April 1965

1965 January February March April May June July August September October November December

<<	April 1965					>>
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30

The following events occurred in April 1965:

April 1, 1965 (Thursday)

• In the UK, the Greater London Council comes into its powers, replacing the London County Council and greatly expanding the metropolitan area of the city.^[1]
• Tasman Empire Airways becomes Air New Zealand.

April 2, 1965 (Friday)

• The Bilderberg Group, composed of top bankers and politicians from North America and Europe, meets (April 2–4) in Villa d'Este, Italy.^[2]
• The FIBA Africa Championship 1965 basketball tournament is won by Morocco.
• Died: Krishna Kumarasingh Bhavasingh, 52, Indian monarch and politician, last Maharaja of the Gohil dynasty

April 3, 1965 (Saturday)

• The world's first space nuclear power reactor, SNAP-10A, is launched by the United States from Vandenberg AFB, California. The reactor operates for 43 days and remains in Low Earth orbit.
• The first jet-to-jet combat of the Vietnam War occurs. Although all American aircraft involved return safely, the North Vietnamese Air Force claims to have shot down a U.S. Navy F-8 Crusader fighter and in future years celebrates April 3 as "North Vietnamese Air Force Day."

April 4, 1965 (Sunday)

• During a U.S. Air Force strike on the Thanh Hóa Bridge, North Vietnamese Air Force MiG-17 fighters attack a formation of U.S. Air Force F-105 Thunderchief strike aircraft, shooting down two F-105s. They are the first aircraft lost in air-to-air combat by either side during the Vietnam War.^[3]
• Born: Robert Downey Jr., US actor, in Manhattan, New York, and Elaine Zayak, former US figure skater in Paramus, New Jersey.

April 5, 1965 (Monday)

• At the 37th Academy Awards, My Fair Lady wins 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Rex Harrison wins an Oscar for Best Actor. Mary Poppins takes home 5 Oscars. Julie Andrews wins an Academy Award for Best Actress, for her portrayal in the role. Sherman Brothers receives 2 Oscars including Best Song, "Chim Chim Cher-ee".
• A U.S. Navy RF-8 Crusader reconnaissance aircraft photographs an SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile (SAM) site under construction in North Vietnam for the first time.^[4]
• Panamanian cargo ship Nan An runs aground off Hong Kong and breaks up. All 41 crew are rescued.^[5]

April 6, 1965 (Tuesday)

• The Early Bird communications satellite is launched. It will become operational on May 2 and will be placed in commercial service in June.
• The British government publicly announces cancellation of the BAC TSR-2 nuclear bomber aircraft project.^[6]
• The Italian cargo ship Cagliari runs aground in the River Thames at Gravesend, Kent, in fog.^[7]

April 7, 1965 (Wednesday)

• Irish general election, 1965: A general election takes place in Ireland, the first Irish General Election to be covered on television by state broadcaster RTÉ. The ruling Fianna Fáil party obtains an additional two seats in the election, giving it an overall majority in the Dáil.
• Lyndon Johnson delivers "Peace Without Conquest" speech at Johns Hopkins University, naming Eugene Black as US representative to the nascent Asian Development Bank.^[8][9]

April 8, 1965 (Thursday)

• The Merger Treaty (or "Brussels Treaty"),^[10]) a European treaty which combining the executive bodies of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the European Economic Community (EEC) into a single institutional structure, is signed in Brussels.

April 9, 1965 (Friday)

• The West German parliament extends the statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes.
• In Houston, the Harris County Domed Stadium (more commonly known as the Astrodome) opens.
• The 100th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War is observed.
• Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang appear on the cover of Time.
• U.S. Navy F-4 Phantom IIs of Fighter Squadron 96 (VF-96) clash with Chinese MiG-17 fighters over the South China Sea south of Hainan. One F-4B is shot down, but VF-96 claims one MiG-17 destroyed.^[11]

April 10, 1965 (Saturday)

• Soviet spacecraft Luna E-6 No.8, intended to be the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon, is lost in a launch failure when a nitrogen pipeline in the oxidiser tank depressurises, causing a loss of oxidiser flow to the engine and resulting in the engine cutting off. The spacecraft fails to achieve orbit, and disintegrates on re-entry.^[12]

April 11, 1965 (Sunday)

• 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak: An estimated 51 tornadoes (47 confirmed) hit in 6 Midwestern states of the US, killing between 256 to 271 people and injuring some 1,500 more.
• West German cargo ship Transatlantic collides with Dutch ship MV Hermes and sinks in the Saint Lawrence River, Canada. One of her fourteen crew is killed and two are reported missing.^[13]

April 12, 1965 (Monday)

• In the early hours of the morning, a second tornado outbreak in the US Midwest kills a further four people.

