December 1968 in History

Events in History

Dec 1 Gonzalo Barrios, Venezuelan presidential candidate

Appointment of Interest

Dec 2 US President Richard Nixon names Henry Kissinger security advisor

US Secretary of State and Political Scientist Henry Kissinger

Dec 4 Following a civil rights march in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, there is a violent clash between Loyalists and those who are taking part in the march
Dec 6 PBA National Bowling Championship won by Wayne Zahn (29)
Dec 7 Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 launched into Earth orbit
Dec 7 Richard Dodd returns a library book his great grandfather took out in 1823 from the University of Cincinnati

Historic Invention

Dec 9 In “The Mother of All Demos" Douglas Engelbart demonstrates the computer system NLS (oN-Line System) to a live audience in San Francisco. Shows for the first time, the mouse, word processing, windows, hypertext links, video conferencing, real-time collaboration, and other modern computing concepts. [1]

Dec 9 The Derry Citizen's Action Committee (DCAC) calls for a halt to all marches and protests for a period of one month
Dec 10 Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.

Event of Interest

Dec 11 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill sacks Home Affairs Minister, William Craig

Dec 11 US Soccer Football Association refuses to let NASL disband
Dec 12 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill receives overwhelming support from Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs) at Stormont
Dec 12 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Dec 13 Brazilian President Da Costa e Silva issues Ato Institucional Número Cinco degree
Dec 16 Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain at Second Vatican Council
Dec 18 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk USSR
Dec 20 Learie Constantine becomes UK's first person of African descent to be named a life peer (to sit in the House of Lords) in the Crown's New Year's Honours list [1]
Dec 20 The People's Democracy (PD) announce that its members will undertake a protest march from Belfast to Derry beginning 1 January 1969
Dec 20 The Zodiac Killer murders teenagers Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday while on their first date together in Vallejo, California [1]

Historic Expedition

Dec 21 Apollo 8: 1st manned Moon voyage launched with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders

Dec 23 1st US case of space motion sickness
Dec 23 82 members of US intelligence ship Pueblo released by North Korea
Dec 23 Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders become the 1st men to orbit the Moon
Dec 24 Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis
Dec 25 42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit labourers
Dec 25 Frank Borman's Christmas reading while orbiting the Moon
Dec 26 Arab terrorists in Athens fire on El Al plane, kills 1
Dec 26 Jay Allens "Forty Carats" premieres in NYC
Dec 27 Apollo 8 returns to Earth
Dec 27 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
Dec 28 Israeli assault on Beirut Airport
Dec 29 Israeli commandos destroy 13 Lebanese airplanes
Dec 30 -48°F (-44°C), Mazama & Winthrop, Washington (state record)
Dec 31 1st supersonic airliner flown (Russian TU-144)

Birthdays in History

Dec 1 Sarah Fitz-Gerald, Australian squash player (World Open 1996-98, 2001-02, British Open 2001-02), born in Melbourne, Australia
Dec 6 Karl Ove Knausgård, Norwegian author (My Struggle), born in Oslo, Norway
Dec 11 Emmanuelle Charpentier, French scientist, Director of Max Planck Institute (2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry), born in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France
Dec 15 Osama Ali Maher, Swedish politician
Dec 16 Yannick Alléno, French chef, born in Puteaux, France
Dec 17 Andrey Golovatiuk, Russian politician
Dec 31 Junot Díaz, Dominican-American writer and professor (The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2008), born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic [1]

Weddings in History

Ina Garten

Dec 22 Author and cooking show host Ina Garten (20) weds dean Jeffrey Garten

Dec 22 Julie Nixon weds Dwight David Eisenhower

Deaths in History

Dec 10 George Forrest, Northern Irish politician, dies at 47
Dec 10 Karl Barth, Swiss Protestant theologian ("The Epistle to the Romans"; "Barmen Declaration"; "Church Dogmatics"), dies at 82

Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Dec 10 French-American Catholic writer and Trappist monk (7 Story Mountain), accidentally electrocuted by an electric fan at 53

Dec 15 Antonio J. Barrette, French Canadian politician, premier of Quebec, dies at 69
Dec 19 Norman Thomas, American socialist, pacifist and presidential candidate (1928-48), dies at 84