1966
Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1966
January
- January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, taking out President David Dacko.
- January 2 - A strike of public transportation workers in New York City begins (it will end January 13).
- January 3 - The first Acid Test is conducted at the Fillmore, San Francisco.
- January 4 - A military coup occurs in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
- January 4 - The prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet in Moscow.
- January 4 - A gas leak fire at the Feyzin oil refinery near Lyon, France kills 18 and injures 84.
- January 10 - Pakistani-Indian peace negotiations end successfully in Tashkent.
- January 10 - The French paper L'Express publishes a story of Georges Figon, who took part in the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka.
- January 11 - A conference on Rhodesia begins in Lagos, Nigeria.
- January 11 - The first SR-71 Blackbird spy plane goes into service at Beale AFB.
- January 12 - United States President Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
- January 13 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member, by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
- January 15 - A violent military coup is staged in Nigeria.
- January 15 - Moscow announces the death of rocket designer Sergei Korolev.
- January 17 - The Nigerian coup is overturned.
- January 17 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and 1 into the sea, in the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident.
- January 17 - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of a lost h-bomb which results in the amputation of his leg.
- January 18 - French police announce that Georges Figon committed suicide, prior to his arrest for the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka.
- January 18 - About 8,000 U.S. soldiers land in South Vietnam; U.S. troops now total 190,000.
- January 19 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India; she is sworn in January 24.
- January 19 - Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies resigns.
- January 20 - Demonstrations occur against high food prices in Hungary.
- January 21 - Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro resigns due to a power struggle in his party.
- January 22 - The military government of Nigeria announces that ex-prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was killed during the coup.
- January 22 - The Chadian Muslim insurgent group FROLINAT is founded in Sudan, starting the Chadian Civil War.
- January 26 - Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia when Robert Menzies retires.
- January 26 - Beaumont children disappearance: Three children disappear on their way to Glenelg Beach, South Australia, never to be seen again.
- January 27 - The British government promises the U.S. that British troops in Malaysia will stay until more peaceful conditions occur in the region.
February
March
- March 1 - Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
- March 1 - The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.
- March 2 - Kwame Nkrumah arrives in Guinea and is granted asylum.
- March 4 - The Beatles: In an interview published in The London Evening Standard, John Lennon comments, "We're more popular than Jesus now," eventually sparking a controversy in the United States.
- March 4 - 124 killed BOAC Boeing 707 jetliner crashed Mount Fuji, Japan.
- March 5 - A massive theft of nuclear materials is revealed in Brazil.
- March 5 - Merci Chérie by Udo Jürgens (music by Udo Jürgens, text by Udo Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria.
- March 7 - Charles De Gaulle asks U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson for negotiations about the state of NATO equipment in France.
- March 8 - Anti-communist demonstrations occur at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.
- March 8 - Ronald Kray, one of the Kray twins, shoots rival gangster George Cornell; the incident leads to the brother's incarceration.
- March 8 - Vietnam War: Australia announces it will substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
- March 8 - An Irish Republican Army bomb destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.
- March 9 - Ronnie Kray murders George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub.
- March 10 - Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg. Some spectators demonstrate against the groom because he is German.
- March 11 - Indonesian President Sukarno gives all executive powers to General Suharto (see Transition to the New Order and Supersemar).
- March 11 - French President Charles De Gaulle states that French troops will be taken out of NATO and that all French NATO bases and HQ's must be closed within a year.
- March 12 - Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks sets the NHL single season scoring record against the New York Rangers with his 51st goal.
- March 13 - The 1956 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, adapted from their stage musical, is shown on network TV for the first time by ABC-TV. It will be repeated just three months later.
- March 16 - Gemini 8 (David Scott, Neil Armstrong) docks with an Agena target satellite.
- March 17 - More anti-communist demonstrations occur in Indonesia.
- March 17 - Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
- March 19 - The Texas Western Miners defeat the Kentucky Wildcats with 5 black starters, ushering in desegregation in athletic recruiting.
- March 20 - World Cup Trophy the "Jules Rimet" is stolen at an exhibition, it is later found by a dog named "Pickles" and his owner David Corbett.
- March 22 - In Washington, DC, General Motors President James M. Roche appears before a Senate subcommittee, and apologizes to consumer advocate Ralph Nader for the company's intimidation and harassment campaign against him.
- March 23 - Pope Paul VI and Arthur Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, meet in Rome.
- March 26 - Demonstrations are held across the United States against the Vietnam War.
- March 27 - In South Vietnam, 20,000 Buddhists march in demonstrations against the policies of the military government.
- March 28 - Indira Gandhi visits Washington, DC.
- March 29 - The 23rd Communist Party Conference is held in the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev demands that U.S. troops leave Vietnam, and announces that Chinese-Soviet relations are not satisfying.
- March 31 - The Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the British General Election.
- March 31 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
April
May
- May 1 - Floods occur on the Finnish coast.
- May 3 - Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio commence broadcasting on AM, with a combined potential 100,000 watts, from the same ship anchored off the south coast of England in international waters.
- May 4 - Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union.
- May 6 - The Moors Murderers trial at Chester Crown Court ends with Ian Brady being found guilty on all 3 counts of murder. He is sentenced to 3 concurrent terms of life imprisonment. Myra Hindley is convicted on 2 counts of murder and cleared on a third charge, but is guilty of being an accessory in the third murder committed by Brady. She receives 2 concurrent terms of life imprisonment for murder and a 7-year fixed term for being an accessory.
- May 12 - African members of the UN Security Council say that the British army should blockade Rhodesia.
- May 12 - Opening of the Busch Memorial Stadium in St Louis, Missouri.
- May 12 - Radio Peking claims that U.S. planes have shot down a Chinese plane over Yunnan (the U.S. denies the story the next day).
- May 14 - Turkey and Greece intend to start negotiations about the situation in Cyprus.
- May 15 - Indonesia asks Malaysia for peace negotiations.
- May 15 - The South Vietnamese army besieges Da Nang.
- May 15 - Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators again picket the White House, then rally at the Washington Monument.
- May 16 - A seamen's strike is called in Britain.
- May 16 - The legendary album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is released.
- May 16 - Bob Dylan's seminal album, Blonde on Blonde is released in the USA.
- May 16 - In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War.
- May 24 - Ugandan army troops arrest Mutesa II of Buganda and occupy his palace.
- May 24 - The Nigerian government forbids all political activity in the country (until January 17, 1969).
- May 25 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 is launched.
- May 25 - In St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch, as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
- May 26 - Guyana achieves independence.
- May 28 - Fidel Castro delcares martial law in Cuba because of a possible U.S. attack.
- May 28 - The Indonesian and Malayan governments declare that the Indonesian Confrontation is over (a treaty is signed on August 11).
- May 31 - The Philippines reestablishes diplomatic relations with Malaysia.
June
- June 1 - The final new episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show airs (the first episode aired on October 3, 1961).
- June 2 - Éamon de Valera is re-elected as Irish president.
- June 2 - Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
- June 2 - Four former cabinet ministers are executed in Zaire, for alleged involvement in a plot to kill Mobutu Sese Seko.
- June 3 - Joaquín Balaguer is elected president of the Dominican Republic.
- June 5 - Gemini 9: Gene Cernan completes the second U.S. spacewalk (2 hours, 7 minutes).
- June 6 - Civil rights activist James Meredith is shot while trying to march across Mississippi.
- June 8 - 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.
- June 8 - Topeka, Kansas is devastated by a tornado that registers as an "F5" on the Fujita Scale: the first to exceed US $100 million in damages. Sixteen people are killed, hundreds more injured, and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/top/events/66tornado.php
- June 13 - Miranda v. Arizona: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
- June 14 - The Vatican abolishes the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of banned books).
- June 17 - An Air France personnel strike begins.
- June 18 - CIA chief William Raborn resigns - Richard Helms becomes his successor.
- June 20 - French President Charles De Gaulle starts visit to the Soviet Union.
- June 21 - Opposition leader Arthur Calwell is shot after attending a political meeting in Mosman, Sydney, Australia.
- June 28 - In Argentina, a junta deposes president Arturo Umberto Illia in a coup, and appoints General Juan Carlos Ongania to lead.
- June 29 - A sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen, ends in the United Kingdom.
- June 29 - Vietnam War: U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.
- June 30 - France formally leaves NATO.
- June 30 - The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, DC.
July
- July 1 - Joaquin Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.
- July 3 - Rene Barrientos is elected president of Bolivia.
- July 4 - North Vietnam declares general mobilization.
- July 4 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act, which goes into effect the following year.
- July 4 - Romania's premier Nicolae Ceausescu proposes dissolution of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact alliance in a meeting of Warsaw Pact powers at Bucharest.
- July 6 - Malawi becomes a republic.
- July 7 - A Warsaw Pact conference ends with a promise to support North Vietnam.
- July 8 - King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Ntare V, who is in turn deposed by prime minister Michel Micombero.
- July 11 - The 1966 FIFA World Cup begins in England.
- July 12 - Indira Gandhi visits Moscow.
- July 12 - Zambia threatens to leave the Commonwealth of Nations because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia.
- July 12 - U.S. Lieutenant Major W.H. Whalen is arrested for spying.
- July 14 - Israeli and Syrian jet fighters clash over the Jordan River.
- July 14 - Richard Speck murders 8 student nurses in their Chicago dormitory.
- July 14 - Gwynfor Evans becomes member of Parliament for Carmarthen, the first Plaid Cymru MP in the UK.
- July 16 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about the Vietnam War (the Soviet government refutes his ideas).
- July 17 - Richard Speck is arrested; he tries to commit suicide but fails.
- July 18 - Gemini 10 (John Young, Michael Collins) launched. After docking with an Agena rocket stage, they then set a world altitude record of 474 miles (763 km).
- July 18 - The Hough Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio, the city's first race riot.
- July 19 - A Chinese delegate in the Netherlands, Liu en-Tsiu, is declared persona non grata because of the death of a Chinese engineer in unclear circumstances; there are claims that he was kidnapped and taken to the delegate's office.
- July 22 - The Chinese government declares Dutch delegate G. J. Jongejans persona non grata, but tells him not to leave the country before a group of Chinese engineers has left the Netherlands.
- July 23 - Katangese troops in Stanleyville, Congo, revolt for several weeks in support of the exiled minister Moise Tshombe.
- July 24 - U.N. Secretary General U Thant visits Moscow.
- July 26 - Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords, stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent.
- July 28 - The U.S. announces that a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane has disappeared over Cuba.
- July 29 - The Nigerian army rebels and executes head of state General Aguiyi-Ironsi.
- July 29 - Bob Dylan is injured in a motorcycle accident near his home in Woodstock, New York. He is not seen in public for over a year.
- July 30 - England beats West Germany 4?2 to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time.
August
- August 1 - Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 people from the University of Texas at Austin Main Building.
- August 1 - A military coup occurs in Nigeria; General Yakubu Gowon takes over.
- August 2 - The Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft.
- August 3 - Comedian Lenny Bruce dies. Comedian Brent Butt is born.
- August 5 - 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.
- August 5 - The Beatles release the legendary Revolver album in the United Kingdom.http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/b/beatles-revolvermft.shtml
- August 5 - Mao Zedong launches a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party.
- August 6 - Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, killing all 42 on board.
- August 6 - Rene Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia.
- August 6 - The Tagus River Bridge opens in Lisbon, Portugal.
- August 7 - Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
- August 10 - An East German court sentences Günter Laudahn to life imprisonment for spying for the United States.
- August 10 - Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit another world, is launched.
- August 11 - The Beatles hold a press conference in Chicago, during which John Lennon apologizes for his "more popular than Jesus" remark, saying, "I didn't mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing."
- August 12 - Massacre of Braybrook Street: Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plain clothes policemen in London; they are later sentenced to life imprisonment.
- August 13 - In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong begins the Cultural Revolution.
- August 13 - An earthquake in Turkey kills 2,394 and injures 10,000.
- August 15 - Syrian and Israeli troops clash over Lake Genesaret for 3 hours.
- August 15 - It is announced that the New York Herald Tribune will not resume publication.
- August 16 - Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee starts investigating Americans who have aided the Viet Cong, with the intent to make these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.
- August 17 - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic begin negotiations in Kuwait to end the war in Yemen.
- August 18 - Vietnam War: D Company, 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, meets and defeats a Viet Cong force estimated to be 4 times larger, at the Battle of Long Tan in Phuoc Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam.
- August 19 - An earthquake in eastern Turkey destroys whole cities.
- August 21 - Seven men are sentenced to death in Egypt, for anti-Nasser agitation.
- August 22 - The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), is formed.
- August 26 - Riots occur in French Somaliland.
- August 29 - The Beatles play their very last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.
- August 30 - France offers independence to French Somaliland.
September
- September 1 - United Nations Secretary-General U Thant declares that he will not seek re-election, because U.N. efforts in Vietnam have failed.
- September 1 - 98 British tourists die in an air crash in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
- September 6 - In Cape Town, the South African architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting.
- September 8 - Star Trek, the classic science fiction television series, debuts with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap."
- September 9 - NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.
- September 12 - Gemini 11 (Richard Gordon, Pete Conrad) docks with an Agena target vehicle.
- September 12 - Five Star General Omar Bradley marries actress Esther "Kitty" Buhler in San Diego, California.
- September 12 - Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes the new South African Prime Minister.
- September 13 - TASS reports on clashes between the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Guards.
- September 16 - In South Vietnam, Thich Tri Quang begins a 100-day hunger strike.
- September 16 - The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City to the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera, Antony and Cleopatra.
- September 18 - Valerie Percy, the 21-year-old daughter of Senator Charles H. Percy, is stabbed and bludgeoned to death in the family mansion on Chicago's North Shore.
- September 19 - Scotland Yard arrests Ronald Edwards, suspected of involvement in the Great Train Robbery.
- September 30 - Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer are released from Spandau Prison.
- September 30 - Botswana achieves independence.
October
- October - Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party.
- October 1 - West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with eighteen fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9. [1]
- October 3 - Tunisia severs diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic.
- October 4 - Israel applies for the outer membership of the EEC.
- October 4 - Basutoland becomes independent and takes the name Lesotho.
- October 5 - UNESCO signs the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. This event is now celebrated as World Teachers' Day.
- October 7 - The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October.
- October 9 - The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series, 1?0, to sweep the series for their 1st World Championship.
- October 11 - France and the Soviet Union sign a treaty for cooperation in nuclear research.
- October 14 - The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro).
- October 15 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.
- October 15 - U.S. Congress passes a bill for the creation of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to be created.
- October 15 - ABC-TV telecasts a highly-acclaimed ninety-minute television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon, starring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Ann Howes. It wins many Emmy Awards, is repeated just five months later, and inaugurates a short-lived series of special television adaptations of famous Broadway musicals on ABC. Goulet stars in all but one of these specials.
- October 16 - Grace Slick performs live for the first time with Jefferson Airplane.
- October 17 - Lesotho and Botswana are admitted to the United Nations.
- October 21 - The Aberfan disaster occurs in South Wales, United Kingdom.
- October 22 - British spy George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison; he is next seen in Moscow.
- October 22 - Spain demands that the United Kingdom stop military flights to Gibraltar; Britain refuses the next day.
