1964 in science

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The year 1964 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

March 20 - The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
July 31 - Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the Moon (images are 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from Earth-bound telescopes).
October 12 - The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits.

April 7 - IBM announces the System/360.
John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz create BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language that has been included on many computers and even some games consoles.

January 11 - U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous for one's health in the first such statement from U.S. federal government.
Jerome Horowitz synthesizes AZT, an antiviral drug that would come to be used in treating HIV.
Lesch-Nyhan syndrome is first described, by Dr. Michael Lesch and Dr. William Nyhan.