February 1965

1965

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February 21, 1965: Malcolm X is shot and killed by Nation of Islam members before his prepared scheduled speech

February 15, 1965: The maple leaf becomes the new flag of Canada...

... and the old Canadian flag is retired

The following events occurred inFebruary 1965:

February 1,1965 (Monday)

• Manned Spacecraft Center(MSC) received the first qualification configuration extravehicular life-support system (ELSS) chest pack. Tests of this unit and the ELSS umbilical assembly were being conducted at MSC. Meanwhile,AiResearchwas preparing for systems qualification tests.Zero-gravityflight tests of the ELSS had shown that egress and ingress while wearing a chest pack could readily be done by properly trainedastronauts.
• Law enforcement officers inSelma, Alabama,arrested 768 people (nearly all of them African-Americans, includingMartin Luther King Jr.) who were marching to protest the impediments to voter registration within Selma andDallas County.SheriffJim Clarkcharged the group with "parading without permit". Sheriff Clark would arrest another 150 marchers, mostly high school students, later in the week.
• Television commercials were shown by theSwiss Broadcasting Corporationfor the first time. Initially, the government limited total TV advertising to a maximum of 12 minutes per day.
• Rod Laverwon the Western Australian Professional Championships for the second time, atPerth,defeatingPancho Gonzales7–5, 11–9.
• John P. McConnellreplacedCurtis LeMayasChief of Staff of the United States Air Force.
• Born:
  • Brandon Lee,Chinese-American actor, son ofBruce LeeandLinda Lee Cadwell;inOakland, California(died in on-set accident, 1993)
  • Princess Stéphanie of Monaco,daughter ofPrince Rainier IIIandPrincess Grace;inMonte Carlo
  • Sherilyn Fenn,American film and TV actress; inDetroit

February 2,1965 (Tuesday)

• Missing salesmanLawrence Joseph Baderwas spotted at the National Sporting Goods Show in Chicago, United States, by a former classmate almost 8 years after he had vanished. Bader had been missing since May 15, 1957,and had been declared legally dead in 1960, enabling his wife to collect $40,000 of life insurance. Shortly after his disappearance in 1957, he had become known inOmaha, Nebraska,as John Francis "Fritz" Johnson, had married again, and had become a sportscaster at theKETVtelevision station. After multiple confirmations of his identity, Johnson still denied having any memory of being Lawrence Bader, and offered to have his fingerprints compared to Bader's army record; the prints were a matchand specialists concluded that he had suffered from amnesia for eight years. He died of cancer, in Omaha, on September 16, 1966.
• British Prime MinisterHarold Wilsonannounced to the House of Commons that the Cabinet had voted to cancel three expensive defense projects. Two were for aircraft capable of vertical takeoffs and landings (VTOL): theArmstrong Whitworth AW.681was a large military transport plane, and theHawker Siddeley P.1154was a supersonic fighter aircraft.The third, theBritish Aircraft Corporation TSR-2was a high-speed attack and reconnaissance jet. Wilson said that the cost of the research and development for the TSR-2 alone had already reached 750,000,000 British pounds, more than eight times the original forecast, and that each of the 150 planned TSR-2s would cost four million pounds apiece.
• A vote on aConservative Partymotion of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Wilson, made in the House of Commons and intended to remove Wilson from office, failed by 17 votes. Voting along party lines, the parties disapproved the censure motion, a resolution describing Wilson's decisions in his first 100 days as premier as "hasty and ill-considered", with 289 Conservative members voting in favor, and 306Labourmembers against. The nine MPs from the Liberal Party abstained.
• The U.S. National Science Foundation announced that a team of scientists, led by Keith A.J. Wise of the Bishop Museum of Hawaii, had discovered living animals "in a miniature garden high above a desolate Antarctic icecap 309 miles from the South Pole". The tiny mites, only one quarter of a millimeter (or 1/100th of an inch) in length, were discovered in soil in theQueen Maud Mountains.
• Police in Selma, Alabama, jailed an additional 520 African-American protesters, bringing the total number of people to 1,288.
• Born:Catherine Elizabeth "Cady" Huffman,Tony Award-winning American stage actress; inSanta Barbara, California
• Died:G. N. Watson,79, English mathematician best known forWatson's lemma

February 3,1965 (Wednesday)

• An 8.7 magnitude earthquakestruckAlaska'sRat Islandsat 7:01 p.m. local time (0501 UTC on 4 February 1965) in the westernAleutian Islandsof the U.S., and would prove to be the last of the major Pacific quakes of the 20th century.Its epicenter was at 51.3° N, 178.6° E, 20 miles (32 km) south of the uninhabitedAmchitkaIsland, and there were no fatalities despite its large magnitude.
• Abdul Kahar Muzakkar,the 44-year-old leader of theDarul Islamrebellion against the Indonesian government inSouth Sulawesi,was tracked down and killed by an Indonesian Army patrol, bringing an end to the rebellion.
• U.S. PresidentLyndon B. Johnsonreceived the "America's Democratic Legacy" award from theAnti-Defamation LeagueofB'nai B'rith.
• Renny Ottolinalaunched his new show,Renny Presenta...,on Venezuelan television.
• Born:Maura Tierney,American film and TV actress; inBoston

February 4,1965 (Thursday)

Lysenko

• Trofim Lysenko,whose opinions on genetics and biology heldSovietresearch isolated from the rest of the world scientific community, was dismissed from his position as Director of the Institute of Genetics at theSoviet Academy of Sciences.Lysenko, who had been made Director in 1940 by Joseph Stalin, was removed after Academy DirectorMstislav Keldyshcondemned his policies.
• At apress conferencein Paris, French PresidentCharles de Gaullecalled for an end to theBretton Woods systemthat had been in force since 1958, and a worldwide return to thegold standard.Over the next two years, de Gaulle would lobby for transfer payments between nations to be made in gold and would ultimately abandon the idea in favor of closer cooperation with France's European partners.
• QueenElizabeth II of the United Kingdomwas given the "Freedom of the City"honor (referred to in the United States as the"key to the city") in a ceremony atAddis Ababa City Hallduring her visit toEthiopia.
• TheConfederation of British Industrywas founded.
• Died:J. B. Danquah,69,Ghanaianindependence leader who had run for president againstKwame Nkrumah;of aheart attackwhile in solitary confinement at Medium Prison inNsawam.

