1966
Years: | 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 |
Decades: | 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s |
Centuries: | 19th century - 20th century - 21st century |
1966 by topic: | |
Arts | Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television |
Science and technology | Archaeology - Aviation - Rail transport - - Science |
Countries | Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Mexico - South Africa |
Other | Births - Deaths - Sport - Law - State leaders - Religious leaders - |
1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar)
Contents |
Events
January
- January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic.
- January 2 - Strike of public transportation workers in New York City - ends January 13
- January 3 - First Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco
- January 4 - Military coup in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
- January 4 - Prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet in Moscow
- January 5 - Fire due to a gas leak in near Lyon, France - 12 dead, 80 injured
- January 10 - Pakistani-Indian peace negotiations end successfully in Moscow
- January 10 - French paper L'Express publishes a story of , who took part of the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka. January 18 French police announces that Figon has committed suicide just before he was about to be arrested
- January 11 - Conference about the situation in Rhodesia begins in Lagos
- January 11 - Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri dies
- January 12 - Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
- January 13 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
- January 15 - A violent military coup in Nigeria
- January 15 - Moscow announces that Sergei Korolev is dead
- January 17 - The Nigerian coup is overturned
- January 17 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one into the sea
- January 17 - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident on a routine mission which amputates his leg.
- January 18 - About 8000 US soldiers land in South Vietnam - numbers of US troops total 190.000
- January 19 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India - sworn in January 24
- January 19 - Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies resigns
- January 20 - Demonstrations against high food prices in Hungary
- January 21 - Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro resigns due to a power struggle in his party
- January 22 - Military government of Nigeria announces that ex-prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa has been killed during the coup
- January 26 - Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires
- January 26 - Three Beaumont chrildren disapper on their way to Glenelg Beach Adelaide SA, Australia. Never to be seen again
- January 27 - British government promises USA that British troops in Malaysia stay until more peaceful conditions in the region
- January 29 - The first of 608 performances of Sweet Charity opens at the Palace Theatre in New York City.
- January 31 - United Kingdom ceases all trade with Rhodesia
- January - First SR-71 spy plane goes into service.
February
- February 1 - West Germany has purchased 2600 political prisoners from East Germany
- February 3 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon
- February 4 - Japanese passenger jet crashes into Tokyo Bay - 133 dead
- February 6 - Fidel Castro blames China for spreading anti-Soviet propaganda among Cuban soldiers
- February 10 - Soviet writers Yuli Daniel and are sentenced for five and seven years, respectively, for anti-Soviet writings
- February 11 - Belgian government resigns
- February 14 - The Australian Dollar was introduced at a rate of two dollars per pound, or ten shillings per dollar.
- February 19 - Naval minister of United Kingdom, Christopher Mayhew, resigns
- February 20 - When , Soviet author and translator is abroad, Soviet Union negates his citizenship
- February 23 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government with a Ba'athist regime.
- February 24 - A military coup in Ghana raises sacked general Ankrah to power while president Kwame Nkrumah is abroad.
- February 26 - Curfew in Jakarta
- February 28 - US astronauts Charles Bassett and Elliott See are killed in an aircraft accident in St. Louis, MO
March
- March 1 - Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
- March 1 - The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria
- March 2 - Kwame Nkrumah arrives in Guinea and is granted an asylum
- March 4 - The Beatles: In an interview published in The Evening Standard, John Lennon comments, "We're more popular than Jesus now," eventually sparking a controversy in the United States.
- March 5 - Massive theft of nuclear materials revealed in Brazil
- March 7 - Charles De Gaulle asks US president Johnson for negotiations about the state of NATO equipment in France
- March 8 - Anti-communist demonstrations in Indonesian foreign ministry
- March 8 – Ronald Kray, one of the Kray twins, shoots rival gangster ; the incidents leads to brother's incarceration
- March 8 - Vietnam War: Australia announces it is going to substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam
- March 8 - A IRA bomb destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin
- March 10 - Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg.
