January 2 - Luis Ferré becomes the first statehooder Governor of Puerto Rico.
January 2 - Operation Barrier Reef begins in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
January 5 - Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) damage property and assault occupants in the Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland. In response, residents erect barricades and establish Free Derry.
January 14 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 people.
January 16 - Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
January 18 - United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay resulting in the loss of all 32 passengers and six crew members.
January 19 - Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
January 20 - The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.
January 21 - An experimental underground nuclear reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
January 30 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
February 3 - In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
February 4 - Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
February 7 - The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is removed from service.
February 8 - Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
March 28 - Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.
March 28 - The McGill français movement protest occurs, the second largest protest in Montreal's history with 10,000 trade unionists, leftist activists, CEGEP students, and even some McGill students at McGill's Roddick Gates. This led to the majority of the protesters getting arrested.
April 1 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF.
April 3 - Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
April 4 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.
April 5 - Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities.
April 7 - The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.
April 9 - The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
April 9 - The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford.
April 13 - Closure of the Brisbane tramway network.
April 17 - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
April 17 - Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed.
April 28 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
April 28 - Terence O'Neill announces his resignation as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
May 2 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
May 10 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
May 11 - Vietnam War: Operation Apache Snow – Near the Laos border, American and South Vietnamese forces fight North Vietnamese troops for Ap Bia Mountain (aka Hill 937 or "Hamburger Hill").
May 13 - Race riots, later known as the May 13 Incident, take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
May 16 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
May 17 - Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
May 20 - The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
May 21 - Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, aka Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
May 22 - Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface.
May 26 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
May 29 - General strike in Cordoba, Argentina, leading to the Cordobazo civil unrest.
June 3 - Melbourne-Evans collision: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
June 5 - The International communist conference begins in Moscow.
June 22 - The Cuyahoga River catches fire, which triggers a crack-down on pollution in the river.
June 23 - Warren E. Burger is sworn in as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring chief Earl Warren.
June 27 - The Stonewall riots that mark the beginning of the gay liberation movement begin in Greenwich Village in Manhattan.
July 3 - The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad.
July 4 - Two teens (one male, one female) are attacked at Blue Rock Springs in California. They were the second (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer. The male survives.
July 4 - The Ohio Fireworks Derecho kills 18 Ohioans and destroys over 100 boats on Lake Erie.
July 7 - In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government.
July 8 - IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer.
July 14 - Football War: after Honduras loses a soccer game against El Salvador, rioting breaks out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers.
July 14 - The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation.
July 16 - Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
July 18 - After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.
July 20 - Apollo Program: Apollo 11 successfully lands the first man on the Moon.
July 20 - Cease fire announced between Honduras and El Salvador, 6 days after the beginning of the "Football War"
July 21 - Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission.
July 24 - Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
July 25 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.
August 4 - Vietnam War: at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
August 5 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
August 9 - Members of a cult led by Charles Manson brutally murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring, and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, California.
August 10 - A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
August 12 - Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
August 14 - British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
August 15 - The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.
August 17 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.
August 18 - Jimi Hendrix plays the unofficial last day of Woodstock.
August 21 - An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire
August 27 - Israeli commando force penetrates deep into Egyptian territory to stage mortar attack on regional Egyptian Army headquarters in the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt.
September 1 - A revolution in Libya brings Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi to power, which was later transferred to the People's Committees.
September 2 - The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Center, New York.
September 5 - My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
September 9 - Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 collides in flight with a Piper PA-28 and crashes near Fairland, Indiana.
September 23 - The Chicago Eight trial opens in Chicago.
October 1 - The Concorde supersonic transport plane breaks the sound barrier for the first time.
October 5 - The first episode of the famous comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus aired on BBC.
October 8 - The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago, Illinois.
October 9 - In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection with the trial of the "Chicago Eight" that began on September 24.
October 14 - The United Kingdom introduces the 50p (fifty-pence) coin, replacing the ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalisation of the currency in 1971.
October 19 - The first Prime Minister of Tunisia in twelve years, Bahi Ladgham, is appointed by President Habib Bourguiba.
October 21 - A coup d'état in Somalia brings Siad Barre to power.
October 29 - The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
November 3 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.
November 10 - National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts the children's television program Sesame Street.
November 13 - Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, DC stage a symbolic March Against Death.
November 14 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.
November 15 - Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.
November 15 - Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".
November 17 - Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
November 19 - Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
November 19 - Football player Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.
November 20 - Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
November 21 - U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington, D.C. on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
November 24 - Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.
December 1 - Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
December 4 - Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
December 5 - Life Magazine reports the My Lai Massacre .
December 6 - Meredith Hunter is killed by the Hells Angels during a The Rolling Stones's concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.
December 8 - An Olympic Airways Douglas DC-6 crashes in Keratea during a storm, killing 93 people.
December 12 - Strategia della tensione: Piazza Fontana bombing
December 17 - Project Blue Book: The USAF closes its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of "A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of various conventional objects."
December 18 - Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years, is carried by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
