1968 New York City

1698 - New York

§ The subway fare was 20 cents.

§ The city rolled out it’s first air conditioned subway in 1967, and they continued to be produced into 1968

§ Sanitation workers in NYC went on strike over lack of contracts in February. For nine day, the city stinks of garbage, and accumulated 100,000 tons of trash on the streets.

§ The fourth location of Madison Square Garden Opens on 8^th ave between 31^st and 33^rd on February 11

§ On April 4^th, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Riots and looting took place in Harlem, however they were not as bad as they had been in previous years. This is credited to Mayor John Lindsay traveling into Harlem to speak to it’s residents about his regrets over MLK’s wrongful death.

§ New York City experienced a teacher’s strike beginning in May and lasting until November. The strike centered primarily around a predominantly black neighborhood in Brooklyn and the local school board’s abrupt firing of mostly white and Jewish teachers. Thousands of NYC teachers went on strike and the teacher’s union (UFT) demanded the reinstatement of the teachers. The neighborhood took issue with what they perceived as entrenched racism within the school system through it’s implantation of programs rolled out for poor black schools called ‘More Effective Schools’.

§ On June 6^th, Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. Five years after JFK’s assassination.

§ A survey taken by the Washington Square Journal that year found that 75% of NYU students have tried marijuana at least once. The average marijuana user at NYU is "male, 20 or 21 years old, living off-campus and majoring in the social sciences."

§ In August, at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, anti-war activists were denied permits to demonstrate by the city and were brutally attacked by Chicago Police Department, witnessed by a television audience of over 50 million.

§ In September, a protest was organized by the New York Radical Women against the Miss America Pageant. The protest took place outside on the evening of the pageant, outside the venue on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Women threw feminine products, bras etc into a “Freedom Trashcan” . This event coined the term ‘bra-burners’ to label the feminist movement.

§ On Halloween night, the Youth International Party sponsored a “Come Curse Nixon demonstration” in Washington Square Park. Nixon was speaking that same evening in NYC at Madison Square Garden. This was a month before the November election, and meant to label Nixon a “national freak”, and support young men in the military.

§ NASA launched Apollo 8 on Dec. 21^st, and Americans watched a Live Broadcast on Christmas Eve showing the first spacecraft to orbit the moon and return to Earth.

NY - By Borough

New York City Population and Demographics

NY - All Boroughs

New York City Scenes

Birth Control information which is shortly to be displayed on New York buses is held up for scrutiny by Marcia Goldstein, the publicity director of Planned Parenthood. (This photo was taken at the end of 1967.)(Getty Images)

Women hold up signs demanding equal rights during a demonstration for women's liberation, New York City, circa 1968.(Getty Images)

Richard Burton and his wife Elizabeth Taylor arrive at the Rainbow Room at the top of the RCA building, for a gala after-theatre party to celebrate the Broadway premiere of Hamlet with Burton in the title role. 1968.(Getty Images)

A woman modeling a dress emblazoned with peace symbols and 'Love' sunglasses in New York. (Getty Images)

A group of young people singing and making music in Washington Square Park, part of New York's Greenwich Park. 1968. (Getty Images)

11th November 1968: The skyline of Manhattan seen from Governors Island. (Getty Images)

12th July 1968: Lisa Adams at her stall in Lexington Avenue, New York, where she encourages passers by to sign a petition organized by the Emergency Committee for Gun Control in Manhattan. The petition calls for tighter laws following recent assassinations. (Getty Images)

13th December 1968: Kangaroo cranes in position at the excavation site for the World Trade Center (World Trade Centre) in New York. (Getty Images)

American activist Mark Rudd (C), president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), addresses students at Columbia University, May 3, 1968. (Getty Images)

Student demonstration and riot at Columbia University, New York City, April 24, 1968. (Getty Images)

American political activist Abbott 'Abbie' Hoffman raises a fist from behind a bank of microphones during an unidentified rally in New York, late 1960s. (Getty Images)

Television Commercials - 1968