October 1964
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The following events occurred in October 1964:


October 1, 1964 (Thursday)

*The wreckage of the American submarine was located, almost a year and a half after it sank during sea trials east of Cape Cod, killing all 129 people on board.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the sec ...
Paul H. Nitze Paul Henry Nitze (January 16, 1907 – October 19, 2004) was an American politician who served as United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department. He is best k ...
disclosed later in the day that the
bathyscape A bathyscaphe ( or ) is a free-diving self-propelled deep-sea submersible, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere, but suspended below a float rather than from a surface cable, as in the classic bathysphere design. The float is fi ...
''
Trieste II Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
'' had positively identified the lost vessel by its identifying number, 593, found on five different parts of the sub, which had broken up as it descended. The ''Thresher'' had sunk on April 10, 1963, with its entire crew and 17 civilians. *At the University of California, Berkeley, police attempted to arrest
Jack Weinberg Jack Weinberg (born April 4, 1940) is an American environmental activist and former New Left activist who is best known for his role in the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964. Youth Weinberg was born in Buffal ...
, a Congress of Racial Equality volunteer who had violated a university ban on activism at the Sather Gate and who had refused to show his student identification. Hundreds of protesters then blocked the police car, and 21-year-old UC-Berkeley junior Mario Savio stood on the car's roof to address his fellow demonstrators, inaugurating the Free Speech Movement that would spread to other campuses. *On the first day they could apply for passes to visit relatives in East Germany, 32,156 residents of West Berlin applied at the 17 different offices in the city that issued the permits. Each pass entitled the bearer to one visit between October 30 and November 12, and two visits during Christmas and New Year. *The '' Shinkansen''
high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
system was inaugurated in Japan, beginning a trip on the line's first section between Tokyo and Osaka. The initial speed for the trip was slower than expected, at . *Born: Harry Hill, English comedian; as Matthew Keith Hall in
Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...
*Died:
Ernst Toch Ernst Toch (; 7 December 1887 – 1 October 1964) was an Austrian composer of classical music and film scores. He sought throughout his life to introduce new approaches to music. Biography Toch was born in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, into the family ...
, 76, Austrian composer


October 2 Events Pre-1600 * 829 – Theophilos succeeds his father Michael II as Byzantine Emperor. * 939 – Battle of Andernach: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, crushes a rebellion against his rule, by a coalition of Eberhard of Franconia and ot ...
, 1964 (Friday)

*All 80 people on board a Union de Transports Aériens flight were killed when the plane crashed into a mountain peak after taking off from
Palma Palma or La Palma means palm in a number of languages and may also refer to: Geography Africa *Palma, Mozambique, city ** Palma District *La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, Spain **La Palma (DO), a ''Denominación de Origen'' for wines from the ...
on the island of
Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...
. The DC-6 had made several stops en route from Paris to Nouakchott in
Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
, and departed from Palma at 4:14 a.m. and made its last contact with the Barcelona control tower at 5:10, giving no indication of trouble. Early accounts erroneously reported that the plane had fallen into the Mediterranean, roughly from Cartagena and the error would be repeated in reference books, including one account that "Although the crash area was searched by Spanish, French, British and Italian ships, neither survivors nor even wreckage of the doomed plane was ever discovered." The day after its disappearance, however, the missing French plane was located on the side of Mount Alcazaba, where it had impacted at on the mountain. *A Communist Chinese
musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
, '' The East Is Red'', was performed for the first time on a stage in Beijing and would gain widespread circulation the following year as a government-approved film about the Communist Revolution. ''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
'' would report the next day that the musical, using "our people's favorite form of expression— singing and dancing— vividly portrayed the Chinese people, under the leadership of the Chinese Communists and Chairman Mao, engaged in their glorious journey of revolutionary battle and development." *An American tourist in Paris was killed by a French woman who was committing suicide while both were visiting the Cathedral of
Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
. Veronica McConnell, a 24-year-old hospital technician, was fatally injured when 37-year-old Denise Rey-Herne climbed over the
balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...
of the high north tower and jumped, killing both of them. *The collapse of a four-story apartment building in Cairo were killed 45 people in Egypt. The dead were residents of the slums of the capital city's Deir el Malak district. * The Kinks, created by English brothers Ray Davies and Dave Davies, released their first album. The self-titled album, '' Kinks'', included their first hit song, " You Really Got Me". *Died:
James Cobb Burke James Cobb Burke (1915-1964) was an American photographer and photojournalist. He was born in Shanghai in 1915 to Methodist missionary parents. The family settled in Macon, Georgia, and Burke studied English at Emory University, graduating in 1937. ...
, 49, American photographer who worked for ''Life'' magazine, was killed when he fell from a mountain in the Assam state in India, while taking pictures for as part of a reporting assignment.


October 3, 1964 (Saturday)

* Operation Sea Orbit, the first round-the-world voyage by nuclear-powered ships, came to an end as the aircraft carrier and the missile cruiser arrived in
Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...
after a 64-day, trip made without refueling; the cruise marked "the first around-the-world showing of the American flag" since the voyage of the Great White Fleet between 1907 and 1909. *''
Algemene Bank Nederland Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN, "General Bank of the Netherlands") was a Dutch bank that was created in 1964 through the merger of the Netherlands Trading Society ( nl, Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij, NHM, est. 1824) with the (TB, est. 1861). I ...
'' (ABN, literally the General Bank of the Netherlands) was created by the merger of two Netherlands banks, ''Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij'' (NTS) and ''De Twentsche Bank (DTB)''. In the same year, ''Amsterdamsche Bank'' and '' Rotterdamsche Bank'' merged to create AMRO Bank. The two conglomerates would then merge in 1991 to become ABN AMRO. *The New York Yankees clinched the American League pennant for the 29th time in 64 seasons, beating the Cleveland Indians, 8 to 3 and putting them two games ahead of the Chicago White Sox with only one game left in the season. At season's end the next day, the Yankees had a 99–63 win–loss record, the White Sox were 98-64 and the Baltimore Orioles were 97–65. *The American TV series, '' Underdog'', about an anthropomorphic shoeshine dog who turns into a superhero whenever trouble calls, is first broadcast on NBC. The show, which was created by Total Television, is one of the earliest known Saturday morning cartoons on U.S. television. *A tornado killed 21 people when it swept through the predominantly Cajun French town of
Larose, Louisiana Larose is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,763 in 2020. It is part of the Houma– Bayou Cane–Thibodaux metropolitan statistical area. Geo ...
, during storms hatched by the approach of
Hurricane Hilda Hurricane Hilda was an intense tropical cyclone that ravaged areas of the United States Gulf Coast, particularly Louisiana. In addition to its damage inland, the hurricane greatly disrupted offshore oil production, and at its time was the costlie ...
. *Born:
Clive Owen Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for playing the lead role in the ITV series '' Chancer'' from 1990 to 1991. He received critical acclaim for his work in the film '' Close ...
, English actor; in Coventry


October 4, 1964 (Sunday)

*The St. Louis Cardinals clinched the National League pennant on the last day of the season with a combination of their 11 to 5 win over the New York Mets and the
Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...
' 10 to 0 loss to the
Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...
. Going into the final day, St. Louis and Cincinnati both had records of 92 wins and 69 losses and both were playing at home; the Reds' loss came in the afternoon, and would have played a one-game playoff if the Cardinals had lost their evening game against the last place Mets. *
Graham Hill Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in and as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite ...
of England won the U.S. Grand Prix motor race for the second consecutive year, at Watkins Glen, New York, giving him the lead over fellow Englishman John Surtees and Scotland's
Jim Clark James Clark Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. A versatile driver, he competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianapol ...
with one race left in the 1964 Grand Prix series for the World Driving Championship. The tenth and last race would take place in Mexico City on October 25. * Ahmad Shukeiri began the daily operation 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), with offices at the Orient House in
East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separat ...
, at that time a part of the Kingdom of Jordan. The creation of the PLO had been authorized by a June 2 resolution of the
Palestinian National Congress The Palestinian National Council (PNC) ( ar, المجلس الوطني الفلسطيني, "'Almajlis Alwataniu Alfilastiniu"') is the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and elects the PLO Executive Committee, which ...
. *The
1964 Armstrong 500 The 1964 Armstrong 500 was a production car race held on 4 October 1964 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The 500 mile race was open to Australian built production sedans of which 100 example ...
motor race was held at the
Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama (Wahluu) and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race held each October, and the Bathurst 12 Hour ...
in New South Wales, Australia, and was won by Spencer Martin and Bill Brown. *Died: Earnest Elmo Calkins, 96, American ad executive who pioneered the use of artwork, the " soft sell", and fictional characters in advertising. E. E. Calkins, known as "The Dean of Advertising Men" and co-founder of the Calkins and Holden agency, became one of the industry's most successful people despite being profoundly deaf since childhood.


