1964
Year 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1964 Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1964
January
- 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 U.S. naval patrols of the South China Sea begin.
- January 13 - In Manchester, NH 14-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment Case "Coolidge vs. New Hamphire (1971)."
- 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
- January 17 - John Glenn announces that he will seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Ohio.
- January 18 - Plans to build the New York 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 22 - Marc Blitzstein dies in Martinique, where he has gone to work on an opera commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, Sacco and Vanzetti, which is left incomplete.
- January 23 - Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly 2 years after its passage by the United States Senate, 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 arouses 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 - U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), 66, announces her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
- January 28 - A U.S. Air Force jet training plane that strays into East Germany, is shot down by Soviet fighters near Erfurt; all 3 crew men are killed.
- January 29-February 9 - The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.
- January 29 - The Soviet Union launches 2 scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.
- January 29 - Ranger 6 is launched by NASA, on a mission to carry television cameras and crash-land on the Moon.
- January 30 - General Nguyen Khanh leads a bloodless military coup d'état, replacing Duong Van Minh as Prime Minister of South Vietnam.
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 popular music sounds, also starting the British Invasion in America.
- February 3 - Protesting against alleged de-facto school racial segregation, Black, Yellow and Prince Edward Islander groups in New York City boycott public school.
- February 4 - The Government of the United States authorized the Twenty-fourth Amendment outlawing the poll tax.
- February 6 - Cuba cuts off the normal water supply to the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in reprisal for the U.S. seizure 4 days earlier of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida.
- February 7 - A Jackson, Mississippi jury, trying Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963, reports that it can not reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial.
- February 7 - The Beatles arrive from England at New York City's JFK International Airport, receiving a tumultuous reception from a throng of screaming fans, marking the first occurrence of "Beatlemania" in the United States.
- February 9 - The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, marking their first live performance on American television. Seen by an estimated 73 million viewers, the appearance becomes the catalyst for the mid-1960s "British Invasion" of American popular music.
- 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 - 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 25 - Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Florida, and is crowned the heavyweight champion of the world.
- February 26 - U.S. politician 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 Democratic Party Senate nomination.
- February 27 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
- February 29 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that the United States has developed a jet airplane (the A-11), capable of sustained flight at more than 2,000 miles per hour and of altitudes of more than 70,000 feet.
March
- March 4 - Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted by a Federal jury of tampering with a Federal jury in 1962.
- March 6 - Constantine II becomes King of Greece, upon the death of his father King Paul.
- 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 - 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 military forces shoot down an unarmed reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany; the 3 U.S. flyers parachute to safety.
- March 10 - Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Ambassador to South Vietnam, wins the New Hampshire Republican primary.
- March 12 - Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam.
- March 13 - In a notorious incident, 38 of her neighbors in Queens, New York City fail to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she is being stabbed to death.
- March 14 - A Dallas, Texas jury 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 the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 for Italy.
- March 26 - 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.
- 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, Alaska.
- March 29 - Radio Caroline becomes England's first pirate radio station from a ship anchored just outside UK territorial waters.
- March 30 - Merv Griffin's game show Jeopardy! debuts on NBC; Art Fleming is its first host.
- March 31 - The military, backed by the USA, overthrow Brazilian President João Goulart in a coup, starting 21 years of dictatorship in Brazil.
April
- April 2 - Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, 72, mother of Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody, is released on $450 bond after spending 2 days in a St. Augustine, Florida jail, for participating in an anti-segregation demonstration there.
- April 4 - The Beatles hold the top 5 positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in America, an unprecedented achievement. 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 7 - IBM announces the System/360.
- April 8 - Four of 5 railroad operating unions strike against the Illinois Central Railroad without warning, to bring to a head the 5-year dispute over railroad work rules.
- April 8 - Gemini 1 is launched on the first unmanned test of the 2-man spacecraft.
- April 8 - From Russia With Love is shown in U.S. theaters.
- 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 Field Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco as President of Brazil.
- April 12 - In Detroit, Michigan, Malcolm X delivers a speech entitled "The Ballot or the Bullet."
- April 13 - 36th Academy Awards ceremony
- April 14 - A Delta rocket's third stage motor ignites prematurely in an assembly room at Cape Canaveral, killing 3.
- April 16 - The Rolling Stones release their debut album, The Rolling Stones.
- 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 - In Laos, the coalition government of Prince Souvanna Phouma is deposed by a right-wing military group, led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay.
- April 20 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, simultaneously announce 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, imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 for alleged spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.
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 2 - Some 400-1,000 students march through Times Square, New York and another 700 in San Francisco, in the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War. Smaller marches also occur in Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin.
