1966

Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1966 :

January :

• January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts President David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic.

January 2 - A strike of public transportation workers in New York City begins (it will end January 13).

January 3 - The first Acid Test is conducted at the Fillmore, San Francisco.

January 4

* A military coup occurs in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).

* The prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet in Moscow.

* A gas leak fire at the Feyzin oil refinery near Lyon, France kills 18 and injures 84.

January 10

* Pakistani-Indian peace negotiations end successfully in Tashkent.

* The French paper L'Express publishes a story of Georges Figon, who took part in the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka.

January 11

* A conference on Rhodesia begins in Lagos, Nigeria.

* The first SR-71 Blackbird spy plane goes into service at Beale AFB.

January 12 - Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.

January 13 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member, by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

January 15 - A violent military coup is staged in Nigeria.

* Moscow announces the death of rocket designer Sergei Korolev.

January 17 - The Nigerian coup is overturned.

January 17 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and 1 into the sea, in the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident.

January 17 - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of a lost h-bomb which results in the amputation of his leg.

January 18 - French police announce that Georges Figon committed suicide, prior to his arrest in the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka.

January 18 - About 8,000 U.S. soldiers land in South Vietnam; U.S. troops now total 190,000.

January 19 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India; she is sworn in January 24.

January 19 - Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies resigns.

January 20 - Demonstrations occur against high food prices in Hungary.

January 21 - Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro resigns due to a power struggle in his party.

January 22 - The military government of Nigeria announces that ex-prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was killed during the coup.

January 22 - The Chadian Muslim insurgent group FROLINAT is founded in Sudan, starting the Chadian Civil War.

January 26 - Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires.

January 26 - Beaumont children disappearance: Three children disappear on their way to Glenelg Beach, South Australia, never to be seen again.

January 27 - The British government promises the U.S. that British troops in Malaysia will stay until more peaceful conditions occur in the region.

January 29 - The first of 608 performances of Sweet Charity opens at the Palace Theatre in New York City.

January 31 - The United Kingdom ceases all trade with Rhodesia.

February :

• February 1 - West Germany procures some 2,600 political prisoners from East Germany.
• February 3 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
• February 4 - A Japanese passenger jet crashes into Tokyo Bay (133 dead).
• February 6 - Fidel Castro blames China for spreading anti-Soviet propaganda among Cuban soldiers.
• February 10 - Soviet writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to 5 and 7 years, respectively, for 'anti-Soviet' writings.
• February 11 - The Belgian government resigns.
• February 14 - The Australian dollar is introduced at a rate of 2 dollars per pound, or 10 shillings per dollar.
• February 19 - The naval minister of the United Kingdom, Christopher Mayhew, resigns.
• February 20 - While Soviet author and translator Valery Tarsis is abroad, the Soviet Union negates his citizenship.
• February 23 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government with a Ba'athist regime.
• February 24 - A military coup in Ghana raises sacked General Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.
• February 26 - A curfew is declared in Jakarta, Indonesia.
• February 28 - U.S. astronauts Charles Bassett and Elliott See are killed in an aircraft accident in St. Louis, Missouri.

March :

• March 1 - Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
• March 1 - The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.
• March 2 - Kwame Nkrumah arrives in Guinea and is granted asylum.
• March 4 - The Beatles: In an interview published in The London Evening Standard, John Lennon comments, "We're more popular than Jesus now," eventually sparking a controversy in the United States.
• March 5 - A massive theft of nuclear materials is revealed in Brazil.
• March 5 - Merci Chérie by Udo Jürgens (music by Udo Jürgens, text by Udo Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria.
• March 7 - Charles De Gaulle asks U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson for negotiations about the state of NATO equipment in France.
• March 8 - Anti-communist demonstrations occur at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.
• March 8 - Ronald Kray, one of the Kray twins, shoots rival gangster George Cornell; the incident leads to the brother's incarceration.
• March 8 - Vietnam War: Australia announces it will substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
• March 8 - An Irish Republican Army bomb destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.
• March 9 - Ronnie Kray murders George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub.
• March 10 - Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg. Some spectators demonstrate against the groom because he is German.
• March 11 - Indonesian President Sukarno gives all executive powers to General Suharto.
• March 11 - French President Charles De Gaulle states that French troops will be taken out of NATO and that all French NATO bases and HQ's must be closed within a year.
• March 12 - Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks sets the NHL single season scoring record against the New York Rangers with his 51st goal.
• March 13 - The 1956 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, adapted from their stage musical, is shown on network TV for the first time by ABC-TV. It will be repeated just three months later.
• March 16 - Gemini 8 (David Scott, Neil Armstrong) docks with an Agena target satellite.
• March 17 - More anti-communist demonstrations occur in Indonesia.
• March 17 - Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.

