Entertainment: Alfred Hitchcock's 50th film Music includes Mitch Leigh (Man of La Mancha),
Samuel Barber (Antony and Cleopatra), Burton Lane (On A Clear Day You Can See Forever) Writers include Truman Capote, Peter Ustinov,
Edward Albee, Robert Blake, Mao Tse-tung, James Cameron
Fashion: Mini skirts come into fashion
Medicine: Michael E DeBakey implants plastic arteries onto artificial heart for temporary replacement
Politics: International Days of Protest (against US in Vietnam)
Religion: Salvation Army centenary
Science: Luna 9 spacecraft lands on moon, US spacecraft Surveyor I also lands Two male dogs orbit in Soviet satellite
Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz Strassmann awarded Fermi Prize Whittington reexamines Burgess Shale and determines fossils not direct ancestral but extinct
Field of cladistics started by Hennig Cleve Backster attaches lie detector to philodendron and notes responses
Sports: Mile record at 3 min 51.3 seconds
Technology: Color TV becomes popular First fax machine sold
Deaths: Walt Disney, CS Forester (ENG), Sophie Tucker "Last of the Red-Hot Mamas", Elizabeth Arden, Margaret Sanger birth control advocate,
Worth Bingham dies when surfboard atop his convertible swings around and breaks his neck,
Skydiver Nick Piantanida dies of uncontrolled decombression when trying to make world's highest parachute jump and his face mask comes loose
Africa
Botswana: Independence in Commonwealth - renamed from Bechuanaland
Egypt: Temples and statuary of Abu Simbel Egypt moved to save them from the Aswan High Dam
Ghana: Nkrumah government removed by military coup – Nkrumah goes into exile
Lesotho: Independence in Commonwealth - renamed from Basutoland
Malawi: H Kamzu Banda president
Rhodesia: Prime Minister Ian Smith rejects British proposals for settlements UN calls for sanctions on Rhodesia – South Africa and Portugal refuse
South Africa: Prime Minister Dr. Verwoerd assassinated – John Vorster presides
Americas
General: Caribbean earthquake kills 3600
Barbados: Independence in Commonwealth
BrazilL Landslide
Guyana: Independence in Commonwealth as British Guiana becomes Guyana Venezuela disputes borders
Haiti: Hurricane
Asia
General: War between Indonesia and Malaysia ends Supermarket retailing expands
China: Mao Zedong leads Cultural Revolution (to 1976) and destruction of religious and old cultural items Red guards formed - demonstrates in China against Western influences
India: Indira Gandhi the daughter of Nehru becomes Prime Minister
Indonesia: Eruption of Mt. Awa
Java: Eruption of Kelut
North Vietnam: Hanoi and Haicheng bombed by US US orders bomb-free zone around Hanoi Australian British and US troops fight
48-hour Christmas truce
Sumatra: Smallpox outbreak
Europe
General: Supermarket retailing expands Economic and technical pact signed by Italy and USSR Storm kills 230 in Aegean sea
Austria: Archduke Otto von Habsburg obtains Austrian passport after 47-year exile
Belgium: World Jewish Congress in Brussels attempts to promote Jewish-Christian understanding
France: Withdrawal from NATO De Gaulle inaugurated for second term – visits USSR and requests removal of NATO forces from France
Great Britain: "The Times" of London changes formatting to move ads British Prime Minister Wilson announces standstill in wages and prices
Wales – Slag heap kills 145 including 116 children Cambridge Medieval History writes "The Byzantium Age"
Billy Graham conducts Greater London Crusade Archbishop of Canterbury visits Pope Paul VI
First woman Scottish National Party representative First Welsh National Party candidate wins seat at Westminster
Italy: Floods ravage northern Italy – thousands of art treasures ruined in Venice and Florence
Monaco: Prince Rainier and Aristotle Onassis feud over control of Societe des Bains de Mer in Monte Carlo
Netherlands: Princess Beatrix (Dutch) marries German diplomat
Portugal: Salazar Suspension Bridge opens in Lisbon
Romania: Chou En-lai visits Romania
Soviet Union: British Prime Minister Harold Wilson visits Moscow Meeting between Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko
Spain: Fourth World Congress of Psychiatry in Madrid 2000 Madrid students battle with police
US B-52 cracshed near Spain with four unarmed hydrogen bombs – one falls in sea and is recovered after three months
Sweden: 40th World Music Festival held in Stockholm Swedish newspaper "Stockholm Tidende" ceases publication
Vatican City: Pope Paul VI issues encyclical on Vietnamese war
West Germany: Autobahn system reaches 2000 miles German team makes first ascent of N face of the Eiger
Nazi ministers Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach released Kurt Georg Kiesinger elected chancellor
Middle East
General: Israeli and Jordanian forces fight in Hebron area
Iraq: Abdul Rachman Arif elected president
Lebanon: Intra Bank fails
Pakistan: Smallpox President Ayub Khan visits London
Turkey: Barrack fire kills 68 Quake
Pacific
Australia: Jack Brabham wins workd driving championship in car of his own construction
Culture: National Organization of Women formed Anti-war and race riots
Black Panther Party founded by Stokely Charmichael Kwanzaa invented
Entertainment: "Star Trek" debuts as sci-fi drama plus first first televised inter-racial kiss
"Psycho" deemed too violent to show on television Bye Bye Birdie and Cabaret debut on Broadway
Musicians vary from Frank Sinatra to the Monkees and songs like Born Free and Eleanor Rigby The Munsters cancelled
Military: CIA continues human behavior drug tests
Politics: White house marriage of Luci Johnson President Johnson goes on Far East tour
Religion: United Brethren and Methodist Churches vote to merge as United Methodist Church
Roman Catholic bishops rule that US Catholics need no longer abstain from eating meat on Fridays (except Lent)
Science: Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spacewalks
Sports: Billy Casper wins playoff against Arnold Palmer in golf AFL and NFL merge – first SuperBowl next year
Transportation: Department of Transportation created
East
New York: New Metropolitain Opera House in NYC New York "Herald Tribune" ends
US Army drops Bacillus subtilis through New York subway ventilation to test for terrorism threat
Midwest
General: Great Blizzard of 1966 hits Great Plains
South
Florida: Tornadoes
Texas: World's worst driver = 10 summons and six accidents within 20 minutes
West and Pacific
Alaska: Mount Steele glacier moves at two feet an hour
California: Scientists conclude that only humans and pigs get sunburned among mammals Earthquakes