January
Main article: January 1966
January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
January 2 – A strike of public transportation workers in New York City begins (it will end January 13).
January 3 – The first Acid Test is conducted at the Fillmore, San Jose.
January 4
A military coup occurs in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
The prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet in Moscow.
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.
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.
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 bloody military coup is staged in Nigeria, deposing the civilian government.
January 17
The Nigerian coup is overturned by another faction of the military, leaving a military government in power. This is the beginning of a long period of military rule.
A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and one into the sea, in the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash.
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 has committed suicide, prior to his arrest for the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka.
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 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.
The Chadian Muslim insurgent group FROLINAT is founded in Sudan, starting the Chadian Civil War.
January 24 – Air India Flight 101 crashes into Mont Blanc, killing all 117 persons on board, including Dr. Homi J. Bhabha, chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission.
January 26
Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires.
Beaumont children disappearance: Three children disappear on their way to Glenelg, South Australia, never to be seen again.
January 27
The British government promises the U.S. that British troops in Malaysia will stay until more peaceful conditions occur in the region.
Britain's Labour Party unexpectedly retains the parliamentary seat of Hull North in a by-election, with a swing of 4.5% to their candidate from the opposition Conservatives, and a majority up from 1,181 at the 1964 General Election to 5,351.
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
Main article: February 1966
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 plunges into Tokyo Bay; 133 are killed.
February 6 - The TV series Mister Ed airs its final episode (ran 1961-66).
February 8 – The National Hockey League announces it will expand to 12 teams for the 1967 season.
February 10 – Soviet writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to 5 and 7 years, respectively, for 'anti-Soviet' writings.
February 12 – Vietnam War: The Tây Vinh Massacre occurs.
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 – An intra-party military coup in Syria replaces the previous government of Amin al-Hafiz by one led by Salah Jadid.
February 24 – A military coup in Ghana raises sacked General Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.
February 26
Gò Dài massacre: Vietnam War.
A curfew is declared in Jakarta, Indonesia.
February 28
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson calls a General Election in the United Kingdom, to be held on 31 March.
U.S. astronauts Charles Bassett and Elliot See are killed in an aircraft accident in St. Louis, Missouri.
March
Main article: March 1966
March – The DKW automobile ceases production in Germany.[1]
March 1
The British Government announces plans for the decimalisation of the pound sterling (hitherto denominated in 20 shillings and 240 pence to the £), to come into force in February 1971
Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.
The Frost Report, which launched the television careers of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett and also the careers of other writers and performers, is first broadcast on BBC.
March 2 – Kwame Nkrumah arrives in Guinea and is granted asylum.
March 4
Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 crashes during a night landing in poor visibility at Tokyo International Airport in Japan, killing 64 of 72 persons on board.
In an interview with London Evening Standard reporter Maureen Cleave, John Lennon of The Beatles states that they are "more popular than Jesus now".
March 5
BOAC Flight 911 crashes in severe clear-air turbulence over Mount Fuji soon after taking off from Tokyo International Airport in Japan, killing all 124 on board.
A massive theft of nuclear materials is revealed in Brazil.
Merci Chérie by Udo Jürgens (music by Udo Jürgens, lyrics 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.
Vietnam War: The U.S. announces it will substantially increase the number of its troops in Vietnam.
Nelson's Pillar in O'Connell Street, Dublin, is clandestinely blown up by former Irish Republican Army volunteers marking this year's 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising.
March 9 – Ronnie, one of the Kray twins, shoots George Cornell (an associate of rivals The Richardson Gang) dead at The Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, east London, a crime for which he is finally convicted in 1969.
March 10 – Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg. Some spectators demonstrate against the groom because he is German.
March 11
Transition to the New Order in Indonesia: President Sukarno gives all executive powers to General Suharto by signing the 'Supersemar' order.
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 Blackhawks sets the National Hockey League single season scoring record against the New York Rangers with his 51st goal.
March 16 – NASA spacecraft Gemini 8 (David Scott, Neil Armstrong) conducts the first docking in space, with an Agena target vehicle.
Paul Van Doren established the Vans shoe company in California.
March 17
More anti-communist demonstrations occur in Indonesia.
Off the Mediterranean coast of Spain, the United States Navy submersible DSV Alvin finds a missing U.S. hydrogen bomb.
March 19 – The Texas Western Miners defeat the Kentucky Wildcats with five African-American starters, ushering in desegregation in athletic recruiting.