October 5, 1964 (Monday)

*China's Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong received a delegation of officials from North Vietnam, including its prime minister, Phạm Văn Đồng, and predicted that the U.S. effort could be defeated in the Vietnam War. Noting that the U.S. had 18 army divisions and that it could only spare three in Asia, Mao concluded that it was "impossible for the United States to send many troops to South Vietnam." Historian Michael Lind would write nearly 50 years later, "The significance of these conversations can hardly be exaggerated. We now know that the nightmare of American strategists had come true in the summer and fall of 1964." *A narrow tunnel under the
Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
was shut down, but not before 23 men and 31 women had escaped to West Berlin during the previous 48 hours. One border guard, East German Army Corporal Egon Schultz, was killed by gunfire, either by a stray bullet fired by his fellow guardsmen, or by someone on the western side. The tunnel began beneath a building on East Berlin's Streilitzer Strasse, running 35 feet beneath the wall and then another 450 feet "to the cellar of an abandoned bakery at 97 Bernauerstrasse in the Wedding district" in the French zone of East Berlin. *The conference of
Non-Aligned Nations The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
began in Cairo, with representatives from 47 nations that considered themselves to be unaligned with either the United States or the Soviet Union. Congolese rebel Moise Tshombe arrived in Cairo, uninvited, after his charter jet was diverted to Athens and after he had returned to Cairo as the passenger on an Ethiopian Airlines, creating a diplomatic crisis. *Trans-Canada Air Lines began a nationwide campaign with full-page newspaper advertisements headlined "TAKE A LOOK AT AIR CANADA", to announce a new name that would work equally well in English or French. The first airplane with the Air Canada logo would fly Queen Elizabeth back to the United Kingdom on October 13.Peter Pigott, ''Royal Transport: An Inside Look at the History of Royal Travel'' (Dundurn, 2005) p168 *Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her consort The Duke of Edinburgh began an 8-day visit to Canada, starting with their landing at
RCAF Station Summerside Canadian Forces Base Summerside (CFB Summerside) was an air force base located in St. Eleanors, Prince Edward Island, Canada, now part of the city of Summerside. RCAF Station Summerside World War II The airfield was constructed by the Royal Ca ...
in Prince Edward Island on a chartered Boeing 707. The couple spent the night on board the royal yacht, HMY ''Britannia''. *The West African nation of
Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...
issued its own, distinct national currency, the
Gambian pound The pound (symbol: £) was the currency of the Gambia between 1965 and 1971. Gambia used the British West African pound until it issued its own currency on October 5, 1964. In 1971, the dalasi replaced the pound at a rate of £1 = D5 (or D1 = 4 / ...
, in preparation for its independence on February 18, 1965; the new notes replaced the existing colonial currency, the
British West African pound The pound was the currency of British West Africa, a group of British colonies, protectorates and mandate territories. It was equal to one pound sterling and was similarly subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. History In the 19th ...
.


October 6, 1964 (Tuesday)

*The Soviet Union launched
Kosmos 47 Kosmos 47 (russian: Космос 47 meaning ''Cosmos 47'') is the designation of an uncrewed test flight of a prototype Soviet Voskhod spacecraft, the first multiple-occupant spacecraft. Launched on 6 October 1964, the successful flight paved the ...
, an uncrewed test-flight of a prototype Soviet
Voskhod spacecraft The Voskhod (, ''"Sunrise"'') was a spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space program for human spaceflight as part of the Voskhod programme. It was a development of and a follow-on to the Vostok spacecraft. Voskhod 1 was used for a three ...
, a week before the actual Voskhod 1 crewed mission. According to one historian, the timetable for putting the three-man Voskhod capsule into space was hastened in order to move ahead of the two-man Gemini capsule being developed by the United States, and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev "placed so high a priority on space spectaculars that he felt it essential to fly a multimanned spacecraft before Gemini"; a three-man mission, by necessity, had to be very short because extra seats could only be accommodated by having less
life support Life support comprises the treatments and techniques performed in an emergency in order to support life after the failure of one or more vital organs. Healthcare providers and emergency medical technicians are generally certified to perform basic ...
. *The bishops of the Vatican Ecumenical Council approved measures for unity with non-Catholic Christians. Among items passed were a resolution of the Roman Catholic Church's need for "an examination of conscience" (2,120 to 46); an acknowledgment that the Church also had responsibility for the disunity with their "separated brethren" (2,076 to 92); to allow Catholics and other Christians to participate in common prayer in certain circumstances (1,872 to 292); and to take steps "to further Christian unity and inter-faith understanding" (2,099 to 62). *Queen Elizabeth II began "her most guarded day in history" with unprecedented security measures as she visited Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in Canada in the centennial celebration of the 1864 Charlottetown Conference. Because of fears of an attack on the British monarch, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police patrolled the streets and stood on the roofs of buildings, and four Royal Canadian Navy destroyers and a minesweeper escorted the royal yacht. The Queen addressed the crowd in both English and French. * Walter Ulbricht, the Communist Party leader of East Germany, announced an amnesty for 10,000 political prisoners who were to be released before December 20. Ulbricht said that his government would "pardon those who by their conduct in prison had shown that they had learned their lesson".


October 7, 1964 (Wednesday)

*'' See How They Run'' was broadcast on the NBC television network at 9:00 p.m. as the first " made-for-television movie", a feature-length motion picture designed to accommodate commercial breaks in its two hours. NBC ads in American newspapers announced it with the phrase "First Time on any Screen Anywhere!" and celebrated the "world premiere" of the suspense thriller, starring John Forsythe, Senta Berger, Franchot Tone,
Jane Wyatt Jane Waddington Wyatt ( ; August 12, 1910 – October 20, 2006) was an American actress. She starred in a number of Hollywood films, such as Frank Capra's ''Lost Horizon'', but is likely best known for her role as the housewife and mother Marg ...
and Leslie Nielsen. Critics praised the "experiment" as a solution for the shortage of good quality motion pictures available for TV, though one noted, "You can call it a movie if you wish. A more accurate description, despite the sumptuous and expensive production, might be that it was really more or less a two-hour television show." * Walter Jenkins, one of the most hard-working aides to U.S. President Johnson's staff, was arrested in the men's room of the YMCA in Washington, D.C., and charged with disorderly conduct after being caught engaged in homosexual intercourse. The FBI leaked the story to the Republican National Committee, although Johnson's opponent in the presidential election,
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 ...
, chose not to publicize it, and two Republican newspapers, the '' Chicago Tribune'' and the '' Cincinnati Enquirer'', declined to publish the story. Jenkins would resign on October 14, after the '' Washington Star'' informed him that it would report the incident. *The government of Southern Rhodesia announced that when
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 ...
achieved independence as Zambia, the colony would officially refer to itself as
Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
.Southern Rhodesia Information Service Press Statement 980/64 A.G.C. *Born: Dan Savage, American author and LGBT activist; in Chicago *Died: Eugen Varga, 84, Hungarian-born Soviet economic adviser


October 8, 1964 (Thursday)

*The FBI foiled a plot by the
United Klans of America The United Klans of America Inc. (UKA), based in Alabama, is a Ku Klux Klan organization active in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in membership in the late 1960s and 1970s,Abby Ferber. '' White Man Falling: Race, Gender, ...
to bomb the Evers Hotel in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where the remaining civil rights workers associated with the
Council of Federated Organizations The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was a coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations operating in Mississippi. COFO was formed in 1961 to coordinate and unite voter registration and other civil rights activities in the sta ...
(COFO) had been staying. Agents went to the home of a Klansman and seized a cache of dynamite that he had stockpiled there, after having been tipped off by an informer. *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 ...
(Taiwan) entered the Vietnam War with the first contingent of 15 uniformed army officers, led by Lt. General Teng Ting-yuan. * The Beatles recorded "
She's a Woman "She's a Woman" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on a non-album single in November 1964 as the B-side to "I Feel Fine", except in North Amer ...
" at the EMI Studios in Abbey Road. On the same day, drummer
Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
passed his driving test. *Born:
Jakob Arjouni Jakob Bothe (born Jakob Michelsen; 8 October 1964 – 17 January 2013), better known by his pen name Jakob Arjouni, was a German author. He received the 1992 Deutscher Krimi Preis, German Crime Fiction Prize for ''One Man, One Murder''. Life J ...
, German crime fiction author who wrote under the pseudonym Jakob Bothe; in Frankfurt (died of pancreatic cancer, 2013)


October 9, 1964 (Friday)

