| 1968-11-11
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.
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| 1968-07-10
Maurice Couve de Murville becomes Prime Minister of France.
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| 1968-10-20
Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
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| 1968-07-20
Special Olympics founded.
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| 1968-11-17
British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.
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| 1968-12-13
Brazilian president Artur da Costa e Silva decrees the AI-5 (or the fifth Institutional Act), which lasts until 1978 and marks the beginning of the hard times of Brazilian military dictatorship.
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| 1968-04-09
Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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| 1968-11-17
Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator George Papadopoulos.
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| 1968-07-26
Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
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| 1968-12-25
Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans Earth Injection (TEI) maneouver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
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| 1968-10-18
Bob Beamon sets a world record of 8.90 m in the long jump at the Mexico City games.
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| 1968-07-08
The Municipality of General Santos was converted into a City status, named General Santos City.
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| 1968-11-12
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District argued before the Supreme Court.
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| 1968-08-22
Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
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| 1968-05-24
FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.
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| 1968-03-16
General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
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| 1968-10-05
Police baton civil rights demonstrators in Derry, Northern Ireland – considered to mark the beginning of The Troubles.
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| 1968-09-06
Swaziland becomes independent.
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| 1968-12-27
Apollo Program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.
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| 1968-11-12
Equatorial Guinea joins the United Nations.
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| 1968-06-05
U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy dies the next day.
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| 1968-01-07
Surveyor Program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.
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| 1968-12-24
The crew of the USS Pueblo is released by North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of spying.
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| 1968-02-01
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. This image helped build opposition to the Vietnam War.
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| 1968-01-31
Nauru gains independence from Australia.
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| 1968-01-21
Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
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| 1968-12-23
The United States wins the release of 82 sailors by issuing a written apology to North Korea for spying on the Communist country. The apology was immediately retracted after their release.
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| 1968-09-27
The stage musical Hair opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it played 1,998 performances until its closure was forced by the roof's collapsing in July 1973.
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| 1968-08-28
Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention.
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| 1968-07-18
The Intel Corporation is founded in Santa Clara, California
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| 1968-09-13
Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact.
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| 1968-04-04
AEK Athens BC becomes the first Greek team to win the European Basketball Cup.
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| 1968-03-31
President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not run for re-election.
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| 1968-11-11
A second republic is declared in the Maldives.
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| 1968-12-21
Apollo program: Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At 2h:50m:37s Mission elapsed time (MES), the crew performs the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and become the first humans to leave Earth's gravity.
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| 1968-10-02
A peaceful student demonstration in Mexico City ends in the Tlatelolco massacre.
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| 1968-06-03
Valerie Solanas, author of SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.
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| 1968-10-22
Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.
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| 1968-06-23
74 are killed and 150 injured in a football stampede towards a closed exit in a Buenos Aires stadium.
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| 1968-12-24
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 Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.
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| 1968-05-30
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 turning point of May 1968 in France.
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| 1968-12-09
NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.
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| 1968-04-03
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.
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| 1968-01-20
The Houston Cougars defeat the UCLA Bruins 71-69 to win the Game of the Century.
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| 1968-05-27
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.
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| 1968-01-05
Alexander Dubček comes to power: "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
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| 1968-08-21
James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.
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| 1968-09-24
60 Minutes debuts on CBS
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| 1968-04-04
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
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| 1968-09-15
The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
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| 1968-08-08
Jurō Wada successfully performs Japan's first heart transplant.
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| 1968-06-30
Pope Paul VI issues the Credo of the People of God.
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| 1968-01-13
Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison
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| 1968-10-31
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.
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| 1968-10-18
The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving a "black power" salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.
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| 1968-12-10
Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
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| 1968-04-06
In Richmond, Indiana's downtown district, a double explosion kills 41 and injures 150.
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| 1968-03-28
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.
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| 1968-04-08
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.
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| 1968-01-30
Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam.
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| 1968-06-09
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
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| 1968-10-14
The first live telecast from any manned spacecraft, the Apollo 7, launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the U.S.A.
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| 1968-03-18
Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
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| 1968-12-25
42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit labourers.
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| 1968-08-20
200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.
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| 1968-06-08
James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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| 1968-10-14
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.
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| 1968-01-16
The Youth International Party is founded.
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| 1968-08-24
France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
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| 1968-01-31
Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.
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| 1968-10-08
Vietnam War: Operation Sealords – United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
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| 1968-02-17
In Springfield, Massachusetts, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.
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| 1968-08-15
40,000 people protest in Mexico City against the repression in the country.
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| 1968-10-01
The Guyanese government takes over the British Guiana Broadcasting Service (BGBS).
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| 1968-08-21
Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring; on the same day, Nicolae Ceauşescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
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| 1968-07-23
Glenville Shootout: in Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization led by Ahmed Evans and the Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins and lasts for five days.
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| 1968-11-01
The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.
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| 1968-01-23
North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo (AGER-2), claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters while spying.
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| 1968-08-02
The 1968 Casiguran Earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing more than 270 people and wounding 261.
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| 1968-06-06
Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws his record 58th consecutive scoreless inning, a major league record until 1988.
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| 1968-10-16
Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.
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| 1968-07-17
A revolution occurs in Iraq when Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba'ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
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| 1968-09-24
Swaziland joins the United Nations.
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| 1968-07-01
The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
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| 1968-10-14
Jim Hines of the United States of America becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100 meter sprint in the Summer Olympic Games held in Mexico City with a time of 9.95 seconds. Hines remained the only athlete to sprint 100 meters in under 10.0 seconds until the year 1977.
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| 1968-12-20
The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
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| 1968-06-06
Senator Robert F. Kennedy dies from his wounds after he was shot the previous night.
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| 1968-10-14
Vietnam War: 27 soldiers are arrested at the Presidio of San Francisco in Califronia for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.
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| 1968-11-05
United States presidential election, 1968: Republican Richard Nixon wins the American presidency, in what turned out to be a decades-long realignment election.
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| 1968-08-13
Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel G. Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
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| 1968-04-20
English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.
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| 1968-02-11
Israeli-Jordanian border clashes.
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| 1968-03-16
Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
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| 1968-10-11
Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
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| 1968-07-23
The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying 10 crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft was en route from Rome, Italy, to Lod, Israel.
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| 1968-04-29
The controversial musical Hair opens on Broadway.
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| 1968-05-22
The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
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| 1968-04-23
Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
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| 1968-07-01
Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL-CIO.
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| 1968-10-14
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.
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| 1968-04-24
Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.
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| 1968-03-12
Mauritius achieves independence.
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| 1968-02-08
American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre, an attack that left three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina on black students from South Carolina State University who were protesting racial segregation at the town's only bowling alley.
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| 1968-07-01
The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.
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| 1968-01-22
Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.
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| 1968-12-11
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
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| 1968-04-04
Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.
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| 1968-02-01
The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form the ill-fated Penn Central Transportation.
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| 1968-01-21
A B-52 bomber 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.
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| 1968-02-01
Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
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| 1968-05-11
The Toronto Transit Commission opens the largest expansion of its Bloor-Danforth Line, going to Scarborough in the East, and Etobicoke in the West.
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| 1968-02-24
Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
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| 1968-04-12
Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.
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| 1968-02-05
Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh begins.
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| 1968-02-16
In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
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| 1968-10-16
United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the USA's team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.
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| 1968-04-10
Shipwreck of the New Zealand inter-island ferry TEV Wahine outside Wellington harbour.
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| 1968-09-30
The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time at the Boeing Everett Factory.
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| 1968-04-11
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
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| 1968-11-26
Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
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| 1968-09-08
The Beatles perform their last live TV performance on the David Frost show. They perform their new hit "Hey Jude".
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| 1968-03-21
Battle of Karameh in Jordan between Israeli Defense Forces and Fatah.
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| 1968-10-12
Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain
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| 1968-08-01
The coronation is held of Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei.
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