April 13, 1965 (Tuesday)

• West German passenger ship MV Bremerhaven capsizes and sinks at Bremerhaven.^[14]

April 14, 1965 (Wednesday)

• The first round of Municipal elections is held in France.
• After aborting its first landing attempt at Jersey Airportin the Channel Islands due to low cloud cover, British United Airways Flight 1030X, a Douglas C-47B, strikes the outermost pole of the approach lighting system with its right wing on its second landing attempt. The wing breaks off and the aircraft rolls upside down and crashes, killing 26 of the 27 people on board; one flight attendant survives.
• Died: In Cold Blood killers Richard Hickock, 33, and Perry Smith, 36, convicted of murdering 4 members of the Herbert Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas; both are executed by hanging at the Kansas State Penitentiary for Men in Lansing, Kansas.

April 15, 1965 (Thursday)

• West Germany pays Israel $75 million in cash and goods, the final installment of $862 million in reparations.^[8][15]
• The first prototype of the Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma helicopter makes its maiden flight.

April 16, 1965 (Friday)

• The Women's Handball European Cup is won by HG Copenhague, who are the first team from the Western Bloc to do so.

April 17, 1965 (Saturday)

• The first SDS march against the Vietnam War draws 25,000 protestors to Washington, DC.

April 18, 1965 (Sunday)

• Consecration of St Clement of Ohrid Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto, Canada.
• Died: Guillermo González Camarena, 48, Mexican inventor, in a car accident at Puebla, while returning from inspecting a television transmitter in Las Lajas, Veracruz.

April 19, 1965 (Monday)

• The 1st Sunday Mirror Trophy motor race (formerly the Glover Trophy) is held at Goodwood Circuit, UK, and won by Jim Clark.
• The 1965 Australian One and a Half Litre Championship motor race is held at Mount Panorama Circuit and won by Bib Stillwell.
• Adolph P. Hugo's home-built Hu-Go Craft makes its first flight.^[16]

April 20, 1965 (Tuesday)

• Ahmad Muhammad Numan replaces Hassan al-Amri as Prime Minister of the Yemen Arab Republic.

April 21, 1965 (Wednesday)

• The NY World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York, US, reopens for its second six-month season.
• Parliamentary elections are held in Sudan.
• The second round of Municipal elections is held in France^[17] The Communist party makes gains, and begins co-operating with other parties of the parliamentary left.
• Leopold Stokowski conducts the first complete performance of Charles Ives' Symphony No. 4, more than ten years after the composer's death.
• Died: Sir Edward Victor Appleton, 72, English physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

April 22, 1965 (Thursday)

• The Transavia PL-12 Airtruk, a new Australian aircraft, makes its maiden flight.^[18]

April 23, 1965 (Friday)

• The Pennine Way, a major new footpath in England, is officially opened.
• The first production C-141A Starlifter cargo aircraft is delivered to U.S. Air Force Military Airlift Command.
• The USSR launches communications satellite Molniya 1, which broadcasts a television program.^[8][19]

April 24, 1965 (Saturday)

• The 1965 Yerevan demonstrations start in Yerevan, demanding recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
• The bodies of Portuguese opposition politician Humberto Delgado and his secretary Arajaryr Moreira de Campos are found in a forest near Villanueva del Fresno, Spain (they were killed on February 12).
• Dominican Civil War: officers and civilians loyal to deposed President Juan Bosch mutiny against the right-wing junta running the country, setting up a provisional government.
• Sukarno announces nationalization of all foreign companies in Indonesia.^[8][20]

April 25, 1965 (Sunday)

• 1965 Highway 101 sniper attack: Teenage sniper Michael Clark kills three people and wounds others by shooting at cars from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Orcutt, California, US. Sixteen-year-old Clark kills himself as police rush the hilltop.^[21]
• The 1965 World Table Tennis Championships conclude at Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia.^[22][23]

April 26, 1965 (Monday)

• Thousands of protestors attack U.S. embassies in Cambodia and Tokyo.^[8][24][25]
• Manchester United F.C. win the UK's Football League First Division title.^[26]

April 27, 1965 (Tuesday)

• Indonesia–Malaysia Confrontation: Lieutenant-Colonel John Williams, serving as a Company Sergeant Major with the 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, wins the DCM for gallantry for his role in defending the base at Plaman Mapu; Williams loses an eye in the battle and thereafter gains the nickname "Patch".^[27]
• Born: Anna Chancellor, English actress, in Richmond, London
• Died: Edward R. Murrow, 57, US journalist and former director of the United States Information Agency (lung cancer)^[28]