February 5,1965 (Friday)

• Prime MinisterZhou Enlaiof thePeople's Republic of Chinahosted Prime MinisterAlexei Kosyginof the Soviet Union at a banquet, in the first visit by a Soviet leader to China since a rift had developed between the two Communist nations. Kosygin then departedBeijingthe next day for a visit toNorth Vietnam.
• TheWalt Disneystudio bought the Disneyland theme park along with theWED Enterprisesname.
• Born:Gheorghe Hagi,Romanian soccer football midfielder, Romanian national team starter from 1983 to 2000 and participant in three World Cups; inSăcele
• Died:Irving Bacon,71, American character actor in 509 films and 33 television series over a 50-year period

February 6,1965 (Saturday)

• All 87 persons aboardLAN Chile Flight 107were killed when the DC-6B airliner crashed into the Andes Mountains, a few minutes after taking off fromSantiagoin Chile toBuenos AiresinArgentina.The dead included 22 players and staff of Santiago's Antonio Varas soccer football team, who were on their way to Uruguay for a match against the Camadeo team in Montevideo; the DC-6B plane was only 20 minutes into its flight, and at an altitude of 13,000 feet (4,000 m), when it struck the dormant San Jose volcano.
• Congolese Prime MinisterMoise Tshombeand Belgian Foreign MinisterPaul-Henri Spaaksigned an agreement in Brussels, with Belgium paying off $250 million worth of interest on Congo's pre-independence debts of nearly one billion dollars. In return, Congo would compensate the Belgian owners of mines that had been nationalized by the government. "From today, the Congo is independent", Tshombe told reporters, adding "We will achieve our program of economic reconstruction."
• Partap Singh Kairon,the former Chief Minister of the Indian state ofPunjab,was assassinated after meeting with Prime Minister Shastri. Kairon, who had been a leader of the Punjabi independence movement in India, was being driven fromDelhion his way back to his home atAmritsar.He was passing through the village of Resni when four men with rifles attacked his car, killing him, his chauffeur, his private secretary and a former state cabinet aide.
• Five days after his 50th birthday, SirStanley Matthewsbecame the oldest person ever to play a game in England's highest-level soccerFootball League,when he assistedStoke Cityin its 5–1 win at home overFulham.Matthews, who had been knighted earlier as part of theNew Year Honours,had made his debut for Stoke City almost 33 years earlier, in March, 1932, and retired from competition after the game.
• Soviet Prime MinisterAlexei Kosyginarrived inHanoifor a state visit toNorth Vietnam.

February 7,1965 (Sunday)

• McGeorge Bundy,National Security Advisor to U.S. PresidentLyndon B. Johnson,delivered a memorandum, "Re: A Policy of Sustained Reprisal", that followed up on his January 27 recommendation that the United States begin the bombing ofNorth Vietnam.In the second statement, Bundy told the President, "We believe that the best available way of increasing our chance of success in Vietnam is the development and execution of a policy of sustained reprisal against North Vietnam... Once a program of reprisals is clearly underway, it should not be necessary to connect each specific act againstNorth Vietnamto a particular outrage in the South... "Although Bundy conceded the odds of success" may be somewhere between 25% and 75% ", he added," What we can say is that even if it fails, the policy will be worth it. At a minimum it will damp down the charge that we did not do all that we could have done, and this charge will be important in many countries, including our own. "AuthorCharles Lemertwould later comment, "Bundy's sustained reprisal memorandum defined Johnson's fatal policy. ByDecember 1965,200,000 troops had replaced the 20,000 or so advisers in Vietnam at the beginning of the year. And by 1968 Johnson's presidency and his Great Society program would be in ruins... "
• Lester Maddoxclosed his popular Pickrick Restaurant inAtlanta,one day after he had begrudgingly announced that he would relent to a court order and serve African-American customers, rather than face a daily $200 fine for contempt of court. At noon, when a young black man named Jack Googer arrived to be the first customer, Maddox announced that he was closing the business. "I cannot betray my vow to my God" (to not serve Negro customers), he told reporters. "Dollars are unimportant to me." Maddox then placed a sign on the door, announcing that the Pickrick was "out of business, resulting from an act passed by theU.S. Congress,signed by President Johnson and inspired and supported by deadly and bloody Communism. "
• TheBroadwaymusicalKelly,with lyrics byEddie Lawrenceand music byMark Charlap,had its opening night performance at theBroadhurst Theatreand then closed, making history as the most expensive Broadway failure up to that time. The loss to investors in 1965 was $650,000, equivalent to almost $4.9 million fifty years later.
• Amortar and small arms attackby theViet Cong,on theCamp HollowayU.S. station adjacent to the airport atPleiku,killed eight American advisers and wounded 126 others. The attackers also destroyed six Huey helicopters and a Caribou transport plane and damaged 15 other aircraft.
• President Johnson responded by launchingOperation Flaming Dart,sending 49U.S. Navybombers to bomb North Vietnamese army barracks inĐồng Hớiand other targets aroundNorth Vietnam'sGulf of Tonkin.
• Born:Chris Rock,African-American comedian; inAndrews, South Carolina
• Died:
  • Lee Hoi-chuen,64, Chinese opera singer and film actor; father of Hong Kong-American martial artist and actorBruce Lee
  • Nance O'Neil,90, American stage and silent film actress nicknamed "the American Bernhardt"

February 8,1965 (Monday)

• Twenty-fourRepublic of Vietnam Air Forcebombers, personally led by GeneralNguyễn Cao Kỳ,crossed fromSouth Vietnamand struck targets in and around theQuảng Bình ProvinceofNorth Vietnam,and the crews returned to a heroes' welcome.The act became symbolic of South Vietnam's determination to fight for its own defense against Communism, and contributed to President Johnson's decision at a meeting of his National Security Council later that day. Thereafter, sustained bombing of North Vietnam would become a "continuing action" rather than one of occasional reprisals.Support in the United States for an increased fight in Vietnam was evident from newspapers reporting on Operation Flaming Dart.The Washington Postsaid in an editorial the next day, "withdrawal from South Vietnam would not gain peace, but only lead to another war", and added, "The United States Government has taken the only course available to it, if it does not wish to surrender."
• All 84 people on boardEastern Air Lines Flight 663were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, moments after taking off from New York'sJohn F. Kennedy International Airport.The Eastern Airlines flight was forced to make an unusually steep turn in order to avoid a collision with an incoming airliner,Pan Am Flight 212.The doomed plane, aDouglas DC-7B,went down approximately 7 miles (11 km) away off the coast ofLong Island'sJones Beach State Park.
• The city ofEmpire, Oregon,population 3,917, ceased to exist and became part ofCoos Bay,making Coos Bay the largest city on the Oregon coast. Voters in Empire had approved the merger and the surrender of their city charter on December 7, 1964, by a vote of 463 to 387, while Coos Bay residents had approved the merger overwhelmingly on January 8, 1965, by a margin of 1,329 to 181.
• On the same day as theEastern Air Linescrash, aScandinavian AirlinesDC-7 burst into flames as it was attempting to take off fromTenerifein theCanary Islandson a flight toCopenhagen.All 91 people aboard were evacuated, 84 of them uninjured, just prior to the plane being consumed by flames.
• The Manned Spacecraft Center announced the selection ofL. Gordon Cooper, Jr.,as command pilot andCharles Conrad, Jr.,as pilot for the seven-dayGemini 5mission. The backup crew was announced asNeil A. ArmstrongandElliot M. See, Jr..
• Queen Elizabeth IIof the United Kingdom continued her African state visit, moving on fromEthiopia,where her host was EmperorHaile Selassie,toSudan,where she was greeted by President al-Mahi.
• Born:Dicky Cheung(stage name for Cheung Wai-kin), Cantopop singer and actor; inHong Kong
• Died:Wayne Estes,21, American college basketball star forUtah State University,was killed in a freak accident less than two hours after leading a 91–62 win overDenver Universityand scoring 48 points (including the 2000th point of his career). As he walked back to campus, he brushed against a high voltage wire that had been knocked down by a car, and was electrocuted.At the time of his death, Estes was the second-most prolific scorer in major college basketball, averaging 33.7 points a game behindRick Barrybut head ofBill Bradley,and was considered to be a likely first roundNBAdraft pick.

