1966
Events
- January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic.
- January 2 - Strike of public transportation workers in New York City - ends January 13
- January 3 - First Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco
- January 4 - Military coup in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
- January 4 - Prime ministers of [[India] and Pakistan meet in Moscow
- January 5 - Fire due to a gas leak in Feyzin oil refinery near Lyon, France - 12 dead, 80 injured
- January 10 - Pakistani-Indian peace negotiations end successfully in Moscow
- January 10 - French paper L'Express publishes a story of Georges Figon, who took part of the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka. January 18 French police announces that Figon has committed suicide just before he was about to be arrested
- January 11 - Conference about the situation in Rhodesia begins in Lagos
- January 11 - Indian prime minister Lal Shastri dies
- 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 15 - Moscow announces that Sergei Korolev is dead
- 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 18 - About 8000 US soldiers land in South Vietnam - numbers of US troops total 190.000
- January 19 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India - sworn in January 24
- January 19 - Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies resigns
- January 20 - Demonstrations against high food prices in Hungary
- January 21 - Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro resigns due to a power struggle in his party
- January 22 - Military government of Nigeria announces that ex-prime minister Balewa has been killed during the coup
- January 26 - Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires
- January 27 - British government promises USA that British troops in Malaysia stay until more peaceful conditions in the region
- January 29 - The first of 608 performances of Sweet Charity opens at the Palace Theatre in New York City.
- January 31 - UK ceases all trade with Rhodesia
- January - First SR-71 spy plane goes into service.
- February 1 - West Germany has purchased 2600 political prisoners from East Germany
- February 3 - Soviet probe Luna 9 lands on the Moon
- February 3 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon
- February 4 - 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 Sinjavski are sentenced for five and seven years, respectively, for anti-Soviet writings
- February 11 - Belgian government resigns
- February 19 - Naval minister of United Kingdom, Christopher Mayhew, resigns
- February 20 - When Valeri Tarsis, Soviet author and translator is abroad, 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 - Curfew in Jakarta
- February 28 - US astronauts Charles Basset and Elliot See are killed in aircraft accident
- 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 2 - Kwame Nkrumah arrives in Guinea and is granted an asylum
- March 4 - John Lennon says, "We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus" later sparking controversy in the United States.
- March 5 - Massive theft of nuclear materials revealed in Brazil
- March 7 - Charles De Gaulle asks US president Johnson for negotiations about the state of NATO equipment in France
- March 8 - Anti-communist demonstrations in Indonesian foreign ministry
- March 8 – Ronnie Krai, the other half of Kray Brothers, shoots rival gangster George Cornell; the incidents leads to brother's incarceration
- March 8 - Vietnam War: Australia announces it is going to substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam
- March 8 - A IRA bomb destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin
- March 10 - Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg.
- March 10 - Wedding of Beatrix, the crown princess of Netherlands and 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 16 - Gemini 8 docks with Agena target satellite
- March 17 - More anti-communist demonstrations in Indonesia
- March 17 - Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
- March 23 - Pope and doctor Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, meet in Rome - the first official meeting for 400 years between the Catholic and the Anglican Churches
- March 26 - Demonstrations again the [{[Vietnam War]] in USA
- 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 - 23rd Communist party conference in Soviet Union - Leonid Brezhnev demands that US troops leave Vietnam and announces that Chinese-Soviet relations are not satisfying
- March 31 - The Labour Party under Harold Wilson win in 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 2 - Indonesian army demands that the country rejoin United Nations
- April 4 - Luna 10 enters Moon orbit
- April 7 - United Kingdom asks UN Security Council authority to use force to stop oil tankers that violate oil 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 14 - South Vietnamese government promises free elections in 3-5 months
- April 15 - anti-Nasser conspiracy exposed in Egypt
- April 18 - China declares that it stops economic aid to Indonesia
- April 21 - Artificial heart installed to the chest of Marcel DeRudder in Houston hospital
- April 21 - The opening of Parliament of United Kingdom is televised for the first time
- April 27 - Pope Paul VI and Soviet premier Gromyko meet in Vatican - the first meeting between representatives of the Catholic Church and Soviet Union
- April 29 - US troops in Vietnam total 250.000
- April 30 - regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel (discontinued 2000 due to Channel Tunnel)
- May 1 - Floods in Finnish coast
- May 4 - Fiat signs a contract with Soviet government to build a car factory in Soviet Union
- May 6 - The Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley sentenced for life imprisonment
- May 9 - The People's Republic of China detonates its first hydrogen bomb
- May 12 - African members of the UN Security Council say that British army should blockage Rhodesia
- May 12 - Peking radio claims that US planes have shot down a Chinese plane one Yunnan - US denies that 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 16-July 1 - Seamen's strike in Britain
- May 15 - South Vietnam army besieges Da Nang
- May 24 - Troops of Uganda army arrest Edward Mutesa II of Buganda and occupy his palace
- May 24 - Nigerian government forbids all political activity in the country (until the January 17 1969)
- 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.
