5th January » Alexander Dubček comes to power: "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
7th January » Surveyor Program: 'Surveyor 7', the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from Spaceport Florida Launch Complex 36 e.g launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station or Cape Canaveral.
13th January » Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison named performs live at Folsom State Prison
21st January » Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
21st January » A B-52 bomber 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash e.g crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.
22nd January » Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.
23rd January » North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo AGER-2 6, claiming the ship had violated its territorial waters while spying.
30th January » Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.
31st January » Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.
31st January » Nauru gains independence from Australia.
1st February » Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan is videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams (photographer) e.g Eddie Adams. This image helped build opposition to the Vietnam War.
1st February » The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.
11th February » Israeli–Jordanian border clashes rage.
11th February » The Memphis Sanitation Strike begins.
16th February » In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
17th February » In Springfield, Massachusetts, the James Naismith or Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.
24th February » Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
6th March » The first of the East L.A. walkouts take place at several high schools.
7th March » Vietnam War: The United States and Army of the Republic of Vietnam known as South Vietnamese military begin Operation Truong Cong Dinh to root out Viet Cong forces from the area surrounding Mỹ Tho.
10th March » Vietnam War: Battle of Lima Site 85, concluding the 11th with largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members (12) during that war.
12th March » Mauritius achieves independence from the United Kingdom.
16th March » Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
16th March » General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
17th March » As a result of nerve gas testing in Skull Valley (Utah) called Skull Valley, Utah, over 6,000 sheep are Dugway sheep incident known as found dead.
18th March » Gold standard: The Congress of the United States e.g U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back United States dollar or US currency.
21st March » Battle of Karameh in Jordan between Israeli Defense Forces and Fatah.
28th March » 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.
4th April » Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
4th April » Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.
4th April » AEK Athens BC becomes the first Greek team to win the European Basketball Cup.
6th April » Pierre Elliot Trudeau wins the Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, 1968 e.g Liberal Leadership Election, and becomes Prime Minister of Canada soon after.
8th April » BOAC Flight 712 catches fire shortly after take off. As a result of her actions in the accident, Barbara Jane Harrison is awarded a posthumous George Cross, the only GC awarded to a woman in peacetime.
10th April » New Zealand inter-island ferry ship called TEV e.g Wahine founders and sinks at the mouth of Wellington Harbour.
11th April » President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
20th April » English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech e.g 'Rivers of Blood' speech.
23rd April » Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City Columbia University protests of 1968 or take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
24th April » Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.
29th April » The controversial musical 'Hair (musical) Hair', a product of the hippie Counterculture of the 1960s counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, opens at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway theatre Broadway, with its song becoming anthems of the Oppo
11th May » The Toronto Transit Commission opens the largest expansion of its Bloor–Danforth line, going to Scarborough, Ontario or Scarborough in the East, and Etobicoke in the West.
20th May » Operation OAU begins during the Nigerian Civil War
22nd May » The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion SSN-589 6 sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
24th May » FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.
25th May » Gateway Arch Saint Louis Gateway Arch is dedicated.
27th May » The meeting of the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (National Union of the Students of France) takes place. 30,000 to 50,000 people gather in the Stade Sebastien Charlety.
30th May » Charles de Gaulle reappears publicly after his flight to Baden-Baden, Germany, and dissolves the French National Assembly by a radio appeal. Immediately after, less than one million of his supporters march on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This is the turni
3rd June » Valerie Solanas, the author of 'SCUM Manifesto', attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.
5th June » Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. presidential candidate, is Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy known as shot at the Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles) called Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian. Kennedy dies the next day.
6th June » Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: Robert F. Kennedy, Democratic Party (United States) known as Democratic Party senator from New York and brother of 35th President John F. Kennedy, dies from gunshot wounds inflicted on June 5.
9th June » U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
30th June » Pope Paul VI issues the 'Credo of the People of God'.
1st July » The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
1st July » Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States.
8th July » The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement or Chrysler wildcat strike begins in Detroit, Michigan.
18th July » Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.
20th July » The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
23rd July » Glenville Shootout: In Cleveland Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization led by Glenville Shootout Ahmed Evans and the Cleveland Division of Police Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins an
23rd July » The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew and 38 passengers is El Al Flight 426 hijacking taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft was en route
26th July » Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years Penal labour Prison labour known as hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
1st August » The coronation is held of Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th List of Sultans of Brunei called Sultan of Brunei.
2nd August » An 1968 Casiguran earthquake e.g earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing more than 270 people and wounding 261.
11th August » The last steam hauled train runs on British Rail
13th August » Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greece called Greek Greek military junta of 1967–1974 called dictator Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
20th August » Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring.
21st August » Nicolae Ceaușescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet Union called Soviet led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanians named Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
21st August » James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American United States Marine Corps called U.S. Marine.
22nd August » Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
28th August » Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention known as Democratic National Convention.
31st August » Garfield Sobers became the first batsman ever to hit six sixes in a single over of six consecutive balls in first-class cricket.
24th September » Swaziland joins the United Nations.
27th September » The stage Musical theatre named musical 'Hair (musical) called Hair' opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it played 1,998 performances until its closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July 1973.
30th September » The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time at the Boeing Everett Factory.
1st October » The Guyana e.g Guyanese government takes over the British Guiana Broadcasting Service (BGBS).
2nd October » A peaceful student demonstration in Mexico City culminates in the Tlatelolco massacre by the order of the president, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, to the soldiers of killing unarmed students, hiding the event from the public eye. The 1968 Summer Olympics, hosted in
5th October » Police baton Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association or civil rights demonstrators in Derry, Northern Ireland considered to mark the beginning of The Troubles.
8th October » Vietnam War: Operation Sealords United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
11th October » Project Apollo named Apollo program: NASA launches 'Apollo 7,' the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
12th October » Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain
14th October » Vietnam War: 27 soldiers are arrested at the Presidio of San Francisco in California for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.
14th October » Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps will send about 24,000 soldiers and Marines back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours of duty in the combat zone there.
14th October » Apollo program: The first live TV broadcasting named broadcast, by American astronauts in Low Earth orbit named orbit, was performed by the Apollo 7 crew.
14th October » An earthquake rated at 6.8 on the Richter Scale destroys the Australian town of Meckering, Western Australia, and it also ruptures all nearby main highways and railroads.
14th October » Jim Hines of the United States of America becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100 metres called 100-meter sprint in the Summer Olympic Games held in Mexico City with a time of 9.95 seconds.
16th October » United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.
16th October » Kingston, Jamaica called Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.
16th October » Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
18th October » The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends Tommie C. Smith e.g Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving a "black power" salute during a victory ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics called Mexico City games.
20th October » Former First Lady of the United States named First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greece named Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
22nd October » Apollo program: 'Apollo 7' safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.
26th October » Soviet Union called Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy pilots Soyuz 3 into space for a four-day mission.
31st October » Vietnam War October surprise: Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US 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.
8th November » The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic is signed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by standardising the uniform traffic rules among the signatories.
11th November » Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt initiated. The goal is to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.
11th November » A second republic is declared in the Maldives.
12th November » Equatorial Guinea joins the United Nations.
17th November » Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greece e.g Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos.
17th November » British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.
17th November » Viewers of the Heidi Game known as Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts 'Heidi (1968 film) or Heidi' instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.
26th November » Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire. He is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
27th November » Penny Ann Early became the first woman to play major professional basketball, for the Kentucky Colonels in an American Basketball Association known as ABA game against the Los Angeles Stars.
9th December » Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the Mouse (computer) named computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the NLS (computer system) named oN-Line System (NLS).
11th December » 'The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus', featuring the Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull (band) called Jethro Tull, the Who, Taj Mahal (musician) called Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and the Dirty Mac with Yoko Ono, is filmed in Wembley, London.
13th December » Brazilian President of Brazil e.g President Artur da Costa e Silva issues AI-5 (Institutional Act No. 5), enabling government by decree and suspending habeas corpus.
20th December » The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
21st December » Apollo program: 'Apollo 8' is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a Moon known as lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.
23rd December » The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo AGER-2 6 are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea.
24th December » Apollo program: The crew of 'Apollo 8' enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Apollo 8 Genesis reading called Christmas Eve Broadcast, one
25th December » Apollo program: 'Apollo 8' performs the very first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
25th December » Kilvenmani massacre, 44 Dalits (untouchables) burnt to death in Kizhavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit laborers.
27th December » Apollo program: 'Apollo 8' splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.