Crew of USS Pueblo released
Nearly a full year after being captured by the North Koreans, the crew of the USS Pueblo is released after the United States apologizes for spying.
Apollo 8 launches
Apollo 8, with three men on board, launches seven months before the world’s first lunar landing.
20th U.S.-Cuba plane hijacking of 1968
A plane hijacked from the United States to Cuba marks the 20th such incident of the year.
Boulder - CU radical group reinstated
CU reinstates Students for Democratic Society.
Boulder - Radical CU student group loses student status
CU retracts university status for the radical group Students for Democratic Society; students protest decision.
Beatles' White Album released
The Beatles release the White Album.
Boulder - Record pot bust
A record pot bust in Boulder nets 66 pounds.
Richard Nixon elected
Richard Nixon is elected as 37th president of the United States.
Bombing halts in Vietnam
President Johnson halts bombing in North Vietnam, three years and nine months after it commenced.
Boulder - County adopts $6 million budget
Boulder County adopts record high $6 million budget.
Black Power salute at Olympics
Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two black athletes competing in the Olympics in Mexico City, raise their arms in a black power salute during the medals ceremony.
Apollo 7 lifts off
Apollo 7 lifts off on an 11-day mission. Desperate to regain the lead in the space race, the United States continues to strive to put a man on the moon.
Boulder - Parking fines increase to $2
Parking fines at meters in Boulder go from $1 to $2.
400,000 enemy deaths in Vietnam War
Estimated enemy deaths in Vietnam after seven years of war: 400,000.
Boeing 747 debuts
Boeing 747 debuts, it’s four times larger than largest existing passenger plane.
Black Panther leader jailed
Huey Newton, head of the Black Panthers, is jailed for killing a police officer in Oakland, Calif.
Soviet Union recovers spacehip
The Soviet Union takes lead in space race after recovering an unmanned spaceship that circled the moon.
Boulder - Affordable housing offered
Boulder decides to offer affordable housing through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Boulder - Grape protest at King Soopers
CU students picket King Soopers for selling California grapes from growers that don’t hire union workers.
Riots in Berkeley
Civil disaster declared in Berkeley, Calif. after rioters take to the streets.
Heavy fighting in Vietnam
Heavy fighting flares up in South Vietnam.
Riots at the DNC in Chicago; Hubert Humphrey gets Democratic nomination
Anti-war protesters hold massive riots in the streets of Chicago, host of the Democratic National Convention. Hubert Humphrey takes the Democratic presidential nomination; chooses Edmund Muskie as...
Soviets invade Czechoslovakia
Soviets invade Czechoslovakia, ending the Prague Spring of political liberalization.
Boulder - Hippies arrested
Seventeen hippies are arrested north of Nederland on Forest Service land.
Nixon nominated as presidential candidate
Richard Nixon is nominated as Republican presidential candidate; chooses Spiro Agnew as his running mate.
Boulder - Hippie tressapassing
Boulder District Attorney Rex Scott meets with Sugarloaf residents about lack of good trespassing and vagrancy laws as hippies continue to infiltrate the area.
Boulder - Second explosion at city building
Another dynamite explosion happens at Boulder’s Municipal Building. Two men, one of them a 25-year-old CU pharmacy student, are arrested later in the month on suspicion of setting off the explosive...
Race riots in five cities
Race riots explode in five U.S. cities.
Pope Paul VI bans birth control
Pope Paul VI publishes encyclical banning birth control.
Libya’s budget explodes due to oil exports
Libya’s budget explodes from $33 million in 1960 to $960 million in 1968 due to revenues from oil exports.
James Earl Ray pleads innocent
James Earl Ray pleads innocent in King’s assassination.
Boulder - Louisville police disgruntled over lack of support
Louisville’s police chief and three officers — disgruntled about a lack of support from City Council — agree not to resign from the force; the resignations would have left one officer on duty.
Boulder - Ralph Nader speaks at CU
Ralph Nader, 34, speaks at the University Memorial Center at CU about the lack of money being put into auto safety.
Boulder - Blackmarr Furniture burns down
The Blackmarr Furniture store at 1637 Pearl St. burns down.
Boulder - CU drops Loyalty Oath
CU drops Loyalty Oath, which faculty had been required to recite.
Boulder - Getting rid of bums
A group of citizens who back Boulder police call for getting "bums" out of the city.
Dr. Spock convicted of conspiracy
Dr. Benjamin Spock, a nationally known pediatrician, is convicted of conspiracy for counseling men to evade the draft. The case is ultimately dismissed.
Arrest made in assassination of MLK
James Earl Ray is arrested in London for the assassination of Martin Luther King.
RFK shot
Robert F. Kennedy is shot by Sirhan Sirhan in California, and dies the next day.
Boulder - Hippie round-up
Authorities round-up hippies living in abandoned or empty cabins in Boulder County’s foothills. The Camera reports: "Boulder County lawmen, organized in the fashion of an old-time sheriff’s posse...
Vietnamese say U.S. is losing the war
North Vietnam’s top military leader, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap says America is losing the war.
Andy Warhol shot
Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol at Warhol's Factory studio.
