Directory

1968 CE

Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, sparking national unrest; Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic primary; the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City occur under the shadow of the Tlatelolco massacre; protests erupt at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; the Prague Spring sees reformist Alexander Dubček crushed by a Warsaw Pact invasion; the May protests mobilize millions of students and workers; Apollo 8 orbits the Moon and captures the iconic Earthrise photo; the Tet Offensive shifts U.S. public opinion on the Vietnam War; and the My Lai massacre results in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, highlighting the war’s moral failures.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.source
  • January 10 – John Gorton is sworn in as 19th Prime Minister of Australia, taking over from John McEwen after being elected leader of the Liberal Party the previous day, following the disappearance of Harold Holt. Gorton becomes the only Senator to become Prime Minister, though he immediately transfers to the House of Representatives through the 1968 Higgins by-election in Holt's vacant seat.source
  • January 31 – Nauru president Hammer DeRoburt declares independence from Australia, Britain and New Zealand.source
  • March 12 – Mauritius achieves independence from British rule.source
  • March 16 – U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy enters the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.source
  • April 20 – Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.source
  • April 23 – President Mobutu releases captured mercenaries in the Congo.source
  • June 23–30 – 1968 French legislative election: The Gaullist Union pour la défense de la République becomes the first party in French political history to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly. George Pompidou leads the party through the campaign but resigns as prime minister afterwards. The public unrest of May 68 subsides.source
  • June 26 – The Bonin Islands are returned to Japan after 23 years of occupation by the United States Navy.source
  • July 1 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty opens for signature.source
  • September 6 – Swaziland (later known as Eswatini) becomes independent of the United Kingdom.source
  • September 27 – Marcelo Caetano becomes prime minister of Portugal.source
  • September 29 – A referendum in Greece gives more power to the military junta.source
  • October 12 – Equatorial Guinea receives its independence from Spain.source
  • November 5 – Luis A. Ferré of the newly formed New Progressive Party is elected Governor of Puerto Rico by beating incumbent governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella of the People's Party, Luis Negrón López of the Popular Democratic Party and Antonio J. Gonzalez of the Puerto Rican Independence Party; he also becomes the first "statehooder" governor of the Island.source
  • November 5 – 1968 United States presidential election: Republican candidate Richard Nixon defeats the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace.source
  • November 11 – A second republic is declared in the Maldives.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 21 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins, ending on April 8.source
  • January 30 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.source
  • February 8 – Civil rights movement in the United States: Orangeburg Massacre – A civil rights demonstration on a college campus to protest de facto racial segregation in South Carolina is broken up by highway patrolmen; three African American students are killed, the first instance of police killing student protestors at an American campus.source
  • February 24 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Huế.source
  • March 10–11 – Vietnam War: Battle of Lima Site 85, the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members (12) during the (at this time) secret war later known as the Laotian Civil War.source
  • March 12 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson barely edges out antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a vote which highlights the deep divisions in the country, and the party, over Vietnam.source
  • March 16 – Vietnam War – My Lai massacre: American troops kill between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians and rape women and children. The story, initially covered up as a military victory, will first become public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.source
  • March 28 – Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is shot by the police in a protest for cheaper meals at a restaurant for low-income students. The aftermath of his death is one of the first major events against the military dictatorship.source
  • April 4 – Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.: Martin Luther King Jr. is shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. King-assassination riots erupt in major American cities, lasting for several days afterwards.source
  • April 6 – A shootout between Black Panthers and police in Oakland, California, United States, results in several arrests and deaths, including 17-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton.source
  • April 26 – The nuclear weapon "Boxcar" is tested at the Nevada Test Site in the biggest detonation of Operation Crosstie.source
  • May 17 – The Catonsville Nine enter the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, take dozens of selective service draft records, and burn them with napalm as a protest against the Vietnam War.source
  • May 19 – Nigerian forces capture Port Harcourt and form a ring around the Biafrans. This contributes to a humanitarian disaster as the surrounded population already suffers from hunger and starvation.source
  • May 29 – May 68: President de Gaulle of France leaves Paris without telling his prime minister, Georges Pompidou, where he is going – which is in fact to the headquarters of the French Forces in Germany at Baden-Baden to assure himself of military support.source
  • June 5 – Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Palestinian-born Sirhan Sirhan is arrested.source
  • June 17 – The Malayan Communist Party launches a second insurgency and the state of emergency is again imposed in Malaysia.source
  • June 21 – A student demonstration in front of the Jornal do Brasil ("JB") building in Rio de Janeiro ends with 28 dead and over a thousand arrested.source
  • June 26 – The "March of the One Hundred Thousand" takes place in Rio de Janeiro as crowds demonstrate against the Brazilian military government.source
  • August 22–30 – 1968 Democratic National Convention protests: Police clash with anti-Vietnam War protesters in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. president and Edmund Muskie for vice president. The riots and subsequent trials are an essential part of the activism of the Youth International Party.source
  • September 13 – Albania officially withdraws from the Warsaw Pact upon the Soviet Union-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, having already ceased to participate actively in Pact activity since 1962.source
  • September 17 – The D'Oliveira affair: The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of South Africa is cancelled when the South Africans refuse to accept the presence of Basil D'Oliveira, a Cape Coloured, in the England side.source
  • September 23 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive comes to an end in South Vietnam.source
  • October 3 – In Peru, Juan Velasco Alvarado takes power in a revolution.source
  • November 7 – Start of the 1968 movement in Pakistan, which leads to the resignation of General Ayub Khan, and ultimately the split of the country and formation of Bangladesh.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 1 – CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, is formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.source
  • July 4 – English yachtsman Alec Rose, 59, receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth, after his 354-day solo round-the-world trip.source
  • July 25- Tysons Corner Center one of the largest malls in the U.S. opens to the public and the Washington DC area.source
  • An oil field is confirmed in Northern Alaska: the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field.source

Religion & Belief

  • April 23 – The United Methodist Church is created by the union in Dallas, Texas, of the former Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.source
  • July 25 – Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical Humanae vitae, reaffirming the Catholic Church's opposition to artificial birth control.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 1 – Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 further reduces right of entry for citizens from the British Commonwealth to the United Kingdom.source
  • March 14 – Late this evening, the U.K. government at the request of the U.S. agrees that the London Gold Pool will be closed from tomorrow. George Brown, the British Foreign Secretary, apparently drunk, is absent from meetings to discuss the crisis and is forced to resign from the government on March 15.source
  • March 18 – Gold standard: The United States Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.source
  • May 27 – May 68: Grenelle agreements concluded in France, giving a large increase in minimum wages, but are rejected by trade unions.source
  • June 4 – The Standard & Poor's 500 index in the United States closes above 100 for the first time, at 100.38.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 1 – The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merge to form Penn Central, the largest ever corporate merger up to this date.source
  • March 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson mandates that all computers purchased by the federal government support the ASCII character encoding.source
  • March 13 – The first Rotaract club is chartered in North Charlotte, North Carolina.source
  • April 18 – London Bridge is sold to U.S. entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch for reconstruction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona.source
  • May 2 – The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.source
  • May 18 – Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars are introduced in the United States.source
  • May 30 – Bobby Unser wins the Indianapolis 500 automobile race.source
  • June 7 – Ford sewing machinists strike for equal pay starts at the Ford Dagenham plant in London.source
  • July 18 – The semiconductor company Intel is founded in what becomes known as the Silicon Valley of California.source
  • November 8 – The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals is signed and ratified.source
  • November 17 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.source
  • Drainage of the Flevopolder in the Netherlands is completed, creating by some definitions the largest artificial island in the world.source

Science & Discovery

  • April 4 – Apollo program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502 (Apollo 6) is launched, as the second and last uncrewed test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.source
  • September 21 – The Soviet Zond 5 uncrewed lunar flyby mission returns to Earth, with its first-of-a-kind biological payload intact.source
  • October 11 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and simulating lunar module rendezvous and docking, using the S-IVB rocket stage as a test target.source
  • October 18 – U.S. athlete Bob Beamon breaks the long jump world record by 55 cm / 21 ins at the Olympics in Mexico City. His record stands for 23 years, and remains the second longest jump in history.source
  • December 24 – Apollo program: The crewed U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole, as well as having traveled further away from Earth than any people in history. Anders photographs Earthrise. The crew also give a reading from the Book of Genesis.source

Health & Medicine

  • April 20 – Conservative British politician Enoch Powell makes a controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech in Birmingham deploring the effects of immigration; he is dismissed from the Shadow Cabinet the following day.source
  • April 23 – Surgeons at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant, on Clovis Roblain.source

Crime & Justice

  • February 1 – Vietnam War: Execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém – A Viet Cong officer is summarily executed by Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The event is photographed by Eddie Adams. The photo makes headlines around the world, eventually winning the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and sways U.S. public opinion against the war.source
  • March 6 – Un-recognized Rhodesia executes 3 black citizens, the first executions since UDI, prompting international condemnation.source
  • April 2 – Bombs explode at midnight in two department stores in Frankfurt-am-Main; Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin are later arrested and sentenced for arson.source
  • April 11 – German left-wing students blockade the Springer Press headquarters in Berlin and many are arrested (one of them Ulrike Meinhof).source
  • June 3 – Radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol at his New York City studio, The Factory; he survives after a 5-hour operation.source
  • June 20 – Austin Currie, Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, along with others, squats in a house in Caledon to protest discrimination in housing allocations.source
  • July 23–28 – Black militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States, leaving 7 people killed.source
  • July 26 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình Dzu is sentenced to 5 years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.source
  • December 10 – Japan's biggest heist, the never-solved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.source
  • December 20 – The first known Zodiac Killer murder takes place in Lake Herman Road, Vallejo, California.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 21 – 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash: A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs.source
  • January 25 – Israeli submarine sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 69.source
  • January 28 – French submarine Minerve sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 52.source
  • March 2 – Baggeridge Colliery closes marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country of England.source
  • March 3 – Air France Flight 212, a Boeing 707, crashes in Guadeloupe while approaching an airport. As a result, 63 people die.source
  • March 8 – The Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 sinks with all 98 crew members, about 90 nautical miles (104 miles or 167 km) southwest of Hawaii.source
  • March 24 – Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashes en route from Cork to London near Tuskar Rock, Wexford, killing 61 passengers and crew.source
  • April 6 – Richmond, Indiana explosion: A double explosion in downtown Richmond caused by a methane leak kills 41 and injures 150.source
  • April 7 – British racing driver Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.source
  • April 20 – South African Airways Flight 228 a Boeing 707 crashed shortly after take-off killing 123 people on board.source
  • May 3 – Braniff Flight 352 crashes near Dawson, Texas, United States, killing all 85 people on board.source
  • May 16 – Ronan Point, a 23 floor tower block in Canning Town, east London, partially collapses after a gas explosion, killing 5.source
  • May 22 – The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.source
  • June 23 – Puerta 12 tragedy: A football stampede in Buenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured.source
  • August 11 – The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A selection of British Rail steam locomotives make the 120-mile journey from Liverpool to Carlisle and return – the journey is known as the Fifteen Guinea Special.source
  • August 18 – Two charter buses are forced into the Hida River on National Highway Route 41 in Japan in an accident caused by heavy rain; 104 are killed.source
  • September 7 – The crash of Air France Flight 1611 kills 95 people, including French Army General René Cogny, as the Caravelle jetliner plunges into the Mediterranean Sea following a fire while making its approach to Nice following its departure from the island of Corsica.source
  • November 20 – The Farmington Mine disaster in Farmington, West Virginia, kills seventy-eight men.source
  • November 22 – Japan Air Lines Flight 2, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco International Airport ditches in San Francisco Bay due to pilot error; all 107 on board survive without injury.source
  • November 24 – 4 men hijack Pan Am Flight 281 from JFK International Airport, New York to Havana, Cuba.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 15 – The 1968 Belice earthquake in Sicily kills 380 and injures around 1,000.source
  • April 10 – The ferry strikes a reef at the mouth of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand, with the loss of 53 lives, in Cyclone Giselle, which has created the windiest conditions ever recorded in New Zealand.source
  • July 29 – Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time in centuries.source
  • October 31 – Great Drought of 1968: Amidst a collapse of hydropower President of Chile Eduardo Frei Montalva decrees the establishment of daylight saving time.source
  • November 17 – The "Heidi Game": NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders–New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland (which had been trailing 32–29) score 2 late touchdowns to win 43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the NBC switchboards to protest.source

Culture & Society

  • February 6–18 – The 1968 Winter Olympics are held in Grenoble, France.source
  • February 19 – The television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premieres on National Educational Television in the United States and becomes one of the longest running children's shows ever.source
  • March 1 – First performance of an Andrew Lloyd Webber–Tim Rice musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in its original form as a "pop cantata", by pupils of a private school in London.source
  • March 8 – The first student protests spark the 1968 Polish political crisis.source
  • March 19–23 – Afrocentrism, Black Power, Vietnam War: Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., signal a new era of militant student activism on college campuses in the U.S. Students stage rallies, protests and a 5-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program and the Vietnam War, and demanding a more Afrocentric curriculum.source
  • March 22 – René Riesel and 7 other enragés students occupy the administrative offices of the new Nanterre campus of the University of Paris as part of protests over a rigid educational system, setting in motion a chain of 'May 68' events that lead France to the brink of revolution.source
  • April 4 – AEK Athens wins the FIBA European Cup Winners Cup Final in basketball against Slavia Prague, in front of a record attendance of 80,000 spectators. It is the first major European trophy won at club level of any sport in Greece.source
  • April 6 – 13th Eurovision Song Contest is held in the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. The winning song, Spain's "La, la, la" (music and lyrics by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa) is sung in Spanish by Massiel after Spanish authorities refuse to allow Joan Manuel Serrat to perform it in Catalan. The United Kingdom finishes in second place, one point behind, with the song "Congratulations" sung by Cliff Richard, which goes on to outsell the winning Spanish entry throughout Europe.source
  • May 18 – West Bromwich Albion win the English Football Association Cup, defeating Everton 1–0 after extra time. The winning goal is scored by Jeff Astle.source
  • May 29 – Manchester United F.C. wins the European Cup Final, becoming the first English team to do so.source
  • June 10 – Italy beats Yugoslavia 2–0 in a replay to win the 1968 European Championship in Association football. The original final on June 8 ended 1–1.source
  • June 12 – The horror film Rosemary's Baby premieres in the U.S.source
  • July 20 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.source
  • August 1 – The Municipal University of São Caetano do Sul is established in São Caetano do Sul, São Paulo.source
  • August 29 – Crown Prince Harald of Norway marries Sonja Haraldsen, the commoner he has dated for 9 years.source
  • September 11 – John Eliot Gardiner conducts Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine with the Monteverdi Choir at the BBC Proms in London.source
  • October 10 – The Detroit Tigers win the 1968 World Series in baseball in seven games.source
  • October 12–27 – The 1968 Summer Olympics are held in Mexico City, Mexico.source
  • October 16 – 1968 Olympics Black Power salute: In Mexico City, African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in a Black Power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals in the Olympic men's 200 metres (with the support of Australian silver medallist Peter Norman).source
  • October 25 – Rock band Led Zeppelin make their first live performance, at Surrey University in Englandsource
  • November 22 – The Beatles ("The White Album") and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society are released.source
  • December 9 – Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco, together with the computer mouse, at what becomes retrospectively known as "The Mother of All Demos".source
  • December 11 – The film Oliver! based on the hit London and Broadway musical, opens in the U.S. after being released first in the UK. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.source
  • December 22 – Mao Zedong advocates that educated urban youth in China be sent for re-education in the countryside. It marks the start of the "Up to the mountains and down to the villages" movement.source

Births

  • January 30 – King Felipe VI of Spainsource
  • February 1 – Lisa Marie Presley, American singer-songwriter, daughter of Elvis Presley (d. 2023)source
  • March 4 – Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (2019–present)source
  • April 29 – Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President of Croatia (2015–2020)source
  • May 18 – Vanessa Leggett, American freelance journalist, author, lecturer and First Amendment advocatesource
  • June 2 – Beetlejuice, American entertainer, member of the Wack Pack (The Howard Stern Show)source
  • June 20 – Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish banker and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Polandsource
  • July 19 – Robert Flynn, American vocalist and guitarist (Machine Head)source
  • September 1 – Mohamed Atta, 9/11 ringleader of the hijackers and pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 (d. 2001)source
  • September 28 – Mika Häkkinen, Finnish double Formula 1 world championsource
  • October 9 – Troy Davis, American high-profile death row inmate and human rights activist (d. 2011)source
  • November 20 – Tarique Rahman - Bangladeshi politician, 11th Prime Minister of Bangladeshsource
  • December 9 – Kurt Angle, American amateur and professional wrestler, 1996 Olympic gold medalistsource
  • December 11 – Emmanuelle Charpentier, French biochemist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistrysource

Deaths

  • January 16 – Bob Jones Sr., American evangelist, religious broadcaster and founder of Bob Jones University (b. 1883)source
  • February 21 – Howard Florey, Australian-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)source
  • March 27 – Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, first human in space (b. 1934)source
  • April 1 – Lev Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)source
  • April 7 – Jim Clark, Scottish racing driver and double Formula One World Champion (b. 1936)source
  • April 11 – Josef Bachmann tries to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, leader of the left-wing movement (APO) in Germany, and tries to commit suicide afterwards, failing in both, although Dutschke dies of his brain injuries 11 years later.source
  • June 4 – Sir Walter Nash, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1882)source
  • June 6 – Robert F. Kennedy, American lawyer, politician (United States Senator, U.S. Attorney General) and a leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate (b. 1925)source
  • June 6 – Randolph Churchill, British politician, son of Winston Churchill (b. 1911)source
  • August 3 – Konstantin Rokossovsky, Soviet officer, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1896)source
  • September 23 – Padre Pio, Italian Roman Catholic priest and saint (b. 1887)source
  • October 27 – Lise Meitner, German-Austrian physicist, discoverer of nuclear fission (b. 1878)source
  • December 20 – John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)source
  • December 30 – Augustus Agar, British naval officer, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1890)source