1965 - Definition and Overview

1965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar).

Events

January-February

• January 4 - United States President Lyndon Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.
• January 14 - Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland and Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years
• January 26 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
• February 7 - US begins regular bombing of North Vietnamese towns and villages
• February 9 - Vietnam War: The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam
• February 15 - A new red and white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign.
• February 18 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom
• February 20 - Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
• February 21 - Malcolm X is assassinated at his mosque in New York City by Black Muslims

March

• March 7 - Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama
• March 8 - Vietnam War: 3,500 United States Marines arrive in South Vietnam becoming the first American combat troops in Vietnam
• March 8 - First US combat forces arrive in Vietnam
• March 10 - Goldie, a London Zoo golden eagle is recaptured after 13 days of freedom
• March 11 - White supremacists beat up white priest James J. Reeb during civil rights disturbances in Selma, Alabama. He dies later
• March 18 - cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space
• March 21 - Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9 which is the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes
• March 23 - NASA launches Gemini 3 which is the United States' first two-person space flight took (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
• March 25 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. begin march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery

April

• April 6 - Launch of Early Bird communications satellite. It becomes operational May 2
• April 9 - The West German parliament extends the statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes
• April 11 - The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states killing 256.
• April 23 - The Penine Way officially opened
• April 24 - Bodies of Portuguese opposition politician Humberto Delgado and his secretary Arajaris Campos are found in a forest near Villanueva del Fresno, Spain. They were killed February 12
• April 24 - Fighting breaks out in the Dominican Republic as officers loyal to deposed President Juan Bosch lead a mutiny against the right wing junta running the country. US troops are later sent by President Lyndon B. Johnson for the stated purpose of protecting US citizens and preventing an alleged Communist takeover of the country
• April 28 - Vietnam War: Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces that the country will substantially increase its number of troops in South Vietnam, supposedly at the request of the Saigon government, although it is later revealed that Menzies had asked the leadership in Saigon to send the request at the behest of the Americans.
• April 29 - Australia announces that it is sending an infantry battalion to support the South Vietnam government

May-June

• May 2 - US president Johnson sends troops to the Dominican Republic
• May 29 - A mining accident in Dhambas, India kills 274
• May 13 - West German court of appeals condemns behavior of ex-defense minister Franz Joseph Strauss during the Spiegel scandal
• June 2 - Vietnam War: The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives in South Vietnam
• June 5-7 - US astronaut Edward White makes first US space walk
• June 7 - A mining accident in Kakanji, Bosnia - 128 dead
• June 10 - Vietnam War: Battle of Dong Xoai begins - About 1,500 Vietcong mount a mortar attack on Dong Xoai and then overrun its military headquarters and adjoining militia compound
• June 19 - Houari Boumedienne's Revolutionary Council ousts Ahmed Ben Bella in a bloodless coup in Algeria
• June 22 - Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea.
• June 24 - Freddie Mills, former British boxing champion, is found shot in his car in Soho

July

• July 14 - Mariner 4 flyby of Mars
• July 16 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel is used for the first time
• July 24 - Vietnam War: Four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi are the targets of antiaircraft missiles in the first such attack against American planes in the war. One is shot down and the other three sustain damage
• July 27 - Edward Heath becomes Leader of the British Conservative Party
• July 28 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000
• July 29 - Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay
• July 30 - War on Poverty: US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid

August

• August 1 - TV ban on cigarette advertising in Britain
• August 6 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law
• August 9 - Singapore proclaims its independence from Malaysia
• August 9 - An explosion at a missile plant in Arkansas kills 53
• August 9 – Indonesian president Sukarno collapses in public
• August 11 - Watts Riots begin in Los Angeles, California
• August 18 - Vietnam War: Operation Starlite begins as 5,500 United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in Quang Ngai Province, in the first major American ground battle of the war. The Marines were tipped-off by a Viet Cong deserter who said that there was an attack planned against the US base at Chu Lai
• August 19 - At the Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt, 66 ex-SS personnel receive life sentences, 15 others smaller ones