April 28, 1965 (Wednesday)

• US begins occupation of the Dominican Republic. Forces loyal to the deposed military-imposed government stage a countercoup, supported by U.S. troops sent 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". Acting President of the Dominican Republic José Rafael Molina Ureña is removed from post, to be replaced three days later by Pedro Bartolomé Benoit.
• Vietnam War: Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies announces that the country will substantially increase its number of troops in South Vietnam, supposedly at the request of the Saigon government (it is later revealed that Menzies had asked the leadership in Saigon to send the request at the behest of the Americans).
• William Raborn succeeds John A. McCone as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

April 29, 1965 (Thursday)

• Australia announces that it is sending an infantry battalion to support the South Vietnamese government.
• An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 kills seven people and causes about US$12.5 million in damage in the Olympia, Washington, region.^[29]

April 30, 1965 (Friday)

• The Saudi Arabian ship MV King Abdelaziz runs aground 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) west of Jeddah, to be refloated on 3 May.^[30]
• I.W. Abel declared winner of contentious United Steelworkers of America election.^[8]

References

1. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 423–424. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
2. Walter Lucas, "Western liaison—'Bilderberg' style", Christian Science Monitor, April 12, 1965, p. 11.
3. Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN 978-0-87021-559-9, p. 152, which also claims this event occurred on April 3.
4. Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The Last Photo Plane", Naval History, October 2010, p. 64.
5. "Helicopters Save 41 Shipwrecked Men" The Times (London). Tuesday, 6 April 1965. (56289), col B, p. 9.
6. Burke, Damien (2010). TSR2: Britain's Lost Bomber. Ramsbury: Crowood. ISBN 978-1-84797-211-8.
7. "Picture Gallery" The Times (London). Wednesday, 7 April. (56290), col C-E, p. 5.
8. "The Month in Review", Current History, June 1965.
9. "Peace Without Conquest", LBJ Library.
10. Brussels Treaty (European history 1965-93) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
11. Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN 978-0-87021-559-9, p. 153.
12. Wade, Mark. "Soyuz". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
13. "Sunken Ship Delays Traffic in St. Lawrence Channel" The Times (London). Monday, 12 April 1965. (56294), col C, p. 10.
14. "Pleasure Ship Capsizes in Harbour" The Times (London). Wednesday, 14 April 1965. (56296), col A, p. 9.
15. W. Granger Blair, "Bonn's Reparations to Israel Completed", New York Times, April 16, 1965, p. 1.
16. "HU-GO Craft". Retrieved 25 January 2012.
17. History of French Local Elections
18. Taylor, John W R. (editor). Jane's All the Worlds Aircraft 1988-89. Coulsdon, Surrey, UK: Jane's Information Group, 1988. ISBN 0-7106-0867-5. p7
19. Theodore Shabad, "Moscow Puts Aloft Its First 'Comsat'; TV Movie Is Shown", New York Times, April 24, 1965, p. 1. "According to a Moscow television spokesman the unannounced direct telecast from Vladivostok, which included a documentary film of the life of Pacific fishermen, began at 9 A.M. Moscow time (4 P.M. Vladivostok time) and lasted about three hours. Since no television programs are scheduled in Moscow before noon, virtually no home television viewer had turned on his set and watched the live transmission. A two-minute recorded excerpt was repeated during news periods later in the day."
20. "Sukarno Seizes Foreign Firms", Los Angeles Times (AP), April 25, 1965, p. 10.
21. Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1965 "Highway Sniper's Bullet Proves Fatal to Boy, 5"
22. "World Championships Results". ITTF Museum. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
23. "ITTF Statistics". ittf.com. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
24. "20,000 Cambodians Mob U.S. Embassy: Rip Down Flag in Protest Against Vietnam Policy and Magazine Article", New York Times (UPI), April 27, 1965, p. 1.
25. "U.S. Embassy in Cambodia Is Stoned by Mob", Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1965, p. 1.
26. Scott-Elliot, Robin (19 February 2010). "Old Trafford Centenary: 10 games that define 'Theatre of Dreams'". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2012-03-30.
27. For Distinguished Conduct in the Field: the register of the Distinguished Conduct Medal 1920-1992, compiled by Philip McDermott (1994)
28. Obituary Variety, April 28, 1965, p. 60.
29. National Geophysical Data Center. "Significant earthquake". Retrieved 8 January 2012.
30. "Belgian Merchant A-G" (PDF). Belgische Koopvaardij. Retrieved 1 October 2010.