Nixon Elected President: November 5, 1968

Winning one of the closest elections in U.S. history, Republican challenger Richard Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Because of the strong showing of third-party candidate George Wallace, neither Nixon nor Humphrey received more than 50 percent of the popular vote; Nixon beat Humphrey by less than 500,000 votes. Nixon campaigned on a platform designed […]

Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress

Shirley Anita Chisholm (née St. Hill; November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author.[1] In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress,[2] and she represented New York’s 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first […]

Fosbury Flop – Decades TV Network

Twenty-one-year-old Dick Fosbury changed the high jump on October 20, 1968. His backward facing jump won the gold and set an Olympic record. The record-breaking 7-foot 4-1/4-inch high jump propelled Fosbury into the limelight. His high jump technique, which became known as the “Fosbury Flop,” would later become a standard style at high jumping events.

Andy Warhol is shot in his New York City

Andy Warhol is shot in his New York City loft by Valerie Solanis, a struggling actress, and writer. On June 3, 1968, Valerie Solanas shot Warhol and art critic and curator Mario Amaya at Warhol’s studio. Before the shooting, Solanas had been a marginal figure in the Factory scene. She founded a “group” called S.C.U.M. […]

The Mamas & the Papas

The Papas & The Mamas is the fourth studio album by the American folk rock vocal group the Mamas and the Papas, released in 1968.

The Big Mac was created by Jim Delligatti

Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun – The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by international fast food restaurant chain McDonald’s and was introduced nationwide in 1968, and remains the company’s flagship products.

Apollo 7 Mission on October 11, 1968

Apollo 7 is launched from Florida for an eleven day journey which will orbit the Earth 163 times.

1968 College Student Debate. Black Students Walk Out

Social Confrontation: The Battle of Michigan Ave

Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) Oct. 10th at $15.00

Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) started in the 1920s and spent those early years making textiles and pencils. It didn’t make its first toy until Mr. Potato Head in the 1950s. By the time Hasbro had its initial public offering (IPO) in 1968, the brand was famous for G.I. Joe, which made up two-thirds of the company’s sales at the time.  […]

Super Bowl II

The second AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional football, known retroactively as Super Bowl II, was played on January 14, 1968, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. The National Football League (NFL)’s defending champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American Football League (AFL) champion Oakland Raiders by the score of 33–14. This game and Super Bowl III are the only two Super Bowl games to be played in back-to-back […]

Apollo 8: Christmas at the Moon

Christmas Eve, 1968. As one of the most turbulent, tragic years in American history drew to a close, millions around the world were watching and listening as the Apollo 8 astronauts – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders – became the first humans to orbit another world. As their command module floated above the […]

Leroy Eldridge Cleaver Black Panther Shoot Out

Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer, and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party. n the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, there were riots across the nation. On April 6, Cleaver and 14 other Panthers was involved in […]

USS Pueblo Spy Ship Capture

USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a Banner-class environmental research ship, attached to Navy intelligence as a spy ship, which was attacked and captured by North Korean forces on 23 January 1968, in what is known today as the “Pueblo incident“[1] or alternatively, as the “Pueblo crisis“. The seizure of the U.S. Navy ship and her 83 crew members, one of whom was killed in the attack, came […]

Oliver! An adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel Oliver Twist

Oliver! is a 1968 British period musical drama film based on Lionel Bart‘s 1960 stage musical of the same name, itself an adaptation of Charles Dickens‘s 1838 novel Oliver Twist. Directed by Carol Reed from a screenplay by Vernon Harris, the picture includes such musical numbers as “Food, Glorious Food“, “Consider Yourself“, “As Long as He Needs Me“, “You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two“, and […]

Jan. 29, 1968, Dr. Benjamin Spock plead innocent to charges of counseling young men to avoid the Vietnam draft.

Spock, who’d embraced nuclear disarmament as a cause in 1962, was an early critic of the Vietnam War. He believed the U.S. was illegally waging war in Southeast Asia and that it was his patriotic obligation to oppose it, even if it meant risking his iconic status. In 1966, 1967 and 1968, the Selective Service drafted […]

Hank Aaron hits career homer No. 500

July 14, 1968 – Hank Aaron launches the 500th home run of his career with a three-run shot off of the Giants’ Mike McCormick. The Braves defeat San Francisco 4-2 at Fulton County Stadium. Aaron becomes the eighth player to reach the 500 home run threshold.

February 8, 1968: Orangeburg Massacre

Racial tensions were still running very high in the south in the late ’60s. Before high profile cases of brutality at Kent State and Jackson State in 1970s, there was the Orangeburg massacre. On February 8, 1968, three black men, Samuel Hammond, Henry Smith and Delano Middleton, were killed by South Carolina Highway Patrol officers […]

Diahann Carroll remembers Julia

There are a handful of television shows that truly, boldly broke new ground in their depiction of the real-world. The Rifleman was the first show to center around a single father. The 1972-73 ABC sitcom The Corner Bar was the first series to feature a recurring LGBT character. Julia is one of those shows. Premiering in the fall of 1968 on […]

February 16, 1968: First 911 call

It’s tough to imagine a time before having the option to just dial three digits when you needed immediate emergency assistance. However, it wasn’t until 1968 that 911 became available for anyone who needed police or firefighters to arrive as soon as possible. Callers were expected to either know or have the phone number for each […]

Frank Sinatra releases ‘My Way’

‘My Way’ named Greatest Song of all time My Way is a 1968 song performed by Frank Sinatra.

Author of ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ John Steinbeck passed away at age 66

The work of American author John Steinbeck sought to detail the the rural working class in America and their economic and social conditions. His most famous work ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, published in 1939, followed a family of Oklahoma tenant farmers escaping the dust bowl for California and won the Pulitzer prize in 1940. His […]

U.S. Army biological warfare mistakenly kill 6K sheep in Utah, USA ranch

The Dugway sheep incident, also known as the Skull Valley sheep kill, was a 1968 sheep kill that has been connected to United States Army chemical and biological warfare programs at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Six thousand sheep were killed on ranches near the base, and the popular explanation blamed Army testing of chemical […]

Byodo-In Temple – dedicated in August 1968

Oahu’s Byodo-In Temple was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to arrive in Hawai’i in 1868. The original temple in Japan is over 950 years old and was built out of wood without the use of nails. However, this temple is constructed mostly out of concrete. The Byodo-In Temple (平等院, […]

Stax Records – Every 1968 Single

Stax Records will highlight its 1968 releases with the forthcoming five-disc box set, Stax ’68: A Memphis Story. The massive box set – which includes songs from Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Isaac Hayes, William Bell, and Rufus and Carla Thomas – will feature 134 songs. The set will comprise […]

We’re a Winner Album by The Impressions

We’re a Winner is an album (and song) by the American soul music group the Impressions. The album was their last one released before they changed to the Curtom Records label. Curtis Mayfield, born 70 years ago today, wrote music that inspired a generation and a movement. Though he may be best remembered for the […]

Dick Gregory for President

In the middle of the hothouse atmosphere of the 1968 U.S. presidential election — racial strife splitting cities, antiwar protests on college campuses, segregationist George Wallace growling up out of the South — Dick Gregory barnstormed the country, pitching audiences his acid mix of jokes and politics. The African American comic and activist was looking for votes in […]

Released January 8, 1968 “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”

Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. Redding’s style of singing gained inspiration from […]

Chicago Eight, also Conspiracy Eight/Conspiracy Seven

The Chicago Seven (originally Chicago Eight, also Conspiracy Eight/Conspiracy Seven) were seven defendants—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged by the federal government with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War and countercultural protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois, on the occasion […]

Linda Ronstadt, The Stone Poneys – Different Drum

She is woman, hear her roar! Linda Ronstadt is one of the most influential rock n roll women has collaborated with everyone from the Eagles, to Paul Simon, and even Emmylou Harris. In 1968 Ronstadt was performing with her band The Stone Poneys and enjoying success with their cover of “Different Drum” by Mike Nesmith […]