September

• September 2 - Pakistani troops enter the Indian sector of Kashmir
• September 6 - Indian troops march on Lahore
• September 7 - China announces that it will reinforce its troops in the Indian border
• September 7 - Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Pirahna on the Batangan Peninsula, 23 miles south of the Chu Lai Marine base
• September 8 - India opens two additional fronts against Pakistan
• September 9 - UN secretary general U Thant negotiates with Pakistani president Ayub Khan
• September 9 - U Thant recommends China for UN membership
• September 13 - Congress of Arab countries begins in Casablanca - Habib Bourgiba boycotts the meeting
• September 14 - Opening of fourth and final period of Second Vatican Council
• September 16 - China protests against Indian provocations in its border region
• September 16 - In Iraq, Prime Minister Razzak's attempted coup fails
• September 17 - Stefan Stafanopoulos forms a new government in Greece and ends a two-year old political crisis
• September 18 - China claims that US troops have used poison gas in South Vietnam
• September 18 - In Denmark, Palle Sörensen shoots four policemen in pursuit - apprehended the same day
• September 19 - Soviet prime minister Alexei Kosygin invites the leaders of India and Pakistan to meet in Soviet Union to negotiate
• September 20 - End of term for Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail as the 3rd Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• September 21 - Commander of US troops in Vietnam, general William Westmoreland, pleads Washington to cancel the ban to use mustard gas
• September 21 - Ismail Nasiruddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Zainal Abidin III, Sultan of Terengganu becomes the 4th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• September 22 - Peking Radio announces that Indian troops have dismantled their equipment on the Chinese side of the border
• September 24 - Fighting between Indian and Pakistani troops erupts again
• September 24 - British governor of Aden cancels the Aden constitution and takes direct control of the protectorate because of the bad security situation
• September 27 - Largest tanker ship at the time, Tokyo Maru, launched in Yokohama
• September 28 - Fidel Castro announces that everybody who wants can immigrate to USA
• September 28 - Taal volcano in Luzon, Philippines, erupts - hundreds dead
• September 30 – Attempted communist coup in Indonesia. Indonesian army crushes it with the lead of general Suharto

October

• October 3 - Fidel Castro announces that Che Guevara has resigned and left the country
• October 4 - Prime minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia and Arthur Bottomley of British Commonwealth begin negotiations in London - they end on October 8 without results
• October 5 - Pakistan sever diplomatic relations with Malaysia because of the disagreement in UN
• October 8 - Indonesian army arrests and executes communists
• October 8 - Olympic Committee admits East Germany as a member
• October 8 - The Post Office Tower opens in London
• October 9 - Yale University presents the "Vinland map"
• October 9 - Brigade of South Korean soldiers arrive in South Vietnam
• October 10 - First group of Cuban refugees travels to USA
• October 12 - Per Borten forms a government in Norway
• October 12 - UN general council recommends that United Kingdom try everything to stop a rebellion in Rhodesia
• October 13 - President of Congo, Joseph Kasavubu, fires Prime Minister Moise Tsombe and forms a provisional government with Evariste Kimba in a lead
• October 15 - Vietnam War: The anti-war student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States
• October 16 - Suharto takes power in Indonesia
• October 18 - Indonesian government declares communist party illegal
• October 20 - Ludwig Erhard elected as a chancellor in West Germany
• October 21 - Ikeja-Seki comet
• October 21 - OAU meeting begins in Accra
• October 22 - French authors André Figueras and Jacques Laurent are fined for their comments against Charles De Gaulle
• October 22 - African countries demand that United Kingdom to use force to prevent Rhodesia to declare unilateral independence
• October 24 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Arthur Bottomley travel to Rhodesia for negotiations
• October 25 - Soviet Union declares its support of African countries in case Rhodesia unilaterally declares independence
• October 26 - Anti-government demonstrations in the Dominican Republic
• October 27 - Brazilian president Branco removes power of parliament, legal courts and opposition parties
• October 28 - French foreign minister Couve de Murville travels to Moscow
• October 28 - Pope Paul VI announces that ecumenical council has decided that Jews are not collectively responsible for the killing of Christ
• October 28 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall parabolic steel Gateway Arch is completed
• October 29 - Kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka
• October 30 - Vietnam War: Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack by wave after wave of Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
• October 31 - Indonesian army announces that it is fighting with communist guerillas in Java

