1968 History, Fun Facts, and Trivia

In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on a motel balcony in Memphis on April 4. Robert Kennedy was shot in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen on June 5 and died the following day. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago descended into police violence against protesters. Apollo 8 orbited the Moon at Christmas and its crew read from Genesis to 600 million television viewers. 2001: A Space Odyssey arrived. Hey Jude spent nine weeks at number one. Andy Warhol was shot and nearly died. The Beatles were at the peak of their commercial power. Joe Namath guaranteed a Super Bowl victory that nobody believed he could deliver. It was the most turbulent year of one of the most turbulent decades in American history, and it earned that description.

Quick Facts from 1968

• World-Changing Events: Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis; Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 5 in Los Angeles; Apollo 8 became the first crewed spacecraft to orbit the Moon in December
• Top Song: Hey Jude by the Beatles, the best-performing single of the year on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100, spending 9 weeks at number one
• Influential Songs: Born to Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf, You Keep Me Hangin’ On by Vanilla Fudge, Tuesday Afternoon by the Moody Blues
• Must-See Movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Funny Girl, Planet of the Apes, Rosemary’s Baby, Night of the Living Dead, The Odd Couple, Bullitt, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Most Famous Person in America: Paul Newman, who had Bullitt in theaters and whose cultural presence extended well beyond film
• Notable Books: The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, and Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken
• Price of a Postage Stamp: 6 cents
• Price of a Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe: $3,468.00
• Price of a Panasonic Tape Recorder: $29.95
• The Funny Guy: Woody Allen
• The Other Funny Guy: Bill Cosby
• The Funny Lady: Carol Burnett
• Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Monkey, associated with intelligence, adaptability, and a tendency toward unpredictability — all abundantly present in 1968
• Doomsday Clock: 7 minutes to midnight
• The Conversation: Did you hear about Dr. King? And Bobby Kennedy? What is happening to this country?

Top Ten Baby Names of 1968

Girls: Lisa, Michelle, Kimberly, Jennifer, Melissa Boys: Michael, David, John, James, Robert

Lisa held the top spot for girls. Michael was in his second decade at the top of the boys’ list. Jennifer was climbing steadily and would reach number one by the early 1970s. The list reflected the remarkable stability of American naming conventions even in a year of profound social upheaval.

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols of 1968

Ewa Aulin, Honor Blackman, Veronica Carlson, Julie Christie, Yvonne Craig, Catherine Deneuve, Barbara Eden, Barbara Feldon, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Peggy Lipton, Virna Lisi, Ann-Margret, Elizabeth Montgomery, Caroline Munro, Julie Newmar, Ingrid Pitt, Diana Rigg, Elke Sommer, Stella Stevens, Twiggy, Raquel Welch, Barbara Windsor

Twiggy remained the defining visual of the late 1960s. Jane Fonda was transitioning from sex symbol to political activist. Goldie Hawn was becoming a star through Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Diana Rigg had been Emma Peel in The Avengers since 1965 and was at the peak of that cultural moment.

Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men of 1968

Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Peter Fonda, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Steve McQueen, Roger Moore, Jim Morrison, Joe Namath, Paul Newman, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Redford, Omar Sharif, William Shatner

Steve McQueen had Bullitt in theaters, featuring a San Francisco car chase that established a new standard for the genre. Joe Namath was the most recognizable athlete in America. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were in their second season of Star Trek. The breadth of the list reflects how thoroughly popular culture had expanded its definition of male celebrity.

The Quotes

“Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!” — Charlton Heston as George Taylor in Planet of the Apes, a line that arrived with enough force to become immediately quotable and has been quoted ever since

“Open the pod bay doors, HAL.” — Keir Dullea as Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a request that HAL 9000 declines with a calm that is considerably more unsettling than any raised voice could produce

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” — HAL 9000’s response, which was not listed in the source but belongs on any 1968 quote list

“They’re coming to get you, Barbara.” — Johnny in Night of the Living Dead, a line delivered as a joke that becomes, within minutes of its delivery, no longer funny at all

“Hello, gorgeous.” — Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, her opening line, addressed to her own reflection in a mirror

“You’ve come a long way, baby.” — Virginia Slims cigarettes, a campaign that appropriated the language of women’s liberation to sell cigarettes, a combination that generated both sales and criticism

“There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.'” — Philip K. Dick, the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, in 1968, demonstrated that science fiction writers sometimes earn their reputation for prescience

Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

The Apollo 8 Astronauts — William Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell — for their December 21-27, 1968 mission, which made them the first humans to travel to the Moon and return. The mission had been assembled in four months after NASA determined that the Soviet Union might attempt a lunar orbit before the United States. On Christmas Eve, as the spacecraft orbited the Moon, the crew members took turns reading from the Book of Genesis in a broadcast watched by an estimated 600 million people worldwide — the most-watched television broadcast to that date. William Anders took the photograph known as Earthrise — the Earth appearing above the lunar horizon — which became one of the most reproduced photographs in history and helped launch the environmental movement.

Miss America and Miss USA

Miss America: Debra Barnes, Pittsburgh, Kansas Miss USA: Dorothy Anstett, Washington

We Lost in 1968

Martin Luther King Jr., the Baptist minister and civil rights leader who had led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized the March on Washington, delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech, received the Nobel Peace Prize, and done more than any other individual to advance the cause of racial equality through nonviolent protest in America, was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at age 39. He was in Memphis supporting a strike by Black sanitation workers. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison. King’s death sparked riots in more than 100 American cities.

Robert F. Kennedy, the Senator from New York and former Attorney General who had been one of the most significant figures in the Democratic Party and whose campaign for the presidential nomination had gained substantial momentum, was shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, moments after declaring victory in the California Democratic primary. He died the following day at age 42. Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of the murder. Kennedy’s death, coming two months after King’s, produced a national grief that had few precedents in American political history.

Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who had been the first human to travel to space, in April 1961, died on March 27, 1968, at age 34, when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed near Moscow. The circumstances of the crash have been disputed for decades. Soviet authorities classified the investigation, and various theories — including pilot error, an unauthorized maneuver, a collision with a weather balloon, and a near-miss with another aircraft — have been advanced.

America in 1968 — The Context

It is difficult to overstate how much happened in 1968. The year began with the Tet Offensive in January — a coordinated North Vietnamese and Viet Cong assault on more than 100 South Vietnamese cities and outposts that contradicted the Johnson administration’s optimistic assessments of the war’s progress. The CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, after visiting Vietnam, told his audience in February that the war appeared to be a stalemate. Lyndon Johnson, watching the broadcast, reportedly said that if he had lost Cronkite, he had lost middle America. Johnson announced on March 31 that he would not seek re-election.

Then came April 4. Then June 5. Then the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, where Hubert Humphrey was nominated while protesters were beaten by police in the streets outside the convention hall, in front of television cameras. Richard Nixon won the November election with a campaign that appealed to what he called the “silent majority” and promised a secret plan to end the war.

The year also produced the Poor People’s Campaign, led by King’s associates after his death; the strikes at Columbia University and other universities; the assassination of Medgar Evers’ brother Charles by James Earl Ray in the same county as MLK’s death (later established as unrelated); and the passage of the Fair Housing Act, signed into law April 11, one week after King’s death.

The Vietnam War, at its peak, had 536,000 American military personnel deployed. The My Lai Massacre occurred March 16, when a company of American soldiers under Lieutenant William Calley killed more than 500 unarmed civilians — men, women, and children — in the hamlet of My Lai in Quảng Ngãi province. The incident was covered up for over a year. When investigative reporter Seymour Hersh broke the story in November 1969, Calley was the only soldier convicted. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, served three and a half years of house arrest, and was pardoned by President Nixon in 1974.

The Assassinations

On April 4, 1968, at approximately 6:01 p.m., James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King Jr. as King stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. King had come to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers, predominantly Black men who worked in dangerous conditions for low wages and had no union protection. King was pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital at 7:05 p.m. He was 39 years old.

On June 5, 1968, at approximately 12:15 a.m., Sirhan Sirhan shot Robert Kennedy in the kitchen service pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, seconds after Kennedy had spoken to supporters following his victory in the California Democratic primary. Kennedy was struck by three bullets. He died at 1:44 a.m. on June 6, 1968, at age 42.

The murders of two of the most significant figures in American public life within 63 days of each other produced a national trauma that had no precedent in the living memory of most Americans.

The 1968 Olympics

The Mexico City Summer Olympics were the setting for two of the most politically significant moments in Olympic history. On October 16-17, 1968, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who had won gold and bronze, respectively, in the 200 meters, raised their black-gloved fists during the American national anthem in the Black Power salute. Both were also wearing black socks without shoes to represent Black poverty. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in solidarity. Smith and Carlos were expelled from the Olympic Village by the US Olympic Committee. They returned to public shaming in the United States. Peter Norman was not selected for the 1972 Australian Olympic team despite qualifying times; he was not given a formal Australian apology until six years after his death in 2006. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman’s funeral.

Kenyan middle-distance runner Kipchoge “Kip” Keino was stuck in traffic on his way to the 1500 meters final and ran approximately two miles to reach the stadium, arriving after the race had started. He won the gold medal despite suffering from gallstones throughout the competition. He also won silver in the 5000 meters. His performance at high altitude in Mexico City helped establish East African distance running as a dominant force in world athletics.

Pop Culture Facts and History

2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick and produced in collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke, opened April 3, 1968. The film’s running time of 141 minutes included no dialogue for the first 25 minutes and for the final 23 minutes. HAL 9000, the ship’s computer, was voiced by Douglas Rain with a calm that was more disturbing than any amount of menace could have achieved. The film’s special effects were so advanced that NASA reportedly used it as a training reference. Its vision of space travel, artificial intelligence, and human evolution has been analyzed continuously for over 50 years.

Planet of the Apes, directed by Franklin Schaffner and starring Charlton Heston, opened February 8, 1968. The film’s ending — Heston discovering the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand, realizing that the planet of the apes was Earth all along — was one of the most effective twist endings in cinema history and one that was protected as a secret with an intensity unusual for the era.

Night of the Living Dead, directed by George Romero and produced for $114,000, opened on October 1, 1968. It was released without the MPAA rating that had recently been established — the rating system went into effect on October 7, and was screened at Saturday matinees attended by children who were not prepared for it. The film created the modern zombie genre and, by casting a Black actor, Duane Jones, in the lead role without making his race a plot point, made a quiet civil rights statement.

Hair, the rock musical that opened April 29, 1968, at the Biltmore Theatre, was the first Broadway production to feature full nudity and to use an entirely rock score. It addressed Vietnam, racial harmony, sexual freedom, and the generational divide simultaneously, and achieved enough commercial success to run until 1972.

The Motion Picture Association of America’s film rating system went into effect on October 7, 1968, replacing the Hays Code that had governed Hollywood content since 1930. The Hays Code had forbidden, among many other things, depictions of interracial relationships, positive portrayals of criminal behavior, and explicit sexual content. The new rating system — G, M, R, and X at its initial introduction — allowed adult content while restricting access by age.

Elvis Presley’s Singer Presents…Elvis’s broadcast on NBC on December 3, 1968, has become known as the ’68 Comeback Special. Presley had not performed live in seven years, having focused on a series of film roles that most critics and many fans considered beneath his abilities. The special featured him in a black leather suit, performing in an intimate setting for a small audience. It reminded the public and the industry of what he was capable of. His subsequent recordings — including Suspicious Minds, his first number one in seven years — followed directly from the special’s success.

Shirley Chisholm was elected to the United States House of Representatives in November 1968, representing New York’s 12th congressional district and becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress. Her campaign slogan was “Unbossed and Unabought.” In 1972, she became the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination.

The first 911 emergency telephone call in the United States was made on February 16, 1968, in Haleyville, Alabama, by Alabama Speaker of the House Tom Bevill to Police Chief Fred Crouch. Senator Rankin Fite made a test call the same day. The service expanded gradually across the country over the following decade.

Roy Jacuzzi’s nephew, Roy Jacuzzi, invented the first self-contained, fully integrated whirlpool bath in 1968, building on the hydrotherapy pump his uncle, Candido, had invented in 1956 for his arthritic son. The product was patented and marketed as the Jacuzzi. Before 1968, the Jacuzzi pump was a medical device; after, it became a luxury fixture.

Douglas Engelbart’s demonstration at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco on December 9, 1968 — subsequently named “The Mother of All Demos” — showed the computer mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word processing, hypermedia, collaborative real-time editing, and dynamic file linking to an audience that had never seen any of them. The demonstration was conducted remotely, connecting Engelbart in San Francisco to his research team in Menlo Park. Every modern computing interface traces back to what was shown that afternoon.

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered on February 19, 1968, on the National Educational Television network. Fred Rogers had been developing the show since 1963 at a Pittsburgh PBS affiliate. The national premiere brought his gentle, direct address to children — telling them they were special, that their feelings were valid, that the world could be a confusing place, and that was all right — to an audience that needed to hear it in a year when the world was genuinely confusing.

Robert McCulloch purchased the old London Bridge — the 1831 John Rennie bridge, not the medieval Tower Bridge — from the City of London for $2.46 million in 1968 and had it dismantled and shipped, stone by stone, to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it was reassembled as a tourist attraction. The legend that McCulloch thought he was buying Tower Bridge has been denied by his family and by the historical record, though it has been too entertaining to abandon.

Intel was founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce on July 18, 1968, in Santa Clara, California, after the two had left Fairchild Semiconductor. The company name was a contraction of Integrated Electronics. Its first product was a memory chip. The subsequent development of the microprocessor effectively created the personal computer industry.

Harriet Glickman wrote a letter to Charles Schulz following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in April 1968, asking him to consider including a Black character in Peanuts. Schulz was initially uncertain about whether the move was his to make; Glickman helped arrange correspondence with Black parents who supported the idea. Franklin debuted in the strip on July 31, 1968. Schulz later said the character was one of the best decisions he ever made.

Nobel Prize Winners in 1968

Physics was awarded to Luis Alvarez for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular, the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using a hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis, work that dramatically expanded the understanding of subatomic particles.

Chemistry went to Lars Onsager for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes — work on how physical and chemical systems approach equilibrium that had implications for understanding everything from heat flow to biological processes.

Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Robert Holley, Har Gobind Khorana, and Marshall Nirenberg for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis — the deciphering of the genetic code itself, establishing which sequences of DNA correspond to which amino acids in proteins.

Literature went to Yasunari Kawabata of Japan, the first Japanese author to receive the prize, for his narrative mastery, which, with great sensibility, expresses the essence of the Japanese mind. His novels Snow Country and The Sound of the Mountain are his best-known works in translation.

The Peace Prize was awarded to René Cassin of France for his work on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which he largely drafted in 1948 as a French representative to the United Nations.

1968 Toys and Christmas Gifts

Hot Wheels, introduced by Mattel in 1968, were die-cast miniature vehicles with low-friction wheels that could race along plastic track systems at speeds that conventional toy cars could not achieve. The line launched with 16 models and has since produced over four billion cars, making it the best-selling toy vehicle in history. Don’t Break the Ice, Battling Tops, and Silly Putty rounded out a season in which Silly Putty received renewed attention after NASA confirmed that Apollo astronauts had brought some to the Moon.

Broadway in 1968

Hair, which opened April 29, 1968, was the most discussed Broadway opening of the year and possibly of the decade. The show’s combination of rock music, nudity, political content, and unapologetic counterculture attitude made it simultaneously a commercial success and a lightning rod. It ran until July 1, 1972, completing 1,750 performances and spawning productions worldwide.

Promises, Promises, with music by Burt Bacharach and lyrics by Hal David — their only Broadway score — opened December 1, 1968, at the Shubert Theatre. Based on Billy Wilder’s film The Apartment, the show ran until January 1, 1972.

Plaza Suite, Neil Simon’s trio of one-act plays set in the same room of the Plaza Hotel, opened February 14, 1968. George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton starred in the original production. It ran until October 1970.

Best Film Oscar Winner

In the Heat of the Night, directed by Norman Jewison and starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, won Best Picture at the 40th Academy Awards on April 10, 1968, for the 1967 film year. Steiger won Best Actor as a Mississippi police chief who must work with a Black homicide detective from Philadelphia — a combination that neither man wants and that produces both antagonism and grudging respect. The film won five Academy Awards and was widely read as a commentary on American race relations at the height of the civil rights era.

