Nice Summer Day.. August already.
In October 2009, American Heritage Magazine did an article about 1964.. why they did it then I'm not sure. But now it is 50 years since 1964 and some of the things that happened in that year have been forgotten. I'm sure American Heritage will forgive me if I list some of the events that they thought were important in 1964. If you are old enough to remember that year, you know that it was a miraculous time, in many ways.
January 11: The Surgeon General was Luther L. Terry, and he released a report on the effects of cigarette smoking. (Ten years later, in 1974, I read a health warning on a cigarette package and quit smoking.. cold turkey. I haven't imbibed any nicotine since that time.)
January 16: Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James Theater in New York City. (The Marvelous Carol Channing! Tickets: $3.60 to $9.40)
January 23: The 24th Amendment, abolishing the Poll Tax, became a part of the U.S. Constitution.
(Once a year, before that, I had to pay $2, supposedly so I could vote.)
February 7: The Beatles arrived at JFK Airport. (Who?)
February 25: The World Heavyweight championship fight between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston took place. (Clay told Liston: "I've got you now, Chump." And he did.)
March 27: An earthquake in Alaska killed 117 people.
April 12: Arnold Palmer won the Masters for the fourth time.
April 22: The New York World's Fair opened.
May 30: A. J. Foyt won the 48th Indianapolis 500 with an average speed of 147 miles per hour.
June 10: The Senate voted cloture on the civil rights bill, ending a 57-day filibuster.
July 2: President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights bill.
July 15: Senator Barry Goldwater was nominated for the Presidency on the Republican ticket.
August 2: North Vietnamese PT boats attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin.
August 4: The bodies of three murdered civil rights workers were discovered outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi.
August 7: Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, approving U.S. military intervention in Southeast Asia.
August 20: President Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, authorizing nearly $100 million for a Job Corps, training programs, and other antipoverty initiatives.
August 27: Lyndon Johnson became the Democratic nominee for President.
September 3: President Johnson signed the Wilderness Act, establishing a permanent wilderness system of more than 9 million acres.
September 27: The Warren Commission issued its report stating that there was no conspiracy involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.
October 14: Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize.
November 3: Lyndon Johnson was elected President by both Electoral and Popular Votes.
November 21: The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened, connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island.
November 28: Mariner 4 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, to beam back pictures of the surface of Mars.
December 4: The FBI arrested 21 Mississippi residents in the murder of the civil rights workers.. however, the charges are dropped.
December 14: The Supreme Court ruled that the public accommodations sections of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in hotels, was constitutional.
January 4, 1965: President Johnson spoke about 1964 to Congress and ended with: "This, then, is the state of the Union. Free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning, so it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith."
Note: From 1964 to 1965, the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam went from 17,000 to 184,000!
The Cost of Living averages (for the Middle Class) in 1964 (50 years ago!)
House: from $16,000 to $23,000.
Washing Machine: $169.
Dryer: $100.
Refrigerator: $349.
Color Television: $550.
Hershey Chocolate Bar: $.05
McDonald's Hamburger: $.15
Hot Dog: $.15
Coffee: $.10
Dinner at a high-class restaurant: $8 thru $12.
Men's Shoes: $10 to $13.
High-class men's suit: $150.
Middle-Price Automobile: $2,400+
Subway ride: $.15
Gasoline: $.27 per gallon
Toothpaste: $.44
Toothbrush: $.67
Motel: $7.5 to $16. per night
El Al Airlines 21 day European tour: $500.
First class flight to Europe: $712.
Postage stamp: $.06
Pack of Camels: $.50
Zippo Lighter: $4. (Some are now worth hundreds of dollars.)
Year's tuition at Harvard: $2,400.
The year 1964 seems like only yesterday. My late wife and I had been married for 7 years and had two beautiful daughters .. everybody thought that they were twins.. their mother dressed them just alike. I was a budding computer programmer at the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn, Maryland. We lived right where the Owings Mills Subway Station is now located. When we were told that it would someday be a station, we did not believe it, but it came true.
Where were you in 1964?
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