What happened onJanuary 31, 1964Friday Week 5

Today is September13, 2026 Sunday.

January 31 is a Friday again in 1969.

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January 31 Events On this day through the years

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In loving memoryFamous DeathsJanuary 31

The World in 1964 the year 73 million watched one band

About 73 million people watched the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in February. That is close to four out of every ten people in the United States, all in front of a screen on the same Sunday evening.

Life back then

Most families owned one television set, and it showed everything in black and white. Color sets were for sale but cost far more, so only about three homes in a hundred had one. Dinner could arrive frozen in a metal tray with a section for meat and a section for peas, eaten in front of that same screen. The radio was suddenly full of British bands, and American groups had to fight for airtime. Millions of people travelled out to Queens for the New York World's Fair, where Ford showed off a car it had just put on sale.

The year in 8 events

• 🎸Feb 9 Four young men from Liverpool play The Ed Sullivan Show in New York. About 73 million people watch the Beatles.
• 🕯️Mar 27 A magnitude 9.2 earthquake hits southern Alaska, the strongest ever recorded in North America.
• 🌍Apr 26 Tanganyika and Zanzibar join into one country. It takes the name Tanzania later in the year.
• ⚖️Jun 12 A court in South Africa sends Nelson Mandela to prison for life.
• ✍️Jul 2 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, which bans segregation in public places.
• 🚄Oct 1 Japan opens its first bullet train line. Tokyo to Osaka now takes about four hours.
• 🏛️Oct 14 Nikita Khrushchev is pushed out of power in Moscow after ten years in charge.
• ☢️Oct 16 China tests its first nuclear bomb in the desert and becomes the fifth country with one.

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