1966

Published on Tuesday, February 28th 2006. Edited by Now Batwhocot, Tsuruoka, Japan.

Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century

Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s – 1960s – 1970s 1980s 1990s

Years: 1963 1964 1965 – 1966 – 1967 1968 1969

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 takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, taking out President David Dacko.
January 2 – A strike of public transportation workers in New York City begins (it will end January 13).
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 – The first SR-71 Blackbird spy plane goes into service at Beale AFB.
January 12 – United States President 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.
January 15 – 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, in the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident.
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 for 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 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

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21 22 23 24 25 26 27

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 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunge 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

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

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7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

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 4 – 124 killed BOAC Boeing 707 jetliner crashed Mount Fuji, Japan.
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 – 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 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 (see Transition to the New Order and Supersemar).
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 Black Hawks 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.

Archbishop of Canterbury meeting the Catholic Pope

March 19 – The Texas Western Miners defeat the Kentucky Wildcats with 5 black starters, ushering in desegregation in athletic recruiting.
March 20 – World Cup Trophy the “Jules Rimet” is stolen at an exhibition, it is later found by a dog named “Pickles” and his owner David Corbett.
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

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

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4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30

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 F.C. 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 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 – Uniform Daylight Saving Time first observed in most parts of North America.

May

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31

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 12 – African members of the UN Security Council say that the British army should blockade Rhodesia.
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 because of 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

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

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6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30

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 – Brian Flemming, American film director and playwright
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.
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. (2)– Phyllis and Joe Miele are Married.
June 20 – French President Charles De Gaulle starts visit to 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

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

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18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

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 8 – King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Ntare V, who is in turn deposed by prime minister Michel Micombero.
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 – 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 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 is injured in a motorcycle accident near his home in Woodstock, New York. He is not 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

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

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8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

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.
August 5 – Mao Zedong 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 13 – In the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong 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 – It is announced that the New York Herald Tribune will not resume 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

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30

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 – 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 12 – 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 Centre in New York City to the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s opera, Antony and Cleopatra.
September 19 – Scotland Yard arrests Ronald Edwards, suspected of involvement in the Great Train Robbery.
September 30 – Baldur von Schirach] and Albert Speer are released from Spandau Prison.
September 30 – Botswana achieves independence.

October

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

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3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

October – Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party.
October 1 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with eighteen fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.
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 9 – The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series, 1–0, to sweep the series for their 1st World Championship.
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. 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

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30

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 – A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
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

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

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5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

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 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.
December 26 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies, at California State University, Long Beach.
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.

Ongoing

First Sudanese Civil War (1955–72)
Guatemalan Civil War (1960–96)
Indochina Wars
Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation (1962–76)
Laotian Civil War (1962–75)
Marshall Plan
North Yemen Civil War (1962–70)
Portuguese Colonial War (1961–74)
Shifta War (1963–67)

Births

1966 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1966 MCMLXVI

Ab urbe condita 2719

Armenian calendar 1415 ԹՎ ՌՆԺԵ

Bahá'í calendar 122 – 123

Berber calendar 2916

Buddhist calendar 2510

Burmese calendar 1328

Chinese calendar 4602/4662-12-10 (乙巳年十二月初十日)

— to —

4603/4663-11-20 (丙午年十一月二十日)

Coptic calendar 1682 – 1683

Ethiopian calendar 1958 – 1959

Hebrew calendar 5726 – 5727

Hindu calendars

- Vikram Samvat 2021 – 2022

- Shaka Samvat 1888 – 1889

- Kali Yuga 5067 – 5068

Holocene calendar 11966

Iranian calendar 1344 – 1345

Islamic calendar 1385 – 1386

Japanese calendar Shōwa 41 (昭和41年)

Korean calendar 4299

Thai solar calendar 2509

January

January 1 – Anna Burke, Australian politician and member for Chisholm in the House of Representatives
January 1 – Crazy Legs, Puerto Rican Breakdancer, President of Rock Steady Crew
January 1 – Michael Imperioli, American actor
January 3 – Martin Galway, Northern Irish composer
January 4 – Deana Carter, American singer
January 5 – Kate Schellenbach, American musician, drummer for The Beastie Boys from 1981 to 1984, and Luscious Jackson
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

