In both Europe and America, Japanese
imported cars and other goods were continuing to rise and trouble the
governments of UK and USA. Governments were worried about
industries in their own countries being effected and jobs lost. In the
spring of 1968 The Rev Martin Luther King was assassinated and Robert
Kennedy was mortally wounded. The peace movement had continued to
grow and more and more Americans were against the war in Vietnam.
Once again, more riots occurred throughout cities in America.
The music scene was set by the
"Beatles" and the "Rolling Stones". Fashion flirted with see
through blouses and midis and maxis skirts joined the Mini Skirt as part
of the fashion trends. There was a Flu Pandemic in Hong Kong and the
first Black power salute is seen on Television worldwide during an
Olympics medal ceremony.
Cost of Living 1968
Yearly Inflation Rate USA:
4.27%
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average:
943
Average Cost of new house: $14,950
Average Income per year:
$8,632
Average Monthly Rent: $130
Gas per Gallon: 34 cents
Average Cost of a new car:
$2,822
Movie Ticket:
$1.50
Events Happening in 1968:
- Anti Vietnam War protests
throughout the western world
- North Vietnam and Viet Cong
troops launch the Tet offensive
- Assassination of Martin Luther
King Jr. Leader of Negro Civil Rights Movement is killed by James
Earl Ray which leads to Violence and Race Riots in US Cities
- Following the Assassination of
Martin Luther King Jr. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil
Rights Act of 1968
- RMS Queen Elizabeth - retired
from service
- Senator Robert Kennedy is
assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
- Earthquake in Sicily - 231
dead, 262 injured.
- Enoch Powell's delivers his
"Rivers of Blood" anti immigration speech
- The Third Heart transplant is
performed in South Africa By Dr Christian N Barnard
- London Bridge sold for 1
million. and later re-erected in Arizona.
- President Johnson announces on
nationwide television he would not run for another term of office
- 50,000 people participated in
" The Poor Peoples March " on Washington, D.C.
- Population in Europe reaches
455 million ( excluding USSR )
- The Kray twins, arrested for
the murders of George Cornell and Jack 'The Hat' McVitie, members of
the London underworld.
- Televisions installed
increases 25 million US , 20.5 million Japan , 19 million Great
Britain
- Alec Rose completes his
single-handed 354-day round-the-world trip.
- Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes
the Prime Minister of Canada
- Student Occupation at Columbia
University over Universities affiliation with the Institute for
Defense Analysis
- Aristotle Onassis and
Jacqueline Kennedy are married
- The Ferry "TEV Wahine"
capsizes in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand
- Hong Kong Flu pandemic begins
in Hong Kong.
- Black power salute is seen on
Television worldwide after the gold and bronze medalists in Olympics
show salute during medal ceremony in Mexico City, Mexico
- The Prague Spring in
Czechoslovakia was to provide political liberalization but was
crushed by Warsaw Pact countries
- The Soviet Union invades
Czechoslovakia and arrests President Dubcek "Prague Spring"
- The Aswan Dam in Egypt is
completed
- The Gateway Arch in St. Louis
is dedicated
- Equatorial Gunea Gains
Independence From Spain
- The Winter Olympic Games are
held in Grenoble, France
- 800,000
teachers, workers and student protesters marched through the French
capital during a one day general strike
Popular Culture 1968
- The first Big Mac goes on sale
in McDonalds
Popular Films
- The Graduate
- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
- Bonnie and Clyde
- Valley of the Dolls
- Planet of the Apes
- Rosemary's Baby
Popular Musicians
- The Rolling Stones
- The Supremes
- The Beatles - with, "Hey Jude"
- Fleetwood Mac
- Aretha Franklin
- Gary Puckett and The Union Gap
- The Grateful Dead
- The Monkees
- Simon and Garfunkel - "Mrs
Robinson"
- The Beach Boys
- The Bee Gees
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- Cream
- The Doors - "Hello I Love You"
- Pink Floyd
- Moody Blues
- Bobby Goldsboro - "Honey"
- Marvin Gaye - "I heard it
through the Grapevine"
- David Bowie
Technology 1968
- Boeing 747 made its maiden
flight.
- NASA launches Apollo 7, the
first manned Apollo mission
- Apollo 8 orbits the Moon,
becoming the first manned space mission to achieve the feat.
- Dr. Christian Barnard performs
the first successful heart transplant.
- US Explodes experimental
hydrogen Bomb.
- The Emergency
911 Telephone service is started in the USA which provides a single
number for reporting emergencies and is manned 24 hrs per day 365
days per year
- ATM - First
Philadelphia Bank installs the first automated teller machine in the
U.S.
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