1968 (
MCMLXVIII) was a
leap year starting on Monday
(link will display full calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar. In the west, the year
is associated with the
protests of
1968.
Events of 1968
January
February
March
- March 1 – The "Valle Giulia" student
protest in Rome leads to a long period of violent disputes.
- March 7 – Vietnam
War: The First Battle of
Saigon ends.
- March 8 – The first student protests
spark the 1968 Polish
political crisis.
- March 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson mandates that all computers
purchased by the federal government support the ASCII character
encoding.
- March 12 – Mauritius
achieves independence from British
rule.
- March 12 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson edges out antiwar candidate
Eugene J. McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic
primary, a vote which highlights the deep divisions in the
country, as well as the party, over Vietnam
.
- March 13 – The first Rotaract club is chartered in North Charlotte,
North Carolina.
- March 14 – Nerve
gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway
Proving Ground near Skull Valley
, Utah
.
- March 15 – British Foreign Secretary George Brown resigns.
- March 16 – Vietnam War – My Lai massacre
: American troops kill scores of civilians.
The story will first become public in November 1969 and will help
undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.
- March 16 – U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy enters the race for the Democratic Party
presidential nomination.
- March 17 – A
demonstration in London
's Grosvenor
Square
against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War leads to violence; 91 people are
injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.
- March 18 – Gold standard: The Congress of the United States
repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to
back U.S. currency.
- March 19–23 – Afrocentrism,
Black power, Vietnam War: Students at Howard
University
in Washington, D.C.
, signal a new era of militant student activism on
college campuses in the U.S. Students stage rallies,
protests and a 5-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration
building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program and the Vietnam War, and demanding a more
Afrocentric curriculum.
- March 21 – Vietnam War: In ongoing campus unrest, Howard
University
students protesting the Vietnam War, the ROTC program on campus and the draft, confront
Gen. Lewis Hershey, then
head of the U.S. Selective
Service System, and as he attempts to deliver an address, shout
him down with cries of "America is the Black man's
battleground!"
- March 22 – Daniel Cohn-Bendit ("Danny The Red") and
7 other students occupy the administrative offices of the University of Nanterre, setting in
motion a chain of events that lead France to the brink of
revolution in May.
- March 24 – Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashed en route
from Cork
to London
near
Tuskar
Rock
, Wexford
, killing 61 passengers and crew.
- March 26 – Joan Baez marries activist David Harris in New York
.
- March 31 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek
re-election.
April
- April 2 – Bombs
placed by Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin explode at midnight in 2
department stores in Frankfurt-am-Main
; they are later arrested and sentenced for arson.
- April 2 – The film
version of 2001: A
Space Odyssey premieres in Washington, D.C.

- April 4 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot dead
at the Lorraine
Motel
in Memphis, Tennessee
. Riots erupt in major American cities for
several days afterward.
- April 4 – Apollo Program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502
(Apollo 6) is launched, as the
second and last unmanned test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
- April 6 –
La, la, la by Massiel (music and text by Manuel de la Calva and
Ramón Arcusa) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1968
for Spain
, at the
Royal Albert
Hall
in London.
- April 6 – A shootout
between Black Panthers and Oakland
police results in several arrests and deaths,
including 16-year-old Panther Bobby
Hutton.
- April 6 – A double
explosion
in downtown Richmond, Indiana
kills 41 and injures 150.
- April 7 – Racing
driver Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim
.
- April 10 – The ferry Wahine strikes a reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour, New
Zealand, with the loss of 53 lives, during Cyclone Giselle, which
provides the windiest conditions ever recorded in New Zealand.
- April 11 – Josef Bachmann tries to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, leader of the left-wing
movement (APO) in
Germany, and tries to commit suicide afterwards, failing in both,
although Dutschke dies of his brain injuries 11 years later.
- April 11 – German left-wing students
blockade the Springer Press HQ in
Berlin and many are arrested (one of them Ulrike Meinhof).
- April 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
- April 20 – Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes
Canada
's 15th
Prime Minister.
- April 20 – English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood Speech.
- April 23 – President
Mobutu releases captured mercenaries in the Congo
.
- April 23 – Surgeons
at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris
, perform
Europe's first heart transplant, on Clovis Roblain.
- April 23 – The United Methodist Church is created
by the union of the former Methodist and Evangelical United
Brethren churches.
- April 23–30 – Vietnam War:
Student protesters at Columbia
University in New York
City
take over administration buildings and shut down
the university (see main article Columbia University
protests of 1968).