3.3% National Unemployment Rate

December 11, 1968 the unemployment rate, at 3.3 percent, is the lowest it has been in fifteen years.  The Cost of Living and the Prices in 1968 inlcude; Yearly Inflation Rate USA 4.27% Yearly Inflation Rate UK 4.7% Year-End Dow Jones Industrial Average 943 Average Cost of new house $14,950.00     Average Income per year […]

The Beatles release ‘White Album’ November 22, 1968

The Beatles, also known as “The White Album”, is the ninth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. A double album, its plain white sleeve has no graphics or text other than the band’s name embossed, which was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork […]

TCB was the First musical TV special of the rock era to air on American broadcast television

TCB is a 1968 television special produced by Motown Productions and George Schlatter–Ed Friendly Productions of Laugh-In fame.  The special is a musical revue starring Motown’s two most popular groups at the time, Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations.  Containing a combination of showtunes, specially prepared numbers, and popular Motown hits, the special […]

68 Sounds Released in 1968, Standing the Test of Time

McDonald’s Big Mac Makes it’s Debut, 1968

McDonald’s had already been America’s most successful fast-food chain by 1968—having opened its 1,000th restaurant that year— Jim Delligatti, manager of the Uniontown, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s, saw his gastronomic creation become part of the company’s permanent menu. Delligatti, who first became a McDonald’s manager in 1957, tried in the mid ’60s to convince the company honchos […]

Motion Picture Films Released in 1968

Rank   Title, Studio, Gross 1         2001: A Space Odyssey,  MGM, $56,715,371 2         Funny Girl, Columbia, $52,000,000 3         The Love Bug, Disney, $51,264,000 4         The Odd Couple, Paramount, $44,527,234 5         Bullitt, Warner Bros., $42,300,873 6         Romeo and Juliet, Paramount, $38,901,218 7         Oliver!, Columbia, $37,402,877 8         Rosemary’s Baby, Paramount, […]

1968 Mens and Womens Fashion Clothes

Soviet Union – Zond 5 Space Mission

The Soviet Union launches the Zond 5 space mission during September 1968. The unmanned spacecraft became the first to circle the Moon and successfully return to Earth intact. It was also the first mission to carry life to the Moon and back. There were various forms of life on board the spacecraft including wine flies, […]

United States – Surveyor 7 Lunar Lander

NASA launches the final Surveyor mission, Surveyor 7 on January 7, 1968. The mission objectives for Surveyor 7 were to achieve a soft landing on the surface of the Moon in the highland area, photograph the area after landing, test the chemical composition of the soil, and gather data related to the mechanics of the […]

United States — Intel Corporation is created

The Intel Corporation is created by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. More Information for the founding of Intel. The Intel Corporation was founded in Santa Clara, California during July 1968 as N M Electronics. Engineers Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce created the company after receiving $2.5 million in funding from venture capitalist and financier Arthur […]

Alexander Dubcek becomes the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia

1. January 5th Alexander Dubcek becomes the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia 2. April 5th Alexander Dubcek and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia call for the acknowledgment of individual liberties, the introduction of political and economic reforms, and a change in the structure of the nation. “Action Programme” 3. April 5th “Action […]

Elvis Presley returns to live performances in a special Christmas television programme that would later be dubbed the “’68 Comeback Special”

Japan’s biggest heist, 300 Million Yen Robbery takes place in Tokyo ($817,520 at 1968 exchange rates)

The 300 million yen robbery (三億円事件 San Oku En Jiken), also known as the 300 million yen affair or incident, was the single largest heist in Japanese history at the time. It occurred on the morning of December 10, 1968, in Tokyo, Japan. Half a century later, the case remains unsolved. On the morning of […]