- May 28 - Fidel Castro announces a martial law in Cuba because of possible US attack
- May 28 – Indonesian and Malayan governments declare that Indonesian Confrontation is over. Treaty signed in August 11
- May 31 - Philippines reform diplomatic relations with Malaysia
- June 2 - US space probe Surveyor lands on the Moon
- June 2 - Eamon de Valera re-elected as Irish president
- June 2 - Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarumon the Moon, becoming the first spacecraft to soft land on another world
- June 3 - Joacim Balaguer elected president of Dominican Republic
- June 6 - James Meredith, civil rights activist, is shot while trying to march across Mississippi
- June 13 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them
- June 17 - Air France personnel strike begins
- June 18 - CIA chief William F. Rayborn resigns - Richard Helms will be his successor
- June 20-July 1 - Charles De Gaulle visits Soviet Union
- June 28 - In Argentina a Junta deposes president Arturo Ilia in a coup and appoints general Juan Carlos Ongania to lead
- June 29 - Sailor's strike ends in United Kingdom
- June 29 - US planes bomb Hanoi and Haiphong
- June 30 - France formally leaves NATO
- July 3 - Rene Barrientos elected president of Bolivia
- July 4 - North Vietnam declares general mobilization
- 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 7 - Conference of Warsaw Pact ends with a promise to support North Vietnam
- July 12 - Indira Gandhi visits Moscow
- July 12 - Zambia threatens to leave [[British Commonwealth]9 because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia
- July 12 - US lieutenant major W.H. Whalen arrested for spying
- July 14 - Israeli and Syrian jet fighters fight over the Jordan River
- July 14 - In Chicago, Illinois, Richard Speck murders eight student nurses in their dormitory
- July 16 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about Vietnam War - Soviet Government refutes his ideas
- July 17 - Richard Speck arrested - he tries to commit suicide but fails
- July 18-July 21 - Gemini 10 orbits the earth
- July 19 - Chinese delegate in Netherlands, Liu en-Tsiu, is declared persona non grata because of death of a Chinese engineer in unclear circumstances; there are claims that he was kidnapped and taken to the delegate's office
- July 22 - Chinese government announces Dutch delegate G. J. Jongejans persona non grata but tells him not to leave the country before group of Chinese engineers has left the Netherlands
- July 24 - 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 - USA announces that U-2 reconnaissance plane has disappeared over Cuba
- July 29 - Nigerian army rebels and execute the head of state general Irons
- July 31 (August 1?)- Charles Whitman shoots people from the observation tower of University of Texas
- August 1 - Military coup in Nigeria - general Yakubo Gowon takes over
- August 2 - Spanish government forbids any flight of British military places through Spanish airspace
- August 5 - Martin Luther King leads a civil right march in Chicago
- August 6 - Rene Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia
- August 6 - Bridge over Tajo River in Lisbon, Portugal, is opened
- August 10 - East German court sentences Günter Laudahn to life imprisonment for espionage for USA
- August 10 - NASA launches Lunar Orbiter
- August 10 - Lunar Orbiter 1 is launched.
- August 12 - Harry Roberts, John Duddy and John Witney shoot dead three plain clothes policemen in London - they are later sentenced to life imprisonment
- August 13 - China announces "great leap forward"
- August 13 - An earthquake in Turkey - 2394 dead, 10000 injured
- August 15 - Syrian and Israeli troops clash over Lake Genesaret for three hours
- August 15 - New York Herald Tribune stops publication
- 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.
- August 17 - Saudi Arabia and 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 four times larger, at the Battle of Long Tan in Phuoc Tuy province, Republic of Vietnam
- August 19 - Earthquake in eastern Turkey destroys whole cities
- August 21 - Seven men sentenced to death in Egypt for anti-Nasser agitation
- August 26 - Riots in French Somaliland
- August 30 - France offers independence to French Somaliland
- September 1 - United Nations secretary general U Thant declares that he is not going to seek re-election because UN efforts in Vietnam have failed
- 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 13 - Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes new South African prime minister
- September 13 - TASS reports about clashes between members of the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Guard
- September 16 - In South Vietnam, Thich Tri Quang begins a 100-day hunger strike
- September 16 - Metropolitan Opera house opened in New York City
- September 19 - Scotland Yard arrests Ronald Edwards suspected of being involved of the great train robbery
- September 30 - October 1 (midnight) - Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer released from Spandau prison
- September 30 - Botswana achieves independence.