Top Movies of 1968

1. Funny Girl
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. The Odd Couple
4. Bullitt
5. Planet of the Apes
6. Rosemary’s Baby
7. Yours, Mine and Ours
8. The Love Bug
9. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
10. Night of the Living Dead

Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand’s film debut, was the highest-grossing film of the year and won Streisand the Academy Award for Best Actress in a tie with Katharine Hepburn — the only tie in Best Actress history. 2001: A Space Odyssey was the most critically discussed film of the year and has been discussed continuously since. Bullitt featured a car chase through San Francisco that set a standard not surpassed for years. Rosemary’s Baby, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow, was one of the most effective horror films of the decade. Night of the Living Dead cost $114,000 and created a genre.

Most Popular TV Shows of 1968

1. Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In (NBC)
2. Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. (CBS)
3. Bonanza (NBC)
4. Mayberry R.F.D. (CBS)
5. Family Affair (CBS)
6. Gunsmoke (CBS)
7. Julia (NBC)
8. The Dean Martin Show (NBC)
9. Here’s Lucy (CBS)
10. The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS)

Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In had premiered on January 22, 1968, and immediately claimed the top of the ratings. Its rapid-fire comedy, topical references, and willingness to mock authority made it the most distinctive show on American television. Julia, starring Diahann Carroll as a widowed Black nurse raising a son in a predominantly white neighborhood, premiered September 17, 1968 — the first American television series since Amos ‘n’ Andy in the 1950s to star a Black performer in a non-comedic, non-menial role. Star Trek, in its second season, was not in the top ten but was generating a devoted audience that would make it a cultural institution after its cancellation.

1968 Billboard Number One Hits

December 30, 1967 – January 19, 1968: Hello Goodbye — The Beatles (carryover from late 1967)
January 20 – February 2: Judy in Disguise (With Glasses) — John Fred and His Playboy Band
February 3 – February 9: Green Tambourine — The Lemon Pipers
February 10 – March 15: Love Is Blue — Paul Mauriat (5 weeks)
March 16 – April 12: (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay — Otis Redding (4 weeks, posthumous)
April 13 – May 17: Honey — Bobby Goldsboro (5 weeks)
May 18 – May 31: Tighten Up — Archie Bell and the Drells
June 1 – June 21: Mrs. Robinson — Simon and Garfunkel (3 weeks)
June 22 – July 19: This Guy’s in Love with You — Herb Alpert (4 weeks)
July 20 – August 2: Grazing in the Grass — Hugh Masekela
August 3 – August 16: Hello, I Love You — The Doors
August 17 – September 20: People Got to Be Free — The Rascals (5 weeks)
September 21 – September 27: Harper Valley P.T.A. — Jeannie C. Riley
September 28 – November 29: Hey Jude — The Beatles (9 weeks)
November 30 – December 13: Love Child — Diana Ross and the Supremes
December 14, 1968 – January 31, 1969: I Heard It Through the Grapevine — Marvin Gaye (carrying into 1969)

(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding was released three days after his death in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. It reached number one in March 1968 and was the first posthumous number one in American chart history. Hey Jude spent nine weeks at number one — the longest run of any Beatles single — and was the best-performing single of the year. People Got to Be Free by the Rascals, released in the immediate aftermath of Robert Kennedy’s assassination and written in direct response to it, spent five weeks at number one and was one of the most explicitly political recordings to reach the top of the mainstream chart. I Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye closed the year and ran well into 1969, eventually spending seven weeks at the top.

Sports Champions of 1968

World Series: The Detroit Tigers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals four games to three, with Mickey Lolich winning three games as a starting pitcher — one of the most dominant individual World Series pitching performances in the modern era. The Cardinals had Bob Gibson, who had a 1.12 ERA in the regular season — the lowest since the dead-ball era — and dominated Games 1 and 4. The Tigers rallied from a three-games-to-one deficit.

Super Bowl II: The Green Bay Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders 33-14 on January 14, 1968, in Miami, in Vince Lombardi’s final game as head coach. Bart Starr was named MVP. The victory was the Packers’ second consecutive Super Bowl championship and the last of Lombardi’s dynasty. He resigned as head coach after the game, ending one of the most successful runs in NFL coaching history.

NBA Champions: The Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers four games to two, their tenth championship in twelve years. Bill Russell, in his second season as player-coach, led the dynasty through a regular season in which he played fewer minutes than in previous years, yet remained effective in the postseason.

Stanley Cup: The Montreal Canadiens defeated the St. Louis Blues four games to none. The Blues were an expansion team in their first season; the Canadiens were the dominant franchise of the era.

