You are here -> HOME – RETROVILLE – 1964
Welcome to Retroville! It’s 1964!
IN THE NEWS:
- Jack Ruby is convicted of murder in the matter of shooting Lee Harvey Oswald and receives the death penalty (conviction is reversed in 1966, but Ruby dies in 1967 before his second trial begins)
- Three civil rights workers (Shwerner, Goodman, Cheney) are murdered in Mississippi and dumped in a construction area
- 21 men are arrested in the deaths of the civil rights workers but only seven are convicted by the Federal jury
- Nelson Mandela receives a life sentence for his agitant role in abolishing apartheid in South Africa
- The Warren Report is issued concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy claiming that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone
- Civil Rights Act of 1964 is enacted
- Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted of fraud
- BASIC (computer language) is invented by John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz
- U.S. spacecraft Ranger VII sends back pictures of the moon
- St. Louis Cardinals defeat NY Yankees to take the World Series
- Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) takes the heavyweight championship
- Singer Sam Cooke is murdered
ON THE RADIO:
- Guy Lombardo Orchestra
- Meet the Press
- Sherlock Holmes
- Theater Five
- Wayne King Orchestra
ON TELEVISION:
- Hollywood Palace
- Gilligan’s Island
- Flipper
- The Adventures of Mr. Magoo
- No Time for Sergeants
- Peyton Place
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- Bewitched
- The Munsters
- Daniel Boone
- Jonny Quest
- The Addams Family
- Gomer Pyle USMC
- The Fugitive
- Stingray
- The Ed Sullivan Show (appearance of the Beatles makes it the most watched television program in history)
FADS & FASHION:
- Acrylic paints
- Permanent press fabrics
- Creepy Crawlers
- Gun That Shoots Around the Corner
- Foto-Electric Pro Football Hall of Fame (game)
- Bobbing Head Beatles Dolls (bobble heads)
- The Watusi (dance)
- The Frug (dance)
- The Beatles haircuts and clothing styles
- Superballs
WHAT THINGS COST:
- Car: $2,350
- Gasoline: 30 cents per gallon
- House: $20,500
- Bread: 21 cents per loaf
- Milk: $1.06 per gallon
- Postage Stamp: 4 cents
- Average Annual Salary: $7,336
- Minimum Wage: $1.25 per hour
ACADEMY AWARD – BEST PICTURE:
- My Fair Lady – a film by Jack L. Warner
TONY AWARD – BEST MUSICAL:
- Hello Dolly – based on The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder, music and lyrics by David Merrick, choreographed by Gower Champion, starring Carol Channing
PULITZER PRIZES:
- Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town (history)
- John Keats by Walter Jackson Bate (biography)
- At the End of the Open Road by Louis Simpson (poetry)
- Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter (non-fiction)
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:
- Martin Luther King, Jr., U.S., 1929-1968, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and campaigner for civil rights
TOP SONGS:
- She Loves You by the Beatles
- Baby Love by The Supremes
- I’m Into Something Good by Herman’s Hermits
