1964

• After North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegededly attack without provocation U.S. destroyers gathering intelligence in the Tonkin Gulf, the US Congress passes the Tonkin Gulf Resolution authorizing US military action in Southeast Asia.
• The People's Republic of China successfully tests its first atomic bomb.
• The US Congress passes a sweeping Civil Rights Act, calling for an end to legalized descrimination.
• Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is ousted from power as a result of repeated agricultural shortfalls, administrative corruption, perceived Soviet humiliation in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a growing rift with China.
• Malta, Zambia, and Malawi gain independence from the British Empire.
• The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is formed at the first Pan-Arab Summit.
• Nelson Mandela is convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison, where he will remain until released in 1990.
• The 24th Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified, outlawing poll taxes.
• Martin Luther King Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts to secure civil rights for African-Americans.
• Kikuyu nationalist leader Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first president of Kenya.
• The largest earthquake ever recorded strikes Alaska on Good Friday, registering 8.6 on the Richter scale, sending tsunamis across the Pacific, and causing damage as far south as California.
• The US Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Health issues a report linking smoking to lung cancer.
• AZT, a drug now used extensively to treat HIV, is invented, originally intended as an anti-cancer drug.
• Cassius Clay upsets Sonny Liston in a boxing match to become the new heavyweight champion of the world.
• Arnold Palmer becomes the first person to win The Masters golf tournament four times.

These people were born in 1964:

• American author Bret Easton Ellis.
• American hip-hop artist Easy-E.
• Baseball great Barry Bonds.
• Spanish cyclist Miguel Induráin.
• Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
• Australian actor Russell Crowe.
• American actor Nicolas Cage.
• American actor Keanu Reeves.

These people died in 1964:

• Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Former US president Herbert Hoover.
• American general Douglas MacArthur.
• American ecologist Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring helped launch the modern environmentalist movement.
• British author Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, 007.
• Movie comedian Harpo Marx.
• Philippine revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo.
• American author Flannery O'Connor.
• Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist Leo Szilard.
• American composer and lyricist Cole Porter.
• Austrian photographer August Sander.
• Independence leader and first prime minister of Sierra Leone, Sir Milton Margai.
• American mathematician Norbert Wiener.

These films appeared in 1964:

• Dr. Strangelove
• A Fistful of Dollars
• Goldfinger
• Mary Poppins
• My Fair Lady

1963 - 1964 - 1965

20th century