1964

**1964** (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar.

## Events

- January 1 – _Top of the Pops_ is first shown on BBC television.
- January 3 – Footage of The Beatles performing a concert in Bournemouth, England is shown on _The Jack Paar Show_.
- January 15 – Vee Jay Records files a lawsuit against Capitol Records and Swan Records over manufacturing and distribution rights to Beatles albums. On April 9, Capitol Records is granted an court order stopping Vee Jay Records from further manufacturing, distributing or advertising recordings by the Beatles.
- January 17 - _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ by Roald Dahl is published for the first time.
- January 18 – The Beatles appear on the _Billboard_ charts for the first time.
- February 1 – Indiana Governor Welsh declares the song "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen pornographic. He requests that the Indiana Broadcasters Association ban the record. Governor Welsh claimed that his "ears tingle" when he heard the song. Publisher Max Firetag offers $1,000 to anyone that can find anything "suggestive" in the song's lyrics.
- February 7 – The Beatles arrive in the United States and are greeted by thousands of screaming fans at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
- March – Columbia Records is bombarded with requests for heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay's album, _I Am the Greatest_, following Clay's defeat of Sonny Liston in February.
- March 21 – For the first time in history, all Top Ten singles on the U.K. chart are by British acts.
- March 27 – A major earthquake strikes southern Alaska.
- April 4 – The Beatles hold all five top positions on the _Billboard_ Top Pop Singles chart with their singles "Can't Buy Me Love", "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "Please Please Me".
- April 11 – The Beatles hold 14 positions on the _Billboard_ Hot 100 chart. Previously, the highest number of concurrent singles by one artist on the Hot 100 was nine by Elvis Presley, December 19, 1956.
- April 20 – BBC 2 is launched.
- April 26 – The Rolling Stones release their eponymous first album.
- April 26 – Tanzania is formed by uniting Zanzibar and Tanganyika.
- May 2 – In the United States, The Beatles' _Second Album_ climbs to the #1 spot on the LP charts in only its second week of release, making it the first album ever to reach #1 that quickly.
- July 31 – Country singer Jim Reeves dies in an airplane crash near Nashville.
- September 21 – Malta becomes independent.
- September 22 – _Fiddler on the Roof_ opens on Broadway.
- October 14 – Martin Luther King, Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
- October 15 – Nikita Krushchev is overthrown in the Soviet Union.
- October 16 – Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- October 27 - Ronald Reagan delivers "_A Time for Choosing_" speech at a campaign ceremony for Barry Goldwater.
- November 3 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater in the Presidential election.
- 1964 – The first clinically significant beta blockers propranolol and pronethalol are patented. It revolutionized the medical management of angina pectoris.

