August 7, 1964

1964John Birmingham, English-Australian journalist and author^[†]

John Birmingham is a British-born Australian author, known for the 1994 memoir He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, the Axis of Time trilogy, and the well-received space opera series, the Cruel Stars trilogy.

1964Ian Dench, English guitarist and songwriter^[†]

Ian Alec Harvey Dench is an English songwriter and musician. He is the guitarist and principal songwriter for EMF, who scored a major international hit reaching number 1 in the United States with "Unbelievable" in 1991. It was voted one of BBC Radio 2's 'Greatest Guitar Riffs'.

1964Peter Niven, Scottish jockey^[†]

Peter Niven is a retired British jump jockey in National Hunt racing. In May 2001 he became the first Scotsman and sixth jockey to ride over 1,000 winners, eventually retiring in September that year with 1002 winners. At the time of his retirement he was the only jockey to have won five races in a day on four occasions. He is now a racehorse trainer.

1964Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.^[†]

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until its withdrawal in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian Civil Wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.