March 20 – Football's Jules Rimet Trophy is stolen whilst on exhibition in London; it is found 7 days later by a mongrel dog named "Pickles" and his owner David Corbett, wrapped in newspaper in a south London garden.
March 22 – In Washington, D.C., 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 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
Cevdet Sunay becomes the fifth president of Turkey.
Indira Gandhi visits Washington, D.C.
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 satisfactory.
March 31
The British Labour Party led by Harold Wilson wins the United Kingdom General Election, gaining a 96-seat majority (compared with a single seat majority when the election was called on 28 February).[2]
The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
April
April 2 – The Indonesian army demands that the country rejoin the United Nations.
April 3 – Luna 10 is the first manmade object to enter lunar orbit.
April 7 – The United Kingdom asks the United Nations 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.
Leonid Brezhnev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Union, as well as Leader of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.
Time magazine cover story asks "Is God Dead?".
April 9 – The captain of English football league club Norwich City F.C., Barry Butler, is killed in a car accident.
April 13
United States' magazine Time's cover story is ‘London: The Swinging City’
United States president Lyndon Johnson signs the 1966 Uniform Time 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.
The 38th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
April 19 – Bobbi Gibb becomes the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.
April 21
An artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas hospital.
The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time.
Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rasta leaders.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, for the murders of 3 children who vanished between November 1963 and October 1965.
April 24 – Uniform daylight saving time is first observed in most parts of North America.
April 26
A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
Tashkent, the largest city in Soviet Central Asia is mostly destroyed by a huge earthquake
April 27 – Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in the Vatican (the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviet Union).
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).
The Church of Satan is formed by Anton Szandor LaVey in San Francisco.
May
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 5 – The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
May 6 – The Moors murders trial ends with Ian Brady being found guilty on all 3 counts of murder and sentenced to 3 concurrent terms of life imprisonment. Myra Hindley is convicted on 2 counts of murder and of being an accessory in the third murder committed by Brady, and receives 2 concurrent terms of life imprisonment and a 7-year fixed term for being an accessory.
May 12
African members of the UN Security Council say that the British army should blockade Rhodesia.
The Busch Memorial Stadium opens in St Louis, Missouri.
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.
The South Vietnamese army besieges Da Nang.
Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators again picket the White House, then rally at the Washington Monument.
May 16
The Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
A seamen's strike is called in Britain.
The legendary album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is released.
Bob Dylan's seminal album, Blonde on Blonde is released in the U.S.
In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War.
May 19 – Gertrude Baniszewski is found guilty of murdering and torturing Sylvia Likens and is sentenced to life in prison (she is released on parole in December 1985).
May 24
Ugandan army troops arrest Mutesa II of Buganda and occupy his palace.
The Nigerian government forbids all political activity in the country until January 17, 1969.
May 25 – Explorer program: Explorer 32 is launched.
May 26 – Guyana achieves independence.
May 28
It's a Small World opens at Disneyland.
Fidel Castro declares martial law in Cuba because of a possible U.S. attack.
The Indonesian and Malaysian governments declare that the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation is over (a treaty is signed on August 11).
May 31 – The Philippines reestablishes diplomatic relations with Malaysia.
June
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.
Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
Four former cabinet ministers are executed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 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 – 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.
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, and the campus of Washburn University suffers catastrophic damage.[3]
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.
June 20 – French President Charles de Gaulle starts his visit to the Soviet Union.
June 21 – Opposition leader Arthur Calwell is shot after attending a political meeting in Mosman, Sydney, Australia.
June 27
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention's debut album, Freak Out!, is released. It is an initial failure, but gains a massive cult following in subsequent years.
The gothic soap opera Dark Shadows premieres on ABC.
June 28 – In Argentina, a junta deposes president Arturo Umberto Illia in a coup, and appoints General Juan Carlos Onganía to lead.
June 29
A sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen, ends in the United Kingdom.
Vietnam War: U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.
June 30
France formally leaves NATO.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, D.C.
July
Main article: July 1966
July – Gangster Charlie Richardson is arrested by police and sentenced to 25 years in prison in the following year for his part in the Torture Gang assaults.
July 1 – Joaquín Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
July 3
31 people are arrested when a demonstration by approximately 4,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters in front of the U.S. Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square turns violent
René Barrientos is elected president of Bolivia.
July 4
North Vietnam declares general mobilization.
American President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act, which goes into effect the following year.
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.
