Events
January
*
January 1 – The
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation or CAF, was a colonial federation that consisted of three southern African territories: the Self-governing colony, self-governing British colony of Southe ...
is dissolved.
*
January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century,
Pope Paul VI and
Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople meet in Jerusalem.
*
January 6
Events Pre-1600
*1066 – Following the death of Edward the Confessor on the previous day, the Witan meets to confirm Harold Godwinson as the new King of England; Harold is crowned the same day, sparking a succession crisis that will eve ...
– 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
Events Pre-1600
* 681 – Twelfth Council of Toledo: King Erwig of the Visigoths initiates a council in which he implements diverse measures against the Jews in Spain.
*1127 – Jin–Song Wars: Invading Jurchen soldiers from the J ...
– ''
Martyrs' Day'': Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian civilians in the
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...
precipitate a major international crisis, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers.
*
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 20
Events Pre-1600
* 250 – Pope Fabian is martyred during the Decian persecution.
* 649 – King Chindasuinth, at the urging of bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, crowns his son Recceswinth as co-ruler of the Visigothic Kingdom.
* 1156 &ndas ...
– ''
Meet the Beatles!'', the first
Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...
album from
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
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
Events Pre-1600
* 613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (''Caesar'') by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.
* 871 – Battle of Basing: The West Saxons led by King Æthelred I are defeated by the Danelaw Vi ...
–
Kenneth Kaunda is inaugurated as the first Prime Minister of
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...
.
*
January 23 – Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly two years after its passage by the
United States Senate, the
24th Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-fourth Amendment (Amendment XXIV) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. The amendment was ...
, prohibiting the use of
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
es in national elections, is ratified.
*
January 27
Events Pre-1600
* 98 – Trajan succeeds his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire will reach its maximum extent.
* 945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to becom ...
**
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 aircraft that strays into
East Germany is shot down by Soviet fighters near
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...
; all three crewmen are killed.
*
January 29 –
February 9 – The
1964 Winter Olympics
The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Bavarian), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebr ...
are held in
Innsbruck
Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
,
Austria.
*
January 29
** The
Soviet Union launches two 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
Events Pre-1600
*1018 – Poland and the Holy Roman Empire conclude the Peace of Bautzen.
*1287 – King Wareru founds the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, and proclaims independence from the Pagan Kingdom.
1601–1900
*1607 – An estimated ...
– General
Nguyễn Khánh leads a bloodless military coup d'état, replacing
Dương Văn Minh as Prime Minister of South Vietnam.
February
*
February 4
Events Pre–1600
* 211 – Following the death of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus at Eboracum (modern York, England) while preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians, the empire is left in the control of his two quarrellin ...
– The
Government of the United States authorizes the
Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-fourth Amendment (Amendment XXIV) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. The amendment was ...
, outlawing the
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
.
*
February 5
Events Pre-1600
* 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.
* 1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.
* 1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians ar ...
– 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
Events Pre-1600
* 1579 – The Archdiocese of Manila is made a diocese by a papal bull with Domingo de Salazar being its first bishop.
1601–1900
* 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of ...
–
Cuba cuts off the normal water supply to the United States
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in reprisal for the U.S. seizure four days earlier of four Cuban fishing boats off the coast of
Florida.
*
February 10 –
''Melbourne''–''Voyager'' collision: 82 Australian sailors die when a
Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier and a destroyer collide off New South Wales, Australia.
*
February 11
Events Pre-1600
*660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.
* 55 – The death under mysterious circumstances of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman empire, on the eve of his coming ...
** Greeks and Turks begin fighting in
Limassol,
Cyprus.
** The
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
severs diplomatic relations with France because of French recognition of the People's Republic of China.
*
February 17
Events Pre-1600
* 1370 – Northern Crusades: Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights meet in the Battle of Rudau.
* 1411 – Following the successful campaigns during the Ottoman Interregnum, Musa Çelebi, one of the sons of ...
– Gabonese president
Léon M'ba is toppled by
a military coup and his arch-rival,
Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place. However, French intervention restores M'ba's government the next day.
*
February 25
Events Pre-1600
* 138 – Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius as his son, effectively making him his successor.
* 628 – Khosrow II, the last great Shah of the Sasanian Empire (Iran), is overthrown by his son Kavadh II.
...
–
Cassius Clay (later
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
) beats
Sonny Liston
Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( 1930 – December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. A dominant contender of his era, he became the world heavyweight champion in 1962 after knocking out Floyd Patterson i ...
in
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and artificial island, man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the ...
, and is
crowned the heavyweight champion of the world.
*
February 26
Events Pre-1600
*747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the epoch (origin) of the Nabonassar Era began at noon on this date. Historians use this to establish the modern BC chronology for dating historic events.
* 364 – Valentinian I is p ...
– U.S. politician
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...
withdraws from the race for the
Democratic Party Senate nomination, following a domestic accident.
*
February 27
Events Pre-1600
* 380 – Edict of Thessalonica: Emperor Theodosius I and his co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II declare their wish that all Roman citizens convert to Nicene Christianity.
* 425 – The University of Constantinople ...
– The Italian government asks for help to keep the
Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
March
*
March 6
**
Constantine II becomes King of Greece, upon the death of his father King
Paul.
** Boxer
Cassius Clay announces the change of his name to Muhammad Ali.
*
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
London Fisheries Convention
The Fisheries Convention or the London Fisheries Convention is an international agreement signed in London in relation to fishing rights across the coastal waters of Western Europe, in particular the fishing rights in the North Sea, in the Skager ...
is signed, giving signatories the right of full access to fishing grounds within 12 nautical miles of the western European coastline.
*
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.
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (July 5, 1902 – February 27, 1985) was an American diplomat and Republican United States senator from Massachusetts in both Senate seats in non-consecutive terms of service and a United States ambassador. He was considered ...
, United States Ambassador to
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
, wins the
New Hampshire Republican primary.
*
March 12
Events Pre-1600
* 538 – Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city to the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius.
* 1088 – Election of Urban II as the 159th Pope of the Cat ...
–
Malcolm X leaves the
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930.
A black nationalist organization, the NOI focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African ...
.
*
March 14
Events Pre-1600
* 1074 – Battle of Mogyoród: Dukes Géza and Ladislaus defeat their cousin Solomon, King of Hungary, forcing him to flee to Hungary's western borderland.
* 1590 – Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguen ...
– A
Dallas, Texas, jury finds
Jack Ruby
Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of th ...
guilty of killing
John F. Kennedy assassin
Lee Harvey Oswald.
*
March 15 –
Richard Burton and
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...
marry (for the first time) in
Montreal.
*
March 18 –
1964 Moscow protest On 18 March 1964 approximately 50 Moroccan students broke into the embassy of Morocco in the Soviet Union in Moscow and staged an all‐day sit-in protesting against death sentences handed down by a Moroccan court in Rabat four days earlier. The dea ...
: Approximately 50 Moroccan students break into the embassy of Morocco in the Soviet Union and stage an all‐day
sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
protesting against sentencing of eleven people to death for the alleged assassination attempt of King
Hassan II of Morocco
Hassan II ( ar, الحسن الثاني, translit=al-Ḥasan aṯ-ṯhānī;), with the prefix "Mulay" before his enthronement 9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999) was the King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999.
He was a member of the 'Ala ...
.
*
March 19 – The American
Jerrie Mock
Geraldine "Jerrie" Fredritz Mock (November 22, 1925 – September 30, 2014) was an American pilot and the first woman to fly solo around the world. She flew a single engine Cessna 180 (registered N1538C) christened the '' Spirit of Columbus'' an ...
sets out to become the first woman to fly solo around the world from March 19, completing her flight on April 17.
*
March 20 –
June 6
Events Pre-1600
* 913 – Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed b ...
– The first
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development takes place.
*
March 20 – The precursor of the
European Space Agency
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
,
ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
*
March 21
Events Pre-1600
* 537 – Siege of Rome: King Vitiges attempts to assault the northern and eastern city walls, but is repulsed at the Praenestine Gate, known as the ''Vivarium'', by the defenders under the Byzantine generals Bessas an ...
– ''Non ho l'età'' by Gigliola Cinquetti (music by
Nicola Salerno, text by
Mario Panzeri) wins the
Eurovision Song Contest 1964 for Italy.
*
March 27 (
Good Friday
Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...
) – The
Great Alaskan earthquake
The 1964 Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27. , the second-most powerful known (and the most powerful earthquake recorded in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n history) at a
magnitude of 9.2, strikes
Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of
Anchorage
Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...
.
*
March 28
** King
Saud of Saudi Arabia abdicates the throne. His brother,
Prince Faisal, does not officially assume the throne until November.
**
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 31
Events Pre-1600
* 307 – After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine the Great, Constantine marries Fausta, daughter of the retired Roman emperor Maximian.
*1146 – Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at V ...
– The military overthrows
Brazilian President
The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...
João Goulart in a
coup, starting 21 years of
dictatorship in Brazil. It ends in
1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
.
April
*
April 1 – Deployed military rule in
Brazil ends the government of democratically elected president,
João Goulart.
*
April 4
Events Pre-1600
* 503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrates a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.
* 190 – Dong Zhuo has his troops evacuate the capital Luoyang and burn it to the ground.
* 611 – ...
**
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".
*
April 7 –
IBM announces the
System/360
The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...
.
*
April 8
Events Pre-1600
* 217 – Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated and is succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
* 876 – The Battle of Dayr al-'Aqul saves Baghdad from the Saffarids.
*1139 – Ro ...
–
Gemini 1 is launched, the first unmanned test of the 2-man spacecraft.
*
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 have been reported killed.
*
April 11 – The Brazilian Congress elects Field Marshal
Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco as President of
Brazil.
*
April 13
Events Pre-1600
*1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
* 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
1601–1900
*1612 – In one of the epic samurai ...
** At the
36th Academy Awards
The 36th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1963, were held on April 13, 1964, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. They were hosted by Jack Lemmon.
Best Picture winner '' Tom Jones'' became the only f ...
ceremony,
Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive ...
becomes the first African-American to win an
Academy Award in the category
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best or The Best may refer to:
People
* Best (surname), people with the surname Best
* Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer
Companies and organizations
* Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain
* Best Lock Corporatio ...
in ''
Lilies of the Field''.
*
April 16 – In the Assize Court at Buckingham, UK, sentences totalling 307 years are passed on twelve men who stole £2,600,000 in used bank notes, after holding up the night train from
Glasgow to
London in August 1963 – a heist that becomes known as the
Great Train Robbery.
*
April 19 – In
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
, 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 United States, the coup is ultimately unsuccessful, and Souvanna Phouma is reinstated, remaining as Prime Minister until
1975
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.
Events
January
* January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
.
*
April 20
** U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
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
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the
Rivonia Trial, a key event for the
anti-apartheid movement.
** In the UK,
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
television starts broadcasting for the first time.
*
April 22
** British businessman
Greville Wynne
Greville Maynard Wynne (19 March 1919 – 28 February 1990) was a British engineer and businessman recruited by MI6 because of his frequent travel to Eastern Europe. He acted as a courier to transport top-secret information to London from S ...
, imprisoned in
Moscow since 1963 for
spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy
Gordon Lonsdale.
** The
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...
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 internationally sanctioned, due to being within ten years of the
Seattle World's Fair in
1962
Events January
* January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
* January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism.
* January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...
, so that some countries decline to attend, many have pavilions with exotic crafts, art and food.
*
April 25 – Thieves steal the head of the
Little Mermaid statue in
Copenhagen, Denmark (Although the attack was attributed to
Jørgen Nash, the Danish media blamed the painter
Henrik Bruun, who never confessed to the crime).
*
April 26 –
Tanganyika
Tanganyika may refer to:
Places
* Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state
* Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania
* Tanzania Main ...
and
Zanzibar merge to form
Tanzania.
May
*
May 1 – At 4:00 a.m.,
John George Kemeny and
Thomas Eugene Kurtz run the first computer program written in
BASIC
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
(Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level
programming language which they have created. BASIC is eventually included on many
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
s and even some games consoles.
*
May 2
**
Vietnam War:
Attack on USNS ''Card'' – An explosion caused by
Viet Cong commandos causes carrier
USNS ''Card'' to sink in the port of
Saigon
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
.
** 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, WI.
** United States Senator
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...
receives more than 75% of the votes in the
Texas Republican presidential primary.
**
Henry Hezekiah Dee and
Charles Eddie Moore
''Mississippi Cold Case'' is a 2007 feature documentary produced by David Ridgen of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about the Ku Klux Klan murders of two 19-year-old black men, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, in Southwest Missis ...
, hitchhiking in
Meadville, Mississippi, are kidnapped, beaten and murdered by members of the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
. Their badly
decomposed bodies are found by chance in July during the search for
missing activists Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
*
May 4 – The
United States Congress recognizes
Bourbon whiskey
Bourbon () is a type of barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn. The name derives from the French Bourbon dynasty, although the precise source of inspiration is uncertain; contenders include Bourbon County in Kentucky and Bourbo ...
as a "distinctive product of the United States".
*
May 7
**
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashes near
San Ramon, California
San Ramon (Spanish: ''San Ramón'', meaning "St. Raymond") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located within the San Ramon Valley, and east of San Francisco. San Ramon's population was 84,605 per the 2020 census, maki ...
, 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), three people are killed by a rocket explosion.
*
May 9 – South Korean President
Park Chung-hee
Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...
reshuffles his Cabinet, after a series of student demonstrations against his efforts to restore diplomatic and trade relations with
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
*
May 11
Events 1601–1900
*1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is Assassination of Spencer Perceval, assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.
*1813 – William Lawson (explorer), William Lawson, Grego ...
–
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 Vietnam War; the first such act of war resistance.
*
May 23 – 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 from Paris.
*
May 24
Events Pre-1600
* 919 – The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom.
* 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
* 1276 – Magnus La ...
–
25 – The crowd at a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
match in
Lima,
Peru riots
A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people.
Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targeted ...
over a referee's decision in the Peru-
Argentina game; 319 are killed, 500 injured.
*
May 27
Events Pre-1600
* 1096 – Count Emicho enters Mainz, where his followers massacre Jewish citizens. At least 600 Jews are killed.
* 1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as Prince two weeks before his untimely death.
* 1153 &ndash ...
– The ongoing
Colombian conflict starts.
*
May 28 – The Charter of the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
(PLO) is released by the
Arab League
The Arab League ( ar, الجامعة العربية, ' ), formally the League of Arab States ( ar, جامعة الدول العربية, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world, which is located in Northern Africa, Western Africa, E ...
.
*
May 29 – Having
deposed them in a January coup, South Vietnamese leader
Nguyen Khanh
Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元)is a different word and surname.
By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this s ...
had rival Generals
Tran Van Don
Tran may refer to:
Arts, media, and entertainment
* "Tran", a novel in the Janissaries series named for a fictional planet
* Dr. Tran, an animated miniseries
People
* Trần (陳), a Vietnamese surname
* Tran, member of the Nazi-era comedy duo ...
and
Le Van Kim convicted of "lax morality".
June
*
June 2
** Senator Barry Goldwater wins the
California Republican primary, making him the overwhelming favorite for the party's nomination as
President of the United States.
** 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
Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...
declares
martial law in
Seoul, after 10,000 student demonstrators overpower police.
*
June 11
** Greece rejects direct talks with
Turkey over
Cyprus.
**
Cologne school massacre
The Cologne school massacre was a mass murder that occurred at the Catholic elementary school () located in the suburb of Volkhoven in Cologne, West Germany on 11 June 1964. The perpetrator, Walter Seifert, also known as "" ("Firedevil of Volk ...
: In
Cologne, West Germany,
Walter Seifert
The Cologne school massacre was a mass murder that occurred at the Catholic elementary school () located in the suburb of Volkhoven in Cologne, West Germany on 11 June 1964. The perpetrator, Walter Seifert, also known as "" ("Firedevil of Volkho ...
attacks students and teachers in an elementary school with a
flamethrower
A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World ...
, killing 10 and injuring 21.
*
June 12 –
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
and 7 others are sentenced to
life imprisonment in South Africa, and sent to the
Robben Island prison
Robben Island Prison is an inactive prison on Robben Island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometers (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned ...
.
*
June 14 - Kicking off the Civil Rights project known as
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...
, 300 volunteers begin preparing for a summer in Mississippi. The training is held at the Western College for Women (now Miami University).
*
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
Events Pre-1600
* 451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
* 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting ...
– The
Ford GT40
The Ford GT40 is a high-performance endurance racing car commissioned by the Ford Motor Company. It grew out of the "Ford GT" (for Grand Touring) project, an effort to compete in European long-distance sports car races, against Ferrari, which wo ...
makes its first appearance at the
24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...
. It does not see its first victory, however, until 2 years later in
1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
. At the same event, the
AC Cobra wins its class in its second Le Mans appearance.
*
June 21
Events Pre-1600
* 533 – A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date).
* 1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mo ...
–
Spain beats the
Soviet Union 2–1 to win the
1964 European Nations Cup
The 1964 European Nations' Cup was the second edition of the UEFA European Championship. The final tournament was held in Spain. It was won by the hosts 2–1 over the defending champions, the Soviet Union.
The tournament was a knockout compet ...
.
*
June 26 –
Moise Tshombe returns to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo from exile in Spain.
July
*
July 6 –
Malawi receives its independence from the United Kingdom.
*
July 18
** Six days of
race riot
This is a list of ethnic riots by country, and includes riots based on ethnic, sectarian, xenophobic, and racial conflict. Some of these riots can also be classified as pogroms.
Africa
Americas
United States
Nativist period: 1700s ...
s begin in
Harlem, New York, United States, apparently prompted by the shooting of a teenager.
**
Judith Graham Pool publishes her discovery of
cryoprecipitate, a frozen blood clotting product made from plasma primarily to treat
hemophilia
Haemophilia, or hemophilia (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a longer time after an injury, easy bruising, ...
cs around the world.
*
July 19 –
Vietnam War: At a rally in
Saigon
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
,
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
ese Prime Minister and military leader
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 established in the
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...
, becoming the country's sole legal political party.
* July 21 – 1964 race riots in Singapore, 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 – A minor criticality accident takes place at a United Nuclear Corporation Fuels recovery plant in Wood River Junction, Rhode Island, United States, causing the death of one worker.
* 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
* August 2 –
Vietnam War: United States destroyer USS Maddox (DD-731), ''Maddox'' is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga (CV-14), USS ''Ticonderoga'' sinks one gunboat, while the other two leave the battle.
* August 5
** Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – Aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga (CV-14), USS ''Ticonderoga'' and USS Constellation (CV-64), 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 Kisangani, 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 The Rolling Stones, Rolling Stones gig in Scheveningen gets out of control. Riot police end the gig after about fifteen minutes, upon which spectators start to fight the riot police.
* August 13 – The last judicial hanging in the United Kingdom takes place when murderers Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Anthony Allen are executed at HM Prison Liverpool, Walton Prison in Liverpool.
* 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 18 – The International Olympic Committee bans South Africa from the 1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo Olympics on the grounds that its teams are racially segregated.
* August 20 – The International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (Intelsat) began to work.
* August 22 – Goalkeeper Derek Foster of Sunderland becomes the youngest-ever player to play in the English Football League, aged 15 years and 185 days.
* August 24 – August 27, 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 (film), 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 Academy Award for Best Actress, Best Actress. It is the first Disney film to be nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture.
* August 28 – August 30, 30 – Philadelphia 1964 race riot: Tensions between African American residents and police lead to 341 injuries and 774 arrests.
September
* September 2 – Indian Hungry generation poets, including Malay Roy Choudhury, 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 in Scotland.
* September 10 – The African Development Bank (AfDB) is founded.
* September 11 – In Jacksonville, Florida, during a tour of the United States, John Lennon announces that the
Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...
will not play to a segregated audience.
* September 14
** The third period of the Second Vatican Council opens.
** The London ''Daily Herald (UK newspaper), Daily Herald'' ceases publication, replaced by ''The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun''.
* 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.
* September 21 – The island of Malta obtains independence from the United Kingdom.
* September 24 – The Warren Commission, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President
John F. Kennedy, submits its written report.
* September 25 – The Mozambican War of Independence is launched by FRELIMO.
October
* October – Dr. Robert Moog demonstrates the prototype Moog synthesizer.
* October 1
** Three thousand student activists at the University of California, Berkeley, surround and block a police car from taking a Congress of Racial Equality, 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 5
** Twenty-three men and thirty-one women escape to West Berlin through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
** Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke of Edinburgh begin an 8-day visit to Canada.
* October 10 – October 24, 24 – The 1964 Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo, Japan, the first in an Asian country.
