On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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US Sup Ct rules state election laws unconst as violation of 14th Amendment equal protection rights, orders G C Wallace and his Amer Independence party to be placed on ballot; finds laws impose burden on voting and associational rights by unduly favoring Dem and Repub parties to exclusion of others
Gromyko, in Oct 6 conf with Rusk, reptdly gave assurance against any new threat to W Berlin, a move regarded in Washington as part of gen effort to cool pol climate in wake of Czech occupation
Nixon says major thrust of his adm would be entirely new tax system, would revise Fed taxes as part of new tax system, news conf
pollsters agree there is greater chance their polls may De wrong in '68 race than at any time since '48, when major polls predicted wrong winner
Great Northern Paper raises some prices
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of October 16, 1968, covering October 16, 1968.
Big Brother And The Holding Company
The Rascals
Jose Feliciano
The Doors
Iron Butterfly
1968Randall Batinkoff, American actor and producer[†]
Randall Matthew Batinkoff is an American actor, director, and producer. He began his career in commercials at the age of eight before transitioning to film and television. He gained recognition for his role opposite Molly Ringwald in the 1988 drama For Keeps. Throughout the 1990s, he appeared in notable films such as The Player(1992), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), School Ties (1992), The Peacemaker (1997), and As Good as It Gets (1997). On television, he starred as Reverend David Grantland in the CBS series Christy (1994–1995).
1968Mark Lee, Singaporean actor and singer[†]
Mark Lee Kok Huang is a Singaporean comedian, actor, presenter, radio DJ and entrepreneur.
1968Francesco Libetta, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor[†]
Francesco Libetta is an Italian pianist, composer and conductor.
1968Todd Stashwick, American actor and writer[†]
Todd Stashwick is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Dale Malloy on The Riches (2007–2008) and Theodore Deacon on 12 Monkeys (2015–2018). He played Captain Liam Shaw in the third season of Star Trek: Picard (2023).
1968Elsa Zylberstein, French actress[†]
Elsa Zylberstein is a French actress. After studying drama, she began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in more than 60 films. She won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for I've Loved You So Long (2008).
1968Ellis Kinder, American baseball player (born 1914)[†]
Ellis Raymond "Old Folks" Kinder was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago White Sox between 1946 and 1957. Kinder batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Atkins, Arkansas.
1968Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.[†]
During their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on October 16, 1968, two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner". While on the podium, Smith and Carlos, who had won gold and bronze medals respectively in the 200-meter running event of the 1968 Summer Olympics, turned to face the US flag and then kept their hands raised until the anthem had finished. In addition, Smith, Carlos, and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman all wore human-rights badges on their jackets.
1968Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.[†]
The Rodney riots were riots and civil disturbances in Kingston, Jamaica in October 1968.
1968Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.[†]
Yasunari/Kōsei Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read.
In 1968, the world population was approximately 3,545,187,251 people[†]