Articles

EVENTS OF 1968

(Compiled by C. Clark Kissinger)

Jan L.A. Chapter of BPP founded
Jan 05 Boston 5 indicted for draft resistance conspiracy
Jan 05 Alexander Dubcek elected held of Czech CP
Jan 13 Johnny Cash records At Folsom Prison
Jan 19 Ertha Kitt denounces Vietnam war at White House luncheon
Jan 23 Capture of the U.S.S. Pueblo off Korea
Jan 30 Tet offensive, turning point of Vietnam war
Feb The "February Countercurrent" in the GPCR
Feb First meeting of Christian revolutionaries in Montevideo
Feb Bobby Seale arrested
Feb 01 NLF officer is executed in the street by Saigon police chief
Feb 08 Massacre of Black students, Orangeburg, SC
Feb 12 Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice published
Feb 17-18 International student conf against Vietnam war in Berlin
Feb 17-18 Major Free Huey rallies in Oakland & L.A.; SNCC formally merges with the Black Panther Party
Feb 29 Kerner Commission report on Civil Disorders released
Mar Seattle Chapter of BPP founded; Kansas city chapter raided by police
Mar Student riots in Italy, Rome University closed
Mar 04 FBI COINTELPRO memo warns of the rise of a “Black Masiah”
Mar 09 Westmoreland asks for 209,000 more troops for Vietnam
Mar 11 German student leader Rudi Dutschke shot
Mar 12 Eugene McCarthy gets 42% in NH primary
Autonomous student union formed in Czechoslovakia
Mar 13 6,000 sheep killed in Utah by nerve gas from the army’s Dugway Proving Ground
Mar 16 My Lai massacre (not revealed at the time)
Mar 17 30,000 demonstrators besiege U.S. Embassy in London
Mar 17 International run on gold; collapse of Bretton Woods
Mar 19 McNamara resigns
Mar 21 Battle of Karameh, birth of the Palestinian armed struggle
Mar 22 Westmoreland removed from command in Vietnam
Occupation of Nanterre U., beginning of French general strike movement
Mar 25 "Wise Men" meet in Washington, LBJ fired by ruling class
Mar 28 National Guard called to Memphis
Madrid University is closed because of student unrest
Mar 30 Yippie! is born
Mar 31 LBJ annnounces he will not run again
Republic of New Afrika founded
Apr New York Chapter of BPP founded
Apr 02 McCarthy wins WI primary
Apr 03 National draft card turn ins/burning; BPP meeting raided by police in Oakland
Apr 04 MLK assassinated
Apr 05 Major Black rebellions; 65,000 troops; 38 killed; 15,000 arrested
Apr 07 Black Panther leader Bobby Hutton murdered by police; Eldridge Cleaver arrested
Apr 10 Civil Rights bill is passed with "Rap Brown amendment"
Apr 12? March on the Chicago Guard Armony
Apr 16 Mao Tsetung's statement in support of the Afro American struggle
Apr 23 Students seize Columbia U.
Apr 26 National Student Strike, 1 million college and HS participate
Apr 27 Police attack major anti war march in Chicago/200,000 demo in NYC
Apr 30 Cops storm Columbia U.
May Seattle BPP begins free breakfast program
May 10 FBI's COINTELPRO goes into full operation
May 10-11 Night of the Barricades in Paris
May 13 French general strike; Poor People's campaign opens Resurrection City
May 17 Catonsville 9 burn draft records in Maryland
May 20 State of Emergency laws passed by W. German parliament
May 29 Police attack students occupying University of Dakar in Senegal
Jun 03 Feminist shoots Andy Warhol
Jun 05 RFK assassinated
Jun 06 Eldridge Cleaver released on bail
by Jun 15 221 major campus demos; 417 arrests; 59 building seizures
Jun 29-30 Police attack 10,000 student demonstrators in Zurich; 2,500 arrested
Jul Des Moines BPP chapter formed; Seattle BPP office raided
Jul Trial of Benjamin Spock in Boston
Jul Czechoslovakia refuses to attend Warsaw Pact meetings
Jul 01 Phoenix program initiated in Vietnam
Jul 05 Desecration of the American flag made a federal crime
Jul 14 Martial law declared in Uraguay
Jul 15 Trial of Huey Newton begins
Jul 23-24 Black rebellion in Cleveland, National Guard mobilized
Jul 27-28 Black rebellion in Gary, IN
Jul 29 All schools in Mexico City closed because of student unrest
Aug 08 Nixon nominated in Miami; six Blacks killed in Miami rioting
Aug 21 Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia
Aug 23-24 Black troops at Ft. Hood refuse to board planes for Chicago
Aug 25 Three Black Panthers murdered by police in Los Angeles
Aug 26-29 Democratic Party convention and police riot in Chicago; Humphrey nominated
Sep SF State strike
Sep Milwaukee 14 destroy 10,000 draft cards
Sep 7 Brown Berets attend funeral of Panthers in L.A.
Sep 8 Verdict in Huey Newton trial; Hoover calls BPP “greatest threat to the internal security of the country”
Sep 12 Albania withdraws from Warsaw Pact
Sep 18 Police occupy universities in Mexico City
Sep 27 Eldridge Cleaver’s bail revoked, he is given 60 days to surrender
Sep 28 Huey Newton sentenced to 2-15 years in prison
Oct Anti-war Gis march in San Francisco; case of the Presidio 27
Oct 02 First massacre of student protestors in Mexico City
Oct 07 Trial of Catonsville 9 begins (destruction of draft records)
Oct 12-27 Olympic Games in Mexico city; new student massacre
Oct 13-31 12th Plenum of 8th CC, victory of the GPCR; Liu Shao chi expelled
Oct 15 Black Panther killed in Seattle
Oct 16 Tommie Smith and John Carlos give black power salute at Olympics
Oct 31 LBJ orders halt in bombing of North Vietnam
Nov Black Panther chapter in Chicago founded
Nov 01 LBJ announces halt in bombing of DRV
Nov 05 Nixon and Agnew win election
Nov 07 Another Black Panther killed in Seattle
Nov 11 Oakland BPP begins free breakfast
Nov 24 Naxilites launch guerrilla warfare in Srikakulam, India
Nov 24 Eldridge & Kathleen Cleaver to underground, surface later in Cuba
Nov 25 Student riots in Alexandria, Egypt
FBI memo plans to incite violence between BPP and US organization in L.A.
Dec Student demos burn ROTC buildings to ground
Dec Communist Party of the Philippines reorganized; launches peoples war
Dec South African Student Organization (SASO) founded
Dec World Peace Conference in Montreal; BPP supports the NLF of South Vietnam
Dec 07 Police raid Denver BPP office; Newark BPP office firebombed
Dec 14 San Francisco state suspends all classes
Dec 18 Police raid Indiapolis BPP office
Dec 20 Gomulka government falls in Poland after strikes and demonstrations
Dec 22 MTT calls for youth to go to the countryside
Dec 25 SDS meets in Ann Arbor

Other 1968 events to be given dates:

founding of the Revolutionary Union
founding of American Indian Movement
founding of Akwesasne Notes
Narita airport struggle begins in Japan
Medellin conference (launching of liberation theology)
massive Easter anti war demo in W. Germany