January
1st	In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, taking out President David Dacko
4th	A military coup occurs in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso)
4th	The prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet in Moscow
10th	Pakistani-Indian peace negotiations end successfully in Tashkent
11th	The first SR-71 Blackbird spy plane goes into service at Beale AFB
12th	United States President Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended
17th	A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and 1 into the sea, in the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident
17th	Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of a lost h-bomb which results in the amputation of his leg
18th	About 8,000 U.S. soldiers land in South Vietnam; U.S. troops now total 190,000
19th	Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India; she is sworn in January 24
21st	Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro resigns due to a power struggle in his party
26th	Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires
31st	The United Kingdom ceases all trade with Rhodesia

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February
3rd	The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon
4th	All Nippon Airways Flight 60 crashes into Tokyo Bay killing 133
6th	Fidel Castro blames China for spreading anti-Soviet propaganda among Cuban soldiers
10th	Soviet writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to 5 and 7 years, respectively, for 'anti-Soviet' writings
14th	The Australian dollar is introduced at a rate of 2 dollars per pound, or 10 shillings per dollar
20th	While Soviet author and translator Valery Tarsis is abroad, the Soviet Union negates his citizenship
23rd	A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government with a Ba'athist regime
24th	A military coup in Ghana raises sacked General Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad
28th	U.S. astronauts Charles Bassett and Elliott See are killed in an aircraft accident in St. Louis, Missouri

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March
1st	Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface
1st	The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria
4th	The Beatles: In an interview published in The London Evening Standard, John Lennon comments, "We're more popular than Jesus now," eventually sparking a controversy in the United States
5th	Merci Chérie by Udo Jürgens (music by Udo Jürgens, text by Udo Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria
8th	Australia announces it will substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam
8th	An Irish Republican Army bomb destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin
9th	Ronnie Kray murders George Cornell in East London's Blind Beggar pub, a crime for which he is finally convicted in 1969
10th	Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg. Some spectators demonstrate against the groom because he is German
11th	French President Charles De Gaulle states that French troops will be taken out of NATO and that all French NATO bases and HQ's must be closed within a year
17th	Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb
20th	World Cup Trophy the "Jules Rimet" is stolen at an exhibition, it is later found by a dog named "Pickles" and his owner David Corbett
26th	Demonstrations are held across the United States against the Vietnam War
27th	In South Vietnam, 20,000 Buddhists march in demonstrations against the policies of the military government
29th	The 23rd Communist Party Conference is held in the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev demands that U.S. troops leave Vietnam, and announces that Chinese-Soviet relations are not satisfying
31st	The Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the British General Election
31st	The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon

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April
2nd	The Indonesian army demands that the country rejoin the United Nations
7th	The United Kingdom asks the UN Security Council for authority to use force to stop oil tankers that violate the embargo against Rhodesia. Authority is given April 10
8th	Buddhists in South Vietnam protest against the fact that the new government has not set a date for free elections
9th	Norwich City F.C. captain Barry Butler is killed in a car accident
18th	The 38th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles, California
21st	An artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas hospital. The patient developed neurological and pulmonary complications and died after few days of on life support
21st	The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time
21st	Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rastafarian leaders
21st	Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, for the murders of three children who vanished between November 1963 and October 1965
28th	In Rhodesia, security forces kill 7 ZANLA men in combat; Chimurenga, the ZANU rebellion, begins
29th	U.S. troops in Vietnam total 250,000
30th	Regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel (discontinued in 2000 due to the Channel Tunnel)

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May
3rd	Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio commence broadcasting on AM, with a combined potential 100,000 watts, from the same ship anchored off the south coast of England in international waters
4th	Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union
6th	The Moors Murderers trial ends with Ian Brady being found guilty on all three counts of murder and sentenced to three concurrent terms of life imprisonment. Myra Hindley is convicted on two counts of murder and of being an accessory in the third murder committed by Brady and receives two concurrent terms of life imprisonment and a seven-year fixed term for being an accessory
10th	Everton win The FA cup
12th	African members of the UN Security Council say that the British army should blockade Rhodesia
15th	The South Vietnamese army besieges Da Nang
15th	Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators again picket the White House, then rally at the Washington Monument
16th	The legendary album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is released
16th	Bob Dylan's seminal album, Blonde on Blonde is released in the USA
16th	In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War
25th	Explorer 32 is launched
26th	Guyana achieves independence
28th	Fidel Castro delcares martial law in Cuba because of a possible U.S. attack

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June
2nd	Éamon de Valera is re-elected as Irish president
2nd	Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first spacecraft to soft-land on another world
3rd	Joaquín Balaguer is elected president of the Dominican Republic
5th	Gene Cernan completes the second U.S. spacewalk (2 hours, 7 minutes)
8th	An XB-70 Valkyrie prototype is destroyed in a mid-air collision with a F-104 Starfighter chase plane during a photo shoot. NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker and USAF test pilot Carl Cross are both killed
8th	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
17th	An Air France personnel strike begins
21st	Opposition leader Arthur Calwell is shot after attending a political meeting in Mosman, Sydney, Australia
28th	In Argentina, a junta deposes president Arturo Umberto Illia in a coup, and appoints General Juan Carlos Ongania to lead
29th	U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong
30th	France formally leaves NATO

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July
3rd	Rene Barrientos is elected president of Bolivia
4th	President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act, which goes into effect the following year
7th	A Warsaw Pact conference ends with a promise to support North Vietnam
11th	The 1966 FIFA World Cup begins in England
12th	Zambia threatens to leave the Commonwealth of Nations because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia
14th	Israeli and Syrian jet fighters clash over the Jordan River
14th	Richard Speck murders 8 student nurses in their Chicago dormitory. He is arrested on July 17
14th	Gwynfor Evans becomes member of Parliament for Carmarthen, the first Plaid Cymru MP in the UK
16th	British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about the Vietnam War (the Soviet government refutes his ideas)
18th	Gemini 10 (John Young, Michael Collins) launched. After docking with an Agena target vehicle, they then set a world altitude record of 474 miles (763 km)
23rd	Katangese troops in Stanleyville, Congo, revolt for several weeks in support of the exiled minister Moise Tshombe
28th	The U.S. announces that a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane has disappeared over Cuba
29th	Bob Dylan is injured in a motorcycle accident near his home in Woodstock, New York. He is not seen in public for over a year
30th	Hosts England beat West Germany 4–2 to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time

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August
1st	Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 people and wounds 31 from atop the University of Texas at Austin Main Building tower, after earlier killing his wife and mother
1st	A military coup occurs in Nigeria; General Yakubu Gowon takes over
5th	Martin Luther King Jr. leads a civil rights march in Chicago, during which he is struck by a rock thrown from an angry white mob
5th	The Beatles release the legendary Revolver album in the United Kingdom
6th	Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, killing all 42 on board
6th	The Tagus River Bridge opens in Lisbon, Portugal
10th	Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit another world, is launched
11th	The Beatles hold a press conference in Chicago, during which John Lennon apologises for his "more popular than Jesus" remark, saying, "I didn't mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing."
12th	Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plainclothes policemen in London; they are later sentenced to life imprisonment
13th	An earthquake in Turkey kills 2,394 and injures 10,000
16th	The House Un-American Activities Committee starts investigating Americans who have aided the Viet Cong, with the intent to make these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested
30th	France offers independence to French Somaliland

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September
1st	United Nations Secretary-General U Thant declares that he will not seek re-election, because U.N. efforts in Vietnam have failed
1st	98 British tourists die in an air crash in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
6th	In Cape Town, the South African architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting
8th	Star Trek, the classic science fiction television series, debuts with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap."
12th	Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes the new South African Prime Minister
13th	TASS reports on clashes between the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Guards
16th	In South Vietnam, Thich Tri Quang ends a 100-day hunger strike
16th	The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City to the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera, Antony and Cleopatra
18th	Valerie Percy, the 21-year-old daughter of Senator Charles H. Percy, is stabbed and bludgeoned to death in the family mansion on Chicago's North Shore
19th	Scotland Yard arrests Ronald Edwards, suspected of involvement in the Great Train Robbery
30th	Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer are released from Spandau Prison
30th	Botswana achieves independence

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October
1st	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
4th	Israel applies for the outer membership of the EEC
4th	Basutoland becomes independent and takes the name Lesotho
5th	UNESCO signs the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. This event is now celebrated as World Teachers' Day
11th	France and the Soviet Union sign a treaty for cooperation in nuclear research
14th	The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system
16th	Grace Slick performs live for the first time with Jefferson Airplane
17th	Lesotho and Botswana are admitted to the United Nations
21st	The Aberfan disaster occurs in South Wales, United Kingdom
22nd	British spy George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison; he is next seen in Moscow
22nd	Spain demands that the United Kingdom stop military flights to Gibraltar; Britain refuses the next day
25th	Spain closes its Gibraltar border to non-pedestrian traffic
26th	NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels
27th	The United Nations takes Namibia from South Africa

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November
2nd	The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States
4th	The Arno river floods Florence, damaging many art treasures
5th	Thirty-eight African states demand that the United Kingdom use force against the Rhodesian government
6th	Lunar Orbiter 2 is launched
8th	Actor Ronald Reagan, a Republican, is elected Governor of California
11th	Spain declares general amnesty for crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War (effective only for the Falangists' side)
15th	Gemini 12 (James A. Lovell, Buzz Aldrin), splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km east of the Bahamas
15th	Harry Roberts, who killed 3 policemen in August, is caught near London
21st	In Togo, the army crushes an attempted coup
28th	Truman Capote's Black and White Ball ('The Party of the Century') is held in New York City
30th	Barbados achieves independence

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December
1st	Kurt Georg Kiesinger is elected Chancellor of West Germany
1st	British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith negotiate on HMS Tiger in the Mediterranean
2nd	U Thant agrees to serve a second term as U.N. Secretary General
7th	Syria offers weapons to rebels in Jordan
7th	Barbados is admitted to the United Nations
8th	The Typaldos Line's ferry Heraklion sinks in rough seas, in the Aegean Sea near Crete, leaving 217 dead
16th	The U.N. Security Council approves an oil embargo against Rhodesia
17th	South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia
20th	Harold Wilson withdraws all his previous offers to the Rhodesian government, and announces that he will agree to independence only after the founding of a Black majority government
22nd	Prime Minister Ian Smith declares that Rhodesia is already a republic
31st	Thieves steal millions worth of paintings from the Dulwich Art Gallery in London