February 9,1965 (Tuesday)

• As the U.S. bombing ofNorth Vietnamcontinued, thePeople's Republic of Chinaissued a statement that, "We warn U.S. imperialism: You are overreaching yourselves in trying to extend the war with your small forces in Indochina, Southeast Asia, and the Far East. To be frank, we are waiting for you in battle array."On the same day, U.S. National Security AdviserMcGeorge Bundytold SenatorMike Mansfieldthat theJohnson administration"was willing to run the risk of a war with China" if an invasion of North Vietnam was deemed necessary.
• A mob of about 3,000 Asian and Russian students who were protesting against the American bombing of North Vietnam attacked the U.S. Embassy inMoscow.Two reporters,Adam ClymerofThe Baltimore Sunand Bernard Ullman of theAgence France-Pressenews agency, were injured, and more than 200 windows in the ten-story building were shattered before Moscow police intervened.
• The first twenty of 1,819 wives and children ofSouth Vietnam-based American civilian and military personnel departed that nation, by order of President Johnson.The rest, including the dependents of AmbassadorMaxwell Taylorand GeneralWilliam Westmoreland,would depart over the next 15 days.
• Voting began for the next president of the 1.2 million memberUnited Steelworkers of America(USWA) labor union, at 3,300 union offices, plants and other locations. In a close election,I. W. Abeldefeated incumbent PresidentDavid J. McDonaldby only 6,228 votes.
• President Titoof Yugoslavia was awarded theGrand Star of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria.
• Died:Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah,91, Bengali educator who assisted in the formation of theUniversity of Dhaka;theAhsanullah University of Science and Technology,founded in 1995 by the Dhaka Ahsania Mission that he had established, would be named in his honor.

February 10,1965 (Wednesday)

• The first "one-shot" vaccine against themeasleswas made available to American physicians, the day after its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Although vaccinations against the measles had first been introduced in the U.S. in 1963, they had required children to receive several injections in order for immunity against the virus to be obtained. The new measles shot, using a greatly-weakened strain of the measles virus, was 99% effective in providing a lifelong immunity to the illness.
• Three days after their attack on the U.S. Army barracks at Pleiku, the Viet Cong staged anattack on another barracksatQui Nhơn,killing 23 American soldiers, two VC and seven civilians leading to even heavier U.S. air strikes against North Vietnam.McGeorge Bundy would tell a reporter later, "Pleikus are like streetcars", in that it could be expected that after each incident, the U.S. could expect that another one would arrive when the time was right.
• Died:AdmiralArthur C. Davis,71, naval aviation pioneer who perfecteddive bombingtechniques

February 11,1965 (Thursday)

• India's Prime MinisterLal Bahadur Shastriannounced that his government was abandoning plans, announced onJanuary 26,to haveHindireplaceEnglishas the nation's official language. The decision followed more than two weeks of rioting in southern India and the deaths of over 100 people in clashes with police. "For an indefinite period", Shastri said in a nationwide address, "I would have English an associate language... I do not wish the people of the non-Hindi areas to feel that certain doors of advancement are closed to them." The "indefinite period" never expired, and India would later have 23official languages,with English as thelingua franca.
• On his way back to Moscow from Hanoi, Soviet Prime MinisterAlexei Kosyginstopped inBeijingfor the second time in less than a month, and met with China's Communist Party General Secretary,Mao Zedong,with a suggestion that the two nations help the United States to "find a way out of Vietnam" that would end the continuing war there; Mao's response was a warning that the Soviets should not use Vietnam as a bargaining issue in negotiations with the U.S., and refused to agree.
• Operation Flaming Dart IIbegan as 99 U.S. Navy carrier aircraft attacked enemy logistics and communications at Chanh Hoa barracks in southernNorth Vietnamnear theDMZ.

February 12,1965 (Friday)

• Yaroslav Golovanov,the science editor for the Soviet youth newspaperKomsomolskaya Pravda,was approved forcosmonauttraining for theSoviet space program,along with two other journalists with engineering backgrounds, Mikhail Rebrov of the Defense Ministry newspaperKrasnaya Zvezdaand Yuri Letunov ofGosteleradio,the government-owned radio network.After the death a year later of their mentor, Soviet space program chiefSergei Korolev,the three were dropped from the program. It would not be until 25 years later, in 1990, that a member of the press,Toyohiro Akiyamaof theTokyo Broadcasting System,would become the first journalist to be launched into outer space.
• Plans for the U.S.Head Start program,for early education for underprivileged children, were given massive publicity byLady Bird Johnson,the First Lady, when she hosted prominent women as guests for a tea party at theWhite House.Women from business and entertainment were invited, along with the wives of high-ranking federal government officials, the wives of some state governors, and a few men, "primarily church leaders". Mrs. Johnson addressed the need for early education for all preschoolers, and the reporting of her party on the "society pages" of newspapers brought a favorable response for Head Start and for the War on Poverty.
• OCAM(OrganizationCommuneAfricaine etMalgache), the African and Malagasy Common Organization, was formed atNouakchott,Mauritania,as a successor to the Afro-Malagasy Union for Economic Cooperation (Union Africaine et Malgache de Coopération Économique;UAMCE), formerly the African and Malagasy Union (Union Africaine et Malgache; UAM)). The 13 initial members were all former French colonies (Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Dahomey, Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Upper Volta).
• The refueling reactor on theSoviet nuclear submarineK-11became overheated and exploded, causing radiation contamination but no deaths. Afurfurol-based polymer would be used to seal the reactor, which would then be dumped into the Abrosimovafjordin theKara Seawithin theArctic Ocean,at a depth of 20 metres (66 ft).
• Director of Flight OperationsChristopher C. Kraft, Jr.,told the Manned Spacecraft Center senior staff that theGemini 3mission might be flown between March 22 and 25, although it was officially scheduled for the second quarter of 1965. In addition, theHouston control centerwas being considered for use in theGT-4mission.
• Twenty-nine activists set out on theAboriginal Freedom Rideto protest againstracial discrimination in Australia.
• Born:Mia Frye,American choregraphic dancer; inNew York City
• Died:John Hays Hammond Jr.,76, Americanelectrical engineerand inventor ofradio controlfor remote guidance of missiles, unmanned combat vehicles, drones and other "RC" devices.

