Historical Events in 1966

Events 1 - 200 of 656

  • Jan 1 12 day transit worker strike shuts down NYC subway
  • Jan 1 32nd Orange Bowl: #4 Alabama beats #3 Nebraska, 39-28
  • Jan 1 32nd Sugar Bowl: #6 Missouri beats Florida, 20-18
  • Jan 1 52nd Rose Bowl: #5 UCLA beats #1 Michigan State, 14-12
  • Jan 1 All US cigarette packs have to carry "Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health"
  • Jan 1 Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" reaches #1 on the Billboard Hot 100
  • Jan 2 1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion
  • Jan 2 National Football League Championship, Lambeau Field, Green Bay: Green Bay Packers beat Cleveland Browns, 23-12; first NFL title game televised in colour; last one played before Super Bowl era
  • Jan 3 Floyd B McKissick, named national director of CORE
  • Jan 4 Doug Walters scores second Test century in his second Test
  • Jan 4 Military coup in Upper Volta leads to a new national constitution
  • Jan 4 WFLD TV channel 32 in Chicago, IL (IND) begins broadcasting
  • Jan 7 Dance Theatre of Harlem debuts

Pro Wrestling

Jan 7 Gene Kiniski beats Lou Thesz in St Louis, to become NWA wrestling champion

Event of Interest

Jan 8 Georges Pompidou re-appointed French Prime Minister and forms new government

  • Jan 8 The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks
  • Jan 8 The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks
  • Jan 8 The Who and The Kinks perform on the last "Shindig" TV show on ABC
  • Jan 9 Polish government denies exit visa to Cardinal Wyszynski, barring him from travel abroad
  • Jan 10 India & Pakistan sign Tashkent Declaration peace accord
  • Jan 10 The Georgia House of Representatives votes 184-12 to deny Julian Bond his seat as a result of his opposition to the Vietnam War
  • Jan 11 "Daktari" African adventure series premieres on CBS TV
  • Jan 11 16th NBA All-Star Game, Cincinnati Gardens, Cincinnati, OH: East beats West, 137-94; MVP: Adrian Smith, Cincinnati Royals, PG
  • Jan 11 550 die in landslides in mountains behind Rio de Janeiro after rain

Television Debut

Jan 12 "Batman", starring Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, and Cesar Romero as The Joker, debuts on ABC

  • Jan 12 12 day NYC transit strike ends
  • Jan 12 3 British Members of Parliament are attacked in a hotel in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe)

Auerbach's 1,000th Win

Jan 12 Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach records his 1,000th NBA career victory (regular season and playoffs), 114-102 over the Los Angeles Lakers in Boston

Vietnam War

Jan 12 LBJ says US should stay in South Vietnam until communist aggression ends

  • Jan 13 Robert C. Weaver, 1st Black person selected for cabinet by US President Lyndon B. Johnson (Housing and Urban Development - HUD)
  • Jan 13 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

Music Single

Jan 14 David Bowie releases his 1st single "Can't Help Thinking About Me"

Sports History

Jan 15 5th AFL All Star Game, Rice Stadium, Houston: All-Stars beat Buffalo Bills, 30-19: MVPs: Joe Namath, NY Jets, QB; Frank Buncom, LA Chargers, LB

  • Jan 15 Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna lead a coup d'état in Nigeria, the Prime Minister of Nigeria and other senior political and military figures are killed
  • Jan 15 The First Nigerian Republic is overthrown in a military coup d'etat

NFL Pro Bowl

Jan 16 16th NFL Pro Bowl, LA Memorial Coliseum: East beats West, 36-7; MVPs: Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns, RB; Dale Meinert, St. Louis Cardinals, LB

NHL Record

Jan 16 Chicago Black Hawks' right wing Bobby Hull scores 4 goals (his 17th career hat trick) in a 6-5 loss to NY Rangers; becomes the first player in team history to score 300 goals

  • Jan 16 Chicago is granted an NBA franchise to be called the Bulls; become the 3rd NBA franchise in the city, after the Chicago Stags (1946–50) and Chicago Packers/Zephyrs (now Washington Wizards)
  • Jan 16 Harold R Perry becomes 2nd black Roman Catholic bishop in US
  • Jan 16 Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi seizes power in the chaos caused by a military coup and becomes the Nigerian Head of State
  • Jan 17 B-52/KC-135 tankers crash near Spanish coast at Palomares, 7 die

Event of Interest

Jan 17 Martin Luther King Jr. opens campaign in Chicago

  • Jan 18 Robert C. Weaver, confirmed as 1st Black US presidential cabinet member (Housing and Urban Development - HUD)
  • Jan 19 British composer Michael Tippett's cantata "Vision of St Augustine" premieres in London

Election of Interest

Jan 19 Indira Gandhi elected India's 4th Prime Minister

  • Jan 24 117 passengers are killed after an Air India Boeing-707 plane crashes into Mont Blanc, France
  • Jan 24 WDIO TV channel 10 in Duluth, MN (ABC) begins broadcasting
  • Jan 25 WCMC (now WMGM) TV channel 40 in Wildwood, NJ (NBC) 1st broadcast

World Record

Jan 26 Ard Schenk skates world record 1500m (2:06.2)

  • Jan 26 The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia.
  • Jan 27 Wisconsin State Circuit Court Judge Elmer W Roller rules either the Braves stay in Milwaukee or NL must promise Wisconsin an expansion team for 1966

Music Premiere

Jan 29 Neil Simons, Coleman & Fields' musical "Sweet Charity" premieres at Palace Theater in NYC for 608 performances

  • Jan 29 Snow storm in north east US kills 165

Sports History

Jan 29 US female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming

  • Jan 29 US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Allen
  • Jan 30 -19°F (-28°C), Corinth, Mississippi (state record)
  • Jan 30 -27°F (-33°C), New Market, Alabama (state record)
  • Jan 30 Ard Schenk skates world record 1500m (2:05.2)

Music History

Jan 30 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 11th string quartet

Australian Men's Tennis Open

Jan 31 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: Roy Emerson makes it 4 straight Australian titles; beats American Arthur Ashe 6-4, 6-8, 6-2, 6-3

Australian Open Women's Tennis

Jan 31 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: Margaret Smith wins her 7th consecutive Australian singles title; beats American Nancy Richey in a walkover, Richey injured

  • Jan 31 Belgian state police kills 2 striking mine workers
  • Jan 31 Bill Lawry (119) & Bob Simpson (225) complete match-winning 244 opening stand in Australia's 1st innings, 4th Test v England in Adelaide
  • Jan 31 USSR launches Luna 9 towards Moon
  • Feb 2 Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir dispute as number one item for the proposed Indo-Pak ministerial talks after 1965 war.
  • Feb 3 1st operational weather satellite, ESSA-1 launched US
  • Feb 3 1st soft landing on Moon (Soviet Luna 9)
  • Feb 4 All-Nippon Airways 727 crashes off Haneda Airport (Japan); kills 133
  • Feb 5 BBC opens a relay radio station on Ascension Island
  • Feb 7 KWCM TV channel 10 in Appleton, MN (PBS) begins broadcasting
  • Feb 9 Dow-Jones Index hits record 995 points
  • Feb 9 UK Government announces construction of a nuclear reactor on the North coast of Scotland

Historic Publication

Feb 10 "Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann is published by Bernard Geis Associates in the US - sold over 31 million copies

  • Feb 10 Pierre Harmel's Belgium government resigns

Contract of Interest

Feb 11 SF Giant Willie Mays signs highest contract, $130,000 per year

  • Feb 13 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
  • Feb 14 Australian currency is decimalised, and decimal currency postage stamps introduced
  • Feb 14 Russian writers Andrei Sinyavsky & Joey Daniel found guilty under the offense of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda for publishing their satirical writings abroad

NBA Record

Feb 14 Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points

  • Feb 15 Kees Verkerk becomes world champion all-round skater
  • Feb 16 Australian cricket batsman Bob Cowper makes a patient 307 (727 mins, 20 x 4s) in drawn 5th Test v England in Melbourne
  • Feb 16 End of Wally Grout's Test Cricket career, 187 dismissals as Australian wicketkeeper
  • Feb 16 France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria
  • Feb 17 French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth orbit
  • Feb 20 Author Valery Tarsis banished in USSR

Event of Interest

Feb 21 Indonesian President Sukarno dismisses General Nasution

  • Feb 22 Soviets launch Kosmos 110 with Veterok & Ugolek, 1st 2-dog crew
  • Feb 23 Military coup in Syria ends Bitar government
  • Feb 23 Premier Milton Obote seizes power in Uganda

Coup d'état

Feb 24 Military coup ousts President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana

  • Feb 24 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Feb 25 Syrian military coup under General Hafiz al-Assad
  • Feb 26 KBIM TV channel 10 in Roswell, NM (CBS) begins broadcasting

Daytona 500

Feb 27 8th Daytona 500: Polesitter Richard Petty comes from 2 laps down to win the event after 198 laps were completed because of rain

  • Feb 27 Ice Dance Championship at Davos won by Diane Towler and Bernard Ford of great Britain
  • Feb 27 Ice Pairs Championship at Davos won by Belousova and Protopopov of the Soviet Union
  • Feb 27 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Davos won by Peggy Fleming of US
  • Feb 27 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Davos won by Emmerich Danzer of Austria

Golden Globes

Feb 28 23rd Golden Globes: "Doctor Zhivago", Omar Sharif, & Samantha Eggar win

  • Feb 28 Cavern Club (Beatles hangout) in Liverpool, England closes

Baseball History

Feb 28 Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale begin a joint holdout against the Los Angeles Dodgers

  • Mar 1 Ba'ath-party takes power in Syria
  • Mar 1 Venera 3 becomes 1st man-made object to impact on a planet (Venus)
  • Mar 2 215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam
  • Mar 2 After suffering a hairline fracture of his right hind foot, 5-time US Horse of the Year Kelso is immediately retired; racing's all-time leading money winner with lifetime earnings of $1,977,896
  • Mar 2 Chicago Black Hawks right wing Bobby Hull becomes the NHL's first 2-time 50-goal scorer when he strikes in a 5-4 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Chicago Stadium

Sports History

Mar 2 Jean Béliveau scores his 380th career NHL goal when Montreal ties Toronto, 3-3; moves him ahead of Ted Lindsay into the #3 spot all time, behind Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard

Music History

Mar 3 Canadian-American rock band "Buffalo Springfield" forms (Stephen Stills, Neil Young, et al)

  • Mar 3 James Goldman's "Lion in Winter" premieres in NYC
  • Mar 3 Kwame Nkrumah flees Ghana to exile in Conakry, Guinea
  • Mar 3 Twister hits Jackson Mississippi; 3 minutes after 1st sighting, 57 die
  • Mar 3 WRFT (now WVFT) TV channel 27 in Roanoke, VA (IND) begins broadcasting
  • Mar 4 Canadian Pacific airliner explodes on landing at Tokyo, 64 die

Music History

Mar 4 John Lennon says "We (the Beatles) are more popular than Jesus"

  • Mar 4 North Sea Gas 1st pumped ashore by BP
  • Mar 5 11th Eurovision Song Contest: Udo Jurgens for Austria wins singing "Merci, Cherie" in Luxembourg
  • Mar 5 13th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: Duke beats NC State, 71-66
  • Mar 5 75 MPH air currents causes BOAC 707 crash into Mount Fuji, 124 die
  • Mar 5 Bob Seagren pole vaults 5.19m indoor world record
  • Mar 5 Player reps elect Marvin Miller as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association
  • Mar 5 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Mar 6 Barry Sadler's "Ballad of the Green Berets" becomes #1 (13 weeks)
  • Mar 7 Leon Gluckman and Jeremy Taylor's folk music revue "Wait A Minim!" opens at John Golden Theater, NYC; runs for 457 performances
  • Mar 7 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Mar 8 An IRA bomb destroys Nelson's Column in Dublin

Musical Finale

Mar 8 Lee Adams and Charles Strouse's musical adaptation of Clifford Odet's "Golden Boy", starring Sammy Davis Jr. closes at Majestic Theater, NYC, after 569 performances

  • Mar 9 Andrew Brimmer becomes 1st black governor of Federal Reserve Board
  • Mar 10 5 time American Horse of the Year, Kelso, retires from racing
  • Mar 10 North Vietnamese capture US Green Beret Camp at Ashau Valley
  • Mar 11 A fire at two ski resorts in Numata, Japan kills 31 people.

Coup d'état

Mar 11 Military coup led by Indonesian General Suharto breaks out

  • Mar 12 Chicago Black Hawks Bobby Hull's 51st goal of season, sets record
  • Mar 12 Jockey Johnny Longden retires after 40 years (6,032 wins)
  • Mar 12 Love's 1st album released "Love"
  • Mar 12 Pioneer Plaza dedicated
  • Mar 12 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

Film Release

Mar 14 British film "Born Free" based on the book "Born Free" by Joy Adamson released starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers

  • Mar 15 Racial riots erupt in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California

Launch of Gemini 8

Mar 16 Gemini 8 launched with Neil Armstrong and David R. Scott aboard, conducts the 1st docking of two spacecraft in orbit, flight aborted after critical system failure with the crew returned safely to Earth

  • Mar 16 Man From Uncle star David McCallum receives huge welcome in London
  • Mar 17 South Africa's government bans Defense & Aid Fund
  • Mar 17 US submarine locates missing hydrogen bomb on the Mediterranean sea floor
  • Mar 18 "Pousse Cafe" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 3 performances
  • Mar 18 General Suharto forms government in Indonesia
  • Mar 18 Scott Paper begins selling paper dresses for $1
  • Mar 19 "Poussé Cafe" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 3 performances
  • Mar 19 28th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Texas Western beats Kentucky, 72-65; Miners first title in first title game
  • Mar 19 Belgium government of Vanden Boeynants begins
  • Mar 21 American medical drama series "Ben Casey", starring Vince Edwards and Sam Jaffe, ends a five season run on ABC-TV
  • Mar 21 US Supreme Court reverses Massachusetts ruling that "Fanny Hill" is obscene
  • Mar 23 1st official meeting after 400 years of Catholic & Anglican Church
  • Mar 24 Selective Service announces college deferments based on performance
  • Mar 25 Beatles pose for photographer Robert Whitaker with mutilated dolls and butchered meat for album cover of "Yesterday & Today", it is later pulled from circulation and replaced with a different photo
  • Mar 25 US Supreme court rules "poll tax" unconstitutional
  • Mar 26 120th Grand National: Tim Norman aboard 50/1 outsider Anglo wins by 20 lengths, giving Freddie 2nd place for a second straight year
  • Mar 26 Large-scale anti-Vietnam War protests take place in the United States, including in New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago
  • Mar 26 Wales beats France, 9-8 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to clinch their 15th Five Nations Rugby Championship

