January 1964: Vietnam

January 24
     The Studies and Observations Group (also called the Special Operations Group) is formed under the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. Its mission: "to execute an intensified program of harassment, diversion, political pressure, capture of prisoners, physical destruction, acquisition of intelligence, generation of propaganda, and diversion of resources, against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)." (From U.S. Department of Defense; link: @)
* Summary (from modernforces.com): @
* Summary (from SOG Specialty Knives & Tools): @
* Video (from CNN documentary): @
* Presidential Unit Citation (2001; from specialoperations.org): @
* "MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962-1967" (Graham A. Cosmas, Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 2006): @
* "US MACV-SOG Reconnaissance Team in Vietnam" (Gordon L. Rottman, 2011): @

January 27
     Defense Secretary McNamara appears before the House Armed Services Committee in closed session (his testimony is made public on February 18) and insists that the "bulk of the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam can be expected to leave by the end of 1965," but that "the survival of an independent Government in South Vietnam is so important to the security of Southeast Asia and to the free world that I can conceive of no alternative other than to tak all necessary measures within our capability to prevent a Communist victory." (From "The Vietnam War Almanac," James H. Willbanks, 2009)
     Note: Though the testimony was not made "public" until February 18, The New York Times published stories about it on January 28 and January 30.
* Memo from Maxwell Taylor, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, to McNamara (January 22; from the Pentagon Papers): @
* "Text of McNamara's Testimony on Southeast Asia" (New York Times, January 30; subscription required): @
* "US Still Is Hoping to Pull Troops Out of Vietnam in 1965" (Associated Press, February 18): @
* "No Korea in Vietnam -- McNamara" (Associated Press, February 19): @
* "Extracts of Statements by Robert S. McNamara on the Outlook in South Vietnam" (January 1, 1963 through December 10, 1965; from The Harold Weisberg Archive): @
* "McNamara's Statements Vary Widely After 9 Trips to Vietnam" (Associated Press, July 1967): @

January 30
     One military regime replaced another in embattled South Viet Nam. Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khanh took over in swift, bloodless coup merely by arresting the military leaders who had toppled the Ngo Dinh Dim government only three months ago. (From United Press International; full story: @)
* "Viet General Boots Junta, Takes Over" (Associated Press, January 30): @
* "Strongman Outlines Plans" (Associated Press, January 31): @
* "Viet Nam's Khanh Is Able, Puzzling Leader" (Col. Ray Cromley, February 7): @
* "U.S. Assessment of the Khanh Government, February 1-March 4" (from "Foreign Relations of the United States"): @

* Excerpt from "The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" (1992): @ 

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Thursday, January 30, 1964: 'A Change Is Gonna Come'

Sam Cooke records what would become an anthem for the civil rights movement. The song, written by Cooke, was released (as the B-side to "Shake") just days after the singer's death on December 11, 1964.

(Note: Thanks to Peter Guralnick, author of "Dream Boogie" -- linked below -- for verifying the recording date.)

* Entry from "Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings" (Steve Sullivan, 2013): @

* Song review (from allmusic.com): @
* "Sam Cooke's Swan Song of Protest" (NPR, 2007): @
* "Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke" (Peter Guralnick, 2005): @
* "You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke" (Daniel Wolff, 1995): @
* "A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race & The Soul of America" (Craig Werner, 2006): @

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Wednesday, January 29, 1964: 'Dr. Strangelove'

Stanley Kubrick's satire of the Cold War and nuclear doomsday opens in theaters, having been delayed from December 1963 because of the assassination of President Kennedy. The movie's full title: "Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb."

* Entry from AMC Filmsite: @

* Entry from Turner Classic Movies: @

* Review (Bosley Crowther, The New York Times): @

* Review (Robert H. Estabrook, The Washington Post): @

* Review (Andrew Sarris, The Village Voice): @

* Review (Fernand Fauber, The Toledo Blade): @

* Review (Roger Ebert, 1999): @

* "Almost Everything in 'Dr. Strangelove' Was True" (Eric Schlosser, The New Yorker, 2014): @
* "Doctor's Orders: How a dead serious novel became the nightmare satire of 'Strangelove' " (Bilge Ebiri, Museum of the Moving Image, 2009): @

* "A Teaching Guide to Stanley Kubrick's 'Dr. Strangelove' " (Dan Lindley, University of Notre Dame): @

* " 'Dr. Strangelove at 40: The Continuing Relevance of a Cold War Icon" (Paul S. Boyer, Arms Control Association): @

* "Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age" (Margot A. Henriksen, 1997): @ 

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Thursday, January 23, 1964: Heart transplant

Dr. James Hardy leads a team at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in transplanting a chimpanzee's heart into a human, who lived for about 90 minutes after the procedure. (In June 1963, Hardy had performed the first lung transplant; post: @).

* "The First Lung Transplant in Man (1963) and the First Heart Transplant in Man (1964)" (Hardy, Transplantation Proceedings, 1999): @ 

* "Doctors Hear First-Hand Heart Transplant Report" (Spokane Daily Chronicle, April 18, 1964): @

* Articles from Mississippi Medical News: @ and @

* "Open Heart: The Radical Surgeons Who Revolutionized Medicine" (David K.C. Cooper, 2010): @

* "Xeno: The Promise of Transplanting Animal Organs Into Humans" (Cooper and Robert P. Lanza, 2000): @

* Hardy entry from University of Mississippi Medical Center: @

* Hardy obituary (Associated Press, 2003): @ 

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Thursday, January 23, 1964: National Museum of Science and Technology

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Science and Technology opens in Washington, D.C. (It was renamed the National Museum of American History in October 1980.)

-- Image of Foucault Pendulum, circa 1970 (from the Smithsonian)

* Smithsonian sites: @ and @ and @

* "Legacies: Collecting America's History at the Smithsonian": @

* President Johnson's remarks at dedication (January 22): @

* "Annual Report of the Board of Regents for the Smithsonian Institution" (for the year ended June 30, 1964): @

* "Bloodletting Instruments in the National Museum of History and Technology" (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979): @

* "Narrating 'America' " (Marie Plassart, European Journal of American Studies, 2007): @

* "New Museum Best Tourist Attraction in Capital" (Copley News Service, February 1964): @

* "New Roofs for a Nation's Attic" (The Rotarian, May 1965): @

* "Giant pendulum draws swinging museum goers" (United Press International, March 1977): @ 

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Thursday, January 23, 1964: 24th Amendment

Section 1.
      The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.
Section 2.
      The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
-- Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.

An amendment banning the poll tax as a condition for voting in elections for federal office was added to the Consititution yesterday when the South Dakota Senate ratified it by a vote of 34 to 0. It is the 24th Amendment. South Dakota was the 38th state to approve the amendment. Ratification by three-fourths of the 50 states was required.
     -- Associated Press, January 24 (full story: @)
     -- "Abolishment of Poll Tax Approved" (New York Times): @
     -- Images of Texas poll tax receipts from www.studythepast.com

* Annotated amendment (from Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School): @
* Certification by General Services Administration: @
* "Civil Rights in America: Racial Voting Rights" (National Park Service, 2009): @
* "Democracy's Turnstile" (Dr. Seuss, PM newspaper, October 1942): @
* "You Have the Right to Vote Free" (Huey P. Long, 1934): @
* "ABC's on the Poll Tax" (Associated Press, July 1948): @
* "Poll Tax Time" (Delta Democrat Times, January 1959): @
* Poll tax entry from Encyclopedia of Virginia: @
* "Voting in Mississippi" (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1965): @

* "Poll Tax Voided in Mississippi" (April 1966): @ 

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Monday, January 20, 1964: Sports Illustrated's first swimsuit issue

Babette March is pictured on the magazine's cover; inside is a Caribbean travel guide, with five pages of swimsuit photos. (Note: The February 21, 1955 issue showed Betty di Bugnano on the cover, but the 1964 issue was the first of what would become the magazine's annual showcase.)
* January 20, 1964 cover: @

* February 21, 1955 cover: @
* Covers through the years (from SI): @

* "The Pixie Pioneer" (SI, 1989): @

* Babette March's website: @

* "The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue: An Intellectual History" (Bryan Curtis, Slate, 2005): @
* "The Girls of Winter" (audio from Vanity Fair, 2014): @

* "The Swimsuit Issue and Sport: Hegemonic Masculity in Sports Illustrated" (Laurel R. Davis, 1997): @

* Entry on "bikini" from "The Berg Companion to Fashion" (Valerie Steele, 2010): @ 

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January 1964: 'Black holes'

The term gains wider use after it appears in articles in the Science News Letter (January 18) and Life magazine (January 24). In simplest terms: "A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying." (Definition from NASA)

* "50 years later, it's hard to say who named black holes" (Science News, December 2013): @

* " 'Black Holes' in Space" (Science News Letter, January 18): @

* "What are quasi-stellars? Heavens' new enigma" (Life magazine, January 24): @

* "Black Holes" (from NASA): @

* "Black Holes: Facts, Theory & Definition" (from Space.com): @

* "Black Holes" (video, from Hubble Space Telescope site): @

* Definition from "Firefly Astronomy Dictionary" (2003): @ 

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Thursday, January 16, 1964: Angioplasty

