I was sixteen years old.
January 10 - The House of Representatives of the US state of Georgia refuses to allow African-American representative Julian Bond to take his seat, because of his anti-war stance.
January 17 - A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and one into the sea. Carl Brashear, the first African-American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of the latter, which results in the amputation of his leg.
January 29 - The Blizzard of '66. Thirty-six inches of snow fell in Richmond. everything closed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_1966
February 3 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
Feruary 7 - Lyndon B. Johnson of the United States and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ of South Vietnam convene with other officials in a summit in Honolulu, Hawaii to discuss the course of the Vietnam War.
March 1 - Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
March 16 – NASA spacecraft Gemini 8 (David Scott, Neil Armstrong) conducts the first docking in space, with an Agena target vehicle.
March 26 – Demonstrations are held across the United States against the Vietnam War.
March 31 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
April 18 - The 38th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Santa Monica, California: The Sound of Music wins Best Picture.
April 21 - An artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas, hospital.
April 24 – Uniform daylight saving time is first observed in most parts of North America
May 15 - Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators again picket the White House, then rally at the Washington Monument.
May 16 - The Chinese Communist Party issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War.
May 28 - Fidel Castro declares martial law in Cuba because of a possible U.S. attack.
June 2 - Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
June 5 – Gemini 9A: Gene Cernan completes the second U.S. spacewalk (2 hours, 7 minutes).
June 6 – Civil rights activist James Meredith is shot by a sniper while traversing Mississippi in the March Against Fear.
June 12 – Chicago's Division Street riots begin in response to police shooting of a young Puerto Rican man.
June 13 – Miranda v. Arizona: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
June 29 - Vietnam War: U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.
June 30 - The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, D.C.
July 13 – In Chicago, United States, Richard Speck breaks into a nurses' dormitory and murders eight of the nine student nurses who live there.
July 18 - Gemini 10 (John Young, Michael Collins) is launched from the United States. After docking with an Agena target vehicle, the astronauts set a world altitude record of 474 miles (763 km).
July 24 - A USAF F-4C Phantom #63-7599 is shot down by a North Vietnamese SAM-2 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Hanoi, the first loss of a U.S. aircraft to a Vietnamese surface-to-air missile in the Vietnam War.
July 28 – The U.S. announces that a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane has disappeared over Cuba.
Julky 29 - Bob Dylan is injured in a motorcycle accident near his home in Woodstock, New York. He is not seen in public for over a year.
August 1 - Sniper Charles Whitman kills 15 people and wounds 31 from roof of the University of Texas at Austin Main Building tower in the United States, after earlier killing his wife and mother.
August 5 – The Caesars Palace hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas, United States.
August 6- Braniff International Airways Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, United States, killing all 42 of those on board.
August 10 – Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit the Moon, is launched.
The Beatles hold a press conference in Chicago, during which John Lennon apologizes for his "more popular than Jesus" remark, saying, "I didn't mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing."
August 29 – The Beatles end their U.S. tour with a concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It is their last performance as a live touring band.
October 1 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with 18 fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of Wemme, Oregon, the first loss of a DC-9.
October 6 - 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 country are shut down as well.
The Love Pageant Rally takes place in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park (a narrow section that projects into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district).
October 15 – Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party in the United States.
October 27 - Walt Disney records his final filmed appearance prior to his death, detailing his plans for EPCOT, a utopian planned city to be built in Florida.
November 8 – Screen actor Ronald Reagan is elected Governor of California.
November 15 – Gemini 12 (James A. Lovell, Buzz Aldrin) splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km (370 mi) east of the Bahamas.
November 27 – The Washington Redskins defeat the New York Giants 72–41 in the highest scoring game in National Football League history.
November 28 – Truman Capote's Black and White Ball ("The Party of the Century") is held in New York City.
December 5 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bond v. Floyd that the Georgia House of Representatives must seat Julian Bond, having violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
December 18 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, is shown for the first time on CBS in the United States. It becomes a Christmas tradition.
December 26 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, founder of Organization US (a black nationalist group) and chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach, from 1989 to 2002.
Births:
Rainn Wilson
Cindy Crawford
Tia Leoni
Janet Jackson
John Cusack
Mike Tyson
Halle Berry
Selma Hayek
Adam Sandler
Luke Perry
David Schwimmer
Kiefer Sutherland
Deaths:
Buster Keaton
Ed Wynn
Lenny Bruce
Walt Disney