On October 7th, President Kennedy signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that had been ratified by the Senate after the agreement had been reached between the US, Soviet Union, and Great Britain in August. The treaty limited nuclear testing to underground testing and stipulated that nuclear fallout from such blasts should not be able to reach outside a nation's borders.
Originally Jacqueline Kennedy had chosen a burial site in Brookline, Massachusetts, but Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and Robert Kennedy persuaded her to make the change to Arlington National Cemetery. Mrs. Kennedy lit the flame at the conclusion of the burial ceremony. The permanent grave site was conscrated in 1967.
Earl Warren was named by LBJ to head a commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.
When Malcolm X commented that President Kennedy's assassination was the white man's actions as "chickens coming home to roost" he was suspended by Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X later resigned from the Nation of Islam.
Cassius Clay converted to Islam and was renamed Muhammad Ali and then defeated Sonny Liston on February 25th, '64 for the world heavyweight title.
The killing of a 15-year-old by a police officer in Harlem, New York on July 16th, 1964 precipitated four days of rioting. Similar rioting broke out that summer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Illinois, and Paterson, New Jersey.
Sep 2nd - Alabama Gov George C Wallace prevents integration of Tuskegee HS
Sep 7th - American Bandstand moves to California, & airs once a week on SaturdaySep 7th - Pro Football Hall of Fame dedicated in Canton Ohio
Sep 10th - 20 black students entered public schools in Alabama
Sep 15th - Church bombed in Birmingham AL, kills 4 African-American girls
Sep 24th - US Senate ratifies treaty with Britain & USSR limiting nuclear testing
Sep 28th - Murray The K, a NY DJ plays "She Loves You" on the radio
Oct 2nd -- President Kennedy sends a message to Ambassgador Lodge in Vietnam, declaring that "no initiative should now be taken to give any encouragement to a coup" against Diem but that Lodge should "identify and build contacts with possible leadership as and when it appears."
Oct 7th - JFK signs ratification for nuclear test ban treaty
Oct 11 The US has 16,300 members of the military in Vietnam, increased from 800 by President Kennedy. Kennedy issues an order for the withdrawal from Vietnam of 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963. According to Kennedy's Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, to be stated in the early 21st century, Kennedy is considering pulling US troops out of Vietnam after the 1964 election.
Oct 13th - "Beatlemania" is coined after Beatles appear at Palladium
Oct 18th -- In Britain the government of Harold Macmillan has lost credibility because of the Profumo affair, and Macmillan is suffering ill-health. He resigns.
Oct 19th - Beatles record "I Want to Hold Your Hand" Oct 20th - South Africa begins trial of Nelson Mandela & 8 others on conspiracy
Oct 22nd - 225,000 students boycot Chicago schools in Freedom Day protest
Oct 23rd - Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" premieres in NYC
Nov 1st - The Diem regime is overthrown. Diem and his younger brother, Madam Nhu's husband, are said to have committed suicide. In fact they were assassinated. People in Saigon bedeck army tanks with flowers and parade joyously through the streets.
Nov 4th - John Lennon utters his infamous "rattle your jewellery" line at a Royal Variety Performance in London
Nov 11th - Brian Epstein & Ed Sullivan sign a 3 show contract for The Beatles
Nov 21st - JFK flies to Texas
Nov 22nd - American President John F. Kennedy assassinated, alledgedly by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas
Nov 22nd - Lyndon B. Johnson sworn in as the 36th US president after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
Nov 23rd - JFK's body lay in repose in East Room of White HouseNov 23rd - LBJ proclaims
Nov 24th - Jack Ruby shoots and kills Lee Harvey Oswald
Nov 25th - a day of national mourning (for JFK)
Nov 25th - JFK laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery
Nov 29th - President Johnson appoints Chief Justice Earl Warren as head of a commission to investigate the Kennedy assassination.
Dec 1st - In the US, Malcolm X, a spokesperson for Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, describes the assassination of Kennedy as "the chickens coming home to roost." This irritates Elijah Muhammad, who suspends Malcolm's right to speak for the movement for 90 days.
Dec 8th – The American Cancer Society says that a massive new study confirms the link between cigarette smoking and death and disease.
Dec 9th - Frank Sinatra Jr is kidnapped
Dec 10th - 6-year old Donny Osmond's singing debut on Andy Williams Show
Dec 26th - Beatles release "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There"
Dec 31st - Jerry Garcia & Bob Weir played music together for the 1st time
December 15th – The FBI announces that it has arrested three men in connection with the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. and that it has recovered almost all of the $240 thousand ransom money.
Jan 8th - President Lyndon B. Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
Jan 10th - "Introducing the Beatles", released 1st Beatles album released in the US
Jan 23rd - 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, barring poll tax in federal elections
Jan 17th -- Michelle Obama is born
Jan 17th - A loose confederation of fourteen Arab countries – the Arab League – meets in Egypt and creates the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Its charter claims that Israel is an illegal state and pledges "the elimination of Zionism in Palestine."