The first angioplasty (excerpt from BBC): Laura Shaw, 82, had been advised that a blocked artery in her leg would mean her foot had to be amputated. Dr. Charles Dotter, working at the University of Oregon Hospital, had other ideas. He removed the blockage in her femoral artery using nothing more than a piece of tubing made from Teflon, inserted into the body via a blood vessel punctured with a needle. 
-- Full BBC story: @

-- Images of artery and catheters from Interventional News via Dotter Interventional Institute

"Transluminal Treatment of Arteriosclerotic Obstruction: Description of a New Technic and a Preliminary Report of Its Application" (Dotter and Judkins, Circulation journal, November 1964): @

* "Percutaneous interventional cardiac procedures" (from "Oxford Textbook of Medicine," 2003): @

* "Charles Theodore Dotter: The Father of Intervention" (Texas Heart Institute Journal, 2001): @

* "A medical milestone: the 50th anniversary of angioplasty": @

* "Clearing an Artery" (Life magazine, August 14, 1964): @
* Angioplasty.org: @

* "Coronary Balloon Angioplasty and Stents" (from MedicineNet.com): @

* Dotter Interventional Institute: @ 

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Thursday, January 16, 1964: 'Hello, Dolly!'

NEW YORK -- "Hello, Dolly!" is the first clear-cut musical smash of the season and a personal triumph for Carol Channing. Producer David Merrick says it may turn into the biggest hit he's ever had. Playgoers are beseiging the St. James Theater box office, some standing in line two hours or more on 44th Street.
     As staged by Gower Champion, this new musical comedy is a coruscating spectacle, full of gaiety and bounce. The soaring dances he has devised are the best I have ever seen since "West Side Story," although they are entirely different in mood.
     "Hello, Dolly!" was suggested by Thornton Wilder's wonderful farce, "The Matchmaker," and Michael Stewart's book is the best when it sticks closely to the original. Jerry Herman has provided exhilarating music and lyrics.
     Best of all the numbers is the title song and the action built around it. It begins early in the second act when Miss Channing makes her entrance down a red-carpeted staircase that Flo Ziegfeld would have approved. In a red velvet 1890s gown, and a red feathered hat of cartwheel size, she descends the stairs with the undulating rhythm of Lillian Russell. Then, boys and girls, stand back.
     As Dolly Levi, a non-stop matchmaker, Miss Channing's magnetism is tremendous. With her sunburst smile, her wide brown eyes and that specialty quality of hers that says "I like you," she envelops the audience in the warmth of her presence.
     -- Ward Morehouse, syndicated theater columnist, January 29

* Entry from Playbill Vault: @
* Entry from "Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre" (Stanley Green, 1976): @

* Entry from "The Oxford Companion to the American Musical" (Thomas S. Hischak, 2008): @

* Entry from "Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time" (Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik, 2010): @
* Call on Dolly ("Hello, Dolly!" website): @  

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Wednesday, January 15, 1964: Whisky a Go Go

The Los Angeles club's opening night features Johnny Rivers as the headlining act. The club quickly became famous for its music (rock 'n' roll), dancing (the patrons on the floor and the go-go dancers inside elevated glass cages) and the Hollywood celebrities it attracted.

Note: Some references list opening night as Saturday, January 11. I went with January 15 based on comments by Johnny Rivers (linked below) and a January 5 item in The Los Angeles Times announcing the opening date as January 15 (thanks to Larry Harnisch of The Daily Mirror, a site about Los Angeles history, for providing that clipping).

-- Photos by Julian Wasser (website: @)

* Entry from "Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture" (2012): @ 
* Video (clip from 1992 documentary "Twist"): @
* "Live at the Whisky" (David Kamp, Vanity Fair, November 2000): @

* "Discotheque Dancing" (Life magazine, May 22, 1964; Page 97): @
* "A G0-Go Can Get Mighty Tiresome" (Peg Bracken, May 1965): @
* "Johnny Rivers, Jimmy Webb celebrate Whisky a Go Go's 50th anniversary, plus a look back at the Sunset Strip" (Rob Lowman, Los Angeles Daily News, January 2014): @
* "Straight Whisky: A Living History of Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll on the Sunset Strip" (Erik Quisling and Austin Williams, 2003): @
* "Riot on Sunset Strip" (Domenic Priore, 2007): @
* "From Whisky A Go Go to the Royal Studios: Conversations with Johnny Rivers and Paul Rodgers" (2013): @
* Whisky a Go Go website: @ 

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Tuesday, January 14, 1964: 'The Problem We All Live With'

Norman Rockwell's painting is published in Look magazine, part of the themed issue "How We Live." It depicts school integration in the South -- specifically, Ruby Bridges being escorted to elementary school in New Orleans by federal marshals in 1960.

