October, 1929: Stock market crash, and start of the Great Depression.
November, 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president; would usher in ‘New Deal’ programs in subsequent years.
September 1, 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland; Great Britain and France declare war against Germany; U.S. proclaims neutrality, provides material aid to Britain and other Allied Powers.
December 7, 1941: Japanese planes bomb U.S. naval base on Pearl Harbor, prompting U.S. to declare war against Japan, quickly followed by war declarations against Germany and Italy.
February, 1945: Yalta Conference. During meeting to discuss post-war reorganization, Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill agree that the Soviet Union will enter the war against Japan three months after the defeat of the Axis powers in Europe.
May 8, 1945: VE Day; Victory in Europe as Germany surrenders to Allied Powers. U.S.S.R., per agreements made at Yalta, agrees to enter the Pacific War three months after fighting in Europe ends.
July 16, 1945: First successful detonation of an atomic bomb at Alomogordo, N.M.
August 6-9, 1945: U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 14th, Japan surrenders to U.S. forces on the Japanese mainland, prior to full-scale Soviet entry into the Pacific theater. Meanwhile, Japanese forces north of the 38th parallel in Korea surrender to Soviet forces, while the U.S. accepts surrender of Japanese forces south of the 38th parallel; and the U.S. retains control of the occupation in Japan itself.
1947: 28-year-old Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, and goes on to win Rookie-of-the-Year honors with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Later that season, Larry Doby, playing for the Cleveland Indians, becomes the first black player in the American League.
July 26, 1948: President Harry Truman issues executive forces desegregating armed forces in the U.S. military.
June 26, 1950: Years of bloody civil conflict erupt into full-scale war on the Korean peninsula. For the U.S. - who supported anti-communist groups who had collaborated with Japanese occupying forces during World War II – the Korean War would ebb and flow during the next six months, before stalemating until a cease fire (but no peace treaty) was called in 1953.
November, 1952: Former U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, with Richard Nixon as his running mate, is elected president, defeating the Democrats’ Adlai Stevenson.
July 27, 1953: Cease fire declared in Korean War.
1954: The U.S. Supreme Court issues its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, overturning the 1898 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had allowed ‘separate but equal’ educational facilities for white and black students.
December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give her seat to a white person on a Birmingham city bus, triggering the start of a 381-day bus boycott.
1956: Commercial break-out for legendary rock star Elvis Presley.
September, 1957: Federal troops are sent to enforce court-ordered desegregation rulings at Little Rock’s Central High School, where the state’s national guard forces, under orders from Arkansas’ governor, have been preventing black students from integrating the school.
January, 1960: U.S. population approximately 180 million; Dwight D. Eisenhower president.
February 1, 1960: Non-violent sit-ins protesting segregation begin in Greensboro, N.C.
May 1, 1960: U-2 reconnaissance/spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union.
July 11, 1960: Harper Lee’s bestselling novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is published.
July 13, 1960: John F. Kennedy wins Democratic nomination for president.
July 25-28: Republicans nominate Vice-President Richard M. Nixon for president.
August, 1960: The rock group Quarryman, change their name again to the Beatles.
September 5, 1960: 18-year-old Cassius Clay wins a Gold Medal in boxing at the 1960 Olympics.
September 26, 1960: The first televised presidential debate in American history in Chicago.
October 13, 1960: Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits a World Series winning home-run in game seven of the 9th inning against New York Yankees.
November 8, 1960: John Kennedy is elected 35th President of the U.S., narrowly defeating Republican Richard Nixon.
December, 1960: The “Pill” is born. By 1965, as many as 5 million U.S. women are using the controversial contraceptive.
January 20, 1961: John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th U.S. President, and exhorts Americans to “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
March 1, 1961: President Kennedy issues Executive Order 10924, creating the Peace Corps.
April 15-19, 1961: Bay of Pigs. Cuban exiles, with covert assistance from U.S., launch an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba in an effort to overthrow the Castro government.
April 26, 1961: N.Y. Yankees right fielder Roger Maris hits his first home run of the record-setting 1961 season.
May 4, 1961: The first group of Freedom Riders leave Washington, D.C. on a Greyhound Bus.
May, 1961: President Kennedy sends 400 Green Berets to South Vietnam as Special Advisors.
May 5, 1961: The first U.S. space flight with Alan B. Shepard Jr. inside a Mercury capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
May 25, 1961: President Kennedy announces the U.S. goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
May, 1961: JFK authorizes a raise in the minimum wage, from $1.00 per hour to $1.25/hour.
October 1, 1961: Roger Maris hits home run number 61, breaking record held by Babe Ruth.
December, 1961: The number of U.S. military advisors in South Vietnam grows to 3,200.
Also in 1961: John Howard Griffin’s book ‘Black Like Me’ is published.
1962: Rachel Carson’s influential book ‘Silent Spring,’ is published.
1962: Michael Harrington publishes the ‘The Other America,’ a shocking exposé about poverty in the wealthiest nation in the world.
February 20, 1962: Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth.
April 11, 1962: The not yet ‘Amazing Mets’ play their first Major League Baseball game.
July 12, 1962: An English band billed as “The Rolling Stones,” plays their first gig in London.
October 16-28, 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to brink of nuclear war.
November 6, 1962: Richard Nixon loses to Pat Brown in California gubernatorial election.
May, 1963: Birmingham’s Bull Connor orders police department to employ fire hoses and attack dogs against civil rights demonstrators.
June 10, 1963: President Kennedy gives the keynote address in his “peace speech” at the American University’s commencement exercises.
June 11, 1963: Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burns himself to death in protest of U.S.-backed South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem’s persecutory policies toward the country’s Buddhists.
June 21, 1963: Cardinal Montini, better known as Pope Paul VI, succeeds Pope John XXIII.
July 25, 1963: The United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain agree to a limited nuclear test-ban treaty.
August 28, 1963: During the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his historic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.
November 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX.
December, 1963: The number of U.S. military personnel stationed in Vietnam stands at approximately 16,000.
January 11, 1964: The U.S. Surgeon General’s report declares smoking to be hazardous to one’s health.
February, 1964: The Beatles come to America, ushering in an era of Beatlemania
February 25, 1964: Boxer Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, knocks out heavyweight champion Sonny Liston.
April, 1964: The Ford Mustang is introduced to the public at the World’s Fair in New York.
April, 1964: The Beatles place five songs in the top ten, including “Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and "Please Please Me."
May 22, 1964: In a speech at the University of Michigan, President Lyndon Johnson introduces his “Great Society."
June 5, 1964: Jim Ryun becomes the first high schooler to run a sub four-minute mile.
June 22, 1964: Freedom Summer begins with the disappearance of three activists, later found buried in an earthen dam.
Summer 1964: Best-selling author Ken Kesey and his band of merry pranksters drive a psychedelically painted school bus across the country in search of ecstasy and adventure.
July 2, 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
August 2, 1964: Tonkin Gulf Incident occurs off the North Vietnamese coast.
October 7-15, 1964: St. Louis Cardinals defeat the New York Yankees in World Series, marking the once dynastic Yankees’ last appearance in the annual fall classic until 1976.
October 10-24, 1964: Tokyo Summer Olympics. Among the 36 Gold Medals won by U.S. were those by Billy Mills in the 10,000-meter run, and Bob Hayes in the 100-meter dash.
October 14, 1964: Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
November 3, 1964: Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater in U.S. presidential election, winning 61% of the popular vote and 486 of 538 electoral votes.
December, 1964: The number of U.S. military advisors in Southeast Asia stand at 23,000. (1)
February, 1965: President Johnson approves recommendation for a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam, with support from 80% of the American public. (1)
February 21, 1965: Black Nationalist Malcolm X is assassinated while at a rally in New York City.
March 2, 1965: Operation "Rolling Thunder," a bombing campaign against North Vietnam, begins. (1)
March 8, 1965: The first American combat troops arrive at Da Nang, joining the 23,000 military advisors already stationed in the country. (1)
March, 1965: Selma March.
March 24, 1965: First Anti-Vietnam War Teach-In attended by approximately 3,000 people.
April 1, 1965: President Johnson authorizes two more marine battalions and as many as 20,000 additional logistical personnel for the escalating war.
April 20, 1965: After meeting with aides in Honolulu, Johnson authorizes another 40,000 combat troops for Vietnam. (1)
May 4, 1965: San Francisco Giants slugger Willie Mays hits the 512th home run of his career, surpassing the NL record held by Mel Ott.
July, 1965: The Rolling Stones’ song ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ rises to the top of the pop music charts. Also in July, Barry McGuire records ‘Eve of Destruction,’ which reaches the top of the pop charts in September.
July 28, 1965: President Johnson announces he will send 44 combat battalions to Vietnam increasing the U.S. military presence to 125,000 men. (1)
July 30, 1965: President Johnson signs the bill creating Medicare, a national health insurance program for the elderly. Companion legislation creates Medicaid.
August 4, 1965: President Johnson asks Congress for an additional $1.7 billion for the grong war. (1)
August 6, 1965: President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act abolishes literacy tests and other tests used by local and state governments to inhibit African-American voting.
August 11-16, 1965: Race riots break out in the heavily segregated Watts area of Los Angeles.
August 31, 1965: President Johnson signs law criminalizing draft card burning. (1)
September, 1965: The Ford Motor Company offers a factory-installed or dealer-installed eight-track tape player option on three of its 1966 models, the Mustang, Thunderbird and Lincoln.
October 30, 1965: 25,000 march in Washington in support of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
November 27, 1965: In Washington, 35,000 anti-war protesters circle the White House then march to the Washington Monument for a rally. (1)
November 30, 1965: After visiting Vietnam, Defense Secretary McNamara privately warns that American casualty rates of up to 1000 dead per month could be expected. (1)
December, 1965: ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas,’ the first ‘Peanuts’ television special, debuts on CBS.
December 25, 1965: The second pause in the bombing of North Vietnam occurs.
By year's end U.S. troop levels in Vietnam reached 184,300.
January 2, 1966: The Vince Lombardi–lead Green Bay Packers beat the Cleveland Browns 23-12 in the NFL Championship Game.
January 31, 1966: President Johnson announces bombing of North Vietnam will resume. (1)
January 31, 1966: Senator Robert F. Kennedy criticizes President Johnson's decision to resume the bombing. (1)
February 3, 1966: Influential newspaper columnist Walter Lippmann lambastes President Johnson's strategy in Vietnam. (1)
March 1966: With public opinion still in favor of U.S. engagement in Vietnam, Sgt. Barry Sadler’s ‘Ballad of the Green Berets’ reaches number one on the pop music charts.
March 9, 1966: The U.S. reveals that 20,000 acres of food crops have been destroyed in suspected Viet Cong villages. (1)
March 10, 1966: South Vietnamese Buddhists begin a violent campaign to oust Prime Minister Ky following his dismissal of a top Buddhist general. (1)
March 26, 1966: Anti-war protests are held in New York, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco. (1)
April 12, 1966: B-52 bombers are used for the first time against North Vietnam. (1)
April 28, 1966: The Boston Celtics, lead by Bill Russell, John Havlicek and K.C. Jones defeat Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA Championships, 95-93.
June 4, 1966: A three-page anti-war advertisement appears in the New York Times signed by 6400 teachers and professors. (1)
June 22, 1966: The British movie ‘Born Free,’ the story of a couple who rescues and raises tree orphaned lion cubs in Africa before releasing them back into the wild. is released in the U.S.
July 1, 1966: Medicare, the federal government’s medical program for citizens over the age of 65, begins.
July 17, 1966: University of Kansas runner Jim Ryun sets world record in the mile (3:51.3), a record he will subsequently break a year later.
