October 1966

The following events occurred in October 1966:

October 1, 1966 (Saturday)

• Former Nazi leaders Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach are released from Spandau Prison at midnight after 20 years of incarceration.^[1]
• West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with 18 fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.^[2]

October 2, 1966 (Sunday)

Jack Brabham

• The 1966 United States Grand Prix is held at Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course, and is won by Jack Brabham.
• The first in a series of four plays entitled Talking to a Stranger is broadcast on BBC2 as part of the Theatre 625 anthology strand.^[3] Hailed by critics as one of the most important television dramas of the 1960s, it would go on to be placed seventy-eighth in a 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute to determine the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century.^[4]
• Born: Thor Gjermund Eriksen, Norwegian journalist and editor, Director-General of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, in Oslo
• Died: Luis Augusto Turcios Lima, 24, Guatemalan rebel leader, killed in a car accident^[5]

October 3, 1966 (Monday)

• In Brazil's presidential election, Artur da Costa e Silva, the sole candidate, is elected with 295 votes from the ruling National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA).^[6]
• Tunisia severs diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic.
• In the UK, the Morpeth to Reedsmouth line of the Great North Eastern Railway is closed.

October 4, 1966 (Tuesday)

• Israel applies for membership in the EEC.
• Basutoland obtains independence to become the Kingdom of Lesotho, governed by a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral Parliament consisting of a Senate and an elected National Assembly. The paramount chief, Constantine Bereng Seeiso, becomes King Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho.^[7]

October 5, 1966 (Wednesday)

• UNESCO signs the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. This event is now celebrated as World Teachers' Day.
• An experimental Reactor at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station suffers a partial meltdown when its cooling system fails.

October 6, 1966 (Thursday)

• LSD is made illegal in the United States and controlled so strictly that not only are possession and recreational use criminalized, but all legal scientific research programs on the drug in the US are shut down as well.
• The Love Pageant Rally takes place in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park, a narrower section that projects into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.
• Born: Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Bangladeshi politician^[8]

October 7, 1966 (Friday)

• The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October.

October 8, 1966 (Saturday)

• Born: Felipe Camiroaga, Chilean television presenter, in Santiago (died 2011)^[9]

October 9, 1966 (Sunday)

• Baseball: The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series, 1–0, to sweep the series for their 1st World Championship.
• Vietnam War:
  • Binh Tai Massacre: South Korean forces kill 68 citizens.^[10]
  • Diên Niên - Phước Bình massacre: South Korean forces kill 280 unarmed citizens in Tịnh Sơn village, Sơn Tịnh District, Quảng Ngãi Province.^[11]
• Born: David Cameron, British Prime Minister, in London

October 10, 1966 (Monday)

• Ghalib II al-Qu'aiti becomes sultan of Qu'aiti (modern Yemen).
• Born: Carolyn R. Bertozzi, US chemist, in Boston, Massachusetts; Bai Ling, Chinese actress, in Chengdu
• Died: Wilfrid Lawson, 66, English actor (heart attack)^[12]

October 11, 1966 (Tuesday)

• France and the Soviet Union sign a treaty for cooperation in nuclear research.
• The Roman Catholic Diocese of Miracema do Tocantins and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ipameri are established in Brazil.^[13]

October 12, 1966 (Wednesday)

• A municipal election is held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Vincent Dantzer is elected mayor, with 51.85% of the vote.^[14]
• Born: Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, Icelandic politician, in Reykjavik

October 13, 1966 (Thursday)

• 57-year-old William R. Rivkin is appointed United States Ambassador to Senegal; Rivkin dies in post the following year.^[15]
• Charles Brenton Huggins and Peyton Rous are awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their contribution to cancer research.
• Died: Clifton Webb, 76, US actor

October 14, 1966 (Friday)

• The city of Montreal, Canada, inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro).
• The Soviet optical film-return reconnaissance satellite Kosmos 129 is launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome.^[16]
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 225 is passed, recommending Lesotho for UN membership.

October 15, 1966 (Saturday)

Bridalveil Falls, in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

• U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.
• The U.S. Congress passes a bill for the creation of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
• ABC-TV telecasts a highly acclaimed 90-minute television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon, starring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Ann Howes. It wins many Emmy Awards and inaugurates a short-lived series of special television adaptations of famous Broadway musicals on ABC.

October 16, 1966 (Sunday)

• In two associated referenda in Switzerland, voters are asked whether they approved of an amendment to the constitution on Swiss citizens living abroad and a popular initiative "for the fight against alcoholism". The constitutional amendment is approved whilst the popular initiative is rejected.^[17]
• The Finnish ferry MV Fennia runs aground in fog on a voyage between Turku, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.^[18]

October 17, 1966 (Monday)

• Lesotho and Botswana are admitted to the United Nations.
• An earthquake strikes Peru, killing 55 people.
• In the USA, the Housewives for Lower Food Prices begin boycotting major supermarkets over prices, leading to Congressional investigations and ultimately stricter penalties for anti-competitive measures by grocers.^[19]
• Died: Karel Hruška, 75, Czech operatic tenor, actor and radio personality

October 18, 1966 (Tuesday)

• The Ford Cortina MK2 is launched in the UK.^[20]
• Died: Elizabeth Arden, 81, Canadian-born US beautician and cosmetics entrepreneur

October 19, 1966 (Wednesday)

• The third and final attempt to create a Queensland Council for Civil Liberties is launched.^[21]

October 20, 1966 (Thursday)

• German submarine U-9 (S188) is launched; after being decommissioned in 1993, it became an exhibit at Technikmuseum Speyer.
• Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan succeeds Afzal Rahman Khan as Chief of Naval Staff (Pakistan).

October 21, 1966 (Friday)

• Aberfan disaster: Following heavy rain, a colliery waste tip in Aberfan, South Wales, UK, collapses onto the village's primary school, killing 116 children and 28 adults. It is later discovered to have been caused by a build-up of water in the accumulated rock and shale, which suddenly started to slide downhill in the form of slurry.^[22]
• The AFL-NFL merger is approved by the U.S. Congress.
• The Yakovlev Yak-40 airliner makes its maiden flight.^[23]
• French philosopher Jacques Derrida delivers a lecture La Structure, le signe et le jeu dans le discours des sciences humaines ("Structure, sign, and play in the discourse of the human sciences") to a structuralism colloquium at Johns Hopkins University, bringing his work on literary theory to international prominence.

October 22, 1966 (Saturday)

• British spy George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison; he is next seen in Moscow.^[24]
• Spain demands that the United Kingdom stop military flights to Gibraltar; Britain refuses the next day.

October 23, 1966 (Sunday)

• The Philippines passenger ferry MV Pioneer Leyte collides with the US ship Golden State and sinks off Manila with the loss of 44 lives.^[25]

October 24, 1966 (Monday)

• Negotiations about the Vietnam War begin in Manila, Philippines.
• Born: Roman Abramovich, Russian businessman, investor and politician, in Saratov
• Died: Sofya Yanovskaya, 72, Soviet mathematician^[26]

October 25, 1966 (Tuesday)

• A military court in Jakarta sentences Indonesia's ex-foreign minister Subandrio to death, on charges of being involved in the 30 September Movement.^[27] The sentence was reduced to life imprisonment upon the intervention of the British government.
• Spain closes its Gibraltar border to non-pedestrian traffic.
• Luna 12, an unmanned space mission launched by the Soviet Union, achieves lunar orbit.^[28]

October 26, 1966 (Wednesday)

• NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels.
• A fire aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany in the Gulf of Tonkin kills 44 crewmen.
• After resolutions by both Houses of the UK Parliament, the Secretary of State for Wales appoints a tribunal to inquire into the causes of and circumstances relating to the Aberfan disaster, chaired by Lord Justice Edmund Davies.^[29]
• Major-General Léonard Mulamba is removed from his post as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by President Mobutu.^[30]

October 27, 1966 (Thursday)

• The post of United Nations Commissioner for South-West Africa is established as the United Nations takes control of Namibia from South Africa. Anton Vratuša is the first incumbent.

October 28, 1966 (Friday)

• The Gateway Arch in St Louis, Missouri, US, designed by Eero Saarinen, is completed.^[31]
• Erich Mende loses his position as Vice-Chancellor of Germany in the second Cabinet of Chancellor Ludwig Erhard. Hans-Christoph Seebohm is appointed to succeed Mende.
• Died: Robert Charpentier, 50, French Olympic cyclist

Kim Denise Short was born in Corner Brook, Newfoundland

October 29, 1966 (Saturday)

• A penumbral lunar eclipse takes place.^[32]
• Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visit Aberfan to pay their respects to those who died in the disaster.^[33]
• The 1966 Scottish League Cup Final takes place at Hampden Park in Glasgow. Celtic defeat Rangers 1-0.^[34]

October 30, 1966 (Sunday)

• The Delhi High Court is established, with four judges.^[35]
• C.D. Olimpia are declared winners of the Honduran Liga Nacional football competition, having built up an unassailable lead.^[36]
• Born: Zoran Milanović, Croatian Prime Minister, in Zagreb
• Died: Cheri Jo Bates, 18, a student at Riverside Community College, Northern California, subsequently thought to have been an early victim of the Zodiac Killer.

October 31, 1966 (Monday)

• The first ever regeneration of Doctor Who takes place, when William Hartnell's face transforms into that of Patrick Troughton.
• The Guinean delegation to the OAU meeting in Ethiopia, become hostages of the Ghanaian government in Accra.
• US President Lyndon Baines Johnson, on his first visit to Malaysia, visits Kampung Labu Jaya village (now FELDA LB Johnson) in Negeri Sembilan state.

References