June 1966
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The following events occurred in June 1966:


June 1, 1966 (Wednesday)

*The 158th and last original episode of '' The Dick Van Dyke Show'' appeared on the CBS television network. The situation comedy, starring
Dick Van Dyke Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, entertainer and comedian. His award-winning career has spanned seven decades in film, television, and stage. Van Dyke began his career as an entertainer on radio and telev ...
, Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam and
Rose Marie Rose Marie (born Rose Marie Mazzetta; August 15, 1923 – December 28, 2017) was an American actress, singer, comedian, and vaudeville performer with a career ultimately spanning nine decades, which included film, radio, records, theater, night ...
, ran for five seasons after its debut on October 3, 1961. During the final season of production, each of the supporting members of the cast featured in at least one show about their character. In the series finale, entitled "The Last Chapter", Van Dyke's Rob Petrie finally completed the project on which he had been working for five years, the writing of a book, and much of it was a " clip show" featuring film clips of prior episodes. In syndication, however, the last episode shown in rotation would be "The Gunslinger", a Wild West dream that was filmed on March 22 and marked the last appearance of the entire cast. *With the countdown clock at only one minute, 49 seconds before scheduled liftoff from Cape Kennedy, the
Gemini 9 Gemini 9A (officially Gemini IX-A) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was a 1966 crewed spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the seventh crewed Gemini flight, the 13th crewed American flight ...
mission was halted for the third time, after an electronic switching circuit failed. The mission was recycled for launch on June 3. One hour and 40 minutes earlier, the " Augmented Target Docketing Adapter" (ATDA), which had replaced the lost Agena target vehicle with which Gemini
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 ...
s
Thomas P. Stafford Thomas Patten Stafford (born September 17, 1930) is an American former Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, and one of 24 people who flew to the Moon. He also served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1969 to 1971. After grad ...
and Gene Cernan were to link up, was successfully launched from complex 14. *''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
'', the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, published the editorial "Sweep Away All Ghosts and Monsters", calling upon the general public to attack any activities that appeared to be "counterrevolutionary" to the doctrines espoused by Party Chairman Mao Zedong. The directive would be followed by a purge of party officials in Beijing, and a call on June 4 for even stronger attacks. * Éamon de Valera, the last surviving leader of the 1916 Easter Uprising, was re-elected to a second seven-year term as President of Ireland. The 84-year-old Irish hero, candidate of the Fianna Fáil political party, defeated former Minister for Health Tom O'Higgins of the Fine Gael party in one of the closest elections in the Republic's history. De Valera received 558,538 votes against the 548,240 for Higgins. *In a race between three Presidents,
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 ...
defeated Juan Bosch and Rafael F. Bonnelly to win the election for
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 final tally was Balaguer with 754,409 votes; Bosch with 517,784; and Bonnelly a distant third with 45,073. *Died: ** Peter George, 42, British author of the thriller novel '' Red Alert'', which was later adapted for the film ''
Dr. Strangelove ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'', known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'', is a 1964 black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and t ...
'' in 1964; of a self-inflicted gunshot wound **
Cécile Butticaz Cécile Butticaz (2 July 1884, in Geneva – 1 June 1966, in Geneva), also known as Cécile Biéler or Cécile Biéler-Butticaz, was a Swiss engineer. She is considered the first female electrical engineer in Europe, because she earned her enginee ...
, 81, who in 1907 became the first female engineer in Europe **
Papa Jack Laine George Vital "Papa Jack" Laine (September 21, 1873 – June 1, 1966) was an American musician and a pioneering band leader in New Orleans in the years from the Spanish–American War to World War I. He was often credited for training many musici ...
, 92, American jazz musician


June 2, 1966 (Thursday)

* Surveyor 1 landed in the Oceanus Procellarum (the "Sea of Storms"), north of the crater
Flamsteed John Flamsteed (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719) was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, ''Catalogus Britannicus'', and a star atlas called ''Atlas Coe ...
, at 2:17:37 a.m. Florida time, after a 63-hour journey, becoming the first American spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, using retrorockets to slow its descent. Hours later, NASA received the first television transmissions from Surveyor. The photos were expected to be sharper than those transmitted from the first probe to make a soft landing on the Moon, Luna 9, which had arrived four months earlier, on
February 3 Events Pre-1600 * 1112 – Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence, marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states. *1451 – Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire. *1488 – ...
. Over the next 11 days, the probe returned 11,240 photographs of the Moon to Earth before the transmission solar-powered batteries failed on June 13 due to darkness. *Born:
Candace Gingrich Candace Gingrich (; born June 2, 1966) is an American LGBT rights activist at the Human Rights Campaign. Candace is the half-sibling of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.Seelye, KatharineSpeaker's Sister Now Speaking Out ''The New Yor ...
, American LGBT rights activist; in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...
*Died: Former Prime Minister Évariste Kimba, 39, and three other former cabinet ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Jérôme Anany, Emmanuel Bamba and André Mahamba), were publicly executed by hanging for alleged involvement in a plot to kill
Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997 (known as the Democratic Republic o ...
.


June 3, 1966 (Friday)

*After several postponements,
Gemini 9A Gemini 9A (officially Gemini IX-A) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was a 1966 crewed spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the seventh crewed Gemini flight, the 13th crewed American flight ...
, the seventh crewed and third rendezvous mission of the
Gemini program 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 ...
, was launched into orbit at 9:39 a.m. 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, crewed by command pilot Astronaut
Thomas P. Stafford Thomas Patten Stafford (born September 17, 1930) is an American former Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, and one of 24 people who flew to the Moon. He also served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1969 to 1971. After grad ...
and pilot Astronaut
Eugene A. Cernan Eugene Andrew Cernan (; March 14, 1934 – January 16, 2017) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. During the Apollo 17 mission, Cernan became the eleventh human bei ...
. After successfully achieving rendezvous during the third revolution, the crew discovered that the augmented target docking adapter (ATDA) shroud had failed to separate, precluding docking. * Tigran Petrosian retained his title in the World Chess Championship, defeating
Boris Spassky Boris Vasilievich Spassky ( rus, Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy; born January 30, 1937) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 ...
in the 22nd game of the 24-game series in Moscow that had started on April 11. Under the rules, a draw game counted as one-half of a point for each player, and the first to reach 12 points would win the match. Going into the game, Petrosian had an 11 to 10 lead based on three wins and 16 draws. *Born: Wasim Akram, Pakistani cricketer named as the ''Wisden'' Leading Cricketer in the World in 1992 for his bowler abilities; in Lahore *Died: Alice Calhoun, 65, American silent film actress


June 4, 1966 (Saturday)

