Boston Strangler commits his final known murder
Mary Sullivan is raped and strangled to death in her Boston apartment. The killer left a card reading “Happy New Year” leaning against her foot. Sullivan would turn out to…
Also Within This Year in History:
1964
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964, authorizing major U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Martin Luther King Jr., won the Nobel Peace Prize, and President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. China tested its first atomic bomb, the Beatles made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and Ford unveiled its first Mustang at the New York World’s Fair. Pop-Tarts debuted, while Diet Pepsi bubbled onto the market, the nation’s first mass-distributed diet soda.
Mary Sullivan is raped and strangled to death in her Boston apartment. The killer left a card reading “Happy New Year” leaning against her foot. Sullivan would turn out to…
Elected in 1964, Patsy T. Mink is sworn in on January 4, 1965, as the first Asian American woman and first woman of color to serve in the U.S. Congress.…
On January 11, 1964, United States Surgeon General Luther Terry releases a groundbreaking government report announcing a definitive link between smoking and cancer. Knowing his report was a bombshell, Terry…
The U.S. State Department angrily accuses the Soviet Union of shooting down an American jet that strayed into East German airspace. Three U.S. officers aboard the plane were killed in…
Stanley Kubrick’s black comic masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb opens in theaters to both critical and popular acclaim. The movie’s popularity…
On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York’s Kennedy Airport—and “Beatlemania” arrives. It was the first visit to the United States…
At approximately 8:12 p.m. Eastern time, Sunday, February 9, 1964, The Ed Sullivan Show returned from a commercial (for Anacin pain reliever), and there was Ed Sullivan standing before a…
On this day in 1964, 22‑year‑old Cassius Clay shocks the odds‑makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh‑round technical knockout. The dreaded Liston, who had twice…
On February 25, 1964, 22‑year‑old Cassius Clay shocks the odds‑makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh‑round technical knockout. Former champ Joe Louis called it “the…
On February 27, 1964, the Italian government announces that it is accepting suggestions on how to save the renowned Leaning Tower of Pisa from collapse. The top of the 180‑foot…
Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald—the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy—is found guilty of the “murder with malice” of Oswald and sentenced to…
The strongest earthquake in American history, measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale, slams southern Alaska, creating a deadly tsunami. Some 131 people were killed and thousands injured. The massive earthquake…
On April 13, 1964, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role as a construction worker who helps build a…
The Ford Mustang is officially unveiled by Henry Ford II at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York, on April 17, 1964. That same day, the new car also…
On May 9, 1964, the great Louis Armstrong, age 63, broke the Beatles’ stranglehold on the U.S. pop charts with the #1 hit “Hello Dolly.” Following the ascension of “I…
A referee’s call in a soccer match between Peru and Argentina sparks a riot on May 24, 1964. More than 300 fans were killed and another 500 people were injured…
On May 28, 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded. In February of 1969, Yasir Arafat was elected as its leader. By 1974, when he addressed the United Nations, Arafat…
Fifteen‑year‑old Alleen Rowe is killed by Charles Schmid in the desert outside Tucson, Arizona. Earlier in the night, Schmid allegedly had said to his friends, “I want to kill a…
A U.S. Navy jet flying low‑altitude target reconnaissance missions over Laos is shot down by communist Pathet Lao ground fire. Less than 48 hours later, a second jet, which was…
In reply to a formal question submitted by President Lyndon B. Johnson—“Would the rest of Southeast Asia necessarily fall if Laos and South Vietnam came under North Vietnamese control?”—the Central…