The 1964 Olympic Games were held in Tokyo, Japan from 10 October to 24 October. This marked the first games to be held in Asia. Tokyo was originally slated to host the 1940 games, but the lost the right to host when it invaded China. The 1940 Olympics would eventually be canceled due to World War II.

Tokyo beat out Detroit, Brussels, and Vienna to host these Olympics. These were the first games to be broadcast over the air via satellite internationally, eliminating the need for video tapes to be distributed. The country of South Africa was not allowed to participate in these games due to apartheid.

Several sports made their Olympic debut, including judo, women’s pentathlon, and women’s volleyball in which the host country won the gold medal.

These games marked the career end of Larisa Latynina winning 5 medals 2g 1s 2b, to set the career medals record, that was broken earlier this week by American swimmer Michael Phelps. Future NFL player Bob Hayes won the 100 meters. Probably the largest surprise of the games was American runner Billy Mills; he was a little known distance runner with a mediocre career. Mills won the 10,000 meters becoming the first American to win that race and to date is the only American to have won the race.

Japanese freestyle wrestler Osamu Watanabe won the gold medal without surrendering a point, and finished off his career without losing a match. He capped his remarkable career with the medal, and retired undefeated at 189-0.

British runner Ann Packer was another surprise winning the 800 meters and setting a world record, despite never having run that distance before in competition.

These games were overshadowed by several international events – China conducting its first nuclear test, and the ouster of Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev.

Ninety-four nations attended the games, but Libya withdrew, leaving 93 nations to compete; athletes from the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany competed together as the Unified team of Germany in this Olympics for the last time.

These games brought Japan back to the forefront of the world stage and the progress it had made since World War II; a remarkable transformation from a warlike country to one of peace, accomplished in less than 20 years.

The United States was second in total medals with 90 36g, 26s, 28b, but did win the most gold medals. The Soviet Union won 96 medals 30g, 31s, 35b, with the host country finishing with 29 medals 16g, 5s, 8b.