- April 29 – The
musical Hair officially
opens on Broadway
.
May
- May – May
of '68 is a symbol of the resistance of that generation.
Agitations and strikes in Paris lead many youth to believe that a
revolution is starting. Student and worker
strikes, sometimes referred to as the French
May, nearly bring down the French
government.
- May 2 – The Israel Broadcasting Authority
commences television broadcasts.
- May 3 – Patrick Wall's MP speech to the
Conservative Association at Leeds University is stopped by a large
crowd, and his wife Sheila Wall is knocked to the ground and kicked
in ensuing scuffles. Leeds Students President Jack Straw says "this
manhandling is deplorable."
- May 14 – The
Beatles announce the creation of Apple
Records in a New York press conference.
- May 15 – An outbreak
of severe thunderstorms produces tornadoes causing massive damage
and heavy casualties in Charles City, Iowa
, Oelwein,
Iowa
, and Jonesboro, Arkansas
.
- May 17 – The Catonsville Nine enter the Selective Service offices in Catonsville
, Maryland
, take dozens of selective service draft records,
and burn them with napalm as a protest
against the Vietnam War.
- May 19 – General elections are held in
Italy
.
- May 19 – Nigerian
forces capture Port
Harcourt
and form a
ring around the Biafrans.
This contributes to a humanitarian disaster as the surrounded
population already suffers from hunger and starvation.
- May 22 – The U.S. nuclear-powered
submarine Scorpion sinks with 99 men
aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
- May 29 – Football: Manchester United wins the
European Cup Final,
becoming the first English team to do so.
June
July
August
- August 5–8 – The Republican National
Convention in Miami Beach, Florida
nominates Richard
Nixon for U.S. President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President.
- August 11 – The last steam passenger
train service runs in Britain. A selection of British Rail steam locomotives make the 120-mile journey from
Liverpool
to Carlisle
and return to Liverpool, before having their fires
dropped for the last time (a working known as the Fifteen Guinea Special).
- August 18 – Two
charter buses push into the Hida River
on National Highway Route 41 in Japan
, in an
accident caused by heavy rain; 104 are killed.
- August 20 – The
Prague Spring of political
liberalization ends, as 200,000 Warsaw
Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia
.
- August 21 – The Medal of Honor is posthumously awarded to
James Anderson, Jr. — he is the
first black U.S. Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
- August 24 –
France
explodes its
first hydrogen bomb.
- August 22–30 – Police clash with anti-war protesters in
Chicago
, Illinois
, outside the 1968 Democratic National
Convention, which nominates Hubert
Humphrey for U.S. President, and Edmund Muskie for Vice President.
- August 29 –
Crown Prince Harald of Norway
marries
Sonja Haraldsen, the commoner he has
dated for 9 years, in Oslo
.
September
October
- October 2 –
Tlatelolco massacre: A student
demonstration ends in a bloodbath at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas
in Tlatelolco, Mexico City
, Mexico
, 10 days
before the inauguration of the 1968
Summer Olympics.
- October 3 – In
Peru
, Juan Velasco
Alvarado takes power in a revolution.
- October 5 –
Police baton civil rights
demonstrators in Derry
, Northern
Ireland
, marking the beginning of The Troubles.
- October 8 –
Vietnam War – Operation Sealords: United States
and South Vietnamese
forces launch a new operation in the Mekong
Delta.
- October 10 – the Detroit Tigers win the 1968 World Series, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 3.
- October 11 –
Apollo program: NASA
launches
Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo
mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter
Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live
television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar
module docking maneuver.
- October 11 – In
Panama
, a
military coup d'état, led by Col. Boris Martinez and Col. Omar Torrijos, overthrows the democratically
elected (but highly controversial) government of President Arnulfo Arias. Within a year, Torrijos
ousts Martinez and takes charge as de facto Head of Government in Panama.
- October
12–27 – The Games of the XIX Olympiad are held
in Mexico
City
, Mexico
.
- October 12 –
Equatorial
Guinea
receives its independence from Spain
.
- October 14 –
Vietnam War: The United
States Department of Defense
announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will send about
24,000 troops back to Vietnam
for involuntary second tours.
- October 16 – In
Mexico
City
, Tommie Smith and
John Carlos, 2 black Americans competing
in the Olympic 200-meter run, raise their arms in a black power salute after
winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals for 1st and 3rd
place.
- October 16 –
Kingston,
Jamaica
is rocked by the Rodney
Riots, provoked by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country.
- October 20 – Former U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping
tycoon Aristotle Onassis on the
Greek island of Skorpios
.
- October 31 –
Vietnam War: Citing progress in the
Paris
peace talks, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he
has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery
bombardment of North Vietnam"
effective November 1.
November
- November 5 – U.S. presidential election,
1968: Republican
challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats the Democratic candidate, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, and
American Independent
Party candidate George C.
Wallace.
- November 5 – Luis A. Ferre is
elected Governor of Puerto
Rico.
- November 11 –
Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt is initiated
to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos
into
South Vietnam. By the end of
the operation, 3 million tons of bombs are dropped on Laos, slowing
but not seriously disrupting trail operations.
- November 11 – A
second republic is declared in the Maldives
.
- November 14 –
Yale
University
announces
it is going to admit women.
- November 17 – The Heidi game: NBC cuts off the
final 1:05 of an Oakland
Raiders–New York Jets football
game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland
(which had been trailing 32–29) score 2 late touchdowns to win
43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the
NBC switchboards to protest.
- November 20 – The Farmington Mine Disaster in
Farmington, West Virginia, kills seventy-eight men.
- November 22 – The Beatles release their self-titled album
popularly known as the White
Album.
- November 24 – 4
men hijack Pan
Am Flight 281 from JFK International Airport
, New York
to Havana
, Cuba
.
- November 26 – Vietnam War: United States Air Force First
Lieutenant and Bell UH-1F helicopter
pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire, earning a Medal of Honor for his bravery.
December
- December 3 – The '68 Comeback Special
marks the concert return of Elvis
Presley.
- December 9 –
Douglas Engelbart publicly
demonstrates his pioneering hypertext
system, NLS, in San
Francisco
.
- December 10 –
Japan's
biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in
Tokyo
.
- December 11 – The
film Oliver!, based on the
hit London
and Broadway
musical, opens in the U.S.
after
being released first in England
. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best
Picture. The
Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is also filmed on this
date, but not released until 1996.
- December 13 –
Brazilian
president
Artur da Costa e Silva
decrees the AI-5 (or the Fifth Institutional
Act), which lasts until 1978 and marks the
beginning of the hard times of Brazilian military
dictatorship.
- December 20 – The
Zodiac Killer is believed to have shot
Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on Lake Herman Road, Benicia
, San Francisco Bay
, California
.
- December 22 – David Eisenhower marries Julie Nixon, the daughter of U.S.
President-elect Richard Nixon.
- December 22 –
Mao Zedong advocates that educated youth
in urban China
be
re-educated in the country. It marks the start of the "Up to
the mountains and down to the villages" movement.
- December 24 – Apollo Program: U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank
Borman, Jim Lovell and William A. Anders become the first humans to see the
far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole.
The crew also reads from
Genesis.
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January–February
- January 1 – Davor Suker, Croatian soccer player
(footballer)
- January 2 – Cuba Gooding Jr., American actor (Jerry
Maguire)
- January 5 – Andrzej Gołota, Polish boxer
- January 6 – John Singleton, African-American film
director and writer
- January 9 – Joey Lauren Adams, American actress
- January 9 – Al
Schnier, American rock
guitarist
- January 12 – Keith Anderson, American country music
singer-songwriter
- January 13 – Pat Onstad, Canadian footballer
- January 14 – LL
Cool J, African-American rapper and actor
- January 15 – Chad Lowe, American actor
- January 19 – Matt Hill, Canadian Voice Actor
- January 21 – Charlotte Ross, American actress NYPD Blue
- January 24 – Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
- January 24 – Michael Kiske, German musician
- January 26 – Novala Takemoto, Japanese author and fashion
designer
- January 27 – Mike Patton, American singer
- January 28 – Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer
- January 29 – Edward Burns, American actor
- January 29 – Sora Jung, Korean actress
- February 1 – Lisa Marie Presley, American singer
- February 1 – Mark Recchi, Canadian hockey player
- February 3 – Vlade Divac, Serbian basketball player
- February 5 – Roberto Alomar, American baseball player
- February 5 – Marcus Gronholm, Finnish rally driver
- February 7 –
Peter Bondra, Slovakian
ice hockey player in the
NHL
- February 8 – Gary Coleman, African-American actor
(Different Strokes)
- February 10 – Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster
- February 10 – Laurie Foell, New Zealand/Australian
actress
- February 12 – Chynna Phillips, American
singer/actress
- February 13 – Kelly Hu, Asian-American actress and former fashion
model
- February 14 – Jules Asner, American model and television
personality
- February 14 – Nelson "Viscera" Frazier, Jr., American
professional wrestler
- February 15 – Gloria Trevi, Mexican singer and actress
- February 18 – Dennis Satin, German film director
- February 18 – Molly Ringwald, American actress, singer and
dancer
- February 22 – Brad Nowell, American musician (d. 1996)
- February 22 – Jeri Ryan, American actress (Star Trek:
Voyager)
- February 22 – Delphine Boel, out-of-wedlock daughter of
King Albert II of
Belgium
- February 25 – Sandrine Kiberlain, French actress
- February 25 – Evridiki, Cypriot singer
- February 27 – Matt Stairs, Canadian baseball player
March–April
- March 1 – Kunjarani Devi, Indian weightlifter
- March 1 – Kathryn Cressida, American actress
- March 1 – Muho
Noelke, German Zen master
- March 2 – Daniel
Craig, British actor
- March 4 – Patsy
Kensit, British actress
- March 4 – Giovanni Carrara, Venezuelan Major League
Baseball player
- March 5 – Gordon Bajnai, Hungarian Prime Minister
- March 6 – Moira
Kelly, American actress
- March 10 – Thio
Li-ann, Singaporean law academic and Nominated Member of
Parliament
- March 11 – Lisa
Loeb, American singer
- March 13 – Akira Nogami, Japanese professional
wrestler
- March 14 – James
Frain, British actor
- March 15 – Kahimi Karie, Japanese singer
- March 15 – Mark
McGrath, American musician (Sugar
Ray)
- March 15 – Terje Riis-Johansen, Norwegian
politician
- March 16 – Trevor Wilson, American
basketball player
- March 18 – Shinichiro Miki, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)
- March 19 – Mots'eoa Senyane, Lesotho
diplomat
- March 22 – Øystein Aarseth, Norwegian musician (d.
1993)
- March 23 – Mike Atherton, English cricketer
- March 23 – Damon Albarn, English rock musician
(Blur, Gorillaz)
- March 23 – Mitch Cullin, American novelist
- March 26 – Kenny Chesney, American musician
- March 26 – James
Iha, American rock musician (The Smashing Pumpkins)
- March 28 – Iris
Chang, American author (d. 2004)
- March 28 – Nasser Hussain, English cricketer
- March 29 – Lucy
Lawless, New Zealand actress and singer
- March 30 – Céline Dion, Canadian singer (My Heart Will
Go On)
- April 1 – Andreas Schnaas, German director
- April 1 – Julia
Boutros, Lebanese singer
- April 3 – Sebastian Bach, West Indian-born rock
musician (Skid
Row)
- April 8 – Patricia Arquette, American actress
- April 14 – Anthony Michael Hall, American actor
and singer
- April 15 – Stacey Williams, American model
- April 18 – David Hewlett, English born Canadian
actor
- April 19 – Ashley Judd, American actress
- April 20 – J.
D. Roth,
American television host
- April 23 – Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d.
2001)
- April 24 – Stacy Haiduk, American actress
- April 24 – Yuji
Nagata, Japanese professional wrestler
- April 28 – Howard Donald, British singer (Take That)
May–June
- May 1 – Oliver
Bierhoff, German footballer
- May 1 – D'Arcy
Wretzky, American musician
- May 4 – Julian
Barratt, British comedian
- May 7 – Traci
Lords, American actress/porn star
- May 8 – Jamie
Summers, American porn star
- May 9 – Marie-José Perec, French athlete
- May 10 – Darren Matthews, English professional
wrestler
- May 12 – Tony
Hawk, American skateboarder
- May 16 – Chingmy
Yau, Hong Kong actress
- May 17 – Constance Menard, French professional
dressage rider
- May 20 – Waisale Serevi, Fijian rugby player
- May 21 – Julie
Vega, Filipino child actress and singer (d. 1985)
- May 26 – Crown Prince Frederik of
Denmark
- May 27 – Jeff
Bagwell, American baseball player
- May 27 – Frank Thomas, American
baseball player
- May 28 – Kylie
Minogue, Australian actress and singer
- June 1 – Jason
Donovan, Australian actor and singer
- June 2 – Beetlejuice, African-American
member of the Wack Pack (The Howard Stern Show)
- June 2 – Jon
Culshaw, English comedian and impressionist
- June 9 – Alexandr Konovalov, Russian lawyer and
politician
- June 10 – Bill
Burr, American comedian
- June 10 – The
D.O.C., African-American rapper
- June 13 – Denise Pearson, British singer (Five Star)
- June 14 – Yasmine Bleeth, American actress
- June 20 – Peter
Paige, American actor
- June 21 – Sonique, British singer
- June 25 – Oleg
Taktarov, Russian mixed martial artist
- June 26 – Iwan
Roberts, Welsh footballer
- June 26 – Paolo
Maldini, Italian football player
- June 26 – Shannon Sharpe, American football player and
commentator
- June 28 – Adam
Woodyatt, British actor
- June 29 – Theoren Fleury, Canadian hockey player
- June 29 – Charlie Charters, British author
- June 30 – Philip
Anselmo, American musician
July–August
- July 5 – Ken
Akamatsu, Japanese mangaka
- July 7 – Jorja
Fox, American actress
- July 7 – Jeff
VanderMeer, American writer
- July 8 – Akio
Suyama, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)
- July 8 – Michael Weatherly, American actor
- July 10 – Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian athlete
- July 15 – Stan
Kirsch, American actor
- July 16 – Robin
Nixon, American music producer
- July 16 – Dhanraj Pillay, Indian field hockey
player
- July 16 – Barry
Sanders, African-American football player
- July 17 – Darren
Day, British actor and TV presenter
- July 19 – Jim Norton, American comedian
- July 21 – Johnnie Barnes, American football player
- July 22 – Rhys
Ifans, Welsh actor
- July 23 – Gary
Payton, African-American basketball player
- July 24 – Kristin Chenoweth, American soprano and
actress
- July 27 – Julian McMahon, Australian actor
- July 30 – Robert Korzeniowski, Polish
racewalker
- August 1 – Dan
Donegan, American rock musician (Disturbed)
- August 3 – Rod
Beck, American baseball player (d. 2007)
- August 5 – Colin
McRae, Scottish rally car driver (d.
2007)
- August 9 – Gillian Anderson, American actress (The
X-Files)
- August 9 – James
Roy, Australian author
- August 9 – Eric
Bana, Australian actor
- August 10 – Greg Hawgood, Canadian ice hockey player
- August 11 – Noordin Mohammad Top, Malaysian
Islamist terrorist (d. 2009)
- August 11 – Charlie Sexton, American guitarist, singer
and songwriter
- August 12 – Andras Jones, American actor
- August 14 – Jason Leonard, English rugby player
- August 14 – Darren Clarke, Northern Irish professional
golfer
- August 14 – Catherine Bell, American actress
(J.A.G.)
- August 15 – Debra Messing, American actress (Will And
Grace)
- August 17 – Ed
McCaffrey, American football player
- August 17 – Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Belgian
economist
- August 21 – Dina Carroll, British singer
- August 24 – Tim
Salmon, American baseball player
- August 24 – Shoichi Funaki, Japanese professional
wrestler
- August 25 – Stuart Murdoch, Scottish singer, songwriter
and guitarist (Belle and
Sebastian)
- August 25 – Rachael Ray, American television chef and
host
- August 28 – Billy Boyd, Scottish actor
- August 31 – Hideo Nomo, Japanese baseball player
- August 31 – Valdon Dowiyogo, Nauruan politician and
Australian football player
September–October
- September 1 – Mohamed Atta al Sayed, Egyptian
terrorist (d. 2001)
- September 4 – Phill Lewis, American actor
- September 4 – Mike Piazza, American baseball player
- September 5 – Thomas Levet, French golfer
- September 7 – Marcel Desailly, French footballer
- September 8 – Bob Bellerue, noise artist
- September 10 – Big Daddy Kane, African-American hip-hop
artist
- September 10 – Guy Ritchie, British film director
- September 11 – Kay Hanley, American musician
- September 11 – Tetsuo Kurata, Japanese actor
- September 17 – Anastacia, American singer-songwriter
- September 18 – Toni Kukoč, Croatian basketball player
- September 20 – Darrell Russell, American race
car driver (d. 2004)
- September 20 – Phillipa Forrester, British TV
presenter
- September 20 – Leah Pinsent, Canadian actress
- September 23 – Yvette Fielding, English television
presenter
- September 25 – Will Smith, African-American rapper and actor
(Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air)
- September 26 – James Caviezel, American actor (The
Passion Of The Christ)
- September 26 – Michelle Meldrum American guitarist (d.
2008)
- September 28 – Naomi Watts, English-born Australian
actress
- September 29 – Patrick Burns,
American paranormal investigator and television personality
- September 29 – Samir Soni, Indian film and TV actor
- October 1 – Mark Durden-Smith, English television
presenter
- October 1 – Jay Underwood, American actor
- October 1 – Sagol
59, Israeli Rapper
- October 2 – Victoria Derbyshire, British radio
presenter
- October 3 – Paul Crichton, English footballer
- October 7 – Thom
Yorke, British singer/songwriter
- October 8 – CL
Smooth, African-American rapper
- October 10 – Feridun Düzağaç, Turkish rock
music artist, singer and songwriter
- October 10 – Bart Brentjens, Dutch mountainbiker
- October 11 – Jane Krakowski, American actress
- October 12 – Hugh Jackman, Australian actor
(X-Men)
- October 14 – Johnny Goudie, American musician
- October 14 – Matthew Le Tissier, English
footballer
- October 15 – Didier Deschamps, French footballer
- October 15 – Jyrki 69, Finnish singer
- October 15 – Vanessa Marcil, American Actress
- October 17 – Ziggy Marley, Jamaican musician and oldest son
of Bob Marley
- October 19 – Rodney Carrington, American stand-up comic
and country musician
- October 22 – Shaggy, Jamaican singer
- October 24 – Sal the Stockbroker, American comedian
and radio writer (The Howard
Stern Show)
- October 29 – Tsunku, Japanese singer, music producer, and song
composer
- October 31 – Vanilla Ice, American rapper (Ice Ice
Baby)
November–December
- November 1 – Silvio Fauner, Italian cross-country
skier
- November 3 – Debbie Rochon, Canadian actress
- November 4 – Council Nedd II, American Anglican
bishop
- November 4 – Daniel Landa, Czech composer, singer, actor and
rallye racer.
- November 4 – Lee Germon, New Zealand cricketer
- November 8 – Parker Posey, American actress
- November 8 – Zara Whites, Dutch actress
- November 9 – Nazzareno Carusi, Italian pianist
- November 10 – Steve Brookstein, British singer
- November 10 – Petra Liebetanz, German-American
photographer
- November 11 – David L Cook, Christian music singer and
comedian
- November 12 – Sammy Sosa, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- November 13 – Pat Hentgen, baseball player
- November 14 – Serge Postigo, Canadian actor
- November 14 – Janine Lindemulder, American adult film
actress
- November 15 – Jennifer Charles, American singer
- November 15 – Ol' Dirty Bastard, African-American rapper
(d. 2004)
- November 15 – Fausto Brizzi, Italian screenwriter and film
director
- November 18 – Barry Hunter, Northern Irish footballer and
football manager
- November 18 – Owen Wilson, American actor
- November 18 – Gary Sheffield, baseball player
- November 20 – John Trobaugh, American artist and
photographer
- November 21 – Qiao Hong, Chinese table tennis player
- November 22 – Rasmus Lerdorf, Danish-Greenlandic creator of
PHP
- November 23 – Hamid Hassani, Iranian scholar
- November 25 – Jill Hennessy, Canadian actress
- November 25 – Jacqueline Hennessy, Canadian actress
and talk show host
- November 27 – Michael Vartan, French actor
- November 29 – Jonathan Knight, American singer
- December 2 – Nate Mendel, American rock musician
(Foo Fighters)
- December 2 – Lucy
Liu, American actress
- December 3 – Brendan Fraser, Canadian-American actor
- December 5 – Margaret Cho, American actress and
comedian
- December 7 – Mark Geyer, Australian rugby league player
- December 7 – Filip Naudts, Belgian photographer
- December 8 – Mike Mussina, American baseball player
- December 8 – Michael Cole, American TV commentator
(World Wrestling
Entertainment)
- December 9 – Kurt Angle, American amateur and professional
wrestler, 1996 Olympic Gold
Medalist
- December 16 – Lalah Hathaway, American singer and daughter
of (Donny Hathaway)
- December 17 – Paul Tracy, Canadian race car driver
- December 18 – Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress
- December 24 – Choi Jin-sil, South Korean actress and
model
- December 26 – Dennis Knight, American professional
wrestler
Unknown dates
Deaths
January–March
- January 7 – Hugo Butler, Canadian screenwriter (b. 1914)
- January 7 – Gholamreza Takhti, Iranian wrestler (b.
