What happened in 1968?

• North Vietnam and Viet Cong troops launch the Tet Offensive. U.S Forces won decisively with a 4 to 1 kill ratio; Viet Cong and North Vietnam's military were ready to surrender.

• Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Leader of the Civil Rights Movement is killed by James Earl Ray which leads to violence and race riots in U.S. cities

• Following the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. President Lyndon Johnson signed  the Civil Rights Act of 1968

• RMS Queen Elizabeth - retired from service

• Dutch Elm Disease continues to increase with tens of thousands of trees now destroyed

• British Post office introduces First Class Post

• China celebrates 20 years of Communist rule by Mao Tse-tung

• Senator Robert Kennedy is assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles

• London Bridge sold for 1 million and later re-erected in Arizona.

• President Johnson announces on nationwide television he would not run for another term of office

• The Redwood National Park is created in California to protect the Giant Redwoods.

• Pope Paul VI bans Catholics from using the contraceptive pill for birth control

• 50,000 people participated in " The Poor Peoples March " on June 19th Washington, D.C.

• Population in Europe reaches 455 million ( excluding USSR )

• The Zodiac serial murderer begins his reign of terror in California in what has
  been described as the perfect crime ( He claimed in letters sent to the
  newspapers to have murdered 37, but police files put the number at 11.
  ( He has never been caught )

• Televisions installations increases by 25 million in the U.S.,  20.5 million Japan , 19 Million in Great Britain

• France becomes the world's fifth nuclear power

• Alec Rose completes his single-handed 354-day round-the-world trip.

• Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes the Prime Minister of Canada

• Student Occupation at Columbia University over Universities affiliation with the Institute for Defense.

• Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry

• The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion sank in the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of 99 crew members.

• Hong Kong Flu pandemic begins in Hong Kong.

• Student riots threaten Mexico Olympics when thousands of students protest against the military occupation of the National Polytechnic Institute.

• Black power salute is seen on Television worldwide after the gold and bronze medalists in Olympics show salute during medal ceremony in Mexico City, Mexico

• The Aswan Dam in Egypt is completed

• The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is dedicated

• Truth In Lending Act is passed to protect consumers during credit transactions.

• The Winter Olympic Games are held in Grenoble, France

• Boeing 747 made its maiden flight

• Apollo 8 orbits the Moon, becoming the first manned space mission to achieve the feat.

• Dr. Christian Barnard performs the first successful heart transplant.

• NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission

• US Explodes experimental hydrogen Bomb.

• The Emergency 911 Telephone service is started in the USA which provides a single number for reporting emergencies and is manned 24 hrs per day 365 days per year

• ATM First Philadelphia Bank installs the first automated teller machine in the U.S.

• The first Big Mac goes on sale in McDonalds costing 49 cents

• Musical Hair opens at Shaftesbury Theatre in London featuring nudity and drug-taking

• The Beatles create Apple Records and record "Hey Jude" as the first single on the label

• The CBS television newsmagazine program "60 Minutes" shown for the first time