- October 24 - Negotiations about the Vietnam War begin in Manila, Philippines.
- October 25 - A military court in Jakarta sentences ex-foreign minister Subandrio to death.
- October 25 - Spain closes its Gibraltar border to non-pedestrian traffic.
- October 26 - NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels.
- October 27 - The United Nations takes Namibia from South Africa.
- October 29 - The Guinean delegation to the OAU meeting in Ethiopia, become hostages of the Ghanaian government in Accra.
November
- November 2 - The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
- November 4 - The Arno river floods Florence, damaging many art treasures.
- November 5 - Thirty-eight African states demand that the United Kingdom use force against the Rhodesian government.
- November 6 - Lunar Orbiter 2 is launched.
- November 8 - Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.
- November 8 - Actor Ronald Reagan, a Republican, is elected Governor of California.
- November 9 - John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at the Indica Gallery
- November 11 - A mine kills 3 Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.
- November 11 - Spain declares general amnesty for crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War (effective only for the Falangists' side).
- November 15 - Gemini 12 (James A. Lovell, Buzz Aldrin), splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km east of the Bahamas.
- November 15 - Harry Maurice Roberts, who killed 3 policemen in August, is caught near London.
- November 15 - A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
- November 16 - U.S. doctor Sam Sheppard is acquitted in his second trial for the murder of his pregnant wife in 1954.
- November 17 - The U.N. General Assembly decides to found the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
- November 17 - A spectacular Leonid meteor shower passes over Arizona, at the rate of 2,300 a minute for 20 minutes.
- November 21 - The army crushes an attempted coup in Togo.
- November 28 - Truman Capote's Black and White Ball ('The Party of the Century') is held in New York City.
- November 30 - Barbados achieves independence.
December
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January
- January 1 - Anna Burke, Australian politician and member for Chisholm in the House of Representatives
- January 1 - Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón, Puerto Rican Breakdancer, President of Rock Steady Crew
- January 1 - Michael Imperioli, American actor
- January 3 - Martin Galway, Northern Irish composer
- January 4 - Deana Carter, American singer
- January 5 - Kate Schellenbach, American musician, drummer for The Beastie Boys from 1981 to 1984, and Luscious Jackson
- January 7 - Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American actress and model, wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. (died 1999)
- January 8 - Igor Vyazmikin, Russian ice hockey player
- January 12 - Rob Zombie, American musician, artist, and writer
- January 13 - Patrick Dempsey, American actor
- January 14 - Marco Hietala, bassist in the Finnish Metal Band Nightwish
- January 17 - Shabba Ranks, Jamaican singer
- January 19 - Stefan Edberg, Swedish tennis player
- January 19 - Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player
- January 20 - Stacey Dash, American actress
- January 20 - Tracii Guns, American guitarist
- January 21 - Wendy James, British singer (Transvision Vamp)
- January 24 - Jimeoin, Northern Irish-Australian comedian and actor
- January 29 - Romário, Brazilian footballer
- January 30 - Hans Tutschku, German composer
February
- February 1 - Michelle Akers, American soccer player
- February 4 - Kyoko Koizumi, Japanese actress and singer
- February 6 - Rick Astley, British singer
- February 9 - Ellen van Langen, Dutch athlete
- February 11 - Stephen Gregory, American actor
- February 18 - Richard A Collins, British scientist and author
- February 20 - Cindy Crawford, American model and actress
