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

 Deaths 

 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)

 November 

 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

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