Neil Armstrong takes man’s first steps on the Moon as 650 million people around the world watch on live TV.
Two months after becoming president, Richard Nixon authorizes the covert bombing of Cambodia.
Life Magazine’s publication of photos of the 242 men killed in Vietnam during a single week in May changes the public’s perception of the war.
Lt. William Calley is charged with murder in connection with the 1968 My Lai Massacre in Vietnam in which 109 Vietnamese civilians were killed.
Large-scale antiwar demonstrations are held across the US.
The US Selective Service System conducts the first draft lottery since World War II.
A large oil spill closes the beaches and harbor in Santa Barbara, inspiring the first Earth Day the next year.
The followers of Charles Manson commit nine murders in southern California.
The unidentified serial killer known as the “Zodiac Killer” claims his second victim in San Francisco. Police eventually attribute five murders in northern California to the Zodiac Killer, though in letters he has claimed responsibility for 37 killings. The Zodiac Killer case remains unsolved.
Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of murdering Robert Kennedy in 1968 and is given the death sentence. The sentence will be converted to life in prison in 1972 when the state’s capital punishment statute is held to violate the 8th amendment. He remains incarcerated.
400,000 people attend the three-day Woodstock Music Festival in upstate New York.
After years of declining popularity, Elvis Presley reinvigorates his career with a new album which includes contains the critically acclaimed songs Suspicious Minds, In the Ghetto and Kentucky Rain.
The Beatles stage an unannounced concert performance on the roof of Abbey Studios in London, which will be their last live show.
Jim Morrison of The Doors is arrested in Miami following a concert appearance in which he is alleged to have exposed himself.
The first flights of the Concorde and Boeing 747 jumbo jet occur.
The US $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are withdrawn from circulation.
The first bank ATM is installed in Rockville Center, New York.
Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first artificial heart.
An American teenager in St. Louis, identified as “Robert R.,” becomes the first to die of a previously unidentified illness which, in 1984, will be diagnosed as HIV/Aids.
Mary Jo Kopechne dies in a car driven by Senator Ted Kennedy after the car falls off a bridge into a tidal pond on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts.
Willie Mays, playing for the San Francisco Giants, becomes the first major league baseball player since Babe Ruth to hit 600 career home runs.
The films Midnight Cowboy and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are released.
Sesame Street debuts on television.
Skirts are short, hair is long and the Plymouth Roadrunner is the best selling car.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
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