# 1966

1966 in other calendars| Gregorian calendar | 1966 *MCMLXVI* |
| Ab urbe condita | 2719 |
| Armenian calendar | 1415 ԹՎ ՌՆԺԵ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6716 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 122–123 |
| Balinese saka calendar | 1887–1888 |
| Bengali calendar | 1373 |
| Berber calendar | 2916 |
| British Regnal year | 14 Eliz. 2 – 15 Eliz. 2 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2510 |
| Burmese calendar | 1328 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7474–7475 |
| Chinese calendar | 乙巳年 (Wood Snake) 4662 or 4602     *— to —* 丙午年 (Fire Horse) 4663 or 4603 |
| Coptic calendar | 1682–1683 |
| Discordian calendar | 3132 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1958–1959 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5726–5727 |
| Hindu calendars |  |
|  - *Vikram Samvat* | 2022–2023 |
|  - *Shaka Samvat* | 1887–1888 |
|  - *Kali Yuga* | 5066–5067 |
| Holocene calendar | 11966 |
| Igbo calendar | 966–967 |
| Iranian calendar | 1344–1345 |
| Islamic calendar | 1385–1386 |
| Japanese calendar | Shōwa 41 (昭和４１年) |
| Javanese calendar | 1897–1898 |
| Juche calendar | 55 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4299 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 55 民國55年 |
| Nanakshahi calendar | 498 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2509 |
| Tibetan calendar | ཤིང་མོ་སྦྲུལ་ལོ་ (female Wood-Snake) 2092 or 1711 or 939     *— to —* མེ་ཕོ་རྟ་ལོ་ (male Fire-Horse) 2093 or 1712 or 940 |

**1966** (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar.

## Events

* January 8 – *Shindig!* airs for the last time on ABC, with musical guests the Kinks and the Who.
* January 12 – *Batman* debuts on ABC (1966-1968).
* February 23 – Television is first broadcast in Greece when ERT went on the air.
* April 5 – *The Money Programme* debuts on BBC2 (1966-present).
* June 27 – The first episode of the supernatural soap opera *Dark Shadows* airs on ABC, introducing Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) to the viewing audience as she applies for a job at the Collinwood Manor.
* July 1 – First Canadian color television broadcast.
* September – ABC switches to the color standard, meaning that all three US networks are now broadcasting in color regularly.
* September 3 – The last new episode of the television series *The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet* airs.
* September 7 – The final episode of *The Dick Van Dyke Show* airs (the first episode aired on October 3, 1961).
* September 8 – The first episode of *Star Trek* airs (1966-1969).
* September 12 – *The Monkees* premieres (1966-1968).
* October 2 – The four-part serial *Talking to a Stranger*, acclaimed as one of the finest British television dramas of the 1960s, begins transmission in the *Theatre 625* strand on BBC2.
* October 27 – *It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown* airs for the first time on CBS.
* November 16 – *Cathy Come Home*, possibly the best-known play ever to be broadcast on British television, is transmitted in BBC1's *The Wednesday Play* anthology strand.
* December 15 – Walt Disney, founder of Disney Brothers Studios, dies from lung cancer at the age of 65.
* December 18 – *Dr. Seuss'* *How the Grinch Stole Christmas*, narrated by Boris Karloff, airs for the first time on CBS. It became a Christmas tradition.

## Births

* February 6 – Rick Astley, British singer
* March 10 – Omer Tarin, Pakistani poet, scholar and mystic
* April 8 – Robin Wright, American actress
* April 15 – Samantha Fox, British supermodel & singer
* April 25 – Femke Halsema, Dutch politician and writer
* May 16 – Janet Jackson, American singer & actress
* June 30 – Mike Tyson, American professional boxer
* August 3 – Brent Butt, Canadian actor and comedian
* August 7 – Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
* September 9 – Adam Sandler, American comedian and actor
* October 2 – Rodney Anoa'i, American professional wrestler (died 2000)
* October 9 — David Cameron, British Prime Minister
* October 11 – Luke Perry, American actor (died 2019)
* December 21 – Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor

## Deaths

### January

Alberto Giacometti
Lal Bahadur Shastri
* January 1 – Vincent Auriol, President of France (b. 1884)
* January 11 – Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (b. 1901)
* January 11 – Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (b. 1889)
* January 11 – Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India (b. 1904)
* January 14 – Sergei Korolev, Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer (b. 1907)
* January 22 – Herbert Marshall, English actor (b. 1890)

### February

Buster Keaton
* February 1 – Buster Keaton, American actor (b. 1895)
* February 1 - Hedda Hopper, American actress and columnist (b. 1885)

### March

* March 3 – William Frawley, American actor (b. 1887)

### April

Abdul Salam Arif
* April 9 – Sutan Sjahrir, Prime Minister of Indonesia (b. 1909)
* April 13 – Georges Duhamel, French writer (b. 1884)
* April 13 - Abdul Salam Arif, 2nd President of Iraq (b. 1921)

### May

Venceslau Brás
* May 4 – Edmond Locard, French forensic scientist (b. 1877)
* May 7 – Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Polish writer (b. 1909)
* May 12 – Felix Steiner, German SS commander (b. 1896)
* May 15 – Venceslau Brás, President of Brazil (b. 1868)
* May 30 – Wäinö Aaltonen, Finnish artist and sculptor (b. 1894)

### June

Chang Myon
* June 4 – Chang Myon, 2nd, 7th Prime Minister of South Korea (b. 1899)

### July

* July 23 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)

### August

* August 3 – Lenny Bruce, American comedian (b. 1925)

### September

Cemal Gürsel
* September 14 – Cemal Gürsel, President of Turkey (b. 1895)

### October

### November

* November 17 – James Jabara, American Air Force pilot (b. 1923)

### December

Walt Disney
* December 15 – Walt Disney, American animator (b. 1901)

## Nobel Prizes

* The 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature was won by Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs.
* The 1966 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was won by Peyton Rous and Charles Brenton Huggins.
* The 1966 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was won by Robert S. Mulliken.
* The 1966 Nobel Prize in Physics was won by Alfred Kastler.
* The Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded in 1966.