yawiki.org entry for 1968

	Navigation Home Recent Most Active Popular Blog Credits RSS
	Interaction Register Statistics
	Help Suggestions Contact Us How to Edit Help

1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar).

    1968
        Events
            January
            February
            March
            April
            May
            June
            July
            August
            September
            October
            November
            December
            January
            February
            March
            April
            May
            June
            July
            August
            September
            October
            November
            December
            Unknown dates
            January-March
            April-June
            July-December
            Month/day unknown
        Nobel prizes
        Further reading

Events

January

January 5 - Alexander Dubček is elected leader of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party - the "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.

January 15 - An earthquake occurs in Sicily - 231 dead, 262 injured.

January 21 - A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, and in the process discharges four nuclear bombs.

January 23 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its territorial waters while spying.

January 25 - The Israeli submarine INS Dakar sinks in the Mediterranean Sea - 69 dead.

January 27 - A French submarine sinks in the Mediterranean with 52 men.

January 30 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins, as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.

January 31 - Viet Cong soldiers attack the United States Embassy in Saigon.

January 31 - Nauru's president Hammer DeRoburt declares independence from Australia.

February

February - Color TV becomes available in Canada for the first time.

February 1 - Vietnam War: A Viet Cong officer is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed and helped sway public opinion against the war.

February 8 - The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight.

February 8 - 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 3 college students.

February 11 - Border clashes take place between Israel and Jordan.

February 13 - Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

February 17 - Administrative reform in Romania divides the country into 39 counties .

February 24 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted - South Vietnam recaptures Hué.

February 28 - Ex-The Teenagers singer Frankie Lymon is found dead from a heroin overdose.

March

March 7 - Vietnam War: The First Battle of Saigon begins.

March 12 - Mauritius achieves independence from British Rule.

March 12 - President Lyndon B. Johnson edges out antiwar candidate Eugene J. McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a vote which highlights the deep divisions in the country, as well as the party, over Vietnam.

March 14 - Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah.

March 15 - George Brown, British Foreign Secretary, resigns.

March 16 - Vietnam War: My Lai massacre - American troops kill scores of civilians.

March 16 - U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) enters the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

March 17 - A demonstration in London's Grosvenor Square against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War leads to violence - 91 police injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.

March 18 - Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.

March 27 - Russian space pioneer Yuri Gagarin is killed in a crash during a training flight.

March 31 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek re-election.

April

April - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, becomes the first amputee certified to make diving missions, after a long battle which started with the accident which amputated his leg in 1966.

April 2 - Bombs placed by Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin explode at midnight in two department stores in Frankfurt-am-Main. Culprits are later arrested and sentenced for arson.

April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward.

April 4 - Apollo 6 is launched, as a test of the Saturn V booster.

April 6 - La, la, la by Massiel (music and text by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa) wins Eurovision Song Contest 1968 for Spain.

April 7 - Racing driver Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.

April 11 - Joseph Bachmann tries to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, leader of a left-wing movement (APO) in Germany, and tries to commit suicide afterwards – failing in both.

April 11 - German left-wing students blockade the Springer Press HQ in Berlin and many are arrested - one of them is Ulrike Meinhof.

April 11 - U. S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

April 20 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes Canada's fifteenth prime minister.

April 20 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood Speech.

April 23-April 30 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.

April 23 - President Mobutu releases captured mercenaries in Congo.

April 23 - Surgeons at the Hopital de la Pitie, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant on Clovis Roblain.

April 29 - The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway.

May

May - "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris leads many young to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes, sometimes referred to as the French May, nearly bring down the French government.

May 1 - Professor Giorgios Rosas declares the independence of his platform nation Isle of the Roses off Rimini, Italy. Italian troops demolish it 2 months later.

May 2 - The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.

May 15 - An outbreak of severe thunderstorms produces tornadoes causing massive damage and heavy casualties in Charles City, Iowa, Oelwein, Iowa, and Jonesboro, Arkansas.

May 19 - General elections are held in Italy.

May 22 - The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine ''Scorpion'' sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

June

June 1 - Helen Keller dies in her sleep in Connecticut.

June 3 - Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol as he enters his studio, wounding him.

June 5 - U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy dies from his injuries the next day.

June 8 - James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.

June 10 - Italy beats Yugoslavia 2-0 in a replay to win the 1968 European Championship. The original final on June 8 ended 1-1.

June 20 - Austin Currie, Member of Parliament (MP) at Stormont in Northern Ireland, along with others, squats a house in Caledon to protest discrimination in housing allocations.

June 23 - A Soccer stampede occurs in Buenos Aires - 74 dead, 150 injured.

June 29 - Pope Paul VI announces an encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control. Many American Catholics ignore or defy it.

