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September 6:
The Senior Class returned to the hallowed halls of North Babylon High School.
Were they aware then of the impact they would have on the world? |
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September 12:
Ronald Reagan cautioned Washington to consider "full technological
resources" be employed in order to win the Vietnam War. |
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October 2:
Thurgood Marshall took his seat on the Supreme Court |
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October 12: The St. Louis
Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox 7-2 to win the World Series. |
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October 30: Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van
Thieu was sworn in as president of South Viet Nam. |
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November 17: Surveyor 6 made a
six second flight on the moon, followed by the first lift-off from the lunar
surface. |
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November 20: The population of
United States passed 200 million. |
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November 21: President Johnson
signed an air quality act which alloted $428 million to fight air pollution. |
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December 3: Louis Washkansky
received the first human heart transplant during a procedure lead by Dr.
Christiaan Barnard, in South Africa. Mr. Washkansky died 18 days later. |
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December 10: Otis Redding,
American soul singer ("Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay"), died at age
26. |
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December 23: President Johnson
addressed the American troops at Cam Ranh Bay, urging them to ignore the
anti-war protests back home. |
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December 29-30: At least 546
people were arrested in New York City during protests of the Vietnam War.
Arrests included Dr. Benjamin Spock and poet Allen Ginsberg. Ho Chi Minh sent
a message to American opponents of the war: "We shall win. And so shall you." |
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January 5: Alexander Dubcek takes
over control of Czechoslovakia. |
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January 14: The Green Bay Packers
beat the Oakland Raiders 33-14 to win their second straight Super Bowl. Vince
Lombardi hinted indicated he was considering retirement. |
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January 20: Washington lawyer
Clark Clifford was named to replace Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense by
President Johnson. |
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January 23: The Pueblo,
a US Navy intelligence ship on a surveillance patrol of the North Korean
coast, was seized by North Korea. The Pueblo was commanded by
Commander Lloyd M. Bucher and manned by 82 crew members. |
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January 29: LBJ presents record
$186 billion budget to Congress. |
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January 31: Communist Guerrillas
in Vietnam launched their Tet Offensive on more than 100 cities from the
Mekong Delta to Saigon and north to the highlands. |
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February 1: Richard Nixon
announced his candidacy for President while in New Hampshire |
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February 6-17: Winter Olympics in
Genoble, France delivered us such household names as Peggy Fleming and
Jean-Claude Killy. |
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February 8: George Wallace
entered the Presidential race. |
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February 8: Robert F. Kennedy
says the United States can not win the war in Vietnam. Stating that there is
not "any prospect" for victory, Kennedy urged that "It is time for the truth." |
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February 21: A Delta airliner,
destined for Miami, was hijacked to Havana, Cuba. |
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February 24: Three United States
Marine battalions liberated Hue in one of the Viet Cong's greatest victories
of the Tet Offensive. |
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March 8: Pope Paul VI named
Terence Cooke to succeed Cardinal Spellman as archbishop of New York. |
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March 16: President Johnson won
the New Hampshire Democratic primary, beating out Minnesota Senator Eugene
McCarthy who captured 40% of the vote. Richard Nixon easily captured the
Republican prize, winning 80% of the votes. |
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March 16: Robert F. Kennedy
entered the Presidential race. |
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March 22: General William
Westmoreland named Army Chief of Staff by LBJ. |
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March 23: UCLA beat North
Carolina 78-55 to take the NCAA basketball title. |
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March 27: Yuri Gagarin, the first
man in space, died in a plane crash in Russia. |
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March 28: The US lost its first
aircraft in Vietnam when an F-111 vanished during a combat mission. |
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March 31: President Lyndon Baines
Johnson stunned political friends and foes alike when he announced during a
television broadcast to the nation, "I shall not seek and I will not accept
the nomination of my party as your president." |
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April 4: The Reverend Martin
Luther King,39, was fatally shot as he leaned over the second floor balcony
railing just outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. |
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April 9: Blacks rioted in
Chicago, Baltimore, Washington and Cincinnati. 31 people died nationwide,
including 11 in Chicago, 5 in Baltimore, and 8 in DC. Rioting included arson,
looting and violence. |
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April 10: LBJ named General
Creighton Abrams commander of the US troops in Vietnam. |
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April 11: US called 24,500
reserves to active duty. |
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April 11: President Johnson
signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 while pleading for an end to the rioting
which erupted since the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying, "We all
know that the roots of injustice run deep, but violence cannot redress a
solitary wrong or remedy a single unfairness." |
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April 19: The FBI named James
Earl Ray as the assassin of Dr. King. |
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April 20: Pierre Trudeau was
sworn in as Canada's 15th Prime Minister, succeeding Lester Pearson. |
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April 23: 300 Columbia University
students protested the Vietnam War by barricading the office of the college
Dean. |
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April 24: Black students at
Boston University occupied the Administration Building demanding the school
add a Black History major. |
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April 25: Columbia University
closed to avoid protesters. |
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April 26: 200,000 college and
high school students in New York cut classes in protest of the Vietnam War. |
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April 27: Hubert Humphrey
announced his candidacy for President. |
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April 30: New York City police
swarmed onto the Columbia University campus early in the morning to evict
students who had occupied five buildings. |
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May 8: Jim "Catfish" Hunter of
the Oakland Athletics pitched a perfect game. |
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May 11: The Montreal Canadiens
defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 to win hockey's Stanley Cup. |
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May 13: American and North
Vietnamese diplomats opened formal peace talks in Paris. |
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May 18: 117 protestors were
arrested at a sit-in at Columbia University. |
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May 23: A record 1100 GIs were
reported killed in Vietnam during the previous two week period. |
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May 28: Senator Eugene McCarthy
won a stunning upset victory over Senator Robert Kennedy in the Oregon
presidential primary, setting the stage for a crucial battle in California. |
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May 29: Protestors involved in
the Poor People's March (started in Memphis on May 2nd) stormed the Supreme
Court building. |
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May 30: Bobby Unser won the
Indianapolis 500, averaging 152.9 MPH. |
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June 5:
Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan in the
back of the Embassy Room of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles minutes after
claiming victory in the California Democratic primary. Three days later at the
funeral, his brother Senator Edward Kennedy said, "My brother need not be
idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. He should be
remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw
suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. As he said many
times, in many parts of this nation, to those who sought to touch him" 'Some
men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and
say, why not?'" |
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June 8:
James Earl Ray was arrested in London and charged with the murder on Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. |
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June 10:
General William Westmoreland said that military victory in Vietnam was
unlikely in the face of politcal restraints. |
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June 16:
Golfer Lee Trevino won the US Open in Texas. |
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June 19:
50,000 people marched a mile in Washington, terminating at the Reflecting
Pool, in support of the Poor People's Campaign. By the end of the week several
hundred who were staying in a wood shanty community dubbed "Resurrection City"
grew angry. Vandalism resulted, troops were called in and the Reverend Ralph
Abernathy was arrested. |
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June 23: The 1968 Senior Class of
North Babylon Senior High School graduates. |
Literature
| "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok |
| "The Confessions of Nat Turner" by William Styron (Pulitzer
Prize |
| "Cancer Ward" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn |
| "Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard
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Academia
| "The New Industrial State" by John Kenneth Galbraith
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"The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris |
Music
| "Penny Lane", "All You Need is Love" by the Beatles
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| "Ruby Tuesday" by the Rolling Stones |
| "Groovin'" by the Rascals |
| Gerry Dorsey changes his name to Englebert Humperdinck |
Film
| "Blow Up" by Antonioni |
| "The Countess from Hong Kong" by Chaplin |
| "The Chelsea Girls" by Andy Warhol |
| "The Taming of the Shrew" by Schlesinger |
Miscellaneous
|
The first Microwave Oven was introduced |
Literature
| "Airport" by Arthur Hailey |
| "Couples" by John Updike |
| "Welcome to the Monkey House" by Kurt Vonnegut |
Academia
| "The Story of Civilization" by Will and Ariel Durant (Pulitzer
Prize) |
| "The Double Helix" by Watson |
| "Psychoanalysis and Politics" by Herbert Marcuse |
Music
| "Hey Jude" by the Beatles |
| "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye
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| "The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding |
| "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel |
Film
| "The Odd Couple" with Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau
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| "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand |
| "The Lion in Winter" with Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole
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| "2001" by Stanley Kubrick |
| New Home: $24,700 |
| Milk (half gallon): $0.61 |
| Bacon (pound): $0.81 |
| Bread (loaf): $0.22 |
| Potatoes (10 lbs): $0.76 |
| Annual Salary: $8,633.00 |
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