The following events occurred in November 1966:
November 1, 1966 (Tuesday) Hospital administrators at the Riverdell Hospital in Oradell, New Jersey, opened an investigation of one of the staff physicians, Dr. Mario Jascalevich, after a hospital surgeon discovered 18 open bottles, most of them almost empty, of the poison curare in Dr. Jascalevich's locker. Suspicion had arisen after nine of Dr. Jascalevich's patients had died after minor surgeries in the previous eleven months, the most recent victim being a 36-year-old mother who had died on October 23 after a Cesarean section. The doctor's explanation for the curare was that he had been "engaged in personal experiments on dogs", and he would continue to practice until 1976, when his indictment for five murders in what would become known as the "Dr. X killings" because of efforts to protect his anonymity during the trial. Jascalevich would be acquitted in 1978, and the case remains unsolved."Riverdell Hospital murders", in The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, by Michael Newton (Infobase Publishing, 2009) p320 Inventor Candido Jacuzzi of Lafayette, California, was granted U.S. Design Patent No. 206,143 for a large "Hydrotherapy Tub" that would bear his family's surname. Jacuzzi, who had immigrated to the United States from Italy at the age of 17, had developed the initial technology, a pump that could create a swirling whirlpool within a standard bathtub, in 1947. The invention had arisen from necessity, to ease the rheumatoid arthritis of Candido's child, who would document the history in a 2005 book.Ken Jacuzzi, Jacuzzi: A Father's Invention to Ease a Son's Pain (iUniverse, 2005) p xxiii Twelve firefighters in California were trapped and burned to death while fighting a blaze inside a canyon in the Pacoima area of the San Fernando Valley. All were members of the "El Coriso hot shots", a service crew for the U.S. Forestry Service in the nearby Cleveland National Forest."10 KILLED BY BRUSH FIRES", Chicago Tribune, November 2, 1966, p1 Ten died in the fire and two died a few days later in hospital from injuries sustained in the blaze. This event is known as the Loop Fire. On All Saints' Day, the National Football League awarded an expansion franchise to the largest city of Louisiana, and the owners announced that the pro football team would be called the New Orleans Saints.Dave Dixon, The Saints, the Superdome, and the Scandal (Pelican Publishing, 2008) pp. 71-72 Haryana became the 17th state of India, after being separated from the existing Punjab State by the Indian government.S. C. Mittal, Haryana, a Historical Perspective (Atlantic Publishers, 1986) p153 B. D. Sharma was installed as the first Chief Minister of Haryana at the capital, Chandigarh."Two new States from today", The Indian Express (Madras), November 1, 1966, p1
November 2, 1966 (Wednesday) Israel moved one step closer to developing its own nuclear weapons when its armaments agency, RAFAEL (an acronym based upon Reshut l'pituah Emtzaei L'ehima, Hebrew for "Authority for the Development of Means of Warfare") achieved a successful test implosion of a nuclear device. RAFAEL Director Munya Mador would later describe the date as the moment that "a test of special import" was achieved, representing "unambiguous experimental proof of the efficacy of the system" that "we had waited many years for." A low-level conflict within the Korean Demilitarized Zone began as six American soldiers and one South Korean were killed by members of the North Korean Army, who had penetrated inside South Korea. The attack, which followed a call on October 5 by North Korea's Kim Il Sung for "a positive struggle against U.S. imperialism", coincided with a visit by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson to South Korea. NASA's George E. Mueller announced plans to proceed with the Apollo Applications Program (AAP) project for an Orbital Workshop space station, starting by launching the complete airlock, Workshop, and multiple docking adapter into orbit at least a year before sending an astronaut crew. The first two missions would send three astronauts to the orbiting station for a 28-day flight and establish a larger clustered space configuration for subsequent missions in the era after the Apollo program exploration of the Moon. The Cuban Adjustment Act came into force, allowing automatic permanent residency (a prerequisite to United States citizenship) for any citizen of Cuba who had legally immigrated to the United States after January 1, 1959. The Act affected 123,000 refugees and their families who had fled the regime of Fidel Castro. Legislative elections were held in Barbados, in preparation for independence, with a 79.7% voter turnout. The Democratic Labour Party, led by Errol Barrow, won a majority in the new parliament, capturing 14 of the 24 seats. Air Canada began the first North American air services to the Soviet Union, starting with the flight of a DC-8 jet from Montreal to Moscow. The first Aeroflot flight from the Soviet Union to Canada would be inaugurated two days later. Leaders of West Germany's ruling coalition, the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, called upon their leader, Ludwig Erhard, to resign as Chancellor of West Germany. Born: David Schwimmer, American actor best known for portraying Ross Geller on Friends; in New York City Died: Sadao Araki, 89, war criminal, general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and Minister of War during World War II, who served ten years in prison after being convicted of war crimes. Peter Debye, 82, Dutch chemist who won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Mississippi John Hurt, 73, African-American singer and guitarist
November 3, 1966 (Thursday) Che Guevara, who had helped Fidel Castro take power in Cuba before setting off on fomenting similar popular uprisings in other nations, arrived in La Paz, Bolivia, with plans to help lead a guerrilla war against the Bolivian government. Clean-shaven, bald and wearing glasses, Guevara, entered the country with a passport from Uruguay as "Adolfo Mena Gonzalez", and was identified as a "Special Envoy of the Organization of American States".Richard L. Harris, Death of a Revolutionary: Che Guevara's Last Mission (W. W. Norton & Company, 2000) p97 Within two months after his arrival, however, he found that the Bolivian Communist Party had no wish to start a violent revolution, and set off to conduct his own fight, eventually being captured and executed in 1967.René De La Pedraja, Wars of Latin America, 1948-1982: The Rise of the Guerrillas (McFarland, 2013) p165 The Nobel Committee announced in Stockholm that Professor Robert Mulliken of the United States would receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his fundamental work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method", and Professor Alfred Kastler of France would get the Nobel Prize in Physics for "the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms"."Nobel Prize Award to U. of C. Prof.— Chemist, French Physicist Win", Chicago Tribune, November 4, 1966, p3 Died: Fritz Baumgarten, 83, German illustrator of children's books
November 4, 1966 (Friday) A flash flood killed 149 people when the Arno River swept through the city of Florence in Italy. Shortly after 9:00 p.m., the Arno's waters swept through the city. Exacerbated by the ancient city's narrow streets, the water level rose within two hours.Lee Davis, Natural Disasters (Infobase Publishing, 2010) pp169-171 With "a combination of moderately high tide, the runoff of torrential rain from the day before, and a sirocco wind blowing northward up the Adriatic","Between Venice and the deep blue sea", by Hugh Aldersey-Williams, New Scientist (magazine), August 4, 1988, p49 the river brought the highest recorded water level in Florence, peaking at . Besides the death toll (with 35 of the deaths in Florence itself, and another 114 in the surrounding countryside), the flood of the Arno destroyed millions of dollars' worth of Renaissance art masterpieces and rare books, and causing more damage than had been suffered during World War II."Desolation Left by Floods", Chicago Tribune, November 6, 1966, p5 The basements and first floor of the renowned Uffizi Gallery were inundated with water and mud, and water filled the Convent of St. Mark and the Florence Cathedral. Damaged also were the holdings of the Santa Croce Basilica, and six million books in the Italian national library and state archives (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale)."Italy's Floods Take Art Treasure Toll", Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1966, p4 The previous recorded high had been exactly 633 years earlier, on November 4, 1333.Robert Clark, Dark Water: Art, Disaster, and Redemption in Florence (Anchor Books, 2009) In Venice, which suffered its worst flooding in several centuries, the rise of the waters to more than six feet above normal "cut the country virtually in half", destroyed gondolas and boats, and damaged many of the foot bridges over the canals."Worst Flood in 966 Years Belts Venice", Chicago Tribune, November 5, 1966, p1 In Cairo, Prime Minister Yusuf Zuayyin of Syria signed a mutual defense pact with Egypt, committing each nation to coming to the other's aid in the event of a war with Israel. The treaty had been proposed by Egypt's President Gamel Abdel Nasser, who believed that Syrian provocation of Israel would end up bringing the entire Middle East into a war, as an attempt to bring Syria's incursions under control by requiring that the two nations consult with each other before undertaking military action.Elli Lieberman, Reconceptualizing Deterrence: Nudging Toward Rationality in Middle Eastern Rivalries (Routledge, 2012) p87
November 5, 1966 (Saturday) Ghana released the Foreign Minister of Guinea, General Joseph Ankrah, and 18 other Guineans who had been held as prisoners in Accra since being removed from an airliner while on their way to the meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The arrest and detention of the Guinean delegates had taken place on October 29 after Ghana alleged that many of its nationals were being held as prisoners by Guinea. The government of Ethiopia and the OAU negotiated the release of the Ghana delegation, which then proceeded to the summit in Ethiopia. KADS 103.5 FM, the first radio station devoted to have programming that consisted entirely of ads, went on the air in Los Angeles, after radio broadcaster Gordon McLendon came up with the idea for a service where listeners would pay for classified advertising ("want ads") to be read over the radio. In March 1968, McLendon would drop the "K-Ads" in favor of an all-music format, and be allowed to change the station name to KOST-FM. George E. Mueller, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, recommended to Robert C. Seamans, Jr., the lunar module ascent stage/half-rack Apollo telescope mount (LM/ATM) as the baseline configuration for development of the ATM. Born: Chester Turner, American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death for sexually assaulting and murdering fourteen women in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1998; in Warren, Arkansas Died: Dietrich von Choltitz, 71, Nazi German military governor of Paris in World War II. After being installed as Military Governor on August 2, 1944, General von Choltitz defied a direct order, from Adolf Hitler, to destroy Paris rather than to let it fall to the Allied invasion force. Instead, he surrendered the city "relatively intact" when troops arrived, and was ostracized after his post-war return home. A fellow general once said, "He has more friends in France than he has in Germany." His self-published 1950 autobiography, Is Paris Burning?, inspired a bestselling book by the same name.
November 6, 1966 (Sunday)