February 13,1965 (Saturday)

İsmet İnönü and Suat Hayri Ürgüplü

• By a margin of 225 to 197,İsmet İnönü,the longtime leader of Turkey as president and later as Prime Minister, lost a vote of no confidence in the Turkish National Assembly and was forced to resign.Suat Hayri Ürgüplüwould form a new government on February 20.
• Congolese military aircraft bombed the villages ofPaidhaandGoli, Uganda,located on the African nation's border with theDemocratic Republic of the Congo,prompting Ugandan Prime MinisterMilton Oboteto activate all former Ugandan Army members and to call on the citizens to defend the country. In response to the Ugandan charges, the Congo government in Leopoldville said that Ugandan troops had assisted Congolese rebels in attacking the Congolese town ofMahagion February 5.By the end of the year, the Ugandan Army would more than double in size, to 4,500 men.
• U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson agreed with advisers that a campaign of sustained reprisal in air strikes against North Vietnam would be necessary in order to end the war there.The attacks, described officially as "a program of measured and limited air action jointly"with South Vietnam, would be ordered by the President on February 24 asOperation Rolling Thunder,and would begin on March 2,the first of many over the rest of the decade.
• King HusseinchoseWasfi al-Talas the newPrime Minister of Jordan.Hussein dismissedBahjat Talhounifrom the job after concluding that Talhuni had conceded too much in summits with Egypt's President Nasser, and chose al-Tal, who was "anti-Egyptian and" anti-PLO".
• American members of theInternational Longshoremen's Associationreturned to work after reaching a settlement in their 33-day-long strike, which had started on January 11.
• Nicholas Katzenbachwas sworn in asU.S. Attorney General.
• Died:
  • GeneralHumberto Delgado,58, a former Portuguese Air Force commander who had been exiled and was an opponent of the regime of Portugal's dictator,António de Oliveira Salazar,was kidnapped and murdered byPIDEsecret police forces near the border town ofOlivenza.Murdered also was Delgado's Brazilian secretary, Arajaryr Moreira de Campo.
  • Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt,60, Swiss-born American socialite, mother ofGloria Vanderbilt

February 14,1965 (Sunday)

• Aqualifying match in the 1965 African Cup of Nations football tournamentbetweenKenyaandEthiopiawas awarded to Ethiopia as a walkover, after theConfederation of African Football (CAF)upheld a protest by Ethiopia because Kenya had fielded two players, Moses Wabwayi and Stephen Baraza, who were ineligible because they had representedUgandapreviously. Ethiopia qualified and the two players were suspended for one year after Uganda stated that they were still registered with the Uganda F.A.
• The home of African-American civil rights advocateMalcolm X(who used the surname Shabazz), in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, New York City, was firebombed by Molotov cocktails while he, his wife and their four children were inside. The family escaped unharmed, but the house was seriously damaged; Malcolm X would be assassinated a week later.

February 15,1965 (Monday)

• Cyrus Vance,the Deputy U.S. Secretary of Defense, ordered the Departments of the Army and the Air Force to amend their regulations regarding individual stateNational Guardunits, so as to prevent any racial discrimination as a requirement of association with the U.S. military. Such regulations were ordered to be implemented "to ensure that the policy of equal opportunity and treatment is clearly stated"; the new requirements would be quickly accepted by the states, and by the end of 1965, there would not be a single segregated national guard unit in any of the fifty states.
• TWW,the independent British television network covering south Wales and west England, inaugurated its new service, reviving theTeledu Cymrubroadcasting that had halted a year earlier. Local programming, including Welsh music and some Welsh-language shows, was directed on four channels atSt Hilary,nearCardiff(Channel 7),Preseli(Channel 8),Arfon(Channel 10) andMoel-y-Parc(nearWrexham) (Channel 11).
• Methamphetamineinhalers, formerly available in the United States as an over-the-counter medicine, were barred from sale by the U.S.Food and Drug Administration(FDA) except by doctor prescription. In announcing the new rules, FDA CommissionerGeorge P. Larricksaid that he had received 153 reports of meth abuse in 1964, compared with 54 in 1963 and only five a year in 1960, 1961 and 1962.
• Three prominent public officials of theRepublic of the Congo— Joseph Pouabou (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Congo), Lazare Matsocota (Attorney General and chief prosecutor), and Massouémé Anselme (Director of the Congolese Information Agency)— were kidnapped fromBrazzavilleand murdered.
• United Artists' new epic filmThe Greatest Story Ever Told,starringMax von Sydowas Jesus Christ, premièred at the Warner Cinerama Theatre in New York City. Despite an all-star cast includingCharlton Heston,John Wayne,Claude Rains,Shelley Winters,Sidney Poitier,andJosé Ferrer,it didpoorly at the box office.
• A new red and whitemapleleaf design was inaugurated as theflag of Canada,replacing theUnion Flagand theCanadian Red Ensign.At noon, the new banner was raised first on the Peace Tower of the Parliament Building in Ottawa.
• InSofia,an angry mob of 300 students broke through a cordon of 100 police who were protecting the American legation toBulgariaand wrecked the first floor of the building.
• The Beatlesrecorded "Ticket to Ride"at the EMI Studios in London.
• Died:Nat King Cole,45, American singer and jazz pianist; from lung cancer

February 16,1965 (Tuesday)

• Flying along the coast of central South Vietnam,1st Lt. James S. Bowers, a United States Army officer flying aMEDEVAChelicopter, spotted and sank an enemynaval trawlercamouflaged with trees and bushes.The 130-foot (40 m) North Vietnamese trawler, "Vessel 143",was sunk, leading to the discovery of 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons) of Soviet and Chinese-made war material, including 3,500 to 4,000riflesandsubmachine guns,one million rounds of small arms ammunition, 1,500grenades,2,000mortarrounds, and 500 pounds (230 kg) ofexplosives.News of the event was summarized in a U.S. State Department White Paper, released to the press at month's end, titledAggression from the North: The Record of North Viet-Nam's Campaign to Conquer South Viet-Nam;in the opinion of one war historian, "The position paper was clearly designed to justify a U.S. military response"which would come in the form of increased bombing of North Vietnam.
• The firstPegasussatellite was launched by the United States to determine the extent of potential damage in orbit by micrometeoroids. Once in orbit,Pegasusunfolded wings "to a span greater than a four-engine airliner" in order to provide "a huge target for the tiny, almost invisible particles it seeks to catch".All strikes were recorded on a data collector. As the third largest satellite up to that time,Pegasuswas visible at night as a pinpoint of light as it passed over an area within its orbit.
• Frank McNamee,the Chief Justice of theSupreme Court of Nevada,was found near death in his apartment nearLake Tahoe,after apparently being severely beaten by a robber.Phillippe Denning would be arrested at a St. Louis bus station the next day with stolen items, and would later be convicted of attempted murder.McNamee would never recover from his head injuries, and would pass away three years later.
• Radio Moscow,the official English-language broadcasting station of theSoviet Union,warned that American bombing raids onNorth Vietnamcould lead to a world war. "The flames of war starting in one place could easily spread to neighboring countries and, in the final count, embrace the whole world", the broadcast noted, and admonished that "responsibility for the dire consequences of such a policy rests with America."
• U.S. Navy diversFred Jackson and John Youmans were killed in adecompression chamberfire at theExperimental Diving UnitinWashington, D.C.,shortly after additional oxygen was added to the chamber's atmospheric mix.
• Phan Huy Quátwas sworn in as the new civilianPrime Minister of South Vietnam,although effective control of the nation remained with two generals,Nguyễn Văn ThiệuandNguyễn Cao Kỳ.
• The Rolling Stonesconcluded theirFar East Tour(which was commenced on January 22) with a concert at Badminton Hall,Singapore.
• Aboriginal activists in Australia conducted asit-into challenge de facto segregation of aSydneyhotel.

