1968

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Years:	1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971

1968 by topic:

Arts

Architecture - Art - Film - Literature Music (Country, UK) - Television - Home video

Science and technology

Archaeology - Aviation Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science

By country

Australia - Canada - France - Germany - India Ireland - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand - Pakistan Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe

Other topics

Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Sovereign states - Religious leaders

Birth and death categories

Births - Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments - Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar).

Contents 1 Events 1.1 January 1.2 February 1.3 March 1.4 April 1.5 May 1.6 June 1.7 July 1.8 August 1.9 September 1.10 October 1.11 November 1.12 December 2 Births 2.1 January 2.2 February 2.3 March 2.4 April 2.5 May 2.6 June 2.7 July 2.8 August 2.9 September 2.10 October 2.11 November 2.12 December 2.13 Unknown dates 3 Deaths 3.1 January-March 3.2 April-June 3.3 July-December 3.4 Month/day unknown 4 Nobel prizes 5 Further reading

Events

January

January
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• January 5 - Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is elected leader of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia.
• January 15 - An earthquake in Sicily kills 231 and injures 262.
• January 21 - A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs.
• January 23 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its territorial waters while spying.
• January 25 - The Israeli submarine INS Dakar sinks in the Mediterranean Sea (69 dead).
• January 27 - A French submarine sinks in the Mediterranean Sea with 52 men.
• January 30 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins, as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
• January 31 - Viet Cong soldiers attack the United States Embassy in Saigon.
• January 31 - Nauru's president Hammer DeRoburt declares independence from Australia.

February

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• February - Color TV becomes available in Canada for the first time.
• February 1 - Vietnam War: A Viet Cong officer is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The videotaped and photographed execution sways U.S. public opinion against the war.
• February 8 - The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight.
• February 8 - American civil rights movement: A civil rights protest staged at a white-only bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina is broken-up by highway patrolmen, leading to the deaths of 3 college students.
• February 11 - Border clashes take place between Israel and Jordan.
• February 13 - Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• February 17 - Administrative reform in Romania divides the country into 39 counties .
• February 24 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted - South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
• February 28 - Ex-The Teenagers singer Frankie Lymon is found dead from a heroin overdose.

March

March
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• March 7 - Vietnam War: The First Battle of Saigon begins.
• 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 14 - Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah.
• March 15 - George Brown, British Foreign Secretary, resigns.
• March 16 - Vietnam War: My Lai massacre - American troops kill scores of civilians.
• March 16 - U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) 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 police injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.
• March 18 - Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.
• March 27 - Russian space pioneer Yuri Gagarin is killed in a training flight crash.
• March 31 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek re-election.

April

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• April - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, becomes the first amputee certified to make diving missions, after a long battle which started with the accident which amputated his leg in 1966.
• 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 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward.
• April 4 - Apollo 6 is launched, as a test of the Saturn V booster.
  • La, la, la by Massiel (music and text by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 for Spain.
• April 7 - Racing driver Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.
• April 11 - Joseph Bachmann tries to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, leader of a left-wing movement (APO) in Germany, and tries to commit suicide afterwards, failing in both.
• April 11 - German left-wing students blockade the Springer Press HQ in Berlin and many are arrested (one of them is 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 Congo.
• April 23 - Surgeons at the Hopital de la Pitie, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant on Clovis Roblain.
• April 23-April 30 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
• April 29 - The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway.

May

May
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• 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 1 - Professor Giorgios Rosas declares the independence of his platform nation Isle of the Roses off Rimini, Italy. Italian troops demolish it 2 months later.
• May 2 - The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.
• 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 19 - General elections are held in Italy.
• May 22 - The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

June

June
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• June 1 - Helen Keller dies in her sleep in Connecticut.
• June 3 - Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol as he enters his studio, wounding him.
• June 5 - U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy dies from his injuries the next day.
• June 8 - James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
• June 10 - Italy beats Yugoslavia 2-0 in a replay to win the 1968 European Championship. The original final on June 8 ended 1-1.
• June 20 - Austin Currie, Member of Parliament (MP) at Stormont in Northern Ireland, along with others, squats a house in Caledon to protest discrimination in housing allocations.
• June 23 - A soccer stampede occurs in Buenos Aires (74 dead, 150 injured).
• June 29 - Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control. Many American Catholics ignore or defy it.