British Motor Corporation and Jaguar Cars announce plans to merge as British Motor Holdings.
July 12
Indira Gandhi visits Moscow.
Zambia threatens to leave the Commonwealth of Nations because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia.
July 13 – The International Society for Krishna Consciousness is founded in New York City by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
July 14
Israeli and Syrian jet fighters clash over the Jordan River.
Richard Speck murders 8 student nurses in their Chicago dormitory. He is arrested on July 17.
Gwynfor Evans, President of Plaid Cymru, becomes Member of the United Kingdom Parliament for Carmarthen, taking the previously Labour-held Welsh seat at a by-election with a majority of 2,435 on an 18% swing, and giving Plaid Cymru its first representation at Westminster in its forty-one year history.
July 16 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about the Vietnam War (the Soviet government rejects his ideas).
July 18
Gemini 10 (John Young, Michael Collins) is launched. After docking with an Agena target vehicle, the astronauts then set a world altitude record of 474 miles (763 km).
The Hough Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio, the city's first race riot.
Australian children's television series Play School airs for the first time, going on to become the longest-running children's show in Australia, and the second longest running children's show in the world.[4]
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
Nigerian army officers from the north of the country rebel and execute head of state General Aguiyi-Ironsi.
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
Main article: August 1966
August 1
Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 people and wounds 31 from atop the University of Texas at Austin Main Building tower, after earlier killing his wife and mother.
A military coup occurs in Nigeria; General Yakubu Gowon takes over.
August 2 – The Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft.
August 5
Groundbreaking takes place for the World Trade Center.
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.
The Caesars Palace hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas.
The Beatles' Revolver LP is released in the United Kingdom.
August 6
Braniff Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, killing all 42 on board.
René Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia.
The Salazar Bridge (now the 25 de Abril 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.
Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit the moon, 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 12 – Massacre of Braybrook Street: Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plainclothes policemen in London; they are later sentenced to life imprisonment.
August 13
In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong begins the Cultural Revolution to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party.
An earthquake in Varto town, Turkey, kills 2,394 and injures 10,000.
August 15
Syrian and Israeli troops clash over Lake Kinneret (also known as the Sea of Galilee) for 3 hours.
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 – Battle of Long Tan: D Company, 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, meets and defeats a Viet Cong force estimated to be four times larger, 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 Asian Development Bank (ADB) established.
The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), is formed.
August 24 – The Doors record their self-titled debut LP.
August 26
Riots occur in French Somaliland.
The first battle of the South African Air Force and the South African Police with PLAN, the armed wing of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), takes place at Ongulumbashe in Northern South West Africa during Operation Blue Wildebeest. This battle starts the South African Border War which continues until 1989.
August 29 – The Beatles end their US tour with a concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It is their last-ever live performance, except for the short "rooftop concert" at the Apple Corps offices in January 1969.
August 30 – France offers independence to French Somaliland (later Djibouti in 1977).
September
Main article: September 1966
September 1
United Nations Secretary-General U Thant declares that he will not seek re-election, because U.N. efforts in Vietnam have failed.
98 British tourists die in an air crash in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
While waiting at a bus stop Ralph Baer, an inventor with Sanders Associates, writes a four-page document which lays out the basic principles for creating a video game to be played on a television: the beginning of a multi billion dollar industry.
September 6 – In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting.
September 7 – The ocean liner SS Hanseatic catches fire and burns in New York Harbor.
September 8 – Star Trek, the science fiction television series, debuts on NBC-TV in the United States with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap".
September 9 – NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.
September 12
Gemini 11 (Richard F. Gordon, Jr., Pete Conrad) docks with an Agena target vehicle.
B. J. Vorster becomes the new Prime Minister of South Africa.
September 13 – Clashes between the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Guards are reported by TASS in the Soviet Union.
September 16
In South Vietnam, Thích Trí Quang ends a 100-day hunger strike.
The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra.
September 18 – Valerie Percy, 21-year-old daughter of U.S. Senate candidate Charles H. Percy, is stabbed and bludgeoned to death in the family mansion on Chicago's North Shore.
September 19
Scotland Yard arrests Buster Edwards, suspected of involvement in the Great Train Robbery.
Timothy Leary forms the spiritual group League for Spiritual Discovery.
Indonesian military commander (later President) Suharto annoucs the resumption of Indonesian participation in the United Nations.
September 30
The Bechuanaland Protectorate in Africa achieves independence from the United Kingdom as Botswana, with Seretse Khama as its first President.
Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer are released from Spandau Prison.
October
Main article: October 1966
October
Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party.
The Toyota Corolla car is introduced.
October 1 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with 18 fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.[5]
October 3 – Tunisia severs diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic.
October 4
Israel applies for membership in the EEC.
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.
An experimental Reactor at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station suffers a partial meltdown when its cooling system fails.
October 6
LSD is made illegal in the United States and controlled so strictly that not only are possession and recreational use criminalized, but all legal scientific research programs on the drug in the US are shut down as well.
The Love Pageant Rally takes place in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park, a narrower section that projects into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.
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.
Vietnam War: Binh Tai Massacre.
Vietnam War: Diên Niên - Phước Bình massacre.
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.
The U.S. Congress passes a bill for the creation of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
ABC-TV telecasts a highly acclaimed 90-minute television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon, starring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Ann Howes. It wins many Emmy Awards 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.
The AFL-NFL merger is approved by the U.S. Congress.
October 22
British spy George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison; he is next seen in Moscow.
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.
Spain closes its Gibraltar border to non-pedestrian traffic.
October 26
NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels.
A fire aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany in the Gulf of Tonkin kills 44 crewmen.
October 27 – The United Nations takes Namibia from South Africa.
October 29
The first ever regeneration in Doctor Who of the Doctor: William Hartnell's face transforms into that of Patrick Troughton.
The Guinean delegation to the OAU meeting in Ethiopia, become hostages of the Ghanaian government in Accra.
November
Main article: November 1966
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 – In Italy, a flood of the Arno River hits Florence, flooding it to a maximum depth of 6.7 m (22 ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. In addition, a severe tidal flood hits Venice.
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.
Actor Ronald Reagan is elected Governor of California.
November 9 – John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at the Indica Gallery.
November 10 – Seán Lemass retires as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland to be replaced in the role by fellow Fianna Fáil member Jack Lynch.
November 11
A mine kills 3 Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.
Spain declares general amnesty for crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War (effective only for the Falangists' side).
November 14 – Jack L. Warner sells Warner Bros. Pictures to Seven Arts Productions, which eventually becomes Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.
November 15
Gemini 12 (James A. Lovell, Buzz Aldrin), splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km east of the Bahamas.
Harry Maurice Roberts, who killed 3 policemen in August, is caught near London.
A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
November 16 – U.S. doctor Sam Sheppard is acquitted in his second trial for the murder of his pregnant wife in 1954.
November 17
The U.N. General Assembly decides to found the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
A spectacular Leonid meteor shower passes over Arizona, at the rate of 2,300 a minute for 20 minutes.
November 21 – In Togo, the army crushes an attempted coup.
November 24
The Beatles begin recording sessions for their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band L.P.
Bulgarian TABSO Flight 101 crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board.
November 26 – In Vancouver, the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders to win the 54th Grey Cup.
November 27 – The Washington Redskins defeat the New York Giants 72–41 in the highest scoring game in NFL history.
November 28 – Truman Capote's Black and White Ball ('The Party of the Century') is held in New York City.
November 29 – The SS Daniel J. Morrell sinks in a storm on Lake Huron, killing 28 of its 29 crewmen.
November 30 – Barbados achieves independence.
December
Main article: December 1966
December 1
Kurt Georg Kiesinger is elected Chancellor of West Germany.
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith negotiate on the 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 5
December 6 – Bình Hòa massacre: Vietnam War.
December 7
Syria offers weapons to rebels in Jordan.
Barbados is admitted to the United Nations.
December 8 – The Typaldos Line's ferry SS Heraklion sinks in rough seas, in the Aegean Sea near Crete, leaving 217 dead.
December 15 – Walt Disney dies while producing The Jungle Book, the last animated feature under his personal supervision.
December 16
The U.N. Security Council approves an oil embargo against Rhodesia.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are adopted by the General Assembly, as Resolution 2200 A (XXI).
December 17 – South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia.
December 18 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, is shown for the first time on CBS, beginning an annual Christmas tradition in the USA.
December 19 – The Asian Development Bank begins operations.
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 26 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, founder of Organization US (a black nationalist group) and later chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach, from 1989 to 2002.
December 31
East German Premier Walter Ulbricht discusses negotiations about German reunification.
Thieves steal millions' worth of paintings from the Dulwich Art Gallery in London.
The Congolese government takes over the Union Minière du Haut Katanga.
Main article: January 1966
January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
January 2 – A strike of public transportation workers in New York City begins (it will end January 13).
January 3 – The first Acid Test is conducted at the Fillmore, San Jose.
January 4
A military coup occurs in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
The prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet in Moscow.
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.
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.
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 bloody military coup is staged in Nigeria, deposing the civilian government.
January 17
The Nigerian coup is overturned by another faction of the military, leaving a military government in power. This is the beginning of a long period of military rule.
A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and one into the sea, in the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash.
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 has committed suicide, prior to his arrest for the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka.
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 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.
The Chadian Muslim insurgent group FROLINAT is founded in Sudan, starting the Chadian Civil War.
January 24 – Air India Flight 101 crashes into Mont Blanc, killing all 117 persons on board, including Dr. Homi J. Bhabha, chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission.
January 26
Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires.
Beaumont children disappearance: Three children disappear on their way to Glenelg, South Australia, never to be seen again.
January 27
The British government promises the U.S. that British troops in Malaysia will stay until more peaceful conditions occur in the region.
Britain's Labour Party unexpectedly retains the parliamentary seat of Hull North in a by-election, with a swing of 4.5% to their candidate from the opposition Conservatives, and a majority up from 1,181 at the 1964 General Election to 5,351.
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
Main article: February 1966
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 plunges into Tokyo Bay; 133 are killed.
February 6 - The TV series Mister Ed airs its final episode (ran 1961-66).
February 8 – The National Hockey League announces it will expand to 12 teams for the 1967 season.
February 10 – Soviet writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to 5 and 7 years, respectively, for 'anti-Soviet' writings.
February 12 – Vietnam War: The Tây Vinh Massacre occurs.
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 – An intra-party military coup in Syria replaces the previous government of Amin al-Hafiz by one led by Salah Jadid.
February 24 – A military coup in Ghana raises sacked General Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.
February 26
Gò Dài massacre: Vietnam War.
A curfew is declared in Jakarta, Indonesia.
February 28
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson calls a General Election in the United Kingdom, to be held on 31 March.
U.S. astronauts Charles Bassett and Elliot See are killed in an aircraft accident in St. Louis, Missouri.
March
Main article: March 1966
March – The DKW automobile ceases production in Germany.[1]
March 1
The British Government announces plans for the decimalisation of the pound sterling (hitherto denominated in 20 shillings and 240 pence to the £), to come into force in February 1971
Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.
The Frost Report, which launched the television careers of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett and also the careers of other writers and performers, is first broadcast on BBC.
March 2 – Kwame Nkrumah arrives in Guinea and is granted asylum.
March 4
Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 crashes during a night landing in poor visibility at Tokyo International Airport in Japan, killing 64 of 72 persons on board.
In an interview with London Evening Standard reporter Maureen Cleave, John Lennon of The Beatles states that they are "more popular than Jesus now".
March 5
BOAC Flight 911 crashes in severe clear-air turbulence over Mount Fuji soon after taking off from Tokyo International Airport in Japan, killing all 124 on board.
A massive theft of nuclear materials is revealed in Brazil.
Merci Chérie by Udo Jürgens (music by Udo Jürgens, lyrics 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.
Vietnam War: The U.S. announces it will substantially increase the number of its troops in Vietnam.
Nelson's Pillar in O'Connell Street, Dublin, is clandestinely blown up by former Irish Republican Army volunteers marking this year's 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising.
March 9 – Ronnie, one of the Kray twins, shoots George Cornell (an associate of rivals The Richardson Gang) dead at The Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, east London, a crime for which he is finally convicted in 1969.
March 10 – Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg. Some spectators demonstrate against the groom because he is German.
March 11
Transition to the New Order in Indonesia: President Sukarno gives all executive powers to General Suharto by signing the 'Supersemar' order.
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 Blackhawks sets the National Hockey League single season scoring record against the New York Rangers with his 51st goal.
March 16 – NASA spacecraft Gemini 8 (David Scott, Neil Armstrong) conducts the first docking in space, with an Agena target vehicle.
Paul Van Doren established the Vans shoe company in California.
March 17
More anti-communist demonstrations occur in Indonesia.
Off the Mediterranean coast of Spain, the United States Navy submersible DSV Alvin finds a missing U.S. hydrogen bomb.
March 19 – The Texas Western Miners defeat the Kentucky Wildcats with five African-American starters, ushering in desegregation in athletic recruiting.
