1966

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

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

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

See also:

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Art, Culture & Fashion
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 Nobel Prizes

Events

January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bedel Bokassa takes over the Central African Republic.
January 3 - First Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco.
January 4 - Military coup in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
January 12 - Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
January 13 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
January 15 - A violent military coup in Nigeria
January 17 - The Nigerian coup is overturned.
January 17 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one into the sea
January 19 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India.
January 26 - Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires.
January 29 - The first of 608 performances of Sweet Charity opens at the Palace Theatre in New York City.
January - First SR-71 spy plane goes into service.
February 3 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
February 23 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
February 24 - A military coup in Ghana raises sacked general Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.
March 1 - Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
March 1 - The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria
March 4 - John Lennon says, "We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus" later sparking controversy in the United States.
March 8 - Vietnam War: Australia announces it was going to substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
March 8- A bomb planted by an Irish Republican destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.
March 10 - Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg.
March 17 - Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the ALVIN submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
March 31 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first spaceprobe to enter orbit around the moon.
May 9 - The People's Republic of China detonates its first hydrogen bomb
May 25 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.
May 25 - In St. Louis, Missouri, US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
May 26 - Guyana achieves independence.
June 28 - In Argentina a Junta deposes president Arturo Ilia in a coup and appoints general Juan Carlos Ongania to lead.
July 4 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into law. The act goes into effect the following year.
July 6 - Malawi becomes a republic.
July 14 - In Chicago, Illinois, Richard Speck murders eight student nurses in their dormitory.
July 18-July 21 - Gemini 10 orbits the earth.
July 26 - Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent.
August 10 - Lunar Orbiter 1 is launched.
August 16 - Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong with the intent to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.
September 6 - In Cape Town, the South African architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting.
September 30 - Botswana achieves independence.
October 4 - Lesotho achieves independence.
October 14 - The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro).
October 15 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.
November 2 - The Cuban Adjustment Act enters force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
November 4 - The Arno river floods Florence, damaging many art treasures.
November 6 - Lunar Orbiter 2 is launched.
November 8 - Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate.
November 15 - Gemini program: Gemini 12 carrying astronauts James A. Lovell and Buzz Aldrin splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean 600 km to the east of the Bahamas.
November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.
December 1 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger becomes Chancellor of Germany.
December 26 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach
Cultural Revolution declared in mainland China.
In Burundi, King Mwambutsa IV is deposed by his son Ntare V, who is in turn deposed by prime minister Michel Micombero.
Rene Barrientos is elected president of Bolivia.
Joaquin Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
US Supreme Court decides Miranda v. Arizona.
Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found Black Panther Party.
Gwynfor Evans becomes first Plaid Cymru member of Parliament in UK.
Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rastafarian leaders
Konstantin Chernenko, later leader of Soviet Union, becomes candidate member of the Central Committee.
Surrealist Movement in the United States founded by Franklin and Penelope Rosemont.
Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn are awarded the Fermi Prize.
US Congress creates National Council for Marine Resources and Engineering Development.
Martin Richards designs the BCPL programming language.
The DKW automobile goes out of production.
World Buddhist Sangha Council convened by Theravadins in Sri Lanka with the hope of bridging differences and working together.

Art, Culture & Fashion

1966 in film
- A Man for All Seasons
- Alfie
- The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone
1966 in literature
- The Circle Game by Margaret Atwood
- Expeditions by Margaret Atwood
- Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein by Margaret Atwood
- The Dartmoor Worker anthology of William Crossing
- Der Meteor by Friedrich D�rrenmatt
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
- The Solid Mandala by Patrick White
1966 in music
- January 16 - Metropolitan Opera House opens in Lincoln Center, New York City.
- January 17 - Simon and Garfunkel release album Sounds of Silence.
- October 10 - Simon and Garfunkel release album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
- August 29 - Beatles give last concert, in San Francisco.
1966 in sports
- July 30 - At Wembley Stadium, host England wins the first televised Football World Cup, beating Germany 4 to 2.
1966 in television
- The first episode of the science fiction television series ''Star Trek airs.
- January 12 - Batman debuts on ABC.
- September 12 - The Monkees premieres.
- Canadian television stations broadcast in color for the first time.

Births

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

Deaths

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

Nobel Prizes

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