February 1 – Michelle Akers, American soccer player
February 4 – Kyoko Koizumi, Japanese actress and singer
February 6 – Rick Astley, British singer
February 7 – Chris Rock, American comedian
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 and actress
February 22 – Yahya Ayyash, chief bombmaker of Hamas and leader of Samaria battalion of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
February 22 – Brian Greig, Australian statesman
February 23 – Michael Arata, American actor
February 24 – Billy Zane, American actor
February 25 – Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete
February 25 – Tea Leoni, American actress
February 26 – Madeleine Carroll, British actress
February 26 – Najwa Karam, Lebanese singer

March

March 3 – Tone Lōc, 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 – Patrick Hannan, English pop drummer with The Sundays
March 4 – Steve Bastoni, Italian Australian actor
March 4 – Dav Pilkey, American writer
March 4 – Wash Westmoreland, British film director
March 5 – Mark Z. Danielewski, American author
March 6 – Maurice Ashley, African-American chess grandmaster
March 6 – Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist (died 1996)
March 7 – Jeff Feagles, National Football League punter
March 9 – Michael Patrick MacDonald, American memorist
March 10 – Edie Brickell, American singer
March 10 – Mike Timlin, baseball player
March 16 – Rodney Peete, former National Football League quarterback
March 17 – David Taylor, English Joiner
March 25 – Tom Glavine, Major League Baseball player
March 25 – Jeff Healey, Canadian guitarist (d. 2008)
March 25 – Anton Rogan, Northern Irish footballer
March 29 – Krassimir Balakov, former Bulgarian footballer and member of the Bulgarian national team

April

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 – Dustin Rhodes, American professional wrestler
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 20 – David Chalmers, Australian philosopher
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

May 1 – Anne Fletcher, American film director and choreographer
May 3 – Firdous Bamji, Indian-American actor
May 6 – Andrea Chiesa, Swiss Formula One driver
May 6 – Cindy Hsu, Emmy Award winning anchor and reporter
May 7 – Anderson Cummins, international cricketer
May 7 – Hill Harper, American film, television and stage actor
May 7 – Jes Høgh, Danish football (soccer) player
May 8 – Robert J. Behnen, genealogist and a former member of the Missouri House of Representatives
May 8 – Blag Dahlia, American musician, producer, and author
May 8 – Kamil Kašťák, Czechoslovakian ice hockey player
May 8 – Marta Sánchez, Spanish female vocalist, entertainer
May 8 – Cláudio Taffarel, Brazilian goalkeeper
May 10 – Mikael Andersson, ice hockey player
May 10 – Frank T. Caprio, General Treasurer of Rhode Island
May 10 – Wade Domínguez, American actor, model, singer and dancer (d. 1998)
May 10 – Jonathan Edwards, British athlete
May 10 – Anne Elvebakk, biathlete from Norway
May 10 – Genaro Hernandez, Mexican-American boxer
May 11 – Christoph Schneider, German musician (Rammstein)
May 12 – Stephen Baldwin, American actor
May 12 – Bebel Gilberto, Brazilian popular singer
May 13 – Nereus Acosta, politician, academician, and political scientist in the Philippines
May 13 – Cheryl Dunye, film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress
May 13 – Darius Rucker, American singer (Hootie & the Blowfish)
May 13 – Alison Goldfrapp, English singer-songwriter
May 13 – Jeffrey Scott Holland, American artist and musician
May 16 – Juan Manuel Funes, Guatemalan football coach and former midfielder
May 16 – Janet Jackson, American singer
May 16 – Thurman Thomas, American football player
May 19 – Neil Campbell, British musician
May 19 – Sophia Crawford, actress, stuntwoman and martial artist
May 20 – Mindy Cohn, American actress
May 20 – Joey Gamache, American boxer
May 21 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress and playwright
May 22 – Siri Eftedal, Norwegian team handball player and Olympic medalist
May 22 – Johnny Gill, American singer
May 23 – Graeme Hick, English cricketer
May 24 – Dan Abrams, MSNBC host and correspondent
May 24 – Eric Cantona, French footballer
May 24 – Francisco Javier Cruz, Mexican football player
May 24 – Ella Guru, American painter and musician
May 25 – Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh, Iranian goalkeeper and Iranian national football team member
May 25 – Jeff Cross (American football), American football defensive end
May 26 – Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
May 26 – Zola Budd, South African athlete
May 27 – Heston Blumenthal OBE, British chef
May 27 – Carol Campbell (actress), Afro-German actress, model and presenter
May 27 – Juan M. Garcia, Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives
May 28 – Theo Bleckmann, German vocalist and composer
May 28 – Larry Davis (criminal), (d. 2008)
May 29 – Robert Anderson, child murderer, executed 2006
May 30 – Frank Goosen, German cabaret artist and novel author
May 30 – Thomas Häßler, German football player
May 30 – Stephen Malkmus, American singer (Pavement),(Stephen Malkmus)