February 17,1965 (Wednesday)

• U.S. SenatorFrank ChurchofIdahobecame the first member of Congress to begin an open debate about American involvement in Vietnam, delivering a speech titled "We Are in Too Deep in Asia and Africa", based on an article that he had written forThe New York Times Magazine.Of him, it would be written later, "no senator had a longer career of opposition to the Vietnam War or a greater impact on American foreign policy than Frank Church."
• Academy Award-winning actressPatricia Nealsuffered two near-fatal strokes at the age of 39, shortly after coming home for the day from filming of the movie7 Women,and was rushed into emergency brain surgery.After being in a coma for weeks, she survived,and, on August 4, would give birth to the daughter she had been carrying,Lucy Dahl.After years of recovery, Neal would return to acting.
• TheU.S. Department of Defensereported a record number of American casualties for the week of February 14 to February 20. The 37 Americans killed were more than had died in the first two years of American involvement in Vietnam; 32 had died in 1961 and 1962. Twenty-three of the men killed had died in the bombing of the Qui Nhơn barracks.
• A bomb blast inVatican Cityheavily damaged the building occupied by theSwiss Guard,bodyguards for the Pope.ActorClaudio Volonté,the brother of Gian Maria Volonte, producer of the controversial playThe Deputy,was arrested the next day and charged with being one of the two younger men who had planted the bomb.
• The lunar probeRanger 8was launched fromCape Kennedy.The photographs it transmitted would help select landing sites for futureApollomissions.
• Police clashed with 400 black students outside the Brooklyn Board of Education, as a boycott of New York City schools continued to grow.
• The Syrian government expelled U.S. diplomat Walter Snowdon, saying he had offered bribes for information to military officers.
• Born:Michael Bay,American film director; inLos Angeles
• Died:
  • Joan Merriam Smith,28, American aviator who had made a solo flight around the world in 1964 along the 1937 flight plan ofAmelia Earhart,but who finished second to Jerrie Mock, who was attempting the feat at the same time. Smith and magazine writer Trixie Anne Schubert, were killed when their Cessna 100 plane crashed and exploded on Blue Ridge in theSan Gabriel Mountainsin California.
  • Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński,73, Polish scholar and academician

February 18,1965 (Thursday)

Flag of Gambia

• Gambia,at 11,295 square miles (29,250 km²) the smallest nation in Africa, became independent from the United Kingdom, with the lowering of the British Flag at midnight and the raising of the new Gambian flag at McCarthy Square inBathurst(nowBanjul).SirDawda Jawaracontinued asPrime Minister,and SirJohn W. Paul,a British colonial administrator who had served as theGovernorsince 1962, became the firstGovernor-General of The Gambia.It would become a presidential republic on April 24, 1970, with Jawara as the first president.On July 22, 1994, after 29 years as a parliamentary democracy, the Gambia would be ruled by a military government.The nation, only 29 miles (47 km) wide and surrounded on all sides by the former French colony ofSenegal,except for its coastline, would continue to have British support, with 25 British officers assisting transition as part of the nation's civil service.
• Testifying before theHouse Committee on Science and Astronauticsduring hearings onNASA's Fiscal Year 1966 budget, Associate Administrator for Manned Space FlightGeorge E. Muellerbriefly outlined the space agency's immediate post-Apollo objectives: "Apollo capabilities now under development," he said, "will enable us to produce space hardware and fly it for future missions at a small fraction of the original development cost. This is the basic concept in theApollo Extension System(AES) now under consideration. "Mueller stated that the Apollo Extension System had" the potential to provide the capability to perform a number of useful missions utilizing Apollo hardware developments in an earlier time frame than might otherwise be expected. This program would follow the basic Apollomanned lunar landingprogram and would represent an intermediate step between this important national goal and futuremanned space flightprograms. "
• ArchaeologistMargherita Guarducciannounced in Rome that she had located and identified the remains ofSaint Peter,the chief apostle ofJesus Christ."Today, everything is clear", Guarducci told the Vatican press service. "Theoriginal tombwas empty because at the time of the Emperor Constantine, Peter's bones had been transferred to a secret place. This hiding place was inside a wall with inscriptions, which was then closed in the monument put up by Constantine in honor of the apostle. "Shimon Bar-Yona, later designated as Simon Peter and honored as the first Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, was believed to have been crucified not long after theGreat Fire of RomeinAD 64,and Guarducci concluded that the skeletal remains were those of an individual between the ages of 60 and 70.
• At 9:57 in the morning, anavalancheof snow buried the Leduc Camp inBritish Columbia,killing 27 copper miners working for theNewmont Mining Corporationworkers and destroying several buildings. Another 42 of the 68 people buried were rescued on the same day, while a carpenter, Einar Myllyla, was saved three days later from the ruins of a collapsed building. "To their everlasting credit", authorJay Robert Nashwould write later, "rescuers refused to abandon their search until every man in the camp had been accounted for."
• President Johnson hosted prominent American bankers and investment leaders (includingDavid Rockefeller,Sidney WeinbergandThomas S. Gates Jr.) at a White House meeting and asked them to voluntarily limit foreign lending in order to reduce the Americanbalance of paymentsdeficit. "The bankers acted against their own profit motives and for the economic strength of the United States", an author would later note, "possibly for the last time in American history..."
• Hastings Banda,thePrime Minister of Malawiand its Minister of Defence and Public Security, announced new regulations to increase his dictatorial power over the African nation. He designated a new group, theMalawi Young Pioneers,to be his "eyes and ears" in every village in Malawi, gave the police and his public security forces the power to detain suspects indefinitely, and authorized his agents to shoot suspected dissidents if they resisted arrest.
• Sinoite,which does not occur naturally on Earth, but which has been found in meteorites, was first identified as a distinct new mineral. A team of scientists working atMoffett Fieldin California said that the mineral, asilicon oxynitride,had been isolated from ameteoritethat had fallen in Pakistan in 1926. The name itself was coined from the chemical designation (Si₂N₂O) and meteorite.
• InMarion, Alabama,Jimmie Lee Jackson,an unarmed African-American protester, was shot by anAlabama Highway Patroltrooper,James Bonard Fowler.Jimmie would succumb to his wounds eight days later.
• Born:
  • Masaki Saito,former Japanese baseball pitcher (Tokyo Yomiuri Giants); inKawaguchi,Saitama Prefecture
  • Dr. Dre(stage name for Andre Young), American rapper; inCompton, California

February 19,1965 (Friday)

