50 free 1964 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This 1964 trivia quiz covers the year Beatlemania crossed the Atlantic and a 22-year-old named Cassius Clay shook up the world. Expect questions on the Civil Rights Act, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the Great Alaskan earthquake, Mandela's life sentence, Khrushchev's fall, the first bullet train, the first Olympics in Asia and the first close-up pictures of the Moon. Culture rounds cover Mary Poppins, BBC Two, the Moog synthesizer, the Great Train Robbery sentences, the year's Nobel Prizes, the deaths of MacArthur, Nehru, Hoover and Cole Porter, and the babies of 1964, from Michelle Obama to Keanu Reeves. Early rounds suit anyone who lived through it or studied it; later rounds reward real year-by-year buffs. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which band made its first US television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964?
The Beatles
A record 73 million viewers tuned in, and the British Invasion was on.
Q 02Whom did Cassius Clay beat in Miami Beach on February 25, 1964, to become heavyweight champion?
Sonny Liston
Nine days later the new champion announced he was changing his name.
Q 03What was the magnitude of the Great Alaskan earthquake that struck on Good Friday, 1964?
9.2
It remains the most powerful earthquake recorded in North America and killed 125 people.
Q 04Which Austrian city hosted the 1964 Winter Olympics?
Innsbruck
The Games ran from January 29 to February 9; the city hosted again in 1976.
Q 05The 1964 Summer Olympics were the first held in Asia. Which city hosted them?
Tokyo
The world's first bullet train line opened between the host city and Osaka just nine days before the opening ceremony.
Q 06On which date was the US Civil Rights Act of 1964 enacted?
July 2
In December the Supreme Court upheld it, ruling that motels and other public accommodations could not discriminate.
Q 07Which US Surgeon General issued the first government warning that smoking may be hazardous?
Luther Terry
The January 11 report was the first such statement from the US government.
Q 08What did the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the US Constitution outlaw in 1964?
Poll taxes
It was authorized on February 4, five months before the Civil Rights Act.
Q 09For which film did Sidney Poitier become the first African-American to win Best Actor in 1964?
Lilies of the Field
The award came at the 36th Academy Awards on April 13.
Q 10How long, in total, were the sentences handed to twelve Great Train Robbers in April 1964?
307 years
The gang had taken £2,600,000 in used notes from the Glasgow-to-London night train the previous August.
Q 11Who completed the first solo around-the-world flight by a woman in April 1964?
Jerrie Mock
Her Spirit of Columbus took off and landed in Ohio, and the trip took 29 and a half days.
Q 12To which prison were Nelson Mandela and seven others sent after their June 1964 life sentences?
Robben Island
Mandela had opened the Rivonia Trial in April with his 'I Am Prepared to Die' speech.
Q 13Which British television channel began broadcasting on April 20, 1964?
BBC Two
The same day, Johnson and Khrushchev announced cuts to nuclear weapons material production.
Q 21Which US destroyer was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2, 1964?
USS Maddox
Within five days Congress passed a resolution giving President Johnson broad war powers in Vietnam.
Q 22What happened in Manchester and Liverpool on August 13, 1964, for the last time in British history?
Judicial hangings
Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Anthony Allen were executed simultaneously for murder.
Q 23Which nation did the IOC ban from the 1964 Summer Olympics because its teams were segregated?
South Africa
The ban was announced on August 18 and the country did not return to the Games until 1992.
Q 14Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged on April 26, 1964, to form which country?
Tanzania
It was one of several African nations reshaped that year, alongside Malawi, Zambia and a newly republican Kenya.
Q 15Which programming language ran its first program at 4:00 a.m. on May 1, 1964?
BASIC
John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz designed it to be easy to learn, and it later shipped on home computers and consoles.
Q 16A riot at a Peru-Argentina football match in Lima in May 1964 killed roughly how many people?
319
The crowd turned on a referee's decision; another 500 were injured in what remains football's deadliest stadium disaster.
Q 17Which car made its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 20, 1964?
Ford GT40
It would not win the race until 1966, when it ended Ferrari's winning streak.
Q 18Which country beat the Soviet Union 2-1 to win the 1964 European Nations' Cup?
Spain
The final was played on June 21; it was the host nation's first major title.
Q 19Which country gained independence from the United Kingdom on July 6, 1964?
Malawi
Malta followed in September and Northern Rhodesia became Zambia in October.
Q 20What did the Ranger 7 probe send back on July 31, 1964?
First close-up photos of the Moon
The images were 1,000 times clearer than anything seen through Earth-bound telescopes.
Q 24Which Disney film premiered in Los Angeles on August 27, 1964, and went on to win five Oscars?
Mary Poppins
It was the first Disney film nominated for Best Picture and won Julie Andrews the Best Actress award.
Q 25Which British newspaper replaced the Daily Herald on September 14, 1964?
The Sun
The same day, the third period of the Second Vatican Council opened in Rome.
Q 26Which body submitted its report on the Kennedy assassination on September 24, 1964?
The Warren Commission
It was the first official investigation into the November 1963 killing.
Q 27What did Japan inaugurate on October 1, 1964, as a world first?
A high-speed rail system
The Shinkansen's first section linked the capital with Osaka.
Q 28Which Soviet spacecraft carried the first multi-person crew into orbit in October 1964?
Voskhod 1
It was also the first flight without space suits, and it landed after just 16 orbits.
Q 29Who became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964?
Martin Luther King Jr.
He collected the award in Oslo on December 10 for leading non-violent resistance to racial prejudice.
Q 30Which Soviet leader was deposed on October 14-15, 1964?
Nikita Khrushchev
Brezhnev and Kosygin took power between them.