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Launch of SR-71 Blackbird spy plane
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Approximately 8000 U.S. soldiers land in South Vietnam. U.S. troops now total 190,000.
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Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies resigns after 16 straight years in position.
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The Beaumont children, Jane, Arnna and Grant disappear from the suburb of Glenelg, in Adelaide.
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Soviet writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to around 5 and 7 years, for 'anti-Soviet' writings.
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Australia changes to decimal currency. The Australian dollar is introduced at a rate of 2 dollars per pound, or 10 shillings per dollar.
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Joern Utzon quits the construction of the Sydney Opera House.
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John Lennon is annoyed and says, "We [Beatles] are more popular than Jesus."
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A massive theft of nuclear materials is revealed in Brazil.
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U.S announces it will considerably increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
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The first manmade object Luna 10 enters lunar orbit.
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An artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas hospital.
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U.S. troops in Vietnam total 250,000.
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Regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel (discontinued in 2000 due to the Channel Tunnel).
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The Church of Satan is formed by Anton Szandor LaVey in San Francisco
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Fiat signs a contract to build a car factory Soviet Union
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The legendary album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is released.
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An XB-70 Valkyrie prototype is destroyed in a mid-air collision with a F-104 Starfighter chase plane during a photo shoot. NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker and USAF test pilot Carl Cross are both killed.
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An Air France personnel strike begins.
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Vietnam War: U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.
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The 1966 FIFA World Cup begins in England.
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Israeli and Syrian jet fighters clash over the Jordan River.
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The U.S. announces that a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane has disappeared over Cuba.
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England beats West Germany 4–2 to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time.
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Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 people and wounds 31 from atop the University of Texas at Austin Main Building tower, after earlier killing his wife and mother.
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Martin Luther King Jr. leads a civil rights march in Chicago, during which he is struck by a rock thrown from an angry white mob.
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Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit another world, is launched.
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Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic begin negotiations in Kuwait to end the war in Yemen.
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The Beatles play their very last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.
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Star Trek, the classic science fiction television series, debuts with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap."
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NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.
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Scotland Yard arrests Ronald Edwards, suspected of involvement in the Great Train Robbery.
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The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October.
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A military court in Jakarta sentences ex-foreign minister Subandrio to death.
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NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels.
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The Arno river floods Florence, damaging many art treasures.
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Lunar Orbiter 2 is launched.
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A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
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The Beatles begin recording sessions for their landmark Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
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Walt Disney dies while producing The Jungle Book, the last animated feature under his personal supervision.