Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973)
was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Formerly the 37th vice president of the United States from 1961 to 1963, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson also served as a United States Representative and as the Majority Leader in the United States Senate. Johnson is one of only four people who have served in all four federal elected positions.
Born in a farmhouse in Stonewall, Texas, Johnson was a high school teacher and worked as a congressional aide before winning election to the House of Representatives in 1937. He won election to the Senate in 1948 and was appointed to the position of Senate Majority Whip in 1951. He became the Senate Minority Leader in 1953 and the Senate Majority Leader in 1955. He became known for his domineering personality and the “Johnson treatment”, his aggressive coercion of powerful politicians to advance legislation.
Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1960 presidential election. Although unsuccessful, he accepted the invitation of then-Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts to be his running mate. They went on to win a close election over the Republican ticket of Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated and Johnson succeeded him as president. The following year, Johnson won a landslide in 1964, defeating Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. With 61.1 percent of the popular vote, Johnson won the largest share of the popular vote of any candidate since the largely uncontested 1820 election.
In domestic policy, Johnson designed the “Great Society” legislation to expand civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, aid to education, the arts, urban and rural development, public services and his “War on Poverty”. Assisted in part by a growing economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during his administration. Civil-rights bills that he signed into law banned racial discrimination in public facilities, interstate commerce, the workplace and housing; the Voting Rights Act prohibited certain requirements in southern states used to disenfranchise African Americans. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the country’s immigration system was reformed, encouraging greater emigration from regions other than Europe. Johnson’s presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism after the New Deal era.
In foreign policy, Johnson escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted Johnson the power to use military force in Southeast Asia without having to ask for an official declaration of war. The number of American military personnel in Vietnam increased dramatically, from 16,000 advisors in non-combat roles in 1963 to 525,000 in 1967, many in combat roles. American casualties soared and the peace process stagnated. Growing unease with the war stimulated a large, angry anti-war movement based chiefly among draft-age students on university campuses.
Johnson faced further troubles when summer riots began in major cities in 1965 and crime rates soared, as his opponents raised demands for “law and order” policies. While Johnson began his presidency with widespread approval, support for him declined as the public became frustrated with both the war and the growing violence at home. In 1968, the Democratic Party factionalized as anti-war elements denounced Johnson; he ended his bid for renomination after a disappointing finish in the New Hampshire primary. Nixon was elected to succeed him, as the New Deal coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years collapsed. After he left office in January 1969, Johnson returned to his Texas ranch, where he died of a heart attack at age 64, on January 22, 1973.
The Beatles
were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became regarded as the foremost and most influential music band in history. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and roll, the group were integral to pop music’s evolution into an art form and to the development of the counterculture of the 1960s. They often incorporated classical elements, older pop forms and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways, and later experimented with several musical styles ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As the members continued to draw influences from a variety of cultural sources, their musical and lyrical sophistication grew, and they were seen as an embodiment of the era’s sociocultural movements.
Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding the group’s homeland success after their first hit, “Love Me Do”, in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed “Beatlemania”, they acquired the nickname “the Fab Four”, with Epstein, Martin, and other members of the band’s entourage sometimes given the informal title of “fifth Beatle”.
By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars, leading the “British Invasion” of the United States pop market and breaking numerous sales records. They soon made their motion picture debut with the mock-documentary A Hard Day’s Night (1964). From 1965 onwards, they produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (also known as the “White Album”, 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multi-armed multimedia corporation that remains active. After disbanding in 1970, the four members each enjoyed success as solo artists. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr remain musically active.
The Beatles are the best-selling band in history, with estimated sales of over 800 million records worldwide. They are the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and all four main members were inducted individually from 1994 to 2015
January 20th, 1964, the Beatles first US album Meet the Beatles was released in the US from Capitol Records.
February 1st, I Want to Hold Your Hand went to #1 in the US for the first time. On February 7, the Beatles arrived at New York City’s JFK International Airport. Greeted by screaming fans. On February 9th, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Shaw making their first live performance on American television. 72 million viewers watch the Beatles on CBS.
Winter Olympics January 29-February 9 1964
Was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from January 29 to February 9, 1964. The Games included 1091 athletes from 36 nations, and the Olympic Torch was carried by Joseph Rieder, a former alpine skier who had participated in the 1956 Winter Olympics.
Bob Dylan’s The Time They Are a Changin’
is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on January 13, 1964 by Columbia Records. Whereas his previous albums Bob Dylan and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan consisted of original material among cover songs, Dylan’s third album was the first to feature only original compositions. The album consists mostly of stark, sparsely arranged ballads concerning issues such as racism, poverty, and social change. The title track is one of Dylan’s most famous; many feel that it captures the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s.
John F. Kennedy half dollar is introduced.
Muhammad Ali
was an American professional boxer, activist, and philanthropist. Nicknamed “The Greatest”, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest boxers of all time.
He was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and began training as an amateur boxer when he was 12 years old. At the age of 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, then turned professional later that year, before converting to Islam after 1961. At the age of 22, in 1964, he won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset. He then changed his name from Cassius Clay, which he called his “slave name”, to Muhammad Ali. He set an example of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white domination during the Civil Rights Movement.
Malcolm X
was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist. Some saw him as a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; others accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.
His father was killed when he was six and his mother was placed in a mental hospital when he was thirteen, after which he lived in a series of foster homes. In 1946, at age 20, he went to prison for larceny and breaking and entering. While in prison, he became a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI), changing his birth name Malcolm Little to Malcolm X because, he later wrote, Little was the name that “the white slavemaster … had imposed upon [his] paternal forebears”. After his parole in 1952, he quickly rose to become one of the organization’s most influential leaders, serving as the public face of the controversial group for a dozen years. In his autobiography, Malcolm X wrote proudly of some of the social achievements the Nation made while he was a member, particularly its free drug rehabilitation program. The Nation promoted black supremacy, advocated the separation of black and white Americans, and rejected the civil rights movement for its emphasis on integration.
By March 1964, Malcolm X had grown disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and its leader Elijah Muhammad. Expressing many regrets about his time with them, which he had come to regard as largely wasted, he embraced Sunni Islam. After a period of travel in Africa and the Middle East, which included completing the Hajj, he also became known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. He repudiated the Nation of Islam, disavowed racism and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He continued to emphasize Pan-Africanism, black self-determination, and black self-defense.
On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam.
British Invasion
was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture, became popular in the United States and significant to rising “counterculture” on both sides of the Atlantic. Pop and rock groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Dave Clark Five,, Herman’s Hermits, and the Animals were at the forefront of the “invasion.”
Dave Clark Five
were an English rock and roll band formed in Tottenham in 1957. In January 1964 they had their first UK top ten single, “Glad All Over”, which knocked the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” off the top of the UK Singles Chart. It peaked at number 6 in the United States in April 1964. Although this was their only UK #1, they topped the US chart in December 1965, with their cover of Bobby Day’s “Over And Over”. Their version of Chet Powers’ “Get Together” reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart retitled as “Everybody Get Together”.
They were the second group of the British Invasion to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States (for two weeks in March 1964 following the Beatles’ three weeks the previous month). They would ultimately have 18 ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ appearances. The group disbanded in late 1970. On 10 March 2008, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Animals
are an English rhythm and blues and rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature song and transatlantic No. 1 hit single, “House of the Rising Sun”, as well as by hits such as “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”, “It’s My Life”, “I’m Crying” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. The band balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm and blues-orientated album material and were part of the British Invasion of the US.
The Animals underwent numerous personnel changes in the mid-1960s and suffered from poor business management. Under the name Eric Burdon and the Animals, the much-changed act moved to California and achieved commercial success as a psychedelic and hard rock band with hits like “San Franciscan Nights”, “When I Was Young” and “Sky Pilot”, before disbanding at the end of the decade. Altogether, the group had ten Top Twenty hits in both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100.
The original lineup of Burdon, Alan Price, Chas Chandler, Hilton Valentine and John Steel reunited for a one off benefit concert in Newcastle in 1968. They later had brief comebacks in 1975 and 1983. There have been several partial regroupings of the original era members since then under various names. The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
Hermans Hermits
are an English beat rock band, formed in Manchester in 1964.
Originally called Herman & The Hermits, they were discovered by Harvey Lisberg, who signed them up to management. Lisberg sent a return plane ticket to Mickie Most so that he could come up from London to see the band play in Bolton. Most became the group’s record producer, controlling the band’s output. He emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers. This helped Herman’s Hermits become hugely successful in the mid-1960s.
Their first hit was a cover of Earl-Jean’s “I’m into Something Good” (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King), which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 13 in the US in late 1964. They never topped the British charts again, but had two US Billboard Hot 100 No.1s with “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” (originally sung by Tom Courtenay in a 1963 British TV play) and “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am” (a British music hall song, which singer Peter Noone’s Irish grandfather had been in the habit of singing when Noone was young). These songs were aimed at a US fan base, with Noone exaggerating his Mancunian accent.