- February 22 - Yahya Ayyash, chief bombmaker of Hamas and leader of Samaria battalion of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
- February 22 - Brian Greig, Australian statesman
- February 23 - Michael Arata, American actor
- February 24 - Billy Zane, American actor
- February 25 - Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete
- February 25 - Tea Leoni, American actress
- February 26 - Madeleine Carroll, British actress
- February 26 - Najwa Karam, Lebanese singer
March
- March 3 - Tone L?c, American musician
- March 4 - Daniela Amavia, American actress and international model
- March 4 - Kevin Johnson, American basketball player
- March 4 - Grand Puba (Brand Nubian), American rapper
- March 4 - Patrick Hannan, English pop drummer with The Sundays
- March 4 - Steve Bastoni, Italian Australian actor
- March 4 - Dav Pilkey, American writer
- March 4 - Wash Westmoreland, British film director
- March 5 - Mark Z. Danielewski, American author
- March 5 - Michael Irvin, American football player
- March 6 - Maurice Ashley, African-American chess grandmaster
- March 6 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist (died 1996)
- March 7 - Jeff Feagles, National Football League punter
- March 9 - Michael Patrick MacDonald, American memorist
- March 10 - Edie Brickell, American singer
- March 10 - Mike Timlin, baseball player
- March 16 - Rodney Peete, former National Football League quarterback
- March 17 - David Taylor, English Joiner
- March 25 - Tom Glavine, Major League Baseball player
- March 25 - Jeff Healey, Canadian guitarist (d. 2008)
- March 25 - Anton Rogan, Northern Irish footballer
- March 29 - Krassimir Balakov, former Bulgarian footballer and member of the Bulgarian national team
April
- April 1 - Chris Evans, British radio disc-jockey
- April 2 - Teddy Sheringham, British footballer
- April 3 - Miina Tominaga, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
- April 4 - Riduan Isamuddin, Bali bombing suspects
- April 8 - Robin Wright Penn, American actress
- April 8 - Bobby Ologun, Nigerian television personality and martial artist
- April 11 - Dustin Rhodes, American professional wrestler
- April 11 - Lisa Stansfield, British soul singer
- April 13 - Ali Boumnijel, Tunisian football goalkeeper
- April 14 - Greg Maddux, American baseball player
- April 14 - Lloyd Owen, British actor
- April 15 - Samantha Fox, British model and singer
- April 18 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian athlete
- April 20 - David Chalmers, Australian philosopher
- April 21 - Bubba the Love Sponge, American radio personality
- April 22 - Jeffrey Dean Morgan, American actor
- April 28 - John Daly, American golfer
- April 29 - Phil Tufnell, British cricketer
May
- May 1 - Anne Fletcher, American film director and choreographer
- May 3 - Firdous Bamji, Indian-American actor
- May 6 - Andrea Chiesa, Swiss Formula One driver
- May 6 - Cindy Hsu, Emmy Award winning anchor and reporter
- May 7 - Anderson Cummins, international cricketer
- May 7 - Hill Harper, American film, television and stage actor
- May 7 - Jes Høgh, Danish football (soccer) player
- May 8 - Robert J. Behnen, genealogist and a former member of the Missouri House of Representatives
- May 8 - Blag Dahlia, American musician, producer, and author
- May 8 - Kamil Ka??ák, Czechoslovakian ice hockey player
- May 8 - Marta Sánchez, Spanish female vocalist, entertainer
- May 8 - Cláudio Taffarel, Brazilian goalkeeper
- May 10 - Mikael Andersson, ice hockey player
- May 10 - Frank T. Caprio, General Treasurer of Rhode Island
- May 10 - Wade Domínguez, American actor, model, singer and dancer (d. 1998)
- May 10 - Jonathan Edwards, British athlete
- May 10 - Anne Elvebakk, biathlete from Norway
- May 10 - Genaro Hernandez, Mexican-American boxer
- May 11 - Christoph Schneider, German musician (Rammstein)
- May 12 - Stephen Baldwin, American actor
- May 12 - Bebel Gilberto, Brazilian popular singer
- May 13 - Nereus Acosta, politician, academician, and political scientist in the Philippines
