1968 Peach State 200, Race report
Don Tomberlin made his NASCAR debut here while Dexter Gainey and Stan Meserve would end their respective NASCAR careers after this event.


1968 Peach State 200, Finishing order
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased * Driver failed to finish race


1968 Penn Quakers football team
The 1968 Penn Quakers football team represented the University of Pennsylvania in the 1968 NCAA University Division football season.


1968 Penn State Nittany Lions football team
The 1968 Penn State Nittany Lions represented Pennsylvania State University in the 1968 NCAA University Division football season. The 1968 team was Paterno's first perfect season. Despite going 11–0, the Nittany Lions finished behind 10–0 Ohio State in the final AP Poll (conducted after bowl season), and behind Ohio State and 9–0–1 USC in the final Coaches Poll (conducted before bowl season).


1968 Penn State Nittany Lions football team, Post season, NFL/AFL Common Draft
Five Nittany Lions were drafted in the 1969 NFL/AFL Common Draft.


1968 Peruvian Segunda División
The 1968 Segunda División Peruana, the second division of Peruvian football (soccer), was played by 10 teams. The tournament winner, Deportivo Municipal was promoted to the 1969 Torneo Descentralizado.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état
The 1968 Peruvian coup d'état took place during the first presidency of Fernando Belaúnde (1963–1968), as a result of political disputes becoming norms, serious arguments between President Belaúnde and Congress rising, dominated by the APRA-UNO (Unión Nacional Odríista) coalition, and even clashes between the President and his own Acción Popular (Popular Action) party were common. Congress went on to censor several cabinets of the Belaúnde administration, and a general political instability was perceived. General Juan Velasco Alvarado led the coup.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Context
A dispute with the International Petroleum Company over licenses to the La Brea y Pariñas oil fields in Talara Province, northern Peru sparked a national scandal when a key page of a contract (the 11th) was found missing. The Armed Forces, fearing that this scandal might lead to another uprising or a takeover from the APRA party, seized absolute power and closed down Congress, almost all of whose members were briefly incarcerated.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Context
General Velasco seized power on October 3, 1968, in a bloodless military coup, deposing the democratically elected administration of Fernando Belaúnde, under which he served as Commander of the Armed Forces. President Belaúnde was sent into exile. Initial reaction against the coup evaporated after five days when on October 8, 1968, the oil fields in dispute were taken over by the Army.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Coup d'état
At 1:00 AM on Thursday of October 3, 1968, an armored squadron of tanks went from the Tank Division towards the Presidential Palace in the capital city of Lima, along with support from the armed forces. The intention was to avoid confrontation with the palace guards with an early attack.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Coup d'état
Although rumors of a coup and of a possible overthrow circulated around the Council of Ministers and Presidential Cabinet, no special measures were taken in the event of defending the palace from mutiny.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Coup d'état
Additionally, due to the early timing, the chief military aide to President Belaúnde was still sleeping at his home away from the Presidential Palace, and the Presidential Guards immediately surrendered at the site of the armored squadron at the steps of the pavilion.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Coup d'état
At 2 AM, President Belaúnde was woken up and dragged out of his bed in his pajamas by Velasco-Alvarado and his militants. Belaúnde offered no resistance. Close advisers to Belaúnde also reportedly saw him as drugged the night before the coup, presumably by traitors in the presidential residence itself.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Ousting of Belaúnde-Terry
After hearing a barrage of bullets outside the palace in the morning, Belaúnde found himself alone in the Presidential Palace along with a couple of other family members and ministers.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Ousting of Belaúnde-Terry
In the morning, a group of officers found Belaunde and informed him of his arrest at gunpoint. Belaúnde, furious, exclaimed "Identify yourself, you miserable traitor. You are talking to the Constitutional President of the Republic!" The group backed, and Colonel Enrique Gallegos explained Velasco's orders for his deportation to him.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Ousting of Belaúnde-Terry
Belaúnde responded "You sons of...traitors...unworthy of the uniform that the country has entrusted to you. You are dismissed! Bringing so many tanks and guns just to detain an unarmed man! Shoot me then, damn it!"


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Ousting of Belaúnde-Terry
President Belaúnde attempted to resist the arrest. Four officers threw themselves on President Belaúnde, taking him by the arms, and held him back. He was then detained.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Ousting of Belaúnde-Terry
Following the coup d'état, at 7 AM, Belaúnde was taken to a barracks and was forcibly taken to Jorge Chavez International Airport in Callao, Peru. Velasco, having assumed authority, immediately ordered Belaúnde to be deported, and ordered an ASPA (a privately owned international Peruvian airline) jet on the runway of the airport.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Ousting of Belaúnde-Terry
Belaúnde was forced into the jet, and the exiled president was deported to Argentina. Belaúnde would spend the next years of Velasco's regime in both Argentina and the United States as a professor.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Council of Ministers
The President of the Council of Ministers, as well as many other Ministers, were rushed at their homes and the presidential palace. They immediately surrendered.


1968 Peruvian coup d'état, Council of Ministers
Prior to being attacked and hearing of Belaúnde's arrest, the President of the Council of Ministers attempted to establish order by calling an emergency Cabinet meeting to swear in the Vice President, Mario Polar. Only three ministers attended, but the Vice President was also detained by the insurgents.


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season
The 1968 Philadelphia Eagles season was the franchise's 36th season in the National Football League (NFL). They failed to improve on their previous output of 6–7–1, winning only two games. Eagles fans expected to get O. J. Simpson if they went winless. They finished 2–12, but the Buffalo Bills went 1–12–1 and got Simpson with the first pick. Before they won their twelfth game, the Eagles were on target for a winless season at 0–11. They were the first team in the NFL proper to lose eleven consecutive games in one season since their own 1936 season, though in the AFL the 1962 Oakland Raiders lost their first thirteen games.


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season
One of the most infamous incidents in Philadelphia sports history came at halftime of the final game of the dismal 1968 season, when the Eagles were on their way to losing to the Minnesota Vikings. The Eagles had planned a Christmas pageant for halftime of the December 15 game, but the condition of the field was too poor. Instead, the team asked a fan dressed as Santa Claus to run onto the field to celebrate with a group of cheerleaders. The fans, in no mood to celebrate, loudly booed and threw snowballs at “Santa Claus.”


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps
A recap of the scoring plays and the game scores by quarters during the year. The record after the team's name reflects this games outcome also.


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 2
Played in Franklin Field on grass in 70 °F (21.1 °C) weather with a 9 miles per hour (14 km/h; 7.8 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 3
Played in Franklin Field on grass in 61 °F (16.1 °C) weather with a 12 miles per hour (19 km/h; 10 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 4
Played at District of Columbia Stadium on grass in 46 °F (7.8 °C) weather with a 9 miles per hour (14 km/h; 7.8 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 5
Played at the Cotton Bowl on grass in 77 °F (25 °C) weather with a 12 miles per hour (19 km/h; 10 kn) wind.


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 6
Played at Franklin Field on grass in 62 °F (16.7 °C) weather with a 12 miles per hour (19 km/h; 10 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 7
Played at Pitt Stadium on grass in 45 °F (7.2 °C) weather with a 14 miles per hour (23 km/h; 12 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 8
Played at Franklin Field on grass in 55 °F (12.8 °C) weather with a 9 miles per hour (14 km/h; 7.8 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 9
Played at Franklin Field on grass in 40 °F (4.4 °C) weather with a 15 miles per hour (24 km/h; 13 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 10
Played at Yankee Stadium on grass in 40 °F (4.4 °C) weather with a 14 miles per hour (23 km/h; 12 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 11
Played in Cleveland Municipal Stadium on grass in 52 °F (11.1 °C) weather with a 13 miles per hour (21 km/h; 11 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 12
Played in Tiger Stadium on grass in 40 °F (4.4 °C) weather with a 15 miles per hour (24 km/h; 13 kn) wind


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 12
Going into this week’s games the Eagles are 0–11, the Buffalo Bills are 1–9–1, the Falcons are 2–9 and the Steelers are 2–8–1.


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 13
Played at Franklin Field on grass in 31 °F (−0.6 °C) with a 16 miles per hour (26 km/h; 14 kn) wind and a wind chill of 19 °F or −7.2 °C.


1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 14
Played at Franklin Field on grass in 28 °F (−2.2 °C) weather with a 20 miles per hour (32 km/h; 17 kn) wind and a wind chill of 15 °F or −9.4 °C. During halftime of this last home game of the season, a group of Eagles fans showed their discontent by booing, and then throwing snowballs at, a performer dressed as Santa Claus.


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season
The 1968 Philadelphia Phillies season was a season in Major League Baseball. The Phillies finished eighth in the National League with a record of 76 wins and 86 losses, 21 games behind the NL pennant-winning Cardinals.


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season, Regular season
The Phillies were scheduled to open the 1968 season on April 9, 1968, in Los Angeles. However, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., on April 4, lead to days of national unrest. President Johnson declared Monday, April 8, a national day of mourning, and the funeral was scheduled for April 9. The Dodgers initially refused to postpone the game, leading Phillies GM John Quinn and President Bob Carpenter to announce that the Phillies would not play on April 9 even under threat of forfeit.


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season, Regular season
On April 7, Quinn told reporters, "Under the rules, the game can be forfeited and we could be fined. But we have made our final decision. We will not play." In consultation with NL President Warren Giles, the Dodgers eventually agreed and postponed the game. The Phillies opened April 10, 1968, with a Chris Short 2 to 0 shutout of the Dodgers.


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season, Regular season
On July 28, 1968, George Culver of the Cincinnati Reds pitched a 6–1 no-hitter against the Phillies in the second game of a doubleheader at Connie Mack Stadium.