* 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 Martin Luther King Jr. becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racism, racial prejudice in the United States.
* October 14 – October 15, 15 –
Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power.
* October 15
** The Labour Party (UK), Labour Party wins the parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom, ending 13 years of Conservative Party rule. The new prime minister is Harold Wilson.
* October 16
** Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister after leading the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party to a narrow 1964 United Kingdom general election, election win over the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative government of Alec Douglas-Home, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, which has been in power for 13 years and had four different leaders during that time.
** 596 (nuclear test): The People's Republic of China explodes an atomic bomb in Xinjiang, Sinkiang.
* 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, 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 Star of India (gem), Star of India, is stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
November
* 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 Canberra, B-57 jet bombers and other planes.
* November 3
** 1964 United States presidential election: Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats
Republican challenger
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...
with over 60 percent of the Direct election, 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'' spacecraft is launched from Cape Kennedy but fails.
* November 10 – Australia partially reintroduces compulsory military service due to the Indonesian Confrontation.
* November 19 – The United States Department of Defense announces the closing of 95 military bases and facilities, including Fort Jay, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
* November 21
** Second Vatican Council: The third period of the Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes. ''Lumen gentium'', the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, is promulgated.
** The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge across New York Bay opens to traffic (the world's longest suspension bridge at this time).
* November 24 – Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries capture Kisangani, Stanleyville, but a number of hostages die in the fighting, among them American 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
* December 1 – Gustavo Díaz Ordaz takes office as President of Mexico.
* 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 is founded as a merger between the two local clubs Brøndbyøster Idrætsforening and Brøndbyvester Idrætsforening. The club wins the national championship Danish Superliga 10 times, and the Danish Cups six times, after joining the Danish top-flight football league in 1981.
* December 5 – Australian Senate election, 1964: The Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal/National Party of Australia, Country Coalition (Australia), Coalition Menzies Government (1949-66), Government led by Prime Minister of Australia, Prime Minister Robert Menzies hold their status quo, while the Australian Labor Party, Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell lose one seat to the Democratic Labor Party (historical), Democratic Labor Party, who hold the balance of power in the Australian Senate, Senate alongside independent Reg Turnbull.
* December 10 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
* December 11 – Che Guevara addresses the United Nations General Assembly. A bazooka attack is launched at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City.
* December 12 – Jamhuri Day: Kenya becomes a republic, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first President of Kenya, 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 18 – The Christmas flood of 1964 begins in the United States, affecting the Pacific Northwest and some of Northern California. It will continue until January 7, resulting in 19 deaths, serious damage to buildings, roads and bridges, and the loss of 4,000 head of livestock.
* December 21 – The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark supersonic attack aircraft, developed for the U.S. Air Force, makes its first flight, at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.
* December 22
** 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 – 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing, The Brinks Hotel in Saigon, Vietnam, is bombed by the
Viet Cong, resulting in the deaths of two US soldiers and injuries to a further 60 people, including civilians.
* December 30 – The
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is established as a permanent organ of the UN General Assembly.
Date unknown
* Spring – First recognition of cosmic microwave background radiation as a detectable phenomenon.
* Jerome Horwitz synthesizes zidovudine (AZT), an antiviral drug which will later be used in treating HIV.
* Farrington Daniels becomes an early advocate of solar energy in his book ''Direct Use of the Sun's Energy'', published by Yale University Press in the United States.
* Rudi Gernreich designs the original monokini topless swimsuit in the U.S.
* The Vishva Hindu Pariṣad is founded in India.
Births
January
*
January 1 – Moussa Dadis Camara, Guinean general and 3rd President of Guinea
* January 2 – Pernell Whitaker, American boxer (died 2019)
* January 4
** Alexandre Fadeev, Soviet figure skater
** Dot-Marie Jones, American actress and retired athlete (competed as Dot Jones)
*
January 5 – Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Spanish golfer
*
January 6
Events Pre-1600
*1066 – Following the death of Edward the Confessor on the previous day, the Witan meets to confirm Harold Godwinson as the new King of England; Harold is crowned the same day, sparking a succession crisis that will eve ...
** Henry Maske, German boxer
** Anthony Scaramucci, American financier, entrepreneur, and political figure
* January 7 – Nicolas Cage, American actor
*
January 12 – Jeff Bezos, American Internet entrepreneur
* January 13 – Penelope Ann Miller, American actress
* January 17 – Michelle Obama, American attorney and author, former First Lady of the United States
*
January 20
Events Pre-1600
* 250 – Pope Fabian is martyred during the Decian persecution.
* 649 – King Chindasuinth, at the urging of bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, crowns his son Recceswinth as co-ruler of the Visigothic Kingdom.
* 1156 &ndas ...
** Koko Pimentel, Filipino politician, 28th President of the Senate of the Philippines
*
January 23 – Mariska Hargitay, American actress
*
January 27
Events Pre-1600
* 98 – Trajan succeeds his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire will reach its maximum extent.
* 945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to becom ...
– Bridget Fonda, American actress
* January 31 – Jeff Hanneman, American rock guitarist (Slayer) (died 2013)
February
* February 1 – Eli Ohana, Israeli football player and club chairman
*
February 5
Events Pre-1600
* 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.
* 1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.
* 1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians ar ...
** Laura Linney, American actress
** Duff McKagan, American rock musician and songwriter
*
February 10 – Francesca Neri, Italian actress
*
February 11
Events Pre-1600
*660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.
* 55 – The death under mysterious circumstances of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman empire, on the eve of his coming ...
** Sarah Palin, American politician, former Governor of Alaska
** Ken Shamrock, American mixed martial arts fighter
* February 15 − Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (died 1997)
* February 16
** Bebeto, Brazilian footballer
** Christopher Eccleston, British actor
** Valentina Yegorova, Russian distance runner
* February 18 − Matt Dillon, American actor and film director
* February 19 − Jennifer Doudna, American biochemist
* February 28 – Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Uzbekistan cyclist
March
* March 7
** Bret Easton Ellis, American author
** Vladimir Smirnov (skier), Vladimir Smirnov, Kazakh cross-country skier
** Wanda Sykes, African-American comedian and actress
*
March 9 – Juliette Binoche, French actress
*
March 10
** Edith Lucie Bongo, First Lady of Gabon (died 2009)
** Neneh Cherry, Swedish-born singer-songwriter
** Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, British prince and third son (youngest child) of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke of Edinburgh
* March 16
** Pascal Richard, Swiss road bicycle racer
** Gore Verbinski, American film director
* March 17 – Rob Lowe, American actor
*
March 18
** Bonnie Blair, American speed skater
* March 24 – Liz McColgan, British long-distance runner athlete
* March 30
** Vera Zimmermann, Brazilian actress
** Tracy Chapman, African-American singer
** Ian Ziering, American actor
April
*
April 1 – Erik Breukink, Dutch cyclist and manager
* April 3
** Bjarne Riis, Danish cyclist
** Yelena Ruzina, Russian Olympic athlete
*
April 4
Events Pre-1600
* 503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrates a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.
