December 1965

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<<	December 1965					>>
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
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5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

The following events occurred in December 1965:

December 1, 1965 (Wednesday)

• The Border Security Force is established in India as a special force to guard the country's borders.
• The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is founded by a merger of the Protestant denominations "Presbyterian Church in Jamaica" and "Congregational Union of Jamaica".
• The village of 't Haantje, Drenthe, in the Netherlands, narrowly escapes a disaster, when a French company drilling for gas begins to lose control of the enormous gas pressure, resulting in a huge gas eruption. The ground around the hole caves in, swallowing all of the drilling equipment. The gas eruption is eventually stopped by a cement injection from a new drilling hole. A small lake surrounded by a forest becomes a permanent reminder.

December 2, 1965 (Thursday)

• The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVA(N)-65) becomes the first nuclear-powered warship to see combat when it launches air strikes at the Viet Cong near Biên Hòa, South Vietnam.

December 3, 1965 (Friday)

• The first British aid flight arrives in Lusaka, following Zambia's appeal for British help against Rhodesia.
• Members of the Organization of African Unity decide to sever diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom, unless the British government ends the rebellion of Rhodesia by mid-December.
• The Beatles release Rubber Soul.
• Born: Katarina Witt, German figure skater, in Staaken
• Died: Ike Richman, US co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team, after suffering a heart attack courtside.

December 4, 1965 (Saturday)

• Eastern Air Lines Flight 853, a Lockheed Super Constellation with 54 people on board, and Trans World Airlines Flight 42, a Boeing 707-131B carrying 58 people, collide over Carmel, New York, with the Boeing's left wing striking the Super Constellation's tail. The Boeing lands safely at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, while the Super Constellation crash-lands in a pasture on Hunt Mountain near Danbury, Connecticut, and catches fire; four of those aboard the Super Constellation die.
• Ken Kesey holds second Acid Test at 43 S. Fifth St. in San Jose California after a Rolling Stones show nearby. Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and the Merry Pranksters are there. The Grateful Dead play their first show.

December 5, 1965 (Sunday)

• Charles de Gaulle is re-elected as French president with 10,828,421 votes.
• The "glasnost meeting" becomes the first spontaneous political demonstration, and the first demonstration for civil rights in the Soviet Union.
• Died: Joseph Erlanger, 91, US physiologist and Nobel laureate

December 6, 1965 (Monday)

• Municipal elections are held in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Max Silverman is elected Mayor of the City of Sudbury. and Maurice Lamoureux is among those elected to the city council.

December 7, 1965 (Tuesday)

• The Catholic–Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965 is read out simultaneously at a public meeting of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul.
• Michael Brimer and Michael Greene reported for duty at the Los Angeles Reception Center, having been drafted into the US Army as part of the Vietnam War military buildup.

December 8, 1965 (Wednesday)

• Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith warns that Rhodesia will resist a trade embargo by neighboring countries with force.
• The Race Relations Act becomes the first legislation to address racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.
• The Second Vatican Council closes.
• A lunar eclipse takes place.

December 9, 1965 (Thursday)

• The "Internationalists in Ireland", forerunner of the Communist Party of Ireland, is founded by Hardial Bains, who is working as a microbiologist at Trinity College, Dublin.
• A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first Peanuts television special, debuts on CBS, quickly becoming an annual tradition.

December 10, 1965 (Friday)

• Kosmos 99 is launched by the Soviet Union, by a Vostok-2 rocket, serial number U15001-04, flying from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
• The London Borough of Croydon is granted its official heraldic arms.
• Born: Stephanie Morgenstern, Swiss-Canadian actress and screenwriter, in Geneva
• Died: Lars Christensen, 81, Norwegian shipowner and financer of Antarctic exploration

December 11, 1965 (Saturday)

• French biologist and new Nobel laureate Jacques Monod gives his Nobel lecture on the subject of bacteria in culture media containing two sugars.
• Died: Đuro Tiljak, 70, Croatian artist, writer and teacher

December 12, 1965 (Sunday)

• Houari Boumediene becomes Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Algeria
• In a covert operation, the US attacks the Sihanouk Trail in Laos, launching the first B-52 Stratofortress strike against the logistical system.
• Died: Halvdan Koht, 92, Norwegian historian and politician

December 13, 1965 (Monday)

• By presidential decree, the rupiah baru (new rupiah) becomes the unified national currency of all of Indonesia.
• Born: María Dolores de Cospedal, Spanish politician, in Madrid

December 14, 1965 (Tuesday)

• The 3rd Southeast Asian Peninsular Games open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The original host country, Laos, had been forced to pull out.
• A Soviet ICBM R-7A Semyorka (test) is successfully launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome; this is the first R-7 launch from Plesetsk.
• The UK's Minister of Housing and Local Government, Richard Crossman, proposes a large single county borough of Tyneside, with a population of 900,000, and writes to authorities asking for comments ahead of a public inquiry in March.

December 15, 1965 (Wednesday)

• The Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) is formed.
• A cyclone hits East Pakistan, causing about 10,000 casualties.
• Tanzania and Guinea sever diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
• Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 perform the first controlled rendezvous in Earth orbit.

