The following events occurred in November 1968:
November 1, 1968 (Friday) The bombardment of North Vietnam by the United States halted at 9:00 in the evening local time as airplanes stopped flying missions, ships stopped firing shells and ground units near the border halted artillery fire."U.S. Halts Bombing of N. Viet; Johnson Act Clouds Election", Pittsburgh Press, November 1, 1968, time ૧:૩૦ pm brth plesh Rajkot Gujarat INDIAp11 Heavy rains in north Italy began, causing flash flooding of the Toce River and its streams and killing 61 people in Valle Mosso. Another 12 were found in the surrounding Province of Biella within its first day."Toll May Reach 200 In N. Italy Flooding", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 4, 1968, p1 The MPAA's new rating system went into effect, with films branded "G", "M", "R" or "X". "M" (for mature audiences) later became "PG" (parental guidance suggested).Kevin Sandler, The Naked Truth: Why Hollywood Doesn't Make X-rated Movies (Rutgers University Press, 2007) p42 Born: Silvio Fauner, Italian cross-country skier and 1995 world champion in the 50 km race; in San Pietro di Cadore Died: Georgios Papandreou, 80, Prime Minister of Greece from 1944 to 1945, 1963 and 1964 to 1965 died shortly after being released from house arrest, and the day after surgery for a perforated ulcer.
November 2, 1968 (Saturday)
An FBI document of a conversation between two Nixon campaign workers, future Attorney General John Mitchell and Asian-American lobbyist Anna Chennault confirmed her discussion that she had contacted South Vietnam ambassador to the U.S. Bui Diem to confirm that South Vietnam would avoid participating in the Paris Peace Talks. An author would later describe this as Chennault and Mitchell "conducting a private foreign policy", a violation of United States law.Christopher Hitchens, The Trial of Henry Kissinger (Verso, 2001) pp13-14 South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu derailed what appeared to be the beginning of the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by announcing "a wildly cheering session of the National Assembly" that South Vietnam would refuse to participate in the Paris Peace Talks agreed to by the United States, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. "The Republic of Vietnam government is very sorry that such conditions for direct and serious talks between us and Hanoi," Thieu told legislators, "have not yet come about. And therefore, the Republic of Vietnam cannot participate in the present Paris conference." At the same time, North Vietnamese negotiators in Paris said that it was up to the United States to guarantee that South Vietnam would join the peace talks."Thieu Boycotts Paris Talks", Pittsburgh Press, November 2, 1968, p1
November 3, 1968 (Sunday)
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) engineered the successful escape of founder George Habash from a prison in Syria, along with two other PFLP leaders, Faiz Qaddura and Ali Bushnaq. All three had been arrested on March 19, and PFLP efforts to have them released by diplomatic means had failed.Moshe Shemesh, The Palestinian Entity 1959-1974: Arab Politics and the PLO (Routledge, 2012) p120 Born: Debbie Rochon, Canadian horror film actress; in Vancouver
November 4, 1968 (Monday) The federal government of Yugoslavia made a compromise with the Albanian-speaking Kosovan minority (residing in its socialist republic of the Serbian SR) to change the name of the Serbian province from "The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija" to "the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo", eliminating the reference to the western portion and allowing the population "wide use" of a flag incorporating the double-headed eagle symbol of the Albanian people.Dejan Jović, Yugoslavia: A State that Withered Away (Purdue University Press, 2009) p119, p136 Born: Lee Germon, New Zealand cricketer and wicket-keeper; in Christchurch Miles Long, American pornographic film director; in San Francisco Daniel Landa, Czech punk rock musician; in Prague Died: Vern Stephens, 48, American baseball shortstop and 1945 American League home run leader, died of a heart attack.
