/born

Born in 1966

People born in 1966 turn 60 in 2026. A dollar in 1966 buys what $10.38 buys in September 2026, and about 3.40 billion people were alive. Every figure below links to the source it came from.

Your birthday in 1966

1966

What things cost in 1966

U.S. average1966in today’s dollarslatest
One dollar$1.00$10.38CPI-U
Median price of a new house sold MSPUS$21,500$223,185$410,700

1966 figures are annual averages of the published monthly (or quarterly) values. “Today’s dollars” uses the Consumer Price Index for September 2026; “latest” is the most recent published price. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, via FRED.

Who was in charge in 1966

United States
Lyndon B. Johnson (President)
United Kingdom
Elizabeth II (Queen); Harold Wilson (Prime minister)
Soviet Union
Leonid Brezhnev (First Secretary; General Secretary); Nikolai Podgorny (Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet); Alexei Kosygin (Chairman of the Council of Ministers)
People's Republic of China
Mao Zedong (Chairman; Paramount Leader); Liu Shaoqi (President); Zhou Enlai (Premier)
France
Charles de Gaulle (President); Georges Pompidou (Prime minister)
East Germany
Walter Ulbricht (Chairmen of the State Council); Willi Stoph (Chairman)
West Germany
Heinrich Lübke (President); Ludwig Erhard, then Kurt Georg Kiesinger (Chancellor)
Japan
Hirohito (Emperor); Eisaku Satō (Prime minister)
Republic of India
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (President); Lal Bahadur Shastri, then Indira Gandhi (Prime minister); Gulzarilal Nanda (Acting Prime minister)

From Wikipedia’s List of state leaders in the 20th century (1951–2000) (revision 1371751893), each name checked against Wikidata. Every country in 1966 →

No. 1 songs of 1966

  1. “The Sound of Silence” — Simon & Garfunkel (2 weeks)
  2. “We Can Work It Out” — The Beatles (3 weeks)
  3. “My Love” — Petula Clark (2 weeks)
  4. “Lightnin' Strikes” — Lou Christie (1 week)
  5. “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” — Nancy Sinatra (1 week)
  6. “The Ballad of the Green Berets” — SSgt. Barry Sadler (5 weeks)
  7. “(You're My) Soul and Inspiration” — The Righteous Brothers (3 weeks)
  8. “Good Lovin'” — The Young Rascals (1 week)
  9. “Monday, Monday” — The Mamas & the Papas (3 weeks)
  10. “When a Man Loves a Woman” — Percy Sledge (2 weeks)
  11. “Paint It Black” — The Rolling Stones (2 weeks)
  12. “Paperback Writer” — The Beatles (2 weeks)
  13. “Strangers in the Night” — Frank Sinatra (1 week)
  14. “Hanky Panky” — Tommy James and the Shondells (2 weeks)
  15. “Wild Thing” — The Troggs (2 weeks)
  16. “Summer in the City” — The Lovin' Spoonful (3 weeks)
  17. “Sunshine Superman” — Donovan (1 week)
  18. “You Can't Hurry Love” — The Supremes (2 weeks)
  19. “Cherish” — The Association (3 weeks)
  20. “Reach Out I'll Be There” — Four Tops (2 weeks)
  21. “96 Tears” — ? and the Mysterians (1 week)
  22. “Last Train to Clarksville” — The Monkees (1 week)
  23. “Poor Side of Town” — Johnny Rivers (1 week)
  24. “You Keep Me Hangin' On” — The Supremes (2 weeks)
  25. “Winchester Cathedral” — The New Vaudeville Band (3 weeks)
  26. “Good Vibrations” — The Beach Boys (1 week)
  27. “I'm a Believer” — The Monkees (1 week)

Weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with issue dates in 1966, from List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1966 (Wikipedia revision 1374820055).

Famous people born in 1966

  • December 9 – Glenn Youngkin, 74th governor of Virginia source
  • 9 October – David Cameron, British Conservative Party leader, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, MP for Witney and previously Leader of the Opposition. source
  • May 16 – Janet Jackson, African-American R&B singer source
  • June 30 – Mike Tyson, African-American boxer source
  • February 24 - Risa Hontiveros, Filipino politician, community leader, and journalist source
  • January 1 – Ivica Dačić, Serbian politician, Prime Minister of Serbia 2012–2014 source
  • February 8 – Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgarian footballer source
  • 8 February – Bruno Labbadia, German footballer and manager source
  • 1 November – Jeremy Hunt, British Conservative politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer source
  • 8 November – Gordon Ramsay, Scottish-born chef source
  • August 7 – Jimmy Wales, American-British entrepreneur, co-founder of Wikipedia source
  • 8 December – Sinéad O'Connor, singer-songwriter (died 2023). source
  • December 10 – Kirsten Gillibrand, American politician; United States Senator (D-NY) source
  • December 1 – Larry Walker, baseball player source
  • 24 March – Mark Williams, Liberal Democrat politician, MP for Ceredigion source

What happened in 1966

  • 10 January – Ayub Khan and Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri sign the Tashkent Declaration to resolve the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. source
  • January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo is deposed by a military coup in the Republic of Upper Volta (modern-day Burkina Faso). source
  • 13 January - Archipiélago de Juan Fernández National Park receive new names: Robinson Crusoe (formerly Mas a Tierra) and Alexander Selkirk (formerly Más Afuera) source
  • 3 January – First pipeline of Turkey between Batman and İskenderun source
  • January 20 - The Radio Caroline ship Mi Amigo runs aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, UK. source
  • January 17 – 1966 Palomares B-52 crash: A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and one into the sea. Carl Brashear, the first African-American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of the latter, which results in the amputation of his leg. source
  • March 5 – Merci, Chérie by Udo Jürgens (music by Udo Jürgens, lyrics by Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 (staged in Luxembourg) for Austria. source
  • 1 January – New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement comes into force. source
Everything that happened in 1966 →