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.

In the 1960s, the 20th century.

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
  • 25 February – Incumbent President Makarios III won the presidential elections with 96.3% of the vote. Voter turnout was 93.5%.Cyprussource
  • 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
  • 21 March — Rwanda signs the International Coffee Agreement of 1968.Rwandasource
  • 13 April – The PAP wins the 1968 General Election.Singaporesource
  • April 20 – Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.source
  • April 23 – President Mobutu releases captured mercenaries in the Congo.source
  • 2 June — 1967-68 Balkans Cup: Albania ties with Turkey 1-1 at Ankara 19 Mayıs Stadium, AnkaraAlbaniasource
  • 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
  • 5 October – A law changing the criteria for eligibility to sit in the Chamber of Deputies is passed.Luxembourgsource
  • 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
  • December 23 - Crew of USS Pueblo released at Panmunjom.South Koreasource
  • December 26 – The CPP is founded under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism by Joma Sison.Philippinessource
  • Sultan of Kedah: Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah (Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong)Malaysiasource

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 23 - USS Pueblo (AGER-2) captured by North KoreaSouth Koreasource
  • January 30 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.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 18 – Jabidah massacre takes place when Army soldiers murdered a number of Moro recruits through machine gunfire in Corregidor Island in retaliation to the planned invasion of Sabah.Philippinessource
  • 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
  • 10-11 March - Battle of Lima Site 85Laossource
  • 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 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
  • 17 June – The Communist Party of Malaya launched an ambush of security forces in the area of Kroh–Betong road between Pengkalan Hulu town and the Malaysia-Thailand border, killing 17 members of the security forces. This event marked the start of the second armed revolt of the Communist Party of Malaya known as the Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–89).Malaysiasource
  • 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
  • 29 June — 1967–68 Balkans Cup: Albania is defeated by Romania 2-1 at Stadionul Farul, ConstanțaAlbaniasource
  • August 20–21 – Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: The 'Prague Spring' of political liberalization ends, as 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 6,500 tanks with 800 aircraft invade Czechoslovakia, the largest military operation in Europe since the end of World War II.source
  • August 20 – Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization. Thousands of refugees flee to Canada.Canadasource
  • 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 2 – Tlatelolco massacre: A student demonstration ends in bloodbath at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico, 10 days before the inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics. 300-400 are estimated to have been killed.source
  • October 3 – In Peru, Juan Velasco Alvarado takes power in a revolution.source
  • 5 October – A civil rights march in Derry, which includes several Stormont and British MPs, is batoned off the streets by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, resulting in two days of serious rioting in Derry.Northern Irelandsource
  • 17 October – The two marines were hanged for their roles in the MacDonald House bombing.Singaporesource
  • 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
  • November 15 – 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.source
  • 28 December – 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon: Commandos from the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal destroy 13 civilian airplanes in the Beirut International Airport belonging to Middle East Airlines (MEA) in response to the attack on the Israeli airliner in Athens. There are no casualties reported.Israelsource

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 2: Fuji-Q Highland officially open in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture.Japansource
  • 1 April – American evangelist Billy Graham begins a tour of Australia.Australiasource
  • 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
  • 29 August – Natural Rubber Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur.Malaysiasource
  • 17 September – The first A&W store opens at MSA Building, making it Singapore's first fast food restaurant. This went on until 2003, when A&W decided to leave Singapore. It made a return in 2019 to Jewel Changi Airport.Singaporesource
  • An oil field is confirmed in Northern Alaska: the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field.source
  • 29 Feb - Auroville established in Pondicherry with presence of 124 countries.Indiasource
  • New Zealand Trotting Cup: HumphreyNew Zealandsource
  • Derek Mahon's poems Night-Crossing published.Northern Irelandsource
  • 25–30 October – French President Charles de Gaulle visits Turkey.Turkeysource

Religion & Belief

  • 8 April – Tuanku Jaafar was installed as the tenth Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan.Malaysiasource
  • April 23 – The United Methodist Church is created by the union in Dallas, Texas, of the former Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.source
  • 24 June – Split of the Catholic University of Leuven announcedBelgiumsource
  • 1 July – The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (known as MUIS) is established.Singaporesource
  • July 25 – Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical Humanae vitae, reaffirming the Catholic Church's opposition to artificial birth control.source
  • 11 August – A group of 9 priests, 3 nuns and 200 lay people identified with the Christians for Socialism current take over the Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago as a protest against the visit of Pope Paul VI to the International Eucharistic Congress in Bogotá (Colombia), the prohibition of contraceptives and the construction of the Votive Temple of Maipú. On the altar, the group places posters of Che Guevara and Camilo Torres, while outside they display a canvas with the legend "For a church next to the people and their struggle"Chilesource
  • 22 November – Terence O'Neill announces five point plan to ease Catholic grievances on housing allocation and electoral law.Northern Irelandsource
  • 14 December – Yotam Ottolenghi, chefIsraelsource
  • 16 December – Paul Wilwertz resigns from the Council of State to take up his seat in the Chamber of Deputies.Luxembourgsource
  • Date unknown — Rubén Díaz Alcántara, Catholic priest, (died 2018).Mexicosource

Economy & Finance

  • Unknown date: Komeda Coffeehouse, as known well coffeehouse chain in nationwide, founded in Nagoya.Japansource
  • 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
  • April 1 – POSCO founded in Gyeongsangnam-do, as predecessor name was Pohang Steel.South Koreasource
  • 15 May: A bomb explodes at the door of the São Paulo Stock Exchange.Brazilsource
  • 23 May – Singapore Pools is formed as a state-owned lottery firm to combat triads and illegal syndicates.Singaporesource
  • 26 May – BERNAMA (Berita Nasional Malaysia) or Malaysian National News Agency established.Malaysiasource
  • 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
  • 17 September – The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of South Africa is cancelled when South Africa refuses to accept the presence of Basil D'Oliveira in the side.South Africasource
  • 29 October – Disagreements over the budget for the following year lead to the collapse of the Werner-Cravatte Government.Luxembourgsource
  • Allen McClay establishes the pharmaceutical company Galen in Craigavon.Northern Irelandsource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 17 January – The Radio Malaysia and Television Malaysia service were moved from Tunku Abdul Rahman multipurpose hall at Jalan Ampang to the new building at Angkasapuri.Malaysiasource
  • 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
  • 5 April – Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company takes over operations from the Ulster Transport Authority, managing Northern Ireland Railways, Ulsterbus, Northern Ireland Carriers and Northern Ireland Airports.Northern Irelandsource
  • April 18 – London Bridge is sold to U.S. entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch for reconstruction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona.source
  • 27 April – Ayub Khan inaugurated Kamalapur railway station in Dacca, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).Pakistansource
  • May 2 – The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.source
  • 2 May – The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.Israelsource
  • 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
  • 18 July – The commissioning of Unit 1 of Linkou Power Plant in Taipei County.Taiwansource
  • 1 September – The Singapore Air Defence Command is formed.Singaporesource
  • 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
  • November 28 – Ana Maria Alvarado, journalistMexicosource
  • December 18 – ABS-CBN opens its present-day headquarters, the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center on Bohol Avenue (renamed as Sgt. Esguerra Avenue in 1989), Quezon City, the most advanced broadcast facility in the country during that time.Philippinessource
  • 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
  • April – Ronquières inclined plane taken into useBelgiumsource
  • 13 July: Martha Vasconcellos becomes the second Brazilian to win the Miss Universe title, in the pageant held in Miami Beach, Florida, United States.Brazilsource
  • 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 / 213/4 ins at the Olympics in Mexico City. His record stands for 23 years, and remains the second longest jump in history.source
  • 1 November – The airline Ansett-ANA is renamed Ansett.Australiasource
  • 6 December – Karl Ove Knausgård, authorNorwaysource
  • 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
  • David Suzuki wins UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for science writingCanadasource
  • 1st number of Estonian Soviet Encyclopedia was published.Estoniasource
  • Three-language formula introduced through National Policy on EducationIndiasource
  • New Zealand sends a team of 52 competitors.New Zealandsource

Health & Medicine

  • 1 February – Jacob van der Hoeden (born 1891), Dutch-born Israeli veterinary scientist.Israelsource
  • 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
  • The Liberal Party of South Africa is banned by the government.South Africasource
  • 26 May: Dr. Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini and his team perform the first heart transplant in Latin America.Brazilsource
  • June 28 – The first heart transplant in Chile and Latin America, and the second in the world, is performed by surgeon Jorge Kaplán at the Almirante Nef Naval Hospital in Viña del Mar to patient María Elena Peñaloza.Chilesource
  • September 18 – The Republic Act No. 5446 takes effect which regards Sabah as part of the Philippines.Philippinessource
  • 22 November – First heart transplantations in Turkey (Ankara)Turkeysource
  • Males per 100 females: 99.8 – This was the first year (other than during a major war) in which the number of females exceeded the number of males.New Zealandsource
  • Pakistan Hockey team led by Dr Tariq Aziz, won Gold at the Olympics in Men's Field HockeyPakistansource

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
  • February 6 - U.S. 2nd Infantry Division guard post attacked. 3 North Koreans killed by U.S. forces.South Koreasource
  • 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 5 – Leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy died from his injuries the next day.United Statessource
  • 16 June - Taça de Portugal FinalPortugalsource
  • 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
  • 23 July – El Al Flight 426 hijacking: The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place, when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew members and 38 passengers is taken over by three terrorists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The aircraft, El Al Flight 426, which was en route from Rome to Tel Aviv, is diverted to Algiers by the hijackers. Negotiations with the hijackers lasted for 40 days. Both the hijackers and the passengers, including 21 Israeli hostages, were eventually freed.Israelsource
  • 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
  • 28 August – Gerry Fitt, MP, tables a House of Commons motion, signed by 60 Labour Party backbenchers, criticising RUC action in Dungannon on 24 August, demanding that "citizens of Northern Ireland should be allowed the same rights of peaceful demonstration as those in other parts of the United Kingdom".Northern Irelandsource
  • 1 October – The Keep Singapore Clean campaign is launched.Singaporesource
  • October 30 – Ramon Novarro, Mexican actor (born 1899).Mexicosource
  • December 10 – Japan's biggest heist, the never-solved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.source
  • 16 December: Mobster Castor de Andrade is arrested, after Secretary of Public Security of Guanabara, General Luís de França Oliveira, starts one of the biggest attacks against crime.Brazilsource
  • December 20 – The first known Zodiac Killer murder takes place in Lake Herman Road, Vallejo, California.source
  • Sultan of Pahang: Sultan Abu BakarMalaysiasource

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
  • 22 January – a fire in Viña del Mar destroyed 600 hectares of vegetation and more than 200 houses in the upper sector of the city.Chilesource
  • January 25 – Israeli submarine INS Dakar sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 69.source
  • January 28 – French submarine Minerve sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 52.source
  • 30 January – The Ellenborough Market is destroyed in a fire, causing S$253,000 in damages and affecting about 1000 hawkers and stall-holders. The market is demolished a few years later.Singaporesource
  • 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
  • 19 April - The first communal riots of Kanara region occurred in Mangalore leaving 28 injured and widespread arson.Indiasource
  • April 20 – South African Airways Flight 228 a Boeing 707 crashed shortly after take-off killing 123 people on board.source
  • April 20 – A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes after take-off from Windhoek, killing 122 of the 129 on board.South Africasource
  • 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: 1968 Hida river bus accident, two charter buses occur debris flow, following push into Hida River, Gifu Prefecture, due after heavy torrential rain. According to local official confirmed report, 104 people lost to lives with one of worst road accident in Northeast Asia.Japansource
  • 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
  • 11 December – William Craig, NI Minister of Home Affairs, is dismissed from the Northern Ireland cabinet.Northern Irelandsource
  • 26 December – El Al Flight 253 attack: Two PFLP militants attack an attacked an El Al plane about to depart at the Athens International Airport, firing a submachine gun and throwing grenades at the plane as it sat on the runway warming up prior to take off. An Israeli mechanic was killed in the attack and two others were injured.Israelsource
  • 31 December – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes south of Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board.Australiasource

Climate & Environment

  • January 15 – The 1968 Belice earthquake in Sicily kills 380 and injures around 1,000.source
  • April 10 – The ferry TEV Wahine 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
  • May 16: 1968 Tokachi earthquakeJapansource
  • 19 May – Despite the fact that the country is in autumn, there is a heavy snowfall that affects from La Serena to Puerto Montt.Chilesource
  • 24 May – A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes near Inangahua Junction, causing three deaths.New Zealandsource
  • July 29 – Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time in centuries.source
  • August 2 – The magnitude (Mw) 7.6 Casiguran earthquake affects the Aurora province in the Philippines with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing at least 207 and injuring 261.source
  • August 2 – The 1968 Casiguran earthquake occurred with a moment magnitude of 7.6 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The earthquake's epicenter was located in Casiguran, Aurora. This was deemed the most destructive earthquake in the Philippines prior to the 1990 Luzon earthquake.Philippinessource
  • 31 August – The first in a destructive earthquake doublet affected eastern Iran. The 7.4 Mw Dasht-e Bayaz earthquake shook the area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Fifteen-thousand people were killed.Iransource
  • 3 September – The Bartın earthquake affected the area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing 24–29 deaths and 200 injuriesTurkeysource
  • 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
  • South Africa withdraw from the British Commonwealth of Nations cutting full ties with Britain.South Africasource
  • 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
  • Sultan of Johor: Sultan IsmailMalaysiasource

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
  • 6 April – Representing Luxembourg, Chris Baldo and Sophie Garel finish eleventh in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song Nous vivrons d'amour.Luxembourgsource
  • 9 May – The establishment of Institute of Nuclear Energy Research in Longtan Township, Taoyuan County.Taiwansource
  • 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
  • May 68: Major left trade union federations in France call a 1-day general strike and join student protesters in a million-strong march through the streets of Paris.source
  • June 2 – Student demonstrations in Yugoslavia start in Belgrade.source
  • 7 June – Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) is established as a think-tank to research on trends and politics in Southeast Asia and beyond.Singaporesource
  • 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
  • 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
  • September 11 – The International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) is founded.source
  • October 10 – The Detroit Tigers win the 1968 World Series in baseball in seven games.source
  • October 12–27 – The Philippines participates in the 1968 Summer Olympics with 49 competitors in ten sports.Philippinessource
  • 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
  • 7 November – start of 1968 movement in PakistanPakistansource
  • 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 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
  • 28 December – Lior Ashkenazi, Israeli screen and stage actor.Israelsource
  • CS Mindelense won the Cape Verdean Football ChampionshipCape Verdesource
  • Sultan of Terengganu: Tengku Mahmud (Regent)Malaysiasource

Births

Deaths

  • 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 21 – Howard Florey, Australian-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (born 1898)source
  • March 27 – Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, first human in space (born 1934)source
  • April 4 – Martin Luther King Jr., American civil rights leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1929)source
  • April 7 – British racing driver Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.source
  • April 7 – Jim Clark, Scottish racing driver and double Formula One World Champion (born 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 1 – Helen Keller, American activist and spokeswoman for the deaf and blind (born 1880)source
  • June 6 – Robert F. Kennedy, American lawyer, politician (United States Senator, U.S. Attorney General) and a leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate (born 1925)source
  • 12 July – Hassan Yunus, 10th Menteri Besar of Johor (born 1907).Malaysiasource
  • 19 July – Emily Sadka, historian (born 1920).Singaporesource
  • July 28 – Otto Hahn, German chemist, discoverer of nuclear fission, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1879)source
  • October 2 – Marcel Duchamp, French artist (born 1887)source
  • October 27 – Lise Meitner, German-Austrian physicist, discoverer of nuclear fission (born 1878)source
  • October 30 - Ulchin-Samcheok (Gangwon-do) landings by 120 men of North Korean Army Unit 124; 110 of them were killed, 7 were captured and 3 escaped. 40 South Korean soldiers and police officers and 23 South Korean civilians were killed.South Koreasource
  • November 28 – Enid Blyton, English writer (born 1897)source
  • 2 December – Adamson-Eric, artist (born 1902)Estoniasource
  • December 20 – John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)source