*At the Hôpital Necker in Paris, Dr. Jean Hamburger performed the first
kidney transplantation Kidney transplant or renal transplant is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage kidney disease (ESRD). Kidney transplant is typically classified as deceased-donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantati ...
from a deceased donor, after having pioneered kidney transplants in 1952. The donor was an anonymous 43-year-old person who had "died of a sudden cerebral catastrophe" and the recipient was a 19-year-old. *From October 9 to 17, the first major tests of the NASA worldwide tracking network were conducted in preparation for crewed
orbital flight An orbital spaceflight (or orbital flight) is a spaceflight in which a spacecraft is placed on a trajectory where it could remain in outer space, space for at least one orbit. To do this Geocentric orbit, around the Earth, it must be on a free ...
s in the
Gemini program Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...
. *
Explorer 22 Explorer 22 (known as S-66B pre-launch; also called BE-B or Beacon Explorer-B) was a small NASA ionospheric research satellite launched 9 October 1964, part of NASA's Explorer Program. It was instrumented with an electrostatic probe, four ra ...
was launched into a "near perfect orbit" from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as part of the first laser tests in outer space. *Born:
Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor. He directed the Academy Award–winning fantasy films ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006) and ''The Shape of Water'' (2017), winning the Academy Awards for Be ...
, Mexican-born filmmaker, director, and author; in
Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...
,
Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...
state


October 10, 1964 (Saturday)

*The
1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...
opened in Tokyo.
Yoshinori Sakai was the Olympic flame torchbearer who lit the cauldron at the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Biography Sakai was born on the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He was chosen for the role to symbolize Japan's postwar reconstruction a ...
, chosen to light the Olympic Flame, had been born near
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
on August 6, 1945, the day an atomic bomb was dropped on that city. Japan's Emperor
Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
then declared the games open. Starting at 2:00 in the afternoon local time, Olympic teams from 94 nations marched into the National Stadium. Live television coverage of the events could be seen in the United States with the aid of the recently launched Syncom 3 communications satellite, starting at 1:00 a.m. Eastern time on NBC. *Born: **
Maxi Gnauck Maxi Gnauck (born 10 October 1964) is a retired artistic gymnast who represented East Germany. With a total of 27 medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups, and European Championships she is considered one of the most successf ...
, East German Olympic woman gymnast, 1980 Olympic gold medalist and winner of gold medals in three world championship events; in
East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...
** Quinton Flynn, American voice actor; in Cleveland *Died:
Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...
, 72, American comedian


October 11, 1964 (Sunday)

*Five people were killed in an accident at the 1000 kilometres de Paris automobile race held at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry in
Montlhéry Montlhéry () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located from Paris. History Montlhéry lay on the strategically important road from Paris to Orléans. U ...
. Peter Lindner of West Germany was driving at full speed on the rain-swept course as Franco Patria of Italy was pulling onto the track following a pit stop. On the 85th lap, Lindner slammed on his brakes and his
Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
skidded into Patria's Abarth Simca 2000, then continued through the air to where four of the French race officials were standing, striking three of them. Patria was killed instantly; Lindner and the three flag marshals — Jean Peyrard, Roger Millot and M. Desmoulins — died of their injuries after being taken to a hospital.


October 12, 1964 (Monday)

* Nikita Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet Union's prime minister, was on vacation at the Black Sea resort of
Pitsunda Pitsunda ( ab, Пиҵунда, russian: Пицунда) or Bichvinta ( ka, ბიჭვინთა ) is a resort town in the Gagra District of Abkhazia/Georgia (country), Georgia. Founded by Greek colonists in the 5th century BC, Pitsunda became ...
in the Georgian SSR, and would recall later that he realized he had a problem when he did not receive a telephone call to inform him about the details of the Voskhod launch. He called the deputy premier, Leonid Smirnov, to demand to know why he had not been kept fully informed. Khrushchev was able to make his customary phone call to cosmonauts on a new mission and was heard on national television to joke, "I warn you, you managed quite well with the gravity overloads during takeoff, but be ready for the overloads which we will arrange for you after you come back to Earth. Then we'll meet you in Moscow with all the honors you deserve." It would be the last time that Soviet citizens heard him on television. *The Soviet Union launched '' Voskhod 1'' into Earth orbit with three cosmonauts at 1:30 p.m. local time (0730 UTC), marking the first time a spacecraft was launched with more than one crew member. After determining that the capsule was adequately pressurized, Vladimir Komarov,
Konstantin Feoktistov Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov (russian: Константин Петрович Феоктистов; 7 February 1926 – 21 November 2009) was a Soviet cosmonaut and an eminent space engineer. As a cosmonaut Feoktistov flew on Voskhod 1, the f ...
and Boris Yegorov requested permission to continue the mission without their space suits, and became the first humans to go into space without special gear. The flight was cut short and landed the next day after 16 orbits. Feoktistov was the first engineer to travel into space. ''Voskhod 1'' was the first crewed spacecraft to use an ion thruster rather than a conventional rocket engine. *In the evening, Leonid Brezhnev, the Second Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, called Khrushchev and told him that he was needed at a meeting of the Party's Central Committee "to discuss agriculture and 'some other matters'". *The 16th
Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products ...
Convention, where Dr. Robert Moog demonstrated his prototype
Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
, opened in New York City.


October 13, 1964 (Tuesday)

*Summoned by the Communist Party's Central Committee, First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev cut short his vacation. Before departing from
Pitsunda Pitsunda ( ab, Пиҵунда, russian: Пицунда) or Bichvinta ( ka, ბიჭვინთა ) is a resort town in the Gagra District of Abkhazia/Georgia (country), Georgia. Founded by Greek colonists in the 5th century BC, Pitsunda became ...
to Moscow, he met, as scheduled, France's energy minister, Gaston Palewski, in what would be his last conduct of foreign affairs, then boarded a plane and flew to Moscow. He was infuriated when nobody met him at the airport on his arrival, and went to the
Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...
to confront the Presidium, which was discussing his removal from office. According to one source, he ordered his defense minister, Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, to arrest Second Secretary Mikhail Suslov and any other conspirators; Malinovsky replied that he would only respond to the party's
Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
, and KGB Chairman Vladimir Semichastny gave the same reply. Khrushchev was advised that he was to appear before the entire 170-member Committee for a hearing on his removal from office. * Iran's parliament, the
Majlis ( ar, المجلس, pl. ') is an Arabic term meaning "sitting room", used to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups of administrative, social or religious nature in countries with linguistic or cultural conne ...
, narrowly approved the "Bill of Capitulation" (''Layihiyi Capitulasion'') introduced by the government of Prime Minister
Hassan Ali Mansur Hasan Ali Mansur ( fa, حسن علی منصور‎; 13 April 1923 – 26 January 1965) was an Iranian politician who served as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1965. He served during the White Revolution of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and was a ...
, giving diplomatic immunity to American military servicemen stationed there, voting 74 to 61 in favor of it. The reaction by the Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...
13 days later would lead to Khomeini's expulsion from the country for the next 14 years. *Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during h ...
concluded her official tour of Canada, departing from
Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
to London on the first flight of an airplane carrying the name and logos of Air Canada. * Voskhod 1 landed at 0747 UTC (2:47 p.m. local time) in the Kazakh SSR, northeast of
Kustanai Kostanay ( kz, Қостанай, Qostanai ) is a city located on the Tobol River in northern Kazakhstan. It was known as Nikolayevsk (russian: Николаевск) until 1895 and then as Kustanay (russian: Кустанай) until 1997. Kostanay ...
, after making 16 orbits of the Earth.


