November 8 - Dorothy Kilgallen, American newspaper columnist (b. 1913)
November 15 - Dawn Powell, American poet (b. 1896)
November 24 - Abdullah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1895)
November 25 - Dame Myra Hess, British pianist (b. 1890)
December 5 - Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist
December 16 - W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (b. 1874)
December 21 - Claude Champagne, Quebec composer (b. 1891)
Events
January 1 - The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan is founded in Kabul.
January 4 - United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.
January 26 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
February 1 - The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada is renamed the Churchill River in honour of Winston Churchill.
February 9 - Vietnam War: The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam.
February 15 - A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.
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.
February 21 - Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
March 5 - March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against British colonial presence.
March 7 - In Selma, Alabama, State troopers and local law enforcement forcefully break up a group of 600 civil rights marchers. The event was televised and was dubbed Bloody Sunday.
March 8 - Vietnam War: 3,500 United States Marines arrive in South Vietnam, becoming the first American combat troops in Vietnam.
March 15 - President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act.
March 18 - Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
March 19 - The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, was discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction.
March 21 - Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9 which is the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.
March 21 - Martin Luther King Jr leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
March 23 - NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
March 24 - NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash landing.
March 25 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
March 26 - A truck loses control down Moosic Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania, killing the driver. This accident later inspired the 1974 Harry Chapin song, "30,000 Pounds of Bananas."
March 30 - Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
March 31 - Iberia Airlines Convair 440, crashed into the sea on approach to Tangier killing 47 of 51 occupants.
April 4 - The first model of the new Saab Viggen fighter aircraft plane is unveiled.
April 6 - Launch of Early Bird, the first communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
April 11 - The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states, killing 256 people.
April 21 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.
April 24 - Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that was in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.
April 26 - A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.
April 28 - United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. Army troops.
April 29 - Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) successfully launches its seventh rocket in their Rehber series.
May 1 - Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC, takes place.
May 12 - The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
May 12 - West Germany and Israel establish diplomatic relations.
May 16 - The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.
May 20 - PIA Flight 705, a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720
May 27 - Vietnam War: American warships begin the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam.
June 2 - Vietnam War: The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrive in South Vietnam.
June 3 - Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performs the first American spacewalk (EVA).
June 7 - The Supreme Court of the United States decides on Griswold v. Connecticut, effectively legalizing the use of contraception by married couples.
June 10 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Xoai begins.
June 18 - Vietnam War: The United States uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.
July 14 - The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet.
July 16 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.
July 20 - Turkish prime minister Suat Hayri Urguplu returns from a visit to Moscow and announces the Soviet Union will provide aid to his country.
July 24 - Vietnam War: four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi are the targets of antiaircraft missiles in the first such attack against American aircraft in the war. One is shot down and the other three sustain damage.
July 26 - Full independence was granted to the Maldives.
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.
July 29 - Vietnam War: the first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.
July 30 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
August 6 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
August 9 - Singapore seceded from Malaysia and gained independence.
August 9 - A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.
August 11 - Race riots (the Watts riots) begin in Watts area of Los Angeles, California.
August 15 - The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, in an event later seen as marking the birth of stadium rock.
August 18 - Vietnam War: Operation Starlite begins
August 19 - Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa.
August 31 - The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft makes its first flight.
September 6 - War of 1965: India attacks Pakistan and announces that its forces will capture Lahore (city of Pakistan) in an hour.
September 7 - China announces that it will reinforce its troops in the Indian border.
September 7 - Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula.
September 9 - The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is established.
September 9 - Hurricane Betsy makes its second landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, leaving 76 dead and $1.42 billion ($10-12 billion in 2005 dollars) in damages, becoming the first hurricane to top $1 billion in unadjusted damages.
September 11 - The 1st Cavalry Division of the United States Army arrives in Vietnam.
September 14 - The opening of the fourth and final period of Second Vatican Council.
September 21 - Singapore admitted as a part of the United Nations.
September 22 - The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965/Second Kashmir War between India and Pakistan over Kashmir ends after the UN calls for a cease-fire.
September 30 - General Suharto rises to power after an alleged coup by the Communist Party of Indonesia. In response, Suharto and his army massacre over a million Indonesians suspected of being communists.
October 1 - Apostasia of 1965, a political move in Greece designed to overthrow the Prime Minister, George Papandreou.
October 1 - General Suharto crushes an attempted coup in Indonesia.
October 4 - Becoming the first Pope to ever visit the United States of America and the Wesern hemisphere, Pope Paul VI arrives in New York.
October 15 - Vietnam War: The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States to result in arrest under a new law.
October 17 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes after a two year run. More than 51 million people had attended the two-year event.
October 21 - Comet Ikeya-Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers from the sun.
October 23 - Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (United States) (Airmobile), in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launch a new operation, seeking to destroy North Vietnamese forces in Pleiku in the II Corps Tactical Zone (the Central Highlands).
October 26 - The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).
October 28 - Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, is promulgated by Pope Paul VI; it absolves the Jews of the alleged killing of Jesus, reversing Innocent III's 760 year-old declaration.
October 30 - Vietnam War: Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack by wave after wave of Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
November 2 - Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war.
November 6 - Cuba and the United States formally agree to begin an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States. By 1971, 250,000 Cubans made use of this program.
November 8 - The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands.
November 8 - The Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom.
November 8 - The 173rd Airborne is ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War.
November 9 - Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast Blackout of 1965.
November 9 - Catholic Worker member Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building.
November 11 - In Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), the white-minority government of Ian Smith unilaterally declares independence.
November 13 - The SS Yarmouth Castle burns and sinks 60 miles off Nassau with the loss of 90 lives.
November 14 - Vietnam War: Battle of the Ia Drang begins
November 16 - Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
November 24 - Joseph Désiré Mobutu seizes power in the Congo and becomes President; he goes on to rule the country (which he renames Zaire in 1971) for over 30 years, until being overthrown by rebels in 1997.
November 26 - In the Hammaguir launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1 on board, becoming the third country to enter outer space.
November 27 - Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.
November 28 - Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.
November 29 - Canadian Space Agency launches the satellite Alouette 2.
December 1 - The Border Security Force is formed in India as a special force to guard the borders.
December 6 - Pakistan's Islamic Ideology Advisory Committee recommends that Islamic Studies be made a compulsory subject for Muslim students from primary to graduate level.
December 15 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7.
December 16 - Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
December 22 - In the United Kingdom, a 70mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
December 25 - The Yemeni Nasserite Unionist People's Organisation is founded in Taiz
December 30 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.