1930)
- January 15 – Bill Masterton, Canadian hockey player (b.
1938)
- January 18 – Bert Wheeler, American actor and comedian (b.
1895)
- January 19 – Ray Harroun, American race car driver (b.
1879)
- January 21 – Will Lang Jr., American journalist (b.
1914)
- January 22 – Duke Kahanamoku, American swimmer (b.
1890)
- January 26 – Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher and
aviation promoter (b. 1883)
- January 30 – Robert Wood Johnson, American
business leader and philanthropist (b. 1893)
- February 1 – Lawson Little, American golfer (b. 1910)
- February 4 – Neal Cassady, American writer (b. 1926)
- February 7 – Nick Adams, American actor (b. 1931)
- February 11 – Howard Lindsay, American playwright (b.
1888)
- February 13 – Mae Marsh, American actress (b. 1894)
- February 20 – Anthony Asquith, British director and writer
(b. 1902)
- February 21 – Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born
pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)
- February 22 – Peter Arno, American cartoonist (b. 1904)
- February 23 – Fannie Hurst, American novelist (b. 1885)
- February 27 – Frankie Lymon, American singer (b. 1942)
- February 29 – Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b.
1886)
- March 6 – Léon Mathot, French actor (b. 1886)
- March 10 – Helen Walker, American actress (b. 1920)
- March 16 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian
composer (b. 1895)
- March 16 – Leon
Cadore, American baseball pitcher (b. 1890)
- March 16 – June
Collyer, American actress (b. 1906)
- March 20 – Charles Chaplin Jr., American actor (b.
1925)
- March 20 – Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish film
director (b. 1889)
- March 23 – Edwin O'Connor, American novelist and
Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction winner (b. 1918)
- March 24 – Alice Guy-Blaché, French film director
(b. 1873)
- March 27 – Yuri
Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, first human in space (b. 1934)
- March 30 – Bobby Driscoll, American child actor (b.
1937)
April–June
- April 1 – Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian
physicist, Nobel Prize
laureate (b. 1908)
- April 4 – Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,
African-American civil rights activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b.
1929)
- April 7 – Jimmy Clark, Scottish race car
driver (b. 1936)
- April 10 – Gustavs Celmins, Latvian politician (b.
1899)
- April 14 – Al
Benton, American baseball player (b. 1911)
- April 16 – Fay
Bainter, American actress (b. 1893)
- April 16 – Edna
Ferber, American writer (b. 1885)
- April 22 – Stephen H. Sholes, American record executive (b.
1911)
- April 24 – Tommy Noonan, American actor (b. 1921)
- April 25 – John Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876)
- May 5 – Albert
Dekker, American actor (b. 1905)
- May 7 – Mike
Spence, British race car driver (b. 1936)
- May 7 – Craig Wood, American golfer (b. 1901)
- May 9 – Finlay
Currie, Scottish actor (b. 1878)
- May 9 – Mercedes de Acosta, American poet,
playwright, costume designer, and socialite (b. 1893)
- May 9 – Marion
Lorne, American actress (b. 1883)
- May 10 – Scotty
Beckett, American actor (b. 1929)
- May 14 – Husband E. Kimmel, American admiral (b. 1882)
- May 21 – Doris
Lloyd, English actress (b. 1896)
- May 23 – James Burke, American actor (b. 1886)
- June 1 – Helen
Keller, American spokeswoman for the deaf and blind (b.
1880)
- June 2 – Jouett
Shouse, American politician (b. 1879)
- June 2 – Dick Williams, American tennis champion
(b. 1891)
- June 4 – Dorothy
Gish, American actress (b. 1898)
- June 6 – Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General (assassinated) (b.
1925)
- June 6 – Randolph Churchill, British politician,
son of Winston Churchill (b.
1911)
- June 7 – Dan
Duryea, American actor (b. 1907)
- June 14 – Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1901)
- June 15 – Sam
Crawford, American baseball player (b. 1880)
- June 15 – Wes
Montgomery, American jazz guitarist (b. 1925)
- June 18 – Sally
O'Neil, American actress (b. 1908)
- June 24 – Tony
Hancock, British comedian (b. 1924)
July–September
- July 1 – Virginia Weidler, American actress (b.
1926)
- July 6 – Johnny Indrisano, American boxer and actor
(b. 1906)
- July 7 – Ellsworth Johnson, American gangster (b.
