January 3 – Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for president.
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 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.
The nightclub Whisky a Go Go opens its doors on Sunset Strip in Hollywood. Johnny Rivers leads the first house band at the club, which helps pave the club's way to international fame and contributes to the beginning of rock n' roll on the Strip.[2]
The Teamsters union negotiates the first national labor contract in the United States.[3]
San Francisco Giants make champion outfielder Willie Mays the highest-paid player in baseball when they sign him to a new $105,000 per season contract.
January 16
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, resigns from the space program.
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.
The Beatles arrive from the UK at New York City's JFK International Airport, receiving a tumultuous reception from an estimated 4,000, marking the first occurrence of "Beatlemania" in the United States.[8] The "Fab Four" stay in suites 1260, 1263, 1264 and 1273 of the Plaza Hotel.[9]
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.[10]
February 26 – U.S. politician and ex-astronaut 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.[12]
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 13 – It is falsely reported that 38 neighbors in Queens, New York City fail to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she is being stabbed to death.
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.
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 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.
April 10 – Demolition of the Polo Grounds sports stadium commences in New York City.
April 12 – In Detroit, Michigan, Malcolm X delivers a speech entitled "The Ballot or the Bullet."
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.
April 22 – 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. Although not officially sanctioned as a world's fair, due to being within 10 years of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, so that some countries decline to attend, many have pavilions with exotic crafts, art and food.
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.
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.
May 12 – First draft-card burning: 12 young men in New York publicly burn their draft cards as an act of resistance to the Vietnam War.[16]
May 19 – The United States Department of State says that more than 40 hidden microphones have been found embedded in the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
May 26 – Nelson Rockefeller defeats Barry Goldwater in the Oregon Republican primary, slowing but not stalling Goldwater's drive toward the presidential 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 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.
June 12 – Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, as part of a 'stop-Goldwater' movement.
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 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".[22]
July 18
Six days of race riots begin in Harlem, New York, apparently prompted by the shooting of a teenager.
False Hare is the final Warner Bros. cartoon with "target" titles.
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.
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.[23]
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 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.
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 evolves into the Berkeley Free Speech Movement.
October 10–24 – The United States participates in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan and ranks first for the 10th time, bringing home 36 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze medals for a total of 90 medals.
October 14 – Martin Luther King Jr., a leader in the American civil rights movement, 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.
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 18 – The New York World's Fair closes for the year (it reopens April 21, 1965).
October 20 – Former President Herbert Hoover dies in New York City.
October 21 – The film version of the hit Lerner and LoeweBroadway stage musical My Fair Lady premieres in New York City. The movie stars Belgian-born Audrey Hepburn in the role of Eliza Doolittle (with her singing voice dubbed by Marni Nixon) and English actor 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 Oscars, including Best Picture, but Hepburn will not be nominated. Critics interpret this as a rebuke to studio executive Jack L. Warner for choosing Ms. Hepburn over English singer Julie Andrews.[26]
October 22 – 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.
November 1 – Mortar fire from North Vietnamese forces rains on the USAF base at Biên Hòa, South Vietnam, killing 4 U.S. servicemen, wounding 72, and destroying 5 B-57 jet bombers and other planes.
December 1 – 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.
December 6 – The 1-hour stop-motion animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the popular Christmas song, is broadcast for the first time, on NBC. It becomes a Christmas tradition, despite moving to CBS in 1972.[28]
December 15 – The Washington Post publishes an article about James Hampton, who had 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, affecting the United States' Pacific Northwest and some of Northern California. It continues until January 7 and results in 19 deaths, damage to 10 towns, serious damage to 20 major highway and county bridges, and the loss of 4,000 head of livestock.[29]
February 10 – Glenn Beck, television and radio host, conservative political commentator, author, television network producer, filmmaker and entrepreneur
February 11
Sarah Palin, politician, Governor of Alaska from 2006 to 2009, and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate
^"Beatles Wing In; Welcomed by 4,000 Teens", Chicago Tribune, February 8, 1964, p13
^Fritz Gubler, Waldorf Hysteria: Hotel Manners, Misbehaviour & Minibars (Great, Grand & Famous Pty. Ltd., 2008) p39
^Lewisohn, Mark (1992). The Complete Beatles Chronicle:The Definitive Day-By-Day Guide To the Beatles' Entire Career (2010 ed.). Chicago Review Press. p. 137. ISBN978-1-56976-534-0.
^"Death Record Detail: James Munroe Canty". West Virginia Archives and History, West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. 2019. Archived from the original on August 2, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
^Report of the Death of an American Citizen Abroad, Repository Name: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), NARA Series #: RG59-Entry 5166, Roll/Box #: 13, NARA Box Description: 1964 GL - JK
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