United States in 1964

💰 How much things cost in 1964

Currency: USD

🎵 The music of 1964

The song of the year: The Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand (Billboard Year-End Hot 100 #1 + Ed Sullivan Feb 9, 1964)

Other songs people listened to in 1964:

• Roy Orbison – Oh, Pretty Woman
• The Beach Boys – I Get Around
• The Beatles – She Loves You
• Louis Armstrong – Hello, Dolly!
• The Supremes – Where Did Our Love Go
• The Animals – House of the Rising Sun
• Dean Martin – Everybody Loves Somebody
• The Dave Clark Five – Glad All Over
• Manfred Mann – Do Wah Diddy Diddy

📺 TV, cinema and pop culture

Cartoons: The Flintstones S5 / Jonny Quest (ABC premiere Sept 18, 1964) (on ABC). The Beatles on Ed Sullivan February 9, 1964: 73 million viewers. Beatlemania in America officially begins.

TV series: The Ed Sullivan Show — the stage where the Beatles changed America.

At the cinema: Goldfinger — Sean Connery as Bond. 'Goldfinger, he's the man, the man with the Midas touch.'

Person of the moment: John Lennon / Paul McCartney — the Beatles on Sullivan. You had to be there.

The cult toy: G.I. Joe (Hasbro, launched Feb 1964) / Barbie / Easy-Bake Oven. G.I. Joe launched in February 1964. The first action figure for boys. 'America's Movable Fighting Man.'

👗 Fashion and snacks

Fashion: Beatle haircuts on every boy in America. Mod fashion from London: shift dresses, go-go boots.

Snacks: Cracker Jack, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Oreos, Popsicles

📰 What happened in 1964

Event of the year: Civil Rights Act signed. Gulf of Tonkin incident escalates Vietnam War. Beatles invade America on Ed Sullivan.

Sport: NFL Championship: Cleveland Browns beat Baltimore Colts 27-0. Muhammad Ali (Clay) shocks the world, beats Sonny Liston.

💻 Technology and everyday life

Tech news: IBM System/360 mainframe — revolutionary compatible computer family. BASIC programming language created at Dartmouth.

The gadget to have: Color TV becoming affordable for middle class / AM transistor radio

How people communicated: Beatlemania: screaming teenagers, sold-out stadiums, mop-top haircuts everywhere.

How people listened to music: The British Invasion: Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, The Who. American music would never be the same.

The weekend: The Civil Rights Act passes July 2, 1964. A legal turning point.

📵 What didn't exist yet in 1964

• color TV in most homes
• personal computers
• cell phones
• Vietnam War peak (1968)
• Moon landing (1969)

More years from the 1960s