What happened in 1968

World4

• May 27Grenelle agreements concluded in France, giving a large increase in minimum wages, but are rejected by trade unions.
• Sep 11The International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) is founded.
• Sep 21The Soviet Zond 5 uncrewed lunar flyby mission returns to Earth, with its first-of-a-kind biological payload intact.
• Nov 8The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals is signed and ratified.

Japan1

• Dec 10Japan's biggest heist, the never-solved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.

North America23

• Jan 211968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash: A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs.
• Mar 13The first Rotaract club is chartered in North Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Apr 4Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.: Martin Luther King Jr. is shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. King-assassination riots erupt in major American cities, lasting for several days afterwards.
• Apr 4Apollo program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502 (Apollo 6) is launched, as the second and last uncrewed test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
• Apr 20South African Airways Flight 228 a Boeing 707 crashed shortly after take-off killing 123 people on board.
• Apr 23The United Methodist Church is created by the union in Dallas, Texas, of the former Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.
• Jun 5Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Palestinian-born Sirhan Sirhan is arrested.
• Jun 12The horror film Rosemary's Baby premieres in the U.S.
• Jul 18The semiconductor company Intel is founded in what becomes known as the Silicon Valley of California.
• Jul 20The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
• Aug 221968 Democratic National Convention protests: Police clash with anti-Vietnam War protesters in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. president and Edmund Muskie for vice president. The riots and subsequent trials are an essential part of the activism of the Youth International Party.
• Oct 11Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and simulating lunar module rendezvous and docking, using the S-IVB rocket stage as a test target.
• Nov 51968 United States presidential election: Republican candidate Richard Nixon defeats the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace.
• Dec 9Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco, together with the computer mouse, at what becomes retrospectively known as "The Mother of All Demos".
• Dec 24Apollo program: The crewed U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole, as well as having traveled further away from Earth than any people in history. Anders photographs Earthrise. The crew also give a reading from the Book of Genesis.

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Europe21

• Jan 5Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
• Mar 1First performance of an Andrew Lloyd Webber–Tim Rice musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in its original form as a "pop cantata", by pupils of a private school in London.
• Mar 3Air France Flight 212, a Boeing 707, crashes in Guadeloupe while approaching an airport. As a result, 63 people die.
• Mar 8The first student protests spark the 1968 Polish political crisis.
• Mar 22René Riesel and 7 other enragés students occupy the administrative offices of the new Nanterre campus of the University of Paris as part of protests over a rigid educational system, setting in motion a chain of 'May 68' events that lead France to the brink of revolution.
• Apr 613th Eurovision Song Contest is held in the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. The winning song, Spain's "La, la, la" (music and lyrics by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa) is sung in Spanish by Massiel after Spanish authorities refuse to allow Joan Manuel Serrat to perform it in Catalan. The United Kingdom finishes in second place, one point behind, with the song "Congratulations" sung by Cliff Richard, which goes on to outsell the winning Spanish entry throughout Europe.
• Jun 2Student demonstrations in Yugoslavia start in Belgrade.
• Jun 231968 French legislative election: The Gaullist Union pour la défense de la République becomes the first party in French political history to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly. George Pompidou leads the party through the campaign but resigns as prime minister afterwards. The public unrest of May 68 subsides.
• Jul 1The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty opens for signature.
• Jul 25Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical Humanae vitae, reaffirming the Catholic Church's opposition to artificial birth control.
• Aug 20Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: The 'Prague Spring' of political liberalization ends, as 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 6,500 tanks with 800 aircraft invade Czechoslovakia, the largest military operation in Europe since the end of World War II.
• Sep 7The crash of Air France Flight 1611 kills 95 people, including French Army General René Cogny, as the Caravelle jetliner plunges into the Mediterranean Sea following a fire while making its approach to Nice following its departure from the island of Corsica.
• Sep 13Albania officially withdraws from the Warsaw Pact upon the Soviet Union-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, having already ceased to participate actively in Pact activity since 1962.
• Oct 25Rock band Led Zeppelin make their first live performance, at Surrey University in England
• Dec 11The film Oliver! based on the hit London and Broadway musical, opens in the U.S. after being released first in the UK. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

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Asia14

• Jan 21Vietnam War: Siege of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins, ending on April 8.
• Jan 30Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
• Feb 1Vietnam War: Execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém – A Viet Cong officer is summarily executed by Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The event is photographed by Eddie Adams. The photo makes headlines around the world, eventually winning the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and sways U.S. public opinion against the war.
• Feb 12Vietnam War: Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre.
• Feb 24Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Huế.
• Feb 25Vietnam War: Hà My massacre.
• Mar 7Vietnam War: The First Battle of Saigon ends.
• Mar 10Vietnam War: Battle of Lima Site 85, the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members (12) during the (at this time) secret war later known as the Laotian Civil War.
• Mar 16Vietnam War – My Lai massacre: American troops kill between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians and rape women and children. The story, initially covered up as a military victory, will first become public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.
• MarJabidah massacre
• Jun 17The Malayan Communist Party launches a second insurgency and the state of emergency is again imposed in Malaysia.
• Aug 2The magnitude () 7.6 Casiguran earthquake affects the Aurora province in the Philippines with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing at least 207 and injuring 261.
• Sep 23Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive comes to an end in South Vietnam.
• Nov 11A second republic is declared in the Maldives.

Middle East1

• Dec 281968 Israeli raid on Lebanon: Israeli forces fly into Lebanese airspace, launching an attack on the airport in Beirut and destroying more than a dozen aircraft.

Latin America5

• Jun 23Puerta 12 tragedy: A football stampede in Buenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured.
• Oct 2Tlatelolco massacre: A student demonstration ends in bloodbath at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico, 10 days before the inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics. 300-400 are estimated to have been killed.
• Oct 12The 1968 Summer Olympics are held in Mexico City, Mexico.
• Oct 161968 Olympics Black Power salute: In Mexico City, African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in a Black Power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals in the Olympic men's 200 metres (with the support of Australian silver medallist Peter Norman).
• Dec 13Prompted by growing unrest and a perceived proliferation of "pro-communist" violent actions, Brazilian president Artur da Costa e Silva enacts the so-called AI-5, the fifth of a series of non-constitutional emergency decrees allegedly to help "stabilize" the country after the turmoils of the early 1960s.

Africa4

• Mar 12Mauritius achieves independence from British rule.
• May 19Nigerian forces capture Port Harcourt and form a ring around the Biafrans. This contributes to a humanitarian disaster as the surrounded population already suffers from hunger and starvation.
• Sep 6Swaziland (later known as Eswatini) becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
• Oct 12Equatorial Guinea receives its independence from Spain.

Oceania2

• Jan 10John Gorton is sworn in as 19th Prime Minister of Australia, taking over from John McEwen after being elected leader of the Liberal Party the previous day, following the disappearance of Harold Holt. Gorton becomes the only Senator to become Prime Minister, though he immediately transfers to the House of Representatives through the 1968 Higgins by-election in Holt's vacant seat.
• Jan 31Nauru president Hammer DeRoburt declares independence from Australia, Britain and New Zealand.