waters deep only moments after takeoff, and only eight people escaped drowning. Died: Sergei Korolev, 59, Soviet rocket engineer who was chiefly responsible for the advances of the Soviet Union's space program in the 1950s and early 1960s. Korolev, whose importance had remained undisclosed by the Soviet press during his lifetime, died during surgery for removal of a tumor in his colon. In an editorial a week later, The New York Times eulogized him by noting that "[D]eath has finally declassified the role and identity of Academician Sergei P. Korolev, the man who provided the scientific and technical leadership of the Soviet rocket program... Korolev's rockets were powerful enough to send men into orbit and to put cameras in into position to photograph the back side of the Moon. But they were too weak to break the chains of secrecy that denied him, while he lived, the world applause he deserved...." January 15, 1966 (Saturday) In Nigeria, a conspiracy referred to as "The Majors' Coup" because of the military rank of the coup leaders was carried out. Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa, and the Northern State premier Ahmadu Bello and the Western State premier, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, were all murdered, along with Balewa's Finance Minister, Festus Okotie-Eboh. Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna led his officers into Balewa's residence in Lagos. Balewa had surrendered to the officers after being assured of his safety. When the coup attempt collapsed, Balewa was shot to death. President Nnamdi Azikiwe was out of the country at the time, taking a vacation on a cruise ship. Air-to-air combat in Vietnam took on a new dimension, when a U.S. Navy RF-8 reconnaissance airplane spotted a MiG-21 jet fighter with North Vietnamese insignia. Previously, the North Vietnam Air Force had had little success with MiG-17 fighters, which were slower and had fewer missiles than the American F-105 jets. Slightly less than a month after Britain had started an oil embargo, Rhodesia's supply of gasoline ran out as the storage facilities at the Feruka Refinery ran dry. The 1966 Five Nations Championship in rugby union began with a 3-3 tie between Scotland and France at Edinburgh, and an 11-6 win by Wales over England at London. Each of the national teams (the other was Ireland) would play each other once during the competition. January 16, 1966 (Sunday) One day after the military coup that killed many of the leaders in