1966

Years: 1963 1964 1965 - 1966 - 1967 1968 1969
Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar).

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 Bahadur 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 17 - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident on a routine mission which amputates his leg.
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 Abubakar Tafawa Balewa has been killed during the coup
January 26 - Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires
January 26 - Three Beaumont chrildren disapper on their way to Glenelg Beach Adelaide SA, Australia. Never to be seen again
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 - 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

Abelardo Targino MD is born in Fortaleza- Brasil

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 Bassett and Elliott 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 the United Nations
April 4 - Luna 10 enters Moon orbit
April 7 - The United Kingdom asks the 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 the United Kingdom is televised for the first time
April 27 - Pope Paul VI and Soviet premier Gromyko meet in the 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 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 5 - Gene Cernan completes second U.S. spacewalk (which lasted 2 hours, 7 minutes) on the Gemini 9 mission.
June 6 - James Meredith, civil rights activist, is shot while trying to march across Mississippi
June 13 - The U.S. 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. Raborn resigns - Richard Helms will be his successor
June 20-July 1 - Charles De Gaulle visits Soviet Union
June 21- Opposition leader Arthur Calwell injured when 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 - Sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen ends in the 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, 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, Richard Steven Horvitz is born.
July 30 - England beat West Germany 4-2 to win the World Cup at Wembley

August

August 1 - Sniper Charles Whitman kills 16 from the University of Texas at Austin Main Building.
August 1 - Military coup in Nigeria - general Yakubu 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 - In the Massacre of Braybrook Street, Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack 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 9 - NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.
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 HM Prison 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)
November 12 - Birthdate of Stuart King, 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 United Nations Industrial Development Organization
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 -prime minister of germany is elected 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, 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
December 31 - Congolese government takes over the Union Minière du Haut Katanga.