1966

Events

January

• January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
• January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo is deposed by a military coup in the Republic of Upper Volta.
• January 10
• * Pakistani–Indian peace negotiations end successfully with the signing of the Tashkent Declaration, a day before the sudden death of Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
• * The House of Representatives of the US state of Georgia refuses to allow African-American representative Julian Bond to take his seat, because of his anti-war stance.
• January 15 – 1966 Nigerian coup d'état: A bloody military coup is staged in Nigeria, deposing the civilian government and resulting in the death of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
• January 17
• * The Nigerian coup is overturned by another faction of the military, led by Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, leaving a military government in power and beginning a long period of military rule.
• * 1966 Palomares B-52 crash: A U.S. Air Force 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. Carl Brashear, the first African-American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of the latter, which results in the amputation of his leg.
• January 19 – Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India; she is sworn in on January 24.
• January 20 - The Radio Caroline ship Mi Amigo runs aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, UK.
• 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 a week previously.
• January 24 – Air India Flight 101 crashes into Mont Blanc, killing all 117 people on board, including Homi J. Bhabha, chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission.
• January 26
• * Disappearance of the Beaumont children: Three children disappear on their way to Glenelg, South Australia, never to be seen again. Their fate remains unknown.
• * 1966 Liberal Party of Australia leadership election: Harold Holt is elected leader of the Liberal Party of Australia unopposed when Sir Robert Menzies retires after an unprecedented 16 years in office; consequently Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia six days later.
• 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 31 – The United Kingdom ceases all trade with Rhodesia.

  February

• February 1 – Around 2,600 political prisoners are released by East Germany, in return for "donations" worth approximately $10,000 a head from West 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 people are killed.
• February 7
• * The Great Fire of Iloilo, Philippines, breaks out in a lumber yard and burns for almost half a day, destroying nearly three-quarters of the City Proper area and causing 50 million pesos in total property damage.
• * Lyndon B. Johnson of the United States and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ of South Vietnam convene with other officials in a summit in Honolulu, Hawaii to discuss the course of the Vietnam War.
• 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 over defence policy.
• February 20 – While Soviet author and translator Valery Tarsis is abroad, the Soviet Union negates his citizenship.
• February 23 – 1966 Syrian coup d'état: An intra-party military coup in Syria replaces the previous government of Amin al-Hafiz by one led by Salah Jadid.
• February 24 – A coup led by the police and military of Ghana raises the National Liberation Council to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.
• February 28 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson calls a general election in the United Kingdom, to be held on March 31.

  March

• March – The DKW automobile ceases production in Germany.
• March 1
• *The British Government announces plans for the decimalisation of the pound sterling, to come into force on 15 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.
• 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 people on board.
• *In an interview with London Evening Standard reporter Maureen Cleave, John Lennon of The Beatles states: "We're 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 people on board.
• *Merci, Chérie by Udo Jürgens 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 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 headquarters must be closed within a year.
• March 16 – NASA spacecraft Gemini 8 conducts the first docking in space, with an Agena target vehicle.
• March 20 – Football's FIFA World Cup Trophy is stolen while on exhibition in London; it is found seven days later by a mongrel dog named "Pickles" and his owner David Corbett, wrapped in newspaper in a south London garden.
• March 22 – in the Chinese city of Xingtai a magnitude 6.8 earthquake leaves more than 8,000 dead and 38,000 injured.
• March 24 – Pope Paul VI meets Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in Rome, and gives him an episcopal ring.
• March 26 – Demonstrations are held across the United States against the Vietnam War.
• March 28 – Cevdet Sunay becomes the fifth president of Turkey.
• March 29 – The 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held: 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 1966 United Kingdom general election, gaining a 96-seat majority.
• * The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which 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 5 - During the Buddhist Uprising, South Vietnamese military prime minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ personally attempts to lead the capture of the restive city of Đà Nẵng before backing down.
• 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.
• 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.
• April 14
• * Kenyan Vice President Oginga Odinga resigns, saying "invisible government" representing foreign interests now runs the country. He will head a new party, the Kenya People's Union.
• *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 in Santa Monica, California: The Sound of Music wins Best Picture.
• April 19 – Moors murders: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court in north west England for the murders of 3 children who vanished between November 1963 and October 1965.
• 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.
• 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.
• * The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII. Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15–200 are killed.
• April 27 – Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in the Vatican.
• April 28 – In Rhodesia, security forces kill seven ZANLA men in combat; Chimurenga, the ZANU rebellion, begins.
• April 30 – Regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel.