Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1968
January
February
March
- March 1 - Student Protest "Valle Giulia" in Rome leading to long period of violent dispute.
- March 7 - Vietnam War: The First Battle of Saigon begins.
- March 8 - First student protests in Poland's 1968 political crisis.
- March 12 - Mauritius achieves independence from British Rule.
- March 12 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson edges out antiwar candidate Eugene J. McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a vote which highlights the deep divisions in the country, as well as the party, over Vietnam.
- March 13 - First Rotaract club chartered in North Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
- March 14 - Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah.
- March 15 - George Brown, British Foreign Secretary, resigns.
- March 16 - Vietnam War: My Lai massacre - American troops kill scores of civilians.
- March 16 - U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) enters the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
- March 17 - A demonstration in London's Grosvenor Square against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War leads to violence - 91 people injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.
- March 18 - Gold standard: The Congress of the United States repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.
- March 19-March 23 - Afrocentrism, Black power: 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 five-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program, and demanding a more Afrocentric curriculum.
- March 21 - Vietnam War: In ongoing campus unrest, Howard University students protesting the Vietnam War, the ROTC program on campus and the draft, confront Gen. Lewis Hershey, then head of the U.S. Selective Service System, and as he attempts to deliver an address, shout him down with cries of "America is the Black man's battleground!"
- March 22 - Daniel Cohn-Bendit ("Danny The Red") and seven other students occupy Administrative offices of the University of Nanterre, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead France to the brink of revolution in May.
- March 27 - Russian space pioneer Yuri Gagarin is killed in a training flight crash.
- March 31 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek re-election.
April
- April 2 - Bombs placed by Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin explode at midnight in 2 department stores in Frankfurt-am-Main; they are later arrested and sentenced for arson.
- April 2 - The Washington, D.C. premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey
- April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward.
- April 4 - Apollo Program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502 (Apollo 6) is launched, as the second and last unmanned test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
- April 4 - La, la, la by Massiel (music and text by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 for Spain.
- April 6 - Double explosion rocks Richmond, Indiana in downtown area. The explosion killed 41 people and injured more than 150.
- April 6 - A shootout between Black Panthers and Oakland police results in several arrests and deaths, including 16-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton.
- April 7 - Racing driver Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.
- April 10 - The ferry Wahine strikes a reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour, New Zealand, with the loss of 53 lives, during Cyclone Giselle, which provided the windiest conditions ever recorded in New Zealand.
- April 11 - Josef Bachmann tries to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, leader of a 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.
- April 11 - German left-wing students blockade the Springer Press HQ in Berlin and many are arrested (one of them is Ulrike Meinhof).
- April 11 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
- April 20 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes Canada's 15th Prime Minister.
- April 20 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood Speech.
- April 23 - President Mobutu releases captured mercenaries in Congo.
- April 23 - Surgeons at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant, on Clovis Roblain.
- April 23 - The United Methodist Church is created by the union of the former Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.
- April 23-April 30 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university. See main article Columbia University protests of 1968
- April 29 - The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway.
May
- May - "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris lead many youth to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes, sometimes referred to as the French May, nearly bring down the French government.
- May 2 - The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.
- May 3 - Patrick Wall MP speech to Conservative Association at Leeds University stopped by large crowd and MP's wife Sheila Wall knocked to ground and kicked in ensuing scuffles. Jack Straw Leeds Students President says "this manhandling is deplorable."
- May 14 - The Beatles announce the creation of Apple Records in a New York press conference
- May 15 - An outbreak of severe thunderstorms produces tornadoes causing massive damage and heavy casualties in Charles City, Iowa, Oelwein, Iowa, and Jonesboro, Arkansas.
- 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.
- May 19 - General elections are held in Italy.
- May 19 - Nigerian forces capture Port Harcourt and form a ring around Biafrans. This contributes to a humanitarian disaster as the surrounded population was already suffering with hunger and starvation.
- May 22 - The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
- May 29 - Football: Manchester United wins the European Cup Final, becoming the first English team to do so.
June
July
August
- August 5-August 8 - The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President.
- 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 returns to Liverpool before having their fires dropped for the last time - this working was known as the Fifteen Guinea Special.
- August 18 - Two charter buses push into the Hida River on national highway route 41 in Japan, in an accident caused by heavy rain. 104 killed.
- August 20 - The Prague Spring of political liberalization ends, as 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia.
- August 21 - The Medal of Honor is posthumously awarded to James Anderson, Jr. — he is the first black U.S. Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
- August 24 - France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
- August 22-August 30 - Police clash with anti-war protesters in Chicago, Illinois, outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. President, and Edmund Muskie for Vice President.
September
October
- October 2 - Tlatelolco massacre: A student demonstration ends in a bloodbath at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico, 10 days before the inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics.