- May 2 - Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi, are kidnapped and beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their badly decomposed bodies are found by chance two months later in July, during the search for three civil rights workers - Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
- May 7 - Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 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 mail rockets demonstration by Gerhard Zucker on Hasselkopf Mountain near Braunlage (Lower Saxonia, Germany), 3 persons are killed by a rocket explosion.
- 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-May 25 - The crowd at a football match in Lima, Peru riots over a referee's decision in the Peru-Argentina game (319 dead, 500 injured).
- May 26 - Nelson Rockefeller defeats Barry Goldwater in the Oregon Republican primary, slowing but not stalling Goldwater's drive toward the nomination.
- May 27 - Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India dies; he is succeeded by Lal Bahadur 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 10 - The U.S. Senate votes cloture of the Civil Rights Bill after a 75-day filibuster.
- June 11 - Greece rejects direct talks with Turkey over Cyprus.
- June 11 - In Cologne, Germany, Walter Seifert attacks students and teachers in an elementary school with a flamethrower, killing 10 and injuring 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 7 others are sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa, and sent to the Robben Island prison.
- June 16 - 12-year-old Keith Bennett is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady
- June 19 - U.S. 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 Nations Cup.
- June 25 - The Vatican condemns the female combined oral contraceptive pill.
- June 26 - Moise Tshombe returns to Congo from exile in 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 announce 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 18 - Six days of race riots begin in Harlem.
- July 18 - Judith Graham Pool publishes discovery of cryoprecipitate, a substance that extended the lives of hemophiliacs around the world.
- 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 21 - Race riots begin in Singapore between ethnic Chinese and Malays.
- July 22 - The second meeting of the Organization of African Unity is held.
- July 27 - Vietnam War: The U.S. sends 5,000 more military advisers 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: The bodies of murdered civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found.
- 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 1 gunboat, while the other 2 leave the battle.
- August 5 - Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow - Aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
- August 5 - The Simba rebel army in Congo captures Stanleyville, and takes 1,000 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 become 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, drafted partly by the U.S. Embassy.
- 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-August 27 - The Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City nominates incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson for a full term, and U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate.
- August 27 - Walt Disney's Mary Poppins has its world premiere in Los Angeles. It will go on to become Disney's biggest moneymaker, and winner of five Academy Awards, including a Best Actress award for Julie Andrews, who accepted the part after she was passed over by Jack L. Warner for the leading role of Eliza Dolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady. Mary Poppins is the first Disney film to be nominated for Best Picture.
- August 28 - Bob Dylan turns The Beatles on to cannabis for the first time[1]
- August 28-August 30 - Philadelphia 1964 race riot: Tensions between African American residents and police lead to 341 injuries and 774 arrests.
September
October
- October 5 - Twenty-three men and thirty-one 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-October 24 - The 1964 Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo.
- October 12 - The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits. The flight is cut short and lands again on October 13 after sixteen orbits.
- 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-October 15 - Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power.
- October 15 - The 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 for the first time.
- October 16 - The People's Republic of China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang.
- October 18 - The NY World's Fair closes for the year (it will reopen April 21, 1965).
- October 20 - Former United States President Herbert Hoover dies in New York City.
- October 21 - The film version of the hit Broadway stage musical My Fair Lady premieres in New York City. The movie stars Audrey Hepburn in the role of Eliza Dolittle and Rex Harrison repeating his stage performance as Professor Henry Higgins, and which will win him his only Academy Award for Best Actor. The film will win seven other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but Audrey Hepburn will not be nominated. Critics interpret this as a rebuke to Jack L. Warner for choosing Ms Hepburn over Julie Andrews.
- 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 26- Eric Edgar Cooke becomes the last man executed in Western Australia. He is executed for murdering eight citizens in Perth, Western Australia in between 1959 to 1963
- October 27 - In Congo, rebel leader Christopher Gbenye takes 60 Americans and 800 Belgians hostage.
- 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 - 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 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 5 - Mariner program: Mariner 3, a U.S. space probe intended for Mars, is launched from Cape Kennedy but fails.
- November 9 - The British House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain.
- November 10 - Australia partially reintroduces compulsory military service due to the Indonesian Confrontation.
- November 13 - Bob Pettit (St. Louis Hawks) becomes the first NBA player to score 20,000 points.
- November 19 - The United States Department of Defense 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 (the world's longest suspension bridge at this time).
- November 24 - Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries capture Stanleyville, but a number of hostages die in the fighting, among them Evangelical Covenant Church 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: United States National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor, agree to recommend a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam, to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
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 agree 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 U.C. Regents' decision to forbid Vietnam War protests on U.C. property.
- December 6 - The one-hour stop-motion animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the popular Christmas song, premieres on NBC. It will become a beloved Christmas tradition, still being shown on television more than 40 years later.
