April 1964

The following events occurred in April 1964:

April 1, 1964 (Wednesday)

• The post of Secretary of State for War in the UK government is replaced by that of Secretary of State for Defence; the position continues to be held by Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft.

April 2, 1964 (Thursday)

• 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.
• Died: Carlos Hevia, 64, President of Cuba for 3 days in 1934.

April 3, 1964 (Friday)

• Malcolm X gives the first version of his "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech in Cleveland, Ohio.
• Born: Nigel Farage, British politician, in Farnborough, Kent

April 4, 1964 (Saturday)

• 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".
• Three high school friends in Hoboken, N.J., open the first BLIMPIE on Washington Street.

April 5, 1964 (Sunday)

• General elections begin in Lebanon.
• 1964 Machida F-8 crash: A United States Marine Corps Vought F-8C Crusader returning from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, to its home base of Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, suffers a mechanical malfunction and crashes into a residential neighborhood in the Hara-Machida area of Machida City (near present-day JR Machida Station). The crash kills four people and injured 32 others on the ground. The aircraft's pilot ejects and is not seriously injured.^[1]
• Died: Douglas MacArthur, 84, American five-star general and field marshal of the Philippine Army.

April 6, 1964 (Monday)

• Jigme Palden Dorji, Premier of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, is shot dead by an unidentified assassin in Puncholing, near the Indian border.

April 7, 1964 (Tuesday)

• IBM announces the System/360.

April 8, 1964 (Wednesday)

• 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.
• Gemini 1 is launched, the first unmanned test of the 2-man spacecraft.
• From Russia with Love is premièred in U.S. movie theaters.

April 9, 1964 (Thursday)

• 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.

April 10, 1964 (Friday)

• Verda Welcome, the first black state senator in Maryland, is shot in Baltimore.
• Demolition of the Polo Grounds sports stadium commences in New York, NY.
• Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist, gives his last public concert.

April 11, 1964 (Saturday)

• The Brazilian Congress elects Field Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco as President of Brazil.

April 12, 1964 (Sunday)

• Malcolm X gives another "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech, in Detroit, Michigan.

April 13, 1964 (Monday)

• The 36th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
• Sidney Poitier is the first black person to win an Academy Award in the category Best Actor in a Leading Role in Lilies of the Field
• Malcolm X departs on Hajj.

April 14, 1964 (Tuesday)

• A Delta rocket's third-stage motor ignites prematurely in an assembly room at Cape Canaveral, killing three people.
• Died: Rachel Carson, 56, US marine biologist and conservationist, of a heart attack brought on by cancer and radiation treatment^[2]

April 15, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Fifteen days after the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état, the Army Chief of Staff, Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, is inaugurated as president, with the intention of overseeing a reform of the political-economic system.
• The trial of the Great Train Robbers concludes in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK, with the judge describing the robbery as "a crime of sordid violence inspired by vast greed" and passing sentences of 30 years' imprisonment on seven of the robbers.^[3]

April 16, 1964 (Thursday)

• The Donauturm, Austria's tallest structure, is opened by Bundespräsident Adolf Schärf^[4]
• The Rolling Stones release their debut album, The Rolling Stones.
• 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.
• Representatives of NASA Langley and Boeing signed the Lunar Orbiter contract on 16 April 1964

^[5]

April 17, 1964 (Friday)

• Jerrie Mock arrives in Columbus, Ohio, in a Cessna 180, completing a solo round-the-world flight and becoming the first woman to make such a journey.
• In the United States, the Ford Mustang is officially unveiled to the public.
• Shea Stadium opens in Flushing, New York, US.
• The U.S. Air Force completes Operation Helping Hand, an airlift begun on March 28 that has brought 1,850 short tons (1,678 metric tons) of relief equipment and supplies to Anchorage, Alaska, in the aftermath of a massive earthquake there.^[6]
• Byron De La Beckwith is free after his second trial for the murder of Medgar Evers ends with another hung jury.

April 18, 1964 (Saturday)

• The 1964 Aintree 200 motor race is won by Jack Brabham.
• Born: Niall Ferguson, British economic historian, in Glasgow; Zazie, French singer-songwriter, in Boulogne-Billancourt

April 19, 1964 (Sunday)

• In Laos, the coalition government of Prince Souvanna Phouma is deposed by a right-wing military group, led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay. Not supported by the U.S., the coup is ultimately unsuccessful, and Souvanna Phouma is reinstated, remaining Prime Minister until 1975.

April 20, 1964 (Monday)

• 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.
• Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, a classic of the anti-apartheid movement.
• BBC2 starts broadcasting in the UK.

April 21, 1964 (Tuesday)

• A Vickers Viscount OD-ACX of Middle East Airlines is damaged beyond economic repair as a result of an accident at El Arish, Egypt.^[7]
• James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie opens on Broadway.
• Died: Bharathidasan, 72, Tamil poet and activist

April 22, 1964 (Wednesday)

• British businessman Greville Wynne, imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 for spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.
• 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. (Not sanctioned, due to being within 10 years of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, some countries decline, but many countries have pavilions with exotic crafts, art & food.)
• Famous football result in Scotland: Forfar 5 East Fife 4

April 23, 1964 (Thursday)

• The 1964 Titleholders Championship golf tournament opens at Augusta Country Club, US. It lasts for four days and is won by Marilynn Smith.

April 24, 1964 (Friday)

• The Swedish warship Vasa, sunk in 1628, is raised from the waters of Stockholm harbor.
• Died: Gerhard Domagk, 68 German pathologist and bacteriologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

April 25, 1964 (Saturday)

• Thieves steal the head of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark (Henrik Bruun confesses in 1997).

April 26, 1964 (Sunday)

• Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.

April 27, 1964 (Monday)

• Abdullah Kassim Hanga relinquishes the post of Prime Minister of Zanzibar, which is abolished by the incoming Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar.
• Died: Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky, 82, Russian nobleman and memoirist;

April 28, 1964 (Tuesday)

• Born: Lady Helen Marina Lucy Windsor, British royal, only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, at Coppins, Buckinghamshire

April 29, 1964 (Wednesday)

• The 17th Cannes Film Festival opens.

April 30, 1964 (Thursday)

• Jerome "Jerry" Wurf defeats Arnold Zander to become president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
• Born: Barrington Levy, Jamaican reggae musician, in Clarendon
• Died: Howard Buffett, 60, US businessman and politician, father of Warren Buffett

References