July 1966
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The following events occurred in July 1966:


July 1 Events Pre-1600 * 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor. * 552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the ...
, 1966 (Friday)

*The
League of Communists of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
, the nation's Communist Party organization, began a purge of members, firing Vice-President Aleksandar Ranković, who had been viewed as a likely successor to President
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, but was accused of wiretapping Tito's home. Dropped also was Svetislav Stefanovic, former Deputy Prime Minister and a former director of Yugoslavia's secret police, the
UDBA The State Security Service ( hr, Služba državne sigurnosti, sr, Служба државне безбедности; mk, Служба за државна безбедност; sl, Služba državne varnosti), also known by its original name ...
, who was fired from his post in the Central Committee. The meeting of the Central Committee took place at the Hotel Istra on the island of Brioni, where Tito resided during the summer. *The South African
cargo liner A cargo liner, also known as a passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman, is a type of merchant ship which carries general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the 19th century, and eventually gave way to conta ...
''South African Seafarer'' ran aground in Table Bay and broke in two. All 76 people on board were rescued by South African Air Force helicopters. *Five cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo were renamed on the sixth anniversary of the nation's independence from Belgium. The capital, Leopoldville, became
Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...
, and Stanleyville changed to Kisangani. Elisabethville changed to Lubumbashi, Coquilhatville to Mbandaka, and Paulis to
Isiro Isiro (pronounced ) is the capital of Haut-Uele Province in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It lies between the equatorial forest and the savannah and its main resource is coffee. Isiro's population is estimated a ...
. *
Manuel Santana Manuel Santana Martínez (10 May 1938 – 11 December 2021), also known as Manolo Santana, was a Spanish tennis player. He was ranked as amateur world No. 1 in 1965 by Ned Potter and in 1966 by Lance TingaySpanish winner of the
Wimbledon tournament The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is p ...
, defeating American finalist
Dennis Ralston Richard Dennis Ralston (July 27, 1942 – December 6, 2020) was an American professional tennis player whose active career spanned the 1960s and 1970s. As a young player, he was coached by tennis pro Pancho Gonzales. He attended the University o ...
in straight sets, 6-4, 11-9 and 6-4. *
Joaquín Balaguer Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo (1 September 1906 – 14 July 2002) was a Dominican politician, scholar, writer, and lawyer. He was President of the Dominican Republic serving three non-consecutive terms for that office from 1960 to 1962 ...
was inaugurated as
President of the Dominican Republic The president of the Dominican Republic ( es, Presidente de la República Dominicana) is both the head of state and head of government of the Dominican Republic. The presidential system was established in 1844, following the proclamation of th ...
. *The Medicare program went into operation in the United States, as the new federal health insurance program for people 65 years and older started. Patients who were already in American hospitals became the first people to be transferred over to the new system. That date, and the implementation of the Medicaid program for low-income families and disabled younger individuals six months later, one author notes, "were the key dates after which Americans began outspending the rest of the world on health care". *The first American attempt to put a satellite into
lunar orbit In astronomy, lunar orbit (also known as a selenocentric orbit) is the orbit of an object around the Moon. As used in the space program, this refers not to the orbit of the Moon about the Earth, but to orbits by spacecraft around the Moon. The ...
failed when
Explorer 33 Explorer 33, also known as IMP-D and AIMP-1, was a spacecraft in the Explorer program launched by NASA on 1 July 1966 on a mission of scientific exploration. It was the fourth satellite launched as part of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform ...
's speed was calculated to be off by 17/10,000ths. The probe needed a velocity of and was too fast. In that an orbit around the Moon could no longer be achieved, ground control fired braking rockets and set the Explorer 33 into a wide Earth orbit. *Died: Pauline Boty, 28, British pop artist, of cancer


July 2, 1966 (Saturday)

*France began the first of 44 atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons in the South Pacific Ocean, detonating a 28-kiloton weapon that had been mounted on a barge in the lagoon of the
Mururoa Moruroa (Mururoa, Mururura), also historically known as Aopuni, is an atoll which forms part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is located about southeast of Tahiti. Administratively Moruroa Atoll i ...
Atoll in an experiment codenamed "Aldebaran". Two more tests would be performed that month, on the 19th and the 21st of July. Atmospheric tests would continue until September 14, 1974. On June 5, 1975, the French started underground testing. *
Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...
of the United States won the first of her six Wimbledon singles championships, and her first of 12 events in the "Grand Slam" of tennis, defeating Maria Bueno of Brazil, 6-3, 3-6 and 6-1. * The Beatles became the first musical group to perform at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo. The performance ignited protests from local citizens who felt that it was inappropriate for a rock and roll band to play at Budokan. *Died: Jan Brzechwa, 67, Polish poet


July 3, 1966 (Sunday)

*Thirty-one people were arrested when a demonstration by approximately 4,000 anti- Vietnam War protesters in front of the U.S. Embassy in London's
Grosvenor Square Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was developed for fashionable re ...
turned violent. *
René Barrientos René Barrientos Ortuño (30 May 1919 – 27 April 1969) was a Bolivian military officer and politician who served as the 47th president of Bolivia twice nonconsecutively from 1964 to 1966 and from 1966 to 1969. During much of his first term, ...
, who had resigned from his position as Chief of the Bolivian Armed Forces and from the ruling military junta in order to run as a civilian, was elected as President of Bolivia, defeating four other candidates by a 3 to 1 majority. Running with Luis Adolfo Siles on the ticket of the Bolivian Revolutionary Front (FRB), Barientos captured more than 491,000 votes compared to a total of 115,000 for the opposition candidates, and would take office on August 6. Barrientos, who was fluent in the Quechua language as well as Spanish and who had campaigned by helicopter as he traveled from one rally to the next, would be killed in a helicopter crash on April 27, 1969, and be succeeded by Siles. *Born: **
Moisés Alou Moisés Rojas-Alou Beltré (; ; born July 3, 1966) is a Dominican-American former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for 17 seasons in the National League. In 1,942 career games, Alou had a batting average of .303 with 2,134 hits, ...
, American Major League Baseball player; in Atlanta ** Robin Burgener, Canadian programmer, inventor of the electronic game
20Q 20Q is a computerized game of twenty questions that began as a test in artificial intelligence (AI). It was invented by Robin Burgener in 1988. The game was made handheld by Radica in 2003, but was discontinued in 2011 because Techno Source t ...
*Died: ** John Maximovich, 70, Archbishop of San Francisco for the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (russian: Ру́сская Правосла́вная Це́рковь Заграни́цей, lit=Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, translit=Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov' Zagranitsey), also called Ru ...
, who would later be venerated as a saint within the church ** Deems Taylor, 80, American classical music composer


July 4, 1966 (Monday)

*
Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
and Prince Philip were attacked twice as their car traveled through Donegal Square in Belfast in Northern Ireland. As they were being driven from the City Hall at the conclusion of a luncheon, a woman smashed a beer bottle against their Rolls-Royce limousine. Two minutes later, a concrete block was hurled from the fourth floor of a building, and struck the hood of the car. "Had it fallen a few feet farther back," an Associated Press report noted, "it would have shattered the glass top over the queen's head." * Edward Short replaced Tony Benn as Postmaster General in the United Kingdom. Benn was shifted over to become
Minister of Technology The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...
, replacing
Frank Cousins Frank Cousins may refer to: * Frank Cousins (British politician) (1904–1986), British trade union leader and Labour politician * Frank Cousins (American politician) (born 1958), American politician who served as the Essex County, Massachusetts Sh ...
who had resigned the previous day. *American President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...
, which went into effect on July 4, 1967. "For the first time," an author would note in 1967, "the Congress has declared— and the President has accepted— the principle that inherent in the citizen's right to speak and right to print is the right to know." *Died:
Dorothy Aldis Dorothy Aldis (March 13, 1896 – July 4, 1966) was a writer of children's literature and poet. Life Dorothy Keeley was born in Chicago on March 13, 1896, to James Keeley, managing editor of the ''Chicago Tribune'', and Gertrude Keeley. The ...
, 70, American children's author and poet


July 5, 1966 (Tuesday)