October 14 Events Pre-1600 *1066 – The Norman conquest of England begins with the Battle of Hastings. * 1322 – Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at the Battle of Old Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's i ...
, 1964 (Wednesday)

*The
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,  – TsK KPSS was the executive leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, acting between sessions of Congress. According to party statutes, the committee direct ...
voted to retire Nikita Khrushchev from his position as the Party's General Secretary, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet voted to accept his "voluntary" retirement as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, thus removing him from his position as the leader of the Soviet Union. In a continuation of the Central Committee meeting that started the day before, one speaker after another outlined Khrushchev's mistakes, with Mikhail Suslov,
Dmitry Polyansky Dmitry Stepanovich Polyansky (russian: Дми́трий Степа́нович Поля́нский; – 8 October 2001) was a Soviet statesman who was First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from 1965 to 1973. F ...
, Alexander Shelepin, Leonid Brezhnev and
Petr Shelest Petro Yukhymovych Shelestrussian: Пётр Ефи́мович Ше́лест, translit=Pyotr Yefimovich Shelest (14 February 190822 January 1996) was a Ukrainian Soviet politician. First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian Sovie ...
denouncing him. Among the offenses charged against Khrushchev were that he had tried to develop a
cult of personality A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an id ...
; that he had presided over the nation's economic decline; that he had brought the Soviet Union to the brink of war in the Suez, in Berlin and in Cuba; and that he had insulted his colleagues and the nation's foreign allies. The Committee unanimously approved a resolution that "Recognizing that as a result of mistakes and incorrect actions by Comrade Khrushchev, violating Leninist principles of collective leadership... there has been created a completely abnormal situation, preventing members of the Central Committee Presidium from fulfilling responsible tasks in leading the party and the country", and went on to admonish him for "concentrating in his hands great power" (as both party leader and government leader) and failing to consider the views of the senior party leaders, as well as "revealing intolerance and rudeness towards comrades in the Presidium and the Central Committee, treating their views with disdain". Khrushchev resigned his positions, and the Party voted to grant him benefits for the rest of his life, including a security staff, his GAZ-13 Chaika limousine and chauffeur, an apartment in Moscow and a dacha to stay at in the countryside, as well as a pension of 500 rubles per month. Resolving to keep the roles of party and governmental leadership separate, the Central Committee then installed Leonid Brezhnev as the new Communist Party leader and Alexei Kosygin became the new Premier. The news of Khrushchev's surprise ouster was not revealed to Soviet citizens or to the rest of the world until October 16, with a statement in '' Pravda'' that said, "A plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU took place on 14 October of this year. The plenum of the CC CPSU granted the request of Comrade N. S. Khrushchev to be released from his duties as First Secretary of the CC CPSU, member of the Presidium of the CC CPSU and Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, in connection with his advanced age and the deterioration of his health. The plenum of the CC CPSU elected L. I. Brezhnev as First Secretary of the CC CPSU." *A Boeing B-50D-80-BO Superfortress, ''48-065'', converted to KB-50J, of the
421st Air Refueling Squadron The 421st Air Refueling Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 41st Air Division at Yokota Air Base, Japan, where it was inactivated on 18 February 1965. In 1985 the squadron was consolidated with th ...
,
Takhli RTAFB Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base is a Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) facility in central Thailand, approximately 144 miles (240 km) northwest of Bangkok in Takhli District, Nakhon Sawan Province. Units Takhli is the home of the Royal Tha ...
, crashed in Thailand shortly after takeoff on a training mission while supporting Yankee missions over Laos. Corrosion found in the wreckage would lead to early retirement of the KB-50 fleet and its replacement with
Boeing KC-135 The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It is the predominant variant of the C-135 Stratolifter family of transport ...
s. * Hurricane Isbell threatened the Cape Kennedy area and appeared to be continuing into the next day , but its path was far enough south to make temporary taking down of Gemini launch vehicle 2 2 unnecessary, though testing was curtailed. *Italian soccer football legend Giorgio Chinaglia played his first professional game, appearing at the age of 17 for Swansea Town in a 2–2 tie with Rotherham United in the English League's Third Division. *Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States. *The Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter made its first flight, at the Sikorsky plant in
Stratford, Connecticut Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. Stratford is in the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was settled ...
, several months behind schedule. *Born:
Joe Girardi Joseph Elliott Girardi (born October 14, 1964) is an American former professional baseball player and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). Girardi played the catcher position for the Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, and St. ...
, American baseball player and manager, voted National League Manager of the Year in 2006 after being fired by the Florida Marlins and also led the New York Yankees to the
2009 World Series The 2009 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2009 season. As the 105th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff contested between the Philadelphia Phillies, champions of the National Leag ...
championship; in
Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...


October 15 Events Pre-1600 *1066 – Following the death of Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, Edgar the Ætheling is proclaimed King of England by the Witan; he is never crowned, and concedes power to William the Conqueror two months later. * 1211 ...
, 1964 (Thursday)

* Elections were held for the 630 seats of the United Kingdom's House of Commons, and brought an end to 13 years of rule by the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
, led by Prime Minister
Alec Douglas-Home Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and being The 14th Earl of Home from 1951 till 1963, was a British Conservative politician who se ...
. Prior to the dissolution of Parliament, the Conservatives had 365 seats and
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
's Labour Party had 258. Sixty-six Conservative MPs were voted out of office, and the party gained only five for a net loss of 61 seats. Labour replaced 65 of the 66. After the votes were counted, Labour had only two more than the 315 seats needed for a majority, with a slim lead of 317 to Conservative's 304 and Liberal's nine. *The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the visiting New York Yankees, 7 to 5, to win the World Series in seven games, ending the Yankees' long run of successes. * Craig Breedlove's jet-powered car ''
Spirit of America Spirit of America may refer to: Transport *Spirit of America (automobile), land speed record-setting vehicles *''Spirit of America'', a book of photography by Ken Duncan *''Spirit of America'', the first B-2 Spirit bomber *''Spirit of America'', o ...
'' set a new world record for fastest speed on land, as he became the first person to drive an automobile at more than . Racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, he averaged . The previous mark of had been set only two days earlier. On his way back down the Bonneville track, however, Breedlove deployed the parachute that was supposed to stop his car after it completed one mile, and, in his words, "It ripped to shreds, I was going so fast." He coasted for two more miles and tried the second parachute, and it ripped as well. He then pushed on the disc brakes and left skid marks of long until they burned out, and was still at as he reached the end of the track; he continued three more miles, striking two telephone poles, skidded sideways into a dike, went airborne for and landed in deep waters— and walked away, uninjured. *At the Summer Olympics,
Yelena Gorchakova Yelena Yegorovna Gorchakova (russian: Елена Егоровна Горчакова; 17 May 1933 – 27 January 2002) was a Russian javelin thrower who won bronze medals at the 1952 and 1964 Olympics. Her 1964 bronze was a disappointment as she ...
of the Soviet Union shattered the women's world record for the javelin throw with a mark of 62.40 meters (204 feet, 8½ inches), beating the old record of 59.78m (196' 1½"). *Born: Luis Fernando López, Bolivian businessman, retired military officer, and politician who served as
minister of defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
from 2019 to 2020; in
La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
*Died: ** Nguyen Van Troi, 24, Vietnamese bomber who was executed by a firing squad after being convicted of a plot to assassinate U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and Ambassador
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 ...
who were visiting South Vietnam in May. **
Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...
, 73, American composer and songwriter


October 16, 1964 (Friday)

*The People's Republic of China became the fifth nation in the world (after the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France) to acquire nuclear weapons, after successfully exploding an
atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
at the
Lop Nor Lop Nur or Lop Nor (from a Mongolian name meaning "Lop Lake", where "Lop" is a toponym of unknown origin) is a former salt lake, now largely dried up, located in the eastern fringe of the Tarim Basin, between the Taklamakan and Kumtag deserts ...
test site in a desert in the Xinjiang region. The 25-kiloton bomb, code named "
596 __NOTOC__ Year 596 ( DXCVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 596 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era bec ...
", was detonated at 3:00 in the afternoon China Standard Time (0700 UTC). *
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
was asked by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, following the triumph of his Labour Party. Immediate appointments to the
First Wilson ministry First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
included Gerald Gardiner, Baron Gardiner as Lord Chancellor,
James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is ...
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and
Patrick Gordon Walker Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker, Baron Gordon-Walker, (7 April 1907 – 2 December 1980) was a British Labour Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament for nearly thirty years, and served twice as a Cabinet Minister. He lost his Smethwi ...
as Foreign Secretary. He would continue as Prime Minister until June 20, 1970, then serve again from 1974 to 1976. *
Baron Gardiner Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...
, was appointed by Prime Minister Wilson to be the new
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...
, who functioned as the presiding officer of the House of Lords and the highest ranking judiciary officer for England and Wales, as well as a member of the Queen's Privy Council and of the Prime Minister's Cabinet.