• March 19 - The Texas Western Miners defeat the Kentucky Wildcats with 5 black starters, ushering in desegregation in athletic recruiting.
• March 22 - In Washington, DC, General Motors President James M. Roche appears before a Senate subcommittee, and apologizes to consumer advocate Ralph Nader for the company's intimidation and harassment campaign against him.
• March 23 - Pope Paul VI and Arthur Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, meet in Rome.
• March 26 - Demonstrations are held across the United States against the Vietnam War.
• March 27 - In South Vietnam, 20,000 Buddhists march in demonstrations against the policies of the military government.
• March 28 - Indira Gandhi visits Washington, DC.
• March 29 - The 23rd Communist Party Conference is held in the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev demands that U.S. troops leave Vietnam, and announces that Chinese-Soviet relations are not satisfying.
• March 31 The Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the British General Election.
• March 31 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

April :

• April 2 - The Indonesian army demands that the country rejoin the United Nations.
• April 4 - Luna 10 enters orbit around the Moon.
• April 7 - The United Kingdom asks the UN Security Council for authority to use force to stop oil tankers that violate the embargo against Rhodesia. Authority is given April 10.
• April 8 - Buddhists in South Vietnam protest against the fact that the new government has not set a date for free elections.
• April 9 - Norwich City F.C. captain Barry Butler is killed in a car accident.
• April 13 - United States president Lyndon Johnson signs the 1966 Uniform Time Act act dealing with Daylight Saving Time.
• April 14 - The South Vietnamese government promises free elections in 3-5 months.
• April 15 - An anti-Nasser conspiracy is exposed in Egypt.
• April 18 - China declares that it will stop economic aid to Indonesia.
• April 21 - An artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas hospital.
• April 21 - The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time.
• April 21 - Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rastafarian leaders.
• April 21 - Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, for the murders of 3 children who vanished between November 1963 and October 1965.
• April 27 - Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in the Vatican (the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviet Union).
• April 28 - In Rhodesia, security forces kill 7 ZANLA men in combat; Chimurenga, the ZANU rebellion, begins.
• April 29 - U.S. troops in Vietnam total 250,000.
• April 30 - Regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel (discontinued in 2000 due to the Channel Tunnel).
• April 30 - The Church of Satan is formed by Anton Szandor LaVey in San Francisco.
• April 30 - Uniform Daylight Saving Time first observed in most parts of North America.

May :

• May 1 - Floods occur on the Finnish coast.
• May 3 - Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio commence broadcasting on AM, with a combined potential 100,000 watts, from the same ship anchored off the south coast of England in international waters.
• May 3 - Richard Chams Local Resident
• May 4 - Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union.
• May 6 - The Moors Murderers trial at Chester Crown Court ends with Ian Brady being found guilty on all 3 counts of murder. He is sentenced to 3 concurrent terms of life imprisonment. Myra Hindley is convicted on 2 counts of murder and cleared on a third charge, but is guilty of being an accessory in the third murder committed by Brady. She receives 2 concurrent terms of life imprisonment for murder and a 7-year fixed term for being an accessory.
• May 12 - African members of the UN Security Council say that the British army should blockade Rhodesia.
• May 12 - Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri opens.
• May 12 - Radio Peking claims that U.S. planes have shot down a Chinese plane over Yunnan (the U.S. denies the story the next day).
• May 14 - Turkey and Greece intend to start negotiations about the situation in Cyprus.
• May 15 - Indonesia asks Malaysia for peace negotiations.
• May 15 - The South Vietnamese army besieges Da Nang.
• May 15 - Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators again picket the White House, then rally at the Washington Monument.
• May 16 - A seamen's strike is called in Britain.
• May 16 - The legendary album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is released.
• May 16 - Bob Dylan's seminal album, Blonde on Blonde is released in the USA.
• May 16 - In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War.
• May 24 - Ugandan army troops arrest Mutesa II of Buganda and occupy his palace.
• May 24 - The Nigerian government forbids all political activity in the country (until January 17, 1969).
• May 25 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 is launched.
• May 25 - In St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch, as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
• May 26 - Guyana achieves independence.
• May 28 - Fidel Castro delcares martial law in Cuba due to a possible U.S. attack.
• May 28 - The Indonesian and Malayan governments declare that the Indonesian Confrontation is over (a treaty is signed on August 11).
• May 31 - The Philippines reestablishes diplomatic relations with Malaysia.

June :

• June 1 - The final new episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show airs (the first episode aired on October 3, 1961).
• June 2 - Éamon de Valera is re-elected as Irish president.
• June 2 - Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first spacecraft to soft land on another world.
• June 2 - Four former cabinet ministers are executed in Zaire, for alleged involvement in a plot to kill Mobutu Sese Seko.
• June 3 - Joaquín Balaguer is elected president of the Dominican Republic.
• June 5 - Gemini 9: Gene Cernan completes the second U.S. spacewalk (2 hours, 7 minutes).
• June 6 - Civil rights activist James Meredith is shot while trying to march across Mississippi.
• June 8 - An XB-70 Valkyrie prototype is destroyed in a mid-air collision with a F-104 Starfighter chase plane during a photo shoot. NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker and USAF test pilot Carl Cross are both killed.
• June 8 - Topeka, Kansas is devastated by a tornado that registers as an "F5" on the Fujita Scale: the first to exceed US $100 million in damages. Sixteen people are killed, hundreds more injured, and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/top/events/66tornado.php
• June 13 - Miranda v. Arizona: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
• June 14 - The Vatican abolishes the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of banned books).
• June 17 - An Air France personnel strike begins.
• June 18 - CIA chief William Raborn resigns - Richard Helms becomes his successor. (2)- Phyllis and Joe Miele are Married.
• June 20-July 1 - French President Charles De Gaulle visits the Soviet Union.
• June 21 - Opposition leader Arthur Calwell is shot after attending a political meeting in Mosman, Sydney, Australia.
• June 28 - In Argentina, a junta deposes president Arturo Umberto Illia in a coup, and appoints General Juan Carlos Ongania to lead.
• June 29 - A sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen, ends in the United Kingdom.
• June 29 - Vietnam War: U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.
• June 30 - France formally leaves NATO.
• June 30 - The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, DC.

July :

• July 1 - Joaquin Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
• July 3 - Rene Barrientos is elected president of Bolivia.
• July 4 - North Vietnam declares general mobilization.
• July 4 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act, which goes into effect the following year.
• July 4 - Romania's premier Nicolae Ceausescu proposes dissolution of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact alliance in a meeting of Warsaw Pact powers at Bucharest.
• July 6 - Malawi becomes a republic.
• July 7 - A Warsaw Pact conference ends with a promise to support North Vietnam.
• July 9 - Dr Stephen Wilson is born.
• July 11 - The 1966 FIFA World Cup begins in England.
• July 12 - Indira Gandhi visits Moscow.
• July 12 - Zambia threatens to leave the Commonwealth of Nations because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia.
• July 12 - U.S. Lieutenant Major W.H. Whalen is arrested for spying.
• July 14 - Israeli and Syrian jet fighters clash over the Jordan River.
• July 14 - Richard Speck murders 8 student nurses in their Chicago dormitory.
• July 14 - Gwynfor Evans becomes member of Parliament for Carmarthen, the first Plaid Cymru MP in the UK.
• July 16 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about the Vietnam War (the Soviet government refutes his ideas).
• July 17 - Richard Speck is arrested; he tries to commit suicide but fails.
• July 17 - Shawn Whalen is born in Baltimore,Maryland
• July 18 - Gemini 10 (John Young, Michael Collins) launched. After docking with an Agena rocket stage, they then set a world altitude record of 474 miles (763 km).
• July 18 - The Hough Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio, the city's first race riot.
• July 19 - A Chinese delegate in the Netherlands, Liu en-Tsiu, is declared persona non grata because of the death of a Chinese engineer in unclear circumstances; there are claims that he was kidnapped and taken to the delegate's office.
• July 22 - The Chinese government declares Dutch delegate G. J. Jongejans persona non grata, but tells him not to leave the country before a group of Chinese engineers has left the Netherlands.
• July 23 - Katangese troops in Stanleyville, Congo, revolt for several weeks in support of the exiled minister Moise Tshombe.
• July 24 - U.N. Secretary General U Thant visits Moscow.
• July 26 - Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords, stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent.
• July 28 - The U.S. announces that a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane has disappeared over Cuba.
• July 29 - The Nigerian army rebels and executes head of state General Aguiyi-Ironsi.
• July 29 - Bob Dylan breaks his neck and nearly dies in a motorcycle accident near Woodstock, New York. He isn't seen in public for over a year.
• July 30 - England beats West Germany 4-2 to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time.

August :

• August 1 - Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 from the University of Texas at Austin Main Building.
• August 1 - A military coup occurs in Nigeria; General Yakubu Gowon takes over.
• August 2 - The Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft.
• August 5 - Martin Luther King Jr. leads a civil rights march in Chicago, during which he is struck by a rock thrown from an angry white mob.
• August 5 - The Beatles release the legendary Revolver album in the United Kingdom.http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/b/beatles-revolvermft.shtml
• August 5 - Mao Zedong launches a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party.
• August 6 - Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, killing all 42 on board.
• August 6 - Rene Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia.
• August 6 - The Tagus River Bridge opens in Lisbon, Portugal.
• August 7 - Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
• August 10 - An East German court sentences Günter Laudahn to life imprisonment for spying for the United States.
• August 10 - Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit another world, is launched.
• August 11 - The Beatles hold a press conference in Chicago, during which John Lennon apologizes for his "more popular than Jesus" remark, saying, "I didn't mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing."
• August 12 - Massacre of Braybrook Street: Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plain clothes policemen in London; they are later sentenced to life imprisonment.
• August 13 - In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong begins the Cultural Revolution.
• August 13 An earthquake in Turkey kills 2,394 and injures 10,000.
• August 15 - Syrian and Israeli troops clash over Lake Genesaret for 3 hours.
• August 15 - It is announced that the New York Herald Tribune will not resume publication.
• August 16 - Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee starts investigating Americans who have aided the Viet Cong, with the intent to make these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.
• August 17 - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic begin negotiations in Kuwait to end the war in Yemen.
• August 18 - Vietnam War: D Company, 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, meets and defeats a Viet Cong force estimated to be 4 times larger, at the Battle of Long Tan in Phuoc Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam.
• August 19 - An earthquake in eastern Turkey destroys whole cities.
• August 21 - Seven men are sentenced to death in Egypt, for anti-Nasser agitation.
• August 22 - The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), is formed.
• August 26 - Riots occur in French Somaliland.
• August 29 - The Beatles play their very last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.
• August 30 - France offers independence to French Somaliland.

September :

• September 1 - United Nations Secretary-General U Thant declares that he will not seek re-election, because U.N. efforts in Vietnam have failed.
• September 1 - 98 British tourists die in an air crash in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
• September 6 - In Cape Town, the South African architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting.
• September 8 - Star Trek, the classic science fiction television series, debuts with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap."
• September 9 - NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.
• September 12 - September 15 - Gemini 11 (Richard Gordon, Pete Conrad) docks with an Agena target vehicle.
• September 12 - Five Star General Omar Bradley marries actress Esther "Kitty" Buhler in San Diego, California.
• September 13 - Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes the new South African Prime Minister.
• September 13 - TASS reports on clashes between the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Guards.
• September 16 - In South Vietnam, Thich Tri Quang begins a 100-day hunger strike.
• September 16 - The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City to the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera, Antony and Cleopatra.
• September 18 - Valerie Percy, the 21-year-old daughter of Senator Charles H. Percy, is stabbed and bludgeoned to death in the family mansion on Chicago's North Shore.
• September 19 - Scotland Yard arrests Ronald Edwards, suspected of involvement in the Great Train Robbery.
• September 30-October 1 (midnight) - Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer are released from Spandau Prison.
• September 30 - Botswana achieves independence.

October :

• October - Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party.
• October 3 - Tunisia severs diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic.
• October 4 - Israel applies for the outer membership of the EEC.
• October 4 - Basutoland becomes independent and takes the name Lesotho.
• October 5 - UNESCO signs the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. This event is now celebrated as World Teachers' Day.
• October 7 - The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October.
• October 11 - France and the Soviet Union sign a treaty for cooperation in nuclear research.
• October 14 - The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro).
• October 15 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.
• October 15 - U.S. Congress passes a bill for the creation of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to be created.
• October 15 - ABC-TV telecasts a highly-acclaimed ninety-minute television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon, starring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Ann Howes. It wins many Emmy Awards, is repeated just five months later, and inaugurates a short-lived series of special television adaptations of famous Broadway musicals on ABC. The other television adaptations are Carousel, Kismet, and Kiss Me Kate. Goulet stars in all but one of these specials.
• October 16 - Grace Slick performs live for the first time with Jefferson Airplane.
• October 17 - Lesotho and Botswana are admitted to the United Nations.
• October 21 - The Aberfan disaster occurs in South Wales, United Kingdom.
• October 22 - British spy George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison; he is next seen in Moscow.
• October 22 - Spain demands that the United Kingdom stop military flights to Gibraltar; Britain refuses the next day.
• October 24 - Negotiations about the Vietnam War begin in Manila, Philippines.
• October 25 - A military court in Jakarta sentences ex-foreign minister Subandrio to death.
• October 25 - Spain closes its Gibraltar border to non-pedestrian traffic.
• October 26 - NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels.
• October 27 - The United Nations takes Namibia from South Africa.
• October 29 - The Guinean delegation to the OAU meeting in Ethiopia, become hostages of the Ghanaian government in Accra.

