WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 1964
Find out what all happened May to December 1964

Leonid Brezhnev becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and thereby, along with his allies - such as Alexei Kosygin - the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), ousting the former monolithic leader Nikita Khrushchev, and sending him into retirement as a nonperson in the USSR. (14. October 1964)

Vietnam War: at a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam. (19. July 1964)

Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam. (1. December 1964)

Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the USS Card while it is docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship. She is raised and returned to service less than 7 months later. (2. May 1964)

Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam. (28. November 1964)

Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war. (5. December 1964)

Eric Edgar Cooke becomes last person in Western Australia to be executed. (26. October 1964)

Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity. (28. June 1964)

Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. (5. August 1964)

Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F-27 airliner, 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. (7. May 1964)

The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits (12. October 1964)

Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin are inaugurated as General Secretary of the CPSU and Premier, respectively and the collective leadership is established. (16. October 1964)

Gulf of Tonkin incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. (4. August 1964)

Japanese Shinkansen ("bullet trains") begin high-speed rail service from Tokyo to Osaka. (1. October 1964)

Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa. (12. June 1964)

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate. (19. June 1964)

Constantine II of Greece marries Danish princess Anne-Marie. (18. September 1964)

The British TSR-2 aircraft XR219 makes its maiden flight from Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. (27. September 1964)

Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time. (3. November 1964)

The opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite. (10. October 1964)