March 1964

The following events occurred in March 1964:

March 1, 1964 (Sunday)

• Anti-government demonstrations begin in Gabon, with protesters shouting "Léon M'ba, président des Français!" ("Léon M'ba, President of the French!") and calling for the end of the "dictatorship".^[1]
• 85 people die when a Paradise Airlines plane crashes into a mountain in Lake Tahoe, California, US.^[2] Most of the passengers are from the San Jose area.
• The American première of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Momente, performed by Martina Arroyo (soprano), the Crane Collegiate Singers of SUNY Potsdam (Brock McElheran, chorus master), and members of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (Lukas Foss, music director), conducted by the composer, takes place in Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, New York.
• The Liberian tanker Amphialos breaks in two and sinks 230 to 270 nautical miles (430 to 500 km) south east of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada. HMCS Athabaskan of the ( Royal Canadian Navy) rescues 34 of her 36 crew.^[3]
• Born: Florencio Randazzo, Argentine politician, in Chivilcoy

March 2, 1964 (Monday)

• Born: Laird Hamilton, US big-wave surfer and co-inventor of tow-in surfing, in San Francisco, California

March 3, 1964 (Tuesday)

• The Tsurugisan Quasi-National Park is founded in Japan.^[4]

March 4, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted by a federal jury of tampering with a federal jury in 1962.
• President of Finland Urho Kekkonen begins a state visit to Poland as the guest of General Secretary Władysław Gomułka.

March 5, 1964 (Thursday)

• 1964 United States Embassy in Libreville bombings: Following an attempted coup in Gabon, some Gabonese mistakenly identify the United States as a co-conspirator in the attempted coup.^[5] The explosion, which occurs at a time when the building was closed and locked, resulted in damage to the embassy sign and the cracking of two windows.^[6]

March 6, 1964 (Friday)

• 23-year-old Constantine II becomes King of Greece on the death of his father.
• Malcolm X, suspended from the Nation of Islam, says in New York City that he is forming a black nationalist party.
• Died: King Paul of Greece, 62 (stomach cancer)

March 7, 1964 (Saturday)

• Born: Vladimir Smirnov, Kazakhstani cross-country skier, in Shuchinsk
• Died: Franz Alexander, 73, Hungarian-American psychoanalyst and physician, pioneer of psychosomatic medicine and psychoanalytic criminology.

March 8, 1964 (Sunday)

• The main belt asteroid 3181 Ahnert is discovered by Freimut Börngen, working at Tautenburg.
• Born: Mark Oaten, British politician, in Watford

March 9, 1964 (Monday)

• New York Times Co. v Sullivan (376 US 254 1964): The United States Supreme Court rules that under the First Amendment, speech criticizing political figures cannot be censored.
• The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.

March 10, 1964 (Tuesday)

• Soviet military forces shoot down an unarmed United States reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany; the three crew members parachute to safety.
• Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Ambassador to South Vietnam, wins the New Hampshire Republican primary.
• Born: Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis, the fourth (and youngest) child of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Buckingham Palace.

March 11, 1964 (Wednesday)

• At the 21st Golden Globe Awards, award-winners include Sidney Poitier, Leslie Caron and Elia Kazan.
• Qatar Insurance is founded by royal decree.
• President of Finland Urho Kekkonen leaves Poland and begins a state visit to the Soviet Union as the guest of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.
• Born: Leena Lehtolainen, Finnish crime novelist, in Vesanto; Shane Richie, English comedian, actor and singer, in Harlesden, London
• Died: Cleo Madison, 80, US silent film actress

March 18, 1964 (Wednesday)

• Approximately 50 Moroccan students broke into the embassy of Morocco in the Soviet Union and staged an all‐day sit-in protesting against sentencing of 11 people to death for the alleged assassination attempt of Moroccan King Hassan II.

March 12, 1964 (Thursday)

• Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam.

March 13, 1964 (Friday)

• Raúl Leoni becomes President of Venezuela.

March 14, 1964 (Saturday)

• A Dallas, Texas, jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
• The 2nd Daily Mirror Trophy motor race is held at Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit, England, and is won by Innes Ireland.

March 15, 1964 (Sunday)

• Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor marry (for the first time), in Montreal.

