1968: Information and Much More from Answers.com
- ️Tue Mar 18 1969
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The United States loses her 10,000th plane over Vietnam January 5 (see 1967). Former congresswoman Jeanette Rankin, now 87, leads 5,000 women of the Jeanette Rankin Brigade in a march on Capitol Hill at Washington, D.C., January 15 to protest U.S. involvement in the war. North Vietnamese artillery open up a barrage on the U.S. Marine base at Khe San January 21, hitting the main ammunition dump, killing 18 men, wounding 40, and destroying 90 percent of the Khe San arsenal as Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, now 55, follows the strategy that he employed successfully against the French at Dien Bien Phu 14 years ago. The communists lay siege to Khe Sanh, a fortress that commands a major road junction and infiltration route south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
A great Tet offensive begins January 31 as Vietcong guerrillas attack the U.S. Embassy at Saigon and North Vietnamese forces attack some 30 South Vietnamese cities, including Hue and Saigon, in an effort to topple the regime of generals Nguyen Cao Ky and Nguyen Van Thieu, who are supported by the United States.
South Vietnamese forces recapture the ancient palace grounds at Hue February 24, but the success of the enemy leads Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to resign; President Johnson replaces him with Clark Clifford.
A North Korean torpedo boat and subchaser seize the spy ship U.S.S. Pueblo off the port of Wonsan in January and her 83-man crew sustains one casualty. Crew members have tried frantically to shred documents and destroy espionage equipment before they could be seized; they are not totally successful, and the incident seriously compromises U.S. security. North Korea had broadcast warnings that she would not tolerate spy ships, but Idaho-born Pueblo commander Lloyd M. Bucher, 41, will deny that his ship came within 12 miles of the Korean coast and will be released with his surviving men after 11 months of captivity. A U.S. intelligence plane is shot down April 15 some 90 miles off the Korean coast.
My Lai village in South Vietnam is the scene of a massacre March 16. U.S. troops of C Company, First Battalion, Twentieth Infantry, Eleventh Brigade, American Division enter the village in Quang Ngai Province, gather hundreds of men, women, and children into groups, and "waste" them with automatic weapons fire. The Viet Cong has often used such villages as havens, and they have enraged the U.S. troops by killing a popular sergeant. Some of the soldiers refuse to fire on women and children; Louisiana-born warrant officer Hugh C. Thompson, Jr., 25, lands his reconnaissance helicopter to investigate. Told that it is none of his business, he takes off but then sees a ditch full of dead bodies with soldiers in the process of executing women, children, and old men. He lands again with his door gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glen Andreotta (who is killed 3 weeks later), they train their guns on the soldiers, and they help Thompson rescue nearly a dozen unarmed civilians, but the number of people killed will be reported at somewhere between 347 and 504. Soldiers who do participate in the massacre will later say that they acted on orders from Lieut. William L. Calley, Jr., 24; two soldiers write to their congressmen to complain of routine brutality, the army puts New York-born Major Colin L. (Luther) Powell, 31, in charge of an investigation, and he writes, "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent"; fellow officers ostracize Thompson for stopping the massacre, and news of the My Lai massacre will be suppressed for 20 months (see 1969).
Opposition to the Vietnam War enables Sen. Eugene McCarthy, 52, (D. Wis.) to make a strong showing in the New Hampshire primary; his success persuades President Johnson to announce March 31 that he will not be a candidate for reelection. New York civil-rights lawyer and anti-war activist Allard K. Lowenstein, 39, has led the opposition to another term for Johnson.
President Johnson announces cessation of U.S. air and naval bombardment north of the 20th parallel in Vietnam March 31 (advisers who include notably New York lawyer Arthur H. Dean, now 69, have persuaded the president to halt the bombing and not to run for reelection). South Carolina-born Gen. William (Childs) Westmoreland, 54, says, "The enemy has been defeated at every turn," but his statement has a hollow ring. Khe Sanh's garrison is successfully evacuated June 27; while it is true that the Americans have won every battle, the North Vietnamese have shown a willingness to sustain horrendous losses and continue fighting however long as it takes: their determination has impressed the world.
Nine Roman Catholic priests enter Selective Service offices at Catonsville, Md., in May, dump hundreds of 1-A classification records into trash baskets, take the records outside, burn them, and await arrest for their "symbolic act" protesting the Vietnam War. Jesuit priest-poet Daniel Berrigan, 47, his brother Philip, and their fellow priests will be sentenced to prison terms of from 2 to 3½ years each, but Daniel Berrigan will avoid apprehension after his conviction and exhaustion of appeals; he will continue speaking out against the war until rearrested in August 1970.
Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel (ret.) dies of a heart attack at Groton, Conn., May 14 at age 86.
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D. N.Y.) makes a bid for the presidency after seeing the success of Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire. Now 42, "Bobby" captures 174 delegate votes (winning the Indiana, Nebraska, and California primaries, losing in Oregon), but is assassinated June 5 in a Los Angeles kitchen pantry after leaving a victory celebration at the Ambassador Hotel. Kennedy aides seize Jordanian-born Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, 24, as he empties his .22 caliber, eight-shot Ivor Johnson pistol, wounding five others (he has purchased the handgun for $29 from a local firearms dealer).
Cambodia's Prince Norodom Sihanouk, 45, warns American ships to stay out of his part of the Mekong River. His forces seize a U.S. patrol boat July 17.
Czechoslovakia's president Antonín Novotny resigns under pressure in January, communist hardliner Ludvík Svoboda, 72, wins election as president of the republic March 30 on the recommendation of the new Communist Party first secretary Alexander Dubcek, 46, but both Svoboda and Dubcek decline invitations to attend conferences at Warsaw or Moscow. Novotny is succeeded on Dubcek's recommendation by Moravian-born war hero Ludvík Svoboda, 72, who will hold office until 1975. Dubcek appoints miner's son and former minister of fuel Oldrich Cernik, 46, prime minister in April in hopes that Cernik's centrist position will mollify hardline communist critics of reform. Dubcek and Cernik receive support from presidents Tito and Ceausescu, but the "Prague Spring" that has seen a relaxation of oppression ends August 20 as some 200,000 Soviet and satellite troops invade Czechoslovakia on orders from Moscow (Romanian troops do not participate).
Popular demonstrations in Czechoslovakia raise a threat of revolution like the one in Hungary 12 years ago. Moscow increases the Soviet army of occupation to 650,000 and summons Czech leaders to the Kremlin (First Party Secretary Dubcek, Prime Minister Cernik, and some others are taken to Moscow in handcuffs). President Svoboda plays a major role in obtaining the release of Dubcek and his aides; they return to Prague August 27 and announce the annulment of several important reforms. Slovak communist Gustav Husák, 55, has been deputy premier since April, he favored caution before the Soviet invasion, has led the faction demanding a reversal of Dubcek's reforms, and is appointed leader of the Communist Party in Slovakia August 28. Soviet foreign minister Kuznetsov arrives at Prague, Party Secretary Dubcek bans political clubs September 6, Czech authorities introduce a censorship system September 13, and the foreign minister who presented the Czech case at the UN resigns under pressure September 19 (see 1969).
The 9-year-old nuclear submarine U.S.S Scorpion receives a top secret message shortly before midnight May 16 advising her skipper to change course in the Atlantic and head for the Canary Islands. She surfaces 33 minutes later at Rota, Spain, transfers two crewmen ashore via Navy tug for personal reasons, and disappears May 22, carrying all of the 99 men aboard to their deaths. Her wreckage is discovered two miles deep in November, the navy blames her loss on mechanical failure, but suspicions will persist that a Soviet ship sent her to the bottom.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) signed in triplicate July 1 at London, Moscow, and Washington, D.C., pledges Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations to refrain from helping any country that does not yet possess nuclear explosives in obtaining or producing such explosives (see Test-Ban Treaty, 1963). Drafted with help from Mexican diplomat Alfonso García Robles, the treaty is to become effective in March 1970, 59 other nations soon sign it, France and the People's Republic of China will sign it in 1992, other nations (but not India, Pakistan, or Israel) will ratify it, and a consensus of 174 nations will vote at the United Nations in 1995 to extend it indefinitely.
Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveiro Salazar suffers a stroke and is replaced as prime minister September 21 by his former deputy Marcelo José das Neves Alves Catano, 61, who since 1959 has been rector of the University of Lisbon (see 1970).
French universities close down in May after widespread street fighting that began March 22 with violent student demonstrations at the University of Nanterre, outside Paris, and spread quickly to the Sorbonne and other schools. Police evacuate the Sorbonne May 3, arresting nearly 600 after more than 100 have been injured. Riots ensue in the Latin Quarter May 10 and 11 (the "night of the barricades") as students build cobblestone barricades and overturn 188 cars, burning many of them; nearly 1,000 are injured, including 251 police. Strikes in various industries from May 11 to May 27 bring an estimated 10 million workers off the job, President de Gaulle asks for restoration of order in a radio appeal broadcast May 24, French-born German student Daniel Cohn-Bendit ("Danny the Red"), 23, is exiled May 24 as a threat to public order (he took part initially in the revolt at Nanterre), trade unions sign major agreements on wages and working conditions May 27 and workers start returning to the job, de Gaulle dissolves Parlement May 30 and calls for elections, the movement loses steam by mid-June, the communists and other radical parties lose seats in the June elections, and the Gaullist Party wins a clear majority, having actually been strengthened by the disturbances.
Marshal Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky dies at Moscow May 10 at age 70; Gen. Nikolaus von Falkenhorst at Hozminden, West Germany, June 18 at age 83 (he was condemned to death by the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946 for ordering the execution of 40 British commandos and prisoners of war, his sentence was later commuted, and he was released from prison in 1953 because of a heart condition); Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky dies at Moscow August 3 age 71; former Greek premier George Papandreou at Athens November 1 at age 80 after surgery for a bleeding ulcer; former United Nations secretary general Trygve Lie of a heart attack at Geilo, Norway, December 30 at age 72.
Iraq has a military coup d'état July 17 as the Arab Baath Socialist Party overthrows President Abd ar-Rahman Arif and replaces him with Gen. Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, 54, who will share power with Baath leader Saddam Hussein, now 31 (see 1963; 1979; energy, 1972).
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) appoints a new leader as Arab hostility against Israel increases in the Middle East (see 1967): Yasir Arafat of the 12-year-old terrorist organization Al Fatah takes over, the major Arab nations agree to subsidize his activities, and he will head the PLO until his death in 2004 (see 1975).
Nauru in the South Pacific gains independence January 31. Once a German colony, the island with its rich phosphate deposits has been a British mandate and a United Nations Trust territory.
Mauritius in the Indian Ocean gains independence March 12 after more than 153 years of British colonial rule.
Former New Zealand prime minister Sir Walter Nash dies at Auckland June 4 at age 86.
President Marcos of the Philippines pardons former Huk leader Luis Taruc in September (see 1954). Now 55, Taruc resumes working for land reform. Manila lays claim to Saba on the island of Borneo and passes a law September 18 incorporating the territory into the Philippine Republic after talks at Bangkok with the Malaysian government have broken down. Communist guerrilla activity in northern Malaysia has resumed in June; Malaysia breaks relations with Manila.
Uganda's president Milton Obote promotes Brig. Gen. Idi Amin to major general, announces a turn to the left and tries to remove influential Bugandan officials from power, replacing them with members of his own ethnic Acholi and Langi tribes (see 1966; 1971).
Swaziland gains independence September 6 after 66 years of British rule.
Equatorial Guinea in West Africa gains independence October 12 after 124 years of Spanish colonial rule.
The African continent, which was completely white-controlled 10 years ago, is controlled south of the Sahara by black regimes in every country except Angola, Mozambique, Rhodesia, South Africa, South-West Africa (Namibia), and Equatorial Guinea. Within 6 years only Rhodesia, South Africa, and South-West Africa will remain white-controlled.
Canada's prime minister Lester B. Pearson announces in March that he will retire, and his minister of justice Pierre Elliott Trudeau campaigns for leadership of the Liberal Party; now 48, Trudeau has overcome widespread resistance to obtain passage of legislation calling for stricter gun control and reform of measures against abortion and homosexuality; his progressive ideas and colorful personality help him win out over 19 other candidates, he becomes party leader April 6, and he is elected prime minister April 20, assuming an office that he will hold until 1979 (and from 1980 to 1984).
Mexico City students gather in Tlatelolco Plaza (The Plaza of the Three Cultures) October 2 to protest an army takeover of the National University scarcely a week before the scheduled opening of the Olympic Games. President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz sends in riot police and federal troops to break up the demonstration, which has allegedly been instigated by writer Octavio Paz's wife and fellow writer Elena Garro, 47 (she goes into exile and will remain abroad for more than 20 years); at least 10 plainclothes snipers on rooftops of the surrounding Tlatelolco housing complex open fire with machine guns on tens of thousands of student demonstrators in the worst massacre since the 1910 revolution. Officials initially report 29 dead and later raise the figure to 37; a U.S. diplomat says "nearly 200" were killed, others count as many as 700 bodies. Some 2,000 young people are beaten and jailed, police ransack the office of a magazine that publishes dramatic photographs of the events, and the massacre brings demands for democracy and accountability that will grow in future years as survivors come to play leading roles in the nation's intellectual and political life (but see 1971).
Peru has a military coup d'état October 3 as a column of tanks under the command of Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado, 58, rumbles into Lima's Plaza de Armas, arrests President Belaunde Terry, sends him into exile in the United States, and defies U.S. interests by seizing properties (see 1963). Velasco Alvarado has capitalized on public outrage over an agreement allowing a U.S. company to develop oil fields in northern Peru, and he will rule until his own overthrow in 1975, making sweeping changes in the nation's society by limiting U.S. influence; nationalizing electric power, transportation, and communications; and converting millions of acres of privately-owned farms into worker-managed cooperatives.
Puerto Rico's Popular Democratic Party divides into factions after having controlled the governorship for 20 years and dominated the legislature for 28. New Progressive Party founder Luis A. (Alberto) Ferré, 64, is elected governor and will serve until 1973, increasing workers' wages and benefits, constructing roads, an airport, and beaches, and developing the island's copper mines.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren advises President Johnson June 13 that he wishes to retire for reasons of age after 15 years; Johnson nominates Justice Abe Fortas, now 58, to succeed him (but see 1969).
Former House Speaker Joseph W. Martin Jr. (D. Mass.), dies of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at Hollywood, Fla., March 6 at age 83; Alabama's governor Lurleen (Mrs. George) Wallace dies of cancer at Montgomery May 7 at age 41. She is succeeded by Albert Preston Brewer, 39.
The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Selective Service Act May 27 in an opinion handed down in the case of United States v. O'Brien (draft resister David P. O'Brien and three companions burned their draft cards on the steps of the South Boston Courthouse at the end of March 1966 and O'Brien was indicted).
Bloody police confrontations mark the Democratic Party convention at Chicago in August, with demonstrators protesting U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia and many domestic policies (see 1967). Some 10,000 militants protest the rising death toll in Vietnam with a "Festival of Life" in Grant and Lincoln parks that includes rock concerts, marijuana smoking, public lovemaking, beach nude-ins, and draft card burnings. Self-styled revolutionists have called for a mobilization of 500,000 at Chicago, but their forces are far outnumbered by 16,000 Chicago police officers, 4,000 state police officers, and 4,000 National Guardsmen armed with tear gas grenades, night sticks, and firearms, who act on orders from Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley and brutally crack heads to prevent demonstrators from remaining overnight in city parks. The police arrest 308, and although eight cops are indicted for use of excessive force all will be acquitted. Leaders of the protest include Worcester, Mass.-born activist Abbot H. "Abbie" Hoffman, 30, and Jerry C. Rubin, 29, of the "Yippies" (Youth International Party), Rennie Davis, 27, and Michigan-born Thomas E. Hayden, 27, of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Dallas-born Black Panther leader Robert George "Bobby" Seale, 31, and civil rights advocate David Dellinger, 52 (see trial, 1969).
Democrats at Chicago nominate Vice President Hubert Horatio Humphrey, 57, to succeed President Johnson, who announces complete cessation of U.S. aerial, artillery, and naval bombardment of Vietnam north of the 20th parallel October 31 in a move to further the peace talks at Paris and help Humphrey's chances for the presidency, but the talks produce no results.
Former vice president Richard M. Nixon wins the Republican nomination on the first ballot, having actively campaigned for Republican candidates in 1966 and regained favor. He claims to have a "secret plan" for ending the war in Vietnam and wins election by the narrowest margin since his own defeat by John F. Kennedy in 1960—43.4 percent of the popular vote to Humphrey's 43 percent (but 302 electoral votes to Humphrey's 191). Former Alabama governor George C. Wallace carries five Southern states with a combined electoral vote of 45 (he has run as the candidate of the American Independent Party). Antiwar activist Benjamin Spock, M.D., has run as the People's Party candidate on a platform that called for free medical care, legalization of abortion and marijuana, a guaranteed minimum income, and immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from foreign countries.
Brooklyn's 12th Congressional District elects local activist Shirley (Anita St. Hill) Chisholm, 43, to the House of Representatives, where she will be the first elected black congresswoman. Chisholm will serve seven terms.
Los Angeles County superior court judge Shirley (Mount) Hufstedler, 43, is appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, becoming the first woman appellate justice (see education, 1979).
