1965 - What happened in 1965 ?

January 1965

Monday 04:

United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.

Tuesday 26:

Hindi becomes the official language of India.

February 1965

Tuesday 09:

Vietnam War: The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam.

Monday 15:

A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

Thursday 18:

The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

Saturday 20:

Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.

Sunday 21:

Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.

March 1965

Sunday 07:

In Selma, Alabama, State troopers and local law enforcement forcefully break up a group of 600 civil rights marchers. The event was televised and was dubbed Bloody Sunday.

Monday 08:

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

Saturday 20:

1965 – In Naples, Italy, France Gall wins the tenth Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg singing "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (Wax doll, talking doll).

Monday 22:

Bob Dylan "goes electric," releasing his first album featuring electric instruments, Bringing It All Back Home.

Wednesday 24:

NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash-landing.

April 1965

Sunday 11:

The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states killing 256 people.

Wednesday 14:

In Cold Blood killers Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, convicted of murdering four members of the Herbert Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, are executed by hanging at the Kansas State Penitentiary For Men in Lansing, Kansas.

Wednesday 21:

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.

Wednesday 28:

United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. citizens.

May 1965

Wednesday 12:

The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.

Thursday 20:

A Pakistani Airlines Boeing 720-B crashes on landing at Cairo airport, killing 121 people.

Thursday 27:

Vietnam War: United States warships begin bombardments of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam for the first time.

June 1965

Wednesday 02:

Vietnam War: The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives in South Vietnam.

Monday 07:

The US Supreme Court decides Griswold v. Connecticut effectivly legalizing the use of contraception by married couples.

Thursday 10:

Vietnam War: Battle of Dong Xoai begins.

Friday 18:

Vietnam War: The United States uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam

Monday 21:

Folk rock band The Byrds release their highly influential debut album Mr. Tambourine Man.

July 1965

Wednesday 14:

Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet.

Saturday 24:

Vietnam War: Four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi are the targets of antiaircraft missiles in the first such attack against American planes in the war. One is shot down and the other three sustain damage.

Sunday 25:

Newport Folk Festival: Bob Dylan goes electric.

Wednesday 28:

Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

Thursday 29:

Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.

August 1965

Sunday 01:

Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands announces her engagement to Claus von Amsberg.

Friday 06:

US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law.

Monday 09:

Space disasters: A fire at a Titan missile base near Little Rock, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.

Wednesday 18:

United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war.

Monday 30:

Rock musician Bob Dylan releases his influential album Highway 61 Revisited featuring the song "Like a Rolling Stone."

September 1965

Monday 06:

War of 1965: India attacks Pakistan and announces that its forces will capture Lahore (city of Pakistan) in an hour.

Tuesday 07:

Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Pirahna on the Batangan Peninsula.

Thursday 09:

Sandy Koufax throws a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs

Monday 13:

Baseball: Willie Mays becomes the fifth member of the 500 home run club with a home run at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

Wednesday 15:

The television series Lost in Space premieres.

October 1965

Friday 01:

General Suharto crushes an attempted coup in Indonesia.

Saturday 23:

The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launch a new operation, seeking to destroy North Vietnamese forces in Pleku Province in II Corps Tactical Zone (the Central Highlands).

Tuesday 26:

The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs)

Thursday 28:

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

Saturday 30:

Vietnam War: Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack by wave after wave of Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.

November 1965

Saturday 06:

Freedom Flights begin: Cuba and the United States formally agree to start an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States. By 1971, 250,000 Cubans will take advantage of this program.

Sunday 07:

The Pillsbury Doughboy makes its first public appearance.

Monday 08:

The soap opera Days of Our Lives debuts on NBC in the United States.

Friday 26:

In the Hammaguira launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1 on board, becoming the third country to enter space.

Saturday 27:

Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells US President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations were to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.

December 1965

Wednesday 01:

The Border Security Force is formed in India as a special force to guard the borders

Friday 10:

The Grateful Dead play their first concert, at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Wednesday 15:

Gemini program: Gemini 6A is launched

Saturday 18:

Japan and South Korea begin formal relations

Sunday 19:

Prisoners Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker escape from Pentridge Prison, Melbourne. During the escape a guard is killed. Ryan would hang for his death, in 1967.