1966 in science

The year 1966 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

* February 3 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
* March 1 - Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
* March 31 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first spacecraft to enter orbit around the moon.

Computer science

* Martin Richards designs the BCPL programming language.

Psychology

*"On Aggression" and "Behind the Mirror" are published by Konrad Lorenz.

Awards

*Fields Prize in Mathematics: Michael Atiyah, Paul Joseph Cohen, Alexander Grothendieck and Stephen Smale
* Nobel Prizes
** Physics - Alfred Kastler
** Chemistry - Robert S. Mulliken
** Medicine - Peyton Rous, Charles Brenton Huggins
* Turing Award - A.J. Perlis

Births

*June 13 - Grigori Perelman, mathematician.

Deaths

* January 15 - Sergei Korolev (b. 1907), space scientist.
* March 1 - Fritz Houtermans (b. 1903), physicist.
* July 7 - George de Hevesy (b. 1885), chemist Nobel laureate.