January
3rd	U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President
5th	In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the 15th century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I meet in Jerusalem
7th	The Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba
8th	In his first State of the Union Address, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty"
9th	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
11th	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)
12th	The predominantly Arab government of Zanzibar is overthrown by African nationalist rebels; a U.S. destroyer evacuates 61 U.S. citizens
16th	Hello, Dolly! opens in New York City's St. James Theatre
16th	John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, resigns from the space program
18th	Plans to build the New York World Trade Center are announced
20th	Meet the Beatles!, the first Beatles album in the United States, is released
22nd	Kenneth Kaunda is inaugurated as the first President of Northern Rhodesia
23rd	Arthur Miller's After the Fall opens on Broadway. A semi-autobiographical work, it arouses controversy over his portrayal of late ex-wife Marilyn Monroe
27th	France and the People's Republic of China announce their decision to establish diplomatic relations
28th	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
29th	The 1964 Winter Olympics begin in Innsbruck, Austria
29th	The Soviet Union launches 2 scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket
29th	Ranger 6 is launched by NASA, on a mission to carry television cameras and crash-land on the Moon
30th	General Nguyen Khanh leads a bloodless military coup d'état, replacing Duong Van Minh as Prime Minister of South Vietnam

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February
1st	The Beatles vault to the No 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
3rd	Protesting against alleged de-facto school racial segregation, Black, Yellow and Prince Edward Islander groups in New York City boycott public school
6th	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
7th	A Jackson, Mississippi jury, trying Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963, reports that it can not reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial
7th	The Beatles arrive at New York City's JFK International Airport, receiving a tumultuous reception from a throng of screaming fans, marking the first occurrence of "Beatlemania" in the United States
9th	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
11th	Greeks & Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus
11th	The Republic of China (Taiwan) drops diplomatic relations with France because of French recognition of the People's Republic of China
25th	Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Florida, and is crowned the heavyweight champion of the world
26th	U.S. politician and former 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
27th	The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over
29th	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 2,000 miles per hour and of altitudes of more than 70,000 feet

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March
4th	Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted by a Federal jury of tampering with a Federal jury in 1962
6th	Constantine II becomes King of Greece, upon the death of his father King Paul
8th	Malcolm X, suspended from the Nation of Islam, says in New York City that he is forming a black nationalist party
9th	The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company
10th	Soviet military forces shoot down an unarmed reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany; the 3 U.S. flyers parachute to safety
12th	Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam
13th	In a notorious incident, 38 of her neighbors in Queens, New York City fail to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she is being stabbed to death
14th	A Dallas, Texas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
20th	The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962
21st	Non ho l'età by Gigliola Cinquetti (music by Nicola Salerno, text by Mario Panzeri) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 for Italy
26th	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
27th	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
29th	Radio Caroline becomes England's first pirate radio station from a ship anchored just outside UK territorial waters
31st	The military, backed by the USA, overthrow Brazilian President João Goulart in a coup, starting 21 years of dictatorship in Brazil

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April
4th	The Beatles hold the top 5 positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in America, 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
5th	Jigme Dorfi, Premier of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, is shot dead by an unidentified assassin in Puncholing, near the Indian border
8th	Gemini 1 is launched on the first unmanned test of the 2-man spacecraft
8th	From Russia With Love is shown in U.S. movie theatres
9th	The United Nations Security Council adopts by a 9-0 vote a resolution deploring a British air attack on a fort in Yemen 12 days earlier, in which 25 persons were reported killed
11th	The Brazilian Congress elects Field Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco as President of Brazil
12th	In Detroit, Michigan, Malcolm X delivers a speech entitled "The Ballot or the Bullet."
13th	The 36th Academy Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles, California
16th	The Rolling Stones release their debut album, The Rolling Stones
16th	Sentences totalling 307 years are passed on 12 men who stole £2.6m in used bank notes, after holding up the night mail train travelling from Glasgow to London in August 1963 - a heist that became known as the Great Train Robbery
17th	Shea Stadium opens in Flushing, New York
19th	In Laos, the coalition government of Prince Souvanna Phouma is deposed by a right-wing military group, led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay
20th	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
20th	Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, a classic of the anti-apartheid movement
20th	BBC2 starts broadcasting in the UK
22nd	British businessman Greville Wynne, imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 for alleged spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale
25th	Thieves steal the head of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark (Henrik Bruun confesses in 1997)
26th	Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania

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May
1st	At 4:00 a.m., John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz run the first program written in BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language which they have created. BASIC will eventually be included on many computers and even some games consoles
2nd	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
2nd	Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi, are kidnapped and beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their badly decomposed bodies are found by chance two months later in July, during the search for three civil rights workers - Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
7th	Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger
10th	West Ham won The FA cup
11th	Terence Conran opens the first Habitat store on London's Fulham Road
23rd	Mrs. Madeline Dassault, 63, wife of a French plane manufacturer and politician, is kidnapped while leaving her car in front of her Paris home; she is found unharmed the next day in a farmhouse 27 miles from Paris
23rd	Pablo Picasso paints his fourth 'Head of a Bearded Man'
24th	The crowd at a football match in Lima, Peru riots over a referee's decision in the Peru versus Argentina game (319 dead, 500 injured)
27th	Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India dies; he is succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri

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June
2nd	Five million shares of stock in the Communications Satellite Corporation (Comsat) are offered for sale at $20 a share, and the issue is quickly sold out
3rd	South Korean President Park Chung Hee declares martial law in Seoul, after 10,000 student demonstrators overpower police
11th	Greece rejects direct talks with Turkey over Cyprus
11th	In Cologne, Germany, Walter Seifert attacks students and teachers in an elementary school with a flamethrower, killing 10 and injuring 21
12th	Nelson Mandela and 7 others are sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa, and sent to the Robben Island prison
16th	12-year-old Keith Bennett is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady
19th	U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, 32, is seriously injured in a private plane crash at Southampton, Massachusetts; the pilot is killed
21st	Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, are murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, by local segregationist law enforcement officials
21st	Spain beats the Soviet Union 2-1 to win the 1964 European Nations Cup
25th	The Vatican condemns the female combined oral contraceptive pill
26th	Moise Tshombe returns to Congo from exile in Spain

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July
2nd	President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law
6th	Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom
8th	U.S. military personnel announce that U.S. casualties in Vietnam have risen to 1,387, including 399 dead and 17 MIA
18th	Six days of race riots begin in Harlem
18th	Judith Graham Pool publishes discovery of cryoprecipitate, a substance that extended the lives of hemophiliacs around the world
19th	At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam
20th	Viet Cong forces attack a provincial capital, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children)
21st	Race riots begin in Singapore between ethnic Chinese and Malays
27th	The U.S. sends 5,000 more military advisers to South Vietnam, bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000
31st	Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon (images are 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from Earth-bound telescopes)

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August
1st	The Final Looney Tune, "Senorella and the Glass Huarache", is released before the Warner Bros. Cartoon Division is shut down by Jack Warner
4th	American civil rights movement: The bodies of murdered civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found
4th	United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks 1 gunboat, while the other 2 leave the battle
5th	Operation Pierce Arrow - Aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin
5th	The Simba rebel army in Congo captures Stanleyville, and takes 1,000 Western hostages
7th	The United States Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces
8th	A Rolling Stones gig in Scheveningen gets out of control. Riot police end the gig after about 15 minutes, upon which spectators start to fight the riot police
13th	Murderers Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Anthony Allen become the last people to be executed in the United Kingdom
16th	In a coup, General Nguyen Khanh replaces Duong Van Minh as South Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, drafted partly by the U.S. Embassy
27th	Walt Disney's Mary Poppins has its world premiere in Los Angeles. It will go on to become Disney's biggest moneymaker, and winner of five Academy Awards, including a Best Actress award for Julie Andrews, who accepted the part after she was passed over by Jack L. Warner for the leading role of Eliza Dolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady. Mary Poppins is the first Disney film to be nominated for Best Picture

