1968 Jan 5, Alexander Dubcek was elected First Secretary of the
Communist Party in Czechoslovakia.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Jan 5, U.S. forces in Vietnam launched Operation Niagara
I to locate enemy units around the Marine base at Khe Sanh.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1968 Jan 9, The Surveyor VII space probe made a soft landing on
the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations
of the lunar surface.
(AP, 1/9/99)
1968 Jan 13, The U.S. reported shifting most air targets from
North Vietnam to Laos.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1968 Jan 16, The UK announced that it would end all "East of Suez"
presence by 1971.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Jan 19, Cambodia charged that the United States and South
Vietnam had crossed the border and killed three Cambodians.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1968 Jan 21, In Vietnam, the Siege of Khe Sanh began as North
Vietnamese units surround U.S. Marines based on the hilltop headquarters.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1968 Jan 21, A B-52 airplane loaded with hydrogen bombs crashed
at North Star Bay, Greenland.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Jan 22, The TV comedy show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In"
premiered on NBC.
(AP, 1/22/98)
1968 Jan 23, North Korea seized the U.S. Navy intelligence ship
Pueblo, charging it had in intruded into the communist nation's territorial
waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(NG, 8/74, p.266)(AP, 1/23/98)
1968 Jan 29, A court convened in Vietnam for the murder of Cambodian,
triple agent Inchin Lam, by Special Forces Captain John J. McCarthy Jr.
Murder charges were later dropped due to exculpatory evidence and proven
prosecutorial fraud on the court. A civil action for $1.3 billion is pending
in US Federal District Court, Washington D.C. against the CIA and associated
agencies.
(HN,1/29/99)(http://www.copvcia.com/Mac.htm)(www.geocities.com/larryjodaniel/17.html)
1968 Jan 30, The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Communist forces
launched a surprise offensive during the lunar New Year Tet holiday truce
that became known as the Tet Offensive. They attacked more than 100 cities
in South Vietnam and there was many US casualties.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(AP, 1/30/98)(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A25)
1968 Jan 31, In Vietnam, the Tet Offensive began as Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese soldiers attacked strategic and civilian locations
throughout South Vietnam. The Viet Cong seized part of the US embassy in
Saigon for 6 hours.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN, 1/31/99)
1968 Jan, An Israeli submarine, the Dakar, a British-made submarine
with a 69-man crew, was lost in the Mediterranean Sea while enroute from
England to Israel. The sunken ship was found May 28, 1999, between Crete
and Cyprus.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A8)
1968 Feb 1, Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis and Priscilla
Beaulieu Presley, was born. Lisa Marie married 'The Gloved One', Michael
Jackson, in the '90s.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A1)(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1968 Feb 1, U.S. troops drove the North Vietnamese out of Tan
Son Nhut airport in Saigon.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1968 Feb 1, South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu declared
martial law.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1968 Feb 1, During the Vietnam War, Saigon's police chief Nguyen
Ngoc Loan (d.1998 at 67) executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot
to the head in a scene captured in a famous news photograph by Eddie Adams.
(AP, 2/1/97)(SFC, 7/16/98, p.B2)
1968 Feb 5, U.S. troops divided Viet Cong at Hue while the Saigon
government claimed they would arm loyal citizens.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1968 Feb 6, Former president Dwight Eisenhower hit a golfing hole-in-one.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, Z1 p.8)
1968 Feb 6, Charles de Gaulle opened the 19th Winter Olympics
in Grenoble, France.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1968 Feb 7, North Vietnamese used 11 Soviet-built light tanks
to overrun the U.S. Special Forces camp at Lang Vei at the end of an 18-hour
long siege.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1968 Feb 8, George Wallace of Alabama entered the presidential
race.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1968 Feb 8, Robert F. Kennedy said that the U.S. cannot win the
Vietnam War.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1968 Feb 8, Three college students were killed in a confrontation
with highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, S.C., during a civil rights protest
against a whites-only bowling alley.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1968 Feb 10, Peggy Fleming of the United States won the gold medal
in women's figure skating at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France.
(AP, 2/10/97)
1968 Feb 12, "Soul on Ice" by Eldridge Cleaver was first published.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1968 Feb 13, The U.S. sent 10,500 more combat troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1968 Feb 15, Anaheim's Les Salvage scored 10, 3-pt baskets in
an ABA game vs. Denver.
(440 Int'l., 2/15/99)
1968 Feb 16, The nation's first 911 emergency telephone system
was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala.
(AP, 2/16/98)
1968 Feb 18, Three U.S. pilots who were held by the Vietnamese
arrived in Washington. Today, the Vietnamese people are pressuring Hanoi
to account for their own 300,000 MIAs.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1968 Feb 20, A Hue army chief ordered all looters to be shot on
sight.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1968 Feb 24, The Tet offensive ended with the crushing of the
last Viet Cong resistance in Hue, South Vietnam.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Feb 26, Thirty-two African nations agreed to boycott the
Olympics because of the presence of South Africa.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1968 Feb 29, The Beatles won a Grammy Award for their album "Sergeant
Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band."
(HN, 2/29/00)
1968 Feb 29, President Johnson's National Advisory Commission
on Civil Disorders (also known as the Kerner Commission) warned that racism
was causing America to move "toward two societies, one black, one white
-- separate and unequal."
(AP, 2/29/00)
1968 Feb 29, Robert McNamara resigned as US Secretary of Defense
after the Tet disaster. He was succeeded by Clark Clifford for 9 months
who worked to reverse US policy in Vietnam.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.A2)
1968 Feb 29, The discovery of the first "pulsar," a star which
emits regular radio waves, was announced by Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell at
Cambridge, England.
(AP, 2/29/00)(HN, 2/29/00)
1968 Mar 1, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was replaced
by Clark Clifford.
(HN, 3/1/99)
1968 Mar 2, The siege of Khe Sanh ended in Vietnam, the U.S. Marines
stationed there were still in control of the mountain top.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1968 Mar 7, The Battle of Saigon, begun on the day of the Tet
Offensive, ended.
(HN, 3/7/99)
1968 Mar 8, A Soviet submarine, code-named K129, sank in the Pacific
at a depth of almost 20,000 feet. A US sub, the Halibut, found the Soviet
vessel 6 months later and recovered 3 missiles with nuclear warheads, Soviet
code books and an encryption machine. In 1974 the CIA attempted to recover
the sub. A 100 foot section was pulled in by the Glomar Explorer with 2
nuclear tipped torpedoes and the bodies of 6 Russian sailors.
(SFC, 7/15/96, p.A6)
1968 Mar 9, General William Westmoreland asked for 206,000 more
troops in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1968 Mar 10, Robert Kennedy visited Delano, Ca., in his bid for
the presidency. He joined Cesar Chavez in a chapel where Chavez broke his
fast on behalf of organizing farm workers.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.18)
1968 Mar 15, The U.S. mint halted the practice of buying and selling
gold.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1968 Mar 16, Robert F. Kennedy decided to join the presidential
race.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1968 Mar 16, LBJ decided to send 35-50,000 more troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1968 Mar 16, US troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley
Jr. massacred Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. 504 [407] villagers were
massacred. Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot, observed the end of the massacre.
