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

• January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bedel Bokassa takes over the Central African Republic.
• January 3 - First Acid Test[?] at the Fillmore Auditorium[?], San Francisco.
• 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 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.
• 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: Australian announces it was going to substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
• March 10 - Queen 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.
• 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.
• March 31 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first spaceprobe to enter orbit around the moon.
• July 4 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act will go into effect next year.
• July 6 - Malawi becomes a republic.
• July 18-July 21 - Gemini 10 orbits the earth.
• August 10 - Lunar Orbiter 1 is launched.
• September 30 - Botswana achieves independence.
• October 4 - Lesotho achieves independence.
• October 14 - Montreal metro system inaugurated.
• December 1 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger becomes Chancellor of Germany.
• November 6 - Lunar Orbiter 2[?] is launched.
• November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.
• 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 China.
• In Burundi, King Mwambutsa IV[?] is deposed by his son Ntare IV[?], 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 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 - Beatles give last concert, in San Francisco.
• 1966 in sports

• 1966 in television
  • January 12 - Batman debuts on ABC.
  • September 12 - The Monkees premieres.
  • Star Trek 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 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
• March 3 - Tone Loc[?], musician
• March 10 - Edie Brickell[?], singer
• April 18 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian javelin thrower
• May 12 - Stephen Baldwin, actor
• May 13 - Darius Rucker[?], musician ("Hootie & the Blowfish")
• May 16 - Krist Novoselic, a musician of Nirvana (band)
• May 16 - Janet Jackson, singer
• May 25 - Sugar Minott, singer
• May 26 - Helena Bonham Carter, actress
• July 15 - Irène 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
• Jonathan Edwards, British triple jumper

Deaths

• January 11 - Alberto Giacometti, Italian sculptor
• January 14 - Barry Fitzgerald, actor
• 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 20 - Chester Nimitz, American admiral
• March 3 - Maxfield Parrish[?], artist
• April 2 - C.S. Forester, author
• June 7 - Jean Arp, sculptor, painter, and poet
• June 8 - Anton Melik, Slovene geographer
• August 3 - Lenny Bruce, American comedian
• August 6 - Cordwainer Smith, science fiction author
• September 28 - Andre Breton, founder of surrealism
• November 2 - Mississippi John Hurt
• December 7 - C. Thomas Howell, actor
• 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