- March 10 - Wedding of Beatrix, the crown princess of Netherlands and Claus von Amsberg. Some spectators demonstrate against the groom, because he is German
- March 11 – Indonesian president Sukarno gives all executive powers to general Suharto
- March 11 - French president Charles De Gaulle states that French troops will be taken out of NATO and that all French NATO bases and HQ's must be closed within a year
- March 16 - Gemini 8 docks with Agena target satellite
- March 17 - More anti-communist demonstrations in Indonesia
- March 17 - Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
- March 23 - Pope Paul VI and Dr Arthur Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, meet in Rome - the first official meeting for 400 years between the Catholic and the Anglican Churches
- March 26 - Demonstrations again the Vietnam War in USA
- March 27 - In South Vietnam, 20.000 Buddhists march in demonstrations against the policies of the military government
- March 28 - Indira Gandhi visits Washington DC
- March 29 - 23rd Communist party conference in Soviet Union - Leonid Brezhnev demands that US troops leave Vietnam and announces that Chinese-Soviet relations are not satisfying
- March 31 - The Labour Party under Harold Wilson win the British General Election
- March 31 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the moon
April
- April 2 - Indonesian army demands that the country rejoin the United Nations
- April 4 - Luna 10 enters orbit around the moon
- April 7 - The United Kingdom asks the UN Security Council authority to use force to stop oil tankers that violate against Rhodesia. Authority is given April 10
- April 8 - Buddhists in South Vietnam protest against the fact that the new government has not set a date for free elections
- April 12 - Jan Berry of Jan & Dean suffers brain damage in a serious automobile accident in Beverly Hills, California
- April 14 - South Vietnamese government promises free elections in 3-5 months
- April 15 - anti-Nasser conspiracy exposed in Egypt
- April 18 - China declares that it stops economic aid to Indonesia
- April 21 - Artificial heart installed to the chest of in Houston hospital
- April 21 - The opening of Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time
- April 27 - Pope Paul VI and Soviet premier Gromyko meet in the Vatican - the first meeting between representatives of the Catholic Church and Soviet Union
- April 28 - In Rhodesia, security forces kill 7 ZANLA men in combat- Chimurenga, ZANU rebellion begins
- April 29 - US troops in Vietnam total 250.000
- April 30 - regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel (discontinued 2000 due to Channel Tunnel)
May
- May 1 - Floods in Finnish coast
- May 4 - Fiat signs a contract with Soviet government to build a car factory in Soviet Union
- May 6 - The Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley sentenced for life imprisonment
- May 12 - African members of the UN Security Council say that British army should blockage Rhodesia
- May 12 - claims that US planes have shot down a Chinese plane over Yunnan - US denies the story the next day
- May 14 - Turkey and Greece intend to start negotiations about the situation in Cyprus
- May 15 - Indonesia asks Malaysia for peace negotiations
- May 16-July 1 - Seamen's strike in Britain
- May 15 - South Vietnam army besieges Da Nang
- May 24 - Troops of Uganda army arrest and occupy his palace
- May 24 - Nigerian government forbids all political activity in the country (until the January 17, 1969)
- May 25 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches
- May 25 - In St. Louis, Missouri, US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
- May 26 - Guyana achieves independence.
- May 28 - Fidel Castro announces a martial law in Cuba because of possible US attack
- May 28 – Indonesian and Malayan governments declare that Indonesian Confrontation is over. Treaty signed in August 11
- May 31 - Philippines reform diplomatic relations with Malaysia
June
- June 2 - Eamon de Valera re-elected as Irish president
- June 2 - Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarumon the Moon, becoming the first spacecraft to soft land on another world
- June 2 - Four former cabinet ministers executed in Zaire for alleged involvement in a plot to kill Mobutu Sese Seko
- June 3 - Joaquín Balaguer elected president of Dominican Republic
- June 5 - Gene Cernan completes second U.S. spacewalk (which lasted 2 hours, 7 minutes) on the Gemini 9 mission.
- June 6 - James Meredith, civil rights activist, is shot while trying to march across Mississippi
- June 13 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them
- June 14 - The Vatican announces the abolition of index of banned books
- June 17 - Air France personnel strike begins
- June 18 - CIA chief William F. Raborn resigns - Richard Helms will be his successor
- June 20-July 1 - Charles De Gaulle visits Soviet Union
- June 21- Opposition leader Arthur Calwell injured when shot after attending a political meeting in Mosman, Sydney, Australia
- June 28 - In Argentina a Junta deposes president Arturo Umberto Illia in a coup and appoints general Juan Carlos Ongania to lead
- June 29 - Sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen ends in the United Kingdom
- June 29 - Vietnam War: US planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong
- June 30 - France formally leaves NATO
July
- July 1 - Joaquin Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
- July 3 - Rene Barrientos elected president of Bolivia
- July 4 - North Vietnam declares general mobilization
- July 4 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into law. The act goes into effect the following year.
- July 6 - Malawi becomes a republic
- July 7 - Conference of Warsaw Pact ends with a promise to support North Vietnam
- July 12 - Indira Gandhi visits Moscow
- July 12 - Zambia threatens to leave British Commonwealth because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia
- July 12 - US lieutenant major arrested for spying
- July 14 - Israeli and Syrian jet fighters fight over the Jordan River
- July 14 - In Chicago, Illinois, Richard Speck murders eight student nurses in their dormitory
- July 14 - Gwynfor Evans becomes member of Parliament for Carmarthen, the first Plaid Cymru MP in the UK.
- July 16 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about Vietnam War - Soviet Government refutes his ideas
- July 17 - Richard Speck arrested - he tries to commit suicide but fails
- July 18 - Gemini X lifts off for earth orbit with astronauts John Young and Michael Collins, setting a world altitude record of 474 miles.
- July 18 - The Hough Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio, the city's first race riot.
- July 19 - Chinese delegate in Netherlands, , is declared persona non grata because of death of a Chinese engineer in unclear circumstances; there are claims that he was kidnapped and taken to the delegate's office
- July 22 - Chinese government announces Dutch delegate persona non grata but tells him not to leave the country before group of Chinese engineers has left the Netherlands
- July 23 - Katangese troops in Stanleyville, Congo, revolt in support of the exiled minister . Mutiny lasts several weeks
- July 24 - U Thant visits Moscow
- July 26 - Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent
- July 28 - USA announces that U-2 reconnaissance plane has disappeared over Cuba
- July 29 - Nigerian army rebels and execute the head of state general Irons, Richard Steven Horvitz is born.
- July 30 - England beat West Germany 4-2 to win the World Cup at Wembley
August
- August 1 - Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 from the University of Texas at Austin Main Building.
- August 1 - Military coup in Nigeria - general Yakubu Gowon takes over
- August 2 - Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft
- August 5 - Martin Luther King leads a civil rights march in Chicago
- August 6 - Rene Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia
- August 6 - Bridge over the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal, is opened
- August 7 - Race riots occur in Lansing,Michigan.
- August 10 - East German court sentences to life imprisonment for espionage for USA
- August 10 - Lunar Orbiter 1, the first US spacecraft to orbit another world, is launched
- August 12 - In the Massacre of Braybrook Street, Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead three plain clothes policemen in London - they are later sentenced to life imprisonment
- August 13 - China begins Cultural Revolution
- August 13 - An earthquake in Turkey - 2394 dead, 10000 injured
- August 15 - Syrian and Israeli troops clash over for three hours
- August 15 - New York Herald Tribune stops publication
- August 16 - Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong with the intent to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.
- August 17 - Saudi Arabia and United Arab Republic begin negotiations in Kuwait to end the war in Yemen
- August 18 - Vietnam War: D Company, 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment meets and defeats a Viet Cong force estimated to be four times larger, at the Battle of Long Tan in Province, Republic of Vietnam
- August 19 - Earthquake in eastern Turkey destroys whole cities
- August 21 - Seven men sentenced to death in Egypt for anti-Nasser agitation
- August 22 - Formation of the (), predecessor of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW)
- August 26 - Riots in French Somaliland
- August 30 - France offers independence to French Somaliland
September
- September 1 - United Nations Secretary-General U Thant declares that he is not going to seek re-election because UN efforts in Vietnam have failed.
- September 6 - In Cape Town, the South African architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting
- September 7 - The final new episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show airs (the first episode aired on October 3, 1961).
- September 8 - "The Man Trap", the first episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek airs.
- September 9 - NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.
- September 13 - Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes new South African prime minister
- September 13 - TASS reports about clashes between members of the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Guard
- September 16 - In South Vietnam, begins a 100-day hunger strike
- September 16 - Metropolitan Opera house opened in New York City
- September 18 - Valerie Percy, the 21 year old daughter of Senator Charles Percy, is stabbed and bludgeoned to death in the family mansion on Chicago's North Shore.
- September 19 - Scotland Yard arrests suspected of being involved of the great train robbery
- September 30 - October 1 (midnight) - Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer released from Spandau Prison
- September 30 - Botswana achieves independence.
October
- October 3 - Tunisia severs its diplomatic relations to United Arab Republic
- October 4 - Israel applies for the outer membership of EEC
- October 4 - Basutoland becomes independent and takes the name Lesotho
- October 5 - UNESCO signs the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. This even is now celebrated as World Teachers' Day.
- October 7 - Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October
- October 11 - France and Soviet Union sign a treaty about cooperation in nuclear research
- October 14 - The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro)
- October 15 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.
- October 17 - Lesotho and Botswana accepted to join United Nations
- October 21 – Aberfan disaster in South Wales, United Kingdom
- October 22 - British spy George Blake escapes from prison; he is next seen in Moscow
- October 22 - Spain demands that United Kingdom stop military flights to Gibraltar - Britain says no the next day
- October 24 - Negotiations about the Vietnam War begin in Manila, Philippines
- October 25 - Military court in Jakarta sentences ex-foreign minister to death
- October 25 - Spain closes its Gibraltar border against non-pedestrian traffic
- October 26 - NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels
- October 27 - United Nations takes Namibia from South Africa
- October 28 - US artist paints the Pink Lady, a 60-feet tall picture of a naked woman, above a tunnel on . Authorities have it painted over in November 3 (see [1])
- October 29 - Guinean delegation en route to OAU meeting in Ethiopia is made hostages of Ghana government in Accra
November
- November 2 - The enters force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States
- November 4 - The Arno river floods Florence, damaging many art treasures
- November 5 - 38 African states demand that United Kingdom use force against Rhodesian government
- November 6 - Lunar Orbiter 2 is launched.
- November 8 - Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate.
- November 11 - A mine kills three Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.
- November 11 - Spain declares general amnesty about crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War (effectively only for Falangists side)
- November 12 - Birthdate of Stuart King, popular American TV actor beginning in the 1990's.
- November 15 - Gemini program: Gemini 12, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell and Buzz Aldrin, splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean 600 km east of the Bahamas.
- November 15 - Harry Maurice Roberts, who had killed three policemen in August, is caught near London
- November 16 - US doctor Samuel Sheppard is acquitted in his second trial of murder of his pregnant wife in 1954
- November 17 - UN General Assembly decides to found United Nations Industrial Development Organization
- November 17 - Spectacular meteor shower of Leonids passes over Arizona at the rate of 2300 a minute for 20 minutes
- November 21 - Army crushes an attempted coup in Togo
- November 28 - Truman Capote's Black and White Ball - dubbed The Party of the Century - is held in New York City.
- November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.
December
- December 1 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger is elected Chancellor of West Germany
- December 1 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith negotiate on HMS Tiger in Mediterranean
- December 2 - U Thant agrees to serve a second term as UN Secretary general
- December 3 - Anti-Portuguese demonstrations in Macau. Curfew declared the next day
- December 7 - Syria offers weapons to rebels in Jordan
- December 7 - Barbados is accepted into United Nations
- December 16 - UN Security council approves against Rhodesia
- December 17 - South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia
- December 20 - Harold Wilson withdraws all his previous offers to Rhodesian government and announces that he agrees to the independence only after the founding of black majority government
- December 22 - Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith declares that he considers that Rhodesia is already a republic
- December 26 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach
- December 31 - Walter Ulbricht talks about negotiations about German unification
- December 31 - Thieves steal millions worth of paintings from in London
- December 31 - Congolese government takes over the Union Minière du Haut Katanga.
