The Nigerian coup is overturned by another faction of the military, led by Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, leaving a military government in power and beginning a long period of military rule.[6]
The British government promises the U.S. that British troops in Malaysia will stay until more peaceful conditions occur in the region.
Britain's Labour Party unexpectedly retains the parliamentary seat of Hull North in a by-election, with a swing of 4.5% to their candidate from the opposition Conservatives, and a majority up from 1,181 at the 1964 General Election to 5,351.[8]
The Great Fire of Iloilo, Philippines, breaks out in a lumber yard and burns for almost half a day, destroying nearly three-quarters of the City Proper area and causing 50 million pesos in total property damage.[10][11][12]
The British Government announces plans for the decimalisation of the pound sterling (hitherto denominated in 20 shillings and 240 pence to the £), to come into force on 15 February 1971 (Decimal Day).
Soviet space probeVenera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
French President Charles de Gaulle states that French troops will be taken out of NATO and that all French NATO bases and headquarters must be closed within a year.
March 20 – Football's FIFA World Cup Trophy is stolen while on exhibition in London; it is found seven days later by a mongrel dog named "Pickles" and his owner David Corbett, wrapped in newspaper in a south London garden.
March 22 – in the Chinese city of Xingtai a magnitude 6.8 earthquake leaves more than 8,000 dead and 38,000 injured.
Kenyan Vice President Oginga Odinga resigns, saying "invisible government" representing foreign interests now runs the country. He will head a new party, the Kenya People's Union.
The South Vietnamese government promises free elections in 3–5 months.
May 6 – The Moors murders trial ends in the UK with Ian Brady being found guilty on all three counts of murder and sentenced to three concurrent terms of life imprisonment. Myra Hindley is convicted on two counts of murder and of being an accessory in the third murder committed by Brady, receiving two concurrent terms of life imprisonment and a seven-year fixed term for being an accessory.
May 19 – Gertrude Baniszewski is found guilty of torturing and murdering 16-year-old Sylvia Likens at a court in Indianapolis, United States, and is sentenced to life in prison (she is released on parole in December 1985).[23]
1966 Topeka tornado: Topeka, Kansas is devastated by a tornado that registers as an "F5" on the Fujita scale, the first to exceed US$100million in damages. Sixteen people are killed, hundreds more injured and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed, and the campus of Washburn University suffers catastrophic damage.[27]
July 13 – In Chicago, United States, Richard Speck breaks into a nurses' dormitory and murders eight of the nine student nurses who live there.[30][31]
Gwynfor Evans, President of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, becomes Member of the United Kingdom Parliament for Carmarthen, taking the previously Labour-held Welsh seat at a by-election with a majority of 2,435 on an 18% swing and giving his party its first representation at Westminster in its forty-one year history.
July 22 – Following the death of Hsu Tsu-tsai, an engineer, in The Hague, the Chinese government declares Dutch delegate G. J. Jongejans persona non grata, but tells him not to leave the country before other Chinese engineers have left the Netherlands.
A USAF F-4C Phantom #63-7599 is shot down by a North Vietnamese SAM-245 miles (72km) northeast of Hanoi, the first loss of a U.S. aircraft to a Vietnamese surface-to-air missile in the Vietnam War.[32]
Sniper Charles Whitman kills 14 people and wounds 32 from roof of the University of Texas at Austin Main Building tower in the United States, after earlier killing his wife and mother.
Indonesia and Malaysia issue a joint peace declaration, formally ending the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation which began in 1963.
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 12 – Massacre of Braybrook Street: Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plainclothes policemen in London; they are later sentenced to life imprisonment.
August 19 – The 6.8 MwVarto earthquake affects the town of Varto in eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing at least 2,394–3,000 and injuring at least 1,420.
August 21 – Seven men are sentenced to death in Egypt for anti-Nasser agitation.
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 7 – The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October.
December 20 – U.K. Prime Minister Harold Wilson withdraws all his previous offers to the Rhodesian government and announces that he will agree to independence for the country only after the establishment of a Black majority government there.
December 22 – Prime Minister Ian Smith declares that Rhodesia is already a republic.
Ďuriančík, Pavol (November 24, 2006). "Haváriu lietadla nad Račou pripomína kríž"[Cross commemorates airplane crash over Rača] (in Slovak). SME. Archived from the original on December 6, 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
"Wikipedia: 50 languages, 1/2 million articles". Wikimedia Foundation. April 25, 2004. Archived from the original on May 4, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2009. The Wikipedia project was founded in January 2001 by internet entrepreneur Jimmy Wales and philosopher Larry Sanger. Quoted from the April 25, 2004, first-ever press release issued by the Wikimedia Foundation.
Turner, Barry (2013). The Statesman's Yearbook: the politics, cultures and economies of the world. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p.74. ISBN9781349596430.
Josef Charita; François de Lannoy (2001). Panzertruppen: Les Troupes Blindees Allemandes German Armored Troops 1935-1945. Heimdal. p.31. ISBN9782840481515.