*
Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...
, the founder of the modern republic of Indonesia, was stripped of his title of "President for Life", and of all responsibilities except for ceremonial duties, in the closing session of the Provisional
People's Consultative Assembly The People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat Republik Indonesia, MPR-RI) is the legislative branch in Politics of Indonesia, Indonesia's political system. It is composed of the membe ...
(''Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat Sementara'' or MPRS). In addition, a committee was appointed to review all of his decrees, proclamations and teachings, and Lieutenant General
Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...
, who had been the ''de facto'' leader since March, was authorized to serve as "acting President" for most purposes. *On their way back home after their Asian concert tour, The Beatles arrived in India for the first time, after having experimented with Indian instruments such as the sitar. Earlier in the day, they had been permitted to depart the Philippines, where they had faced a hostile reception from the government and the public, and flew from Manila to Delhi. During their two-day stay, there was minimal protection from the police as thousands of fans followed them everywhere. *Public shares of the fast food magnate McDonald's Corporation began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,587,000 shares of common stock for the 11-year-old restaurant chain that had 800 locations, and opening at $32 per share. Over five years, with stock splits and increasing prices on more shares, the value of an investment made that day would increase to 68.75 times its original worth within six years, so that an original $32 investment would be worth $2,200. *Born: Claudia Wells, American actress best known for '' Back to the Future''; in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia *Died: George de Hevesy, 80, Hungarian chemist, 1943 Nobel Prize laureate and co-discoverer of the element halfnium


July 6, 1966 (Wednesday)

*The
Hanoi March The Hanoi March (known alternatively as the Hanoi Parade) was a propaganda event held on July 6, 1966, involving U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. During the march, members of the North Vietnamese Army paraded 52 American POWs through th ...
was conducted, with 52
American prisoners of war American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
(POWs) forced to walk for through the streets of the capital of North Vietnam to be shown off before tens of thousands of North Vietnamese civilians. The action came in the wake of the bombing raids near Hanoi a week earlier. The U.S. servicemen were drawn from two prison camps, with 16 from the Briarpatch at Xom Ap Lo and 36 from "The Zoo" at Cu Loc. They were chained in pairs, and were paraded along Tràng Tiền Street, and then along Hàng Bông and Nguyễn Thái Học streets in front of an increasingly angry mob. Over the next hour, many of the men were beaten by civilians as the planned event went out of control before the group finally reached the relative safety of the Hàng Đây Stadium, before being returned to the prison camps. Among the 52 were U.S. Navy pilot (and future U.S. Senator) Jeremiah Denton of Alabama, U.S. Air Force Captain
Charles G. Boyd Charles Graham "Chuck" Boyd (April 15, 1938 – March 23, 2022) was a four-star general of the United States Air Force. Boyd was a highly decorated combat pilot who served in Vietnam and is the only Vietnam War prisoner of war (1966–1973) to ...
(who would retire in 1995 as a four-star general), and U.S. Navy pilot
Everett Alvarez, Jr. Everett Alvarez Jr. (born December 23, 1937) is a former United States Navy officer who endured one of the longest periods as a prisoner of war (POW) in Military history of the United States, U.S. military history. Alvarez was the first U.S. pilot ...
, who would spend more than eight years in captivity. *"Operation Washington" began in the Vietnam War as U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Arthur J. Sullivan, battalion commander of 1st Recon Battalion, moved his battalion headquarters to Hau Doc, west of Chu Lai. In eight days his reconnaissance teams would cover of his
area of operation In U.S. armed forces parlance, an area of operations (AO) is an operational area defined by the force commander for land, air, and naval forces conduct of combat and non-combat activities. Areas of operations do not typically encompass the entire op ...
, sighting 46 enemy forces scattered throughout the dense jungle terrain, roughly equating to 200 soldiers at most. The ground combat and supporting elements resulted in 13 of the enemy soldiers dead, with four prisoners. Because of the poor results, General Lewis J. Fields, the commanding general of the Chu Lai TOAR, ended the operation on July 14, 1966. *The east African nation of Malawi became a republic, two years after it had been granted independence from the United Kingdom. Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the Prime Minister, was sworn in as the first
President of Malawi The president of the Republic of Malawi ( ny, Mtsogoleri wa Dziko la Malawi) is the head of state and head of government of Malawi. The president leads the executive branch of the Government of Malawi and is the commander-in-chief of the Malawia ...
.
Glyn Smallwood Jones Sir Glyn Smallwood Jones (9 January 1908 – 10 June 1992), was a British colonial administrator in Southern Africa. He was the last governor of Nyasaland (now Malawi) from 1961 until it achieved independence in 1964. He served as the only gov ...
, the British colonial administrator whose post as the first and only Governor-General of Malawi was abolished, returned to England, but would continue to work for the Malawian government as director of its Malawi Buying and Trading Agency in London. *At Houston, Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) Deputy Director
George M. Low George Michael Low (born Georg Michael Löw, June 10, 1926 – July 17, 1984) was an administrator at NASA and the 14th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Low was one of the senior NASA officials who made numerous decisions as ...
was appointed Acting Manager of the newly established Apollo Applications Program Office. Robert F. Thompson was named Assistant Manager. At MSFC, Leland F. Belew was designated Manager of the new office. The two new offices were made responsible for all "activities concerned with projects using Apollo hardware for purposes in addition to the manned lunar landing."


July 7, 1966 (Thursday)

*Air-to-air missiles were used in combat for the first time as American F-105 fighters found themselves being fired upon by rockets from two MiG-21 jets in the skies over North Vietnam. *The Warsaw Pact conference in Bucharest ended with a joint declaration by the European Communist nations to send volunteers to Vietnam if requested for such support by the North Vietnamese government. The members making the pledge were the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. *The U.S. Department of Defense declared a new policy, to take effect immediately, of a hardship discharge from American military service for any men "who become qualified sole surviving sons subsequent to their enlistment or induction", but only if the applicant's brother or father had been in the military and had died "as a result of hazards incident to their service in the armed forces". * McDonnell Aircraft Corporation delivered
Gemini spacecraft Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...
No. 11 to Cape Kennedy. After fuel and pyrotechnic installation and preliminary checks, the spacecraft was moved to the Merritt Island Launch Area for Plan X integrated tests with the target vehicle on July 25. *In a memorandum to NASA Headquarters staff members, Advanced Manned Missions Program Director Edward Z. Gray summarized the three separate study efforts underway within NASA directed toward evaluating the S-IVB stage as a crewed laboratory: ::(1) The spent-stage experiment support module (SSESM) study, a joint effort by MSC and MSFC. ::(2) A spent S-IVB-stage utilization study at MSFC. ::(3) A Saturn V single-launch
space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...
. *
Jimmy Hoffa James Riddle Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975; declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 until 1971. F ...
was re-elected, without opposition, to a third five-year term as president of the Teamsters Union, despite having been convicted of jury tampering and mail fraud in court verdicts that were stayed pending review on appeal. Delegates in Miami Beach also elected
Frank Fitzsimmons Frank Edward Fitzsimmons (April 7, 1908 – May 6, 1981) was an American labor leader. He was acting president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1967 to 1971, and president from 1971 to 1981. Early life Frank Fitzsimmons was born ...
as first vice-president, to become President "if Hoffa has to serve a jail term".


July 8 Events Pre-1600 * 1099 – Some 15,000 starving Christian soldiers begin the siege of Jerusalem by marching in a religious procession around the city as its Muslim defenders watch. * 1283 – Roger of Lauria, commanding the Aragonese ...
, 1966 (Friday)

