1966

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Years: 1963 1964 1965 - 1966 - 1967 1968 1969
Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1966 in aviation 1966 in film 1966 in literature 1966 in music 1966 in sports 1966 in television 1966 in Canada

Events

January

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 - United Kingdom ceases all trade with Rhodesia
January - First SR-71 spy plane goes into service.

February

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 14 - The Australian Dollar was introduced at a rate of two dollars per pound, or ten shillings per dollar.
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

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 – Ronald Kray, one of the Kray twins, 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

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

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

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 - Sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen ends in United Kingdom
June 29 - US planes bomb Hanoi and Haiphong
June 30 - France formally leaves NATO

July

July 1 - Joaquin Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
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 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 30 - England beat West Germany 4-2 to win the World Cup at Wembley
July 31 (August 1?)- Charles Whitman shoots people from the observation tower of University of Texas

August

August 1 - Sniper Charles Whitman kills 16 from Texas Tower in Austin.
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 Jon 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

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 18 - Valerie Percy, the 21 year old daughter of Senator Charles 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 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

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

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)
Novermber 12 - Birthdate of David Schwimmer, popular American TV actor beginning in the 1990's.
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 28 Truman Capote's Black and White Ball -- dubbed The Party of the Century -- is held in New York City.
November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.

December

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.
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.

Year in topics

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 - The Beatles give last concert, in San Francisco.
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

Deaths

January-March

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-September

April 2 - C.S. Forester, English 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, Alsatian sculptor, painter, and poet
June 8 - Anton Melik, Slovene geographer
June 12 - Hermann Scherchen, conductor (b. 1891)
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 17 - Fritz Wunderlich, tenor
September 28 - Andre Breton, founder of surrealism

October-December

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

unknown dates

William Ernest Hocking

Nobel Prizes

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

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