*''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
'', the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, published a warning to all of China's citizens, declaring that "Anyone who opposes Chairman Mao Tze-tung, opposes Mao Tze-tung's thoughts, opposes the party central leadership, opposes the proletariat's dictatorship, opposes the correct way of socialism, whoever that may be, however high may the position be, and however old his standing, will be struck down by the entire Party and the entire people." The editorial, carrying the title "A Big Revolution to Touch People to Their Innermost Being", encouraged people for the first time to physically attack political deviants, and came one day after most of the party leaders in the city of Beijing were dismissed for being "an anti-Party, anti-socialist, counterrevolutionary group which had been exposed during the socialist cultural revolution", including Mayor Peng Chen, considered at one time to be one of the most powerful men in China. Peng, who had been out of public view since April, was replaced by Li Hsueh-feng. *The United Kingdom dropped its space program because of increasing costs, withdrawing from the
European Launcher Development Organisation 250px, Europa II 200px, Rolls-Royce''RZ-12'' 200px, ''Coralie'' 200px, ''Astris'' The European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) is a former European space research organisation. It was first developed in order to establish a satelli ...
(ELDO), a coalition of seven nations whose goal was to place a communications satellite into orbit by 1970. The UK had been paying almost 40 percent of the costs, which had increased from $190,000,000 to $442,000,000. *The Senate of the Philippines voted, 15–8, to authorize President
Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
to send 2,000 soldiers to South Vietnam. With that action, they became the fourth nation to join the United States in entering the Vietnam War, along with South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. *The crew of Gemini 9A achieved a rendezvous from above with the ADTA, simulating the rendezvous of an Apollo command module with an
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 ...
in a lower orbit. EVA was postponed because of crew fatigue, and the second day was given over to experiments. *Born: Cecilia Bartoli, Italian mezzo-soprano; in Rome *Died: **
Chang Myon Chang Myon (hangul: 장면; hanja: 張勉; August28, 1899June4, 1966) was a South Korean statesman, educator, diplomat, journalist and social activist as well as a Roman Catholic youth activist. He was the only prime minister of the parliamenta ...
, 62, Prime Minister of South Korea during the Korean War **
Arthur C. Cope Arthur C. Cope (June 27, 1909 – June 4, 1966) was an American organic chemist and member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is credited with the development of several important chemical reactions which bear his name includin ...
, 58, American organic chemist


June 5 Events Pre-1600 *1257 – Kraków, in Poland, receives city rights. *1283 – Battle of the Gulf of Naples: Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon, destroys the Neapolitan fleet and captures Charles II of Naples, Charles ...
, 1966 (Sunday)

* Gene Cernan made the second American
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 ...
(and only the third ever), spending a record two hours and seven minutes outside of the
Gemini 9A Gemini 9A (officially Gemini IX-A) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was a 1966 crewed spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the seventh crewed Gemini flight, the 13th crewed American flight ...
capsule as it orbited the Earth. During the time between Cernan's departure from the capsule at 10:59 a.m. Florida time, and his return at 1:06 p.m., the spacecraft made one complete orbit, which some likened to Cernan making a walk around the world. EVA was successful, but one secondary objective - evaluation of the astronaut maneuvering unit (AMU) - was not achieved because Cernan's visor began fogging. The extravehicular life support system apparently became overloaded with moisture when Cernan had to work harder than anticipated to prepare the AMU for donning. The rest of the third day was spent on experiments. * 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 ...
announced a devaluation of 36.5% of the national currency, the
rupee Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...
, as a measure of fighting inflation and promoting exports, but without consultation with other leaders of her political party, and, as one observer would note, "despite her complete lack of knowledge on matters relating to money and economics". Rupees that had previously been worth $0.21 American were now worth 13 cents; and an American dollar that previously exchanged for 4.75 rupees was now buying 7.5 rupees. Rather than increasing exports and their value, the devaluation would have the opposite effect. * Voting took place to fill 52 vacancies in the 150-seat
Senate of Turkey Senate of the Republic ( tr, Cumhuriyet Senatosu) was the upper house of Turkish Parliament between 1961 and 1980. It was established with the Turkish constitution of 1961 and abolished with the 1982 constitution, although it did not exist after ...
. The Justice Party, led by Prime Minister
Süleyman Demirel Süleyman Sami Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the ...
, won 35 of the vacancies to increase its control over both houses of parliament. *Died: Edward Arthur Carr, 63, British colonial administrator who governed Nigeria from 1947 to 1954


June 6 Events Pre-1600 * 913 – Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed b ...
, 1966 (Monday)

*The day after African-American activist
James Meredith James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississ ...
began his "
March Against Fear The March Against Fear was a major 1966 demonstration in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Activist James Meredith launched the event on June 5, 1966, intending to make a solitary walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi via ...
", walking the from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to "tear down the fear that grips Negroes in Mississippi", he was shot from ambush. Near the town of
Hernando, Mississippi Hernando is a city in, and the county seat of, DeSoto County, which is on the northwestern border of Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,090 at the 2010 census, up from 6,812 in 2000. DeSoto County is the second-most-populous count ...
, Aubrey James Norvell came out from underneath a culvert on U.S. Highway 51, aimed his 16-gauge shotgun, and fired three blasts at Meredith, striking him in the head, right shoulder and leg. Because Norvell had loaded his gun with birdshot shells, Meredith's wounds were not life-threatening. DeSoto County and several other deputies arrested Norvell, although a witness said that the police had done nothing to stop the sniper when he had first appeared. Meredith was not alone in his march. He was accompanied by five friends as well as newsmen and police. One of the newsmen, Jack R. Thornell, took a photograph of Meredith, lying on the ground in pain, which also appears to show Aubrey James Norvell standing in a wooded area in the background. The photo would later win the
Pulitzer Prize for Photography The Pulitzer Prize for Photography was one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It was inaugurated in 1942 and replaced by two photojournalism prizes in 1968: the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography and "Pulitzer Pri ...
. Meredith would recover from his wound and rejoin the march before it reached Jackson. During his march, 4,000 African-Americans in Mississippi would register to vote. Norvell would be released from the Mississippi State Penitentiary after two years incarceration. *The United States Supreme Court reversed the murder conviction of Dr. Sam Sheppard, almost twelve years after his wife had been found beaten to death in their home in
Bay Village, Ohio Bay Village is a city in western Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, the city is a western suburb of Cleveland and a part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. The population was 16,163 at the 2020 ce ...
. In an 8–1 decision, the Court ruled that Sheppard had been denied due process during the highly publicized proceedings, and ordered the state of Ohio to promptly retry the case, or to dismiss the charges. Justice
Tom C. Clark Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899June 13, 1977) was an American lawyer who served as the 59th United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1949 to 1967. Clark ...
wrote, "The fact is that bedlam reigned at the courthouse... The carnival atmosphere at trial could easily have been avoided since the courtroom and courthouse premises are subject to the control of the court." Four days later,
Cuyahoga County, Ohio Cuyahoga County ( or ) is a large urban county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. It is situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the Canada–United States border, U.S.-Canada maritime border. As of the 2020 U ...
, prosecutor John T. Corrigan announced that his office would try Sheppard again in September. In his second jury trial, however, Sheppard would be found not guilty and would be released after 12 years in prison, on November 16; he would die less than four years later, on April 6, 1970. *The groundbreaking British TV situation comedy ''
Till Death Us Do Part ''Till Death Us Do Part'' is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975. The show was first broadcast in 1965 as a ''Comedy Playhouse'' pilot, then as seven series between 1966 and 1975. In 1981, ITV continued the sitcom ...
'', created by Johnny Speight, premiered on BBC1. Starring Warren Mitchell as " Alf Garnett", a right-wing, racist blue-collar laborer in
London's East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
, and featuring Alf's wife Else Garnett, daughter Rita Rawlins and left-wing son-in-law Mike Rawlins living in the Garnett home. U.S. producer
Norman Lear Norman Milton Lear (born July 27, 1922) is an American producer and screenwriter, who has produced, written, created, or developed over 100 shows. Lear is known for many popular 1970s sitcoms, including the multi-award winning ''All in the Famil ...
would purchase the rights to adapt the British programme as the successful American sitcom '' All in the Family''. * Hurricane Alma struck
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
, and the torrential rains that came in its wake killed 73 people in the small town of San Rafael. of rain fell on San Rafael over a period of a few hours, causing floods and landslides more than deep. The hurricane then swept across Cuba and the Florida Keys. *The Gemini 9A crew prepared for
retrofire A retrorocket (short for ''retrograde rocket'') is a rocket engine providing thrust opposing the motion of a vehicle, thereby causing it to decelerate. They have mostly been used in spacecraft, with more limited use in short-runway aircraft land ...
, which was initiated during the 45th revolution. The spacecraft landed within of the primary recovery ship, the
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
. The crew remained with the spacecraft, which was hoisted aboard 53 minutes after landing. *Born: Faure Gnassingbé, 4th President of Togo since 2005; in Afagnan, Togo"Biographie de nouveau président"
, Radio Lome .
*Died: **Claudette Frady-Orbison, 25, wife of singer
Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as ...
. She and her husband were riding on a motorcycle at Gallatin, Tennessee, when they were struck by a pickup truck, killing her and injuring him. **
Ethel Clayton Ethel Clayton (November 8, 1882 – June 6, 1966) was an American actress of the silent film era. Early years Born in Champaign, Illinois, Clayton attended St. Elizabeth's school in Chicago. Career Clayton debuted on stage as a professional ...
, 83, American silent film actress