*While vacationing in Europe, King
Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi Mwambutsa IV Bangiricenge (6 May 1912 – 26 March 1977) was the penultimate king of Burundi (or ''mwami'') who ruled between 1915 and 1966. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Mutaga IV Mbikije (reigned 1908–15). Born whil ...
was deposed by his 18-year-old son, Crown Prince Charles Ndizeye, who proclaimed himself to be King
Ntare V Ntare V of Burundi (born Charles Ndizeye; 2 December 1947 – 29 April 1972) was the last king of Burundi (or ''mwami''), reigning from July to November 1966. Until his accession, he was known as Crown Prince Charles Ndizeye. Early life Charle ...
. The new king rewarded 26-year-old Burundian Army captain
Michel Micombero Michel Micombero (26 August 194016 July 1983) was a Burundian politician and army officer who ruled the country as ''de facto'' military dictator for the decade between 1966 and 1976. He was the last Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Burundi from ...
, who had masterminded the takeover, by appointing him as Prime Minister on July 11. The new king would reign for less than five months, and would be overthrown and sent into exile by Micombero, who would abolish the monarchy and declare himself President of Burundi. *Prime Minister
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Georges Pompidou of France concluded three days of conferences in London with the announcement that the two nations had agreed to construct a tunnel underneath the English Channel in order to link the two nations. *The 35,300 mechanics and ground service personnel working for five major U.S. airlines (United, Northwest, TWA, Eastern and National) walked out on strike after a vote taken by the
International Association of Machinists The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is an AFL–CIO/ CLC trade union representing approx. 646,933 workers as of 2006 in more than 200 industries with most of its membership in the United States and Canada. Or ...
. Although carriers such as Delta, Continental and Pan American were not affected, the five lines accounted for two-thirds of the nation's passenger traffic at the time. *Born:
Ralf Altmeyer Prof. Dr. Ralf M. Altmeyer is a German virology, virologist who leads the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, a joint institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Pasteur Institute, Institut Pasteur and Politics of Shanghai, Shanghai Municipal Govern ...
, German virologist and director of the
Institut Pasteur The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines fo ...
in China; in
Saarlouis Saarlouis (; french: link=no, Sarrelouis, ; formerly Sarre-Libre and Saarlautern) is a town in Saarland, Germany, capital of the district of Saarlouis. In 2020, the town had a population of 34,409. Saarlouis, as the name implies, is located on t ...
, West Germany *Died: Horst Fischer, 53, German physician at the
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
during World War II, was executed by guillotine in Leipzig, East Germany, after being convicted of war crimes by the East German Supreme Court. After the war, Dr. Fischer had practiced as a physician in the town of Fürstenwalde for 20 years before his past was discovered.


July 9 Events Pre-1600 *118 – Hadrian, who became emperor a year previously on Trajan's death, makes his entry into Rome. * 381 – The end of the First Council of Christian bishops convened in Constantinople by the Roman Emperor Theodos ...
, 1966 (Saturday)

*France's '' Sûreté Nationale'' was merged with the '' Préfecture de Police de la Ville de Paris'' to create the '' Police Nationale'' (National Police), with a common policy for maintaining law and order in all large towns (in practice, those of more than 10,000 people) in France. The ''
Gendarmerie Nationale Gendarmerie Nationale most commonly refers to: * Gendarmerie Nationale (France) * Gendarmerie Nationale (Belgium), merged with Belgian police in 2001 Gendarmerie Nationale may also refer to: *Gendarmerie Nationale (Algeria) * Gendarmerie National ...
'' continued to serve as a paramilitary national police force. *
Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest go ...
won the British Open golf tournament at Muirfield, Scotland, the first of his three victories in the tournament. Nicklaus, with 282 strokes for 72-holes, clinched the victory on the 17th hole of the final round, putting him one stroke ahead of Doug Sanders and
Dave Thomas Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital ...
, who each finished with 283. Nicklaus became only the fourth person to have won the "grand slam" of golf, having previously won the U.S. Open in 1962, The Masters and the PGA Championship in 1963. He joined
Gene Sarazen Gene Sarazen (; born Eugenio Saraceni, February 27, 1902 – May 13, 1999) was an American professional golfer, one of the world's top players in the 1920s and 1930s, and the winner of seven major championships. He is one of five players (along ...
, Ben Hogan and Gary Player; it would be 33 years before a fifth golfer, Tiger Woods, would match the accomplishment. *George M. Low expressed his reservations about the validity of planning a synchronous-orbit mission for the Apollo Applications Program (AAP). In a note to Maxime A. Faget, Low commented on the recent interest in such a mission and voiced his own doubt concerning either the need for or the desirability of such a flight. Low stated that such things as synoptic views of terrain or weather phenomena could be done just as well from low Earth orbit using mosaic techniques. Moreover, low orbits afforded simpler operations, much greater payload capabilities, and minimal
radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...
hazards. *Died: Ralph A. "Daredevil" Miller, American movie stuntman who had doubled for Tom Mix and Harold Lloyd in silent films until being paralyzed in an accident in 1931. Miller was struck by a hit and run driver while crossing a street in Detroit.


July 10, 1966 (Sunday)

*A heat wave began across much of the midwestern United States, killing hundreds of people over a six-day period where temperatures remained above . Hardest hit was the area in and around
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
, where 149 people, most of them elderly, died from heat exhaustion. New York City officials reported that the number of deaths from natural causes was 650 higher than normal during the week, although only 17 of the 2,250 people had died directly from heat stroke. *Legendary African-American singer Marian Anderson gave her final public performance, appearing in a concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.


July 11, 1966 (Monday)

*
Angus Barbieri Angus Barbieri (1939 – 7 September 1990) was a Scottish man who fasted for 382 days, from June 1965 to July 1966. He lived on tea, coffee, soda water, and vitamins while living at home in Tayport, Scotland, and frequently visiting Maryfield Ho ...
of Tayport, Scotland, made headlines worldwide as he ended a diet of water, soda water, tea, coffee and vitamins, having lost nearly . Barbieri ate his first solid food since June 14, 1965; during the 392-day fast, he went from to and commented that "I have forgotten what food tastes like." Fifty years later, he would continue to be recognized by
Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...
under the category "Longest time to survive without food". *The
1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...
began in England, with England and Uruguay playing to a 0-0 tie at Wembley in front of 75,000 people, "much less than had been expected". The other 14 nations competing were Mexico, France, West Germany, Argentina, Spain,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, Portugal, Hungary, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Italy and Chile. *
British Motor Corporation The British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) was a UK-based vehicle manufacturer, formed in early 1952 to give effect to an agreed merger of the Morris and Austin businesses.Morris-Austin Merger Company Named. ''The Times'', Friday, 29 February ...
and
Jaguar Cars Jaguar (, ) is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar cars ...
announced plans to merge as British Motor Holdings. *The
1966 Central American and Caribbean Games The 10th (X) Central American and Caribbean Games were held in San Juan, Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Ri ...
opened in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with 1,689 athletes from 18 nations. *The new rank of Sergeant Major of the Army was created in the U.S. Army, a unique designation accorded to only one person, the most senior Army enlisted man to advise the
U.S. Army Chief of Staff The chief of staff of the Army (CSA) is a statutory position in the United States Army held by a general officer. As the highest-ranking officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, the chief is the principal military advisor and a ...
. Sergeant Major
William O. Wooldridge William O. Wooldridge (August 12, 1922 – March 5, 2012) was a United States Army soldier and the first Sergeant Major of the Army. Wooldridge served on active duty from 1940 to 1972. His military career spanned two wars and 14 campaigns, duri ...
of the 1st U.S. Infantry Division was sworn in by General
Harold K. Johnson Harold Keith "Johnny" Johnson (February 22, 1912 – September 24, 1983) was a United States Army general who served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1964 to 1968. Regarded as a premier tactician, Johnson became skeptical that the ...
as the first person to hold the rank. *'' The Newlywed Game'', a TV game show described by one reviewer as "four newlywed couples answering questions which reveal how much or how little they know about each other", premiered on the
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
television network. TV critic Rick Du Brow of United Press International generally praised the show and its host, Bob Eubanks, as "quite pleasant and unpretentious" but said that the questions asked of the wives and husbands "weren't exactly life and death matters." *Meeting at NASA Headquarters,
NASA Deputy Administrator The Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the second-highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. Administrator of NASA is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible for pr ...
Robert C. Seamans, Jr. Robert Channing Seamans Jr. (October 30, 1918 – June 28, 2008) was an MIT professor who served as NASA Deputy Administrator and 9th United States United States Secretary of the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force. Birth and education He wa ...
, Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight
George E. Mueller George Edwin Mueller (; July 16, 1918 – October 12, 2015), was an American electrical engineer who was an associate administrator at NASA who headed the Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1963 until December 1969. Hailed as one of ...
, and Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications Homer E. Newell made several significant program decisions affecting AAP and post-Apollo development planning in general: **MSFC would be the lead Center for developing the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) and would be responsible for all astronomy experiments. **MSFC would be the lead Center for "lunar engineering" - i.e., design and development of
lunar exploration The physical exploration of the Moon began when ''Luna 2'', a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made an impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observation ...
vehicles (including surface modules, supply trucks, and roving vehicles). **MSC would have responsibility for Earth resources and lunar scientific experiments. *Nearly all of the American state of Nebraska was blacked out by an electric power failure, as circuits were overloaded from air conditioning use during a heat wave. Other than the city of
Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...
, and the extreme western section of the state, all other cities, small towns and rural areas were out for several hours after the failure of a generator at
Hallam, Nebraska Hallam is a village in Lancaster County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Lincoln, Nebraska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 213 at the 2010 census. History Hallam was platted in 1892 when the Chicago, Rock Island and ...
, had a cascade effect that shut off the network. *Died: Delmore Schwartz, 52, American poet and short story writer, heart attack


July 12 Events Pre-1600 * 70 – The armies of Titus attack the walls of Jerusalem after a six-month siege. Three days later they breach the walls, which enables the army to destroy the Second Temple. * 927 – King Constantine II of ...
, 1966 (Tuesday)

*The FBI arrested retired Lieutenant Colonel William H. Whalen at his home in Alexandria, Virginia, after he was indicted for espionage for the Soviet Union. Whalen, the highest-ranking American military man ever convicted of espionage, had served as the Intelligence Adviser for the
U.S. Army Chief of Staff The chief of staff of the Army (CSA) is a statutory position in the United States Army held by a general officer. As the highest-ranking officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, the chief is the principal military advisor and a ...
in the early 1960s, and would plead guilty to having sold secrets to Soviet Army Colonel Sergei Edemski and Soviet Embassy diplomat Mikhail A. Shunaev in return for $3,500. Whalen would be paroled in 1973 after serving six years of a federal prison sentence. *Multi-millionaire industrialist
Daniel H. Overmyer Daniel Harrison Overmyer (December 6, 1924 – July 24, 2012) was an American businessman and warehouse mogul. During the height of his career, Overmyer was referred to as "the king of warehousing". Overmyer founded and operated the D. H.&n ...
announced the creation of the
Overmyer Network The Overmyer Network, later the United Network, was a television network. It was intended to be a fourth television network, fourth national commercial network in the United States, competing with the Big Three television networks. The network ...
, a fourth U.S. television network that would compete with CBS, NBC and ABC and go on the air with 100 stations beginning on May 1, 1967. *During informal discussions in Washington, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications Homer E. Newell was asked his views regarding the agency's options for post-Apollo space projects. Newell's reply, reflecting to a great extent the thinking of scientists within the agency, cited three chief factors: Earth-orbit missions, solar exploration, and orbiting astronomical
observatories An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
. Also, Newell played down the importance of the
search for extraterrestrial life The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of interstellar communication, transmissions fro ...
in connection with solar exploration in the post-Apollo period. *The "hydrant riot" broke out in Chicago after the city's Fire Commissioner, Robert J. Quinn, ordered an immediate shutdown of all fire hydrants that had been opened on a day where the temperatures had topped , a standard method of beating the heat in neighborhoods where swimming pools were unavailable. There were four pools on the city's predominantly African American west side, but all four "were located in all-white, violence-prone neighborhoods". After several days of looting and destruction, and protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mayor Richard J. Daley would relent, ordering that police provide safe passage and protection for black residents to use the white pools, as well as trucking in portable pools and allowing the use of the hydrants during the heat spell. *Born: Tamsin Greig, English television comedian and actress; in Maidstone, Kent *Died: D. T. Suzuki, 95, Japanese philosopher


July 13, 1966 (Wednesday)

*Near the village of
Almagor Almagor ( he, אַלְמָגוֹר) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Korazim Plateau, to the north of the Sea of Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In it had a population of . The village w ...
and Israel's border with Syria, an
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
command car drove over a land mine that had evidently been planted by infiltrators. Two soldiers and a civilian were killed, and the government ministers on the national Security Committee voted for an immediate reprisal, in a form chosen by the Defense Minister. The next day, "Operation Wind" commenced and Israeli fighter jets destroyed heavy engineering equipment and an anti-aircraft unit at the Syrian city of Ain Sufira. The Syrians then retaliated with their own MiG-21 aircraft, and the conflict continued to escalate. *NASA announced that project management responsibility for the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) had been assigned to MSFC. Under the agency's "phased project planning," any decision to begin ATM hardware development must await preliminary design study and evaluation at Marshall. However, as conceived at this stage, the ATM would comprise several high-resolution solar telescopes attached to the Apollo spacecraft, to be operated by scientist-astronauts. Subsequently, ATM experiments contracts also were transferred from
Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...
to
Huntsville Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in th ...
. *Died:
Reino Ragnar Lehto Reino Ragnar Lehto (2 May 1898 – 13 July 1966; surname until 1901 ''Lagerlund'') served as caretaker Prime Minister of Finland from 1963 to 1964, then served as governor of Uusimaa province until his death on 13 July 1966. He was a lawyer by pro ...
, 68, former Prime Minister of Finland


July 14, 1966 (Thursday)

* Richard Speck forced his way into a nurses' dormitory that served the nearby South Chicago Community Hospital, and tied up, and then strangled, eight of the nine student nurses who lived there, including three who arrived while the crime was in progress. Speck, who would be arrested three days later, sneaked into the two-story building at 2319 East 100th Street shortly before midnight. The lone survivor in the building, Corazon Amurao, escaped notice by hiding under a bed, waited for several hours after Speck had left, and climbed out on a ledge hours later to scream for help. Two neighbors then flagged down patrolman Donald Kelly, who found the gruesome scene inside. Nearly twelve years later, Speck would claim to an interviewer from the '' Chicago Sun-Times'' that he had originally planned to rob the women, but that one of them had spit in his face and said that she would pick him out of a lineup; but for that, he said "they'd all be alive today". In the same interview, however, Speck claimed that he and an accomplice had entered the apartment, although Miss Amurao noted that he had acted alone. *Jet fighters from Israel and
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
fought an air battle in the skies of Syria after the Israelis had raided Syrian engineering plants at the
Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...
. * Gwynfor Evans, President of the Plaid Cymru political party that advocated independence for Wales from Great Britain, became a Member of Parliament for the United Kingdom in the by-election for Carmarthen, taking the previously Labour-held Welsh seat and giving Plaid Cymru its first representation at Westminster in its 41-year history. *Through a formal memorandum of understanding between NASA and the Department of Defense, the two agencies established the Joint Manned Space Flight Policy Committee to coordinate, at the policy level, human spaceflight programs of the respective organizations. This agreement superseded a similar earlier coordination group established in mid-
January 1963 The following events occurred in January 1963: January 1, 1963 (Tuesday) *Osamu Tezuka's ''Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy)'', Japan's first serialized animated series based on the popular manga, was broadcast for the first time. It premiered on ...
, the Gemini Program Planning Board. *Born: ** Matthew Fox, American television actor; in Abington Township, Pennsylvania ** Brian Selznick, American illustrator of children's books; in East Brunswick, New Jersey *Died: Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion, student nurses and victims of mass murderer Richard Speck.


July 15, 1966 (Friday)

*
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
moved to the next step in its space program, with the launch of a dog into outer space. The male dog, "Xiao Bao", was sent up inside a T-7AS2 rocket, reaching an altitude of . After the capsule returned to earth, the dog's handler brought out Xiao Bao alive and well. A female dog, "Shan Shan", would be launched and returned on July 28. *Despite worldwide condemnation by the governments of its allies, the United States increased its bombing attacks on North Vietnam, flying 121 bombing missions, the most ever since the war began, against North Vietnamese targets. *An unidentified two-year-old boy in Denver received the first liver transplant from a chimpanzee to a human being, in an operation at the University of Colorado Medical Center. The child survived for nine days before dying of liver failure. *Born: Irène Jacob, French-born Swiss film actress; in Suresnes


July 16 Events Pre-1600 * 622 – The beginning of the Islamic calendar. * 997 – Battle of Spercheios: Bulgarian forces of Tsar Samuel are defeated by a Byzantine army under general Nikephoros Ouranos at the Spercheios River in Greece. * 105 ...
, 1966 (Saturday)

*Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong inspired tens of millions of followers by swimming in the Yangtze River at the age of 73, and the photographs were turned to good effect in party propaganda and in Chairman Mao's personality cult. According to party promotions, the Chairman swam in an hour, albeit with the river current. An "unexpected virtue" was that hundreds of thousands of people in China were inspired to learn how to swim, and swimming became a highly competitive sport in the People's Republic. *British Prime Minister
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
flew to Moscow to try to persuade the Soviets to start peace negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam about the Vietnam War. Despite a warm welcome from Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, Wilson was told simply that his peace bid was doomed to fail. Wilson arrived only two hours after the departure of India's Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...
, who had been on a similar peace initiative. *Chinese engineer Hsu Tsu-tsai, alleged to be China's top rocket expert, was hit by a car in the Netherlands city of The Hague, after an apparent defection attempt. He was later abducted from the city's Red Cross Hospital by Chinese officials and died of internal injuries the next day at the Chinese legation. China and the Netherlands suspended diplomatic relations, and a five-month siege of the Chinese legation followed as Dutch police sought to question Hsu's colleagues. Dutch reporters Frits De Blauw, Harry Seuneren and Link Van Bruggen would later write about the incident in a book called ''The Chinese Affair'', alleging that Hsu had been murdered after handing over the formula for a deadly nerve gas to the American CIA. * Jack Brabham won the
1966 British Grand Prix The 1966 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on 16 July 1966. It was race 4 of 9 in both the 1966 World Championship of Drivers and the 1966 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. It was the 21st Britis ...
at Brands Hatch, with Denny Hulme in second place. *Chicago police picked up mass murderer Richard Speck at the Starr Hotel, transient lodging at 617 West Madison Street in Chicago, where he had attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. Unaware that they had the suspect (who had registered as "B. Brian") in their custody, police took him to the Cook County Hospital, where an emergency room surgeon, Dr. Leroy Smith, realized that the patient matched a picture and description of tattoos published in a local newspaper. Dr. Smith continued to stitch Speck's wounds while a nurse called police.


July 17, 1966 (Sunday)

*Running one mile in 3 minutes, 51.3 seconds, Jim Ryun, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Kansas, set a new world record, clipping more than two seconds off of the mark set by
Michel Jazy Michel Jazy (born 13 June 1936) is a French former middle-distance runner and long-distance runner. He won the 1500 metres silver medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics, as well as two golds (in 1962 and 1966) and one silver (in 1966) at the Europ ...
on June 9, 1965. Ryun, competing at a track meet in Berkeley, California, became the first American to hold the record since 1934 when Glenn Cunningham, also a Kansas alumnus, had run it in 4:06.8. * Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs professional football team, first identified the upcoming AFL-NFL World Championship Game with the nickname that would eventually become its official designation. "I think one of the first things we'll consider," Hunt told a reporter for the ''Kansas City Star'', "is the site of the Super Bowl— that's my term for the championship game between the two leagues." *As the Vietnam War escalated, North Vietnam's President Ho Chi Minh ordered a partial mobilization of the North Vietnamese Army to "extend all-out support" to the Viet Cong forces that were fighting in South Vietnam. *The passenger boat ''Bridlington Queen'' sprang a leak and sank at Bridlington, Yorkshire, UK. All 120 on board were rescued by various pleasure craft. The boat would later be refloated, repaired and returned to service. *Died: Edward Ulreich, 82, Hungarian-born American mural artist


July 18, 1966 (Monday)

*The International Court of Justice, commonly called the "World Court", delivered what would later be described as "the most controversial judgment in its history", concluding litigation that had started more than five years earlier, on November 4, 1960.
Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
and Ethiopia had filed suit to have the United Nations revoke South Africa's administration of South West Africa under UN Mandate, based on South Africa's apartheid policy of denying rights to black African residents. Seven members had voted to grant the petition to end the South African Mandate; seven, including the World Court President, Sir
Percy Spender Sir Percy Claude Spender (5 October 18973 May 1985) was an Australian politician, diplomat, and judge. He served in the House of Representatives from 1937 to 1951, including as a cabinet minister under Robert Menzies and Arthur Fadden. He was ...
of Australia, had concluded that the case should be dismissed because Liberia and South Africa lacked legal standing to pursue the matter. Spender then exercised his power to cast a second vote to break the 7-7 tie, and dismissed the case. *The Gemini 10 mission began with the launch of the Gemini Atlas-Agena target vehicle from complex 14 at 3:40 p.m., EST. The Gemini space vehicle, crewed by command pilot
Astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
John W. Young and pilot Astronaut
Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...
, was launched from
complex 19 Launch Complex 19 (LC-19) is a deactivated launch site on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida used by NASA to launch all of the Gemini crewed spaceflights. It was also used by uncrewed Titan I and Titan II missiles. LC-19 was in use fro ...
at Cape Kennedy at 5:20 p.m. The spacecraft rendezvoused with the GATV at 5 hours 23 minutes ground elapsed time and docked with it about 30 minutes later. The astronauts would later boost the linked craft into a higher orbit, reaching an unprecedented altitude of 474 miles (763 km) above the Earth. The previous mark had been , set by Soviet cosmonauts. *George E. Mueller, NASA Associate Director for Manned Space Flight, officially assigned NASA Headquarters management responsibility for development of the S-IVB
Orbital Workshop Skylab was the first United States space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Major operations in ...
and SSESM to David M. Jones, Acting Saturn/Apollo Applications Program (S/AAP) Director. Experiments as a part of the SSESM and Workshop programs, Mueller said, would still be processed through the Manned Space Flight Experiments Board for approval. *The Hough Riots broke out on the east side of
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, marking the city's first
race riot This is a list of ethnic riots by country, and includes riots based on ethnic, sectarian, xenophobic, and racial conflict. Some of these riots can also be classified as pogroms. Africa Americas United States Nativist period: 1700s ...
. The triggering event had reportedly been an argument at a tavern, where patrons began complaining about a sign that ice water would not be provided for free during the heat wave. When police responded, the disorder spilled from the tavern and into the streets, and 300 of the Cleveland police moved in. *Born:
Dan O'Brien Daniel Dion O'Brien (born July 18, 1966) is an American former decathlete and Olympic gold medalist. He won the Olympic title in 1996, three consecutive world championships (1991, 1993, 1995), and set the world record in 1992. Early life O'Br ...
, American Olympic champion track and field athlete and holder of the world record in the
decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...
from 1992 to 1999; in Portland, Oregon *Died: Bobby Fuller, 23, American pop music singer and guitarist best known for his recording of " I Fought the Law", was found dead in his car, parked outside his apartment in Los Angeles.


July 19, 1966 (Tuesday)

*Canadian Navy Rear Admiral William Landymore was fired from his position as chief of Canada's Atlantic Defence Command, after publicly speaking out against the government's plan to unify the nation's Army, Navy and Air Force. All of the other admirals in the Canadian Navy had previously resigned rather than cooperate with the unification program. *American astronaut
Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...
performed a
spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmen ...
outside the Gemini 10 capsule. Collins extended his torso outside the spacecraft to take photos before and after capsule sunrise. Color photography after sunrise was only partly completed because both Collins and Command Pilot Young were suffering from severe eye irritation from pungent fumes that came through the air supply. Handling the camera proved difficult because of the stiffness of Collins' gloves. *NASA Deputy Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr., ordered the heads of program offices at NASA Headquarters to conduct a 60-day study to update planning for a permanent crewed space station in light of current thinking and recent program developments. Also, as Seamans phrased it, since it was "still a question whether a permanent space station is the best approach to achieving the envisioned mission objectives," the study group's report should assess its advantages and disadvantages. He emphasized that the study in no way implied that NASA had, in fact, decided to develop or even propose such a permanent crewed station in space. It would, however, "help us to decide if such a course is desirable and when." *Following the decision of Deputy Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr., to assign development responsibility for the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) project to MSFC, the human spaceflight organization had concentrated its efforts on selecting the best location for the ATM within the Apollo spacecraft. Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller informed Seamans of their recommendation and requested his approval that the ATM be mounted within the
Apollo Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed ...
(LM). Mueller cited the design tradeoffs that led to this recommendation, the foremost being that the LM-mounted ATM, modified for storage and reuse in orbit, offered the greatest potential for meeting ATM performance requirements and experiment objectives, including the possibility of crewed operation while detached from the CSM and thus free from external disturbances during fine pointing operations. (Other possible installation locations considered but rejected were an empty bay of the service module; a specially built rack for the ATM that would be launched inside the adapter section where the LM normally rested; and inside the spent-stage experiment support module.) *Defending world champion Brazil was knocked out of World Cup competition by Portugal, 3-1, in Liverpool after its superstar player,
Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...
, was injured 30 minutes into the match. With the prospect of a third consecutive Cup (after 1958 and 1962) ruined, thousands of fans cried, fights broke out, and "a shower of black carbon paper" was thrown from high rise buildings onto the streets of downtown Rio de Janeiro. In another game at Middlesbrough wrapping up group play, heavily favored Italy was upset by newcomer North Korea, on a goal by Pak Doo-ik. Other teams advancing to the quarter-finals were Uruguay, England, Argentina, West Germany, Hungary, and the Soviet Union. *The first baseball game played entirely on
artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...
took place at the Houston Astrodome, as the
Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...
defeated the
Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...
, 8-2. During the first half of the season, only the infield was covered with the turf; the new Astroturf outfield was installed during the All-Star break. Phillies manager
Gene Mauch Gene William Mauch (November 18, 1925 – August 8, 2005) was an American professional baseball player and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (, ), Pittsburgh Pirates (), Chicago Cubs ...
praised the turf, opining that "It's better because it's as good to play on and it looks prettier. So it's better."


July 20, 1966 (Wednesday)

*Lieutenant (j.g.)
Dieter Dengler Dieter Dengler (May 22, 1938 – February 7, 2001) was a German-born United States Navy aviator during the Vietnam War and, following six months of imprisonment and torture, became the second captured U.S. airman to escape enemy captivity ...
, a U.S. Navy pilot, became the first American to successfully escape from a prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War, when he was rescued following 23 days of making his way south. He and another pilot had sneaked out of the prison on June 27, but his companion (later identified as U.S. Air Force 1st Lieutenant Duane W. Martin) was caught and beheaded. Dengler was near the 17th parallel that separated North Vietnam from the south, when he was spotted by a reconnaissance pilot, USAF Lt. Col. Eugene P. Deatrick, who would say later that the area was so densely covered with vegetation that the chance to see Dengler's white flag and SOS sign "was one in a million". Dengler was rescued by a helicopter and flown to an American hospital in
Da Nang Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...
, and then sent to Travis Air Force Base in the United States. *British Prime Minister
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
announced what would become known as "the July measures" in order to avoid the devaluation of the
pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...
, a crisis precipitated by a £350,000,000 deficit in the
balance of payments In international economics, the balance of payments (also known as balance of international payments and abbreviated BOP or BoP) of a country is the difference between all money flowing into the country in a particular period of time (e.g., a ...
, and made worse by the seamen's strike. The terms of what would be ratified as the Prices and Incomes Act meant the most stringent economic measures since World War II, with an additional 10% increase in income taxes, new surcharges on gasoline, and on beer, wine, and alcohol; higher sales taxes on most consumer goods; the raising of the minimum down payment on installment purchases from 25% to 40%; a decrease of the amount of the foreign travel spending allowance from $700 to $140 per person; a cutback of government spending; and a freeze on wage, price and dividend increases. Ultimately, the
austerity Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spend ...
program would fail, and on November 18, 1967, the pound would be devalued by 14 percent, from $2.80 USD to $2.40. *The Gemini 10 spacecraft undocked and separated from the Gemini Agena target vehicle (GATV) and used its own thrusters to complete the second rendezvous with the Gemini 8 GATV some three hours later. At 48 hours and 42 minutes into the flight, a 39-minute period of umbilical extravehicular activity (EVA) began, which included the retrieval of a micrometeorite collection package from the Gemini 8 Agena. After about three hours of orbital station-keeping, the spacecraft separated from the GATV. *Born: Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico from 2012 to 2018; in Atlacomulco *Died:
Julien Carette Julien Henri Carette (23 December 1897 – 20 July 1966) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1964. Selected filmography * '' American Love'' (1931) * ''George and Georgette'' (1934) * ''My Heart Is ...
, 68, French film actor, died of burns suffered after he fell asleep while smoking in bed


July 21, 1966 (Thursday)

*The Gemini 10 spacecraft landed within sight of the prime recovery ship, the amphibious assault ship , some from the planned landing point, at 4:07 p.m. *In Geneva, Switzerland, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to a treaty article that would ban any nation from claiming sovereignty over any portion of outer space, including the Moon and the planets. The wording stated: "Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty by means of use or occupation, or by any other means." *Born: Sarah Waters, Welsh novelist; in
Neyland Neyland is a town and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Cleddau and the upstream end of the Milford Haven estuary. The Cleddau Bridge carrying the A477 links Pembroke Dock with Neyland. Etymology The name of the town is ...
,
Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...
*Died: **
Francesco Paolo Cantelli Francesco Paolo Cantelli (20 December 187521 July 1966) was an Italian mathematician. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, probability theory, and actuarial science. Biography Cantelli was born in Palermo. He received his doctorate in ...
, 90, Italian probability mathematician known for the
Glivenko–Cantelli theorem In the theory of probability, the Glivenko–Cantelli theorem (sometimes referred to as the Fundamental Theorem of Statistics), named after Valery Ivanovich Glivenko and Francesco Paolo Cantelli, determines the asymptotic behaviour of the empiric ...
**
Philipp Frank Philipp Frank (March 20, 1884 – July 21, 1966) was a physicist, mathematician and philosopher of the early-to-mid 20th century. He was a logical positivist, and a member of the Vienna Circle. He was influenced by Mach and was one of the Machist ...
, 82, American theoretical physicist, mathematician and philosopher who authored ''The Law of Causality and Its Limits''


July 22, 1966 (Friday)

*A million people gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing for a rally in support of defending North Vietnam, and to listen to speeches by Communist Party leaders. President
Liu Shaoqi Liu Shaoqi ( ; 24 November 189812 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, and theorist. He was Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee from 1954 to 1959, First Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966 and C ...
told the crowd, "We must warn the United States Aggressors in all seriousness— don't miscalculate, don't misjudge your opponents.... If you think you can unscrupulously 'escalate' the war of aggression without meeting due punishment, then you will find it too late to repent. The 700,000,000 Chinese people provide powerful backing for the Chinese people." *In the wake of the dispute between the Netherlands and the People's Republic of China over the death of diplomat Hsu Tsu-tsai, the Chinese government declared the Netherlands'
chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...
in Beijing, G. J. Jongejans, ''
persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...
'' and held him under house arrest, telling him not to leave the country before the Dutch government would permit a group of Chinese engineers to leave. *The British cruise boat ''Prince of Wales'', with 39 people on board, struck a toll bridge while traveling down the Mawddach River, at Penmaenpool, and capsized. Eleven people, four of them children, drowned, while 15 children and 12 adults were rescued. *George M. Low summarized MSC's thinking regarding proper location of the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) with the AAP payload configuration. Low affirmed Houston's approval of the recent assignment of total responsibility for the ATM to MSFC. Because of extremely complex technical and managerial interfaces, the benefits of total systems responsibility at MSFC would be lost if the ATM were mounted on an Apollo LM. "We frankly don't believe that the job can be done in this manner in any reasonable length of time," he said. For much the same reasons, MSC also withdrew earlier recommendations that the ATM could be located in a sector of the service module or in the spent-stage experiment support module. Rather, he urged that the ATM be integrated into a self-contained rack; fitted into the adapter area and launched aboard a single vehicle along with the CSM. Low cited a number of specific objections to NASA Headquarters' recommendation that the ATM be in the LM, even though the approach was technically feasible and offered several important advantages. Nonetheless, he repeated his view that operational factors, technical and managerial interfaces, and cost and schedule considerations all favored a rack-mounted approach. Crew safety factors alone were ample justification for such an approach, and he urged that Headquarters and MSFC proceed with such a design at the earliest possible date. *Born:
Tim Brown Timothy, Timmy, or Tim Brown may refer to: Music * Timothy Brown (bassist) (born 1969), bassist for the band The Boo Radleys * Timothy Brown (conductor) (born 1946), English choral conductor * Timothy Brown (hornist), English hornist Sports Gridir ...
, American NFL wide receiver, member of Pro Football Hall of Fame, and 1987
Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...
winner; in Dallas *Died:
Harriet Daggett Dr. Harriet Spiller Daggett, Professor Emeritus (August 5, 1891—July 22, 1966) was an academic, lawyer, schoolteacher and law professor in Louisiana. She was one of the first female members of a law faculty in the US. In 1931, she became the ...
, 74, one of the first female law school professors in the United States, from 1931 to 1961 at Louisiana State University.