Boulder - Explosion at Flagstaff House
Dynamite is set off at Flagstaff House restaurant.
Boulder - "Woodsie" hippie gathering
A "Woodsie" gathering of hippies takes place in Hidden Valley Ranch. 5,000 congregants are expected, but sheriff’s deputies find only 500.
Dow Jones falls
Dow Jones falls to 898 "breaking below the psychologically important 900 level," according to AP.
Boulder - Alferd Packer Grill named
CU’s Roaring Fork Grill becomes the Alferd Packer Grill after Colorado’s infamous cannibal, thanks to a campaign headed by then-CU grad student Paul Danish.
Boulder - Race symposium at BHS
Race symposium held at Boulder High School.
Congress moves holidays
U.S. Congress approves a bill that moves major holidays, like Washington’s birthday, Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day to Mondays; critics say moving Washington’s birthday is unpatriotic.
Boulder - Explosion at city building
Dynamite is set off in the City Council chambers of Boulder’s Municipal Building; no one is hurt.
Boulder - Women granted visitation at men's dorms
CU grants visitation by women to men’s dorms. "A few guys just couldn’t believe it. They thought it was too good to be true," one male student tells the Camera.
Women earning more income
The Associated Press reports that women earn 20 percent of all American wages and income.
Student protests in France
Student protests and worker strikes in France nearly bring down the government of Charles de Gaulle.
Boulder - Liquor Mart gets liquor license
Liquor Mart gets the first city-issued liquor license in Boulder in 60 years; voters ended Boulder’s status as a dry town in November 1967.
Rockefeller enters presidential race
New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican, enters presidential race.
Hair opens on Broadway
The musical Hair opens on Broadway.
Humphrey enters presidential race
Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a Democrat, enters the presidential race.
Boulder - Reagan speaks at Macky
Calif. Gov. Ronald Reagan, already commanding a healthy portion of the vote in Republican presidential primaries and caucuses, speaks at Macky Auditorium to great cheer.
Boulder - Protests at CU
CU students demand an end to racism, call for women to be allowed in men’s dorms, and seek control of the University Memorial Center. The administration agrees to most of the demands.
Boulder - MLK memorial march
1,500 people march in a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Boulder, three days after the civil rights leader’s assassination. Seminars on MLK and race relations in America are planned at CU.
MLK assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, fueling riots in American cities for days afterward.
Johnson pulls out of presidential race
President Lyndon B. Johnson bows out of presidential race.
Boulder - CU tuition increases
Tuition at the University of Colorado rises from $286 a year to $330 a year for residents; $1,134 to $1,284 a year for non-residents.
My Lai Massacre
In the My Lai massacre, U.S. forces slaughter up to 500 Vietnamese civilians.
Kennedy enters presidential race
Robert F. Kennedy enters presidential race.
Presidential primary results start to come in
Richard Nixon wins New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary; President Lyndon B. Johnson barely takes the state’s Democratic primary.
19,251 soldiers killed in Vietnam
The Pentagon reports that 19,251 American soldiers have been killed in seven years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. 117,335 have been wounded and 1,137 missing or captured.
Boulder - Future of the city conference
A day-long conference on the future of Boulder held. One of the questions it attempts to answer: "What will Boulder be like in 1990 when it has a population of 150,000?"
Romney quits presidential race
George Romney, father of 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, quits the presidential race after 101 days; Robert McNamara resigns as Defense Secretary.
Boulder - Conflict over CU professor
University of Colorado regents are hung up on paying visiting professor Kenneth Boulding a $25,000 salary, but many suspect it’s because he is anti-war, anti-President Lyndon B. Johnson, and suppor...
Vietnam War draft
Pentagon orders 48,000 men be drafted into the military, the highest number in 18 months.
Boulder - CU-CSU matchup talks resume
Talks about resuming a CU-CSU football matchup get under way. The rivalry has been suspended for a decade.
Famed Viet Cong execution photo taken
A South Vietnamese national police chief executes a Viet Cong officer with a gunshot to the head. The famous photo, titled "General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon," take...
Minimum wage increased
The federal minimum wage goes to $1.60 an hour.
Tet Offensive begins
The Tet Offensive begins, with the Viet Cong launching attacks across South Vietnam.
Boulder - Diagonal Highway upgrade
Discussions begin about upgrading the Diagonal Highway to freeway-style road with large medians. Target date to do so: 1978.
N. Korea seizes the USS Pueblo
North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its sovereign waters and demanding an apology from the United States before it will release the crew, who were kept in POW camps.
Boulder - Naked boy on acid trip found in canyon
A 14-year-old boy is found naked in Gregory Canyon, wearing only socks and muttering letters of the alphabet. Police determine he is tripping on LSD.
Super Bowl II
Green Bay Packers beat the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II. Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich remarks: "The Super Bowl, only two years old, already has become a bit of a bore."
Boulder - CU students suspended for protesting
The University of Colorado suspends 22 students for demonstrating against the CIA and blocking access to recruiters the previous October.
Price of stamps increases
Price for a first-class stamp goes from 5 cents to 6 cents.
