1965 Trivia, History and Fun Facts

1965 Trivia, History and Fun Facts

Quick Facts from 1965:

• World Changing Event: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lead a civil rights march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery.
• America Changing Event: Race Riots broke out in Watts, California leaving large parts of the city burned and looted and 34 people dead.
• The Top Song was (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones
• The lyrics from The Byrds’ 1965 song Turn! Turn! Turn! are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, in the King James Bible.
• Influential Songs include: Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers, California Girls by The Beach Boys, The “In” Crowd by Dobie Gray and Hurt So Bad by Little Anthony and the Imperials
• The Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act set the first federal automobile emission standards.
• In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall parabolic steel Gateway Arch is completed
• The Movies to Watch include The Sound of Music, The Great Race, Doctor Zhivago, Help!, Doctor Who and the Daleks, For A Few Dollars More, The Greatest Story Ever Told and Thunderball
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably Julie Andrews
• Notable books include: Dune by Frank Herbert and Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader
• Price of a gallon of gas in 1965: 30 cents
  Mueller’s Macaroni: 43 cents for 2 one-pound packs
• 1 ounce of gold value: $35.50
• The Funny Lady was: Joan Rivers
  The Funny Guy was: Don Rickles
  The Funny Late Night Host: Johnny Carson
• The Sports Drink: Gatorade was created at the University of Florida, which earns a 20% share of all Gatorade royalties.

“The Quotes:”
“Sorry about that, Chief”
– Maxwell Smart

“Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous To Your Health”
– US Surgeon General

“Turn on, tune in and drop out”
– Dr. Timothy Leary

US Politics:
January 20, 1965 (Wednesday) Second inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson. The US had no Vice President for all of 1964. Lyndon Johnson never named a replacement. Hubert Humphrey became VP when he was inaugurated in 1965.

A US Senate subcommittee predicted that by the year 2000 Americans would be working 20 hours a week and vacationing 7+ weeks a year.

The Beatles At Shea Stadium
It was the first single-band mega-concert. The Beatles played at Shea Stadium in New York.
Ticket prices were $4.50, $5.00 to $5.75. You still buy those tickets today, on eBay for ~$200-300.

Before this, people performed for much smaller audiences, even Elvis or Frank Sinatra. The Beatles went on stage at 9:02 p.m. and were finished by 9:36 p.m. 34 Minutes. There was only the stadium sound system and a few hundred watts of sound for the band, who did not have monitors to hear each other. Three days later at their concert in Atlanta, a local audio company set up stage monitors for the band, a first.

During The Beatles’ 1964 and 1965 tours of North America, the concerts would often end with Paul’s wild vocal version of Little Richard’s hit-song Long Tall Sally. Paul McCartney had played the song Long Tall Sally to impress John Lennon when the two met for the very first time. The Beatles also refused to play to a segregated audience as stipulated in their contract in 1965.

Pop Culture Facts:
The famous The March of Progress illustration, known as The Road to Homo Sapiens, was created for the Early Man volume of the Life Nature Library, published in 1965.

The Tongan Castaways were six boys who stole a boat and were stranded on a deserted island in 1965, staying there for 15 months before rescue. Called a real-life Lord of the Flies, the boys built a “commune” with a garden, permanent fire, gym, and badminton court.

The snowboard was invented on Christmas Day, 1965 in Muskegon, Michigan by Sherman Poppen, who was trying to distract his kids away from his pregnant wife. It was originally called The Snurfer

The flag of Canada was adopted on February 15, 1965.

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first person to ‘walk’ in space, on March 18th, next to the Voskhod 2.

Astronaut John Young smuggled an illegal corned beef sandwich on board the Gemini 3 spacecraft in 1965. He was given the first reprimand in NASA space mission history and his snack remains the only contraband sandwich to ever make it into space.

On December 16, 1965, astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford became the first people to perform music in space when they played Jingle Bells on harmonica and bells that they smuggled onto the Gemini VI.

NASA as a practical joke played a parody of Hello Dolly, one of the biggest hits of the year, to wake the Gemini 6 crew in 1965. That started the tradition of waking astronauts up with songs.

After being rejected by 20 publishers, Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi classic Dune was finally picked up by Chilton Books. The publisher was previously known only for those big car repair manuals sold in auto parts stores.

Oceanic Airlines was at the center of Lost, but Oceanic has been mentioned dozens of times in Pop Culture, starting with a 1965 episode of Flipper.