* Earlier post on integration of New Orleans schools (November 14, 1960): @

* Items from Norman Rockwell Museum (search for "The Problem We All Live With": @

* Letter from Rockwell to NAACP (December 3, 1963; from Library of Congress): @

* Working photographs: @
* "Rockwell & Race" (from The Pop History Dig): @
* "Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera" (Teacher resource packet, Brooklyn Museum; exhibition based on the book by Ron Schick): @
* Presentation by National Council for the Social Studies: @
* "Norman Rockwell's American Dream" (David Kamp, Vanity Fair, 2009): @
* "Inside America's Great Romance with Norman Rockwell" (Deborah Solomon, Smithsonian Magazine, 2013): @
* "Norman Rockwell: The Underside of Innocence" (Richard Halpern, 2006): @
* "The Best of Norman Rockwell" (Estate of Norman Rockwell, 1988): @
*"American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell" (Deborah Solomon, 2013): @
* "Hidden in Plain Sight: The Other People in Norman Rockwell's America" (Jane Allen Petrick, 2013): @ 

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Saturday, January 11, 1964: Smoking report

     

     A special government scientific team today linked cigarette smoking to five forms of cancer and termed the habit a health hazard which needs "appropriate remedial action."

     The long-awaited 150,000-word report by 10 scientists and physicians declared that a series of studies showed that "the mortality ratio of cigarette smokers over non-smokers was particularly high for a number of diseases."

     Among these, it listed lung cancer, cancer of the mouth, cancer of the larynx, cancer of the esophagus, cancer of the urinary bladder, emphysema, bronchitis, peptic ulcers and coronary artery disease.

     It said the death rate among smokers compared to non-smokers was nearly 1,000 times higher from lung cancer, about 500 times higher from bronchitis and emphysema and about 70 percent high for coronary artery.

     -- United Press International; full story: @

* "US Panel Calls Cigarets Health Peril" (The Milwaukee Journal): @

* "Verdict on Cigarets: Guilty as Charged" (Life magazine, starts on Page 56A): @
* "Health Panel Accepts Findings on Smoking" (Associated Press, January 27): @

* Memo from Philip Morris Tobacco Company (January 29): @ and @

* Full text of report (from U.S. National Library of Medicine): @

* Summary (from U.S. National Library of Medicine): @

* "History of the Surgeon General's Reports on Smoking and Health" (from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention): @

* Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (University of California, San Francisco): @

* Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (Stanford University): @ 

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Wednesday, January 8, 1964: State of the Union speech

President Johnson announced today a surprise budget cut to $97.9 billion, even below the current level. And he told Congress he will slash output of weapon-making uranium by 25 percent -- a move he challenged the Soviets to match.

and

President Johnson declared "unconditional war on poverty in America," and called on Congress today for enactment this month of a tax reduction designed to create new jobs and markets.

-- Associated Press; full stories: @

-- Photo from LBJ Library

* Text and audio (from American Rhetoric): @
* Video: @
* "Lyndon B. Johnson and the War on Poverty: Introduction to the Digital Edition" (Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia): @
* "Domestic Affairs" (from Miller Center): @
* LBJ for Kids! Poverty Module (from LBJ Library): @

* "Launching the War on Poverty: An Oral History" (Michael L. Gillette, 2010): @ 

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Friday, January 3, 1964: Barry Goldwater

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater, promising the Democrats a campaign "dogfight" and the voters "a choice, not an echo," yesterday plunged into the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

     -- Associated Press, January 4 (link to full story: @)

     -- Photo from Associated Press

* Text of remarks (from www.4president.org): @ 

* Video of remarks (from Associated Press Archive): @

* "Barry Goldwater: Where He Stands" (from Congressional Quarterly): @

* "Sen. Barry Goldwater's Stated Views on Issues" (from Associated Press): @
* "Barry Goldwater Speaks Out" (video from Goldwater for President Committee): @

* "The Conscience of a Conservative" (Goldwater, 1960): @

* "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus" (Rick Perlstein, 2001): @ 

* "A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement" (J. William Middendorf II, 2008): @ 

* "Goldwater Remembered" (Washington Post, 1998): @
* Goldwater Collection (from Arizona Historical Foundation): @
* Goldwater Institute (Phoenix, Arizona): @

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