- May 13 - Cheryl Dunye, film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress
- May 13 - Darius Rucker, American singer (Hootie & the Blowfish)
- May 13 - Alison Goldfrapp, English singer-songwriter
- May 13 - Jeffrey Scott Holland, American artist and musician
- May 16 - Juan Manuel Funes, Guatemalan football coach and former midfielder
- May 16 - Janet Jackson, American singer
- May 16 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
- May 19 - Neil Campbell, British musician
- May 19 - Sophia Crawford, actress, stuntwoman and martial artist
- May 20 - Mindy Cohn, American actress
- May 20 - Joey Gamache, American boxer
- May 21 - Lisa Edelstein, American actress and playwright
- May 22 - Siri Eftedal, Norwegian team handball player and Olympic medalist
- May 22 - Johnny Gill, American singer
- May 23 - Graeme Hick, English cricketer
- May 24 - Dan Abrams, MSNBC host and correspondent
- May 24 - Eric Cantona, French footballer
- May 24 - Francisco Javier Cruz, Mexican football player
- May 24 - Ella Guru, American painter and musician
- May 25 - Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh, Iranian goalkeeper and Iranian national football team member
- May 25 - Jeff Cross (American football), American football defensive end
- May 26 - Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
- May 26 - Zola Budd, South African athlete
- May 27 - Heston Blumenthal OBE, British chef
- May 27 - Carol Campbell (actress), Afro-German actress, model and presenter
- May 27 - Juan M. Garcia, Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives
- May 28 - Theo Bleckmann, German vocalist and composer
- May 28 - Larry Davis (criminal), (d. 2008)
- May 29 - Robert Anderson, child murderer, executed 2006
- May 30 - Frank Goosen, German cabaret artist and novel author
- May 30 - Thomas Häßler, German football player
- May 30 - Stephen Malkmus, American singer (Pavement),(Stephen Malkmus)
June
- June 1 - Greg Schiano, American football coach
- June 2 - Candace Gingrich, LGBT rights activist
- June 4 - Cecilia Bartoli, Italian mezzo-soprano
- June 4 - Tiffany Million, American actress
- June 6 - Faure Gnassingbé, President of Togo
- June 6 - Murdoc Niccals, Member of Gorillaz, Damien Thorn The Awnser to Armegeddon
- June 8 - Julianna Margulies, American actress
- June 8 - Doris Pearson, British singer Five Star
- June 8 - Jens Kidman, Swedish musician
- June 14 - Matt Freeman, American musician
- June 15 - Roberto Carnevale, musician
- June 16 - Jan ?elezný, Czech javelin thrower
- June 17 - Christy Canyon, porn actress
- June 18 - Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater
- June 19 - Samuel West, British actor
- June 21 - Rudi Bakhtiar, American journalist
- June 22 - Michael Park, British rally co-driver (d. 2005)
- June 23 - Richie Ren, Taiwanese musician
- June 25 - Dikembe Mutombo, Congolese basketball player
- June 27 - J. J. Abrams, American television writer and producer
- June 28 - Mary Stuart Masterson, American actress
- June 28 - John Cusack, American actor
- June 30 - Mike Tyson, American boxer
- June 30 - Marton Csokas, New Zealand actor
July
- July 1 - Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer
- July 3 - Moisés Alou, baseball player
- July 5 - Kathryn Erbe, American actress
- July 5 - Claudia Wells, American actress
- July 5 - Gianfranco Zola, Italian football (soccer) player
- July 6 - Brian Posehn American actor and comedian
- July 7 - Jim Gaffigan, American comedian
- July 7 - Gundula Krause, German violinist
- July 13 - Gerald Levert, American singer (d. 2006)
- July 14 - Tanya Donelly, American musician
- July 14 - Matthew Fox, American actor
- July 15 - Irène Jacob, French-born actress
- July 15 - Dimitris P. Kraniotis, Greek poet
- July 22 - Shawn Michaels, American professional wrestler
- July 29 - Martina McBride, American singer
- July 29 - Richard Steven Horvitz, American voice actor
- July 30 - Murilo Bustamante, Brazilian mixed martial artist
- July 31 - Dean Cain, American actor
August
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