Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

May 1964

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The following events occurred in May 1964:

Contents

May 1, 1964 (Friday)

  • At 4:00 a.m., John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz ran 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 would eventually be included on many computers and even some games consoles.

    • May 2, 1964 (Saturday)

  • More than 400 students marched through Times Square, New York, and another 700 through San Francisco, in the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War. Smaller marches also occurred in Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin.
  • West Ham United won the FA Cup for the first time in their history, beating Preston North End 3-2 at Wembley Stadium.
  • Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh's seven-week-old son was christened Edward Antony Richard Louis – today he is The Earl of Wessex.
  • Senator Barry Goldwater received more than 75% of the vote in the Texas Republican Presidential primary.
  • A North Vietnamese frogman sank the U.S. Navy aviation transport USNS Card (T-AKV-40) - formerly the escort aircraft carrier USS Card (CVE-11) - pierside while she unloaded helicopters at Saigon, South Vietnam. The ship was soon refloated and repaired.
  • Died: Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi, were kidnapped and beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their badly decomposed bodies would be found by chance two months later in July, during the search for three civil rights workers – Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.

    • May 3, 1964 (Sunday)

  • At the conclusion of the Lebanese general election, Independent candidates were found to have won the majority of seats, on a voter turnout of 53.0%.

    • May 4, 1964 (Monday)

  • The United States Congress voted to recognize Bourbon whiskey as a "distinctive product of the United States".

    • May 5, 1964 (Tuesday)

  • Born: Heike Henkel, German athlete, in Kiel

    • May 6, 1964 (Wednesday)

  • Joe Orton's black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane premièred at the New Arts Theatre in London.

    • May 7, 1964 (Thursday)

  • Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashed near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard. The FBI would later conclude that a cockpit recorder tape indicated that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger, Francisco Paula Gonzales, who killed both the pilot and co-pilot before turning the gun on himself. The crash was believed to be the first instance in the United States of an airliner's pilots being shot by a passenger as part of a mass murder/suicide.
  • At a mail rockets demonstration by Gerhard Zucker on Hasselkopf Mountain near Braunlage (Lower Saxonia, Germany), three people were killed by a rocket explosion.

    • May 8, 1964 (Friday)

  • Ronald Wolfe became the last person in the United States to be executed for the crime of rape without homicide, after his conviction for a brutal attack in 1959 against an 8-year old girl in Troy, Missouri. Wolfe was put to death in the gas chamber at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.
  • Born: Melissa Gilbert, US actress and TV director, in Los Angeles

    • May 9, 1964 (Saturday)

  • South Korean President Chung Hee Park reshuffled his Cabinet, after a series of student demonstrations against his efforts to restore diplomatic and trade relations with Japan.
  • The steam engine GWR 4073 Class 7029 Clun Castle ran between Plymouth to Bristol Temple Meads non-stop in a record time of 133 minutes and 9 seconds. Had it not been restricted to 80 mph down Whiteball bank near Wellington, it could have improved on the time.

    • May 10, 1964 (Sunday)

  • Died: Mikhail Larionov, 82, Russian avant-garde painter and founder of Rayonism

    • May 11, 1964 (Monday)

  • The first Habitat store, later a large retail chain, was opened by Terence Conran on London's Fulham Road.
  • Jackie Cochran set a new women's airspeed record of 1,429 mph (2,300 km/h) in an F-104 Starfighter.

    • May 12, 1964 (Tuesday)

  • Twelve young men in New York City publicly burned their draft cards to protest against the Vietnam War, the first public act of resistance in the history of this particular war.

    • May 13, 1964 (Wednesday)

  • Died: Diana Wynyard, 58, English actress, died of kidney failure

    • May 14, 1964 (Thursday)

  • The 17th Cannes Film Festival closed.
  • The 17th Congress of the French Communist Party opened in Paris.
  • The 84th Parliament of Iceland adjourned.

    • May 15, 1964 (Friday)

  • Born: Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Danish politician, in Vejle

    • May 16, 1964 (Saturday)

  • The 1964 Giro d'Italia cycle race, 47th edition of the Corsa Rosa, began.

