1968 in the United States
| 1968 in the United States |
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1968 in the United States was marked by several major historical events. It is often considered to be one of the most turbulent and traumatic years of the 20th century in the United States.[1]
The year began with the Tet Offensive in the midst of the Vietnam War, which reached its climax after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation allowing for an increased maximum number of troops on the ground at one time (549,500). Likewise, it was the most expensive year of the war, costing $77.4 billion. Antiwar sentiment continued to grow after the occurrence of the My Lai Massacre (though the public did not learn of this until the following year) and an increasing number of Americans considered intervention in Vietnam to be a mistake. Nonetheless, the war persisted.
Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, the country erupted in violent riots, the most severe of which occurred in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Baltimore. More than 40 people were killed during the month of protest, which led to greater racial tensions between white and black Americans. Despite this, a landmark piece of legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, was passed in April, effectively prohibiting housing discrimination based on race.
The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June led to uncertainty in the race for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. After Hubert Humphrey was declared the nominee at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, another wave of violent protests emerged, this time between antiwar demonstrators and police. The tumult within the Democratic Party helped launch Richard Nixon, a Republican and former vice president, to the presidency in November. A particularly strong showing by segregationist George Wallace of the American Independent Party in 1968's presidential election highlighted the strong element of racism that continued to persist across the country, particularly in the South.
In popular culture, 2001: A Space Odyssey was the most profitable film of the year, earning $56.7 million, while Oliver! won the Academy Award for Best Picture. "Hey Jude" by the Beatles was the hottest single of 1968 in the U.S. according to Billboard, demonstrating the continued popularity of bands associated with the British Invasion that began in 1964.
Incumbents
Federal Government
- President: Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas)
- Vice President: Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota)
- Chief Justice: Earl Warren (California)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: John William McCormack (D-Massachusetts)
- Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-Montana)
- Congress: 90th
Events
January
- January 14 – The Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl II.
- January 17 – Lyndon B. Johnson calls for the non-conversion of the U.S. dollar.
- January 19 – At a White House conference on crime, singer and actress Eartha Kitt denounces the Vietnam War to Lady Bird Johnson while attending a "ladies' lunch".
- January 21 – A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs.
- January 22 – Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In debuts on NBC.
- January 23 – North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its territorial waters while spying.
- January 30 – The Viet Cong and North Vietnam launch the Tet Offensive against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.
- January 31 – Viet Cong soldiers attack the US Embassy, Saigon.
February
- February 1
- Vietnam War: A Viet Cong officer named Nguyễn Văn Lém is 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.
- The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merge to form Penn Central, the largest ever corporate merger up to this date.
- 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; 3 college students are killed.
- February 11 – Madison Square Garden in New York City opens.
- February 12 – Memphis sanitation strike: Provoked by the crushing to death of two black workers, over 1000 black waste collectors in Memphis, Tennessee, begin a strike that lasts until April 16.
- February 13 – Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- February 19 – The Florida Education Association (FEA) initiates a mass resignation of teachers to protest state funding of education. This is, in effect, the first statewide teachers' strike in the U.S.
- February 29 – The Kerner Commission release its final report on the causes of the 1967 race riots.
March
March 16: My Lai Massacre
- March 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson mandates that all computers purchased by the federal government support the ASCII character encoding.[2]
- March 12 – U.S. 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 16
- Vietnam War – My Lai massacre: American troops kill scores of civilians. The story will first become public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.
- U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy 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 people are injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.
- March 18 – Gold standard: The Congress of the United States repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.
- 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.
- March 21 – Vietnam War: In ongoing campus unrest, Howard University students protesting the Vietnam War, the ROTC program on campus and the draft, confront Gen. Lewis Hershey, then head of the U.S. Selective Service System, and as he attempts to deliver an address, shout him down with cries of "America is the Black man's battleground!"
- March 26 – Joan Baez marries activist David Harris in New York.
- March 31 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek re-election.
April
- April 2 – The film 2001: A Space Odyssey premieres in Washington, D.C.
- April 3 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee.
- April 4
- Martin Luther King Jr. is shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities, lasting for several days afterwards.
- Apollo Program: Apollo 6 is launched, the second and last unmanned test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
- April 5 – Robert F. Kennedy gives a Speech at the Cleveland City Club.
- April 6
- A shootout between Black Panthers and Oakland police results in several arrests and deaths, including 16-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton.
- A double explosion in downtown Richmond, Indiana kills 41 and injures 150.
- April 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
- April 23–30 – Vietnam War: Columbia University protests of 1968 – Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
- April 29 – The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway.
May
- May 14 – The Beatles announce the creation of Apple Records in a New York press conference.
- 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 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.
- May 22 – The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
June
- June 3 – Radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol at his New York City studio, The Factory; he survives after a 5-hour operation.
- 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 26 – Bonin Islands are returned to Japan after 23 years of occupation by the United States Navy.
July
- July 1 – The Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.
- July 18 – The semiconductor company Intel is founded.
- July 23–28 – Black militants led by Fred Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, Ohio.
August
- August 5–8 – The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President.
- August 21 – The Medal of Honor is posthumously awarded to James Anderson, Jr. — he is the first black U.S. Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
- August 22–30 – Police clash with anti-war protesters in Chicago, Illinois, outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. President, and Edmund Muskie for Vice President.[3]
September
- September 7 – 150 women (members of New York Radical Women) arrive in Atlantic City, New Jersey to protest against the Miss America Pageant, as exploitative of women. Led by activist and author Robin Morgan, it is one of the first large demonstrations of Second Wave Feminism as Women's Liberation begins to gather much media attention.
- September 7 – The Banana Splits Adventure Hour begins airing on NBC. It would went on to 2 seasons, ending on December 13 A Year Later in the middle of season 2.
- September 13 – Army Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware, World War II Medal of Honor recipient, is killed when his helicopter is shot down in Vietnam. He is posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
- September 24 – 60 Minutes debuts on CBS.
October
- October 8 – Vietnam War – Operation Sealords: United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
- October 10 – the Detroit Tigers win the 1968 World Series, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 3.
- 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 14 – Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will send about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
- October 16 – In Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 2 black Americans competing in the Olympic 200-meter run, raise their arms in a black power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals for 1st and 3rd place.
- October 20 – Former U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis on the Greek island of Skorpios.
- October 25 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience releases Electric Ladyland.
- 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 the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.
- 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 14 – Yale University announces it is going to admit women.
- 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.
- November 20 – The Farmington Mine Disaster in Farmington, West Virginia, kills seventy-eight men.
- November 24 – 4 men hijack Pan Am Flight 281 from JFK International Airport, New York to Havana, Cuba.
- 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 3 – The NBC special If I Can Dream marks the concert return of Elvis Presley.
- December 6 – During an airing of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, NBC Renews The Banana Splits Adventure Hour for a second season.
- December 8 – NBC Airs Pinocchio starring Burl Ives and Peter Noone as part of Hallmark Hall of Fame.
- December 9 – Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco.
- December 11 – The film Oliver!, based on the hit London and Broadway musical, opens in the U.S. after being released first in England. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is also filmed on this date, but not released until 1996.
- December 20 – The Zodiac Killer is believed to have shot Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on Lake Herman Road, Benicia, San Francisco Bay, California.
- December 22 – David Eisenhower marries Julie Nixon, the daughter of U.S. President-elect Richard Nixon.
- December 23 – Release of the USS Pueblo crew after spending 11 months in captivity by the North Koreans.
- December 24 – Apollo Program: 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.
Undated
- Cañada College opens in Redwood City, California.
- In or about this year the HIV virus is thought to have first arrived in the U.S.[4]
Ongoing
- Cold War (1945–1991)
- Space Race (1957–1975)
- Vietnam War, U.S. involvement (1962–1973)
Births
- January 2 – Cuba Gooding, Jr., actor
- January 4 – Mike Wilpolt, American football player and coach
- January 29 – Aeneas Williams, American football player and pastor
- February 12 – Josh Brolin, actor
- February 17 – Bryan Cox, American football player and coach
- February 22 – Jayson Williams, American basketball player and sportscaster
- March 12 – Aaron Eckhart, actor
- May 1
- Johnny Colt, bass player
- D'arcy Wretzky, bass player and singer (Smashing Pumpkins)
- May 2 – Eric Holcomb, 51st Governor of Indiana
- May 2 – David Benoit, basketball player
- May 12
- Mark Clark, baseball player and coach
- Scott Schwartz, American actor
- May 22 – Tony Hawk, American skateboarder
- June 2 – Jason Falkner, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Jellyfish, The Grays, and The Three O'Clock)
- June 27 – Kelly Ayotte, United States Senator from New Hampshire from 2011 to 2017.
- July 7 – Allen Payne, actor
- July 16 – Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia
- August 9 – Gillian Leigh Anderson, actress
- September 4 – John DiMaggio, voice actor
- September 25 – Will Smith, actor, producer, and rapper
- November 13 – Pat Hentgen, American baseball player and coach
Deaths
- April 4 – Martin Luther King, Jr., activist, clergyman and leader in the Civil Rights Movement (born 1929)
- May 10 – Scotty Beckett, American actor and singer (born 1929)
- June 1 – Helen Keller, campaigner for the deaf and blind (born 1880)
- June 6 – Robert Kennedy, younger brother of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator, presidential candidate (born 1925)
- August 18 – Arthur Marshall, ragtime composer and performer (born 1881)
- December 11 – Bob Bartlett, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1968 (born 1904)
- December 20 – John Steinbeck, author (born 1902)
See also
References
- ↑ CNN, By Katie McLaughlin,. "Eight unforgettable ways 1968 made history - CNN".
- ↑ Lyndon B. Johnson (March 11, 1968). Memorandum Approving the Adoption by the Federal Government of a Standard Code for Information Interchange. The American Presidency Project. Accessed 2008-04-14.
- ↑ Mitchell K. Hall (2008). "Chronology". Historical Dictionary of the Nixon-Ford Era. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6410-8.
- ↑ Pickrell, John (September 4, 2006). "Timeline: HIV & AIDS". New Scientist.
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