February 1968

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The following events occurred in February 1968:

February 1, 1968 (Thursday)

• Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém. Photographer Eddie Adams captures the moment in an iconic photo.^[1]
• The Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy are disestablished as they merge with the Canadian Army to form the unified Canadian Armed Forces.
• In the USA, The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merge to form the Penn Central. Terms of the merger with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad have not yet been agreed with the Interstate Commerce Commission; in the interim, the Penn Central will financially support the New Haven.
• Vince Lombardi resigns as head coach of the Green Bay Packers American football team, following their win in Super Bowl II.
• Born: Mark Recchi, Canadian hockey player and coach, in Kamloops, British Columbia; Pauly Shore, US comedian and actor, in Hollywood, California

February 2, 1968 (Friday)

• Operation Kentucky: The NVA attacks the Combined Action Company P headquarters at Cam Lo, Vietnam. The Marines, supported by a detachment of US Army M42 Dusters, hold off the NVA attack until relieved by 2/9 Marines.

February 3, 1968 (Saturday)

• The Sanremo Music Festival is won by Sergio Endrigo for "Canzone per te", performed by Roberto Carlos.
• Born: Vlade Divac, Serbian basketball player and executive

February 4, 1968 (Sunday)

• The British trawler Ross Cleveland capsizes and sinks off Isafjordur, Iceland, with the loss of eighteen of her nineteen crew.
• The 24 Hours of Daytona motor race is won by a team from Porsche.
• Bowie Kuhn becomes the 5th commissioner of Major League Baseball in the USA.
• Died: Neal Cassady, 43, American icon of the Beat Generation (cause of death inconclusive)^[2]

February 5, 1968 (Monday)

• Born: Roberto Alomar, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball second baseman (Hall of Fame), in Ponce
• Died: Luckey Roberts, 80, African-American pianist and composer ("Moonlight Cocktail")

February 6, 1968 (Tuesday)

• The 1968 Winter Olympics open in Grenoble, France.

February 7, 1968 (Wednesday)

• Born: Peter Bondra, Slovak hockey player
• Died: Nick Adams, 36, US actor, apparently of a drug overdose; the inquest could not agree whether his death was suicide or an accident, but murder has also been suggested.^[3]

February 8, 1968 (Thursday)

• Orangeburg massacre: Three protesters against racial segregation are shot and killed and 27 others wounded by South Carolina Highway Patrol officers on the South Carolina State University campus.<^[4]
• The classic science fiction film Planet of The Apes receives its premiere in New York City.
• Born: Gary Coleman, US actor, in Zion, Illinois (died 2010)
• Died: Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr., 18, Delano Herman Middleton, 17, Henry Ezekial Smith, 19, students involved in the Orangeburg massacre^[4]

February 9, 1968 (Friday)

• Born: Alejandra Guzmán, Mexican singer-songwriter and actress, in Mexico City, the daughter of actress Silvia Pinal and singer Enrique Guzmán

February 10, 1968 (Saturday)

• Born: Garrett Reisman, US astronaut, in Morristown, New Jersey

February 11, 1968 (Sunday)

• Died: Howard Lindsay, 78, American playwright and actor (Life With Father, State of the Union, The Sound of Music)

February 12, 1968 (Monday)

• The 25th Golden Globe Awards are held. In the Heat of the Night wins Best Picture - Drama, while The Graduate takes home the Best Picture - Comedy trophy.
• Born: Josh Brolin, US actor, in Santa Monica, California, the son of actor James Brolin; Christopher McCandless, US adventurer, in El Segundo, California (died 1992); Chynna Phillips, US singer, daughter of musicians John and Michelle Phillips, in Los Angeles.

February 13, 1968 (Tuesday)

• Born: Kelly Hu, Chinese-American actress (X-Men 2, The Scorpion King, Nash Bridges)

February 14, 1968 (Wednesday)

• Died: Pierre Veuillot, 55, French cardinal, Archbishop of Paris (leukaemia)

February 15, 1968 (Thursday)

• Died: Little Walter, 38, American blues musician, of coronary thrombosis thought to have been brought about by injuries sustained in a fight the previous evening^[5]

February 16, 1968 (Friday)

• North America's first ever 9-1-1 call is placed in Haleyville, Alabama, by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite, from Haleyville City Hall, to U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill, at the city's police station.
• The Beatles, Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan and others travel to India to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh.
• Born: Warren Ellis, British comic book writer (Transmetropolitan, Planetary)

February 17, 1968 (Saturday)

• The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield, Massachusetts.
• At the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, skier Jean-Claude Killy wins the Men's slalom to take his third gold medal of the Games, a record that remains unsurpassed in the alpine skiing events.^[6]
• Pink Floyd launch their World Tour with a concert in Terneuzen, Netherlands.
• Died: Donald Wolfit, 65, British actor

February 18, 1968 (Sunday)

• Born: Molly Ringwald, US actress, in Roseville, California

February 19, 1968 (Monday)

• Panamanian cargo ship Capitaine Frangos sinks after colliding with an undentified ship at the entrance to the Dardanelles, Turkey. Fifteen of her twenty crew are killed.^[7]
• Avalanches in Bondalen, Norway, kill four people.

