- January 15
- Ralph Baer applies for a patent on his invention of the television video game system. [9]
- In Sicily, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake occurs. 216 killed, 563 injured, several villages in western Sicily destroyed. Worst disaster in Sicily since the 1908 Messina earthquake. Damage estimated at $250 - $320 million. [53]
- January 16
- Zambia changes its currency from pound-shilling-pence to kwacha-ngwee, exchanged at 2 for 1 ratio. new coins are 1 and 2 ngwee in bronze, and 5, 10, 20 ngwee in copper-nickel. [998.17]
- January 18
- USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakstan/Semipalatinsk. [1]
- January 21
- US B-52 bomber with nuclear bomb crashes in Greenland. [1]
- January 22
- Apollo 5 launched to Moon; unmanned lunar module tests made. [1] [5]
- January 23
- Spy ship USS Pueblo and 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by North Korea. [1]
- January 26
- Israeli submarine Dakar crashes in Mediterranean Sea, 69 die. [1]
- January 29
- Nauru adopts constitution. [1]
- January 30
- Jamaica approves decimal currency, and introduces dollar to replace pound. [772.52]
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- January 31
- Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive on US embassy in Saigon, Vietnam. [1] [129]
- Nauru (formerly Pleasant Island) declares independence from Australia. [1367.1193]
- Record high barometric pressure (1083.8 mb, 32 inches), at Agata, USSR. [1]
- February 1
- Famous photo: Saigon police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. [1]
- World trade conference Unctad 2 opens in New Delhi. [1]
- The Canadian Forces Reorganization Act is proclaimed, combining former Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force into the Canadian Armed Forces, the world's first unified service. [614.19]
- February 2
- Springer Publishers in West Berlin bombed. [1]
- February 6
- Dutch second Chamber condemns US bombing of North Vietnam. [1]
- February 7
- Belgium government of Vanden Boeynants falls. [1]
- February 9
- Rotterdam metro is opened by Princess Beatrix. [1]
- February 11
- Israeli-Jordan border fight. [1]
- February 13
- US sends 10,500 additional soldiers to Vietnam. [1]
- February 18
- 10,000 demonstrators against US in Vietnam War in West Berlin. [1]
- British adopt year-round daylight savings time. [1]
- February 19
- In the Aegean Sea, a magnitude 7.25-7.5 earthquake occurs. Some deaths, injuries, property damage on Saint Eustratios Island and Lemnos Island. [53]
- February 21
- 150,000 demonstrate against leftist students in West Berlin. [1]
- February 24
- US troops reconquer Hue, Vietnam. [1]
- February 25
- In Algeria, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake occurs. At El Alen, one person was killed, four injured and 100 houses destroyed. [53]
- Makarios re-elected President of Cyprus. [1]
- February 26
- Clandestine Radio Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) final transmission. [1]
- February 29
- US ends regular flights with nuclear bombs. [1]
- March 1
- Political Party Radikalen (PPR) established in Netherlands. [1]
- Vatican City's Apostolic Constitution of 1967 goes into effect. [1]
- March 2
- US Air Force displays Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, biggest plane in the world. [1]
- USSR launches space probe Zond 4; it fails to leave Earth orbit. [1]
- March 3
- Greece, Portugal, and Spain's embassies bombed in The Hague, Netherlands. [1]
- March 4
- Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5 launched. [1]
- March 5
- US launches Solar Explorer 2 to study the Sun. [1]
- March 8
- Students demonstrate in Warsaw, Poland. [1]
- March 10
- Ferry boat sinks in harbor of Wellington, New Zealand (200 killed). [1]
- March 12
- Mauritius gains independence from Britain. [1367.869]
- March 14
- CBS TV suspends Radio Free Europe free advertising because RFE doesn't make it clear it is sponsored by the US Central Intelligence Agency. [1]
- POM performs atmospheric nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia. [1]
- March 15
- British minister of Foreign affairs George Brown resigns. [1]
- Diocese of Rome announces that it "deplored the concept", but wouldn't prohibit rock and roll masses at Church of San Lessio Falconieri. [1]
- Uprising in South Yemen. [1]
- March 16
- Charlie Company of US troops kills over 500 civilians in four hamlets in Son My district, Vietnam, known as the My Lai massacre. [1] [144.54]
- March 17
- The eight-nation Gold Pool is abolished. At a meeting in Washington, DC, central bank officials from the USA, Belgium, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom agree to not buy or sell gold in the private market. [606.38] [789.58]
- March 20
- Military intervenes in South-Yemen (leftist ministers resign). [1]
- US President Lyndon Johnson signs a bill removing gold backing from US paper money. [1] [789.48]
- March 21
- Israeli forces cross Jordan River to attack Palestinian Liberation Organization bases. [1]
- Portuguese socialist Mario Soares banished to Sao Tomé. [1]
- March 22
- Jarmila Novotna resigns presidency of Czechoslovakia. [1]
- Student riot in Nanterre near Paris, France. [1]
- March 27
- Suharto succeeds Sukarno as President of Indonesia. [1]
- March 30
- General Ludvik Svoboda elected President of Czechoslovakia. [1]
- April 2
- Chad creates Union of Central African States. [1]
- April 3
- North Vietnam agrees to meet US representatives to set up preliminary peace talks. [1]
- April 4
- Apollo 6 launched atop Saturn V rocket; unmanned. [1]
- Reverend Martin Luther King Junior, civil rights leader, is assassinated by a sniper's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, at age 39. James Earl Ray is set up as a patsy for a shot fired from a different direction than where he was. [1] [5] [129] [399.82] [1270.157]
- April 6
- 94.5 percent of East German voters approve new socialist constitution. [1]
- Gunpowder stock at a sporting-goods store explodes, killing 43 (Virginia). [1]
- HemisFair 1968 opens in San Antonio, Texas, USA. [1]
- April 8
- Czechoslovakia Cernik government forms. [1]
- April 9
- German Democratic Republic adopts constitution. [1]
- April 11
- Marshal Spychalski succeeds Ochab as President of Poland. [1]
- April 12
- In Schenectady, New York, USA a house is hit by a falling meteorite. [521]
- April 18
- Dutch Department of Amnesty International forms. [1]
- London Bridge is sold to US oil company (to be erected in Arizona). [1]
- April 19
- Belgian construction workers strike. [1]
- April 20
- Pierre Elliott Trudeau sworn-in as Canada's Prime Minister. [1]
- South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes at Windhoek, 122 killed. [1]
- April 23
- First decimal coins issued in Britain (5 and 10 pence). [1] [488.36]
- United Methodist Church forms. [1]
- April 24
- USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk. [1]
- April 27
- Congress of Political Party Radicals (PPR) forms in Netherlands. [1]
- In Great Britain, a law comes into effect allowing abortion. [55.7]
- May 2
- Gold reaches record high (US$39.35 per ounce) in London, England. [1]
- Israeli television begins transmitting. [1]
- May 6
- Battle between students and troops in Paris, France; 1000 injured. [1]
- Spain closes border to Gibraltar except to Spaniards. [1]
- May 8
- Pulitzer prize awarded to William Styron (Confessions of Nat Turner). [1]
- May 10
- Vietnam peace talks begin in Paris, France, between the US and North Vietnam. [1]
- May 11
- Students and police battle in Paris, France, hundreds injured. [1]
- May 13
- 1,000,000 French demonstrate against Charles de Gaulle and Pompidou. [1]
- May 14
- Czechoslovakian Government announces liberalizing reforms under Alexander Dubcek. [1]
- RAF-leader Andreas Baader sentenced to three years in West Berlin. [1]
- May 16
- In Honshu, Japan, a magnitude 8.2 earthquake occurs. Forty-seven people killed, 281 injured, and $131 million property damage sustained. The port city of Hachinohe incurs the greatest damage. A tsunami inundates low-lying areas and washes ashore or sinks 95 ships. [1] [53]
- May 17
- European Space Research Organization launches first satellite. [1]
- May 21
- US nuclear-powered submarine (Scorpion), with 99 men, reported missing and is later found at the bottom of the ocean off Azores. [1]
- USSR performs underground nuclear test. [1]
- May 23
- In South Island, New Zealand, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurs. Few deaths or injuries due to epicenter in rough hill country. [53]
- May 24
- French president Charles de Gaulle proposes referendum, and students set fire to Paris bourse. [1]
- May 29
- United Nations resolves sanctions on white-minority-ruled Rhodesia. [1]
- May 30
- President Charles de Gaulle disbands French parliament. [1]
- University church in Leipzig, German Democratic Republic, blown up. [1]
- West German Parliament accepts emergency crisis law. [1]
- June 5
- US Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot by one or more assassins in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Five others are wounded. One shooter is identified as Sirhan Sirhan. Security guard Thane Eugene Cesar may have shot Kennedy from the rear. [1] [129] [411.108] [1096.140]
- USS Scorpion nuclear-power submarine, last heard from 50 miles south of Azores, is declared presumed lost with 99 crew. [1155.1036]
- June 6
- Robert F. Kennedy (Senator-Democrat-New York), dies of gunshot wounds at age 42 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Sirham Bishara Sirham is called the lone gunman, but three shots from behind Kennedy at upward angle, fatal shot behind right ear at point blank range. Sirhan was in front. 14 bullets fired. [1] [5] [129] [1096.139] [1270.189]
- June 7
- Sirhan Sirhan indicted for Senator Robert F. Kennedy assassination. [1]
- June 8
- James Earl Ray, an escaped American convict, is arrested in London, England, and charged with the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. [1] [129]
- New colonial constitution for Bermuda adopted. [1]
- June 19
- 50,000 participate in Solidarity Day March of Poor People's Campaign. [1]
- In Northern Peru, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake occurs. Forty-six people were killed, 120 injured, and 50 houses destroyed in Moyobama, San Martin. [53]
- June 24
- Last day of US Treasury redeeming US silver certificates for silver, in any form. [651.88] [732.50] [1056.509] [1059.1097] (June 28 [388.190] [843.38])
- June 26
- Iwo Jima and Bonin Islands returned to Japan by US. [1]
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