He landed between some remaining villagers and his fellow soldiers and
ordered his gunner to fire on American troops if necessary. With 2 other
gunships he airlifted to safety a dozen villagers. He and his gunner were
awarded the Soldier's Medal in 1998. The atrocity was exposed by Ron Ridenhour
(d.1998 at 52), a door gunner on an observation helicopter, who flew over
the village a few days after the event. He waited several months until
he was out of the service before reporting the event to state and congressional
officials. In 1999 Trent Angers authored "The Forgotten Hero of My Lai:
The Hugh Thompson Story."
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFEC, 10/13/96, BR p.4)(AP, 3/16/97)(SFC,
3/5/98, p.A9)(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A8)(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/2/99, p.A24)
1968 Mar 16, Lt. Calley led 105 men of Company C into My Lai and
at least 350 of 700 civilians were killed. Other killings by B company
occurred nearby. Col. Oran K. Henderson (d.1998 at 77) was on his first
day as commanding officer of the new 11th Infantry Brigade and watched
from a command helicopter. The Army later charged 25 officers and enlisted
men in the massacre but only Lt. Calley was convicted.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A23)
1968 Mar 17, In Vietnam during the siege of Khe Sanh, the longest
and bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War, Manny Babbit was wounded. Babbit
in 1980 killed a 78-year-old woman in Sacramento and was convicted and
sentenced to death. He was awarded his Purple Heart while on death row
in 1998.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A1)
1968 Mar 22, Gen'l. William Westmoreland was relieved of his duties
in the wake of the Tet disaster. He was succeeded by Gen'l. Creighton Abrams.
Abrams reversed Westmoreland's strategy. He ended major "search and destroy"
missions and focused on protecting population centers. William Colby took
charge of the pacification campaign.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN, 3/22/97)(WSJ, 6/23/99, p.A24)
1968 Mar 27, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit
the Earth, died in a plane crash.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1968 Mar 28, The U.S. lost its first aircraft in Vietnam. An F-111
vanished in a combat mission over North Vietnam. Republic Aircraft's F-105
Thunderchief, better known as the 'Thud,' was the Air Force's warhorse
in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1968 Mar 28, In Memphis a riot erupted during a protest march
in support of striking workers led by Martin Luther King.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A3)
1968 Mar 31, Pres. Johnson announced that he would not run for
reelection and declared a partial bombing halt in Vietnam. The stock market
soared.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(TMC, 1994, p.1968)(SFC, 8/18/96, zone 1 p4)(AP,
3/30/97)
1968 Apr 1, In Vietnam the U.S. Army launched Operation Pegasus
to reopen a land route to the besieged Khe Sanh Marine base.
(HN, 4/1/99)
1968 Apr 3, Less than 24 hours before he was assassinated in Memphis,
Tenn., civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. told a rally of striking
sanitation workers, "It really doesn't matter with me now, because I've
been to the mountain top, and I don't mind."
(AP, 4/3/98)
1968 Apr 3, North Vietnam agreed to meet with U.S. representatives
to set up preliminary peace talks.
(AP, 4/3/97)
1968 Apr 4, Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, 39, was assassinated
while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. James
Earl Ray (d.1998) confessed and pleaded guilty in Mar, 1969, but later
tried to recant and said he was a fall guy. In 1993 Lloyd Jowers, a Memphis
businessman, said on ABC-TV that he had hired King's killer as a favor
to an underworld figure who was a friend. In 1997 Ray identified an arms
smuggler named "Raoul" as the real killer. In 1998 a former FBI agent produced
documents from Ray's car with the name Raul. In 1999 a civil trial jury
in Memphis ruled that the 1968 killing of Rev. Martin Luther King was a
conspiracy. The jury concluded that Lloyd Jowers, a former café
owner, had conspired with elements of the Memphis Police Dept., the federal
government and organized crime to kill King.
(SF E&C, 1/15/1995, A-15)(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFC, 12/26/96,
p.A3)(AP, 4/4/97)(SFC, 4/7/97, p.A10)(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A3)(SFC, 4/24/98,
p.A1)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A12)(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A9)(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A1)(SFC,
12/10/99, p.A15)
1968 Apr 5, Riots erupted across the US following the King assassination.
(CL, 4/5/96)
1968 Apr 5, Robert F. Kennedy assured the nation that "no martyr's
cause had ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet."
(SFEC, 1/16/00, BR p.1)
1968 Apr 5, In Vietnam the siege of Khe Sahn ended after 76 days.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1968 Apr 6, Black Panther member Bobby Hutton (17) was killed
in a gun battle with police in West Oakland, Ca., and Eldridge Cleaver
was arrested.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A15)(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A13)
1968 Apr 10, President Johnson replaced General Westmoreland with
General Creighton Abrams in Vietnam. [see Mar 22]
(HN, 4/10/98)
1968 Apr 11, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights
Act of 1968, a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
(HFA, '96, p.28)(AP, 4/11/98)(HN, 4/11/98)
1968 Apr 11, Riots erupted in West Berlin after the shooting
of Rudi Dutschke.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Apr 14, The Matt Crowley play "The Boys in the Band" opened
in New York.
(AP, 4/14/98)
1968 Apr 16, The Pentagon announced the "Vietnamization" of the
war; troops will begin coming home.
(HN, 4/16/99)
1968 Apr 18, There was a coup in Sierra Leone. A new government
under Siaka Stevens was announced.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Apr 19, The Secretary of the National Assembly in Czechoslovakia
promised rehabilitation of political prisoners and freedom of the press,
assembly and religion.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Apr 20 [Apr 21], Pierre Elliott Trudeau was sworn in as prime
minister of Canada. Pierre Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada. He
succeeded Lester B. Pierson.
(AP, 4/20/97)(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(CFA, '96, p.81)
1968 Apr 23, The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren
Church merged to form the United Methodist Church.
(AP, 4/23/97)
1968 Apr 23-30, There was a student sit-in at Columbia Univ. and
628 people were arrested.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Apr 24, Leftist students at Columbia University in New York
City began a weeklong occupation of several campus buildings in protest
over the Vietnam War. [Apr 23 is also given as the start of the occupation]
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/99)
1968 Apr 28, In Baden-Wurttenburg, West Germany, the far-right
National Democratic Party gained 12 seats.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Apr 29, Dr. Ralph Abernathy led The Poor People's Campaign
in Washington D.C., less than a month after the assassination of King.
It concluded on June 23. The campaign was for reforms in welfare, employment
and housing policies. Abernathy was the successor to Rev. Martin Luther
King as head of the Southern Christian Leadership conference.
(HNQ, 1/19/99)
1968 Apr 30, U.S. Marines attacked a division of North Vietnamese
in the village of Dai Do.
(HN, 4/30/99)
1968 May 1, In the second day of battle, U.S. Marines, with the
support of naval fire, continued their attack on a North Vietnamese Division
at Dai Do.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1968 May 2, The U.S. Army attacked Nhi Ha in South Vietnam and
began a fourteen-day battle to wrestle it away from Vietnamese Communists.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1968 May 3, After three days of battle, the U.S. Marines retook
Dai Do complex in Vietnam, only to find the North Vietnamese had evacuated
the area.
(HN, 5/3/99)
1968 May 3-17, Student riots and strikes hit France. 10 million
workers went on strike. Workers struck the Renault factory on Seguin Island
for 33 days until the government recognized their union.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C12)(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.B14)
1968 May 5, U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in
support of attacking infantrymen.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1968 May 5, Spain closed its frontier with Gibraltar.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 May 6, Astronaut Neil Armstrong was nearly killed in a lunar
module trainer accident.
(HNQ, 7/20/99)
1968 May 8, Catfish Hunter of the Oakland Athletics pitched the
first perfect game in the American League in 47 years before a crowd of
5,000 at the Oakland Coliseum.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W39)
1968 May 10, Preliminary Vietnam peace talks began in Paris.
(AP, 5/10/97)
1968 May 13, Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began
in Paris.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN, 5/13/98)
1968 May 15, U.S. Marines relieved army troops in Nhi Ha, South
Vietnam after a fourteen-day battle.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1968 May 21, The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with
99 men aboard, was last heard from. (The remains of the sub were later
found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores).
(AP, 5/21/97)
1968 May 24, Rioters set fire to the Paris Bourse.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 May 25, The Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, was dedicated.
(AP, 5/25/97)
1968 May 27, Philip and Daniel Berrigan with seven other Catholic
activists entered a draft board office in Catonsville Md., and seized nearly
400 files of young men classified 1-A, then burned the files with homemade
napalm, made from a recipe in the US Army Special Services Handbook.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, BR p.8)
1968 May 27, Last Monday of the month. Memorial Day, which began
in 1868 as Decoration Day, was set aside to remember those who have died
in the service of their country. Celebrated on May 30 for the first 100
years, Memorial Day was officially changed to the last Monday in May in
1968.
(HNPD, 5/31/99)
1968 May, The Lawrence Hall of Science opened in the Berkeley
Hills. It was built in honor of Ernest Orlando Lawrence, who developed
the cyclotron. The octagonal shape represented the 8 branches of physical
science.
(LHS, 2/12/1998)
1968 May, Bill Hambrecht & George Quist founded Hambrecht
& Quist, an investment banking firm that focused on hi-growth issues.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.D1)
1968 Jun 1, "The Prisoner" (TV Sci-fi Adventure) starring Patrick
McGoohan premiered on the CBS-TV network as a summer replacement for "The
Jackie Gleason Show"
(DT Internet 6/1/97)
1968 Jun 1, R.C., "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel peaked
at #1 on the pop singles chart.
(DT Internet 6/1/97)
1968 Jun 1, R.C., "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" by Hugo Montenegro
Orchestra peaked at #2 on the pop singles chart.
(DT Internet 6/1/97)
1968 Jun 1, R.C., "Jelly Jungle (Of Orange Marmalade)" by Lemon
Pipers peaked at #51 on the pop singles chart.
(DT Internet 6/1/97)
1968 Jun 1, R.C., "Unwind" by Ray Stevens peaked at #52 on the
pop singles chart.
(DT Internet 6/1/97)
1968 Jun 1, Author-lecturer Helen Keller, who earned a college
degree despite being blind and deaf most of her life, died in Westport,
Conn.
(AP, 6/1/97)
1968 Jun 3, Valerie Solanas, founder of the Society for Cutting
Up Men (SCUM), and author of the "SCUM Manifesto," shot Andy Warhol with
a .32 automatic in his New York film studio, known as The Factory. Warhol
survived but Solanas was judged insane and served three years in a psychiatric
prison. She died in 1989 at 52 in a welfare hotel in San Francisco of bronchial
pneumonia and emphysema. A film titled "I Shot Andy Warhol" opened in 1996
and featured Lili Taylor as Solanas.
(SFC, 5/15/96, p.E-1)(AP, 6/3/98)
1968 Jun 4, Robert Kennedy won the California democratic Presidential
Primary whose candidates included Eugene McCarthy. Vice-Pres. Hubert Humphrey
had declined to enter the Cal. primary.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.22)
1968 Jun 5, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded
in Los Angeles just after claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential
primary. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(AP, 6/5/97)
1968 Jun 6, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital
in Los Angeles, a day after he was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. In 2000
Ronald Steel authored "In Love With Night: The American Romance With Robert
Kennedy."
(AP, 6/6/97)(SFEC, 1/16/00, BR p.1)
1968 Jun 7, In Operation Swift Saber, U.S. Marines swept an area
10 miles northwest of Danang in South Vietnam.
(HN, 6/7/99)
1968 Jun 8, Authorities announced the capture in London of James
Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King
Jr.
(AP, 6/8/97)(HN, 6/8/98)
1968 Jun 17, The UK enacted sanctions against Rhodesia.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Jun 19, 50,000 marched on Washington, D.C. to support the
Poor People's Campaign.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1968 Jun 24, "Resurrection City," a shantytown constructed as
part of the Poor People's March on Washington, D.C., was closed by authorities.
(AP, 6/24/97)
1968 Jun 26, Chief U.S. Justice Earl Warren announced his intention
to resign.
(AP, 6/26/98)
1968 Jun 26, There was a big victory for the Liberal Party in
Canada.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Jun 27, The Czechoslovak parliament abolished censorship
and provided for rehabilitation of political prisoners.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Jun 29, In Costa Rica the Arenal volcano, dormant for 450
years, burst into life and killed 95 people.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A7)
1968 Jun, In Quebec, Canada, the summertime Festival d'ete de
Quebec was begun.
(SFEC, 6/7/98, p.T8)
1968 Jul 1, The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and 58
other nations signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India refused
to sign.
(AP, 7/1/97)(SFC, 5/28/98, p.A9)
1968 Jul 4, Arthur Kopit's "Indians," premiered in London.
(Maggio)
1968 Jul 4, The radio astronomy satellite Explorer 38 launched.
(Maggio)
1968 Jul 18, The UK again enacted sanctions against Rhodesia.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Jul 29, Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae
which reaffirmed the Church's opposition to abortion, and to all contraception
except the rhythm method.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Aug 3, The Bratislava statement conceded Czechoslovakia's
right to pursue its own path.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Aug 8, Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the
Republican National Convention in Miami Beach. Later that day, Nixon chose
Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew to be his running mate.
(AP, 8/8/97)
1968 Aug 11, The USSR announced new military maneuvers along the
Czechoslovak border.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Aug 20, The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began
invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive
of Alexander Dubcek's regime.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1968 Aug 20-Sep 11, The Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia and crushed
the "Prague Spring."
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Aug 21, Soviet forces invaded Czechoslovakia because of the
country's experiments with a more liberal government.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1968 Aug 22, Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the
start of the first papal visit to Latin America.
