Death of Mabel Lucie Attwell

Mabel Lucie Attwell (1879-1964) was a British illustrator and comics artist known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children. Her drawings are featured on many postcards, advertisements, posters, books and figurines.

She was born in Mile End, London, in 1879, the sixth child of butcher Augustus and his wife Emily Ann. She was educated privately, at the Coopers' Company School and at the Regent Street school. She studied at Heatherley's and St Martin's School of Art but left to develop her own interest in imaginary subjects, disliking the emphasis on still-life drawing and classical subjects.

After she sold work to the Tatler and Bystander, she was taken on by the agents Francis and Mills, leading to a long and consistently successful career. In 1908, she married painter and illustrator Harold Cecil Earnshaw (d 1937) with whom she had a daughter, Marjorie, and two sons. She died at her home in Fowey, Cornwall, on 5 November 1964, after which her business was carried on by her daughter, Marjorie.

Civil Rights Act signed into law

July 2 – President Lyndon B Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law, abolishing racial segregation in the United States of America. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.

The Animals - House of the Rising Sun

Malta

Malta was a Crown Colony of the United Kingdom from 1814 until 1964, when, on Spetember 21, it was granted independence and joined the British Commonwealth.

Mariner 4 Spacecraft

The Mariner 4 spacecraft was launched by he Americans on November 28 with the mission of photographing and studying the atmosphere of Mars. It reached Mars in July 1965 and was the first successful mission to reach the red planet as well as the first to provide images of another planet from deep space. There were a total of 21 black and white photos relayed back to Earth. The spacecraft stopped communicating with NASA in October 1965 when its antenna was no longer pointing in the correct position. The space probe resumed communications in 1967 but was deactivated at the end of that year.

Peter Sellers marries Britt Ekland

On February 18 the British comedian and actor Peter Sellers married the Swedish actress Britt Ekland in Guildford, Surrey.

Southampton becomes a city

Southampton on the coast of the south of England became a city on February 24, 1964. A Royal Charter was granted saying that henceforth it would be known as the City and County of the City of Southampton. This was the culmination of a long process that had begun 30 years earlier. It was the first place to be made a city by the then Queen Elizabeth II.

36th Academy Awards

Best film: "Tom Jones"

Best Actor: Sidney Poitier (Lilies Of The Field). Poitier was the first Black actor in a leading role to win a competitive Oscar.

Best Actress: Patricia Neal (Hud) 

First Top of the Pops Performances Featured

 

First Top of the Pops

At 6.35 pm on January 1 the premiere of the half hour British TV programme Top of the Pops was shown for the first time. Acts performing included (in order of appearance) Dusty Springfield (I only wanna be with you); The Rolling Stones (I wanna be your man); Dave Clark Five (glad all over); The Hollies (Stay); Swinging Blue Jeans (Hippy hippy shake) and The Beatles (I wanna hold your hand, that week's number one). The programme continued until July 30 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its history, it was broadcast on Thursday evenings on BBC 1. Each show consisted of performances of some of the week's best-selling popular music records, usually excluding any tracks moving down the chart, including a rundown of that week's singles chart. This was originally the Top 20, though this varied throughout the show's history. The Top 30 was used from 1969, and the Top 40 from 1984. The first programme was produced in Studio A at Dickenson Road Studios in Rusholme, Manchester. The presenter was the late and now disgraced Jimmy Savile, with a brief link to Alan Freeman in London to preview the following week's programme. The tape was wiped. Throughout its history, the programme proper always (with very few exceptions) finished with the best-selling single of the week, although there often was a separate play-out track over the end credits.