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.
• 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.
• July 6 - Malawi declares independence from the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Hastings Banda is named president.
• July 28 - Yakubu Gowon is installed as the military 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 Chagossias to be forcibly removed of the island of Diego Garcia.
• September 29 - The Nigerian military government under Yakubu Gowon launches a pogrom against the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria, leaving about 30,000 dead.
• November 28 - Michel Micombero successfully abolishes the Burundian monarchy and declares himself the first President of Burundi.

Births

• February 12 - Leszek Pękalski
• April 2 - Bill Romanowski
• April 12 - Giuseppe Coluccio
• September 19 - Eric Rudolph

Deaths

Villain deaths

• 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