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| 1964 |
 Henkels & McCoy establishes a Communications Engineering office in Elkhart,
Indiana. Within a short time the company offers Engineering services
nationwide.
Photo: H&M Engineers examining a telephone switchboard unit. February 4The twenty-fourth amendment to the Constitution, is declared ratified by 38 of 50 state legislatures on this day and makes US poll taxes unconstitutional. February 9 and 16 February 10
President Johnson declares war on poverty. He signs an Economic Opportunity Act in August and appoints R. Sargent Shriver, to head the new Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). July 2 August 4 August 10
The first Chinese atomic bomb is exploded. October 27  November 3Lyndon Baines Johnson is elected President, defeating Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona in a landslide. LBJ ran a scare tactic ad, one time only, which initially depicted a little girl (below) picking petals from a flower. The "daisy ad" played on America’s fears a year after the JFK killing, with a burgeoning land-war in Asia, and a hostile USSR on the move. Senator Goldwater served a long career in Congress following his defeat and was hailed at his death, even by his former foes as a great American patriot.  To see the daisy ad click the link. You may need Quicktime installed to view this file. Click your browser's "Back" button to return to this page. December |
 ALSO IN 1964:Shaken... not stirred. The Red Chinese may now have The Bomb...and the Russians might have an iron grip on Eastern Europe... but in the West we have... Bond. James Bond. Agent 007 makes his screen debut in Doctor No. Sean Connery (left), a struggling young Scotsman, will see his acting career jettison into the stratosphere with the role of the risk taking, card playing, fast driving, martini drinking, cigarette smoking, heart breaking British naval commander with a license to kill ...More from Hollywood: The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain and the Academy award for Best Picture goes to My Fair Lady... Julie Andrews wins for Best Actress in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins... On Broadway, Hello Dolly, Funny Girl, and Fiddler on the Roof premier in New York. PLUS: President Johnson's commission on the assassination of President Kennedy -- headed by US Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The so called Warren Report remains a source of controversy 40 years later... Jack Ruby is convicted of murder in the televised slaying of Oswald... Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress, is sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa... Dr. Luther L. Terry, the US Surgeon General, issues a report linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer and other diseases.  First Bullet Train
service in Japan.Craig Breedlove breaks world land speed record (407 mph). Skateboarding craze begins in California (where else, dude?) A gallon of gasoline costs a whopping 30 cents. Hasbro introduces the GI Joe doll. Leonid Brezhnev assumes power in the Soviet Union after Nikita Khrushchev is deposed. Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted of misappropriating $1.7 million in union funds. What's On TV Peyton Place premieres on ABC and is the first prime-time soap opera. Color TV makes great inroads into American homes... The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and become instant cultural icons... Bonanza (NBC) rides herd on all other TV programming in 1964, followed by that nose twitching anti-witch, Samantha, on ABC's Bewitched...Gomer Pyle, USMC, at number three (CBS), a spin-off sitcom based on a recurring character from Andy Griffith's' Mayberry (number 4), follows the travails of a backcountry recruit through boot camp and beyond. Like the main character in film's No Time for Sergeants (where Andy Griffith made his own debut in the 1950s), the seemingly thick protagonist provides a positive example through his open faced honesty and single minded dedication to duty... Meanwhile, at number five, the unjustly convicted Dr. Richard Kimble eludes Lieutenant Philip Girard in a non-stop cross country marathon while "seeking the real killer" as The Fugitive on ABC... Sports The St. Louis Cardinals beat the NY Yankees 4-3... in NBA action, the Celtics decisively defeat the San Francisco Warriors 4-1... in the Stanley Cup it's Toronto over Detroit in seven games ...in college sports, for the NCAA Basketball Championship UCLA beats Duke (98-83)... Arkansas is 11-0-0  Bob Dylan, right, expresses young America's growing discontent and disenchantment with the country's institutions and social conditions. Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary and many others turn the comfortable folk music movement into a voice of protest on college campuses nationwide... meanwhile, "psychedelic" bands such as The Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane form in San Francisco, home of America's avant garde music scene. At The Movies Books
Deaths
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February 25
August 28
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