February 1968 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Feb 1 Former US VP Richard Nixon announces candidacy for president

Execution of a Viet Cong Prisoner

Feb 1 Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém with a pistol shot to head. The execution is captured by photographer Eddie Adams and becomes an anti-war icon.

General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan summarily executes Viet Cong prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém

Feb 1 World trade conference Unctad 2 opens in New Delhi
Feb 2 Springer Publishers in West Berlin, bombed
Feb 4 Around 100 Indians and Pakistanis from Kenya arrive in Britain, escaping discrimination
Feb 5 A fishing trawler from Hull sinks off the coast of Iceland
Feb 6 Dutch 2nd Chamber condemns US bombing of North Vietnam

Event of Interest

Feb 6 Former President Dwight Eisenhower shot a hole-in-one

34th US President & WWII General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Feb 7 Belgium government of Vanden Boeynants falls
Feb 8 Orangeburg Massacre: highway patrol officers kill 3 students and injure 27 others demonstrating at South Carolina State University, 1st student killing by law enforcement in the US
Feb 9 Rotterdam metro opened by Princess Beatrix
Feb 11 Israeli-Jordan border fight
Feb 11 Jeffrey Kramer survives 76-m jump, Washington Bridge, Hudson River New York
Feb 11 Madison Square Garden III closes Madison Square Garden IV opens (NYC)
Feb 13 US sends 10,500 additional soldiers to Vietnam
Feb 15 Anaheim's Les Salvage scores 10, 3-pt baskets in ABA game vs Denver
Feb 16 US 1st 911 phone system goes into service in Haleyville, Alabama
Feb 18 Britain commences a trial of year-round daylight saving time (BST - British Standard Time, one hour ahead of GMT)
Feb 18 Thousands of people in West Berlin demonstrate against US involvement in the Vietnam War
Feb 19 1st US teachers' strike (Florida)
Feb 20 State troopers used tear gas to stop demonstration at Alcorn A & M
Feb 21 150,000 demonstrate against leftist students in West Berlin

Scientific Discovery

Feb 24 Discovery of 1st pulsar announced (CP 1919) by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish

Feb 24 US troops reconquer Hue Vietnam
Feb 25 430 Unification Church couples wed in Korea
Feb 25 Makarios re-elected president of Cyprus
Feb 26 Clandestine Radio Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) final transmission
Feb 28 Pirate Radio Hauraki, on a boat floating off coast of NZ, returns to the air
Feb 29 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Comm) reports against racism & demands aid given to blacks
Feb 29 US end regular flights with nuclear bombs
Feb 29 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

Birthdays in History

Feb 12 Christopher McCandless, American nomad, subject of biography Into the Wild, born in El Segundo, California (d. 1992)
Feb 16 Warren Ellis, British comic book writer (Red), born in Essex, England
Feb 22 Shawn Graham, Canadian politician, born in Rexton, Canada
Feb 29 Eugene Volokh, American law professor
Feb 29 Gonzalo Lira, Chilean-American novelist

Deaths in History

Feb 4 Gerard den Brabander [Jan G Jofriet], poet (Nothing New), dies at 67
Feb 4 Neal Cassady, American writer (b. 1926)
Feb 8 J Borremans, Belgian politician (Communist), dies at 56
Feb 9 Frederik M. baron van Asbeck, Dutch lawyer and legal scholar (League of Nations), dies at 78
Feb 10 Pitirim Sorokin, Russian-American sociologist (Social mobility), dies at 79
Feb 18 Sigurd Erixon, etnologist (Atlas "ver Svensk Folkkultur), dies at 79