• A coup was attemptedin South Vietnam at 1:00 p.m. local time. Units of theArmy of the Republic of Vietnam(ARVN) commanded by GeneralLâm Văn Phátand ColonelPhạm Ngọc Thảolaunched the coup against the nation's head of state, GeneralNguyễn Khánh.Fifty tanks and a combination of infantry battalions, led by ColonelDương Hiếu Nghĩa,seized control of the post office and radio station inSaigon,cutting off communication lines. The home of General Khanh, andGia Long Palace,the residence of head of state Suu, were surrounded.The coup collapsed when the U.S., in collaboration with GeneralsNguyễn Chánh ThiandCao Văn Viên,assembled units hostile to both Khanh and the current coup into a Capital Liberation Force.Saigon was recaptured "without a shot" the next day by loyal troops,and Khanh was restored to power, but would remain in office only two more days.
• The U.S. Senate unanimously (72–0) approved the proposedTwenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,providing for appointment and confirmation to fill any vacancy in the office ofVice President of the United States,as well as allowing the Vice President to serve as Acting President if the incumbent was "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office".The U.S. House of Representatives would approve the amendment, with changes, on April 13 by a vote of 368 to 29.
• AtLuandain the Portuguese West African colony ofAngola,27 children were fatally poisoned and six others in critical condition when they ate supper at the Sisters of the Misericordia orphanage.The deaths of the children, who ranged in age from 6 to 10 years old, were traced toinsecticideused to preventweevilsfrom damaging beans served with the evening meal.
• U.S. President Johnson decided, after a meeting with hisNational Security Council,to make continuous and regular bombing strikes against North Vietnam.Robert S. McNamara,at the time the Secretary of Defense, would note later that Johnson refused to announce his decision publicly and that "This judgment would eventually cost him dearly."
• The massive Dutch cargo ship MVSophoclescaught fire and exploded when its cargo of fertilizer ignited, then sank in the Atlantic Ocean, drowning three of her crew of 44.Another Dutch ship, MVUlysees,rescued the 41 survivors.
• Died:Forrest Taylor,81, American character actor in film and television; of natural causes

February 20,1965 (Saturday)

• Ranger 8photographed potential landing sites on the Moon for theApollo programcrewed missions before crashing into the surface. The probe "took a shallow trajectory that crossed the central highlandsen routeto theSea of Tranquility,east of lunar meridian ", the area favored by the constraints of Apollo's projected west to east orbit.As it steadily dropped in altitude, its cameras were turned on during the last 23 minutes of flight, and the probe transmitted 7,137 high resolution photos,gradually descending until it impacted, at 4:57 a.m. Eastern Standard Time,at a location 125 miles (201 km) east of theSabine crater,"finally impacting 60 km [38 miles] northeast of whereApollo 11would land four and a half years later. "
• Over 5,000 students from theCentral University of Madridmarched in a silent protest after a planned lecture on cultural repression was prohibited by theRector.Despite the peaceful nature of the defense, police forcibly dispersed the marchers and seriously injured some of them. The harsh response would lead to even more protests, including a boycott of classes by 17,000 students at theUniversity of Barcelona.
• The United Nations and Belgium entered into aglobal settlementof all claims brought by Belgian citizens for damages arising out ofUnited Nationsoperations during theCongo Crisis,with $15 million dollars paid by the international organization.
• AtLuluabourg(later renamedKananga), theCongolese National Conventionwas formed by 49 tribal organizations, in association with theCONAKATpolitical party led byMoïse Tshombe,in order to win the 1965 legislative elections.
• In Australia,Freedom Rideparticipants, includingCharles Perkins,were ejected from the municipal swimming baths atMoree, New South Wales,after protesting against their segregationist policy of not admitting Aborigines.
• Suat Hayri Ürgüplüwas named as the newPrime Minister of Turkey,to form an interim government until new elections for the National Assembly could be conducted on October 10.
• PresidentJulius Nyerereconcluded a visit to thePeople's Republic of Chinawith the signing of theChinese-Tanzanian Treaty of Friendship.

February 21,1965 (Sunday)

Malcolm X

Bullet holes in the back of the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was shot

• Malcolm Xwas assassinatedat Manhattan'sAudubon Ballroomat 564 West 166th Street inWashington Heights.Shortly before 3:10 p.m.,as he was preparing to deliver a speech to theOrganization of Afro-American Unity,he opened with the greetingAs-Salaam Alaikumand the audience acknowledged withWa-Alaikum-Salaam.At that moment, a man in the crowd shouted "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!" to a person sitting next to him, an apparent signal for four other spectators to stage a fight. Malcolm said, "Hold it. Let's cool it, brothers", and was shot in the chest by a man who approached the stage with a Luger pistol.As a second man fired from a sawed-off shotgun, a third fired multiple times with a pistol. In all, Malcolm X was shot 16 times at close range, and was pronounced dead at the nearby Vanderbilt Clinic at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital at 3:30 p.m.Although the myth persists that the identity of the assassins was "never determined",the third gunman,Thomas Hagan(a.k.a. Talmadge Hayer), was shot and wounded by one of Malcolm's bodyguards, arrested at the ballroom, and confessed to the crime.Two other men, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, would be arrested later and convicted of Malcolm's murder, although Hagan testified that they were not involved and may not have even been at the Audubon at all.Born as Malcolm Little inOmaha, Nebraska,in 1925, Malcolm X, described as "arguably the most important contributor to the Black Power movement and a leading figure in American history",died at the age of 39.
• TheSoviet Union's rulingCommunist Partyannounced a liberalization of its former policy of discouraging creativity and an end to what it described as former SecretaryNikita Khrushchev's campaign against the "intelligentsia".Speaking through Alexei M. Rumyantsev, then editor-in-chief ofPravda,the party issued a statement that "genuine scientific creativity" was "possible only under conditions of search and experiment, free expression and the clash of opinions... different schools and trends, different styles and genres, competing with each other and united at the same time by their common dialectical-materialistic outlook and unity of the principles of socialist realism."The policy, however, did not extend to free expression of criticism of the Communist Party's political decisions.
• During the week, the Gemini 3 prime crew participated in egress training from static article No. 5 in theGulf of Mexico.After half an hour of postlanding cockpit checks with the hatches closed, AstronautsVirgil I. GrissomandJohn W. Youngpracticed the emergency egress procedures developed by the flight crew training staff forProject Gemini.Both pilots then egressed through the command pilot's hatch after first heaving theirsurvival kitsinto the water. Each astronaut then practiced boarding a Gemini one-personlife raft.Swimmers were standing by in a larger raft.
• NASA officials announced thatVanguard 1,the Americansatellitelaunched on March 17, 1958, had finally stopped transmitting after nearly seven years, but that it would continue to orbit the Earth. No other satellite had continued to function for that period of time, and by transmitting data, it had "paid rich scientific dividends" during its operation, including "the startling fact that the earth is not round, but pear-shaped".
• East Germany's radio network confirmed that the Soviet Union was publicly acknowledging that Nazi German dictatorAdolf Hitlerhad, as believed, committed suicide on April 30, 1945, by shooting himself in the head, and that Hitler's charred body had been identified beyond any doubt after its recovery from the burial site within the garden of the Chancellery in Berlin.
• The 15 generals comprising South Vietnam'sHigh National Council—Nguyễn Văn Thiệu,Nguyen Van CaoandNguyễn Cao Kỳ— voted to remove GeneralNguyễn Khánhfrom leadership as Prime Minister, and replaced him with a caretaker civilian premier,Trần Văn Hương.