July 23, 1966 (Saturday)

*The first prototype of the flexible bronchoscope, invented by Dr. Shigeto Ikeda of Japan, was delivered by the Machida Endoscope Company. Although surgeons had been able to view the inside of the respiratory airways for almost 70 years, the instrument itself was a rigid, straight metal tube. Dr. Ikeda's idea was to combine fiberoptic technology with a camera, which allowed views in narrower areas of the lungs. The Olympus Optical Company, manufacturer of cameras, would deliver its own version of flexible scope to Dr. Ikeda three weeks later, on August 13. *The Baka Regiment of the Army of the
Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...
, made up of 2,000 soldiers from the
Katanga Province Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika Province, Tanganyika, Hau ...
and commanded by Colonel Ferdinand Tshipola, staged a mutiny in Kisangani (recently renamed from Stanleyville), and began fighting the national government in an attempt to regain independence for Katanga. The revolt would finally be suppressed on September 25, after more than 3,000 people had been killed. * Saddam Hussein, Deputy Secretary of Iraq's
Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...
, escaped from prison after almost two years of incarceration, where he had been held on charges of conspiracy to assassinate President Abdul Rahman Arif. Saddam and a fellow prisoner were being transported to Baghdad for a trial; they slipped out of the back door of a restaurant where the party had stopped for lunch, and escaped in a waiting car. Two years later, Saddam would help lead a coup that overthrew President Arif and, in 1979, would become President of Iraq. *Died: ** Montgomery Clift, 45, American film actor known for ''From Here to Eternity''; from a heart attack ** Enola Gay Tibbetts, 73, American homemaker whose name became associated with the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
in 1945; Mrs. Tibbetts's son, Colonel Paul W. Tibbetts, named his B-29 bomber in his mother's honor, and was assigned to drop the first atomic weapon to be used in war.


July 24, 1966 (Sunday)

*A USAF
F-4C Phantom The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American Tandem#Aviation, tandem two-seat, twinjet, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic aircraft, supersonic jet interceptor aircraft, interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed ...
#63-7599 was shot down by a North Vietnamese SAM-2 northeast of Hanoi, in the first loss of a US aircraft to a Vietnamese SAM in the Vietnam War. The pilot, Captain
Richard P. Keirn Richard Paul Keirn (29 July 1924 – 22 May 2000) was a colonel and fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. He was one of two United States service members to be a prisoner of war (POW) in both World War II and the Vietnam War and was the fir ...
, ejected successfully from his stricken aircraft and was captured. His bombardier/navigator Captain Roscoe H. Fobair failed to eject and was killed; his remains would be recovered in 2001. *U.N. Secretary General U Thant visited Moscow, the third world leader (after Indira Gandhi of India and Harold Wilson of the Britain) in two weeks to try to persuade the Soviet Union to endorse a program for ending the Vietnam War. *
Michael Pelkey Michael Pelkey (born March 28, 1940) is considered one of the first individuals to influence the mass practice of BASE jumping as a sport, together with fellow skydiver Brian Schubert. Pelkey and Schubert's first jump was made on July 24, 1966, ...
and
Brian Schubert Michael Pelkey (born March 28, 1940) is considered one of the first individuals to influence the mass practice of BASE jumping as a sport, together with fellow skydiver Brian Schubert. Pelkey and Schubert's first jump was made on July 24, 1966, ...
became the first people known to have parachuted from a steep cliff, diving off the El Capitan, a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park in California. With no precedent to guide them, and at the mercy of wind conditions, both men were injured. Schubert crashed hard into the talus at the base of the rock and would tell Pelkey later "that he had heard every bone in both feet break". Their feat, however, would later be an inspiration for the extreme sport of BASE jumping. *
Greg Buckingham Gregory Fenton Buckingham (July 29, 1945 – November 11, 1990) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in two events. Buckingham was born in Riverside, California, and attended Menlo-Atherton High ...
, a junior at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, of the United States set a new world record in the
200 metre individual medley The 200-metre individual medley is a race in competitive swimming in which swimmers compete in all 4 strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle) in one race, with each leg being 50 metres in length. The stroke order is different ...
swimming event, at a competition at Foothill College in Los Altos, California, swimming the distance in two minutes, 13.1 seconds, nearly two seconds faster than the 1964 record held by
Dick Roth Richard William Roth (born September 26, 1947) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events. He swam in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, where he won the gold medal for his fi ...
. Two days earlier, 14-year-old Lynn Vidali set a new women's world record at the same distance, at two minutes, 29 seconds, breaking the mark set by Donna de Varona in 1961. *Died: Tony Lema, 32, American golfer, was killed along with his wife when their chartered plane, piloted by Doris Mullen, ran out of fuel and crashed in a water hazard short of the seventh green of Lansing Sportsman's Park in
Lansing, Illinois Lansing is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Lansing is a south suburb of Chicago. The population was 29,076 at the 2020 census. Geography Lansing is located at (41.565785, -87.545791). It is south of the Chicago city limits a ...
. Lema had been returning home from Akron, Ohio, where he had finished competing in the PGA Championship. In addition to Mullen and the Lemas, Dr. George Bard, the co-pilot and co-owner of the plane, was killed.


July 25 Events Pre-1600 * 306 – Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops. * 315 – The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. ...
, 1966 (Monday)

*Twenty-seven children and six adults from Belgium were killed when the bus they were riding in skidded off a bridge while driving on the autobahn outside of
Idstein Idstein () is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Because of its well preserved historical Altstadt (Old Town) it is part of the ''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße'' ...
, West Germany, and fell to another highway below. All were on their way home to Brussels from a vacation in the Austrian Alps; the nine survivors were seriously injured. *The British House of Commons voted, 328 to 147, to nationalize the nation's steel industry, bringing the 14 largest steel producers under the control of one national corporation. Nationalization had been repealed in 1951. *The 163-year-old
Thames barge A Thames sailing barge is a type of commercial sailing boat once common on the River Thames in London. The flat-bottomed barges with a shallow draught and leeboards, were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and narr ...
''Favourite'', constructed in
1803 Events * January 1 – The first edition of Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière's ''Almanach des gourmands'', the first guide to restaurant cooking, is published in Paris. * January 5 – William Symington demonstrates his ...
and one of the oldest floating vessels in the United Kingdom, sank at
Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...
, London, while sitting at its moorings on the River Thames. * William A. Ferguson, MSFC Orbital Workshop Project Manager, made a presentation on the OWS as an experiment to the Manned Space Flight Experiments Board (MSFEB). Associate Administrator George E. Mueller approved the experiment for flight on AS-209. *
John H. Disher John Howard Disher (December 23, 1921 – August 27, 1988) was an American aeronautical engineer and NASA manager. For most of his life he worked for NASA during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab (deputy director) and Space Shuttle projects. ...
, Saturn/Apollo Applications Deputy Director, advised his Systems Engineering Director that, on the basis of studies and review within both the Office of Manned Space Flight (OMSF) and the Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA), the choice of location for the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) had been narrowed down either to the LM ascent stage (with a "half rack" in place of the descent stage) or to a specially designed rack structure completely supplanting the LM. *Died:
Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...
, 40, American poet, critic and curator of the Museum of Modern Art, died of injuries incurred the previous day when he was run over by a dune buggy while sleeping on the Fire Island beach.


July 26, 1966 (Tuesday)

