1966

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Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1966

January

• January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, taking out President David Dacko.
• January 2 - A strike of public transportation workers in New York City begins (it will end January 13).
• January 3 - The first Acid Test is conducted at the Fillmore, San Francisco.
• January 4
• A military coup occurs in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
• The prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet in Moscow.
• A gas leak fire at the Feyzin oil refinery near Lyon, France kills 18 and injures 84.
• January 10
• Pakistani-Indian peace negotiations end successfully in Tashkent.
• The French paper L'Express publishes a story of Georges Figon, who took part in the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka.
• January 11
• A conference on Rhodesia begins in Lagos, Nigeria.
• The first SR-71 Blackbird spy plane goes into service at Beale AFB.
• January 12 - United States President Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
• January 13 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member, by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
• January 15 - A violent military coup is staged in Nigeria.
• Moscow announces the death of rocket designer Sergei Korolev.
• January 17
• The Nigerian coup is overturned.
• 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.
• 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.
• January 18
• French police announce that Georges Figon committed suicide, prior to his arrest for the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka.
• About 8,000 U.S. soldiers land in South Vietnam; U.S. troops now total 190,000.
• January 19
• Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India; she is sworn in January 24.
• Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies resigns.
• January 20 - Demonstrations occur against high food prices in Hungary.
• 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.
• The Chadian Muslim insurgent group FROLINAT is founded in Sudan, starting the Chadian Civil War.
• January 26
• Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires.
• Beaumont children disappearance: Three children disappear on their way to Glenelg Beach, South Australia, never to be seen again.
• January 27 - The British government promises the U.S. that British troops in Malaysia will stay until more peaceful conditions occur in the region.
• January 29 - The first of 608 performances of Sweet Charity opens at the Palace Theatre in New York City.
• January 31 - The United Kingdom ceases all trade with Rhodesia.

February

• February 1 - West Germany procures some 2,600 political prisoners from East 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 plunge into Tokyo Bay (133 dead).
• February 6 - Fidel Castro blames China for spreading anti-Soviet propaganda among Cuban soldiers.
• February 10 - Soviet writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to 5 and 7 years, respectively, for 'anti-Soviet' writings.
• February 11 - The Belgian government resigns.
• 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.
• February 20 - While Soviet author and translator Valery Tarsis is abroad, the Soviet Union negates his citizenship.
• February 23 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government with a Ba'athist regime.
• February 24 - A military coup in Ghana raises sacked General Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.
• February 26 - A curfew is declared in Jakarta, Indonesia.
• February 28 - U.S. astronauts Charles Bassett and Elliott See are killed in an aircraft accident in St. Louis, Missouri.

March

• March 1
• 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 - 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.
• March 5
• A massive theft of nuclear materials is revealed in Brazil.
• Merci Chérie by Udo Jürgens (music by Udo Jürgens, text by Udo Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger) 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.
• Ronald Kray, one of the Kray twins, shoots rival gangster George Cornell; the incident leads to the brother's incarceration.
• Vietnam War: Australia announces it will substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
• An Irish Republican Army bomb destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.
• March 9 - Ronnie Kray murders George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub.
• March 10 - Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg. Some spectators demonstrate against the groom because he is German.
• March 11
• Indonesian President Sukarno gives all executive powers to General Suharto (see Transition to the New Order and Supersemar).
• 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.
• March 12 - Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks sets the NHL single season scoring record against the New York Rangers with his 51st goal.
• March 13 - The 1956 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, adapted from their stage musical, is shown on network TV for the first time by ABC-TV. It will be repeated just three months later.
• March 16 - Gemini 8 (David Scott, Neil Armstrong) docks with an Agena target satellite.
• March 17
• More anti-communist demonstrations occur in Indonesia.
• Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.

• March 19 - The Texas Western Miners defeat the Kentucky Wildcats with 5 black starters, ushering in desegregation in athletic recruiting.
• March 22 - In Washington, DC, General Motors President James M. Roche appears before a Senate subcommittee, and apologizes to consumer advocate Ralph Nader for the company's intimidation and harassment campaign against him.
• March 23 - Pope Paul VI and Arthur Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, meet in Rome.
• March 26 - Demonstrations are held across the United States against the Vietnam War.
• March 27 - In South Vietnam, 20,000 Buddhists march in demonstrations against the policies of the military government.
• March 28 - Indira Gandhi visits Washington, DC.
• March 29 - 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.
• March 31
• The Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the British General Election.
• The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later 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 4 - Luna 10 enters orbit around the Moon.
• April 7 - 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.
• April 8 - Buddhists in South Vietnam protest against the fact that the new government has not set a date for free elections.
• April 9 - Norwich City F.C. captain Barry Butler is killed in a car accident.
• April 13 - United States president Lyndon Johnson signs the 1966 Uniform Time Act act dealing with Daylight Saving Time.
• April 14 - 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.
• 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 Rastafarian leaders.
• Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, for the murders of 3 children who vanished between November 1963 and October 1965.
• April 27 - Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in the Vatican (the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviet Union).
• April 28 - In Rhodesia, security forces kill 7 ZANLA men in combat; Chimurenga, the ZANU rebellion, begins.
• April 29 - U.S. troops in Vietnam total 250,000.
• April 30
• Regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel (discontinued in 2000 due to the Channel Tunnel).
• The Church of Satan is formed by Anton Szandor LaVey in San Francisco
• Uniform Daylight Saving Time first observed in most parts of North America.

May

• May 1 - Floods occur on the Finnish coast.
• May 3 - 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.
• May 4 - Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union.
• May 6 - The Moors Murderers trial at Chester Crown Court ends with Ian Brady being found guilty on all 3 counts of murder. He is sentenced to 3 concurrent terms of life imprisonment. Myra Hindley is convicted on 2 counts of murder and cleared on a third charge, but is guilty of being an accessory in the third murder committed by Brady. She receives 2 concurrent terms of life imprisonment for murder and a 7-year fixed term for being an accessory.
• May 12
• African members of the UN Security Council say that the British army should blockade Rhodesia.
• Opening of the Busch Memorial Stadium in St Louis, Missouri.
• Radio Peking claims that U.S. planes have shot down a Chinese plane over Yunnan (the U.S. denies the story the next day).
• May 14 - Turkey and Greece intend to start negotiations about the situation in Cyprus.
• May 15
• Indonesia asks Malaysia for peace negotiations.
• The South Vietnamese army besieges Da Nang.
• Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators again picket the White House, then rally at the Washington Monument.
• May 16
• A seamen's strike is called in Britain.
• The legendary album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is released.
• Bob Dylan's seminal album, Blonde on Blonde is released in the USA.
• In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War.
• May 24
• Ugandan army troops arrest Mutesa II of Buganda and occupy his palace.
• The Nigerian government forbids all political activity in the country (until January 17, 1969).
• May 25
• Explorer program: Explorer 32 is launched.
• In St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch, as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
• May 26 - Guyana achieves independence.
• May 28
• Fidel Castro delcares martial law in Cuba because of a possible U.S. attack.
• The Indonesian and Malayan governments declare that the Indonesian Confrontation is over (a treaty is signed on August 11).
• May 31 - The Philippines reestablishes diplomatic relations with Malaysia.

June

• June 1 - The final new episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show airs (the first episode aired on October 3, 1961).
• June 2
• Éamon de Valera is re-elected as Irish president.
• Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
• Four former cabinet ministers are executed in Zaire, for alleged involvement in a plot to kill Mobutu Sese Seko.
• June 3 - Joaquín Balaguer is elected president of the Dominican Republic.
• June 5 - Gemini 9: Gene Cernan completes the second U.S. spacewalk (2 hours, 7 minutes).
• June 6 - Civil rights activist James Meredith is shot while trying to march across Mississippi.
• June 8
• 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.
• 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.
• June 13 - Miranda v. Arizona: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
• June 14 - The Vatican abolishes the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of banned books).
• June 17 - An Air France personnel strike begins.
• June 18 - CIA chief William Raborn resigns - Richard Helms becomes his successor. (2)- Phyllis and Joe Miele are Married.
• June 20-July 1 - French President Charles De Gaulle visits the Soviet Union.
• June 21 - Opposition leader Arthur Calwell is shot after attending a political meeting in Mosman, Sydney, Australia.
• June 28 - In Argentina, a junta deposes president Arturo Umberto Illia in a coup, and appoints General Juan Carlos Ongania to lead.
• June 29
• A sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen, ends in the United Kingdom.
• Vietnam War: U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.
• June 30
• France formally leaves NATO.
• The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, DC.

July

• July 1 - Joaquin Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
• July 3 - Rene Barrientos is elected president of Bolivia.
• July 4
• North Vietnam declares general mobilization.
• President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act, which goes into effect the following year.
• Romania's premier Nicolae Ceausescu proposes dissolution of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact alliance in a meeting of Warsaw Pact powers at Bucharest.
• July 6 - Malawi becomes a republic.
• July 7 - A Warsaw Pact conference ends with a promise to support North Vietnam.
• July 8 - King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Ntare V, who is in turn deposed by prime minister Michel Micombero.
• July 11 - The 1966 FIFA World Cup begins in England.
• July 12
• Indira Gandhi visits Moscow.
• Zambia threatens to leave the Commonwealth of Nations because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia.
• U.S. Lieutenant Major W.H. Whalen is arrested for spying.
• July 14
• Israeli and Syrian jet fighters clash over the Jordan River.
• Richard Speck murders 8 student nurses in their Chicago dormitory.
• Gwynfor Evans becomes member of Parliament for Carmarthen, the first Plaid Cymru MP in the UK.
• July 16 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about the Vietnam War (the Soviet government refutes his ideas).
• July 17 - Richard Speck is arrested; he tries to commit suicide but fails.
• July 18
• Gemini 10 (John Young, Michael Collins) launched. After docking with an Agena rocket stage, they then set a world altitude record of 474 miles (763 km).
• The Hough Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio, the city's first race riot.
• July 19 - A Chinese delegate in the Netherlands, Liu en-Tsiu, is declared persona non grata because of the death of a Chinese engineer in unclear circumstances; there are claims that he was kidnapped and taken to the delegate's office.
• July 22 - The Chinese government declares Dutch delegate G. J. Jongejans persona non grata, but tells him not to leave the country before a group of Chinese engineers has left the Netherlands.
• July 23 - Katangese troops in Stanleyville, Congo, revolt for several weeks in support of the exiled minister Moise Tshombe.
• July 24 - U.N. Secretary General U Thant visits Moscow.
• July 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.
• July 28 - The U.S. announces that a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane has disappeared over Cuba.
• July 29
• The Nigerian army rebels and executes head of state General Aguiyi-Ironsi.
• 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.
• July 30 - England beats West Germany 4-2 to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time.

August

• August 1
• Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 people from the University of Texas at Austin Main Building.
• A military coup occurs in Nigeria; General Yakubu Gowon takes over.
• August 2 - The Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft.
• August 5
• 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.
• The Beatles release the legendary Revolver album in the United Kingdom.
• Mao Zedong launches a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party.
• August 6
• Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, killing all 42 on board.
• Rene Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia.
• The Tagus River Bridge opens in Lisbon, Portugal.
• August 7 - Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
• August 10
• An East German court sentences Günter Laudahn to life imprisonment for spying for the United States.
• Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit another world, is launched.
• August 11 - The Beatles hold a press conference in Chicago, during which John Lennon apologizes for his "more popular than Jesus" remark, saying, "I didn't mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing."
• August 12 - Massacre of Braybrook Street: Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plain clothes policemen in London; they are later sentenced to life imprisonment.
• August 13
• In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong begins the Cultural Revolution.
• An earthquake in Turkey kills 2,394 and injures 10,000.
• August 15
• Syrian and Israeli troops clash over Lake Genesaret for 3 hours.
• It is announced that the New York Herald Tribune will not resume publication.
• August 16 - Vietnam War: 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.
• August 17 - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic begin negotiations in Kuwait to end the war in Yemen.
• August 18 - Vietnam War: D Company, 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, meets and defeats a Viet Cong force estimated to be 4 times larger, at the Battle of Long Tan in Phuoc Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam.
• August 19 - An earthquake in eastern Turkey destroys whole cities.
• August 21 - Seven men are sentenced to death in Egypt, for anti-Nasser agitation.
• August 22 - The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), is formed.
• August 26 - Riots occur in French Somaliland.
• August 29 - The Beatles play their very last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.
• August 30 - France offers independence to French Somaliland.

September

• September 1
• United Nations Secretary-General U Thant declares that he will not seek re-election, because U.N. efforts in Vietnam have failed.
• 98 British tourists die in an air crash in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
• September 6 - In Cape Town, the South African architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting.
• September 8 - Star Trek, the classic science fiction television series, debuts with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap."
• September 9 - NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.
• September 12-September 15 - Gemini 11 (Richard Gordon, Pete Conrad) docks with an Agena target vehicle.
• September 12 - Five Star General Omar Bradley marries actress Esther "Kitty" Buhler in San Diego, California.
• September 13
• Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes the new South African Prime Minister.
• TASS reports on clashes between the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Guards.
• September 16
• In South Vietnam, Thich Tri Quang begins a 100-day hunger strike.
• The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City to the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera, Antony and Cleopatra.
• September 18 - 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.
• September 19 - Scotland Yard arrests Ronald Edwards, suspected of involvement in the Great Train Robbery.
• September 21 -100th birthday of H.G. Wells
• September 30-October 1 (midnight) - Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer are released from Spandau Prison.
• September 30 - Botswana achieves independence.

October

• October - Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party.
• October 1 - 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.
• October 3 - Tunisia severs diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic.
• October 4
• Israel applies for the outer membership of the EEC.
• Basutoland becomes independent and takes the name Lesotho.
• October 5 - UNESCO signs the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. This event is now celebrated as World Teachers' Day.
• October 7 - The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October.
• October 9 - The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series, 1-0, to sweep the series for their 1st World Championship.
• October 11 - France and the Soviet Union sign a treaty for cooperation in nuclear research.
• October 14 - The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro).
• October 15
• U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.
• U.S. Congress passes a bill for the creation of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to be created.
• ABC-TV telecasts a highly-acclaimed ninety-minute television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon, starring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Ann Howes. It wins many Emmy Awards, is repeated just five months later, and inaugurates a short-lived series of special television adaptations of famous Broadway musicals on ABC. Goulet stars in all but one of these specials.
• October 16 - Grace Slick performs live for the first time with Jefferson Airplane.
• October 17 - Lesotho and Botswana are admitted to the United Nations.
• October 21 - The Aberfan disaster occurs in South Wales, United Kingdom.
• October 22 - British spy George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison; he is next seen in Moscow.
• October 22 - Spain demands that the United Kingdom stop military flights to Gibraltar; Britain refuses the next day.
• October 24 - Negotiations about the Vietnam War begin in Manila, Philippines.
• October 25
• A military court in Jakarta sentences ex-foreign minister Subandrio to death.
• Spain closes its Gibraltar border to non-pedestrian traffic.
• October 26 - NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels.
• October 27 - The United Nations takes Namibia from South Africa.
• October 29 - The Guinean delegation to the OAU meeting in Ethiopia, become hostages of the Ghanaian government in Accra.

November

• November 2 - The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
• November 4 - The Arno river floods Florence, damaging many art treasures.
• November 5 - Thirty-eight African states demand that the United Kingdom use force against the Rhodesian government.
• November 6 - Lunar Orbiter 2 is launched.
• November 8
• Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.
• Actor Ronald Reagan, a Republican, is elected Governor of California.
• November 11
• A mine kills 3 Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.
• Spain declares general amnesty for crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War (effective only for the Falangists' side).
• November 15
• Gemini 12 (James A. Lovell, Buzz Aldrin), splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km east of the Bahamas.
• Harry Maurice Roberts, who killed 3 policemen in August, is caught near London.
• A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
• November 16 - U.S. doctor Sam Sheppard is acquitted in his second trial for the murder of his pregnant wife in 1954.
• November 17
• The U.N. General Assembly decides to found the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
• A spectacular Leonid meteor shower passes over Arizona, at the rate of 2,300 a minute for 20 minutes.
• November 21 - The army crushes an attempted coup in Togo.
• November 28 - Truman Capote's Black and White Ball ('The Party of the Century') is held in New York City.
• November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.

December

• December 1
• Kurt Georg Kiesinger is elected Chancellor of West Germany.
• British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith negotiate on HMS Tiger in the Mediterranean.
• December 2 - U Thant agrees to serve a second term as U.N. Secretary General.
• December 3 - Anti-Portuguese demonstrations occur in Macau; a curfew is declared the next day.
• December 7
• Syria offers weapons to rebels in Jordan.
• Barbados is admitted to the United Nations.
• December 8 - The Typaldos Line's ferry Heraklion sinks in rough seas, in the Aegean Sea near Crete - 217 dead.
• December 15 - In Los Angeles, Walt Disney dies of lung cancer at age 65.
• December 16
• The U.N. Security Council approves an oil embargo against Rhodesia.
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were adopted by the General Assembly by its resolution 2200 A (XXI).
• December 17 - South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia.
• December 20 - 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
• December 22 - Prime Minister Ian Smith declares that Rhodesia is already a republic.
• December 23 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, is shown for the first time on CBS. It will become an annual Christmas tradition, and the worst-loved film ever based on a Dr. Seuss book.
• December 26 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies, at California State University, Long Beach.
• December 31
• East German Premier Walter Ulbricht discusses negotiations about German reunification.
• Thieves steal millions worth of paintings from the Dulwich Art Gallery in London.
• The Congolese government takes over the Union Minière du Haut Katanga.

Undated

• Konstantin Chernenko, later leader of Soviet Union, becomes candidate member of the Central Committee.
• Surrealist Movement in the United States founded by Franklin and Penelope Rosemont.
• Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn are awarded the Fermi Prize.
• Congress of the United States creates National Council for Marine Resources and Engineering Development.
• Will Lang Jr. begins Life (magazine)'s investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Warren Commission. Will Lang Jr. is stopped by Holland McCombs a few months later.
• Martin Richards designs the BCPL programming language.
• The DKW automobile goes out of production.
• World Buddhist Sangha Council convened by Theravadins in Sri Lanka with the hope of bridging differences and working together.
• Long-term potentiation (LTP), the putative cellular mechanism of learning and memory, is first observed by Terje Lømo in Oslo, Norway.
• Actress Saira Banu marries actor Dilip Kumar.
• Kwanzaa was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga.

Ongoing

• First Sudanese Civil War (1955-72)
• Guatemalan Civil War (1960-96)
• Indochina Wars
• Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation (1962-76)
• Laotian Civil War (1962-75)
• Marshall Plan
• North Yemen Civil War (1962-70)
• Portuguese Colonial War (1961-74)
• Shifta War (1963-67)

Births

January

• January 1 - Anna Burke, Australian politician and member for Chisholm in the House of Representatives
• January 1 - Crazy Legs, Puerto Rican Breakdancer, President of Rock Steady Crew
• January 1 - Michael Imperioli, American actor
• January 3 - Martin Galway, Northern Irish composer
• January 4 - Deana Carter, American singer
• January 7 - Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American actress and model, wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. (died 1999)
• January 8 - Igor Vyazmikin, Russian ice hockey player
• January 12 - Rob Zombie, American musician, artist, and writer
• January 13 - Patrick Dempsey, American actor
• January 14 - Marco Hietala, bassist in the Finnish Metal Band Nightwish
• January 17 - Shabba Ranks, Jamaican singer
• January 19 - Stefan Edberg, Swedish tennis player
• January 19 - Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player
• January 20 - Stacey Dash, American actress
• January 20 - Tracii Guns, American guitarist
• January 21 - Wendy James, British singer (Transvision Vamp)
• January 24 - Jimeoin, Northern Irish-Australian comedian and actor
• January 29 - Romário, Brazilian footballer
• January 30 - Hans Tutschku, German composer

February

• February 1 - Michelle Akers, American soccer player
• February 4 - Kyoko Koizumi, Japanese actress and singer
• February 6 - Rick Astley, British singer
• February 7 - Chris Rock, American comedian
• February 9 - Ellen van Langen, Dutch athlete
• February 11 - Stephen Gregory, American actor
• February 18 - Richard A Collins, British scientist and author
• February 20 - Cindy Crawford, American model
• February 22 - Brian Greig, Australian statesman
• February 23 - Michael Arata, American actor
• February 24 - Billy Zane, American actor
• February 25 - Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete

March

• March 3 - Tone Lōc, American musician
• March 4 - Daniela Amavia, American actress and international model
• March 4 - Kevin Johnson, American basketball player
• March 4 - Grand Puba (Brand Nubian), American rapper
• March 4 - Patrick Hannan, English pop drummer (The Sundays)
• March 4 - Steve Bastoni, Italian Australian actor
• March 4 - Dav Pilkey, Wrote books, such as Captain UnderPants.
• March 4 - Wash Westmoreland, British film director
• March 5 - Mark Z. Danielewski, American author
• March 6 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist (died 1996)
• March 7 - Jeff Feagles, National Football League punter
• March 9 - Michael Patrick MacDonald, American memorist
• March 10 - Edie Brickell, American singer
• March 10 - Mike Timlin, baseball player
• March 16 - Rodney Peete, former National Football League quarterback
• March 17 - David Taylor, English Joiner
• March 25 - Tom Glavine, Major League Baseball player
• March 25 - Jeff Healey, Canadian guitarist (d. 2008)
• March 25 - Anton Rogan, Northern Irish footballer

April

• April 1 - Chris Evans, British radio disc-jockey
• April 2 - Teddy Sheringham, British footballer
• April 3 - Miina Tominaga, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
• April 4 - Riduan Isamuddin, Bali bombing suspects
• April 8 - Robin Wright Penn, American actress
• April 8 - Bobby Ologun, Nigerian television personality and martial artist
• April 11 - Dustin Rhodes, American professional wrestler
• April 11 - Lisa Stansfield, British soul singer
• April 13 - Ali Boumnijel, Tunisian football goalkeeper
• April 14 - Greg Maddux, American baseball player
• April 14 - Lloyd Owen, British actor
• April 15 - Samantha Fox, British model and singer
• April 18 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian athlete
• April 21 - Bubba the Love Sponge, American radio personality
• April 22 - Jeffrey Dean Morgan, American actor
• April 28 - John Daly, American golfer
• April 29 - Phil Tufnell, British cricketer

May

• May 8 - Blag Dahlia, American musician, producer, and author
• May 8 - Kamil Kašťák, Czechoslovakian ice hockey player
• May 8 - Marta Sánchez, Spanish female vocalist, entertainer
• May 8 - Cláudio Taffarel, Brazilian goalkeeper
• May 10 - Jonathan Edwards, British athlete
• May 11 - Christoph Schneider, German musician (Rammstein)
• May 12 - Stephen Baldwin, American actor
• May 13 - Darius Rucker, American singer (Hootie & the Blowfish)
• May 16 - Janet Jackson, American singer
• May 16 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
• May 24 - Éric Cantona, French footballer
• May 26 - Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
• May 26 - Zola Budd, South African athlete
• May 30 - Stephen Malkmus, American singer (Pavement),(Stephen Malkmus)
• May 31 - David Mark Anaya, American entertainer (AGRA, Miss&International)

June

• June 1 - Greg Schiano, American football coach
• June 4 - Cecilia Bartoli, Italian mezzo-soprano
• June 4 - Tiffany Million, American actress
• June 6 - Murdoc Niccals, Member of Gorillaz, Damien Thorn The Awnser to Armegeddon
• June 8 - Julianna Margulies, American actress
• June 8 - Doris Pearson, British singer Five Star
• June 8 - Jens Kidman, Swedish musician
• June 14 - Matt Freeman, American musician
• June 15 - Roberto Carnevale, musician
• June 16 - Jan Železný, Czech javelin thrower
• June 17 - Christy Canyon, porn actress
• June 18 - Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater
• June 19 - Samuel West, British actor
• June 21 - Rudi Bakhtiar, American journalist
• June 22 - Michael Park, British rally co-driver (d. 2005)
• June 23 - Richie Ren, Taiwanese musician
• June 25 - Dikembe Mutombo, Congolese basketball player
• June 27 - J. J. Abrams, American television writer and producer
• June 28 - Mary Stuart Masterson, American actress
• June 28 - John Cusack, American actor
• June 30 - Mike Tyson, American boxer
• June 30 - Marton Csokas, New Zealand actor

July

• July 1 - Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer
• July 3 - Moises Alou, baseball player
• July 5 - Kathryn Erbe, American actress
• July 5 - Claudia Wells, American actress
• July 5 - Gianfranco Zola, Italian football (soccer) player
• July 7 - Jim Gaffigan, American comedian
• July 7 - Gundula Krause, German violinist
• July 13 - Gerald Levert, American singer (d. 2006)
• July 14 - Tanya Donelly, American musician
• July 14 - Matthew Fox, American actor
• July 15 - Irène Jacob, French-born actress
• July 15 - Dimitris P. Kraniotis, Greek poet
• July 22 - Shawn Michaels, American professional wrestler
• July 29 - Martina McBride, American singer
• July 29 - Richard Steven Horvitz, American voice actor
• July 30 - Murilo Bustamante, Brazilian mixed martial artist
• July 31 - Dean Cain, American actor

August

• August 2 - Tim Wakefield, American baseball player
• August 7 - Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
• August 7 - Kristin Hersh, American musician
• August 11 - Juan Maria Solare, Argentine composer
• August 12 - Les Ferdinand, English footballer
• August 14 - Halle Berry, American actress
• August 17 - Rodney Mullen, famous flatland skateboarder
• August 18 - Gustavo Charif, Argentine artist
• August 19 - Lee Ann Womack, American musician
• August 20 - Dimebag Darrell, guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan (d. 2004)
• August 23 - Rik Smits, Dutch basketball player
• August 25 - Derek Sherinian, American keyboardist
• August 26 - Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player
• August 26 - Shirley Manson, Scottish musician and Garbage frontwoman
• August 28 - Priya Dutt, Indian social worker and politician

September

• September 2 - Salma Hayek, Mexican-born actress
• September 4 - Yanka Dyagileva, Russian singer
• September 6 - Eduardo Maruri, Ecuadorian business man and politician
• September 9 - Georg Hackl, German luger
• September 9 - Adam Sandler, American actor and comedian
• September 12 - Ben Folds, piano rock artist
• September 22 - Moustafa Amar, Egyptian pop star
• September 24 - Michael J. Varhola, American author and publisher

October

• October 1 - George Weah, Liberian politician and football player
• October 2 - Rodney Anoa'i, Samoan-American professional wrestler (d. 2000)
• October 3 - Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, Israeli settler leader (d. 2000)
• October 7 - Sherman Alexie, Native American author
• October 8 - Aaron Callaghan, Irish football club executive
• October 9 - David Cameron, British politician
• October 10 - Tony Adams, English footballer
• October 11 - Stephen Williams, British politician
• October 12 - Brian Kennedy, Irish musician and author
• October 19 - Sinitta, 1980s pop singer
• October 24 - Roman Abramovich, Russian oil magnate
• October 26 - Jeanne Zelasko, FOX baseball host
• October 27 - Matt Drudge, American Internet journalist
• October 28 - Steve Atwater, American football player

November

• November 2 - David Schwimmer, American actor
• November 3 - Joe Hachem, Lebanese-born Australian poker player
• November 6 - Peter DeLuise, American actor
• November 6 - Paul Gilbert, American musician
• November 6 - Christian Lorenz, German musician (Rammstein)
• November 7 - Lin Xiaochieh, Burmese leader
• November 14 - Curt Schilling, baseball player
• November 17 - Jeff Buckley, American singer (d. 1997)
• November 17 - Sophie Marceau, French actress
• November 20 - Kevin Gilbert, American singer, composer, and i