WORLD HISTORY · 1966 日本語
Events of 1966Showa 41 (Japan) · Year of the Horse
What happened in 1966?
In 1966, Japan fully implemented the metric system, and Sapporo was chosen to host the 1972 Winter Olympics. Abroad, Indira Gandhi became prime minister of India, and China's Communist Party issued the May 16 Notice.
- Indira Gandhi becomes Indian prime ministerAsia
- All Nippon Airways jet crashes off HanedaAsia
- Suharto becomes acting presidentAsia
- Metric system fully implemented in JapanAsia
- Sapporo chosen to host Winter OlympicsAsia
- Chinese Communist Party issues May 16 NoticeAsia
- Surveyor 1 soft-lands on the MoonNorth America
- "Black Mist" scandal dissolution of lower houseAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1966 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 41 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Horse |
| Age of people born in 1966 | Turn 60 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1965 (Showa 40) ／ 1967 (Showa 42) |
| Events | 110 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 8 |
Famous people born in 1966
Our birthday pages list 752 people born in 1966. Here are some of them.
- Janet JacksonBorn May 16 · turns 60 this year · American pop and R&B superstar behind the hit albums Control and Rhythm Nation…
- Adam SandlerBorn September 9 · turns 60 this year · American comedian and actor known for Saturday Night Live and hit comedies like…
- Greg MadduxBorn April 14 · turns 60 this year · Hall of Fame baseball pitcher famed for pinpoint control, four straight Cy Youn…
- J. J. AbramsBorn June 27 · turns 60 this year · American filmmaker who created TV hits Felicity, Alias, and Lost and directed S…
- Gordon RamsayBorn November 8 · turns 60 this year · Scottish-born chef and TV host famous for Michelin-starred restaurants and show…
- Kazufumi MiyazawaBorn January 18 · turns 60 this year
- Yuki SaitoBorn September 10 · turns 60 this year
- Jeffrey Dean MorganBorn April 22 · turns 60 this year
- Salma HayekBorn September 2 · turns 60 this year
- Anna BurkeBorn January 1 · turns 60 this year
- Ivica DačićBorn January 1 · turns 60 this year
- Tihomir OreškovićBorn January 1 · turns 60 this year
Show 28 more
- Chetan SharmaBorn January 3 · turns 60 this year
- Deana CarterBorn January 4 · turns 60 this year
- Attilio LombardoBorn January 6 · turns 60 this year
- Sharon CunetaBorn January 6 · turns 60 this year
- Andrew WoodBorn January 8 · turns 60 this year
- Igor VyazmikinBorn January 8 · turns 60 this year
- Maria PitilloBorn January 8 · turns 60 this year
- Jeremy SimsBorn January 10 · turns 60 this year
- Craig ParryBorn January 12 · turns 60 this year
- Olivier MartinezBorn January 12 · turns 60 this year
- Leo VisserBorn January 13 · turns 60 this year
- Patrick DempseyBorn January 13 · turns 60 this year
- Dan SchneiderBorn January 14 · turns 60 this year
- Marko HietalaBorn January 14 · turns 60 this year
- Nadia MaftouniBorn January 14 · turns 60 this year
- Terry AngusBorn January 14 · turns 60 this year
- Jack McDowellBorn January 16 · turns 60 this year
- Joshua MalinaBorn January 17 · turns 60 this year
- Shabba RanksBorn January 17 · turns 60 this year
- Trish JohnsonBorn January 17 · turns 60 this year
- Alexander KhalifmanBorn January 18 · turns 60 this year
- André RibeiroBorn January 18 · turns 60 this year
- Lena PhilipssonBorn January 19 · turns 60 this year
- Stefan EdbergBorn January 19 · turns 60 this year
- Sylvain CôtéBorn January 19 · turns 60 this year
- Chris MorrisBorn January 20 · turns 60 this year
- Rainn WilsonBorn January 20 · turns 60 this year
- Craig SalvatoriBorn January 22 · turns 60 this year
Events of 1966 (timeline · 110)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
Tashkent Declaration, a peace agreement between India and Pakistan signed that resolved the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the 1966 United Kingdom general election.
The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (first known as the 2nd Artillery Corps) is founded.
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.
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.
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.
Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
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.
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.
West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with no survivors in Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.
A reactor at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station near Detroit suffers a partial meltdown.
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 city of Montreal begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid transit system.
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.
All Nippon Airways Flight 533 crashes into the Seto Inland Sea near Matsuyama Airport in Japan, killing 50 people.
In response to Fatah raids against Israelis near the West Bank border, Israel launches an attack on the village of As-Samu.
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.
The Greek ship SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
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.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1966 in the Japanese calendar?
1966 was Showa 41 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1966?
1966 is the Year of the Horse.
How old is someone born in 1966?
They turn 60 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1966?
In 1966, Japan fully implemented the metric system, and Sapporo was chosen to host the 1972 Winter Olympics. Abroad, Indira Gandhi became prime minister of India, and China's Communist Party issued the May 16 Notice.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.