November :

• November 2 - The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
• November 4 - The Arno river floods Florence, damaging many art treasures.
• November 5 - Thirty-eight African states demand that the United Kingdom use force against the Rhodesian government.
• November 6 - Lunar Orbiter 2 is launched.
• November 8 - Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.
• November 8 - Actor Ronald Reagan, a Republican, is elected Governor of California.
• November 11 - A mine kills 3 Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.
• November 11 - Spain declares general amnesty for crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War (effective only for the Falangists' side).
• November 15 - Gemini 12 (James A. Lovell, Buzz Aldrin), splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km east of the Bahamas.
• November 15 - Harry Maurice Roberts, who killed 3 policemen in August, is caught near London.
• November 15 - A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
• November 16 - U.S. doctor Sam Sheppard is acquitted in his second trial for the murder of his pregnant wife in 1954.
• November 17 - The U.N. General Assembly decides to found the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
• November 17 - A spectacular Leonid meteor shower passes over Arizona, at the rate of 2,300 a minute for 20 minutes.
• November 21 - The army crushes an attempted coup in Togo.
• November 28 - Truman Capote's Black and White Ball ('The Party of the Century') is held in New York City.
• November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.

December :

• December 1 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger is elected Chancellor of West Germany.
• December 1 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith negotiate on HMS Tiger in the Mediterranean.
• December 2 - U Thant agrees to serve a second term as U.N. Secretary General.
• December 3 - Anti-Portuguese demonstrations occur in Macau; a curfew is declared the next day.
• December 7 - Syria offers weapons to rebels in Jordan.
• December 7 - Barbados is admitted to the United Nations.
• December 8 - The Typaldos Line's ferry Heraklion sinks in rough seas, in the Aegean Sea near Crete - 217 dead.
• December 15 - In Los Angeles, Walt Disney dies of lung cancer at age 65.
• December 16 - The U.N. Security Council approves an oil embargo against Rhodesia.
• December 16 - The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were adopted by the General Assembly by its resolution 2200 A (XXI).
• December 17 - South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia.
• December 20 - Harold Wilson withdraws all his previous offers to the Rhodesian government, and announces that he will agree to independence only after the founding of a Black majority government
• December 21 -100th birthday of H.G. Wells
• December 22 - Prime Minister Ian Smith declares that Rhodesia is already a republic.
• December 23 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, is shown for the first time on CBS. It will become an annual Christmas tradition, and the best-loved film ever based on a Dr. Seuss book.
• December 26 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies, at California State University, Long Beach.
• December 26 - Day of the Birth By Mr Fareed Ahmad Tahir .
• December 31 - East German Premier Walter Ulbricht discusses negotiations about German reunification.
• December 31 - Thieves steal millions worth of paintings from the Dulwich Art Gallery in London.
• December 31 - The Congolese government takes over the Union Minière du Haut Katanga.

Undated :

• In Burundi, King Mwambutsa IV is deposed by his son Ntare V, who is in turn deposed by prime minister Michel Micombero.
• Konstantin Chernenko, later leader of Soviet Union, becomes candidate member of the Central Committee.
• Surrealist Movement in the United States founded by Franklin and Penelope Rosemont.
• Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn are awarded the Fermi Prize.
• Congress of the United States creates National Council for Marine Resources and Engineering Development.
• Will Lang Jr. begins Life (magazine)'s investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Warren Commission. Will Lang Jr. is stopped by Holland McCombs a few months later.
• Martin Richards designs the BCPL programming language.
• The DKW automobile goes out of production.
• World Buddhist Sangha Council convened by Theravadins in Sri Lanka with the hope of bridging differences and working together.
• Long-term potentiation (LTP), the putative cellular mechanism of learning and memory, is first observed by Terje Lømo in Oslo, Norway.
• Actress Saira Banu marries actor Dilip Kumar.
• Kwanzaa was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga.

Ongoing :

• Marshall Plan

Fictional :

The following are references to year 1966 in fiction:
 
-In the Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday, all of the flashback scenes take place in this year.

Births :

January :

• January 1 - Anna Burke, Australian politician and member for Chisholm in the House of Representatives
• January 1 - Crazy Legs, Puerto Rican Breakdancer, President of Rock Steady Crew
• January 1 - Michael Imperioli, American actor
• January 3 - Martin Galway, Northern Irish composer
• January 4 - Deana Carter, American singer
• January 7 - Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American actress and model, wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. (died 1999)
• January 8 - Igor Vyazmikin, Russian ice hockey player
• January 12 - Rob Zombie, American musician, artist, and writer
• January 13 - Patrick Dempsey, American actor
• January 14 - Marco Hietala, bassist in the Finnish Metal Band Nightwish
• January 17 - Shabba Ranks, Jamaican singer
• January 19 - Stefan Edberg, Swedish tennis player
• January 19 - Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player
• January 20 - Stacey Dash, American actress
• January 20 - Tracii Guns, American guitarist
• January 21 - Wendy James, British singer (Transvision Vamp)
• January 24 - Jimeoin, Northern Irish-Australian comedian and actor
• January 29 - Romário, Brazilian footballer
• January 30 - Hans Tutschku, German composer

