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 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.
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][11]
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.[13]
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
March 4 – President of the
Teamsters,
Jimmy Hoffa is convicted by a federal jury of jury tampering in
1962 and receives a jail sentence.[14]
March 6
Malcolm X, suspended from the
Nation of Islam, says in New York City that he is forming a black nationalist party.
Boxer
Cassius Clay announces the change of his name to Muhammad Ali.[15]
March 8 –
Malcolm X, suspended from the
Nation of Islam, says in New York City that he is forming a black nationalist party.
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 Oct. 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.)
May
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.
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.[17][18]
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, United States, 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 17 –
Margaret Harshaw, Metropolitan Opera Soprano, sings the role of Turandot in Puccini's opera Turandot at the New York World's Fair. August 21, 1964
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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