WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO JULY 1966
Find out what all happened February to July 1966

Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle. (16. March 1966)

In Syria, Ba'ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin Hafiz, also a Baathist. (23. February 1966)

The Communist Party of China issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. (16. May 1966)

The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific. (2. July 1966)

Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface. (1. March 1966)

Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches. (25. May 1966)

Apollo Program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket (26. February 1966)

Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England. (6. May 1966)

The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria. (1. March 1966)

The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. (21. May 1966)

Shiv Sena a political party in India is founded in Mumbai. (19. June 1966)

The National Organization for Women, the United States' largest feminist organization, is founded. (30. June 1966)

Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle. (18. July 1966)

Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping has now been banned from El Cap. (24. July 1966)

A bomb planted by Irish Republicans destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin. (8. March 1966)

The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("index of prohibited books"), which was originally instituted in 1557. (14. June 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. (10. March 1966)

A plane crash at Connellsville, Pennsylvania kills the Pennsylvania Attorney General, his wife, and other state officials. (8. May 1966)

The former Congolese Prime Minister, Évariste Kimba, and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu. (30. May 1966)

Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. (15. July 1966)