February :

• February 1 - Michelle Akers, American soccer player
• February 4 - Kyoko Koizumi, Japanese actress and singer
• February 6 - Rick Astley, British singer
• February 7 - Chris Rock, American comedian
• February 9 - Ellen van Langen, Dutch athlete
• February 11 - Stephen Gregory, American actor
• February 17 - Robert R Borowski, American athlete-baseball player
• February 18 - Richard A Collins, British scientist and author
• February 20 - Cindy Crawford, American model
• February 22 - Brian Greig, Australian statesman
• February 23 - Michael Arata, American actor
• February 24 - Billy Zane, American actor
• February 25 - Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete

March :

• March 3 - Tone Lc, American musician
• March 4 - Daniela Amavia, American actress and international model
• March 4 - Kevin Johnson, American basketball player
• March 4 - Grand Puba (Brand Nubian), American rapper
• March 4 - Dav Pilkey, American author and illustrator
• March 4 - Patrick Hannan, English pop drummer (The Sundays)
• March 4 - Steve Bastoni, Italian Australian actor
• March 4 - Sophia Ferrari, Italian actress
• March 4 - Wash Westmoreland, British film director
• March 5 - Mark Z. Danielewski, American author
• March 6 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist (died 1996)
• March 9 - Michael Patrick MacDonald, American memorist
• March 10 - Edie Brickell, American singer
• March 10 - Mike Timlin, baseball player
• March 17 - David Taylor, English Joiner
• March 25 - Tom Glavine, baseball player
• March 25 - Tatjana Patitz, model
• March 25 - Anton Rogan, Northern Irish footballer

April :

• April 1 - Chris Evans, British radio disc-jockey
• April 2 - Teddy Sheringham, British footballer
• April 3 - Miina Tominaga, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
• April 4 - Riduan Isamuddin, Bali bombing suspects
• April 8 - Robin Wright Penn, American actress
• April 8 - Bobby Ologun, Nigerian television personality and martial artist
• April 11 - Dustin Rhodes, American professional wrestler
• April 11 - Lisa Stansfield, British soul singer
• April 13 - Ali Boumnijel, Tunisian football goalkeeper
• April 14 - Greg Maddux, American baseball player
• April 14 - Lloyd Owen, British actor
• April 15 - Samantha Fox, British model and singer
• April 18 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian athlete
• April 21 - Bubba the Love Sponge, American radio personality
• April 22 - Jeffrey Dean Morgan, American actor
• April 28 - John Daly, American golfer
• April 29 - Phil Tufnell, British cricketer

May :

• May 1 - J. P. Bode, German photographer
• May 8 - Kamil Kaák, Czechoslovakian ice hockey player
• May 8 - Cláudio Taffarel, Brazilian goalkeeper
• May 8 - Marta Sánchez, Spanish female vocalist, entertainer
• May 10 - Jonathan Edwards, British athlete
• May 11 - Christoph Schneider, German musician (Rammstein)
• May 12 - Stephen Baldwin, American actor
• May 13 - Darius Rucker, American singer (Hootie & the Blowfish)
• May 16 - Janet Jackson, American singer
• May 16 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
• May 24 - Éric Cantona, French footballer
• May 26 - Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
• May 26 - Zola Budd, South African athlete
• May 30 - Stephen Malkmus, American singer (Pavement),(Stephen Malkmus)

June :

• June 1 - Greg Schiano, American football coach
• June 4 - Cecilia Bartoli, Italian mezzo-soprano
• June 4 - Tiffany Million, American actress
• June 6 - Murdoc Niccals, Member of Gorillaz, Damien Thorn The Awnser to Armegeddon
• June 8 - Julianna Margulies, American actress
• June 8 - Doris Pearson, British singer Five Star
• June 8 - Jens Kidman, Swedish musician
• June 14 - Matt Freeman, American musician
• June 15 - Roberto Carnevale, musician
• June 16 - Jan elezný, Czech javelin thrower
• June 17 - Christy Canyon, porn actress
• June 18 - Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater
• June 19 - Samuel West, British actor
• June 21 - Rudi Bakhtiar, American journalist
• June 22 - Michael Park, British rally co-driver (d. 2005)
• June 23 - Richie Ren, Taiwanese musician
• June 24 - Hope Sandoval, American singer-songwriter
• June 25 - Dikembe Mutombo, Congolese basketball player
• June 27 - J. J. Abrams, American television writer and producer
• June 28 - Mary Stuart Masterson, American actress
• June 28 - John Cusack, American actor
• June 30 - Mike Tyson, American boxer
• June 30 - Marton Csokas, New Zealand actor