October 17, 1964 (Saturday)

*NASA's Crew Systems Division reported that the first Gemini extravehicular prototype suit had been received from the contractor and assigned to
Astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
James A. McDivitt James Alton McDivitt (June 10, 1929 – October 13, 2022) was an American test pilot, United States Air Force (USAF) pilot, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut in the Project Gemini, Gemini and Apollo programs. He joined the USAF in 1951 ...
for evaluation in the Gemini mission simulator. During the test, McDivitt complained of some bulkiness and immobility while the suit was in the unpressurized condition, but the bulk did not appear to hinder mobility when the suit was pressurized. The thermal/
micrometeoroid A micrometeoroid is a tiny meteoroid: a small particle of rock in space, usually weighing less than a gram. A micrometeorite is such a particle that survives passage through Earth's atmosphere and reaches Earth's surface. The term "micrometeoroid ...
cover layer had been installed on a test suit sent to Ling-Temco-Vought for thermal testing in the space simulator chamber. *Flight Crew Support Division reported that the Gemini-Titan (GT) 3 primary crew had completed egress practice in boilerplate No. 201 in the Ellington Air Force Base flotation tank. The backup GT-4 crew was scheduled for such training on October 23. Full-scale egress and recovery training for both the GT-3 and the GT-4 crews was scheduled to begin about January 15, when parachute refresher courses would also be scheduled. *Crew Systems Division reported that zero-g tests had been conducted at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to evaluate extravehicular
life support system A life-support system is the combination of equipment that allows survival in an environment or situation that would not support that life in its absence. It is generally applied to systems supporting human life in situations where the outsid ...
ingress techniques. Results showed that, after practice at zero-g, subjects wearing the chest pack had successfully entered the spacecraft and secured the hatch in approximately 50 seconds. *Prime Minister Wilson created the government post of Secretary of State for Wales and appointed veteran Welsh Labour MP Jim Griffiths to the new position.


October 18, 1964 (Sunday)

* Barbara Castle was appointed as the British
Minister for Overseas Development The minister of state for development and Africa, formerly the minister of state for development and the secretary of state for international development, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The off ...
by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, becoming the first female cabinet minister in the United Kingdom since
Florence Horsbrugh Florence Gertrude Horsbrugh, Baroness Horsbrugh, GBE, PC (13 October 1889 – 6 December 1969) was a Scottish Unionist Party and Conservative Party politician. The historian Kenneth Baxter has argued "in her day... hewas arguably the best k ...
's service in the early 1950s as the British Minister of Education for England and Wales in Prime Minister Winston Churchill's cabinet. *The New York World's Fair closed for the year after a six-month run, and paid attendance of 33,373,446 people, with 200,076 passing through the turnstiles on the final day. It would reopen for a second six-month run on April 21, 1965. *
Charles Lwanga Charles Lwanga (Luganda: Kaloli Lwanga; 1 January 18603 June 1886) was a Ugandan convert to the Catholic Church who was martyred with a group of his peers and is revered as a saint by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. A memb ...
, and the 21 Uganda Martyrs who were killed for converting to Roman Catholicism in the 19th century, were made saints of the Roman Catholic Church in a
canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...
by Pope Paul VI. *
Kevin Berry Kevin John Berry, OAM, (10 April 1945 – 7 December 2006) was an Australian butterfly swimmer of the 1960s who won the gold medal in the 200-metre butterfly at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He set twelve world records in his career. ...
broke his own world record in the men's 200m butterfly (long course) on the last day of the swimming competition at the
Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
in Tokyo, Japan, with a time of 2:06.6. *The new University of South Alabama was dedicated at
Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...
.


October 19, 1964 (Monday)

*The nearly intact bones of a woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') were discovered near the town of Kyle, Saskatchewan, where William MacEvoy was working with a construction crew on the building of a new road. When the scraper blade on an earthmover exposed large bones, MacEvoy recognized its significance and work halted until the rest of the skeleton could be found.
Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...
determined that the mammoth had died sometime between 10200 and 9800 BC. * NASA and the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
announced the taking of applications for
NASA Astronaut Group 4 NASA Astronaut Group 4 ("The Scientists") was a group of six astronauts selected by NASA in June 1965. While the astronauts of the first two groups were required to have an undergraduate degree or the professional equivalent in engineering or t ...
, the first to be chosen from scientists rather than pilots. According to the announcement, a candidate had to be a U.S. citizen, no taller than six feet (183 cm), born on or after August 1, 1930, and to have an M.D. or a Ph.D. in natural sciences or engineering. Three physicists, two physicians and a geologist would ultimately be chosen as the six candidates. *The Novorossiysk Sheskharis Oil Terminal, one of the largest such terminals in Russia, provided its first shipment of crude oil, with the delivery of 37,000 tons of petroleum to the tanker ''Likhoslavl'' at the harbor on the Black Sea. *Born: ** Agnès Jaoui, French actress, director and screenwriter; in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine ** Ty Pennington, American television host; as Gary Tygert Burton in Atlanta *Died: **Marshal Sergey Biryuzov, 59, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and the nation's highest-ranking military officer, was killed along with six other Red Army generals and the airplane's 11-member crew, when their Ilyushin-18 turboprop crashed into the side of
Mount Avala Avala ( sr-cyr, Авала, ) is a mountain in Serbia, overlooking Belgrade. It is situated in the south-eastern corner of the city and provides a great panoramic view of Belgrade, Vojvodina and Šumadija, as the surrounding area on all sides is ...
in Yugoslavia's Serbian Republic. The officers were on their way to a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Yugoslavia's liberation from Germany in 1944. ** Russ Brown, 72, American stage actor who won a Tony Award for the musical '' Damn Yankees''


October 20, 1964 (Tuesday)

*The new Soviet government announced, by way of the official newspaper '' Izvestia'', its approval of an experimental profit-based economic system that had been recommended by economist Yevsei Liberman of
Kharkov State University The Kharkiv University or Karazin University ( uk, Каразінський університет), or officially V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University ( uk, Харківський національний університет імені ...
. On September 20, Liberman had noted in the Communist Party newspaper ''Pravda'' that two textile factories had increased productivity by allowing factory managers to depart from government-mandated production quotas and had relied instead on direct communication from retail stores and distributors concerning consumer need. *Aircraft flown from
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 ...
flew into neighboring Cambodia and bombed the village of Anlong Chrey, killing seven civilians. Cambodia protested to the United Nations, then shot down a U.S. transport plane four days later. *Born: Kamala Harris, 49th Vice President of the United States, U.S. Senator from California from 2017 to 2021; in
Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
*Died: Herbert Hoover, 90, 31st president President of the United States. Hoover, who had served from 1929 to 1933, and passed away at 11:35 a.m. in the Waldorf Towers in Manhattan, where he had retired after leaving the White House. U.S. President Johnson ordered flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days. At the time, Hoover was the second longest-lived former U.S. president, behind John Adams, whose record would be broken by
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
in 2001, who was 93 years, 120 days old when he died in 2004; three presidents would later exceed Reagan's record, with Jimmy Carter currently holding it.


October 21, 1964 (Wednesday)

*The film version of the hit Broadway stage musical '' My Fair Lady'' had its world premiere, projected at the Criterion Theater in New York City on Broadway. It would then be released in other major cities during the autumn before being distributed nationwide.
Rex Harrison Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play ''French Without Tears'', in what ...
reprised his stage performance as Professor Henry Higgins, a role which would win him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Harrison's Broadway co-star,
Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...
, had been passed over in favor of
Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
for the role of Eliza Doolittle. '' My Fair Lady'' would win eight Academy Awards in all, including Best Picture, but Hepburn would not even be nominated; the award for Best Actress would go, instead, to Andrews for her performance in ''
Mary Poppins It may refer to: * ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character. * Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers. * ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film sta ...
''. * Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the president and Communist Party chief of Romania, broke relations with the Soviet Union's new leadership, and told the Soviet Ambassador in Bucharest to withdraw all KGB spies and officials from the country. The move would trigger an angry reaction from the Soviets, who ultimately agreed to pull their agents out of Romania in December, marking the first time that a Warsaw Pact member got rid of the USSR's intelligence agency. *The
asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
''
1930 Lucifer 1930 Lucifer, provisional designation , is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 34 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 October 1964, by American astronomer Elizabeth Roemer at the Flagsta ...
'', roughly in diameter, was discovered by astronomer Elizabeth Roemer from the observatory in
Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has ...
. Roemer was given the honor of naming the asteroid, and gave it the name " Lucifer", Latin for "light-giver", but also associated in literature with the fallen angel who became the Devil, most notably by Dante Alighieri in his 13th century epic '' The Inferno'', and by
John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
in his 17th century epic ''
Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...
''. Lucifer was mentioned in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah 14:12, though subsequent translations of the original Hebrew refer to the "morning star". *Students at the University of Khartoum in the
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
began protests against the nation's government after being inspired by the
Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...
, leading to the downfall of President Ibrahim Abboud. *Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila won the Olympic Marathon, only 40 days after he had undergone surgery for an appendectomy. Bikila was the first person to win the event twice. *Died: Margaret Gibson, 70, American silent film leading lady


October 22, 1964 (Thursday)