- December 10 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
- December 11 - Che Guevara addresses the UN General Assembly.[2]
- December 14 - Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (379 US 241 1964): The U.S. Supreme Court rules 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 21 - The James Bond film Goldfinger begins its run in U.S. theaters. It will become one of the most successful and popular Bond films ever made.
- December 22 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is sentenced to four months in prison, concluding a six-month obscenity trial.
- December 23 - Wonderful Radio London commences transmissions with American top 40 format broadcasting, from a ship anchored off the south coast of England.
- December 26 - 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.
- December 27 - Cleveland Browns defeat Baltimore Colts in NFL Championship Game
- December 31 - A performance of Tchaikovsky's then rarely televised ballet The Nutcracker is broadcast by ABC-TV. It is performed by the San Francisco Ballet, starring Cynthia Gregory in one of her earliest leading roles. The performance slips into television obscurity.
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January-February
- January 1 - Juliana Donald, American actress
- 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 31 - Jeff Hanneman, American guitarist, and co-founding member of Slayer
- February 5 - Laura Linney, American actress
- February 5 - Duff McKagan, American musician, songwriter, guitarist, bass player, drummer and singer (Velvet Revolver, Loaded, Guns N' Roses, Neurotic Outsiders)
- February 8 - German Gref, Minister of Economics and Trade of Russia
- February 11 - Ken Shamrock, American mixed martial arts fighter
- February 15 - Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (d. 1997)
- February 16 - Christopher Eccleston, British actor
- February 18 - Matt Dillon, American actor
- February 23 - John Norum, Norwegian guitarist (Europe)
- February 24 - Todd Field, American actor and director
- February 25 - Lee Evans, British comedian and actor
- February 28 - Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Uzbekistan cyclist
March-April
- March 1 - Clinton Gregory, American musician
- March 4 - Tom Lampkin, American baseball player
- March 7 - Bret Easton Ellis, American author
- March 7 - Wanda Sykes, American comedian and actress
- March 9 - Juliette Binoche, French actress
- March 10 - Prince Edward, youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II
- 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 19 - Yoko Kanno, Japanese composer
- March 20 - Natacha Atlas, Belgian singer
- March 25 - Lisa Gay Hamilton, American actress
- March 26 - Martin Donnelly, Northern Irish racecar driver
- March 29 - Annabella Sciorra, Italian-American actress
- March 30 - Tracy Chapman, American singer
- 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 7 - Steve Graves, Canadian ice hockey player
- April 8 - Lisa Guerrero, Hispanic actress, model, and sportscaster/reporter
- April 11 - Steve Azar, American country music singer-songwriter
- April 13 - Caroline Rhea, Canadian actress and comedian
- April 16 - Esbjörn Svensson Swiss jazz pianist (d. 2008)
- April 17 - Maynard James Keenan, American singer and songwriter (bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer)
- April 18 - Lourenço Mutarelli, Brazilian underground comic book writer
- April 18 - Bez, British dancer
- April 20 - Andy Serkis, British 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-June
- May 4 - Zsuzsa Mathe, Hungarian born painter and visual artist, founder of Transrealism
- May 8 - Melissa Gilbert, American actress and president of the Screen Actors Guild
- May 8 - Bobby Labonte, American race car driver
- May 11 - John Parrott, English snooker player
- May 13 - Stephen Colbert, American comedian and satirist
- May 16 - John Salley, American basketball player and talk show host
- 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 26 - Caitlín R. Kiernan, Irish-American author and paleontologist
- May 27 - Adam Carolla, American comedic radio personality and television personality
- May 28 - Jeff Fenech, Australian boxer
- May 30 - Wynonna Judd, American singer
- May 30 - Tom Morello, American guitarist (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman)
- June 3 - Kerry King, American guitarist, and co-founding member of Slayer
- June 3 - James Purefoy, British actor
- June 4 - Eva Fampas, Greek classical guitarist
- June 4 - Sean Pertwee, British actor
- June 7 - Gia Carides, Greek-Australian actress
- June 9 - Gloria Reuben, Canadian actress
- June 10 - Jimmy Chamberlin, American musician (The Smashing Pumpkins)
- June 10 - Ben Daniels, British (English) actor
- June 13 - Kathy Burke, English actress and comedian
- June 13 - Iain Donaldson, British politician
- June 15 - Courteney Cox, American actress
- June 17 - Erin Murphy, American actress
- 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 (Five Star)
July-August
- July 1 - Bernard Laporte, French rugby player & coach
- July 2 - José Canseco, Cuban baseball player
- July 2 - Ozzie Canseco, Cuban baseball player, José's twin brother
- July 3 - Joanne Harris, English author
- July 3 - Yeardley Smith, American voice actress
- July 4 - Martin Flood, Australian Quiz Show Winner
- July 9 - Courtney Love, American musician/actress
- July 11 - Craig Charles, British actor
- July 12 - Gaby Roslin, British TV presenter
- July 16 - Miguel Indurain, Spanish cyclist
- July 20 - Chris Cornell, American musician (Soundgarden, Audioslave)
- July 21 - Ross Kemp, British actor
- July 22 - Bonnie Langford, British actress
- July 22 - John Leguizamo, American actor
- July 22 - David Spade, American comedian, actor and television personality
- July 23 - Ed Forchion, political activist
- July 24 - Barry Bonds, baseball player
- July 26 - Sandra Bullock, American actress
- July 30 - Vivica A. Fox, American actress
- July 31 - Jim Corr, Irish singer and musician (The Corrs)
- August 3 - Lucky Dube, South African reggae musician
- August 5 - Adam Yauch, American musician
- August 9 - William Martens, American computer engineer
- August 13 - Ian Haugland, Swedish drummer (Europe)
- 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-October
- September 2 - Keanu Reeves, actor
- September 8 - Michael Johns, American health care executive and Presidential speechwriter
- September 11 - Ellis Burks, baseball player
- September 11 - Victor Wooten, American bassist
- September 20 - Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong actress
- September 22 - Ian Culverhouse, English footballer
- September 23 - Koshi Inaba, Japanese singer (B'z)
- September 25 - Kikuko Inoue, Japanese singer and voice actress (seiyu)
- September 26 - Nicki French, British singer
- September 27 - Stephan Jenkins, American singer (Third Eye Blind)
- September 28 - Janeane Garofalo, American actress and comedian
- September 30 - Monica Bellucci, Italian actress and model
- September 30 - Trey Anastasio, American musician
- October 1 - Harry Hill, English comedian, writer and actor
- October 2 - Dirk Brinkmann, German field hockey player
- October 3 - Clive Owen, English actor
- October 5 - Keiji Fujiwara, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)
- October 8 - CeCe Winans, American musician
- October 19 - Jorge Luis Gonzales, Cuban 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 footballer and manager
November-December
- November 4 - Douglas Wilson, American television personality and interior designer
- November 6 - Greg Graffin, American singer (Bad Religion)
- November 7 - Dana Plato, American actress (d. 1999)
- November 10 - Magnus Scheving, Icelandic producer
- November 10 - Kenny Rogers, baseball player
- November 11 - Calista Flockhart, American actress
- November 14 - Patrick Warburton, American voice actor
- November 16 - Diana Krall, Canadian jazz pianist and singer
- November 17 - Mitch Williams, American baseball player
- November 18 - Rita Cosby, American television personality
- November 18 - Seth Joyner, American football player
- November 21 - Shane Douglas, American wrestler
- November 23 - Boyd Kestner, American actor
- November 24 - Alistair McGowan, British actor and comedian
- November 25 - Mark Lanegan, American singer (Screaming Trees)
- November 27 - Robin Givens, American actress
- November 29 - Don Cheadle, American actor
- November 29 - Cork Graham, American war correspondent, actor, and author
- December 4 - Marisa Tomei, American actress
- December 7 - Roberta Close, Brazilian model
- December 7 - Curtis Hughes, American wrestler
- December 8 - Teri Hatcher, American actress
- December 9 - Paul Landers, German musician (Rammstein)
- December 9 - Larry Emdur, Australian game show host
- December 11 - John Mark Karr
- December 13 - Hideto "hide" Matsumoto, Japanese musician
- December 14 - Rebecca Gibney, New Zealand-born actress
- December 15 - Jerry Ball, American football player
- December 16 - Heike Drechsler, German track and field athlete
- December 16 - Billy Ripken, American baseball player
- December 17 - Frank Musil, Czech ice hockey player and scout
- December 18 - Steve Austin, American professional wrestler
- December 19 - Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
- December 23 - Eddie Vedder, American singer (Pearl Jam)
- December 28 - Malcolm Gets, American actor and dancer
- December 30 - Sophie Ward, British actress
- date unknown - John Campbell, New Zealand broadcaster
Deaths
January-June
- January 1 - Bechara El Khoury, President of Lebanon (b. 1890)
- January 15 - Tawfiq Canaan, Palestinian doctor (b. 1882)
- January 15 - Jack Teagarden, American jazz trombonist (b. 1905)
- January 17 - T. H. White, British author (b. 1906)
- January 22 - Marc Blitzstein, American composer (b. 1905)
- 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 6 - Emilio Aguinaldo, First President of the Philippines (b. 1869)
- February 8 - Ernst Kretschmer, German psychiatrist (b. 1888)
- February 8 - Boshiro Hosogaya, Japanese WWII admiral (b. 1888)
- February 10 - Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)
- February 18 - Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Inventor of the snowmobile & founder of Bombardier Inc.(b. 1907)
- 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 -
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