02 - Indonesia withdraws from the United Nations.
04 - Poet and author T S Eliot dies.
07 - In Australia, the first hydrofoil comes into use on Sydney
Harbour.
12 - The bodies of two teenage girls are found in sand hills at
Wanda Beach, Cronulla, Sydney.
20 - US Disc Jockey Alan Freed, dies in poverty at Palm Springs,
Florida - aged 43.
24 - Former British PM Winston Churchill dies aged 90.
27 - Australian police are given powers to arrest without a
warrant in Queensland as a result of an ongoing strike at Mt Isa
Mines.
28 - The Who make their first appearance on British TV show
Ready
Steady Go! before an audience packed with Mods.
WORLD BIDS SAD FAREWELL TO CHURCHILL
Jan 30 - Sir Winston Churchill was buried today in a village
churchyard near his family's ancestral home at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. This was how he wanted it. A simple graveside ceremony
was the end to an extraordinary four days of homage on a grand
scale which began when this man of many sided genius died
peacefully at the age of 90.The Queen led the nation in its
mourning and spontaneous upsurge of affection and respect.
Guardsmen carry the coffin towards the steps of
St Paul's Cathedral
Representatives of 110 nations were at the state funeral service
in St Paul's Cathedral. For three days after his death, Churchill
lay in state in historic Westminster Hall in the heart of the
Houses of Parliament. In hundreds of thousands the humble and the
mighty filed past his coffin by day and through the night. Live
television coverage of the military procession to St Paul's had the
biggest audience ever recorded - 350 million in Europe alone.
DR KING JAILED AFTER RACE PROTEST
Feb 1 - The civil rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King and 300
supporters were arrested today in Selma, Alabama, for parading
without a permit. They were protesting at the slow pace of
electoral reforms intended to give them the vote. At the rally,
King said: "If Negroes could vote, there would be no
oppressive poverty . . . our children would not be crippled by
segregated schools and the whole community might live together in
harmony".
The issue is crucial in Alabama, where blacks outnumber whites by
six to four. At present only six percent of eligible blacks are
registered to vote.
07 - Beatles' George Harrison undergoes a tonsillectomy at
London's University College Hospital.
07 - American aircraft bomb North Vietnam after attacks by the
North Vietnamese on American areas in the South.
08 - Cigarette advertising is banned from British television.
11 - Ringo Starr marries childhood sweetheart, Maureen Cox, in
London.
15 - Nat King Cole dies of cancer.
18 - Gambia becomes independent state.
21 - US Black leader Malcolm X shot to death at Harlem rally in
New York City by rival Black Muslims.
22 - The Beatles begin filming their second film, titled
Eight
Arms To Hold You (eventually released as Help!).
STAN LAUREL IS DEAD
Feb 23 - Stan Laurel, the thin and wistful half of Laurel and
Hardy, has gone at the age of 74 to join his old partner, who dies
in 1957. They spent 30 years together making 200 films. His real
name was Jefferson. The son of an actor from Ulverston,
Lancashire, he sailed on a cattle boat from Liverpool to America
in 1910 where Charlie Chaplin persuaded him to try films in 1917.
Later he was cast in a two-reeler with Oliver Hardy. Laurel wrote
most of the gags and scrupulously edited the film. He did not
believe in retakes, which may surprise his four wives - He wed
each woman twice. The rest is slapstick history.
23 - Royal Australian Mint opened in Canberra by the Duke of
Edinburgh.
02 - Australian Swimming Union bans Dawn Fraser from
competitive swimming for ten years after an incident at the 1964
Tokyo Olympic Games where Fraser allegedly stole a flag from the
palace of the Japanese Emperor.
07 - Qantas Boeing jet City of Townsville completes first non-stop
Pacific flight from San Francisco to Sydney.
10 - First National Service lottery is drawn in Australia to
select young men for military service.
18 - The Rolling Stones urinate against the wall of a garage in
England and are arrested for insulting behaviour.
18 - Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov somersaults into space on
first space walk from his craft Voskhod 2.
19 - Nicolae Ceaucescu becomes first secretary of the Romanian
Communist party.
25 - British singer Tracie Young is born.
26 - 25,000 Civil Rights marchers converge on Montgomery, Alabama,
USA.
LBJ SENDS MARINES INTO VIETNAM
March 31 - The conflict in Vietnam continues to escalate
alarmingly. Following the bombing of targets in North Vietnam last
month, in retaliation for Viet Cong raids on American bases,
President Johnson has sent 3,500 US Marines into Da Nang to help
protect the sprawling air base against guerrilla attack.
These two battalions of front-line troops are the first fighting
soldiers America has committed to the war. All the others have
been officially classed as "advisers" to the South
Vietnamese forces.
01 - Helena Rubinstein, Cosmetics Manufacturer, dies aged 93
JULIE ANDREWS WINS OSCAR IN FILM DEBUT
April 6 - At a Hollywood Academy Awards ceremony tonight,
dominated by British success, Julie Andrews won an Oscar for the
best actress of the year for her lead role in Mary
Poppins. In
all, the film won five Oscars, and My Fair Lady starring the
veteran British actor Rex Harrison, won eight, including best film
of the year.
The triumphs prompted MC Bob Hope to remark: "Welcome to
Santa Monica on the Thames".
09 - The Rolling Stones make their first live appearance on
Ready
Steady Go!
09 - Indian and Pakistani troops clash on the Kutch-Sind border.
29 - Australian PM Menzies announces Australia will send troops to
Vietnam.
29 - French President de Gaulle condemns foreign involvement in
Vietnam.
30 - US Marines sent to Dominican Republic to protect US citizens
after a military junta seizes power.
02 - World's first commercial communications satellite, Early
Bird, is launched, linking USA, Canada, UK and Europe.
04 - First Australian Army battalion leaves for Vietnam.
07 - Ian Smith's pro-white Rhodesian Front Party is elected to
power in Southern Rhodesia.
11 - Australian Labor party loses NSW for first time in 24 years.
12 - West Germany establishes diplomatic links with Israel. Ten
Arab states break off relations in protest.
12 - Soviet attempt to land on the Moon fails.
FIRST US ASTRONAUT TAKES A WALK IN SPACE
June 3 - Major Edward White today became the first American to
walk in space. He spent 14 minutes outside the Gemini 4
spacecraft, four minutes longer than the history making first
spacewalker of all, Colonel Alexei Leonov of the Soviet Union, in
March this year. However, another part of Gemini 4's mission was
cancelled - an attempt at a space rendezvous with the final stage
of the spacecraft's Titan 2 launcher. Rendezvous in orbit is a key
manoeuvre in American moon landing plans.
High above a blue-tinged Earth, Major
Ed White walks through space.
White had become so excited by his spacewalk that he had to be
persuaded back into Gemini by his partner, Major James McDivett
who stayed inside the capsule.
OLD GUARD PROTEST AT MBEs FOR BEATLES
June 15 - Somehow the words, John Lennon MBE have an unexpected
ring to them. And while the MBEs for all four Beatles in the
Birthday Honours list has delighted pop fans the world over, it
has outraged others. Some members of the Order of the British
Empire are returning the insignia of the Order in protest against
the awards to The Beatles. They feel that these honours,
presumably suggested by Prime Minister Harold
Wilson, diminish the
value of their own awards.
The first to return his OBE was Mr Hector Dupuis, a Canadian MP,
who said the awards placed him on the same level as "vulgar
nincompoops" - whose names are Lennon,
McCartney, Starr and
Harrison.
19 - Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella is deposed in a
bloodless coup. Col. Houari Boumédienne takes over.
28 - President Johnson announces that, in order to increase troop
levels in Vietnam, the military draft will soon be doubled from
17,000 to 35,000 a month.
01 - Medicare, senior citizens' government medical assistance
program, begins in Australia.
09 - First Australians killed in Vietnam.
13 - LBJ sends the Marines into LBJ.
15 - Mariner 4 sends back the first detailed photographs of Mars.
16 - Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy opens.
25 - Bob Dylan appears at a folk rock festival at Newport, Rhode
Island and performs with an electric guitar for the first time.
Purists in the audience boo him offstage.
26 - Pam Burridge, Australian surfing champion, is born.
27 - Edward Heath becomes British Conservative Party leader.
28 - LBJ announces the deployment of another 50,000 troops in
Vietnam. The US is on the offensive.
01 - Marianne Faithfull appears
at the Morecambe Winter Gardens.
02 - Australian Labor Party drops White Australia policy.
06 - The Small Faces' debut
single, Whatcha Gonna Do About It? is released by Decca.
09 - Singapore gains independence from Malaysia.
11 - Riots
break out in the Watts area of Los Angeles in protest of
continuing police brutality against the black population. Rioting
will only end after six days and 36 deaths.
13 - Jefferson Airplane make their debut at San Francisco's Matrix
Club - a club owned by Marty Balin, the band's co-founder.
13 - Bob Dylan's Like A
Rolling Stone is rush-released in the UK. As it is six minutes
long, a special abbreviated edition has to be produced for DJ's.
15 - The Beatles play at New
York's Shea Stadium to
56,000 screaming fans - at that time the biggest crowd ever to
attend a rock concert. The group are paid a record $160,000 for
the single gig.
21/29 - Gemini 5 with Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad Jr aboard
makes 120 orbits of the Earth.
27 - The Beatles meet Elvis Presley for the first and only time.
30 - Gene Vincent appears at Blackpool South
Pier.
01 - Pakistani troops cross into Kashmir over cease-fire line.
04 - Dr Albert Schweitzer, the missionary doctor who spent
his life in Gabon, Africa, dies.
04 - The Who visit Battersea Dog's Home in London to buy a guard
dog but return to find their van full of musical equipment has
been stolen.
06 - India invades West Pakistan.
09 - Roma Mitchell becomes Australia's first woman judge.
13 - Zak Starkey, son of Beatle Ringo
Starr, is born.
20 - US House of Representatives approves the use of force to
resist communism.
30 - The first episode of Thunderbirds
is aired on British television.
04 - Pope Paul VI sets foot in New York. He is the first pope
to visit America.
07 - London's tallest building (at the time), the Post Office
Tower, is opened. The tower stands 620 feet tall and has a
revolving restaurant on top.
08 - Australian PM Menzies is made Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
15 - Pope Paul VI decrees all Jews not to blame for Christ's death.
JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE AND RINGO GET GONGS
Oct 26 - The Beatles duly received their MBEs today, but the scenes
outside Buckingham Palace were hardly as decorous as such occasions
usually merit. Driven in a Rolls Royce, the four Beatles swept through
the gates, accompanied only by their manager Brian
Epstein. As they
made their way to the Royal Investiture, crowds of teenage girls
struggled with hundreds of police, specially imported to control the
excitement. As bemused tourists stared, the youngsters screamed,
shouted, waved banners and generally proved that nowhere is immune to Beatlemania.
Inside the palace, far from the frenzy, The Beatles, like everyone
else attending the Investiture, enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of
this great occasion. As the Lord Chamberlain called their names, they
stepped forward to meet Her Majesty and receive their honours.
The Queen was reported to have asked them; "How long have you
been together now?". Quipped Ringo, "Forty years".
Footnote: John Lennon returned his MBE in 1969, citing, among other
things, "our support of America in Vietnam".
28 - In England, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are charged with
the "Moors Murders"
30 - English model Jean Shrimpton attends Derby Day in Melbourne,
Australia, with her dress 6½ inches above the knee and introduces the
miniskirt to Australia.
31 - Anabella Lwin (Bow Wow
Wow) is born.
01 - In Japan, the high-speed train begins a scheduled service
from Tokyo to Osaka, travelling 321 miles in 3 hours 10 minutes.
04 - White Rhodesia breaks with Britain. Britain declares Prime
Minister Ian Smith's Declaration of Independence illegal and
imposes economic sanctions.
07 - Four miners are killed in an underground fire at Bulli
colliery in NSW, Australia.
09 - A power failure at Niagra Falls blacks out New York City,
parts of eight states of northeast USA and two provinces of
southeast Canada. About 30 million people find themselves in the
dark.
15 - Walt and Roy Disney announce plans for
a new theme park in Florida. A plot of 43 square miles had been
purchased for $5 Million dollars. Construction begins in 1969,
with the first phase opened in 1971.
20 - A week-long battle in Vietnam's Iadrang Valley leaves 240 US
soldiers dead and 470 wounded.
22 - Bob Dylan marries former model Sara Lowndes.
25 - In the Congo Republic, General Mobotu imposes five years of
army rule.
26 - France launches its first satellite from the Sahara desert.
27 - 25,000 anti-war demonstrators march on Washington DC.
04 - Gemini 7 orbits the Earth 206 times, convincing the US it
is possible to reach the Moon.
05 - In the French presidential elections, General de Gaulle
narrowly beats his socialist rival François Mitterrand on the
second ballot.
09 - Nikolai Podgorny replaces Anastas Mikoyan as president of
USSR.
10 - XP Ford Falcon named Wheels Car of the Year. It is the first
Australian-made car to receive this honour.
15 - Gemini 7 makes a rendezvous with Gemini 6 in orbit around the
Earth.
15 - Sydney-Newcastle Expressway opens in Australia.
16 - British novelist Somerset Maugham dies. Maugham had also
served as a spy during World War I.
17 - Ronnie Scott opens his jazz club in Frith Street, London.
18 - Nine African states break off diplomatic relations with
Britain for not using force against Rhodesia.
24 - US temporarily suspends bombing runs in North Vietnam.
30 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of Philippines.
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