February 22,1965 (Monday)

• The Soviet Union launched the uncrewedKosmos 57space capsule in preparation of theVoskhod 2crewed mission. In its first orbit, the capsule successfully tested itsairlock,opening its outer hatch, then closing and pressurizing the interior. However, when space program directorNikolai Kamaninleft the control room, "everything went terribly wrong"; theTyuratam-based trackers and the ground stations lost contact with the Kosmos spacecraft as it entered its third orbit. They soon realized that the ship's automatic self-destruct system had somehow triggered and destroyed the spacecraft, which "was tracked in 168 detectable pieces, which re-entered Earth's atmosphere between 31 March and 6 April 1965."
• A new, revised, color production ofRodgers and Hammerstein'sCinderellawas broadcast on American television byCBS,withLesley Ann Warrenmaking her TV debut in the title role. The show would become an annual tradition for eight years, last broadcast in 1974. Although panned by some critics,the first broadcast drew an estimated 70 million viewers.
• Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,opened theRoyal Australian MintinCanberra.The Prince, husband of Queen Elizabeth II and a coin collector, "pushed two small green buttons to set in operation the minting of the firstdecimal coins"at the Australian Mint, and then picked one of the one-cent pieces from a wooden bowl to be placed in a proof set.
• TheBlack Arts Movementwas launched byLeRoi Jones(laterAmiri Baraka) at a press conference in New York City, the day after the assassination ofMalcolm X.Jones's first project was BARTS, the Black Arts Movement Theater and School.
• U.S. Army GeneralWilliam C. Westmorelandrequested the first American combat troops forSouth Vietnam,asking for 3,500 U.S. Marines from the9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade,to be sent to guard theDa NangAir Base.
• Israeli spy Ze'ev Gur-Aryeh, who posed as a West German businessman using his original German name ofWolfgang Lotz,was arrested inEgypt,along with his wife Waldrud.
• Died:Felix Frankfurter,82, Austrian-born jurist who served as aU.S. Supreme Courtjustice from 1939 to 1962; from a stroke

February 23,1965 (Tuesday)

• The first naturally occurringneutrinowas detected by a team of physicists, led byFrederick ReinesofCase Western Reserve Universityin a project with theUniversity of the WitwatersrandinSouth Africa,using aliquid scintillatorat an underground laboratory within theProprietary Gold MinenearJohannesburg.In accepting theNobel Prize for Physicsthirty years later, Reines explains that "natural" in this case meant "it did not arise from a man-made nuclear reactor", and that the team recorded 167 total events.
• Thegovernment of Syriaexecuted two men convicted of spying for the United States. Farhan Atassi, a naturalized American citizen, was hanged in public at Al Marja Square inDamascus,andSyrian ArmyColonel Abdel Moeen Hakimi was shot by a firing squad. Syria had accused both men of working for Walter Snowdon, the second secretary of the U.S. Embassy. Snowdon had been expelled from the country six days earlier.
• The remains ofIrish nationalistRoger Casement,who had been executed by British authorities on August 3, 1916, after participating in theEaster Rising,were reburied in a state funeral inGlasnevin,Ireland. Casement's body had been buried in thePentonville Prisonin Great Britain after his hanging.
• MGM Studiosannounced that it would begin filming ofStanley Kubrick's science fiction movie,Journey Beyond the Stars,inCinerama.Three years later, the film, retitled2001: A Space Odyssey,would be released to theaters under a different wide-screen format,Super Panavision 70.
• Two mosques of theNation of Islam,one inHarlemin New York City, and the other inSan Francisco,were firebombed, in an apparent retaliation for the assassination two days earlier ofMalcolm X.SixFDNYfiremen were injured when the front of the Harlem mosque collapsed.
• The Beatlesbegan filming of their movieHelp!onNew Providenceisland in theBahamas.
• Born:
  • Michael Dell,American billionaire computer entrepreneur who founded theDellcomputer company in 1984; inHouston
  • Kristin Davis,American actress and producer; inBoulder, Colorado
  • Sylvie Guillem,French ballet dancer; inParis
• Died:Stan Laurel,74, American film comedian and half of the duo ofLaurel and Hardy

February 24,1965 (Wednesday)

• Paul Bellesen lost his job as the Great Titan for theNational Knights of the Ku Klux Klanfor the state ofIdaho,one day after he had received his membership card and had shown it to reporters. "I just figured they might do something like that", said Bellesen, who was both an African-American and Roman Catholic. Bellesen, the operator of a janitorial service inNampa, Idaho,commented, "It was a great challenge to me to see just how secret the Klan is and if I could get in. I did." He noted that he had also applied to the Imperial Wizard of the United Ku Klux Klan, but that "He asked for my photograph." When Imperial Wizard James R. Venable received the news, his only comment was "His membership is hereby revoked."Bellesen admitted that he had signed a statement saying that he was a "white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant", but that "Being a Negro and supposedly unable to read anyway, I signed it."
• Spanish police attacked 5,000University of Madridstudents with batons and water hoses.According to one report, "A bugle sounded and hundreds of policemen jumped out of the jeeps with rubber truncheons drawn. The water hoses were turned on the students but they remained seated. When the bugle sounded again, the police charged, beating the students. Men and women students were hustled into the jeeps. Later, many of the students threw stones at the policemen. The police charge was believed to be one of the most brutal against students in Madrid since the Civil war."
• The cabinet ofWest Germany's Chancellor Ludwig Erhard reversed their previous decision of November 11 not to seek an extension of thestatute of limitationson Nazi war crimes beyond May 8, 1965, the 20th anniversary of Germany's surrender. A feature of Germany's constitutions for the past century had been that indictments could not be made for any crime more than 20 years after it had been committed.
• Gaspar DiGregoriowas identified byU.S. Department of Justiceauthorities as the new overlord of New York City's "Five Families"of theAmerican Mafia.DiGregorio was summoned before a federal grand jury to answer for the October disappearance of Mafia bossJoseph Bonanno.
• Pio Gama Pinto,the publisher of the official newspaper of theKenya African National Unionpolitical party and a member of the Kenyan House of Representatives, was shot and killed outside of his home inNairobi.
• President Johnson gave the go-ahead orders forOperation Rolling Thunder,the continuing bombing of North Vietnam. By the end of 1965, there would be 55,000 missions flown.
• The Canadian province ofNew Brunswickadopted a newflag,shortly after the newnational flagof Canada was inaugurated.
• Richard Rodney Bennett's first full-length opera,The Mines of Sulphur,premiered atSadler's Wells Theatre,London.
• Born:Alessandro Gassman,Italian actor and son ofVittorio GassmanandJuliette Mayniel;inRome

February 25,1965 (Thursday)

• InMeridian, Mississippi,federal judgeWilliam Harold Coxdismissed the felony indictments against 17 of the 18 men accused of the 1964murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner,finding insufficient evidence of a conspiracy to deprive the victims of their rights.Misdemeanor charges remained in place forNeshoba CountySheriffLawrence A. Rainey,DeputyCecil Price,and a city policeman, Richard Willis, for "participating in a conspiracy under color of law to inflict summary punishment".The case would be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and proceed asUnited States v. Price.Seven defendants would eventually be convicted and would receive federal prison terms ranging from 3 to 10 years.
• In East Berlin, theVolkskammerof theGerman Democratic Republic(East Germany) passed the "Law on the Unified Socialist Educational System",setting common curricula for various levels, including pre-school education, a polytechnic high school with ten classes, vocational schools, preparatory classes for universities, engineering and technical colleges, liberal arts universities, and continuing education for workers and employees. Under the law, the unifying policy was that all students were" to be educated to love the GDR and to be proud of her social achievements and to be ready to place all their strength at the disposal of society, to strengthen the socialist state, and to defend it. "
• A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., brought criminal charges against theCommunist Party USA(CPUSA) for failing to register its members as members of a subversive organization, as required by the Subversive Activities Control Act, with fines of up to $10,000 for each of 12 counts. The new indictment included the charge of declining to register "even though it knew there was a volunteer willing to register on behalf of the party." A federal appeals court had dismissed an earlier conviction against the CPUSA because registration would have violated the American constitutional right against self-incrimination.
• TheNational Association of Broadcastersissued restrictions on the format of U.S. television commercials for beer and wine, declaring that such advertising was "acceptable only when presented in the best of good taste and discretion"; conduct barred including "guzzling, smacking of lips, or bobbing of the adam's apple" so as to suggest the "quaffing" of alcohol.
• Rudie Liebrechtsof the Netherlands broke the world record for the men's 3000 meter speed skating, finishing three kilometers (almost two miles) in less than four and a half minutes (4:26.8) in an event at theBislett Stadionin Oslo, Norway. The old record had been held for a year by EstonianAnts Antsonof the Soviet Union.
• The U.S.Federal ReserveBank announced that the supply of gold decreased in January by $262 million.

