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1968 was a year of triumphs and tragedies. While America reached new heights by introducing the first 747 and orbiting the moon, all was not well down on Earth. The United States lost a Navy intelligence ship and two proponents of peace the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and
Robert F. Kennedy. -
credit When North Korea captured the American surveillance ship USS Pueblo, it sparked an 11 month crisis that threatened to worsen already high Cold War tensions in the region. The trouble started with the Pueblo.
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credit In many ways, the bloody Tet Offensive signified the beginning of the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The coordinated attack by 85,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese targeted 36 major cities and towns in South Vietnam. It caught U.S. - led forces by surprise.
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credit The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was standing on the second floor balcony of room 306 at the Lorraine Motel when he was struck by a bullet at 6:01 p.m. The 39 year old civil rights leader was rushed to nearby St. Joseph's Hospital but never regained consciousness.
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credit Just two months later, Kennedy himself was gunned down by an assassin at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The attack took place shortly after Kennedy had wrapped up a speech in the hotel ballroom.
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credit When demand for air travel reached sky high levels in the 1960s, the world's then largest passenger aircraft the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet was a game changer.
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credit During the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, two black athletes staged a silent demonstration against racial discrimination in the United States.
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credit In 1968 "Star Trek" actors Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner performed the first interracial kiss on American TV.
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The crew was home in time for Christmas. But the USS Pueblo remains in North Korean
custody. -
credit The weeklong mission was fueled by a Space Race rivalry with the Soviet Union and the nation's desire to fulfill President John F. Kennedy's wishes to land on the moon by decade's end.Apollo 11 seven months later.
