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What Happened In History Year 1966

Historical Events for the Year 1966

  • 1st January » A twelve-day 1966 New York City transit strike called New York City transit strike begins.
  • 4th January » A military coup takes place in French Upper Volta named Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso), dissolving the National Parliament and leading to a new national constitution.
  • 12th January » Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communism named Communist aggression there is ended.
  • 13th January » Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
  • 17th January » 1966 Palomares B-52 crash Palomares incident: A B-52 Stratofortress B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing seven airmen, and dropping three 70-kiloton B28 nuclear bomb nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares, Almería Palomare
  • 26th January » The Beaumont children disappearance e.g Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg, South Australia named Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia.
  • 31st January » The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna programme known as Luna program.
  • 2nd February » Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
  • 3rd February » The unmanned Soviet Union or Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
  • 4th February » All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.
  • 14th February » Australian currency is decimalisation named decimalised.
  • 26th February » Apollo program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket
  • 26th February » Vietnam War: The ROK Capital Division of the South Korean Army Go Dai massacre e.g massacres 380 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam.
  • 4th March » A Canadian Pacific Air Lines Douglas DC-8 known as DC-8-43 Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 named explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
  • 5th March » BOAC Flight 911 crashes on Mount Fuji, Japan, killing 124.
  • 10th March » Military Prime Minister of South Vietnam Nguyễn Cao Kỳ sacked rival General Nguyễn Chánh Thi, precipitating Buddhist Uprising named large-scale civil and military dissension in parts of the nation.
  • 16th March » Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned United States or American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.
  • 17th March » Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the Ship called DSV or Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
  • 19th March » University of Texas at El Paso or Texas Western becomes the first college basketball team to win the Final Four with an all-African-American named black starting lineup.
  • 31st March » The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
  • 21st April » Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
  • 25th April » The city of Tashkent is destroyed by a huge earthquake.
  • 26th April » An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
  • 26th April » A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
  • 30th April » The Church of Satan is established at the Black House in San Francisco.
  • 6th May » Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to Life imprisonment (England and Wales) known as life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England.
  • 8th May » A plane crash at Connellsville, Pennsylvania kills Pennsylvania Attorney General, Walter E. Alessandroni, his wife, and other state officials.
  • 16th May » The Communist Party of China issues the "Cultural Revolution 1966: The 16 Points and the Red Guards known as May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
  • 21st May » The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army (1922–69) or Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
  • 25th May » Explorer program: 'Explorer 32' launches.
  • 25th May » The first prominent Big-character poster known as dàzìbào during the Cultural Revolution in China is posted at Peking University.
  • 26th May » British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.
  • 30th May » The former Democratic Republic of the Congo or Congolese Prime Minister, Évariste Kimba, and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Mobutu Sese Seko or Joseph Mobutu.
  • 30th May » Launch of 'Surveyor 1', the first US spacecraft to land on an extraterrestrial body.
  • 2nd June » Surveyor program: 'Surveyor 1' lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
  • 8th June » An F-104 Starfighter collides with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype no. 2, destroying both planes during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base. Joseph A. Walker, a NASA pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, are both killed.
  • 8th June » 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.
  • 13th June » The United States Supreme Court rules in 'Miranda v. Arizona' that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
  • 14th June » The Roman Curia e.g Vatican announces the abolition of the 'Index Librorum Prohibitorum' ("index of prohibited books"), which was originally instituted in 1557.
  • 19th June » Shiv Sena a political party in India is founded in Mumbai.
  • 1st July » The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
  • 2nd July » The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.
  • 4th July » President of the United States named U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act (United States) named Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.
  • 6th July » Malawi becomes a republic, with Hastings Banda as its first Heads of State of Malawi called President.
  • 8th July » List of Kings of Burundi King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Prince Ntare V of Burundi Charles Ndizi.
  • 10th July » The Chicago Freedom Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. As many as 60,000 people come to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Peter Paul and Mary.
  • 15th July » Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.
  • 18th July » Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Canaveral e.g Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
  • 24th July » Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jumping known as BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping has now been banned from El Cap.
  • 1st August » Charles Whitman kills 16 people at the University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police.
  • 1st August » Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
  • 7th August » List of ethnic riots called Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
  • 16th August » 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 peop
  • 18th August » Vietnam War: the Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Phước Tuy Province.
  • 22nd August » Labor movements United Farm Workers called NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.
  • 23rd August » Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
  • 26th August » The Namibian War of Independence starts with the battle at Omugulugwombashe.
  • 29th August » The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
  • 6th September » In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death during a parliamentary meeting.
  • 8th September » The Severn Bridge is officially opened by Elizabeth II known as Queen Elizabeth II.
  • 8th September » The first 'Star Trek' Star Trek: The Original Series e.g series premieres on NBC.
  • 9th September » The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act is signed into law by President of the United States or U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
  • 15th September » U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a Charles Whitman called sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to United States Congress e.g Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
  • 29th September » The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther, is introduced.
  • 30th September » The British protectorate of Bechuanaland Protectorate Bechuanaland declares its independence, and becomes the Botswana Republic of Botswana. Seretse Khama takes office as the first Heads of state of Botswana President.
  • 1st October » West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with eighteen fatalities and no survivors 5.5 miles south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.
  • 4th October » Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.
  • 5th October » Near Detroit called Detroit, Michigan, there is a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station called Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor.
  • 9th October » Vietnam War: Binh Tai Massacre
  • 9th October » Vietnam War: Diên Niên - Phước Bình massacre
  • 14th October » The city of Montreal, Quebec, begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid-transit e.g rapid-transit system.
  • 15th October » Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
  • 17th October » Botswana and Lesotho join the United Nations.
  • 21st October » Aberfan disaster: A slag heap collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.
  • 22nd October » The Soviet Union launches Luna 12.
  • 2nd November » The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
  • 4th November » The Arno Arno River 1966 Flood of the Arno River floods Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of convert 6.7 m ft abbr=on, leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. Also Venice was submerged on the same day at
  • 8th November » Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction Era called Reconstruction.
  • 8th November » U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.
  • 11th November » NASA launches Gemini 12.
  • 13th November » In response to Fatah raids against Israelis near the West Bank border, Israel Samu Incident e.g launches an attack on the village of As-Samu.
  • 15th November » A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
  • 24th November » Bulgarian TABSO Flight 101 crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic or Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board.
  • 28th November » Michel Micombero overthrows the monarchy of Burundi and makes himself the List of Presidents of Burundi or first president.
  • 30th November » Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
  • 1st December » The first Gävle goat, an annual Swedish Yule Goat tradition, is erected in Gävle.
  • 8th December » The Greece called Greek ship SS named Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
  • 9th December » Barbados joins the United Nations.
  • 24th December » A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States Armed Forces e.g United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.
  • 26th December » The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Africana studies or Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
  • 27th December » The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

Historical events for the year 1966 by month