August, 1966: The Loving Spoonful’s ‘Summer in the City’ spends three weeks atop the pop charts. Also in the top ten is the Rolling Stones’ ‘Mother’s Little Helper,’ which opens with the line ‘What a drag it is getting older.’
August 9, 1966: U.S. jets attack two South Vietnamese villages by mistake, killing 63 civilians and wounding over 100. (1)
August 30, 1966: Hanoi announces China will provide economic and technical assistance. (1)
September 1, 1966: During a visit to neighboring Cambodia, French President Charles de Gaulle calls for U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. (1)
September 8, 1966: The Star Trek TV series debuts on NBC network television.
September 23, 1966: The minimum wage is raised in stages from $1.25 per-hour to $1.60 by February 1968.
October 3, 1966: The Soviet Union announces it will provide military and economic assistance to North Vietnam. (1)
October 15, 1966: Black Panther Party for Self Defense, is founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in Oakland, CA.
November 7, 1966: Defense Secretary McNamara is confronted by student protesters during a visit to Harvard University. (1)
November 8, 1966: U.S. Congressional mid-term elections. Republican Edward Brook of Massachusetts becomes the first African-American elected to the Senate in 85 years.
November 12, 1966: The New York Times reports that 40 percent of U.S. economic aid sent to Saigon is stolen or winds up on the black market. (1)
December, 1966: ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas,’ narrated by Boris Karloff, is shown for the first time on CBS.
December 27, 1966: The U.S. mounts a large-scale air assault against suspected Viet Cong positions in the Mekong Delta using Napalm and hundreds of tons of bombs. (1)
By year's end, U.S. troop levels reach 389,000 with 5008 combat deaths and 30,093 wounded. (1)
January 1, 1967: The Monkees’ song “I’m A Believer” sits atop the pop music charts. Formed in 1965 and the subject of a hit TV series, Rolling Stone Magazine claimed The Monkees outsold both the Beatles and Rolling Stones combined in 1967.
January 10, 1967: U.N. Secretary-General U Thant expresses doubts that Vietnam is essential to the security of the West. On the same day, during his State of the Union address, President Johnson again declares, "We will stand firm in Vietnam." (1)
January 15, 1967: In football, the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later to be known as Super Bowl I, is played at Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum. The Vince Lombardi-lead Green Bay Packer scored a convincing 35-10 victory over their AFL Kansas City Chiefs rivals.
January 23, 1967: Senator J. William Fulbright publishes “The Arrogance of Power,” a book critical of American war policy in Vietnam advocating direct peace talks between the South Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong. (1)
February 2, 1967: President Johnson states there are no "serious indications that the other side is ready to stop the war." (1)
February 8-10, 1967: American religious groups stage a nationwide "Fast for Peace." (1)
February 8-12, 1967: A truce occurs during Tet, the lunar New Year, a traditional Vietnamese holiday. (1)
February 13, 1967: Following the failure of diplomatic peace efforts, President Johnson announces the U.S. will resume full-scale bombing of North Vietnam. (1)
February 1967: The formation of the American Basketball Association is announced. The league features a red-white-and blue ball; a three-point; and attracts a number of stars including Rick Barry, Julius Erving and Connie Hawkins, all of whom will eventually play in the NBA.
March 8, 1967: Congress authorizes $4.5 billion for the war. (1)
March 25, 1967: UCLA wins its third NCAA Men’s basketball championship in four years, lead by head coach John Wooden and 7’2” Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), who would go on to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
April 4, 1967: Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his ‘Beyond Vietnam’ speech at Riverside Church in New York.
April 14, 1967: Richard M. Nixon visits Saigon and states that anti-war protests back in the U.S. are "prolonging the war." (1)
April 15, 1967: Anti-war demonstrations occur in New York and San Francisco involving nearly 200,000. Rev. Martin Luther King declares that the war is undermining President Johnson's Great Society programs. (1)
April 19, 1967: During the 71st Boston Marathon, registered runner K. Switzer turns out to be Katherine Switzer, the first woman to run with an official race bib. Running unofficially, Bobbi Gibb finished nearly an hour ahead of Switzer.
