Top News Stories from 1964

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (US)
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U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Lyndon B. Johnson
Vice President: none
Population: 191,888,791
Life expectancy: 70.2 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 23.9
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000) 22.0
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 5.1
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Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $663 billion
Federal spending: $118.53 billion
Federal debt $316.1 billion
Consumer Price Index: $31
Unemployment: 5.7%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.05

Sports

World Series
St. Louis Cardinals d. NY Yankees
NBA Championship
Boston d. SF Warriors
Stanley Cup
Toronto d. Detroit
Wimbledon
Women: Maria Bueno d. M. Smith (6-4 7-9 6-3)
Men: Roy Emerson d. F. Stolle (6-4 12-10 4-6 6-3)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Northern Dancer
NCAA Basketball Championship
UCLA d. Duke
NCAA Football Champions
Alabama (AP, UPI), (10-1-0); Arkansas (FW), (11-0-0) & Notre Dame (NFF), (9-1-0) 1964 Summer Olympics

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Oscars awarded in 1964
Academy Award, Best Picture: Tom Jones, Tony Richardson, producer (United Artists-Lopert Pictures)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Jean-Paul Sartre (France) (declined)
Album of the Year: The Barbra Streisand Album, Barbra Streisand (Columbia)
Song of the Year: "The Days of Wine and Roses," Henry Mancini
Song of the Year: "The Days of Wine and Roses," Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, composers
Miss America: Donna Axum (AR)
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Events

  • Folk musician Bob Dylan becomes increasingly popular during this time of social protest with songs expressing objection to the condition of American society.
  • Psychedelic bands such as The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane enjoy great success with songs celebrating the counterculture of the '60s.
  • Peyton Place premieres on ABC and is the first prime-time soap opera. Color television makes its way into U.S. homes.
  • The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Movies

  • Red Desert, Dr. Strangelove, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Zorba the Greek, Becket

Books

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (UK), for determining structure of compounds needed in combatting pernicious anemia
Physics: Charles Hard Townes (US), Nikolai G. Basov, and Aleksandr M. Prochorov (both USSR), for developing maser and laser principle of producing high-intensity radiation
Physiology or Medicine: Konrad E. Bloch (US) and Feodor Lynen (Germany), for research on mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and fatty-acid metabolism
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Death

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