1906)
- July 18 – Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist,
Nobel Prize
laureate (b. 1892)
- July 21 – Ruth
St. Denis, American dancer (b. 1878)
- July 23 – Henry Hallett Dale, English scientist,
recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine (b. 1875)
- July 27 – Lilian Harvey, German actress (b. 1906)
- July 28 – Otto
Hahn, German chemist, Nobel
Prize laureate (b. 1879)
- July 30 – Alexander Hall, American actor (b. 1894)
- July 31 – Jack
Pizzey, Premier of Queensland, Australia (b. 1911)
- August 19 – George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (b.
1904)
- August 26 – Kay
Francis, American actress (b. 1899)
- August 27 – Robert Z. Leonard, American film director (b.
1889)
- August 27 – Princess Marina, Duchess
of Kent (b. 1906)
- August 29 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier and planner
(b. 1881)
- August 31 – Dennis O'Keefe, American actor (b. 1908)
- September 8 – Luther Perkins, American guitarist (b.
1928)
- September 12 – Tommy Armour, Scottish golfer (b. 1894)
- September 18 – Francis McDonald, American actor (b.
1891)
- September 18 – Franchot Tone, American actor (b. 1905)
- September 19 – Red Foley, American singer (b. 1910)
- September 24 – Virginia Valli, American actress (b. 1898)
- September 28 – Norman Brookes, Australian tennis champion
(b. 1877)
October–December
- October 2 – Marcel Duchamp, French artist (b. 1887)
- October 9 –
Pierre Mulele, Congolese
revolutionary
- October 13 – Bea Benaderet, American actress (The
Flintstones) (b. 1906)
- October 18 – Lee
Tracy, American actor (b. 1898)
- October 27 – Lise Meitner, German-Austrian physicist,
discoverer of nuclear fission (b. 1878)
- October 30 – Pert Kelton, American actress (b. 1907)
- October 30 – Rose Wilder Lane, American author and
reporter (b. 1886)
- October 30 – Ramón Novarro, Mexican actor (b. 1899)
- October 30 – Conrad Richter, American writer (b. 1890)
- November 4 – Michel Kikoine, Belarusian painter (b.
1892)
- November 6 – Charles Munch, French conductor and violinist
(b. 1891)
- November 7 – Gordon Coventry, Australian rules footballer (b.
1901)
- November 8 – Wendell Corey, American actor (b. 1914)
- November 9 – Gerald Mohr, American actor (b. 1914)
- November 13 – Berthold Bartosch, Czech animator (b.
1893)
- November 18 – Walter Wanger, American film producer (b.
1894)
- November 20 – Helen Gardner, American actress (b.
1884)
- November 25 – Upton Sinclair, American writer (b. 1878)
- November 26 – Arnold Zweig, German writer (b. 1887)
- November 28 – Enid Blyton, British children's writer (b.
1897)
- November 29 – Jonathan Knight, American singer
- December 2 – Adamson-Eric, Estonian artist (b. 1902)
- December 4 – Archie Mayo, American actor and director (b.
1891)
- December 5 – Fred Clark, American actor (b. 1914)
- December 10 – Karl Barth, German Protestant theologian (b.
1888)
- December 10 – Thomas Merton, American author (b. 1915)
- December 12 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (b.
1902)
- December 14 – Margarete Klose, German soprano (b. 1902)
- December 15 – Jess Willard, American boxer (b. 1881)
- December 19 – Norman Thomas, American politician (b.
1884)
- December 20 – John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- December 30 – Trygve Lie, Norwegian United Nations Secretary
General (the first) (b. 1896)
- December 30 – Vladimir Peter Tytla, American animator
(b. 1904)
- December 31 – George Lewis, American musician
(b. 1900)
Nobel Prizes
Academy Awards
- Best Picture: In
the Heat of the Night, Walter
Mirisch
- Best
Foreign Language Film: Closely Watched Trains, Czechoslovakia

- Best Documentary Feature: The Anderson Platoon, Pierre Schoendoerffer
- Best Director: Mike Nichols,
The Graduate
- Best Actor: Rod Steiger,
In the Heat of the
Night
- Best Actress: Katharine
Hepburn, Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner
- Best Supporting Actor: George
Kennedy, Cool Hand
Luke
- Best Supporting Actress: Estelle
Parsons, Bonnie and
Clyde
- Best Original Screenplay: William Rose, Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Stirling Silliphant, In the Heat of the
Night
Notes
1968 was the only year of the twentieth century during which no
British serviceman or servicewoman was killed in action.
See also
References
External links