April 14-24, 1967: In the first NBA Championships in 11 years without the Boston Celtics, Wilt Chamberlain leads the Philadelphia ‘76ers to victory over the San Francisco Warriors.
April 24, 1967: General Westmoreland condemns anti-war demonstrators saying they give the North Vietnamese soldier "hope that he can win politically that which he cannot accomplish militarily." (1)
April 1967: Pop music group Tommy James & The Shondells score a top-ten hit with Ritchie Cordell’s ‘I Think We’re Alone Now.’
April 28, 1967: Making good on his earlier vow, heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay refuses induction into the armed services, and is arrested and stripped of his boxing title.
May 13, 1967: New York Yankees star Mickey Mantle hits the 500th home run of his career.
May 13, 1967: In New York City, 70,000 march in support of the war, led by a New York City fire captain. (1)
June 1, 1967: The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is released in the U.K. and the U.S. The album would enjoy a three-month reign as the number one album on Billboard’s top album charts, and would go on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide.
June 5-10, 1967: Six-Day War. Also called the Arab-Israeli War, The Third Arab-Israeli War, or the June 1967 War. A half-century later, disputes and armed clashes continue over the status of the Occupied Territories, water rights and the nature of a proposed two-state solution.
June 8, 1967: U.S.S. Liberty Incident: With the Six-Day War raging in the eastern Mediterranean, the U.S.S. Liberty, a naval intelligence ship is attacked by Israeli jets and torpedo boats while sailing just outside of Egyptian water, killing 34 sailors and wounding 171.
June 13, 1967: Thurgood Marshall, who had previously served as chief counsel for the NAACP and successfully argued the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case – becomes the first African-American appointed to the Supreme Court.
June 16-18, 1967: Monterrey Pops Festival held in Monterrey, CA. Three-day, pre-Woodstock concert kicking off the fabled Summer of Love, the festival was attended by as many as 100,000 people.
June 1967: Franki Valli’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You’ hits the number one spot on the pop music charts. Not far behind, and with a title that could be the motto for the year’s ‘Summer of Love,’ was The Loving Spoonful’s ‘Let’s Live for Today.’
Summer 1967; a.k.a., The ‘Summer of Love:’ Name given to counter-culture event of social phenomenon when as many as 100,000 young people converged on San Francisco during the summer of 1967, with the Monterrey Pops Festival serving as a kind of kick-off for the summer.
June 23, 1967: Jim Ryun breaks his world record in the mile run, leading the entire race as he completes the distance in 3:51.1, breaking the record of 3:51.3 he’d set the previous year.
July 1967: General Westmoreland requests an additional 200,000 reinforcements on top of the 475,000 soldiers already scheduled to be sent to Vietnam. President Johnson agrees to an extra 45,000. (1)
July 12-17: Riots break out in Newark following the arrest and beating of a black cab driver by police.
July 23-27: Widespread riots break out in Detroit. The rioting in Detroit helped spark other riots in Flint, Saginaw, Pontiac and Grand Rapids, Michigan; as well as Toledo and Lima, Ohio; and Rochester, New York City, Houston and Tucson.
August 18, 1967: Popular opinion poll indicates 46 percent of Americans now believe U.S. military involvement in Vietnam to be a "mistake." (1)
October 12, 1967: The St. Louis Cardinals beat the AL’s Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 3 in the World Series as Cardinal Lou Brock steals a record 7 bases in one World Series.
October 21, 1967: March on Washington attended by as many as 100,000 protestors.
October 31, 1967: President Johnson reaffirms his commitment to maintain U.S. involvement in South Vietnam. (1)
November 29, 1967: Robert McNamara announces his resignation as Defense Secretary. (1)
November 30, 1967: Anti-war Democratic Senator Eugene McCarthy announces he will be a candidate for President opposing Lyndon Johnson. (1)
December 3, 1967: South African cardiac surgeon Dr. Christian Barnard successfully performs the first heart transplant in Cape Town, South Africa.
