April 1965

April 1, 1965 (Thursday)

• U.S. President Lyndon Johnson authorized a change in the U.S. Marines' mission in South Vietnam, a month after the first units had been sent to protect installations at Da Nang from attack. For the first time, American ground troops were scheduled to move into the surrounding area and to engage Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in combat.
• In the United Kingdom, the Greater London Council came into power, replacing the London County Council and greatly expanding the metropolitan area of the city.
• The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming's thirteenth James Bond novel, was first published by Jonathan Cape, being published eight months after Ian's death.
• The last of the Titan I intercontinental ballistic missiles were taken off alert, as the United States began reliance on the new Atlas missiles.
• Tasman Empire Airways Limited, established on April 26, 1940, changed its name to Air New Zealand.
• Born: Mark Jackson, American basketball player for 17 years in the NBA, for seven teams, and NBA coach for three years; in Brooklyn
• Died: Helena Rubinstein, 92, Polish-American cosmetics entrepreneur and businesswoman

  April 2, 1965 (Friday)

• Prime Minister Zhou Enlai of the People's Republic of China met with Pakistan's President, Mohammed Ayub Khan, and presented a four-point statement on the Vietnam War to forward to U.S. President Johnson, in that the U.S. and Communist China had no diplomatic relations. Via Khan, Zhou informed Johnson that his nation would not provoke a war with the United States, but an American ground invasion of North Vietnam would risk war with China. Zhou added that China was ready to provide aid to "any country opposing U.S. aggression"; and that China was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory. "Once the war breaks out," the statement concluded, "it will have no boundaries."
• The annual private conference of the Bilderberg Group, composed of top bankers and politicians from North America and Europe, began at Villa d'Este, Italy. Because of the secrecy of the proceedings and the importance of the participants, critics of the Group suspect it of promoting a world government. The topics of the 1965 discussions were "Monetary cooperation in the Western world" and "The state of the Atlantic Alliance".
• A musical adaptation of the John Reed book Ten Days That Shook the World, presented by Soviet theatrical producer Yuri Lyubimov, was performed for the first time, at the Taganka Theatre in Moscow. Loosely based on the events of the 1917 Revolution, Desyat' dnei, kotorye potryasli mir was billed as "a popular performance in two parts with mime, circus, buffoonery and shootings".
• Morocco won the five-nation African basketball championship tournament, authorized by FIBA, the Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur. Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, and Libya played at Tunis in a round robin format, with Morocco beating those teams, respectively, 70–57, 83–39, 59–44 and 79–45.
• Born: Rodney King, American taxi driver and central figure in the 1992 Los Angeles riots; in Sacramento, California
• Died: Krishna Kumarsinhji Bhavsinhji, 52, Indian monarch and politician, last Maharaja of the Bhavnagar State and first Governor of Madras State

  April 3, 1965 (Saturday)

• The first jet-to-jet combat of the Vietnam War took place when four U.S. Navy F-8E Crusaders from the USS Hancock carried out a mission against the Thanh Hóa Bridge, and were engaged by eight MiG-17 fighters from the 921st Sao Do Regiment of the North Vietnamese Air Force. One of the F-8Es, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Spence Thomas, was set on fire by cannons fired from a MiG-17 piloted by NVAF Captain Pham Ngoc Lan, but Thomas was able to land safely at Da Nang. Ngoc Lan ran out of fuel and survived a crash landing. In future years, April 3 would be a Vietnamese public holiday commemorated as "Air Force Day".
• SNAP-10A, the first nuclear reactor launched into space, and the only one ever sent by the United States, was sent aloft from Vandenberg AFB, California, and placed into an orbit above the Earth. "SNAP" was an acronym for Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power. The cesium-fueled ion engine would be shut down after 43 days "to permit the radioactive material in the reactor to decay to safe levels... before the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere", according to a spokesman, which was not expected to happen for 3,000 years.
• The longest session of parliament in Canada's history ended at 3:00 in the morning in Ottawa, after holding its 249th and final sitting day since opening on February 18, 1964. Only 50 of the 265 members of the House of Commons, and just 30 Senators, remained at the close, with plans to open a new session on Monday.
• Born: Nazia Hassan, Pakistani singer-songwriter known as the "Queen of South Asian Pop"; in Karachi
• Died: Ray Enright, 69, American director of 73 films between 1927 and 1953

  April 4, 1965 (Sunday)

