1965 (MCMLXV) was .

Events 

 January 30 – state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in London
 February 18 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom
 March 7 – Bloody Sunday: Alabama State Troopers attack civil rights demonstrators as they attempt to march to the state capitol of Montgomery
 April 9 – Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang appear on the cover of Time
 May 25 – Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston in the first round of their championship boxing rematch
 June 15 - Victoria, Australia, coldest day on record -11.7°C at Omeo
 July 16 – The Mont Blanc tunnel opens
 August 9 – Singapore proclaims its independence from the Malaysian Federation.
 September 9 – Hurricane Betsy is in Louisiana
 October 3 – Fidel Castro announces that Che Guevara resigned and left Cuba
 November 5 – Martial law is announced in Rhodesia
 December 20 – World Food Programme is made a permanent agency of the United Nations
 The Left Banke forms
 Pete Best attempts suicide

Births 

 January 8 – John Catliff, Canadian footballer
 February 21 - Steve Lee, Sound effects wrangler and film historian
 February 1 – Brandon Lee, Chinese-American actor (d. 1993)
 March 1 – Booker Huffman, American professional wrestler
 March 23 - Jonathan Dow, British actor
 April 16 – Jon Cryer, American actor
 April 20 - Susan Cookson, British actress
 May 7 – Owen Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (died 1999)
 June 1 – Nigel Short, English chess player
 July 31 – J. K. Rowling, writer
 August 25 – Mia Zapata, singer
 August 28 – Shania Twain, singer
 September 2 – Lennox Lewis, British boxer
 October 5 – Patrick Roy, Canadian retired ice hockey player
 November 20 – Ben Stiller, actor
 December 31 – Nicholas Sparks, American author

Deaths 

 January 4 – T. S. Eliot, poet
 January 24 – Winston Churchill, British politician
 February 2 – Nat Cole, jazz singer
 February 21 – Malcolm X, leader of the Black Muslim Movement
 February 23 – Stan Laurel, British comedian
 March 18 – King Farouk I of Egypt
 April 18 – Guillermo González Camarena, Mexican inventor (b. 1917)
 May 1 – Spike Jones, American musician and bandleader (b. 1911)
 June 5 – Eleanor Farjeon, English author of children's literature (b. 1881)
 July 1 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer (b. 1903)
 July 7 – Moshe Sharett, 2nd Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1894)
 August 13 – Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1899)
 August 27 – Le Corbusier, Swiss architect (b. 1887)
 September 16 – Fred Quimby, American animated film producer (b. 1886)
 October 1 – Gareth Hughes, Welsh actor (b. 1894)
 November 24 – Abdullah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1895)
 November 25 – Dame Myra Hess, English pianist (b. 1890)
 December 5 – Joseph Erlanger, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)

Nobel Prizes 
 Nobel Prize in Physics shared by Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger, and Richard P. Feynman for work in the development of quantum electrodynamics
 Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Robert B. Woodward, American chemist (for his synthetic work with natural products)
 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shared by François Jacob, André Lwoff, and Jacques Monod
 Nobel Prize in Literature won by Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian novelist
 Nobel Peace Prize won by UNICEF

Movies released 

 The Agony and the Ectasy
 Alphaville, Golden Bear winner
 Cat Ballou
 Darling
 Doctor Zhivago, starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, and Alec Guinness
 For a Few Dollars More
 Girl Happy
 The Great Race
 The Greatest Story Ever Told
 Help!, starring The Beatles
 The Ipcress File
 Juliet of the Spirits
 The Knack...And How to Get It, Cannes Grand Prize
 The Legend of Blood Mountain
 Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie
 Report
 Ship of Fools
 The Shop on Main Street
 The Sons of Katie Elder
 The Sound of Music
 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
 Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
 A Thousand Clowns
 Thunderball
 Zorba the Greek

New books 

 The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley & Malcolm X
 The British Museum Is Falling Down – David Lodge
 Dune – Frank Herbert
 Georgy Girl – Margaret Forster
 The Green Berets – Robin Moore
 Hotel – Arthur Hailey
 The Looking-Glass War – John le Carré
 The Magus – John Fowles
 The Man with the Golden Gun – Ian Fleming
 Markings – Dag Hammarskjöld
 Morning's at Seven – Eric Malpass
 The Painted Bird – Jerzy Kosinski
 The Source – James A. Michener
 Those Who Love – Irving Stone
 The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K. Dick
 Up the Down Staircase – Bel Kaufman

Hit songs 
 "Nowhere to Run" – Martha Reeve and the Vandellas

References