are 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from Earth-bound telescopes).
August
Main article: August 1964
August 1
The Final Looney Tune, "Señorella and the Glass Huarache", is released before the Warner Bros. Cartoon Division is shut down by Jack Warner.
Emancipation Day in Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Jamaica – celebration of the end of slavery in these former and continuing British colonies in the Caribbean.
August 4
American civil rights movement: The bodies of murdered civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found.
Vietnam War: United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks one gunboat, while the other two leave the battle.
August 5
Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – Aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The Simba rebel army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo captures Stanleyville, and takes 1,000 Western hostages.
August 7 – Vietnam War: The United States Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.
August 8 – A Rolling Stones gig in Scheveningen gets out of control. Riot police end the gig after about 15 minutes, upon which spectators start to fight the riot police.
August 13 – Murderers Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Anthony Allen become the last people to be executed in the United Kingdom.
August 16 – Vietnam War: In a coup, General Nguyễn Khánh replaces Dương Văn Minh as South Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, drafted partly by the U.S. Embassy.
August 17 – Margaret Harshaw, Metropolitan Opera soprano, sings the role of Turandot in Puccini's opera Turandot at the New York World's Fair.
August 18 – The International Olympic Committee bans South Africa from the Tokyo Olympics on the grounds that its teams are racially segregated.
August 20 – The International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (Intelsat) began to work.
August 22
Fannie Lou Hamer, civil rights activist and Vice Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, addresses the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention, challenging the all-white Mississippi delegation.
Goalkeeper Derek Foster of Sunderland becomes the youngest-ever player to play in the Football League, aged 15 years and 185 days.
August 24–27 – The Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City nominates incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson for a full term, and U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate.
August 27 – Walt Disney's Mary Poppins has its world premiere in Los Angeles. It will go on to become Disney's biggest moneymaker, and winner of 5 Academy Awards, including a Best Actress award for Julie Andrews, who accepted the part after she was passed over by Jack L. Warner for the leading role of Eliza Doolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady. Mary Poppins is the first Disney film to be nominated for Best Picture.
August 28–30 – Philadelphia 1964 race riot: Tensions between African American residents and police lead to 341 injuries and 774 arrests.
September
Main article: September 1964
September 2 – Indian Hungry generation poets are arrested on charges of conspiracy against the state and obscenity in literature.
September 4 – The Forth Road Bridge opens over the Firth of Forth.
September 10 - The African Development Bank (AfDB) is founded.
September 11 - In Jacksonville, Florida, John Lennon announces that the Beatles will not play to a segregated audience.
September 14
The third period of the Second Vatican Council opens.
The London Daily Herald ceases publication, replaced by The Sun.
September 16 – Shindig! premieres on the ABC, featuring the top musical acts of the Sixties.
September 17
Goldfinger opens in the UK.
Bewitched, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, premieres on ABC.
September 18 – In Athens, King Constantine II of Greece marries Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, who becomes Europe's youngest Queen at age 18 years, 19 days.
Jonny Quest premieres on ABC; featured voices include Mike Road, Tim Matheson, Don Messick, John Stephenson, and Danny Bravo.
September 20 – At the autumnal equinox, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) is founded in England.
September 21
The island of Malta obtains independence from the United Kingdom.
The North American XB-70 Valkyrie makes its first flight at Palmdale, California.
September 24 – The Warren Commission Report, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, is published.
September 25 – The Mozambican War of Independence is launched by FRELIMO.
September – Pete Townshend of The Who destroys his first guitar in the name of auto-destructive art at the Railway Hotel, London.
October
Main article: October 1964
October – Dr. Robert Moog demonstrates the prototype Moog synthesizer.[3]
October 1
Three thousand student activists at University of California, Berkeley, surround and block a police car from taking a CORE volunteer arrested for not showing his ID, when he violated a ban on outdoor activist card tables. This protest eventually explodes into the Berkeley Free Speech Movement.
The Shinkansen high-speed rail system, the world's first such system, is inaugurated in Japan, for the first sector between Tokyo and Osaka.
October 2 – The Kinks release their first album, Kinks.
October 5
Twenty-three men and thirty-one women escape to West Berlin through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh begin an 8-day visit to Canada.
October 10–24 – The 1964 Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo.
October 12 – The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits. The flight is cut short and lands again on October 13 after 16 orbits.
October 14 – American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.
October 14–15 – Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power.
October 15
The Labour Party wins the parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom, ending 13 years of Conservative Party rule. The new prime minister is Harold Wilson.[4]
Craig Breedlove's jet-powered car Spirit of America goes out of control in Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and makes skid marks 9.6 km long.
The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the visiting New York Yankees 7–5 to win the World Series in 7 games (4–3), ending a long run of 29 World Series appearances in 44 seasons for the Bronx Bombers (also known as the Yankee Dynasty).
October 16
Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister after leading the Labour Party to a narrow election win over the Tory government of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, which had been in power for 13 years and had four different leaders during that time.[5]
596: The People's Republic of China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang.
October 18 – The New York World's Fair closes for the year (it reopens April 21, 1965).