U.S. Open Golf: Lee Trevino won his first major at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, shooting four rounds in the 60s — the first player ever to shoot four sub-70 rounds in the U.S. Open. Trevino grew up in poverty in Texas and learned to play golf on a municipal course. His victory was unexpected by most observers.

U.S. Open Tennis: Arthur Ashe became the first Black man to win the U.S. Open, defeating Tom Okker of the Netherlands in the final. Ashe was the first and, for years, the only Black man to win a Grand Slam singles title. He was also the top-ranked American player. Virginia Wade of Britain won the women’s title.

Wimbledon: Rod Laver won the men’s title, and Billie Jean King won the women’s. It was King’s third consecutive Wimbledon singles title.

NCAA Football: Ohio State, under first-year coach Woody Hayes, won the national championship with a perfect 10-0 record. The Buckeyes defeated USC 27-16 in the Rose Bowl. Quarterback Rex Kern and running back Jim Otis led one of the most talented rosters in recent college football.

NCAA Basketball: UCLA, under John Wooden, won its fourth national championship in five years. Lew Alcindor — who would change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after graduation — was in his second season and already considered the most dominant college player anyone had seen.

Kentucky Derby: Forward Pass crossed the finish line second but was declared the winner when Dancer’s Image was disqualified after a post-race test found phenylbutazone — a common anti-inflammatory — in the horse’s system. It was the first and remains the only Kentucky Derby disqualification.

Frequently Asked Questions About 1968

Q: What happened when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated?
A: King was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968, at age 39. He had come to Memphis to support striking Black sanitation workers. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder. King’s death triggered riots in more than 100 American cities and prompted President Johnson to sign the Fair Housing Act one week later.

Q: What was the significance of the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics?
A: American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, after winning gold and bronze in the 200 meters, raised black-gloved fists during the national anthem in Mexico City on October 16-17, 1968. They were also barefoot, wearing black socks, to represent Black poverty. Both were expelled from the Olympic Village by the US Olympic Committee. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in solidarity; he was subsequently excluded from the 1972 Australian Olympic team and received no formal apology from the Australian government until six years after his death.

Q: What was the Heidi Game?
A: On November 17, 1968, NBC cut away from the final 65 seconds of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to broadcast Heidi, a children’s film, as scheduled. The Raiders scored two touchdowns in those 65 seconds to win 43-32. The outrage — fans flooded NBC’s switchboard — led directly to the NFL network policy of always broadcasting games to their conclusion regardless of scheduled programming.

Q: What was the film rating system introduced in 1968?
A: The MPAA replaced the Hays Code with an age-based rating system on October 7, 1968. Initial ratings were G (general audiences), M (mature, suggested parental guidance), R (restricted, persons under 16 required to be accompanied by a parent or guardian), and X (no one under 16 admitted). The system has been modified several times since M became GP and then PG, and the X rating was replaced by NC-17.

Q: What was “The Mother of All Demos”?
A: On December 9, 1968, computer scientist Douglas Engelbart demonstrated the computer mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word processing, hypermedia, collaborative real-time editing, and dynamic file linking to an audience at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. The 90-minute demonstration showed technologies that would not become commercially available for another decade or two, essentially previewing the entire modern computing interface. It was named “The Mother of All Demos” decades after the fact.

Q: Who was the first Black woman elected to Congress?
A: Shirley Chisholm of New York’s 12th congressional district was elected in November 1968, becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress. Her campaign slogan was “Unbossed and Unabought.” In 1972, she became the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination.

In a year that took Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy within 63 days of each other, sent human beings around the Moon at Christmas, opened 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes and Night of the Living Dead, introduced the computer mouse, the film rating system, Hot Wheels, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Laugh-In, and Hair, and put the Beatles at number one for nine consecutive weeks, 1968 managed to be both the worst year of the decade and among the most generative. The world it ended with was measurably different from the world it began with. Whether the difference was progress is a question the decade had not yet answered.

NCAA Basketball Champions: UCLA

Kentucky Derby: Forward pass

More 1968 Facts & History Resources:

Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1968X
1968 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
Fact Monster
1968 Flu Pandemic
History.com: 1968
1960s, Infoplease.com World History
1968 in Movies (according to IMDB)
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
1968 Television
1960s Slang
Wikipedia 1968
YourDictionary.com 1968