National Turn in Your Draft Card Day November 14 features burning of draft cards and war protest rallies at many U.S. campuses as the Vietnam death toll approaches 30,000 and U.S. troop strength in Vietnam reaches its peak of 550,000.
Longtime Socialist Party leader and pacifist Norman Thomas dies of a heart attack at Huntington, N.Y., December 19 at age 84.
The Kerner Report issued February 29 says, "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders headed by Gov. Otto Kerner Jr., 59, of Illinois charges white society with condoning the black ghetto it has created.
Martin Luther King Jr. is shot dead April 4 as he steps out on the balcony of his Memphis motel room. The civil-rights leader has for 6 years been under surveillance by the FBI, whose director J. Edgar Hoover has used wiretaps, electronic bugs, and paid informants to gain information on Rev. King's private life and circulated it in an effort to discredit him. A March 3 memo from Hoover has spelled out FBI goals in a "Counter-Intelligence Program" against "Black Nationalist Hate-Groups": "1. Prevent the coalition of militant black nationalist groups . . . [that] might be the first step toward a real 'Mau Mau' in America, the beginning of a true black revolution. 2. Prevent the rise of a 'messiah' who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement . . . King could be a very real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed 'obedience' to 'white, liberal doctrines (nonviolence) and embrace black nationalism." Only 39 at his death, King has been picked off with one shot fired from a sniper's 30.06 Remington rifle. Fingerprints indicate that the assassin was ex-convict James Earl Ray, 39, who escaped last year from Mississippi State Penitentiary; he is indicted for murder and arrested June 8 by Scotland Yard detectives at a London airport (veteran detective Thomas M. J. Butler, now 55, has led the search for him). Extradited to stand trial, Ray will plead guilty and be sentenced next year to 99 years in prison, but he will later recant and doubts will remain as to whether he acted alone.
Race riots erupt at Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Newark, Washington, D.C., and scores of other cities following the King assassination. Chicago's Mayor Daley gives police "shoot to kill" orders to put down the rioting that produces nearly 3,000 arrests in that city, $11 million in property damage, nine dead, 500 injured. Baltimore suffers $14 million in property damage, 5,800 arrests, six dead, 900 injured. Washington, D.C. suffers $24 million in property damage, more than 8,000 arrests, 11 dead, more than 1,000 injured (the city's new mayor, Harold E. Washington, angers FBI director J. Edgar Hoover by giving orders that looters are not to be shot). A total of 46 deaths result across the country, 55,000 federal troops and National Guardsmen are called out, 21,270 arrests made.
A new U.S. Civil Rights bill signed into law by President Johnson April 11 stresses open housing.
A Poor People's March on Washington gets under way May 3, but while his Alabama-born chief aide Rev. Ralph (David) Abernathy, 42, has succeeded the late Martin Luther King Jr. as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and continues its commitment to nonviolent social clubs, the SCLC will soon stop mounting giant demonstrations and limit its activities to smaller campaigns, mostly in the South.
Poland's communist government launches a campaign in March against dissident intellectuals and students, stripping 12,000 to 20,000 Jews and people of Jewish origin of their citizenship and forcing them to leave the country. Poland's president will invite the Jews to return in March 1998, calling the anti-Semitic episode a shameful page in Polish history.
German-born French fascism fighter Beate Klarsfeld (née Kunzel), 29, confronts West German Chancellor Kurt-George Kiesinger during the Christian Democratic Party convention at West Berlin and slaps him in the face, drawing attention to his Nazi past. She is arrested and will serve a 1-year prison sentence, but Kiesinger will not be reelected. Not herself Jewish, Kunzel first heard about the Holocaust in 1960 from fellow student Serge Klarsfeld, whose father was one of some 70,000 French Jews killed at Auschwitz. She later married Klarsfeld, now a lawyer, and together they will work for the next 20 years to track down and expose former Nazis, including Kurt Lischka (who headed the Gestapo in France), the infamous "Butcher of Lyon" Klaus Barbie, and Auschwitz death camp doctor Joseph Mengele, despite beatings, car bombings, and death threats from neo-Nazis (see 1984).
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin dies in a plane crash near Moscow March 27 at age 34. (Another pilot is also killed in the crash of the two-seat jet.) Gagarin was the first man in space and in recent years has been demoted for using his position as a hero of the Soviet Union to speak out in support of dissidents, but his ashes are interred in a niche in the Kremlin wall and the town of Gzhatsk (he was born nearby) is renamed Gagarin.
The U.S. Apollo 7 mission from October 11 to 22 is the first manned flight of Apollo Command and Service modules. Astronauts on the mission include civilian physicist R. (Ronnie) Walter Cunningham, 36, who was a Marine Corps fighter pilot from 1953 to 1956 (see moon landing, 1969).
Half of all U.S. mothers of school-age children are in the workforce as of March, and seven out of 10 work full time (80 percent of these have no husbands). All but 10 percent say they need the money, either to support themselves and their families or to pay for medical care, save for a child's education, or buy a house.
The gap between rich nations and underdeveloped nations must be narrowed or "men and women will be impelled to revolt," warns India's prime minister Indira Gandhi at New Delhi.
U.S.-owned multinationals have been the chief beneficiaries of the European Common Market, says French economist Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber in his book The American Challenge.
Economic inflation continues to mount in much of the world. The United States and six West European nations agree March 18 to supply no more gold to private buyers.
Britain's Exchequer issues the nation's first 5- and 10-pence coins April 23 as the British shift to the decimal system after centuries of dealing with guineas, crowns, half-crowns, sovereigns, shillings, sixpences, and threepences (see 1971).
Japan's Gross National Product (GNP) climbs 12 percent to $140 billion and passes that of West Germany by $10 billion to make Japan the free world's second strongest economic power after the United States (whose GNP is $860 billion), but per capita income is $921, little more than that of Ireland.
The United States has 4,462 corporate business mergers, up from 2,975 last year (see 1969).
The Consumer Credit Protection Act approved by Congress May 29 will stand as landmark legislation; the so-called "Truth in Lending" Act requires banks and other lending institutions to disclose clearly the true annual rate of interest and other financing costs on most types of loans.
President Johnson signs a bill June 28 adding a 10 percent surcharge to income taxes and reducing government spending, but the war in Indochina is costing the United States millions of dollars per day.
The Pentagon announces August 1 that it will buy steel only from firms that have not raised prices, but wholesale steel prices beginning at the end of this year will climb in 15 of the next 18 months as American steelmakers negotiate agreements with European and Japanese mills to reduce their shipments to the United States and U.S. industry raises prices in anticipation of possible price controls.
First Philadelphia Bank installs a one-way cash dispenser imported from Britain; Canton, Ohio, safe manufacturer Deibold & Co. begins making automatic teller machines, patented in 1960 by inventor Luther Simjian, but, like cash dispensers, they require paper vouchers (see 1969).
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average closes November 29 at 985.08 and closes December 31 at 943.75, up from 905.11 at the end of 1967.
BankAmericard holders number 14 million by year's end, up from 2 million at the end of 1966, and 316,000 U.S. merchants accept the card, up from 64,000 at the end of 1966. By 1974 there will be more than 26 million BankAmericard holders and at least 33 million Master Charge card holders. Bank credit cards will be used to finance $13 billion worth of business per year in the United States (roughly 2.6 percent of all retail sales), 970,000 U.S. merchants will honor BankAmericard and more thousands will honor Master Charge, thousands of merchants in other countries will honor the cards, and approximately 3.8 percent of U.S. consumer debt will be in loans outstanding on bank credit cards, much of it at interest rates as high as 18 percent per year.
U.S. natural gas consumption begins to exceed new gas discoveries and reserves for interstate pipelines begin falling (see 1964). The industry blames artificially low prices established by the Federal Power Commission for having discouraged exploration for new reserves at a time when FPC actions have increased demand for natural gas. Some independent economists agree.
Oil discovered on Alaska's North Slope proves to be the largest reserve north of the Mexican border; petroleum companies join forces to establish the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. to bring the oil south to the ice-free port of Valdez, whose facilities have been rebuilt since the earthquake of 1964, making it favored as a port for shipment by tanker to world markets, but a debate begins as to the environmental impact of the pipeline (see 1969).
Peru's president Juan Velasco Alvarado seizes the International Petroleum Co.'s La Brea and Pariñas oil fields without compensating IPC's owner, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey.
An explosion at a Consolidation Coal Co. mine along Buffalo Creek at Farmington, W. Va., November 20 kills 78 people. Three more are killed December 12 in a fire at a Buffalo Mining Co. mine at nearby Lyburn. Buffalo Mining is a subsidiary of Pittston Co. (see 1972).
Penn Central is created February 14 by a merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad with the New York Central. Pennsy president James M. Symes, 71, has promoted the idea of combining the two roads; both are in financial trouble as a result of competition from trucks and automobiles that use publicly financed highways and airlines that use publicly financed airports. The new $5 billion corporation will be bankrupt within 2 years.