*A 5.3 kiloton nuclear device was detonated in Mississippi in the underground Tatum Salt Dome, below Lamar County near
Baxterville Baxterville is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Lamar County, Mississippi. It is located in the southwestern portion of Lamar County along Mississippi Highway 13, southwest of Hattiesburg. The community has one school, ...
. The shock wave from the blast "lifted the ground 4 inches in a ripple that rolled across the countryside for miles"; prior to the blast, a
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...
employee placed a humorous sign near the instruments over the blast site, with the words "The South shall rise again". The test was the "Salmon" phase of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Project Dribble, part of the
Vela Uniform Vela Uniform was an element of Project Vela conducted jointly by the United States Department of Energy and the Advanced Research Projects Agency. Its purpose was to develop seismic methods for detecting underground nuclear testing, and it involved ...
program. *The city of
Camarillo, California Camarillo ( ) is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 70,741, an increase of 5,540 from the 65,201 counted in the 2010 Census. Camarillo is named for brothers Juan an ...
, named for popular town citizens Adolfo Camarillo and Juan Camarillo Jr., who had laid out the town in 1910, was incorporated. Councilman Earl Joseph was selected as the city's first mayor. With a population of less than 2,400 at the time of incorporation, Camarillo would increase to more than 19,000 within six years and had a population of 70,741 in 2020. *'' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'', a book written by British author
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
, was published posthumously by
Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...
in London. Ian, known for his '' James Bond'' novels, died two months prior to the books release. The book would be made into a 1968 film of the same name, getting positive reviews on its first showing. *The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, despite the fact he had declined it in advance. *Born: **
Amit Shah Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...
, Indian politician, current Minister of Home Affairs and leader of that nation's second largest political organization, the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2014 to 2020; in Bombay (now Mumbai) ** Paul McStay, Scottish soccer football player who appeared for 17 seasons and 515 games for Celtic between 1981 and 1997; in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire ** Dražen Petrović, Croatian Yugoslavian NBA player and Basketball Hall of Fame member; in Šibenik, Croatian SR, Yugoslavia (killed in auto accident, 1993) ** TobyMac (stage name for Kevin Michael McKeehan), American Christian rapper; in Fairfax, Virginia *Died: Whip Wilson (Roland Charles Meyers), 53, American western film star in the 1940s and 1950s; of a heart attack


October 23, 1964 (Friday)

*Inventor Sidney A. Heenan of Park Ridge, Illinois, applied for the patent for the reflective raised pavement marker that marks traffic lanes in much of the world, describing his invention as "a marking visible from an oncoming vehicle on a generally horizontal roadway surface" by means of a "reverse light receiving and reflecting face provided with a plurality of retrodirective reflector elements of the cube corner type for receiving light emanating from the oncoming vehicle and incident upon the obverse face in a generally horizontal direction of incidence and reflecting such light to return the incident light generally parallel to the direction of incidence." U.S. Patent Number 3,332,327 would be granted on July 25, 1967. *The first land was purchased for the site of the future Walt Disney World in rural Orange County, Florida, near the
Interstate 4 Interstate 4 (I-4) is an Interstate Highway located entirely within the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Spanning along a generally southwest–northeast axis, I-4 is entirely concurrent wi ...
highway (I-4), using a holding company called the "Ayefour Corporation" in order to prevent speculators from finding out that Walt Disney was buying up property. The first sale was for five acres of land. Over the next 12 months, Disney would acquire 21,000 acres in Orange County and about 9,000 adjacent acres in Osceola County. *Eight weeks after
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers were an American 1960s group, best remembered for their 1964 million-selling record, " Last Kiss". Career The Cavaliers formed around 1955 with leader and guitarist Sid Holmes, bassist Lewis Elliott, saxophon ...
had released their hit ballad, "
Last Kiss "Last Kiss" is a song released by Wayne Cochran in 1961 on the Gala label. It failed to do well on the charts. Cochran subsequently re-recorded his song for the King label in 1963. It was revived by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, who took ...
", about a boy whose date was killed in a car accident, several of the band members were injured and their manager was killed when their car collided head-on with a tractor-trailer near
Kenton, Ohio Kenton is a city in and the county seat of Hardin County, Ohio, United States, located in the west-central part of Ohio about 57 mi (92 km) northwest of Columbus and 70 mi (113 km) south of Toledo. Its population was 7,947 a ...
. Sonley Roush was driving Wilson and his band to
Lima, Ohio Lima ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwest Ohio along Interstate 75 in Ohio, Interstate 75 approximately north of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, southwest of Toledo, Ohio, T ...
, for an appearance. * World Championship Wrestling, the first large scale professional wrestling circuit in Australia, made its arena debut at the
Sydney Stadium The Sydney Stadium was a sporting and entertainment venue in Sydney, New South Wales, which formerly stood on the corner of New South Head Road and Neild Avenue, Rushcutters Bay. Built in 1908, it was demolished in 1970 to make way for the ...
. *Born: Robert Trujillo, American musician who has been the bassist for heavy metal band
Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
since 2003; in Santa Monica, California *Died:
David Box David Box (August 11, 1943 – October 23, 1964) was an American rock musician in the early 1960s. Box was influenced by fellow Texan Buddy Holly, and even took his place as singer of his group, The Crickets, for a short time after Holly's death ...
, 21, American musician who took over as lead singer for The Crickets after
Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...
was killed in a 1959 plane crash. Box himself died in a plane crash along with three other people.


October 24, 1964 (Saturday)

*The Republic of Zambia became independent at 12:01 a.m. local time (2201 UTC October 23) after having been the British protectorate 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 ...
, ending 73 years of British rule. At 11:56 p.m., the Union Jack had been lowered at
Independence Stadium Independence Stadium may also refer to: * Independence Stadium (Bakau) in Gambia * Independence Stadium (Namibia) in Windhoek * Independence Stadium (South Africa) in Mthatha, a football stadium in South Africa * Independence Stadium (Tanzania) ...
in
Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was ab ...
by the last Governor, Sir Evelyn Hone, who was accompanied by Commonwealth Secretary Arthur Bottomley, and by Victoria Alexandra, Princess Royal, who was appearing on behalf of her niece, Queen Elizabeth II. Kenneth Kaunda, who had been Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia for ten months after the breakup of 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 ...
, was inaugurated as the first president of Zambia. * Cambodia shot down an American C-123 cargo plane that was part of a convoy of three U.S. Air Force transports flying over the Cambodian border village of Dak Dam in the Mondulkiri Province. All eight crew members on board were killed. The action came four days after the neutral nation's leader, Prince
Norodom Sihanouk Norodom Sihanouk (; km, នរោត្តម សីហនុ, ; 31 October 192215 October 2012) was a Cambodian statesman, Sangkum and FUNCINPEC politician, Norodom Sihanouk filmography, film director, and composer who led Cambodia in vari ...
, had protested to the United Nations about the bombing of a Cambodian village by a South Vietnamese airplane. *The
1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...
came to an end in Tokyo.


October 25 Events Pre-1600 * 285 (or 286) – Execution of Saints Crispin and Crispinian during the reign of Diocletian, now the patron saints of leather workers, curriers, and shoemakers. * 473 – Emperor Leo I acclaims his grandson Leo II a ...
, 1964 (Sunday)

*The World Driving Championship, awarded to the best overall driver of Formula One race cars in the season's series of
Grand Prix motor racing Grand Prix motor racing, a form of motorsport competition, has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as early as 1894. It quickly evolved from simple road races from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car an ...
events, came down to the 10th and final event of the
1964 Formula One season The 1964 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It included the 1964 World Championship of Drivers, won by John Surtees; and the 1964 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, won by Ferrari – both of which were co ...
, the Mexican Grand Prix. After nine races,
Graham Hill Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in and as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite ...
had 39 points, John Surtees 34, and
Jim Clark James Clark Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. A versatile driver, he competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianapol ...
30 under a "9–6–4–3–2–1" scoring system that gave points to the six highest finishers in a race (nine points for first place, six points for second, down to one point for sixth place). Hill needed only to be one of the six top finishers; Surtees had to finish first or second; Clark (who won the pole position in qualifying) had the potential to tie for the series championship if he won in Mexico and neither Hill nor Surtees finished in the top six. Hill completed 44 of the 65 laps in the race before developing engine trouble, and got no extra points; Clark led most of the way until 10 laps from the end when he had an oil leak, and would say later, "I did what I could but half a lap from the end the motor just ceased and that was the end." Dan Gurney crossed the finish line first in Mexico, and in the final minute, the race for second ended up as a duel between Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini; Surtees crossed the finish line at 2:10.59.26, just 0.69 seconds ahead of Bandini. On the strength of the six points for second place, Surtees finished the season with 40 points, Hill with 39, to win the 1964 championship by a single point. *In one of the more notable mistakes in National Football League history, Jim Marshall of the Minnesota Vikings scooped up a fumble made by the San Francisco 49ers, was twisted around in the process, and ran 66 yards with it to the end zone "for what he thought was a touchdown"; Marshall had actually run towards his own end zone and threw the ball out of bounds in a celebration that resulted in a safety and two points for his opponents. Late in the fourth quarter, the Vikings had been ahead of the 49ers, 27–17, and the mistake cut the lead to 27–19. Marshall and his teammates were able to keep the 49ers from the end zone for the rest of the game, and limited them to one more field goal in a 27–22 win. Roy Riegels, whose wrong-way run in the 1929 Rose Bowl helped the University of California to lose the game, joked the next day, "I think I'll drop him a line saying, 'Welcome to the club.' Take it from me, he'll get a lot of kidding for the rest of his life, so he'll just have to learn to take it and laugh with the crowd." * The Rolling Stones made their first appearance on '' The Ed Sullivan Show''. While the studio audience was enthusiastic, television viewers had a different reaction. Unlike The Beatles, who had appeared in February dressed in jackets and ties, Mick Jagger wore a sweatshirt, prompting the show's producers to tell the Stones' manager later, "We were deluged with mail protesting the untidy appearance—clothes and hair of your Rolling Stones. Before even discussing the possibility of a contract, I would like to learn from you, whether your young men have reformed in the matter of dress and shampoo." Nevertheless, the band would return six months later. * Phan Khắc Sửu was installed as the new president of South Vietnam as part of the military leaders' promise to make the transition to a civilian government. He would serve less than eight months before being ousted on June 14."Vietnam, Republic of (South Vietnam)", in ''Heads of States and Governments: A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Over 2,300 Leaders, 1945 through 1992'', by Harris M. Lentz (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1994) *Born: ** Nicole Hohloch Seibert, German singer who performs under her first name; in
Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...
, West Germany **
Kevin Michael Richardson Kevin Michael Richardson (born October 25, 1964) is an American actor. Known for his distinctively deep voice, he has mostly voiced villainous characters in animation and video games. In film, Richardson voiced Goro in ''Mortal Kombat'' (1995) ...
, American voice actor for animated shows and video games; in The Bronx *Died: General Terentii Shtykov, 57, Russian officer who was the military administrator of the Soviet occupation of the Korean peninsula above the 38th parallel from 1945 to 1948 and guided the establishment of the Stalinist government of North Korea.


October 26, 1964 (Monday)

*Ten days into his new administration, British Prime Minister
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
addressed the nation and announced a 15 percent surcharge on all imported manufactured goods in order to combat the nation's trade deficit, as well as tax rebates to encourage British exports. *In an interview for '' Missiles and Rockets'' magazine, NASA Associate Administrator
Robert C. Seamans, Jr. Robert Channing Seamans Jr. (October 30, 1918 – June 28, 2008) was an MIT professor who served as NASA Deputy Administrator and 9th United States United States Secretary of the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force. Birth and education He wa ...
, stated that NASA planned to initiate program definition studies of an Apollo X spacecraft during Fiscal Year 1965. Seamans emphasized that such a long-duration
space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...
program would not receive funding for actual hardware development until the 1970s. He stressed that NASA's Apollo X would not compete with the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program: "MOL is important for the military as a method of determining what opportunities there are for men in space. It is not suitable to fulfill NASA requirements to gain scientific knowledge." *NASA astronaut
Russell L. Schweickart Russell Louis "Rusty" Schweickart (also Schweikart; born October 25, 1935) is an American aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut, research scientist, U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, as well as a former business executive and govern ...
spent eight days in a Gemini space suit to evaluate Gemini biomedical recording instruments. While in the suit, the astronaut flew several zero-g flight profiles, went through a simulated four-day Gemini mission, and experienced several centrifuge runs. *Born:
Marc Lépine Marc Lépine (; born October 26, 1964 – December 6, 1989) was a Canadian antifeminist mass murderer from Montreal, Quebec, who, in 1989, murdered fourteen women, and wounded ten women and four menNote: Many sources state thirteen were wounded ...
, Canadian mass murderer who shot and killed 14 women in 1989 before killing himself; in Montreal *Died: ** Eric Edgar Cooke, 33, Australian serial killer, became the last person executed in Western Australia. He had murdered eight people and committed a total of 22 violent crimes in Perth between 1959 and 1963. Only two more convicts would be put to death in Australia after Cooke, with Glen Sabre Valance hanged on November 24, 1964, in South Australia, and Ronald Ryan on February 3, 1967, in Victoria. ** Max McGraw, 81, American industrialist CEO of the McGraw-Edison company, and founder of its predecessor, McGraw Electric, and of Centel.


October 27, 1964 (Tuesday)

*
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
, at the time "a supposedly washed-up actor" whose last leading role in a movie had been in 1957's '' Hellcats of the Navy'', appeared in a nationally televised speech that launched him into a new career that would make him President of the United States. The address, which would later be referred to as "
A Time for Choosing "A Time for Choosing", also known as "The Speech", was a speech presented during the 1964 U.S. presidential election campaign by future president Ronald Reagan on behalf of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater. 'A Time For Choosing' launched R ...
", had been given earlier at a fundraiser for Republican presidential nominee
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 ...
in Los Angeles. A group of California businessmen were so impressed by Reagan that they purchased 30 minutes of airtime on NBC to broadcast the speech again; Goldwater's national campaign headquarters tried to get Reagan to cancel the program because of fears that it was "too incendiary", and Reagan refused unless he heard from Goldwater himself. Reagan told his audience, "We have come down to a time for choosing. Either we accept the responsibilities for our own destinies, or we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan ourselves." Reagan's endorsement was so appealing to conservatives that it "raised more than a half-million dollars for the Republican Party, and when he finished it, Ronald Reagan was a national political figure." *The Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...
, a Shi'ite Muslim religious leader in Iran, appeared at the city of
Qom Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its popul ...
and gave an anti-government speech that would get him exiled for 14 years, but that would also identify him as the most prominent foe of Iran's monarch, the Shah Reza Pahlavi and the future leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The address, titled ''The Granting of Capitulatory Rights to the United States'', was a response to the recent passage of the "law of capitulation" that gave U.S. servicemen in Iran diplomatic immunity from local prosecution. "The government has sold our independence, reduced us to the level of a colony, and made the Muslim nation of Iran appear more backward than savages in the eyes of the world!" He added that "If the religious leaders have influence, they will not permit some agent of America to carry out these scandalous deeds; they will throw him out of Iran." *As the Congo Crisis deepened, Christophe Gbenye offered to negotiate for the safe passage of white settlers (60 Americans and 800 Belgians) from Stanleyville and other areas controlled by the Simba Rebellion. *Died:
Pierre C. Cartier Pierre Camille Cartier (March 10, 1878October 27, 1964) was a French jeweler. He was one of three sons of Alfred Cartier and the brother of Jacques Cartier and Louis Cartier. Pierre's grandfather, Louis-François Cartier had taken over the jewelr ...
, 86, French jeweler


October 28, 1964 (Wednesday)

*Canada's Prime Minister Pearson announced that Mount Kobau near Penticton, British Columbia would be the site of the Queen Elizabeth II Observatory, with a telescope that would be second only to the Mount Palomar telescope in California. Cost overruns and "objections from university-based astronomers who wanted a better site" would lead to the cancellation of the project in 1968. *The Irish television police show, '' Garda Patrol'', was broadcast for the first time, as a weekly show on the
Raidió Teilifís Éireann Raidi (; ; also written Ragdi; born August, 1938) is a Tibetan politician of the People's Republic of China. He served as a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 2003 to 2008, and the highest ranking Tibeta ...
(RTE) network. Sergeant Tommy Burns of Ireland's national police agency, the
Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace"), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Gover ...
, would explain to viewers that the objectives of the program were "to offer advice on how to defeat the criminal and outsmart him in his efforts and secondly to seek your help in bringing offenders to justice." *'' The Wednesday Play'', a British anthology series, began the first of six seasons on the BBC1 network and, in its first two seasons "changed the face of television drama in Britain, introducing contemporary, social-issue drama", and later "initiating a technological breakthrough by moving over to film and location shooting... out of the studio and into the real world." *The East German ship ''MV Magdeburg'' capsized after colliding with the Japanese ship ''MV Yamashiro Maru'' off Broadness Point in the United Kingdom, dumping its entire cargo of 42 British Leyland buses into the Thames river. The buses had been sold to Cuba in spite of American requests that Britain not trade with the regime of
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
. *The municipal government of the Indian city of Bangalore demolished a monument that had been built by the British to commemorate the British lives lost in the 1791
Siege of Bangalore The siege of Bangalore was a siege of the town and fortifications of Bangalore during the Third Anglo-Mysore War by forces of the British East India Company, led by Charles, Earl Cornwallis against a Mysorean garrison, while Tipu Sultan, Mysore ...
. For 15 years, the city had resolved to get rid of the memorial as a symbol of the British conquest of India. *Died: Harold Hitz Burton, 76, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1945 to 1958, former U.S. Senator for Ohio and former Mayor of Cleveland