March 20 – Football's Jules Rimet Trophy is stolen whilst on exhibition in London; it is found 7 days later by a mongrel dog named "Pickles" and his owner David Corbett, wrapped in newspaper in a south London garden.
March 22 – In Washington, D.C., 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 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
Cevdet Sunay becomes the fifth president of Turkey.
Indira Gandhi visits Washington, D.C.
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 satisfactory.
March 31
The British Labour Party led by Harold Wilson wins the United Kingdom General Election, gaining a 96-seat majority (compared with a single seat majority when the election was called on 28 February).[2]
The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
April
April 2 – The Indonesian army demands that the country rejoin the United Nations.
April 3 – Luna 10 is the first manmade object to enter lunar orbit.
April 7 – The United Kingdom asks the United Nations 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.
Leonid Brezhnev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Union, as well as Leader of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.
Time magazine cover story asks "Is God Dead?".
April 9 – The captain of English football league club Norwich City F.C., Barry Butler, is killed in a car accident.
April 13
United States' magazine Time's cover story is ‘London: The Swinging City’
United States president Lyndon Johnson signs the 1966 Uniform Time 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.
The 38th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
April 19 – Bobbi Gibb becomes the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.
April 21
An artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas hospital.
The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time.
Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rasta leaders.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, for the murders of 3 children who vanished between November 1963 and October 1965.
April 24 – Uniform daylight saving time is first observed in most parts of North America.
April 26
A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
Tashkent, the largest city in Soviet Central Asia is mostly destroyed by a huge earthquake
April 27 – Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in the Vatican (the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviet Union).
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).
The Church of Satan is formed by Anton Szandor LaVey in San Francisco.
May
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 5 – The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
May 6 – The Moors murders trial ends with Ian Brady being found guilty on all 3 counts of murder and sentenced to 3 concurrent terms of life imprisonment. Myra Hindley is convicted on 2 counts of murder and of being an accessory in the third murder committed by Brady, and receives 2 concurrent terms of life imprisonment and a 7-year fixed term for being an accessory.
May 12
African members of the UN Security Council say that the British army should blockade Rhodesia.
The Busch Memorial Stadium opens in St Louis, Missouri.
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.
The South Vietnamese army besieges Da Nang.
Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators again picket the White House, then rally at the Washington Monument.
May 16
The Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
A seamen's strike is called in Britain.
The legendary album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is released.
Bob Dylan's seminal album, Blonde on Blonde is released in the U.S.
In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War.
May 19 – Gertrude Baniszewski is found guilty of murdering and torturing Sylvia Likens and is sentenced to life in prison (she is released on parole in December 1985).
May 24
Ugandan army troops arrest Mutesa II of Buganda and occupy his palace.
The Nigerian government forbids all political activity in the country until January 17, 1969.
May 25 – Explorer program: Explorer 32 is launched.
May 26 – Guyana achieves independence.
May 28
It's a Small World opens at Disneyland.
Fidel Castro declares martial law in Cuba because of a possible U.S. attack.
The Indonesian and Malaysian governments declare that the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation is over (a treaty is signed on August 11).
May 31 – The Philippines reestablishes diplomatic relations with Malaysia.
June
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.
Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
Four former cabinet ministers are executed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 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 – 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.
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, and the campus of Washburn University suffers catastrophic damage.[3]
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.
June 20 – French President Charles de Gaulle starts his visit to the Soviet Union.
June 21 – Opposition leader Arthur Calwell is shot after attending a political meeting in Mosman, Sydney, Australia.
June 27
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention's debut album, Freak Out!, is released. It is an initial failure, but gains a massive cult following in subsequent years.
The gothic soap opera Dark Shadows premieres on ABC.
June 28 – In Argentina, a junta deposes president Arturo Umberto Illia in a coup, and appoints General Juan Carlos Onganía to lead.
June 29
A sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen, ends in the United Kingdom.
Vietnam War: U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.
June 30
France formally leaves NATO.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, D.C.
July
Main article: July 1966
July – Gangster Charlie Richardson is arrested by police and sentenced to 25 years in prison in the following year for his part in the Torture Gang assaults.
July 1 – Joaquín Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
July 3
31 people are arrested when a demonstration by approximately 4,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters in front of the U.S. Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square turns violent
René Barrientos is elected president of Bolivia.
July 4
North Vietnam declares general mobilization.
American President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act, which goes into effect the following year.
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.
British Motor Corporation and Jaguar Cars announce plans to merge as British Motor Holdings.
July 12
Indira Gandhi visits Moscow.
Zambia threatens to leave the Commonwealth of Nations because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia.
July 13 – The International Society for Krishna Consciousness is founded in New York City by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
July 14
Israeli and Syrian jet fighters clash over the Jordan River.
Richard Speck murders 8 student nurses in their Chicago dormitory. He is arrested on July 17.
Gwynfor Evans, President of Plaid Cymru, becomes Member of the United Kingdom Parliament for Carmarthen, taking the previously Labour-held Welsh seat at a by-election with a majority of 2,435 on an 18% swing, and giving Plaid Cymru its first representation at Westminster in its forty-one year history.
July 16 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about the Vietnam War (the Soviet government rejects his ideas).
July 18
Gemini 10 (John Young, Michael Collins) is launched. After docking with an Agena target vehicle, the astronauts then set a world altitude record of 474 miles (763 km).
The Hough Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio, the city's first race riot.
Australian children's television series Play School airs for the first time, going on to become the longest-running children's show in Australia, and the second longest running children's show in the world.[4]
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
Nigerian army officers from the north of the country rebel and execute head of state General Aguiyi-Ironsi.
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
Main article: August 1966
August 1
Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 people and wounds 31 from atop the University of Texas at Austin Main Building tower, after earlier killing his wife and mother.
A military coup occurs in Nigeria; General Yakubu Gowon takes over.
August 2 – The Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft.
August 5
Groundbreaking takes place for the World Trade Center.
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.
The Caesars Palace hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas.
The Beatles' Revolver LP is released in the United Kingdom.
August 6
Braniff Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, killing all 42 on board.
René Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia.
The Salazar Bridge (now the 25 de Abril 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.
Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit the moon, 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 12 – Massacre of Braybrook Street: Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plainclothes policemen in London; they are later sentenced to life imprisonment.
August 13
In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong begins the Cultural Revolution to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party.
An earthquake in Varto town, Turkey, kills 2,394 and injures 10,000.
August 15
Syrian and Israeli troops clash over Lake Kinneret (also known as the Sea of Galilee) for 3 hours.
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 – Battle of Long Tan: D Company, 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, meets and defeats a Viet Cong force estimated to be four times larger, 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 Asian Development Bank (ADB) established.
The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), is formed.
August 24 – The Doors record their self-titled debut LP.
August 26
Riots occur in French Somaliland.
The first battle of the South African Air Force and the South African Police with PLAN, the armed wing of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), takes place at Ongulumbashe in Northern South West Africa during Operation Blue Wildebeest. This battle starts the South African Border War which continues until 1989.
August 29 – The Beatles end their US tour with a concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It is their last-ever live performance, except for the short "rooftop concert" at the Apple Corps offices in January 1969.
August 30 – France offers independence to French Somaliland (later Djibouti in 1977).
September
Main article: September 1966
September 1
United Nations Secretary-General U Thant declares that he will not seek re-election, because U.N. efforts in Vietnam have failed.
98 British tourists die in an air crash in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
While waiting at a bus stop Ralph Baer, an inventor with Sanders Associates, writes a four-page document which lays out the basic principles for creating a video game to be played on a television: the beginning of a multi billion dollar industry.
September 6 – In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting.
September 7 – The ocean liner SS Hanseatic catches fire and burns in New York Harbor.
September 8 – Star Trek, the science fiction television series, debuts on NBC-TV in the United States with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap".
September 9 – NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.
September 12
Gemini 11 (Richard F. Gordon, Jr., Pete Conrad) docks with an Agena target vehicle.
B. J. Vorster becomes the new Prime Minister of South Africa.
September 13 – Clashes between the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Guards are reported by TASS in the Soviet Union.
September 16
In South Vietnam, Thích Trí Quang ends a 100-day hunger strike.
The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra.
September 18 – Valerie Percy, 21-year-old daughter of U.S. Senate candidate Charles H. Percy, is stabbed and bludgeoned to death in the family mansion on Chicago's North Shore.
September 19
Scotland Yard arrests Buster Edwards, suspected of involvement in the Great Train Robbery.
Timothy Leary forms the spiritual group League for Spiritual Discovery.
Indonesian military commander (later President) Suharto annoucs the resumption of Indonesian participation in the United Nations.
September 30
The Bechuanaland Protectorate in Africa achieves independence from the United Kingdom as Botswana, with Seretse Khama as its first President.
Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer are released from Spandau Prison.
October
Main article: October 1966
October
Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party.
The Toyota Corolla car is introduced.
October 1 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with 18 fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.[5]
October 3 – Tunisia severs diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic.
October 4
Israel applies for membership in the EEC.
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.
An experimental Reactor at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station suffers a partial meltdown when its cooling system fails.
October 6
LSD is made illegal in the United States and controlled so strictly that not only are possession and recreational use criminalized, but all legal scientific research programs on the drug in the US are shut down as well.
The Love Pageant Rally takes place in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park, a narrower section that projects into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.
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.
Vietnam War: Binh Tai Massacre.
Vietnam War: Diên Niên - Phước Bình massacre.
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.
The U.S. Congress passes a bill for the creation of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
ABC-TV telecasts a highly acclaimed 90-minute television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon, starring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Ann Howes. It wins many Emmy Awards 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.
The AFL-NFL merger is approved by the U.S. Congress.
October 22
British spy George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison; he is next seen in Moscow.
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.
Spain closes its Gibraltar border to non-pedestrian traffic.
October 26
NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels.
A fire aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany in the Gulf of Tonkin kills 44 crewmen.
October 27 – The United Nations takes Namibia from South Africa.
October 29
The first ever regeneration in Doctor Who of the Doctor: William Hartnell's face transforms into that of Patrick Troughton.
The Guinean delegation to the OAU meeting in Ethiopia, become hostages of the Ghanaian government in Accra.
November
Main article: November 1966
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 – In Italy, a flood of the Arno River hits Florence, flooding it to a maximum depth of 6.7 m (22 ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. In addition, a severe tidal flood hits Venice.
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.
Actor Ronald Reagan is elected Governor of California.
November 9 – John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at the Indica Gallery.
November 10 – Seán Lemass retires as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland to be replaced in the role by fellow Fianna Fáil member Jack Lynch.
November 11
A mine kills 3 Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.
Spain declares general amnesty for crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War (effective only for the Falangists' side).
November 14 – Jack L. Warner sells Warner Bros. Pictures to Seven Arts Productions, which eventually becomes Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.
November 15
Gemini 12 (James A. Lovell, Buzz Aldrin), splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km east of the Bahamas.
Harry Maurice Roberts, who killed 3 policemen in August, is caught near London.
A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
November 16 – U.S. doctor Sam Sheppard is acquitted in his second trial for the murder of his pregnant wife in 1954.
November 17
The U.N. General Assembly decides to found the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
A spectacular Leonid meteor shower passes over Arizona, at the rate of 2,300 a minute for 20 minutes.
November 21 – In Togo, the army crushes an attempted coup.
November 24
The Beatles begin recording sessions for their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band L.P.
Bulgarian TABSO Flight 101 crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board.
November 26 – In Vancouver, the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders to win the 54th Grey Cup.
November 27 – The Washington Redskins defeat the New York Giants 72–41 in the highest scoring game in NFL history.
November 28 – Truman Capote's Black and White Ball ('The Party of the Century') is held in New York City.
November 29 – The SS Daniel J. Morrell sinks in a storm on Lake Huron, killing 28 of its 29 crewmen.
November 30 – Barbados achieves independence.
December
Main article: December 1966
December 1
Kurt Georg Kiesinger is elected Chancellor of West Germany.
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith negotiate on the 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 5
December 6 – Bình Hòa massacre: Vietnam War.
December 7
Syria offers weapons to rebels in Jordan.
Barbados is admitted to the United Nations.
December 8 – The Typaldos Line's ferry SS Heraklion sinks in rough seas, in the Aegean Sea near Crete, leaving 217 dead.
December 15 – Walt Disney dies while producing The Jungle Book, the last animated feature under his personal supervision.
December 16
The U.N. Security Council approves an oil embargo against Rhodesia.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are adopted by the General Assembly, as Resolution 2200 A (XXI).
December 17 – South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia.
December 18 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, is shown for the first time on CBS, beginning an annual Christmas tradition in the USA.
December 19 – The Asian Development Bank begins operations.
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 26 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, founder of Organization US (a black nationalist group) and later chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach, from 1989 to 2002.
December 31
East German Premier Walter Ulbricht discusses negotiations about German reunification.
Thieves steal millions' worth of paintings from the Dulwich Art Gallery in London.
The Congolese government takes over the Union Minière du Haut Katanga.