A Delta Airlines jet carrying 169 passengers is hijacked February 21 over southern Florida, the hijacker holds a gun on the pilot and forces him to land in Cuba, similar episodes follow, and the hijackings will lead to airport searches of passengers and luggage.
Pan Am and Aeroflot begin direct service between New York and Moscow July 15 (see 1956). Aeroflot uses the four-jet 11-62 designed by Sergei V. Ilyushin, now 73, for the first direct air link between the two countries since the start of the Cold War in 1946.
A prototype of the Tu-144 demonstrated by Aeroflot December 31 is the first supersonic airliner.
The S.S. QE 2 launched by the Cunard line replaces the 83,673-ton Queen Elizabeth launched in 1940. The new 66,850-ton passenger liner is 963 feet in length overall, carries 1,815 passengers, 1,000 in crew, and has four swimming pools, 13 decks, 24 elevators, and a 531-seat theater.
A 326,000-ton supertanker goes into service on charter to Gulf Oil. She will be followed by five sister ships (see 1972).
British Leyland Motor Corp. Ltd. is created February 8 by a merger of the 2-year-old British Motor Holdings Ltd. and Leyland Motor Corp Ltd.
U.S. automobile production reaches 8.8 million; truck and bus production approaches 2 million.
Volkswagen chief Heinz Nordhoff dies of a heart attack at Wolfsburg, West Germany, April 12 at age 69. He is succeeded by his deputy director Kurt Lotz, and Volkswagen captures 57 percent of the U.S. import market, with U.S. sales peaking at 569,292 vehicles, up from 120,000 in 1959. Seventy percent of VWs sold are Beetle models priced at under $1,800 and VWs outsell many U.S. makes, including Pontiac, Chevrolet Chevelle, Ford Fairlane, Plymouth Fury, Buick, Ford Mustang, Oldsmobile, and Chrysler (see 1970).
West Germany produces 2.5 million cars and nearly 600,000 trucks; Japan 2.1 million cars, 2 million trucks; Britain 1.7 million cars, 400,000 trucks and buses; France 1.8 million cars, 243,000 trucks; Italy 1.5 million cars, 115,000 trucks.
The German NSU Ro 80 introduced in Britain is the first Wankel-engine automobile (see Wankel, 1957). Toyo Kogyo in Japan uses the Wankel engine for its new Mazda cars.
Former Ford Motor Co. chairman Ernest R. Breech dies of a heart attack at Royal Oak, Mich., July 3 at age 81; Ford assembly line designer Charles E. Sorensen at Bethesda, Md., August 13 at age 86; Fruehauf Trailer Co. cofounder Harvey C. Fruehauf of a heart attack at Detroit October 14 at age 74.
Intel is cofounded in July by silicon microchip coinventor Robert Noyce (see 1959) and Gordon E. Moore, now 39, who leave Fairchild Semiconductor (following the departure of its chief executive Richard Hodgson to ITT), put up $250,000 each, recruit their Hungarian-born protégé Andrew Grove (originally Anders Graf), 32, and start a company to make memory chips, using a new metallic oxide semiconductor process. Building on work that has created two types of integrated circuits, one for logic and one for memory (both random access memory, or RAM, and read-only memory, or ROM), Intel will soon produce the world's first microprocessor (see Intel 4004, 1971).
Sperry-Rand founder James H. Rand dies at Freeport, Bahamas, June 3 at age 81.
The "mouse" demonstrated for the first time December 9 makes it easier to move a cursor around the screen of a computer. Invented at Menlo Park, Calif., 5 years ago by Stanford Research Institute engineer Douglas Engelbart, now 43, the graphical user interface device was originally a mechanical unit whose first prototype was a wheeled block carved from wood in the shape of a small brick with one button on top and two perpendicularly-placed wheels beneath it for detecting vertical and horizontal motion; an analog device attached to the two wheels plotted their position on an x-and-y axis, and the device was wired to an early workstation; it was awkward to maneuver, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tested it in 1966 and found it superior to other pointing devices such as arrow keys on keyboards, light pens, and knee switches. Its two wheels have been replaced by a single ball (see 1973).
Theoretical physicist Richard P. Feynman comes up with a theory that will lead to a better understanding of quarks (see 1964). Now 50, Feynman has been working at Stanford University with the developers of the Stanford Linear Accelerator and bases his theory on partons—the hypothetical hard particles inside the nucleus of an atom.
Icthyologist J. L. B. Smith dies at Cape Town January 7 at age 70, having gained fame for identifying the supposedly extinct coelacanth; Nobel physicist Lev Davidovich Landau dies at Moscow April 1 at age 60 of injuries suffered in a January 1962 auto accident; Nobel physiologist Corneille Heymans dies at Knokke, Belgium, July 18 at age 76, having discovered the regulatory effect of various sensory organs on respiration; Nobel chemist Otto Hahn dies at Göttingen July 28 age 89; physicist Lise Meitner at London October 27 at age 89.
Christiaan Barnard performs the most successful heart transplant to date January 2, giving retired Cape Town dentist Philip Blaiberg, 58, the heart of a young man of mixed race and thereby creating a sensation throughout South Africa (see 1967); the heart continues to function for 19 months and 5 days, partly because Barnard's team has reduced the amount of antirejection drugs. Barnard will continue his practice until 1983, when arthritis will abort his career; heart transplants will become standard in the next 30 years through the introduction of more powerful antirejection drugs, the procedure will be employed an estimated 100,000 times worldwide by the end of the century, 85 to 90 percent of patients will survive for at least 1 year, 75 percent for 5 years or more.
Houston cardiovascular surgeon Denton (Arthur) Cooley, 47, performs the first successful U.S. heart transplant May 2, removing the damaged heart of a 47-year-old male patient and replacing it with the heart of a 15-year-old female who has died of a brain injury. Cooley performs four similar transplants within 4 weeks (two patients die subsequently of other causes); he will use the first artificial heart next year as a stopgap measure to keep a patient alive for 64 hours at the Texas Heart Institute until a natural donor heart can be found and transplanted (see Jarvik, 1982).
The Medical Care Act signed into law July 1 by Canada's prime minister Lester Pearson quickly becomes known as Medicare and will be completely universal by April 1, 1972 (see 1964; U.S. Medicare, 1964; Hall Commission Review, 1979).
The United States has only 22,231 reported cases of measles, down from 400,000 in 1962, as a result of the Enders vaccine (see 1962).
Aerobics by Ottawa-born U.S. Air Force major Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., 37, launches Americans on a fitness exercise kick that will lead to a craze for jogging, swimming, bicycling, and aerobic dancing to stimulate heart and lung functions by forcing the body to consume up to 50 milliliters of oxygen in 12 minutes. Cooper's books will be translated into 39 languages and sell millions of copies (see 1971).
Johnson & Johnson chairman Robert Wood Johnson dies at New York January 30 at age 74; former U.S. surgeon general Thomas Parran Jr. at Pittsburgh February 16 at age 75; penicillin pioneer Howard Walter Florey (Lord Florey) of a heart attack at London February 21 at age 69; Dr. Scholl foot-product company founder William M. Scholl of pneumonia at Chicago March 3 at age 85.
British authorities refuse entry to Scientology students and teachers on the grounds that Scientology is "socially harmful" and that its "authoritarian principles and practices are a potential menace to the well-being of those so deluded as to become followers" (see 1963). The ban will remain in effect until 1980 (see 1973).
Theologian Karl Barth dies at Basel, Switzerland, December 9 at age 82.
Ireland's minister for education Donagh O'Malley dies suddenly at his native Limerick March 10 at age 46, but the government will implement his vision for free secondary education (see 1967).
French universities have turbulent disorders; President de Gaulle appoints former agriculture minister Edgar (-Jean) Faure, 59, minister of education, Parlement enacts a new law to reform higher education, and Faure will transform the nation's university system within a year, whereupon he will be named minister of state for social affairs (see Lille, 1970).
U.S. universities shut down as students demonstrate against the Vietnam War.
Militant Columbia University students shut down the school to protest its involvement in the war and its construction of a gymnasium in an area needed for low-cost housing. The protesters include members of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and black activists H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael. Evanston, Ill.-born political scientist David (Bicknell) Truman, 54, has been provost since last year and has liberalized rules governing the 17,500-student campus, speaking out for civil rights, instituting a 2-week break between the end of classes and final exams, allowing men to close their doors when they had women in their rooms, and challenging his colleague Jacques Barzun's assertion that the liberal arts are "dead or dying." Gym construction is halted April 25, but students led by Mark Rudd, 20, of the SDS take over five buildings in a week-long sit-in, demanding amnesty for protesters; Truman calls in the police, they storm the buildings April 30 after wanton destruction of property and make 628 arrests; classes are formally suspended May 5, and a second occupation of Hamilton Hall ends with a police raid May 22, 17 officers are injured, 81 students. A commission appointed by the faculty reports later in the year that "the seizure of the buildings was not simply the work of a few radicals" but "involved a significant portion of the student body who had become disenchanted with the operation of their university."
San Francisco State College students strike November 6, demanding open admission and a Third World Studies Department. The college is closed November 19 following daily confrontations between students and police. Semanticist S. I. Hayakawa is named president of the college, reopens it December 2, then closes it early for the Christmas vacation to avoid having high school students join the protest. The strike will continue for 5 months.
Helen Keller dies after a mild stroke at Westport, Conn., June 1 at age 87, having had earlier diabetes-related strokes; educator Carleton W. Washburne of 1919 Winnetka Plan fame dies at Okemos, Mich., November 17 at age 78.
The U.S. first class postal rate climbs to 6¢ January 7 (see 1963; 1971).
Polish editor Jerzy Turowicz of the weekly Tygodnik Powszechny defies the authorities who have launched an anti-Semitic purge and makes sure that articles by Jewish writers are published when no one else will publish them. He invites poet Anton Slonimsky to be a contributing editor (see 1956; 1982).
Soviet writer Vladimir Yemelyanovich Maksimov (originally Lev Alekseyvich Samsonov), 37, resigns as editor of the communist literary journal Oktyabr to protest the invasion of Czechslovakia.
Paris newspaper cartoonist Franklin Loufrani, 25, celebrates the end of the student riots by creating a bright yellow circle with stretched polka-dot eyes and a wide smile (see Ball, 1963). He will register the trademarked Smiley icon in France in October 1971, extend rights to its use in more than 80 countries, and earn substantial sums of money from it, but U.S. manufacturers will use the feel-good icon without Loufrani's permission, and although Loufrani will claim the dubious distinction of having created the smiley face and register a combination of the yellow logo and the word Smiley in America, he will not be allowed to claim rights to either one of them separately.
New Yorker magazine cartoonist Peter Arno of emphysema and lung cancer at Portchester, N.Y., February 22 at age 64; "Katzenjammer Kids" cartoonist Rudolf Dirks at New York April 25 at age 91; "Little Orphan Annie" cartoonist Harold L. Gray of cancer at La Jolla, Calif., May 9 at age 74 (others continue the strip); St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly publisher Nelson Poynter dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at St. Petersburg, Fla., June 15 at age 74; New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger at New York December 11 at age 77 (he is succeeded by his son Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, 42).
A new Canadian Broadcasting Act passed in February takes effect April 1 designating the 32-year-old Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) as the agency providing "the national broadcasting service," with programming to be bilingual and predominantly Canadian in content, but the act provides also for some private ownership.
The U.S. television industry has advertising revenues of $2 billion, roughly twice the total of radio advertising revenues. Both industries derive strong revenues from cigarette commercials (see 1967; 1969).
Action for Children's Television is founded by Newton, Mass., mother Peggy Charren, 39, and three other women who are concerned about the violence and huckstering of unwholesome products on commercial programming directed at youngsters.
Sony Corp. introduces the Trinitron color television set.
World television set ownership nears 200 million with 78 million sets in the United States, 25 million in the Soviet Union, 20.5 million in Japan, 19 in Britain, 13.5 in West Germany, 10 in France.
60 Minutes debuts on CBS Television 9/24 with anchors Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace, 45, and Harry Reasoner in a magazine-style investigative reporting format devised by producer Don Hewitt, 45, that will continue for more than 30 years, with various other journalists (including Ed Bradley, Steve Croft, Dan Rather, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Bob Simon, and Lesley Stahl) replacing Reasoner and supplementing Wallace.
Radio announcer Westbrook van Voorhis dies of cancer at Milford, Conn., July 13 at age 64; former radio commentator Raymond Gram Swing of a heart attack at Washington, D.C. December 22 at age 81.
New York magazine carries an interview by Toledo, Ohio-born writer Gloria Steinem, 34, with the wife of former vice president Richard M. Nixon conducted aboard a plane on the campaign trail. Pat Nixon (née Thelma Catherine Ryan), 56, tells Steinem, "I haven't just sat back and thought of myself or my ideas or what I wanted to do. Oh, no, I've stayed interested in people. I've kept working . . . I don't have time to worry about who I admire or who I identify with. I've never had it easy. I'm not like all you—all those people who had it easy." "Pat doesn't have a mink coat," her husband told television audiences 16 years ago in his famous "Checkers" speech, and she tells Steinem that a "good Republican cloth coat" is still good enough.
President-elect Nixon calls the congressional Commission on Obscenity and Pornography created last year "morally bankrupt" and says that "so long as I am in the White House, there will be no relaxation of the national effort to control and eliminate smut from our national life."
The 911 emergency telephone number instituted in New York to summon emergency police, fire, or ambulance assistance is the first such system in the United States (see Britain, 1937). By 1977 some 600 U.S. localities with a total population of 38 million will have 911 systems.
Xerox inventor Chester F. Carlson dies at New York September 19 at age 62, having become a multi-millionaire from his royalties and appreciation of his Xerox Corp. stock. Determined to die poor, he has given away some $100 million to various philanthropies.
Nonfiction: Toward a Rational Society by German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas, 39, who has a Kantian dedication to reason, ethics, and moral philosophy. A member of the "Frankfurt School" who has studied under Paul Adorno, Habermas will be condemned by some as a "Luddite"; Four Essays on Liberty by Sir Isaiah Berlin (he was knighted in 1957); Liberalism: Ancient and Modern by Leo Strauss; Soul on Ice by Arkansas-born Black Panther leader (Leroy) Eldridge Cleaver, 33, who wrote it in prison while serving 9 years for drug dealing and rape. The Panthers have run a free-lunch program at Oakland, Calif., and worked to help inner-city blacks help themselves, but Cleaver's faction has favored overthrowing the U.S. government by force and replacing it with a black socialist regime. Cleaver flees to Cuba in November to avoid going to prison for parole violations and begins a 7-year exile; Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima and Revolutionary Immortality: Mao Tse-Tung and the Chinese Revolution by Robert Jay Lifton; Chemical and Biological Warfare by Chicago-born journalist Seymour M. Hersh, 31; Slouching Towards Bethlehem (essays) by Sacramento-born California journalist-novelist Joan Didion, 33; Disobedience and History by Howard Zinn; Can We Win in Vietnam? by Herman Kahn; Les Nègres Blancs d'Amerique (White Niggers of America) by Quebec separatist Pierre Vallières, 30, who says, "To be a nigger in America is to be not a man but someone's slave." He calls upon Québcois to take up arms and use gasoline bombs in their campaign for independence, but critics say that being a black in the United States is incomparably more burdensome than being a French-Canadian; The Naked Civil Servant by English writer-raconteur-actor Quentin Crisp (originally Denis Pratt), 59, is an account of his openly homosexual life in London; Crisis Now by James M. Gavin, who criticizes the U.S. Army for over-reliance on nuclear weapons and other advanced hardware at the expense of conventional forces; The Whole Earth Catalog by Menlo Park, Calif., Truck Store operator Stewart Brand, 29; The Politics of Ecstasy by marijuana advocate Timothy Leary, who urges his readers to "turn on and drop out"; The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Peruvian- (or Brazilian-) born California anthropologist Carlos Castaneda, 42 (or 36—he is secretive about his life), who has explored the jimson weed and peyote drug culture of Sonora, Mexico, where belief in the supernatural is widespread. Castaneda's book becomes an international bestseller, although doubts will be raised as to whether the Yaqui Indian shaman Juan Matus ever existed outside the author's fantasies. Castaneda will write nine other books and be credited not only with reviving interest in Indian and Southwest cultures but also with helping to usher in the "New Age" sensibility.
British diplomat-author-critic Sir Harold Nicolson dies of a heart attack in Kent May 1 at age 81; lecturer-journalist Randolph (Frederick Edward Spencer) Churchill at his country home in Stour June 6 at age 57, having completed two volumes of a projected five-volume biography of his late father, the prime minister; psychologist Edwin G. Boring dies at Cambridge, Mass., July 1 at age 81; historian Crane Brinton at Cambridge, Mass., September 7 at age 70; author Thomas Merton (Father M. Louis) while attending an ecumenical conference of Catholic and Buddhist monks at Bangkok December 9 at age 53 when he is accidentally electrocuted in his bathtub by an electric fan.