(AP, 8/22/98)
1968 Aug 22, In Czechoslovakia a Soviet-led invasion crushed
the Prague Spring reforms. In 1997 3 Communist Party leaders, Milos Jakes,
Karel Hoffmann and Joseph Lenart, were accused of conspiring with
the Soviets.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A10)
1968 Aug 24, France became the world's fifth thermonuclear power
as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1968 Aug 27, Tom Haden, anti-war organizer, was beaten up, put
in a paddy wagon and whisked off to a Cook County Jail.
(SFC, 8/18/96, zone 1 p1)
1968 Aug 28, In Chicago, Ill., Vice-President Hubert Horatio Humphrey
was nominated by the Democrats for US Presidency on the first ballot. Riots
broke out outside the Democratic National Convention as police and anti-war
demonstrators clashed in the streets. The 1969 film Medium Cool was set
during the Chicago Convention riots of 1968.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(TMC, 1994, p.1968)(Hem, 8/96, p.86-88)(AP,
8/28/97)(SFEC, 9/6/98, DB p.52)
1968 cAug 29, Senator Abraham Ribicoff strongly criticized Chicago's
Mayor Daly for his strong-arm tactics in controlling protestors at the
Democratic National Convention.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A5)
1968 Aug 31, In Iran earthquakes killed 12,000 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Sep 4, In the Congo there was an army coup. Brazzaville deposed
Pres. Masemba-Debat.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Sep 12, Albania withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. Albania condemned
the Aug Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, subsequently Albania withdrew
from the Warsaw Pact.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(www, Albania, 1998)
1968 Sep 15, Rev. Billy Graham carried word to Pres. Johnson from
Richard Nixon that Nixon would give Johnson a share of the credit when
the Vietnam war was settled. Johnson later became convinced that Nixon
was using Anna Chennault, widow of a WW II general, to persuade Pres. Nguyen
Van Thieu to sabotage the Paris peace talks with the communists.
(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A2)
1968 Sep 15, The Organization of African Unity condemned the
secession of Biafra.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Sep 19, Marine Capt. Robert A. Holt and Capt. John A. Lavoo
were killed when their F-4B Phantom jet crashed during combat a mission
over Quang Binh Province. Their remains were identified and returned to
the US in 1999.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A9)
1968 Sep 24, "The Mod Squad" premiered on ABC. The show ran to
1973.
(AP, 9/24/98)(SFC, 8/27/99, p.C14)
1968 Sep 24, The CBS news magazine "60 Minutes" premiered. Don
Hewitt created and produced the TV news show "60 Minutes." He wrote his
book "Minute by Minute" in 1985
(SFEM, 2/8/98, Par p.26)(AP, 9/24/98)
1968 Sep 26, In Portugal Prof. Marcello Caetano replaced Antonio
Salazar as Prime Minister.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Sep 29, Piere Mulele voluntarily returned from exile to Kinshasa,
Congo.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Sep, The Big Mac was created by McDonald's franchisee Jim
Delligatti in Pittsburgh. It sold for 49 cents.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.B2)
1968 Sep, The Soviet spacecraft Zond ("Probe") 5 became the first
to loop around the moon and return to Earth. The L-1, given the name Zond,
was a spacecraft designed to carry two cosmonauts on a single loop around
the moon. The L-1 suffered repeated failure and never flew with a crew.
The unmanned L-1s traveled to the moon five times under the Zond name.
(HNQ, 4/27/99)
1968 Oct 1, The cult horror movie "Night of the Living Dead" had
its world premiere in Pittsburgh.
(AP, 10/1/98)
1968 Oct 2, Under Pres. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz soldiers with automatic
weapons killed some 300 students in the Mexico City Tlatelolco massacre
prior to the start of the summer Olympics. The government said only 50
students were killed during gunfire that lasted 5 hours. Luis Echeverria,
later president, was the interior minister and the man in charge of public
security. He was called before a congressional committee in 1998. Evidence
in 1999 confirmed that pre-positioned soldiers fired on the students.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.C12)(WSJ,
8/13/97, p.A12)(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C2,14)(WSJ, 9/10/98, p.A1)(SFC, 6/28/99,
p.A10)
1968 Oct 3, The play "The Great White Hope," by Howard Sackler,
opened on Broadway.
(AP, 10/3/98)
1968 Oct 3, There was a coup in Peru. The military seized power.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Oct 4, Cambodia admitted that the Viet Cong used their country
for sanctuary.
(HN, 10/4/98)
1968 Oct 5, Catholics in Northern Ireland clashed with police.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A8)
1968 Oct 7, The Motion Picture Association of America adopted
its film-rating system, ranging from "G" for "general" audiences to "X"
for adult patrons only.
(AP, 10/7/97)
1968 Oct 8, U.S. forces in Vietnam launched Operation Sealord,
an attack on North Vietnamese supply lines and base areas.
(HN, 10/8/98)
1968 Oct 9, Piere Mulele was executed in the Congo.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Oct 11, Apollo 7, The first manned Apollo mission, was launched
from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and
R. Walter Cunningham aboard.
(AP, 10/11/97)(HN, 10/11/98)
1968 Oct 11, In Panama Pres. Arnulfo Arias was ousted in a coup
by Gen'l. Omar Torrijos. Arias was the founder of Panama's special security
system and opened the vote to women before he was ousted.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFC, 1/2/97, p.A20)(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D5)
1968 Oct 12, The summer Games of the 19th Olympiad were officially
opened in Mexico City by Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN, 10/12/98)
1968 Oct 14, The first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft
was transmitted from Apollo 7.
(AP, 10/14/98)
1968 Oct 18, The U.S. Olympic Committee suspended two black athletes,
Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for giving a black power salute as a protest
during a victory ceremony in Mexico City.
(AP, 10/18/98)
1968 Oct 20, Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek
shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
(AP, 10/20/97)(HN, 10/20/98)
1968 Oct 22, Apollo 7 returned safely, splashing down in the Atlantic
Ocean.
(AP, 10/22/97)
1968 Oct 24, At the National Air and Space Administration test
pilot Bill Dana was at the controls of the North American X-15 rocket-propelled
research aircraft when it made the 199th--and what turned out to be the
final--flight of the X-15 program. He was flying the X-15-1, which had
been the first of three aircraft to participate in a series of tests that
spanned a decade and resulted in major advances for America's space flight
program. In the course of that research, the X-15s spent 18 hours flying
above Mach 1, 12 hours above Mach 2, nearly 9 hours above Mach 3, almost
6 hours above Mach 4, one hour above Mach 5 and a few short minutes above
Mach 6. The X-15 was hailed by the scientific community as the most successful
research aircraft of all time.
(HNPD, 10/24/98)
1968 Oct 27, In London there was a massive anti-Vietnam war demonstration.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Oct 31, President Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing
of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.
(AP, 10/31/97)(HN, 10/31/98)
1968 Oct, The US Congress created the Flaming Gorge National Recreation
Area in Wyoming.
(WSJ, 7/31/96, p.A15)
1968 Oct, Pres. Johnson signed into being Redwood National Park
in northern California. Congress created the Redwood National Park in California
at a cost of $306 million. Large portions of the Arcata Redwood Corp. lands
were detached to form sections of Redwood National Park. The land was initially
assembled by Michigan timber baron Arthur Hill. His son, Harry Hill, built
the French Renaissance townhouse that is now the Italian consulate.
(SFC, 9/20/96, p.A24)(SFC, 9/9/97, p.A19)(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.T1)
1968 Nov 1, Lyndon B. Johnson called a halt to bombing in Vietnam,
hoping that this would lead to progress at the Paris peace talks. [see
Oct 31]
(HN, 11/1/98)
1968 Nov 5, Richard M. Nixon was elected the 37th US President
with Spiro Agnew as vice-president. He defeated Vice President Hubert H.
Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(TMC, 1994, p.1968)(AP, 11/5/97)(HN, 11/5/98)
1968 Nov 5, Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn, New York, was the first
black woman elected to serve in the House of Representatives.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1968 Nov 12, U.S. Supreme Court voided an Arkansas law banning
the teaching of evolution in public schools.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1968 Nov 14, Yale University announced its plan to go co-ed.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1968 Nov 17, NBC outraged football fans by cutting away from the
final minutes of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to begin a TV special,
"Heidi," on schedule. Viewers were deprived of seeing the Raiders come
from behind to beat the Jets, 43-to-32.
(AP, 11/17/98)
1968 Nov 18, Soviets recovered the Zond 6 spacecraft after a flight
around the moon.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1968 Nov 19, In Mali a coup deposed Pres. Modibu Keita.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Nov 23, Four people hijacked a U.S. jet, with 87 passengers,
from Miami to Cuba. [see Nov 24]
(HN, 11/23/98)
1968 Nov 24, Four hijacked a U.S. jet, with 87 passengers, from
Miami to Cuba. [see Nov 23]
(HN, 11/24/98)
1968 Nov 28, John and Yoko appear at the Marylebone Magistrates'
Court. John pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis resin and was fined
150 pounds plus 20 guineas costs.
(DT Internet 11/28/97)
1968 Nov, At SF State on the one year anniversary of the Gator
incident, the Black Student Union issued a list of 10 "nonnegotiable" demands
and called for a one day strike. The strike lasted 167 days.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W3)
1968 Dec 5, Football star O.J. Simpson won a Heisman Trophy. In
1999 it was auctioned in LA for $230,000 to help cover the $33.5 million
judgement against him in the wrongful death of Nicole Brown Simpson and
Ron Goldman.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A3)
1968 Dec 7, The first orbiting astronomical observatory, OAO-2,
was launched.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1968 Dec 8, South Vietnam's vice president Nguyen Cao Ky arrived
in Paris for peace talks.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1968 Dec 10, Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk writer, died in Bangkok,
Thailand from accidental electrocution. He had just finished his 7th journal
"The Other side of the Mountain." Merton was influenced by the Hindu scholar
Mahanambrata Brahmachari (d.1999). Merton's work also included "The Seven
Story Mountain."
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.3)(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A26)
1968 Dec 11, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) was founded by Dr. George Habash, founder of the pan-Arab nationalist
movement.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.B2,4)
1968 Dec 15, President Nixon announced the third round of Vietnam
withdrawals.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1968 Dec 20, Author John Steinbeck died from a bad heart in New
York City at age 66. In 1995 Jay Parini published "John Steinbeck: A Biography."
(AP, 12/20/97)(SFEC, 6/21/98, DB p.35)
1968 Dec 21, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.
(AP, 12/21/97)
1968 Dec 23, 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo
were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
(AP, 12/23/97)
1968 Dec 24, The 3 Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read
passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve
television broadcast. The first pictures of an Earth-rise over the Moon
are seen as the crew of Apollo 8 orbits the moon.
(TL, 1988, p.117)(AP, 12/24/97)(HN, 12/24/99)
1968 Dec 27, Apollo 8 and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime
splashdown in the Pacific.
(AP, 12/27/97)
1968 Dec 27, The U.S. agreed to sell fifty F-4 Phantom jets to
Israel.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1968 Dec, The Rolling Stones released their album "Beggar's Banquet"
and then filmed a concert performance. Their performance came right after
the Who's performance of "A Quick One" that the Stones did not match and
the film was shelved. In 1996 it was planned to release the film where
Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal are also featured.
(SFC, 8/16/96, p.D11)
1968 Dec, Doug Engelbart and researchers at Stanford Research
Institute first demonstrated in SF the computer mouse along with a graphical
user interface (GUI), display editing, integrated text and graphics, hyper
documents and 2-way video-conferencing with shared work spaces.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.B2)
1968 Dec, The Cambridge company Bolt Beranek and Newman won a
Dept. of Defense ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) contract to develop
packet switches called Interface Message Processors (IMP). The project
was led by Frank Heart and Robert Kahn. The first internode was to installed
at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.3)(SFC,10/24/97, p.E5)
1968 Dec, The US stock market began a 18 month decline of 44%.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.B2)
1968 Dec, The California Zodiac killer first identified himself
with a letter to the Times-Harold in Vallejo. He later claimed to have
killed 37 people but the police connected him to only five deaths.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)
1968 Edward Kienholz (d.1994) created his "Portable war memorial,"
a bizarre tableaux including a hot dog stand and a coke dispenser.
(TL, 1988, p.117)
1968 Yayoi Kusama (39) staged her "Naked Event at the Statue of
Liberty."
(WSJ, 8/4/98, p.A16)
1968 Henry Moore, sculptor, made his "Three Piece No. 3: Vertebrae."
(SFC, 10/26/96, p.B1)
1968 Nicky Cruz (b.1939 in Puerto Rico), former inner city gangster,
wrote his autobiography "Run, Baby, Run." He had converted to Christianity
in 1958 and begun ministering to inner city youth.
(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W13)
1968 Garrett Hardin wrote his classic essay: "The Tragedy of the
Commons." It spawned the "save the whales" animal-protection movement.
(WSJ, 9/9/97, p.A18)
1968 Herb Caen, SF newspaper columnist, wrote his 7th book "City
of Golden Hills."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A13)
1968 Carlos Castaneda (d.1998 at 72) published his thesis: "The
Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge," with the Univ. of Calif.
Press. It became an int'l. best seller. He went on to publish "A Separate
Reality," "Journey to Ixtlan," and others.
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.A2)
1968 "The Warrior Pharaohs" by Leonard Cotrell was published by
Evans Brothers Ltd, London.
(L.C.-W.P., 1968)
1968 Frederick Exley published his book "A Fan's Notes," a fictional
memoir of his failed life. In 1997 Jonathon Yardley published: "Misfit:
The Strange Life of Frederick Exley."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.3)
1968 "Corduroy" by Don Freeman was published.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1968 William Grier and Price Cobbs wrote the book : "Black Rage."
They argued that psychological functioning is the same in all races, but
that the experiences of Black people make them different.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, BR p.3)
1968 Abbie Hoffman wrote "Revolution for the Hell of It."
(SFC, 12/29/96, BR p.5)
1968 Richard Hooker authored his Korean War novel "M*A*S*H*."
(SFEC, 8/29/99, BR p.3)
1968 Walter Galenson (d.2000 at 85), American labor economist,
published "The C.I.O. Challenge to the A.F.L." with Harvard Univ. Press.
(SFC, 1/8/00, p.A19)
1968 Graham Greene wrote "Travels With My Aunt." In 1989 it was
adopted for stage by Giles Havergal, director of the Citizens' Theater
in Glasgow.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, DB p.25)
1968 "A Hundred Years of Solitude" by Colombian novelist Gabriel
Garcia Marquez was published.
(TL, 1988, p.117)
1968 James Michener (d.1997 at 90) wrote his travel book "Iberia."
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)
1968 Jerome Mintz (d.1997 at 67), US anthropologist, published
"Legends of the Hasidim."
(SFC,12/20/97, p.A21)
1968 Anton Myrer authored "Once an Eagle," a story of the US Army
from WW I to Vietnam. It pitted an honorable officer against a self-serving
officer and sold millions of copies.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D7)
1968 James Watson published "The Double Helix."
(SFC, 3/19/98, p.C4)
1968 The gay play "The Boys in the Band" by Mart Crowley set a
new genre.
(WSJ, 8/28/96, p.A10)
1968 "Hair" was a big hit on Broadway.
(TMC, 1994, p.1968)
1968 "Laugh In" was a hit TV variety show.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)
1968 The TV show "It Takes A Thief" with Robert Wagner was written
and produced by Leslie Stevens (d.1998) and ran to 1970.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.C2)
1968 The TV show "Name of the Game" with Gene Barry and Tony Franciosa
was written and produced by Leslie Stevens (d.1998) and ran to 1971.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.C2)
1968 Sesame Street [1969], a children's show, began on TV. Jim
Henson, Jeffrey A. Moss (d.1998 at 56) and Joe Raposo were the among the
creators. Moss created the Cookie Monster character and wrote such songs
as "I Love Trash."
(WSJ, 11/5/96, p.A20)
1968 Edison Denisov (1929-1996), Russian composer, composed his
"Ode for Instrumental Ensemble," and "Romantic Music for Oboe, Harp and
String Trio."
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.B2)
1968 Alfred Schnittke composed his "2nd Violin Concerto." It marked
a major shift into eclecticism for the composer.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A17)
1968 Johnny Cash recorded his "At Folsom Prison" album.
(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.CA4)
1968 Singer Bob Dylan released his "John Wesley Harding" (sic)
album.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.E1)
1968 The Band released their "Music From Big Pink" album.
(WSJ, 12/15/99, p.A20)
1968 Tiny Tim (1932-1996), aka Herbert Khaury, recorded his hit
"Tiptoe Through the Tulips."
(SFC, 12/2/96, p.A4)
1968 Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company band
recorded their album "Cheap Thrills" in New York.
(SFC, 5/19/96, DB, p.39)
1968 The Moody Blues released their album "Days of Future Past."
(SFEC, 10/20/96, DB, p.68)
1968 Laura Nyro (1947-1997) released her song suite album "Eli
and the Thirteenth Confession." her biggest songs were "When I Die," "Stoned
Soul Picnic," "Wedding Bell Blues," "Sweet Blindness," and "Eli's Coming."
(SFE, 4/10/97, p.A23)
1968 The "Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" was shot for home
video but not released until 1996. The 62 minute TV special featured the
Stones, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, the Who, Marianne Faithfull,
Taj Mahal and Jethro Tull.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.B1)
1968 The singing group Sha Na Na began singing together at Columbia
Univ. as the Columbia Kingsmen. Their first gig in Manhattan paid $50 for
the 12 members. They sang "Let's Go to the Hop" at Woodstock and did a
TV show from 1977-1980.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.C13)
1968 Tammy Wynette (d.1998 at 55), country singer, recorded her
hit song "Stand by Your Man."
(SFC, 4/798, p.A7)
1968 Iannis Xenakis (b.1922), Greek architect and composer, composed
"Kraanerg," an example of his "stochastic" music in Paris. It combined
taped electronic music and live performance and was described as alien.
(WSJ, 11/19/96, p.A18)
1968 Astor Piazolla collaborated with poet Horacio Ferrer on the
work "Maria," a succession of tangos, waltzes and a fugue, that tells the
story of a prostitute in Buenos Aires.
(WSJ, 10/27/98, p.A20)
1968 Dr. Robert Schuller founded New Hope, the first Christian
24-hour suicide prevention center.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, Par p.18)
1968 Dennis Banks founded the American Indian Movement.
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A29)
1968 William Hartman (d.1997 at 78) and Marilyn Fithian founded
the Center for Marital and Sexual Studies in Long Beach, Ca. They later
published "Treatment of Sexual Dysfunction" based on their studies.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A19)
1968 Ari Onassis invited Jackie Kennedy to Skorpios and later
they married.
(TMC, 1994, p.1968)
1968 Debra Barnes of Pittsburgh, Kansas, won the Miss America
beauty pageant.
(SFEC, 9/15/96, p.A6)
1968 Stewart Brand published the first Whole Earth Catalog. He
had spent years in India on a campaign to eradicate smallpox.
(Wired, 5/97, p.101)
1968 The Association of Black Psychologists was founded.
(WSJ, 7/8/96, p.C1)(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p. 36)
1968 Ruth Whitney (d.1999), editor of Glamour Magazine, put a
black model on the cover for the first time in the magazine's history.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A22)
1968 Dr. Allejandro Zaffaroni, native of Montevideo, Uruguay,
founded ALZA Corp. The company has grown to be one of the largest medical
device companies in the US specializing in drug delivery technologies.
He later helped to launch Affymax, a drug discovery company, and Affymetrix,
which did DNA research on semiconductor chips.
(BJSJ, 10/30/95, p.8)
1968 Jay Chiat founded the Chiat/Day advertising agency.
(Wired, 2/99, p.78)
1968 The 1st Golden Globe single-handed round the world sailing
race was completed by only one vessel, the slowest and oldest. This gave
birth to the French Vendee Globe race. In 1999 Derek Lundy authored "Godforsaken
Sea," an account of the 1996 Vendee Globe.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, BR p.5)
1968 The Kansas City Athletics under owner Charlie Finley moved
to Oakland and began playing in the new Oakland Coliseum.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W39)
1968 When the Raiders played in their first Super Bowl in Miami,
boss Al Davis got a call from mobster Meyer Lansky asking him to speak
to a group of funeral directors. Davis tried to back out but Lansky said:
"You will be there at 6 p.m." A biography of Lansky was written by Hank
Messick (d.1999).
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A17)(SFC, 11/9/99, p.A23)
1968 The Green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi won the 2nd Super
Bowl Football game over the Oakland Raiders. This was Lombardi's last game
as coach of the Packers. In 1999 David Maraniss authored "When Pride Still
Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi."
(WSJ, 1/28/97, p.A16)(SFEC, 1/9/00, BR p.5)
1968 J. Anthony Lukas (d.1997 at 64) won a Pulitzer Prize for
his book "The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick." It was about a teenage
girl from an affluent Connecticut family beaten to death with her hippie
boyfriend after turning to a life of drugs in the East Village.
(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A19)
1968 The Nobel Prize in Economics was endowed by Sweden's central
bank. It is the only Nobel Prize that was not created by Alfred Nobel in
1901.
(WSJ, 10/11/95, p. A-16)(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.A22)
1968 Luis Alvarez of UC Berkeley won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A1)
1968 The Kerner Commission of Pres. Johnson concluded that America
was moving toward 2 societies: one black, one white, separate and unequal.
(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A1)
1968 In the US General Curtis LeMay was a vice-presidential candidate.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E5)
1968 Barry Goldwater was re-elected to the US Senate.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A3)
1968 The Gun Control Act of this year regulated firearms above
.50-caliber as destructive devices and required registration and owner's
fingerprints. Enforcement was up to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms (BATF). It barred the import of assault weapons even if they were
reconfigured if they were not found to have legitimate "sporting purposes."
(WSJ, 3/24/97, p.A12)(SFC,10/17/97, p.A4)
1968 Congress passed disaster legislation.
(WSJ, 8/31/98, p.A1)
1968 The Dept. of Defense ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency)
issued a request for proposals to develop packet switches called Interface
Message Processors (IMP).
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.3)
1968 Myth has it that the Nuestra Familia prison gang was organized
after a stolen shoe incident at San Quentin prison. It set the Mexican
Mafia, a gang rooted in East Los Angeles, against the Familia based in
San Jose.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, Z1 p.1)
1968 The National Guard at South Carolina State killed 3 black
students and injured nearly 50 in the Orangeburg Massacre.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, BR p.8)
1968 Jesse Jackson "preached the riot out of the crowd" at Resurrection
City, a tent city set up in front of the White House.
(SFC, 7/5/96, BR, p.6)
1968 A Fair Housing Act was passed by Congress.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A23)
1968 Black Panther leader Geronimo Pratt was accused of the murder
of Carolyn Olsen during a robbery that netted $18 on a Santa Monica tennis
court. Pratt maintained that he was in Oakland on the night the 27-year
old teacher was shot to death. He was arrested in 1970 and convicted in
1972 and sentenced to a life term in prison. Julius "Buffo" Butler, a police
informant who spied on the Black Panther Party, told police that he believed
Pratt killed Olsen. In 1997 a judge ruled to reverse Pratt's conviction
based on the credibility of Butler. He was released on $25,000 bail on
6/10/97.
(SFC, 4/18/96, C-1)(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A5)(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C2)
1968 Actors from the Living Theater were arrested in San Francisco
for disrobing onstage.
(SFC, 7/14/96, DB p.30)
1968 The Boston Five were tried and convicted of conspiracy in
their organized draft protest. Mitchell Goodman (1924-1997) organized the
protest that included the burning of draft cards. Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903-1998)
was one of the defendants and the trial came to be known as the "Spock
trial." The convictions were later overturned.
(SFC, 2/7/97, p.A28)
1968 Detroit poet John Sinclair was arrested and sentenced to
10 years in prison for possession of two marijuana joints.
(SFEC, 7/21/96, DB p.35)
1968 A Detroit newspaper strike shut down both daily papers for
267 days.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.C2)
1968 Architect Henry Schubart (d.1998 at 81) moved his family
to Salt Spring Island in British Columbia due to his opposition to the
Vietnam War. He had designed the campus buildings of the Dominican College
in Marin, Ca., the St. Louis Bertrand Church in Oakland and the Holy Names
Church in SF among other works. In BC he introduced the use of skylights.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A23)
1968 In the US shoulder harnesses became required items on all
cars.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1968 The Chevrolet Blazer opened up the Sports Utility Vehicle
(SUV) market.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, Z1 p.6)
1968 ATT reserved 911 for emergency calls after the 1967 recommendation
by the President's Commission on Crime.
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A8)
1968 Intel Corp. was founded. In 1997 Tim Jackson published "Inside
Intel: Andrew Grove and the Rise of the World's Most Powerful Chip Company."
Grove joined Intel in this year and became its president in 1979.
(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.3)(SFEC,12/21/97, p.A2)
1968 Tele-Communications Inc. was founded by Bob Magness (1924-1996)
when he merged Community Television Inc. and Western Microwave Inc. in
Denver. The company went public in 1970.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C12)
1968 Charles P. Ball, a graduate student at SF State Univ., designed
the first water bed.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, Z1 p.5)
1968 The National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of
Health was founded with the assistance of Dr. Alfred Maumenee Jr.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.A20)
1968 Scientists crossed the Pacific oyster with the Kumamoto oyster
and produced the Gigomoto oyster. They had hoped for a cross that would
have the best traits of both oysters but instead produced a cross with
the worst traits of both oysters.
(WSJ, 4/4/96, A-12)
1968 Teacher Jane Elliot separated her class into blue-eyed and
brown-eyed students and treated one group better that the other in a demonstration
of discrimination.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.D6)
1968 In NYC in a move toward decentralization it was planned to
give community districts more control over the city's school system. The
process was derailed when many white teachers were fired in Brooklyn on
account of race in districts that came under control of black nationalists.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A10)
1968 The U of M Institute for Social Research (ISR) began its
Panel Study of Income Dynamics, an annual study of the wealth, health and
behavior of American families.
(MT, Fall. '97, p.4)
1968 Roy Jacuzzi invented the first whirlpool bath.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.D1)
1968 A new medium priced home in the US was priced at $24,700.
(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.B10)
1968 Apollo 8 with a crew of 3 made the first manned orbit of
the moon.
(TL, 1988, p.117)
1968 Floating fish-processing factories took in a combined catch
of 810,000 tons of cod off the eastern banks of North America. During the
next decade there was a steady drop cod population.
(NH, 5/96, p.61)
1968 In Alaska oil was discovered on the North Slope.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, Z1 p.8)
1968 The Rogue River in southern Oregon was named as one the country's
first national wild and Scenic rivers.
(SFEC, 3/19/00, p.T4)
1968 Claude Barnes Capehart worked on the Howard Hughes'
deep-sea research vessel, Glomar Explorer, that under CIA sponsorship raised
a Soviet submarine from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Later in Chowchilla,
Ca., he told his girlfriend that he was in Texas when Kennedy was assassinated,
and that "Oswald wasn't the only one involved." Just before a scheduled
interview in 1989, Capehart dropped dead of a heart attack.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A19,21)
1968 Dr. Kurt Freund (1914-1996), psychiatrist, left Czechoslovakia
after the failure of the revolt and moved to Canada. He had developed a
way to measure penile response to erotic stimulation with a phallometric
device.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.B8)
c1968 A rich Paleolithic site, Diuktai Cave dating back to 35-10,000
BC, was discovered on the Aldan, a tributary of the Lena in Siberia by
Dr. Yuri Mochanov.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p.464)
1968 Open air testing of chemical weapons at the US Army Dugway
Proving Grounds in the Utah desert caused the deaths of some 3,600 [6,400]
sheep in an adjacent valley.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 6/1/98, p.A1)
1968 Tallulah Bankhead (1903-1968), American actress, died: "The
only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live
my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."
