Return to Home Room
Events That Shaped Our Lives 1967 - 1968
1967    SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC 1968    JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC Where are they now?

September 1967
September 6:	The Senior Class assumes control of the halls of Glen Cove High School.
September 12:	California Governor Ronald Reagan cautioned Washington to consider "full technological resources" be employed in order to win the Vietnam War.
October 1967
October 2:	Thurgood Marshall took his seat on the Supreme Court.
October 12:	The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox 7-2 to win the World Series.
October 30:	Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu was sworn in as president of South Viet Nam.

November 1967
November 17:	Surveyor 6 made a six second flight on the moon, followed by the first lift-off from the lunar surface.
November 20:	The population of United States passed 200 million.
November 21:	President Johnson signed an air quality act which allotted $428 million to fight air pollution.

December 1967	Back to top
December 3:	Louis Washkansky received the first human heart transplant during a procedure lead by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, in South Africa.  Mr. Washkansky died 18 days later.
December 8-9:	The Glen Cove High School Class of 1968 presented its Senior Play: "Ah, Wilderness", under the direction of John Lamberson and Sue Greene.  The cast included Larry Berlin, Stan Birnbaum, David Cohen, Debbie Flynn, Jerry Freiwirth, Jackie Haber, Maureen Hanrahan, Fred Israel, Bob James, Debbie Krapohl, Shelley Kream, Ronald Litchman, Franne Peters, Amy Rothstein and Peter Trencher.
December 10:	Otis Redding, American soul singer ("Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay"), died at age 26.
December 23:	President Johnson addressed the American troops at Cam Ranh Bay, urging them to ignore the anti-war protests back home.
December 29-30:	At least 546 people were arrested in New York City during protests of the Vietnam War.  Arrests included Dr. Benjamin Spock and poet Allen Ginsberg.  Ho Chi Minh sent a message to American opponents of the war: "We shall win. And so shall you."
January 1968	Back to top
January 5:	Alexander Dubcek replaces Antonin Novotny as Party leader in Czechoslovakia and declares his intention to press ahead with extensive reforms.  This sets the stage for the "Prague Spring".
January 14:	The Green Bay Packers beat the Oakland Raiders 33-14 to win their second straight Super Bowl. Vince Lombardi hinted indicated he was considering retirement.
January 20:	Washington lawyer Clark Clifford was named to replace Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense by President Johnson.
January 23:	The Pueblo, a US Navy intelligence ship on a surveillance patrol of the North Korean coast, was seized by North Korea.  The Pueblo was commanded by Commander Lloyd M. Bucher and manned by 82 crew members.
January 29:	LBJ presents record $186 billion budget to Congress.
January 31:	Communist Guerrillas in Vietnam launched their Tet Offensive on more than 100 cities from the Mekong Delta to Saigon and north to the highlands.

February 1968	Back to top
February 1:	Richard Nixon announced his candidacy for President while in New Hampshire.
February 6-17:	Winter Olympics in Genoble, France delivered us such household names as Peggy Fleming and Jean-Claude Killy.
February 8:	Alabama Governor George Wallace entered the Presidential race.
February 8:	Robert F. Kennedy says the United States cannot win the war in Vietnam. Stating that there is not "any prospect" for victory, Kennedy urged that "It is time for the truth."
February 21:	A Delta airliner, destined for Miami, was hijacked to Havana, Cuba.
February 24:	Three United States Marine battalions liberated the city of Hue. The occupation of Hue by the communists was one of the Viet Cong's greatest victories during the Tet Offensive.

March 1968	Back to top
March 8:	Pope Paul VI named Terence Cooke to succeed Cardinal Spellman as archbishop of New York.
March 16:	The My Lai Massacre: attributed to a U.S. Army task force, Charlie Company, under the command of Lt. William Calley.  347 men, women and children were murdered in the village of My Lai, Vietnam. After word leaked out about the massacre, 2 Generals, 2 Colonels, 2 Lt. Colonels and 2 1st Lieutenants were charged but only Lt. Calley was convicted. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment but he was subsequently released in 1974.
March 16:	President Johnson won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, beating out Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy who captured 40% of the vote.  Richard Nixon easily captured the Republican prize, winning 80% of the votes.
March 16:	Robert F. Kennedy entered the Presidential race.
March 22:	General William Westmoreland was named Army Chief of Staff by LBJ.
March 23:	UCLA beat North Carolina 78-55 to take the NCAA basketball title.
March 27:	Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, died in a plane crash in Russia.
March 28:	The US lost its first aircraft in Vietnam when an F-111 failed to return from a combat mission.
March 31:	President Lyndon Baines Johnson stunned political friends and foes alike when he announced during a television broadcast to the nation, "I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party as your president."

April 1968	Back to top
April 4:	The Reverend Martin Luther King, 39, was fatally shot as he leaned over the second floor balcony railing just outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
April 9:	Blacks rioted in Chicago, Baltimore, Washington and Cincinnati. 31 people died nationwide, including 11 in Chicago, 5 in Baltimore, and 8 in DC.  Rioting included arson, looting and violence.
April 10:	LBJ named General Creighton Abrams commander of the US troops in Vietnam.
April 11:	US called 24,500 reserves to active duty.
April 11:	President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 while pleading for an end to the rioting which erupted since the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying, "We all know that the roots of injustice run deep, but violence cannot redress a solitary wrong or remedy a single unfairness."
April 19:	The FBI named James Earl Ray as the assassin of Dr. King.
April 20:	Pierre Trudeau was sworn in as Canada's 15th Prime Minister, succeeding Lester Pearson.
April 23:	300 Columbia University students protested the Vietnam War by barricading the office of the college Dean.
April 24:	Black students at Boston University occupied the Administration Building demanding the school add a Black History major.
April 25:	Columbia University closed to avoid protesters.
April 26:	200,000 college and high school students in New York cut classes in protest of the Vietnam War.
April 27:	Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy for President.
April 30:	New York City police swarmed onto the Columbia University campus early in the morning to evict students who had occupied five buildings.

May 1968	Back to top
May 8:	Jim "Catfish" Hunter of the Oakland Athletics pitched a perfect game.
May 11:	The Montreal Canadiens defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 to win hockey's Stanley Cup.
May 13:	American and North Vietnamese diplomats opened formal peace talks in Paris.
May 18:	117 protestors were arrested at a sit-in at Columbia University.
May 23:	A record 1100 GIs were reported killed in Vietnam during the previous two-week period.
May 24:	The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Scorpion is sunk in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores with the loss of all hands while returning from patrol.
May 28:	Senator Eugene McCarthy won a stunning upset victory over Senator Robert Kennedy in the Oregon presidential primary, setting the stage for a crucial battle in California.
May 29:	Protestors involved in the Poor People's March (started in Memphis on May 2nd) stormed the Supreme Court building.
May 30:	Bobby Unser won the Indianapolis 500, averaging 152.9 MPH.

June 1968	Back to top
June 5:	Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan in the back of the Embassy Room of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles minutes after claiming victory in the California Democratic primary.  Three days later at the funeral, his brother Senator Edward Kennedy said, "My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. He should be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those who sought to touch him "Some men see things as they are and say why.  I dream things that never were and say, why not?' "
June 8:	James Earl Ray was arrested in London and charged with the murder on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
June 10:	General William Westmoreland said that military victory in Vietnam was unlikely in the face of politcal restraints.
June 16:	Golfer Lee Trevino won the US Open in Texas.
June 19:	50,000 people marched a mile in Washington, terminating at the Reflecting Pool, in support of the Poor People's Campaign. By the end of the week several hundred who were staying in a wood shanty community dubbed "Resurrection City" grew angry. Vandalism resulted, troops were called in and the Reverend Ralph Abernathy was arrested.
June 25:	The Class of 1968 graduates.  Commencement exercises were held in the High School gymnasium with the welcoming address given by Senior Class President, Fred Coker. Valedictorian: Louis Bernstein Salutorian: Donna Brody
July 1968

August 1968	Back to top
August	Student street protests and overreaction by Chicago Police make the Democratic National Convention in Chicago forever memorable, captured in songs and on the TV news.
August 20-21:	Czechoslovakia is invaded by an estimated 500,000 troops from the armies of five Warsaw pact countries (Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and East Germany). The four leading reformers in the Czechoslovak leadership are arrested in the Communist Party's Presidium building by Soviet airborne troops.
	The invasion draws condemnation from Western powers as well as communist and socialist parties in the West. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson calls on Soviets to withdraw from Czechoslovakia.