Fiction: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Richmond, Va.-born novelist Tom Wolfe (Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr.), 37, whose term "radical chic" becomes a national catch phrase; The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History by Norman Mailer; Welcome to the Monkey House (stories) by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; Couples by John Updike; First Circle (V kruge pyervom) and Cancer Ward (Rakovy korpus) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; Enderby by Anthony Burgess; The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell; Expensive People by Joyce Carol Oates; My Michael by Israeli novelist Amos Oz, 29; Over Against the Woods (Muol ha-ye'arot) (stories) by Jerusalem-born Israeli writer A. (Abraham) B. Yehoshua, 31; Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal; Cocksure by Mordecai Richler; The Universal Baseball Association, J. Harry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover; Dance of the Happy Shades (stories) by Canadian writer Alice Munro (née Laidlaw), 37; Tigers Are Better Looking (stories) by Jean Rhys; Star Quest by Pennsylvania-born novelist Dean R. (Ray) Koontz, 23; Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy; Red Sky at Morning by Chicago-born, New Orleans-raised Santa Fe novelist Richard Bradford (son of Roark Bradford), 36; Airport by Arthur Hailey; The Salzburg Connection by Helen MacInnes.
The Booker Prize established by Britain's Publishers Association and the Booker food company rewards literary merit, publicizes little-known authors, and will increase sales of novels. Emulating the prix Goncourt established in France 65 years ago, the Booker will become Britain's most coveted literary award.
Salt Lake City-born writer Neal Cassady dies of alcohol and drugs beside a Mexican railroad track at San Miguel de Allende February 4 at age 41, having written long, spontaneous letters that inspired William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and other members of the Beat Generation; novelist Fannie Hurst dies at New York February 23 at age 78; Edwin O'Connor of a cerebral hemorrhage at Boston March 23 at age 49; Damon Runyon Jr. in a leap from a bridge at Washington, D.C., April 14 at age 50; novelist-playwright Edna Ferber dies at New York April 16 at age 82; Allan Seeger of cancer at Ann Arbor, Mich., May 10 at age 62; Dorothy Dodds Baker at Terra Bella, Calif., June 17 at age 61; Charles Jackson commits suicide at New York September 21 at age 65; mystery writer Cornell Woolrich dies at New York September 25 age 64; Conrad Richter of a heart ailment at Pottsville, Pa., October 30 at age 78; Rose Wilder Lane at her Danbury, Conn., home October 30 at age 80; novelist-politician Upton Sinclair at Bound Brook, N.J., November 25 age 90; John Steinbeck of a heart ailment at New York December 20 at age 66; Czech novelist Max Brod of a heart attack at Tel Aviv December 20 at age 84; James Kennaway at London December 21 at age 40 from injuries sustained in a motorcar accident.
Poetry: "August 1968" by W. H. Auden has been inspired by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia; Of Being Numerous by George Oppen; White Haired Lover by Karl Shapiro; Bending the Bow by Oakland, Calif.-born poet Robert (Edward) Duncan, 49; Shall We Gather at the River by James Wright; The Speed of Darkness by Muriel Rukeyser; Windmill Country,The Hidden Journey, and Late Night Bulletin by Dorothy Hewett; His Toy, His Dream, His Rest by John Berryman; A Day for Anne Frank by Newark, N.J.-born poet C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Williams, 31; The World Saved by Little Children (Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini) by Elsa Morante; Firstborn by New York-born poet Louise (Elisabeth) Glück, 25; Black Judgement by Nikki Giovanni includes her poem "Nikki Rosa."
Poet-essayist Gunnar Ekelöf dies at Sigtuna, Sweden, March 16 at age 60; Arnulf Overland at Oslo March 25 at age 77 (after his liberation from a German concentration camp in 1945 the Norwegian government expressed its gratitude by giving him the old home of poet Hernik Wergeland); poet-art critic Herbert Read dies near Malton, England, June 10 at age 74; Salvatore Quasimodo of a brain hemorrhage at Naples June 14 at age 60.
Juvenile: Corduroy by California author-illustrator Don Freeman, 60; Tikki Tikki Tembo by Cleveland-born author Arlene Mosel (née Tichy), 47, illustrations by Blair Lent; CDB! and Roland the Minstrel Pig by New Yorker magazine cartoonist-author William Steig, now 60; Lagalag, the Wanderer by Carol Fenner.
Author-illustrator Virginia Lee Burton dies following lung cancer surgery at Boston October 15 at age 59; Enid Blyton at Hampstead, London, November 28 at age 71.
Painting: Townscape Madrid by German painter Gerhard Richter, 46; American Love by Robert Indiana; Untitled by Frank Stella; The Beatles (photo montage) by Richard Hamilton; Female Model on Oriental Rug with Mirror by Pittsburgh-born painter Philip Pearlstein, 44. German-born art historian Erwin Panofsky dies at Princeton, N.J., March 14 at age 75; painter Kees van Dongen of pneumonia at Monte Carlo May 28 at age 91; Marcel Duchamp at Neuilly, outside Paris, October 1 at age 81.
Sculpture: Orchestra of Rags by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, 35, of the "arte povera" movement is possessed of a minimalist aesthetic but employs found materials (earth, cloth, used industrial objects) in an unaltered state, whereas U.S. minimalists use rigorous industrial fabrications; the French sculptor César creates a sensation during a black-tie reception at London's Tate Gallery by mixing chemicals to produce a liquid-foam expansion onto the floor; La Fillette (latex) by Louise Bourgeois; Sans II (fiberglass) and Accession III (fiberglass and plastic tubing) by Eva Hesse; Thirty-five Feet of Lead Rolled Up, Prop (lead antimony) and Hand Catching Lead (16 mm. black-and-white film) by Richard Serra; The Last Ray of Hope by H. C. Westermann; Earthwork by Robert Morris; Montevideo-born New York sculptor Gonzalo Fonseca, 46, creates a 40-foot cast-concrete tower for the Olympic Games at Mexico City.
A Viet Cong prisoner identified as a "terrorist" is shot in the head at point-blank range February 1 at Saigon by police chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, 36, whose act is photographed by NBC cameraman Vo Suu and Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams, 34. Thousands of insurgents are killed during the week in an offensive that includes the beheading of women and children, and Gen. Loan says he has acted on orders and that the prisoner was the leader of a terrorist gang that had killed the family of one of his deputy commanders, but the photograph galvanizes world opinion against the South Vietnamese and their U.S. allies (see 1972).
Theater: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Jay Allen (who has adapted the novel by Muriel Spark) 1/16 at New York's Helen Hayes Theater, with Australian actress Zoë Caldwell, 34, 378 perfs.; The Indian Wants the Bronx by Wakefield, Mass.-born playwright Israel Horovitz, 28, 1/17 at New York's Astor Place Theater, with John Cazale, Al Pacino, Matthew Coles; I Never Sang for my Father by Robert Anderson 1/25 at New York's Longacre Theater, with Hal Holbrook, Lillian Gish, Matt Crowley, Teresa Wright, 124 perfs.; The Price by Arthur Miller 2/7 at New York's Morosco Theater, with Pat Hingle, Kate Reid, Arthur Kennedy, 429 perfs.; Plaza Suite by Neil Simon 2/14 at New York's Plymouth Theater, with George C. Scott, Maureen Stapleton, Elizabeth Wilson, 1,097 perfs.; Hadrian VII by English playwright Peter Luke, 48, (who has adapted the 1904 novel) 4/18 at London's Mermaid Theatre (to the Haymarket 3/18/1969), with Alec McCowen, 988 perfs.; The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley 4/18 at New York's off-Broadway Theater Four, with Cliff Gorman, 1,000 perfs.; Kaspar by Austrian playwright Peter Handke, 25, 5/11 at Frankurt's Frankfurter Theatre am Turm and Stockholm's Städtischen Bühnen Obverghausen; The Man Most Likely To . . . by English playwright Joyce Rayburne 7/4 at London's Vaudeville Theatre, with Leslie Phillips, 44, Diane Hart, 41, 768 perfs.; Indians by Arthur Kopit 7/4 at London's Aldwych Theatre, with Barrie Ingham as "Buffalo Bill" Cody; The Sisters-in-law (Les Belles-Soeurs) by Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay, 26, 8/28 at Montreal's Théâtre du Rideau-Vert; The Great White Hope by New York-born playwright Howard (Oliver) Sackler, 39, 10/3 at New York's Alvin Theater, with Mississippi-born actor James Earl Jones, 37, Boston-born actress Jane Alexander (née Quigley), 28, 276 perfs.; The Death and Resurrection of Mister Roche by Irish playwright Thomas Kilroy 10/7 at Dublin's Olympia Theatre; Forty Years On by Leeds-born actor-playwright Alan Bennett, 34, 10/31 at London's Apollo Theatre, with John Gielgud, Paul Eddington, Bennett, 444 perfs.; The Ruling Class by English playwright Peter Barnes, 37, 11/6 at the Nottingham Playhouse. The comedy creates an uproar by flailing not only the upper classes but also the Church of England, Parliament, and the British Empire; Forty Carats by Jay Allen (who has adapted a French play) 12/26 at New York's Morosco Theater, with Julie Harris, Glenda Farrell, 780 perfs.
Playwright Howard Lindsay dies of leukemia at New York February 11 at age 78; Laurence Stallings of a heart attack at Los Angeles February 28 at age 73; Philip Dunning at Westport, Conn., July 20 at age 77; Paul Vincent Carroll at Bromley, England, October 20 at age 68; actress Mary Servoss of heart disease at Los Angeles November 20 at age 87; actor Philip Lord at Chicago November 25 at age 89.
The Theatres Act adopted by Parliament September 26 effectively abolishes the Lord Chamberlain's powers of censorship in Britain (see 1737).
Television: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In 1/22 on NBC, replacing The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with stand-up comedians Dan Rowan, 45, and Dick Martin, 44, whose irreverent and ribald humor will ridicule the Ku Klux Klan, National Rifle Association, Pentagon, and other targets, celebrity cameos, regulars who will include Arte Johnson, Ruth Buzzi, Goldie Hawn, Judy Carne, and Jo Anne Worley, blackouts, sight gags, and lines that viewers will repeat ad infinitum (e.g., "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls," "Sock it to me," "Very interesting," "You bet your bippy," and "Heah come de judge") (to 3/12/1973, 130 shows); Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in February (daytime) on PBS, with TV veteran Fred Rogers, 40, who has consulted since the early 1960s with University of Pittsburgh psychologist Margaret McFarland and began the show 5/25/1967 on Pittsburgh's WQED (the first federally-funded public TV station). Starting each morning's show with the song, "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," Rogers dons a sweater, interacts with his Land-of-Make-Believe puppets, and will continue for 33 years to entertain young children (in competition with cartoon shows); Dad's Army on BBC-1 with Arthur Lowe, Ian Lavendar, Clive Dunn in a 30-minute comedy series that makes fun of the Home Guard in the early years of World War II (64 episodes, to 1977); One Life to Live 7/15 (daytime) on ABC with an ethnically, socially, and racially mixed cast that includes Jacquie Courney, Amy Levitt, Anthony Ponzini, Michael Storm, Ernest Graves, Gillian Spencer, and others in a soap opera created by Philadelphia homemaker Agnes Nixon, 47, whose half-hour show will expand to 45 minutes and then (in 1976) to a full hour as she pushes the envelope to deal with subjects that include drug abuse, homophobia, S&M sex, and teenage homosexuality; Adam 12 9/21 on NBC with Martin Milner, Kent McCord (to 8/26/1975); The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 9/21 on NBC with Hope Lange, Edward Mulhare (to 9/19/1970); Mayberry R.F.D. 9/23 on CBS with Ken Berry, Arlene Golonka (to 9/6/1971); The Doris Day Show 9/24 on CBS with actress Day as widow Doris Martin (to 9/10/1973, 128 episodes); Mod Squad 9/25 on ABC with Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton as undercover agents for the Los Angeles Police Dept. (to 3/1/1973); Hawaii Five-O 9/26 on CBS with Brooklyn-born actor Jack Lord, 47, as Detective Steve McGarrett, Khigh Dhiegh (to 4/5/1980).
TV comedy writer Nat Hiken dies of a heart attack at Brentwood, Calif., December 7 at age 54.
Films: Anthony Harvey's The Lion in Winter with Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn; Richard Lester's Petulia with Julie Christie, George C. Scott, Beverly Hills-born actor Richard Chamberlain, 33; Jacques Tati's Playtime with Tati; Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby with Mia Farrow, now 23, John Cassavetes; Ingmar Bergman's Shame with Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow; François Truffaut's Stolen Kisses with Jean-Pierre Leaud; Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey with Keir Dullea in a plot based on Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel." Also: François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black with Jeanne Moreau, Claude Rich, Jean-Claude Brialy; Peter Yates's Bullitt with Steve McQueen, Robert (Francis) Vaughn, 35, English-born actress Jacqueline Bisset, 21; Robert Altman's Countdown with Robert Duvall, New York-born actor James Caan, 29; John Cassavetes's Faces with John Marley, Wisconsin-born actress Gena Rowlands, 32; Donald Siegel's Madigan with Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore; George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead with Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea; Jack Smight's No Way to Treat a Lady with Rod Steiger, George Segal, Lee Remick; Franklin J. Schaffner's Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter; Mel Brooks's The Producers with Zero Mostel, Milwaukee-born comedian Gene Wilder (originally Jerry Silberman), 33; Paul Newman's Rachel, Rachel with Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward (based on the 1966 Margaret Laurence novel A Jest of God); Franco Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet with Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey; Joseph Losey's Secret Ceremony with Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow, Robert Mitchum; Frank and Eleanor Perry's The Swimmer with Burt Lancaster, Janice Rule, Kim Hunter; Peter Bogdanovich's Targets with Boris Karloff; Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend with Mireille Dare; Tom Gries's Will Penny with Charlton Heston.
The American Cinema 1929-1968 by Brooklyn-born New York critic Andrew (George) Sarris, 39, is a comprehensive index and categorization of virtually every film director.
Actress Mae Marsh dies at Hermosa Beach, Calif., February 13 at age 72; director Anthony Asquith at London February 20 at age 65; director Carl Theodor Dreyer at Copenhagen March 9 at age 79; actress Helen Walker of cancer at Hollywood March 10 at age 47; pioneer silent-film director Alice Guy-Blaché at Mahwah, N.J., March 24 at age 94; Fay Bainter at Los Angeles April 13 at age 74; Albert Dekker at Hollywood May 5 at age 62 of suffocation by hanging; Finlay Currie at Gerrard's Cross, England, May 9 at age 90; Dorothy Gish of bronchial pneumonia at Rapallo, Italy, June 4 at age 70; Dan Duryea of cancer at Hollywood June 7 at age 61; director Alexander C. Hall at San Francisco July 30 at age 74; actress Kay Francis of cancer at her New York apartment August 26 at age 63; director Robert Z. Leonard of an aneurism at Beverly Hills August 27 at age 78; Franchot Tone of lung cancer at New York September 18 at age 62; Lee Tracy dies of cancer at Long Beach, Calif., October 18 at age 70; Ramon Novarro is found dead at his Hollywood Hills home October 31 at age 69, apparently a murder victim; Wendell Corey dies of a liver ailment at Woodland Hills, Calif., November 8 at age 54; producer Walter Wanger (originally Feuchtwanger) of a heart attack at New York November 18 at age 74; Tallulah Bankhead of pneumonia and emphysema at New York December 12 at age 66.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) introduces a movie ratings code November 1. Theater owners agree to bar children under 17 from X-rated films and from R-rated films unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. G- and M- (later changed to PG-13-) rated films have no such restrictions. Jack Valenti, 47, left the Johnson White House 2 years ago to head the MPAA and has helped draw up the code to stave off government regulation; parents concerned about children's exposure to sex and violence generally applaud it, although some say that having the industry rate its own films is like letting the fox guard the henhouse, and some predict (accurately) that X-rated films will attract youngsters who would not otherwise be interested.
Film musicals: George Dunning's Yellow Submarine with animated drawings that show the Beatles trying to save Pepperland from the Blue Meanies, music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney; Carol Reed's Oliver with Ron Moody, Mark Lester, Oliver Reed, Hugh Griffith; William Wyler's Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice.
Stage musicals: Your Own Thing 1/18 at New York's off-Broadway Orpheum Theater, with music and lyrics by Hal Hester and Danny Appolinar, 933 perfs.; The Happy Time 1/18 at New York's Broadway Theater, with Robert Goulet, David Wayne, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by N. Richard Nash from the 1950 stage play by Samuel Taylor, choreography by Gower Champion, 286 perfs.; Canterbury Tales 3/21 at London's Phoenix Theatre, with Jacques Ottaway, 59, as Geoffrey Chaucer, Jessie Evans, 49, as the Wife of Bath, music by Richard Hill and John Hawkins, lyrics by Nevill Coghill, 2,082 perfs.; George M! 4/10 at New York's Palace Theater, with Joel Grey, Jill O'Hara, Bernadette Peters, music and lyrics by the late George M. Cohan, 433 perfs.; Zorba 11/17 at New York's Imperial Theater, with Herschel Bernardi, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, 224 perfs.; Promises, Promises 12/1 at New York's Shubert Theater, with Jerry Orbach, Jill O'Hara, El Centro, Calif.-born ingénu Ken Howard, 24, choreography by Buffalo-born dancer-choreographer Michael Bennett (Michael Difiglia), 25, music and lyrics by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, songs that include "Whoever You Are," "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," 1,281 perfs.; How Now, Dow Jones 12/7 at New York's Lunt-Fontanne Theater, with Tommy Tune, Barnard Hughes, Brenda Vaccaro, Tony Roberts, music by Elmer Bernstein, book by Max Shulman, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, 220 perfs.
