The Nation 1965

Bloody Sunday - On March 9th 800 African Americans marched in Montgomery, Alabama to protest not being allowed to register to vote. On the orders of Governor George Wallace they were met by state and county law enforcement who gassed and beat the peaceful demonstrators with clubs and bullwhips. The film and photos made such an impression upon America that by March 25th, Martian Luther King called for another march in which 25,000 people including black and white celebrities participated and the nation changed.

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated during a speech at the Audobon Ballroom in Manhattan. Talmadge Hayer, Norman Butler, and Thomas Johnson were convicted. Any direct involvement of the Nation of Islam is still unresolved.

The first of the decade's urban race riots began in the Watts district of Los Angeles. It lasted 6 days with 34 people dead, 1,072 injured, and 4,000 arrested.

The first rumblings against the war in Vietnam began with Teach Ins around the nations college campuses. The practice spread to campuses throughout the nation and the first demonstration of 15,000 in Washington D.C.

Lyndon Johnson's makes the "Great Society" State of the Union speech and signs the Medicare bill making national health care available to the elderly.

Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health

The first bill is passed requiring cigarette makers to print health warnings on all cigarette packages about the effects of smoking. "May" was not replaced with "Is" until 1969.

Griswold v. Connecticut - The landmark case which ruled that the Constitution protected a right to privacy. The Supreme Court threw out the 1879 Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives by a vote of 7-2 on the grounds that it violated the "right to marital privacy".

On April 11th, 40 tornadoes tore through the Midwest killing 272 and injuring 5,000. America's worst tornado event until 1974.

Nobel Prizes 1965

Physics - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger, Richard P. Feynman
Chemistry - Robert Burns Woodward
Physiology or Medicine - François Jacob, André Lwoff, Jacques Monod
Literature - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov
Peace - United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF)

"To the quickening drumfire of the fighting in South Viet Nam, Americans sensed early in 1965 that they might have to choose between withdrawal or vastly greater involvement in the war. By year's end, it was clear that the U.S. had irrevocably committed itself to the nation's third major war in a quarter-century, a conflict involving more than 1,000,000 men and the destiny of Southeast Asia." TIME 1965

3500 US Combat Marines arrive in Vietnam followed by large scale U.S. Army ground units. The U.S. begins regular B-52 drops of North Vietnam The U.S. confirms it is using chemical warfare against the Vietcong.

The World 1965

Barry McQuire's 1965 protest song Eve of Destruction captures the growing sentiment of what is to come for the Sixties.

State funeral of Winston Churchill

U.S. Marines invade Dominican Republic, stay until October 1966

Cigarette Ads banned on British TV

Class of 1965