July :

• July 1 - Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer
• July 3 - Moises Alou, baseball player
• July 5 - Kathryn Erbe, American actress
• July 5 - Claudia Wells, American actress
• July 5 - Gianfranco Zola, Italian football (soccer) player
• July 7 - Gundula Krause, German violinist
• July 13 - Gerald Levert, American singer (d. 2006)
• July 14 - Tanya Donelly, American musician
• July 14 - Matthew Fox, American actor
• July 15 - Irène Jacob, French-born actress
• July 15 - Dimitris P. Kraniotis, Greek poet
• July 29 - Martina McBride, American singer
• July 29 - Richard Steven Horvitz, American voice actor
• July 30 - Murilo Bustamante, Brazilian mixed martial artist
• July 31 - Dean Cain, American actor

August :

• August 2 - Tim Wakefield, American baseball player
• August 7 - Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
• August 7 - Kristin Hersh, American musician
• August 11 - Juan Maria Solare, Argentine composer
• August 12 - Les Ferdinand, English footballer
• August 14 - Halle Berry, American actress
• August 17 - Rodney Mullen, famous flatland skateboarder
• August 19 - Lee Ann Womack, American musician
• August 20 - Dimebag Darrell, guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan (d. 2004)
• August 23 - Rik Smits, Dutch basketball player
• August 25 - Derek Sherinian, American keyboardist
• August 26 - Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player
• August 26 - Shirley Manson, Scottish musician and Garbage frontwoman
• August 28 - Priya Dutt, Indian social worker and politician

September :

• September 2 - Salma Hayek, Mexican-born actress
• September 3 - Yaxeni Oriquen, American bodybuilder
• September 4 - Yanka Dyagileva, Russian singer
• September 6 - Eduardo Maruri, Ecuadorian business man and politician
• September 8 - Thomas Laurent-Ward, French Cyclist
• September 9 - Georg Hackl, German luger
• September 9 - Adam Sandler, American actor and comedian
• September 12 - Ben Folds, piano rock artist
• September 22 - Moustafa Amar, Egyptian pop star
• September 24 - Michael J. Varhola, American author and publisher

October :

• October 1 - George Weah, Liberian politician and football player
• October 2 - Rodney Anoa'i, Samoan-American proffessional wrestler (d. 2000)
• October 3 - Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, Israeli settler leader (d. 2000)
• October 7 - Sherman Alexie, Native American author
• October 8 - Aaron Callaghan, Irish football club executive
• October 9 - David Cameron, British politician
• October 10 - Tony Adams, English footballer
• October 11 - Stephen Williams, British politician
• October 12 - Brian Kennedy, Irish musician and author
• October 19 - Sinitta, 80's Pop singer
• October 24 - Roman Abramovich, Russian oil magnate
• October 26 - Steve Valentine, British actor
• October 26 - Jeanne Zelasko, FOX baseball host
• October 27 - Matt Drudge, American Internet journalist
• October 28 - Steve Atwater, American football player

November :

• November 2 - David Schwimmer, American actor
• November 3 - Joe Hachem, Lebanese-born Australian poker player
• November 6 - Peter DeLuise, American actor
• November 6 - Paul Gilbert, American musician
• November 6 - Christian Lorenz, German musician (Rammstein)
• November 6 - Annette Zilinskas, Blood on the Saddle vocalist, former Bangle
• November 7 - Lin Xiaochieh, Burmese leader
• November 14 - Curt Schilling, baseball player
• November 17 - Jeff Buckley, American singer (d. 1997)
• November 17 - Sophie Marceau, French actress
• November 20 - Kevin Gilbert, American singer, composer, and instrumentalist
• November 21 - Troy Aikman, American football player
• November 23 - Vincent Cassel, French actor
• November 30 - Wil Mara, American author
• November 30 - David Nicholls, English novelist and screenwriter

December :

• December 1 - Larry Walker, Canadian Major League Baseball player
• December 7 - C. Thomas Howell, American actor
• December 7 - Linn Ullmann, Norwegian journalist and author
• December 8 - Sinéad O'Connor, Irish pop singer
• December 11 - Leon Lai, Hong Kong singer and actor
• December 12 - Yoshihiro Asai, Japanese professional wrestler (Último Dragon)
• December 12 - Royce Gracie, Brazilian martial artist
• December 14 - Bill Ranford, Canadian hockey player
• December 16 - Dennis Wise, English footballer
• December 20 - Ed de Goeij, Dutch footballer
• December 20 - Chris Robinson, American singer (Black Crowes)
• December 21 - Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor
• December 22 - Dmitry Bilozerchev, Soviet gymnast
• December 27 - Wendy Coakley-Thompson, author
• December 27 - Bill Goldberg, American professional wrestler
• December 27 - John Harrington, photographer