In the US, their records were released on the MGM label, a company which often featured musical performers signed to record deals in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films. The Hermits appeared in several MGM movies, including When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965) and Hold On! (1966). They also starred in the film Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter (1968) and appeared in the 1965 anthology film Pop Gear.
Herman’s Hermits had four Top 3 hits in the US in 1965, with the aforementioned No. 1 hits, “Listen People” (US No. 3), and “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat” (US No. 2). They recorded The Rays’ “Silhouettes” (US No. 5), Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” (US No. 4), “Just a Little Bit Better” (US No. 7), and “A Must to Avoid” (US No. 8) in 1965; George Formby’s “Leaning on a Lamp Post” from Me and My Girl (US No. 9), and the Ray Davies song “Dandy” (US No. 5) in 1966; and “There’s a Kind of Hush” (US No. 4) in 1967. On Chicago radio station WLS “Mrs. Brown” and “Silhouettes” were 1–2 on 14 May 1965 and exchanged positions the next week, a distinction matched only by The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” during 14 February–6 March 1964.
The group appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show and The Jackie Gleason Show. Continued success in the US proved elusive beyond 1967, although they had as many Top Ten hits in Britain in the period 1967 through 1970 as they had had there in the years of the mid-‘sixties when the band were wowing American audiences and British audiences seemed more diffident. By the time the group recorded their final album of the 1960s, Rock ‘n’ Roll Party, the band’s success in the US was history and the album was not released by MGM there. Peter Noone left the band in 1971. Herman’s Hermits reunited in 1973 to headline a successful British invasion tour of the US culminating with a standing-room-only performance at Madison Square Garden and an appearance on The Midnight Special. A later lineup with lead guitarist Derek Leckenby and drummer Barry Whitwam as the remaining original members opened for The Monkees on their 80s reunion tours of the US. The band continues to tour today, with Whitwam as the only remaining member from the original lineup
1964 New York World’s Fair
held over 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants, for 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations to build exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, NY. The immense fair covered 646 acres (261 ha) on half the park, with numerous pools or fountains, and an amusement park with rides near the lake. However, the fair did not receive official sanctioning from the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE). Hailing itself as a “universal and international” exposition, the fair’s theme was “Peace Through Understanding”, dedicated to “Man’s Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe”. American companies dominated the exposition as exhibitors. The theme was symbolized by a 12-story-high, stainless-steel model of the earth called the Unisphere, built on the foundation of the Perisphere from the 1939 NYC fair. The fair ran for two six-month seasons, April 22 – October 18, 1964, and April 21 – October 17, 1965. Admission price for adults (13 and older) was $2 in 1964 (equivalent to $16.16 in 2018) but $2.50 (equivalent to $19.88 in 2018) in 1965, and $1 for children (2–12) both years (equivalent to $8.08 in 2018).
The fair is noted as a showcase of mid-20th-century American culture and technology. The nascent Space Age, with its vista of promise, was well represented. More than 51 million people attended the fair, though fewer than the hoped-for 70 million. It remains a touchstone for many American Baby Boomers, who visited the optimistic fair as children before the turbulent years of the Vietnam War, cultural changes, and increasing domestic violence associated with the Civil Rights Movement.
In many ways the fair symbolized a grand consumer show covering many products produced in America at the time for transportation, living, and consumer electronic needs in a way that would never be repeated at future world’s fairs in North America. Many major American manufacturing companies from pen manufacturers, to chemical companies, to computers, to automobiles had a major presence. This fair gave many attendees their first interaction with computer equipment. Corporations demonstrated the use of mainframe computers, computer terminals with keyboards and CRT displays, teletype machines, punch cards, and telephone modems in an era when computer equipment was kept in back offices away from the public, decades before the Internet and home computers were at everyone’s disposal.
Gemini 1
was the first unmanned test flight of the Gemini spacecraft in NASA’s Gemini program. Its main objectives were to test the structural integrity of the new spacecraft and modified Titan II launch vehicle. It was also the first test of the new tracking and communication systems for the Gemini program and provided training for the ground support crews for the first manned missions.
Gemini 1 was launched from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 8, 1964. The spacecraft stayed attached to the second stage of the rocket. The mission lasted for three orbits while test data were taken, but the spacecraft stayed in orbit for almost 64 orbits until the orbit decayed due to atmospheric drag. The spacecraft was not intended to be recovered; in fact, holes were drilled through its heat shield to ensure it would not survive re-entry.