Photo of the Day

San Francisco Giants outfielder Willy Mays becomes the highest paid player in professional baseball, earning $105,000 a year.

Elizabeth Taylor and May Britt at a party, 1964.

Surgeon General Luther Terry warns that smoking causes lung cancer and likely causes heart disease, urging government action.

1964 is the peak year for US cigarette consumption.

About 42% of the American adult population are smokers.

Ford manufactures the Mustang.

400,000 are sold.

The base list price is $2,368.

Dallas police headquarters basement, November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination.

A Dallas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing Lee Harvey Oswald.

The Warren Commission submits its report on JFK’s assassination.

I Want To Hold Your Hand bolts to the top of the pop record charts.

The Beatles arrive in New York weeks later, appearing live on the Ed Sullivan Show.

During a US tour, John Lennon announces the Beatles will not play to a segregated audience.

Left: The burned station wagon of civil-rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, June 1964. Right: King is congratulated following the announcement of his Peace Prize award, Baltimore, October 1964.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act becomes the law, prohibiting racial segregation.

The Ku Klux Klan murders three civil rights workers in Mississippi.

Martin Luther King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Miami Beach, February 25, 1964. The Ring Magazine photo.

Cassius Clay, an 8:1 underdog, beats Sonny Liston in seven rounds, becoming the world heavy-weight champ.

Days later, Clay announces his conversion to Islam and adoption of the name, Muhammad Ali.

A Mary Quant design from 1964.

British fashion designer Mary Quant creates a new category of women’s clothing called “youth fashion.”

It features bold patterns and hemlines well above the knee, which Quant calls the “mini skirt.”

Jeopardy debuts on television.

The New York World’s Fair opens.

Left: A woman crawls through Tunnel 57 beneath the Berlin Wall. Right: The Ranger 7 camera system.

Fifty-four people escape from East Berlin through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall.

Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up pictures of the Moon.

Carol Channing in the original Broadway production of “Hello, Dolly.” Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews in “Mary Poppins.” Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady.” Sean Connery in “Goldfinger.”

Hello Dolly! opens on Broadway.

Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady and Goldfinger premiere in movie theaters.

Left: A US Army advisor, center, with South Vietnamese troops, 1964. Right: NYC draft card burning, 1964.

Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving LBJ broad war powers in Vietnam.

By the end of the year, 23,000 US troops are in South Vietnam as advisors to the South Vietnamese military.

The first public burning of draft cards occurs in New York City.

***

So, that’s where we were 61 years ago.

Some words on the passage of time from Ben Franklin:¹

If Time be of all Things the most precious,

wasting of Time must be

the greatest Prodigality,

since Lost Time is never found again;

and what we call Time enough,

always proves little enough.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

1. Ben Franklin, “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” 1758.