March 16, 1964 (Monday)

• Dundee's "Royal Arch", originally erected in the 1850s to commemorate a visit to the city by Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, is demolished to make way for the construction of the Tay Road Bridge.
• Died: Lino Enea Spilimbergo, 67, Argentinian artist

March 17, 1964 (Tuesday)

• Born: Rob Lowe, US actor, in Charlottesville, Virginia; Regal Gleam, US thoroughbred racehorse (died 1976)

March 18, 1964 (Wednesday)

• The technology demonstration satellite Kosmos 26 is launched by the Soviet Union from the Mayak Launch Complex at Kapustin Yar.^[7]

March 19, 1964 (Thursday)

• In the UK, Power dispute, talks break down and it is feared that supply disruptions will follow industrial action.^[8]
• The UK government announces plans to build three new towns in South East England to act as overspill for overpopulated London.^[9] One of these is centred on the village of Milton Keynes in north Buckinghamshire.^[10]
• The American Geraldine Jerrie Mock is the first woman to fly solo around the world from March 19 to April 17.

March 20, 1964 (Friday)

• The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established in accordance with an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
• Opening of the first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
• Died: Brendan Behan, 41, Irish poet, novelist and dramatist (alcohol-related)

March 21, 1964 (Saturday)

• Non ho l'età (music by Nicola Salerno, text by Mario Panzeri), sung by 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti, wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 for Italy.

March 22, 1964 (Sunday)

• The 1964 USAC Championship Car season begins at Avondale, Arizona, with the Phoenix 100, won by A. J. Foyt.
• The 1964 Women's Western Open golf tournament in Florida, US, is won by Carol Mann.

March 23, 1964 (Monday)

• Died: Peter Lorre, 59, Austrian-American actor (stroke); Torstein Raaby, 45, Norwegian resistance fighter and explorer (died of heart failure in Greenland, during a polar exploration)

March 24, 1964 (Tuesday)

• John Lennon's first book, In His Own Write is published.

March 25, 1964 (Wednesday)

• The Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 is signed into law in the Republic of Ireland.^[11]

March 26, 1964 (Thursday)

• U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara delivers an address that reiterates American determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid, in its war against the Communist insurgency.
• Captain Floyd James Thompson of the United States Army is captured in Vietnam and begins a period of almost nine years as a prisoner of war, making him the longest held prisoner of war in United States history.
• You Only Live Twice, Ian Fleming's twelfth James Bond novel, is published by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom, the last of Fleming's novels to be published during the author's lifetime.

March 27, 1964 (Friday)

• (Good Friday) The Great Alaskan earthquake, the second most powerful known (and the most powerful earthquake in the United States) at a magnitude of 9.2, strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
• Kosmos 27 is launched by the Soviet Union in an attempt to fly by Venus, but fails to escape Earth orbit.

March 28, 1964 (Saturday)

• King Saud of Saudi Arabia abdicates the throne. He is forced into exile and replaced by his younger brother Faisal.
• Wax likenesses of The Beatles are put on display in London's Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. The Beatles are the first pop stars to be displayed at the museum.

March 29, 1964 (Sunday)

• Radio Caroline becomes the United Kingdom's first pirate radio station, from a ship anchored three miles (5 km) off the coast of Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, just outside British territorial waters.

March 30, 1964 (Monday)

• Merv Griffin's game show Jeopardy! is broadcast for the first time on NBC; Art Fleming is its first host.
• Trans-Canada Airlines is renamed Air Canada.^[12] Canada's House of Commons had approved the legislation on March 3,^[13] in a bill sponsored by future Prime Minister Jean Chrétien from Quebec, who had championed the new name that worked equally well in the French and English languages.
• Violent disturbances break out between Mods and Rockers at Clacton beach, England.^[14]

March 31, 1964 (Tuesday)

• The military overthrows Brazilian President João Goulart in a coup, starting 21 years of Brazilian military dictatorship.
• The UK's Minister of Labour Joseph Godber appoints Lord Justice Pearson to chair a court of inquiry into the power dispute.^[15]
• Born: Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukrainian politician, economist and screenwriter, in Dnipropetrovsk

References