- October 3 - Tunisia severs its diplomatic relations to United Arab Republic
- October 4 - Israel applies for the outer membership of EEC
- October 4 - Basutoland becomes independent and takes the name Lesotho
- October 5 - UNESCO signs the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. This even is now celebrated as World Teachers' Day.
- October 7 - Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October
- October 11 - France and Soviet Union sign a treaty about cooperation in nuclear research
- 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.
- October 17 - Lesotho and Botswana accepted to join United Nations
- October 21 – Aberfan disaster 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 United Kingdom stop military flights to Gibraltar - Britain says no the next day
- October 24 - Negotiations about the Vietnam War begin in Manila, Philippines
- October 25 - Military court in Jakarta sentences ex-foreign minister Subandrio to death
- October 25 - Spain closes its Gibraltar border against non-pedestrian traffic
- October 26 - NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels
- October 28 - US artist Lynne Seemayer paints the Pink Lady, a 60-feet tall picture of a naked woman, above a tunnel on Malibu Canyon Road. Authorities has it painted over in November 3 (see [1])
- October 29 - Guinean delegation enroute to OAU meeting in Ethiopia is made hostages of Ghana government in Accra
- 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 5 - 38 African states demand that United Kingdom use force against 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.
- November 11 - A mine kills three Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.
- November 11 - Spain declares general amnesty about crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War (effectively only for Falangists side)
- 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 15 - Harry Maurice Roberts, who had killed three policemen in August, is caught near London
- November 16 - US doctor Samuel Sheppard is acquitted in his second trial of murder of his pregnant wife in 1954
- November 17 - UN General Assembly decides to found UNIDO
- November 21 - Army crushes an attempted coup in Togo
- November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.
- December 1 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger becomes Chancellor of West Germany.
- December 1 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith negotiate on HMS Tiger in Mediterranean
- December 2 - U Thant agrees to serve a second term as UN Secretary general
- December 3 - Anti-Portuguese demonstrations in Macao. Curfew declared the next day
- December 7 - Syria offers weapons to rebels in Jordan
- December 7 - Barbados is accepted into United Nations
- December 16 - UN Security council approves oil embargo against Rhodesia
- December 17 - South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia
- December 20 - Harold Wilson withdraws all his previous offers to Rhodesian government and announces that he agrees to the independence only after the founding of black majority government
- December 22 - Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith declares that he considers that Rhodesia is already a republic
- December 26 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach
- December 31 - Walter Ulbricht talks about negotiations about German unification
- December 31 - Thieves steal millions worth of paintings from Dulwich Art Gallery in London
Unknown dates
- 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.
- René 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.
- Long-term potentiation (LTP), the putative cellular mechanism of learning and memory, is first observed by Terje Lømo in Oslo, Norway.
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 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.
- June 27 - Dark Shadows premieres on ABC daytime.
- September 12 - The Monkees premieres.
- ABC switches to the color standard, meaning that all three American networks are regularly broadcasting in color.
- Canadian television stations broadcast in color for the first time.
- 1966 in humor
- The first known reference to no soap radio was this year, by Paul Perocchi from North Andover, Massachusetts[2]
Births
- January 1 - Michael Imperioli, actor
- January 12 - Rob Zombie, musician, artist, writer
- January 13 - Patrick Dempsey, actor
- January 17 - Shabba Ranks, singer
- January 29 - Romário, Brazilian football (soccer) player
- 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
- March 31 - Roger Black, British athlete
- 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 8 - Julianna Margulies, actress (ER)
- 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 8 - Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia
- 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 9 - Adam Sandler, actor, comedian (Saturday Night Live, Happy Gilmore, 50 First Dates)
- 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
- Linn Ullmann, Norwegian journalist and author
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 14 - Bill Carr, American athlete
- 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 1 - Fritz Houtermans, physicist (b. 1903)
- 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 2 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (b. 1900)
- 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 11 - C. E. Woolman, founder of Delta Air Lines
- September 28 - Andre Breton, founder of surrealism
- October 18 - Elizabeth Arden, beautician, and cosmetics entrepreneur
- 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