| 1966-04-26
An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
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| 1966-11-02
The Cuban Adjustment Act enters force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
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| 1966-11-24
A Bulgarian plane with 82 people on board crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
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| 1966-06-08
One of the XB-70 Valkyrie prototypes is destroyed in a mid-air collision with a F-104 Starfighter chase plane during a photo shoot. NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker and United States Air Force test pilot Carl Cross are both killed.
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| 1966-02-03
The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
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| 1966-07-18
Gemini 10 launched.
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| 1966-11-08
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.
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| 1966-11-24
New York City experiences the smoggiest day in the city's history.
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| 1966-07-26
Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent.
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| 1966-09-12
Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions)
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| 1966-10-22
The Soviet Union launches Luna 12.
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| 1966-08-23
Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
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| 1966-11-08
Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate.
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| 1966-12-18
Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
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| 1966-01-31
The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.
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| 1966-07-10
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 came to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Peter Paul and Mary.
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| 1966-02-23
In Syria, Baath party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin Hafiz, also a Baathist.
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| 1966-01-13
Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
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| 1966-09-09
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act is signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
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| 1966-01-01
A twelve-day New York City transit strike begins.
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| 1966-11-04
Two-thirds of Florence, Italy is submerged as the River Arno floods; together with the contemporaneous flood of the Po River in northern Italy, this leads to 113 deaths, 30,000 made homeless, and the destruction of numerous Renaissance artworks and books.
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| 1966-08-06
Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, NE killing all 42 on board.
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| 1966-01-24
An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117.
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| 1966-08-18
Vietnam War: the Battle of Long Tan occurs, when a patrol of 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment encounter the Viet Cong.
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| 1966-05-30
Former Congolese Prime Minister Evariste Kimba and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu.
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| 1966-04-25
The city of Tashkent is destroyed by a huge earthquake.
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| 1966-10-05
Near Detroit, Michigan, there is a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor.
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| 1966-03-05
BOAC Flight 911 crashes on Mount Fuji, Japan, killing 124.
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| 1966-01-17
A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea in the Palomares incident.
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| 1966-05-25
Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.
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| 1966-11-30
Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
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| 1966-03-04
Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
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| 1966-05-30
launch of Surveyor 1 the first US spacecraft to achieve landing on an extraterrestrial body.
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| 1966-02-12
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, announces the Six Points in Karachi as the election manifesto of Awami League, that later led to formation of Bangladesh.
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| 1966-05-26
British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.
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| 1966-05-15
After a policy dispute, Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky of South Vietnam's ruling junta launches a military attack on the forces of General Ton That Dinh, forcing him to abandon his command.
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| 1966-05-16
The Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
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| 1966-02-26
Apollo Program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket
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| 1966-02-04
All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.
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| 1966-06-08
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.
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| 1966-06-14
The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of prohibited books), which was originally instituted in 1557.
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| 1966-01-15
The government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in Nigeria is overthrown in a military coup d’état.
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| 1966-07-04
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act goes into effect the next year.
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| 1966-01-26
The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia.
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| 1966-04-26
A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
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| 1966-10-04
Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.
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| 1966-10-17
Botswana and Lesotho join the United Nations.
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| 1966-03-17
Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
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| 1966-10-15
Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
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| 1966-03-08
A bomb planted by young Irish protesters destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.
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| 1966-05-25
The first prominent dàzìbào during the Cultural Revolution in China is posted at Peking University.
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| 1966-02-08
The National Hockey League awards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania a second NHL franchise, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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| 1966-10-14
The city of Montreal, Quebec, begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid-transit system.
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| 1966-02-14
Australian currency is decimalised.
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| 1966-02-02
Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
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| 1966-03-01
Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
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| 1966-10-29
National Organization For Women is founded.
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| 1966-09-08
The Severn Bridge is officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
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| 1966-06-13
The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
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| 1966-07-06
Malawi becomes a republic, with Hastings Banda as its first President.
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| 1966-07-01
The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
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| 1966-01-04
A military coup takes place in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso), dissolving the National Parliament and leading to a new national constitution.
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| 1966-06-06
James Meredith, civil rights activist, is shot while trying to march across Mississippi.
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| 1966-12-26
The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
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| 1966-05-21
The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
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| 1966-03-01
The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.
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| 1966-09-16
The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera, Antony and Cleopatra.
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| 1966-07-24
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.
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| 1966-10-22
The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A' Go-Go).
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| 1966-01-01
After a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa assumes power as president of the Central African Republic.
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| 1966-06-02
Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world.
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| 1966-11-15
A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
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| 1966-08-29
The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
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| 1966-10-17
A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters, the New York City Fire Department's deadliest day until the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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| 1966-03-31
The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
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| 1966-03-16
Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.
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| 1966-04-21
Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
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| 1966-05-06
Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England.
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| 1966-08-16
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.
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| 1966-03-12
Suharto takes over from Sukarno to become President of Indonesia.
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| 1966-12-29
The Beatles start the recording session that would become the hit single Penny Lane at Abbey Road Studio.
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| 1966-07-02
The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.
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| 1966-10-21
Aberfan disaster: A slag heap collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.
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| 1966-09-30
The British protectorate of Bechuanaland declares its independence, and becomes the Republic of Botswana. Seretse Khama takes office as the first President.
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| 1966-03-19
Texas Western becomes the first college basketball team to win the Final Four with an all-black starting lineup.
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| 1966-08-01
Charles Whitman kills 15 people at The University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police.
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| 1966-09-15
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.
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| 1966-11-11
NASA launches Gemini 12.
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| 1966-12-24
A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.
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| 1966-08-01
Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official People's Republic of China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
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| 1966-11-15
Gemini program: Gemini 12 splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
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| 1966-12-07
A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.
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| 1966-01-12
Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
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| 1966-07-08
King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi.
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| 1966-12-08
The Greek ship SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
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| 1966-10-01
West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with eighteen fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.
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| 1966-06-19
Shiv Sena a political party in India is founded in Mumbai.
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| 1966-09-29
The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther, is introduced.
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| 1966-08-07
Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
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| 1966-08-22
Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.
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| 1966-09-06
In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death during a parliamentary meeting.
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| 1966-09-08
The first Star Trek series premieres on NBC.
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| 1966-12-09
Barbados joins the United Nations.
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