1966

**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 &ndash; Rick Astley, British singer
* March 10 &ndash; Omer Tarin, Pakistani poet, scholar and mystic
* April 8 &ndash; Robin Wright, American actress
* April 15 &ndash; Samantha Fox, British supermodel & singer
* April 25 &ndash; Femke Halsema, Dutch politician and writer
* May 16 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Luke Perry, American actor (died 2019)
* December 21 – Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor

## Deaths 
### January 
]]
]]
 
* 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 
]]
* 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 
]]
* 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 
]]
* 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 
]]
* 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 
]]
* September 14 – Cemal Gürsel, President of Turkey (b. 1895)

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

### December 
]]
* 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.

## References