Date in year · 1968 · The 1960s

October 16, 1968

On October 16, 1968, tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute. The year's #1 song was "Hey Jude" by The Beatles. Ashley Judd, Mswati III, Julia Morris would arrive in the same year.

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1968

1960s

Around 1968

The year in brief

1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1968th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 968th year of the 2nd millennium, the 68th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1960s decade.

Read the full year of 1968 →

What happened

On October 16, 1968

  1. 1968 Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.

    Protest during 1968 Olympic Games

    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.

  2. 1968 Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.

    1968 civil unrest in Kingston, Jamaica

    The Rodney riots were riots and civil disturbances in Kingston, Jamaica in October 1968.

  3. 1968 Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

    Japanese novelist (1899–1972)

    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.

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1968

The class of 1968

Others born in 1968

Ashley Judd 1968– American actress
Mswati III 1968– King (Ngwenyama) of Eswatini (Swaziland)
Julia Morris 1968– Australian entertainer
Dana Milbank 1968– American journalist and author
Jack de Gier 1968– Dutch footballer
Karl Wendlinger 1968– Austrian racing driver

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