In Montgomery, Alabama, 1,600 civil rights marchers demonstrate at the Courthouse.
In response to the events of March 7 and 9 in Selma, Alabama, President Johnson sends a bill to Congress that forms the basis for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It is passed by the Senate on May 26, the House on July 10, and signed into law by President Johnson on August 6.
Isle of Palms, South Carolina, by teenage diver E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after she was sunk with a million-dollar cargo while attempting to run past the Union blockade into Charleston
.
March 21
space probes
.
Civil rights
activists in the third march from Selma, Alabama, to the capitol in Montgomery.
March 25 – Martin Luther King Jr. and 25,000 civil rights activists successfully end the four-day march from Selma, Alabama, to the capitol in Montgomery.
March 30 – Funeral services are held for Detroit homemaker Viola Liuzzo, who was shot dead by four Klansmen as she drove marchers back to Selma at night after the civil rights march.
: An estimated 51 tornadoes (47 confirmed) hit in 6 Midwestern states, killing between 256 and 271 people and injuring some 1,500 more.
April 14 –
Herbert Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, are executed by hanging at the Kansas State Penitentiary for Men in Lansing, Kansas
.
April 17 – The first SDS march against the Vietnam War draws 25,000 protestors to Washington, DC.
April 21 – The
Flushing Meadows
reopens.
April 25 – Sixteen-year-old sniperMichael Clark kills 3 and wounds others, shooting at cars from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Orcutt, California. Clark kills himself as police rush the hilltop.
April 28 – U.S. troops are sent to the Dominican Republic by President Lyndon B. Johnson, "for the stated purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and preventing an alleged Communist takeover of the country", thus thwarting the possibility of "another Cuba".
April 29 – 8 The 6.7
Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing seven deaths and $12.5–28 million in financial losses in the Puget Sound region
June 28 – The DeFeo family moves from Brooklyn, New York, to 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island, New York. The murder of all but one of the DeFeos nine years later, on November 13, 1974, by the oldest son, Ronald/Ronnie "Butch" DeFeo Jr., and the subsequent claims of a haunting at 112 Ocean Avenue by the Lutz family, would lead to The Amityville Horror franchise of books and movies.
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, and to double the number of men drafted per month from 17,000 to 35,000.
July 30 –
Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid
Quang Ngai Province, in the first major American ground battle of the war. The Marines were tipped off by a Viet Cong deserter who said that there was an attack planned against the U.S. base at Chu Lai
August 26 – President Johnson announces an end to the draft deferment for newly married men. Effective at midnight, all men who are not married will remain eligible for the draft regardless of their marital status.
New Orleans, Louisiana with winds of 145 MPH, causing 76 deaths and $1.42 billion in damage. The storm is the first hurricane to cause $1 billion in unadjusted damages, giving it the nickname "Billion Dollar Betsy". It is the last major hurricane to strike New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina
United States Marines repel an intense attack by Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions is found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese
boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
November 6 – Freedom Flights begin: Cuba and the United States formally agree to start an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States (by 1971 250,000 Cubans take advantage of this program).
Vietnam War: During Operation Hump, medic Lawrence Joel becomes the first African American since the Spanish–American War to receive the United States Medal of Honor.
Northeast Blackout of 1965: Several U.S. states (Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and portions of New Jersey) and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts
Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned major sweep operations to neutralize Viet Cong forces during the next year are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam will have to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.
November 28 – Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President
perform the first controlled rendezvous in Earth orbit.
December 17 – The British government begins an oil embargo against Rhodesia; the United States joins the effort.
December 21 – A new, 1-hour German-American production of The Nutcracker, with an international cast that includes Edward Villella in the title role, makes its U.S. TV debut. It is repeated annually by CBS over the next 3 years, but after that, it is virtually forgotten.
Undated
Jenny and Sylvia Likens are left in the care of Indianapolis housewife Gertrude Baniszewski. Sylvia is found dead and mutilated 3 months later.
Tokyo officially becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from New York City.[4]
September 11 – Paul Heyman, wrestling promoter, ECW<ref">Golianopoulos, Thomas (November 16, 2017). "The Biggeslvtfdgbgyhbdgimo m/2017/11/16/16666828/paul-heyman-wwe-brock-lesnar-life-career". The Ringer.</ref>
September 13 – Jeff Ross, stand-up comedian, writer, and actor[20]
September 17 – Kim Davis, activist and political prisoner
September 18 – Tim Scott, U.S. Senator from South Carolina from 2013
^"California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VGJM-G4 : 27 November 2014), William Q Derrough, 24 Jan 1965; citing San Francisco, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
Media related to 1965 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons