1966

In January, the Director of the Selective Service (the Draft) announced that tests and class standings would again become criteria for deferment of college students from the draft.

Pope Paul VI appeals to the governments of North and South Vietnam, China and the Soviet Union, to come to a peaceful settlement in Vietnam.

In February, the U.S. announced its forces suffered more than 1200 casualties in Vietnam during January, an increase of 300 over December. They included 176 dead, 1049 wounded, 17 missing.

In March, astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott splashed down safely in an emergency landing of the Gemini 8 spacecraft, after it lost primary maneuvering power while docked in orbit with an Agena space vehicle.

Consumer prices rose sharply for the second month in a row.

In the week ending April 9, there were more U.S. soldiers killed than their South Vietnamese allies for the first time since the start of the war. More U.S. troops were killed in during the first 99 days of 1966 than in all of 1965---1361.

In May, California and Nevada passed the first state laws in the nation prohibiting possession of LSD. Ground fighting in Vietnam took the highest toll in American casualties in a single week since the war began.

In June, the Surveyor 1 spacecraft made a successful soft landing on the Moon, and sent back high quality photos. Gemini 9 's mission was partly successful. The U.S and Soviet Union agreed to meet in Geneva to review draft treaties on the peaceful use of outer space.

In July, Gemini 10 had a successful 3 day mission. Large demonstrations protesting the U.S. in the Vietnam war were held in England, France and Japan.

In July, race riots erupted in Chicago, San Francisco, Baltimore, Cleveland, Omaha and several other cities. None is as devastating as the Watts riots the previous summer, which began the pattern of looting and burning buildings. Some 15,000 law enforcement officials and 12,000 National Guard troops were called in. Thousands were arrested and 34 people were killed, most of them black, due (said an investigative commission later) predominately to inexperienced members of the Guard. In 1966, however, at least two violent disruptions began when gangs of whites attacked black citizens (in Baltimore) and Civil Rights demonstrators (in Chicago.)

In August, a 25 year old architecture student named Charles Whitman, took a small arsenal of weapons to the top of a tower at the University of Texas and opened fire on the campus below. He killed 14 people and wounded 33.

The Defense Department set the October draft quota at 46,200 men, the largest for a single month since Korean war. The Department said it was necessary because of a sharp drop in volunteer enlistment.