December 16, 1965 (Thursday)

• Indonesian general Abdul Haris Nasution is appointed to the Supreme Operations Command, gaining ascendance over the traditionally civilian-held portion of the country's military hierarchy.
• The backing tracks for The Mamas & the Papas' Monday, Monday were recorded at Western Recorders in Hollywood.
• Died: W. Somerset Maugham, 91, British playwright, novelist and short story writer

December 17, 1965 (Friday)

• The British government begins an oil embargo against Rhodesia; the United States joins the effort.

December 18, 1965 (Saturday)

• "The Possibility of Evil", a short story by the recently deceased Shirley Jackson, is published in the Saturday Evening Post. It subsequently wins the 1966 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery short story.
• Born: John Moshoeu, South African footballer, in Soweto

December 19, 1965 (Sunday)

• In the second round of the French presidential election, incumbent President Charles de Gaulle defeats his left-wing rival François Mitterrand.
• The Syria Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party is dissolved. (It returns to being after three months.)
• Convicted criminal Ronald Ryan shoots and kills prison officer George Hodson during an escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria, Australia. Ryan is later hanged for the murder, becoming the last person to be legally executed in Australia.

December 20, 1965 (Monday)

• The World Food Programme is made a permanent agency of the United Nations.
• The main-belt asteroid 2886 Tinkaping is discovered by Purple Mountain Observatory, Nanjing, China.
• The Belmont transmitting station in Lincolnshire, UK, and the Brecon VHF-FM transmitting station in mid-Wales, come into service.

December 21, 1965 (Tuesday)

• The Soviet Union announces that it has shipped rockets to North Vietnam.
• Soviet scientists condemn Trofim Lysenko for pseudoscience.
• In West Germany, Konrad Adenauer resigns as chairman of the Christian Democratic Party.
• The United Nations adopts the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and opens it for signatures.
• A new, one-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, until it is issued on DVD in 2009 by Warner Archive.
• New York Airways commences helicopter services between the roof of the Pan Am Building and John F. Kennedy International Airport.

December 22, 1965 (Wednesday)

• A military coup occurs in Dahomey.
• The Republic of Singapore Independence Act 1965 (RSIA) is passed by the country's Parliament.
• A 70 mph (110 km/h) speed limit is imposed on British roads.
• David Lean's film of Doctor Zhivago, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, is released.
• US aircraft attack industrial targets in North Vietnam for the first time.
• Died: Richard Dimbleby, 52, British broadcaster (testicular cancer)

December 23, 1965 (Thursday)

• Roy Jenkins becomes Home Secretary in the UK government, replacing Sir Frank Solstice, who becomes Lord Privy Seal.
• Born: Martin Kratt, American educational television host, in Warren Township, New Jersey

December 24, 1965 (Friday)

• Life magazine devotes its cover story to the work of architect Edmund Bacon.

December 25, 1965 (Saturday)

• The Yemeni Nasserite Unionist People's Organisation is founded in Taiz.

December 26, 1965 (Sunday)

• 27-year-old Heinz Schöneberger becomes the twelfth person to be shot during 1965 by border guards at the Berlin Wall after he and his brother Horst try to smuggle two women out of East Germany in their car.
• Died: Anna Orochko, 67, Soviet Russian stage and film actress, theatre director, and acting teacher

December 27, 1965 (Monday)

• Britain's first offshore oil platform, Sea Gem, collapses in the North Sea, killing 13 people.
• Born: Salman Khan, Indian actor, producer, television presenter, and philanthropist, son of Salim Khan, in Indore

December 28, 1965 (Tuesday)

• Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Amintore Fanfani resigns his government post; he will return to it less than two months later.

December 29, 1965 (Wednesday)

• Acting President of Dahomey (Benin) Tahirou Congacou is removed from office by General Christophe Soglo.
• The Australian Davis Cup tennis team defeat Spain to retain the trophy.
• Vietnam War: F-4B #151412 of the United States Navy is hit by enemy fire during Operation Barrel Roll and crashes in Mu Gia Pass. The pilot, CDR Edgar A. Rawsthorne (Commander, VF-92), and his radar intercept officer, LT Arthur S. Hill, are both killed, bodies not recovered.
• The USS Glacier (AGB-4) icebreaker is assisted by US ships Atka and Burton Island in pushing an iceberg out of the shipping lane off McMurdo Station.
• Died: Kosaku Yamada, 79, Japanese conductor and composer

December 30, 1965 (Thursday)

• President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia announces that Zambia and the United Kingdom have agreed on a deadline before which the Rhodesian white government should be ousted.
• Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.
• Norwegian coastal tanker Singo collides with Belgian ship Fina Two and sinks in the Scheldt with the loss of four crew.

December 31, 1965 (Friday)

• Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état: Jean-Bédel Bokassa assumes power in the Central African Republic. Bokassa and his men occupy the capital, Bangui, ousting President David Dacko and overpowering the gendarmerie and other resistance. Police chief Jean Izamo is captured and later killed.
• Born: Nicholas Sparks, US novelist, screenwriter and producer, in Omaha