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For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (emulator).

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

1964 by topic:

Arts

Architecture - Art - Film - Literature Music (Country, UK) - Television - Home video

Science and technology

Archaeology - Aviation - Birding/Ornithology Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science

By country

Australia - Canada - France - Germany - India Ireland - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand - Pakistan Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe

Other topics

Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Religious leaders

Birth and death categories

Births - Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments - Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar).

Contents 1 Events 1.1 January 1.2 February 1.3 March 1.4 April 1.5 May 1.6 June 1.7 July 1.8 August 1.9 September 1.10 October 1.11 November 1.12 December 1.13 Date unknown 2 Births 2.1 January 2.2 February 2.3 March 2.4 April 2.5 May 2.6 June 2.7 July 2.8 August 2.9 September 2.10 October 2.11 November 2.12 December 3 Unknown date 4 Deaths 4.1 January-April 4.2 May-August 4.3 September-December 5 Nobel prizes

Events

January

• January 1 - The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
• January 3 - U.S. 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 - Martyr's Day: Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian civilians 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 Leonidas Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the 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 - Routine naval patrols of the South China Sea begin.
• 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 - Plans to build the World Trade Center are announced.
• January 20 - Meet the Beatles, the first Beatles album in the United States, is released.
• January 22 - Kenneth Kaunda is 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 strays into East Germany, is shot down by Soviet fighters near Erfurt. All three crew men are killed.
• January 29 - The 1964 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck.
• January 29 - The Soviet Union launches two scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.
• January 29 - Ranger 6 is launched by NASA. Its mission is to carry television cameras and to crash-land on the Moon.

February

• February 1 - The Beatles vault to the #1 spot on the U.S. singles charts for the first time, with "I Want to Hold Your Hand," forever changing the way rock-and-roll music sounds.
• February 3 - In protests against alleged de-facto school racial 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 the U.S. seizure 4 days earlier of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida.
• February 7 - A jury trying Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963, reports in Jackson, Mississippi that it can not agree on a verdict, resulting in a mistrial.
• February 7 - The Beatles land in New York City.
• February 9 - The Beatles and Richard Terrance McDermott, U.S.A. gold medalist and world record-breaker, make their first appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• February 9 - The 1964 Winter Olympics conclude.
• 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 has 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 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 United States Supreme Court 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 12 - Malcolm X withdraws from the Nation of Islam.
• March 13 - Thirty-eight 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 21 - Non ho l'età by Gigliola Cinquetti (music by Nicola Salerno, text by Mario Panzeri) wins Eurovision Song Contest 1964 for Italy.
• March 26 - Defense Secretary Robert McNamara delivers an address that reiterates the United States' determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid, in its war against the 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 29 - Radio Caroline becomes England's first pirate radio station from a ship anchored just outside of UK territorial waters.
• March 30 - Merv Griffin's game show Jeopardy! debuts on NBC. Art Fleming is its first host.
• March 31 - The military overthrows Brazilian President João Goulart in a coup, 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 4 - The Beatles hold the top five positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in America, an unprecedented accomplishment. Owing mostly to the explosive growth, fragmentation, and marketing of popular music since, this is certain to never happen again. The top songs in America as listed on April 4, in order, are: "Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and "Please Please Me."
• April 4 - Three high school friends in Hoboken, N.J., open the first BLIMPIE on Washington St.
• 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 5 - General Douglas Macarthur dies at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.
• 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 12 - Malcolm X delivers a speech entitled "The Ballot or the Bullet."
• April 14 - A Delta rocket's third stage motor ignites prematurely in an assembly room at Cape Canaveral, killing 3.
• April 16 - Sentences totalling 307 years are passed on 12 men who stole £2.6m in used bank notes, after holding up the night mail train travelling from Glasgow to London in August of 1963 - a heist that became known as the Great Train Robbery.
• April 17 - In the United States, the Ford Mustang is officially unveiled to the public.
• April 17 - Shea Stadium opens in Flushing, New York.
• 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 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 Wynne, who had been imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 accused of spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.
• April 22 - The NY World's Fair opens to celebrate the 300th anniversary of New Amsterdam being taken over by British forces under the command of the Duke of York (later King James II) and being renamed New York in 1664. It will run until Oct. 18, 1964 and will reopen April 21, 1965, finally closing Oct. 17 of that year. Because there can only be one official world's fair in any one country within 10 years, and the previous officially sanctioned World's Fair was held in Seattle in 1962, this fair was never officially recognized and many countries declined to be represented.
• April 25 - Thieves steal the head of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark (Henrik Bruun confesses in 1997).
• April 26 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.