    • May 17, 1964 (Sunday)

  • The debate over a new Canadian flag in time for Canada's 1967 centennial began at the 20th Royal Canadian Legion (RCL) convention, in Winnipeg, when Prime Minister Lester Pearson told an unsympathetic audience that the time had come to replace the red ensign with a distinctive maple leaf flag.
  • Born:
  • Stratos Apostolakis, Greek footballer, in Agrinio
  • Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player, in Son en Breugel (died 1999)

    • May 18, 1964 (Monday)

  • Litunga Mwanawina III, King of Barotseland, and Kenneth Kaunda, Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia_, signed the Barotseland Agreement establishing Barotseland's position within Zambia in place of the earlier agreement between Barotseland and the British Government.
  • The U.S. radio station WBEM began broadcasting
  • Died: Hereward Kesteven, 83, Australian medical scientist

    • May 19, 1964 (Tuesday)

  • The United States State Department disclosed that that more than 40 hidden microphones had been found embedded in the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

    • May 20, 1964 (Wednesday)

  • Tran Thanh Phong became commander of I Corps (South Vietnam). He would last only ten days in the position before being replaced by Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Lam. The rapid turnover of commanders during the period reflected Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky's difficulty in dealing with the Buddhist Uprising.

    • May 21, 1964 (Thursday)

  • Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery damaged a U.S. Navy RF-8A Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft over Laos. The RF-8A, flown by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann, burned for 20 minutes in the air but landed safely aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63).

    • May 22, 1964 (Friday)

  • Indonesia defeated Denmark to win the 1964 Thomas Cup badminton competition held in Tokyo.

    • May 23, 1964 (Saturday)

  • Mrs. Madeline Dassault, 63, wife of a French plane manufacturer and politician, was kidnapped while getting out of her car in front of her Paris home. She would be found unharmed the next day in a farmhouse 27 miles (43 km) from Paris.
  • Pablo Picasso painted his fourth version of Head of a Bearded Man.

    • May 24, 1964 (Sunday)

  • In the deadliest riot ever at a sporting event, 319 people were killed and 500 injured at an international soccer football match at Lima between Peru and Argentina, following a disputed call by a referee.
  • Died: Erich Möller, 59, German road and motor-paced cycling champion

    • May 25, 1964 (Monday)

  • At the 16th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Defenders won the major awards for Program Achievement, while Jack Klugman and Shelley Winters won the main acting awards.

    • May 26, 1964 (Tuesday)

  • Nelson Rockefeller defeated Barry Goldwater in the Oregon Republican primary, slowing but not stalling Goldwater's drive toward the nomination.

    • May 27, 1964 (Wednesday)

  • The UK pirate radio station Radio Sutch began broadcasting from Shivering Sands Army Fort in the Thames Estuary.
  • Internazionale beat Real Madrid 3-1 at the Prater Stadium at Vienna to win soccer football's European Cup
  • Born: Adam Carolla, American actor, comedian, and radio personality, in Los Angeles, California.
  • Died: Jawaharlal Nehru, 74, first and incumbent Prime Minister of India, died of a heart attack Gulzarilal Nanda became the acting Prime Minister until he was replaced by Lal Bahadur Shastri on June 9.

    • May 28, 1964 (Thursday)

  • The Palestine Liberation Organization issued its charter.
  • Hundreds of thousands of people attended the funeral of Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was cremated at the Shantivana on the banks of the Yamuna River.

    • May 29, 1964 (Friday)

  • The German football club SV Südwest Ludwigshafen was founded.

    • May 30, 1964 (Saturday)

  • The 48th Indianapolis 500 motor race was won by A.J. Foyt, but not before a seven-car accident that killed drivers Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald. Foyt's victory was the last 500 won by a front-engined "roadster". All races since then have been won by rear-engined cars.
  • Manuel Santana defeated Nicola Pietrangeli 6–3, 6–1, 4–6, 7–5, to win the men's singles at the French tennis championship,

    • May 31, 1964 (Sunday)

  • Víctor Paz Estenssoro was |re-elected as President of Bolivia.

    • References

    May 1964 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA