Information for the Year 1965

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  • The first US combat troops arrive in Vietnam.
  • By the end of the year, 190,000 American soldiers are in Vietnam.
  • US Marines land in the Dominican Republic as fighting persists between rebels and Dominican army (April 28).
  • France withdraws its Atlantic fleet from NATO.
  • Rhodesia unilaterally declares its independence from Britain (Nov. 11).
  • Population:  3.345 billion
  • Nobel Peace Prize:  UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)
  • Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and more than 2,600 others arrested in Selma, Ala., during demonstrations against voter-registration rules (Feb. 1).
  • Malcolm X, black-nationalist leader, shot to death at Harlem rally (Feb. 21).
  • Blacks riot for six days in Watts section of Los Angeles: 34 dead, over 1,000 injured, nearly 4,000 arrested (Aug. 11-16).
  • President:  Lyndon B. Johnson
  • Vice President:   Hubert H. Humphrey
  • Population:  194,302,963
  • Life expectancy:  70.2 years
  • US GDP (1998 dollars):   $719.1 billion
  • Federal spending:   $118.23 billion
  • Federal debt:   $322.3 billion
  • Median Household Income(current dollars):  $6,957
  • Consumer Price Index:  31.5
  • Unemployment:   5.2%
  • Cost of a first-class stamp:  $0.05
  • Super Bowl  The first Super Bowl was not played until the year 1967.
  • World Series of Baseball  Los Angeles Dodgers defeated Minnesota
  • National Basketball Association Championship  Boston defeated Los Angeles Lakers
  • National Hockey League Stanley Cup  Montreal Canadians defeated Chicago Blackhawks
  • Women Wimbledon Tennis  Margaret Smith defeated M. Bueno (6-4 7-5)
  • Men Wimbledon Tennis  Roy Emerson defeated F. Stolle (6-2 6-4 6-4)
  • Kentucky Derby Horse Race Champion   Lucky Debonair
  • National College Athletic Association Basketball Championship  UCLA defeated Michigan (SCORE 91-80)
  • National College Athletic Association Football Champions  Alabama (RECORD 9-1-1) and Michigan St. (RECORD 10-1-0)
  • The Sound of Music premieres. An instant hit, the film was one of the top-grossing films of 1965 and remains one of film's most popular musicals.
  • ABC pays an unprecedented $32 million for a four-year contract with the NCAA to broadcast football games on Saturday afternoons.
  • Bill Cosby, starring in I Spy, becomes the first African American to headline a television show.
  • Academy Award, Best Picture:  My Fair Lady
  • Grammy Award - Record of the Year   The Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto
  • Emmy Award - Best Television Comedy  Best Television Comedy Award Not Given in 1965
  • Miss America:   Vonda Kay Van Dyke (Arizona)
  • Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite, is launched.
  • Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford aboard Gemini VI perform the first rendezvous with another spacecraft, Gemini VII, with Frank Borman and James Lovell.
  • Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov performs the first spacewalk (Mar. 18).
  • Edward White II becomes the first American to walk in space (June 3).

 

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