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1968

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1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1968th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 968th year of the 2nd millennium, the 68th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1960s decade.

The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.

Events

January

• January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.^[1]
• January 8 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson endorses the I'm Backing Britain campaign for working an additional half-hour each day without pay.^[2]
• January 10 – John Gorton is sworn in as the 19th Prime Minister of Australia, taking over from John McEwen after being elected leader of the Liberal Party the previous day, following the disappearanceofHarold Holt. Gorton became the first and so far only Senator to become Prime Minister; though he immediately transferred to the House of Representatives through a by-election in Holt's vacant seat of Higgins.
• January 14 – The Green Bay Packers defeat the Oakland Raiders by the score of 33–14 in Super Bowl II at the Miami Orange Bowl.
• January 15 – An earthquakeinSicily kills 380 and injures around 1,000.^[3][4]
• January 17
  • Lyndon B. Johnson requests a bill ending the gold convertibility of the U.S. dollar.
  • The USS Enterprise arrives in Sasebo, Japan, sparking an anti-war protest organized by student group Zengakuren.
• January 21
  • Vietnam War – Battle of Khe Sanh: One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins, ending on April 8.
  • A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs.
• January 22 – Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In debuts on NBC.
• January 23 – North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its territorial waters while spying.
• January 25 – The Israeli submarine INS Dakar sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 69.

• January 28 – The French submarine Minerve sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 52.
• January 30 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins, as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
• January 31
  • Việt Cộng soldiers attack the US Embassy, Saigon.
  • Nauru president Hammer DeRoburt declares independence from Australia.

February

• February 1
  • Vietnam War: A Viet Cong officer named Nguyễn Văn Lém is executed by Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The event is photographed by Eddie Adams. The photo makes headlines around the world, eventually winning the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and sways U.S. public opinion against the war.
  • The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merge to form Penn Central, the largest ever corporate merger up to this date.
• February 6–February 18 – The 1968 Winter Olympics are held in Grenoble, France.
• February 8 – American civil rights movement: A civil rights protest staged at a white-only bowling alleyinOrangeburg, South Carolina is broken up by highway patrolmen; 3 college students are killed.
• February 11
  • Border clashes take place between Israel and Jordan.
  • Madison Square Garden in New York City opens at its current location.
• February 12 – Vietnam War: Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre.
• February 13 – Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• February 17 – Administrative reforms in Romania divide the country into 39 counties.
• February 19
  • The Florida Education Association (FEA) initiates a mass resignation of teachers to protest state funding of education. This is, in effect, the first statewide teachers' strike in the United States.
  • NET televises the very first episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
• February 24 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Huế.
• February 25 – Vietnam War: Hà My massacre.
• February 27 – Ex-Teenagers singer Frankie Lymon is found dead from a heroin overdoseinHarlem.

March

• March 1 – United Kingdom Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 receives Royal assent.
• March 2 – Baggeridge Colliery closes marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country of England.^[5]
• March 6 – Un-recognized Rhodesia executes 3 black citizens, the first executions since UDI, prompting international condemnation.
• March 7 – Vietnam War: The First Battle of Saigon ends.
• March 8
  • The first student protests spark the 1968 Polish political crisis.
  • The Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 sinks with all 98 crew members, about 90 nautical miles (104 miles or 167 km) southwest of Hawaii.^[6][7]
• March 10–11 – Vietnam War: Battle of Lima Site 85, the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members (12) during the (at this time) secret war later known as the Laotian Civil War.
• March 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson mandates that all computers purchased by the federal government support the ASCII character encoding.^[8]
• March 12
  • Mauritius achieves independence from British rule.
  • U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson barely edges out antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a vote which highlights the deep divisions in the country, and the party, over Vietnam.
• March 13 – The first Rotaract club is chartered in North Charlotte, North Carolina.
• March 14 – Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah.
• March 15 – British Foreign Secretary George Brown resigns.
• March 16
  • Vietnam War – My Lai Massacre: American troops kill scores of civilians. The story will first become public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.
  • U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy enters the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
• March 17 – A demonstration in London's Grosvenor Square against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War leads to violence; 91 people are injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.
• March 18 – Gold standard: The United States Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.
• March 19–23 – Afrocentrism, Black Power, Vietnam War: Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., signal a new era of militant student activism on college campuses in the U.S. Students stage rallies, protests and a 5-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program and the Vietnam War, and demanding a more Afrocentric curriculum.
• March 21 – Battle of Karameh
• March 22 – Daniel Cohn-Bendit ("Danny the Red") and 7 other students occupy the administrative offices of the University of Nanterre, setting in motion a chain of events that lead France to the brink of revolution in May.
• March 24 – Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashes en route from Cork to London near Tuskar Rock, Wexford, killing 61 passengers and crew.
• March 28 – Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is shot by the police in a protest for cheaper meals at a restaurant for low-income students. The aftermath of his death is one of the first major events against the military dictatorship.
• March 30 – Paradiso in Amsterdam opened its doors under the name 'Cosmic Relaxation Centre Paradiso'
• March 31 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek re-election.

April

• April 2
  • Bombs explode at midnight in two department stores in Frankfurt-am-Main; Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin are later arrested and sentenced for arson.
  • In a television special broadcast in the United States on NBC, white British singer Petula Clark touches African American singer Harry Belafonte affectionately on the arm.
  • The film 2001: A Space Odyssey premieres in Washington, D.C.
  • First appearance of Our Lady of Zeitoun, a Marian apparitioninCairo.
• April 3
  • Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech in Memphis, Tennessee.
  • American movie Planet of the Apes is released in theaters.
• April 4
  • Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.: Martin Luther King Jr. is shot dead at the Lorraine MotelinMemphis, Tennessee. King-assassination riots erupt in major American cities, lasting for several days afterwards.
  • Apollo program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502 (Apollo 6) is launched, as the second and last unmanned test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
  • AEK Athens wins the FIBA European Cup Winners Cup Final in basketball against Slavia Prague, in front of a record attendance of 80,000 spectators. It is the first major European trophy won at club level of any sport in Greece.
• April 6
  • "La, la, la" by Massiel (music and lyrics by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 for Spain, at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
  • A shootout between Black Panthers and police in Oakland, California, results in several arrests and deaths, including 17-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton.
  • Richmond, Indiana explosion: A double explosion in downtown Richmond kills 41 and injures 150.
• April 7 – British racing driver Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.
• April 8 – The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (under Department of Justice) (BNDD) is created.
• April 10 – The ferry TEV Wahine strikes a reef at the mouth of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand, with the loss of 53 lives, in Cyclone Giselle, which has created the windiest conditions ever recorded in New Zealand.
• April 11
  • Josef Bachmann tries to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, leader of the left-wing movement (APO) in Germany, and tries to commit suicide afterwards, failing in both, although Dutschke dies of his brain injuries 11 years later.
  • German left-wing students blockade the Springer Press HQ in Berlin and many are arrested (one of them Ulrike Meinhof).
  • U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
  • MGM's classic film The Wizard of Oz makes its NBC debut after being telecast on CBS since 1956 in the United States. It will remain on NBC for the next 8 years.
• April 18 – John Rennie's 1831 New London Bridge is sold to Arizona entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch and is rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, reopening on October 5, 1971.
• April 20
  • Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.^[9]
  • English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech in Birmingham.^[10]
• April 23
  • President Mobutu releases captured mercenaries in the Congo.
  • Surgeons at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant, on Clovis Roblain.
  • The United Methodist Church is created by the union in Dallas, Texas, of the former Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.
• April 23–30 – Vietnam War: Columbia University protests of 1968 – Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
• April 26 – The nuclear weapon "Boxcar" is tested at the Nevada Test Site in the biggest detonation of Operation Crosstie.
• April 29 – The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway.

May

• May 2 – The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.
• May 3 – Braniff Flight 352 crashes near Dawson, Texas, killing all 85 people on board.
• May 11 – The Montreal Canadiens defeat the St. Louis Blues in a four-game sweep to win the Stanley Cup.
• May 13 – Paris student riots: One million march through the streets of Paris.
• May 13 – Manchester City wins the 1967–68 Football League First Division by 2 clear points, over club rivals Manchester United
• May 14 – The Beatles announce the creation of Apple Records in a New York press conference.
• May 15 – An outbreak of severe thunderstorms produces tornadoes, causing massive damage and heavy casualties in Charles City, Iowa, Oelwein, Iowa, and Jonesboro, Arkansas.
• May 16 – Ronan Point, a 23 floor tower block in Canning Town, east London, partially collapses after a gas explosion, killing 5.
• May 17 – The Catonsville Nine enter the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, take dozens of selective service draft records, and burn them with napalm as a protest against the Vietnam War.
• May 18
  • Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars are introduced.
  • West Bromwich Albion win the Football Association Cup, defeating Everton 1–0 after extra time. The winning goal was scored by Jeff Astle.
• May 19
  • A general election is held in Italy.
  • Nigerian forces capture Port Harcourt and form a ring around the Biafrans. This contributes to a humanitarian disaster as the surrounded population already suffers from hunger and starvation.
• May 22 – The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
• May 27 – Japanese student group Zenkyoto forms as violent student protests in Japan begin.
• May 29 – Manchester United wins the European Cup Final, becoming the first English team to do so.
• May 30 – Bobby Unser wins the Indianapolis 500.

June

• June 2 – Student protests have started in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
• June 3 – Radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol at his New York City studio, The Factory; he survives after a 5-hour operation.
• June 4 – The Standard & Poor's 500 index closes above 100 for the first time, at 100.38.
• June 5 – U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedyisshot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Sirhan Sirhan is arrested.
• June 6 – Robert Kennedy dies from his injuries after being shot the previous day, he was 42.
• June 7 – The Ford sewing machinists strike started in the United Kingdom.
• June 8 – James Earl Ray is arrested for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr..
• June 10 – Italy beats Yugoslavia 2–0 in a replay to win the 1968 European Championship. The original final on June 8 ended 1–1.
• June 12 – The film Rosemary's Baby premieres in the U.S.
• June 17 – The Malayan Communist Party launches a second insurgency and the state of emergency is again imposed in Malaysia.
• June 20 – Austin Currie, Member of Parliament at StormontinNorthern Ireland, along with others, squats a house in Caledon to protest discrimination in housing allocations.
• June 23
  • Afootball stampedeinBuenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured.
  • The first round of voting took place in the French National Assembly elections that had been scheduled following the public unrest of May.
• June 26
  • The Bonin Islands are returned to Japan after 23 years of occupation by the United States Navy.
  • The “March of the One Hundred Thousand” took place in Rio de Janeiro as crowds demonstrated against the Brazilian military government.
• June 30 – The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy heavy military transport aircraft first flies in the U.S. This model will still be in service 50 years later.

July

• July 1
  • The Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.
  • The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty opens for signature.
• July 4 – Yachtsman Alec Rose, 59, receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth, England after his 354-day round-the-world trip.
• July 13 – 1968 flu pandemic: Influenza A virus subtype H3N2 first recorded in Hong Kong.
• July 15 – The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on ABC television in the United States.
• July 17 – Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.
• July 18 – The semiconductor company Intel is founded.
• July 20 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
• July 23–28 – Black militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville ShootoutofCleveland, Ohio, in the United States.
• July 25 – Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae vitae, on birth control.
• July 26 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình Dzu is sentenced to 5 years hard labor, for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
• July 29
  • Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time in centuries.
  • Yorkshire Television starts broadcasting.
• July 30 – Thames Television starts transmission in London.
• July 31 – BBC television sitcom Dad's Army is broadcast for the first time in the UK.

August

• August 2 – The 7.6 M_w Casiguran earthquake affects the Aurora province in the Philippines with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing at least 207 and injuring 261.
• August 5–8 – The Republican National ConventioninMiami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. president and Spiro Agnew for vice president.
• August 11 – The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A selection of British Railways steam locomotives make the 120-mile journey from LiverpooltoCarlisle and return to Liverpool – the journey is known as the Fifteen Guinea Special.
• August 18 – Two charter buses are forced into the Hida River on National Highway Route 41 in Japan in an accident caused by heavy rain; 104 are killed.
• August 20–21 – Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: The 'Prague Spring' of political liberalization ends, as 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 6,500 tanks with 800 aircraft invade Czechoslovakia, the largest military operation in Europe since the end of World War II.
• August 21 – The Medal of Honor is posthumously awarded to James Anderson Jr.; he is the first black U.S. Marine to be given this award.
• August 24 – Canopus (nuclear test): France explodes its first hydrogen bomb in a test at Fangataufa atoll in French Polynesia.
• August 22–30 – Police clash with anti-war protesters in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. president and Edmund Muskie for vice president. The riots and subsequent trials are an essential part of the activism of the Youth International Party.
• August 28 – John Gordon Mein, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, is assassinated on the streets of Guatemala City, the first U.S. Ambassador assassinated in the line of duty.
• August 29 – Crown Prince Harald of Norway marries Sonja Haraldsen, the commoner he has dated for 9 years.

September

• September 6 – Swaziland becomes independent.
• September 7 – 150 women (members of New York Radical Women) arrive in Atlantic City, New Jerseytoprotest against the Miss America Pageant, as exploitative of women. Led by activist and author Robin Morgan, it is one of the first large demonstrations of Second Wave FeminismasWomen's Liberation begins to gather much media attention.
• The crash of Air France Flight 1611 kills 95 people, including French Army General René Cogny as the Caravelle jetliner plunges into the Mediterranean Sea while making its approach to Nice following its departure from the island of Corsica.
• The International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) is founded.
• September 8 - Arthur Ashe wins the first US Open of the Open Era, also becoming the first black male to capture the title. Virginia Wade wins the women's singles title.
• September 13
  • Albania officially withdraws from the Warsaw Pact upon the Soviet Union-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, having already ceased to participate actively in Pact activity since 1962.
  • U.S. Army Major General Keith L. Ware, World War II Medal of Honor recipient, is killed when his helicopter is shot down in Vietnam. He is posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
  • An agreement for merger between the General Electric Company and English Electric, the largest industrial merger in the UK up to that time.
• September 14 – Detroit Tiger Denny McLain becomes the first baseball pitcher to win 30 games in a season since 1934. He remains the last player to accomplish the feat.
• September 17 – The D'Oliveira affair: The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of South Africa is cancelled when the South Africans refuse to accept the presence of Basil D'Oliveira, a Cape Coloured, in the side.
• September 18 – Popular Canadian band Rush is formed.
• September 20 – Hawaii Five-O debuts on CBS, and eventually becomes the longest-running crime show in television history, until Law & Order overtakes it in 2003.
• September 21 – The Soviet's Zond 5 unmanned lunar flyby mission returns to earth, with its first-of-a-kind biological payload intact.
• September 23 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive comes to an end in South Vietnam.
• September 24 – 60 Minutes debuts on CBS and is still on the air as of 2021.
• September 27 – Marcelo Caetano becomes prime minister of Portugal.
• September 29 – A referendum in Greece gives more power to the military junta.
• September 30 – Boeing introduces its largest passenger aircraft up to that time, the Boeing 747 at a public event at Paine Field, near Everett, Washington.

October

• October – Golgo 13, which becomes Japan's longest-running ongoing manga, makes its debut on Big Comic.
• October 1 – Night of the Living Dead premieres in the United States.
• October 2 – Tlatelolco massacre: A student demonstration ends in bloodbath at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico, 10 days before the inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics. 300-400 are estimated to have been killed.
• October 3 – In Peru, Juan Velasco Alvarado takes power in a revolution.
• October 5 – Police baton civil rights demonstrators in Derry, Northern Ireland, marking the beginning of The Troubles.
• October 7 – At the height of protests against the Vietnam War, José Feliciano performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Tiger Stadium in Detroit during Game 5 pre-game ceremonies of the 1968 World Series between the Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. His personalized, slow, Latin jazz performance proved highly controversial, opening the door for later interpretations of the national anthem.
• October 8 – Vietnam War – Operation Sealords: United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
• October 10 – 1968 World Series: The Detroit Tigers defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in the best of 7 series (4 games to 3) after being down 3 games to 1, completing an unlikely comeback against the heavily favored Cardinals led by the overpowering right-handed pitcher Bob Gibson. The final score of Game 7 is 4–1.
• October 11
  • Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and simulating lunar module rendezvous and docking, using the S-IVB rocket stage as a test target.
  • InPanama, a military coup d'état, led by Col. Boris Martinez and Col. Omar Torrijos, overthrows the democratically elected (but highly controversial) government of President Arnulfo Arias. Within a year, Torrijos ousts Martinez and takes charge as de facto Head of Government in Panama.
• October 12–27 – The Games of the XIX Olympiad are held in Mexico City, Mexico.
• October 12 – Equatorial Guinea receives its independence from Spain.
• October 14 – Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will send about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
• October 16
  • In Mexico City, African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in a black power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals in the Olympic men's 200 metres.
  • Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, provoked by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country.
• October 18 – US athlete Bob Beamon breaks the long jump world record by 55 cm / 21¾ ins at the OlympicsinMexico City. His record stands for 23 years, and is still the second longest jump in history.
• October 20 – Former U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis on the Greek island of Skorpios.
• October 22 – The Gun Control Act of 1968 is enacted.
• October 25 – Led Zeppelin makes their first live performance, at Surrey University in England^[11]
• October 31 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in the Paris peace talks, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.

November

• November 5
  • 1968 U.S. presidential election: Republican candidate Richard Nixon defeats the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.
  • Luis A. Ferré, of the newly formed New Progressive Party is elected Governor of Puerto Rico, by beating incumbent governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella of the People's Party, Luis Negrón López of the Popular Democratic Party and Antonio J. Gonzalez of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, he also becomes the first "statehooder" governor of the Island.
• November 11 – A second republic is declared in the Maldives.
• November 14 – Yale University announces it is going to admit women.
• November 15 – Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt is initiated to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh trail, through Laos into South Vietnam. By the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs are dropped on Laos, slowing but not seriously disrupting trail operations.^[12][13]
• November 17
  • British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.
  • The Heidi Game: NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders–New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland (which had been trailing 32–29) score 2 late touchdowns to win 43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the NBC switchboards to protest.
• November 19 – In Mali, President Modibo Keïta's regime is overthrown in a bloodless military coup led by Moussa Traoré.^[14]
• November 20 – The Farmington Mine disaster in Farmington, West Virginia, kills seventy-eight men.
• November 22
  • The Beatles release their self-titled album popularly known as the White Album.
  • "Plato's Stepchildren", 12th episode of Star Trek 3rd season is aired, featuring the first-ever interracial kiss on U.S. national television between Lieutenant Uhura and Captain James T. Kirk.
• November 24 – 4 men hijack Pan Am Flight 281 from JFK International Airport, New York to Havana, Cuba.
• November 26 – Vietnam War: United States Air Force First Lieutenant and Bell UH-1F helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire, earning a Medal of Honor for his bravery.

December

• December 3 – The videotaped NBC television special Singer Presents...ELVIS (sponsored by The Singer Company, the American sewing machine manufacturer) marks the comeback of Elvis Presley after the legendary musician has been away from singing.
• December 6 – The Rolling Stones release Beggars Banquet, which contains the classic song "Sympathy for the Devil."
• December 9 – Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco, together with the computer mouse, at what becomes retrospectively known as "The Mother of All Demos".
• December 10 – Japan's biggest heist, the never-solved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.
• December 11
  • The film Oliver!, based on the hit London and Broadway musical, opens in the U.S. after being released first in England. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
  • The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is filmed but is not released until 1996.
• December 13 – Prompted by growing unrest and a perceived proliferation of "pro-communist" violent actions, Brazilian president Artur da Costa e Silva enacts the so-called AI-5, the fifth of a series of non-constitutional emergency decrees allegedly to help "stabilize" the country after the turmoils of the early 1960s.
• December 17 – In England, Mary Bell, aged 11, is found guilty of murdering two small boys and sentenced to life in detention, but is released from prison in 1980 and granted anonymity.
• December 20 – The Zodiac Killer is believed to have shot Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on Lake Herman Road, Benicia, San Francisco Bay, California, his first confirmed victims.
• December 22
  • David Eisenhower, grandson of former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, marries Julie Nixon, the daughter of U.S. President-elect Richard Nixon.
  • Mao Zedong advocates that educated urban youth in China be sent for re-education in the countryside. It marks the start of the "Up to the mountains and down to the villages" movement.
• December 24 – Apollo program: The manned U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole, as well as having traveled further away from Earth than any people in history. Anders photographs Earthrise. The crew also give a reading from the Book of Genesis.
• December 26 – Led Zeppelin make their American debut in Denver.
• December 28 – Israeli forces fly into Lebanese airspace, launching an attack on the airportinBeirut and destroying more than a dozen aircraft.

Dates unknown

• The Khmer Rouge is officially formed in Cambodia as an offshoot movement of the Vietnam People's Army from North Vietnam to bring communism to the nation. A few years later, they will become bitter enemies.
• United Artists pulls eleven Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons in its library from television due to the depiction of racist stereotypes towards African-Americans. These cartoons come to be known as the Censored Eleven.
• An oil field is confirmed in Northern Alaska. The Prudhoe Bay Oil Field.
• Midea Group, as known well home appliance in worldwide, founded in Guangdong Province, China.^{[page needed]}

Births

January

• January 1
  • Darren Greer, Canadian writer
  • Davor Šuker, Croatian footballer
• January 2
  • Cuba Gooding Jr., African-American actor
  • Violet Berlin, British presenter and script writer
• January 3 – Matheus Nachtergaele, Brazilian actor and director
• January 5
  • Andrzej Gołota, Polish boxer
  • Carrie Ann Inaba, American choreographer, game show host and singer
  • DJ BoBo, Swiss singer, songwriter and dancer
• January 6
  • Blanca Eekhout, Venezuelan politician
  • John Singleton, African-American film director and writer (d. 2019)
• January 7 – James Brokenshire, British politician
• January 9
  • Silver King, Mexican professional wrestler (d. 2019)
  • Joey Lauren Adams, American actress
• January 12 – Rachael Harris, American actress and comedian
• January 13
  • Keith Coogan, American actor
  • Pat Onstad, Canadian footballer
• January 14
  • Anthony Meindl, American screenwriter, actor and writer
  • LL Cool J, African-American rapper and actor
• January 15 – Chad Lowe, American actor and director
• January 16
  • David Catania, American politician and lawyer
  • Stephan Pastis, American cartoonist
  • Atticus Ross, English musician, songwriter, record producer, and audio engineer
• January 17 – Svetlana Masterkova, Russian athlete
• January 19
  • Kimberly Bergalis, American woman who alleged she had contracted HIV from her dentist (d. 1991)
  • Matt Hill, Canadian voice actor
• January 21 – Charlotte Ross, American actress
• January 22 – Guy Fieri, American chef
• January 24
  • Michael Kiske, German musician
  • Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
• January 25 – Carolina Ferraz, Brazilian actress, television presenter and former model
• January 26
  • Novala Takemoto, Japanese author and fashion designer
  • Eric Davis, American football player
• January 27 – Mike Patton, American singer
• January 28 – Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer
• January 29 – Edward Burns, American actor
• January 30 – King Felipe VI of Spain

February

• February 1
  • Lisa Marie Presley, American singer
  • Mark Recchi, Canadian ice hockey player
  • Pauly Shore, American actor
• February 3
  • David Scarboro, English actor (d. 1988)
  • Vlade Divac, Serbian basketball player
  • Marwan Khoury, Lebanese singer and composer
• February 5
  • Roberto Alomar, American baseball player
  • Marcus Grönholm, Finnish rally driver
  • Qasim Melho, Syrian television actor
• February 7
  • Mark Tewksbury, Canadian former competition swimmer
  • Sully Erna, American singer-songwriter and musician
  • Peter Bondra, Slovakian ice hockey player
  • Porntip Nakhirunkanok, Miss Universe 1988
• February 8
  • Gary Coleman, African-American actor (d. 2010)
  • April Stewart, American voice actress
• February 9 – Alejandra Guzmán, Mexican singer-songwriter, actress, and musician^[15]
• February 10
  • Laurie Foell, New Zealand/Australian actress
  • Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster
• February 11
  • Lavinia Agache, Romanian artistic gymnast
  • Mo Willems, American animator
• February 12
  • Chris McCandless, American hiker (d. 1992)
  • Josh Brolin, American actor
  • Chynna Phillips, American singer and actress
• February 13
  • Kelly Hu, American actress, voice artist, former fashion model and beauty queen
  • Niamh Kavanagh, Irish singer, Eurovision Song Contest 1993 winner
• February 14
  • Jules Asner, American model and television personality
  • Phill Lewis, American actor, comedian and director
• February 15 – Gloria Trevi, Mexican singer and actress^[16]
• February 18
  • Molly Ringwald, American actress^[17]
  • Dennis Satin, German film director
• February 21 – Pellom McDaniels, American football player (d. 2020)
• February 22
  • Bradley Nowell, American musician (d. 1996)
  • Jeri Ryan, American actress
• February 24
  • Andy Berman, American actor, director, producer, writer, voice artist, and comedian
  • Mitch Hedberg, American stand-up comedian (d. 2005)
• February 26 – Jeff Forshaw, British particle physicist
• February 27
  • Shuhaimi Shafiei, Malaysian politician (d. 2018)
  • Matt Stairs, Canadian baseball player
• February 29 – Sam Sneed, American producer and rapper