- October 3 - In Peru, Juan Velasco Alvarado takes the power by a revolution.
- October 5 - An illegal civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland, which included several Stormont and British MPs, is batoned off the streets by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
- October 8 - Vietnam War: Operation Sealords - United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
- October 11 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar module docking maneuver.
- October 11 - In Panama, a military coup d'état, led by Col. Boris Martinez and Col. Omar Torrijos, overthrows the democratically-elected (but highly controversial) government of President Arnulfo Arias. Within a year, Torrijos will have ousted Martinez and taken charge as de facto Head of Government in Panama.
- October 12-October 27 - The Games of the XIX Olympiad are held in Mexico City, Mexico.
- October 12 - Equatorial Guinea receives its independence from Spain.
- October 14 - Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will send about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
- October 16 - In Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 2 African-Americans competing in the Olympic 200-meter run, raise their arms in a black power salute after winning the gold and bronze medals for 1st and 3rd place.
- October 16 - Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, provoked by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country.
- October 20 - Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry on the Greek island of Skorpios
- October 31 - Vietnam War: Citing progress in the Paris peace talks, U.S. 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.
November
December
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January-February
- January 2 - Cuba Gooding Jr., American actor
- January 5 - Andrzej Gołota, Polish boxer
- January 6 - John Singleton, American film director and writer
- January 9 - Joey Lauren Adams, American actress
- January 9 - Al Schnier, American rock guitarist
- January 12 - Keith Anderson, American country music singer-songwriter
- January 13 - Pat Onstad, Canadian footballer
- January 14 - LL Cool J, American rapper and actor
- January 15 - Chad Lowe, American actor
- January 24 - Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
- January 26 - Novala Takemoto, Japanese author and fashion designer
- January 27 - Mike Patton, American singer
- January 28 - Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer
- January 29 - Edward Burns, American actor
- January 29 - Sora Jung, Korean actress
- February 1 - Lisa Marie Presley, American singer
- February 1 - Mark Recchi, Canadian hockey player
- February 3 - Vlade Divac, basketball player
- February 5 - Roberto Alomar, baseball player
- February 7 - Peter Bondra, Slovakian ice hockey player in the NHL
- February 8 - Gary Coleman, American actor
- February 10 - Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster
- February 10 - Laurie Foell, New Zealand/Australian actress
- February 13 - Kelly Hu, American actress and former fashion model
- February 14 - Jules Asner, American model and television personality
- February 14 - Nelson "Viscera" Frazier, Jr., American professional wrestler
- February 18 - Dennis Satin, German film director
- February 18 - Molly Ringwald, American actress, singer and dancer
- February 22 - Brad Nowell, American musician (d. 1996)
- February 22 - Jeri Ryan, American actress
- February 22 - Delphine Boel, out-of-wedlock daughter of King Albert II of Belgium
- February 25 - Sandrine Kiberlain, French actress
- February 25 - Evridiki, Cypriot singer
- February 27 - Matt Stairs, baseball player
March-April
- March 1 - Kunjarani Devi, Indian weightlifter
- March 1 - Kathryn Cressida, American actress
- March 2 - Daniel Craig, British actor
- March 4 - Patsy Kensit, British actress
- March 4 - Giovanni Carrara, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- March 6 - Moira Kelly, American actress
- March 10 - Thio Li-ann, Singaporean law academic and Nominated Member of Parliament
- March 11 - Lisa Loeb, American singer
- March 14 - James Frain, British actor
- March 15 - Kahimi Karie, Japanese singer
- March 15 - Mark McGrath, American musician (Sugar Ray)
- March 16 - Trevor Wilson, American basketball player
- March 18 - Shinichiro Miki, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)
- March 19 - Mots'eoa Senyane, Lesotho diplomat
- March 22 - Øystein Aarseth, Norwegian musician (d. 1993)
- March 23 - Mike Atherton, English cricketer
- March 23 - Damon Albarn, English musician (Blur and Gorillaz)
- March 23 - Mitch Cullin, American novelist
- March 26 - Kenny Chesney, American musician
- March 26 - James Iha, American musician (The Smashing Pumpkins)
- March 28 - Iris Chang, American author (d. 2004)
- March 28 - Nasser Hussain, English cricketer
- March 29 - Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress and singer
- March 30 - Céline Dion, Canadian singer
- April 1 - Andreas Schnaas, German director
- April 1 - Julia Boutros, Lebanese singer
- April 3 - Sebastian Bach, West Indian-born musician (Skid Row)
- April 8 - Patricia Arquette, American actress
- April 14 - Anthony Michael Hall, American actor and singer
- April 15 - Stacey Williams, American model
- April 18 - David Hewlett, English born Canadian actor
- April 19 - Ashley Judd, American actress
- April 20 - J. D. Roth, American television host
- April 23 - Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d. 2001)
- April 24 - Stacy Haiduk, American actress
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