December 4, 1967: Four days of anti-war protests begin in New York. Among the 585 protesters arrested is renowned 'baby doctor' Dr. Benjamin Spock. (1)
December 23, 1967: Upon arriving at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, President Johnson declares "...all the challenges have been met. The enemy is not beaten, but he knows that he has met his master in the field." (1)
December 21, 1967: The film ‘The Graduate’ is released, starring 29-year-old Dustin Hoffman.
December 31, 1967: The Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in a frigid “Ice Bowl” game at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field, gaining their third consecutive NFL title, and fifth in seven years under head-coach Vince Lombardi.
1967: By year's end, U.S. troop levels reach 463,000 with 16,000 combat deaths to date. (1)
January 14, 1968: The NFL Champion Green Bay Packers defeat the AFL’s Oakland Raiders 33-14 in Miami, Florida. It would be Vince Lombardi’s last game as the Packers’ head coach. The following year the AFL-NFL championship would be known as the Super Bowl for the first time.
January-February, 1968: TET Offensive in Vietnam – A coordinated series of attacks by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese armies against South Vietnamese and U.S. army posts in installations that is launched on January 30, 1968, at the beginning of TET, or the Vietnamese New Year.
January 31, 1968: The turning point of the war occurs as 84,000 Viet Cong guerrillas aided by NVA troops launch the Tet Offensive attacking a hundred cities and towns throughout South Vietnam. (1)
February 1, 1968: In Saigon during Tet, a suspected Viet Cong guerrilla is shot in the head by South Vietnam's police chief Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, in full view of an NBC news cameraman and an Associated Press still photographer. The haunting AP photo taken by Eddie Adams appears on the front page of most American newspapers the next morning. Americans also observe the filmed execution on NBC TV. (1)
February 2, 1968: President Johnson labels the Tet Offensive "a complete failure." For the North Vietnamese, the Tet Offensive is a military and political failure, it’s only success, an erosion of grassroots support among Americans for continuing the war. (1)
February 8, 1968: 21 U.S. Marines are killed by NVA at Khe Sanh. (1)
February 21, 1968: American Major League Baseball announces a minimum annual salary of $10,000. By the start of the 2015 season, MLB’s minimum salary had skyrocketed to $507,500.
February 27, 1968: Influential CBS TV news anchorman Walter Cronkite, returning from Saigon, tells Americans during his CBS Evening News broadcast he is certain "the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate." (1) Following Cronkite’s broadcast, Johnson tells aides “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”
February 28, 1968: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Wheeler, asks President Johnson for an additional 206,000 soldiers and mobilization of reserve units in the U.S.
March 12, 1968: Dark-horse anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy shocks the political world by securing 42% of the votes in the New Hampshire primary, the first of the 1968 election season. (1)
March 15, 1968: Track-and-Field athlete Bob Beamon sets indoor long jump record (27 feet 2.75 inches). Later that year, on October 18 at the Mexico City Olympics, Beamon would jump an unheard of 29 feet 2.5 inches, a world record which would stand for more than 22 years.
March 16, 1968: My Lai Massacre occurs in the hamlet of My Lai, killing hundreds of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. It will be a year-and-a-half before the story is broken. During the investigation, Colonel Oral Henderson, the brigade commander whose unit carried out the My Lai massacre, indicated that, in his opinion the mass killing was no aberration, stating “every unit of brigade size has its My Lai hidden someplace.”
March 16, 1968: A previously reluctant Robert Kennedy, 42 year-old brother of the late President, announces his candidacy for the Democratic nomination.
March 31, 1968: In a nationally televised speech devoted to the U.S. war effort in Vietnam, LBJ stuns the country by announcing he will not seek his party’s nomination for the presidency.
April 3, 1968: The futuristic movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” is released. With its depictions of space travel and extra-terrestrial life, the film is a critical and commercial success
April 4, 1968: Civil rights leader and anti-war spokesperson Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, TN.
