* 1966 – Young Man Kang, Korean director

* 1966 – The Church of Satan is established at the Black House in San Francisco, California.

* 1966 – Jeff Brown, Canadian ice hockey player

* 1966 – Dave Meggett, American football player

* 1884 – Vincent Auriol, French politician, 16th President of the French Republic ( d. 1966 )

* 1899 – C. S. Forester, English author ( d. 1966 )

* 1909 – Sylvère Maes, Belgian cyclist ( d. 1966 )

* 1966 – Jeroen Duyster, Dutch rower

* 1966 – Juhan Parts, Estonian politician, 14th Prime Minister of Estonia

* 1966 – Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska killing all 42 on board.

* 1918 – Giles Cooper Irish playwright ( d. 1966 )

* 1966 – Vinny Del Negro, American basketball player and coach

* 1966 – Shayne Corson, Canadian ice hockey player

* 1966 – Sean Hood, American screenwriter

* 1966 – Takayuki Iizuka, Japanese wrestler

* 1966 – M. V. Sridhar, Indian cricketer

* 1966 – Tim Wakefield, American baseball player

* 1966 – Flann O ' Brien, Irish humorist ( b. 1911 )

* 1966 – Charles Whitman kills 16 people at the University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police.

* 1966 – Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

* 1885 – George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist and Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1966 )

* 1966 – James St. James, American club promoter and author

* 1966 – Brent Butt, Canadian actor

* 1966 – Eric Esch, American boxer

* 1966 – Lenny Bruce, American comedian ( b. 1925 )

* 1966 – Vietnam War: the Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Phuoc Tuy province.

The song was the # 1 hit in the U. S. for the five weeks encompassing March 1966, the # 1 hit on the Hot 100's end of the year chart for 1966, and the No. 21 song of 1960s, despite the later unpopularity of the Vietnam War and the competing " California Dreaming ", sharply dividing the popular music market.

His command positions included: commanding officer of a platoon and two rifle companies during two tours of duty in Vietnam ; commanding officer of Special Training Branch and Recruit Series at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California ( 1966 – 1968 ); commanding officer of Counter-Guerilla Warfare School, Northern Training Area on Okinawa ( 1970 ), Company officer at the United States Naval Academy ( 1970 – 1973 ); commanding officer of the Marine Barracks at Naval Air Station North Island, California ( 1973 – 1976 ), and commanding officer, 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines ( 1983 – 1985 ).

* 1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U. S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243, 000 more men by the end of 1966.

* 1966 – A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.

* 1966 – Vietnam War: The ROK Capital Division of the South Korean Army massacres 380 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam.

Reported in The Australian on 1 July 1966, Holt's speech concluded with a remark which has come to be seen as encapsulating his unquestioning support for Johnson, for America's Vietnam policy and for continued Australian military involvement in the Vietnam War:

On 20 December 1966, Holt announced that Australia's military force in Vietnam was to be increased again to 6, 300 troops plus an additional twelve tanks, two minesweepers and eight bombers.

Holt fought his first and only general election as Prime Minister on 26 November 1966, focusing his campaign on the issue of Vietnam and the supposed Communist threat in Asia.

* 1966 – Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

* 1966 – Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.

He was finally appointed Minister for the Army by Harold Holt in 1966, in which he presided over the controversial Vietnam war conscription.

* 1966 – Military Prime Minister of South Vietnam Nguyen Cao Ky sacked rival General Nguyen Chanh Thi, precipitating large-scale civil and military dissension in parts of the nation.

In 1966 and 1967 Sinatra traveled to Vietnam to perform for the troops.

* 1966 – Vietnam War: Binh Tai massacre

* 1966 – Vietnam War: Dien Nien-Phuoc Binh massacre

Harry Coover said in 1966 that a CA spray was used in the Vietnam War to retard bleeding in wounded soldiers until they could be brought to a hospital.

It was during his 1966 stay in the U. S. that Thich Nhat Hanh met with Martin Luther King, Jr. and urged him to publicly denounce the Vietnam War.

Though trouble in Southeast Asia was shown in Jack L. Warner's Brushfire ( 1961 ), and Marshall Thompson's A Yank in Viet-Nam ( 1964 ) and To the Shores of Hell ( 1966 ), the major Hollywood studios refused to make any Vietnam War films with the exception of John Wayne's The Green Berets based on the best-selling book by Robin Moore and using the theme song " Ballad of the Green Berets ".

*** 1966 – After 1966 with the draft in place more than 500, 000 troops are sent to Vietnam by the Johnson administration and college attendance soars.