1964 - Definition and Overview

Events

January

• January 1 - Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
• January 3 - Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President.
• January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the 15th century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I meet in Jerusalem.
• January 7 - A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba.
• January 8 - In his first State-of-the-Union address, President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
• January 9 - Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian mobs in the Canal Zone precipitate a major international crisis and result in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers.
• January 11 - United States Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health. First such statement from the U.S. government.
• January 12 - The predominantly Arab government of Zanzibar is overthrown by African nationalist rebels. A U.S. destroyer evacuates 61 U.S. citizens.
• January 12 - Terry C. Soto, Founder of PPI Enterprises of Houston, Texas, is Born.
• January 13 - I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles released in the United States. It will become their first North American hit and the beginning of Beatlemania.
• January 16 - Hello Dolly! opens in New York City's St. James Theatre.
• January 16 - John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, resigns from the space program and announces the next day that he will seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Ohio.
• January 18 - Esther Armstrong Scottish Landscape Artist born in Dingwall,Scotland. Plans to build the World Trade Center announced.
• January 20 - Meet the Beatles, the first Beatles album in the United States, is released.
• January 22 - Kenneth Kaunda inaugurated as the first President of Northern Rhodesia.
• January 23 - Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly two years after the measure had been passed by the United States Senate 77-16, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
• January 23 - Arthur Miller's After the Fall opens on Broadway. A semi-autobiographical work, it will arouse controversy over his portrayal of late ex-wife Marilyn Monroe.
• January 27 - France and the People's Republic of China announce their decision to establish diplomatic relations.
• January 27 - Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-Me.), 66, announces her candidacy for the Republican nomination for President.
• January 28 - A U.S. Air Force jet training plane that strayes into East Germany is shot down by Soviet fighters near Erfurt. All three crew men are killed.
• January 29 - The Soviet Union launches two scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.
• January 30 - The junta ruling South Vietnam since the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem is itself toppled from power in a bloodless coup led by Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khanh.
• January 30 - Ranger 6 is launched by NASA. Its mission is to carry television cameras and to crash-land on the moon.

February

• February 3 - In protests against alleged de-facto school segregation, black and Puerto Rican groups in New York City boycott public school.
• February 6 - Cuba cuts off the normal water supply to the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay in reprisal for U.S. seizure 4 days earlier of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida.
• February 7 - A jury trying Bryon De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963 reports in Jackson, Mississippi that it was unable to agree on a verdict, resulting in a mistrial; The Beatles land in New York City.
• February 9 - The Beatles make their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
• February 11 - Greeks & Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus.
• February 11 - The Republic of China (Taiwan) drops diplomatic relations with France because of French recognition of the People's Republic of China.
• February 17 - In Wesberry v. Sanders 376 US 1 1964, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
• February 26 - John Glenn slips on a bathroom rug in his Columbus, Ohio apartment and hits his head on the bathtub, injuring his left inner ear, and prompting him (later that week) to withdraw from the race for the Senate nomination.
• February 27 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
• February 29 - President Johnson announces that the United States had developed a jet airplane (the A-11), capable of sustained flight at more than 2,000 MPH and of altitudes of more than 70,000 feet.

March

• March 1 - Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, suspected military head of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, born (his birth date is also reported to be April 14, 1965).
• March 4 - Jimmy Hoffa, President of the Teamsters, is convicted by a Federal jury of tampering with a Federal jury in 1962.
• March 4 – Malta gains independence.
• March 6 - Constantine II becomes King of Greece.
• March 8 - Malcolm X, suspended from the Nation of Islam, says in New York City that he is forming a black nationalist party.
• March 9 - In New York Times Co. v Sullivan 376 US 254 1964, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that under the First Amendment, speech criticizing political figures cannot be censored.
• March 9 - The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.
• March 10 - Soviet Union military forces shoot down an unarmed reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany; the three U.S. flyers parachute to safety.
• March 10 - The New Hampshire primary is won by Henry Cabot Lodge, Ambassador to South Vietnam.
• March 13 - 38 residents of a neighborhood in Queens, New York City fail to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she is being stabbed to death. The incident will become notorious.
• March 14 - A jury in Dallas, Texas finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
• March 20 - The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
• March 26 - Defense Secretary Robert McNamara delivers an address that reiterated the United States determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid in its war against Communist insurgency.
• March 27 - The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2, strikes South Central Alaska killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
• March 28 - The first pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, is established.
• March 31 - The military overthrows Brazilian President João Goulart, starting 21 years of dictatorship in Brazil.

