1968 - What happened in 1968 ?

January 1968

Friday 05:

Alexander Dubček comes to power, "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.

Sunday 21:

Simon & Garfunkel release the Original Soundtrack to The Graduate, which quickly goes to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring Simon a Grammy for Best Original Score.

Tuesday 23:

North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their territorial waters while spying.

Tuesday 30:

Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins when Viet Cong forces launch series of a surprise attacks in South Vietnam.

Wednesday 31:

Nauru declares independence from Australia.

February 1968

Sunday 04:

Bowie Kuhn becomes the fifth commissioner of Major League Baseball, replacing William Eckert

Monday 05:

The Battle of Khe Sanh of the Vietnam War began.

Tuesday 06:

1968 Winter Olympic Games open in Grenoble, France.

Thursday 08:

American civil rights movement: A civil rights protest staged at a white-only bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina is broken-up by highway patrolmen leading to the deaths of three college students. (Orangeburg Massacre)

Saturday 17:

In Springfield, Massachusetts the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.

March 1968

Thursday 07:

Vietnam War: The First Battle of Saigon begins.

Tuesday 12:

Mauritius achieves independence.

Saturday 16:

Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers -- men, women, and children -- are killed by American troops.

Monday 18:

Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.

Sunday 31:

President Lyndon Johnson announces he will not run for re-election.

April 1968

Saturday 06:

In London, United Kingdom, Massiel wins the thirteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Spain singing "La, la, la".

Thursday 11:

German student leader Rudi Dutschke is shot in Berlin

Friday 12:

Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah

Tuesday 23:

Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.

Wednesday 24:

Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.

May 1968

Wednesday 22:

The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

Friday 24:

FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.

Saturday 25:

In St. Louis, Missouri, US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

Monday 27:

Future U.S. president George W. Bush enlists in the Texas Air National Guard.

June 1968

Monday 03:

Valerie Solanas, author of The SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.

Wednesday 05:

U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Sirhan Sirhan. (He dies on June 6).

Thursday 06:

Robert F. Kennedy dies.

Saturday 08:

The body of assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sunday 23:

74 are killed and 150 injured in a soccer stampede towards a closed exit in a Buenos Aires stadium.

July 1968

Monday 01:

Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL-CIO.

Wednesday 10:

Maurice Couve de Murville becomes Prime Minister of France

Sunday 14:

Hank Aaron becomes the eighth member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

Friday 26:

Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.

Saturday 27:

Pink Floyd releases the album A Saucerful of Secrets in the USA.

August 1968

Thursday 08:

Jur? Wada, a doctor at the Sapporo Medical School, successfully performs Japan's first heart transplant.

Wednesday 21:

Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia.

Thursday 22:

Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America

Friday 23:

Ringo Starr temporarily quits The Beatles

Wednesday 28:

Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention

September 1968

Friday 06:

Swaziland becomes independent.

Friday 13:

Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact.

Sunday 15:

The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Friday 27:

The stage musical, "Hair", opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it played 1,998 performances until closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July, 1973.

October 1968

Tuesday 08:

United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.

Friday 11:

Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.

Wednesday 16:

Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.

Friday 18:

A police raid on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's flat finds 168 grains of marijuana. They later plead guilty and are fined £150.

Thursday 31:

Vietnam War October surprise:Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.

November 1968

Tuesday 05:

U.S. presidential election, 1968: Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.

Monday 11:

A second republic is declared in the Maldives.

Wednesday 20:

Vietnam War: Eleven men comprising a Long Range Patrol team from F Company, 58th Infantry, 101st_Airborne are surrounded and nearly wiped out by North_Vietnamese_Army regulars from the 4th and 5th Regiment. The seven wounded survivors and their fallen brothers are rescued after several hours by an impromptu force made of other men from their unit.

Friday 22:

The Beatles release The White Album.

Tuesday 26:

British rock band Cream performs their farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

December 1968

Sunday 08:

NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.

Saturday 21:

Apollo 8 launched

Tuesday 24:

1968 - The crew of Apollo 8 enter into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so.

Friday 27:

The long-running radio program The Breakfast Club signs off for the last time (ABC radio).

Tuesday 31:

Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo.