1968

This page relates to the year 1968 Gregorian Calendrier.

Events

January 17th: In his message in the States of the Union, president Johnson announces the end of the convertibility of the gold dollar.
: UNCTAD: conference of NAKED on the trade and the development with New Delhi.
March 30th: A reform of the Système international currency allows the creation of the Drawing right special (D.T.S.) which consist of a basket of 5 currencies (dollar, mark, yen, French franc + pound sterling) in order to try to put an end to the international monetary crisis caused by the end of the convertibility of the dollar.
In May, revolts coeds in North America, in Japan and in Europe.
July 1st: Signature of a Treated nuclear non-proliferation (137 countries).

the Nobel Prize of peace is allotted to the French Rene Cassin, President of the European Court of the Human rights.

Africa

January 31st: Anticipated evacuation of the base of Seas el Kébir in Algeria by the French troops.
January: Dissolution of Assembled national with the Mali. President Modibo Keïta control surface by ordinances.
March 12th: Independence of the Mauritius.
April:

military Coup d'etat in Sierra Leone.
a first group of 150 Chinese experts (on 300 waited) arrives in Tanzania on board Yaohua. They are charged to begin work of land surveying of the 1700 km railways intended to connect Dar Es Salaam to Copperberlt, the area of the copper mines of Zambia. The project is financed by a loan of 100 million £ in Tanzania and Zambia.

May 2nd: In Egypt, the population approves by plebiscite the policy of Nasser: 99,989% of " are counted; oui" …
May:

With the the Sahel, the rains of monsoon do not occur and at the time of the year 1968, the rains will be lower by 17 to 45% in Mauritania: it is the one long period beginning of dryness which will be completed really only in 1988.
working Strikes, coeds and high-school girls with the Senegal.
Strike of the minors in Mauritania.

June 12th: The the United Nations rename Namibia the South-western African.
In August, the President of the Mali Modibo Keïta announces the dissolution of the political office of the sole party and the seizure by the Defense committee of the Revolution of the totality of the capacities. In September, the Defense committee of the Revolution invites all the executives of the country to make their self-criticism in their addressing a questionnaire asking them what they “did of positive for, of negative against, the active revolution”.
September 4th: Military coup d'etat to the Congo-Brazzaville.
July: First restrictions of the emigration towards the France.
September 6th: Creation of the Swaziland which becomes a parliamentary monarchy. Sobhuza II, king of Swaziland (fine in 1982).
October 12th: Independence of the Guinea Equatoriale.
November 19th: To the Mali, a coup d'etat carried out by a “ Military committee of National Release ” (CMLN) shift President Modibo Keïta and carries to the capacity the lieutenant Moussa Traoré, who founds a dictatorial mode which will last 23 years. The party of Keïta, the Sudanese Union, is put out the law.
November 24th: The captain Yoro Diakhité form a provisional government with the Mali. The Constitution of 1960 is repealed and replaced by a fundamental law (ordinance n° 1 of the CMLN) while waiting for a constitutional referendum.
December 10th: Military coup d'etat to the Dahomey.

Nearly a million Africans of the South is stopped in 1968 for infringements.
Turbid with the Tibesti (Chad) involving a French intervention.

Americas

Latin America

May 12th: Presidential election with the Panama in an execrable climate, bearing with the capacity the candidate of the opposition, the old populist leader Arnulfo Arias. Its election is recognized only following pressures exerted by the United States and the National guard.
August 21st: Fidel Castro approves the intervention of the troops of the Warsaw Pact in Czechoslovakia.
August 26th - September 8th: Second conference of the Latin-American episcopate of Medellín (Colombia), which affirms the engagement of the Catholic church near the people (Théologie of the release).
October 2nd: Massacre of Tlatelolco. The army shoots at the students at the time of a gigantic demonstration with Mexico City - 48 dead - 100 wounded. Student's agitation with the Mexico continues until in the Années 1970.
October 3rd: Coup d'etat reformist to the Peru. A group of officers directed by the general Juan Velasco Alvarado seize the power with an aim of applying doctrines of “social progress and integral development”, nationalist and reformist, influenced by the theses of CEPAL to the dependence and the underdevelopment. Six days after the golpe, Velasco carries out the nationalization of the International petroleum corporation (IPC), the North-American company which exploits Peruvian oil, then lance a reform of the apparatus of State, a land reform and exproprie of foreign great landowners. Peru wishes to free itself from any dependence and follows a foreign policy clearly third-mondiste.
October 11th: Entered in function on October 1st, the President de Panamá Arnulfo Arias is reversed by a military junta which proposes to restore the Constitution and to organize elections. It is very quickly controlled by the chief of the national guard, the general Omar Torrijos, a nationalist charismatic leader and reformist.
December, Brazil: The institutional Act n°5 allows the introduction of a true dictatorship which will last nearly ten years.

Constitution of a free exchange zone (Carifta) in the British Antilles.
Castro gives the priority to the consolidation of a socialist economy with Cuba.

Canada

April 20th: The liberal Pierre Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada. It is the beginning of the Trudeaumanie.
June 24th: Monday of the bludgeon: 290 people are stopped during the procession of the Saint-Jean-Baptist, with Montreal.
September: Publication of Option Quebec of Rene Lévesque (“For sovereign Quebec in a new Canadian union”).
October 11th: Rene Lévesque founds the Parti Québécois.

Publication of the Akwesasne Notes , newspaper defending the cause of the Indian mohawks of Akwesasne, on the the St. Lawrence.
the First liberal minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau makes adopt a series of measurement against the American firms.
20 744 000 inhabitants with the Canada, of which 507 000 for Newfoundland.

The United States

February 8th: Died of three American students in South Carolina at the time of demonstrations for the civic rights.
March 1st: Resignation of the Secretary of State to Defense Robert McNamara.
March 31st: The president Lyndon Johnson announces his decision not to represent himself with the elections.
April 4th: Martin Luther King, Pasteur Baptist and American politician is assassinated with Memphis Tennessee. Riots burst in the majority of the big cities, of which Washington. Thirty-nine people, whose thirty-five Blacks, are killed.
April 11th: The president Johnson sign the law on the civic rights.

June 5th: Assassination of Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles by a Palestinian, Sirhan Sirhan.
June 8th: Richard Nixon decides the withdrawal of 25 000 men of the Vietnam.
22 - August 30th: Confrontations with Chicago between students and the police force at the Convention of the Democratic party. The American students rise against the Guerre of Vietnam and call into question the American model of life ( American way off life ).

Fall: Liberation movement of the woman: manifestation of the Radical Women against the election of America Miss.

November 5th: The republican Richard Nixon is elected president of the United States with 31 785 000 votes (43%) against 31 275 000 (42,7%) with the outgoing vice-president Hubert Horatio Humphrey. George Wallace, the segregationist governor and reactionary of the Alabama gathers 10 000 000 of voice. Richard Nixon reaches the capacity the January 20th 1969) with as vice-president Spiro Agnew (R).
November: An explosion makes seventy-eight victims in a Virginia-Western mine of . In front of the anger of the minors, the Congress will vote the Mine Health and Safety Act in 1969.

76 billion dollars are allocated with the budget the army. 15 billion with the welfare expenditures.
23 million Afro-Americans. 54% of them live in the South. 72% live downtown.

Asia

January 23rd: Pueblo , an American spy vessel is hailed by the marine North-Korean, and her crew held under very bad conditions during one year. American engagement in Vietnam prevents a new war.
March 21st, Indonesia: Suharto succeeds officially Soekarno, which had been deposed of its governmental capacities the previous year. The government of the “new order” of Suharto, with military domination, opposite the anti-Western policy and consolidates its base with the capacity. The Communist party is prohibited and the other opposition parties are forced to link itself. New parties appear, like the Golkar, a coalition of groups of trades gathering the civils servant and the teachers, which will gain more than 60% of the votes to each election.
May: Student's brawls with Tokyo (1968 - 1970).
June:

a permanent Constitution is promulgated in Thailand.
Creation of an office of the cultural Affairs to the Japan.