June 7, 1966 (Tuesday)

*Husband-and-wife pilots Robert and Joan Wallick completed their round-the-world airplane flight in five days, six hours, 16 minutes and 40 seconds, a record time for a propeller-driven plane, as their twin-engined Beech Baron C-55, the ''Philippine Baron'', landed safely. The Wallicks, ranchers in
Big Horn, Wyoming Big Horn is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 198 at the 2000 census and 490 at the 2010 census. Geography Big Horn is on the eastern slope of the Big H ...
, took off from Manila at 8:00 on the morning of June 2 in hopes of beating the prior record of 8 days, 18 hours, 15 minutes set in 1961 by Max Conrad, and announced that their schedule would return them to Manila in 5 days, 3 hours and 58 minutes. After , the Wallicks landed back at the Manila airport at 2:16 p.m. and were greeted by a string band and 200 well-wishers. *Died: **
Norman Baillie-Stewart Norman Baillie-Stewart (15 January 1909 – 7 June 1966) was a British army officer known as The Officer in the Tower when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. An active sympathiser of Nazi Germany, he took part in German-produced propagan ...
, 57, British Army officer who defected to Nazi Germany and assisted in English-language propaganda broadcasts during World War II. **
Jean Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter, and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born in Straßburg (now Stras ...
, 79, Alsatian sculptor, painter, and poet


June 8, 1966 (Wednesday)

*The second XB-70 Valkyrie prototype was destroyed in a mid-air collision with an
F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...
during a photo shoot of five different jets, flying in formation "in order that photographs could be taken for the use of the General Electric company, which manufactured the engines of the five aircraft". NASA pilot
Joseph A. Walker Joseph Albert Walker (February 20, 1921 – June 8, 1966) (Capt, USAF) was an American World War II pilot, experimental physicist, NASA test pilot, and astronaut who was the first person to fly an airplane to space. He was one of twelve pilots ...
, who was flying the F-104, and the XB-70's co-pilot, U.S. Air Force Major Carl Cross, were both killed. Walker was well known for holding the record for fastest airplane, when he piloted the X-15 rocket plane at in 1962. Earlier in the year, he had reached a record airplane altitude of , placing the X-15 above the altitude that marks outer space. Walker's plane came too close to the Valkyrie and collided with its vertical stabilizers; both airplanes crashed near Barstow, California. * Topeka, Kansas, was devastated by the first tornado to cause more than $100,000,000 (USD) in damages. The twister, which registered as an "F5" on the Fujita scale, killed 16 people and injured hundreds. All but one of the deaths happened in Topeka, with the exception being to the east in Tonganoxie. The death toll might have been higher except for weather radar that allowed tornado warnings to be sounded at 7:03 p.m., fifteen minutes before the tornado arrived; thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed, and the campus of Washburn University suffered catastrophic damage; a report at the time noted that the storm caused "extensive damage to almost every building on the 160-acre campus." *The
American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
and National Football League announced that they would merge as equals, with all of the AFL teams becoming part of the NFL in 1970. The two leagues also agreed that each of their champions would meet in an annual title game. The "AFL–NFL World Championship Game" would soon become known as the "
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
". *Born: ** Julianna Margulies, American television actress ('' ER'', '' The Good Wife'') and winner of Emmy, Golden Globe, Critic's Choice and Screen Actors Guild awards; in Spring Valley, New York ** Jens Kidman, Swedish heavy metal vocalist for Meshuggah *Died:
Anton Melik Anton Melik (January 1, 1890 – June 8, 1966) was a Slovene geographer. Biography Melik was born in the village of Črna Vas in Carniola, part of Austria-Hungary. Before and during World War I, he studied at the University of Vienna, gra ...
, 76, Yugoslavian professor who compiled ''The Geography of Slovenia''


June 9, 1966 (Thursday)

*
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 ...
advised NASA Headquarters that Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) was reducing its funding request for Fiscal Year 1967 in support of research on a land-landing capability for the Apollo Applications Program (AAP). Specifically, this program reduction involved halting all work dealing with braking rockets and attenuation systems and concentrating all effort on prototype development of several types of lifting
parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...
and parawing designs. These program changes were mandatory, Low stated, because of limited AAP development funds and because a land-landing capability was still not a firm objective (even though MSC had previously presented such a program leading to a land-landing capability for AAP by the end of 1969). *Two days after black voters in Mississippi helped pro-civil rights candidates win primary elections in Claiborne County and Jefferson County, the Mississippi State Senate voted, 30–13, to pass a resolution for a constitutional amendment that would allow the legislature to consolidate some of the state's 82 counties. * Benjamin Britten's work, ''
The Burning Fiery Furnace ''The Burning Fiery Furnace'' is an English music drama with music composed by Benjamin Britten, his Opus 77, to a libretto by William Plomer. One of Britten's three ''Parables for Church Performances'', this work received its premiere at the St ...
'', was premièred at Orford Church, Suffolk, by the English Opera Group.


June 10, 1966 (Friday)

*Members of the "Mississippi White Knights", a gang within the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, killed a 67-year-old African-American man whom they had selected at random, as part of a larger plot to lure civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. to
Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...
, for an assassination attempt. The victim was Ben Chester White, a sharecropper whom they lured into a car on the pretext of finding a missing dog. James Lloyd Jones drove White to a remote area of the Homochitto National Forest. Claude Fuller, who had hatched the scheme, shot White multiple times with an automatic rifle, and Ernest Avants finished off the killing with a shotgun blast to White's head. Afterward, they realized that Jones's car now had bullet holes and blood stains, so the gang set fire to the vehicle so that it could not be identified. Police quickly traced the vehicle's owner and arrested Jones, who confessed to the crime the next morning and named his accomplices. All three men would escape conviction in state proceedings, but, because the murder had been in a National Forest, Avants would be indicted decades later on federal charges, convicted of murder on February 28, 2003, and would die of
heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...
a little more than a year later while in prison. *NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications Homer E. Newell renewed his request for approval of Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) development to
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 ...
Newell repeated that detailed studies in house and under contract had established the feasibility of an ATM for conducting high-resolution observations of the Sun. He pointed out that a formal ATM organization had been created at
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 ...
with over 30 people working full time on the project, and that they had prepared detailed scientific, technical, and management plans and were ready to begin the project immediately. Newell emphasized the importance of the ATM to the overall NASA solar physics program. Newell pleaded for project approval and assignment of necessary funds to his office so that the ATM could be completed in time for a planned launch in 1969, the next period of maximum solar activity. *
Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...
made her debut as a rock vocalist, appearing with Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. *Died: **
Joseph Biondo Joseph Biondo (April 16, 1897, Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Italy – June 10, 1966, New York City; pronounced "bee-ON-doh") also known as "JB", "Joe Bandy", "Joe the Blonde", and "Little Rabbit", was a New York City mobster with the Gambino crime f ...
, 69, American mobster with the Gambino family **
Henry Treece Henry Treece (22 December 1911 – 10 June 1966) was a British poet and writer who also worked as a teacher and editor. He wrote a range of works but is mostly remembered as a writer of children's historical novels. Life and work Treece wa ...
, 54, British poet and novelist