October 29, 1964 (Thursday)

*The design for the new official
Flag of Canada The national flag of Canada (french: le Drapeau national du Canada), often simply referred to as the Canadian flag or, unofficially, as the Maple Leaf or ' (; ), consists of a red field with a white square at its centre in the ratio of , in ...
was selected by a multi-party committee of Members of Parliament, who chose the emblem of a single red maple leaf on a field of white between two red bars by a vote of 10 to 4. The Canadian Flag Committee acknowledged that almost 2,000 suggestions for the design were submitted and that these had been grouped into three categories; those in "Class C" (designs that contained either or both the British Union Jack and the Quebec fleur-de-lis) were rejected by a 5 to 9 vote; the remaining choices were in "Class A", a three maple leaf design proposed by Prime Minister Pearson and narrowly retained 8 to 6; and "Class B", a single maple leaf design, which members liked 13 to 1. The three leaf design was unanimously rejected, 14 to 0, and the final vote on the single red maple leaf between two red bars came down to "whether or not the final selection was acceptable as a national flag for Canada". *President Julius Nyerere of the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar announced in
Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...
that the East African's nation was now Tanzania. The new name was to be pronounced as "tan-zuh-NEE-uh", with an accent on the third syllable, but remains frequently mispronounced as "tan-ZAY-nee-uh". A contest had been announced in July, and the winner received 200 East African shillings, worth 28 U.S. dollars at the time. According to one researcher, External Affairs Minister Oscar Kambona chaired the committee that screened proposals from 1,354 people, of whom 16 independently came up with the name "Tanzania", and that other popular suggestions included "Tangibar", "Tanzan" and (based on the language of both countries before the merger) "Swahili". The prize was divided among the 16 winners, who each got 12½ shillings. *
Charles H. Townes Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...
of the United States and
Nikolay Basov Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov (russian: Никола́й Генна́диевич Ба́сов; 14 December 1922 – 1 July 2001) was a Soviet physicist and educator. For his fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics that led to the deve ...
and Alexander Prokhorov of the Soviet Union were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their development of the laser, while
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential fo ...
of the United Kingdom won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the atomic structure of biochemical substances through x-ray crystallography. *The Star of India, a 565-carat (113-gram) blue star sapphire, was stolen from the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
in New York City, along with the 100-carat
DeLong Star Ruby The DeLong Star Ruby, a oval cabochon star ruby, was discovered in Burma in the 1930s. It was sold by Martin Ehrmann to Edith Haggin DeLong for , who then donated it to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 1937. On October ...
, another sapphire (the "Midnight Star"), and 19 other priceless
gemstone A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, ...
s. The jewelry would be recovered in January 1965 from a Miami bus locker. *Born: Yasmin Le Bon, British supermodel; as Yasmin Parvaneh in Oxford *Died: Henry Larsen, 65, Norwegian-born Canadian Arctic explorer


October 30, 1964 (Friday)

*At New Delhi, India's Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri hosted Prime Minister
Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike ( si, සිරිමා රත්වත්තේ ඩයස් බණ්ඩාරනායක; ta, சிறிமா ரத்வத்தே டயஸ் பண்டாரநாயக்கே; 17 April 191 ...
of
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
(now
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
) and the two leaders signed what has come to be known as the "
Sirima–Shastri Pact The Sirima–Shastri Pact or Srimavo-Shastri Pact (also known as the ''Indo-Ceylon Agreement'' and ''Bandaranaike-Shastri Pact'') was an agreement that was signed between Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and Lal Bahadur Sha ...
", though its official name was the "Agreement on Persons of Indian Origin in Ceylon". Under the pact, Indian Tamils (those people whose ancestry was from the Tamil Nadu state of south India who had come to the island of Ceylon during British rule), were to be afforded the opportunity of repatriation from Ceylon to India, or Ceylonese citizenship. India agreed to accept up to 525,000 Tamil immigrants from Ceylon, while Ceylon agreed to offer citizenship to as many as 300,000 Tamils who wished to stay. The two nations agreed that the fate of another 150,000 of the 975,000 Indian Tamils in Ceylon would be decided later. * Buffalo wings, according to the more commonly accepted account, were first served at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, by Teressa Bellissimo, a story that has been cited more often in publications. However, another restaurateur, John Young, has also received recognition as having invented the appetizer in 1964 at his place of business, "Wings 'n' Things". *In a response to ongoing anti-government riots, Ibrahim Abboud, the president of the Sudan, resigned his post as the northeast African nation's prime minister, and
Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa Al-Hassan ( ar, سر الختم الخليفة الحسن, 1 January 1919 – 18 February 2006) was a Sudanese politician, ambassador and an elite educator, who served as the 5th Prime Minister of Sudan. He was famous ...
formed a new government. *
Nguyễn Khánh Nguyễn Khánh (; 8 November 192711 January 2013) was a South Vietnamese military officer and Army of the Republic of Vietnam general who served in various capacities as head of state and prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a ...
resigned as
Prime Minister of South Vietnam This is a list of leaders of South Vietnam, since the establishment of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina in 1946, and the division of Vietnam in 1954 until the fall of the Republic of Vietnam in 1975, and the reunification of Vietnam in 19 ...
after less than two months, and was replaced by Trần Văn Hương.


October 31, 1964 (Saturday)

*Making a final campaign stop three days before the U.S. presidential elections, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson first used the phrase "the Great Society" to describe his program for social reform in the United States. Addressing a rally at
Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
in New York City, Johnson strongly criticized his Republican opponent, U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, and told his audience, "This Nation, this people, this generation, has man's first opportunity to create the Great Society", which he described as "a society of success without squalor, beauty without barrenness, works of genius without the wretchedness of poverty." In a twist on Goldwater's declaration that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice... moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue", Johnson said, "as far as the American people are concerned, extremism in the pursuit of the Presidency is an unpardonable vice, and moderation in the affairs of the nation is the highest virtue." * Satellite laser ranging (SLR) was first demonstrated as a laser pulse was fired from an observation station on Earth (NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...
in Greenbelt, Maryland) to a retroreflector on an orbiting satellite (the recently launched
Explorer 22 Explorer 22 (known as S-66B pre-launch; also called BE-B or Beacon Explorer-B) was a small NASA ionospheric research satellite launched 9 October 1964, part of NASA's Explorer Program. It was instrumented with an electrostatic probe, four ra ...
). Fifty years later, an international network of 40 SLR stations would track multiple orbiting space missions. *A tornado caused the collapse of the hangar of the ''Primero Gruppo Elicotteri'' (First Helicopter Group),
Italian Navy "Fatherland and Honour" , patron = , colors = , colors_label = , march = ( is the return of soldiers to their barrack, or sailors to their ship after a ...
, at the Naval Air Station at
Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...
, destroying five Sikorsky SH-34G Seabat helicopters. *
Jack Roland Murphy Jack Roland Murphy (May 26, 1937 – September 12, 2020), known as "Murph the Surf" or "Murf the Surf", was convicted of murder in 1969. He was also involved in the biggest jewel heist in American history, the 1964 burglary of the jewel collecti ...
, known as "Murph the Surf", was arrested in Miami, along with an accomplice, and charged with the October 29 theft of the Star of India and other priceless gems. *Born:
Marco van Basten Marcel "Marco" van Basten (; born 31 October 1964) is a Dutch football manager and retired professional player, who played for Ajax and AC Milan, as well as the Netherlands national team, as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pl ...
, Netherlands soccer football forward and manager who played for Ajax and AC Milan in a 15-year career, as well as the Netherlands national team; he later managed the national team; in Utrecht *Died: **
Theodore Freeman Theodore Cordy "Ted" Freeman (February 18, 1930 – October 31, 1964), was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. Selected in the third group of NASA astronauts in 1963, he was killed a year ...
, 34, American astronaut in training for the Gemini program, was killed in a collision with a goose that smashed through the
cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...
canopy of his T-38 Talon jet during a routine flight at Ellington AFB near Houston. Flying shards of plexiglas from the canopy entered the
jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...
intake, causing both engines to flame out. A report concluded that Freeman apparently attempted to land the crippled jet at the air base and, failing that, tried to avoid colliding with the buildings on the base; and that Freeman ejected only from the ground, leaving insufficient time for his
parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...
to deploy fully. ** Tuomas Bryggari, 82, Finnish trade unionist, politician, and member of the Parliament of Finland (1922–1948)


References

{{Events by month links
1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland 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 ...
*1964-10 *1964-10