Events from the year 1964 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Lyndon B. Johnson (D–Texas) Vice President: vacant Chief Justice: Earl Warren (California) Speaker of the House of Representatives: John William McCormack (D–Massachusetts) Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D–Montana) Congress: 88th
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January January 3 – Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for president. January 7 – A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba. January 8 – In his first State of the Union Address, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declares a War on Poverty. January 9 – Martyrs' Day: Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian civilians in the Panama Canal Zone precipitate a major international crisis, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers. January 10 – Introducing...the Beatles is released by Chicago's Vee-Jay Records to get the jump on Capitol Records' release of Meet the Beatles!, scheduled for January 20. The two record companies fight in court over Vee-Jay's release of the album. January 11 – United States Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health, the first such statement from the U.S. government. January 12 The predominantly Arab government of Zanzibar is overthrown by African nationalist rebels; a United States Navy destroyer evacuates 61 U.S. citizens. Routine U.S. naval patrols of the South China Sea begin. January 13 – In Manchester, New Hampshire, 14-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment case Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971). January 15 The nightclub Whisky a Go Go opens its doors on Sunset Strip in Hollywood. Johnny Rivers leads the first house band at the club, which helps pave the club's way to international fame and contributes to the beginning of rock n' roll on the Strip. The Teamsters union negotiates the first national labor contract in the United States. San Francisco Giants make champion outfielder Willie Mays the highest-paid player in baseball when they sign him to a new $105,000 per season contract. January 16 John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, resigns from the space program. The musical Hello, Dolly! opens in New York City's St. James Theatre. January 17 John Glenn announces that he will seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Ohio. Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in the United States. January 18 – Plans to build the World Trade Center in New York City are announced. January 20 – Meet the Beatles!, the first Capitol Records Beatles album in the United States, is released. January 23 Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly two years after its passage by the United States Senate, the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified. Arthur Miller's After the Fall opens Off-Broadway. A semi-autobiographical work, it arouses controversy over his portrayal of late ex-wife Marilyn Monroe. Designed by McKim, Mead & White, the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology, predecessor of the National Museum of American History, opens to the public in Washington, D.C. January 27 – U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, 66, announces her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. January 28 – A U.S. Air Force jet training plane that strays into East Germany is shot down by Soviet fighters near Erfurt; all 3 crew men are killed. January 29 – Ranger 6 is launched by NASA, on a mission to carry television cameras and crash-land on the Moon.
February February 1 – The Beatles vault to the #1 spot on the U.S. singles charts for the first time, with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", starting the British Invasion in America. February 3 – Protesting against alleged de facto school racial segregation, Black and Puerto Rican groups in New York City boycott public schools. February 4 The Government of the United States authorizes the Twenty-fourth Amendment, outlawing the poll tax. General Motors introduces the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser and the Buick Sport Wagon. February 6 – Cuba cuts off the normal water supply to the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in reprisal for the U.S. seizure 4 days earlier of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida. February 7 An all-white jury in Jackson, Mississippi, trying Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963, reports that it cannot reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial. The Beatles arrive from the UK at New York City's JFK International Airport, receiving a tumultuous reception from an estimated 4,000, marking the first occurrence of "Beatlemania" in the United States."Beatles Wing In; Welcomed by 4,000 Teens", Chicago Tribune, February 8, 1964, p13 The "Fab Four" stay in suites 1260, 1263, 1264 and 1273 of the Plaza Hotel.Fritz Gubler, Waldorf Hysteria: Hotel Manners, Misbehaviour & Minibars (Great, Grand & Famous Pty. Ltd., 2008) p39 February 9 – The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, marking their first live performance on American television. Seen by an estimated 73 million viewers, the appearance becomes the catalyst for the mid-1960s "British Invasion" of American popular music. February 17 – Wesberry v. Sanders (376 US 1 1964): The Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population. February 23 – Chrysler's second generation Hemi racing engine is showcased at the Daytona 500. The 426 hemi-powered Plymouth of Richard Petty (#43) wins. Hemi-powered Plymouths finish in first, second and third places. February 25 – Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay: Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Florida, and is crowned heavyweight boxing champion of the world. This evening he celebrates in a hotel room with his three closest friends, activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and American football fullback Jim Brown, and soon afterwards changes his name. February 26 – U.S. politician and ex-astronaut John Glenn slips on a bathroom rug in his Columbus, Ohio apartment and hits his head on the bathtub, injuring his left inner ear, and prompting him (later that week) to withdraw from the race for the Democratic Party Senate nomination. February 29 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that the United States has developed a jet airplane (the A-11), capable of sustained flight at more than and of altitudes of more than .