November

• November 2 - Republican John V. Lindsay elected mayor of New York City
• November 3 - Charles De Gaulle announces that he will stand in next presidential election
• November 4 - US racer Craig Freedlove makes a female speed record
• November 5 - Martial law announced in Rhodesia. UN general council accept British intent to use force against Rhodesia in necessary with votes 82-9
• November 6 - Freedom Flights begin: Cuba and the United States formally agree to start an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States (by 1971 250,000 Cubans take advantage of this program).
• November 8 - The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands (on June 23, 1976 Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches were returned to Seychelles).
• November 9 - Northeast Blackout of 1965: Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.
• November 9 - Vietnam War: In New York City, 22-year old Catholic Worker member Roger Allen LaPorte sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in protest of the war in Vietnam (this was the second such incident in a week; on November 2 32-year-old Quaker member Norman Morrison did the same thing in front of The Pentagon)
• November 11 - Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) is declared independent by the white minority regime of Ian Smith
• November 12 - UN Security Council resolution (voted 10-0) recommends that other countries would not recognize independent Rhodesia
• November 14 - Vietnam War: Battle of the Ia Drang begins - In the Ia Drang Valley of the Central Highlands in Vietnam, the first major engagement of the war between regular American and North Vietnamese forces begins
• November 16 - Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe from Baikonur, Kazakhstan toward Venus (on March 1, 1966 it became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet)
• November 16 - Disney launches Epcot Center
• November 20 - UN Security Council recommends that all states stop trading with Rhodesia
• November 23 - Soviet general Mikhail Kazakov becomes commander of Warsaw Pact
• November 24 - Queen Elizabeth of Belgium dies
• November 25 - Joseph Mobutu takes over in Congo through a military coup
• November 26 - At the Hammaguira launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1 on board, becoming the third country to enter space.
• November 27 - Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells US President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned major sweep operations needed to neutralize Viet Cong forces during the next year were to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000
• November 28 - Vietnam War: In response to US President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.
• November 29 - Canadian satellite Alouette 2 is launched.

December

• December 1 - The Border Security Force is established in India as a special force to guard the borders.
• December 3 - First British aid flight arrive in Lusaka - Zambia has asked for British help against Rhodesia
• December 3 - Members of OAU decide that they sever diplomatic relations with United Kingdom unless British government end rebellion of Rhodesia by mid-December
• December 5 – Charles De Gaulle re-elected as French president with 10.828.421 votes
• December 8 - Rhodesian prime minister warns that Rhodesia would resist trade embargo with force against the neighboring countries
• December 8 - Closing of Second Vatican Council
• December 15 - Tanzania and Guinea sever diplomatic relations with United Kingdom
• December 15 - Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 meet in Earth orbit
• December 17 - British government begins oil embargo against Rhodesia - USA joins the effort
• December 21 - Soviet Unions announces that it has shipped rockets to North Vietnam
• December 21 - Soviet scientists condemn Trofim Lysenko
• December 21 - Konrad Adenauer resigns from the post of chairman of the Christian Democratic party
• December 22 - Military coup on Dahomey
• December 22 - 70 mph speed limit imposed on British roads
• December 27 - British oil platform Sea Gem collapses in the North Sea
• December 28 - Italian foreign minister Mintore Fanfani resigns
• December 30 - President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia announces that Zambia and United Kingdom have agreed to a deadline before which the Rhodesian white government should be ousted
• December 30 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines

Unknown dates

• The Council for National Academic Awards is established in the UK
• TAT-4 cable goes into operation.
• Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy completed.
• Medicaid is founded in the United States
• Desteldonk becomes a part of Ghent (East Flanders, Flanders, Belgium)
• California City, California incorporated.
• Tui Malila, the oldest tortoise or living animal ever, dies of natural causes.

Year in topic

• 1965 in film
  • The Sound of Music
  • Doctor Zhivago
  • The Greatest Story Ever Told starring Max vonSydow, Charlton Heston, Martin Landau, John Wayne, Angela Lansbury, Roddy McDowall, Shelley Winters, Pat Boone and others
  • Help!, starring The Beatles
• 1965 in literature
  • On Escalation by Herman Kahn coins the term escalation, a word closely associated with the Cold War.
• 1965 in music
  • February 11 - Beatle Ringo Starr marries Maureen Cox.
  • August - Paul Simon releases UK-only LP The Paul Simon Song Book.
  • 1965 is the title of an Afghan Whigs album released in 1998.
• 1965 in rail transport
• 1965 in sports
• 1965 in television
  • March 24 - Live TV pictures from U.S. unmanned moon probe "Ranger 9" transmitted prior to impact.
  • Sony introduces the Betamax, a home video tape recorder
  • CBS switches to the color standard.

Births

January-February

• January 1 - Laura Ingraham, talk show host and author
• January 9 - Joely Richardson, actress
• January 15 - Adam Jones, musician of Tool
• January 20 - Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones, future Countess of Wessex
• January 22 - DJ Jazzy Jeff, rapper, actor
• January 27 - Alan Cumming, actor
• January 29 - Dominik Hasek, ice hockey player
• February 1 - Brandon Lee, actor, son of Bruce Lee (d. 1993)
• February 1 - Sherilyn Fenn, actress
• February 1 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco
• February 11 - Angie Ridgeway, golfer
• February 11 - Stephen Gregory, actor
• February 18 - Dr. Dre, rap music performer, music producer
• February 23 - Michael Dell, founder of Dell, Inc.

