50 Fun Facts About 1965

Which racquet sport was invented on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with leftover badminton and ping-pong kit?

Pickleball was invented at the summer home of Joel Pritchard, a future congressman, and one story says it was named after the family dog, Pickles. By 2021 it was America's fastest-growing sport.

Which novel, turned down by over twenty publishers, was finally issued by a printer of car-repair manuals?

Dune was published by Chilton Books, which treated it as a write-off and fired the editor who championed it; the book then won the first Nebula Award. Frank Herbert's desert epic has never been out of print since.

Which fibre, five times stronger than steel by weight, did DuPont's Stephanie Kwolek create in a petrol-shortage scare?

Kevlar first went to market in the early 1970s replacing steel in racing tyres, and only later lined bulletproof vests. Kwolek had to persuade a sceptical technician to spin her cloudy solution at all.

Which winter sport grew from the 'Snurfer', which Sherman Poppen built for his children's amusement on Christmas Day?

Snowboarding grew out of Poppen's Snurfer, a monoski wider and shorter than skis with a lanyard at the front, licensed to Brunswick in 1966. Poppen himself only took up the sport at 67.

Which country ran up a new flag on 15 February, retiring its Red Ensign after a rancorous 'Great Flag Debate'?

Canada's maple leaf was inaugurated on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and 15 February is now National Flag Day. Prime Minister Lester Pearson had forced the change through a divided Commons.

Which island state became independent on 9 August after being voted out of a federation it had joined in 1963?

Singapore's expulsion from Malaysia passed 126–0 with no Singaporean MPs present, and Lee Kuan Yew fought back tears announcing it on television. He then governed the new republic until 1990.

Which driver skipped the Monaco Grand Prix to win the Indianapolis 500, then took that year's Formula One title as well?

Jim Clark remains the only driver to win the Indy 500 and the world championship in one year, and his Lotus 38 was the first mid-engined car to win at the Brickyard. Graham Hill and Mario Andretti won both crowns, but in different years.

Which Fairchild research chief told Electronics magazine that chip components would keep doubling every year?

Gordon Moore's forecast became 'Moore's law', which he slowed to a doubling every two years in 1975; he went on to co-found Intel and run it. The magazine had simply asked him to guess the next decade.

Which author, born in Yate, Gloucestershire, on 31 July, later gave her own birthday to the boy wizard she created?

J. K. Rowling's parents had married only that March and settled in Yate, where her father worked on a Bristol Siddeley assembly line. Harry Potter shares her 31 July birthday but, she insists, nothing else.

Whose portrait of his son Titus made a record 760,000 guineas at Christie's in March, bought by Norton Simon?

Rembrandt's Titus was first knocked down to Marlborough Fine Art for 700,000 guineas because the auctioneer misread Simon's secret signals; Simon stormed the rostrum and bidding reopened. His museum now calls it a portrait of a boy.

Which club won the FA Cup for the first time on 1 May, beating Leeds 2–1 after extra time at Wembley?

Liverpool's goals came from Roger Hunt in the 93rd minute and Ian St John in the 117th, after a goalless ninety that the papers called boring. Bill Shankly's side had never lifted the trophy in 73 years of trying.

Which club beat 1860 Munich 2–0 at Wembley to win the Cup Winners' Cup, with both goals from Alan Sealey?

West Ham United's second came when the captain's cross was fumbled by goalkeeper Radenkovic; Sealey scored twice inside two minutes. A year later that same captain lifted the World Cup on the same pitch.

Which winger, knighted while still playing, made his last First Division appearance for Stoke on 6 February aged 50?

Stanley Matthews played that last game only because injuries to Dobing and Bridgwood forced him back into a side that was already the League's oldest. He remains the only footballer knighted while active.

Which cyclist became Britain's first professional world road-race champion, two years before he died on Mont Ventoux?

Tom Simpson also won the Giro di Lombardia that autumn and became the first cyclist named BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The post-mortem after his 1967 Tour collapse found amphetamines and alcohol.

Which Dodgers pitcher skipped Game 1 of the World Series for Yom Kippur, then won Game 7 on two days' rest?

Sandy Koufax had thrown a perfect game against the Cubs that September, his fourth no-hitter, a record at the time. The decision made him a hero to American Jews and he retired a year later with an arthritic elbow.

Six days of rioting that killed 34 people began in which Los Angeles neighbourhood after a drink-driving stop?

Watts erupted after Marquette Frye, aged 21, was pulled over in his mother's Buick; nearly 14,000 National Guardsmen were needed and damage topped $40 million. The area had gone from mixed to over 80 per cent Black in two decades.

Which colony declared independence from Britain on 11 November, the first such unilateral break since 1776?

Rhodesia's Ian Smith signed the proclamation at 11 a.m. on Armistice Day, during the two minutes' silence, and the UN soon urged every state to stop trading with his regime. The rebellion lasted until 1979.

