A Little 1968 Trivia
1968
Cost Of Living
Yearly inflation rate in the US 4.27%
Year End Dow Jones industrial average 943
Average cost of a new house $14,950.00
Average income per year $7,850.00
Average monthly rent $130.00
Gas per Gallon $0.34
Average cost of a new car $2,822.00
Movie Tickets $1.50
Minimum Wage $1.60
Pop Culture
The first Big Mac goes on sale in McDonalds costing $0.49.
The Beatles create Apple Records and record “Hey Jude” as the first single on the label.
The CBS television newsmagazine program “60 Minutes” shown for the first time.
Musical Hair opens at Shaftesbury Theatre in London featuring nudity and drug-taking.
Top Movies
The Graduate---Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner---Gone With the Wind---The Valley of the Dolls
The Odd Couple--Planet of the Apes--Rosemary’s Baby--The Jungle Book--Yours, Mine and Ours
The Green Beret----Bullitt----2001 A Space Odyssey----Romeo and Juliet----Yellow Submarine
Planet of the Apes----Barbarella----The Odd Couple
Top Songs
Judy in Disguise(John Fred & His Playboy Band)----Green Tambourine(Lemon Pipers)
Love is Blue(Paul Mauriat)----The Dock of the Bay(Otis Redding)
Honey(Bobby Goldsboro)----Tighten Up(Archie Bell and the Drells)
Mrs. Robinson(Simon and Garfunkel)----This Guys in Love With You(Herb Alpert)
Grazing in the Grass(Hugh Masekela)----Hello, I Love You(The Doors)
Popular Musicians
The Rolling Stones----The Supremes----The Beatle----Fleetwood Mac----Aretha Franklin
Gary Puckett and The Union Gap----The Grateful Dead----The Monkees----Simon and Garfunkel
The Beach Boys----The Bee Gees----The Jimi Hendrix Experience----Cream
The Doors----Pink Floyd----Moody Blues----Bobby Goldsboro----Marvin Gaye----David Bowie
Popular Televisions Shows
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In----Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.----Bonaza----Mayberry R.F.D.
Family Affairs----Gunsmoke----Julia----The Dean Martin Show----Here's Lucy
The Beverly Hillbillies
1968
World Statistics
Population: 3.556 billion
Nobel Peace Prize:
René Cassin (France)
More World Statistics...North Korea seizes US Navy ship Pueblo; holds 83 on board as spies (Jan.23).
More U.S. Statistics... President Johnson announces he will not seek or accept presidential renomination (March 31). More Economics... Sports Super Bowl Nobel Prize for Literature: Yasunari Kawabata (Japan) 1968 Emmy Awards 1968 Tony Awards Grammys awarded in 1968 Miss America: Debra Dene Barnes (KS) More Entertainment Awards... Events Physics: Luis Walter Alvarez (US), for study of subatomic particles Physiology or Medicine: Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana, and Marshall W. Nirenberg (all US), for studies of genetic code Martin Luther King, Jr. Marcel Duchamp Helen Keller Upton Sinclair John Steinbeck
North Vietnamese launch the Tet Offensive, a turning point in the Vietnam War (Jan.-Feb.).
American soldiers massacre 347 civilians at My Lai (March 16). Background: Vietnam War
Czechoslovakia is invaded by Russians and Warsaw Pact forces to crush liberal regime (Aug. 20).
President: Lyndon B. Johnson
Vice President: Hubert H. Humphrey
Population: 200,706,052
Life expectancy: 70.2 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 33.7
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 30.7
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 7.3
Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader, is slain in Memphis (April 4).
James Earl Ray, indicted in King murder, is sentenced to 99 years.
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is shot and critically wounded in Los Angeles hotel after winning California primary (June 5)—dies June 6. Background: Timeline of Kennedy tragedies
More History...
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $910.6 billion
Federal spending: $178.13 billion
Federal debt: $368.7 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars): $7,743
Consumer Price Index: 34.8
Unemployment: 3.8%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.05 ($0.06 as of 1/7/68)
Green Bay d. Oakland (33-14)
World Series
Detroit d. St. Louis Cardinals (4-3)
NBA Championship
Boston d. LA Lakers (4-2)
Stanley Cup
Montreal d. St. Louis (4-0)
Wimbledon
Women: Billie Jean King d. J. Tegart (9-7 7-5)
Men: Rod Laver d. T. Roche (6-3 6-4 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Forward Pass
NCAA Basketball Championship
UCLA d. North Carolina (78-55)
NCAA Football Champions
Ohio St. (10-0-0)
1968 Summer Olympics
1968 Winter Olympics
Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron
Music: Echoes of Time and the River, George Crumb
Oscars awarded in 1968
Academy Award, Best Picture: In the Heat of the Night, Walter Mirisch, producer (United Artists)
Record of the Year: "Up, Up and Away," 5th Dimension
Album of the Year: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (Capitol)
Song of the Year: "Up, Up and Away," Jimmy L. Webb, songwriter
60 Minutes airs on CBS, beginning its reign as the longest-running prime-time newsmagazine.
The motion picture rating system debuts with G, PG, R and X.
The rock musical Hair opens on Broadway.
Movies
2001: A Space Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, Oliver!
Books
William H. Gass, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country
Gore Vidal, Myra Breckenridge
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Lars Onsager (US), for development of system of equations in thermodynamics
Prototype of world's first supersonic airliner. The Soviet-designed Tupolev Tu-144 made its first flight, Dec. 31. It first achieved supersonic speed on June 5, 1969. Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
The largest reservoir of American petroleum north of Mexico is discovered in Alaska.
Amniocentesis is developed. Background: reproduction
The successful flight of Apollo 8 makes Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders the first people to orbit the moon.
Deaths