Timeline 1966
Return to home
1966 Jan 1, Simon
& Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" reached #1.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1966 Jan 1, A 12 day transit
worker strike shut down NYC subway and buses.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1966 Jan 1, By law all US
cigarette packs began carrying the warning: "Caution! Cigarette smoking
may be hazardous to your health."
(www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1992/8/1992_8_72.shtml)
1966 Jan 1, The 173rd Airborne
Brigade became the first American unit in the Mekong Delta of South
Vietnam.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1966 Jan 2, The 1st Jewish child
was born in Spain since the 1492 expulsion.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1966 Jan 3, Cambodia warned the
UN of retaliation unless the U.S. and South Vietnam end intrusions.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1966 Jan 4, A US State Dept.
security official wrote a memo describing how a safe house was set up
in the Guatemalan presidential palace for use by Guatemalan security
agents and their US contacts.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.A12)
1966 Jan 4, Ronald Reagan
announced his candidacy for California Governor.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Jan 9, Ronald Reagan appeared
on Meet the Press and was asked why he had not disavowed the John Birch
Society. Reagan said a committee had looked into the group and found
“nothing of a subversive nature.” In 1960 an informer reported to the
FBI that Reagan was a Beverly Hills chapter member.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Jan 10, Julian Bond was
denied a seat in Georgia legislature for opposing Vietnam War.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1966 Jan 10, In Mississippi Vernon
Dahmer, a revered civil rights leader, was killed in a firebombing. In
1998 Klansmen Sam Bowers (1924-2006), Deavours Nix (72) and Charles
Noble (55) were arrested for the murder. 8 men in 2 cars loaded with
shotguns and 12 gallons of gasoline attacked Dahmer’s home. Billy Roy
Pitts participated and later testified how Bowers had called meetings
and presided over the planning of the bombing. Bowers was convicted in
his 5th trial and sentenced to life in prison where he died.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A5)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A5)(SFC,
8/20/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A1)
1966 Jan 10, The Tashkent
Agreement, was signed in the Soviet city of Tashkent, and officially
ended a 17-day war between Pakistan and India. It required that both
sides withdraw by February 26, 1966, to positions held prior to August
5, 1965, and observe the cease-fire line agreed to on June 30, 1965.
The agreement was brokered by Soviet premier Aleksey Kosygin and signed
by Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan President
Ayub Khan. The Indian prime minister died the day after signing the
agreement.
(HNQ,
4/26/99)(www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr65/fkashmir1965)
1966 Jan 11, In Brazil 550 died in
landslides in mountains behind Rio de Janeiro after rain.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1966 Jan 11, Albert Giacometti
(64), Swiss-French painter and sculptor, died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1966 Jan 11, India’s PM Lal
Bahadur Shastri, the successor of Nehru and engineer of the Green
Revolution, died.
(WSJ, 3/19/00, p.A19)
1966 Jan 12, "Batman" with Adam
West & Burt Ward premiered on ABC TV.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1966 Jan 12, President Johnson
said in his State of the Union address that the United States should
stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there was ended.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1966 Jan 12, A 12 day NYC transit
strike ended.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1966 Jan 13, Robert C. Weaver
became the first black Cabinet member as he was appointed Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development by President Johnson.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1966 Jan 17, Martin Luther King
Jr. opened a campaign in Chicago.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1966 Jan 17, A US Air Force B-52
carrying four unarmed hydrogen bombs crashed on the Spanish coast.
Three of the bombs were quickly recovered, but the fourth wasn't found
until April. Two US Air Force jets collided in the skies over Spanish
coastal village of Palomares. The mid-air crash of the B-52 bomber and
a KC-135 refueling plane killed 8 crew members.
(AP,
1/17/06)(www.commondreams.org/views01/0803-08.htm)
1966 Jan 18, Robert Clifton Weaver
(1907-1997), the 1st African-American to hold a post in the
presidential cabinet, was sworn in as head of the newly created
Department of Housing and Urban Development under Pres. Johnson.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1966 Jan 19, Neil Simon's,
Coleman's & Fields' musical "Sweet Charity," premiered.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1966 Jan 19, Indira Gandhi,
Nehru’s daughter, was elected the 3rd prime minister of India.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)(AP, 1/19/98)(MC, 1/19/02)
1966 Jan 20, The Merry Prankster
organized the Trips Festival at the SF Longshoremen’s Hall. It became 3
days of drug-infused music and partying.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W28)
1966 Jan 29, "Sweet Charity"
opened on Broadway for 608 performances. Cy Coleman composed the music.
(www.prigsbee.com/Musicals/shows/sweetcharity.htm)(SFC, 11/20/04, p.B6)
1966 Jan 29, A snow storm in north
east US killed 165.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1966 Jan 31, U.S. planes resumed
bombing of North Vietnam after a 37-day pause.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1966 Jan 31, The Soviets launched
Luna 9, the first spacecraft to land softly on the moon.
(HC, 2003, p.64)
1966 Feb 1, Nicholas Piantanida,
set a balloon flight record & died during the descent.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1966 Feb 3, The Soviet probe Luna
9 became the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.
(AP, 2/3/08)
1966 Feb 4, Gilbert H. Grosvenor
(90), president National Geographic Society, died.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1966 Feb 9, Sophie Tucker (79),
Russian-US singer, actress (My Yiddish Mama), died.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1966 Feb 10, Protester David
Miller was convicted of burning his draft card.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1966 Feb 12, The South Vietnamese
won two big battles in the Mekong Delta. In Vietnam's Mekong Delta,
Navy SEALs were the military's eyes and ears, providing vital
intelligence on enemy operations.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1966 Feb 16, The World Council of
Churches being held in Geneva, urged immediate peace in Vietnam.
Vietnam was the war that five presidents "owned"--and yet no president
"owned."
(HN, 2/16/98)
1966 Feb 17, Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
(b.1875) former president GM (1923-1956), died. As president of GM he
brought in corporate management, introduced the ideas of model changes
and offering a car "for every purse and purpose." In 2002 David Farber
authored "Sloan Rules."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1966 Feb 19, Robert F. Kennedy
suggested the U.S. offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1966 Feb 20, Chester W. Nimitz
(80), US admiral (WW II), died at home on Yerba Buena Island (Treasure
Island) in SF Bay.
(MC, 2/20/02)(Ind, 11/9/02, 5A)
1966 Feb 24, A military coup
overthrew Ghana’s Pres. Kwame Nkrumah. He fled to Guinea.
(http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/19/150104.php)
1966 Feb, The US stock market
began a 9 month decline of 25%.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.B2)
1966 Feb, In Syria the Alawis took
power and presented themselves as standard Muslims. Hafez Assad, a
member of the Alawite clan, was rewarded for his role and appointment
as Defense Minister. Nearly 80% of Syrians are Sunnis.
(WSJ, 1/9/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A30)
1966 Mar 1, Moscow reported that a
space probe had crashed on Venus. Venera 3 became the 1st man-made
object to impact on a planet (Venus).
(HN, 3/1/98)(SC, 3/1/02)
1966 Mar 1, Ba'ath-party took
power in Syria.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1966 Mar 2, Milton Obote stage a
coup against Pres. Edward Mutesa (d.1969) and had himself declared
president of Uganda. Mutesa, the Baganda king and non-executive
president of Uganda, was burned out of his palace and exiled. Mutesa
fled Obote’s army and went to London where his son, Ronald Muwenda
Mutebi was enrolled in boarding school.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Obote)(WSJ,
12/19/94, A-1,6)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.58)
1966 Mar 2, There were some
215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam. Gen. Westmoreland called for 325,000 by
July and 410,000 by December.
(SC, 3/2/02)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.88)
1966 Mar 3, James Goldman's "Lion
in Winter" premiered in NYC.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1966 Mar 3, Rock group Buffalo
Springfield formed with Steven Stills, Neil Young, et al.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1966 Mar 3, "Lightnin' Lou"
Christie was striking gold this day for his hit "Lightnin' Strikes".
Christie was born Lugee Sacco and joined a group called The Classics
before making his first recording in 1960. In 1961, he recorded under
the name Lugee & The Lions until changing to Lou Christie for a
string of hits beginning in 1963. Other notable tunes from Christie's
Top 40 appearances include: "The Gypsy Cried", "Two Faces Have I",
"Rhapsody in the Rain" and "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" – all displaying
his trademark falsetto voice, similar to that of Frankie Valli of The
Four Seasons. "Lightnin' Strikes" was Christie's only million seller.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)
1966 Mar 3, An F5 tornado hit
Jackson, Miss. 57 people were killed and nearly 1000 homes destroyed.
Damages were estimated at $18 million.
(SFC, 3/3/09, p.D6)
1966 Mar 4, John Lennon said: "We
(Beatles) are more popular than Jesus." Radio stations in the
Netherlands and in Spain quickly banned the playing of Beatle records
as did the South African Broadcasting Corporation, stating that "The
Beatles' arrogance has passed the ultimate limit of decency. It is
clowning no longer."
(www.beatles.ws/1966.htm)
1966 Mar 4, North Sea Gas was 1st
pumped ashore by BP.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1966 Mar 4, Canadian Pacific
airliner exploded on landing in Tokyo and 64 died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1966 Mar 5, 75 MPH air currents
caused a BOAC 707 to crash into Mount Fuji and 124 died.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1966 Mar 5, Anna Akhmatova,
Russian poet, died in Leningrad. She was born in 1889 as Anna Gorenko
near Odessa, Ukraine. In 2005 Elaine Feinstein authored “Anna of All
the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova.
(www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Anna_Akhmatova)(SSFC, 4/2/06, p.M3)
1966 Mar 6, In Guatemala security
forces arrested 32 people suspected of aiding Marxist guerrillas. They
all disappeared. A later CIA cable identified 3 of the missing as
terrorists executed by Guatemalan authorities on Mar 6.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.A12)
1966 Mar 7, Charles de Gaulle said
he would pull France out of NATO's integrated military command. French
military personnel stepped down from their positions in NATO on July 1.
(www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=181)
1966 Mar 8, "Golden Boy" closed at
Majestic Theater in NYC after 569 performances.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1966 Mar 8, Australia announced
that it would triple the number of troops in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1966 Mar 8, An IRA bomb destroyed
Nelson Column in Dublin.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1966 Mar 10, The North Vietnamese
captured a Green Beret camp at Ashau Valley.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1966 Mar 10, Kelso, 5 time Horse
of the Year, retired.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1966 Mar 11, Three men were
convicted of the murder of Malcolm X.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1966 Mar 11, In Indonesia army
generals held guns to the head of Pres. Sukarno and forced him to sign
a document transferring power to Gen. Suharto.
(SFC, 12/9/00, p.A18)
1966 Mar 15, Abe Saperstein,
founder of the Harlem Globetrotters, died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1966 Mar 16, Col. Paul Underwood
flew a bombing mission over Lai Chau Province in Vietnam and crashed
after releasing bombs from his F-105 Thunderchief. His remains were
returned to the US in 1998.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A14)
1966 Mar 16, Alfred Rascon, a US
Army medic in South Vietnam, saved the lives of a number of his platoon
members using his own wounded body to cover wounded men while treating
their wounds under fire. He received the Medal of Honor in 2000.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A2)
1966 Mar 16-1966 Mar 17, US
astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott performed the first orbital
docking.
(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1966 Mar 17, A U.S. midget
submarine located a missing hydrogen bomb which had fallen from an
American bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)
1966 Mar 18, Hedda Hopper,
American gossip columnist (1890-1966), died. "Having only friends would
be dull anyway -- like eating eggs without salt."
(AP, 3/18/97)
1966 Mar 19, Texas Western College
under coach Don Haskins won the NCAA basketball tournament becoming the
1st team to win with an all African American team. In 2006 the film
“Glory Road” depicted the story of the winning team.
(SFC, 1/24/06, p.B1)
1966 Mar 21, Supreme Court
reversed Massachusetts ruling that Fanny Hill" is obscene.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1966 Mar 23, The 1st official
meeting after 400 years of Catholic and Anglican Church.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1966 Mar 24, Selective Service
announced college deferments based on performance.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1966 Mar 27, Anti-Vietnam war
demonstrations took place in US, Europe and Australia.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1966 Mar 28, Navy corpsman Robert
R. Ingram was shot while with his platoon of marines on a ridge in
Quang Ngai province, South Vietnam. He continued providing medical
attention to his comrades with multiple wounds to himself. He was
awarded a belated Medal of Honor in 1998 due to lost paperwork.
(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A3)
1966 Mar 29, Leonid Brezhnev
became First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounced the
American policy in Vietnam and called it one of aggression.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1966 Mar 31, An estimated 200,000
anti-war demonstrators marched in New York City. 25,000 anti war
demonstrators marched in NYC.
(HN, 3/31/98)(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A28)(MC, 3/31/02)
1966 Mar 31, Labour Party won
British parliamentary election.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1966 Apr 2, Cecil Scott Forester
(66), English author (Horatio Hornblower), died.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1966 Apr 3, Three-thousand South
Vietnamese Army troops led a protest against the Ky regime in Saigon.
(HN, 4/3/98)
1966 Apr 6, Emmett Ashford became
the first African-American major league umpire. The highly regarded
umpire was known for his dynamic and distinctive style of calling balls
and strikes.
(HN, 4/12/99)(HNQ,
4/15/00)(http://netscape.net/picassoaustin/homepage)
1966 Apr 7, The United States
recovered the hydrogen bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.
(AP, 4/7/97)
1966 Apr 8, The AFL chose 36 year
old Al Davis as commissioner.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1966 Apr 8, The cover of Time
magazine asked “Is God Dead?” An article inside examined the changing
view of the Judeo-Christian god.
(SFC, 7/31/08,
p.B5)(www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19660408,00.html)
1966 Apr 8, Leonid Brezhnev was
elected secretary-general of communist party. [see Mar 29]
(MC, 4/8/02)
1966 Apr 9, The statue of Winston
Churchill was dedicated at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.
(HN, 4/9/99)
1966 Apr 10, Evelyn Waugh
(b.1903), British writer, satirist (Brideshead Revisited), died. He
also wrote “The Loved Ones,” a satire on California burial customs and
“Vile Bodies.” His correspondence with Nancy Mitford, novelist of
manners, was edited by Charlotte Mosley and published in 1997. In 2007
Alexander Waugh, grandson of Evelyn Waugh, authored “Fathers and Sons,”
his biography of the Waugh family.
(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A18)(SFC, 9/11/04, p.E1)(WSJ,
5/26/07, p.P6)
1966 Apr 12, Emmett Ashford became
the first African-American major league umpire. [see Apr 6]
(HN, 4/12/99)
1966 Apr 12, Jan Berry (1942-2004)
of the "Jan and Dean" duo was involved in a car crash that left him in
a month-long coma. Their hit songs from 1960-1966 included: "Little Old
lady from Pasadena," "Deadman’s Curve," and "Surf City."
(SFEC, 7/13/97, DB p.63)(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.B5)
1966 Apr 12, 1st B-52 bombing on
North Vietnam took place.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1966 Apr 13, Pan Am placed a
$525,000,000 order for 25 Boeing 747s. The 747 jumbo jet revolutionized
mass air transportation.
(MC, 4/13/02)(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)
1966 Apr 16, Rhodesian PM Ian
Smith broke diplomatic relations with Britain.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1966 Apr 19, Lt. Lee Aaron Adams
of Willits, Ca., was killed when his F-105D Thunderchief fighter plane
was shot down in North Vietnam. His remains were returned home in 2005.
During 1966 the US Air Force lost 126 Thunderchiefs.
(SFC, 6/2/05, p.A1)
1966 Apr 21, Pfc. Milton Lee
Oliver was awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously, for bravery during
the Vietnam War.
(HN, 4/21/00)
1966 Apr 21, Emperor Haile
Selassie (Ethiopia) visited Kingston, Jamaica.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1966 Apr 23, President Lyndon
Johnson publicly appeals for "more flags" (foreign countries) to come
to the aid of South Vietnam.
(HN, 4/23/00)
1966 Aug 27, Race riot began in
Waukegan Illinois.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1966 Apr, The Grateful Dead
returned to Northern California from Los Angeles. They established a
ranch in Novato and moved into a Victorian at 710 Haight St.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W28)
1966 Apr, Mary Wells Lawrence
founded the ad agency Wells Rich Greene. In 2002 she authored “A Big
Life (In Advertising).”
(WSJ, 5/17/02, p.W10)
1966 Apr, US Rubber changed its
name to Uniroyal Inc.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)
1966 Apr, Robert G. Ferry
(1934-2009, helicopter test pilot, flew solo 2,213 miles nonstop from
Culver City, Ca., to Ormond Beach, Fl., in 15 hours and 8 minutes
setting a world record.
(SFC, 2/11/09, p.B7)
1966 May 1, Last British concert
by Beatles was at Empire Pool in Wembley.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1966 May 13, Rolling Stones
released "Paint it Black."
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1966 May 13, Federal education
funding was denied to 12 school districts in the South because of
violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1966 May 14, Stokely Carmichael
was elected chairman of SNCC. Civil rights leader and one-time chairman
of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Stokely
Carmichael is credited with popularizing the slogan "Black Power"
during a march led by James Meridith. The "Black Power" slogan was
endorsed by the Congress of Racial Equality but rejected by the NAACP
Convention in 1966.
(HNQ, 5/30/98)
1966 May 14, Ludwig Meidner
(b.1884), German expressionist artist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Meidner)
1966 May 15, South Vietnamese army
battled Buddhists and about 80 died.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1966 May 16, Columbia Records
released Bob Dylan’s album "Blonde on Blonde."
(www.ddg.com/LIS/glenn/DYLANWEB.HTM)
1966 May 16, Stokely Carmichael
was named chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1966 May 16, Mao exploited his
cult status as Communist China's "red, red sun" and urged young Chinese
to revolt against traditional culture and leaders. The country
descended into the ideological frenzy of the Cultural Revolution.
Teenagers armed with red booklets of Mao's speeches battled one another
and dispatched millions to the countryside. Many "capitalist roaders"
were hounded to death. The Cultural Revolution was a radical upheaval
of Chinese society initiated by Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Mao, fearing
his influence fading, chose to promote the movement, which amounted to
anarchy and terror erupting in China’s urban centers. In doing so, he
circumvented his designated successors with individuals committed to
his vision, including the Gang of Four.
(WSJ 12/10/93)(HNQ, 6/6/01)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.43)
1966 May 18, Paul Althaus (78),
German theologist (That Christian Wahrheit), died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1966 May 19, A tortoise,
reportedly given to Tonga's King by Capt. Cook in 1773), died.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1966 May 21, The new $114 million
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford Univ., Ca., began
smashing atoms.
(SFC, 9/30/02, p.A5)(SFC, 9/26/07, p.B7)
1966 May 24, The Broadway musical
"Mame" opened with Angel Lansbury and Bea Arthur at Winter Garden
Theater in NYC for 1508 performances. It was directed by Gene Saks and
was based on the novel "Auntie Mame" by Patrick Dennis.
(SFEC, 12/8/96, Par p.18)(SSFC, 12/24/00, Par
p.10)(SSFC, 4/26/09, p.B6)
1966 May 25, Peru and Argentina
soccer fans fought in Lima and 248 died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1966 May 26, A Buddhist monk set
himself on fire at US consulate in Hu, South-Vietnam.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1966 May 27, 6 French fighters
crashed above Spain.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1966 May, The US launched 2
sorties of U-2 spy planes off the USS Ranger to monitor the French
nuclear test site at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. These were the
only aircraft-carrier-based launches of the U-2 spy planes. The
information was made public in 2006.
(AP, 3/21/06)
1966 Jun 1, George Harrison is
impressed by Ravi Shankar's concert in London.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1966 Jun 1, 2,400 persons
attended the White House Conference on Civil Rights.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1966 Jun 2, The U.S. space probe
Surveyor 1 landed on the moon in Oceanus Procellarum and began
transmitting detailed photographs of the lunar surface.
(AP, 6/2/97)(SC, 6/2/02)
1966 Jun 6, Claus Von Bulow &
Martha (Sunny) Crawford were wed.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1966 Jun 6, NFL & AFL
announced their merger.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1966 Jun 6, Stokely Carmichael
launched the "Black Power" movement.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1966 Jun 6, Black activist James
Meredith was shot and wounded as he walked solo along a
Mississippi highway to encourage black voter registration.
(AP, 6//97)(HN, 6/6/98)
1966 Jun 8, A merger was announced
between the National and American Football Leagues, to take effect in
1970.
(AP, 6/8/06)
1966 Jun 8, Gemini astronaut Gene
Cernan attempted to become the first man to orbit the Earth untethered
to a space capsule, but was unable to when he exhausts himself fitting
into his rocket pack.
(HN, 6/8/99)
1966 Jun 8, A tornado hit Topeka,
Kansas, killing 16 people and destroying 820 homes.
(SFC, 6/8/09, p.D8)
1966 Jun 10, Mamas & Papas won
a gold record for "Monday, Monday."
(MC, 6/10/02)
1966 Jun
11, The musical "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" closed at the Mark
Hellinger in NYC after 280 performances. It had opened on October 17,
1965.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3255)
1966 Jun 11, Wallace Ford (68),
actor (The Deputy), died.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1966 Jun 12, Hermann Scherchen
(74), German conductor, music publisher, died.
(MC, 6/12/02)
1966 Jun 13, The Supreme Court
issued its landmark Miranda vs. Arizona decision, ruling that criminal
suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights prior to
questioning by police. The conviction of Ernesto Miranda for rape and
kidnapping was overturned because his confession was not voluntarily
given.
(AP, 6/13/97)(SFC, 9/12/02, p.A26)
1966 Jun 16, "Rowan & Martin
Show," debuted on NBC-TV.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1966 Jun 16, In the 20th Tony
Awards: Marat/Sade and Man of La Mancha won.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1966 Jun 18, Samuel Nabrit became
the first African American to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1966 Jun 19, French archeologist
Pierre Montet (b.1885), renowned for his excavations at Tanis, Egypt,
died in Paris. In 1958 he published an account of his discoveries
titled “La Necropole Royale de Tanis.”
(Arch, 5/05,
p.25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Montet)
1966 Jun 22, The film "Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opened.
(MC, 6/22/02)
1966 Jun 23, Civil Rights marchers
in Mississippi were dispersed by tear gas.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1966 Jun 24, The period of
relative peace following WW II exceeded that following WW I.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1966 Jun 24, A Bombay to NY Air
India flight crashed into Mont Blanc (Switz) and 117 died.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1966 Jun 27, The 1st sci-fi soap
opera, "Dark Shadows," premiered.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1966 Jun 29, The U.S. Air Force
bombed fuel storage facilities near Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam.
Republic Aircraft's F-105 Thunderchief, better known as the 'Thud,' was
the Air Force's warhorse in Vietnam.
(HN, 6/29/98)(AP, 6/29/97)
1966 Jun 30, Betty Friedan
(1921-2006) and 27 other women and men founded the National
Organization for Woman and served as its 1st president (1966-1970).
Catherine S. East (1916-1996) persuaded Betty Friedan to found NOW.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A18)(Econ, 2/11/06,
p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan)
1966 Jun, Allen and Beatrix
Gardner of the Univ. of Nevada began teaching sign language to a
10-month-old female chimpanzee named Washoe (d.2007).
(www.friendsofwashoe.org/timeline_project_begins.shtml)(SFC, 11/1/07,
p.A2)
1966 Jun, In China radicals
hounded Peng Zhen from office as mayor of Beijing under charges that he
had transformed Beijing into a personal empire in opposition to Mao’s
policies.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B8)
1966 Jul 1, The US Medicare
federal insurance program went into effect.
(AP, 7/1/97)
1966 Jul 1, The U.S. Marines
launched Operation Holt in an attempt to finish off a Vietcong
battalion in Thua Thien Province in Vietnam.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1966 Jul 4, President Johnson
signed the Freedom of Information Act, which went into effect the
following year.
(AP, 7/4/97)
1966 Jul 4, Beatles were attacked
in Philippines after insulting Imelda Marcos.
(Maggio)
1966 Jul 5, National Guard was
mobilized in Omaha after a 3rd night of rioting.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1966 Jul 7, The U.S. Marine Corps
launched Operation Hasting to drive the North Vietnamese Army back
across the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1966 Jul 8, A US airline strike
began and lasted until Aug 19th.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1966 Jul 11, Debbie Dunning
(actress: Home Improvement), was born.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1966 Jul 11, "I Am A Rock" by
Simon & Garfunkel peaked at #3.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1966 Jul 12, There were race riots
in Chicago.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1966 Jul 12, D.T. Suzuki (96), Zen
Buddhism scholar, died in Tokyo, Japan.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1966 Jul 14, In Chicago Richard
Speck murdered 8 student nurses in a Chicago dormitory. He made a
videotape in prison and admitted to the killings. Gloria Davy, Patricia
Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann
Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Paison; all nursing
students at the South Chicago Community Hospital; were raped then
strangled or stabbed to death by Richard Speck. One survivor, Cora
Amurao, identified Richard Speck, and he was put in jail. He was
serving consecutive sentences of 50 to 150 years and died of a heart
attack in 1991 at age 49. The video shows him having sex and snorting
cocaine in prison.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(TMC, 1994, p.1966) (AP,
7/14/97)(MC, 7/14/02)
1966 Jul 16, "Half a Sixpence"
closed at Broadhurst Theater in NYC after 512 performances.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1966 Jul 17, Ho Chi Minh ordered a
partial mobilization of North Vietnam to defend against American
airstrikes.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1966 Jul 19, Gov. James Rhodes
declared a state of emergency in Cleveland due to a race riot.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1966 Jul 21, Gemini X returned to
Earth.
(OGA, 11/24/98)
1966 Jul 22, B-52 bombers hit the
Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam for the first time.
(HN, 7/22/98)
1966 Jul 23, [Edward] Montgomery
Clift (45), actor (From Here to Eternity), died.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1966 Jul 24, Oakland-born golfer
Tony Lema (32), while flying with his wife Betty to an exhibition match
in Chicago, Illinois, crashed on the seventh hole of a golf course in
Lansing, Illinois, after their chartered twin-engine Beechcraft Bonanza
ran out of fuel. All four people on board were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Lema)
1966 Jul 25, Supremes released
"You Can't Hurry Love."
(SC, 7/25/02)
1966 Jul 25, Yankee manager Casey
Stengel was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1966 Jul 29, Bob Dylan was hurt in
motorcycle accident near Woodstock, NY.
(www.wilburys.info/insbob.html)
1966 Jul 29, Edward Gordon Craig
(b.1872), the son of English actress Ellen Terry, died. He had authored
the controversial manifesto “On the Art of the Theater” (1911) and
envisioned that the future of theater lay in lights, sounds, shadows
and screens.
(Econ, 8/30/08,
p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gordon_Craig)
1966 Jul 30, US airplanes bombed
the demilitarized zone in Vietnam.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1966 Jul 31, Alabamans burned
Beatle products due to John Lennon's remark that the Beatles are more
popular than Jesus.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1966 Aug 1, Charles Joseph Whitman
(25), architectural engineering student and ex-Marine, shot and killed
14 people at the University of Texas before he was gunned down by
police. His mother and wife were the first victims before he climbed to
the tower at the Univ. of Texas in Austen and shot 14 people dead and
wounded 31. One shooting victim died of complications in 2001 bringing
the death toll to 17. The 1997 film "The Delicate Art of the Rifle" by
the Cambrai Liberation Collective of North Carolina was a reimaging of
the attack at the Austin Campus.
(AP, 8/1/97)(SFC,11/19/97, p.A3)(SFC, 4/17/07, p.A8)
1966 Aug 3, Lenny Bruce (b.1925),
stand up comic, died at his home in Hollywood, Ca., from a morphine
overdose.
(WSJ, 5/29/03,
p.D8)(www.fadetoblack.com/foi/lennybruce/bio.htm)
1966 Aug 5, Martin Luther King Jr.
was stoned during a march in Chicago.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1966 Aug 5, Beatles released their
"Revolver" album in US.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1966 Aug 5, Beatles released
"Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby" in UK.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1966 Aug 6, Demonstrations against
war in Vietnam become widespread throughout US.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1966 Aug 7, The United States lost
seven planes over North Vietnam, the most in the war up to this point.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1966 Aug 7, There was a race riot
in Lansing, Michigan.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1966 Aug 8, South African
Broadcasting banned the Beatles for Lennon's anti-Jesus remark.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1966 Aug 11, Wilkes Bashford (33),
men’s clothing retailer, opened his own shop in SF.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.D1)
1966 Aug 17, Pioneer 7 launched
into solar orbit.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1966 Aug 18, Australians bloodily
repulsed a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan, South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1966 Aug 19, An earthquake struck
Varko, Turkey, and some 2,400 were killed.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1966 Aug 20, The Beatles were
pelted with rotten fruit during a Memphis concert.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1966 Aug 22, The Beatles arrived
in NYC.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1966 Aug 27, There was a race riot
in Waukegan, Illinois.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1966 Aug 27, Sir Francis
Chichester began 1st solo ocean voyage around the world.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1966 Aug 29, The Beatles concluded
their fourth American tour with their last public concert, at
Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1966 Aug 31, In China a response
to Mao’s call for a Cultural Revolution led to a massacre in Hongsheng,
one of 13 communes in Beijing’s Daxing district, that left 110 people
dead. The official death toll for all 13 communes was put at 324. Over
2 weeks some 2,000 Beijing residents were killed.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.43)
1966 Aug, John McCone, former CIA
director, joined Ronald Reagan’s campaign as head of an executive
policy advice committee.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Aug, The commander of 5th
Special Forces established an ad hoc Mobile Force that he carved out of
his resources. Initially the element was called Task Force 777, later
renamed Blackjack 21. The "2" was for the II Corps area that included
the Central Highlands, home to several Montagnard tribes. The "1" meant
it was the first of its kind in II Corps--and in Vietnam. The formal
mission statement was: “To infiltrate into the area of operations and
conduct border surveillance, interdict infiltration routes, and conduct
guerrilla-type operations against known VC installations. Infiltration,
reconnaissance, operations, and exfiltration will be executed
clandestinely.”
(HNQ, 10/16/02)
1966 Sep 1, The 1st annual
Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, led by Jerry Lewis, was held.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.E5)
1966 Sep 3, The 24th World Sci-Fi
Convention honored Gene Roddenberry.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1966 Sep 4, US pilot Ron Bliss was
shot down over North Vietnam and spent 6 1/2 years in prison at the
"Hanoi Hilton." His story was later part of the 1998 documentary
"Return With Honor."
(SFEC, 8/15/99, DB p.50)
1966 Sep 6, A race riot took place
in the Summerhill neighborhood of Atlanta, Ga., from Sep 6-11. Blacks
rioted after a suspected car thief is shot escaping a white cop and 138
people were arrested with 35 injured. Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee's (SNCC's) Stokely Carmichael is indicted for inciting a
riot, and Julian Bond resigns from SNCC.
(www.theprimeone.com/archives/000113.html)
1966 Sep 6, Margaret Higgins
Sanger (b.1883), birth control advocate and founder of the organization
that became Planned Parenthood, died.
(HNQ, 6/22/98)
1966 Sep 6, South African Prime
Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was stabbed to death by a deranged page
during a parliamentary session in Cape Town. Demitrios Tsafendas was
reported to have been insane with the belief that a tapeworm inside his
head instructed him to do the killing. In 2001 Henk Van Woerden
authored ”The Assassin: A Story of Race and Rage in the Land of
Apartheid.”
(AP, 9/6/97)(SSFC, 7/8/01, DB p.63)
1966 Sep 8, The television series
“Star Trek” premiered on NBC with the episode "The Man Trap". Nichelle
Nichols starred as Lt. Uhura.
(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A13)(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A23)(AP, 9/8/01)
1966 Sep 8, The situation comedy
"That Girl" starring Marlo Thomas premiered on ABC-TV.
(AP, 9/8/06)
1966 Sep 10, The Beatles'
"Revolver," album went #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1966 Sep 12, "The Monkees" debuted
on NBC TV. "Hey, hey we're the Monkees- and we don't monkey around."
The show ran to 1868 and won an Emmy.
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A8)(AP, 9/12/01)
1966 Sep 12, The situation comedy
Family Affair'' premiered on CBS.
(AP, 9/12/06)
1966 Sep 12, The Beatles received
a gold record for "Yellow Submarine."
(MC, 9/12/01)
1966 Sep 14, Operation Attleboro,
designed as a training exercise for American troops in South Vietnam,
became a month-long struggle against the Viet Cong.
(HN, 9/14/98)
1966 Sep 14, Tillie Edelstein
(b.1898), actress and screenwriter, died. As Gertrude Berg, she created
“The Goldbergs” (1929), a radio program that later became first
television sitcom. In 2009 Aviva Kempner directed a documentary of Berg
titled “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Berg)(SFC,
8/7/09, p.E5)
1966 Sep 16, The Metropolitan
Opera opened its new opera house at New York's Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts.
(AP, 9/16/97)
1966 Sep 17, “Mission Impossible”
premiered on CBS. Greg Morris (1934-1996) played Barney Collier, the
technical wizard. Its theme music was written by Lalo Schifrin. The
series ran until 1973.
(SFC, 8/28/96, C2)(SI-WPC, 12/6/96)(AP, 9/17/01)
1966 Sep 17, Fritz Wunderlich,
charismatic German tenor (Stuttgart 1955-58), died at 35 from falling
down stairs, two months short of his Met Opera debut.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1966 Sep 18, Gemini XI, a 3-day
mission, was launched with Charles Conrad in command.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1966 Sep 20, Allen Cohen
(1940-2004), published the 1st edition of the SF Oracle underground
newspaper. The San Francisco Oracle featured visionary art by such
renown artists as: Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, David Singer, Stanley
Mouse, alongside writing firmly steeped in the past with such Beat era
writers as: Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Cohen was arrested earlier in 1966 for selling a collection of erotic
poetry called "The Love Book" by Lenore Kandel. Cohen was convicted and
fined $50. The SF Oracle folded in 1968 following the publication of
issue #12.
(SFC, 5/1/04, p.B7)(www.sfheart.com/cohen_bio.html)
1966 Sep 21, Jimmy Hendrix changed
the spelling of his name to Jimi.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1966 Sep 22, Edward Albee's
"Delicate Balance," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1966 Sep 25, Dmitri
Shostakovitch's 2nd Cello Concert premiered in Moscow.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1966 Sep 30, The Republic of
Botswana, a Texas sized country, declared its independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 9/30/06)
1966 Sep 30, Nazi war criminals
Albert Speer, the German minister of armaments, and Baldur von
Schirach, the founder of the Hitler Youth, were freed at midnight from
Spandau prison after serving twenty-year prison sentences. In 2002
Joachim Fest authored the biography: "Speer: The final Verdict."
(www.weymouthhistoricalsociety.org/September.htm)(SSFC, 10/6/02, p.M3)
1966 Sep, In SF the Jefferson
Airplane played the band’s last show at the Matrix, the first night
that Grace Slick sang with the band.
(SFC, 11/17/08, p.E4)
1966 Oct 5, A sodium cooling
system malfunction caused a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi
demonstration breeder reactor near Detroit, Mich. Radiation was
contained.
(HN, 10/5/98)
1966 Oct 6, Hanoi insisted the
United States must end its bombing in Vietnam before peace talks could
begin.
(HN, 10/6/98)
1966 Oct 10, U.S. Forces launched
Operation Robin, in Hoa Province south of Saigon in South Vietnam, to
provide road security between villages.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1966 Oct 13, 173 US airplanes
bombed North-Vietnam.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1966 Oct 14, 175 US airplanes
bombed North Vietnam.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1966 Oct 14, The World Bank’s
International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) came
into force. It was established under the Convention on the Settlement
of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Centre_for_Settlement_of_Investment_Disputes)
1966 Oct 15, President Johnson
signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1966 Oct 15, US Congress passed
the Endangered Species Preservation Act. It was expanded in 1973 as the
Endangered Species Act. The Devils Hole Pupfish of Death Valley were
among the first species protected. By 1972 only 124 remained. By 2007
only 42 were left.
(www.fws.gov/endangered/1966listing.html)
1966 Oct 15, The Black Panthers
wrote their Ten Point Program at the Office of Economic Development
Corp. in Oakland, Ca. It called for adequate housing, jobs, education
and an end to police brutality. The Black Panther Party was founded by
Merritt College students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. In 2006 Flores A.
Forbes authored “Will You Die With Me: My Life and the Black Panther
Party.”
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SSFC,
7/9/06, p.M1)
1966 Oct 16, Joan Baez and 123
other anti-draft protestors were arrested in Oakland.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1966 Oct 17, Wieland Wagner,
German opera director and grandson of Richard Wagner, died.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1966 Oct 18, "Apple Tree" opened
at Shubert Theater NYC for 463 performances.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1966 Oct 19, Elizabeth Arden, US
cosmetic manufacturer, died. In 2004 Lindy Woodhead authored “War
Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein & Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their
Lives, Their times, Their Rivalry.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Arden)(SSFC,
3/8/09, p.G1)
1966 Oct 21, More than 140 people,
mostly children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a
school and several houses in Aberfan, Wales.
(AP, 10/21/08)
1966 Oct 22, The Soviet Union
launched Luna 12 for orbit around the moon.
(HN, 10/22/98)
1966 Oct 26, US aircraft carrier
Oriskany caught fire at Gulf on Tonkin and 43 died.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1966 Oct 27, The UN deprived South
Africa of Namibia.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1966 Oct 29, The National
Organization for Women was formally organized during a conference in
Washington, D.C.
(AP, 10/29/07)
1966 Oct 30, The Zodiac killer
murdered a female college student in Riverside. In 1985 Robert
Graysmith authored "Zodiac" in which he identified the killer with the
pseudonym of "Robert Starr," and later identified him as Arthur Leigh
Allen (d.1992), a convicted child molester from Vallejo. Graysmith
authored "Zodiac Unmasked" in 2002. In 2009 Deborah Perez (47) asserted
that her father, Santa Ana resident Guy Ward Hendrickson (d.1983), was
the Zodiac killer and that she had accompanied him on some of the
killings.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.M6)(SFC,
4/30/09, p.A9)
1966 Oct, The song “96 Tears” by
the Mysterians Chicano band of Michigan hit No. 1 on the Billboard
charts.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, DB p.36)
1966 Oct, LSD was made illegal.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W28)
1966 Nov 4, In Florence, Italy the
River Arno overflowed and damaged the Uffizi Gallery. Whole libraries
of valuable ancient documents were soaked. 33 people died in the flood
and blame fell principally on Enel, Italy’s largest power company. In
2008 Robert Clark authored “Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the
City of Masterpieces.”
(WSJ, 10/29/96, p.A21)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D4)(Econ,
11/1/08, p.97)
1966 Nov 4, A devastating flood
swamped Venice, damaged monuments and covered the city in mud. 5,000
people were made homeless.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D4)(WSJ, 3/8/02, p.AW9)
1966 Nov 7, Jean-Claude van
Itallie's "America Hurrah," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1966 Nov 8, Pres. Johnson signed
anti-trust immunity to AFL-NFL merger.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1966 Nov 8, Ronald Reagan defeated
Pat Brown by over a million votes to become governor of California.
Reagan had defeated former SF Mayor George Christopher in the primary.
(AP, 11/8/97)(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A28)(SFC, 9/15/00,
p.A19)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Nov 8, Republican Edward
Brooke of Massachusetts was the first African-American elected to the
Senate by popular vote in 85 years.
(AP, 11/8/97)(HN, 11/6/98)
1966 Nov 11, Methodist Church and
Evangelical United Brethren Church united as United Methodist Church.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1966 Nov 11, Gemini 12 blasted off
from Cape Kennedy, Fla., with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin Jr.
(AP, 11/11/97)(HN, 11/11/98)
1966 Nov 15, The flight of Gemini
12 ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz"
Aldrin Junior splashed down safely in the Atlantic.
(AP, 11/15/97)
1966 Nov 16, Dr. Samuel H.
Sheppard, after 9 years in jail, was acquitted in his second trial of
charges he had murdered his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954.
(AP, 11/1697)(MC, 11/16/01)
1966 Nov 17, The Leonid meteor
shower peaked at 150,000+ per hour.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1966 Nov 18, US Roman Catholic
bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays outside
of Lent.
(AP, 11/18/08)
1966 Nov 18, Jean Peugeot, French
auto manufacturer, died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1966 Nov 19, Undefeated Notre Dame
played undefeated Michigan State in a football game billed as the “Game
of the Century.”
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.E8)
1966 Nov 20, "Cabaret" opened at
Broadhurst Theater, NYC, for 1166 performances.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1966 Nov 20, Men in Zurich voted
against female suffrage.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1966 Nov 24, The Beatles began
recording sessions for "Sgt Pepper."
(MC, 11/24/01)
1966 Nov 28, Several gold records
were certified this day. The Righteous Brothers get one for their album
"Soul and Inspiration." The Monkees earn their third gold record for
"I'm a Believer," which will be Number One for seven weeks. And a gold
record goes to the New Vaudeville band for their '20s Rudy Vallee-style
novelty song, "Winchester Cathedral."
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1966 Nov 28, US LP release: "The
Beatles Girls," instrumental LP by George Martin.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1966 Nov 28, Dominican Republic
adopts constitution.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1966 Nov 30, The former British
colony of Barbados became independent.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 11/30/97)
1966 Dec 1, Carter Stanley, of the
Stanley Brothers bluegrass duo, died of cancer.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A16)
1966 Dec 5,
Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory headed for Hanoi, North
Vietnam despite federal warnings against it.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1966 Dec 13, The 1st US bombing of
Hanoi, North Vietnam, took place.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1966 Dec 15, Walt Disney (b.1901),
movie producer, actor and director, died in Los Angeles. In 1998 a
CD-ROM was produced titled: “Walt Disney: An Intimate History of the
Man and His magic.” In 2006 Neal Gabler authored “Walt Disney: The
Triumph of the American Imagination.”
(AP, 12/15/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(WSJ, 11/3/06,
p.W6)
1966 Dec 18, Dr. Seuss' "How the
Grinch Stole Christmas" aired for 1st time on CBS.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1966 Dec 19, Alberto "La Bomba"
Tomba, Italian skier (Olympic-gold-1988, 92), was born.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1966 Dec 21, USSR launched Luna
13. It soft-landed on the Moon’s Oceanus Procellarum.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1966 Dec 22, The United States
announced the allocation of 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine
in India.
(HN, 12/22/98)
1966 Dec 24, Soviet research
station Luna 13 soft-landed on the moon.
(HN, 12/24/98)(MC, 12/24/01)
1966 Dec 26, Dr. Maulana “Ron”
Karenga, chairman of black studies at Long Beach CSU, celebrated the
first Kwanzaa, a seven day African American celebration of family and
heritage. Dr. Karenga established Kwanzaa (“first fruits of the season”
in Swahili), the African American celebration of unity and community
values over the Christmas to New Year season. The 7 principles of
Kwanzaa include: Umoja - Unity; Kujichagulia - Self-determination;
Ujima - Collective work and responsibility; Ujamaa - Cooperative
economics; Nia - Purpose; Kuumba - Creativity; and Imani - Faith. The
holiday runs for 7 days from Dec 26 to Jan 1.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.C17)(SFC,12/26/97, p.A30)(HN,
12/26/98)
1966 Dec 30, Trygve Halvdan Lie
(72), 1st UN sect-general (1946-53), died.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1966 Roy Lichtenstein created his
work: "Blue Seascape."
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.E8)
1966 George Rickey made his
sculpture “Two Red Lines II.” It was placed outside the Oakland Museum.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, DB p.37)
1966 James Dickey (1923-1997) won
the National Book Award for his poetry collection “Buckdancer’s Choice.”
(SFC,1/21/97, p.A20)
1966 Edward Albee wrote his play
“A Delicate Balance” which won him a Pulitzer Prize.
(WSJ, 4/25/96, p.A-16)(SFC, 9/5/96, p.B2)
1966 James Goldman wrote his play
"The Lion in Winter," set in 1183 England.
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A24)
1966 Tom Stoppard wrote his play
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead."
(SFEM, 1/2/00, p.6)
1966 Jacqueline Susann (d.1974 at
56) authored the novel "Valley of the Dolls."
(SFC, 1/26/00, p.B1)
1966 Margaret Walker Alexander,
black author, wrote her novel “Jubilee.” It was the story of the
daughter of a slave and a white plantation owner.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.B2)
1966 Truman Capote wrote his
non-fiction novel “In Cold Blood.” It was based on a 1959 family murder
in Kansas. He spent 5 years reconstructing the lives and crimes of Dick
Hickock and Perry Smith.
(WSJ, 11/18/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/11/97, p.A21)
1966 Fred J. Cook (1911-2003)
authored "The Secret Rulers," a look at organized crime
(SFC, 5/5/03, p.B4)
1966 Peter Garlake, British
archeologist, wrote: “Islamic Architecture on the Coast of East Africa.”
(NH, 6/97, p.45)
1966 Euell Gibbons wrote “Stalking
the Healthful Herbs.”
(WSJ, 12/24/96, p.A6)
1966 Langdon Gilkey (1919-2004),
Protestant theologian, authored “Shantung Compound: The Story of Men
and Women Under Pressure.”
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.B6)
1966 Seamus Heaney (b.1939), Irish
poet (1995 Nobel laureate), authored his collection of verse “Death of
a Naturalist.”
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.82)
1966 Prof. Alan Heimert (d.1999 at
70) of Harvard published "Religion and the American Mind: From the
Great Awakening to the Revolution." It had a significant impact on
understanding the American culture of the 18th century.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.D7)
1966 William Hinton (1919-2004)
authored “Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village.”
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.85)
1966 Allan Kaprow (1927-2006), an
artist who coined the term “happenings” in the late 1950s, published
“Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings.”
(SFC, 4/11/06, p.B5)(WSJ, 4/27/06, p.D7)
1966 Bernard Malamud (1914-1986)
authored “Fixer” (1966). It was inspired by the true story of Menahem
Mendel Beilis, an unjustly imprisoned Jew in Tsarist Russia. The
notorious "Beilis trial" of 1913 caused an international uproar that
forced Russia to back down in the face of world indignation. Malamud
won a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for the book.
{Writer, USA}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Malamud)
1966 Dr. William H. Masters
(1915-2001) and Virginia Johnson (b.1925), leading researchers in human
sexuality, authored the best seller "Human Sexual Response." Masters
and Johnson reported that half of all US marriages are plagued by some
kind of sexual inadequacy. They founded a research institute in St.
Louis, which closed in 1994 following their 1993 divorce. In 2009
Thomas Maier authored “Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William
Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to
Love.”
(SSFC, 2/18/01, p.A24)(NW, 6/30/03, p.44)(Econ,
5/16/09, p.90)
1966 Barrington Moore (d.2005),
American sociologist, authored “The Social Origins of Dictatorship and
Democracy.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.97)
1966 Douglas Eugene Pike, US State
Dept. officer, authored “Viet Cong.” In 1986 he authored “PAVN:
People’s Army of Vietnam.”
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A22)
1966 Ned Rorem, composer, authored
“The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem.”
(Econ, 10/4/03, p.82)
1966 C.O. Sauer wrote his classic
“The Early Spanish Main.”
(NH, 10/96, p.28)
1966 William T. Stearn published
the first edition of his “Botanical Latin.” It contained the history,
grammar, syntax, terminology and vocabulary of botanical Latin and went
to a 4th edition in 1995.
(WSJ, 12/21/95, p.A-10)
1966 Gilbert Y. Steiner (d.2006 at
81) authored “Social Insecurity: The Politics of Welfare.” Over the
next 2 decades he published studies from the Brookings research group
that helped shape the US social system.
(SFC, 3/13/06, p.B3)
1966 Virgil Thomson, composer and
music critic, wrote his autobiography. In 1997 Anthony Tommasini wrote
his biography: “Virgil Thomson: Composer on the Aisle.”
(WSJ, 6/16/97, p.10)
1966 Robert Heinlein (1907-1988)
published his novel “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” His setting was a
penal colony on the moon in 2075.
(V.D.-H.K.p.383)(WSJ, 4/18/09, p.W8)
1966 Alan Harrington (d.1997 at
79) published his novel of male menopause “The Secret Swinger.”
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.C4)
1966 Jean Shepherd (d.1999), radio
raconteur, authored "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash."
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A23)
1966 Edward Stewart (1938-1996)
wrote his first novel: “Orpheus On Top.” He went on to publish 11 more
novels.
(SFC, 10/21/96, p.A17)
1966 Robert Venturi, architect,
authored “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.”
(WSJ, 12/28/06, p.D6)
1966 “Cabaret” was a musical hit
on Broadway. It was based on Christopher Isherwood’s “Goodbye to
Berlin” in “Berlin Stories” and John Van Druten’s “I Am a Camera. “
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.E1)(SFC, 1/16/97, p.E3)
1966 Cy Coleman composed the
musical “Sweet Charity,” a tale of the gals on Times Square.
(WSJ, 4/30/97, p.A12)
1966 The play “My Sweet Charlie”
(1965) was produced on Broadway. It was based on the same name 1965
novel by David Westheimer (1917-2005).
(SFC, 11/12/05, p.B5)
1966 The sitcom "Family Affair"
began on TV. It ran to 1971.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.C9)
1966 The TV sitcom “Petticoat
Junction” featured Bea Benaderet as the widowed owner of the Shady Rest
Hotel and mother of 3 fetching daughters in Hooterville. Meredith
MacRae (d.2000 at 56) was one of the daughters. The CBS series ran
until 1970.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A23)
1966 The Road Runner Show arrived
on TV.
(NW, 11/11/02, p.55)
1966 “The World of Jacques-Yves
Cousteau” made its debut on American TV as a National Geographic
Special.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A7)
1966 The Beach Boys sang “Good
Vibrations,” and sales exceeded a million records.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.D8)
1966 The Capitols sang “Cool Jerk.”
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D8)
1966 The song "Winchester
Cathedral" by the New Vaudeville Band won the Grammy best contemporary
recording category.
1966 Chas Chandler, bass player
for the Animals, spotted Jimi Hendrix playing at the Cafe Wha in New
York and invited him to London. He later produced the first 2 Hendrix
albums.
(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A22)
1966 Arlo Guthrie wrote the song
“Alice’s Restaurant,” and it became the anti-
draft fight song.
(TMC, 1994, p.1966)
1966 The Four Tops sang “Reach Out
I’ll Be There” and “Standing in the Shadows of Love.”
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D8)
1966 Don Ho (1930-2007), a
Vietnamese-American singer, released his most famous song, "Tiny
Bubbles", which charted on both the pop (#8 Billboard) and easy
listening charts and caused the subsequent Tiny Bubbles LP to remain in
the album Top 20 for almost a year.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Ho)
1966 The Jimi Hendrix Experience
formed and played together for 3 years. Noel Redding (d.2003 at 57) was
the bass player. The band produced 3 albums of psychedelic rock: "Are
You Experienced," "Axis: Bold as Love," and "Electric Ladyland."
(SFC, 5/14/03, p.A17)
1966 Phil Spector produced “River
Deep – Mountain High” with Ike and Tina Turner. The pair split in 1976.
(SFC, 12/13/07, p.B5)
1966 Junior Walker and the All
Stars sang “How Sweet It Is.”
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D8)
1966 Arthur Lee (1945-2006)
fronted the band Love and established himself as the 1st black rock
star in the post Beatle’s era. The group’s debut album, “Love,” was the
1st rock record released by Electra Records.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.B6)
1966 The Mamas and Papas released
their debut single “California Dreamin.” The group broke up in 1968.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A19)
1966 Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66
made a hit with “Mas Que Nada.”
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.D1)
1966 Jimmy Ruffin sang ”What
Become of the Broken-hearted.”
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D8)
1966 The Sandpipers made a hit
with “Guantanamera.”
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.D1)
1966 Simon and Garfunkel sang
“Scarborough Fair.”
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.2)
1966 Frank Sinatra made a hit with
“Strangers in the Night.” The song won a Grammy as record of the year.
(SFC, 5/16/98, p.E7)
1966 Nancy Sinatra sang "These
Boots Are Made for Walking," written by Lee Hazlewood (1929-2007).
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.2)(SFC, 8/7/07, p.D9)
1966 Percy Sledge made a hit with
his song “When a Man Loves a Woman.”
(SFC, 8/14/96, p.E2)
1966 Dusty Springfield recorded
"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me."
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C6)
1966 The Standells song “Dirty
Water,” an ode to Boston and its polluted waterways, reached No. 11 on
the Billboard’s Top 40 chart. In 2006 the group filed a suit against
Anheuser-Busch for illegal use of the song in commercials.
(SFC, 6/12/06, p.D11)
1966 The Supremes sang ”You Can’t
Hurry Love” and “You Keep Me Hanging On.”
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.D8)
1966 The Young Rascals had a No. 1
hit with “Good Lovin’.”
(SFC, 6/27/06, p.B5)
1966 The Blue Note jazz label of
Alfred Lion was sold to Liberty Records. It was later transferred to
EMI.
(WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A8)
1966 Jeff Hanna and Jimmie Fadden
founded their “Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.”
(SFEM,10/19/97, DB p.61)
1966 The 2.7 mile Sandia Peak
Tramway opened in Albuquerque, NM.
(SSFC, 9/26/04, p.D9)
1966 Busch Stadium, the ballpark
to house the St. Louis Cardinals, was completed in St. Louis, Mo. It
was demolished and replaced in 2005.
(AP, 11/4/05)
1966 Anton LaVey founded the
Church of Satan in SF.
(SFC, 5/8/97, p.A22)
1966 Pope Paul VI allowed celibacy
dispensations for men wanting to leave the Catholic priesthood. Over
the next 2 decades thousands of Catholic priests left active ministry
to marry.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
1966 Frank Sinatra married Mia
Farrow, who was 30 years younger than himself. Comedian Jackie Mason
commented: “Frank soaks his dentures and Mia brushes her braces... Then
she takes off her roller skates and puts them next to his cane.”
(SFC, 5/16/98, p.E7)
1966 Raymond Spangler (d.1997 at
93) became the national president of Sigma Delta Chi, now known as the
Society of Professional Journalists. He led the fight to get women
admitted as members.
(SFC, 9/23/97, p.A19)
1966 Harry V. Mohney began his
adult entertainment business with a single theater in Battle Creek,
Mich. He built an empire on “peeps,” 90 seconds of video-taped sex acts
for a quarter.
(SFC, 8/13/97, p.A10)
1966 Journalism professor Lyle M.
Nelson (d.1997 at 79) of Stanford created the John S. Knight fellowship
program for journalists with help from the Ford Foundation. The program
championed ethics in journalism.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, p.C4)
1966 David Lett planted the first
Pinot Noir grapes at his Eyrie Vineyards in the Willamette Valley of
Oregon.
(SFC, 8/28/96, zz-1 p.4)
1966 Norman Brinker, restaurant
pioneer, founded Steak and Ale in Dallas. The chain later became part
of the Metromedia Restaurant Group. In 2008 Metromedia filed for
bankruptcy.
(WSJ, 7/30/08, p.B1)
1966 Stokely Carmichael (25) was
chosen as chairman for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC). He replaced John Lewis (later US representative from Georgia)
and soon raised the call for black power.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A7)
1966 Artist Frank Cieciorka
(1939-2008) created his image of a black panther, which became a symbol
for the Black Panther Party, formed in Oakland, California. The image
first appeared in the SNCC’s newspaper, the Movement.
(SFC, 5/19/96, p.C-9)(SFC, 11/29/08, p.B5)
1966 The Balzekas Museum of
Lithuanian Culture was founded on the southwest side of Chicago. The
museum publishes 2 periodicals: The Lithuanian Museum Review
(bimonthly) and Geneologija (semi-annual). 6500 S. Pulaski, Chicago,
IL. 60629.
(DrEE, 9/21/96, p.6)
1966 Ensemble International, a
folk dance group, was founded by Jules DiCicco with Marion and Ned
Gault as directors and teachers in Sunnyvale, Ca.
(Group flyer, 1996)
1966 The New York Harold Tribune
ceased publication.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.C6)
1966 Deborah Park of Overland
Park, Kansas, won the Miss America beauty pageant.
(SFEC, 9/15/96, p.A6)
1966 The National Football League
(NFL) merged with the American Football League (AFL) and paved the way
for the Super Bowl. Wayne Valley helped found the AFL.
(SFC, 12/7/96, p.A11)(SFC, 5/29/98, p.D7)
1966 Brian Lee Schubert
(1940-2006) and a friend became the first people to parachute from El
Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Schubert was killed in 2006 when his
chute opened late at a jump festival in Fayetteville, West Virginia.
(SSFC, 10/22/06, p.A5)
1966 Paul Cohen (1934-2007),
Stanford professor, won the Fields Medal, the top prize in mathematics.
(SFC, 3/30/07, p.B6)
1966 Edward Albee won his first
Pulitzer Prize for his play “A Delicate Balance.”
(SFEC, 7/27/97, DB p.33)
1966 Journalist Peter Arnett won a
Pulitzer Prize for Vietnam coverage for the Associated Press.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, BR p.8)
1966 Edward F. Knipling (d.2000 at
91) won the National Medal of Science. He helped develop the radiation
method of sterilizing harmful insects to reduce their breeding. The
method eliminated the screwworm fly, a livestock threat, in North
America.
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A21)
1966 The Nobel prize in medicine
was awarded to Dr. Charles B. Huggins (1902-1997) for research on the
relationship between hormones and cancers of the prostrate and breast.
(SFC, 1/16/97, p.C4)
1966 Robert Mulliken (b.1896), US
chemist, physicist won the Nobel Prize.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1966 The UN set up an Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO) to promote industrial development in
the Third World.
(SFC,2/17/97, p.A14)
1966 The UN endorsed the
International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights. It took effect in 1976. The US ratified the
treaty but exempted itself from a provision that banned the execution
of those under 18.
(MT, Dec. '95, p.16)(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A10)(SFEC,
10/8/00, Z1 p.4)
1966 Pres. Johnson gave Waterloo,
NY, the distinction of holding the 1st Memorial Day on May 5, 1866. On
Apr 13, 1862, volunteers led by Sarah J. Evans paid homage to the
graves of Civil War soldiers in the Washington area.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A2)
1966 US draft calls for Vietnam
were raised 10x and students on campuses across the country protested.
(TMC, 1994, p.1966)
1966 The US sent in the Green
Berets to help “train” the Guatemalan armed forces in
counter-insurgency techniques.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)
1966 The US tested biological
weapons in Texas. This was not disclosed until Mar 18, 1981.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1966 The US Cuban Readjustment Act
granted any Cuban who reached American soil the right to stay.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.A15)
1966 The US Congress passed the
Uniform Time Act and created 8 time zones for the US and its
territories. This made daylight saving time (DST) permanent, but
allowed states to opt out. In 2005 Michael Downing authored “Spring
Forward,” a history of DST.
(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.D8)(SFC, 4/5/06, p.G8)
1966 The US National Historic
Preservation Act was passed to preserve historic landmarks.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.T5)(Arch, 11/04, p.4)
1966 The National Park Service
designated Oglethorpe’s center of Savannah a Registered National
Landmark of 1,100 buildings.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)
1966 M-80 firecrackers were made
illegal in the US.
(SFC, 1/26/99, p.A3)
1966 The US government established
safety standards for the auto industry that included seat belts,
warning flashers and head restraints.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1966 NORAD, the North American
Aerospace Defense Command, opened its Cheyenne Mountain complex in
Colorado.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A3)
1966 The US nuclear arsenal peaked
at 30,000 weapons.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.E6)
1966 Walter Hickel became governor
of Alaska. In 1969 he was named secretary of the interior under Pres.
Nixon.
(AH, 10/04, p.42)
1966 In Los Angeles the 19-story
Century Plaza Hotel, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, was completed. In
2009 the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed it on its list
of most endangered historic places.
(SFC, 4/29/09, p.B4)
1966 California Congressman from
Sacramento John E. Moss (1915-1997) fathered the Federal Freedom of
Information Act. He served in Congress from 1952-1979.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.A22)
1966 In Berkeley, Ca., police
raided the first lab of Owsley Stanley and confiscated a substance they
said was methedrine. It turned out to be something else and Owsley sued
for the return of his lab equipment. It was later estimated that his
Bear Research Group made 1.25 million doses of LSD between 1965-1967,
essentially seeding the psychedelic movement. During this period he
also served as the sound engineer for the Grateful Dead. In the 1980s
he moved to northern Australia.
(SFC, 7/12/07, p.A13)
1966 Lake Davis was created in
Plumas County, Ca., following the completion of a reservoir dam.
(SFC, 9/26/07, p.A13)
1966 The Wah Ching, an organized
crime group, began as a Chinese street gang in San Francisco. It went
on to develop into a criminal organization, with alleged
multi-international crime connections. In the late 80s the Wah Ching,
with ties to Hong Kong triads, invested illegal income into legitimate
businesses such as video importing and film-leasing. Members of the
gang gained control over videocassette libraries and extorted merchants
to lease their tapes.
(SFC, 2/18/98,
p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wah_Ching)
1966 In San Francisco Iranian-born
topless star Yvonne D’Angers (21) chained herself to the Golden Gate
Bridge to protest her threatened deportation. In 2009 Yvonne Boreta
(64), accomplished painter and model died in Las Vegas. In 1965
D’Angers, her stage name, was a star witness in a trial over the
legality of topless waitresses.
(SSFC, 6/14/09, p.B3)
1966 Robert Mondavi and his son
Michael started the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville, the first new
winery in California since Prohibition. Mondavi had left the Charles
Krug Winery in 1965 following a dispute with relatives.
(USAT, 6/17/98, p.2D)(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.E7)
1966 Lester Maddox (d.2003) ran
for governor of Georgia against incumbent Howard H. Callaway. The
legislature voted 182-66 to give Maddux the governor's job after
neither received a majority.
(BS, 6/26/03, 5A)
1966 In Hawaii Aloha Friday, a
tradition of wearing Hawaiian fashion, became official.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.A12)
1966 In New Jersey Rubin
"Hurricane" Carter was wrongly convicted for killing 3 whites in a
Paterson bar. In 1974 "Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin
Carter" by James S. Hirsch was published. In 1991 "Lazarus and the
Hurricane: The Freeing of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter" by Sam Chaiton and
Terry Swinton was published. A 1999 film was made based on Carter's
story.
(WSJ, 12/31/99, p.W1)(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.7)
1966 South Carolina passed a law
banning tattoo parlors.
(WSJ, 7/22/02, p.A1)
1966 Blacks burned their ghettoes
in Cleveland and Chicago.
(TMC, 1994, p.1966)
1966 Stokely Carmichael raised his
fist in a new sign of Black Power.
(TMC, 1994, p.1966)
1966 Edward Brooke became the
first black US Senator.
(TMC, 1994, p.1966)
1966 Cesar Chavez led a United
Farm Worker’s (UFW) march from Delano, Ca. The UFW merged with the
Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in this year.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.10)(SFC, 11/11/99, p.D2)
1966 Ronald Reuther (d.2007) took
over as director of the SF Zoo. He left in 1973 to direct the
Philadelphia Zoo. His uncle Carey Baldwin had directed the SF Zoo for
23 years. He and his children helped nurse a sickly baby gorilla, named
Koko (b.1971), back to health. Months later he gave Stanford graduate
student Penny Patterson permission to work with Koko.
(SFC, 10/25/07,
p.B7)(www.koko.org/world/signlanguage.html)
1966 During a fishing retreat
Robert O. Anderson, head of Atlantic Refining Co., sealed a merger deal
with the head of Richfield Oil Corp., creating the Atlantic-Richfield
Co. (ARCO).
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.A7)
1966 Alfred Peet (1920-2007)
opened Peet's Coffee and Tea on Vine St. in Berkeley. He expanded to 5
shops and sold the operation in 1979. Baldwin and Bowker of Starbucks
then acquired Peet's in 1983.
(SFEM, 8/1/99, p.8)(SFC, 9/1/07, p.C2)
1966 Nabisco introduced a cheese
spread in an aerosol can under the name Snack Mate. It later became
part of Kraft and sold as Cheeze Whiz in a can.
(SFC, 1/31/08,
p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Cheese)
1966 Hewlett-Packard introduced
its first computer, the HP 2116A. The 9,000 person company had sales of
around $200 million.
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.A11)
1966 Hewlett-Packard developed the
first commercially available light-emitting diode (LED).
(SFC, 8/31/09, p.D1)
1966 Texas Instruments introduced
its 1st hand-held calculator based on the integrated circuit developed
by Jack Kilby in 1958.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.75)
1966 American Tobacco began to
diversify into consumer goods and changed its name to American Brands.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1966 Lonnie Pilgrim took over
Texas-based Pilgrim’s Pride. In 1986 he took the chicken company public.
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.A1)
1966 Studebaker went out of
business after its 1966 Avanti model. The South Bend, Indiana, company
began manufacturing automobiles in 1902. John Mohler Studebaker was
born in 1833 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1858 joined his two
older brothers in a South Bend firm producing wagons. The company went
on to become the world’s largest producer of farm wagons and carriages,
coining the slogan: "Always give more than you promise. From the 1920s
until its closing, Studebaker was a leader in styling and engineering.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A12)(HNQ, 1/21/02)
1966 The first “Botts dots,”
highway lane markers, were installed in California in 1966. They were
invented by Elbert Botts (1893-1962), Caltrans chemist.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.A15)
1966 The American Medical Assoc.
(AMA) first published the CPT codes (Common Procedural Terminology)
used to match payment information with medical procedures.
(WSJ, 8/25/00, p.A1)
1966 The first pancreas transplant
was performed in America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreas_transplantation)
1966 Psychologist Bernard Zuger
(d.1998 at 92) began publishing articles that linked effeminacy in boys
to adult homosexuality.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A21)
1966 Microbiologist Christopher
Hills (1927-1997) co-discovered the natural food base, spirulina, a
protein rich plankton.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A20)
1966 Researchers showed how
proteins are made from DNA instructions.
(WSJ, 4/5/01, p.B1)
1966 Andreas Rett, an Austrian
doctor, first describe the complex neurological disorder that came to
be called Rett’s syndrome. The cause was later found to be a mutation
in a gene called MeCP2.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.90)
1966 Charles Rosen (d.2002) helped
create and directed the Artificial Intelligence Center at Stanford
Research Institute (SRI).
(SFC, 12/20/02, p.A33)
1966 Occidental Petroleum under
Armand Hammer won valuable drilling rights in Libya by bribing a key
member of the Libyan royal family.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.D7)
1966 Alberto Giacometti (b.1901),
Swiss-born sculptor and painter, died. He was a leader of the
Surrealist movement and was best known for his stark, skeletal figures
evoking alienation and solitude. The Giacometti Association was created
in 1989 by his widow, Annette (d.1993), to administer his estate and
create a complete guide to his work.
(WUD, 1994, p.596)
1966 Hans Hofmann (b.1880),
abstract artist, died. He was born and raised in Munich, Germany, and
lived in Paris from 1904-1914. He moved to the US in 1931. His work
included "Furioso," (1963).
(SFC, 7/31/01, p.B5)(WSJ, 1/15/04, p.D8)
1966 James Kapnek, investor,
businessman and rancher, died in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe). He made a
fortune building the country’s first brewery and invested in diamond
and copper mining and cattle ranching.
(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A20)
1966 Buster Keaton (b.1895),
silent film star, died. In 2001 Eleanor Keaton and Jeffrey Vance
authored “Buster Keaton Remembered,” with 225 photos. In 2005 Edward
McPherson authored “Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat.”
(AH, 10/01, p.67)(WSJ, 6/10/05, p.W7)
1966 Mina Loy (1882-1966), artist
and poet, died. Her poetry included “Love Songs” (1915-1917), and her
autobiographical work: “Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose” (1923-1925). In
1996 Carolyn Burke wrote her biography “Becoming Modern: The Life of
Mina Loy.”
(SFEC, 12/22/96, BR p.6)
1966 Betty Lou Nichols, a
Fullerton (Orange Ct.) artist, made lady head vases. Her creations
tended to depict women in the Gay ‘90s style and were painted in
periwinkle, plum, mint and other soft colors.
(SFC, 6/25/97, Z1 p.6)
1966 In Kenilworth, Illinois,
Valerie Percy (21), one of the twin daughters of Senator Charles Percy,
was murdered during a suspected robbery. No one was ever arrested.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Par p.4)
1966 Ben Chester White (66) was
killed with 12 shots from an assault rifle and one shogun blow to the
head at Homochito National Forest near Natchez, Miss. In 1999 one of
the 3 alleged killers said the killing was orchestrated to bring Martin
Luther King to the area for assassination. Ernest Henry Avants was
acquitted of the killing in 1967. The jury had not been informed that
he had confessed. He was arrested again in 2000 by federal prosecutors.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A3)(SFC, 6/8/00, p.A6)
1966 Maxfield Parrish (b.1870),
American artist, died. He achieved fame for his murals, advertisements,
and book and magazine illustrations.
(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A46)
1966 Jazz pianist Bud Powell died
(41). He was considered the father of “bebop piano.”
(SFEC, 3/16/97, DB p.42)
1966 Margaret Sanger, the first
president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, died.
(WSJ, 5/5/97, p.A18)(HNPD, 9/14/98)
1966 Lao She (b.1899), Chinese
author, committed suicide. His work included the play “Teahouse” and
the novel “Rickshaw Boy.”
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A16)
1966 Sophie Tucker, cabaret
singer, died. She had appeared in the Ziegfield Follies and had Thomas
Edison engineer her first record. Her first film, the 1928 “Honky
Tonk,” featured the song “The Last of the Red Hot Mommas.”
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.E3)
1966 Ed Wynn (b.1886), comedian,
died.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.C11)
1966 Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al
Nahyan (d.2004) became the ruler of Abu Dhabi. In 1971 he founded the
United Arab Emirates.
(www.uaeinteract.com/uaeint_misc/pdf_2005/zayed_tribute/zayed.pdf)
1966 The Copan building in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, designed Oscar Niemeyer (b.1907), was completed. Begun
in 1953 the massive residential structure shaped like a wave became a
South American landmark.
(AP,
12/12/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Niemeyer)
1966 Harold Wilson, PM of Britain,
established a convention whereby MPs were exempt from some types of
electronic bugging.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.62)
1966 Myra Hindley (d.2002)
and her boyfriend, Ian Brady (the Moors Murderers), were sentenced to
life in prison for the murders of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and
17-year-old Edward Evans. Brady was also found guilty of killing John
Kilbride, 12, and Hindley for sheltering her lover after that murder.
The pair confessed in 1987 to murdering Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith
Bennett, 12. The serial killings from July 1963 to October 1965
horrified Britain. In 1997 a 13-foot high painting titled “Myra” by
Marcus Harvey was displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts. It was
created from children’s handprints and based on a mug shot of Myra.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.E5)(AP, 11/16/02)
1966 In England Arthur Jackson
wounded 2 tellers and killed a man who tried to stop a bank robbery in
the Chelsea section of London.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.E3)
1966 The Hillman Hunter was an
automobile produced under the Hillman marque by the Rootes Group, a
British automobile manufacturer (later Chrysler Europe), from 1966 to
1979.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillman_Hunter)
1966 In the Central African
Republic Jean-Bedel Bokassa overthrew his cousin, David Dacko, in a
bloodless coup that was said to be backed by the French. He abolished
the 1959 constitution, dissolved the National Assembly and concentrated
power in the presidency.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A9)(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)
1966 Chen Mengjia (b.1911),
Chinese poet, oracle-bone scholar and spiritual opponent of the
Communist’s simplification of the writing system, committed suicide.
(Econ, 5/20/06,
p.87)(http://riccilibrary.usfca.edu/search.aspx)
1966 Danish motorcycle gangs have
been around since this time, when local clubs like the Avengers,
Heathens, Hogriders, Pirates, and Pagans began forming.
(WSJ, 5/24/96, p.A-4)
1966 Joaquin Balaguer defeated
Bosch in elections in the Dominican Republic and served as president
for 22 of the next 30 years.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)
1966 Oil discovered in Dubai (UAR)
provided cash for modernization projects such as the world’s largest
man-made harbor at Jebel Ali.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.61)
1966 In Egypt Sayed Qutb (b.1906),
intellectual godfather of radical Islam, was executed by Pres. Nasser.
Qutb had earlier written: "A Muslim has no nationality except his
belief." He denounced western hedonism and the decadence of Muslim
regimes. Qutb had spent some time in the US (1948-1951) and authored
the 1951 essay “The America I Have Seen.” His brother Muhammad went
into exile in Saudi Arabia where he taught at King Abdul Aziz Univ.
Osama bin Laden was one of his students.
(WSJ, 3/22/04, p.A18)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.24)(Sm, 2/06,
p.100)
1966 Ludwig Boelkow (d.2003)
founded the German "Airbus Studio" that he took with him to the Paris
Airshow at Le Bourget, for the first time suggesting a Franco-German,
or even a European consortium could build an airliner to rival
U.S.-made jets.
(AP, 7/28/03)
1966 In Greece Sotiria Bellou
(d.1997), a folksinger who sang in the “rembetiko” style, released a
series of records featuring old songs in this style.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C6)
1966 Melina Mercouri, Greek film
actress, married American film director Jules Dassin. They settled in
Greece.
(SFC, 4/1/08, p.B7)
1966 Guyana became independent.
(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A17)
1966 In 2007 researchers said HIV
was brought to Haiti by an infected person from central Africa, and
then came to the United States in about 1969. The researchers think an
unknown single infected Haitian immigrant arrived in a large city like
Miami or New York, and the virus circulated for years, first in the US
population and then to other nations.
(AP, 10/30/07)
1966 Azim Premji took over the
operations of the Western India Vegetable Product Ltd., later known as
Wipro, following the death of his father. Political changes in 1977
banned many imports and allowed him to expand to manufacturing
computers and other electronics.
(WSJ, 9/11/07, p.A16)
1966 In Indonesia right-wing death
squads killed as many as 500,000 people in a spasm of anti-Communist
violence. Pres. Sukarno was later ousted and replaced by General
Suharto and his Golkar Party.
(SFC, 8/9/96, p.A19)(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A14)(SFC,
6/22/96, p.A12)(HNQ, 5/21/98)
1966 In Indonesia the annual per
capita income was $70.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.A20)
1966 In Iraq ruler Abdul
Salam Arif died mysteriously in a helicopter accident. His brother
Abdul Salam Arif took over power.
(NW, 9/8/03, p.32)
1966 Lesotho in southern Africa
gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1966 Malaysia and Indonesia
reached a peace agreement and shortly thereafter Indonesia resumed its
membership in the UN.
(HNQ, 5/14/98)
1966 In Malawi Kamuzu Banda
declared Malawi a one-party state.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B8)
1966 In Nigeria. Gen'l. Yakuba
Gowon led military coup that ended civilian rule. He ruled until 1975.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A8)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)(WSJ,
4/15/03, p.A14)
1966 The Asian Development Bank,
headquartered in the Philippines, was created to recycle the rich
world’s surpluses to capital starved Asia.
(Econ, 5/12/07,
p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Development_Bank)
1966 The UN applied international
sanctions intended to cut off Rhodesia from the rest of the world due
to Rhodesia’s (later Zimbabwe) opposition to majority rule.
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)
1966 In South Africa District Six,
a multicultural community in Cape Town, was declared an all-white area.
Black were allowed to return in 2004.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T8)(AP, 2/12/04)
1966 South Korean Gen. Choi Hong
Hi (1918-2002) founded the Int’l. Taekwon-do Federation. Tae kwan do, a
form of self defense that engages the mind and body, combined a Korean
martial art, taek kyon, with the Japanese discipline of karate.
(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A17)
1966 In South Korea the Korean
Productivity Center purchased the country’s first computer.
(LSA, Spring, 2009, p.17)
1966 Master Cheng Yen, a Buddhist
nun in Taiwan, founded the Tzu Chi Foundation. Its trained volunteers
were taught that charitable givers must thank those they help in
person. It began overseas relief work in 1991. By 2008 it had some 10
million supporters with annual donations of $300 million.
(Econ, 5/31/08, p.47)
1966 Uganda’s traditional kingdoms
were banned. They were reinstated in 1993, but President Yoweri
Museveni restricted their leaders to a largely ceremonial role to avoid
potential political rivals.
(AP, 9/11/09)
1966 A major earthquake hit
Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan in the USSR.
(WSJ, 6/21/96, p.A1)
1966 In Vietnam Thich Nhat Hanh
founded the Order of Interbeing and embarked on a first trip to the US.
(SFC, 10/12/97, Z1 p.3)
1966-1967 The US military tested Agent Orange, Agent
Purple and several other powerful defoliants on a small section of the
base in Gagetown, New Brunswick, Canada, over seven days in 1966 and
1967.
(AP, 9/13/07)
1966-1969 Kurt Georg Kiesinger (d.1988), head of the
Christian Democratic Union, served as West German chancellor.
(AP, 11/21/05)
1966-1971 The book: “The Art of the Fillmore: The
Poster Series 1966-1971” by Gayle Lemke is a collection of the posters
commissioned by Bill Graham Presents for shows at the Fillmore East and
West.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, BR p.7)
1966-1971 The CBS sitcom “Family Affair” with Brian
Keith played on TV.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A16)
1966-1971 “That Girl” with Marlo Thomas and Ted
Bissel (1935-1996) ran on TV.
(SFEC, 10/9/96, C2)
1966-1972 There were no films produced during this
time on the Chinese mainland.
(Econ, 4/29/06, p.69)
1966-1974 Abba Eban served as Israel’s foreign
minister.
(AP, 11/17/02)
1966-1975 Bill Evans played jazz at the Village
Vanguard in New York and his work was secretly recorded by Mike Harris.
(SFEC, 11/10/96, DB p.35)
1966-1976 The period of Mao’s "Cultural Revolution."
Scholars later believed that over 1 million people were killed or
driven to suicide in China during this period. In 1986 Tang Tsou, Univ
of Chicago Prof., authored "The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao
Reforms: A Historical Perspective."
(SFEC, 10/7/96, A12)(SFC, 8/17/99, p.C2)(Econ,
5/20/06, p.44)
1966-1999 In 1999 Ray Suarez, NPR talk show host,
published "The Old Neighborhood" What We Lost in the Great Suburban
Migration: 1966-1999."
(SFEC, 7/11/99, BR p.3)
Go to 1967