Top News Stories from 1964

World Events

• Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa (June 11).
• Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attack US destroyers (Aug. 7). Background: Vietnam War
• Khrushchev is deposed; Kosygin becomes premier and Brezhnev becomes first secretary of the Communist Party (October). Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• China detonates its first atomic bomb. Background: nuclear weapons

U.S. Events

• US Supreme Court rules that Congressional districts should be roughly equal in population (Feb. 17).
• Three civil rights workers—Schwerner, Goodman, and Cheney—murdered in Mississippi (June). Background: Civil Rights
• 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.

Economics

Sports

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• 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 '60s.
• Peyton Place premieres on ABC and is the first prime-time soap opera. Color television makes its way into U.S. homes.
• The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Movies

• Red Desert, Dr. Strangelove, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Zorba the Greek, Becket

Books

• Donald Barthelme, Come Back, Dr. Caligari
• John Berryman, 77 Dream Songs
• John Cheever, The Wapshot Scandal
• James Dickey, Helmets, Two Poems of the Air
• John Hawkes, Second Skin
• Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
• Katherine Anne Porter, Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
• Hubert Selby, Last Exit to Brooklyn

Science

• Ranger VII takes 4,316 high-resolution pictures of the moon. Background: US Unstaffed Planetary and Lunar Programs
• US Surgeon General Luther Terry affirms that cigarette smoking causes cancer. Background: nuclear energy

Death

• Herbert Clark Hoover 10/20/1964
• Douglas MacArthur
• Harpo Marx

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