Unknown dates
- Cultural Revolution declared in mainland China.
- In Burundi, King Mwambutsa IV is deposed by his son Ntare V, who is in turn deposed by prime minister Michel Micombero.
- Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found Black Panther Party.
- Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rastafarian leaders
- Konstantin Chernenko, later leader of Soviet Union, becomes candidate member of the Central Committee.
- Surrealist Movement in the United States founded by Franklin and Penelope Rosemont.
- Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn are awarded the Fermi Prize.
- Congress of the United States creates .
- Martin Richards designs the BCPL programming language.
- The DKW automobile goes out of production.
- World Buddhist Sangha Council convened by Theravadins in Sri Lanka with the hope of bridging differences and working together.
- Long-term potentiation (LTP), the putative cellular mechanism of learning and memory, is first observed by in Oslo, Norway.
- Actress Saira Banu marries actor Dilip Kumar.
Births
January-April
- January 1 - Michael Imperioli, American actor
- January 12 - Rob Zombie, American musician, artist, and writer
- January 13 - Patrick Dempsey, American actor
- January 17 - Shabba Ranks, Jamaican singer
- January 19 - Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player
- January 20 - Tracii Guns, American guitarist
- January 29 - Romário, Brazilian footballer
- February 1 - Michelle Akers, American soccer player
- February 6 - Rick Astley, British singer
- February 9 - Ellen van Langen, Dutch athlete
- February 11 - Stephen Gregory, American actor
- February 11 - Anthony Parker, American football player
- February 20 - Cindy Crawford, American model
- February 22 - Brian Greig, Australian statesman
- February 24 - Billy Zane, American actor
- February 25 - Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete
- March 3 - Tone-Loc, American musician
- March 4 - Kevin Johnson, American basketball player
- March 5 - Tim Crutchfield,Controversial Politician
- March 6 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist (d. 1996)
- March 10 - Edie Brickell, American singer
- March 25 - Tom Glavine, baseball player
- March 31 - Roger Black, British athlete
- April 2 - Teddy Sheringham, English footballer
- April 14 - Greg Maddux, baseball player
- April 18 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian athlete
- April 28 - John Daly, American golfer
- April 29 - Phil Tufnell, English cricketer
May-August
- May 10 - Jonathan Edwards, British athlete
- May 12 - Stephen Baldwin, American actor
- May 13 - Darius Rucker, American singer (Hootie & The Blowfish)
- May 16 - Janet Jackson, American singer
- May 16 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
- May 24 - Eric Cantona, French footballer
- May 26 - Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
- May 26 - Zola Budd, South African athlete
- June 4 - Cecilia Bartoli, Italian mezzo-soprano
- June 4 - Tiffany Million, American actress
- June 8 - Julianna Margulies, American actress
- June 18 - Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater
- June 21 - Rudi Bakhtiar, American journalist
- June 22 - Michael Park, British rally co-driver (d. 2005)
- June 25 - Dikembe Mutombo, Congolese basketball player
- June 27 - J.J. Abrams, American television writer and producer
- June 28 - John Cusack, American actor
- June 30 - Mike Tyson, American boxer
- July 3 - Moises Alou, baseball player
- July 7 - Gundula Krause, German violinist
- July 13 - Gerald Levert, American singer
- July 14 - Matthew Fox, American actor
- July 15 - Irène Jacob, French-born actress
- August 7 - Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
- August 11 - Juan Maria Solare, Argentine composer
- August 14 - Halle Berry, American actress
- August 17 - William E. Dudley, American poet
- August 19 - Lee Ann Womack, American musician
- August 23 - Rik Smits, Dutch basketball player
- August 26 - Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player
September-December
- September 2 - Salma Hayek, Mexican-born actress
- September 4 - Yanka Dyagileva, Russian singer
- September 9 - Georg Hackl, German luger
- September 9 - Adam Sandler, American actor and comedian
- September 21 - Kiefer Sutherland, English-born actor
- September 24 - Michael J. Varhola, American author and publisher.