May

• May 1 - At 4:00 a.m., John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz run the first program written in BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language which they have created. BASIC will eventually be included on many computers and even some games consoles.
• May 2 - Senator Barry Goldwater receives more than 75% of the votes in the Texas Republican Presidential primary.
• May 7 - A Pacific Air Lines Fairchild F-27 crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
• May 7 - At a demonstration of mail rockets by Gerhard Zucker on the Hasselkopf mountain near Braunlage (Lower Saxonia, Germany), three persons are killed by the 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 11 - Terence Conran opens the first Habitat store on London's Fulham Road.
• 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 paints his fourth Head of a Bearded Man.
• May 24-25 - The crowd at a football match in Lima, Peru riot over a referee's decision in Peru-Argentina game - 319 dead, 500 injured.
• 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 Corporation (Comsat) are offered for sale at $20 a share, and the issue is quickly sold out.
• June 3 - South Korean President Park Chung Hee 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 7 - The Beatles travel the canals of Amsterdam.
• 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 11 - In Cologne, Germs, Walter Seifert attacks students and teachers in elementary school with a flamethrower - kills 10 and injures 21.
• 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 21 - Spain beats the Soviet Union 2-1 to win the 1964 European Championship.
• June 25 - The Vatican condemns the female contraceptive pill.
• June 26 - Moise Tshombe returns to Congo from his exile from Spain.

July

• July 2 - 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 16 - At the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, U.S. presidential nominee Barry Goldwater declares that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice", and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue".
• 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 a provincial capital, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
• July 22 - The second meeting of the Organization of African Unity is held.
• 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 1 - The Final Looney Tune, "Senorella and the Glass Huarache", is released before the Warner Bros. Cartoon Division is shut down by Jack Warner.
• August 4 - American civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are 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 - The Simba rebel army in Congo captures 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 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.
• August 22 - Fannie Lou Hamer, civil rights activist and Vice Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, addresses the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention, challenging the all-white Mississippi delegation.
• August 24-27 - The Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City nominates incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson for a full term, and U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate.

September

• September 4 - Forth Road Bridge opens over the Firth of Forth.
• September 10 - Germany receives its 1,000,000th foreign worker.
• September 14 - The third period of Second Vatican Council opens.
• September 14 - The Daily Herald ceases publication, replaced by The Sun.
• September 16 - Shindig! premieres live on the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), featuring top musical acts of the Sixties.
• September 21 - The island of Malta obtains independence from the United Kingdom.
• September 24 - The Warren Commission Report, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, is published.

October

• 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 10 - The 1964 Summer Olympics open in Tokyo.
• 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 15 - Craig Breedlove's jet-powered car Spirit of America goes out of control in Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and makes skid marks 9.6 km long.
• October 15 - The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the visiting New York Yankees, 7-5 to win the World Series in seven games (4-3), ending a long run of 29 World Series appearances in 44 seasons for the Bronx Bombers (also known as the Yankee Dynasty).
• October 16 - Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister.
• October 16 - The People's Republic of China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang.
• October 18 - NY World's Fair closes for the year. It will reopen April 21, 1965.
• October 22 - Canada: A Federal Multi-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 24 - The 1964 Summer Olympics close in Tokyo.
• October 27 - In Congo, rebel leader Christopher Gbenye takes 60 Americans and 800 Belgians as hostages.
• 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, U.S. 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 Bien Hoa, South Vietnam, killing 4 U.S. servicemen, wounding 72, and destroying 5 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 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 - British 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 13 - Bob Pettit (St. Louis Hawks) becomes the first NBA player to score 20,000 points.
• November 19 - The U.S. Defense Department announces 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, among them Covenant missionary Dr. Paul Carlson.
• 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 10 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
• 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.
• December 15 - The Washington Post publishes an article about James Hampton, who had built a glittering religious throne out of recycled materials.
• December 18 - In the wake of deadly riots in January over control of the Panama Canal, the U.S. offers to negotiate a new canal treaty.
• December 23 - Wonderful Radio London commences transmissions with American top 40 format broadcasting, from a ship anchored off the south coast of England.

Date unknown

• 7000 residents of New Hanover Island, at the time part of Australia, refuse to pay taxes and found a fund to purchase Lyndon B. Johnson.[1]
• Jerome Horowitz synthesizes zidovudine, an antiviral drug used in treating HIV.
• The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is founded.
• First Moog synthesizer designed by Robert Moog.
• Roald Dahl composes the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which would yield two film-adaptations: a 1971 film starring Gene Wilder, and a 2005 film starring Johnny Depp.
• The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) is founded in England.
• 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 was never made.