June

June 1 – Greg Schiano, American football coach
June 2 – Candace Gingrich, LGBT rights activist
June 4 – Cecilia Bartoli, Italian mezzo-soprano
June 4 – Tiffany Million, American actress
June 6 – Faure Gnassingbé, President of Togo
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 14 – Matt Freeman, American musician
June 15 – Roberto Carnevale, musician
June 16 – Jan Železný, Czech javelin thrower
June 17 – Christy Canyon, porn actress
June 18 – Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater
June 19 – Samuel West, British actor
June 21 – Rudi Bakhtiar, American journalist
June 22 – Michael Park, British rally co-driver (d. 2005)
June 23 – Richie Ren, Taiwanese musician
June 25 – Dikembe Mutombo, Congolese basketball player
June 27 – J. J. Abrams, American television writer and producer
June 28 – Mary Stuart Masterson, American actress
June 28 – John Cusack, American actor
June 30 – Mike Tyson, American boxer
June 30 – Marton Csokas, New Zealand actor

July

July 1 – Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer
July 3 – Moisés Alou, baseball player
July 5 – Kathryn Erbe, American actress
July 5 – Claudia Wells, American actress
July 5 – Gianfranco Zola, Italian football (soccer) player
July 6 – Brian Posehn American actor and comedian
July 7 – Jim Gaffigan, American comedian
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 22 – Shawn Michaels, American professional wrestler
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 12 – Les Ferdinand, English footballer
August 14 – Halle Berry, American actress
August 15 – Scott Brosius, former Major League Baseball player
August 17 – Rodney Mullen, famous flatland skateboarder
August 18 – Gustavo Charif, Argentine artist
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 25 – Derek Sherinian, American keyboardist
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

September 1 – Tim Hardaway, American basketball player
September 2 – Salma Hayek, Mexican-born actress
September 4 – Yanka Dyagileva, Russian singer
September 6 – Eduardo Maruri, Ecuadorian business man and politician
September 8 – Carola Häggkvist, Swedish pop singer
September 9 – Georg Hackl, German luger
September 9 – Adam Sandler, American actor and comedian
September 12 – Princess Akishino, Japanese princess
September 12 – Ben Folds, piano rock artist
September 22 – Mike Richter, American ice hockey player
September 22 – Moustafa Amar, Egyptian pop star
September 24 – Michael J. Varhola, American author and publisher

October

October 1 – George Weah, Liberian politician and football player
October 2 – Rodney Anoa'i, Samoan-American professional wrestler (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 14 – Savanna Samson, American porn star
October 19 – Jon Favreau, American actor and director
October 19 – Sinitta, 1980s pop singer
October 24 – Roman Abramovich, Russian oil magnate
October 26 – Jeanne Zelasko, FOX baseball host
October 27 – Matt Drudge, American Internet journalist
October 28 – Steve Atwater, American football player

