34th
President of the United States, 1963-1969Like three other Vice-Presidents before him, Lyndon Johnson succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of the President. He became President on November 22, 1963, following the fatal shooting of President John F. Kennedy. He was subsequently elected to a full term in 1964, but chose not to run for another full term in 1968.
As President, Johnson first had to comfort a nation wracked by the untimely death of President Kennedy. He then turned his attention to the urgent domestic problems facing the nation. He was highly successful in getting Congress to approve many of the social programs Kennedy had proposed, as well as many of his own proposals. Among his most notable achievements in domestic policy involved significant improvements in civil rights.
But Johnson's skill in congressional politics was not enough to overcome the problems raised by the Vietnam War. With the nation deeply divided over that war, Johnson surprised everyone when, on March 31, 1968, he announced that he would not be a candidate for another term.
| Election of 1964 | |
| Place of Nominating Convention | Atlantic City, NJ |
| Ballot on which Nominated | 1st |
| Republican Opponent | Barry M. Goldwater |
| Electoral Vote | 486 (Johnson) to 52 (Goldwater) |
| Popular Vote | 42,995,259 (Johnson) to 27,204,571 (Goldwater) |
| Age at Inauguration | 56 |
| His Vice-President and Cabinet | |
| Vice-President | Hubert H. Humphrey (1965) |
| Secretary of State | Dean Rusk |
| Secretary of the Treasury | C. Douglas Dillon Henry H. Fowler (1965) |
| Secretary of Defense | Robert S. McNamara Clark Clifford (1968) |
| Attorney General | Robert F. Kennedy Nicholas Katzenbach (1965) Ramsey Clark (1967) |
| Postmaster General | John A. Gronouski Lawrence F. O'Brien (1965) W. Marvin Watson (1968) |
| Secretary of the Interior | Stewart L. Udall |
| Secretary of Agriculture | Orville L. Freeman |
| Secretary of Commerce | Luther H. Hodges John T. Connor (1965) Alexander B. Trowbridge (1967) Cyrus R. Smith (1968) |
| Secretary of Labor | W. Willard Wirtz |
| Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare | Anthony J. Celebrezze John W. Gardner (1965) |
| Secretary of Housing and Urban Development | Robert C. Weaver (1966) |
| Secretary of Transportation | Alan S. Boyd (1967) |
| Major Domestic Events of His Administration | |
| Population in 1969: ~205,000,000 | |
| November 22, 1963 | President John F. Kennedy was shot and fatally wounded while riding through Dallas, Texas. |
| 1964 | The 24th Amendment to the Constitution outlawed poll taxes in national elections. |
| April 1964 | Union railroad workers staged a strike which soon became known as "The Railroad Crisis." |
| July 2, 1964 | Congress passed, and Johnson signed, a voting rights law. |
| 1965 | The Elementary and Secondary Education Act offered the first major federal aid to elementary and secondary schools. |
| August 11-16, 1965 | The Watts section of Los Angeles erupted in racially motivated riots. |
| September 9, 1965 | The Department of Housing and Urban Development was established. |
| 1966 | Robert C. Weaver became the first Negro Cabinet member when he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. |
| July 1, 1966 | Medicare went into effect. |
| October 15, 1966 | The Department of Transportation was established. |
| 1967 | Riots broke out in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, and Newark. |
| 1967 | Thurgood Marshall became the first Negro to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| 1967 | The 25th Amendment spelled out procedures for succession to the presidency and vice-presidency in the event of disability or death. |
| 1968 | Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing racial discrimination in the sale or rental of houses and apartments. |
| April 4, 1968 | Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. |
| June 5, 1968 | Senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. |
| Major World Events of His Administration | |
| 1964 | Anti-U.S. riots broke out in the Panama Canal Zone. |
| 1964 | China exploded its first atomic bomb. |
| August 1964 | North Vietnam torpedo boats attacked U.S. Navy destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. |
| 1965 | U.S. troops were sent to help put down a rebellion in the Dominican Republic. |
| 1965 | Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, died. |
| 1965 | The United States first used combat troops in the Vietnam War. |
| 1965 | The Early Bird satellite was launched by the United States. |
| March 23, 1965 | Astronauts Virgil Grissom and John Young made the first Project Gemini manned flight. |
| 1965 | Two United States spacecraft--Gemini 6 and 7--achieved the first space rendezvous. |
| 1966 | France withdrew its armed forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. |
| 1966 | The United Nations General Assembly approved a treaty banning the use of nuclear and other mass-destruction weapons in outer space. |
| 1967 | The first successful human heart transplant was performed by a surgical team headed by Christiaan Barnard of South Africa. |
| 1968 | The United Nations General Assembly passed a treaty to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. |
Internet Public Library--Presidents of the United States. www.ipl.org/div/potus/lbjohnson.html
The White House. www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/lj36.html
Lyndon Johnson: His Life and Career
President John F. Kennedy
Clark Clifford
Department of Transportation
Sir Winston Churchill
Project Gemini