1964

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s – 1960s – 1970s 1980s 1990s
Years:	1961 1962 1963 – 1964 – 1965 1966 1967

1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1964th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 964th year of the 2nd millennium, the 64th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1960s decade.

Events

January 1 – Top of the Pops is first shown on BBC television.
January 3 – Footage of The Beatles performing a concert in Bournemouth, England is shown on The Jack Paar Show.
January 15 – Vee Jay Records files a lawsuit against Capitol Records and Swan Records over manufacturing and distribution rights to Beatles albums. On April 9, Capitol Records is granted an court order stopping Vee Jay Records from further manufacturing, distributing or advertising recordings by the Beatles.
January 18 – The Beatles appear on the Billboard magazine charts for the first time.
February 1 – Indiana Governor Welsh declares the song "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen pornographic. He requests that the Indiana Broadcasters Association ban the record. Governor Welsh claimed that his "ears tingle" when he heard the song. Publisher Max Firetag offers $1,000 to anyone that can find anything "suggestive" in the song's lyrics.
February 7 – The Beatles arrive in the United States and are greeted by thousands of screaming fans at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
March – Columbia Records is bombarded with requests for heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay's album, I Am the Greatest, following Clay's defeat of Sonny Liston in February.
March 21 – For the first time in history, all Top Ten singles on the U.K. chart are by British acts.
March 27 – A major earthquake strikes southern Alaska.
April 4 – The Beatles hold all five top positions on Billboard's Top Pop Singles chart with their singles "Can't Buy Me Love", "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "Please Please Me".
April 11 – The Beatles hold 14 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Previously, the highest number of concurrent singles by one artist on the Hot 100 was nine by Elvis Presley, December 19, 1956.
April 20 – BBC 2 is launched.
April 26 – The Rolling Stones release their eponymous first album.
April 26 – Tanzania is formed by uniting Zanzibar and Tanganyika.
May 2 – In the United States, The Beatles' Second Album climbs to the #1 spot on the LP charts in only its second week of release, making it the first album ever to reach #1 that quickly.
July 31 – Country singer Jim Reeves dies in an airplane crash near Nashville.
September 21 – Malta becomes independent.
September 22 – Fiddler on the Roof opens on Broadway.
October 14 – Martin Luther King, Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
October 15 – Nikita Krushchev is overthrown in the Soviet Union.
October 16 – Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
October 27 - Ronald Reagan delivers "A Time for Choosing" speech at a campaign ceremony for Barry Goldwater.
November 3 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater in the Presidential election.