February 26,1965 (Friday)

February 26, 1965: The Gemini 3 flight crew atNASA's Mission Control Centerin Houston, Texas

• A full-scale rehearsal of the flight crew countdown forGemini 3was conducted at the launch site. Procedures were carried out for moving the flight crew from their quarters in the Manned Spacecraft Center operations building inMerritt Island, Floridato the pilot's ready room atComplex 16atCape Kennedy.Complete flight crew suiting operation in the ready room, the transfer toComplex 19,and crew ingress into the spacecraft were practiced. Practice countdown proceeded smoothly and indicated that equipment and procedures were flight ready.
• U.S. Navy Lt. (j.g.) Larry Cooper was killed after a surface-to-air missile shot down hisA-4 Skyhawkattack plane off the coast of California. Cooper, who had taken off from theUSSMidway,had inadvertently flown into a restricted zone during "Exercise Silver Lance". The American missile frigateUSSPreble,operating 150 miles (240 km) southwest ofSan Diego,tracked his plane on radar and fired twoTerrier missilesat him.
• François Perin established a new political party in Belgium, theWalloon Workers' Party,on the premise that the Kingdom of Belgium should be a federation between the French-speakingWalloonsand the Dutch-speakingFlemings.During the party's brief existence, it would win one seat in Belgium'sChamber of Representativesand then merge with theWalloon Fronton June 26.
• TheEuropean Social Charter,opened for signature on October 18, 1961, became effective on February 26, 1965, afterWest Germanyhad become the fifth nation (after Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ireland) to ratify it. By 1991, the Charter would be effective in 20 nations which had ratified it, and by 2011, there would be 43 parties to a Revised Charter.
• Norman 3X Butler was arrested at his home inthe Bronx,and charged with being one of the three gunmen who had shotMalcolm Xearlier in the week. The arrest was made on the basis of statements by three witnesses who said that Butler had been present at the Audubon Ballroom at the time.
• Died:Jimmie Lee Jackson,26, African-American civil rights protester, died eight days after being shot inSelma, Alabama.

February 27,1965 (Saturday)

• TheU.S. Department of Stateissued awhite paperto the press,Aggression From the North: The Record of North Viet-Nam's Campaign to Conquer South Viet-Nam,as part of the U.S. government's effort to justify the escalation of therole of the United States in the Vietnam War.As aCIAemployee andNational Security Councilstaff member would note later, the paper "proved to be a dismal disappointment... the only hard information we had about North Vietnamese participation and supplies and so forth came from information that was much too highly classified to include, and the only information that was of sufficiently low classification was pretty thin gruel."Among other things, the paper asserted that "In Vietnam a Communist government has set out deliberately to conquer a sovereign people in a neighboring state... North Vietnam's commitment to seize control of the South is no less total than was the commitment of the regime in North Korea in 1950... the planners inHanoihave tried desperately to conceal their hand. They have failed and their aggression is as real as that of an invading army. "
• Without warning, all 47 West German military personnel inTanzaniawithdrew from the African nation and flew home,afterWest Germany's cabinet decided to terminate military aid to the African nation in retaliation for Tanzania's opening of diplomatic relations withEast Germany."The effect of this forceful display was instantly undermined, however, by a brilliant gesture" by Tanzanian PresidentJulius Nyerere,a historian would write later, who "proclaimed that since the Federal Republic was so insistent on abusing its military aid for political ends, his country would forgoallforms of West German aid... Nyerere's announcement resonated as an example of principled resistance to foreign manipulation. "Since the West German decision was made at the same time as the visit of East German leaderWalter UlbrichttoEgypt,the unintended consequence would be that Egypt and other nations in Africa and the Middle East would forge closer ties to West Germany's eastern enemy.
• In Paris,Paul Gérin-Lajoie,the Minister of Education for the French-speaking Canadian province ofQuebec,signed an agreement on educational cooperation with the government of France. After Gérin-Lajoie returned to Canada, Quebec's Premier,Jean Lesage,presented the agreement "as a major advance in Quebec's quest for an international role".Paul Martin,Canada'sMinister of External Affairs,would warn France's ambassador that "only Canada had the authority to speak for Canadians on the international stage", and that the Canadian government, not the Quebec provincial government, had the sole power to sign agreements with foreign nations.
• TheAntonov An-22,nicknamedAntaeusand the largest turboprop airplane ever built, flew for the first time. The Soviet cargo plane could carry a payload of 85,000 tonnes (84,000 long tons; 94,000 short tons), had room for 290 passengers, and could reach speeds of up to 460 miles per hour (740 km/h).
• The1965 Bandy World Championshipwas won by the Soviet Union. The Soviets had effectively clinched the championship with the defeat of Norway, 4–0, on February 24.

February 28,1965 (Sunday)

• An 8-year-old boy was killed and eight other people injured when a stock car, driven by NASCAR championRichard Petty,flew off a drag strip and into a crowd of spectators. The accident, which happened at the Southeastern International Dragway inDallas, Georgia,happened when atie rodbroke on Petty's Plymouth Barracuda dragster while he was moving at 130 miles per hour (210 km/h). Most of the fans were able to get out of the way, but Wayne Dye ofAustelldied when the car struck him.
• James T. Aubreywas fired from his job as President of theCBS Television Network.An announcement by CBS, Inc. President Frank Stanton praised Aubrey's "outstanding accomplishments" and said that Aubrey had resigned, but gave no explanation for the dismissal; press reports noted that "it was understood in the industry that the resignation had not been voluntary".
• U.S. aircraft made their first attack on theMu Gia Pass,the major supply route for the Viet Cong into South Vietnam, asSkyraiderplanes andSkyhawk jetbombers from theUSSCoral Seamade a massive strike.
• As a result of the American announcement, North Vietnam's leaders ordered the evacuation of children and elderly residents fromHanoiand other major cities.
• The United States and South Vietnam announced that sustained bombing of North Vietnam, Operation Rolling Thunder, would begin during the coming week.
• Born:
  • Colum McCann,Irish novelist; inDublin
  • Park Gok-ji,South Korean film editor
• Died:Adolf Schärf,74,President of Austriasince 1957. ChancellorJosef Klausbecame the Acting President. New presidential elections would take place andFranz Jonaswould be sworn in on June 9.