1964

1950–1980	UK [television]	Watch With Mother, a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.
1960–1969	UK [popular music]	The Beatles' song ‘She Loves You’ is the best-selling single of the 1960s in Britain. The Beatles are responsible for five out of the top six singles in Britain in the 1960s.
1962–1965	Vatican [Catholicism]	The Second Vatican Council, a council of the Roman Catholic Church convened by Pope John XXIII, is held, its aim being to reform Catholic ministry and liturgy, and to seek reunion with other Christian denominations.
1964	world [international organizations]	INTELSAT (International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium) is founded by 18 countries to operate telecommunication satellites and establish a global commercial communications network.
1964	UK [football]	Match of the Day, showing highlights of football matches, starts on British television.
1964	USA [fiction]	The US writer Richard Brautigan publishes his novel A Confederate General from Big Sur.
1964	England [fiction]	The English writer John Le Carré publishes his novel The Spy Who Came In from the Cold.
1964	UK [health and medicine]	The infant mortality rate in Britain is 20 per 1,000, compared to 30 per 1,000 in 1951.
1964	USA [literature and language]	US writer Tom Wolfe publishes The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, a collection of essays. He is a pioneer of the ‘New Journalism’ style, combining the techniques of reportage and fiction.
1964	USA [media and communication]	Xerox develops the first office facsimile transmission system (later called the fax machine) in the USA. It can only operate on dedicated phone lines.
1964	France [orchestral music]	The French composer Olivier Messiaen completes his orchestral work Couleurs de la cité céleste/Colours of the Celestial City.
1964	USA [painting]	The US artist Andy Warhol creates his Brillo Boxes, wooden boxes covered with silkscreen prints meant to imitate commercial cardboard boxes. He also creates the silkscreens Jackie, Race Riots, and Flowers.
1964	USA [physics]	US physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig suggest the existence of quarks, the building block of hadrons, which are subatomic particles that experience the strong nuclear force.
1964	Germany [plays]	The play Marat/Sade, by the German dramatist Peter Weiss, is first performed in Berlin, Germany. The full title is Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean-Paul Marats, dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung der Herrn de Sade/The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.
1964	Germany [poetry]	The Romanian-born German poet Paul Celan publishes his poetry collection Die Niemandsrose/The No-One's Rose.
1964	England [poetry]	The English writer Philip Larkin publishes his poetry collection The Whitsun Weddings.
1964	USA [poetry]	The US writer Robert Lowell publishes his poetry collection For the Union Dead.
1964	USA [political theory]	The German-born US political philosopher Herbert Marcuse publishes One-dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society.
1964	UK [popular music]	The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) restricts the number of pop records played on radio, because of fears that over-dependence on recorded music will lessen the importance of live performances.
1964	USA [popular music]	The Beatles have four hit singles and two hit albums in the first three months of the year in the USA, partly due to their North American tour which includes an appearance on the US Ed Sullivan Show. Sales of Beatles' records represent 60% of all records sold in this period. Their success also marks the beginning of a period of domination by British groups of the US charts.
1964	UK [popular music]	The British rock group the Beatles releases the single and album A Hard Day's Night from their film of the same name. They also release the single ‘Can't Buy Me Love’, the best-selling single of the year in Britain.
1964	UK [popular music]	The film A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester, is released in Britain. Starring the British rock group the Beatles, its mixture of music and comedy is very popular and it is a big commercial success.
1964	UK [television]	Top of the Pops, to date the longest-running rock and pop music programme on British television, starts broadcasting. It has a significant influence on sales.
1964	USA [women's rights]	The US author and publisher Helen Gurley Brown publishes Sex and the Office, which argues that single women should pursue careers (at least until they get married).
1964	UK [other structures]	Saint Catherine's College in Oxford, England, designed by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, is completed.
1964	USA [sculpture]	The US artist Edward Kienholz creates Back Seat Dodge–38.
1964	Russia [songs]	The Russian composer Igor Stravinsky completes his vocal work Elegy for J F K.
12 January 1964	Zanzibar [revolution]	A rebellion takes place in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), which is declared a republic. The sultanate is abolished and the sultan banished, and Abdullah Kassim forms a pro-communist government.
4 March 1964	UK [everyday life]	The British government changes the August Bank Holiday to the last Monday in the month, with effect from 1965.
15 March 1964	Canada, USA, UK [everyday life]	The actors Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are married in Montreal, Canada.
27 March 1964	USA [natural disasters]	An earthquake measuring between 8.3 and 8.5 (later amended upward) on the Richter scale strikes Anchorage in Alaska. Although the sparse population limits casualties to 131, it is the most severe earthquake ever recorded in North America. An area of 120,000 sq km/75,000 sq mi is tilted and in some places adjacent sections of land are separated by 25 m/82 ft.
29 March 1964	UK [radio]	Radio Caroline, the first offshore ‘pirate’ radio station broadcasting to Britain, begins transmissions from a ship in the North Sea. Modelled on Radio Luxembourg with its nonstop diet of pop music, it is Britain's first pop music station.
21 April 1964	UK [television]	BBC2 begins broadcasting, after a power-cut delays the launch by 24 hours. It broadcasts high-definition pictures, transmitting on 625 lines.
27 April 1964	Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Tanzania [law and government]	Tanganyika and Zanzibar are united, with Julius Nyerere as president, and, on 29 October, the state is named the United Republic of Tanzania.
2 May 1964	England [births and deaths]	Nancy Witcher Langhorne, Lady Astor, British politician and the first woman to sit in the House of Commons, dies in Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, England (84).
14 May 1964	USSR, Egypt [energy]	The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev opens the Aswan Dam in the United Arab Republic (UAR) of Egypt.
27 May 1964	India [births and deaths]	Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of independent India 1947–64, dies in New Delhi, India (74).
June 1964	UK, Netherlands [communications]	The Dutch electronics company Philips launches the compact cassette in Britain. This is still the industry standard for analogue audio cassettes.
11 June 1964	South Africa [crime and punishment]	At the end of the ‘Rivonia trial’ in South Africa (begun 10 October 1963), Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment, while eight other defendants receive lesser sentences, and one is discharged.
July 1964	USA [human rights]	President Lyndon B Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act outlaws discrimination in federally-funded enterprises and in public facilities and accommodations, and therefore overturns Jim Crow. It also created an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
6 July 1964	Nyasaland, Malawi [decolonization]	Britain's Nyasaland Protectorate, renamed Malawi, becomes independent within the Commonwealth.
17 July - 31 December 1964	UK, Australia [speed records]	The British car and speedboat enthusiast Donald Campbell emulates his father Malcolm Campbell's achievement of holding the world land- and water-speed records simultaneously. He sets a new land-speed record of 648.77 kph/403.14 mph on Lake Eyre salt flats, Australia. Later in the year he reaches 444.615 kph/276.279 mph on Lake Dumbleyung, Australia, to break the water-speed record for the seventh time since 1955.
29 July 1964	UK [public health]	The first family planning clinic in Britain to give advice to unmarried mothers opens.
August 1964	USA, North Vietnam [Vietnam War (1954–75)]	The Tonkin Gulf incident moves the US Congress to authorize President Lyndon B Johnson to undertake ‘all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the USA and to prevent further aggression’. This so-called Tonkin Gulf Resolution provides President Johnson with the de facto consent to wage an undeclared war on North Vietnam.
5 August 1964	Congo Republic [revolution]	Antigovernment rebels in the Congo Republic capture Stanleyville (now Kisangani), and declare the foundation of a People's Republic of the Congo on 7 August.
15 August 1964	UK [cricket]	The England cricketer Fred Trueman becomes the first bowler to take 300 Test wickets, in the final Test against Australia at The Oval, London, England.
September 1964	UK [newspapers]	The Trades Union Congress in Britain sells its shares in the Daily Herald, which appears for the last time on 14 September. The newspaper is relaunched on the following day as the Sun, and in the 1980s and 1990s will be the best-selling paper in Britain.
1 October 1964	Japan [railways]	The ‘New Tokaido Line’ between Tokyo and Osaka opens. A 515-km/320-mi high-speed rail line, ‘bullet’ trains travel at an average speed of 166 kph/103 mph.
10 October 1964	USA, Japan [television]	US satellites Syncom 3 (launched 19 August 1964) in a synchronous orbit 37,000 km/23,000 mi above the Pacific Ocean, transmits the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics, the first transpacific television pictures.
15 October 1964	USA [births and deaths]	Cole Porter, US composer and lyricist, dies in Santa Monica, California (73).
16 October 1964	China [political events]	China explodes an atomic bomb, and becomes a nuclear power.
20 October 1964	USA [births and deaths]	Herbert Hoover, 31st president of the USA 1929–33, a Republican, dies in New York City (90).
24 October 1964	Northern Rhodesia, Zambia [decolonization]	Northern Rhodesia, renamed Zambia, becomes an independent republic within the Commonwealth, with Kenneth Kaunda as president (Southern Rhodesia is now known as just Rhodesia).
23 November 1964	UK [radio]	Radio Manx becomes the first commercial radio station to broadcast in the UK.
28 November 1964	USA [space exploration]	The USA launches Mariner 4 to Mars. It will pass within 9,800 km/6,118 mi of the planet on 14 July 1965, and relay the first close-up photographs of the surface, as well as information on the Martian atmosphere.
12 December 1964	Kenya [decolonization]	Kenya becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Jomo Kenyatta as president.