April 19, 1968: The 72nd Boston Marathon is won by Amby Burfoot of Connecticut in 2:22:17, the first American to win since 1957. Bobbi Gibb, running unofficially again, finishes in three hours and thirty minutes, ahead of two other again who snuck into the event.
April 23, 1968: Anti-war activists at Columbia University seize five buildings. (1)
April 27, 1968: In New York, 200,000 students refuse to attend classes as a protest. (1)
May 2, 1968: After missing the NBA Finals the previous season for the first time in 11 years, the Boston Celtics, lead by player-coach Bill Russell defeat the Los Angeles Lakers.
May 10, 1968: Peace talks begin in Paris but soon stall as the U.S. insists that North Vietnamese troops withdraw from the South, while the North Vietnamese insist on Viet Cong participation in a coalition government in South Vietnam. (1)
May 1968: Eric Burdon & The Animals’ U.S. release of the anti-war song ‘Sky Pilot.’ The full-length version of the progressive rock song tells the story of an army chaplain, or sky pilot, who proffers his blessing on a group of soldiers about to be sent into combat.
May 17, 1968: Nine anti-war activists known as the ‘Catonsville Nine’ burn draft records in a Maryland parking lot with homemade napalm to protest the escalating war in Vietnam.
June 5, 1968: Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale pitches a record-setting sixth straight shutout, blanking the Pittsburgh Pirates in an evening game played in Los Angeles.
June 5, 1968: Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot after giving a victory speech following his win in the California primary. Kennedy is rushed to the hospital, where his condition is said to be critical.
June 6, 1968: Robert Kennedy dies of gunshot wounds sustained the previous day.
June 14, 1968: The rock group Iron Butterfly’s ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ album, featuring an epic 18-minute drum solo is released, and becomes the number one selling album in 1969.
July 1968: Congress passes a ten-percent income tax surcharge to defray the escalating costs of the war. (1)
July 1, 1968: The Phoenix program is established to crush the secret Viet Cong infrastructure (VCI) in South Vietnam. (1) ‘The History Place: The Vietnam War” http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1965.html
August 8, 1968: Republican National Convention nominates Richard Nixon on the first ballot.
August 28, 1968: Democratic National Convention. The city of Chicago gains notoriety as the site of the Democrats’ riotous presidential convention, where Vice-President Hubert Humphrey gains the nomination over anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy.
October, 1968: October Surprise: Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, later credited with his pivotal role in breaking the My Lai Massacre story, alleges that officials in the Nixon campaign had undertaken secret negotiations with both South and North Vietnamese officials, urging them not to accept any proposed deals at the Paris Peace Negotiations in the weeks before the U.S. elections, as any such deal would help the Democratic candidate, and both sides prospects would be better served by waiting for an incoming Republican administration.
November 5, 1968: Republican Richard M. Nixon defeats Democrat Hubert Humphrey to become the 37th President of the United States. (1)
November 27, 1968: President-elect Nixon asks Harvard professor Henry Kissinger to be his National Security Advisor. Kissinger accepts. (1)
By year's end, U.S. troop levels reached 495,000 with 30,000 American deaths to date. In 1968, over a thousand a month were killed. (1)
January 20, 1969: Richard Nixon sworn in as the 37th President of the United States.
May 5, 1969: The Boston Celtics, after finishing the regular season fourth in their division, upset the Western Conference Champion Los Angeles Lakers in the seventh and deciding game of the NBA Championships, 108-106 on the Lakers’ home court. For the Celtics, it marked the final game player-coach Bill Russell. disappointment.
July 20, 1969: Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to set foot on the moon, famously proclaiming, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
August 15-17, 1969: Woodstock Music Festival. Inspired by the Monterrey Pops Festival two years earlier, attracted 400,000 fans, the biggest rock concert held to date.
October 15, 1969: Vietnam Moratorium. Large, multi-city teach-in and demonstration against the War in Vietnam, in which over a million people participated worldwide, including 100,000 in Boston, where anti-war Senator George McGovern spoke.
November 15, 1969: Moratorium March on Washington. Over 500,000 people marched in Washington against the War in Vietnam.