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1964
• In May, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) is formed in Jordan. • On 11 June in South Africa, Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government. • The US government claims that, in the Gulf of Tonkin on 2 August, North Vietnamese torpedo boats fired on US ships. It is now known that this incident probably never occurred. However, the Americans used it to escalate the war in Vietnam. • On 15 October, Labour wins the British general election. Harold Wilson takes over from Sir Alec Douglas-Home as prime minister. • Also on 15 October, Nikita Khrushchev is replaced as first secretary of the Soviet Communist party by Leonid Brezhnev and as premier by Alexei Kosygin. • On 16 October, China tests a nuclear bomb. • On 24 October, Northern Rhodesia becomes independent as Zambia, with Kenneth Kaunda as president. • In the US elections on 3 November, incumbent Lyndon Johnson wins as president against right-wing Republican Barry Goldwater. • In the US, the Warren Commission report concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald was alone responsible for the assassination of President John F Kennedy. See also 1978. • British pop group The Beatles star in their first film – A Hard Day's Night – and appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in the US television. • American singer Bob Dylan causes controversy when he begins to sing accompanied by electric guitar, which offends folk music purists. During a transition period, large numbers walk out of his concerts at the beginning of the second 'electric' part. |
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