Actress-singer Juanita Hall dies of diabetic complications at Bay Shore, N.Y., February 28 at age 66; former vaudeville comedian Gus Van of Van and Schenck after an auto accident at Miami Beach March 12 at age 80; writer-lyricist Paul Gerard Smith at San Diego April 4 at age 73; George White of leukemia at Hollywood October 10 at age 78.
Opera: Luciano Pavarotti, now 32, makes his Metropolitan Opera debut 4/23 singing the role of Rodolfo in the 1896 Puccini opera La Bohème; New Orleans-born soprano Shirley (Carter) Verrett, 37, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut 9/21 singing the title role in the 1875 Bizet opera Carmen; Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo, 27, makes his formal Metropolitan Opera debut 9/28 singing the role of Maurice de Saxe in the 1902 Cilea opera Adriana Lecouvrer; Elizabeth Harwood makes her Covent Garden debut 10/15 singing the role of Fiakermilli in the 1933 Strauss opera Arabella, going on to make her New York debut in an October Town Hall recital.
First performances: Symphony No. 11 by Roy Harris 2/8 at New York to mark the 125th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic; Symphony No. 6 by Howard Hanson 2/29 at New York's Philharmonic Hall; Symphony by Ulysses Kay 3/28 at Macomb, Ill., in a concert by the Chicago Symphony marking the sesquicentennial of Illinois; Symphony No. 8 by Roger Sessions 5/2 at New York's Philharmonic Hall; The Prodigal Son (church parable) by Benjamin Britten 6/10 at Orford, Suffolk.
Cantata: Stephen Crane by Ulysses Kay 2/4 at Chicago.
Modern dance pioneer Ruth St. Denis dies of a heart attack at Los Angeles July 21 at age 91; French-born conductor Charles Munch of a heart attack at Richmond, Va., November 6 at age 77.
The Bose 901 speaker introduced by Philadelphia-born MIT professor Amar Bose, 35, pioneers the use of "reflected sound" in an effort to bring concert-hall quality to home speaker systems. Bose set up a radio-repair business at age 14 to help support his family, he founded Bose Corp. 4 years ago, and his speaker bounces sound off walls and ceiling to surround the listener.
U.S. guitar sales reach $130 million, up from $35 million in 1960.
Prerecorded tapes enjoy U.S. sales of $247 million, and tape decks are found in more homes, but gramophone records still account for the lion's share of the multi-billion dollar music business.
Sony Corp. joins with CBS to start Sony/CBS Records.
Popular songs: "Hey, Jude" and "Lady Madonna" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney; "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by George Harrison; "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones; In Search of the Lost Chord (album) by the Moody Blues; Led Zeppelin No. 1 (album) by The Led Zeppelin, a new English rock group (Jimmy Page, 23, John Paul Jones, 22, John Bonham, 21, and Robert Plant, 21); "Harper Valley PTA" by Kentucky-born guitarist-songwriter Tom T. Hall, 32, who arrived at Nashville 4 years ago with $46 and a guitar (his song will be the basis of a film and a television sitcom); "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell; "Mrs. Robinson" by Paul Simon (for the film The Graduate); "Galveston" by Jimmy Webb; "Spinning Wheel" by David Clayton Thomas; "Over You" by Jerry Filler; "Do Your Own Thing" by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller; "Help Yourself" by Carlo Donida, Mongol Eng, and Jack Fishman; "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen; "Hello, I Love You (Won't You Tell Me Your Name") by Robert Krieger, John Dunsmore, Jim Morrison, and Raymond Manzarek of The Doors; "John Wesley Harding" by Bob Dylan, who becomes a country singer after coming close to death in a motorcycle accident; Papas and the Mamas—Mamas and the Papas (album) with singer Cass Elliott; Dionne Warwick records "Do You Know the Way to San Jose"; Loretta Lynn records her song "This City"; "Rocky Top" by Boudleaux Bryant, lyrics by his wife, Felice, who in 10 minutes has written a number that will become the Tennessee state song in 1981; "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan Leitch; "Little Green Apples" by Bobby Russell; "The Windmills of Your Mind" by Michel Legrand, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman (for the film The Thomas Crown Affair); "Those Were the Days" by Gene Reskin.
The Czech rock band The Plastic People of the Universe founded at Prague in September by bass guitarist Milan Hlavsa, 17, will soon include saxophonist Vratislav Brabenec, guitarist Josef Janicek, drummer Jan Brabec, and viola player Jiri Kabes.
Jazz trumpeter Ziggy Elman (Harry Finkelman) dies of a liver ailment at Los Angeles June 26 at age 54; jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery of a heart attack at Indianapolis June 15 at age 45; country-and-western singer Clyde Foley of acute pulmonary edema at Fort Wayne, Ind., September 20 age 58.
Green Bay beats Oakland 33 to 14 at Miami January 14 in Super Bowl II.
Former golf champion Lawson Little dies at Pebble Beach, Calif., February 1 at age 57; golfer Tommy Armour at Larchmont, N.Y. September 11 at age 72.
Joe Frazier wins the world heavyweight boxing crown March 24 at age 24 by knocking out Buster Mathis in the 11th round of a title bout at New York, nearly 10 months after the World Boxing Association (WBA) took the title away from Muhammad Ali for refusing to accept induction into the U.S. Army (see Cassius Clay, 1964). Jimmy Ellis, 28, wins an eight-man title tournament staged by the WBA, defeating Jerry Quarry, 22, in a 15-round decision April 27 at Oakland, but Frazier will gain undisputed right to the title early in 1970. Former world heavyweight champion Jess Willard dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at Los Angeles December 15 at age 86.
Rod Laver wins in men's singles at Wimbledon, Billy Jean King in women's singles; Arthur Ashe, 25, wins in men's singles at Forest Hills (the first black to do so), Margaret Smith Court in women's singles. Ashe wins the first U.S. Open men's singles, (Sarah) Virginia Wade, 22, (Brit), the women's singles.
Onetime Wimbledon singles champion (1907) Sir Norman Brookes dies at his native Melbourne September 28 at age 90.
The Olympic Games at Mexico City attract 6,082 contestants from 109 countries. Olympic swimming champion Duke Paoa Kahanamoku has died of a heart attack at Honolulu January 23 at age 77. U.S. athletes win the most gold medals, but sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith give black-power salutes when accepting their awards, winning condemnation from some but approval from sportscaster Howard Cosell. San Jose, Calif.-born figure skater Peggy Fleming, 19, has won the gold medal in the winter Olympics at Grenoble, France (and gone on to win the world title March 2 at Geneva).
Veteran jockey Earl Sande dies of arteriosclerosis at Jacksonville, Ore., August 18 at age 69 (he won three Kentucky Derbies).
The Kansas City Athletics become the Oakland As (Athletics).
The Detroit Tigers win the World Series, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 3.
Harvard faces Yale November 23 at Harvard Stadium, both teams being unbeaten and untied for the first time since 1909. Yale's backfield includes Calvin Hill, and Yale leads 29 to 13 in the fourth quarter with only 42 seconds remaining on the clock, but Harvard substitute quarterback Vic Champi passes to Vic Gatto for a touchdown that is followed by a two-point conversion to make the score 29 to 21. Harvard recovers an on-side kick, Champi passes to Pete Varney for a final touchdown as the clock runs out, and a two-point conversion ties the final score at 29-29.
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act signed into law by President Johnson June 28 gives federal employees four 3-day weekends per year. Scheduled to take effect in 1971, it follows centuries-old European custom and orders that Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day), Memorial Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day be observed on Mondays regardless of what day February 22, May 30, October 30, or November 11 may be (many states balk at changing the date of what used to be Armistice Day and it will be put back to November 11 in 1978).
Mattel introduces die-cast Hot Wheels to compete with the Matchbox Cars introduced by the English firm Lesney Products & Co. in 1953. Faster and more modern in design, they will soon come with accessories such as slick plastic tracks that can be assembled into race courses, and Hot Wheels will eventually be used for electric slot-car racing.
Legoland opens near the Lego factory on the Jutland peninsula at Billund, Denmark (see 1934). The new theme park has been built for visitors who have come to see the factory that produces the colorful plastic bricks, now sold all over the world. The factory and park will become a major Danish tourist attraction (see 1996).
Las Vegas begins to change its image as the $15 million Circus Circus hotel-casino opens with a huge, $1 million statue of Lucky the Clown and entertainment that features acrobats and such rather than music-hall stars and girly shows. Industrialist Howard Hughes Jr. arrived in town 2 years ago on a stretcher, occupies a large suite at the Desert Inn, will soon buy the Sands along with some other casinos, and lobbies the Nevada state legislature, whose members will enact a law next year permitting corporations such as Hilton Hotels and Holiday Inn to own casino-hotel properties in the city (see International Hotel, 1969).
The Jacuzzi Whirlpool bath introduced in J