1965

January 4 - United States President Lyndon Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.
January 26 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
February 9 - Vietnam War: The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam
February 15 - A new red and white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada replacing the old Red Ensign standard.
February 18 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom
February 20 - Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
February 21 - Malcolm X is assassinated at his mosque in New York City by Black Muslims.
March 7 - Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama
March 8 - Vietnam War: 3,500 United States Marines arrive in South Vietnam becoming the first American combat troops in Vietnam.
March 18 - cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov becomes the first person to walk in space from spacecraft Voskhod 2
March 21 - Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9 which is the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.
March 23 - NASA launches Gemini 3 which is the United States' first two-person space flight took (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
March 25 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr begin march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery.
April 24 - Fighting breaks out in the Dominican Republic as officers loyal to deposed President Juan Bosch lead a mutiny against the right wing junta running the country. US troops are later sent by President Lyndon B. Johnson for the stated purpose of protecting US citizens and preventing an alleged Communist takeover of the country.
April 28 - Vietnam War: Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces that the country will substantially increase its number of troops in South Vietnam, supposedly at the request of the Saigon government, although it is later revealed that Menzies had asked the leadership in Saigon to send the request at the behest of the Americans.
July 14 - Mariner 4 flyby of Mars.
July 24 - Vietnam War: Four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi are the targets of antiaircraft missiles in the first such attack against American planes in the war. One is shot down and the other three sustain damage.
July 28 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
July 29 - Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.
July 30 - War on Poverty: US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
August 6 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law.
August 9 - Singapore proclaims its independence from the Malaysian Federation.
August 11 - Watts Riots begin in Los Angeles, California
August 18 - Vietnam War: Operation Starlite begins as 5,500 United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in Quang Ngai Province, in the first major American ground battle of the war. The Marines were tipped-off by a Viet Cong deserter who said that there was an attack planned against the US base at Chu Lai.
September 6 - War of 1965: India attacks Pakistan and announces that its forces will capture Lahore (city of Pakistan) in an hour.
September 7 - Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Pirahna on the Batangan Peninsula, 23 miles south of the Chu Lai Marine base.
September 14 - Opening of fourth and final period of Second Vatican Council
October 15 - Vietnam War: The anti-war student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States.
October 28 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall parabolic steel Gateway Arch is completed.
October 30 - Vietnam War: Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack by wave after wave of Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
November 6 - Freedom Flights begin: Cuba and the United States formally agree to start an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States (by 1971 250,000 Cubans take advantage of this program).
November 8 - The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands (on June 23, 1976 Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches were returned to Seychelles).
November 9 - Northeast Blackout of 1965: Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.
November 9 - Vietnam War: In New York City, 22-year old Catholic Worker member Roger Allen LaPorte sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in protest of the war in Vietnam (this was the second such incident in a week; on November 2 32-year-old Quaker member Norman Morrison did the same thing in front of The Pentagon).
November 11 - Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) was declared independent by the white minority regime of Ian Smith.
November 14 - Vietnam War: Battle of the Ia Drang begins - In the Ia Drang Valley of the Central Highlands in Vietnam, the first major engagement of the war between regular American and North Vietnamese forces begins.
November 16 - Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe from Baikonur, Kazakhstan toward Venus (on March 1, 1966 it became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet).
November 26 - At the Hammaguira launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1 on board, becoming the third country to enter space.
November 27 - Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells US President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned major sweep operations needed to neutralize Viet Cong forces during the next year were to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.
November 28 - Vietnam War: In response to US President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.
December 8 - Closing of Second Vatican Council
December 30 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines
TAT-4 cable goes into operation.
Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy completed.
Medicaid is founded in the United States