1968 in Review

Iid Ali, Der Lee and John Tatge on the jobsite.

• The unemployment rate in 1968 was 3.4% (compared to 6.0% today)
• The average price of a gallon of gasoline in 1968 was $.33
• Johnny Cash recorded "Live at Folsom Prison" in January of 1968
• The United States continued its involvement in the Vietnam War, with the first battle of Saigon occurring in March
• Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee
• Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968
• "One Life to Live" premiered on ABC
• U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
• NASA launched Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission. Months later, U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 entered orbit around the moon
• The games of the XIX Olympiad were held in Mexico City
• Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeated Vice President Hubert Humphrey in the November presidential election
• The Beatles released The White Album
• Charlie Chaplin died
• Simon & Garfunkel released the original soundtrack to “The Graduate”
• Future U.S. President George W. Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard