1966
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Years: 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 - 1966 - 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971
See also:
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 with a Ba'athist regime.
- 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 11 - A mine kills three Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.
- 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
- 1966 in literature
- 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.
- 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 1 - Michael Imperioli, actor
- 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 4 - Kevin Johnson, basketball player
- March 10 - Edie Brickell, singer
- March 25 - Tom Glavine, baseball pitcher
- April 14 - Greg Maddux, baseball pitcher
- April 18 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian javelin thrower
- April 28 - John Daly, American golfer
- 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 - Janet Jackson, singer
- May 24 - Eric Cantona, French footballer
- May 25 - Sugar Minott, singer
- May 26 - Helena Bonham Carter, actress
- June 18 - Kurt Browning, figure skater
- June 25 - Dikembe Mutombo, basketball player
- June 27 - J. J. Abrams, television writer and producer
- 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
- August 19 - Lee Ann Womack, country music musician
- September 4 - Yanka Dyagileva, Russian punk-rock singer
- September 9 - Georg Hackl, German luger
- September 21 - Kiefer Sutherland, actor
- October 27 - Matt Drudge, Internet journalist
- November 2 - David Schwimmer, American actor (Friends)
- November 14 - Curt Schilling, baseball pitcher
- 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
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
- March 8 - William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, British parliamentarian
- 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 1 - Papa Jack Laine, jazz musician (b. 1873)
- 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
- Physics - Alfred Kastler
- Chemistry - Robert S. Mulliken
- Medicine - Peyton Rous, Charles Brenton Huggins
- Literature - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Nelly Sachs
- Peace - Not Awarded