This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 1968

	January 2nd	American actor, Cuba Gooding Jr., was born in New York. His first major film was Boyz N The Hood in 1991.
	January 31st	Nauru declared independence from Australia. Nauru is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean.
	February 6th	The 10th Winter Olympic Games opened in Grenoble, France.
	March 12th	The island nation of Mauritius achieved independence. The island had been colonized by the Dutch in 1638 but was later captured and became a British colony in 1810.
	March 16th	During the Vietnam War, American troops committed what has been known as the My Lai massacre. An estimated 350 to 500 Vietnamese villagers, including women, and children, were slaughtered by American troops.
	March 18th	The Gold standard was abolished in the United States. The Gold Standard was a system under which it was required to have as much gold in reserve as the currency in circulation.
	March 27th	Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, died at the age of 34 in the plane crash of a MiG-15 UTI plane. He was the first human being that travelled in space.
	April 4th	Civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in Memphis.
	April 6th	Racial related riots erupted in many US towns, following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
	April 8th	American actress, Patricia Arquette, was born in Chicago, Illinois.
	April 23th	Britain produced its first decimal denomination coins, 5p and 10p coins.
	May 29th	Football club, Manchester United, won the European Cup, becoming the first English Club to do so.
	June 1st	American humanitarian, Helen Keller, died at the age of 87. She lost her sight and hearing before at the age of 19 months. She stands out in history as the ultimate example of how people with severe disabilities have the right and the ability to lead normal lives.
	June 6th	Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated after giving a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
	June 20th	American filmmaker, Robert Rodriguez, was born in San Antonio, Texas. In 1992 he went on to shoot the action movie, El Mariachi, with a budget of only 7,000 US dollars. The film won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and paved the way for Rodriguez's acceptance as one of the prominent filmmakers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His success was also an inspiration to numerous aspiring filmmakers.
	June 23th	A stampede during a football game in Buenos Aires resulted in the death of 74 people.
	June 26th	Italian footballer, Paolo Maldini, was born in Milan. He is widely considered by many as one of the best (and by many the best) defenders in the history of football.
	July 1st	The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty was signed in Geneva, Switzerland. Sixty countries initially singed the treaty. The treaty stipulates that technology relating to nuclear weapons will not be transferred to the countries that do not already have them and that those countries that do not already have them will not develop them on their own. Another part of the treaty stipulated the gradual disarmament of the countries that already had nuclear weapons.
	July 18th	The Intel Corporation was founded by semiconductor engineers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore.
	July 23th	American fashion model, Stephanie Seymour, was born in San Diego, California. She was one of the most popular fashion models of the late 1980's and 1990's.
	July 27th	Rock band, Pink Floyd, released their second album 'A Saucerful of Secrets'.
	August 9th	Australian actor, Eric Bana, was born in Melbourne. He is most known for his roles in the hit movies, Troy and Black Hawk Down.
	August 9th	American actress, Gillian Anderson, was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is best known for her role as FBI Agent Dana Scully in the American TV series The X-Files.
	August 20th	More than 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia is response to the political liberalization which became known as the 'Prague Spring'.
	August 24th	France detonated its first hydrogen bomb, becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
	September 6th	The kingdom of Swaziland becomes independent. Swaziland is a small country in Africa, which sports the unsavoury record of having the lowest life expectancy (33 years) than any other country in the world, mostly due to the high rate of HIV infections
	September 13th	Albania left the Warsaw Pact after the Sino - Soviet split in which the hard-line Stalinist government of Albania sided with China.
	September 25th	American actor and singer, Will Smith, was born in Philadelphia. He first gained fame when he starred in the 1990 sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. When the show ended in 1996 he starred in two of the most successful films of the 90's, Independence Day and Men in Black, which catapulted his career to absolute stardom.
	October 12th	Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain. It is one of the smallest in continental Africa and the only country in Africa where Spanish is the official language.
	October 12th	Australian actor, Hugh Jackman, was born in Sydney, Australia. He gained worldwide fame when he was cast as a last-minute replacement for the role of wolverine, in the movie, X-Men.
	October 14th	The 10 second barrier in the men's 100 meter race was broken for the first time by American sprinter, Jim Hines, during the Olympics at Mexico City with a time of 9.95 sec. The world record of Jim Hines stood for almost 15 years, until 1983.
	October 20th	Former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy married shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
	November 26th	British rock band, Cream, performed their last concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
	November 27th	French actor, Michael Vartan, was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. He is best known for his participation in the hit television series, Alias, as the character of Michael Vaughn.
	December 2nd	American actress, Lucy Liu, was born in New York City. She gained fame when she starred in the 2000 film, Charlie's Angels.
	December 20th	American writer, John Steinbeck, died at the age of 66. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, having written such classics as, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. In 1962 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
	December 21st	The Apollo 8 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it was the first craft to orbit the moon.
	December 24th	The crew of Apollo 8 entered into orbit around the Moon the first ever in human history.
	December 27th	The radio program, The Breakfast Club, was broadcast for the final time. Running for 35 consecutive years on the ABC radio it was the longest running radio show in history.
	December 28th	Israeli commandos destroyed 13 civilian aircraft at Beirut International Airport.

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