* 190 – Dong Zhuo has his troops evacuate the capital Luoyang and burn it to the ground.
* 611 – ...
– David Cross, American actor and comedian
* April 6 – David Woodard, American businessman
*
April 7 – Russell Crowe, New Zealand-born actor
* April 10 – Hiroshi Tsuburaya, Japanese actor (died 2001)
* April 14 – Jim Grabb, American tennis player
*
April 16 – Esbjörn Svensson Swedish jazz pianist (d. 2008)
* April 17
**Maynard James Keenan, American rock musician (Tool (band), Tool
** Rachel Notley, Canadian politician, Premier of Alberta 2015–2019
*
April 20
**John Carney (American football), John Carney, American football player
** Crispin Glover, American actor
** Andy Serkis, English actor
* April 21
** Ludmila Engquist, Russian-born Swedish hurdler
** Ahmed Radhi, Iraqi footballer (d. 2020)
* April 24 – Djimon Hounsou, Beninese actor and model
*
April 25 – Hank Azaria, American actor, voice artist and comedian
* April 28 – L'Wren Scott, American fashion designer (d. 2014)
* April 29 – Federico Castelluccio, Italian-born actor
* April 30
** Abhishek Chatterjee, Indian actor
** Tony Fernandes, Malaysian entrepreneur and businessman
May
*
May 1 – Yvonne van Gennip, Dutch speed-skater
* May 5
** Heike Henkel, German Olympic athlete
** Minami Takayama, Japanese voice actress and singer (Two-Mix and DoCo (pop group), DoCo)
* May 8 – Melissa Gilbert, American actress and president of the Screen Actors Guild
* May 13 – Stephen Colbert, American comedian, political commentator, and television personality; host of ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert''
* May 19 – Samuel Okwaraji, Nigerian footballer (died 1989)
* May 20 – Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, British aristocrat, author, print journalist and broadcaster. Younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
* May 21 – Rui Maria de Araújo, East Timorese politician
*
May 23 – Ruth Metzler-Arnold, member of the Swiss Federal Council
*
May 24
Events Pre-1600
* 919 – The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom.
* 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
* 1276 – Magnus La ...
– Adrian Moorhouse, British swimmer
* May 25 – Ray Stevenson, Northern Irish-born actor
* May 26 – Lenny Kravitz, American singer, songwriter, and actor
*
May 28 – Jeff Fenech, Australian boxer
*
May 29 – Arumugam Thondaman, Sri Lankan politician (died 2020)
* May 30 – Tom Morello, American musician and political activist (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Prophets of Rage)
June
*
June 3 – James Purefoy, British actor
* June 7 – Gia Carides, Greek-Australian actress
* June 9 – Gloria Reuben, Canadian-American actress
*June 10
** Ben Daniels, English actor
** Vincent Perez, Swiss actor, director and photographer
* June 13
** Kathy Burke, English actress and comedian
** Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Lithuanian basketball player
* June 15
** Courteney Cox, American actress
** Michael Laudrup, Danish footballer and manager
* June 17 – Michael Gross (swimmer), Michael Gross, German swimmer
* June 18 – Uday Hussein, Iraqi Army commander (d. 2003)
*
June 19 – Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 2019-2022
*
June 20
Events Pre-1600
* 451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
* 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting ...
– Ethella Chupryk, Ukrainian pianist (d. 2019)
*
June 21
Events Pre-1600
* 533 – A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date).
* 1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mo ...
** Dean Saunders, Welsh football manager and former professional footballer
** Kiyoshi Okuma, Japanese football player and manager
* June 22
** Dan Brown, American author
** Miroslav Kadlec, Czech football defender
** Nico Jalink, Dutch footballer and football manager
* June 23
** Astrid Carolina Herrera, Venezuelan actress
** Joss Whedon, American screenwriter
* June 24 – Günther Mader, Austrian alpine ski racer
* June 25 – Johnny Herbert, English racing driver
*
June 26 – Tommi Mäkinen, Finnish rally driver
* June 30 – Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, Danish aristocrat
July
* July 1
** Yu Long, Chinese conductor
** Bernard Laporte, French rugby player and coach
** Loli Sánchez, Spanish basketball player
** Chie Satō, Japanese voice actress
* July 2 – Jose Canseco, Jose and Ozzie Canseco, Cuban-born American baseball players; twin brothers
* July 3
** Joanne Harris, English novelist
** Aleksei Serebryakov (actor), Aleksei Serebryakov, Russian-Canadian actor
** Yeardley Smith, American actress, voice actress, comedian, writer and artist
* July 4 – Edi Rama, 33rd Prime Minister of Albania
* July 5 – Stephen H. Scott, Canadian neuroscientist and engineer
*
July 6 – Kim Jee-woon, South Korean film director and screenwriter
* July 9 – Courtney Love, American musician/actress
* July 11 – Goran Radaković, Serbian actor
* July 13 – Pascal Hervé, French road racing cyclist
* July 15
** Tetsuji Hashiratani, Japanese football player and manager
** Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji, Malaysian politician
* July 16 – Miguel Indurain, Spanish cyclist
*
July 18 – Wendy Williams, African-American talk show host
*
July 19
** Teresa Edwards, American basketball player
** Miyeegombyn Enkhbold, Mongolian politician
*
July 20
** Chris Cornell, American singer (Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog) (died 2017)
** Deon Lotz, South African actor
* July 24
** Barry Bonds, African-American baseball player
** Pedro Passos Coelho, 118th Prime Minister of Portugal
* July 26
** Sandra Bullock, American actress and film producer
** Anne Provoost, Belgian author
* July 28 – Lori Loughlin, American actress
* July 30
** Vivica A. Fox, American actress
** Jürgen Klinsmann, German football player and manager
* July 31 – C.C. Catch, Dutch-born German singer
August
* August 2 – Mary-Louise Parker, American actress
* August 3
** Lucky Dube, South African reggae musician (died 2007)
** Abhisit Vejjajiva, 27th Prime Minister of Thailand
* August 8 – Giuseppe Conte, Italian Prime Minister
* August 15 – Melinda Gates, American philanthropist
* August 22 – Mats Wilander, Swedish tennis player
* August 24 – Salizhan Sharipov, Russian cosmonaut and astronaut
* August 25
** Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician
** Azmin Ali, Malaysian politician
* August 26 – Torsten Schmitz, German boxer
September
* September 2 – Keanu Reeves, Canadian actor and musician
* September 6 – Rosie Perez, American actress and comedian
* September 7
** Eazy-E, American rapper and record producer (d. 1995)
** Andy Hug, Swiss Seidokaikan karateka and kickboxer (died 2000)
* September 10
** Jack Ma, Chinese business magnate and billionaire internet entrepreneur
** Yegor Letov, Russian singer (died 2008)
* September 13 – Simegnew Bekele, Ethiopian engineer and public administrator (died 2018)
* September 15 – Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia
* September 16 – Molly Shannon, American actress
* September 19
** Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwean actress (died 2005)
** Trisha Yearwood, American country singer
* September 20 – Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong actress
