1964 Events & Facts

MAJOR EVENTS:

• After completing what would have been the final year of John F. Kennedy’s first term, President Johnson re-elected in a landslide over Barry Goldwater
• President Johnson declares "war on poverty," introduces a variety of federal welfare programs, including Medicare (initially proposed by Kennedy in 1960)
• Three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi during "Freedom Summer"
• 24th Amendment to Constitution adopted, ensuring fair voting practices
• Race riots break out in Harlem and other U.S. cities
• Investigating the Kennedy assassination, the Warren Commission determines that "Oswald acted alone" in killing the president
• U.S. military forces launch attacks on North Vietnam in response to an alleged attack on a U.S. destroyer off the Vietnamese coast; Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin resolution that gives the President greater freedom to authorize combat actions in Vietnam
• Soviet leader Khrushchev falls from power, is ultimately replaced by Leonid Brezhnev
• Anchorage, Alaska hit by massive earthquake
• Turkey attacks Cyprus

BUSINESS & ECONOMY:

• Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa convicted of fraud, conspiracy and jury tampering
• The average hourly wage for blue collar workers has increased from between 50 and 75 percent since 1949

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:

• Space probe Mariner IV flies by Mars, transmitting pictures of the planet’s surface back to earth
• The world’s longest suspension bridge, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York, opens
• Concern in Britain over "brain drain," or the mass emigration of British scientists to the U.S.
• World’s Fair held in New York
• First lung transplant

SPORTS:

• World Series: St. Louis over New York Yankees, 4-3
• Olympics held in Tokyo
• Cassius Clay (the future Muhammad Ali) defeats Sonny Liston to win heavyweight boxing title

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT:

• Movies: Lord of the Flies, A Hard Day’s Night, My Fair Lady, Goldfinger, Zorba the Greek, Mary Poppins
• Songs: I Want to Hold Your Hand, Hello Dolly!, She Loves You, Can’t Buy Me Love, Do Wah Diuly Diuly, Oh Pretty Woman, Baby Love, My Guy
• TV Shows: The Munsters, The Virginian, Daniel Boone, Outer Limits, Gilligan’s Island, Man From UNCLE, Flipper, Dr. Kildare, Voyage the the Bottom of the Sea
• Books: A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemmingway (posthumous publication); Herzog, Saul Bellow; In His Own Write, John Lennon
• "Beatlemania" spreads as the Beatles become a global phenomenon
• Musicals Hello Dolly, Fiddler on the Roof debut
• Elizabeth Taylor marries Richard Burton after divorcing Eulie Fisher 10 days before
• Cole Porter dies

FUN FACTS:

According to some reports, not a single juvenile crime is reported in New York City the night of the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964