Births

January

• January 2 - Pernell Whitaker, American boxer
• January 6 - Henry Maske, German boxer
• January 6 - Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan swimmer and sports commentator (d. 2005)
• January 7 - Nicolas Cage, American actor
• January 12 - Jeff Bezos, American Internet entrepreneur
• January 13 - Penelope Ann Miller, American actress
• January 18 - Jane Horrocks, British actress
• January 23 - Mariska Hargitay, American actress
• January 27 - Bridget Fonda, American actress
• January 29 - Andre Reed, American football player
• January 29 - Christopher Stone Media creator, seestone

February

• February 5 - Laura Linney, American actress
• February 5 - Duff McKagan, American musician (Guns N' Roses)
• February 15 - Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (d. 1997)
• February 16 - Christopher Eccleston, British actor
• February 18 - Matt Dillon, American actor

March

• March 7 - Bret Easton Ellis, American author
• March 9 - Juliette Binoche, French actress
• March 10 - Edward, Earl of Wessex
• March 11 - Shane Richie, British actor
• March 17 - Rob Lowe, American actor
• March 18 - Bonnie Blair, American speed skater
• March 18 - Rozalla, Zambian singer
• March 20 - Natacha Atlas, Belgian singer
• March 25 - Lisa Gay Hamilton, American actress
• March 26 - Martin Donnelly, Northern Irish racecar driver
• March 29 - Elle Macpherson, Australian model
• March 30 - Tracy Chapman, American singer

April

• April 1 - Erik Breukink, Dutch cyclist and manager
• April 3 - Bjarne Riis, Danish cyclist
• April 4 - David Cross, American actor and comedian
• April 7 - Russell Crowe, New Zealand-born actor
• April 13 - Caroline Rhea, Canadian actress
• April 18 - Lourenço Mutarelli, Brazilian underground comic book writer
• April 18 - Bez, British dancer
• April 24 - Cedric the Entertainer, American comic and actor
• April 21 - Ludmila Engquist, Russian-born Swedish athlete
• April 25 - Hank Azaria, American actor
• April 25 - Andy Bell, English singer and songwriter (band Erasure)
• April 29 - Federico Castelluccio, Italian-born actor

May

• May 6 - Dana Hill, American actress (d. 1996)
• May 8 - Melissa Gilbert, American actress and president of the Screen Actors Guild
• May 8 - Bobby Labonte, American race car driver
• May 14 - Stephen Colbert, American comedian and satirist
• May 21 - Danny Bailey, English footballer
• May 23 - Ruth Metzler-Arnold, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• May 24 - Adrian Moorhouse, British swimmer
• May 26 - Lenny Kravitz, American guitarist and singer
• May 28 - Jeff Fenech, Australian boxer
• May 28 - Christa Miller, American actress
• May 28 - Phil Vassar, American musician
• May 30 - Wynonna Judd, American singer

June

• June 1 - John Robert Stockwell, American news radio anchor/reporter
• June 4 - Eva Fampas, Greek classical guitarist, professor
• June 7 - Gia Carides, Greek-Australian actress.
• June 10 - Jimmy Chamberlin, American musician
• June 12 - Paula Marshall, American actress
• June 13 - Kathy Burke, English actress and comedienne
• June 13 - Iain Donaldson, British politician
• June 15 - Courteney Cox, American actress
• June 21 - Doug Savant, American actor
• June 22 - Dan Brown, American author
• June 25 - Johnny Herbert, English race car driver
• June 28 - Mark Grace, baseball player
• June 29 - Stedman Pearson, British singer

July

• July 3 - Joanne Harris, English author
• July 3 - Yeardley Smith, American voice actress
• July 9 - Courtney Love , American Musican/Actress
• July 11 - Craig Charles, British actor
• July 12 - Gaby Roslin, British TV presenter
• July 16 - Miguel Induráin, Spanish cyclist
• July 20 - Chris Cornell, American musician
• July 22 - Bonnie Langford, British actress
• July 23 - Ed Forchion, political activist
• July 24 - Barry Bonds, baseball player
• July 24 - PJ Phillips, UK Bass player/ singer
• July 26 - Sandra Bullock, American actress
• July 28 - Lori Loughlin, American actress
• July 30 - Vivica A. Fox, American actress
• July 31 - Jim Corr, Irish singer and musician (The Corrs)

August

• August 3 - Lucky Dube, South African reggae musician
• August 5 - Adam Yauch, American musician
• August 9 - William Martens, American computer engineer
• August 15 - Melinda Gates, American wife of Bill Gates
• August 16 - Jimmy Arias, American tennis player
• August 19 - Dermott Brereton, Australian footballer
• August 24 - Salizhan Sharipov, cosmonaut
• August 25 - Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician

September

• September 2 - Keanu Reeves, Lebanese-born actor
• September 8 - Michael Johns, American health care executive and Presidential speechwriter
• September 11 - Ellis Burks, baseball player
• September 23 - Koshi Inaba, Japanese singer (B'z)
• September 25 - Kikuko Inoue, Japanese singer and voice actress (seiyū)
• September 26 - Nicki French, British singer
• September 28 - Janeane Garofalo, American actress and comedienne
• September 30 - Monica Bellucci, Italian actress and model
• September 30 - Trey Anastasio, American musician

October

• October 2 - Dirk Brinkmann, German field hockey player
• October 5 - Keiji Fujiwara, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)
• October 8 - CeCe Winans, American musician
• October 15 - Quinton Flynn, American voice actor
• October 19 - Jorge Luis Gonzales, boxer
• October 22 - Drazen Petrovic, Croatian basketball player (d. 1993)
• October 22 - Toby McKeehan, American musician
• October 26 - Marc Lépine, Canadian serial killer (d. 1989)
• October 29 - Yasmin Le Bon, British model
• October 31 - Marco van Basten, Dutch football player and manager

November

• November 7 - Dana Plato, American actress (d. 1999)
• November 9 - Robert Duncan McNeill, American actor
• November 10 - Kenny Rogers, baseball player
• November 11 - Calista Flockhart, American actress
• November 14 - Bill Hemmer, American broadcast journalist

December

• December 4 - Marisa Tomei, American actress
• December 5 - Karin Snelson, author and editor
• December 8 - Sandy Burnett, British record producer
• December 8 - Teri Hatcher, American actress
• December 9 - Paul Landers, German musician (Rammstein)
• December 13 - Hideto "hide" Matsumoto, Japanese musician
• December 16 - Heike Drechsler, German track and field athlete
• December 16 - Billy Ripken, American baseball player.
• December 18 - Steve Austin, American professional wrestler
• December 18 - Don Beebe, American football player
• December 19 - Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
• December 23 - Eddie Vedder, American singer (Pearl Jam)

Unknown date

• John Campbell, New Zealand broadcaster

Deaths

January-April

• January 1 - Bechara El Khoury, President of Lebanon (b. 1890)
• January 15 - Jack Teagarden, American jazz trombonist (b. 1905)
• January 17 - T.H. White, British author (b. 1906)
• January 27 - Waite Phillips, oil man, banker and real estate investor (b. 1883)
• January 29 - Alan Ladd, American actor (b. 1913)
• February 5 - Matilde Moisant, American pilot (b. 1878)
• February 8 - Ernst Kretschmer, German psychiatrist (b. 1888)
• February 10 - Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)
• February 25 - Grace Metalious, American writer (b. 1924)
• February 26 - F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, English World War II hero (b. 1901)
• February 27 - Orry-Kelly, Australian-born costume designer (b. 1897)
• March 9 - Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (b. 1870)
• March 18 - Sigfrid Edström, Swedish sports official (b. 1870)
• March 18 - Norbert Wiener, American mathematician (b. 1894)
• March 23 - Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born actor (b. 1904)
• April 5 - Douglas MacArthur, U.S. Army general (b. 1880)
• April 14 - Rachel Carson, American biologist and environmental writer (b. 1907)
• April 24 - Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (b. 1895)
• April 26 - E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet born Newfoundland (b. 1882)

May-August

• May 2 - Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (b. 1879)
• May 21 - James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
• May 27 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India (b. 1889)
• June 3 - Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Finnish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
• June 9 - Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born newspaper publisher and politician (b. 1879)
• June 25 - Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (b. 1888)
• June 25 - James A. Hawken, School Teacher (b. 1870)
• July 1 - Pierre Monteux, French conductor (b. 1875)
• July 2 - Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, American race car driver (b. 1929)
• July 7 - Lillian Copeland, American athlete (b. 1904)
• July 31 - Jim Reeves, American singer (b. 1923)
• August 21 - Palmiro Togliatti, Italian communist leader (b. 1893)
• August 27 - Gracie Allen, American actress and comedienne

September-December

• September 2 - Glenn Albert Black, American archaeologist (b. 1900)
• September 3 - Stewart Holbrook, American author (b. 1893)
• September 18 - Clive Bell, English art critic (b. 1881)
• September 18 - Sean O'Casey, Irish writer (b. 1880)
• September 28 - Harpo Marx, American comedian (b. 1888)
• October 15 - Cole Porter, American composer (b. 1891)
• October 20 - Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States (b. 1874)
• November 6 - Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1873)
• December 1 - J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist (b. 1892)
• December 6 - Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough (b. 1877)
• December 11 - Sam Cooke, American singer (b. 1931)
• December 11 - Alma Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel, Austrian wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel (b. 1879)
• December 14 - Francisco Canaro, Uruguayan-born composer (b. 1888)
• December 17 - Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
• December 31 - Ólafur Thors, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1892)

Nobel prizes

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