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Jeanette Rankin Brigade Women's March on Washington protesting the war
A group of women's pro-peace organizations join together to confront Congress on its opening day with a display of female opposition to the Vietnam War. At age 87, pioneering suffragist Jeannette Rankin leads the march of approximately 5,000 women. It was significant because they were demanding bread for their families gathered other discontented Parisians, including some men, and marched toward Versailles, arriving soaking wet from the rain -
LBJ's State of the Union address
Lyndon Baines Johnson delivers his State of the Union Address, stating that in Vietnam "the enemy has been defeated in battle after battle" and that "our patience and our perseverance will match our power. The address fulfills rules in Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, requiring the President to periodically "give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. -
North Korea captures the USS Pueblo
A North Korean patrol boat captures the U.S.S. Pueblo, an intelligence-gathering vessel, killing one American serviceman and taking the rest of the crew of 82 as hostages. Accused of espionage and violating a twelve-mile territorial limit, the crew will not be returned for nearly a year. North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the surveillance ship strayed into its waters. One U.S. crewman is killed and 82 others are imprisoned; an 11-month standoff with the United States follows. -
North Vietnamese launch the Tet Offensive
Shortly after midnight, North Vietnamese forces begin the massive assault on South Vietnam known as the Tet Offensive. The North Vietnamese wage war up and down the country, taking the war to the heart of Saigon and even attacking the new American embassy compound. The assault contradicts the Johnson administration’s claims that the communist forces are weak and the U.S.-backed south is winning the war. -
Cesar Chavez ends hunger strike
Labor organizer Cesar Chavez ends a 25-day fast in protest of violence against striking migrant farm workers. He wanted to make sure that everyone was getting the same benefits -
Johnson announces he will not run for re-election
President Johnson delivers a nationally televised address to explain a de-escalation of the U.S. bombing campaign in Vietnam. He concludes with a shocking announcement. As war pressures mount, President Lyndon B. Johnson—who in 1964 won 61 percent of the popular vote, to Barry Goldwater’s 39—announces he is not running for re-election. -
King assassination
Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. The news sparks massive riots in more than 100 American cities. Martin Luther King Jr., in Memphis for the sanitation workers’ strike, is fatally shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Gunman James Earl Ray, a white supremacist, flees the country. Over the next week, riots in more than 100 cities nationwide leave 39 people dead, more than 2,600 injured and 21,000 arrested. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
One week after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Johnson signs into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which banned housing discrimination. Johnson signs the Fair Housing Act, banning discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin. It is the last of the landmark civil rights laws he signed. -
Night of the Barricades in Paris
The United States and North Vietnam begin peace talks in Paris.Following a ban on demonstrations and the closure of universities and sections of central Paris, thousands of students hit the streets to protest. Riot police refuse to allow demonstrators to cross the Left Bank, the crowd creates makeshift barricades, and a battle ensues. -
Massacre in Tlateloco Square in Mexico City
After a summer of protests against the Mexican government and the occupation of the central campus of the National Autonomous University (UNAM) by the army, a student demonstration in Mexico City ends with police, paratroopers, and paramilitary units firing on and killing scores of the protesters. -
Nixon elected president
Richard M. Nixon is elected President of the United States. He receives 43.4 percent of the popular vote to 42.7 percent for Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, with independent George Wallace making a strong showing with 13.5 percent. -
Jet hijacked to Cuba
Three Cuban men hijack Pan Am flight 281 out of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on a scheduled route to Puerto Rico and divert it to Havana--one of 15 Cuba-bound hijackings in 1968. -
Apollo 8 crew orbits the Moon
On a worldwide television broadcast, the crew of Apollo 8, orbiting the Moon, send back the first images of "Earthrise" and read from the Book of Genesis.