What national speed limit, imposed on 22 December as a four-month trial after motorway pile-ups in fog, still stands?

The 70 mph limit was Transport Minister Tom Fraser's response to a run of fog crashes, and it was made permanent in 1967; until then British motorways had no limit at all. Road deaths still peaked at 7,985 the following year.

Which critic drew four Commons censure motions by saying 'fuck' on the BBC's late-night show BBC-3 on 13 November?

Kenneth Tynan, the National Theatre's literary manager, was arguing against stage censorship when he said no rational person found the word forbidden; 133 backbenchers signed the motions. Others had reputedly said it on air before.

After Ian Brady's October arrest for the axe killing of a 17-year-old, police dug up two graves on which upland?

Saddleworth Moor gave up the bodies of Lesley Ann Downey and John Kilbride that October; a third victim, Pauline Reade, was not found there until 1987, and a fourth never has been. Brady and Myra Hindley received whole-life sentences.

Which chain began when founder Boizot shipped an oven from Naples and a chef from Sicily to Wardour Street, Soho?

PizzaExpress grew from that single Soho room into a chain whose Dean Street branch became a celebrated jazz club; the original Wardour Street site finally closed in 2020. Boizot had simply missed the pizza he ate in Italy.

Which fast-food chain opened its first British branch at 92 Fishergate, Preston, on 1 May?

KFC beat McDonald's to Britain by nine years; the rival did not open until Woolwich in 1974. Colonel Sanders's chain was among the first American franchises to go abroad, reaching Mexico and Jamaica by the mid-1960s.

What kind of bird drew crowds to Regent's Park during nearly two weeks on the loose from London Zoo in March?

The golden eagle slipped away on 28 February while his cage was being cleaned, shrugged off Royal Navy equipment, and was finally lured down on 11 March with a dead rabbit. He escaped again that December.

Who became Conservative leader on 27 July in the party's first election by ballot of MPs, beating Reginald Maudling?

Edward Heath, then Shadow Chancellor, inherited a party that had picked Alec Douglas-Home through the old 'magic circle' of soundings two years earlier. Enoch Powell stood too and finished a distant third.

Which non-driver took over Transport in the 22 December reshuffle and went on to bring in the breathalyser?

Barbara Castle was asked on air 'You're only a woman, you don't drive, what do you know about it?'; road deaths fell 16.5 per cent in the breathalyser's first year. She also made seat belts compulsory fittings.

Which French stop-motion series reached BBC1 on 18 October with scripts Eric Thompson made up from the pictures alone?

The Magic Roundabout's Dougal was built without legs to make him easier to animate, and Zebedee was made from a giant pea found in the studio. Thompson's narration ran for 441 five-minute episodes until 1977.

Which Hammer horror star played the Doctor as a gentle human inventor in the first colour Doctor Who film?

Peter Cushing's film, shot in Technicolor and widescreen, remade the TV serial with a bumbling comic sidekick, and a sequel followed in 1966. William Hartnell was still playing the part on television.

Which Peanuts special, the first ever made, was scored by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi and paid for by Coca-Cola?

A Charlie Brown Christmas had no laugh track and real children doing the voices, which convinced CBS it had a disaster; it won an Emmy and ran on US television every year for 56 years. It was made in six months on a small budget.

Which comedian had the year's best-selling UK single with 'Tears', a 1930 Rudy Vallée waltz he revived?

Ken Dodd's 'Tears' sold over a million copies, the only non-Beatles record among the decade's five biggest sellers, and sat at number one for five weeks that autumn. It stayed on the chart for 24 weeks in all.

Which 17-year-old won Eurovision in Naples for Luxembourg with a Gainsbourg song, beating Kathy Kirby into second?

France Gall chose 'Poupée de cire, poupée de son' from the ten songs offered to her, and the win kept the Gainsbourg hits coming for a singer who had started with jazz and children's songs. Kirby's 'I Belong' came second for the UK.

Which Australian group topped the UK chart with 'I'll Never Find Another You', written by Dusty Springfield's brother?

The Seekers' hit was their first single released in Britain and finished as the year's second-biggest UK seller; Tom Springfield went on to write most of their hits. Its B-side was a gospel song, 'Open Up the Pearly Gates'.

Which 20-year-old cellist's EMI recording of Elgar's concerto with John Barbirolli made her name around the world?

Jacqueline du Pré made her American debut with the same piece that year; multiple sclerosis ended her playing career in 1973, at 28. The concerto has been tied to her name ever since.

Which Lionel Bart musical opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 20 December and closed after 43 performances?

Twang!! lost its director Joan Littlewood before the London opening and played to near-empty houses, ruining the man who had written Oliver! only five years earlier. Ronnie Corbett and James Booth were in the cast.

Who won the Best Actress Oscar as Diana Scott, a model juggling Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey in Darling?