April

• April 2 - Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, 72, mother of Governor Endicott Peabody of Massachusetts, is released on $450 bond after spending two days in jail in St. Augustine, Florida, because of her participation in an anti-segregation demonstration there.
• April 5 - Jigme Dorfi, Premier of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is shot dead by an unidentified assassin in Puncholing, near the Indian border.
• April 7 - IBM announces the System/360.
• April 8 - Four of five railroad operating unions strike against the Illinois Central Railroad without warning to bring to a head the five-year dispute over railroad work rules.
• April 9 - The United Nations Security Council adopts by a 9-0 vote a resolution deploring a British air attack on a fort in Yemen 12 days earlier in which 25 persons were reported killed.
• April 11 - The Brazilian Congress elects General Humberto Castelo Branco as President of Brazil.
• April 16 - Geraldine Mock is the first woman to fly solo around the world.
• April 19 - The coalition government of Laos, headed by Prince Souvanna Phouma, is deposed by a right-wing military group led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay.
• April 19 - In the United States, the Ford Mustang is officially unveiled to the public.
• April 20 - President Lyndon Johnson in New York and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow announce simultaneously plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.
• April 20 - Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, a classic of the anti-apartheid movement.
• April 20 - BBC2 starts broadcasting in the UK.
• April 22 - British businessman Greville Wynn, who had been imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 accused of spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.
• April 25 - Thieves steal the head of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen (Henrik Bruun confesses in 1997).
• April 26 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.

May

• May 2 - Senator Barry Goldwater receives more than 75% of the votes in the Texas Republican Presidential primary.
• May 7 - A Pacific Airlines Fokker F27 crashes near Dublin, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a recorded tape indicated that the pilot had been shot.
• May 7 - At a show of post rockets from Gerhard Zucker on the mountain Hasselkopf near Braunlage (Lower Saxonia, Germany) three persons were killed by an explosion of a rocket.
• May 9 - 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.
• May 19 - 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 23 - Mrs. Madeline Dassault, 63, wife of a French plane manufacturer and politician, is kidnapped while leaving her car in front of her Paris home; she is found unharmed the next day in a farmhouse 27 miles from Paris.
• May 23 - Pablo Picasso painted his fourth Head of a Bearded Man.
• May 24 - The crowd at a football match in Lima, Peru riot over a referee's decision. 300 spectators crushed to death in a riot.
• May 27 - Prime Minister Nehru of India dies; he is succeeded by Lal Shastri.

June

• June 2 - Senator Barry Goldwater wins the California Republican Presidential primary, making him the overwhelming favorite for the nomination.
• June 2 - Five million shares of stock in the Communications Satellite Corp. (Comsat) are offered for sale at $20 a share, and the issue is quickly sold out.
• June 3 - South Korean President Chung Hee Park declares martial law in Seoul after 10,000 student demonstrators overpower police.
• June 6 - With a temporary order the rocket launches at Cuxhaven are terminated.
• June 9 - In Federal Court in Kansas City, Kansas, army deserter George John Gessner, 28, is convicted of passing United States secrets to the Soviet Union.
• June 11 - Greece rejects direct talks with Turkey over Cyprus.
• June 12 Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton announces his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination, as part of a 'stop-Goldwater' movement.
• June 12 - Nelson Mandela and seven others are sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa and sent to the Robben Island prison.
• June 19 - Senator Edward Kennedy, 32, is seriously injured in a private plane crash at Southampton, Massachusetts; the pilot is killed.
• June 21 - Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, are murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, by local segregationist law enforcement officials.
• June 25 - The Vatican condemns the female contraceptive pill.
• June 26 – Moise Tshombe returns to Congo from his exile from Spain.

July

• July 3 - President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
• July 6 - Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
• July 8 - U.S. military personnel announces that U.S. casualties in Vietnam have risen to 1,387, including 399 dead and 17 MIA.
• July 19 - Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
• July 20 - Vietnam War - Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Dinh Tuong Province, Cai Be, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
• July 22 – Second meeting of Organization of African Unity.
• July 27 - Vietnam War: 5,000 more U.S. military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
• July 31 - Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon (images are 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes).

August

• August 4 - American civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
• August 4 - Vietnam War: United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks two, possibly three North Vietnamese gunboats.
• August 5 - Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow - aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
• August 5 – Simba rebel army in Congo capture Stanleyville and takes 1000 western hostages.
• August 7 - Vietnam War: The United States Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.
• August 8 - A Rolling Stones gig in the Kurhaus in Scheveningen gets out of control. Riot police end the gig after about 15 minutes, upon which spectators start to fight the riot police.
• August 13 - Murderers Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Anthony Allen are executed. They are the last people to be executed in the United Kingdom.
• August 16 - Vietnam War: In a coup, General Nguyen Khanh replaces Duong Van Minh as South Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, which the U.S. Embassy helped draft.
• Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

September

• September 4 - Forth Road Bridge opens over the Firth of Forth.
• September 10 - Germany receives its 1,000,000th foreign worker.
• September 14 - Opening of third period of Second Vatican Council.
• September 14 - the Daily Herald ceases publication.
• September 24 - The Warren Commission Report, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, is published.