## Births

- January 3 - Rendor Ács, Hungarian politician and actor
- January 7 – Nicolas Cage, American actor
- January 12 – Jeff Bezos, American entrepreneur
- January 12 - Clare Holman, British actress
- January 13 – Bill Bailey, British comedian
- January 14 – Mark Addy, English actor
- January 17 – Michelle Obama, First lady and wife of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama
- January 18 – Jane Horrocks, British actress
- January 23 – Mariska Hargitay, American actress
- January 23 – Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana
- January 26 – Torkil Nielsen, Faroese footballer and chess player
- January 27 – Bridget Fonda, American actress
- February 10 – Francesca Neri, Italian actress
- February 10 – Glenn Beck, American broadcaster
- February 11 – Sarah Palin, 11th Governor of Alaska
- February 16 – Christopher Eccleston, English actor
- February 18 – Matt Dillon, American actor
- February 25 – Lee Evans, British comedian
- March 1 – Paul Le Guen, French football manager
- March 6 – Sandro Rosell, Spanish football manager
- March 9 – Juliette Binoche, French actress
- March 10 – Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
- March 17 – Rob Lowe, American actor
- March 29 – Elle Macpherson, Australian model and actress
- April 2 – Hirobumi Zaima, Japanese footballer
- April 6 – David Woodard, American writer and conductor
- April 7 – Russell Crowe, New Zealand-born Australian actor
- April 14 – Stuart Duncan, American musician
- April 14 – Gina McKee, English actress
- April 17 – Maynard James Keenan, American singer
- April 20 – François Bourdoncle, French businessman
- April 20 – Andy Serkis, English actor
- April 25 – Hank Azaria, American actor and comedian
- May 13 – Stephen Colbert, American actor and comedian
- May 26 – Lenny Kravitz, American musician
- June 15 – Courteney Cox, American actress
- June 15 – Michael Laudrup, Danish footballer
- June 19 — Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister
- June 21 – Oleg Kononenko, Russian cosmonaut
- June 22 – Dan Brown, American writer
- June 23 – Joss Whedon, American television and movie director
- July 3 – Yeardley Smith, American actress
- July 9 – Courtney Love, American musician, singer and actress
- July 10 – Urban Meyer, American football manager
- July 15 – Tetsuji Hashiratani, Japanese football manager
- July 19 – Masashi Hachuda, Japanese football manager
- July 22 – John Leguizamo, Colombian/Puerto Rican American actor and comedian
- July 24 – Barry Bonds, American baseball player
- July 26 – Sandra Bullock, American actress
- July 30 – Jürgen Klinsmann, German footballer
- August 2 – Mary-Louise Parker, American actress
- August 3 – Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister of Thailand
- August 8 – Klaus Ebner, Austrian writer
- September 2 – Keanu Reeves, American actor
- September 9 – John Hughes, Scottish football manager
- September 14 – Faith Ford, American actress
- September 28 – Paul Jewell, English football manager
- September 30 – Monica Bellucci, Italian actress
- October 16 – Kathryn Edwards, American model, actress, television personality, and philanthropist
- October 22 – Craig Levein, Scottish football manager
- October 23 – Robert Trujillo, American musician
- October 30 – Jean-Marc Bosman, Belgian footballer
- October 31 – Marco van Basten, Dutch footballer and coach
- November 1 - Kerry Peers, Welsh actress
- November 11 – Calista Flockhart, American actress
- November 16 – Diana Krall, Canadian jazz singer
- November 27 – Roberto Mancini, Italian footballer and manager
- November 29 – Don Cheadle, American actor
- December 1 – Salvatore Schillaci, Italian footballer
- December 4 – Sertab Erener, Turkish singer
- December 8 – Teri Hatcher, American actress
- December 9 – Hape Kerkeling, German comedian
- December 13 – Hide, Japanese musician (d. 1998)
- December 18 – Robson Green, British actor
- December 18 – Stone Cold Steve Austin, American professional wrestler
- December 23 – Eddie Vedder, American singer

### January

- January 1 – Bechara Khoury, President of Lebanon (b. 1890)
- January 29 – Alan Ladd, American actor (b. 1913)

### February

- February 6 – Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippines (b. 1869)

### March

- March 20 – Brendan Behan, Irish writer (b. 1923)
- March 23 – Peter Lorre,  Austrian actor (b. 1904)

### April

- April 5 – Douglas MacArthur, American general (b. 1880)
- April 24 – Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist (b. 1895)

### May

- May 2 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-British politician (b. 1879)
- May 11 – Andrus Saareste, Estonian linguist (b. 1892)
- May 21 – James Franck, German-born physicist (b. 1882)
- May 27 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India (b. 1889)

### June

- June 11 – Plaek Phibunsongkhram, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1897)

### July

- July 31 – Jim Reeves, American country singer (b. 1923)

### August

- August 7 – Aleksander Zawadzki, President of Poland (b. 1899)
- August 12 – Ian Fleming, British writer (b. 1908)

### September

- September 2 – Francisco Craveiro Lopes, President of Portugal (b. 1894)
- September 28 – Harpo Marx, American comedian (b. 1888)

### October

- October 10 – Eddie Cantor, American actor, comedian and dancer (b. 1892)
- October 15 – Cole Porter, American composer (b. 1891)
- October 20 – Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States (b. 1874)
- October 22 – Khawaja Nazimuddin, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1894)

### December

- December 9 – Edith Sitwell, English poet (b. 1887)
- December 11 – Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (b. 1931)
- December 17 – Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-born physicist (b. 1883)
- December 21 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer (b. 1880)

## Nobel prizes

- Nobel Prize in Physics shared by Charles Hard Townes, Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov and Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov for work that led to the development of laser and maser
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British biochemist
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by Konrad Bloch,  German American biochemist, and Feodor Lynen,  German biochemist
- Nobel Prize in Literature won by Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher
- Nobel Peace Prize won by Martin Luther King Jr., an American Baptist minister and activist