November 5, 1968 (Tuesday)
Former U.S. vice-president and Republican Party nominee Richard M. Nixon was elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent vice-president and Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace."NIXON'S THE ONE, HHH CONCEDES— GOP Winner Pledges to Unite Nation", Pittsburgh Press, November 6, 1968, p1 Although the popular vote was close, with Nixon winning 31,783,783 votes and Humphrey 31,271,839 the electoral vote (301 to 191) ultimately would not be. Whether Nixon would be the winner, or whether no party would have a majority and cause the election to be decided by the House of Representatives, would remain in doubt until almost noon the next day. With four states (and 66 electoral votes) remaining in doubt, Nixon had 261 of the 270 needed to win, Humphrey had 166 and Wallace had 45 while the media waited for Chicago Mayor Daley to release the results of the tabulation there, which would determine who won Illinois and its 26 votes. If Humphrey had carried all four states, no candidate would have had 270 (Nixon 261, Humphrey 224 and Wallace 45). Humphrey, speaking from Minneapolis, conceded defeat in the U.S. presidential election shortly after 11:00 in the morning local time and telephoned his congratulations to the President-Elect."Illinois Puts Republicans Over The Top— Counting Lag Casts Some Doubt On Final Result", Pittsburgh Press, November 6, 1968, p1Dennis Wainstock, Election Year 1968: The Turning Point (Enigma Books, 2013) pp179-180 The Paris Peace Talks, scheduled to have begun on Wednesday, were called off less than 24 hours before they were to open, after the Viet Cong negotiator, Nguyen Thi Binh, said at her press conference that the group had a series of demands before it would negotiate, and the conditions were unacceptable to South Vietnam."Saigon Forces Delay In Talks— Tomorrow's Session Off Indefinitely", Pittsburgh Press, November 5, 1968, p1 Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn, New York became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Congress, defeating the heavily favored James Farmer, a black candidate for New York's Liberal Party and the former national director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Luis A. Ferré was elected Governor of Puerto Rico, defeating incumbent governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella and becoming the first governor to have won on a platform seeking statehood for Puerto Rico."Puerto Rico Upset Scored", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 6, 1968, p11 Born: Penny Wong, Malaysian-born Foreign Minister of Australia since 2022; in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia Sam Rockwell, American film, stage and TV actor; in Daly City, California Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Italian-born Spanish film actress; in Rome
November 6, 1968 (Wednesday) The longest student strike in American history began at San Francisco State University, where the Black Student Union joined with a coalition of Asian-American students and white students who supported the cause of diversity in admissions and student curriculum. The strike, organized by the "Third World Liberation Front", would last more than four months until March 20, 1969.Ibram H. Rogers, The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965–1972 (Springer, 2012) p97 Born: Jerry Yang, Taiwanese-American billionaire, internet entrepreneur, and co-founder (with David Filo) of Yahoo!; as Yang Chih-Yuan in Taipei Kelly Rutherford, American television actress; as Kelly Rutherford Deane in Elizabethtown, Kentucky Died: Charles Munch, 77, German Alsatian-born symphony conductor and former music director for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was found dead in his suite at Hotel John Marshall in Richmond, Virginia. Munch was on a tour of North America with the Orchestre de Paris, and was scheduled to conduct a concert that evening."Charles Munch, 77, Conductor Dies Here", Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 7, 1968, p.1 U.S. Navy Admiral Charles B. McVay III, captain of the USS Indianapolis when it was torpedoed and sunk on July 30, 1945, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head."Exonerated WW II Admiral Kills Self", The Miami Herald, November 10, 1968, p.22-A Captain McVay was the only U.S. Navy captain court-martialed for losing a ship sunk by an act of war, despite the fact that he was on a top secret mission delivering the first nuclear weapon used in war.
November 7, 1968 (Thursday)
French journalist Beate Klarsfeld assaulted West Germany's Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger at a meeting of the Christian Democratic Union in West Berlin, approaching him on stage and slapping him in the face to bring worldwide attention to his Nazi past."Klarsfeld, Beate", by Sheldon Spear, in Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Bernard A. Cook (Taylor & Francis, 2001) p730 Kiesinger, though not charged with war crimes after the fall of Nazi Germany, had been the deputy director of radio broadcasting for the Reich's Foreign Ministry during the war. Klarsfeld would receive a one-year prison sentence. Students in Pakistan marched in the streets of the capital, Rawalpindi, and in Dacca, the regional capital of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to demand the restoration of democracy and guarantees of freedom. Police opened fire on the Rawalpindi marchers, killing three of them, and the harsh response would lead to nationwide protests and members of the public participating along with students."1968— Was it Really a Year of Social Change in Pakistan?", by Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, in Sixties Radicalism and Social Movement Activism: Retreat Or Resurgence?, by Bryn Jones and Mike O'Donnell (Anthem Press, 2012) p77 Over a period of five months that would not end until the resignation of dictator Mohammad Ayub Khan on March 25, 1969, more than ten million people would participate in the protests, despite arrests and killings.Tariq Ali, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power (Simon and Schuster, 2009) pp64-65 Died: Gordon Coventry, 67, Australian rules football forward who was the first to kick 100 goals in a season; his career record of 1,299 career goals for Collingwood of the Victorian Football League would remain unbroken for 60 years until 1997.
November 8, 1968 (Friday)
The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, an attempt to standardize traffic signs in the nations of Europe and in signatory nations in the rest of the world, opened for signature. The United States, China, Japan and Australia are not participants, but Russia, India, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Mexico are among those that are. Bruce Reynolds, the leader, and last of the 15 perpetrators, of the Great Train Robbery of August 8, 1963, was arrested after more than five years on the run. Reynolds had been traced by Scotland Yard to a seaside resort near Torquay."Last Suspect Caught In Train Robbery", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 9, 1968, p1 Reynolds and his family had recently returned to the United Kingdom after living lavishly in Mexico and France, partly out of his concern about how his associates were handling "his money"; detective Tommy Butler surprised Reynolds at the Torquay home, and Reynolds reportedly said, "I'm glad it's over. It's no life for anyone, always drifting about." Reynolds would serve seven years of a 25-year prison sentence before being paroled.Brenda Haugen, The Great Train Robbery: History-Making Heist (Capstone, 2010) pp71-72