Julie Christie's Swinging London anti-heroine also won the BAFTA for best British actress, and the film took Oscars for screenplay and costumes too; by December she was on screen again as Lara in Doctor Zhivago.

Which Len Deighton adaptation introduced Michael Caine's Harry Palmer and won the BAFTA for best British film?

The Ipcress File was made as a deliberately downbeat anti-Bond by Bond's own producer Harry Saltzman, who promised Deighton he would not turn it into an imitation 007 film. Two Palmer sequels followed in 1966 and 1967.

Which lost 1927 Lon Chaney film had its last print destroyed when fire swept an MGM vault in Culver City in August?

London After Midnight, directed by Tod Browning with Chaney in sharpened teeth and wire eye-fittings, is now the most sought-after lost silent film; the same blaze took Greta Garbo's The Divine Woman. Only stills survive.

Which stainless-steel monument by Eero Saarinen was completed in St Louis on 28 October at a cost of $13 million?

The Gateway Arch, a weighted catenary Saarinen first drew in 1947, grew from 580 to 630 feet in his plans as 'the gateway to the West, the national expansion, and whatnot'. It is the world's tallest arch.

Which satellite, named after a comic-book Gaul, made the French the third nation to orbit one on their own rocket?

Astérix went up from Hammaguir in Algeria on 26 November, ahead of a more scientific sister satellite, because de Gaulle wanted the propaganda coup of a home-built launcher. It is still in orbit and should stay there for centuries.

Who forced the sitting French president into a December run-off in the first direct presidential election since 1848?

François Mitterrand's showing denied the general the outright first-round win commentators had assumed was certain, and he lost the run-off on 19 December; he finally won the presidency in 1981.

Which architect, who called a house 'a machine for living in', died of a heart attack after swimming off the Riviera?

Le Corbusier, born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, was 77 and had designed tiny holiday cabins for a site at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin beside the sea where he died. Gropius and Mies both outlived him, dying in 1969.

Which Nobel-winning poet, born in St Louis but a British subject from 1927, died in London on 4 January?

T. S. Eliot had renounced his American citizenship at 39 and joined the Church of England the same year; his ashes lie at East Coker, the Somerset village his ancestors left for America. Auden and Graves outlived him.

Which heavy-smoking crooner died of lung cancer on 15 February, aged 45, weeks after his album L-O-V-E came out?

Nat King Cole's neighbours in all-white Hancock Park had tried to keep him out, and his dog died after eating poisoned meat; his daughter Natalie later duetted with his 1961 re-recording of 'Unforgettable'.

Which boxer, born in east London on 2 September, won 1988 Olympic gold for the country he grew up in?

Lennox Lewis moved to Kitchener, Ontario, at 12 and boxed for his new home at two Olympics; he unified the belts by beating Evander Holyfield in 1999 after their first fight was scored a draw. He retired as champion in 2004.

Which singer, born in Reykjavík on 21 November, fronted the Sugarcubes before going solo with an album called Debut?

Björk began her music career at 11 and had studied classical piano and flute from the age of six; Debut arrived in 1993, the year after the Sugarcubes split. New York's MoMA gave her a retrospective in 2015.

Which Guns N' Roses guitarist, born Saul Hudson in Hampstead on 23 July, grew up in Stoke-on-Trent until he was six?

Slash grew up in Blurton, a Stoke suburb, until about the age of six, and has joked that as a musician he is amused to be both British and Black. He entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band in 2012.

Which Charlton midfielder became the Football League's first ever substitute, replacing an injured goalkeeper at Bolton?

Keith Peacock came on after 11 minutes for keeper Mick Rose, the first season the League allowed one substitute, and only for injuries; he spent his whole 500-game career at Charlton and later managed the club as caretaker.

In which city did cardiologist Frank Pantridge fit the first portable defibrillator, a 70 kg unit, into an ambulance?

Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital was Pantridge's base, and by 1968 he had shrunk the machine to 3 kg using a miniature capacitor made for NASA; it took until 1990 for every front-line UK ambulance to carry one.

Which BP rig found Britain's first offshore gas in September, then collapsed off Lincolnshire in December, killing 13?

Sea Gem was a converted 5,600-ton barge, Britain's first jack-up rig, and its find was too small to be worth exploiting; the inquiry that followed gave rigs stand-by rescue boats and the post of offshore installation manager.

Which archipelago was split from Mauritius on 8 November to form a British territory the UN soon declared unlawful?

The Chagos Islands became the British Indian Ocean Territory; from 1971 only British and American military personnel could live there, with Diego Garcia as a joint base, and the islanders were expelled to Mauritius and the Seychelles.

Which English model scandalised Melbourne's Victoria Derby in an above-the-knee shift, with no hat, gloves or stockings?

Jean Shrimpton was on a two-week trip promoting Orlon dresses for the Victoria Racing Club and had no idea the Colin Rolfe outfit would cause uproar; she also wore a man's watch. She is credited with helping launch the miniskirt.