Julie Andrews was the lead in the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady, but not in the 1964 film due to not being well-known enough; the role eventually went to Audrey Hepburn. Julie won the 1965 Best Actress Oscar over Hepburn for playing Mary Poppins.

Slumber Party Barbie dolls came with a diet book entitled How to Lose Weight telling her “Don’t eat!” and a bathroom scale set at 110 lbs.

In May 1965, Minnesota’s “Twin Cities” were on different times for two weeks when St. Paul and Minneapolis disagreed on when to start Daylight Saving Time.

The most successful Bond movie ever is Thunderball, released in 1965. The movie made over $141 million which amounts to over $1 billion today when inflation is adjusted.

James Russell invented the compact disc in 1965, although the public first got the first taste of this invention in 1980.

The first use of the F-word on television was on November 13, 1965, by literary agent Kenneth Tynan during a satirical discussion show on the BBC.

The first-ever “swear word” heard on American prime time network TV was “damn” by “Miss Pringle” and was uttered on an episode of Favorite Martian in 1965.

Al Primo, news director of Philadelphia’s KYW Channel 3, came up with the term “Eyewitness News”.

In 1965, Bob Dylan said that if he ever sold out to a commercial interest, it would be “ladies garments.” In 2007, he and his music appeared in a Victoria’s Secret commercial.

One of Aretha Franklin’s most popular songs Respect is actually a cover and was originally recorded by Otis Redding in 1965.

On The Rolling Stones record sleeves between 1963 and 1965 the band used the songwriter pseudonym “Nanker/Phelge” for collaborations where all band members took equal credit.

The lyrics from The Byrds’ 1965 song Turn! Turn! Turn! are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, in the King James Bible.

Joseph Licklider’s 1962 idea became a reality with his Intergalactic Computer Network in 1965, the first internet.

The largest News Paper to ever be printed for one day was the New York Times. It was a Sunday, October 17, 1965. The paper had 15 sections with a total of 946 pages and weighed 7 1/2 lbs.

Mammoth Bone Hut’ is the oldest house structure in the world – it is 15,000 years old and was found in 1965 near Kyiv, Ukraine

The first T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant opened in Manhattan.

Pickleball is a game that combines elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong, has been around since 1965.

Gatorade was developed by the University of Florida in 1965 to give their players a competitive boost. The name comes from the UoF mascot, the Florida Gators.

Dick Butkus was drafted by both the Chicago Bears (NFL) and the Denver Broncos (AFL) in 1965, then had a few days to decide where to play. He chose the Bears for less money.

Vietnam War
Milton Olive III sacrificed his own life to save a group of soldiers by jumping onto a live grenade. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor award, becoming the first African American of the Vietnam War to do so.

A Quaker named Norman Morrison set himself on fire in the parking lot of the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War.

1965 Billboard Number One Songs:
December 26, 1964 – January 15, 1965:
I Feel Fine – The Beatles

January 16 – January 22:
Come See About Me – The Supremes

January 23 – February 5:
Downtown – Petula Clark

February 6 – February 19:
You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’ – The Righteous Brothers

February 20 – March 5:
This Diamond Ring – Gary Lewis & The Playboys

March 6 – March 12:
My Girl – The Temptations

March 13 March 26:
Eight Days A Week – The Beatles

March 27 – April 9:
Stop! In The Name of Love – The Supremes

April 10 – April 23:
I’m Telling You Now – Freddie & The Dreamers

April 24 – April 30:
Game of Love – Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders

May 1 – May 21:
Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter – Herman’s Hermits

May 22 – May 28:
Ticket to Ride – The Beatles

May 29 – June 11:
Help Me Rhonda – Beach Boys

June 12 – June 18:
Back In My Arms Again – The Supremes

June 19 – June 25:
I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) – Four Tops

June 26 – July 2:
Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds

July 3 – July 9:
I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) – Four Tops

July 10 – August 6:
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Rolling Stones

August 7 – August 13:
I’m Henry VIII, I Am – Herman’s Hermits

August 14 – September 3:
I Got You Babe – Sonny & Cher

September 4 – September 24:
Help! – The Beatles

September 25 – October 1:
Eve of Destruction – Barry McGuire

October 2 – October 8:
Hang on Sloopy – The McCoys

October 9 – November 5:
Yesterday – The Beatles

November 6 – November 19:
Get Off My Cloud – Rolling Stones

November 20 – December 3:
I Hear A Symphony – The Supremes

December 4 – December 24:
Turn! Turn! Turn! – The Byrds

December 25, 1965 – December 31, 1965:
Over and Over – The Dave Clark 5