1968: Week 14
Posted on April 2, 2008
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Weekly timeline for 1968: A year of change and tumult
April 2: Senator Eugene McCarthy wins the Democratic primaries in Wisconsin.
April 2: Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey†opens.
April 3: “Planet of the Apes†opens.
April 3: North Vietnam agrees to meet with U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks.
April 3: Simon and Garfunkel release the critically acclaimed album “Bookends.â€
April 4: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, is assassinated while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. James Earl Ray confesses and pleads guilty in March, 1969, but later tries to recant, saying he was a fall guy for a wide-ranging conspiracy (later proved). The King assassination sparks rioting in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Newark, Washington, and many other cities. Forty-six deaths will be blamed on the riots. James Brown appears on national television in an attempt to calm feelings of anger following the assassination.
April 6: Black Panther member Bobby Hutton (17) is killed in a gun battle with police in West Oakland, Calif., and Eldridge Cleaver is arrested.
April 7: Scotsman Jimmy Clark, one of the greatest race car drivers of all time (with two Formula 1 World Championships and an Indy 500 title), dies at age 32 in Hockenheim, West Germany, in a racing accident.
Sources:
The Whole World Was Watching: An oral history of 1968. A joint project between South Kingstown High School and Brown University’s Scholarly Technology Group
Timelines of History
Timeline 1968
Rock Timeline
Wikipedia Music Timeline
Frank Eugene Smitha’s Macrohistory and World Report
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