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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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