December 1964

The following events occurred in December 1964:

December 1, 1964 (Tuesday)

• Gustavo Díaz Ordaz takes office as President of Mexico.
• Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam (after some debate, they agree on a 2-phase bombing plan).
• The Panamanian cargo ship Fury is driven ashore at Wedge Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, in a storm. She is declared a constructive total loss.^[1]
• Died: J. B. S. Haldane, 72, British geneticist

December 2, 1964 (Wednesday)

• The Canadian fishing trawler Acadia Seahawk sinks at 43°30′N 61°10′W / 43.500°N 61.167°W / 43.500; -61.167.^[2]

December 3, 1964 (Thursday)

• Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest about 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover of and massive sit-in at the Sproul Hall administration building. The sit-in most directly protested the U.C. Regents' decision to punish student activists for what many thought had been justified civil disobedience earlier in the conflict.
• The Danish football club Brøndby IF is founded as a merger between the two local clubs Brøndbyøster Idrætsforening and Brøndbyvester Idrætsforening. The club has won the national championship Danish Superliga 10 times and the national Danish Cup six times.

December 4, 1964 (Friday)

• Born: Marisa Tomei, US actress, in Brooklyn, New York

December 5, 1964 (Saturday)

• An LGM-30B Minuteman I missile is on strategic alert at Launch Facility (LF) L-02, Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, US, when two airmen are dispatched to the LF to repair the inner zone (IZ) security system. In the midst of their checkout of the IZ system, one retrorocket in the spacer below the Reentry Vehicle (RV) fires, causing the RV to fall about 75 feet to the floor of the silo. When the RV strikes bottom, the arming and fusing/altitude control subsystem containing the batteries are torn loose, thus removing all sources of power from the RV. The RV structure receives considerable damage. All safety devices operate properly in that they do not sense the proper sequence of events to allow arming the warhead. There is no detonation or radioactive contamination.^[3]

December 6, 1964 (Sunday)

• The 1-hour stop-motion animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the popular Christmas song, is broadcast for the first time on NBC. It becomes a Christmas tradition in the US, still being shown on television more than 50 years later.
• Died: Consuelo Vanderbilt, 87, US-born Duchess of Marlborough

December 7, 1964 (Monday)

• The Danish ship MV Scantic founders in Saint George's Channel, United Kingdom.

December 8, 1964 (Tuesday)

• USAF Convair B-58A-15-CF Hustler, 60-1116, of the 305th Bomb Wing, taxiing for take-off on icy taxiway at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana, is blown off the pavement by exhaust of another departing Convair B-58 Hustler. It strikes a concrete manhole box adjacent to the runway, and the landing gear collapses. The navigator is killed in a failed ejection, but two other crew members escape. Four B43 nuclear bombs and either a W39 or W53 warhead are on board the weapons pod, but no explosion takes place and contamination is limited to the crash site.^[4]

December 9, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Died: Edith Sitwell, 77, English poet
• Born: Mojca Golub, Ljubljančanka, naša 'mati'

December 10, 1964 (Thursday)

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

December 11, 1964 (Friday)

• Che Guevara addresses the U.N. General Assembly.^[5]
• Died: Sam Cooke, 33, African-American singer and songwriter, shot dead in mysterious circumstances; Alma Mahler, 85, Austrian socialite and wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel

December 12, 1964 (Saturday)

• The West German coaster Deutschland collides with Norway's SS Vera in the Lower Elbe and sinks with the loss of four crew.^[6]
• British cargo ship Yewcroft runs aground at IJmuiden, Netherlands.^[6]
• Canadian cargo ship Fury loses her steering gear and is driven ashore at Canso, Nova Scotia.^[7]

December 13, 1964 (Sunday)

• Dutch coaster MV Tjoba capsizes and sinks in the Rhine at Sankt Goar, West Germany. The ship is raised after eight days and it is discovered that the ship's cat has survived in an air pocket. He was taken to a vet in Koblenz for treatment.^[8]

December 14, 1964 (Monday)

• Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (379 US 241 1964): The U.S. Supreme Court rules that, in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishments providing public accommodations must refrain from racial discrimination.
• Died: William Bendix, US actor, 58 (chronic stomach ailment leading to lobar pneumonia); Francisco Canaro, 76, Uruguayan-born composer

December 15, 1964 (Tuesday)

• The Washington Post publishes an article about James Hampton and the glittering religious throne he created out of recycled materials.

