page_title: March 1964
section_title: March 12, 1964 (Thursday)
hierarchical_section_title: March 1964 / March 12, 1964 (Thursday)
caption_attribution_description: John W. King
context_page_description: The following events occurred in March 1964:
context_section_description: John W. King, the Governor of New Hampshire, paid three dollars at the Rockingham Park race track in  Salem, to buy the first state lottery ticket legally sold in the United States in the 20th Century.  Governor King purchased ticket number 0000001 for the New Hampshire Sweepstakes, two days after voters had approved lottery sales tickets at the state's two race tracks and 49 state operated liquor stores.  On the first day of sales, 3,600 people hoping to win $100,000 (on September 12) bought tickets. Starting on July 15, the random drawing of 332 tickets would take place to link a name to one of the 332 racehorses registered at the Park, followed by five more drawings before 11 of the horses would run at Rockingham.  In all, six people, randomly associated with the winning horse, would each receive $100,000 before taxes.
  The U.S. House of Representatives voted against raising their salaries by 45 percent (from $22,500 to $32,500 annually), declining, 184–222, to approve a bill that would have raised the salaries of 1.7 million other U.S. government employees.  While the original intention was to have the measure made subject to a voice vote, where it would not be clear which individual Congress members wanted to give themselves pay raises, about one half of those present supported a motion to put the matter to a roll call vote.  For the record, Democrats supported the measure 149 to 86, while the Republican vote was only 35 for and 136 against.
  Symphony in D for Cello and Orchestra, composed by Benjamin Britten, was given its first performance.  Britten, an Englishman, conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in the debut of his work, and dedicated it to Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
  Died: Abbas al-Aqqad, 74, Egyptian journalist, poet and philosopher
caption: Lottery ticket buyer King
exif: {}