1966 - What happened in 1966 ?

January 1966

Thursday 13:

Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Saturday 15:

1966- First Military Coup in Nigeria, government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown.

Sunday 16:

The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Monday 17:

Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident on a routine mission which amputates his leg.

Wednesday 26:

The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.

February 1966

Thursday 03:

The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.

Monday 07:

Paul Williams created the rock music magazine Crawdaddy!

Monday 14:

Australian currency is decimalised.

Wednesday 23:

A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.

Saturday 26:

Apollo Program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket

March 1966

Friday 04:

John Lennon says, "We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus" which sparks controversy in the United States.

Tuesday 08:

A bomb planted by young Irish protesters destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.

Friday 11:

Henry "Dickie" Marrow" is murdered in a violent racially-motivated crime in Oxford, N.C..

Thursday 17:

Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.

Sunday 20:

1966 – The World Cup is stolen from Central Hall, London

April 1966

Thursday 21:

Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.

Saturday 30:

Anton LaVey founds the Church of Satan.

May 1966

Thursday 12:

Busch Memorial Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals major league baseball team, opens in St. Louis, Missouri.

Monday 16:

Two extremely influential rock albums are released on the same day: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

Saturday 21:

Cassius Clay beat Henry Cooper in the sixth round at the Arsenal football ground, North London.

Wednesday 25:

Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.

Thursday 26:

British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.

June 1966

Thursday 02:

Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarumon the Moon, becoming the first US spacecraft to soft land on another world.

Monday 06:

James Meredith, civil rights activist, is shot while trying to march across Mississippi.

Monday 13:

The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.

Tuesday 14:

The Vatican announces the abolition of the index librorum prohibitum (index of prohibited books), which was originally instituted in 1557.

Monday 20:

Canada sells 336 million bushels (9.14 teragrams) of wheat to Soviet Union.

July 1966

Friday 01:

First colour television transmission in Canada, from Toronto.

Monday 04:

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act goes into effect the next year.

Thursday 14:

1966 - A fire at a mental hospital in Guatemala City kills 225.

Monday 18:

Gemini 10 launched.

Tuesday 26:

Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent.

August 1966

Monday 01:

Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official People's Republic of China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

Sunday 07:

Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.

Thursday 11:

John Lennon holds a press conference in Chicago excusing himself from the "Jesus affair"

Tuesday 16:

Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.

Tuesday 23:

Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

September 1966

Thursday 08:

1966 - The Severn Road Bridge was officially opened.

Friday 09:

The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson.

Thursday 15:

The spaceship Gemini XI, with astronauts Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon aboard, returns to earth.

Friday 16:

The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City to the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera, Antony and Cleopatra.

Friday 30:

The British protectorate of Bechuanaland declares its independence, and becomes the Republic of Botswana. Seretse Khama takes office as the first President.

October 1966

Wednesday 05:

Near Detroit, Michigan, there is a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor, killing three workers.

Thursday 06:

LSD is declared illegal in the United States.

Monday 10:

Simon and Garfunkel release the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

Friday 14:

The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro).

Monday 17:

A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters.

November 1966

Wednesday 02:

The Cuban Adjustment Act enters force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.

Friday 04:

Two-thirds of Florence, Italy is submerged as the Arno and Po rivers flood; 113 people die, 30,000 are rendered homeless, and countless Renaissance artworks and books are destroyed.

Tuesday 08:

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate.

Tuesday 15:

Gemini program: Gemini 12 splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

Sunday 20:

Cabaret opens at the Imperial Theatre, New York

December 1966

Wednesday 07:

A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.

Friday 16:

Mao's Little Red Book is published in Beijing

Sunday 18:

Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker, and then lost for 12 years

Saturday 24:

A Canadair CL44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.

Monday 26:

The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach