1968

January

• January 13 - Johnny Cash records "Live at Folsom Prison".
• January 15 - An earthquake in Sicily kills 231 and injures 262.  
• January 23 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its territorial waters while spying.

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

February

• February 1 - Vietnam War: A Viet Cong officer is executed by Nguyen Ngoc 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.
• 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 13 - Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  
• 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 in Harlem.

March

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

 April

• 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.

EXERPT FROM MLK'S MOUNTAINTOP SPEECH: 

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

• April 4 - Apollo Program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502 (Apollo 6) is launched, as the second and last unmanned test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
• April 6 - A shootout between Black Panthers and Oakland police results in several arrests and deaths, including 17-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton.
• April 11 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
• April 23-April 30 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university. See main article Columbia University protests of 1968
• 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 lead many youth 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 17 - The Catonsville Nine entered the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, took dozens of selective service draft records, and burned them with napalm as a protest against the Vietnam War.

 June

• 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 23 - A football stampede in Buenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured.
• June 29 - Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control.

 July

• July 15 - The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on ABC.
• July 17 - Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.
• 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.

 August

• August 5-August 8 - The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President.
• August 20 - The Prague Spring of political liberalization ends, as 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia.
• 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.
•   http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/videodir/pacificaviet/chicago68clips.ram

  Eight of the protesters — Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, Dave Dellinger, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Jerry Rubin, Lee Weiner, and Black Panther Bobby Seale — were charged with conspiracy in connection with the violence at the convention. They were known collectively as the "Chicago Eight"; however, Seale was tried separately after a mistrial was declared in his case, thus the larger group became known as the "Chicago Seven".

September

• October 2 - Tlatelolco massacre: A student demonstration ends in a bloodbath at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico, 10 days before the inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics. .
• 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 12-October 27 - The Games of the XIX Olympiad are held in Mexico City, Mexico.

Lyrics: Blind Faith, "Can't Find My Way Home"

Buffalo Sringfield "For What It's Worth"

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Crosby, Stills Nash and Young: "Chicago"

Though your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago
Just to sing
In a land that's known as freedom
How can such a thing be fair
Won't you plaese come to Chicago
For the help we can bring
We can change the world -
Re-arrange the world
It's dying - to get better
Politicians sit yourself down,
There's nothing for you here
Won't you please come to Chicago
For a ride
Don't ask Jack to help you
Cause he'll turn the other ear
Won't you please come to Chicago
Or else join the other side
We can change the world -
Re-arrange the world
It's dying - if you believe in justice
It's dying - and if you believe in freedom
It's dying - let a man live it's own life
It's dying - rules and regulations, who needs them
Open up the door
Somehow people must be free
I hope the day comes soon
Won't you please come to Chicago
Show your face
From the bottom to the ocean
To the mountains of the moon
Won't you please come to Chicago
No one else can take your place
We can change the world -
Re-arrange the world
It's dying - if you believe in justice
It's dying - and if you believe in freedom
It's dying - let a man live it's own life
It's dying - rules and regulations, who needs them
Open up the door
We can change the world

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: "Ohio"

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio

Gotta get downto it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our won.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

On May 4, 1970, an anti-war student demonstration at Kent State University, Ohio left four students dead, one paralyzed, and eight others wounded.

The demonstration ended when the National Guard fired into the crowd of students. The shootings ended the lives of four students Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer.

Shortly thereafter, Neil Young wrote what would become an anthem of a generation -- the song "Ohio" in memory of the "Four dead in Ohio

Walter Cronkite In Viet Nam	large view Cronkite was anchor for CBS	large view Eddie Adams wn Pulitzer Prize for this execution of Viet Cong
Tet	large view Tet	large view Protesters
Columbia University Protest Police Riot	Columbia University Sit In	large view Malcom X and Elijah Mohammad
large view I Am A Man---garbage strike in Memphis	MLK Mountain Top Speech	Jesse Jackson and MLK just before Assassination
large view MLK Funeral	large view Black Panthers	large view Daishiki
large view Geoge Wallace, segregationist candidate	large view Robert F. Kennedy Assassination in LA before Chicago Democratic Convention	large view Mexican Olympics with show of Black Pride at medal ceremony
large view Democratic Convention Police Riot	large view Buttons
large view Viet Nam Memorial	large view Birthday Card	large view Kent State Image

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