Music Premiere

Mar 29 Charles Strouse and Lee Adams' musical "It's a Bird... It's A Plane...It's Superman" opens at Alvin Theatre, NYC; runs for 129 performances

Boxing Title Fight

Mar 29 Muhammad Ali beats George Chuvalo in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

Television Premiere

Mar 30 "Color Me Barbra", Barbra Streisand's second TV special and the first in color, premieres on CBS

  • Mar 31 25,000 anti war demonstrators march in NYC

Election of Interest

Mar 31 Labour Party under Harold Wilson win British parliamentary election

  • Mar 31 USSR launches Luna 10, 1st lunar orbiter
  • Apr 1 "Hold On, I'm Comin'" single released by Sam & Dave
  • Apr 1 1st world festival of black art (Dakar Senegal)

Event of Interest

Apr 1 Loyalist led by Ian Paisley, a Protestant fundamentalist preacher, founded the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee to challenge the civil rights movement; it set up a paramilitary-style wing called the Ulster Protestant Volunteers

  • Apr 2 Soviet Union's Luna 10 becomes 1st spacecraft to orbit Moon
  • Apr 2 WJET TV channel 24 in Erie, PA (ABC) begins broadcasting
  • Apr 3 Soviet Luna 10 completes its first orbit of the Moon

Sports History

Apr 3 Tom Seaver signs with the Mets for a reported $50,000 bonus

  • Apr 4 Pirate Radio Scotland changes name to Radio Ireland
  • Apr 4 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Apr 5 WTVX TV channel 34 in Ft Pierce-Vero Beach, FL (IND) 1st broadcast
  • Apr 6 Mihir Sen swims Palk Strait between Sri Lanka & India
  • Apr 7 US recovers a lost hydrogen bomb from the Mediterranean sea floor (whoops)

Sports History

Apr 8 American Football League votes in 36 year old Al Davis as commissioner after Joe Foss resigns; appointment lasts 3 months when AFL merges with NFL

  • Apr 8 OAO 1, 1st orbiting astronomical observatory, launched
  • Apr 8 Time publishes its "Is God Dead" issue - its first issue without an image
  • Apr 9 Anaheim Stadium for California Angels opens

US Masters Golf

Apr 11 30th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Jack Nicklaus becomes first back-to-back champion winning an 18-hole Monday playoff with Tommy Jacobs and Gay Brewer

  • Apr 11 Emmett Ashford becomes first African American major league baseball umpire in Washington Senators’ game against the Cleveland Indians at D.C. Stadium

Music Recording

Apr 11 Frank Sinatra records "Strangers in the Night" single for his album of the same name. Later reaches #1 Billboard charts

  • Apr 12 1st B-52 bombing on North Vietnam
  • Apr 12 Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium opens; Pirates beat Braves 3-2
  • Apr 12 Rocker Jan Berry crashes his Corvette into a parked truck, an accident which leaves him with long-lasting health issues
  • Apr 13 Pan Am places $525,000,000 order for 25 Boeing 747s
  • Apr 15 KHET TV channel 11 in Honolulu, HI (PBS) begins broadcasting

Album Release

Apr 15 The Rolling Stones release "Aftermath", their fourth studio album in UK (6th in US)

  • Apr 16 Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith breaks diplomatic relations with Britain
  • Apr 17 100th international soccer match between Netherlands and Belgium (3-1)
  • Apr 18 70th Boston Marathon: Kenji Kimihara of Japan wins in 2:17:11; American Bobbi Gibb first woman in 3:21:40 (unsanctioned)

NBA Record

Apr 18 Bill Russell becomes first African American coach in NBA history (Boston Celtics)

  • Apr 19 In 1st regular season game at Anaheim Stadium, Angels lose 3-1 to Chic
  • Apr 20 WDCA TV channel 20 in Washington, D.C. (IND) begins broadcasting

Event of Interest

Apr 21 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie visits Kingston, Jamaica

  • Apr 22 Atlanta Braves win their 1st game, beating NY Mets 8-4
  • Apr 22 The Troggs second single "Wild Thing" released; tops the charts in July