June 11, 1966 (Saturday)

*The
Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...
for New Zealand were announced. Recipients included businessman
James Wattie Sir James Wattie (23 March 1902 – 8 June 1974) was a New Zealand clerk, accountant, company manager, industrialist, philanthropist and race-horse owner. Wattie was born in Hawarden, New Zealand in 1902. In 1934, he founded food processing co ...
(knighted) and novelist
Ngaio Marsh Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh (; 23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982) was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of Det ...
, who was given the female equivalent of knighthood by being made a
Dame ''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several oth ...
. *Died: ** John William Turrentine, 86, American chemist who perfected a method of mass production of potash and iodine during World War I ** Alfred Berger, 71, Austrian figure skater who won two world championships with his partner
Helene Engelmann Helene Engelmann (later Jaroschka, 9 February 1898 – 1 August 1985) was an Austrian pair skater. With Alfred Berger, she became the 1924 Olympic champion and a two-time world champion. She also won a world title with Karl Mejstrik. Life and ...
**
Thomas Hardie Chalmers Thomas Hardie Chalmers (October 20, 1884 – June 11, 1966) was an American opera singer and actor. Biography Chalmers was born on October 20, 1884 in New York City, the son of Thomas Hardie and Sophia Amanda (De Bann) Chalmers. In 1909, he wen ...
, 81, American opera singer, actor, and filmmaker ** Wallace Ford (Samuel Jones Grundy), 68, English-born American film actor


June 12 Events Pre-1600 * 910 – Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army under King Louis the Child, using the famous feigned retreat tactic of the nomadic warriors. * 1240 – At the instigation of Louis IX of Fr ...
, 1966 (Sunday)

* Elections were held for the Supreme Soviet, the USSR legislature consisting of the 767 member Soviet of the Union and the 750 member Soviet of Nationalities. Voters were presented with a yes-or-no choice for the slate of 1,517 candidates endorsed by the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
(CPSU). Out of 143,917,031 votes cast, there were as many as 345,643 (0.2%) "no" votes, against 143,570,976 "yes". *The Division Street riots, the first in a major city of the United States by
Puerto Ricans Puerto Ricans ( es, Puertorriqueños; or boricuas) are the people of Puerto Rico, the inhabitants, and citizens of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and their descendants. Overview The culture held in common by most Puerto Ricans is referred t ...
, broke out in Chicago after city police shot and wounded a 20-year-old man, Cruz Arcelis. Over three days, 16 people were injured, one died, and more than 50 buildings in the Puerto Rican neighborhoods on the city's northwest side, near the intersection of Division Street and Damen Avenue, were destroyed. *The
1966 Belgian Grand Prix The 1966 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 12 June 1966. It was race 2 of 9 in both the 1966 World Championship of Drivers and the 1966 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was the 26 ...
was held at
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), frequently referred to as ''Spa'', is a motor-racing circuit located in Stavelot, Belgium. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, hosting its first Grand Prix in 1925, and has held ...
and was won by John Surtees, with Jochen Rindt in second place. *Died:
Hermann Scherchen Hermann Scherchen (21 June 1891 – 12 June 1966) was a German conductor. Life Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga ...
, 74, Austrian conductor


June 13, 1966 (Monday)

*The admonition of rights that would become known as the " ''Miranda'' warning" became required in the U.S. after the ruling in ''
Miranda v. Arizona ''Miranda v. Arizona'', 384 U.S. 436 (1966), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution restricts prosecutors from using a person's statements made in response to i ...
'' by the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
that the police must inform
suspect In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U ...
s of their constitutional rights before questioning them. The 5–4 ruling, written by Chief Justice
Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presided over a major shift in American constitution ...
, set forth that before a suspect was questioned, he must be warned of his right to remain silent and his right to an attorney or his statements could not be admitted into evidence. The required warning that begins "You have the right to remain silent..." would ever after be named for Ernesto Miranda, the suspect whose March 13, 1963 arrest made him the main petitioner in the Court case. * Operation Kansas was carried out in the Vietnam War as a 13-man reconnaissance team was landed by helicopter in the middle of the
Que Son QUE or que may refer to: * Quebec (Que.), as the traditional abbreviation, though the postal abbreviations are now QC and previously PQ * Que Publishing, a company which first began as a publisher of technical computer software and hardware sup ...
Valley on the small mountain of Nui Loc Son. In the next 24 hours, six more recon assets were deployed in different strategic sites, ringing the valley. This enabled the teams to report on enemy activity and forward observe for ordnance payload delivery. One team worked its way south of Hiep Duc after the set up positions along the heavily wooded Hill 555. They spotted several groups of NVA forces of varying size that appeared to be training in the area. *A collision of two trains in India, crowded with commuters, killed more than 100 people near Bombay (now Mumbai). A northbound train, heading toward the suburb of Thana, was diverted to another track that was carrying a southbound train. *Born: Grigori Perelman, Russian Soviet mathematician who proved the soul conjecture, Thurston's geometrization conjecture, and the Poincaré conjecture; in Leningrad


June 14, 1966 (Tuesday)

*The Vatican ruled that the reading of books, listed on the ''
Index Librorum Prohibitorum The ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former Dicastery of the Roman Curia), and Catholics were forbidden ...
'' as banned by the Roman Catholic Church, would no longer be a violation of church law. The Index remained, however, and church members were advised that reading such books was still a sin. *Born: ** Indira Radić, Serbian pop music singer; in
Dragalovci Dragalovci () is a village in the Municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, municipality of Stanari, Bosnia and Herzegovina.Official results from the book: Ethnic composition of Bosnia-Herzegovina population, by municipalities and settlements, 1991 ...
, Yugoslavia ** Eduardo Waghorn, Chilean singer-songwriter; in Santiago


June 15, 1966 (Wednesday)

*In the Battle of Hill 488 at the Quảng Tín Province, the 18 men of Charlie Company, a heavily outnumbered U.S. Marine platoon, held off an attack by more than 400 well-disciplined North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong fighters, and inflicted large casualties on the enemy, losing 14 of their own, before being able to withdraw. One Marine officer later noted, "This was an Alamo— with survivors." Gunnery Sergeant
Jimmie E. Howard Jimmie Earl Howard (July 27, 1929 – November 12, 1993) was a Marine Corps staff sergeant when he led an eighteen-man reconnaissance patrol in a fierce battle against a battalion of Viet Cong in June 1966. As a result of his heroic actions, Howa ...
would be presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in the battle, fought at Nui Vu Hill. *U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
's pet beagle, "Him", was accidentally run over by a car and killed on a driveway at the White House. The famous dog, who sometimes appeared in photographs of the President, ran into the path of one of the White House's limousines while chasing a squirrel. *
U.S. Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The se ...
Robert S. McNamara announced that 19,000 American military personnel were being removed from France in advance of that nation's withdrawal from NATO, and that about 300,000 tons of supplies would have to be moved, destroyed, or sold. *Born: Roberto Carnevale, Italian classical composer, pianist, and conductor; in
Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...


June 16, 1966 (Thursday)

*The " Black Power" Movement in the United States came into national prominence when activist Stokely Carmichael, leader of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...
, used it as the rallying cry for 1,500 African-American supporters of
James Meredith James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississ ...
's
March Against Fear The March Against Fear was a major 1966 demonstration in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Activist James Meredith launched the event on June 5, 1966, intending to make a solitary walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi via ...
. Carmichael had been released from jail after being arrested for trespassing for erecting tents for the marchers on the grounds of the Stone Street Negro Elementary School in Greenwood, Mississippi. "Everybody owns our neighborhood except us," Carmichael told the crowd in
Leflore County Leflore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,317. The county seat is Greenwood. The county is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore, who signed a treaty to cede his peo ...
, where the majority of the population was black. "We outnumber the whites in this county. We want black power. That's what we want. Black power!" The marchers then took on the slogan as they proceeded toward Jackson. Carmichael added that "Every county courthouse in Mississippi should be burned tomorrow to get rid of the filth in them... the only ayto get justice is to get a black sheriff... The only thing we can do is take over." * Thirty-three people were killed and 40 injured after the British tanker MV ''Alva Cape'' collided with the American ship ''Texaco Massachusetts'' and caught fire, engulfing both ships and two adjacent tugboats (the ''Esso Vermont'' and the ''Latin American'') in flames. The four ships were all sailing within the
Kill Van Kull __NOTOC__ The Kill Van Kull is a tidal strait between Staten Island, New York and Bayonne, New Jersey in the United States. It is approximately long and wide and connects Newark Bay with Upper New York Bay. The Robbins Reef Light marks the ...
strait between New York and New Jersey. The ''Alva Cape'' was heading into the harbor of Newark, New Jersey and carrying 143,000 barrels of highly flammable naphtha which it had taken on in Pakistan, while the American ship had unloaded its cargo at Newark and was empty. Another 100 men on the four ships were rescued from the flaming water. The pilots of both tankships (MV ''Alva Cape'' and ''Texaco Massachusetts'') were found to be at fault for the collision, although the pilot of the MV ''Alva Cape'' was determined to be primarily at fault by the United States Coast Guard. *Reflecting MSC's concern over several crew-safety factors regarding the suitability of the S-IVB hydrogen tank as a habitable structure to support the spent-stage experiment support module (SSESM) program, Gemini Program Manager Charles W. Mathews requested that officials at
Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's first ...
(MSFC) determine the compatibility of pressurization oxygen with possible out-gassing hydrogen and the possible effects on electrical cabling. *''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
'' published an even stronger incitement to violence in its editorial "Freely Mobilize the Masses and Thoroughly Knock Down the Counterrevolutionary Black Gangs", calling on China's public to seriously injure or even to kill people identified as part of an anti-government movement. * The Beatles performed in the studio for the first and only time on the BBC television programme '' Top of the Pops'', the UK's major television pop music show. * George Abbott and Ginger Rogers hosted the
20th Tony Awards The 20th Annual Tony Awards was broadcast on June 16, 1966, from the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center on radio station WCBS. This was the first afternoon Tony Awards ceremony. The Masters of Ceremonies were George Abbott and Ginger Rogers. The c ...
ceremony. Multiple winners included ''
Man of La Mancha ''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay ''I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes ...
'' and '' Marat/Sade''. *Born: ** Jan Železný, Czech javelin thrower who has held the world record for longest javelin throw since 1993; in Mladá Boleslav ** Phil Vischer, American voice actor, puppeteer, writer, animator, and creator of '' VeggieTales''; in Muscatine, Iowa *Died: **
Lew Brice Lew Brice (October 26, 1893 – June 16, 1966) was an American actor, dancer and comedian. Biography He was born Louis Borach on October 26, 1893 in Manhattan, New York City, the brother of Fannie Brice. He was the youngest of four children born t ...
(Louis Borach), 72, American comedian **
Dantès Bellegarde Dantès Bellegarde (18 May 1877 – 16 June 1966) was a Haitian historian and diplomat. He is best known for his works ''Histoire du Peuple Haïtien'' (1953), ''La Résistance Haïtienne'' (1937), ''Haïti et ses Problèmes'' (1943), and ''Pour un ...
, 89, Haitian historian


June 17 Events Pre-1600 * 653 – Pope Martin I is arrested and taken to Constantinople, due to his opposition to monothelitism. * 1242 – Following the Disputation of Paris, twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts were bur ...
, 1966 (Friday)

*Three people were murdered in the Lafayette Grill at 128 East Eighteenth Street in
Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Rubin "Hurricane" Carter Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for murder, until released following a petition of habeas corpus after almost 20 years in prison. In ...
, who was with a friend in a white car, and, five months later, Carter would be charged, tried and convicted of the triple homicide. For the next 19 years, Carter would remain imprisoned for a crime that he had not committed, until the case would be reopened and the conviction reversed in 1985. Carter, at one time the leading contender for the world middleweight boxing championship, would die in 2014. *During the Gemini 9A postlaunch press conference with Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan, Director
Robert R. Gilruth Robert Rowe Gilruth (October 8, 1913 – August 17, 2000) was an American aerospace engineer and an aviation/space pioneer who was the first director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. He worked ...
of Manned Spacecraft Center announced that James A. Lovell, Jr., and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., would be the prime crew for the last
Project Gemini 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 ...
flight, Gemini 12. The backup crew would be L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., and
Eugene A. Cernan Eugene Andrew Cernan (; March 14, 1934 – January 16, 2017) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. During the Apollo 17 mission, Cernan became the eleventh human bei ...
. The mission was scheduled for late October 1966 or early November 1966. *Died: Betty Baxter Anderson, 58, American author of the ''Career Story for Older Girls'' series of juvenile fiction books


June 18, 1966 (Saturday)

*The U.S.
Director of Central Intelligence The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency from 1946 to 2005, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Security C ...
, Admiral William Raborn resigned. Raborn's deputy, Richard Helms, was appointed as the new chief of the Central Intelligence Agency and would be confirmed by the Senate and sworn in on June 30. Helms would direct the CIA for almost seven years, serving under President Lyndon Johnson, and then President Richard Nixon, until 1973. *Three new provinces were created in the Philippines after
Kalinga-Apayao Kalinga-Apayao () was a province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. It was formed, along with Benguet, Ifugao, and the new Mountain Province, from the earlier Mountain Province, with the passage of ...
(north),
Benguet Benguet (), officially the Province of Benguet ('';'' ; pag, Luyag/Probinsia na Benguet; ilo, Probinsia ti Benguet; ), is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the islan ...
(southwest), and
Ifugao Ifugao, officially the Province of Ifugao ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ifugao; tl, Lalawigan ng Ifugao), is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Lagawe and it borders Benguet to the wes ...
(south) were separated from the
Mountain Province Mountain Province is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as ''Mountain'' in some foreign references. The name is usually short ...
(''Lalawigang Bulubundukin'') pursuant to Republic Act Number 4695. *The Parliament of France passed Law #66–396, granting amnesty for crimes that had been committed during the
Algerian War The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
between 1954 and 1962, and the First Indochina War between 1946 and 1954. *Born:
Kurt Browning Kurt Browning, (born June 18, 1966) is a Canadian figure skater, choreographer and commentator. He is the first skater to land a ratified quadruple jump in competition. He is a four-time World Champion and Canadian national champion. Career ...
, Canadian figure skater and four-time winner of the World Figure Skating Championships between 1988 and 1998; in
Rocky Mountain House, Alberta Rocky Mountain House is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately west of Red Deer at the confluence of the Clearwater and North Saskatchewan Rivers, and at the crossroads of Highway 22 (Cowboy Trail) and Highway 11 (David Th ...


June 19, 1966 (Sunday)

*NASA announced that the Gemini 10 mission had been scheduled for no earlier than July 18, with John W. Young, command pilot, and
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 ...
, pilot, as the prime crew.
Alan L. Bean Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932 – May 26, 2018) was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, NASA astronaut and painter; he was the fourth person to walk on the Moon. He was selected to become an ast ...
, command pilot, and Clifton C. Williams, pilot, would be the backup crew. Mission plans would include rendezvous, docking, and extravehicular activity. The spacecraft was scheduled to rendezvous and dock with an Agena target vehicle which was to be launched the same day. If possible, Gemini 10 would also rendezvous with the Agena launched in the March 16 Gemini 8 mission. *Three speedboat racers were killed in accidents during the President's Cup, an annual hydroplane regatta held on the Potomac River.
Ron Musson Ronald J. Musson (died June 19, 1966) was a hydroplane driver from Akron, Ohio. He is best known for driving the Unlimited Hydroplane ''Miss Bardahl'' to three American Power Boat Association Gold Cup championships in 1963, 1964 and 1965. Musson ...
, the defending APBA Gold Cup champion, was driving his recently redesigned craft, ''
Miss Bardahl ''Miss Bardahl'' was an Unlimited Hydroplane that raced from 1957 to 1969. Between 1963 and 1968, the team won five American Power Boat Association Gold Cups. Driver Ron Musson won three from 1963 through 1965, and driver Bill Schumacher won in 1 ...
'', at when the boat disintegrated. Shortly afterward, Rex Manchester, ranked second in the United States, was piloting the ''Notre Dame'' when it flew off the water, came down next to the '' Miss Budweiser'', driven by Don Wilson, and exploded, killing both men. *New Zealand drivers Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon won the
24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...
, even though race officials initially thought that the team of Ken Miles and Dennis Hulme had finished first. Miles and Hulme were preparing to accept the traditional victory bouquets, when the judges announced that they had reversed their decision. *In one of the largest accomplishments of Christian missionary evangelism in Indonesia, two thousand residents of the remote village of Tigalingga were baptized in a single day. The baptisms were carried out by 15 pastors representing six different Protestant denominations in the
Dairi Regency Dairi Regency is a regency on the west shore of Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The regency covers an area of square kilometres and it had a population of 269,848 people at the 2010 Census and 308,764 at the 2020 Census.Badan Pusat Stati ...
of
North Sumatra North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...
. * Marharashtrian leader Bal Thackeray founded the far-right Hindu nationalist political party
Shiv Sena Shiv Sena ( IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a right-wing to far-right Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bom ...
, which was named in honor of the 17th-century Emperor Shivaji. *Born: Samuel West, British actor, son of Timothy West and Prunella Scales; in
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...
*Died: ** Pierre Montet, 80, French Egyptologist whose excavation of the ancient city of Tanis discovered the tombs of four Egyptian pharaohs Psusennes I (1047–1001 BCE), Amenemope (1001–984 BCE), Shoshenq II (887–885 BCE), and Takelot I (885–872 BCE). ** Ed Wynn, 79, (born Isaiah Edwin Leopold), American vaudeville, stage, radio, film and television actor


June 20 Events Pre-1600 * 451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory. * 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting ...
, 1966 (Monday)

*The
1966 Wimbledon Championships The 1966 Wimbledon Championships took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The tournament was held from Monday 20 June until Saturday 2 July 1966. It was the 80th ...
began.
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 TingayIsao Watanabe, but won the match when Watanabe was injured and had to forfeit. The next day, the women's singles tournament opened, and
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 (listed locally as "Mrs. L. W. King") defeated Scotland's
Winnie Shaw Winifred Mason Shaw (later Mrs. Wooldridge) (18 January 1947 – 30 March 1992) was a professional tennis player from Scotland whose career ran from the mid-1960s until the early 70s. In 2002, she posthumously was inducted into the Scottish Sp ...
in straight sets, 6–2, 8–6. *By a unanimous (307 to 0) vote, the U.S. House of Representatives approved 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 had been passed by the U.S. Senate in December, despite the efforts of several federal agencies to block the creation of a means for facilitating examination of U.S. government records. President Johnson reluctantly signed the bill into law on July 4, and it would take effect on July 4, 1967. * Billy Casper won golf's 1966 U.S. Open over Arnold Palmer, with his second spectacular comeback in two days. The day before, Palmer had held a seven stroke advantage halfway through the last of four games before Casper had fought back on the last nine holes to force a 278–278 tie between the men on 72 holes. In the 18-hole playoff, Palmer had a two-stroke lead after 9 holes, but Casper won by 69 strokes to 73. *President
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
of France arrived in Moscow for an unprecedented ten days of talks with leaders of the Soviet Union. De Gaulle's twin engine Caravelle jet was escorted by seven Soviet jet fighters as it arrived at Moscow, where the President and Foreign Minister
Maurice Couve de Murville Jacques-Maurice Couve de Murville (; 24 January 1907 – 24 December 1999) was a French diplomat and politician who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1958 to 1968 and Prime Minister from 1968 to 1969 under the presidency of General de Gaull ...
were greeted by Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin and President Nikolai Podgorny. * Bob Dylan's seminal album, ''
Blonde on Blonde ''Blonde on Blonde'' is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as a double album on June 20, 1966, by Columbia Records. Recording sessions began in New York in October 1965 with numerous backing musicians, ...
'', was released in the U.S. *Died: Georges Lemaître, 71, Belgian Catholic priest and astrophysicist who, in 1927, first proposed the idea of the "
Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
" theory of the origin of the universe.


June 21 Events Pre-1600 * 533 – A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date). * 1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mo ...
, 1966 (Tuesday)

* Arthur Calwell, the
Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
in the Australian House of Representatives, and the leader of the Australian Labor Party, was wounded in an assassination attempt after he finished a speech at an anti-
conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
rally at the Mosman Town Hall in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Australia. A 19-year-old student, Peter Kocan, approached the passenger side of Calwell's vehicle and fired a sawed-off rifle at Calwell at point-blank range. The closed window deflected the bullet, which lodged harmlessly in Calwell's coat lapel. Calwell himself was only slightly injured, with minor facial lacerations from broken glass. As an author noted later, Calwell had started to roll down his window when he saw Kocan, whom he assumed to be a supporter, running towards his car and, "Had his window been fully down, Calwell would have been killed; only the glass barrier had saved him." *The film adaptation of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' premiered at the Pantages Theatre in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
, California, days after
Jack Valenti Jack Joseph Valenti (September 5, 1921 – April 26, 2007) was an American political advisor and lobbyist who served as a Special Assistant to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was also the longtime president of the Motion Picture Association ...
of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave its approval in spite of the strictures of the MPAA's Production Code, a prerequisite for being shown in most American cinemas. The Mike Nichols film could be distributed as long as the theater operator signed a rider to a standard contract "prohibiting anyone under the age of 18 from seeing the picture unless accompanied by an adult", a forerunner to the "R" Rating that would be implemented as part of the limitations system that would be created on November 5, 1968. The MPAA released a statement at the time noting that "this exemption does not mean that the floodgates are open for language or other material" judged to be obscene. *" Washoe", a nine-month old female
chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...
from West Africa, arrived at the home of Beatrix T. Gardner and R. Allen Gardner, two psychology professors at the University of Nevada, Reno. Taught by the Gardners, Washoe would become the first non-human to learn to communicate with humans, learning 350 symbols in
American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...
. *Born: Rudabeh "Rudi" Bakhtiar, American newscaster for '' CNN Headline News Tonight''; in Fresno, California


June 22, 1966 (Wednesday)