March-April

• March 1 - Stewart Elliott, Canadian jockey
• March 4 - Gary Helms, Kick-boxer USA
• March 7 - Jesper Parnevik, Swedish golfer
• March 9 - Benito Santiago, baseball player
• March 10 - Rod Woodson, American football player
• March 11 - Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen, British television presenter
• March 12 - Steve Finley, Major League Baseball All-Star
• March 14 - Kevin Brown, baseball player
• March 24 - Mark Calaway, professional wrestler The Undertaker
• March 25 - Sarah Jessica Parker, actress
• April 4 - Robert Downey Jr., actor
• April 7 - Bill Bellamy, actor, comedian (Fled, Any Given Sunday, Fastlane)
• April 15 - Linda Perry, musician
• April 16 - Martin Lawrence, actor, comedian, producer
• April 21 - Ed Belfour, NHL goalie
• April 14 - Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, suspected military head of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda (his birth date is also reported to be March 1, 1964)

May-August

• May 9 - Steve Yzerman, ice hockey player
• May 14 - Eoin Colfer, writer
• May 15 - Lizi Rodriguez, psychologist and media psychotherapist
• May 16 - Krist Novoselic, Nirvana bassist
• May 17 - Trent Reznor, musician (Nine Inch Nails)
• May 28 - Chris Ballew, musician
• May 31 - Brooke Shields, actress
• June 1 - Nigel Short, chess player
• June 4 - Mick Doohan, Australian motorcycle racer
• June 7 - Mick Foley, professional wrestler and author
• June 10 - Elizabeth Hurley, actress
• June 15 - Bernard Hopkins, boxer
• June 16 - Charika Corea,Sri Lankan autism campaigner
• July 19 - Stuart Scott, sports reporter
• July 26 - Sandra Bullock, actress
• July 28 - Lori Loughlin, actress
• July 31 - Joanne Kathleen Rowling, author of Harry Potter
• August 10 - John Starks, basketball player
• August 14 - Emmanuelle Béart, Cesar Award winning actress
• August 24 - Reggie Miller, basketball star
• August 28 - Shania Twain, singer/songwriter

September-December

• September 11 - Moby, musician
• September 21 - Cheryl Hines, actress (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Father of the Pride)
• September 25 - Scottie Pippen, NBA star
• October 5 - Mario Lemieux, hockey star
• October 5 - Patrick Roy, hockey star
• November 2 - Shah Rukh Khan, actor
• November 6 - Greg Graffin, singer and founder of Bad Religion
• November 7 - Sigrun Wodars, East German athlete
• November 21 - Alexander Siddig, actor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
• November 21 - Björk, Icelandic singer/songwriter/musician
• November 25 - Cris Carter, American football player
• November 25 - Bernie Kosar, American football quarterback
• November 30 - Ben Stiller, actor (There's Something About Mary, Meet the Parents, Zoolander)
• December 3 - Steve Harris, actor (The Practice, Minority Report)
• December 3 - Katarina Witt, figure skater
• December 14 - Craig Biggio, baseball player
• December 19 - Chito Martinez, baseball player
• December 20 - Rich Gannon, American football quarterback
• December 27 - Salman Khan, actor, India

Deaths

January-June

• January 4 - T. S. Eliot, American/British poet
• January 12 - Lorraine Hansberry, writer
• January 14 - Jeanette MacDonald, American actress, singer (b. 1903)
• January 20 - Alan Freed, disk jockey
• January 24 - Winston Churchill, British politician
• January 28 - Maxime Weygand, soldier
• February 13 - Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt, socialite
• February 15 - Nat King Cole, singer, musician
• February 21 - Malcolm X, Black Muslim Movement activist
• February 22 - Felix Frankfurter, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• February 23 - Stan Laurel, British actor
• February 26 - George Adamski, UFO traveler
• March 6 - Margaret Dumont, actress
• March 13 - Corrado Gini, statistician
• March 13 - Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop, poet and political figure (b. 1882)
• March 17 - Amos Alonzo Stagg, baseball, basketball and American football coach and player
• March 18 - King Farouk I of Egypt
• March 28 - Her Royal Highness Princess Mary, The Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood
• May 25 - Sonny Boy Williamson
• June 28 - Red Nichols, jazz musician (b. 1905)

July-December

• July 1 - Wally Hammond, cricketer
• July 1 - Harald Zwart, Norwegian film director
• July 7 - Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel
• August 27 - Le Corbusier, Swiss architect
• August 28 - Giulio Racah, Israeli physicist (b. 1909)
• September 4 - Albert Schweitzer, German physician (b. 1875)
• September 15 - Steve Brown, jazz musician (b. 1890)
• November 6 - Edgar Varèse composer (b. 1883)
• November 6 - Clarence Williams, jazz musician (b. 1893)
• November 25 - Dame Myra Hess, English pianist (b. 1890)

Nobel Prizes

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