November

November 2 – David Schwimmer, American actor
November 3 – Joe Hachem, Lebanese-born Australian poker player
November 6 – Peter DeLuise, American actor
November 6 – Paul Gilbert, American musician
November 6 – Christian Lorenz, German musician (Rammstein)
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 29 – John Bradshaw Layfield, American professional wrestler
November 30 – Wil Mara, American author
November 30 – David Nicholls, English novelist and screenwriter

December

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 13 – Don Roff, American writer and filmmaker
December 14 – Bill Ranford, Canadian hockey player
December 15 – Katja von Garnier, German film director
December 16 – Dennis Wise, English footballer
December 17 – Milos Tichy, Czech astronomer
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 24 – Diedrich Bader, American actor and comedian
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 (b. 1884)
January 11 – Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (b. 1901)
January 11 – Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (b. 1889)
January 14 – Barry Fitzgerald, Irish actor (b. 1888)
January 14 – Bill Carr, American athlete (b. 1909)
January 15 – Sergei Korolev, Russian space scientist (b. 1906)
January 15 – Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Nigerian premier of the Western region and Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of the Yoruba (b. 1910)
January 18 – Kathleen Norris, American writer (b. 1880)
February 1 – Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (b. 1895)
February 1 – Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885)
February 6 – Narcisa de Leon, Filipino film mogul (b. 1877)
February 10 – Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (b. 1899)
February 10 – Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India (b. 1904)
February 15 – Gerard Ciołek, Polish architect and historian of gardens (b. 1909)
February 20 – Chester Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
March 1 – Fritz Houtermans, German physicist (b. 1903)
March 3 – Maxfield Parrish, American artist (b. 1870)
March 3 – Alice Pearce, American actress (b. 1917)
March 3 – William Frawley, American actor (b. 1887)
March 5 – Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (b. 1889)
March 8 – William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, British politician (b. 1907)
March 10 – Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)

April-June

April 1 – Flann O'Brien, Irish humorist (b. 1911)
April 2 – C.S. Forester, English author (b. 1899)
April 3 – Battista Farina, Italian car designer (b. 1893)
April 10 – Evelyn Waugh, English author (b. 1903)
April 11 – Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, military dictator of El Salvador (assassinated) (b. 1882)
April 13 – Georges Duhamel, French author (b. 1884)
April 13 – Abdul Salam Arif, President of Iraq (b. 1921)
April 23 – Georges Ohsawa, Japanese diet founder (b. 1893)
May 22 – Tom Goddard, English cricketer (b. 1900)
May 23 – Demchugdongrub, Mongolian politician (b. 1902)
June 1 – Papa Jack Laine, American jazz musician (b. 1873)
June 7 – Jean Arp, Alsatian sculptor, painter, and poet (b. 1887)
June 8 – Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer (b. 1890)
June 11 – Delmore Schwartz, American poet (b. 1913)
June 12 – Hermann Scherchen, Austrian conductor (b. 1891)
June 19 – Ed Wynn, American actor (b. 1886)
June 30 – Giuseppe Farina, Italian race car driver (b. 1906)

July-September

July 2 – Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (b. 1900)
July 5 – George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
July 6 – Sad Sam Jones, baseball player (b. 1892)
July 14 – Julie Manet, French painter (b. 1878
July 24 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)
August 3 – Lenny Bruce, American comedian (b. 1925)
August 6 – Cordwainer Smith, American author (b. 1913)
September 5 – Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman and architect (b. 1879)
September 6 – Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (b. 1879)
September 6 – Hendrik Verwoerd, Dutch-born Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1901)
September 11 – C. E. Woolman, American Airlines founder (b. 1889)
September 14 – Gertrude Berg, American actress (b. 1899)
September 17 – Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (b. 1930)
September 28 – Andre Breton, French writer (b. 1896)
September – Hiram Wesley Evans, American leader of the Ku Klux Klan (b. 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

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966”

1966

Published on Tuesday, February 28th 2006. Edited by Now Batwhocot, Tsuruoka, Japan.

Events of 1966

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Ongoing

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths

January-March

April-June

July-September

October-December

Nobel prizes

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