March March 4 – President of the Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa is convicted by a federal jury of jury tampering in 1962 and receives a jail sentence. March 6 – Boxer Cassius Clay announces the change of his name to Muhammad Ali. March 8 – Malcolm X, suspended from the Nation of Islam, says in New York City that he is forming a black nationalist party. March 9 New York Times Co. v Sullivan (376 US 254 1964): The United States Supreme Court rules that under the First Amendment, speech criticizing political figures cannot be censored. The first Ford Mustang is manufactured, by the Ford Motor Company, in Dearborn, Michigan. March 10 Soviet military forces shoot down an unarmed reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany; the 3 U.S. flyers parachute to safety. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., Ambassador to South Vietnam, wins the New Hampshire Republican primary. March 12 – Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam. March 13 – It is falsely reported that 38 neighbors in Queens, New York City fail to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she is being stabbed to death. March 14 – A Dallas, Texas, jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. March 26 – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara delivers an address that reiterates American determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid in its war against the Communist insurgency. March 27 – The Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2, strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage. March 30 – Merv Griffin's game show Jeopardy! debuts on NBC; Art Fleming is its first host. March 31 – The military, backed by the U.S., overthrows Brazilian President João Goulart in a coup, starting 21 years of dictatorship in Brazil.
April April 2 – Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, 72, mother of Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody, is released on $450 bond after spending 2 days in a St. Augustine, Florida jail, for participating in an anti-segregation demonstration there. April 3 – Malcolm X makes his "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech in Cleveland. April 4 Three high school friends in Hoboken, N.J., open the first BLIMPIE on Washington Street. The Beatles hold the top 5 positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in the United States, an unprecedented achievement. The top songs in America as listed on April 4, in order, are: "Can't Buy Me Love", "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me". April 7 – IBM announces the System/360 computer. April 8 – Four of 5 railroad operating unions strike against the Illinois Central Railroad without warning, bringing to a head a 5-year dispute over railroad work rules. April 10 – Demolition of the Polo Grounds sports stadium commences in New York City. April 12 – In Detroit, Michigan, Malcolm X delivers a speech entitled "The Ballot or the Bullet." April 13 – The 36th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Jack Lemmon, is held at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Tony Richardson's Tom Jones is tied with Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Cleopatra for the most award wins with four, winning Best Picture and Best Director for Richardson. The film receives the most nominations with ten. Sidney Poitier also becomes the first black actor to win the award for Best Actor. April 14 – A Delta rocket's third-stage motor ignites prematurely in an assembly room at Cape Canaveral, killing 3. April 17 The Ford Mustang is officially unveiled to the public. Shea Stadium opens in Flushing, New York. April 20 – U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, simultaneously announce plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons. April 22 – The 1964 New York World's Fair opens to celebrate the 300th anniversary of New Amsterdam being taken over by British forces under the Duke of York (later King James II) and being renamed New York in 1664. The fair runs until October 18, 1964 and reopens April 21, 1965, finally closing October 17, 1965. Although not officially sanctioned as a world's fair, due to being within 10 years of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, so that some countries decline to attend, many have pavilions with exotic crafts, art and food.
May May 2 Senator Barry Goldwater receives more than 75% of the votes in the Texas Republican presidential primary. Some 400–1,000 students march through Times Square, New York and another 700 in San Francisco, in the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War. Smaller marches also occur in Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin. Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi, are kidnapped, beaten, and murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their badly decomposed bodies are found by chance in July during the search for missing activists Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. May 4 – The United States Congress recognizes Bourbon whiskey as a "distinctive product of the United States".