October

• October - In Photoplay magazine, Hedda Hopper announces that Sophia Loren and Paul Newman will star in the film version of Arthur Miller's play, After the Fall, with Loren in the role that was written about Marilyn Monroe. However, the film is never made.
• October 5 - Twenty-three men and 31 women escape to West Berlin through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
• October 5 - Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip begin an 8-day visit to Canada.
• October 12 - The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits.
• October 14 - American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.
• October 14 - 15 - Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power.
• October 15 - United Kingdom's Labour Party wins the parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom, ending 13 years of Conservative Party rule.
• October 16 - Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister.
• October 16 - People's Republic of China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang.
• October 22 - Canada: A Federal Mult-Party Parliamentary Committee selects a design to become the new official Flag of Canada.
• October 24 - Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.
• October 29 - A collection of irreplaceable gemstones, including the 565 carat (113 g) Star of India, is stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
• October 31 - Campaigning at Madison Square Garden, New York, President Lyndon Johnson pledges the creation of the Great Society.

November

• November 1 - Mortar fire from North Vietnamese forces rains on the USAF base at Bein Hoa, South Vietnam, killing 4 U.S. servicemen and wounding 72, and destroying five B-57 jet bombers and other planes.
• November 3 - The Bolivian government of President Victor Paz Estenssoro is overthrown by a military rebellion led by General Alfredo Ovando Candía, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
• November 3 - U.S. presidential election, 1964: Incumbent U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr with over 60 percent of the popular vote.
• November 5 - Mariner program: Mariner 3, a U.S. space probe, intended for Mars is launched from Cape Kennedy, but fails.
• November 9 The House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain.
• November 10 – Australia partially reintroduces compulsory military service due to Indonesian Confrontation.
• November 19 - The U.S. Defense Department announced the closing of 95 military bases and facilities, including the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and Fort Jay, New York.
• November 21 - Second Vatican Council: The third period of the Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.
• November 21 - The Verrazano Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (at the time it was the world's longest suspension bridge).
• November 24 – Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries capture Stanleyville but a number of hostages die in the fighting.
• November 28 - Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 space probe from Cape Kennedy toward Mars to take television pictures of that planet in July 1965.
• November 28 - Vietnam War: National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.

December

• December 1 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam (after some debate, they agreed to enact a two-phase bombing plan).
• December 3 - Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and massive sit-in at the administration building protesting the UC Regents' decision to forbid Vietnam War protests on U.C. property.
• December 14 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules, in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States 379 US 241 1964, that, in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishments providing public accommodations must refrain from racial discrimination.

Date unknown

• 7000 residents of New Hanover, Australia, refuse to pay taxes and found a fund to purchase Lyndon B. Johnson.
• Jerome Horowitz synthesizes zidovudine, an antiviral drug used in treating HIV.
• The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is founded.
• John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz create BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language that has been included on many computers and even some games consoles.
• First Moog synthesizer designed by Robert Moog.

Year in topic

• 1964 in film
  • My Fair Lady
  • Mary Poppins
  • Dr. Strangelove
  • A Hard Day's Night, starring The Beatles
  • A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone
• 1964 in literature
• 1964 in music
  • January 18 - The Beatles appear on the Billboard magazine charts for the first time.
  • February 7 - The Beatles arrived on their first visit to the United States.
  • February 9 - The Beatles make their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
  • February 11 - The Beatles have their 1st live appearance in U.S. in the Washington D.C. Coliseum.
  • October 19 - Simon and Garfunkel release their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., on Columbia Records.
• 1964 in rail transport
• 1964 in sports
• 1964 in television
  • April 30 - Television sets manufactured as of this date are required to receive UHF channels in the United States.
  • The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan show, breaking television ratings records.
  • Nearly all of NBC's programs are now broadcast in color.
  • Peyton Place debuts on ABC, bringing sex and infidelity to American television screens for the first time.

Births

January-March

• January 2 - Pernell Whitaker, boxer
• January 6 - Henry Maske, German boxer
• January 7 - Nicolas Cage, actor
• January 12 - Jeff Bezos, president of amazon.com
• January 13 - Penelope Ann Miller, actress
• January 23 - Mariska Hargitay, actress (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)
• January 27 - Bridget Fonda, actress
• January 29 - Andre Reed, American football player
• February 4 - Noodles, guitarist of The Offspring
• February 5 - Laura Linney, actress
• February 5 - Duff McKagan, Guns N'Roses
• February 15 - Chris Farley, actor, comedian (d. 1997)
• February 18 - Matt Dillon, actor
• March 7 - Bret Easton Ellis, author
• March 9 - Juliette Binoche, actress
• March 10 - Edward, Earl of Wessex
• March 11 - Shane Richie, British actor
• March 17 - Rob Lowe, actor
• March 18 - Irene Cara, actress, singer
• March 18 - Rozalla, singer
• March 18 - Bonnie Blair, Olympic gold medalist in speed skating
• March 20 - Natacha Atlas, Belgian singer
• March 25 - Lisa Gay Hamilton, actress (The Practice)
• March 29 - Elle Macpherson, model
• March 30 - Tracy Chapman, singer