December 16, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Born: Heike Drechsler, female German athlete with two Olympic gold medals in the long jump (1992 and 2000).

December 17, 1964 (Thursday)

• Died: Victor Francis Hess, 81, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

December 18, 1964 (Friday)

• In the wake of deadly riots in January over control of the Panama Canal, the U.S. offers to negotiate a new canal treaty.
• The deadly Christmas flood of 1964 begins; It becomes one of the most destructive weather events to affect Oregon in the 20th century.

December 19, 1964 (Saturday)

• December 1964 South Vietnamese coup: the ruling military junta of South Vietnam, led by General Nguyen Khanh, dissolves the High National Council (HNC) and arrests some of its members.^[9]
• The James Bond film Goldfinger begins its run in the US. It remains one of the most successful and popular Bond films ever made.
• The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark makes its first flight.

December 20, 1964 (Sunday)

• Liechtenstein holds a referendum on a proposed trade initiative, which is rejected by 62.5% of voters.^[10]

December 21, 1964 (Monday)

• Liberian cargo ship SS San Patrick, a converted T2 tanker,^[11] runs aground on Udak Island, Alaska, United States, with the loss of over 30 crew.^[12]

December 22, 1964 (Tuesday)

• As part of his Order of the Day,^[13] a regular message to the armed forces over Radio Vietnam, General Nguyen Khanh goes back on his promise to leave the country and announces that "We make sacrifices for the country's independence and the Vietnamese people's liberty, but not to carry out the policy of any foreign country."^[14]
• At the conclusion of a 6-month obscenity trial, US comedian Lenny Bruce is sentenced to 4 months in prison.
• A cyclone in the Palk Strait destroys the Indian town of Dhanushkodi, killing 1800 people.
• The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird makes its first flight at Palmdale, California.
• Danish coaster MV North Wind is driven ashore at Preston, Devon, UK. Crew rescued by breeches buoy.^[15]

December 23, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Sinhalese Navy Algerine-class minesweeper Vijaya runs aground during a cyclone in the Gulf of Mannar.^[16]
• "Wonderful Radio London" commences transmissions with American top 40 format broadcasting, from a ship anchored off the south coast of England.
• Born: Eddie Vedder, US singer-songwriter, in Evanston, Illinois

December 24, 1964 (Thursday)

• Apparently aimed at visiting American comedian Bob Hope, a time bomb set by Viet Cong terrorists explodes at Brinks, a U.S. Army officers club in Saigon, killing two Americans and wounding 50 others. Three years later, a captured memorandum criticizes the terrorists for the fact that "The bomb exploded 10 minutes before the set time. Shortly after the explosion the cars of the Bob Hope entertainment group arrived. If the bomb exploded at the scheduled time, it might have killed an additional number of guests who came to see the entertainment." ^[17]
• Flying Tiger Line Flight 282, a Lockheed Constellation aircraft, crashes near San Bruno, California, US, after an unexplained course deviation, killing its crew of three.
• Died: Michael Munnelly, 23, killed while assisting the victims of a riot and posthumously awarded the George Cross^[18]

December 25, 1964 (Friday)

• Born: Jonas Sjöstedt, Swedish politician, in Gothenburg; Ian Bostridge, English tenor, in London

December 26, 1964 (Saturday)

• Lesley Ann Downey, 10, is abducted by "Moors murderers" Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in Manchester, UK. They murder her that evening and bury her body in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor the following morning.^[19]

December 27, 1964 (Sunday)

• The Cleveland Browns defeat the Baltimore Colts in the US National Football League Championship Game.
• US cargo ship Smith Voyager sinks under tow in the South Atlantic,^[20] having been disabled on 21 December following a shift in her cargo of grain.^[12] She foundered due to the rupturing of a seam.^[20] Four crew drowned,^[21] the remaining crew were rescued by a United States Coast Guard cutter.^[20]

December 28, 1964 (Monday)

• Born: Moïse Katumbi Chapwe, Congolese businessman and politician, in Lac Moreo
• Died: Frederick Fleet's wife died
• Created: Syuaib

December 29, 1964 (Tuesday)

• Died: Vladimir Favorsky, 78, Russian artist and engraver

December 30, 1964 (Wednesday)

• The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is established as a permanent organ of the UN General Assembly.
• A Curtiss C-46A-45-CU N608Z owned by Zantop Air Transport crashes, killing four people.

December 31, 1964 (Thursday)

• Died: Ólafur Thors, 72, Prime Minister of Iceland for five terms

References