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1968 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
The 1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship was the fifth World Match Play Championship. It was played from Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 October on the West Course at Wentworth. Eight players competed in a straight knock-out competition, with each match contested over 36 holes. The champion received £5,000 out of a total prize fund of £16,000. In the final Gary Player beat Bob Charles at the 36th hole to win the tournament for the third time in four years.


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
The tournament included two British golfers: Brian Huggett and Tony Jacklin. Huggett was drawn against Arnold Palmer and looked to be out of the championship when he was 4 down with six holes to play. Huggett then had five birdies in a row to reduce the gap to one hole. However Palmer's four at the last gave him the victory by 2 holes. Jacklin was 4 up at lunch against Lee Trevino and won comfortably 4 & 3.


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
In his semi-final against Gary Player, Jacklin was 1 down at lunch but won three holes early in the afternoon to go 2 up. However he then had four bogeys in a row to go 2 down after 27 holes. The match then turned again and Jacklin had six birdies coming home to leave the match tied after 36 holes. The spectators lined the first hole in the expectation that the match would continue but it was decided that the light was too poor to continue that evening. Player beat Jacklin at the first extra hole when they returned on Saturday after Jacklin had three putted.


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
In the final, Player was 1 up over Bob Charles at lunch. The first eight holes in the afternoon were halved before Player went 2 up at the 9th. Charles then levelled the match with birdies at the 10th and 11th. Charles missed from six feet at the 15th to give Player the lead again and they halved the last three holes to give Player the victory.


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
Bob Goalby, the Masters Champion declined an invitation because his wife was ill.


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
The 72-hole stroke play Piccadilly Tournament competition which had been played on the East Course prior to the World Match Play Championship was replaced by a four-ball better-ball match play tournament. 32 pairs competed in the knock-out competition, each round over 18 holes of the East Course. The plan was to play the first round on Monday 7 October, followed by two rounds on each of the following two days.


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
However, heavy rain on the second day meant that the third round could not be played that day and the final was delayed until Thursday 10 October, the same day as the opening round of the World Match Play Championship. The winners were Richard Emery and Hugh Jackson who beat Neil Coles and Bryon Hutchinson 2&1 in the final. The winners won £500 each out of the total prize money was £4,000.


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship, Scores
The match between Gary Player and Tony Jacklin was completed on 12 October having been all square after 36 holes when it became too dark to continue.


1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship, Prize money
The winner received £5,000, the runner-up £3,000, the losing semi-finalists £2,000 and the first round losers £1,000, making a total prize fund of £16,000.


1968 Pittsburgh Panthers football team
The 1968 Pittsburgh Panthers football team represented the University of Pittsburgh in the 1968 NCAA University Division football season. The team compiled a 1–9 record under head coach Dave Hart. The team's statistical leaders included Dave Havern with 1,810 passing yards and Denny Ferris with 472 rushing yards.


1968 Pittsburgh Pirates season
The 1968 Pittsburgh Pirates season was the 87th season of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise; the 82nd in the National League. The Pirates finished sixth in the league standings with a record of 80–82.


1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season
The 1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season was the team's 36th in the National Football League.


1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season
1968 continued the team's descent in the NFL's basement, finishing with a third league-worst 2–11–1 record (Eagles and Falcons both 2-12) and the dismissal of head coach Bill Austin at the end of the season, leading to the eventual hiring of Chuck Noll. To this date, Austin is the last head coach to be fired by the Steelers.


1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season
The season is notable in that the Steelers had their last tied game before the NFL adopted the overtime rule in regular-season games in 1974 in Week 9 against the St. Louis Cardinals in a 28–28 stalemate; that game actually was the deciding game in the NFL Century Division that season, as the Cardinals had swept the Cleveland Browns but finished the season 9–4–1, 1/2 game behind the 10–4 Browns. Since that game, the Steelers have only had two tied games, both happening after the overtime rule took effect.


1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season
In addition, the Steelers lost to the Baltimore Colts at home, 41–7, in Week 3, as the Colts went on to play in Super Bowl III, in which they were upset by the AFL's New York Jets. After that loss, the Steelers would go another 40 years before losing to the Colts at home again, winning 12 straight (including three postseason meetings, among them the now-famous 1995 AFC Championship game as well as the 1975 Divisional Playoff Game that saw the introduction of the Terrible Towel) before losing to the now-Indianapolis Colts, 24–20, on November 10, 2008.


1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Offseason
No major player transactions happened in the offseason, although the team would draft Notre Dame running back Rocky Bleier with their last pick (16th round) in the 1968 draft. Bleier's drafting by the team was mainly at the insistence of Steelers owner Art Rooney, who thought Bleier was Catholic for attending Notre Dame, even though Bleier was actually Presbyterian. Bleier would play ten games for the Steelers before being drafted again—this time by the military to fight in Vietnam. Despite being wounded the following summer, Bleier would go on to be a major contributor to the Steelers' success in the 1970s.


1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Offseason
The most notable offseason change happened with the team's uniforms. After just two seasons, the team ditched the so-called "Batman"-themed uniforms and adopted a modified version of their pre-1966 black design for both jerseys. The team brought back the Northwestern-style stripes on the sleeves, but put a white stripe in between each gold stripe on the black jerseys and black trim on each of the stripes on the white jerseys.


1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Offseason
The team also adopted white numbers on the home jerseys (the lone carryover from the "Batman" jerseys), while the team retained the gold pants from the "Batman" uniforms as well as the team's helmet, which was adopted in 1963. Save for wearing white pants with the white jerseys in 1970 and '71, as well as changing the font of the jersey numbers in 1997, these uniforms remain in use as of 2020.


1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Regular season, Standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1968 Pittsburgh riots
The 1968 Pittsburgh riots were a series of urban disturbances that erupted in Pittsburgh on April 5, 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Pittsburgh, along with 110 other cities, burned for several days and 3,600 National Guardsmen were needed to quell the disorder. The neighborhoods most impacted were the Hill District, North Side, and Homewood with casualties including one death and 36 injuries. Over 100 businesses were either vandalized or looted with arsonists setting 505 fires. After six days order was finally restored on April 11 with property damage surpassing $600,000 and 1,000 arrests being made by law enforcement. Many of the areas affected by the disorder would never fully recover in the following decades.


1968 Polish political crisis
The Polish 1968 political crisis, also known in Poland as March 1968, Students' March, or March events (Polish: Marzec 1968; studencki Marzec; wydarzenia marcowe), was a series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the communist regime of the Polish People's Republic. The crisis led to the suppression of student strikes by security forces in all major academic centres across the country and the subsequent repression of the Polish dissident movement.


1968 Polish political crisis
It was also accompanied by mass emigration following  an antisemitic (branded "anti-Zionist") campaign waged by the minister of internal affairs, General Mieczysław Moczar, with the approval of First Secretary Władysław Gomułka of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). The protests overlapped with the events of the Prague Spring in neighboring Czechoslovakia – raising new hopes of democratic reforms among the intelligentsia. The Czechoslovak unrest culminated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on 20 August 1968.


1968 Polish political crisis
The anti-Jewish campaign began in 1967, and was carried out in conjunction with the USSR's withdrawal of all diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War, but also involved a power struggle within the PZPR itself. The subsequent purges within the ruling party, led by Mieczysław Moczar and his faction, failed to topple Gomułka's government but resulted in an exile from Poland of thousands of individuals of Jewish ancestry, including professionals, party officials and secret police functionaries. In carefully staged public displays of support, factory workers across Poland were assembled to publicly denounce Zionism. At least 13,000 Poles of Jewish origin emigrated in 1968–72 as a result of being fired from their positions and various other forms of harassment.


1968 Polish political crisis, Background
The political turmoil of the late 1960s was exemplified in the West by increasingly violent protests against the Vietnam War and included numerous instances of protest and revolt, especially among students, that reverberated across Europe in 1968. The movement was reflected in the Eastern Bloc by the events of the Prague Spring, beginning 5 January 1968. A wave of protests in Czechoslovakia marked the high point of a broader series of dissident social mobilization. According to Ivan Krastev, the 1968 movement in Western Europe, emphasizing individual sovereignty, was fundamentally different from that in the Eastern Bloc, concerned primarily with national sovereignty.


1968 Polish political crisis, Background
In Poland, a growing crisis having to do with communist party control over universities, the literary community, and intellectuals in general, marked the mid-1960s. Those persecuted for political activism on campus included Jacek Kuroń, Karol Modzelewski, Adam Michnik and Barbara Toruńczyk, among others. A decade earlier, Poland was a scene of the Poznań 1956 protests and the Polish October events.


1968 Polish political crisis, Reaction to Arab–Israeli war of 1967
The events of 1967 and Polish communist leaders' necessity to follow the Soviet lead altered the relatively benign relations between People's Poland and Israel. The combination of international and domestic factors gave rise in Poland to a campaign of hate against purported internal enemies, among whom the Jews would become the most salient target.


1968 Polish political crisis, Reaction to Arab–Israeli war of 1967
As the Israeli–Arab Six-Day War started on 5 June 1967, the Polish Politburo met the following day and made policy determinations, declaring condemnation of "Israel's aggression" and full support for the "just struggle of the Arab countries". First Secretary Władysław Gomułka and Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz went to Moscow on 9 June for a Middle East conference of communist leaders. The participants deliberated in a depressing atmosphere. The decisions made included the Warsaw Pact's continuation of military and financial support for the Arab states and the breaking of diplomatic relations with Israel, in which only Romania refused to participate.


