* The Evolution of Character Codes, 1874 – 1968

* 1968 – In Richmond, Indiana's downtown district, a double explosion kills 41 and injures 150.

* 1968 – Pierre Elliot Trudeau wins the Liberal Leadership Election, and becomes Prime Minister of Canada soon after.

* 1968 – Affonso Giaffone, Brazilian race car driver

* 1968 – Vanessa Lann, American composer

* 1968 – Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.

* 1968 – Alicia Coppola, American actress

* 1968 – Toby Gad, German-American songwriter and producer

* 1968 – Adam Graves, Canadian hockey player

* 1903 – Ferenc Keserű, Hungarian water polo player ( d. 1968 )

* 1930 – Gholamreza Takhti, Iranian wrestler ( d. 1968 )

* 1968 – Jack de Gier, Dutch footballer

* 1968 – McG, American director, writer, and producer

* 1968 – Gillian Anderson, American actress

* 1968 – Eric Bana, Australian actor

* 1968 – Sam Fogarino, American drummer ( Interpol and Magnetic Morning )

* 1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.

The tempo of the play changed over the next four series in the 1960s, held in 1962 – 63, 1964, 1965 – 66 and 1968.

The remaining five series were drawn, with Australia retaining the Ashes four times ( 1938, 1962 – 63, 1965 – 66, 1968 ) and England retaining it once ( 1972 ).

* 1968 – An earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing more than 270 people and wounding 261.

* 1968 – Stefan Effenberg, German footballer

* 1968 – John Stanier, American drummer ( Helmet, Tomahawk, The Mark of Cain, and Battles )

* 1968 – Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate ( b. 1908 )

* 1968 – James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U. S. Marine.

Projected U. S. ABM suppression strike, 1968.

The Beatles ' 1968 track " Back in the U. S. S. R " references the instrument in its final verse (" Let me hear your balalaikas ringing out / Come and keep your comrade warm ").

Those dates were chosen because in 1954 the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unlawful and 1968 is the year of Martin Luther King's assassination.

John Sladek used the concept to humorous ends in his first novel The Reproductive System ( 1968, also titled Mechasm in some markets ), where a U. S. military research project goes out of control.

* Shirley Chisholm ( 1946 ), first African-American U. S. Congresswoman, 1968 – 1982.

Importation of machine guns for civilian sale in the U. S. was banned by the Gun Control Act of 1968.

The guerrillas then concentrated their attacks in Guatemala City, where they assassinated many leading figures, including U. S. Ambassador John Gordon Mein in 1968.

The new social movements of the sixties, such as the Black Power and anti-Vietnam war movements in the U. S, the May 1968 insurrection in France, and Women's Liberation throughout the Western world, inspired some LGBT activists to become more radical, and the Gay Liberation Movement emerged towards the end of the decade.

Steps ( 1968 ), a novel comprising scores of loosely connected vignettes, won the U. S. National Book Award for Fiction.

* 1968 – U. S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan.

* 1968 – FLQ separatists bomb the U. S. consulate in Quebec City.

* 1968 – Gold standard: The U. S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.

Several key events occurred, which raised public awareness of the New Age subculture: the production of the musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical ( 1967 ) with its opening song " Aquarius " and its memorable line " This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius "; publication of Linda Goodman's best-selling astrology books Sun Signs ( 1968 ) and Love Signs ( 1978 ); the release of Shirley MacLaine's book Out on a Limb ( 1983 ), later adapted into a television mini-series with the same name ( 1987 ); and the " Harmonic Convergence " planetary alignment on August 16 and 17, 1987, organized by José Argüelles at Sedona in the U. S. state of Arizona.

* 1968 – Viewers of the Raiders – Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U. S.

* 1968 – Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the U. S. Army and U. S. Marine Corps will send about 24, 000 soldiers and Marines back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours of duty in the combat zone there.

* 1968 – The first live telecast from a manned spacecraft, the Apollo 7, launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the U. S. A.

When the U. K. announced a policy in 1968 ( reaffirmed in March 1971 ) of ending the treaty relationships with the Persian Gulf sheikdoms, Qatar joined the other eight states then under British protection ( the seven trucial sheikdoms — the present United Arab Emirates -- and Bahrain ) in a plan to form a union of Arab emirates.

* 1968: " I Can't Make It Alone " — # 95 U. S.

* 1968: " Brown Eyed Woman " — # 43 U. S.

* 1968: " Peace, Brother, Peace " — # 48 U. S.

The cable car in the castle is based on the 1968 movie Where Eagles Dare, where a U. S. Army Brigadier General is captured and taken prisoner to the Schloß Adler, a fortress high in the Alps above the town of Werfen, only reachable by cable car, and the headquarters of the German Secret Service in southern Bavaria.

In 1968, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas 393 U. S. 97 ( 1968 ) that such bans contravene the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because their primary purpose is religious.