* September 21 – Jorge Drexler, Uruguayan musician
* September 23
** Josefa Idem, German-born Italian kayaker
** Koshi Inaba, Japanese singer (B'z)
* September 25
** Kikuko Inoue, Japanese singer and voice actress
** Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Spanish novelist (died 2020)
* September 28 – Janeane Garofalo, American actress and comedian
* September 30 – Monica Bellucci, Italian actress and model
October
* October 2 – Makharbek Khadartsev, Russian free-style wrestler
* October 3 – Clive Owen, English actor
* October 4 – Yvonne Murray, Scottish athlete
* October 6 – Tom Jager, American swimmer
* October 9
** Guillermo del Toro, Mexican film director
** Martín Jaite, Argentine tennis player
* October 10 – Maxi Gnauck, German gymnast
* October 20 – Kamala Harris, American politician, 49th Vice President of the United States
* October 22
** Dražen Petrović, Croatian basketball player (died 1993)
** Paul McStay, Scottish footballer
* October 24 – Rosana Arbelo, Spanish singer and composer
* October 25
** Nicole Seibert, German singer, Eurovision Song Contest 1982 winner
** Andreas Münzer, Austrian bodybuilder (died 1996)
* October 30 - Tabitha St. Germain, Canadian voice actress and singer
* October 31 – Marco van Basten, Dutch footballer and manager
November
* November 3 – Paprika Steen, Danish actress
* November 10 – Magnús Scheving, Icelandic producer
* November 11 – Calista Flockhart, American actress
* November 12
** David Ellefson, American rock bassist (Megadeth)
** Michael Kremer, American development economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
** Barbara Stühlmeyer, German musicologist, church musician and writer
* November 13 – Tzufit Grant, Israeli actress
* November 16
** Diana Krall, Canadian jazz pianist and singer
** Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Italian-French actress
* November 19 – Phil Hughes (footballer born 1964), Phil Hughes, Irish footballer and coach
* November 20 – Doug Ford, 26th Premier of Ontario
* November 22 – Apetor, Norwegian YouTuber (d. 2021)
* November 23 – Erika Buenfil, Mexican actress and singer
* November 24 – Conleth Hill, Irish actor
* November 26 – Vreni Schneider, Swiss alpine skier
* November 27 – Ronit Elkabetz, Israeli actress, writer and filmmaker (died 2016)
* November 28
** Giorgi Bagaturov, Georgian-Armenian chess grandmaster
** Oscar Muñoz (wrestler), Oscar Muñoz, Colombian wrestler
* November 29 – Don Cheadle, African-American actor
December
* December 1 – Salvatore Schillaci, Italian footballer
* December 4
** Sertab Erener, Turkish singer-songwriter, Eurovision Song Contest 2003 winner
** Marisa Tomei, American actress
* December 7 – Hugo Blick, British filmmaker and actor
* December 8 – Teri Hatcher, American actress, writer, presenter and singer
* December 9 – Paul Landers, German rock musician (Rammstein)
* December 10 – Edith González, Mexican actress (died 2019)
* December 13 – Hide (musician), Hide, Japanese musician (died 1998)
* December 16 – Heike Drechsler, German track-and-field athlete
* December 18
** Stone Cold Steve Austin, American professional wrestler and actor
** Pierre Nkurunziza, 8th President of Burundi (died 2020)
* December 19 – Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
* December 23 – Eddie Vedder, American rock singer (Pearl Jam)
Deaths
January
* January 4 – Andreas Hermes, German agricultural scientist and politician (born 1878)
* January 8 – Julius Raab, Austrian politician, 14th Chancellor of Austria (born 1891)
*
January 9
Events Pre-1600
* 681 – Twelfth Council of Toledo: King Erwig of the Visigoths initiates a council in which he implements diverse measures against the Jews in Spain.
*1127 – Jin–Song Wars: Invading Jurchen soldiers from the J ...
– Halide Edib Adıvar, Turkish novelist (born 1884)
*
January 11 – Bechara El Khoury, 2nd Prime Minister of Lebanon and 6th President of Lebanon (born 1890)
* January 15
** Tawfiq Canaan, Palestinian doctor (born 1882)
** Jack Teagarden, American jazz trombonist (born 1905)
* January 19 – Joe Weatherly, NASCAR championship driver (born 1922)
* January 21
** Joseph Baumgartner, German politician (born 1904)
** Joseph Schildkraut, Austrian actor (born 1896)
*
January 22
Events Pre-1600
* 613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (''Caesar'') by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.
* 871 – Battle of Basing: The West Saxons led by King Æthelred I are defeated by the Danelaw Vi ...
** Lissy Arna, German actress (born 1900)
** Marc Blitzstein, American composer (born 1905)
*
January 23
** Benedetta Bianchi Porro, Italian Roman Catholic laywoman and venerable (born 1936)
** Lucila Gamero de Medina, Honduranian novelist (born 1873)
*
January 27
Events Pre-1600
* 98 – Trajan succeeds his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire will reach its maximum extent.
* 945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to becom ...
– Waite Phillips, American businessman, philanthropist (born 1883)
*
January 29
** Adolfo Diaz, Adolfo Diaz Recinos, 2-time President of Nicaragua (born 1875)
** Alan Ladd, American actor (born 1913)
* January 31
** Louis Allen, American civil rights activist and businessman (born 1919)
** Kanysh Satbayev, Kazakh academician and geologist (born 1899)
February
* February 3
** Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria (born 1901)
** Giuseppe Amato, Italian producer, director and screenwriter (born 1899)
*
February 5
Events Pre-1600
* 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.
* 1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.
* 1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians ar ...
– Matilde Moisant, American pilot (born 1878)
*
February 6
Events Pre-1600
* 1579 – The Archdiocese of Manila is made a diocese by a papal bull with Domingo de Salazar being its first bishop.
1601–1900
* 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of ...
– Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino general and 1st President of the Philippines (born 1869)
* February 7 – Sofoklis Venizelos, Greek politician, three-time Prime Minister of Greece (born 1894)
* February 8 – Ernst Kretschmer, German psychiatrist (born 1888)
*
February 10 – Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (born 1905)
* February 12 – Gerald Gardner, English polymath, founder of Wiccan religion (born 1884)
* February 13 – Paulino Alcántara, Filipino-Spanish footballer (born 1896)
* February 15
**Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, French theologian (born 1877)
** Robert L. Thornton, American businessman, philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas (born 1880)
* February 18 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor of the snowmobile and founder of Bombardier Inc. (born 1907)
*
February 25
Events Pre-1600
* 138 – Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius as his son, effectively making him his successor.
* 628 – Khosrow II, the last great Shah of the Sasanian Empire (Iran), is overthrown by his son Kavadh II.
...
** Alexander Archipenko, Ukrainian-American sculptor (born 1887)
** Johnny Burke (lyricist), Johnny Burke, American lyricist (born 1908)
** Mariano Jesús Cuenco, Filipino politician and writer (born 1888)
** Grace Metalious, American writer (born 1924)
*
February 27
Events Pre-1600
* 380 – Edict of Thessalonica: Emperor Theodosius I and his co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II declare their wish that all Roman citizens convert to Nicene Christianity.
* 425 – The University of Constantinople ...
– Orry-Kelly, Australian-born costume designer (born 1897)
March
*
March 6
** Paul of Greece, King of Greece (born 1901)
** Edward Van Sloan, American actor (born 1882)
*
March 9 – Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (born 1870)
*
March 12
Events Pre-1600
* 538 – Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city to the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius.
* 1088 – Election of Urban II as the 159th Pope of the Cat ...
– Abbās al-Aqqād, Egyptian journalist (born 1889)
*
March 18
** Sigfrid Edström, Swedish industrialist, 4th President of the International Olympic Committee (born 1870)
** Norbert Wiener, American mathematician (born 1894)
*
March 19 – Leo Maximilian Baginski, German entrepreneur (born 1891)
*
March 20 – Brendan Behan, Irish poet and writer (born 1923)
* March 23 – Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born actor (born 1904)
* March 25 – Alfredo Bigatti, Argentine sculptor (born 1898)
* March 30 – Birinchi Kumar Barua, Indian folklorist (born 1890)
April
*
April 1 – Božidar Kunc, Yugoslav composer (born 1903)
* April 3 – Franz Joseph, Prince of Hohenzollern-Emden (born 1891)
*
April 4
Events Pre-1600
* 503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrates a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.
* 190 – Dong Zhuo has his troops evacuate the capital Luoyang and burn it to the ground.
* 611 – ...
– Georgia Caine, American actress (born 1876)
* April 5 – Douglas MacArthur, U.S. Army general, Supreme Allied Commander in Japan after World War II (born 1880)
* April 6 – Jigme Palden Dorji, 1st Prime Minister of Bhutan (born 1919; assassinated)
*
April 7 – Bruce W. Klunder, American Presbyterian minister and civil rights activist (born 1937)
*
April 13
Events Pre-1600
*1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
* 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
1601–1900
*1612 – In one of the epic samurai ...
– Veit Harlan, German film director (born 1899)
* April 14
** Tatyana Afanasyeva, Soviet mathematician and physicist (born 1876)
** Rachel Carson, American biologist and environmental writer (born 1907)
* April 18
** Fumio Asakura, Japanese sculptor (born 1883)
** Ben Hecht, American screenwriter (born 1894)
*
April 20
** Dimitar Ganev, Bulgarian communist politician, head of the State (born 1890)
** August Sander, German photographer (born 1876)
* April 24 – Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (born 1895)
*
April 26 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet (born 1882)
* April 29 – Wenceslao Fernández Flórez, Spanish journalist and novelist (born 1885)
May
*
May 2 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born British politician (born 1879)
* May 5 – Tadao Ikeda, Japanese director and screenwriter (born 1905)
* May 6 – José Maza Fernández, Chilean politician, lawyer and diplomat (born 1889)
* May 8 – Kichisaburō Nomura, Japanese admiral and diplomat (born 1877)
* May 10 – Carol Haney, American dancer and actress (born 1924)
* May 13 – Diana Wynyard, English actress (born 1906)
* May 17 – Steve Owen (American football), Steve Owen, American football coach (New York Giants) and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (born 1898)
* May 20 – Rudy Lewis, American rhythm and blues singer (born 1936)
* May 21 – James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1882)
* May 26 – Ruben Oskar Auervaara, Finnish fraudster (born 1906)
[Soukola, Timo: "Auervaara, Ruben Oskar (1906–1964)", Suomen kansallisbiografia, volume 1, pp 443–444. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2003. ]
Online version
*
May 27
Events Pre-1600
* 1096 – Count Emicho enters Mainz, where his followers massacre Jewish citizens. At least 600 Jews are killed.
* 1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as Prince two weeks before his untimely death.
* 1153 &ndash ...
– Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician, 1st Prime Minister of India (born 1889)
* May 30
** Dave MacDonald, American sports car driver (born 1936)
** Eddie Sachs, American auto racing driver (born 1927)
** Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-born American physicist (born 1898)
June
*
June 3
** Raoul Magrin-Vernerey, French army officer (born 1892)
** Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Finnish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888)
*
June 6
Events Pre-1600
* 913 – Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed b ...
** Vasile Atanasiu, Romanian general (born 1886)
** Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1886–1964), Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (born 1886)
** Robert Warwick, American actor (born 1878)
* June 7
** Violet Attlee, Countess Attlee, wife of former British PM Clement Attlee (born 1895)
** Charlie Llewellyn, first non-white South African Test cricketer (born 1876)
* June 8 – Carlos Quintanilla , 37th President of Bolivia (born 1888)
* June 9 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born British newspaper publisher and politician (born 1879)
*
June 11
** Catharine Carter Critcher, American painter (born 1868)
** John Eke, Swedish Olympic athlete (born 1886)
** Plaek Phibunsongkhram, Thai field marshal and 3rd Prime Minister of Thailand (born 1897)
* June 18 – Giorgio Morandi, Italian painter (born 1890)
* June 24 – Stuart Davis (painter), Stuart Davis, American painter (born 1892)
* June 25 – Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (born 1888)
* June 27
** Salvatore Aldisio, Italian politician (born 1890)
** Mona Barrie, English actress (born 1909)
* June 29 – Eric Dolphy, American saxophonist (born 1928)
July
* July 1 – Pierre Monteux, French conductor (born 1875)
* July 2 – Fireball Roberts, American race car driver and a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame (born 1929)
*
July 6 – Zeng Junchen, Sichuan's 'King of Opium' (born 1888)
* July 7 – Lillian Copeland, American athlete (born 1904)
* July 11 – Maurice Thorez, leader of the French Communist Party (born 1900)
* July 13 – Stephen Galatti, Director of American Field Service, AFS, American Field Service (born 1888)
* July 14 – Prince Axel of Denmark (born 1888)
* July 15 – Luis Batlle Berres, Uruguayan political figure, 30th President of Uruguay (born 1897)
* July 16 – Alfred Junge, German-born art director (born 1886)
* July 21 – Jean Fautrier, French painter and sculptor (born 1898)
* July 22
** Leonid Baratov, Soviet director (born 1895)
** Gildo Bocci, Italian actor (born 1886)
* July 23 – Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, Burmese poet and politician (born 1876)
* July 25 – John Latham (judge), Sir John Latham, Australian judge and politician (born 1877)
* July 26 – William A. Seiter, American film director (born 1890)
* July 31 – Jim Reeves, American country singer (born 1923)
August
* August 3 – Flannery O'Connor, American writer (born 1925)