• The coronation of Palden Thondup Namgyal as the King of Sikkim took place at a Buddhist chapel in Gangtok, the capital of the protectorate of India, as Sikkim's 170,000 citizens were permitted to watch on a special television circuit. Palden, who had succeeded upon the death of his father, Tashi Namgyal, on December 2, 1963, was crowned Chogyal and his wife, the former Miss Hope Cooke of San Francisco, wore the crown of the gyalmo. The monarchy would be abolished almost ten years to the day afterward, on April 10, 1975, and Sikkim would become the 23rd state of India.
• During a U.S. Air Force strike on the Thanh Hóa Bridge, Vietnam People's Air Force MiG-17 fighters attacked a formation of U.S. Air Force F-105 Thunderchief strike aircraft, shooting down two F-105s. Captain James Magnusson and Major Frank Bennett were both killed when their jets, the first aircraft lost in air-to-air combat by either side during the Vietnam War, were downed.
• Born:
• *Elaine Zayak, former U.S. figure skater who overcame the loss of part of her left foot to win the women's world figure skating championship in 1982; in Paramus, New Jersey
• *Robert Downey Jr., American film star best known for his portrayal of Tony Stark as Iron Man; in Manhattan

  April 5, 1965 (Monday)

• The FBI arrested former U.S. Army Sergeant James Allen Mintkenbaugh, who had been spying for the Soviet KGB intelligence agency, in Castro Valley, California. In his confession, Mintkenbaugh identified a high-level U.S. Department of Defense employee, Sergeant Robert Lee Johnson, as his partner in espionage since 1953. Later in the day, Johnson was arrested while working at his desk inside The Pentagon. Sergeant Johnson, unhappy in being passed over for a promotion, had supplied his Soviet handlers with details of American nuclear missiles, classified documents and photographs, and a sample of rocket fuel, and received $25,000 in return. On July 30, 1965, he and Mintkenbaugh would be sentenced to 25 years in prison. Johnson would serve only seven years before being stabbed to death in 1972.
• A U.S. Navy RF-8 Crusader reconnaissance aircraft photographed an SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile site under construction in North Vietnam for the first time. The discovery, southeast of Hanoi, of an antiaircraft system that could fire the SA-2 guided missile "sent shivers down the spines of task force commanders and line aviators alike", a historian would note later, but official permission to attack a site so close to the capital of North Vietnam would not be given "until the Navy and Air Force lost a few jets to the SA-2s".
• At the 37th Academy Awards, My Fair Lady won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Rex Harrison won an Oscar for Best Actor. Mary Poppins took home five Oscars. Julie Andrews won an Academy Award for Best Actress, for her portrayal in the role. The Sherman Brothers received two Oscars including Best Song, "Chim Chim Cher-ee".
• Manned Spacecraft Center announced that Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Thomas P. Stafford had been selected as command pilot and pilot for Gemini 6, the first Project Gemini rendezvous and docking mission. Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young would be the backup crew.

  April 6, 1965 (Tuesday)

• Early Bird, a communications satellite, was launched as the first offering of the private Intelsat. "This launch marks the beginning of the global village linked instantaneously by commercial communications satellites", an author would note later. Early Bird would be moved to a stationary geosynchronous orbit, above the Atlantic Ocean, on May 2. With 240 available circuits, the satellite could "relay signals in either direction between Europe and the United States virtually on a twenty-four-hour basis"; a satellite TV broadcast would reduce the available capacity for long-distance telephone and telegraph links by 75 percent.
• The United Kingdom enacted its first capital gains tax, a tax upon the profit realized from the sale of assets based on the sale price, minus the BDV ; the law initially applied to real estate and buildings.
• The British government publicly announced cancellation of the BAC TSR-2 nuclear bomber aircraft project.
• Born:
• *Rica Reinisch, East German swimmer who set the world records for the women's 100 meter and 200 meter backstroke at the age of 15; in Seifhennersdorf
• *Black Francis, American alternative rock singer and songwriter; in Boston, Massachusetts

  April 7, 1965 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President Lyndon Johnson delivered the "Peace Without Conquest" speech at Johns Hopkins University, explaining the reasons for the escalation of the American involvement in the Vietnam War. An author would note later that, "While the speech at Johns Hopkins provided short-term gains, it proved counterproductive in the long run, for it began the erosion of Johnson's credibility, which eventually derailed his presidency." Johnson offered "unconditional discussions" with North Vietnam for peace, emphasizing that there was the condition of keeping South Vietnam independent and non-Communist. He also pledged a one billion dollar investment, the Lower Mekong Basin Project, comparing the endeavor to the Tennessee Valley Authority development.
• Australia's Prime Minister Robert Menzies decided to commit 800 Army troops from the 1st Battalion to the Vietnam War, despite not consulting with the full cabinet. Menzies would not announce the decision in Parliament until April 29, a day after the media broke the story.
• Canada's Prime Minister Lester Pearson and his Liberal Party government won a vote of no confidence brought by the New Democratic Party. The measure failed, 84–129, when 24 members of other parties joined the 105 Liberals voting against the motion.
• In the 1965 parliamentary election for 144 seats in the Dáil Éireann, the first to be covered on television, the ruling Fianna Fáil party obtained an additional two legislators, giving it a majority of exactly one-half, with 72 seats.
• Born: Bill Bellamy, American comedian; in Newark, New Jersey