October 1968
October 11:	The first manned Apollo Mission, Apollo 7, was launched into Earth orbit with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham.
October 20:	Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

December 1968	Back to top
December 21:	Apollo 8 lunar mission launch. Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders send Christmas greetings from Lunar orbit and return to earth December 27th.

Where are they now?
A look at what has happened to some of the people who figured prominently in the news in 1968

Lieutenant William Calley, released after five years in prison for his part in the My Lai massacre, is manager of the V.V. Vick jewelry store in Columbus GA.

Lloyd Bucher, captain of the USS PUEBLO, held captive in North Korea for 11 months with his 82-man crew, is a watercolor artist in Poway CA.

James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King, died in prison in 1998 while trying to gain a new trial.

Sirhan Sirhan, assassin of Sen. Robert Kennedy, is in Corcoran State Prison in California.  He has been denied parole 10 times.

60's Radical Angela Davis, fired in 1970 as assistant professor of philosophy at UCLA, is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Bobby Rush, coordinator of the Black Panther Party in Illinois, is a Democratic congressman from Illinois.

Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panthers, charged with inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, is a lecturer and the author of the cookbook "Barbecue'n with Bobby."

Eldridge Cleaver, minister of information for the Black Panther party and author of "Soul on Ice," is a preacher and writer in Berkeley CA.

Stokely Carmichael, former chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and former prime minister of the Black Panther Party, has changed his name to Kwame Toure and has lived in the west African country of Guinea since 1969.

H. Rap Brown, firebrand head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, has converted to Islam and now, as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, is leader of the Community Mosque in Atlanta GA.

William Westmoreland, the U.S. Army general who was in charge of U.S. forces in Vietnam, is retired and lives in Florida.

General Vo Nguyen Gap, architect of Ho Chi Minh's strategy to defeat American troops, is a military adviser to the government of Vietnam.

The Berrigan brothers, Daniel and Philip, who burned draft records in Catonsville MD, are now anti-nuclear activists.

Trinh Thi Ngo, known to American troops as Hanoi Hannah, works for Ho Chi Minh City TV.

Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, the admiral in charge of U.S. Naval Forces in Vietnam, is a spokesman in Alexandria, VA for veterans sprayed by Agent Orange.

William Colby, who oversaw CIA covert operations in Vietnam before becoming CIA director in 1973, drowned in a boating accident on Chesapeake Bay in 1996.

Tom Hayden, one of the Chicago 7 convicted of inciting to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, is a California state senator.

Mark Rudd, a junior at Columbia University who led the 1968 campus uprising there, teaches at a vocational institute in Albuquerque NM.

George C. Wallace died at age 79 in 1998.

Abbie Hoffman, leader of the Yippies, committed suicide in 1989.

Yippie founder Jerry Rubin who later worked briefly for a Wall Street brokerage and went on to become a $60,000-a-month marketer of a nutritional drink called "Wow," died in 1994 after he was injured while jaywalking across Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles CA.

Dean Rusk, Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of State whose strident anti-communist beliefs pushed the United States into Vietnam, died in 1994 of heart disease.

Country Joe McDonald of the pop-rock group Country Joe and the Fish, and author of the anti-war anthem "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag," (written and first performed in 1965), is a partner of a small record company in Berkeley CA.  Barry Melton, his partner, is a public defender in Mendocino County CA.

Tommie Smith, the black San Jose State, Calif., athlete who won an Olympic gold medal in Mexico City by setting a world record in the 200-meter dash, but then was expelled for raising a gloved fist during the U.S. National Anthem, is a physical-education and health instructor at Santa Monica College in California.

Alexander Dubcek, leader of the Prague Spring reformist movement in Czechoslovakia, whose efforts to establish "socialism with a human face" led to the Kremlin decision to send Soviet storm troops, died in an automobile accident in 1992.

Glen Cove High School Class of 1968, Glen Cove, Long Island, New York

Last Modified 10/28/18