Deaths :

January-March :

• January 1 - Vincent Auriol, President of France (b. 1884)
• January 11 - Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (b. 1901)
• January 11 - Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (b. 1889)
• January 14 - Barry Fitzgerald, Irish actor (b. 1888)
• January 14 - Bill Carr, American athlete (b. 1909)
• January 15 - Sergei Korolev, Russian space scientist (b. 1906)
• January 15 - Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Nigerian premier of the Western region and Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of the Yoruba (b. 1910)
• January 18 - Kathleen Norris, American writer (b. 1880)
• February 1 - Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (b. 1895)
• February 1 - Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885)
• February 10 - Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (b. 1899)
• February 10 - Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India (b. 1904)
• February 15 - Gerard Cioek, Polish architect and historian of gardens (b. 1909)
• February 20 - Chester Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
• March 1 - Fritz Houtermans, German physicist (b. 1903)
• March 3 - Maxfield Parrish, American artist (b. 1870)
• March 3 - Alice Pearce, American actress (b. 1917)
• March 3 - William Frawley, American actor (b. 1887)
• March 5 - Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (b. 1889)
• March 8 - William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, British politician (b. 1907)
• March 10 - Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)

April-June :

• April 1 - Flann O'Brien, Irish humorist (b. 1911)
• April 2 - C.S. Forester, English author (b. 1899)
• April 3 - Battista Farina, Italian car designer (b. 1893)
• April 10 - Evelyn Waugh, English author (b. 1903)
• April 11 - Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, military dictator of El Salvador (assassinated) (b. 1882)
• April 13 - Georges Duhamel, French author (b. 1884)
• April 13 - Abdul Salam Arif, President of Iraq (b. 1921)
• April 23 - Georges Ohsawa, Japanese diet founder (b. 1893)
• May 22 - Tom Goddard, English cricketer (b. 1900)
• May 23 - Demchugdongrub, Mongolian politician (b. 1902)
• June 1 - Papa Jack Laine, American jazz musician (b. 1873)
• June 7 - Jean Arp, Alsatian sculptor, painter, and poet (b. 1887)
• June 8 - Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer (b. 1890)
• June 11 - Delmore Schwartz, American poet (b. 1913)
• June 12 - Hermann Scherchen, Austrian conductor (b. 1891)
• June 19 - Ed Wynn, American actor (b. 1886)
• June 30 - Giuseppe Farina, Italian race car driver (b. 1906)

July-September :

• July 2 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (b. 1900)
• July 5 - George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
• July 6 - Sad Sam Jones, baseball player (b. 1892)
• July 24 - Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)
• August 3 - Lenny Bruce, American comedian (b. 1925)
• August 6 - Cordwainer Smith, American author (b. 1913)
• September 5 - Dezs Lauber, Hungarian sportsman and architect (b. 1879)
• September 6 - Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (b. 1879)
• September 6 - Hendrik Verwoerd, Dutch-born Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1901)
• September 11 - C. E. Woolman, American Airlines founder (b. 1889)
• September 14 - Gertrude Berg, American actress (b. 1899)
• September 17 - Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (b. 1930)
• September 28 - Andre Breton, French writer (b. 1896)
• September - Hiram Wesley Evans, American leader of the Ku Klux Klan (b. 1881)

October-December :

• October 7 - Smiley Lewis, American R&B musician (born 1913)
• October 16 - George O'Hara, American actor (born 1899)
• October 18 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian-born beautician and cosmetics entrepreneur (born 1878)
• October 26 - Alma Cogan, English singer (born 1932)
• November 2 - Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1884)
• November 2 - Mississippi John Hurt, American singer and guitarist (born 1893)
• November 19 - Arthur Haynes, English comedian (born 1914)
• November 23 - Seán T. O'Kelly, second President of Ireland (born 1882)
• December 15 - Walt Disney, American animated film producer (born 1901)

Nobel prizes :

• Physics - Alfred Kastler
• Chemistry - Robert S. Mulliken
• Physiology or Medicine - Peyton Rous, Charles Brenton Huggins
• Literature - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Nelly Sachs
• Peace - not awarded

1966 in Fiction :

• In the 1960 film adaptation of The Time Machine a thermonuclear war leads to the incineration of London on October 12 1966.

See also :

• 20th century

Notes :

External links :

Table of contents :