Jan 31st - US report "Smoking & Health" connects smoking to lung cancer
Feb 1st - Indiana Governor Mathew Walsh tries to ban "Louie Louie" for obscenity
Feb 1st - President Johnson says that he sees no chance of negotiating peace for Southeast Asia as proposed by President de Gaulle.
Feb 7th - Beatles land at NY's JFK airport, for 1st US tour
Feb 7th - Cassius Clay converts to Islam, and is renamed Muhammad Ali
Feb 9th - 1st appearance of Beatles on "Ed Sullivan Show" (73.7 million viewers)
Feb 11th - Beatles 1st live appearance in US; Washington DC Coliseum
Feb 12th - Beatles 1st NYC concert (Carnegie Hall)
Feb 17th - US Supreme Court rules - 1 man 1 vote (Westberry v Sanders)
Feb 25th - Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) TKOs Sonny Liston in 7 for his first world heavyweight championship title
Mar 4th - Jimmy Hoffa convicted of jury tampering Mar 6th - Cassius Clay joins the Nation of Islam and its leader Elijah Muhammad renames him Muhammad Ali
Mar 8th - Malcolm X resigns from the Nation of Islam
Mar 9th - 1st Ford Mustang produced
Mar 13th - In Queens, New York, residents fail to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she is being stabbed to death.
Mar 14th - Dallas, Texas; Jack Ruby sentenced to death for Lee Harvey Oswald's murder
Mar 24th - Kennedy half-dollar issued
Apr 22nd - World's Fair (Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, NY) opens
May 2nd - Four hundred to 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 in Madison, Wisconsin.
May 22nd - LBJ presents "Great Society
Jun 2nd - Rolling Stones 1st US concert tour debuts in Lynn, Mass
Jun 12th - Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa
Jun 19th - Civil Rights Act of 1964 passes 73-27
Jun 21st - Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, by law enforcement officials.
Jun 23rd - Gen Maxwell Taylor appointed US ambassador in South Vietnam
Jun 25th - The Vatican condemns use of the contraceptive pill for females.
Jun 29th - Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed after 83-day filibuster in Senate
Jul 2nd - US President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act & Voting Rights
Jul 16th - Republicans convention selects Barry Goldwater as pres candidate Jul 18th - Race riot in Harlem (NYC); riots spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bkln)
Jul 24th - -27) race riot in Rochester, New York, 4 killed
Jul 26th - US union leader James Hoffa sentenced for fraud
Jul 27th -- 5,000 more military "advisers" are sent to South Vietnam, bringing their total in Vietnam to 21,000.
Jul 30th - US naval fire on Hon Ngu/Hon Mo, North Vietnam Aug 2nd - North Vietnam fires on a US destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin
Aug 4th - Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James E Chaney, bodies discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam
Aug 4th - North Vietnam torpedos US ships Gulf of Tonkin
Aug 4th -- Singer Jim Reeves dies in a plane crash
Aug 5th - US begins bombing North Vietnam
Aug 7th - US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution
Aug 12th -- Twenty miles south of Paterson, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, rioting erupts. People pitch Molotov cocktails into three taverns, and soon, a report says, "hundreds of Negroes were flinging bottles and bricks from rooftops and street corners."
Aug 12th -- Ian Fleming dies
Aug 15th - Race riot in Dixmoor (Chicago suburb) Ill
Aug 20th - US President Johnson signs Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion
Aug 27th -- Lyndon Johnson selected as the Democratic candidate for President
Aug 28th - Race riot in Philadelphia
OTHER MAJOR EVENTS
American "advisors" lead
ARVN (South Vietnam) troops
President Diem of South Vietnam
In October of 1963, with the aid of the CIA, President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam was overthrown and executed. The U.S. recognized the new government. At the time, the US had 15,000 military "advisors" in South Vietnam. In August, after reports of North Vietnam firing on US ships, Congress passed the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" authorizing expansion of the war, including direct attacks on North Vietnam. Both President Kennedy and President Johnson had expressed doubts about our ability to win a war in Vietnam .. and yet.
Protestors march in Birmingham after a church bombing -- the city came to be known as "Bombingham."
Martin Luther King, Jr. witnesses the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by President Johnson.
The echoes of Martin Luther King, Jr's "Dream" speech were still echoing through the civil rights movement when a bomb blast in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama killed four girls. The next year would present a mixed record for the movement. While President Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would mark a great legislative advancement of civil rights, at the same time, cities as diverse as St. Augustine, Florida and Chicago, Illinois would experience race riots.
NATIONAL POLITICAL CONVENTIONS
The Republican and Democratic national conventions chose their presidential candidates in the summer of 1964. The Republicans met in San Francisco from July 13th to July 16th. Conservative Arizona Senator, Barry Goldwater had the nomination secure through the primaries, defeating New York governor, Nelson Rockefeller. The Democrats met in Atlantic City from August 24 to 27th. Although President Johnson maintained through most of the primary election process that he was undecided about running, he was virtually unopposed for the Democratic nomination.