Events from the year 1966 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Harold Wilson (Labour)
Events January–March 3 January British Rail begins full electric passenger train services over the West Coast Main Line from Euston to Manchester and Liverpool with operation from London to Rugby. Services officially inaugurated 18 April. Stop-motion children's television series Camberwick Green first shown on BBC One as part of Watch with Mother. 4 January – More than 4,000 people attend a memorial service at Westminster Abbey for the broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, who died last month aged 52. 12 January – Three British MPs visiting Rhodesia (Christopher Rowland, Jeremy Bray and David Ennals) are assaulted there by supporters of Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith. 20 January The Queen commutes the death sentence on a Black prisoner in Rhodesia, two months after its abolition in the UK. Radio Caroline South pirate radio ship runs aground on the beach at Frinton. 21 January – The White minority-ruled regime in Rhodesia rejects the royal prerogative commuting death sentences on two Africans. 27 January – The Labour Party unexpectedly retains the parliamentary seat of Hull North in a by-election, with a swing of 4.5% to their candidate from the opposition Conservatives, and a majority up from 1,181 at the 1964 General Election to 5,351. 30 January – Action Man toy figure launched in the UK. 31 January – The United Kingdom ceases all trade with Rhodesia. 9 February – A prototype Fast Reactor nuclear reactor opens at Dounreay on the north coast of Scotland. 17 February – The UK protests to South Africa over its supplying of petrol to Rhodesia. 19 February – Naval minister Christopher Mayhew resigns over a government policy to abandon an aircraft carrier project. 28 February – Harold Wilson calls a snap general election for 31 March, in hope of increasing his vulnerable single-seat majority in Parliament. 1 March – Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan announces the decision to embrace decimalisation of the pound (which will be effected on 15 February 1971). 4 March In an interview published in the Evening Standard, John Lennon of The Beatles comments, "We're more popular than Jesus now". The UK gives recognition to the new regime in Ghana. 5 March – BOAC Flight 911 crashes in severe clear-air turbulence over Mount Fuji soon after taking off from Tokyo International Airport in Japan, killing all 124 on board. 9 March – Ronnie Kray, one of the Kray twins, shoots George Cornell (an associate of rivals The Richardson Gang) at The Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, East London. Cornell dies later in hospital, and Kray is finally convicted in 1969. 10 March – The Frost Report, which launches the television careers of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett and other writers and performers, is first broadcast on BBC One 11 March – Chi-Chi, London Zoo's giant panda, is flown to the Soviet Union for a union with An-An of Moscow Zoo. 20 March – Theft of football's Jules Rimet Trophy whilst on exhibition in London. 23 March – Pope Paul VI and Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, meet in Rome. 27 March – Pickles, a mongrel dog, finds the FIFA World Cup Trophy wrapped in newspaper in a garden in South London. 30 March – Opinion polls show that the Labour government is on course to significantly increase its parliamentary majority at the general election tomorrow. 31 March – The Labour Party led by Harold Wilson win the general election with a landslide majority of 96 seats. At the 1964 election held just 17 months earlier, Labour had a narrow majority of five seats but subsequent by-election defeats had led to that being reduced to just one seat prior to this election. The Birmingham Edgbaston seat is retained for the Conservatives by Jill Knight in succession to Edith Pitt, the first time two female MPs have followed each other in the same constituency.
April–June 1 April – Local government reorganisation sees the reduction in the number of local authorities, with many smaller urban districts and boroughs being absorbed into newly created and expanded boroughs. The reorganisation also sees a number of county boundaries altered. The West Midlands region sees some of the most notable changes, with most of Sedgley and Brierley Hill being added to an expanded Dudley borough, which also takes in the southern part of Coseley. Warley County Borough is created from the former boroughs of Oldbury, Smethwick and Rowley Regis as well as parts of Dudley, Tipton and Halesowen. Dudley is transferred from Worcestershire to Staffordshire, while Smethwick and Rowley Regis are both transferred from Staffordshire to Worcestershire. 6 April – Hoverlloyd inaugurate the first regular hovercraft service across the English Channel, from Ramsgate Harbour to Calais using passenger-carrying SR.N6 craft (discontinued in 2000 due to competition with the Channel Tunnel). 7 April – The United Kingdom asks the United Nations Security Council to use force to stop oil tankers that violate the oil embargo against Rhodesia. Authority is given on 10 April. 11 April – The Marquess of Bath, in conjunction with Jimmy Chipperfield, opens Longleat Safari Park, with "the lions of Longleat", at his Longleat House, the first such drive-through safari park outside of Africa. 15 April – Time magazine uses the phrase 'Swinging London'. 19 April – Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, charged with murdering two children and a teenager in the highly publicised Moors murders which came to light in October last year. The prosecution is led by the Attorney General, Sir Elwyn Jones. 30 April – Liverpool F.C. win the Football League First Division title for the second time in three seasons. 1 May – The Beatles play their last conventional live concert in Britain, at the Empire Pool (Wembley) on the bill alongside The Rolling Stones and The Who. 2 May – Scottish inventor James Goodfellow obtains a patent for an automated teller machine using a plastic card and PIN.UK Patent No.1,197,183. 3 May – "Pirate" radio stations 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. 6 May – The Moors murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, are sentenced at Chester Crown Court to life imprisonment for three child murders committed between November 1963 and October 1965 in the north west of England. Brady is guilty of all three murders and receives three concurrent terms of life imprisonment, while Hindley is found guilty of two murder charges and an accessory charge in connection to the third. She is sentenced to two concurrent life sentences alongside a seven-year fixed term. In 1986 they admit to two further child murders. Both will die in custody. 12 May – African members of the UN Security Council say that the British Army should blockade Rhodesia. 14 May – Everton F.C. defeat Sheffield Wednesday 3–2 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, overturning a 2–0 Sheffield Wednesday lead during the final 16 minutes of the game."Wembley – Saturday 14th May – Everton 3 Sheffield Wednesday 2." 16 May – A strike is called by the National Union of Seamen, ending on 29 May. 17 May – Bob Dylan is called "Judas" during his performance at the Manchester Free Trade Hall for performing with an electric band in the second half. 18 May – Home Secretary Roy Jenkins announces that the number of police forces in England and Wales will be cut to 68. 26 May – British Guiana achieves independence from the United Kingdom, becoming Guyana.Guyana. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved on 2008-02-03. 6 June – BBC One television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part begins its first series run. 16 June – The Beatles perform live on BBC television's Top of the Pops, the UK's major television pop music show, for the first and only time, miming to both "Paperback Writer" and its b-side, "Rain". A surviving 92-second clip is found in 2019. 23 June – The Beatles go on top of the British singles charts for the tenth time with "Paperback Writer". 29 June – Barclays introduces the Barclaycard, the first British credit card.
July–September 3 July 31 arrests are made after a protest against the Vietnam War outside the United States Embassy in London in Grosvenor Square by around 4,000 people turns violent. The Fire, Auto & Marine Insurance Company enters the liquidation process leaving 400,000 motorists uninsured. Emil Savundra will later be jailed for fraud in connection with the company's trading and collapse. 11 July The 1966 FIFA World Cup competition, staged in England, begins. British Motor Corporation and Jaguar Cars announce plans to merge as British Motor Holdings. Scotsman Angus Barbieri ends a 382-day fast, during which he consumed only water, vitamins, salts, yeast and a small amount of milk and sugar, and achieved his aim of losing . 12 July – Zambia threatens to leave the Commonwealth because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia. 14 July – Gwynfor Evans is elected as the Member of Parliament for Carmarthen, the first ever Plaid Cymru MP, after his victory at a by-election, overturning the previous Labour majority with an 18% swing. 15 July – West Indian-born Asquith Xavier is appointed as a guard at Euston railway station after the opposition of the local staff committee is overturned, ending a colour bar in Euston Station that is rumoured to have been in place for the last 12 years. 16 July – Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations over the Vietnam War. The Soviet Government rejects his ideas. 20 July – Start of six-month wage and price freeze. 22 July – Pleasure boat Prince of Wales collides with a bridge and sinks in the Mawddach Estuary, killing 15 people. 26 July – Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House, when acting in a judicial capacity, is not bound to follow its own previous precedent. 30 July England beats West Germany 4–2 to win the 1966 World Cup at Wembley. Geoff Hurst scores a hat-trick, and Martin Peters scores the other English goal, in a game which attracts an all-time record UK television audience of more than 32 million. An AEC Routemaster bus on route 7 in London catches fire near Marble Arch, but all the passengers and crew escape without injury. Retrieved 7 March 2021. 31 July – Loss of MV Darlwyne: a pleasure cruiser disappears off the coast of Cornwall with the loss of all 31 aboard.' 1 August Everton F.C. sign Blackpool's World Cup winning midfield player Alan Ball, Jr. for a national record fee of £110,000. The Colonial Office merges with the Commonwealth Relations Office to form a new Commonwealth Office. 2 August – The Spanish government forbids overflights by British military aircraft. 4 August – The Kray Twins are questioned in connection with a murder in London. 5 August – The Beatles release the album Revolver. 10 August – George Brown succeeds Michael Stewart as Foreign Secretary. 12 August – Shepherd's Bush murders: Three plain clothes policemen are shot dead in West London while investigating a suspicious vehicle in Braybrook Street. 15 August – John Whitney is arrested and charged with the Shepherd's Bush murders. 17 August – John Duddy is arrested in Glasgow and charged with the Shepherd's Bush murders. A third suspect is still at large. 18 August – Tay Road Bridge opens. 22 August – Centre Point, a 32-floor office building at St Giles Circus in London, designed by Richard Seifert for property speculator Harry Hyams, is completed. It remains empty for around a decade. 24 August – Tom Stoppard's tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is first staged, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 29 August – The Beatles play their very last concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.