1968: The Year That Changed America

Just days after political demonstrations lead to the deaths of scores of students, the Summer Olympics open in Mexico City. Before an international audience, two American sprinters protest the national anthem from the medal stand. As the presidential campaign tightens, President Johnson calls a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam, a move calculated to help the surging Humphrey campaign. Richard Nixon attempts to sabotage the peace talks. And the insurgent candidacy of independent George Wallace threatens to throw the election to the House of Representatives. On Election Day, the vote is so close that a winner is not declared until the following morning. The victor can claim perhaps the greatest comeback in American political history. On television, Elvis Presley launches a comeback of his own. The widows of Senator Robert Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. look back at the year that was. And on Christmas Eve, Apollo 8 comes around the dark side of the moon and broadcasts, live around the world, the first-ever images of the earth from space.

As the poet said, “April is the cruelest month,” and it proves to be just that when Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis. In response, riots break out across the country. The Academy Award for Best Picture goes to the racially-themed In the Heat of the Night and Hair opens on Broadway. At Columbia University, striking students take control of the campus, leading to a bloody confrontation with police. As the battle of Khe Sahn rages in Vietnam, the United States and North Vietnam open peace talks in Paris. In the presidential race, Senators Kennedy and McCarthy battle each other from state to state in pursuit of the Democratic nomination. After the two trade victories, the nation turns its eyes to the final, fateful California primary.