War of Vietnam

January 31st: The Việt Cộng and the North-Vietnameses start the Offensive Small fireclay cup with the Vietnam against the big cities of the South. Catch of Hooted, combat with Saigon. The government of the Vietnam of the South cannot count any more on one supports popular nor to ensure the safety on its own territory, and even less to overcome North. The Americans seize again themselves, make bombard the urban peripheries and take again ground.
March 16th: Massacre from 450 to 500 Vietnamese civilians in the hamlet of My Lai by American soldiers.

March 31st: The president Johnson makes known his intention not to represent himself and announces the suspension of the bombardments in Vietnam in the North of the parallel 19°. Hanoi answers by the acceptance of opening of negotiations Paris.
April 1st: The US and northern belligerents Vietnam iens agree to discuss. Talks open in Paris which bring the complete stop of the bombardments on North in October.

May 10th: Opening of the Conference of Paris (fine the January 27th 1973) between the American representatives and North-Vietnamese, widened the January 18th 1969 with the two South Vietnamese parts (Saigon and the GRP).

530 000 American soldiers in Vietnam. 40 000 died and 250 000 wounded since the beginning of the war.
Between 65 000 and 70 000 people are held with most extremely of the war in the prison camps of the South Vietnam. The observers of the Croix-Rouge observe continual and systematic brutalities in the camps of Phú Quốc and of Which Nhon.

Europe

January: Realization of the Customs union by the 6 countries of the EEC, founding the progressive abolition of the customs duties between the European Community Member States, and the installation of a Commun Customs Tariff for the extra-community trade.
March 1st: Coming into effect of the law limiting immigration to the the United Kingdom.
March 8th: Countryside anti-semite in Poland. Demonstrations coeds are repressed by the communist secret police, and a purging is undertaken in the political circle what leads to expulsion Jews of the working Parti unified Polish.

April 8th: Coming into effect of the new constitution of the German Democratic republic, approved by plebiscite the April 6th: GDR is defined there like a “socialist State of German nation”.
April 20th, the United Kingdom: Speech of Birmingham of the conservative Enoch Powell who claims the stop of immigration in order to preserve the national identity.
June 17th: Government of Gaston Eyskens in Belgium (end in 1972).
June 24th: the Insulo of Rozoj, with broad of the Italy, declares its independence.
July 1st:

Treated nonproliferation of the nuclear weapons, signed by Richard Nixon and Leonid Brejnev, but without France.
Completion of the customs union in the Member States of the EEC.

August:

the Romania denounces the intervention of the forces of the Warsaw Pact in Czechoslovakia.
Withdrawal of the Albania of the pact of Warsaw.
the Communist party of Spain takes its distances with the Soviet Union.
New economic Mechanism (NEM) in Hungary, preaching the devolution economic and more initiatives granted to the persons in charge of the factories. Profitability rather than the production quotas becomes the criterion of effectiveness of a factory. At the end of five years, the NEM appears as a success although a light industrial fall of growth rate was recorded. The reform enlise starting from 1972.

August 7th, Portugal: Salazar is struck of a brain hemorrhage which leaves it hemiplegic.
September 28th: Marcelo Caetano becomes president of the Council to the Portugal (fine in 1974).
October 5th: The first walk of the association of the civic rights in Northern Ireland - founded in 1967 - repressed in violence to Derry.
December: Inauguration with Madrid of the first Synagog of Spain since 1492.

Autonomy of the Kosovo after riots of protest against the control of the Serb ones.
Law legalizing the abortion for medical reasons with the the United Kingdom.
Portugal: Electoral reform. The duration of the military service is carried 18 months to 4 years. Third development plan (1968 - 1973).
the public expenditure accounts for 35% of GNP to the the United Kingdom (30% with the the United States, 23% with the Japan).

Czechoslovakia

January 3rd: Alexander Dubček arrives at the capacity in Czechoslovakia.
January 5th: Beginning of the “Spring of Prague” . Liberalization in Czechoslovakia and orientation towards a “Socialism with human face”.
March 30th: Alexander Dubček, chief of the Slovak PC and the general Ludvík Svoboda, both Communists of long time and faithful to the Soviet Union, replaces Antonín Novotný with the head of the party and the State.
April 5th: The Central committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist party unanimously approves the program of Alexander Dubček entitled “the Czechoslovakian Voice towards socialism”.
April 11th: Attack against Rudi Dutschke.
June 20th: Beginning of the army maneuvers of the troops of the Warsaw Pact, partly on the Czechoslovakian territory.
June 27th: Publication of “proclamation of the two thousand words”, signed by 70 personalities, calling with an acceleration of democratization in Czechoslovakia.
July 29th: Soviéto-Czechoslovakian interview, at the border.
20 - August 21st: Crushing of the “Spring of Prague” and beginnings of the Standardization in Czechoslovakia.

the Soviet leaders worry about the Spring of Prague (in particular of the end of the censure and the advertisement of closer economic relations with the West). The pressure is exerted various manners, but when all the peaceful means appear unfruitful, close to 600 000 soldiers of the Warsaw Pact (except for the Roumanians) invade Czechoslovakia the night of the August 20th. A passive resistance organizes and has a certain effect, but the Soviet forces gain little by little the part. Alexander Dubček is dismissed in April 1969.

August 28th: The Czechoslovakian leaders entreat their compatriots not to resist.
September 19th: Jiri Hajek, Minister Czechoslovakian for the Foreign affairs, resigns under the pressure of the Soviet .

France

Italy

February: Occupation of the university of Rome by the students. The police force intervenes to evacuate the buildings and the students decide to go to occupy the faculty of architecture, isolated in the villa Borghèse. The police force charges and of the confrontations violent one are held (“battles of Valle Giulia”). The studied movement starts to decrease in spring and the elections of May cause a final diversion.
May 19th: Political elections: the Christian Democrat obtains 39,1% of the voices, NCV 26,9%, the PSU 14,5%.
June 5th: Amintore Fanfani is elected president of the Senate.
June 24th: Aldo Moro resigns. Mariano Rumor fails in the formation of a new government of center left and is replaced by Giovanni Leone which once again ensures the transition by a government from “waiting”.
July 29th: Encyclical Humanae vitae : Paul VI reaffirms the indissociability of the marriage and the judgment of the abortion and artificial contraception.
20 - August 21st: NCV proclamation its disapproval with the invasion of the Czechoslovakia by the Soviets.
December 12th: Leone resigns to make it possible Mariano Rumor to form a government of center left.

Movement spontaneous of anger and revolt in industries where the trade unionism is weak (Marzotto factory in Venezia). The trade unions issue a general strike in spring which obtains a great success. To exceed NCV, a big number of revolutionary movements are born with the autumn under the name of Nouvelle Left, gathering intellectual and proletarian. These bunches attract until the autumn 1969 a great number of workman in much of factory. The traditional trade unions are overflowed by the base.
regional Reform, gradually installation of 1968 at 1970.
53 941 000 million inhabitants.
GNP is of 46 741 billion liras, is the double that in 1963. The time average wages of a workman passed from 361 liras (1961) to 616. The active population decreased since 1963 (of 20 470 000 with 19 763 000), mainly in agriculture.
700 000 unemployed and 75 000 emigrants on average each year.
the number of students passed from 268 000 in 1961 with 500 000 in 1968. The university is not ready to accommodate this doubling of manpower. The university system is in advanced state of decomposition: overloaded buildings, professors very few and often absent (they carry out only 52 hours of teaching per annum). The examinations generally proceed with the oral examination what reinforces the feeling of arbitrary in the notations. The system of the purses is insufficient and the students must often work while continuing their studies, source of failure to the examinations. Only 44% of the students obtain to them laurea, which does not lead inevitably to an employment.
Mode: The Milanese designer Missoni presents his collections to the United States.

The Middle East

January 9th: The producing Arab countries (Libya, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) found the Organization of the oil exporting countries (OPAEP) of which the goal and to continue the attempts at coordinations undertaken during the embargo of the Guerre the Six Day old and to support the national recovery of the oil richnesses.
January 27th: Foundation of the Israeli workers party.
February, Egypt: Popular demonstrations against the marked mode of too much moderation towards the persons in charge of the defeat in the War the Six Day old. Nasser counterpart by making its self-criticism. He condemns the new class of politicking soldiers which confiscated the revolution and seized the reins of the capacity.
March 21st: In reprisals against the terrorist activities of the Fatah, the Israeli army bombards the Palestinian refugee camp of Karamé in Jordan. It is pushed back by the Palestinian commandos and the Jordanian army.

March 30th: A program of reform is presented in Egypt: election of the persons in charge of the USA, ousting of the soldiers of the government. The mode remains shaken by the demonstrations, in particular in the student mediums.

- July 17th: Fourth session of the Palestinian National council, joined together with the Cairo. It hardens the terms of the charter of 1964. Priority is given to the revolutionary armed struggle for the release of the Palestine. The Zionism is a “fanatic and racist” movement. Its goals are expansionist and colonial. Its methods are “fascistic and Nazis”.
July 17th: A coalition of soldiers and Ba' thists seizes the capacity in Iraq and reverses Abdul Rahman Arif.
July 30th: After the inversion of the general Aref, the Left Baath, majority, the capacity in Iraq begins again. Ahmad Hassan Al-Bakr becomes President and commander-in-chief of the army. Ba' thists are primarily sunnites and the leaders (Saddam Hussein, Hassan Al-Bakr) are all originating in Tikrit. They found a mode of terror to reinforce the State and to put an end to the political weakness of the mode. The opposition is eliminated (pronassériens, Communists). The soldiers dominate the party and seize the stations - keys, under the direction of Saddam Hussein.

War of attrition in the the Sinai. The exchanges of gunfire of artilleries become frequent in summer. The populations of the Egyptian villages close to the Suez Canal are evacuated. The Israeli army multiplies the airborne raids, mainly on the Egyptian economic infrastructures and consolidates its line of position in front of the channel (line Bar Lev).
Multiplication of the attacks against the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip (PFLP).
the organizations of resistance enter PLO and seize the majority with the CNP (Palestinian National council).
the Swedish ambassador Jarring is named mediator by UNO, but Israel refuses to recognize its legitimacy and points out its refusal to restore the Occupied territories.
Johnson delivers to Israel planes F-4 Phantom. He asks the signature of the nuclear treaty of non-proliferation by Israel, which refuses. The November 2nd, the United States answers by the proclamation of the Israeli withdrawal of the the Sinai within the framework of an overall solution. The State Hebrew supports on its side the constitution of an electoral lobby pro-Zionist with the the United States.
Demonstrations in the main cities of the Lebanon to support the Palestinian cause. The Palestinians establish representations with Beirut. The official statements asserting the international terrorist activities emanate all from the Lebanese capital. multiple Israel actions of reprisals on the Lebanese territory. The December 28th, an Israeli airborne raid destroys thirteen airliners on the airport of Beirut. The Palestinian groups retort by installing military bases in the south of Lebanon, intended to attack the Israeli territory.
the Great Britain announces its intention to withdraw Arabic Péninsule for 1971. The Iran develops an expansionist speech immediately, asserts the island of Bahrain and a preeminence on the businesses of the Golfe. The Iranian claims worry the Arab States of the area, which call upon the protection of the Saudi Arabia.
the Egypt undertakes the rearmament of its army with Soviet material and accommodates many Soviet advisers.
60 000 Arabic with Jerusalem-Is.
a Earthquake of magnitude 7.4 fact 10 488 victims with the Khorassan in Iran.

Social movements

Social movements of 1968 in the world

Arts & cultures

Archeology

September 22nd: End of the displacement of the temples of Abou-Simbel, in Egypt, made necessary by the construction of the Stopping of Aswan and financed by the international community under the aegis of UNESCO.

nonwell informed or unknown Dates :

In China, discovered site of Man-Tch' eng (Ho-Peï) with, inter alia, two shrouds of jade bent of Gold intended for the skins of the emperor Place Cheng and of its wife.

Bullfighting

June 23rd: With Badajoz (Spain), alternate of Jose Carlos Frita Falcao known as “Jose Falcón”, Matador Portuguese.

Sciences & technology

Sports

6 - February 18th: Winter Olympics of Grenoble (France)
October 12th: Olympic opening of the Games of summer to Mexico City, the Mexico.
October 27th: enclose Olympic Games.

Births in 1968

January

January 9th: Frederic Fonteyne scenario writer Belgian
January 12th: “El Zotoluco” (Eulalio López Díaz), Mexican Matador
January 17th:

Mathilde Seigner, French actress
Stephan Meca, Matador French

February

February 15th: Axelle Red, Belgian singer
February 18th: Molly Ringwald, American actress, member of the Brat Pack
February 26th: Tim Commerford, bass player of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave
February 28th: Dean Brisson, realizer and scenario writer, producer and agent Québécois

March

March 12th: Aaron Eckhart, American actor
March 23rd: Pierre Palmade, humorist and actor French
March 30th: Celine Dion, Québécois singer
March 31st: Yann Moix, writer French

April

April 14th: Anthony Michael Hall, American actor, member of the Brat Pack
April 19th: Mswati III of Swaziland king of the Swaziland

May

May 7th: Traci Lords, actress étatsunienne
May 9th: Marie-Jose Perec, French athlete
May 31st: Stephan E. Roy, actor and author Québécois

June

June 2nd: Julie Wolkenstein, writer
June 11th: Bryan Perro, author, actor, storyteller and Canadian loupgarouologist
June 27th: Pascale Bussières, Québécois actress
June 30th: El Cordobés (Manual Díaz González), Spanish Matador

July

July 5th: Ken Akamatsu, Mangaka
July 8th: Michael Weatherly, American actor
July 26th: Frederic Diefenthal, French actor
July 27th: Julian Mc Mahon, American actor
July 29th: Vicente Will bar, Spanish Matador .
July 31st: Denis Loré, Matador French

August

August 5th: Hake McRae, world champion of the pilots of rally in 1995 († September 15th 2007)
August 9th: Gillian Anderson, American actress

September

September 5th: Brad Wilk, beater of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave
September 8th: Litri (Miguel Báez Spínola), Spanish Matador
September 17th: Anastacia, American singer
September 25th: Will Smith, American actor

October

October 7th: Thom Yorke, leader of the British rock group Radiohead
October 16th: Jean-Philippe Gatien, pongist French
October 27th: Radhouane Charbib, Tunisia known N as being more the alive great man until is measured Bao Xishun the January 15th 2005

November

November 8th: Zara Whites, Dutch erotic actress
November 30th: Laurent Jalabert, French cyclist

December

December 2nd: Lucy Liu, American actress
December 10th: Javier Vázquez, Spanish Matador
December 11th: Fabien Levy, French type-setter
December 23rd: Carla Bruni, ex-mannequin, signal-model, French author-type-setter-singer

1968

Events

Africa

Americas

Latin America

Canada

The United States

Asia

War of Vietnam

Europe

Czechoslovakia

France

Italy

The Middle East

Social movements

Arts & cultures

Archeology

Bullfighting

Sciences & technology

Sports

Births in 1968

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Death in 1968