January 5, 1968--the Prague Spring of political liberalization begins
January 30, 1968--the Tet Offensive begins with the forces of North Vietnam challenging the forces of South Vietnam and the United States. This first phase ends March 28. The second phase begins May 5 and ends June 15. The third and final phase begins August 17 and ends August 30. This offensive dominates the airwaves in America, and will play a major role in the election season.
January 31, 1968--the Viet Cong attacks the U.S. Embassy in Saigon
February 1, 1968--Eddie Adams captures General Nguyen Ngoc Loan Executing a Viet Cong Prisoner in Saigon. The photo, which made General Nguyen infamous, later wins the Pulitzer Prize.
February 8, 1968--Orangeburg, South Carolina, experiences civil rights struggles, and three college students are killed.
February 13, 1968--civil rights struggles at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill demonstrate that the struggle for civil rights was not confined to a single region.
March 6, 1968--Rhodesia executes three black citizens, the first since its Unilateral Declaration of Independence, prompting international condemnation
March 8, 1968--student protests spark the Polish political crisis
March 16, 1968--The My Lai Massacre results in the massacre of up to 500 unarmed civilians by American forces. The massacre resulted in global outrage and decreased American support for the Vietnam War. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) enters the race for the Democratic Party nomination for President.
March 17, 1968--a demonstration in London against American involvement in the Vietnam War results in injuries and arrests.
March 18, 1968--the United States comes off the gold standard
March 19-23, 1968--Students at Howard University stage rallies, protests, and a five-day sit-in against the Vietnam War, the campus’ ROTC program, the draft, and the lack of a suitable Afrocentric curriculum at this HBCU
March 22, 1968--Danny the Red and 7 other students occupy administration buildings at a university in France. Less than two months later, France is on the brink of revolution.
March 26, 1968--John Carlos meets with MLK, Harry Edwards, and other civil rights leaders to discuss his potential involvement in the Olympic Project for Human Rights.
March 28, 1968--a student is shot in Brazil for protesting the price of lunch in the cafeteria. His death will begin a year of challenges to the military dictatorship governing the country.
March 31, 1968--LBJ announces he will not seek re-election
April 2, 1968--Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, later founders of the Red Army Faction, detonate a bomb in two Frankfurt department stores
April 4, 1968--MLK is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King was in town to lead the Memphis Sanitation Strike, which began February 11, and ended April 16, when local government officials made concessions. Riots erupt across the nation in reaction to King’s assassination. Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Louisville, Kansas City, and Chicago, are five of the more than 100 cities that experience violence. Apollo 6 is launched. In Commerce, Joe Tave and dozens of other students gather to mourn MLK and begin to agitate for change on campus. After the establishment of the Afro-American Student Society of East Texas (ASSET), Tave is elected president.
April 6, 1968--in Oakland, the Black Panthers and the police engage in a shootout that results in the arrests and deaths of several
April 11, 1968--LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968 providing for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. German student leader of left-wing protests Rudi Dutschke survives an assassination attempt. Students, convinced that their editorials are responsible for the attempt, blockade the headquarters of Springer Press. Among those arrested is Ulrike Meinhof, who later co-founded the Red Army Faction.
April 15, 1968--ASSET presents a list of grievances and recommendations to President D. Whitney Halladay regarding the plight of African Americans students on campus. Dr. Halladay formally responds to their recommendations within days.
April 20, 1968--Enoch Powell delivers his Rivers of Blood speech
April 23-30, 1968--Columbia University is beset by student protests
May 7, 1968--ASSET presents President D. Whitney Halladay with their “Declaration of Rights.” Over the next few weeks, Halladay consults various faculty and administrators as he investigates their complaints, and formulates his response.
May 13, 1968--Paris student riots see more than 1 million march through the streets
May 19, 1968--Nigerian government troops are able to surround the Biafrans
June 5, 1968--RFK is assassinated at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel. He dies of his injuries the following day, June 6.
June 8, 1968--James Earl Ray is arrested for assassinating MLK. After his guilty plea, he was sentenced to 99 years in prison and died thirty years later.
July 1, 1968--the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is opened for signatures. As of 2012, only four nations (India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea) are not current signatories.
July 17, 1968--Saddam Hussein becomes a member of the Revolutionary Command Council in Iraq
July 25, 1968--Pope Paul VI issues Humanae Vitae, which condemns birth control
August 5-8, 1968--the Republican National Convention is held in Miami Beach. Richard Nixon receives the nomination.
August 20-21, 1968--the Prague Spring ends when 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia
August 21, 1968--James Anderson, Jr., is awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, the first African American so honored.
August 22-30, 1968--the city of Chicago becomes the scene for a week of protests against American participation in the Vietnam War
August 26-29, 1968--the Democratic National Convention is held in Chicago. Hubert Humphrey secures the nomination.
September 7, 1968--New York Radical Women protests the Miss America pageant. One of the first large demonstrations of Second Wave Feminism, it helps highlight attention to the feminist movement.
September 13, 1968--Albania officially withdraws from the Warsaw Pact
September 17, 1968--Marylebone Cricket Club cancels its tour of South Africa when white South African cricketers refuse to accept the presence of a Cape Coloured man on the team.
September 21, 1968--the Soviets’ Zond 5 returns to earth
October 2, 1968--Student and civilian protestors are gunned down, along with bystanders, in the Tlatelolco Massacre by government snipers
October 3, 1968--Velasco takes power in a revolution in Peru
October 5, 1968--The Troubles begin when police baton civil rights demonstrators in Londonderry/Derry, Northern Ireland
October 8, 1968--a new operation in the Mekong Delta is launched by the U.S. and South Vietnam
October 11, 1968--Apollo 7 is launched. Panama endures a military coup d’état.
October 12-27, 1968--the 1968 Summer Olympics occur in Mexico City
October 16, 1968--Tommie Smith and John Carlos perform the black power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics alongside Australian Peter Norman. Kingston, Jamaica is beset by the Rodney Riots.
October 31, 1968--LBJ announces that given the progress made in Paris peace talks, he has ordered the cessation of air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam starting November 1
November 5, 1968--Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon defeats Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election.
November 11, 1968--in an effort to disrupt activities along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, an estimated three million bombs are dropped on Laos
November 14, 1968--Yale University announces it will begin to admit women
November 24, 1968--Pan Am Flight 281 is hijacked
December 13, 1968--AI-5 is issued by Brazil’s military government. It further restricts civil rights of Brazilians.
December 22, 1968--Mao Zedong begins the “up to the mountains and down to the villages movement,” which re-educates urban youth in the countryside
December 24, 1968--Apollo 8 is launched

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