July

July
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• July 1 - The Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.
• July 4 - Yachtsman Alec Rose, 59, receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth, England after his 354-day round-the-world trip.
• July 15 - The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on ABC.
• July 17 - Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.
• July 21 - Náutico wins the Pernambucano Championship for the sixth time in a row.
• July 23-July 28 - African-American militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, Ohio.
• July 26 - Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to 5 years hard labor, for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
• July 29 - Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time in centuries.

August

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• August 11 - The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A British Rail steam locomotive makes the 314-mile journey from Liverpool to Carlisle and returns to Liverpool before being dispatched to the wrecking yard.
• 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 African American U.S. Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
• August 22-August 30 - Police clash with antiwar protesters in Chicago, Illinois outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. President, and Edmund Muskie for Vice President.

September

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• September 6 - Swaziland becomes independent.
• September 17 - The D'Oliveira Affair: The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of South Africa is cancelled when the South Africans refuse to accept the presence of Basil D'Oliveira, a Cape Coloured, in the side.
• September 27 - Marcelo Caetano becomes prime minister of Portugal.
• September 29 - A referendum in Greece gives more power to the military junta.

October

October
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• October 2 - A student demonstration ends in a massacre at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico, 10 days before the inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics.
• October 5 - A civil rights march in Derry, (of the 6 counties of northern) Ireland, which included several Stormont and British MPs, is batoned off the streets by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
• October 8 - Vietnam War: Operation Sealords - United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
• 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'etat, 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 will have ousted Martinez and taken charge as de facto Head of Government in Panama.
• October 12 - October 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 African-Americans competing in the Olympic 200 meter run, raise their arms in a black power salute after winning 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 - Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry 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
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• November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1968: Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats 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 co-educational.
• 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

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• 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 22 - Dwight David Eisenhower II marries Julie Nixon, the daughter of U.S. President-elect Richard Nixon.
• December 24 - 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.

Births

January

• January 2 - Cuba Gooding Jr., American actor
• January 5 - Andrzej Gołota, Polish boxer
• January 6 - John Singleton, American film director and writer
• January 9 - Joey Lauren Adams, American actress
• January 9 - Al Schnier, American rock guitarist
• January 13 - Pat Onstad, Canadian footballer
• January 14 - LL Cool J, American rapper and actor
• January 15 - Chad Lowe, American actor
• January 24 - Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
• January 27 - Mike Patton, American singer
• January 28 - Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer
• January 29 - Edward Burns, American actor

February

• February 1 - Lisa Marie Presley, American singer
• February 5 - Roberto Alomar, baseball player
• February 8 - Gary Coleman, American actor
• February 10 - Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster
• February 13 - Kelly Hu, American actress and fromer fashion model
• February 14 - Jules Asner, American model and television personality
• February 14 - Nelson Viscera Frazier, American professional wrestler
• February 18 - Tommy Scott, British musician and frontman of 1990s' Britpop group Space
• February 22 - Brad Nowell, American musician (d. 1996)
• February 22 - Jeri Ryan, American actress
• February 25 - Sandrine Kiberlain, French actress
• February 27 - Matt Stairs, baseball player

March

• March 1 - Kunjarani Devi, Indian weightlifter
• March 2 - Daniel Craig, British actor and new James Bond star
• March 4 - Patsy Kensit, English actress
• March 6 - Moira Kelly, American actress
• March 11 - Lisa Loeb, American singer
• March 15 - Kahimi Karie, Japanese singer
• March 15 - Mark McGrath, American musician (Sugar Ray)
• March 18 - Shinichiro Miki, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)
• March 23 - Mike Atherton, English cricketer
• March 23 - Damon Albarn, English musician (Blur and Gorillaz)
• March 23 - Mitch Cullin, American novelist
• March 26 - Kenny Chesney, American musician
• March 26 - James Iha, American musician (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

April

• April 1 - Andreas Schnaas, German director
• April 3 - Sebastian Bach, West Indian-born musician (Skid Row)
• April 8 - Patricia Arquette, American actress
• April 15 - Stacey Williams, American model
• April 19 - Ashley Judd, American actress
• April 20 - J.D. Roth, American television host
• April 23 - Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d. 2001)

May

• May 1 - D'Arcy Wretzky, American musician
• May 7 - Traci Lords, American actress
• May 9 - Marie-José Perec, French athlete
• May 12 - Tony Hawk, American skateboarder
• May 17 - Constance Menard, professional Dressage Rider
• May 26 - Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark
• May 27 - Jeff Bagwell, baseball player
• May 27 - Frank Thomas, baseball player
• May 28 - Kylie Minogue, Australian actress and singer

June

• June 1- Jason Donovan, Australian actor and singer
• June 2 - Beetlejuice, member of the Wack Pack from radio's The Howard Stern Show
• June 2 - John Culshaw, English comedian and impressionist
• June 4 - Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress
• June 10 - The D.O.C. , rapper
• June 20 - Peter Paige, American actor
• June 25 - Oleg Taktarov, MMA Champion
• June 26 - Iwan Roberts, Welsh footballer
• June 26 - Shannon Sharpe, American football player and commentator
• June 28 - Adam Woodyatt, British actor
• June 29 - Theoren Fleury, Canadian hockey player
• June 30 - Philip Anselmo, American musician

July

• 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 - Dhanraj Pillay, Indian field hockey player
• July 16 - Barry Sanders, American football player
• 22 July - Rhys Ifans, Welsh Actor
• July 24 - Kristin Chenoweth, American soprano and actress.
• July 27 - Julian McMahon, Australian actor
• July 30 - Robert Korzeniowski, Polish racewalker

August

• August 9 - Gillian Anderson, American actress
• August 9 - Eric Bana, Australian actor
• August 11 - Charlie Sexton, American guitarist, singer and songwriter
• August 12 - Andras Jones, American actor
• August 14- Darren Clarke, Northern Irish professional golfer
• August 15- Debra Messing, Professional Actress best known for Will & Grace
• August 17 - Ed McCaffrey, American football player
• August 17 - Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Belgian economist
• August 25 - Rachael Ray, American television chef and host

September

• September 1 - Mohamed Atta al Sayed, Egyptian terrorist
• September 4 - Mike Piazza, baseball player
• September 7 - Marcel Desailly, French footballer
• September 11 - Kay Hanley, American musician
• September 12 - John Stutz, American photographer
• September 18 - Toni Kukoč, Croatian basketball player
• September 20 - Darrell Russell, race car driver (d. 2004)
• September 20 - Phillipa Forrester, British TV presenter
• September 25 - Will Smith, American rapper and actor
• September 26 - James Caviezel, American actor
• September 28 - Naomi Watts, English-born actress
• September 29 - Patrick Burns, American paranormal investigator and television personality.
• September 29 - Samir Soni, Indian film and TV actor

October

• October 2 - Victoria Derbyshire, British Radio presenter
• October 3 - Paul Crichton, English footballer
• October 7 - Toni Braxton, American singer
• October 7 - Thom Yorke, British singer/songwriter
• October 8 - CL Smooth, American rapper
• October 10 - Bart Brentjens, Dutch mountainbiker
• October 11 - Jane Krakowski, American actress
• October 12 - Hugh Jackman, Australian actor
• October 14 - Matthew Le Tissier, English footballer
• October 15 - Didier Deschamps, French footballer
• October 18 - Basil White, American comedian
• October 24 - Sal the Stockbroker, American comedian and radio writer for The Howard Stern Show
• October 29 - Tsunku, Japanese singer, music producer, and song composer
• October 31 - Vanilla Ice, American rapper