July

July 1 - The Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.

July 4 - Yachtsman Alec Rose, 59, receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth, England after his 354-day round-the-world trip.

July 15 - The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on the ABC network.

July 17 - Saddam Hussein becomes the Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.

July 21 - Náutico wins the Pernambucano Championship for the sixth time in a row.

July 23-July 28 - African-American militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, Ohio.

July 26 - Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh 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.

July 29 - Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time in centuries.

August

August 11 - The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A British Rail steam locomotive makes the 314-mile journey from Liverpool to Carlisle and returns to Liverpool before being dispatched to the wrecking yard.

August 20 - Two hundred thousand Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia, to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.

August 21 - The Medal of Honor is posthumously awarded to James Anderson, Jr. — he is the first African American U.S. Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

August 22-August 30 - Police clash with antiwar protesters in Chicago, Illinois outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. President, and Edmund Muskie for Vice President.

September

September 6 - Swaziland becomes independent.

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 side.

September 27 - Marcelo Caetano becomes prime minister of Portugal.

September 29 - A referendum in Greece gives more power to the military junta.

October

October 2 - A student demonstration ends in a massacre at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico, 10 days before the inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics.

October 5 - A civil rights march in Derry, (of the 6 counties of northern) Ireland, which included several Stormont and British MPs, is batoned off the streets by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

October 8 - Vietnam War: Operation Sealords - United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.

October 11 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar module docking maneuver.

October 11 - In Panama, a military coup d'etat, led by Col. Boris Martinez and Col. Omar Torrijos, overthrows the democratically-elected (but highly controversial) government of President Arnulfo Arias. Within a year, Torrijos will have ousted Martinez and taken charge as de facto Head of Government in Panama.

October 12 - The Games of the XIX Olympiad in Mexico City, Mexico begin.

The games conclude October 27th.

October 12 - Equatorial Guinea receives its independence from Spain.

October 14 - Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.

October 16 - In Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 2 African-Americans competing in the Olympic 200 meter run, raise their arms in a black power salute after winning the gold and bronze medals for 1st and 3rd place.

October 16 - Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country.

October 20 - Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry on the Greek island of Skorpios.

October 31 - Vietnam War: Citing progress in the Paris peace talks, U.S. 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

November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1968: Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.

November 5 - Luis A. Ferre is elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

November 11 - Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt is initiated to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam. By the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs are dropped on Laos, slowing but not seriously disrupting trail operations.

November 11 - A second republic is declared in the Maldives.

November 14 - Yale University announces it is going co-educational.

November 26 - Vietnam War: United States Air Force First Lieutenant and Bell UH-1F helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire, earning a Medal of Honor for his bravery.

December

December 9 - Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco.

December 10 - Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.

December 22 - Dwight David Eisenhower II married Julie Nixon, the daughter of the 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon.

December 24 - U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William A. Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole. The crew also reads from Genesis.

January

January 2 - Cuba Gooding Jr., American actor

January 5 - Andrzej Gołota, Polish boxer

January 6 - John Singleton, American film director and writer

January 9 - Joey Lauren Adams, American actress

January 9 - Al Schnier, American rock guitarist

January 13 - Pat Onstad, Canadian footballer

January 14 - LL Cool J, American rapper and actor

January 15 - Chad Lowe, American actor

January 24 - Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast

January 27 - Mike Patton, American singer

January 28 - Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer

January 29 - Edward Burns, American actor

February

February 1 - Lisa Marie Presley, American singer

February 5 - Roberto Alomar, baseball player

February 8 - Gary Coleman, American actor

February 10 - Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster

February 13 - Kelly Hu, American actress and fromer fashion model

February 14 - Jules Asner, American model and television personality

February 14 - Nelson Viscera Frazier, American professional wrestler

February 18 - Tommy Scott, British musician and frontman of 1990s' Britpop group Space

February 22 - Brad Nowell, American musician (d. 1996)

February 22 - Jeri Ryan, American actress

February 25 - Sandrine Kiberlain, French actress

February 27 - Matt Stairs, baseball player

March

March 1 - Kunjarani Devi, Indian weightlifter

March 2 - Daniel Craig, British actor and new James Bond star

March 4 - Patsy Kensit, English actress

March 6 - Moira Kelly, American actress

March 11 - Lisa Loeb, American singer

March 15 - Kahimi Karie, Japanese singer

March 15 - Mark McGrath, American musician (Sugar Ray)

March 18 - Shinichiro Miki, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)

March 23 - Mike Atherton, English cricketer

March 23 - Damon Albarn, English musician (Blur and Gorillaz)

March 23 - Mitch Cullin, American novelist

March 26 - Kenny Chesney, American musician

March 26 - James Iha, American musician (Smashing Pumpkins)

March 28 - Iris Chang, American author (d. 2004)

