The Book of Me – Written by You is a weekly blog prompt created by Julie Goucher of the blog Angler’s Rest. This is a fifteen month writing project to highlight my life so that I will have something to leave behind for my descendants. Week twelve’s prompt is the year you were born.
What happened?
- Historical
- Films
- Music
- Books
- Television
__________________________
1968 was a pivotal year in 20th century United States history. The year was marked by great gains and losses. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The Vietnam War was in full swing. Protests against the war were common on college campuses and metropolitan areas. Civil Rights protests and disturbances were occurring every month, and they were continuing to be increasingly violent. In April, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. By the end of the year, Johnson also signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. NASA launched Apollo 7: the first manned Apollo mission broadcast the first live television coverage from space. Later in the year Apollo 8 would enter orbit around the moon. As the year ended, Richard M. Nixon was elected president and the Zodiac Killer began his killing spree on the west coast. Several books and articles have been written about 1968, including 1968: The Year that Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky and The Long 1968: Revisions and New Perspectives edited by Daniel J. Sherman, should one wish to learn more about this amazing year in history.
Top Ten Grossing Films of 1968:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Funny Girl
The Love Bug
The Odd Couple
Bullitt
Romeo and Juliet
Oliver!
Rosemary’s Baby
Planet of the Apes
Night of the Living Dead
Other notable films were: A Lion in Winter, The Green Berets, The Thomas Crown Affair and Rachel, Rachel.
Music:
Notable rock groups of the year were: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Diana Ross & the Supremes, the list could go on and on. It was also the year that Johnny Cash finally married June Carter.
Debuting On Broadway:
Hair
Promises, Promises
Zorba
George M!
Books:
Lloyd Alexander – The High King
Isaac Asimov – Asimov’s Mysteries
Agatha Christie – By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Arthur C. Clarke – 2001: A Space Odyssey
Phillip K. Dick – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?
John Christopher – The Pool of Fire
Ursula K. Le Guin – A Wizard of Earthsea
Peter S. Beagle – The Last Unicorn
Anne McCaffrey – Dragonflight
Beverly Cleary – Ramona the Pest
Charles Portis – True Grit
Alexander Key – Escape to Witch Mountain
Hugo Award: Roger Zelazny – Lord of Light
Nebula Award: Alexei Panshin – Rite of Passage
Newbery Medal: E.L. Konignsburg – From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Caldecott Medal: Ed Emberley – Drummer Hoff
On Television:
In the 3rd season of Star Trek’s original run, the groundbreaking episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” featured the first interracial kiss on television.
Doctor Who was played by the second actor in the role, Patrick Troughton. His companions were Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury). The Doctor regenerated at the end of the sixth season in the spring of 1969. The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) had a recurring role and John Levene made his first appearance as Corporal Benton.
©2013 copyright owned and written by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found at: https://genealogylady.net/2013/11/23/book-of-me-pro…-year-of-birth/
Genealogy Lady 
Movies I saw that year….or later. What a year for MOI, obviously 🙂
2001: A Space Odyssey Yes
Funny Girl Yes
The Love Bug No
The Odd Couple Yes
Bullitt No
Romeo and Juliet Yes
Oliver! Yes
Rosemary’s Baby No
Planet of the Apes Yes
Night of the Living Dead No
That is wonderful to know! I do recall seeing one of the Herbie the Love Bug films at a drive-in when I was little though. 🙂
Well, I guess Yes goes after that too! 🙂 My diary is not indexed, so it would be quite a project to nail down the dates 😦
Really interesting to see what was going on at that time. I was born in 1958, so remember a few of the items listed. Especially the Thomas Crown Affair – not the film but the song ‘Windmills of Your Mind’. Doctor Who celebrated 50 years last night with a very special episode, I think most of England was watching eagerly to see what happened!
I finally get to watch The Day of the Doctor today. So excited!
1968 was a great year for Science Fiction. I was a little young to remember 1968, but I did learn how to celebrate a birthday that year 🙂
🙂 I decided I was going to focus on subjects that meant more to me, such as Science Fiction. I wish I had been old enough sometimes to have seen Star Trek when it was originally on.