The world at your birth

[JSojourner]

1965



Jan. 4        U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union Address.

Jan. 24     Winston Churchill dies at the age of 90, as the result of a stroke he suffered on January 15.

Feb. 7      The U.S. begins the regular bombing of North Vietnamese towns and villages

Feb. 15    A new red and white maple leaf design is inaugurated as the flag of Canada, replacing the Union Flag and the Canadian Red Ensign.

Feb 21     Malcolm X is assassinated on the first day of National Brotherhood Week, at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City, allegedly by Black Muslims.

Mar. 7  Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama: Some 200 Alabama State Troopers clash with 525 civil rights demonstrators.

Mar. 8  3,500 United States Marines arrive in South Vietnam, becoming the first American combat troops in Vietnam.

Mar. 9   The second attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., stops at the bridge that was the site of Bloody Sunday, to hold a prayer service and return to Selma, in obedience to a court restraining order. White supremacists beat up white Unitarian Universalist minister James J. Reeb later that day in Selma.

Mar. 11   White Unitarian Universalist minister James J. Reeb, beaten by White supremacists in Selma, Alabama on March 9 following the second march from Selma, dies in a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.

Mar 17   In response to the events of March 7 and 9 in Selma, Alabama, President Johnson sends a bill to Congress that forms the basis for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It will be passed by the Senate May 26, the House July 10, and signed into law by President Johnson Aug. 6.

Mar. 24  Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organizes the first teach-in against the Vietnam War, with 2,500 participants, at the University of Michigan.

Apr. 11   The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: An estimated 51 tornadoes (47 confirmed) hit in 6 Midwestern states, killing between 256 to 271 people and injuring some 1,500 more.

Apr. 28    U.S. troops are sent to the Dominican Republic by President Lyndon B. Johnson, "for the stated purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and preventing an alleged Communist takeover of the country", thus thwarting the possibility of "another Cuba".

May 5  The first draft card burnings take place at the University of California, Berkeley, and a coffin is marched to the Berkeley Draft Board.

July 25    Bob Dylan elicits controversy among folk purists by "going electric" at the Newport Folk Festival.

July 28  Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000, and to double the number of men drafted per month from 17,000 to 35,000.

Jily 30  U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.

Aug 6  U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.

Aug 11  The Watts Riots begin in Los Angeles, California.

Aug 15  The Beatles performed the first stadium concert in the history of rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York

Sep 9  Hurricane Betsy roars ashore near New Orleans, Louisiana with winds of 145 MPH, causing 76 deaths and $1.42 billion in damage. The storm is the first hurricane to cause $1 billion in unadjusted damages, giving it the nickname "Billion Dollar Betsy". It will be the last major hurricane to strike New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina 40 years later.

Oct 28  Pope Paul VI announces that the ecumenical council has decided that Jews are not collectively responsible for the killing of Christ.

             In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall parabolic steel Gateway Arch is completed.

Nov 9  Northeast Blackout of 1965: Several U.S. states (VT, NH, MA, CT, RI, NY and portions of NJ) and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13½ hours.

Dec 9  A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first Peanuts television special, debuts on CBS, quickly becoming an annual tradition.

[JSojourner]

Dec 9  A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first Peanuts television special, debuts on CBS, quickly becoming an annual tradition.

Despite all the events that happened around that time, there is something quite touching about that

Absolutely.  It's a perfectly ironic juxtapositioning of the sacred and the sickening.  '65 was such a terrible year -- I only listed about a third of the bad stuff.