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).
★
January 4 - The prime ministers of
India and
Pakistan meet in
Moscow.
★
January 4 - 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.
★
January 10 - 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.
★
January 11 - Indian prime minister
Lal Bahadur Shastri dies.
★
January 11 - 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.
★
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 FC 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 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.
[1]
★
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.
★
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 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 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.
[2]
★
August 5 - Mao Tse-tung 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
China,
Mao Tse-Tung 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 - The ''
New York Herald Tribune'' stops 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: (unknown).
Births
January-February
★
January 1
★
★
Anna Burke,
Australian politician and member for
Chisholm in the
House of Representatives
★
★
Crazy Legs,
Puerto Rican Breakdancer, President of
Rock Steady Crew
★
★
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 1 -
Michelle Akers, American soccer player
★
February 4 -
Kyoko Koizumi, Japanese actress and singer
★
February 6 -
Rick Astley, British singer
★
February 9 -
Ellen van Langen, Dutch athlete
★
February 11 -
Stephen Gregory, American actor
★
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-April
★
March 3 -
Tone-Loc, 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
★
March 31 -
Roger Black, British athlete
★
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 -
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-June
★
May 8 -
Kamil Kašťák, 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 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 15 -
Roberto Carnevale, musician
★
June 17 -
Christy Canyon, porn actress
★
June 18 -
Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater
★
June 19 -
Samuel West, American actress
★
June 21 -
Rudi Bakhtiar, American journalist
★
June 22 -
Michael Park, British rally co-driver (died
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 -
John Cusack, American actor
★
June 30 -
Mike Tyson, American boxer
★
June 30 -
Marton Csokas, New Zealand actor
July-August
★
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 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 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-October
★
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 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 1 -
George Weah, Liberian politician and football player
★
October 2 -
Rodney Anoai, WWF Champion, Yokozuna (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-December
★
November 2 -
David Schwimmer, American actor
★
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 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 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 (born
1884)
★
January 11 -
Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (born
1901)
★
January 11 -
Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (born
1889)
★
January 14 -
Barry Fitzgerald, Irish actor (born
1888)
★
January 14 -
Bill Carr, American athlete (born
1909)
★
January 15 -
Sergei Korolev, Russian space scientist (born
1906)
★
January 15 -
Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Nigerian premier of the Western region and Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of the Yoruba (born
1910)
★
January 18 -
Kathleen Norris, American writer (born
1880)
★
February 1 -
Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (born
1895)
★
February 1 -
Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (born
1885)
★
February 10 -
Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (born
1899)
★
February 10 -
Lal Bahadur Shastri,
Prime Minister of India (born
1904)
★
February 15 -
Gerard Ciołek, Polish architect and historian of gardens (born
1909)
★
February 20 -
Chester Nimitz, American admiral (born
1885)
★
March 1 -
Fritz Houtermans, German physicist (born
1903)
★
March 3 -
Maxfield Parrish, American artist (born
1870)
★
March 3 -
Alice Pearce, American actress (born
1917)
★
March 3 -
William Frawley, American actor (born
1887)
★
March 5 -
Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (born
1889)
★
March 8 -
William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, British politician (born
1907)
★
March 10 -
Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (born
1888)
April-June
★
April 1 -
Flann O'Brien, Irish humorist (born
1911)
★
April 2 -
C.S. Forester, English author (born
1899)
★
April 3 -
Battista Pininfarina, Italian car designer (born
1893)
★
April 10 -
Evelyn Waugh, English author (born
1903)
★
April 11 -
Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, military dictator of El Salvador (assassinated) (born
1882)
★
April 13 -
Georges Duhamel, French author (born
1884)
★
April 13 -
Abdul Salam Arif,
President of Iraq (born
1921)
★
April 23 -
Georges Ohsawa, Japanese diet founder (born
1893)
★
May 22 -
Tom Goddard, English cricketer (born
1900)
★
May 23 -
Demchugdongrub, Mongolian politician (born
1902)
★
June 1 -
Papa Jack Laine, American jazz musician (born
1873)
★
June 7 -
Jean Arp, Alsatian sculptor, painter, and poet (born
1887)
★
June 8 -
Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer (born
1890)
★
June 11 -
Delmore Schwartz, American poet (born
1913)
★
June 12 -
Hermann Scherchen, Austrian conductor (born
1891)
★
June 19 -
Ed Wynn, American actor (born
1886)
★
June 30 -
Giuseppe Farina, Italian race car driver (born
1906)
July-September
★
July 2 -
Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (born
1900)
★
July 5 -
George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (born
1885)
★
July 6 -
Sad Sam Jones, baseball player (born
1892)
★
July 24 -
Montgomery Clift, American actor (born
1920)
★
August 3 -
Lenny Bruce, American comedian (born
1925)
★
August 6 -
Cordwainer Smith, American author (born
1913)
★
September 5 -
Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman and architect (born
1879)
★
September 6 -
Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (born
1879)
★
September 6 -
Hendrik Verwoerd, Dutch-born
Prime Minister of South Africa (born
1901)
★
September 11 -
C. E. Woolman, American Airlines founder (born
1889)
★
September 14 -
Gertrude Berg, American actress (b.
1899)
★
September 17 -
Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (born
1930)
★
September 28 -
Andre Breton, French writer (born
1896)
★
September -
Hiram Wesley Evans, American leader of the Ku Klux Klan (born
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
See also
★
20th century
Notes
External links
Table of contents
__TOC__
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