(AP, 5/28/97)
1968 Neal Cassidy, friend of Jack Kerouac and one of the Merry
Pranksters, died at 42 on a Mexican highway.
(SFC, 7/2/97, p.E5)
1968 Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), French painter, died. He was
known best for his 1915 "Nude Descending a Staircase."
(V.D.-H.K.p.361)
1968 George Gamow (1904-1968), physicist and writer, died. He
popularized the idea of The Big Bang.
(V.D.-H.K.p.335)
1968 Singer Frankie Lymon died at age 26. The 1998 film "Why Do
Fools Fall in Love" was a musical comedy-drama with Halle Berry, Vivica
A. Fox, Lela Rochon and Little Richard. It was directed by Gregory Nava
and set in the 1950s based on the life of Frankie Lymon.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.C1)(SFC, 9/2/98, p.E1)
1968 Physicist Lisa Meitner (1878-1968) died. During the war while
in hiding from Hitler in Sweden, she analyzed and understood for its significance
the work of Otto Hahn who in 1944 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
for his work on nuclear fission.
(MT, 10/94, letters, p.10)
c1968 In Bhutan Michael Aris (d.1999 at 53), a graduate from Durham
Univ., was invited to become the private tutor of the children of the royal
family of Bhutan. Aris spent 6 years in Bhutan and later married Aung San
Suu Kyi of Burma.
(SFC, 3/30/99, p.F4)
1968 In Britain the literary Booker Prize was founded by Sir Michael
Caine (d.1999 at 71), an executive for Booker PLC, which specialized in
food distribution and agribusiness. The prize was modeled after the French
Prix Goncourt.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.C3)
1968 In Britain some 25,000 people at a Vietnam Solidarity Campaign
in London were mowed down by police on horses as they marched.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C12)
1968 In Denmark the original Legoland was built in Billund.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.T3)
1968 In England Bernadette Devlin was the youngest woman ever
elected to Parliament.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.A15)
1968 In Equatorial Guinea independence was gained from Spain.
Eq. Guinea consists of two geographic entities: the mainland of Rio Muni
and the island of Bioko, formerly Fernando Poo.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)
1968 In Germany the Gallery of the Twentieth Century by Mies van
der Rohe was dedicated in Berlin.
(TL, 1988, p.117)
1968 The Arab Socialist Baath Party staged a coup in Iraq and
gained control.
(NG, 5/88, p.653)
1968 In India the Triennale-India art show began in New Delhi
with shows held every 3 years.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.C16)
1968 In Indonesia Suharto was appointed president.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.A15)
1968 In Italy Michelangelo Pistoletto, artist, rolled around Turin
his giant ball of pulped newspaper. The exploit was captured on film.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.E4)
c1968 The Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan began shrinking
after Soviet engineers diverted water from its 2 feeder streams, the Amu
Darya and the Syr Darya. The water was diverted to a massive dam and irrigation
system for cotton production.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A11)(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A20)
1968 In Mexico there was a rain of hundreds of thousands of maggots
on Acapulco.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.E4)
1968 31 North Koreans crossed the border and reached the presidential
Blue House in Seoul before engaging in a gun battle. 28 North Koreans and
34 South Koreans were killed.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A8)
1968 Mauritius gained Independence from Britain.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A8)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1968 In the Netherlands the Rembrandt Research Project was formed
and funded by the government to act as the gatekeepers of Rembrandt's work.
(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W12)
1968 Cerro Negro, a volcano in Nicaragua, erupted.
(DD-EVTT, Illustr.#9)
1968 In Poland some 4,000 students marched through Warsaw yelling:
"Down with the dictatorship."
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C12)
1968 In Kosovo, Serbia, ethnic Albanians staged their first pro-independence
demonstrations.
(USAT, 3/24/99, p.4A)
1968 In Spain the ETA, Basque Homeland and Freedom, a Basque separatist
group, began fighting for independence. Its political wing was Herri Batasuna.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.A11)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A10)
1968 Swaziland in southern Africa gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1968 In Sweden the first gathering of folk-musicians at Bingsjö
was held.
(NH, 4/97, p.31)
1968 The founder of Tanzania, Mr. Nyerere coined the economic
policy called ujamaa, a Swahili word for togetherness or family. He fused
the country's 120 tribes into a cohesive state.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A6)
1968-1969 Rowan and Martin's "Laugh In" was the top ranking network
show on television for two seasons with rankings of 31.8 and 26.3%
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1968-1969 The Hong Kong flu epidemic killed some 34,000 Americans. Each
year an average of 20,000 Americans die of the flu.
(WSJ, 1/14/98, p.A18)
1968-1969 The US Pentagon admitted in 1999 that it had helped South
Korea obtain Agent Orange to defoliate areas along the demilitarized zone.
Soldiers applied it by hand. In 2000 1,890 South Korean soldiers and farmers
had registered as victims. They sought $4.3 billion from Dow Chemical and
Monsanto and $1 billion for the US government.
(SFC, 11/17/99, p.A18)
1968-1970 The TV series "It Takes a Thief" with Robert Wager was produced.
(SFC, 8/13/97, Z1 p.3)
1968-1971 Farleigh S. Dickinson (1920-1996) served in the New Jersey
state senate. He sponsored the law that created the Hackensack Meadowlands
Development Commission, a 21,000 acres site that covered 14 municipalities.
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)
1968-1972 Edward Dorn (d.1999 at 70), poet and educator, composed his
5-volume poem "Gunslinger."
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.B2)
1968-1972 The 4th Betty Crocker [General Mills advertising icon] made
her appearance.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A6)
1968-1973 The TV show "Mod Squad" was about 3 hip young cops who worked
undercover in LA. A film version was begun in 1998.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, Par p.8)
1968-1973 In 1998 Allen J. Matusow published "Nixon's Economy," a look
at Nixon's economic record over this period.
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A12)
1968-1974 The Delfonics soul singing group of Philadelphia recorded
such hits as "Didn't I" (Blow Your Mind This Time) and "La-la Means I Love
You."
(SFEC, 1/25/98, DB p.45)
1968-1975 In Peru the pro-Soviet Velasco Alvarado regime ruled.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A7)
1968-1979 Pierre E. Trudeau, Liberal Party, served as the 15th Prime
Minister of Canada.
(CFA, '96, p.81)
1968-1979 Robert W. Fleming was president of the Univ. of Michigan.
He succeeded Harlan Hatcher in Jan. His autobiography was published in
1996: "Tempests Into Rainbows."
(MT, 3/96, p.16)
1968-1980 Hawaii Five-O ran on TV for this period. It starred Jack Lord
(d.1998 at 77) and was the longest running police show in TV history. It's
theme song was "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures. Lord (born as John Joseph
Patrick Ryan) was a painter off TV and his canvasses sold privately for
top dollar.
(SFC, 7/11/96, p.D4)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.D3)
1968-1991 In Mali Gen'l. Moussa Traore ruled for 23 years following
a military takeover.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A12)