March 28 - Nasser Hussain, English cricketer

March 29 - Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress and singer

March 30 - Céline Dion, Canadian singer

April

April 1 - Andreas Schnaas, German director

April 3 - Sebastian Bach, West Indian-born musician (Skid Row)

April 8 - Patricia Arquette, American actress

April 15 - Stacey Williams, American model

April 19 - Ashley Judd, American actress

April 20 - J.D. Roth, American television host

April 23 - Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d. 2001)

May

May 1 - D'Arcy Wretzky, American musician

May 7 - Traci Lords, American actress

May 9 - Marie-José Perec, French athlete

May 12 - Tony Hawk, American skateboarder

May 17 - Constance Menard, professional Dressage Rider

May 26 - Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark

May 27 - Jeff Bagwell, baseball player

May 27 - Frank Thomas, baseball player

May 28 - Kylie Minogue, Australian actress and singer

June

June 1- Jason Donovan, Australian actor and singer

June 2 - Beetlejuice, member of the Wack Pack from radio's The Howard Stern Show

June 2 - John Culshaw, English comedian and impressionist

June 4 - Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress

June 10 - The D.O.C. , rapper

June 20 - Peter Paige, American actor

June 25 - Oleg Taktarov, MMA Champion

June 26 - Iwan Roberts, Welsh footballer

June 26 - Shannon Sharpe, American football player and commentator

June 28 - Adam Woodyatt, British actor

June 29 - Theoren Fleury, Canadian hockey player

June 30 - Philip Anselmo, American musician

July

July 5 - Ken Akamatsu, Japanese mangaka

July 7 - Jorja Fox, American actress

July 7 - Jeff VanderMeer, American writer

July 8 - Akio Suyama, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)

July 8 - Michael Weatherly, American actor

July 10 - Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian athlete

July 15 - Stan Kirsch, American actor

July 16 - Dhanraj Pillay, Indian field hockey player

July 16 - Barry Sanders, American football player

22 July - Rhys Ifans, Welsh Actor

July 24 - Kristin Chenoweth, American soprano and actress.

July 27 - Julian McMahon, Australian actor

July 30 - Robert Korzeniowski, Polish racewalker

August

August 9 - Gillian Anderson, American actress

August 9 - Eric Bana, Australian actor

August 11 - Charlie Sexton, American guitarist, singer and songwriter

August 12 - Andras Jones, American actor

August 14- Darren Clarke, Northern Irish professional golfer

August 15- Debra Messing, Professional Actress best known for Will & Grace

August 17 - Ed McCaffrey, American football player

August 17 - Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Belgian economist

August 25 - Rachael Ray, American television chef and host

August 31 - Todd Carty, British actor

September

September 1 - Mohamed Atta al Sayed, Egyptian terrorist

September 4 - Mike Piazza, baseball player

September 7 - Marcel Desailly, French footballer

September 11 - Kay Hanley, American musician

September 12 - John Stutz, American photographer

September 18 - Toni Kukoč, Croatian basketball player

September 20 - Darrell Russell, race car driver (d. 2004)

September 20 - Phillipa Forrester, British TV presenter

September 25 - Will Smith, American rapper and actor

September 26 - James Caviezel, American actor

September 28 - Naomi Watts, English-born actress

September 29 - Patrick Burns, American paranormal investigator and television personality.

October

October 2 - Victoria Derbyshire, British Radio presenter

October 3 - Paul Crichton, English footballer

October 7 - Toni Braxton, American singer

October 7 - Thom Yorke, British singer/songwriter

October 8 - CL Smooth, American rapper

October 10 - Bart Brentjens, Dutch mountainbiker

October 11 - Jane Krakowski, American actress

October 12 - Hugh Jackman, Australian actor

October 14 - Matthew Le Tissier, English footballer

October 15 - Didier Deschamps, French footballer

October 18 - Basil White, American comedian

October 24 - Sal the Stockbroker, American comedian and radio writer for The Howard Stern Show

October 29 - Tsunku, Japanese singer, music producer, and song composer

October 31 - Vanilla Ice, American rapper

November

November 3 - Debbie Rochon, Canadian actress

November 4 - Lee Germon, New Zealand cricketer

November 8 - Zara Whites, Dutch actress

November 9 - Nazzareno Carusi, Italian pianist

November 10 - Steve Brookstein, British singer

November 10 - Petra Liebetanz, Germanan-American Photographer

November 11 - David L Cook, Christian Music Singer and Comedian

November 12 - Sammy Sosa, Dominican Major League Baseball player

November 13 - Pat Hentgen, baseball player

November 15 - Jennifer Charles, American singer

November 15 - Ol' Dirty Bastard, American rapper (d. 2004)

November 18 - Barry Hunter, Northern Irish footballer and football manager

November 18 - Owen Wilson, American actor

November 23 - Hamid Hassani, Iranian scholar

November 25 - Jill Hennessy, Canadian actress

November 25 - Jacqueline Hennessy, Canadian actress and talk show host

November 27 - Michael Vartan, French actor

December

December 2 - Lucy Liu, American actress

December 5 - Margaret Cho, Korean-American actress and comedian

December 7 - Mark Geyer, Australian rugby league player

December 8 - Mike Mussina, baseball player

December 8 - Michael Cole, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Commentator

December 9 - Kurt Angle, American amateur and professional wrestler, 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist

December 17 - Paul Tracy, Canadian race car driver

Unknown dates

Phill Lewis, American actor

George Henry Smyth, Irish artist

January-March

January 19 - Ray Harroun, American race car driver (b. 1879)

January 21 - Will Lang Jr., American journalist (b. 1914)

January 22 - Duke Kahanamoku, American swimmer (b. 1890)

January 26 - Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher and aviation promoter (b. 1883)

February 4 - Neal Cassady, American writer (b. 1926)

February 11 - Howard Lindsay, American playwright (b. 1888)

February 20 - Anthony Asquith, British director and writer (b. 1902)

February 21 - Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)

February 22 - Peter Arno, American cartoonist (b. 1904)

February 28 - Frankie Lymon, American singer (b. 1942)

February 29 - Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b. 1886)

March 16 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (b. 1895)

March 20 - Charles Chaplin Jr., American actor (b. 1925)

March 23 - Edwin O'Connor, American novelist and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (b. 1918)

March 27 - Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut (b. 1934)

April-June

April 1 - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)

April 4 - Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., American civil rights activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b. 1929)

April 7 - Jimmy Clark, Scottish race car driver (b. 1936)

April 10 - Gustavs Celmins, Latvian politician (b. 1899)

April 14 - Al Benton, baseball player (b. 1911)

April 22 - Stephen H. Sholes, American record executive (b. 1911)

April 25 - John Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876)

May 7 - Mike Spence British race car driver (b. 1936)

May 9 - Mercedes de Acosta, American poet, playwright, costume designer, and socialite (b. 1893)

May 14 - Husband E. Kimmel, American admiral (b. 1882)

June 1 - Helen Keller, American spokeswoman for deaf and blind (b. 1880)

June 6 - Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General (assassinated) (b. 1925)

June 14 - Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)

June 15 - Sam Crawford, baseball player (b. 1880)

June 24 - Tony Hancock, British comedian (b. 1924)

July-December

July 18 - Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)

July 23 - Henry Hallett Dale, English scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1875)

July 28 - Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)

July 31 - Jack Pizzey, incumbent Premier of Queensland, Australia (b. 1911)

August 19 - George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (b. 1904)

August 27 - Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (b. 1906)

August 29 - Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier and planner (b. 1881)

September 8 - Luther Perkins, American guitarist (b. 1928)

September 12 - Tommy Armour, Scottish golfer (b. 1894)

October 2 - Marcel Duchamp, French artist (b. 1887)

October 9 - Pierre Mulele, Congolese revolutionary

October 13 - Bea Benaderet, American actress (b. 1906)

October 30 - Rose Wilder Lane, American author and reporter (b. 1886)

October 30 - Ramón Novarro, Mexican actor (b. 1899)

November 4 - Michel Kikoine, Belarusian painter (b. 1892)

November 6 - Charles Munch, French conductor and violinist (b. 1891)

November 25 - Upton Sinclair, American writer (b. 1878)

November 26 - Arnold Zweig, German writer (b. 1887)

December 2 - Adamson-Eric, Estonian artist (b. 1902)

December 10 - Karl Barth, German protestant theologian (b. 1888)

December 10 - Thomas Merton, American author (b. 1915)

December 12 - Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (b. 1902)

December 19 - Norman Thomas, American politician (b. 1884)

December 20 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)

December 30 - Trygve Lie, first United Nations Secretary General (b. 1896)

December 30 - Vladimir Peter Tytla, American animator (b. 1904)

Month/day unknown

Berthold Bartosch, Czech animator (b. 1893)

Robert Wood Johnson, American business leader and philanthropist (b. 1893)

Jouett Shouse, American politician (b. 1879)

Nobel prizes

Physics - Luis Walter Alvarez

Chemistry - Lars Onsager

Physiology or Medicine - Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana, Marshall W. Nirenberg

Literature - Yasunari Kawabata

Peace - René Cassin

Further reading

Mark Kurlansky (2004), 1968: the year that rocked the world, Jonathan Cape

av:1968

	Source Privacy License Download Contact Us Atlas Scientus.org Dictionary (Yet Another Wiki) RC : 1.39 This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License [copyleft]. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1968". link