• France - President Charles de Gaulle supervised the testing of a nuclear bomb 10 times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb of WW2.
• Space - the Soviet Union successfully landed an unmanned spacecraft (Luna 9) on the moon.
• Vietnam War - President Lyndon Johnson, breaking a campaign promise, escalated the war in Vietnam.
• China - the Cultural Revolution begins in Communist China.
Notable Deaths -
* Tour de France Champion: Sylvere Maes (Bel), 1909-1966, TdF champion in 1936 and 1939.
Mississippi John Hurt , 1893-1966, legendary, soft-spoken Delta Blues singer/guitarist rose from the obscurity of Mississippi cotton fields to a recording career in the 1920's. After early failure during the depression, he returned to the cotton fields before being re-discovered in 1963. Stardom graced Mississippi John after appearing at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival.
Walt Disney, 1901-1966, founder of the Walt Disney Corporation in Burbank, California, he created classic animated films starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. In 1955, Disney opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