*After refusing to resign from his position as Prime Minister of Sudan,
Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub ( ar, محمد أحمد المحجوب; 17 May 1908 – 23 June 1976) was both Foreign Minister and then the 6th Prime Minister of Sudan. He was also an important Sudanese literary writer, who published several volumes of ...
was forced to step down following a vote of censure by the Constituent Assembly. Mahgoub had become so unpopular that the vote was 126 to 30 in favor of the condemnation. The next day, Sadiq al-Mahdi was named the new Prime Minister after the Assembly was given a choice between him and Mahgoub, and al-Mahdi won by a margin of 138 to 29. *While on vacation in Italy, film star William Holden accidentally killed a man when he was driving at over in his Ferrari 3000 car from Florence to
Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
. While attempting to pass, Holden's auto struck a Fiat 500 being driven by 42-year-old salesman Valerio Novelli. Holden, who would pay Novelli's widow $80,000 to settle a civil suit, would be convicted ''in absentia'' of manslaughter by a court in Lucca and receive a suspended eight-month jail sentence. * Baron Gerald Gardiner, the
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...
and the head of the judiciary of England and Wales, issued the Practice Statement in the British House of Lords, stating that the House was not bound to follow its own previous precedent. In addition to its legislative function, the House of Lords also served as a court of last resort for appeals of the decisions of lower courts on matters of interpretation of British law, with such matters decided by its Appellate Committee, drawn from those members who qualified as Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. That function would be superseded in 2009 by the creation of the
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (initialism: UKSC or the acronym: SCOTUK) is the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for all civil cases, and for criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As the Unite ...
. Lord Gardiner articulated the conclusion that he and other members had reached, that the ''London Tramways'' decision regarding ''
stare decisis A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...
'', which had restricted the Court from departing from prior rulings since
1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...
, would no longer bind the Lords. Gardiner reiterated the importance of precedent "as an indispensable foundation upon which to decide what is law and its application to individual cases," but added, "Their Lordships nevertheless recognise that too rigid adherence to precedent may lead to injustice in a particular case and also unduly restrict the proper development of the law. They propose therefore to modify their present practice and, while treating former decisions of this House as normally binding, to depart from a decision when it appears right to do so." *NASA Deputy Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr., formally notified Associate Administrators
Mac C. Adams Mac or MAC most commonly refers to: * Mac (computer), a family of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * A variant of the word macaroni, mostly used in the name of the dish mac and cheese * Mac, ...
, Edmond C. Buckley, George E. Mueller, and Homer E. Newell that he had assigned full responsibility for Apollo and AAP missions to Mueller's Office of Manned Space Flight.


July 27, 1966 (Wednesday)

*Following the announcement of his austerity programme, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson survived a vote of censure in the House of Commons, as members of his Labour Party (with an 88-seat majority) supported him. The final result was 246 votes in favor, and 325 against. On the same day, the nation's chief labor union, the Trades Union Congress, voted 20 to 12 in support of a resolution pledging to halt strikes that had been threatened during the six-month freeze against raising wages. *For the first time in 58 years, liquor was legally served in Mississippi, the last of the United States to have repealed its prohibition laws. Effective July 1, individual local governments were allowed to hold referendum elections on whether to allow the sale of liquor at state-approved resorts, and Harrison County voters had endorsed the measure. At 6:55 p.m., after police cars escorted a liquor delivery truck into Biloxi. The first drink in the state was poured at the Broadwater Beach Hotel, and Louis Cobb, the first legal bartender in Mississippi, sold a glass of scotch whiskey to hotel manager T.M. Dorsett. Biloxi Mayor Dan Guice then cut the ribbon to open the entrance to the hotel's bar. *Died: Brenda Sue Brown, 11, was beaten to death after walking with her sister to summer school in Shelby, North Carolina. Police were unable to charge a suspect with the crime, until more than 40 years later, when a series of articles in the ''Shelby Star'' led a woman to reveal that her grandfather had made a deathbed confession of assisting Thurman Price in the kidnapping. Price, by then 77 years old, would be arrested on February 12, 2007, but would post bond four days later and die at the age of 83 while awaiting trial.


July 28, 1966 (Thursday)

*In the UK, the
University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...
and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, received their royal charters. *An American U-2 reconnaissance plane, piloted by U.S. Army Captain Robert D. Hickman, had disappeared over Cuba. Hickman's remains, and his airplane, were discovered two days later on a hillside near Oruro, Bolivia. The craft had flown on automatic pilot until its fuel supply was exhausted, and it was presumed that
depressurization Uncontrolled decompression is an unplanned drop in the pressure of a sealed system, such as an aircraft cabin or hyperbaric chamber, and typically results from human reliability, human error, fatigue (material), material fatigue, engineering failur ...
had caused Captain Hickman to lose consciousness. *Born:
Miguel Ángel Nadal Miguel Ángel Nadal Homar (, ca, Miquel Àngel Nadal Homar; born 28 July 1966) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a versatile defender and midfielder. He began and ended his career with Mallorca, but his greatest achievements came ...
, Spanish footballer who represented Spain in three World Cups; in Manacor


July 29, 1966 (Friday)

*While on a visit to the city of Ibadan, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the President of Nigeria, was taken hostage while staying at the Government House, the official residence of Western Region Military Governor Adekunle Fajuyi. Mutineers led by Army Captain Theophilus Danjuma then took President Aguiyi-Ironsi and Governor Fajuyi to a nearby forest and executed both of them. Brigadier General
Babafemi Ogundipe Babafemi Olatunde Ogundipe (6 September 1924 – 20 November 1971) was the ''de facto'' Vice President of Nigeria, second-in-command and first Supreme Military Council of Nigeria (1966–1979), Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters from 1966 Nige ...
, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, operated the government until a new President could be named. * Bob Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident near his home in Woodstock, New York. He would not be seen in public again for over a year. "For the best part of twelve months," a biographer would note later, "very few people knew what Dylan was doing, whether he was permanently crippled or if he would ever record again." *Died: Edward Gordon Craig, 94, English modernist theatre practitioner and illegitimate son of Ellen Terry


July 30 Events Pre-1600 * 762 – Baghdad is founded. *1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council. *1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands ...
, 1966 (Saturday)

*The United States began its first bombing of the wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) intended as a buffer between North Vietnam and
South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
. * England defeated West Germany, 4–2, to win the
1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...
in front of 97,000 spectators at Wembley after
extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...
. In the 89th minute of the 90-minute regulation time, Wolfgang Weber tied the score, 2-2, after rebounding Roger Hunt's block of a free kick. In the 30 minutes of extra time, Geoff Hurst scored both goals in the extra 30-minute period. The go-ahead point came in the 101st minute on a shot that actually bounced off of the bar of the goal; after a conference with a linesman, the referee ruled that a goal had been scored. The other extra time goal by Hurst came on the final kick of the match. *Ludwig Tande, the mayor of the small town of Plentywood, Montana, was assassinated in the city's courtroom by Duane Falk, an oil worker who had just been convicted of an assault charge and was upset over being fined fifty dollars. *The CIA's Tagboard Project, testing of the
Lockheed D-21 The Lockheed D-21 is an American supersonic reconnaissance drone. The D-21 was initially designed to be launched from the back of an M-21 carrier aircraft, a variant of the Lockheed A-12 aircraft. The drone had maximum speed in excess of at a ...
drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...
, came to an end with the destruction of an A-12 reconnaissance aircraft and the death of a pilot. The unmanned drone was designed to be launched while the mother ship was flying at supersonic speed. After separation from the A-12, the D-21 failed to start, and the two machines collided. Test pilot Bill Park and launch control officer Ray Torick ejected from the aircraft while flying over the Pacific Ocean; Park was rescued after an hour in the ocean, but Torick drowned when his pressure suit took on water.


July 31 Events Pre-1600 *30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide. * 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Tr ...
, 1966 (Sunday)

* The British pleasure cruiser MV ''Darlwyne'' sank off the coast of Cornwall with the loss of all 29 passengers (including seven children) and a crew of two, after departing from
Fowey Fowey ( ; kw, Fowydh, meaning 'Beech Trees') is a port town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, with the local ch ...
on a return trip to Falmouth, where the cruise had started. After the ship failed to return as scheduled at 7:00 pm, a search by air began 11 hours later the next morning and was unable to find any sign of it other than a dinghy. Bodies were not located until four days after the ship vanished in bad weather. Only 12 bodies were ever recovered, and five had wristwatches that had stopped at times ranging from 8:05 to 9:49 in the evening; an inquiry by the Board of Trade would conclude that the ''Darlwyne'' had been unfit to sail in the open waters and would blame its skipper for taking it out to sea anyway. *Two days after it appeared that the direct intervention of President Johnson had settled the airline mechanics strike that had grounded five major carriers, the members of the International Association of Machinists overwhelmingly rejected the settlement package, with 6,587 in favor of ratifying it, but 17,251 against it. *Born: **
Dean Cain Dean George Cain ( Tanaka; born July 31, 1966) is an American actor. From 1993 to 1997, he played Clark Kent / Superman in the TV series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''. Cain was the host of ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' and ...
, American television actor (''Lois & Clark''), in Mount Clemens, Michigan, as Dean Tanaka ** Marina Ogilvy, daughter of British Princess Alexandra, in Richmond, London *Died: ** Alexander von Falkenhausen, 87, Military Governor of German-occupied Belgium during World War II **
Bud Powell Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Along with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke and Dizzy Gillespie, Powell was a leading figure in the development of modern ...
, 41, American jazz pianist


References

{{Events by month links
1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
*1966-07 *1966-07