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September
2nd	Indian Hungry generation poets arrested on charges of conspiracy against the State and Obscenity in literature
4th	The Forth Road Bridge opens over the Firth of Forth
14th	The London Daily Herald ceases publication, replaced by The Sun
17th	The James Bond classic, Goldfinger is released in UK cinemas
21st	The island of Malta obtains independence from the United Kingdom
24th	The Warren Commission Report, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, is published concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the killing of Kennedy. The Commission's findings have since proven controversial, and have been both challenged and reaffirmed
25th	Mozambican War of Independence launched by The Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO)

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October
1st	Three thousand student activists at University of California, Berkeley surround and block a police car from taking a CORE volunteer arrested for not showing his ID when he violated a ban on outdoor activist card tables. This protest eventually explodes into the Berkeley Free Speech Movement
1st	Inauguration of the Shinkansen, high-speed rail system in Japan, for the first sector between Tokyo and Osaka
2nd	The Kinks release their first album, The Kinks
5th	Twenty-three men and thirty-one women escape to West Berlin through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall
10th	The 1964 Summer Olympics begin in Tokyo
12th	The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits. The flight is cut short and lands again on October 13 after sixteen orbits
14th	American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States
14th	Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power
15th	The Labour Party under Harold Wilson win the parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom, ending 13 years of Conservative Party rule
16th	The People's Republic of China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang
20th	Former United States President Herbert Hoover dies in New York City
21st	The film version of the hit Broadway stage musical My Fair Lady premieres in New York City. The movie stars Audrey Hepburn in the role of Eliza Dolittle and Rex Harrison repeating his stage performance as Professor Henry Higgins, and which will win him his only Academy Award for Best Actor. The film will win seven other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but Audrey Hepburn will not be nominated. Critics interpret this as a rebuke to Jack L. Warner for choosing Ms Hepburn over Julie Andrews
22nd	A Federal Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects a design to become the new official Flag of Canada
24th	Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule
26th	Eric Edgar Cooke becomes the last man executed in Western Australia. He is executed for murdering eight citizens in Perth, Western Australia in between 1959 to 1963
27th	In Congo, rebel leader Christopher Gbenye takes 60 Americans and 800 Belgians hostage
29th	A collection of irreplaceable gemstones, including the 565 carat (113 g) Star of India, is stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City

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November
1st	Mortar fire from North Vietnamese forces rains on the USAF base at Bien Hoa, South Vietnam, killing 4 U.S. servicemen, wounding 72, and destroying 5 B-57 jet bombers and other planes
3rd	U.S. presidential election, 1964: Incumbent U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote
3rd	The Bolivian government of President Victor Paz Estenssoro is overthrown by a military rebellion led by General Alfredo Ovando Candía, commander-in-chief of the armed forces
5th	Mariner 3, a U.S. space probe intended for Mars, is launched from Cape Kennedy but fails
9th	The House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain
10th	Australia partially reintroduces compulsory military service due to the Indonesian Confrontation
21st	The Verrazano Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (the world's longest suspension bridge at this time)
24th	Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries capture Stanleyville, but a number of hostages die in the fighting, among them Evangelical Covenant Church missionary Dr. Paul Carlson
28th	NASA launches the Mariner 4 space probe from Cape Kennedy toward Mars to take television pictures of that planet in July 1965
28th	United States National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor, agree to recommend a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam, to President Lyndon B. Johnson

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December
1st	Gustavo Díaz Ordaz takes office as President of Mexico
3rd	Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and massive sit-in at the administration building, protesting the U.C. Regents' decision to forbid Vietnam War protests on U.C. property
10th	Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway
11th	Che Guevara addresses the UN General Assembly
21st	The James Bond film Goldfinger begins its run in U.S. movie theatres. It will become one of the most successful and popular Bond films ever made
22nd	Comedian Lenny Bruce is sentenced to four months in prison, concluding a six-month obscenity trial
23rd	Wonderful Radio London commences transmissions with American top 40 format broadcasting, from a ship anchored off the south coast of England
26th	10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady