What Happened in 1966 — Events, Births & Deaths

Tashkent Declaration, a peace agreement between India and Pakistan signed that resolved the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

The Tbilisi Metro is opened.

Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.

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

The First Nigerian Republic, led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown in a military coup d'état.

Palomares incident: A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing seven airmen, and dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.

Indira Gandhi becomes India's first female prime minister.

Air India Flight 101 crashes into Mont Blanc.

The three Beaumont children disappear from a beach in Glenelg, South Australia, resulting in one of the country's largest-ever police investigations.

The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.

Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965.

The Soviet Union's Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, and the first spacecraft to take pictures from the surface of the Moon.

All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.

The Great Fire of Iloilo breaks out in a lumber yard in Iznart Street and burns for almost half a day destroying nearly three-quarters of the City Proper area and Php 50 million pesos in total properties' damage.

Rabbi Morris Adler is fatally shot by a disgruntled congregant at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan, United States.

Aeroflot Flight 065 crashes during take-off from Sheremetyevo International Airport, killing 21.

In Syria, Ba'ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin al-Hafiz, also a Baathist.

Ghanaian coup d'état by National Liberation Council overthrows Kwame Nkrumah's Government

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

A NASA T-38 Talon crashes into the McDonnell Aircraft factory while attempting a poor-visibility landing at Lambert Field, St. Louis, killing astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett.

Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.

The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.

A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.

In an interview in the London Evening Standard, the Beatles' John Lennon declares that the band is "more popular than Jesus now".

BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707 aircraft, breaks apart in mid-air due to clear-air turbulence and crashes into Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 124 people on board.

Nelson's Pillar in Dublin, Ireland, is destroyed by a bomb.

Military Prime Minister of South Vietnam Nguyễn Cao Kỳ sacks rival General Nguyễn Chánh Thi, precipitating large-scale civil and military dissension in parts of the nation.

Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. It would perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

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

United Arab Airlines Flight 749 crashes on approach to Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 30 people.

The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

The Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the 1966 United Kingdom general election.

During the Buddhist Uprising, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ personally attempts to lead the capture of the restive city of Đà Nẵng before backing down.

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

American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D crashes on approach to Ardmore Municipal Airport in Ardmore, Oklahoma, killing 83.

Aeroflot Flight 2723 crashes into the Caspian Sea off the Absheron Peninsula, killing 33 people.

The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII (Very strong). Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15–200 are killed.

A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.

Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England.

The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.

British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.

Former Congolese Prime Minister, Évariste Kimba, and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu.

Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.

March Against Fear: African-American civil rights activist James Meredith is wounded in an ambush by white sniper James Aubrey Norvell. Meredith and Norvell are photographed by Jack R. Thornell, whose photo will receive the 1967 Pulitzer Prize in Photography, the last one to be awarded in the category.

An F-104 Starfighter collides with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype no. 2, destroying both aircraft during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base. Joseph A. Walker, a NASA test pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, are both killed.

Topeka, Kansas, United States is devastated by a tornado that registers as an "F5" on the Fujita scale, exceeding US$200 million in damages. Seventeen people are killed, over five hundred more injured, and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed.

The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their Fifth Amendment rights before questioning them (colloquially known as "Mirandizing").

The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("index of prohibited books"), which was originally instituted in 1557.

Vietnamese Buddhist activist leader Thích Trí Quang was arrested as the military junta of Nguyen Cao Ky crushed the Buddhist Uprising.

The National Organization for Women, the United States' largest feminist organization, is founded.

The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.

The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (first known as the 2nd Artillery Corps) is founded.

France conducts its first nuclear weapon test in the Pacific, on Moruroa Atoll.

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

Malawi becomes a republic, with Hastings Banda as its first President.

King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi.

The Chicago Freedom Movement, co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr., holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago; as many as 60,000 people attend.

Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.

A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order.

Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping has now been banned from El Cap.

England defeats West Germany to win the FIFA World Cup at Wembley Stadium 4–2 after extra time.

The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappears off the Cornwall coast with the loss of all 31 aboard.

Charles Whitman kills 15 people at the University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police.

Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

A group of red guards at Experimental High in Beijing, including Deng Rong and Liu Pingping, daughters of Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi respectively, beat the deputy vice principal, Bian Zhongyun, to death with sticks after accusing her of counter-revolutionary revisionism, producing one of the first fatalities of the Cultural Revolution.

The Heron Road Bridge collapses while being built, killing nine workers in the deadliest construction accident in both Ottawa and Ontario.

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.

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.

Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), the predecessor of the United Farm Workers.

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

The South African Border War starts with the battle at Omugulugwombashe.

The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

Leading Egyptian thinker Sayyid Qutb is executed for plotting the assassination of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, is stabbed to death in Cape Town, South Africa during a parliamentary meeting.

The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, "The Man Trap".

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

Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions and Artemis II).

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.

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

Twenty-four people are killed when Ansett-ANA Flight 149 crashes in Winton, Queensland, Australia.

Bechuanaland declares its independence, and becomes the Republic of Botswana.

West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with no survivors in Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.

Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.

A reactor at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station near Detroit suffers a partial meltdown.

Vietnam War: the Republic of Korea Army commits the Binh Tai Massacre.

The city of Montreal begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid transit system.

The Dutch Cals cabinet fell after Norbert Schmelzer, the leader of the government party, filed a successful motion against the budget, in what later became known as the Night of Schmelzer.

The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

The 23rd Street Fire in New York City kills 12 firefighters.

A colliery spoil tip slips onto houses and a school in the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, 116 of whom were schoolchildren.

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

The Arno River floods Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of 6.7 m (22 ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. Venice is also submerged on the same day at its record all-time acqua alta of 194 cm (76 in).

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

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.

NASA launches Gemini 12.

In response to Fatah raids against Israelis near the West Bank border, Israel launches an attack on the village of As-Samu.

All Nippon Airways Flight 533 crashes into the Seto Inland Sea near Matsuyama Airport in Japan, killing 50 people.

Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Temptations release their Greatest Hits album, which goes on to be the Billboard Year-End R&B album of 1967.

Bulgarian TABSO Flight 101 crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board.

Michel Micombero overthrows the monarchy of Burundi and makes himself the first president.

Decolonization: Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

The Greek ship SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.

Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker.

A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 111.

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

The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

Matthew Fox, American actor

Grigory Nelyubov, Soviet pilot and military officer (born 1934)

Jean Arp, German-French sculptor, painter, and poet (born 1886)

Julie Manet, French painter and art collector (born 1878)