1965

Events

January–February

• January 14 - The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
• January 20
• * Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term as President of the United States.
• * Indonesian President Sukarno announces the withdrawal of the Indonesian government from the United Nations.
• January 29 - Hakametsä, the first ice rink of Finland, is inaugurated in Tampere.
• January 30 - The state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill takes place in London with the largest assembly of dignitaries in the world until the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II.
• February 4 - Trofim Lysenko is removed from his post as director of the Institute of Genetics at the Academy of Sciences in the Soviet Union. Lysenkoist theories are now treated as pseudoscience.
• February 12 - The African and Malagasy Common Organization is formed as successor to the Afro-Malagasy Union for Economic Cooperation, formerly the African and Malagasy Union.
• February 15 - The maple leaf is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the Canadian Red Ensign flag.
• February 18 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
• February 20
• * Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon, after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
• * Suat Hayri Ürgüplü forms the new government of Turkey.
• February 21 - Malcolm X is gunned down while giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

  March–April

• March 2 - Vietnam War: Operation Rolling Thunder - The United States Air Force 2nd Air Division, United States Navy and South Vietnamese air force begin a 3-year aerial bombardment campaign against North Vietnam.
• March 7
• * Mass in the Catholic Church worldwide is said in local languages for the first time.
• * "Bloody Sunday": Some 200 Alabama State Troopers attack 525 civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, as they attempt to march to the state capitol of Montgomery.
• March 8 - Vietnam War: Some 3,500 United States Marines arrive in Da Nang, South Vietnam, becoming the first American ground combat troops in Vietnam.
• March 9 - The "Turnaround Tuesday" march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., stops at the site of "Bloody Sunday", to hold a prayer service and return to Selma, in obedience to a court restraining order. On the same day, White supremacists attack three white ministers, leaving Unitarian Universalist minister James J. Reeb in a coma.
• March 10 - An engagement is announced between Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and Pieter van Vollenhoven, who will become the first commoner and the first Dutchman to marry into the Dutch royal family.
• March 18 - Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov leaves his Voskhod 2 spacecraft for 12 minutes, becoming the first person to walk in space.
• March 20
• * "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", sung by France Gall, wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 for Luxembourg.
• * The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 begins.
• March 23
• * Events of March 23, 1965: Large student demonstration in Morocco, joined by discontented masses, meets with violent police and military repression.
• * Gemini 3: NASA launches the United States' first 2-person crew into Earth orbit.
• *The first issue of The Vigilant is published from Khartoum.
• March 25 - Martin Luther King Jr. and 25,000 civil rights activists successfully end the 4-day march from Selma, Alabama, to the capitol in Montgomery.
• March 28 - At least 400 are killed or missing after an earthquake triggered a series of dam failures in La Ligua, Chile.
• March 30 - The second ODECA charter, signed by Central American states on December 12, 1962, becomes effective.
• April 3 - 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.
• April 5 - 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 performance in the title role. Sherman Brothers receives 2 Oscars including Best Song, "Chim Chim Cher-ee".
• April 6 - The Intelsat I communications satellite is launched. It becomes operational May 2 and is placed in commercial service in June.
• April 9 - The West German parliament extends the statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes.
• April 12 – A historic and extremely destructive tornado outbreak struck the Midwest region of the United States, killing 266.
• April 18 - Consecration of Saint Clement of Ohrid Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto, Canada.
• April 23 - The Pennine Way officially opens.
• April 24
• * 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.
• * In the Dominican Republic, officers and civilians loyal to deposed President Juan Bosch mutiny against the right-wing junta running the country, setting up a provisional government. Forces loyal to the deposed military-imposed government stage a countercoup the next day, and civil war breaks out, although the new government retains its hold on power.
• April 26 - Rede Globo is founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• April 28
• * U.S. troops occupy the Dominican Republic.
• * 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.
• April 29 - Australia announces that it is sending an infantry battalion to support the South Vietnam government.

  May–June

• May 1
• * Bob Askin replaces Jack Renshaw as Premier of New South Wales.
• * The Battle of Dong-Yin occurs as a conflict between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China.
• May 9 - Pianist Vladimir Horowitz returns to the stage after a 12-year absence, performing a legendary concert in Carnegie Hall in New York.
• May 12 -West Germany and Israel establish diplomatic relations.
• May 25 - Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston in the first round of their championship rematch with the "Phantom Punch" at the Central Maine Civic Center in Lewiston.
• May 27 - Internazionale beats Benfica 1–0 at the San Siro, Milan and wins the 1964–65 European Cup in Association football.
• May 28 - A mining accident in Dhanbad, India, kills 268.
• May 31 - Scottish racing driver Jim Clark wins the Indianapolis 500, later this year winning the Formula One world driving championship.
• June 1 - A coal mine explosion in Fukuoka, Japan, kills 237.
• June 2 - Vietnam War: The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives in South Vietnam.
• June 7 - Kakanj mine disaster: A mining accident in Kakanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, results in 128 deaths.
• June 10 - Vietnam War - Battle of Dong Xoai: About 1,500 Viet Cong mount a mortar attack on Đồng Xoài, overrunning its military headquarters and the adjoining militia compound.
• June 19
• * Houari Boumediene's Revolutionary Council ousts Ahmed Ben Bella, in a bloodless coup in Algeria.
• * Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky, head of the South Vietnamese Air Force, was appointed prime minister at the head of the military junta, with General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu becoming a figurehead president, ending two years of short-lived military juntas.
• June 20 - Police in Algiers break up demonstrations by people who have taken to the streets chanting slogans in support of deposed President Ahmed Ben Bella.
• June 22 - The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea is signed in Tokyo.
• June 25 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-135 Stratolifter bound for Okinawa crashes just after takeoff at MCAS El Toro in Orange County, California, killing all 85 on board.

  July–August

• July - The Commonwealth secretariat is created.
• July 14 - U.S. spacecraft Mariner 4 flies by Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to return images from the Red Planet.
• July 15 - Greek Prime minister Georgios Papandreou and his government are dismissed by King Constantine II.
• July 16 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel, a highway tunnel between France and Italy, is inaugurated by presidents Charles de Gaulle and Giuseppe Saragat.
• July 24 - Vietnam War: Four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi are targeted by antiaircraft missiles, in the first such attack against American planes in the war. One is shot down and the other 3 sustain damage.
• July 26 - The Maldives obtains full independence from Great Britain.
• July 27 - Edward Heath becomes Leader of the British Conservative Party.
• July 28 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000, and to more than double the number of men drafted per month - from 17,000 to 35,000.
• July 30 - War on poverty: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
• August 6 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, outlawing literacy tests and other discriminatory voting practices that have been responsible for widespread disfranchisement of African Americans.
• August 7 - Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaysia, recommends the expulsion of Singapore from the Federation of Malaysia following a deterioration of PAP–UMNO relations, negotiating its separation with Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore.
• August 9
• * Proclamation of Singapore: Singapore is expelled from the Federation of Malaysia, which recognises it as a sovereign nation. Lee Kuan Yew announces Singapore's independence and assumes the position of Prime Minister of the new island nation – a position he holds until 1990.
• * An explosion at an Arkansas missile plant kills 53.
• * Indonesian president Sukarno collapses in public.
• August 11 – Racial rioting in the Los Angeles, California neighborhood of Watts breaks out after an African American motorist, Marquette Frye, is stopped on suspicion of drunken driving. Six days of unrest are quelled by over 14,000 members of the California National Guard. There are 34 deaths and over $40 million in property damage. It is the largest and costliest urban rebellion of the Civil Rights movement.
• August 18 - Vietnam War: Operation Starlite - 5,500 United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in Quảng Ngãi Province, in the first major American ground battle of the war. The Marines were tipped off by a Viet Cong deserter who said that there was an attack planned against the U.S. base at Chu Lai.
• August 19 - At the conclusion of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, 66 ex-SS personnel receive life sentences, 15 others shorter ones.
• August 21 - NASA launches Gemini 5 on the first 1-week space flight, as well as the first test of fuel cells for electrical power on such a mission.
• August 30 - An avalanche buries a dam construction site at Saas-Fee, Switzerland, killing 90 workers.
• August 31 - U.S. President Johnson signs a law penalizing the burning of draft cards with up to 5 years in prison and a $1,000 fine.