The Nation 1964

At the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater states that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice", and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue". It becomes the impetus for one of the greatest negative political ads of all time, the "Daisy" ad, which helps Johnson win the election with over 60% of the vote.

In Jackson, Mississippi a jury trying Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963 reports that they can not reach a verdict resulting in a mistrial. Beckwith gets away with it until 1996 when a Federal court finally finds him guilty.

After 15 years the 24th Amendment to the United States is passed which outlaws poll taxes which the Southern states used to deny Blacks the vote.

Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, are murdered by local segregationist law enforcement officials near Philadelphia, Mississippi. While searching for the boys which were found in a nearby earthen dam, the bodies of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, were also found who had been done in by the Ku Klux Klan.

U.S. casualties in Vietnam have risen to 1,387. The U.S. sends 5,000 more military advisers to South Vietnam, bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.

It is falsely reported that United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnamese gunboats. It results in Aircraft carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation to begin bombing North Vietnam in retaliation. The United States Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson war powers to pursue the war in Vietnam as he sees fit.

The first student peace marches concerning Vietnam take place in Times Square, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin. Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover of the administration building, protesting the U.C. Regents' decision to forbid Vietnam War protests on campus.

Alaska's "Good Friday" Earthquake is the most powerful earthquake in American history at a magnitude of 9.2. It kills 125 people and inflicts massive damage to Anchorage, Alaska.

U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), 66, announces her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination and the first woman to run for President of the United States.

A Dallas, Texas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

United States Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government)

In his first State of the Union Address, President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" and a few months later pushes through Congress and signs into law the long overdue Civil Rights Act of 1964 which legally ends apartheid in the American South.

The World 1964

Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech during the Rivonia Trial, before he and 7 other anti-apartheid activists are sentenced to life in South Africa's Robben Island prison.

After Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Anthony Allen are hung, the United Kingdom joins the civilized world and bans capital punishment.

Nikita Khrushchev is accused of playing too nice and is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union by. Leonid Brezhnev who assumes power.

The Vatican condemns the female oral contraceptive pill. and Latin is abolished as official language of Roman Catholic liturgy.

The People's Republic of China now has nuclear weapons.

Canada adopts maple leaf flag

Keeping conspiracy wonks active for the next 50 years the Warren Commission finds Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over. After 25 years of discussions and 10 years of work removing 38 square meters of earth from the high side, it was declared stable in 2001 for another 300 years.

Nobel Prizes 1964

Physics - Charles Hard Townes, Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov, Aleksandr Prokhorov
Chemistry - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
Physiology or Medicine - Konrad Bloch, Feodor Lynen
Literature - Jean-Paul Sartre
Peace - Martin Luther King Jr

Class of 1964