1964 was a leap year. It was also the first year that Peakhurst High School was in operation, with
an enrolment of 222 Form 1 (Year 7) students.

 

Our leaders in 1964

• Prime Minister – Robert Menzies

• Governor General – William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'Isle

• Premier of New South Wales – Robert Heffron (til 30 April), then Jack Renshaw

• Premier of South Australia – Sir Thomas Playford

• Premier of Queensland – Frank Nicklin

• Premier of Tasmania – Eric Reece

• Premier of Western Australia – David Brand

• Premier of Victoria – Henry Bolte

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Major Events in 1964

January

• Triple Olympic Gold Medallist Dawn Fraser is named Australian of the Year

• The RAAF takes delivery of its first two Mirage Fighter Jets

• United States Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government)

• Plans to build the New York City World Trade Center are announced

February

• The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and the destroyer HMAS Voyager collide, with the loss of 82 lives

• Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Florida, and is crowned the heavyweight champion of the world

March

• Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor marry (for the first time) in Montreal

April

• Melbourne woman Judy Hanrahan becomes the first female teller appointed by the Bank of NSW since WWII

• In the United States, the Ford Mustang is officially unveiled to the public

• Nelson Mandela makes his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, a key event for the anti-apartheid movement

May

• John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz ran the first computer program written in BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language which they created. BASIC was eventually included on many computers and even some games consoles

• Pablo Picasso paints his fourth Head of a Bearded Man.

June

• Macquarie University is founded

• The Beatles tour Australia and New Zealand

July

• Australia's first Vietnam War battle casualty

• Donald Campbell sets new land speed record of 429 miles per hour in his jet-propelled car "Bluebird" at Lake Eyre, South Australia

• President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, abolishing racial segregation in the United States

August

• The Tasman Bridge across the Derwent River opens in Hobart

• Walt Disney's Mary Poppins has its world premiere in Los Angeles

October

• Dr. Robert Moog demonstrates the prototype Moog synthesizer

November

• Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces the reintroduction of National Service

December

• Melbourne's La Trobe University is founded