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1968 - Timeline

January 31

North Vietnamese launch Tet offensive at Nha Trang

February 1

South Vietnamese security official General Nguyen Ngoc Loan is photographed executing a Viet Cong prisoner.  The photo will win the Pulitzer prize and serve as an anti-war rallying point.

February 2

Richard Nixon declares his candidacy for the Presidency

February 18

US State Department announces highest US casualty toll of the Vietnam War.  The previous week had seen 543 Americans killed in action and 2547 wounded.

March 16

More than 500 Vietnamese civilians killed by US Charlie Company at My Lai

March 27

Czech president Antonin Novotny resigns, triggering a crisis meeting of the Warsaw Pact leaders

March 31

President Johnson announces his decision not to run for re-election

April 4

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot and killed in Memphis.  Riots break out in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Newark, and Washington, D.C., resulting in 46 deaths.

April 22

African-American students present their demands to University administrators.

April 23

A planned rally and occupation of the Low Building at Columbia University, protesting the university’s involvement in the Institute for Defense Analysis, is blocked by conservative students and university security.  Eventually, five buildings are occupied.  Seven days later police will storm buildings and violently remove students and their supporters.

April 26

Deadline for administration reply to demands

May 3

Approximately 100 black students enter the business office
at 619 Clark Street at 7:45 a.m. and occupy the building

May 4

An agreement is reached and the building is emptied by 9:30 p.m. after 38 hours of occupation

May 6

“Bloody Monday” as 5000 students march in Paris’ Latin Quarter.  Riots break out as police and students violently clash.

May 11

Permission granted to Ralph Abernathy, successor to Martin Luther King, Jr., for encampment on the Mall in Washington, D.C.  Over 2500 people will fill Resurrection City for six weeks.  On June 24th, the site is raided by police, 124 are arrested and the encampment ends.

June 4

Robert Kennedy shot in San Francisco on the night of the California primary by Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian ex-patriot angered at pro-Israel speeches Kennedy had delivered during the campaign.