* August 6 – Sir Cedric Hardwicke, English actor (born 1893)
* August 7
** Salima Machamba, List of sultans on the Comoros, Sultan of Mohéli (born 1874)
** Aleksander Zawadzki, Polish politician, 12th President of Poland (born 1899)
* August 9 – Fontaine Fox, American cartoonist (born 1884)
* August 11 – André Aymard, French historian (born 1900)
* August 12
** Isidro Fabela, Mexican judge and politician (born 1882)
** Ian Fleming, British writer (born 1908)
** Dmitry Dmitrievich Maksutov, Soviet astronomer and inventor (born 1896)
* August 13 – Mushtaq Hussain Khan, Indian musician (born 1878)
* August 14 – Johnny Burnette, American singer (born 1934)
* August 18 – Mohammad Gul Khan Momand, Afghani politician (born 1885)
* August 20 – Anthony de Francisci, Italian-born American sculptor (born 1887)
* August 21 – Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party (born 1893)
* August 22 – Symeon Lukach, Soviet Eastern Catholic bishop, martyr and blessed (born 1893)
* August 23 – Estella Canziani, British painter (born 1887)
* August 27 – Gracie Allen, American actress and comedian, known as part of the comedy duo ''Burns and Allen'' (born 1895)
* August 28 – Lumsden Hare, Irish-born actor, theatre director, and theatre producer
* August 30 – Aleksei Aleksandrovich Grechkin, Soviet commander (born 1893)
* August 31 – Peter Lanyon, British painter (born 1918)
September
* September 2
** Glenn Albert Black, American archaeologist (born 1900)
** Francisco Craveiro Lopes, Portuguese military officer and politician, 12th President of Portugal (born 1894)
** Alvin C. York, Alvin Cullum York, American hero of World War I (born 1887)
* September 9
** Sir George Abercromby, 8th Baronet, British baronet (born 1886)
** Herschel Bennett, American baseball player of St. Louis Browns (born 1896)
* September 15 – Herbert Heywood (actor), Herbert Heywood, American actor (born 1881)
* September 17 – Clive Bell, English art critic (born 1881)
* September 18 – Seán O'Casey, Irish writer (born 1880)
* September 21 – Otto Grotewohl, East German Communist politician, 1st Leadership of East Germany, Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic (born 1894)
* September 23 – Fred M. Wilcox (director), Fred M. Wilcox, American film director (born 1907)
* September 28
** Nacio Herb Brown, American songwriter (born 1896)
** Harpo Marx, American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician (born 1888)
* September 29 – Fred Tootell, American Olympic athlete (born 1902)
October
* October 1 – Ernst Toch, Austrian composer (born 1887)
* October 10 – Eddie Cantor, American actor, comedian and dancer (born 1892)
* October 15 – Cole Porter, American composer and lyricist (born 1891)
* October 19 – Russ Brown (actor), Russ Brown, American actor (born 1892)
* October 20 – Herbert Hoover, American politician, 31st
President of the United States (born 1874)
* October 21 – Margaret Gibson (actress), Margaret Gibson, American actress (born 1894)
* October 22
** Khawaja Nazimuddin, Pakistani political figure, 2nd Prime Minister of Pakistan (born 1894)
** Whip Wilson, American actor (born 1911)
* October 25 – Joe Henderson (gospel singer), Joe Henderson, American rhythm and blues and gospel music singer (born 1937)
* October 26 – Eric Edgar Cooke, Australian serial killer (born 1931)
* October 27
** Pierre Cartier (jeweler), Pierre Cartier, French jeweller (born 1878)
** Rudolph Maté, Polish cinematographer (born 1898)
* October 29
** Claudio Ermelli, Italian actor (born 1892)
** Henry Larsen (explorer), Henry Larsen, Canadian explorer (born 1899)
* October 31 – Theodore Freeman, American astronaut (born 1930)
November
* November 2
** Charles Walter Allfrey, British general (born 1895)
** José Ramón Guizado, Panamanian politician, 17th President of Panama (born 1899)
* November 5
** Mabel Lucie Attwell, British illustrator (born 1879)
** John S. Robertson, Canadian film director (born 1878)
* November 6 – Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1873)
* November 10
** Jimmie Dodd, American actor and television personality (born 1910)
** Sam Newfield, American movie director (born 1899)
* November 11
** Franciszek Barda, Polish Roman Catholic clergyman and servant of God (born 1880)
** Juan de Dios Filiberto, Argentine violinist (born 1885)
** Eduard Steuermann, Austrian-American pianist and composer (born 1892)
* November 12 – Rickard Sandler, Swedish politician, 20th Prime Minister of Sweden (born 1884)
* November 13 – Oskar Becker, German philosopher (born 1889)
* November 14 – Heinrich von Brentano, German politician (born 1904)
* November 18 – Tommaso Besozzi, Italian journalist (born 1903)
*November 21 – Catherine Bauer Wurster, American architect and public housing advocate (born 1905)
* November 24 – William O'Dwyer, American diplomat and politician, 100th Mayor of New York City (born 1890)
* November 25 – Clarence Kolb, American actor (born 1874)
* November 28 – Charles Meredith (actor), Charles Meredith, American actor (born 1894)
* November 29 – Anne de Vries, Dutch writer (born 1904)
December
* December 1
** Marie-Clémentine Anuarite Nengapeta, Congolese Roman Catholic religious sister (born 1939)
** J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist (born 1892)
* December 2 – Pina Pellicer, Mexican actress (born 1934)
* December 5 – V. Veerasingam, Ceylon Tamil teacher and politician (born 1892)
* December 6 – Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough (born 1877)
* December 9 – Dame Edith Sitwell, British poet (born 1887)
* December 10 – Mariano Rossell y Arellano, Guatemalan clergyman (born 1894)
* December 11
** Sam Cooke, American singer and songwriter (born 1931)
** Alma Mahler, Alma Schindler Mahler, wife of Gustav Mahler (born 1879)
* December 13 – Ernesto Almirante, Italian actor (born 1877)
* December 14
** William Bendix, American actor (born 1906)
** Francisco Canaro, Uruguayan-born composer (born 1888)
* December 15 – C. J. Hambro, Norwegian politician and journalist (born 1885)
* December 17 – Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-born American physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1883)
* December 21 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (born 1880)
* December 22 – Rosa Borja de Ycaza, Ecuadorian writer (born 1889)
* December 24 – Kuksha of Odessa, Eastern Orthodox priest (born 1875)
* December 29 – Vladimir Favorsky, Russian artist and engraver (born 1886)
* December 30 – Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt, German neuropathologist (born 1885)
Famous scholars from Kiel: Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt
/ref>
* December 31
** Ólafur Thors, Icelandic politician, 8th Prime Minister of Iceland (born 1892)
** Henry Maitland Wilson, British field marshal (born 1881)
Nobel Prizes
* Nobel Prize in Physics, Physics – Charles Hard Townes, Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, Aleksandr Prokhorov
* Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemistry – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
* Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Physiology or Medicine – Konrad Bloch, Feodor Lynen
* Nobel Prize in Literature, Literature – Jean-Paul Sartre
* Nobel Peace Prize, Peace – Martin Luther King Jr.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:1964
1964,
Leap years in the Gregorian calendar