October 21 – The film version of the hit Broadway stage musical My Fair Lady premieres in New York City. The movie stars Audrey Hepburn in the role of Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison repeating his stage performance as Professor Henry Higgins, and which will win him his only Academy Award for Best Actor. The film will win seven other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but Audrey Hepburn will not be nominated. Critics interpret this as a rebuke to Jack L. Warner for choosing Ms. Hepburn over Julie Andrews.
October 22
Canada: A Federal Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects a design to become the new official Flag of Canada.
A 5.3 kiloton nuclear device is detonated at the Tatum Salt Dome, 21 miles (34 km) from Hattiesburg, Mississippi as part of the Vela Uniform program. This test is the Salmon phase of the Atomic Energy Commission's Project Dribble.
October 24 – Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.
October 26 – Eric Edgar Cooke becomes the last man executed in Western Australia, for murdering 8 citizens in Perth between 1959 and 1963.
October 27 – In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rebel leader Christopher Gbenye takes 60 Americans and 800 Belgians hostage.
October 29 – A collection of irreplaceable gemstones, including the 565 carats (113.0 g) Star of India, is stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
October 31 – Campaigning at Madison Square Garden, New York, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson pledges the creation of the Great Society.
November
Main article: November 1964
November 1 – Mortar fire from North Vietnamese forces rains on the Bien Hoa Air Base, killing four U.S. servicemen, wounding 72, and destroying five B-57 jet bombers and other planes.
November 3
United States presidential election, 1964: Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote.
The Bolivian government of President Víctor Paz Estenssoro is overthrown by a military rebellion led by General Alfredo Ovando Candía, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
November 5 – Mariner program: Mariner 3, a U.S. space probe intended for Mars, is launched from Cape Kennedy but fails.
November 9 – The British House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain.
November 10 – Australia partially reintroduces compulsory military service due to the Indonesian Confrontation.
November 13 – Bob Pettit (St. Louis Hawks) becomes the first NBA player to score 20,000 points.
November 19 – The United States Department of Defense announces the closing of 95 military bases and facilities, including the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and Fort Jay, New York.
November 21
Second Vatican Council: The third period of the Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.
The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (the world's longest suspension bridge at this time).
November 24 – Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries capture Stanleyville, but a number of hostages die in the fighting, among them Evangelical Covenant Church missionary Dr. Paul Carlson.
November 28
Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 space probe from Cape Kennedy toward Mars to take television pictures of that planet in July 1965.
Vietnam War: United States National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor, agree to recommend a plan for a 2-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam, to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
France performs an underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria.
December
Main article: December 1964
December 1
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz takes office as President of Mexico.
Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam (after some debate, they agree on a 2-phase bombing plan).
December 3
Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest about 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover of and massive sit-in at the Sproul Hall administration building. The sit-in most directly protested the U.C. Regents' decision to punish student activists for what many thought had been justified civil disobedience earlier in the conflict.
The Danish football club Brøndby IF was founded as a merger between the two local clubs Brøndbyøster Idrætsforening and Brøndbyvester Idrætsforening. The club has won the national championship Danish Superliga 10 times, and has won the national Danish Cups six times since the club joined the Danish top-flight football league in 1981.
December 6 – The 1-hour stop-motion animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the popular Christmas song, premieres on NBC. It becomes a beloved Christmas tradition, still being shown on television more than 40 years later.
December 9 – A Love Supreme recorded by John Coltrane with his quartet at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, United States[6]
December 10 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
December 11 – Che Guevara addresses the U.N. General Assembly.[7]
December 12 – Jamhuri Day: Kenya becomes a republic, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first President.
December 14 – Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (379 US 241 1964): The U.S. Supreme Court rules that, in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishments providing public accommodation must refrain from racial discrimination.
December 15 – The Washington Post publishes an article about James Hampton, who has built a glittering religious throne out of recycled materials.
December 18
In the wake of deadly riots in January over control of the Panama Canal, the U.S. offers to negotiate a new canal treaty.
The deadly Christmas flood of 1964 begins; It becomes one of the most destructive weather events to affect Oregon in the 20th century.
December 21
The James Bond film Goldfinger begins its run in U.S. theaters. It becomes one of the most successful and popular Bond films ever made.
The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark makes its first flight.
December 22
Comedian Lenny Bruce is sentenced to 4 months in prison, concluding a 6-month obscenity trial.
A cyclone in the Palk Strait destroys the Indian town of Dhanushkodi, killing 1800 people.
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird makes its first flight at Palmdale, California.
December 23 – Wonderful Radio London becomes the United Kingdom's fourth "Pirate" radio station, broadcasting from MV Galaxy (a former US Navy minesweeper) anchored off the east coast of England, with an American-style Top 40 ("Fab 40") playlist of popular records.
December 24 – Bombing of the Brinks Hotel in Saigon.
December 26 – Lesley Ann Downey, 10, is abducted by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in Manchester, England.
December 27 – The Cleveland Browns defeat the Baltimore Colts, 27-0, in the National Football League Championship Game.
December 30 – United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) established as a permanent organ of the UN General Assembly.