February 20, 1968 (Tuesday)

• Prime Minister of Canada Lester Pearson gives the first-ever televised address to the nation as he tells Canadians that he will table a confidence motion the next day to prove his party still has control. After a week of filibustering by the Opposition, the motion passes.^[8]
• The China Academy of Space Technology is founded in Beijing.^[9]

February 21, 1968 (Wednesday)

• McGraw-Hill, Inc., outbids eight other publishers and pays $150,000 for the U.S. rights to Hunter Davies' authorized biography of the Beatles.
• Blood, Sweat & Tears release their debut album, Child Is Father to the Man.
• Died: Howard Florey, 69, Australian pathologist, Nobel Laureate

February 22, 1968 (Thursday)

• Born: Jeri Ryan, US actress, in Munich, Germany; Brad Nowell, US musician, in Long Beach, California (died 1996)

February 23, 1968 (Friday)

• Died: Fannie Hurst, 82, US novelist and short story writer

February 24, 1968 (Saturday)

• A Douglas DC-3 XW-TAD of Royal Air Lao crashes into the Mekong River whilst on a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Wattay International Airport, Vientiane to Sayaboury Airport, Sainyabuli. All 37 people on board are killed.^[10]
• Fleetwood Mac release their debut album, Fleetwood Mac. Most of the songs were written and sung by band leaders Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer.
• Born: Mitch Hedberg, US comedia, in Saint Paul, Minnesota (died 2005)

February 25, 1968 (Sunday)

• In the Senegalese general election, the only candidate for the presidency, incumbent President Léopold Sédar Senghor, is re-elected unopposed.^[11]

February 26, 1968 (Monday)

• Japanese bulk carrier Shozan Maru strikes a rock in the Panama Canal and sinks; it is refloated the following day.^[12]

February 27, 1968 (Tuesday)

• Born: Matt Stairs, Canadian baseball pitcher, in Saint John, New Brunswick
• Died: Frankie Lymon, 25, US rhythm and blues singer (heroin overdose)^[13]

February 28, 1968 (Wednesday)

• Several changes take place within the First Gorton Ministry of the new Australian government, including the renaming of Charles Barnes' department as the Minister for External Territories. Malcolm Fraser joins the Cabinet as Minister for Education and Science, as does Ken Anderson as Minister for Supply.

February 29, 1968 (Thursday)

• 1968 Polish political crisis: Gathered for an extraordinary meeting, the Warsaw chapter of the Polish Writers' Union condemns encroachments on the righs to free speech.^[14]
• Prague Spring: In Czechoslovakia, the Writers’ Union publishes the first copy of the censor-free Literární listy.^[15]
• The Kerner Commission releases its report on racial discrimination in the United States.
• The 10th Annual Grammy Awards are held at Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and New York City. Big winners include The Beatles & George Martin for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Johnny Mann for "Up, Up and Away" performed by the Johnny Mann Singers^[16][17]
• A Douglas C-47A N252W of Millers Aviation crashed on take-off from Statesville Municipal Airport, Statesville, North Carolina. The aircraft was on a cargo flight when it suffered an engine failure and crashed into trees. All four people on board survived.^[18]

References

1. Winslow, Donald R. (April 19, 2011). "The Pulitzer Eddie Adams Didn't Want". The New York Times.
2. Neal Cassidy website (retrieved 26 January 2009)
3. Peter L Winkler (Oct 30, 2009). "Nick Adams: His Hollywood Life and Death". Crime Magazine. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
4. Shuler, Jack (2012), Blood & Bone: Truth and Reconciliation in a Southern Town, Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, p. 21
5. Glover, Tony; Dirks, Scott; and Gaines, Ward (2002). Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story. Routledge Press.
6. "Rapport Officiel Xes Jeux Olympiques D'Hiver 1968 Grenoble" (PDF). Comité d'organisation des Xemes jeux olympiques d'hiver. LA84 Foundation. 1968. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
7. "15 missing as ship sinks". The Times (57180). London. 29 February 1968. col G, p. 5.
8. Idiot box channeling the Prime Ministers
9. "China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)". NTI. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
10. "XW-TAD Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
11. Elections in Senegal African Elections Database
12. "Panama clear". The Times (57186). London. 27 February 1968. col D, p. 1.
13. "Frankie Lymon Dies in Apartment.". The New York Times. February 28, 1968. Frankie Lymon, the rock 'n' roll singer who popularized "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" was found dead yesterday in the apartment of his grandmother, apparently, of an overdose of narcotics, according to the police.
14. Andrzej Leon Sowa, Historia polityczna Polski 1944–1991, p. 338
15. Holý, Jiří. Writers Under Siege: Czech Literature Since 1945. Sussex: Sussex Academic Press, 2011, pp 119
16. Campbell, Mary (1 March 1968). "Up, Up and Away Picks Up 6 Grammy Record Awards". The Sun. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
17. "1967 Grammy Award Winners". Grammy.com. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
18. "N525W Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 24 July 2011.