November

• November 3 - Debbie Rochon, Canadian actress
• November 4 - Lee Germon, New Zealand cricketer
• November 8 - Zara Whites, Dutch actress
• November 9 - Nazzareno Carusi, Italian pianist
• November 10 - Steve Brookstein, British singer
• November 10 - Petra Liebetanz, Germanan-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 15 - Jennifer Charles, American singer
• November 15 - Ol' Dirty Bastard, American rapper (d. 2004)
• November 18 - Barry Hunter, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
• November 18 - Owen Wilson, American actor
• 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

December

• December 2 - Lucy Liu, American actress
• December 5 - Margaret Cho, Korean-American actress and comedian
• December 7 - Mark Geyer, Australian rugby league player
• December 8 - Mike Mussina, baseball player
• December 8 - Michael Cole, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Commentator
• December 9 - Kurt Angle, American amateur and professional wrestler, 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist
• December 17 - Paul Tracy, Canadian race car driver

Unknown dates

• Phill Lewis, American actor
• George Henry Smyth, Irish artist

Deaths

January-March

• 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)
• February 4 - Neal Cassady, American writer (b. 1926)
• February 11 - Howard Lindsay, American playwright (b. 1888)
• 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 28 - Frankie Lymon, American singer (b. 1942)
• February 29 - Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b. 1886)
• March 16 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (b. 1895)
• March 20 - Charles Chaplin Jr., American actor (b. 1925)
• March 23 - Edwin O'Connor, American novelist and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (b. 1918)
• March 27 - Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut (b. 1934)

April-June

• April 1 - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
• April 4 - Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 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, baseball player (b. 1911)
• April 22 - Stephen H. Sholes, American record executive (b. 1911)
• April 25 - John Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876)
• May 7 - Mike Spence British race car driver (b. 1936)
• May 9 - Mercedes de Acosta, American poet, playwright, costume designer, and socialite (b. 1893)
• May 14 - Husband E. Kimmel, American admiral (b. 1882)
• June 1 - Helen Keller, American spokeswoman for deaf and blind (b. 1880)
• June 6 - Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General (assassinated) (b. 1925)
• June 14 - Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
• June 15 - Sam Crawford, baseball player (b. 1880)
• June 24 - Tony Hancock, British comedian (b. 1924)

July-December

• July 18 - Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
• July 23 - Henry Hallett Dale, English scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1875)
• July 28 - Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
• July 31 - Jack Pizzey, incumbent Premier of Queensland, Australia (b. 1911)
• August 19 - George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (b. 1904)
• August 27 - Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (b. 1906)
• August 29 - Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier and planner (b. 1881)
• September 8 - Luther Perkins, American guitarist (b. 1928)
• September 12 - Tommy Armour, Scottish golfer (b. 1894)
• October 2 - Marcel Duchamp, French artist (b. 1887)
• October 9 - Pierre Mulele, Congolese revolutionary
• October 13 - Bea Benaderet, American actress (b. 1906)
• October 30 - Rose Wilder Lane, American author and reporter (b. 1886)
• October 30 - Ramón Novarro, Mexican actor (b. 1899)
• November 4 - Michel Kikoine, Belarusian painter (b. 1892)
• November 6 - Charles Munch, French conductor and violinist (b. 1891)
• November 25 - Upton Sinclair, American writer (b. 1878)
• November 26 - Arnold Zweig, German writer (b. 1887)
• December 2 - Adamson-Eric, Estonian artist (b. 1902)
• 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 19 - Norman Thomas, American politician (b. 1884)
• December 20 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• December 30 - Trygve Lie, first United Nations Secretary General (b. 1896)
• December 30 - Vladimir Peter Tytla, American animator (b. 1904)

Month/day unknown

• Berthold Bartosch, Czech animator (b. 1893)
• Robert Wood Johnson, American business leader and philanthropist (b. 1893)
• Jouett Shouse, American politician (b. 1879)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Luis Walter Alvarez
• Chemistry - Lars Onsager
• Physiology or Medicine - Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana, Marshall W. Nirenberg
• Literature - Yasunari Kawabata
• Peace - René Cassin

Further reading

• Mark Kurlansky (2004), 1968: the year that rocked the world, Jonathan Cape