*The
Bail Reform Act of 1966 Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries, ...
was signed into law by U.S. President Johnson, who said that the reform of the bail system in federal crimes would open a new area in American criminal justice. "Because of the bail system," Johnson said at the signing, "the scales of justice have been weighted, not with fact, nor law, nor mercy. They have been weighted with money. But now we can begin to insure the defendants are considered as individuals, not dollar signs." Under the new rules, a judge was required to make a presumption in favor of releasing a defendant before trial based on the likelihood that the person would not appear for trial. "The federal Bail Reform Act affected only a small percentage of all criminal defendants in the United States," a legal historian would later note, but "Its real impact was as a national model for the state bail reform laws incorporating the same principle that defendants have a presumptive right to bail. The result was a proliferation of state bail programs involving release on recognizance or 10 percent plans. The impact on local jails was dramatic..." * Vietnamese Buddhist activist leader Thích Trí Quang was arrested as the military junta of Nguyen Cao Ky crushed the
Buddhist Uprising The Buddhist Uprising of 1966 (), or more widely known in Vietnam as the Crisis in Central Vietnam (), was a period of civil and military unrest in South Vietnam, largely focused in the I Corps area in the north of the country in central Vietnam. ...
. *Born: Emmanuelle Seigner, French actress; in Paris *Died: **
E. Yale Dawson Elmer Yale Dawson (March 31, 1918 – June 22, 1966) was an American botanist, phycologist, taxonomist, ecologist, and naturalist writer. He popularized science and natural history with his books and articles on topics ranging from California ...
, 48, American botanist; while diving in the Red Sea ** Roger Blunt, 65, New Zealand cricketer


June 23 Events Pre-1600 * 229 – Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor of Eastern Wu. * 1266 – War of Saint Sabas: In the Battle of Trapani, the Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet, capturing all its ships. * 1280 – The Spanish Re ...
, 1966 (Thursday)

* PAGEOS, the Passive Geodetic Earth Orbiting Satellite, was launched into space at 5:12 p.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with no instruments, designed to serve as an object that was visible with the naked eye from most of the Northern Hemisphere. The diameter mylar balloon was initially placed in polar orbit at an altitude of and served as the first reference point for a network of observatories, to be photographed for use in geodetic
triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle me ...
in order to make more accurate mapping of the relative location of Earth's land masses. PAGEOS was observed to be disintegrating on July 12, 1975, and was gone by 1976. *The fourteenth and final collection of '' James Bond'' short stories authored by
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
was published as ''
Octopussy and the Living Daylights ''Octopussy and The Living Daylights'' (sometimes published as ''Octopussy'') is the 14th and final James Bond book written by Ian Fleming in the Bond series. The book is a collection of short stories published posthumously in the United King ...
''. Fleming, who had created the Agent 007 character, had died in 1964. *Born:
Richie Jen Richie Jen Hsien-chi (, born 23 June 1966) is a Taiwanese singer and actor. He graduated from the Chinese Culture University's physical education department. His hits include "Too Softhearted" (), "Look Over Here, Girl" (), "The Sad Pacific" () ...
, Taiwanese singer and actor; as Rén Xiánqí in Changhua City *Died: ** Paul Cain (George Caryl Smis), 64, American pulp fiction author ** Hiroshi Shimizu, 63, Japanese film director


June 24, 1966 (Friday)

*The
Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...
voted, 18–0, to withdraw the remaining 8,000 troops of the international peacekeeping force that had been occupying the Dominican Republic since the civil war in 1965. Of the remaining military forces, 6,300 were from the United States, followed by 1,170 from Brazil and less than 250 each from
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
, Paraguay, Nicaragua and
Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
. Mexico abstained, and five nations (Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela) commented that the OAS force troops should never have been there in the first place. The withdrawal resolution came after free elections had been held for a new government that would take office on July 1. *The United States Senate voted unanimously, 76–0, for the most comprehensive automobile safety laws ever enacted in the U.S., with 26 requirements for all 1968 model vehicles, including lap and shoulder seat belts, rear view mirrors, back up lights, hazard lights, safety door latches, collapsible steering columns, sturdy anchorage of seats, recessed instrument panels, redesign of interior forward compartments to reduce impact, safety glass, hydraulic brakes, roll bars for soft top or open top vehicles, and padded head rests. *Born: Hope Sandoval, American musician and singer-songwriter; in Alhambra, California *Died:
Otto-Wilhelm Förster __NOTOC__ Otto-Wilhelm Förster (16 March 1885 – 24 June 1966) was a general in the German Army during World War II who commanded several corps. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Förster retired from active duty in J ...
, 81, German war hero


June 25, 1966 (Saturday)

*Dr. Maurice Hilleman announced the successful testing of the first mumps vaccine, in an address to the American Therapeutics Society in Chicago. The Mumpsvax inoculation had been developed from a strain of the virus that Dr. Hilleman had cultured from (and named for) his daughter,
Jeryl Lynn Jeryl Lynn are strains of mumps virus used in the Mumpsvax mumps vaccine made by Merck. The strains are named after Jeryl Lynn Hilleman. In 1963, Jeryl's father, Maurice Hilleman, was leading efforts to produce a mumps vaccine for Merck. He cult ...
Hilleman, in 1963, and would become the standard immunization for the disease in the United States. *Billing itself as "the first and only year round, day and night ski resort in the United States", "Ski Villa" opened in the Carbon Canyon, near Chino, California, introducing a substitute for a snowy surface. Over a cement base, millions of interlocking tiles of plastic bristles were laid to create a sufficiently slick surface. Resort developer John Kramer had invested in the project after visiting a similar structure that had operated since 1963 in Japan at
Funabashi is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 644,668 in 309,238 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . It is the Greater Tokyo Area's 7th most populated city (after p ...
. However, the experiment would fail after one year, and Ski Villa would close in 1967. * Yugoslavia became the first Communist nation to enter into a diplomatic accord with the Roman Catholic Church, with Yugoslavia and Vatican City agreeing to exchange representatives. The Holy See would have jurisdiction over the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia on spiritual, ecclesiastical and religious questions, and would in turn restrict its clergy from participating in Yugoslavia's political affairs. *After 160 years of constructing ships for the United States Navy, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was closed. The increasing size requirements for modern warships after World War II made BNY impractical, because the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge did not have sufficient clearance to allow newer vessels to pass underneath. *The British children's comic book '' Ranger'' was incorporated into '' Look and Learn'', after a ten-month attempt as an independent publication. *Born:
Dikembe Mutombo Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo (born June 25, 1966) is a Congolese-American former professional basketball player. Mutombo played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Outside basketball, he has becom ...
, Congolese NBA basketball player and 8-time NBA All-Star who led the league three years in blocked shots and two years in rebounding; in
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 ...


June 26, 1966 (Sunday)

*Major League Baseball player
Ron Santo Ronald Edward Santo (February 25, 1940 – December 3, 2010) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) third baseman who played for the Chicago Cubs from 1960 through 1973 and the Chicago White Sox in 1974. In 1990, Santo became a member of the ...
of the
Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
was hospitalized after being struck in the face by a pitched ball hurled by the New York Mets'
Jack Fisher John Howard "Fat Jack" Fisher (March 4, 1939) is an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from through for the Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Chicago White S ...
sustaining the accident that would ultimately lead to the mandatory requirement of the " earflap helmet" in the major leagues. Starting with his return to action on July 4, Santo, who had sustained a broken cheekbone, wore the modified helmet for the rest of his career, and the idea gradually caught on, becoming mandatory in 1983. *The "
March Against Fear The March Against Fear was a major 1966 demonstration in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Activist James Meredith launched the event on June 5, 1966, intending to make a solitary walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi via ...
", started by one man,
James Meredith James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississ ...
, on June 6, came to a dramatic climax as more than 16,000 African-Americans (and a few hundred white supporters) arrived at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson. Although the Capitol building itself was separated from the crowd by police and National Guardsmen who had been ordered to the area, the group packed the grounds and adjacent areas to hear the speakers. Meredith himself, who had been shot and hospitalized the day after he began his quest, addressed the assembly from a platform on a flatbed truck. "It's true that we got some mean white folks in Mississippi," Meredith told listeners, "but these people can be decent. There is only one thing that is holding them back. And that thing is the system of white supremacy." He noted that he had been shot, "but as you can see here, that didn't end a thing." *The
Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
(CPUSA) ended its first national convention since 1959, meeting at New York City's Lower East Side, at Webster Hall. Gus Hall, who had been identifying himself as a "party spokesman" for more than five years in order to avoid criminal prosecution as an agent of the Soviet Union, was elected as the CPUSA General Secretary, and Harry Winston was voted the honorary title of National Chairman. Both had served federal prison terms during the 1950s for conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government.


June 27, 1966 (Monday)

*'' Dark Shadows'', a daytime soap opera billed initially as "the first television program styled in the tradition of the gothic novel", made its debut 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 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. In the first installment of the "romantic suspense" series, Victoria Winters ( Alexandra Moltke) came to the small fishing village of Collinsport, Maine, to become the governess of a 10-year-old boy, and took up residence at a gloomy Victorian mansion, "Collinwood", operated by the Collins family matriarch ( Joan Bennett). The show was initially panned by critics but would feature supernatural plots after its first ten months, with ghosts, a vampire (Barnabas Collins), a witch (Angelique) and a werewolf (Quentin), and the setting gradually shifted from the 20th century to the past and the future, including the year 1995. By 1969, ''Dark Shadows'' would become the highest-rated daytime program in the United States, running until April 2, 1971. *
Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
and The Mothers of Invention released their debut album, '' Freak Out!''. Initially, the record album was a commercial failure, but after Zappa's rise to fame, ''Freak Out!'' would gain a massive cult following and become a major seller in subsequent years. *Born:
J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as ''Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' For ...
, American film and television director, and co-creator of the TV series ''
Lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
''; in New York City


June 28 Events Pre-1600 * 1098 – Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul at the battle of Antioch. * 1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II. * 1461 – ...
, 1966 (Tuesday)

*In Argentina, a
junta Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...
deposed president Arturo Illia in a bloodless coup, and appointed retired General Juan Carlos Onganía to replace him. Dr. Illia, who had refused the day before to resign, quietly left the '' Casa Rosada'' and departed for exile in Uruguay. General Ongania and the other junta members (Army Lieutenant General Pascual Pistarini, Rear Admiral Benigno Varela, and Air Force Brigadier General Adolfo Alvarez) said that they acted because President Illia had not been assertive enough against supporters of exiled dictator
Juan Peron ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
. * Edward Z. Gray, Advanced Manned Missions Program Director in NASA HQ, criticized both MSFC and MSC for failing to present a realistic and viable experiment program for the AAP S-IVB Workshop. From the outset, Gray said, all recognized that AAP experiments had to be relatively simple and economical because of the requirement for early delivery of flight-qualified hardware (i.e., the fall of 1967) and fiscal limitations during Fiscal Years 1966 and 1967. The responses from MSFC and MSC so far, he stated, "do not constitute a reasonable program." Gray noted that experiments to assess the habitability of a spent stage (and also to develop design criteria for
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 ...
s) were almost totally absent. Several experiments were wholly unrelated to the Workshop and required little or no participation of the crew. "In my estimation we have not faced up to the problem of defining a useful set of experiments", Gray concluded. Unless great effort and imagination were brought to bear on this problem, he warned, "we will be hard pressed to defend the phase D effort on the Workshop which should constitute a key element of our Saturn Apollo Applications Program." * Parkfield, California, which lies along the southern Calaveras Fault, a branch of the larger San Andreas Fault, was struck by 6.0 magnitude earthquake, its sixth in less than 110 years. Tremors of at least 6.0 had already shaken Parkfield on January 9, 1857; February 2, 1881; March 3, 1901; March 10, 1922; and January 8, 1934. *An elephant at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wisconsin, pulled a three-year-old girl through the bars of its cage and killed her. The child had squeezed underneath a chicken wire restraining fence after deciding to feed popcorn to the elephant. *The British naphtha tanker '' Alva Cape'', whose cargo had exploded and killed 33 people on June 16, was being unloaded of its remaining volatile cargo when a new explosion killed four more people. *Born: ** Mary Stuart Masterson, American film actress (''
Fried Green Tomatoes ''Fried Green Tomatoes'' is a 1991 American comedy-drama film directed by Jon Avnet and based on Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel ''Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe''. Written by Flagg and Carol Sobieski, and starring Kathy Bates, Jessic ...
''); in New York City ** John Cusack, American film actor (''
Being John Malkovich ''Being John Malkovich'' is a 1999 American fantasy comedy film directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, both making their feature film debut. The film stars John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener, with John Malkovich as a ...
''); in Chicago *Died: ** Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, 75, Turkish scholar and historian **
Kenneth Miller Adams Kenneth Miller Adams (1897 – 1966) was an American artist. Life He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League. He served in the U.S. Army in World War I. In 1924, he moved to Taos, New Mexico. He was a member of th ...
, 68, American artist


June 29, 1966 (Wednesday)

*At 1:50 p.m. local time, 16 A-6 Intruder fighter-bombers and 12 support aircraft took off from the aircraft carriers ''Constellation'' and ''Ranger'' to carry out the first American bombing of North Vietnam's largest cities, striking at fuel and oil facilities near Haiphong, the nation's second biggest city. Twenty-five minutes later, at 2:15, the U.S. Seventh Air Force struck at the capital, Hanoi fuel storage tanks with 25 F-105 Thunderchief fighters. However, a CIA report two months later would conclude that the daring raids had escalated the war, but failed to have the expected impact, noting "there is no evidence that the air strikes have significantly weakened popular morale." *The executives of the National Union of Seamen voted 29–16 to end the merchant seamen's strike that had tied up British harbors for 43 days and left almost 900 ships at anchor. Ships began sailing again shortly after midnight on July 1. * Philippine Airlines Flight 785 (a Douglas C-47A, registration PI-C17) crashed into a ravine near
Sablayan Sablayan (), officially the Municipality of Sablayan ( tgl, Bayan ng Sablayan), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Occidental Mindoro, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 92,598 people. It has a total l ...
in a combination of bad weather and pilot error, killing 26 of the 28 people on board. *
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 ...
tested its first missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, though an actual armed missile would not be launched until October 25. *The first British credit card was introduced, as
Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...
Bank introduced the Barclaycard. *The
Roman Catholic Diocese of Buga The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buga ( la, Buguensis) is a diocese located in the city of Buga in the Ecclesiastical province of Cali in Colombia. History *29 June 1966: Established as Diocese of Buga from the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cali an ...
was established in
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
.


June 30, 1966 (Thursday)

*With the goal of championing the cause of equal rights for women, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in Washington, D.C., at the close of the Third National Conference of Commissions on the Status of Women. Betty Friedan and 27 other women paid the initial annual dues of five dollars to become the first members. *
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
's semi-decennial census took place. The count at year's end would show that the nation's population was 11,599,498; this showed an increase of almost exactly 10 percent (9.966%) from the 10,548,267 noted in 1961. *France formally withdrew from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On the same day, President Charles de Gaulle signed multiple agreements with the Soviet Union for cooperation in outer space exploration. * The Beatles performed at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, in the first of five concerts in Japan during a tour of Asia. *Born: **
Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...
, American boxer who unified three titles to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion boxer from August 1, 1987 to February 11, 1990; in Brooklyn **
Marton Csokas Marton Paul Csokas (, hu, Csókás Márton Pál; born 30 June 1966) is a Hungarian-New Zealand actor of film, stage, and television. A graduate of the Toi Whakaari drama school, he has worked extensively in Australia and Hollywood, along with ...
, New Zealand film actor in '' The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy; in Invercargill *Died: ** Giuseppe Farina, 59, retired Italian racing driver and former Formula One World Champion; in a car accident while driving through the French Alps near
Aiguebelle Aiguebelle (; frp, Égouabèla) is a former commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Val-d'Arc.Margery Allingham, 62, British detective novelist who created the Albert Campion series.


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 ...
*1966-06 *1966-06