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What Happened in 1964?
Major Events
- Lyndon B. Johnson is president of the United States - there is no vice president
- President Johnson re-elected in a landslide over Barry Goldwater
- President Johnson signs a bill enacting Medicare
- U.S. Congress authorizes war against North Vietnam
- 24th Amendment to Constitution adopted, ensuring fair voting practices
- Three civil rights workers (Schwerner, Goodman, and Cheney) are murdered in Mississippi during "Freedom Summer"
- Dr Martin Luther King Jr. awarded Nobel Peace Prize
- President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy issues Warren Report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone
- Jack Ruby convicted of murder in slaying of Lee Harvey Oswald
- Race riots break out in Harlem and other U.S. cities
- Khrushchev is removed from office - Kosygin becomes premier and Brezhnev becomes first secretary of the Communist Party
- China detonates its first atomic bomb
- Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa
- The PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) is established with Yasser Arafat as the head
Business and Economy
- U.S. GDP (1998 dollars): $663 billion
- Federal spending: $118.53 billion
- Federal debt: $316.1 billion
- Consumer Price Index: 31
- Unemployment: 5.7%
Science and Technology
- Kemeny and Kurtz create BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy-to-learn high-level programming language
- Ranger VII takes 4,316 high-resolution pictures of the moon
- Space probe Mariner IV flies by Mars, transmitting pictures of the planet's surface back to earth
- U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry affirms that cigarette smoking causes cancer
- IBM announces the System/360
- Sony introduces the first VCR home video recorder
- First lung transplant
Sports
- Cassius Clay (the future Muhammad Ali) becomes heavyweight champion when Sonny Liston throws in the towel in the sixth round in Miami
- St. Louis Cardinals defeats the NY Yankees to win the World Series (4-3)
- Boston defeats SF Warriors to win the NBA Championship (4-1)
- Cleveland Browns win the NFL championship
- Olympics held in Tokyo
Arts and Entertainment
- Books: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Candy, Herzog, Armageddon, The Man, The Rector of Justin, The Martyred, You Only Live Twice, This Rough Magic, 10 Convention
- Movies: Mary Poppins, Red Desert, Dr. Strangelove, My Fair Lady, Zorba the Greek, Becket, The Carpetbaggers, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, My Fair Lady , Goldfinger, Marnie, The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, Last Man on Earth, Lady in a Cage, Dead Ringer
- Songs: You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, My Girl, You Really Got Me, House Of The Rising Sun, Where Did Our Love Go, I Get Around, All Day And All Of The Night, Oh, Pretty Woman, A Hard Day's Night, She's Not There
- Popular Musicians: Righteous Brothers, Temptations, Kinks, Animals, Supremes, Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, Beatles, Zombies
- TV Shows: Bonanza, Bewitched, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., The Andy Griffith Show, The Fugitive, The Red Skelton Hour, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, Peyton Place II, Combat
- The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, breaking television ratings records
- The Beatles have 13 singles Billboard's Hot 100 at the same time
- The Beatles hold the top five positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in America
- "Beatlemania" spreads as the Beatles become a global phenomenon
- Folk musician Bob Dylan becomes increasingly popular during this time of social protest with songs expressing objection to the condition of American society
- Psychedelic bands such as The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane enjoy great success with songs celebrating the counterculture of the 1960s
- Sidney Poitier becomes the first black actor to win the "best actor" Oscar
- Gomer Pyle begins on CBS-TV
- Gilligan's Island premiers on CBS
- The Pink Panther cartoon series premieres
- "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles released in the United States, sparking Beatlemania
- The game show Jeopardy! debuts on television
Everyday Life
- U.S. Population: 191,888,791
- Life expectancy: 70.2 years
- Average yearly income: $6,569
- Cost of a new home: $13,050
- Cost of a new car: $3,500
- Federal hourly minimum wage: $1.25
- Cost of a first-class stamp: $.05
Popular Culture
- Near Anchorage, the strongest earthquake ever to strike North America kills 117
- Worst soccer disaster in history occurs when rioting and panic kills over 300 in Liverpool
- Hundreds of white college students work for civil rights in the south during "Freedom Summer"
- Color television makes its way into U.S. homes
- The abolition of the death penalty in UK
- Concern in Britain over "brain drain," the mass emigration of British scientists to the U.S.
- Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa convicted of fraud, conspiracy, and jury tampering
- The first Ford Mustang from Ford Motor Company is made
- Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time
- Cigarette smoking is enjoyed by 60% of the population
- Police catch the "Boston Strangler," Albert DeSalvo
- The world's longest suspension bridge, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York, opens
- World's Fair held in New York
- Hasbro introduces the G.I. Joe doll
- Sonny and Cher are married
- According to some reports, not a single juvenile crime is reported in New York City the night of the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964