1968 Polish political crisis, Reaction to Arab–Israeli war of 1967
A media campaign commenced in Poland and was soon followed by "anti-Israeli imperialism" rallies held in various towns and places of employment. After the government delegation's return to Warsaw, Gomułka, pessimistic and fearful of a possible nuclear confrontation and irritated by the reports of support for Israel among many Polish Jews, on 19 June proclaimed at the Trade Union Congress that Israel's aggression had been "met with applause in Zionist circles of Jews – Polish citizens."


1968 Polish political crisis, Reaction to Arab–Israeli war of 1967
Gomułka specifically invited "those who feel that these words are addressed to them" to emigrate, but Edward Ochab and some other Politburo members objected and the statement was deleted before the speech's publication. Gomułka did not issue a call for anti-Jewish personnel purges, but the so-called "anti-Zionist" campaign got underway anyway, supported by his close associates Zenon Kliszko and Ignacy Loga-Sowiński. It was eagerly amplified by General Mieczysław Moczar, minister of internal affairs, by some military leaders who had long been waiting for an opportunity to "settle with the Jews", and by other officials.


1968 Polish political crisis, Reaction to Arab–Israeli war of 1967
A list of 382 "Zionists" was presented at the ministry on 28 June and the purge slowly developed, beginning with Jewish generals and other high-ranking officers of the Polish armed forces. About 150 Jewish military officers were fired in 1967–68, including Czesław Mankiewicz, national air defense chief. Minister of Defense Marian Spychalski tried to defend Mankiewicz and by doing so compromised his own position. The Ministry of Internal Affairs renewed its proposal to ban the Jewish organizations from receiving foreign contributions from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. This time, unlike on previous occasions, the request was quickly granted by the Secretariat of the PZPR's Central Committee and the well-developed Jewish social, educational and cultural organized activities in Poland faced stiff reductions or even practical liquidation.


1968 Polish political crisis, Reaction to Arab–Israeli war of 1967
About 200 people lost their jobs and were removed from the party top leadership in 1967, including Leon Kasman, chief editor of Trybuna Ludu, the party's main daily newspaper. Kasman was Moczar's hated rival from the time of the war when he arrived from the Soviet Union and was parachuted into Poland. After March 1968, when Moczar's ministry was finally given the freehand it had long sought, 40 employees were fired from the editorial staff of the Polish Scientific Publishers (PWN). This major state publishing house had produced a number of volumes of the official Great Universal Encyclopedia. Moczar and others protested in the fall of 1967 the supposedly unbalanced treatment of World War II issues, namely stressing Jewish martyrdom and the disproportionate numbers of Jews killed in Nazi extermination camps.


1968 Polish political crisis, Reaction to Arab–Israeli war of 1967
In the words of Polish scholar Włodzimierz Rozenbaum, the Six-Day War "provided Gomułka with an opportunity 'to kill several birds with one stone': he could use an "anti-Zionist" policy to undercut the appeal of the liberal wing of the party; he could bring forward the Jewish issue to weaken the support for the nationalist faction (in the party) and make his own position even stronger..." while securing political prospects for his own supporters.


1968 Polish political crisis, Reaction to Arab–Israeli war of 1967
On 19 June 1967, Gomułka warned in his speech: "We don't want an establishment of a fifth column in our country". The sentence was deleted from a published version, but such views he repeated and developed further in successive speeches, for example on 19 March 1968. On 27 June 1967, the first secretary characterized Romania's position as shameful, predicted production of nuclear arms by Israel and spoke generally of consequences faced by people who had "two souls and two fatherlands". Following Gomułka's anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rhetoric, the security services began screening officials of Jewish origin and looking for 'hidden Zionists' in Polish institutions.


1968 Polish political crisis, Protest in Warsaw
The outbreak of the March 1968 unrest was seemingly triggered by a series of events in Warsaw, but in reality, it was a culmination of trends accumulating in Poland over several years. The economic situation was deteriorating and a drastic increase in the prices of meat came into effect in 1967. In 1968, the market was destabilized further by rumors of upcoming currency exchange and the ensuing panic. Higher norms were enforced for industrial productivity with wages reduced at the same time. First Secretary Gomułka was afraid of all changes.


1968 Polish political crisis, Protest in Warsaw
The increasingly heavy censorship stifled intellectual life, the boredom of stagnation and the mood of hopelessness (lack of career prospects) generated social conflict. The disparity between the expectations raised by the Polish October movement of 1956 and the actuality of the "real socialism" life of the 1960s led to mounting frustration.


1968 Polish political crisis, Protest in Warsaw
At the end of January 1968, after its poor reception by the Central Committee of the ruling PZPR, the government authorities banned the performance of a Romantic play by Adam Mickiewicz called Dziady (written in 1824), directed by Kazimierz Dejmek at the National Theatre, Warsaw. It was claimed that the play contained Russophobic and anti-Soviet references and represented an unduly pro-religion stance. Dziady had been staged 14 times, the last time on 30 January. The ban was followed by a demonstration after the final performance, which resulted in numerous police detentions. Dejmek was expelled from the party and subsequently fired from the National Theatre. He left Poland and returned in 1973, to continue directing theatrical productions.


1968 Polish political crisis, Protest in Warsaw
In mid-February, a petition signed by 3,000 people (or over 4,200, depending on the source) protesting the censorship of Dziady was submitted to parliament by student protester Irena Lasota. Gathered for an extraordinary meeting on 29 February with over 400 attendees, the Warsaw chapter of the Polish Writers' Union condemned the ban and other encroachments on free speech rights. The speakers blamed the faction of Minister Moczar and the party in general for antisemitic incidents, as that campaign was gaining traction.


1968 Polish political crisis, Protest in Warsaw
On 4 March, the removal from the University of Warsaw of dissidents Adam Michnik and Henryk Szlajfer, members of the Komandosi group, was announced by officials. A crowd of some 500 (or about 1,000) students rallying at the university on 8 March was attacked violently by organized "worker activists" (probably plainclothes police) and by police in uniform. Nonetheless, other institutions of higher learning in Warsaw joined the protest a day later.


1968 Polish political crisis, Student- and intellectual-led movement
Historian Dariusz Gawin of the Polish Academy of Sciences pointed out that the March 1968 events have been mythologized in subsequent decades beyond their modest original aims, under the lasting influence of former members of Komandosi, a left-wing student political activity group. During the 1968 crisis, the dissident academic circles produced very little in terms of written accounts or programs. They experienced a moral shock because of propaganda misrepresentations of their intentions and actions and the unexpectedly violent repressions. They also experienced an ideological shock, caused by the reaction of the authorities (aggression) and society (indifference) to their idealistic attempts to bring about revolutionary reform in the Polish People's Republic. The alienation of the reform movement from the ostensibly socialist system (and their own leftist views) had begun.


1968 Polish political crisis, Student- and intellectual-led movement
The students were naïve in terms of practical politics, but their leaders professed strongly leftist convictions, expressed in brief proclamations distributed in 1968. Following the spirit of the 1964 "revisionist" manifesto by Karol Modzelewski and Jacek Kuroń, they demanded respect for the ideals of the Marxist–Leninist "dictatorship of the proletariat" and principles of socialism. The protesting students sang "The Internationale" anthem. The storming of Warsaw University by the (fake) factory worker activists thus came as a total surprise to the students.


1968 Polish political crisis, Student- and intellectual-led movement
The participants of the 8 March rally were met with violent beatings from ORMO volunteer reserve and ZOMO riot squads just as they were about to go home. The disproportionately brutal reaction of the security forces appeared to many observers to be a provocation perpetrated to aggravate the unrest and facilitate further rounds of repression, in the self-interest of political leaders. A comparable demonstration originated on 9 March at the Warsaw University of Technology and was also followed by confrontations with the police and arrests.


1968 Polish political crisis, Student- and intellectual-led movement
Kuroń, Modzelewski and Michnik were imprisoned again and a majority of the Komandosi members were detained. In later accounts, however, the founding mythology of Poland's civil society movement (the late 1970s) and then of the establishment of the new democratic-liberal Poland would obliterate the socialist, leftist and revolutionary aspects of the March 1968 movement.


1968 Polish political crisis, Student- and intellectual-led movement
Within a few days protests spread to Kraków, Lublin, Gliwice, Katowice, and Łódź (from 11 March), Wrocław, Gdańsk, and Poznań (12 March). The frequent demonstrations at the above locations were brutally suppressed by the police. Mass student strikes took place in Wrocław on 14–16 March, Kraków on 14–20 March, and Opole. A student committee at Warsaw University (11 March) and an inter-university committee in Kraków (13 March) were formed; attempts to organize were also made in Łódź and Wrocław. Efforts aimed at getting industrial workers involved, for example, employees of the state enterprises in Gdańsk, Wrocław and Kraków's Nowa Huta produced no tangible effects. But on 15 March in Gdańsk, 20,000 students and workers marched and fought several types of security forces totalling 3,700 men, into the late evening.


1968 Polish political crisis, Student- and intellectual-led movement
University students comprised less than 25% of those arrested for participating in opposition activities in March and April 1968 (their numerical predominance in the movement was a part of the subsequent myth, wrote historian Łukasz Kamiński). The leading role in the spreading countrywide street protests was played by young factory workers and secondary school students.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
A media campaign besmirching targeted groups and individuals was conducted from 11 March. The Stalinist and Jewish ("non-Polish") roots of the supposed instigators were "exposed" and most printed press participated in the propagation of slander, with the notable exceptions of Polityka and Tygodnik Powszechny. Mass "spontaneous" rallies at places of employment and in squares of major cities took place. The participants demanded "Students resume their studies, writers their writing", "Zionists go to Zion! ", or threatened "We'll tear off the head of the anti-Polish hydra".


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
On 14 March, regional party secretary Edward Gierek in Katowice used strong language addressing the Upper Silesian crowds: (people who want to) "make our peaceful Silesian water more turbid ... those Zambrowskis, Staszewskis, Słonimskis and the company of the Kisielewski and Jasienica kind ... revisionists, Zionists, lackeys of imperialism ... Silesian water will crush their bones ...". Gierek introduced a new element during his speech: a statement of support for First Secretary Gomułka, who so far had been silent on the student protests, Zionism and other currently pressing issues.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
This initial reluctance of the top leadership to express their position ended with a speech by Gomułka on 19 March. He eliminated the possibility of government negotiations with the strikers, extinguishing the participants' hope for a quick favorable settlement. Gomułka's speech, delivered before three thousand ("outstanding during the difficult days") party activists, was full of anti-intelligentsia accusations. The party management realized, he made it clear, that it was too early to fully comprehend and evaluate the nature and scope of the present difficulties.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
Gomułka sharply attacked the opposition leaders and named the few writers he particularly abhorred (Kisielewski, Jasienica and Szpotański), but offered a complex and differentiated analysis of the situation in Poland (Słonimski was named as an example of a Polish citizen whose sentiments were "cosmopolitan"). The first secretary attempted to pacify the growing antisemitic wave, asserting that most citizens of Jewish origin were loyal to Poland and were not a threat. Loyalty to Poland and socialism, not ethnicity, was the only criterion, the party valued highly those who had contributed and was opposed to any phenomena of antisemitic nature.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
It was understood that some people could feel ambivalent about where they belonged, and if some felt definitely more closely connected with Israel, Gomułka expected them to eventually emigrate. However, it may have been too late for such reasoned arguments and the carefully screened audience did not react positively: their collective display of hatred was shown on national television. Gomułka's remarks (reviewed, corrected and approved in advance by members of the Politburo and the Central Committee) were criticized a few days later at the meeting of first secretaries of the provincial party committees and the anti-Zionist campaign continued unabated.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
The internal bulletin of Mieczysław Moczar's Ministry of Internal Affairs spoke of a lack of clear declaration on Zionism on Gomułka's part and of "public hiding of criminals". Such criticism of the top party leader was unheard of and indicated the increasing influence and determination of Moczar's faction. In public, Moczar concentrated on issuing condemnations of the communists who came after the war from the Soviet Union and persecuted Polish patriots (including, from 1948, Gomułka himself, which may in part explain the first secretary's failure to dissociate himself from and his tacit approval of anti-Jewish excesses). The purges and attempts to resolve the power struggle at top echelons of the party entered their accelerated phase.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
The mass protest movement and the repressions continued throughout March and April. The revolt was met with the dissolution of entire academic departments, the expulsion of thousands of students and many sympathizing faculty members (including Zygmunt Bauman, Leszek Kołakowski and Stefan Żółkiewski), arrests and court trials. National coordination by the students was attempted through a 25 March meeting in Wrocław; most of its attendees were jailed by the end of April.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
On 28 March, students at the University of Warsaw reacted to the firing of prominent faculty by adopting the Declaration of the Student Movement, which presented an outline of mature systemic reforms for Poland. The document formulated a new framework for opposition activities and established a conceptual precedent for the future Solidarity opposition movement postulates. The authorities responded by eliminating several university departments and enlisting many students in the military. The student protest activities, planned for 22 April, were prevented by the arrest campaign conducted in Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
At least 2,725 people were brutally beaten and arrested by police between 7 March and 6 April. Some were exiled or executed. According to internal government reports, the suppression was effective, although students were still able to disrupt the May Day ceremonies in Wrocław. Except for the relatively few well-recognized protest leaders, the known participants of the 1968 revolt generally did not reappear in later waves of opposition movement in Poland.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
By mid-March, the protest campaign had spread to smaller towns. The distribution of fliers was reported in one hundred towns in March, forty in April, and, despite numerous arrests, continued even during the later months. Street demonstrations occurred in several localities in March. In different cities, the arrests and trials proceeded at a different pace, in part because of the discretion exercised by local authorities. Gdańsk had by far the highest rate of both the "penal-administrative procedures" and the cases that actually went to courts. The largest proportion of the arrested and detained nationwide during the March/April unrest belonged to the "workers" category.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
A few dared to openly defend the students, including some writers, bishops, and the small parliamentary group of Catholic deputies Znak, led by Jerzy Zawieyski. Znak submitted an official interpellation on 11 March, addressed to the prime minister. They questioned the brutal anti-student interventions by the police and inquired about the government's intentions regarding the democratic demands of the students and of the "broad public opinion".


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
Following the Politburo meeting on 8 April, during which Stefan Jędrychowski strongly criticized the antisemitic campaign but a majority of the participants expressed the opposite view or supported Gomułka's "middle" course, a Sejm session indirectly dealt with the crisis on 9–11 April. Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz asserted that the Radio Free Europe used the Znak interpellation for its propaganda. Other speakers claimed that the interpellation was primarily aimed at getting the hostile foreign interests involved in Poland's affairs.


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
Zawieyski spoke in a conciliatory tone, directing his comments and appealing to Gomułka and Zenon Kliszko, recognizing them as victims of the past (Stalinist) political persecution. He interpreted the recent beating by "unknown assailants" of Stefan Kisielewski, a Catholic publicist, as an attack on a representative of the Polish culture. The party leaders responded by terminating Zawieyski's membership in the Polish Council of State, a collective head of state organ, and banning him from holding a political office in the future. The participants in the public Sejm debate concentrated on attacking Znak and avoided altogether discussing the events and issues of the March protests or their suppression (the subjects of the interpellation).


1968 Polish political crisis, Repressions
The effectiveness of the ORMO interventions on university campuses and the eruption of further citizen discontent (see 1970 Polish protests) prompted the Ministry of Public Security to engage in massive expansion of this force, which at its peak in 1979 reached over 450,000 members.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
In March 1968, the anti-Jewish smear campaign, loud propaganda and mass mobilization were greatly intensified. The process of purging Jewish and other officials, ex-Stalinists, high-ranking rival communists and moral supporters of the current liberal opposition movement, was accelerated. Roman Zambrowski, Stefan Staszewski, Edward Ochab, Adam Rapacki and Marian Spychalski were among the top echelon party leaders removed or neutralized. Zambrowski, a Jewish veteran of the Polish communist movement, was singled out and purged from the party first (13 March), even though he had been politically inactive for several years and had nothing to do with the current crisis.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
Former First Secretary Ochab resigned his several high offices to protest "against the antisemitic campaign". On 11 April 1968, the Sejm instituted changes in some major leadership positions. Spychalski, leaving the Ministry of Defense, replaced Ochab in the more titular role as the chairman of the Council of State. Wojciech Jaruzelski became the new minister of defense. Rapacki, another opponent of antisemitic purges, was replaced by Stefan Jędrychowski at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A new higher education statute was designed to give the government greater control over the academic environment.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
Gomułka considered revisionism rather than "Zionism" to be the main "danger". According to historian Dariusz Stola, the first secretary, whose wife was Jewish, harbored no antisemitic prejudices. But he opportunistically and instrumentally allowed and accepted the anti-Jewish initiative of Minister Moczar and the secret services Moczar controlled.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
The campaign gave Gomułka the tools he needed to combat the intellectual rebellion, prevent it from spreading into the worker masses (by "mobilizing" them and channelling their frustration against the stealth and alien "enemy"), resolve the party rivalries ultimately to his own advantage and stabilize the situation in Poland at the dangerous for the party time of the Prague Spring liberalizing movement in Czechoslovakia. Many Poles (irrespective of ethnic background) were accused of being Zionists. They were expelled from the party and/or had their careers terminated by policies that were cynical, prejudicial, or both.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
Long (sometimes conducted over several days) party meetings and discussions took place at the end of March and in early April within various state institutions and enterprises. They dealt with the "Zionism" issue and were devoted to the identification of those responsible and guilty (within the institution's own ranks), their expulsion from the party and demands for their removal from the positions they held.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
Attempts were made to steer the attention of the general public away from the student movement and advocacy for social reform, centered around the defense of freedom of speech for intellectuals and artists and the right to criticize the regime and its policies. Moczar, the leader of the hardline Stalinist faction of the party, blamed the student protests on "Zionists" and used the protest activity as a pretext for a larger antisemitic campaign (officially described as "anti-Zionist") and party purges. In reality, the student and intellectual protests were generally not related to Zionism or other Jewish issues.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
The propagated idea of the "Zionist inspiration" of student rebellion originated in part from the presence of children of Jewish communists among those contesting the political order, including especially members of the Komandosi group. To augment their numbers, figures of speech such as the "Michniks, Szlajfers, Zambrowskis" were used. The national strike call from Warsaw (13 March) opposed both antisemitism and Zionism. One banner hung at a Rzeszów high school on 27 April read: "We hail our Zionist comrades."


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
However, Gomułka warned that "Zionism and antisemitism are two sides of the same nationalist medal" and insisted that communism rejects all forms of nationalism. According to Gomułka, who rejected the Western allegations of antisemitism, "Official circles in the United States have involved themselves in the dirty anti-Polish campaign by making statements accusing Poland of antisemitism. We propose that the ruling circles in the United States check whether American citizens of Polish descent have ever had or have now the same opportunities that Polish citizens of Jewish descent have for good living conditions and education and for occupying positions of responsibility.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
Then it would emerge clearly who might accuse whom of national discrimination." He went on to say that "the Western Zionist centers that today charge us with antisemitism failed to lift a finger when Hitler's genocide policies exterminated Jews in subjugated Poland, punishing Poles who hid and helped the Jews with death." The party leader was responding to a wave of Western criticism and took advantage of some published reports that were incompatible with the Polish collective memory of historical events, World War II and the Holocaust in particular.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
The Moczar challenge, often presented in terms of competing political visions (he was the informal head of the nationalist communist party faction known as "the Partisans"), reflected, according to historian Andrzej Chojnowski, primarily a push for a generational change in the party leadership and at other levels, throughout the country. By 1968 Gomułka, whose public relations skills were poor, was unpopular and had lost touch with the population he ruled. Personnel changes, resisted by Gomułka, were generally desired and expected, and in the party, General Moczar was the alternative.


1968 Polish political crisis, Anti-Jewish mobilization and purges, party politics
Large numbers of generally younger functionaries mobilized behind him, motivated by the potential opportunity to advance their stagnant careers. Finding scapegoats (possibly by just claiming that someone was enthusiastic about the Israeli victory) and becoming their replacements meant in 1968 progress in that direction. The Moczar faction's activity was one of the major factors that contributed to the 1968 uproar, but the overdue generational change within the party materialized fully only when Edward Gierek replaced Gomułka in December 1970. Moczar himself campaigned ruthlessly in an ultimately failed attempt to become Gomułka's replacement or successor.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
In a parliamentary speech on 11 April 1968, Prime Minister Cyrankiewicz spelled out the government's official position: "Loyalty to socialist Poland and imperialist Israel is not possible simultaneously. ... Whoever wants to face these consequences in the form of emigration will not encounter any obstacle." The departing had their Polish citizenship revoked.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
Historian David Engel of the YIVO Institute wrote: "The Interior Ministry compiled a card index of all Polish citizens of Jewish origin, even those who had been detached from organized Jewish life for generations. Jews were removed from jobs in public service, including from teaching positions in schools and universities. The pressure was placed upon them to leave the country by bureaucratic actions aimed at undermining their sources of livelihood and sometimes even by physical brutality."


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
According to Dariusz Stola of the Polish Academy of Sciences, "the term 'anti-Zionist campaign' is misleading in two ways since the campaign began as an anti-Israeli policy but quickly turned into an anti-Jewish campaign, and this evident anti-Jewish character remained its distinctive feature". The propaganda equated Jewish origins with Zionist sympathies and thus disloyalty to communist Poland. Antisemitic slogans were used in rallies. Prominent Jews, supposedly of Zionist beliefs, including academics, managers and journalists, lost their jobs. According to the Polish state's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which investigated events that took place in 1968–69 in Łodź, "in each case the decision of dismissal was preceded by a party resolution about expelling from the party".


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
According to Jonathan Ornstein, of the 3.5 million Polish Jews prior to World War II, 350,000 or fewer remained after the Holocaust. Most survivors who claimed their Jewish nationality status at the end of World War II, including those who registered with the Central Committee of Polish Jews in 1945, had emigrated from postwar Poland already in its first years of existence. According to David Engel's estimates, of the fewer than 281,000 Jews present in Poland at different times before July 1946, only about 90,000 were left in the country by the middle of 1947.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
Fewer than 80,000 remained by 1951, when the government prohibited emigration to Israel. An additional 30,000 arrived from the Soviet Union in 1957, but almost 50,000, typically people actively expressing Jewish identity, left Poland in 1957–59, under Gomułka and with his government's encouragement. Approximately 25,000–30,000 Jews lived in Poland by 1967. As a group, they had become increasingly assimilated and secular and had well-developed and functioning Jewish secular institutions. Of the Jews who stayed in Poland, many did so for political and career reasons.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
Their situation changed after the 1967 Arab–Israeli war and the 1968 Polish academic revolt when the Jews were used as scapegoats by the warring party factions and pressured to emigrate en masse once more. According to Engel, some 25,000 Jews left Poland during the 1968–70 period, leaving only between 5,000 and 10,000 Jews in the country.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
From the end of World War II, the Soviet-imposed government in Poland, lacking strong popular support, found it expedient to depend disproportionately on Jews for performing clerical and administrative jobs and many Jews rose to high positions within the political and internal security ranks. Consequently, as noted by historian Michael C. Steinlauf – "their group profile ever more closely resembled the mythic Żydokomuna" (see also Jewish Bolshevism). For complex historical reasons, Jews held many positions of repressive authority under the post-war Polish communist administrations. In March 1968, some of those officials became the center of an organized campaign to equate Jewish origins with Stalinist sympathies and crimes. The political purges, often ostensibly directed at functionaries of the Stalinist era, affected all Polish Jews regardless of background.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
Prior to the 1967–68 events, Polish-Jewish relations had been a taboo subject in communist Poland. Available information was limited to the dissemination of shallow and distorted official versions of historical events, while much of the traditional social antisemitic resentment was brewing under the surface, despite the scarcity of Jewish targets. Popular antisemitism of the post-war years was closely linked to anticommunist and anti-Soviet attitudes and as such was resisted by the authorities.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
Because of this historically right-wing orientation of Polish antisemitism, the Jews generally felt safe in communist Poland and experienced a "March shock" when many in the ruling regime adopted the antisemitic views of pre-war Polish nationalists to justify an application of aggressive propaganda and psychological terror. The outwardly Stalinist character of the campaign was paradoxically combined with anti-Stalinist and anti-Żydokomuna rhetoric. The media "exposed" various past and present Jewish conspiracies directed against socialist Poland, often using prejudicial Jewish stereotypes, which supposedly added up to a grand Jewish anti-Polish scheme. West German-Israeli and American-Zionist anti-Poland blocs were also "revealed".


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
In Poland, it was claimed, the old Jewish Stalinists were secretly preparing their own return to power, to thwart the Polish October gains. The small number of Jews remaining in Poland were subjected to unbearable pressures generated by the state monopolistic media, often dominated by sympathizers of Minister Moczar. Many Jews and non-Jews were smeared and removed by their local Basic Party Organizations (POP), after which they had to be fired from their jobs. Many professionals and non-members of the party fell victim as well.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
Most of the last wave (1968–69) of emigrants chose destinations other than Israel, which contradicted the government's claim of their pro-Israeli devotion. Disproportionately in Polish society, they represented highly educated, professional, and accomplished people. Some communist party activists had previously perceived this factor as an undue "density" of Jews in positions of importance, a remnant of Stalinist times, which resulted in calls for their marginalization and removal from the country.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
Over a thousand former hardline Stalinists of Jewish origin left Poland in and after 1968, among them former prosecutor Helena Wolińska-Brus and judge Stefan Michnik. The IPN had investigated Stalinist crimes committed by some of the March 1968 emigrants including Michnik, who settled in Sweden, and Wolińska-Brus, who resided in the United Kingdom. Both were accused of being an "accessory to a court murder". Applications were made for their extradition based on the European Arrest Warrants.


1968 Polish political crisis, Emigration of Polish citizens of Jewish origin
Between 1961 and 1967, the average rate of Jewish emigration from Poland was 500–900 persons per year. In 1968, a total of 3,900 Jews applied to leave the country. Between January and August 1969, the number of emigrating Jews was almost 7,300, all according to records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The security organs maintained comprehensive data on persons with "family background in Israel" or of Jewish origin, including those dismissed from their positions and those who did not hold any official positions but applied for emigration to Israel.


1968 Polish political crisis, Termination of the "anti-Zionist" campaign
On 11 April 1968, Secretary of the Central Committee Artur Starewicz gave Gomułka a comprehensive letter, in which he pointed out the destructiveness of the demagoguery, anti-Jewish obsession and other aspects of the campaign. In late April Gomułka realized that the campaign he allowed had outlived its usefulness and was getting out of control; many participants became overzealous and complaints from various quarters multiplied. However, ending it and restoring normal party control and discipline took several weeks of repeated warnings and other efforts.


1968 Polish political crisis, Termination of the "anti-Zionist" campaign
On 24 June, Gomułka sharply criticized Stefan Olszowski, the party propaganda chief and the role played by the PAX publications. Both were heavily involved in the "anti-Zionist", but also "nationalistic" media campaign from 11 March. On 1 July, Leopold Domb (Leopold Trepper), former chairman of the Sociocultural Association of Jews (in Poland), wrote a letter to his party boss Gomułka. Domb bitterly complained of the progressive liquidation of the thousand years of Polish-Jewish civilizational achievement and listed numerous instances of such destruction of society and culture taking place in contemporary communist Poland.


1968 Polish political crisis, Termination of the "anti-Zionist" campaign
On 5 July, Gomułka acknowledged "certain problems" with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and announced the removal of Minister Moczar from the cabinet position, which disconnected him from his power base at that department. Moczar's sidelining was presented as a promotion: he became secretary of the Central Committee and a deputy member of the Politburo. "Comrade Moczar is a disciplined man and he'll do as he is told", was how Gomułka saw the resolution.


1968 Polish political crisis, Termination of the "anti-Zionist" campaign
Gomułka's ability to decisively dismantle the Internal Affairs' anti-Jewish smear campaign and punish its perpetrators (for challenging the party leadership) shows that he could have done so earlier, had he chosen to act in a timely manner. During the XII Plenum of the Central Committee (8–9 July), Zenon Kliszko officially closed the "anti-Zionist" campaign. Internal attacks and obstruction within the party, the military and the security services (SB), now directed against Gomułka and Kliszko, continued for some time. In reality, SB's "anti-Zionist" activities were never completely abandoned. During 1970–80, General Jaruzelski demoted to the rank of private 1,348 Jewish officers who had emigrated, not only around 1968. Such continued activities were conducted in secret.


1968 Polish political crisis, Termination of the "anti-Zionist" campaign
The media propaganda machine was by early summer preoccupied with denouncing the Prague Spring. In August, the Polish People's Army participated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.


1968 Polish political crisis, Consequences of the events of 1968
The Fifth Congress of the PZPR took place in November, under Gomułka' s active lead. His position was confirmed. The gathering, numerically dominated by the supporters of Moczar, was maneuvered into complying with Gomułka faction's personnel decisions. The party now had 2.1 million members (only 40% were workers), after the recent purging of over 230,000. The Jewish activists were gone, but many other veterans remained, as the generational change in the communist leadership was beginning to take place. Gomułka was able to rule with his few close associates until December 1970, but his prestige suffered in Poland, abroad, and among the Soviet and other Eastern Bloc leaders.


1968 Polish political crisis, Consequences of the events of 1968
A consequence of the protest events and their repercussions was the alienation of the regime from the leftist intelligentsia, who were disgusted at the official promotion of antisemitism and the adoption of nationalistic rhetoric. Many Polish intellectuals opposed the government campaign, often openly. Another effect was the activity by Polish emigrants to the West in organizations that encouraged opposition within Poland.


1968 Polish political crisis, Consequences of the events of 1968
The alienation of Polish intelligentsia had a long afterlife and eventually contributed to the downfall of the communist dictatorship: the 1968 events were a turning point in the ideological evolution of those who would challenge the system in the years to come. Jacek Kuroń, for example, twice a party member and an activist imprisoned for his participation in the 1968 events, later played important roles in the Workers' Defence Committee and the Solidarity workers' movement.


1968 Polish political crisis, Consequences of the events of 1968
The events of 1968, preceded by those in 1956 and followed by those of 1970, 1976 and 1980, showed that Poland, with its strong nationalist traditions, a civil society, and the powerful Catholic Church, was the source of instability and weakness in the Eastern Bloc. The dangers presented to the PZPR by the "reactionary" coalition of 1968, against which some had already warned back then, turned out not to be imaginary, but their realization took another two decades.


1968 Polish political crisis, Consequences of the events of 1968
The antisemitic, anti-intellectual and anti-student campaign damaged Poland's reputation, particularly in the West. Despite the worldwide condemnation of the March 1968 repressions, for many years the communist governments would not admit the antisemitic nature of the "anti-Zionist" campaign, though some newspapers published critical articles. In February and March 1988, the Polish communist government announced official apologies for the antisemitic excesses of 1968: first in Israel at a conference on Polish Jewry, and then in a statement printed in Trybuna Ludu. A Central Committee report even suggested an introduction of double citizenship to improve relations with the Jews who left Poland.


1968 Polish political crisis, Aftermath
After the fall of the communist rule, the Sejm in 1998 issued an official condemnation of the antisemitism of the March 1968 events. In 2000, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski gave his own apology in front of a group of Jewish students "as the president of Poland and as a Pole".


1968 Polish political crisis, Aftermath
On the 30th anniversary of their departures, a memorial plaque was placed at Warszawa Gdańska train station, from which most of the exiled Poles took a train to Vienna.


1968 Polish political crisis, Aftermath
Following the rise in antisemitic rhetoric in Poland in the wake of the controversial Act on the Institute of National Remembrance, in March 2018 Polish President Andrzej Duda said "We are sorry you're not here today" and "those were deported then and the families of those who were killed – I want to say, please forgive Poland for that" in relation to the 20,000 Jews expelled or forced to flee in 1968. However, Duda said that his generation was not responsible for the actions of the past communist administration.


1968 Polish political crisis, Aftermath
Duda's distinction between the past Polish government whom he framed as culpable, and Polish citizens whom he framed as innocent, was seen as a non-apology by critics. Duda's statement also echoed Jewish stereotypes in framing the loss to Poland: "You are the elite of the intelligentsia but in other countries, you are people of remarkable success, respected, but in other countries, your creative powers, your scientific output, your splendid achievements have not done credit to the Republic of Poland".


1968 Polish political crisis, Notes
a. The following was written in 1968 by Andrzej Werblan, a PZPR publicist: "... a peculiar political alliance of several reactionary tendencies ... political pedigrees of the most aggressive speakers of the extraordinary general meeting of the Warsaw Chapter of the ZLP on 29 February 1968.


1968 Polish political crisis, Notes
Here are the representative figures of this political alliance: January Grzędziński – a Piłsudskiite, Stefan Kisielewski – a representative of backward Catholic circles, Paweł Jasienica – an active participant of the reactionary underground from 20 years ago, Antoni Słonimski – connected with cosmopolitan and Zionist coteries, Leszek Kołakowski – removed from the PZPR ranks for extremely revisionist views and activities a year and a half ago."


1968 Prairie View A&M Panthers football team
The 1968 Prairie View A&M Panthers football team represented Prairie View A&M University as a mmeber of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) during the 1968 NCAA College Division football season. They were led by fourth-year head coach Hoover J. Wright and played their home games at Edward L. Blackshear Field in Prairie View, Texas. Prairie View A&M finished the season with an overall record of 4–6 and a mark of 2–5 in conference play, placing sixth in the SWAC.


1968 Preakness Stakes
The 1968 Preakness Stakes was the 93rd running of the $200,000 Preakness Stakes thoroughbred horse race. The race took place on May 18, 1968, and was televised in the United States on the CBS television network. Forward Pass, who was jockeyed by Ismael Valenzuela, won the race by six lengths over runner-up Out Of The Way. Approximate post time was 5:31 p.m. Eastern Time. The race was run on a fast track in a final time of 1:56-4/5. The Maryland Jockey Club reported total attendance of 40,247, this is recorded as second highest on the list of American thoroughbred racing top attended events for North America in 1968.


1968 Presidential Cup
The 1968 Presidential Cup was the third edition of the Turkish Super Cup. No match was played, since Fenerbahçe won the 1967–68 Turkish League and 1967–68 Turkish Cup and thus were awarded the trophy by the Turkish Football Federation.


1968 Primera División de Chile
The 1968 Campeonato Nacional de Futbol Profesional was Chilean first tier’s 36th season. Santiago Wanderers were the champions, winning its second title.


1968 Primera División de Chile, Pre-Copa Libertadores Play-off
Universidad Católica also qualified for the 1969 Copa Libertadores due to better goal difference in the Final stage


1968 Princeton Tigers football team
The 1968 Princeton Tigers football team was an American football team that represented Princeton University during the 1968 NCAA University Division football season. Princeton finished fourth in the Ivy League.


1968 Princeton Tigers football team
In their 12th and final year under head coach Dick Colman, the Tigers compiled a 4–5 record and outscored opponents 228 to 149. Richard R. Bracken was the team captain.


1968 Princeton Tigers football team
Princeton's 4–3 conference record placed fourth in the Ivy League standings. The Tigers outscored Ivy opponents 207 to 115.


1968 Princeton Tigers football team
Princeton played its home games at Palmer Stadium on the university campus in Princeton, New Jersey.


1968 Prize of Moscow News
The 1968 Prize of Moscow News was the third edition of an international figure skating competition organized in Moscow, Soviet Union. It was held December 12–15, 1968. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating and ice dancing. Soviet skaters Sergei Chetverukhin and Elena Shcheglova won the singles categories. The Soviet Union swept the pairs' podium, led by Tamara Moskvina / Alexei Mishin, who defeated Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov. East Germany's national champions, Annerose Baier / Eberhard Rüger, took the ice dancing title.


1968 Pro Bowl
The 1968 Pro Bowl was the National Football League's eighteenth annual all-star game which featured the outstanding performers from the 1967 season. The game was played on January 21, 1968, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The final score was West 38, East 20. Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears was named the back of the game for the second year in a row and Dave Robinson of the Green Bay Packers received the lineman of the game honors.


1968 Pro Bowl
Attendance at the game was 53,289. The game had controversy because East coach Otto Graham of the Washington Redskins benched quarterback Fran Tarkenton in the fourth quarter. Some players questioned the benching of a player of Tarkenton’s stature in a charity game. The coach of the West squad was Don Shula of the Baltimore Colts, who won his second Pro Bowl in four years.


1968 Puerto Rican general election
The 1968 Puerto Rican general elections were held in Puerto Rico on 5 November 1968. Luis A. Ferré of the New Progressive Party (PNP) was elected Governor. In the House of Representatives elections the PNP won a plurality of the vote, but the Popular Democratic Party won a majority of the seats. They also won a majority of seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 78.4%.


1968 Purdue Boilermakers football team
The 1968 Purdue Boilermakers football team represented Purdue University during the 1968 Big Ten Conference football season.


1968 Queen's Club Championships
The 1968 Queen's Club Championships was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 69th edition of the Queen's Club Championships, the first to be held in the Open Era, and was played at the Queen's Club in London in the United Kingdom from 17 June until 22 June 1968.


1968 RAC Tourist Trophy
Although the 1967 TT was part of the European Touring Car Championship, the 1968 and 33rd running of the RAC International Tourist Trophy Race, saw a return to Group 7 sportscars. The world’s oldest motor race was the fourth round of the British Sports Car Championship. This was the held at the Oulton Park circuit, in Cheshire, England, on the 3 June.


1968 RAC Tourist Trophy, Report, Entry
The event attracted a total of 33 sports cars, with every entrant taking part in qualifying. Amongst the entries was the reigning World Drivers Champion, Denny Hulme.


1968 RAC Tourist Trophy, Report, Qualifying
Fresh from his second place in the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix, Richard Attwood took pole position for the Alan Mann Racing team, in their Ford P68, averaging a speed of 103.500 mph, around 2.761 miles circuit. Alongside Attwood would be Jo Bonnier, in his self-entered Lola T70.


1968 RAC Tourist Trophy, Report, Race
The race was held over 110 laps of the Oulton Park circuit. Denny Hulme took his Sid Taylor Racing prepared Lola T70 Mk.3 to his third TT win in four years, winning with an aggregated time of 3hrs 03:57.200mins., averaging a speed of 99.074 mph. Just 9.4 seconds behind in second place was David Piper, who shared his Ferrari 412 P with Richard Attwood. Attwood joined Piper following the demise of his pole winning Ford P68. Third place was attained by Paul Hawkins, in his Ford GT40, albeit one lap adrift.


1968 Race of Champions
The 3rd Race of Champions was a non-Championship motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 17 March 1968 at Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, England. The race was run over 50 laps of the circuit, and was dominated by Bruce McLaren in a McLaren M7A.


1968 Railway Cup Hurling Championship
The 1968 Railway Cup Hurling Championship was the 42nd staging of the Railway Cup since its establishment by the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1927. The cup began on 25 February 1968 ended on 17 March 1968.


1968 Railway Cup Hurling Championship
On 17 March 1968, Munster won the cup following a 0-14 to 0-10 defeat of Leinster in the final. This was their 29th Railway Cup title and their first since 1966.


1968 Rebel 400
The 1968 Rebel 400 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on May 11, 1968, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.


1968 Rebel 400, Summary
Two-hundred and ninety one laps were completed on the paved oval track spanning 1.375 miles (2.213 km) for a total of 400.1 miles (643.9 km). The time of the race was three hours and fifty-four seconds with a crowd of 22,500 attending. There were four cautions for twenty-three laps. David Pearson defeated Darel Dieringer in his 1968 Ford by eighteen seconds. Pearson took advantage of the NASCAR engine and weight rules for 1968 and used a 396 cid engine instead of the normal 427.


1968 Rebel 400, Summary
At that time the car had to be 4,000 pounds with the 427 cid engine but only 3,707 pounds with the 396 cid engine. The lighter weight paid off as Pearson used less fuel and had fewer tire troubles than many of the other teams. Pearson would continue to use the 396 throughout the year.


1968 Rebel 400, Summary
Canadian racer Frog Fagan finished in 22nd place. The average speed was 132.699 miles per hour (213.558 km/h) while the pole position speed was 148.85 miles per hour (239.55 km/h). Other notable drivers included Wendell Scott, Richard Petty, Buddy Baker, Elmo Langley, and Roy Tyner. Out of the thirty-four drivers, fifteen of them did not finish the race.


1968 Rebel 400, Summary
Total winnings for the 1968 Rebel 400 were $53,455 ($393,009 when adjusted for inflation); first-place finisher Pearson earned $13,700 ($100,724 when adjusted for inflation) while last-place finisher Hess walked away with $460 ($3,382 when adjusted for inflation).


1968 Rebel 400, Summary
Lennie Waldo made his NASCAR Grand National Series debut in this event.


1968 Red Square demonstration
The 1968 Red Square demonstration (Russian: Демонстра́ция 25 а́вгуста 1968 го́да) took place in Moscow on 25 August 1968. It was a protest by eight demonstrators against the invasion of Czechoslovakia on the night of 20–21 August 1968 by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies, crushing the Prague Spring, the challenge to centralised planning and censorship by Communist leader Alexander Dubček.


1968 Red Square demonstration
The protest took place at the Lobnoye Mesto (Place of Proclamation) on Red Square next to the Kremlin, to avoid any accusation of a violation of public order. It was a non-violent, sit-down demonstration. However, all but one of the protestors was quickly and roughly arrested by police and plainclothes KGB men.


1968 Red Square demonstration, The protest, 25 August
The protest began at noon as eight protesters (Larisa Bogoraz, Konstantin Babitsky, Vadim Delaunay, Vladimir Dremliuga, Pavel Litvinov, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Viktor Fainberg, and Tatiana Baeva) sat at the Lobnoye Mesto and held a small Czechoslovak flag and placards bearing various slogans:


1968 Red Square demonstration, The protest, 25 August
Within a few minutes, seven of the protesters were assaulted, brutally beaten and loaded into cars by KGB operatives. The Czechoslovak flag was broken, and the placards were confiscated. Since Natalya Gorbanevskaya had recently given birth, she was not made to stand trial. The other protesters convinced 21-year-old Tatiana Baeva to declare that she had been at the scene by accident, and she was released soon after.


1968 Red Square demonstration, The protest, 25 August
The KGB failed to find out which protester was holding which banner; therefore, all the banners were attributed to each protester, except for Tatiana Baeva, who was released. The banners were branded by the KGB as "anti-Soviet".


1968 Red Square demonstration, Trial, 9-11 October 1968
During the investigation and trial, the defence revealed several inconsistencies in the accusations. One of the eyewitnesses declared that he saw protesters leaving the GUM, a large store in the vicinity, even though this store is closed on Sundays. Additionally, all eyewitnesses happened to be from the same military division, even though they all claimed that they ended up on Red Square accidentally. However, these inconsistencies were not taken into account during the trial.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Trial, 9-11 October 1968, Verdict and sentence
Lawyers for the defence (all Communist Party of the Soviet Union members appointed and paid for by the State) demonstrated that the protestors had acted without criminal intent. but the protesters on trial all received  sentences of up to several years imprisonment or exile and in two cases they were sent to psychiatric prison hospitals.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Trial, 9-11 October 1968, Verdict and sentence
Vadim Delaunay and Vladimir Dremlyuga were sentenced to three years in a penal colony. Victor Fainberg, who had his teeth knocked out during the arrest, did not appear in court but was sent to a psychiatric prison. Larisa Bogoraz was sentenced to four years of exile to a remote Siberian settlement in the Irkutsk Region. Konstantin Babitsky was sentenced to three years of exile. Pavel Litvinov was sentenced to five years' exile. Natalya Gorbanevskaya was released the same day but later sent to a psychiatric prison.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Trial, 9-11 October 1968, Verdict and sentence
In his "Attorney's waltz" singer and rights activist Yuliy Kim claimed that the sentences had been decided before the trial. In another song, "Ilyich", Kim mentions Yuri Andropov's and Leonid Brezhnev's anger at the demonstration, and refers to three of the protestors by name -- Pavel Litvinov, Natalya Gorbanevskaya and Larisa Bogoraz.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Trial, 9-11 October 1968, Verdict and sentence
The story of the August 1968 demonstration is recounted in the 2005 documentary They Chose Freedom.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Belated public recognition, 2008
Public recognition of the protesters had to wait 40 years.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Belated public recognition, 2008
During the conflict in South Ossetia, August 2008, the former president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel, expressed his sympathies for the protesters of 1968. Czech Premier Mirek Topolánek recognized the heroism of the protesters with awards.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Belated public recognition, 2008
There was no recognition on the part of the Russian government. On 24 August 2008, the similar demonstration with the slogan For your freedom and ours was held in the same place.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Belated public recognition, 2008
On 25 August 2013, the 45th anniversary of the demonstration, Gorbanevskaya and several of her friends recreated the original protest, again featuring the "For your freedom and ours" banner. Ten participants (among them Delaunay's son Sergey) were arrested almost immediately and taken to a police station. They were soon arraigned and released pending court appearance on charges of failing to secure prior permission for a political rally, a misdemeanor under current Russian law.


1968 Red Square demonstration, Belated public recognition, 2008
In 2018 three participants at another repeat demonstration were arrested.


1968 Redbridge London Borough Council election
The 1968 Redbridge Council election took place on 9 May 1968 to elect members of Redbridge London Borough Council in London, England. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative party stayed in overall control of the council.


1968 Republic of the Congo coup d'état
On September 4, 1968, following several days of violent clashes, Alphonse Massamba-Débat's government was overthrown by the military who forced Massamba-Débat to resign. Alfred Raoul then became the acting head of state until January 1969 when Marien Ngouabi, the chairman of the same party that had brought Massamba-Débat to power, assumed control.


1968 Republican National Convention
The 1968 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Dade County, Florida, from August 5 to August 8, 1968, to select the party's nominee in the general election. It nominated former Vice President Richard M. Nixon for president and Maryland Governor Spiro T. Agnew for vice president. It was the fourth time Nixon had been nominated on the Republican ticket as either its vice presidential (1952 and 1956) or presidential candidate (1960).


1968 Republican National Convention, Political context
Former Vice President Richard M. Nixon, emerged as the frontrunner again for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. Nixon had been the Republican Party nominee in the 1960 presidential election, and lost to Democratic Party candidate John F. Kennedy.


1968 Republican National Convention, Political context
The so-called "New Nixon" in the 1968 presidential election devised a "Southern strategy," taking advantage of the region's opposition to racial integration and other progressive/liberal policies of the Democratic Party and President Lyndon B. Johnson.


1968 Republican National Convention, Political context
Nixon decided not to re-select his 1960 running mate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., and House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan proposed New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay for vice president. Nixon turned instead to another perceived moderate, Maryland Governor Spiro T. Agnew.


1968 Republican National Convention, Political context
Agnew, former Baltimore County Executive in the Baltimore City suburbs (1963–1967), and since Governor of Maryland, had come to Republican leaders and Nixon's attention when he summoned several Black civic, religious, and political leaders in Baltimore to the local State Office Building complex, following the disastrous April 1968 urban riots which enveloped Black sections of East and West Baltimore in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Agnew complained of the Black leaders' lack of support after a number of what he perceived to be positive projects, programs and support by his Republican administration for the minority communities in the city. Agnew's biting comments caused many in the audience to walk out.


1968 Republican National Convention, Political context
Nixon was nominated on the first ballot with 692 votes to 277 votes for Nelson Rockefeller, 182 votes for California Governor Ronald Reagan and the rest scattered. In his acceptance speech he deplored the state of the union:


1968 Republican National Convention, Political context
When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in Vietnam with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented racial violence, when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home, then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.


