1966

Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

Years: 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 - 1966 - 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971

Events

• January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bedel Bokassa takes over the Central African Republic.
• January 3 - First Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco.
• January 4 - Military coup in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
• 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 in Nigeria
• January 17 - The Nigerian coup is overturned.
• January 17 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one into the sea
• January 19 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India.
• January 26 - Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires.
• January 29 - The first of 608 performances of Sweet Charity opens at the Palace Theatre in New York City.
• January - First SR-71 spy plane goes into service.
• February 3 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
• February 23 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
• February 24 - A military coup in Ghana raises sacked general Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.
• March 1 - Venera 3 Soviet space probe 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 4 - John Lennon says, "We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus" later sparking controversy in the United States.
• March 8 - Vietnam War: Australia announces it was going to substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
• March 8- A bomb planted by an Irish Republican destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.
• March 10 - Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg.
• March 17 - Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the ALVIN submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
• March 31 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first spaceprobe to enter orbit around the moon.
• May 9 - The People's Republic of China detonates its first hydrogen bomb
• May 25 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.
• May 25 - In St. Louis, Missouri, US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
• May 26 - Guyana achieves independence.
• June 28 - In Argentina a Junta deposes president Arturo Ilia in a coup and appoints general Juan Carlos Ongania to lead.
• July 4 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into law. The act goes into effect the following year.
• July 6 - Malawi becomes a republic.
• July 14 - In Chicago, Illinois, Richard Speck murders eight student nurses in their dormitory.
• July 18-July 21 - Gemini 10 orbits the earth.
• 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.
• August 10 - Lunar Orbiter 1 is launched.
• August 16 - Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong with the intent to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.
• 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 30 - Botswana achieves independence.
• October 4 - Lesotho achieves independence.
• October 14 - The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro).
• October 15 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.
• November 2 - The Cuban Adjustment Act enters 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 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.
• November 15 - Gemini program: Gemini 12 carrying astronauts James A. Lovell and Buzz Aldrin splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean 600 km to the east of the Bahamas.
• November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.
• December 1 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger becomes Chancellor of Germany.
• December 26 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach

• Cultural Revolution declared in mainland China.
• In Burundi, King Mwambutsa IV is deposed by his son Ntare V, who is in turn deposed by prime minister Michel Micombero.
• Rene Barrientos is elected president of Bolivia.
• Joaquin Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
• US Supreme Court decides Miranda v. Arizona.
• Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found Black Panther Party.
• Gwynfor Evans becomes first Plaid Cymru member of Parliament in UK.
• Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rastafarian leaders
• 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.
• US Congress creates National Council for Marine Resources and Engineering Development.
• 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.

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1966 in film
  • A Man for All Seasons
  • Alfie
  • The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
  • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone
• 1966 in literature
  • The Circle Game by Margaret Atwood
  • Expeditions by Margaret Atwood
  • Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein by Margaret Atwood
  • The Dartmoor Worker anthology of William Crossing
  • Der Meteor by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
  • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
  • The Solid Mandala by Patrick White
• 1966 in music
  • January 16 - Metropolitan Opera House opens in Lincoln Center, New York City.
  • January 17 - Simon and Garfunkel release album Sounds of Silence.
  • October 10 - Simon and Garfunkel release album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

  • August 29 - Beatles give last concert, in San Francisco.
• 1966 in sports
  • July 30 - At Wembley Stadium, host England wins the first televised Football World Cup, beating Germany 4 to 2.
• 1966 in television
  • The first episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek airs.
  • January 12 - Batman debuts on ABC.
  • September 12 - The Monkees premieres.
  • Canadian television stations broadcast in color for the first time.

Births

• January 12 - Rob Zombie, musician, artist, writer
• January 13 - Patrick Dempsey, actor
• January 17 - Shabba Ranks, singer
• February 1 - Michelle Akers, American soccer star
• February 9 - Ellen van Langen, Dutch athlete
• February 11 - Anthony Parker, American football player
• February 11 - Patrick Kuhnen, West German tennis player
• February 11 - Stephen Gregory, actor
• February 20 - Cindy Crawford, model
• February 22 - Brian Andrew Greig, statesman
• February 24 - Billy Zane, actor
• February 25 - Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete
• March 3 - Tone Loc, musician
• March 10 - Edie Brickell, singer
• April 18 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian javelin thrower
• April 29 - Phil Tufnell, cricketer
• May 10 - Jonathan Edwards, British triple jumper
• May 12 - Stephen Baldwin, actor
• May 13 - Darius Rucker, musician, "Hootie & The Blowfish" frontman
• May 16 - Krist Novoselic, Nirvana bassist
• May 16 - Janet Jackson, singer
• May 24 - Eric Cantona, French footballer
• May 25 - Sugar Minott, singer
• May 26 - Helena Bonham Carter, actress
• June 30 - Mike Tyson, boxer
• July 3 - Moises Alou, Major League Baseball player
• July 15 - Irène Jacob, actress
• August 3 - Oliver Brown, ukulele performer and theorist
• August 11 - Juan Maria Solare, classical music composer
• August 14 - Halle Berry, actress
• September 4 - Yanka Dyagileva, Russian punk-rock singer
• September 9 - Georg Hackl, German luger
• October 27 - Matt Drudge, Internet journalist
• November 12 - David Schwimmer, American actor.
• November 17 - Sophie Marceau, actress
• November 17 - Jeff Buckley, singer (d. 1997)
• December 1 - Larry Walker, Canadian baseball player
• December 7 - C. Thomas Howell, actor
• December 21 - Kiefer Sutherland, actor

Deaths

• January 1 - Vincent Auriol, French president
• January 11 - Alberto Giacometti, Italian sculptor
• January 11 - Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish long-distance runner
• January 14 - Barry Fitzgerald, actor
• January 15 - Sergei Korolev, space scientist
• January 18 - Kathleen Norris, writer
• February 1 - Buster Keaton, American actor and film director
• February 1 - Hedda Hopper, gossip columnist
• February 10 - Billy Rose, composer, band leader
• February 10 - Lal Bahadur Shastri, prime minister of India
• February 20 - Chester Nimitz, American admiral
• March 3 - Maxfield Parrish, artist
• March 5 - Anna Ahmatova, poetess
• April 2 - C.S. Forester, author
• April 3 - Battista Pininfarina, car designer
• April 10 - Evelyn Waugh, author
• April 11 - Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, former military dictator of El Salvador (assassinated)
• April 13 - Georges Duhamel, author
• April 13 - Abdul Salam Arif, Iraqi president
• June 7 - Jean Arp, sculptor, painter, and poet
• June 8 - Anton Melik, Slovene geographer
• June 30 - Giuseppe Farina, Italian F1 race car driver
• July 7 - George de Hevesy, chemist; Nobel-laureate
• July 24 - Montgomery Clift, actor
• August 3 - Lenny Bruce, American comedian
• August 6 - Cordwainer Smith, science fiction author
• September 5 - Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman
• September 6 - Margaret Sanger, birth control advocate
• September 6 - Hendrik Verwoerd, prime minister of South Africa
• September 28 - Andre Breton, founder of surrealism
• November 2 - Mississippi John Hurt
• November 23 - Sean T. O'Kelly, second President of Ireland
• December 15 - Walt Disney

Nobel Prizes

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

Referenced By