May 1964

1964 January February March April May June July August September October November December

The following events occurred in May 1964:

May 1, 1964 (Friday)

• At 4:00 a.m., John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz run the first program written in BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language which they have created. BASIC is eventually included on many computers and even some games consoles.

May 2, 1964 (Saturday)

• Some 400–1,000 students march through Times Square, New York, and another 700 through San Francisco, in the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War. Smaller marches also occur in Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin.
• West Ham United win the FA Cup for the first time in their history, beating Preston North End 3-2 at Wembley Stadium.
• Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh's seven-week-old son is christened Edward Antony Richard Louis – today he is The Earl of Wessex.
• Senator Barry Goldwater receives more than 75% of the vote in the Texas Republican Presidential primary.
• A North Vietnamese frogman sinks the U.S. Navy aviation transport USNS Card (T-AKV-40) - formerly the escort aircraft carrier USS Card (CVE-11) - pierside while she unloads helicopters at Saigon, South Vietnam. The ship is soon refloated and repaired.
• Died: Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi, are kidnapped and beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their badly decomposed bodies are found by chance two months later in July, during the search for three civil rights workers – Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.

May 3, 1964 (Sunday)

• At the conclusion of the Lebanese general election, Independent candidates are found to have won the majority of seats, on a voter turnout of 53.0%.

May 4, 1964 (Monday)

• The United States Congress recognizes Bourbon whiskey as a "distinctive product of the United States".

May 5, 1964 (Tuesday)

• Born: Heike Henkel, German athlete, in Kiel

May 6, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Joe Orton's black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane is premièred at the New Arts Theatre in London.

May 7, 1964 (Thursday)

• Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger. Francisco Paula Gonzales shot both the pilot and co-pilot before turning the gun on himself. The crash is believed to be the first instance in the United States of an airliner's pilots being shot by a passenger as part of a mass murder/suicide.
• At a mail rockets demonstration by Gerhard Zucker on Hasselkopf Mountain near Braunlage (Lower Saxonia, Germany), 3 people are killed by a rocket explosion.

May 8, 1964 (Friday)

• Born: Melissa Gilbert, US actress and TV director, in Los Angeles

May 9, 1964 (Saturday)

• South Korean President Chung Hee Park reshuffles his Cabinet, after a series of student demonstrations against his efforts to restore diplomatic and trade relations with Japan.
• The steam engine GWR 4073 Class 7029 Clun Castleruns between Plymouth to Bristol Temple Meads non-stop in a record time of 133 minutes and 9 seconds. Restricted to 80 mph down Whiteball bank near Wellington, it could have improved on the time.

May 10, 1964 (Sunday)

• Died: Mikhail Larionov, 82, Russian avant-garde painter and founder of Rayonism

May 11, 1964 (Monday)

• Terence Conran opens the first Habitat store, on London's Fulham Road.
• Jackie Cochran sets a new women's airspeed record of 1,429 mph (2,300 km/h) in an F-104 Starfighter.

May 12, 1964 (Tuesday)

• Twelve young men in New York City publicly burn their draft cards to protest against the Vietnam War, the first public act of resistance in the history of this particular war.

May 13, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Died: Diana Wynyard, 58, English actress (renal failure)

May 14, 1964 (Thursday)

• The 17th Cannes Film Festival draws to an end.
• The 17th Congress of the French Communist Party opens in Paris.
• The 84th Parliament of Iceland adjourns.

May 15, 1964 (Friday)

• Born: Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Danish politician, in Vejle

May 16, 1964 (Saturday)

• The 1964 Giro d'Italia cycle race, 47th edition of the Corsa Rosa, begins.

May 17, 1964 (Sunday)

• Great Canadian Flag Debate: At the 20th Royal Canadian Legion (RCL) Convention in Winnipeg, Prime Minister Lester Pearson tells an unsympathetic audience that the time has come to replace the red ensign with a distinctive maple leaf flag.
• Born: Stratos Apostolakis, Greek footballer, in Agrinio; Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player, in Son en Breugel (died 1999)

May 18, 1964 (Monday)

• Litunga Mwanawina III, King of Barotseland, and Kenneth Kaunda, Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia, sign the Barotseland Agreement establishing Barotseland's position within Zambia in place of the earlier agreement between Barotseland and the British Government.
• US radio station WBEM goes on air for the first time.
• Died: Hereward Kesteven, 83, Australian medical scientist

May 19, 1964 (Tuesday)

• The United States State Department says that more than 40 hidden microphones have been found embedded in the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

May 20, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Tran Thanh Phong becomes commander of I Corps (South Vietnam); he lasts only ten days in the position until replaced by Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Lam. The rapid turnover of commanders during the period reflected Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky's difficulty in dealing with the Buddhist Uprising.

May 21, 1964 (Thursday)

• Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery damages a U.S. Navy RF-8A Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft over Laos. The RF-8A, flown by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann, burns for 20 minutes in the air but lands safely aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63).

May 22, 1964 (Friday)

• Indonesia defeat Denmark to win the 1964 Thomas Cup badminton competition held in Tokyo, Japan.

May 23, 1964 (Saturday)

• Mrs. Madeline Dassault, 63, wife of a French plane manufacturer and politician, is kidnapped while getting out of her car in front of her Paris home; she is found unharmed the next day in a farmhouse 27 miles (43 km) from Paris.
• Pablo Picasso paints his fourth Head of a Bearded Man.

May 24, 1964 (Sunday)

• A referee's decision in a Peru-Argentina football match in Lima, Peru, leads to riots in which 319 are killed, 500 injured.
• Died: Erich Möller, 59, German road and motor-paced cycling champion

May 25, 1964 (Monday)

• At the 16th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Defenders win the major awards for Program Achievement, whilst Jack Klugman and Shelley Winters win the main acting awards.

May 26, 1964 (Tuesday)

• Nelson Rockefeller defeats Barry Goldwater in the Oregon Republican primary, slowing but not stalling Goldwater's drive toward the nomination.

May 27, 1964 (Wednesday)

• The UK pirate radio station Radio Sutch begins broadcasting from Shivering Sands Army Fort in the Thames Estuary.
• Internazionale beats Real Madrid 3-1 at the Prater Stadium, Vienna and wins the 1963-64 European Cup (football).
• Born: Adam Carolla, American actor, comedian, and radio personality, in Los Angeles, California.
• Died: Jawaharlal Nehru, 74, first and incumbent Prime Minister of India, of a heart attack

May 28, 1964 (Thursday)

• The Palestine Liberation Organization issues its charter.
• Hundreds of thousands of people attend the funeral of Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who is cremated at the Shantivana on the banks of the Yamuna River. Gulzarilal Nanda becomes

May 29, 1964 (Friday)

• German football club SV Südwest Ludwigshafen is founded.

May 30, 1964 (Saturday)

• The 48th Indianapolis 500 motor race is won by A.J. Foyt. However, the race is primarily remembered for a seven-car accident that results in the deaths of driver Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald. It is also the last 500 won by a front-engined "roadster"; all subsequent races have been won by rear-engined cars.
• In the final of the Men's Singles at the 1964 French Tennis Championships, Manuel Santana defeats Nicola Pietrangeli 6–3, 6–1, 4–6, 7–5

May 31, 1964 (Sunday)

• In the Bolivian general election, Víctor Paz Estenssoro is re-elected to the presidency.