1968 Republican National Convention, Political context
Nixon also said that he had "a good teacher", referring to Eisenhower, and made the delegates happy with the statement "Let's win this one for Ike!" Eisenhower was not present during Nixon's speech nor during any part of the convention. Due to failing health, he was under doctor's orders not to travel. He died the following March.


1968 Republican National Convention, Balloting, The Republican Convention Tally results
This was the last time during the 20th Century that two siblings (the Rockefeller brothers) received votes at a convention.


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries
From March 12 to June 11, 1968, voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for president in the 1968 United States presidential election. Former Vice President Richard Nixon was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the 1968 Republican National Convention held from August 5 to August 8, 1968, in Miami Beach, Florida.


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, Candidates
The following political leaders were candidates for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination:


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, Candidates, Major candidates
These candidates participated in multiple state primaries or were included in multiple major national polls.


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, Candidates, Favorite sons
The following candidates ran only in their home state's primary, caucus, or convention. They ran for the purpose of controlling their state's respective delegate slate at the national convention and did not appear to be considered national candidates by the media.


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, Candidates, Declined to run
The following persons were listed in two or more major national polls or were the subject of media speculation surrounding their potential candidacy, but declined to actively seek the nomination.


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, Primary race
Nixon was the front-runner for the Republican nomination and to a great extent the story of the Republican primary campaign and nomination is the story of one Nixon opponent after another entering the race and then dropping out.


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, Primary race
Nixon's first challenger was Michigan Governor George W. Romney. A Gallup poll in mid-1967 showed Nixon with 39%, followed by Romney with 25%. However, in a slip of the tongue, Romney told a news reporter that he had been "brainwashed" by the military and the diplomatic corps into supporting the Vietnam War; the remark led to weeks of ridicule in the national news media. As the year 1968 opened, Romney was opposed to further American intervention in Vietnam and had decided to run as the Republican version of Eugene McCarthy (The New York Times 2/18/1968). Romney's support slowly faded and he withdrew from the race on February 28, 1968. (The New York Times 2/29/1968).


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, Primary race
Nixon won a resounding victory in the important New Hampshire primary on March 12, winning 78% of the vote. Anti -war Republicans wrote in the name of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the leader of the GOP's liberal wing, who received 11% of the vote and became Nixon's new challenger. Nixon led Rockefeller in the polls throughout the primary campaign. Rockefeller defeated Nixon in the Massachusetts primary on April 30 but otherwise fared poorly in the state primaries and conventions.


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, Primary race
By early spring, California Governor Ronald Reagan, the leader of the GOP's conservative wing, had become Nixon's chief rival. In the Nebraska primary on May 14, Nixon won with 70% of the vote to 21% for Reagan and 5% for Rockefeller. While this was a wide margin for Nixon, Reagan remained Nixon's leading challenger. Nixon won the next primary of importance, Oregon, on May 15 with 65% of the vote and won all the following primaries except for California (June 4), where only Reagan appeared on the ballot. Reagan's margin in California gave him a plurality of the nationwide primary vote, but when the Republican National Convention assembled, Nixon had 656 delegates according to a UPI poll (with 667 needed for the nomination).


1968 Republican Party presidential primaries, The convention
At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, Reagan and Rockefeller planned to unite their forces in a stop-Nixon movement, but the strategy fell apart when neither man agreed to support the other for the nomination. Nixon won the nomination on the first ballot. Nixon then chose Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew to be his Vice-Presidential candidate, despite complaints from within the GOP that Agnew was an unknown quantity, and that a better-known and more popular candidate, such as Romney, should have been the Vice-Presidential nominee. It was also reported that Nixon's first choice for running mate was his longtime friend and ally, Robert Finch, who was Lt. Governor of California since 1967 and later his HEW Secretary, but Finch declined the offer.


1968 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection
This article lists those who were potential candidates for the Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 1968 election. After winning the Republican presidential nomination at the 1968 Republican National Convention, former Vice President Richard Nixon convened a series of meetings with close advisers and party leaders such as Strom Thurmond in order to choose his running mate. Nixon ultimately asked the convention to nominate Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate.


1968 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection
By a large margin, Agnew won the vice presidential nomination on the first ballot over Michigan Governor George W. Romney, who was supported by a faction of liberal Republicans. Nixon chose Agnew because he wanted a centrist who was broadly acceptable to the party, had experience with domestic issues, and appealed to Southern voters (to counter the third party candidacy of former Alabama Governor George Wallace). The Nixon-Agnew ticket defeated the Humphrey-Muskie ticket, and also won re-election in 1972, defeating the McGovern-Shriver ticket. However, Agnew was forced to resign as Vice President in 1973 due to a controversy regarding his personal taxes.


1968 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection
Despite being his running mate in 1960, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. was not considered as a potential running mate for Nixon in 1968.


1968 Rhode Island Rams football team
The 1968 Rhode Island Rams football team was an American football team that represented the University of Rhode Island as a member of the Yankee Conference during the 1968 NCAA College Division football season. In its fifth season under head coach Jack Zilly, the team compiled a 3–6 record (2–3 against conference opponents), finished in a three-way tie for third place out of six teams in the Yankee Conference, and was  outscored by a total of 168 to 137. The team played its home games at Meade Stadium in Kingston, Rhode Island.


1968 Rhode Island gubernatorial election
The 1968 Rhode Island gubernatorial election was held on November 5, 1968. Democratic nominee Frank Licht defeated incumbent Republican John Chafee with 51.02% of the vote.


1968 Rice Owls football team
The 1968 Rice Owls football team represented Rice University during the 1968 NCAA University Division football season. In its second season under head coach Bo Hagan, the team compiled a 0–9–1 record, finished last in the conference, and was outscored by a total of 326 to 156. The team played its home games at Rice Stadium in Houston.


1968 Rice Owls football team
The team's statistical leaders included Robby Shelton with 594 passing yards and 681 rushing yards, Larry Davis with 410 receiving yards, and Tony Conley with 48 points scored.


1968 Richmond Spiders football team
The 1968 Richmond Spiders football team represented the Richmond College during the 1968 NCAA University Division football season.


1968 Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council election
The 1968 Richmond upon Thames Council election took place on 9 May 1968 to elect members of Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council in London, England. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative party stayed in overall control of the council.


1968 Roller Hockey World Cup
The 1968 Roller Hockey World Cup was the eighteenth roller hockey world cup, organized by the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports. It was contested by 10 national teams (6 from Europe, 1 from South America, 1 from North America, 1 from Asia and 1 from Oceania, for the first time ever). All the games were played in the city of Porto, in Portugal, the chosen city to host the World Cup.


1968 Rose Bowl
The 1968 Rose Bowl was  the 54th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Monday, January 1. The USC Trojans of the Pacific-8 Conference defeated the Indiana Hoosiers of the Big Ten Conference, 14–3. USC tailback O. J. Simpson was named the Player of the Game.


1968 Rose Bowl, Teams
Through 2021, this remains the only Rose Bowl appearance for Indiana. USC was a two touchdown favorite; this was the first Rose Bowl in fifteen years in which the West Coast team was favored. In the intervening fourteen games, the Big Ten had won ten and lost four (1960, 1961, 1963, 1966).


1968 Rose Bowl, Teams
Being an even-numbered year for the bowl game, Indiana wore their crimson jerseys as the home team and USC wore their white shirts as the designated visitors.


1968 Rose Bowl, Teams, USC
The top-ranked and Pac-8 champion Trojans came into the game with a 9–1 record, losing only at Oregon State in the November mud in a close 3–0 game. They fell to fourth in the AP poll, then reclaimed the top spot a week later after a close 21–20 win over rival and then-#1 UCLA in their heavily-anticipated conference finale, securing another trip to the Big Ten/Pac-8 classic. Runner-up Oregon State had a conference loss (at Washington) and a tie (at UCLA), and the deflated UCLA Bruins lost again the following week 32–14 at home to non-conference Syracuse.


1968 Rose Bowl, Teams, USC
The Trojans were led by their powerful junior tailback O. J. Simpson, a junior college transfer from San Francisco. Unlike the Big Ten and the old Pacific Coast Conference, the Pac-8 did not have a "no-repeat" rule; this was the second of four consecutive Rose Bowl appearances for the Trojans.


1968 Rose Bowl, Teams, Indiana
The fourth-ranked and co-Big Ten champion Hoosiers also came into the game with a 9–1 record, losing to Minnesota, a week before defeating Purdue. A three-way league title championship was created when all three finished with 6–1 league records, each defeating and losing to one of the other. Purdue was ineligible because of the "no-repeat" rule by the Big Ten and the "Rose Bowl or no bowl" rule enforced by both of the participating conferences (Big Ten and AAWU). Purdue had played in Pasadena the previous year, beating USC by a point, 14–13.


1968 Rose Bowl, Teams, Indiana
The conference's athletic directors voted to award the Rose Bowl bid to Indiana over Minnesota, albeit not unanimously. Indiana was considered the logical choice because they were the only Big Ten school yet to appear in the game. Minnesota coach Murray Warmath argued in vain that the Gophers deserved the bid because their prior two Rose Bowl teams, after the 1960 and 1961 seasons, received at-large bids because there was no agreement between the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl at the time; thus, technically, the Gophers never had received a Rose Bowl bid pursuant to that arrangement.


1968 Rose Bowl, Teams, Indiana
Ironically, if Purdue had beaten Indiana in the season finale, the Boilermakers would have had sole possession of the conference championship, but Minnesota presumably would have received the Rose Bowl bid as the second place team in lieu of the ineligible Boilers. Instead, Indiana scored a 19–14 upset over Purdue, giving Minnesota a share of the conference championship but costing them a trip to Pasadena. Quarterback Harry Gonso led the Hoosiers into their first ever bowl game.