April-June

• April 3 - Bjarne Riis, Danish cyclist, won Tour de France in 1996
• April 7 - Russell Crowe, actor
• April 13 - Caroline Rhea, actress (Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, The Caroline Rhea Show)
• April 24 - Cedric the Entertainer, comic, actor
• April 25 - Hank Azaria, actor, voice actor (The Simpsons)
• April 29 - Federico Castelluccio, actor
• May 8 - Melissa Gilbert, actress, president of the Screen Actors Guild
• May 8 - Bobby Labonte, NASCAR driver
• May 12 - Brett Gurewitz, guitarist for Bad Religion
• May 26 - Lenny Kravitz, guitarist, singer
• May 28 - Jeff Fenech, Australian boxer
• May 28 - Christa Miller, actress (The Drew Carey Show, Scrubs)
• May 30 - Wynonna Judd, singer
• June 10 - Jimmy Chamberlin, musician
• June 12 - Paula Marshall, actress
• June 13 - Kathy Burke, actress and comedienne
• June 15 - Courteney Cox, actress
• June 21 - Doug Savant, actor (Melrose Place, Desperate Housewives)
• June 28 - Mark Grace, Major League Baseball player

July-December

• July 2 - Andrea Pia Yates, mother who drowned her five children
• July 3 - Joanne Harris, author
• July 3 - Yeardley Smith, voice actress (The Simpsons)
• July 16 - Miguel Induráin, Spanish cyclist, won Tour de France five consecutive years
• July 24 - Barry Bonds, baseball player
• July 28 - Ian Livingston, British businessman
• July 30 - Vivica A. Fox, actress
• July 31 - Jim Corr, singer, musician ("The Corrs")
• August 25 - Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician
• September 2 - Keanu Reeves, actor
• September 8 - Michael Johns, business executive and former White House speechwriter to President of the United States George H.W. Bush
• September 11 - Ellis Burks, baseball player
• September 11 - Roxann Dawson, actress (Star Trek: Voyager)
• September 22 - Bonnie Hunt, actress
• September 28 - Janeane Garofalo, actress and comedienne
• September 29 - Les Claypool, bassist of Primus
• October 22 - Drazen Petrovic, Basketball Hall of Famer (d. 1993)
• October 26 - Marc Lépine, mass murderer of 14 women (d. 1989)
• November 9 - Robert Duncan McNeill, actor (Star Trek: Voyager)
• November 10 - Kenny Rogers, baseball player
• November 11 - Calista Flockhart, actress (Ally McBeal)
• December 8 - Teri Hatcher, actress (Lois and Clark, Tomorrow Never Dies, Desperate Housewives)
• December 18 - Steve Austin, wrestler
• December 18 - Don Beebe, American football player
• December 19 - Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball star
• December 23 - Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam

Deaths

• January 15 - Jack Teagarden, musician
• January 17 - T.H. White, author
• January 29 - Alan Ladd, actor
• February 5 - Matilde Moisant, pioneer aviatrix
• February 10 - Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)
• February 15 - Robert L. Thornton, Dallas businessman, philanthropist, and mayor
• February 25 - Grace Metalious, writer
• February 26 - F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, World War II SOE agent and hero
• February 27 - Orry-Kelly, costume designer
• March 9 - Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (b. 1870)
• March 18 - Sigfrid Edström, Swedish sports official
• March 23 - Peter Lorre, actor
• April 5 - Douglas MacArthur,General of the U.S. Army
• May 2 - Nancy Astor, British parliamentarian
• May 27 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician (b. 1889)
• June 25 - Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect
• July 1 - Pierre Monteux, French conductor (b. 1875)
• July 2 - Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, NASCAR race car driver (b. 1929)
• July 7 - Lillian Copeland, American athlete
• July 31 - Jim Reeves, American singer
• August 27 - Gracie Allen, actress, comedienne
• September 3 - Stewart Holbrook, U.S. author
• September 28 - Harpo Marx, comedian, the Marx Brothers (b. 1888)
• October 15 - Cole Porter, U.S. composer
• October 20 - Herbert Hoover, U.S. President
• December 1 - J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist
• December 6 - Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough
• December 11 - Sam Cooke, singer (b. 1931)
• December 11 - Alma Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel, wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel, respectively.
• December 14 - Francisco Canaro, tango composer (b. 1888)
• December 17 - Victor Franz Hess, U.S. physicist

Nobel Prizes

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