Saddam Hussein part of the military coup in 1968

The Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council was established after the military coup in 1968, and was the ultimate decision making body in Iraq before the 2003 American-led invasion. It exercised both executive and legislative authority in the country, with the Chairman and Vice Chairman chosen by a two-thirds majority of the council. In July 1968, Saddam […]

The ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, 20th of April 1968

The ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech was made by British Member of Parliament Enoch Powell on 20 April 1968, to a meeting of the Conservative Political Centre in Birmingham, United Kingdom. His speech strongly criticised mass immigration, especially Commonwealth immigration to the United Kingdom and the proposed Race Relations Bill. It became known as the ‘Rivers […]

HOTWHEELS INVENTED 5/18/68

Hot Wheels is a brand of die-cast toy cars introduced by American toy maker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1997, when Mattel bought Tyco Toys, then-owner of Matchbox. Many automobile manufacturers have since licensed Hot Wheels to make scale models of their cars, allowing the use of original design […]

British rule ended on 12 March 1968, when Mauritius became independent

British Mauritius was a British crown colony off the Southeast coast of Africa. Formerly part of the French colonial empire, the crown colony of Mauritius was established after a British invasion in 1810 and the subsequent Treaty of Paris that followed. British rule ended on 12 March 1968, when Mauritius became independent. History[edit] Isle de […]

At Folsom Prison Live album by Johnny Cash

At Folsom Prison is a live album and 27th overall album by Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in May 1968. After his 1955 song “Folsom Prison Blues”, Cash had been interested in recording a performance at a prison. His idea was put on hold until 1967, when personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob […]

Historic Student Uprising at Columbia University

April 23 A rally and occupation of the Low administrative office building at Columbia University, planned to protest the university’s participation in the Institute for Defense Analysis is scuttled by conservative students and university security officers. The demonstrators march to the site of a proposed new gymnasium at Morningside Heights to stage a protest in […]

Hong Kong Flu

The first record of the outbreak in Hong Kong appeared on 13 July 1968. By the end of July 1968, extensive outbreaks were reported in Vietnam and Singapore. Despite the fatality of the 1957 Asian Flu in China, little improvement had been made regarding the handling of such epidemics. The Times newspaper was actually the […]

9-1-1, also written 911, emergency telephone number deputes in 1968 for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP)

On February 16, 1968, Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite placed the first-ever 9-1-1 call from Haleyville City Hall, to Congressman Tom Bevill, at the city’s police station. Bevill was accompanied by Gallagher and Alabama Public Service Commission director Eugene “Bull” Connor. The phone used to answer the first 9-1-1 call, a bright red […]

Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson July 7, 1968

Ellsworth Raymond Johnson (October 31, 1905 – July 7, 1968)—known as “Bumpy” Johnson—was an American mob boss and bookmaker in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. The main Harlem associate of Charles “Lucky” Luciano and what would become later known as the Genovese crime family, Johnson’s criminal career has inspired films and television. Johnson was under a […]

CBS Debuts the Doris Day Show in September 1968

The Doris Day Show is an American sitcom which was originally broadcast on the CBS Television network from September 1968 until March 1973, remaining on the air for five seasons and 128 episodes.  The series is remembered for its multiple format and cast changes over the course of its 5-year run.  The show is also […]

Operation Danube – Joint Invasion of Czechoslovakia

The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, officially known as Operation Danube, was a joint invasion of Czechoslovakia by five Warsaw Pact countries – the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany and Hungary – on the night of 20–21 August 1968.[17] Approximately 250,000[4] Warsaw pact troops attacked Czechoslovakia that night, with Romania and Albania refusing to […]

Muhammad Ali’s 1968 ‘Esquire’ cover is one of the greatest of all time

It’s usually hard to pinpoint the exact moment a bright star goes supernova. But Muhammad Ali did that very thing in April 1968, thanks in large part to Esquire magazine’s cover of the world’s most famous and controversial athlete “dressed” as St. Sebastian, the third-century Christian martyr. In hindsight, Ali-as-St. Sebastian was both a stroke […]

March 13, 1968: Oil discovered on Alaska’s North Slope

The Atlantic Richfield Company and Humble Oil and Refining Company announce the discovery of oil on the North Slope of Alaska at Prudhoe Bay.

Miss Black America Pageant on August 17, 1968

It was originally a local Philadelphia area contest to protest the lack of black women in the Miss America pageant. J. Morris Anderson created and produced the Miss Black America Pageant on August 17, 1968, at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlantic City.[1] With support from Phillip H. Savage, Tri-State Director of the NAACP, the pageant received […]

Hair: Opened on Broadway in April 1968

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. The musical’s profanity, its […]

Berkeley – The Protest Pulse of the World

The major political/counterculture/New Left/radical events in Berkeley in 1968 were the Telegraph Avenue riots; the Eldridge Cleaver Social Analysis 139X controversy in the context of the new Yippie movement; and the Vietnam commencement. Telegraph Avenue Riots The first round of riots on Telegraph Avenue started in late June with a demonstration organized by Peter Camejo […]

Washington, D.C. Civil ‘War’ Riots of 1968

The Washington, D.C. riots of 1968 were 4 days of riots in Washington, D.C. that followed the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. The King assassination riots affected at least 110 U.S. cities; Washington, along with Chicago and Baltimore, was among the most affected. The ready availability of […]

Lisa Marie Presley (born February 1, 1968

Lisa Marie was born on February 1, 1968, to Elvis and Priscilla Presley at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, nine months to the day after her parents’ May 1, 1967, wedding.  She is the only child of singer and actor Elvis Presley and actress Priscilla Presley, as well as the sole heir to her […]

Apollo 8 Mission

Apollo 8, the second manned spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program, was launched on December 21, 1968, and became the first manned spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return.[1] The three-astronaut crew—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders—were the first humans to witness and photograph […]

September 30: Boeing introduces the first 747 “Jumbo Jet”

When demand for air travel reached sky-high levels in the 1960s, the world’s then-largest passenger aircraft — the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet — was a game changer. The ability to carry far more passengers than previous airliners suddenly made globetrotting a feasible option for would-be wanderers who previously thought they would never afford such exotic […]

A speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was given by New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy

A speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was given by New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy on April 4, 1968. Kennedy was campaigning for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. He had spoken at the University of Notre Dame and Ball State University earlier that day. Before boarding a plane to fly to […]

“Boys in the Band” debuts

“Boys in the Band” debuts on New York stage. This was not the first production with a gay theme, but nothing before this had flung open the closet door with such emphatic flair. Looking back today, “Boys” seems somewhat primitive and not always fully enlightened, with a lot of self-doubt in some of the characters. […]

‘The Foot Book: Dr. Seuss’s Wacky Book of Opposites’ is Published

The Foot Book is intended for young children, and it seeks to convey the concept of opposites through depictions of different kinds of feet. The text of The Foot Book is highly stylized, containing the rhymes, repetitions, and cadences typical of Dr. Seuss’s work. Reading this book will teach the reader that you should not […]

Volvo 164 is First Produced

The Volvo 164 was a six cylinder sedan unveiled by Volvo Cars at the Paris Motor Show early in October 1968 for the 1969 model year. The company built 146,008 examples before production ended in 1975. Introduced with a faux wood dashboard, a six cylinder engine and an optional leather interior, the 164 represented Volvo’s […]

Memphis, Tennessee looting that followed the break-up of a march led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

March 28, Memphis, Tennessee, USA: A police officer uses his nightstick on a youth reportedly involved in the looting that followed the break-up of a march led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. March 29, Memphis, Tennessee: National guardsmen brandishing bayonets block civil rights activists trying to stage a protest on Beale Street. The marching […]

On strike! Shut it down

December 3, 1968 Militant demonstrator is arrested at San Francisco State College as police tried to quell demonstrations. A college established in the final year of the 19th century, San Francisco State College found itself confronted by the idealism of the youth of the 1960s and anger over academic bureaucratic policies. From November 1968 to […]