1966

Events

• January 1 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa stages a successful coup d'état of the Central African Republic and declares himself president.
• January 10 - The Ku Klux Klan attack the home of Civil Rights Movement leader Vernon Dahmer, burning down his home and killing him.
• February 24 - Kwame Nkrumah is deposed as President of Ghana by a group of military officers calling themselves the National Liberation Council, who establish a military junta to govern the country.
• March 12 - The Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 come to an end.
• March 13 - UNITA is founded by Jonas Savimbi.
• March 18 - The Grey Wolves are founded.
• April 4 - The National Renewal Alliance is founded.
• May 6 - Both Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in the Moors murders.
• May 16 - Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of China initiate the Cultural Revolution.
• May 25 - Gertrude Baniszewski and her daughter Paula are both found guilty of the murder of Sylvia Likens and are sentenced to life in prison.
• June 19 - FROLINAT is founded.
• July 6 - Malawi declares independence from the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Hastings Banda is named president.
• July 28 - Yakubu Gowon is installed as the head of state of Nigeria following a military coup.
• August 1 - The University of Texas tower shooting: Charles Whitman perpetrates a mass shooting from atop the Main Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, killing 14 people and injuring 31 others.
• August 24 - Bruce Greatbatch gives the order for the Chagossians to be forcibly removed from the island of Diego Garcia.
• August 26 - Beginning of the South African Border War.
• September 6 - South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is assassinated in Cape Town by Dimitri Tsafendas.
• September 29 - The Nigerian military government under Yakubu Gowon launches a pogrom against the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria, leaving about 30,000 dead.
• October 5 - Beginning of the Korean DMZ Conflict.
• November 28 - Michel Micombero successfully abolishes the Burundian monarchy and declares himself the first President of Burundi.

Births

Villain births

• February 9 - Russell Bishop
• February 12 - Leszek Pękalski
• February 25 - Robert Napper
• April 2 - Bill Romanowski
• April 12 - Giuseppe Coluccio
• May 17 - Qusay Hussein
• May 27 - Stephen Kenion
• June 30 - Mike Tyson
• July 22 - Georgi Iliev
• August 10 - Mark Rogowski
• August 22 - Harrison Norris
• August 25 - Michael Cohen
• September 7 - Malik Zulu Shabazz
• September 19 - Eric Rudolph
• September 24 - Stefan Molyneux
• October 30 - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
• December 10 - Alfred Gaynor
• Unknown - Yasmin Nair

Victim births

• March 9 - Sherri Jarvis
• March 14 - Suzanne Bombardier
• June 24 - Adrienne Shelly
• August 20 - Dimebag Darrell
• September 22 - Aaron Salter Jr.

Deaths

Villain deaths

• February 6 - Vilis Lācis
• April 21 - Josef Dietrich
• June 28 - D. C. Stephenson
• August 1 - Charles Whitman
• September 2 - Yasuji Okamura
• September 6 - Hendrik Verwoerd
• September 14 - Hiram Wesley Evans
• November 5 - Dietrich von Choltitz

Victim deaths

• January 10 - Vernon Dahmer
• August 1 - Kathy & Margaret Whitman