1966

1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar.

• January 8 – Shindig! airs for the last time on ABC, with musical guests the Kinks and the Who.
• January 12 – Batman debuts on ABC (1966-1968).
• February 23 – Television is first broadcast in Greece when ERT went on the air.
• April 5 – The Money Programme debuts on BBC2 (1966-present).
• June 27 – The first episode of the supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows airs on ABC, introducing Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) to the viewing audience as she applies for a job at the Collinwood Manor.
• July 1 – First Canadian color television broadcast.
• September – ABC switches to the color standard, meaning that all three US networks are now broadcasting in color regularly.
• September 3 – The last new episode of the television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet airs.
• September 7 – The final episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show airs (the first episode aired on October 3, 1961).
• September 8 – The first episode of Star Trek airs (1966-1969).
• September 12 – The Monkees premieres (1966-1968).
• October 2 – The four-part serial Talking to a Stranger, acclaimed as one of the finest British television dramas of the 1960s, begins transmission in the Theatre 625 strand on BBC2.
• October 27 – It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown airs for the first time on CBS.
• November 16 – Cathy Come Home, possibly the best-known play ever to be broadcast on British television, is transmitted in BBC1's The Wednesday Play anthology strand.
• December 15 – Walt Disney, founder of Disney Brothers Studios, dies from lung cancer at the age of 65.
• December 18 – Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, airs for the first time on CBS. It became a Christmas tradition.

• February 6 – Rick Astley, British singer
• March 10 – Omer Tarin, Pakistani poet, scholar and mystic
• April 8 – Robin Wright, American actress
• April 15 – Samantha Fox, British supermodel & singer
• April 25 – Femke Halsema, Dutch politician and writer
• May 16 – Janet Jackson, American singer & actress
• June 30 – Mike Tyson, American professional boxer
• August 3 – Brent Butt, Canadian actor and comedian
• August 7 – Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
• September 9 – Adam Sandler, American comedian and actor
• October 2 – Rodney Anoa'i, American professional wrestler (died 2000)
• October 9 — David Cameron, British Prime Minister
• October 11 – Luke Perry, American actor (died 2019)
• December 21 – Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor

• January 1 – Vincent Auriol, President of France (b. 1884)
• January 11 – Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (b. 1901)
• January 11 – Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (b. 1889)
• January 11 – Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India (b. 1904)
• January 14 – Sergei Korolev, Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer (b. 1907)
• January 22 – Herbert Marshall, English actor (b. 1890)

• February 1 – Buster Keaton, American actor (b. 1895)
• February 1 - Hedda Hopper, American actress and columnist (b. 1885)

• March 3 – William Frawley, American actor (b. 1887)

• April 9 – Sutan Sjahrir, Prime Minister of Indonesia (b. 1909)
• April 13 – Georges Duhamel, French writer (b. 1884)
• April 13 - Abdul Salam Arif, 2nd President of Iraq (b. 1921)

• May 4 – Edmond Locard, French forensic scientist (b. 1877)
• May 7 – Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Polish writer (b. 1909)
• May 12 – Felix Steiner, German SS commander (b. 1896)
• May 15 – Venceslau Brás, President of Brazil (b. 1868)
• May 30 – Wäinö Aaltonen, Finnish artist and sculptor (b. 1894)

• June 4 – Chang Myon, 2nd, 7th Prime Minister of South Korea (b. 1899)

• July 23 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)

• August 3 – Lenny Bruce, American comedian (b. 1925)

• September 14 – Cemal Gürsel, President of Turkey (b. 1895)

• November 17 – James Jabara, American Air Force pilot (b. 1923)

• December 15 – Walt Disney, American animator (b. 1901)

• The 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature was won by Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs.^[1]
• The 1966 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was won by Peyton Rous and Charles Brenton Huggins.^[2]
• The 1966 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was won by Robert S. Mulliken.^[3]
• The 1966 Nobel Prize in Physics was won by Alfred Kastler.^[4]
• The Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded in 1966.^[5]