- October 1 - George Weah, Liberian politician and football player
- October 3 - Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, Israeli settler leader (d. 2000)
- October 8 - Aaron Callaghan, Irish football club executive
- October 9 - David Cameron, British politician
- October 24 - Roman Abramovich, Russian oil magnate
- October 27 - Matt Drudge, American Internet journalist
- October 28 - Steve Atwater, American football player
- November 1 - Gary Howell, American actor
- November 6 - Peter DeLuise, American actor
- November 12 - David Schwimmer, American actor
- November 14 - Curt Schilling, baseball player
- November 17 - Jeff Buckley, American singer (d. 1997)
- November 17 - Sophie Marceau, French actress
- November 20 - Kevin Gilbert, American singer, composer, and instrumentalist
- December 1 - Larry Walker, Canadian Major League Baseball player
- December 7 - C. Thomas Howell, American actor
- December 7 - Linn Ullmann, Norwegian journalist and author
- December 14 - Bill Ranford, Canadian hockey player
Deaths
January-March
- January 1 - Vincent Auriol, President of France (b. 1884)
- January 11 - Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (b. 1910)
- January 11 - Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (b. 1889)
- January 14 - Barry Fitzgerald, Irish actor (b. 1888)
- January 14 - Bill Carr, American athlete (b. 1909)
- January 15 - Sergei Korolev, Russian space scientist (b. 1906)
- January 18 - Kathleen Norris, American writer (b. 1880)
- February 1 - Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (b. 1895)
- February 1 - Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885)
- February 10 - Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (b. 1899)
- February 10 - Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India (b. 1904)
- February 20 - Chester Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
- March 1 - Fritz Houtermans, German physicist (b. 1903)
- March 3 - Maxfield Parrish, American artist (b. 1870)
- March 5 - Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (b. 1889)
- March 8 - William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, British politican (b. 1907)
- March 10 - Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
April-September
- April 2 - C.S. Forester, English author (b. 1899)
- April 3 - Battista Pininfarina, Italian car designer (b. 1893)
- April 10 - Evelyn Waugh, English author (b. 1903)
- April 11 - Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, military dictator of El Salvador (assassinated) (b. 1882)
- April 13 - Georges Duhamel, French author (b. 1884)
- April 13 - Abdul Salam Arif, President of Iraq (b. 1921)
- April 23 - Georges Ohsawa, Japanese diet founder (b. 1893)
- May 22 - Tom Goddard, English cricketer (b. 1900)
- May 23 - Demchugdongrub, Mongolian politician (b. 1902)
- June 1 - Papa Jack Laine, American jazz musician (b. 1873)
- June 7 - Jean Arp, Alsatian sculptor, painter, and poet (b. 1887)
- June 8 - Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer (b. 1890)
- June 12 - Hermann Scherchen, Austrian conductor (b. 1891)
- June 19 - Ed Wynn, American actor (b. 1886)
- June 30 - Giuseppe Farina, Italian race car driver (b. 1906)
- July 2 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (b. 1900)
- July 5 - George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
- July 6 - Sad Sam Jones, baseball player (b. 1892)
- July 24 - Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)
- August 3 - Lenny Bruce, American comedian (b. 1925)
- August 6 - Cordwainer Smith, American author (b. 1913)
- September 5 - Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman and architect (b. 1879)
- September 6 - Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (b. 1879)
- September 6 - Hendrik Verwoerd, Dutch-born Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1901)
- September 11 - C. E. Woolman, American airline founder (b. 1889)
- September 17 - Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (b. 1930)
- September 28 - Andre Breton, French writer (b. 1896)
October-December
- October 16 - George O'Hara, American actor (b. 1899)
- October 18 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian-born beautician and cosmetics entrepreneur (b. 1878)
- November 2 - Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)
- November 2 - Mississippi John Hurt, American singer and guitarist (b. 1893)
- November 23 - Sean T. O'Kelly, second President of Ireland (b. 1882)
- December 15 - Walt Disney, American animated film producer (b. 1901)
Month/day unknown
- Hiram Wesley Evans, American leader of the Ku Klux Klan (b. 1881)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Alfred Kastler
- Chemistry - Robert S. Mulliken
- Medicine - Peyton Rous, Charles Brenton Huggins
- Literature - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Nelly Sachs
- Peace - not awarded