About 1964

The following are just a few of the events that occurred in the Leap Year that was 1964:

• In his first State of the Union Address, President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty"
• The first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the 15th century occurs in Jerusalem
• The U.S. Surgeon General reports that smoking may be hazardous to your health (the first such statement ever made by a U.S. government agency)
• The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria
• The Beatles' song "I Want to Hold your Hand" becomes their first #1 U.S. Hit
• Cuba cuts off the water supply to the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (in reprisal for the U.S. seizure of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida)
• A Jackson, Mississippi jury, 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
• Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted by a Federal jury of tampering with a Federal jury
• In New York City, Malcolm X says that he is forming a black nationalist party
• A Dallas, Texas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
• 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, Alaska
• On April 1, Plymouth releases the Barracuda to the public, beating Ford Motor Company's Mustang to the market by two weeks
• Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial
• 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
• Pablo Picasso paints his fourth 'Head of a Bearded Man'
• The Vatican condemns the female combined oral contraceptive pill
• On July 2, President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law
• The Warner Brothers Cartoon Division is shut down
• The Warren Commission Report, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, is published
• American civil rights movement leader The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes 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 St. Louis Cardinals defeat the visiting New York Yankees, 7-5 to win the World Series in seven games (4-3)
• A Federal Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects a design to become the new official Flag of Canada
• In the '64 U.S. Presidential Election, incumbent U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote
• The British House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain
• NASA launches the Mariner 4 space probe from Cape Kennedy toward Mars: the probe is to arrive and take television pictures of that planet in July of 1965
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (television special) premieres on NBC

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