1st Cecil Day Lewis becomes Poet Laureate, succeeding John Masefield

1st Sislin Fay Allen, a Jamaican, becomes Britain's first coloured policewoman

5th Alexander Dubcek becomes First Secretary of Czechoslovakia - the "Prague Spring" begins

7th The unmanned 'Surveyor 7' lands on the moon (moon pic, right top)

8th Ian MacLagan of 'The Small Faces' is arrested at Heathrow for carrying cannabis

15th An earthquake in Sicily kills 231 with 262 injured

17th The British Leyland Motor Corporation is formed

21st A US B-52 bomber crashes in Greenland and discharges four nuclear bombs

23rd North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming it was spying in its territorial waters

25th Great Train robber Charles Wilson is recaptured at Rigaud in Quebec, Canada

25th The Israeli submarine 'Dakar' sinks in the Mediterranean, killing 69 crew (right, bottom)

27th A French submarine sinks in the Mediterranean with 52 men

30th In Vietnam, the Tet Offensive begins

31st The Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon

31st Nauru's president Hammer DeRoburt declares independence from Australia

4th Radio Nottingham launches the first phone-in programme 'What Are They Up To Now?'

5th A British fishing trawler is lost in the North Atlantic off Iceland

10th The Beatles shut down all their business in the U.S.A. and turn everything over to Apple

15th The Royal Navy's first Polaris submarine is successfully tested

18th Permanent British Summer Time ( B.S.T. ) is reintroduced (until October 71)

18th London Bridge is sold to an American oil company for £1,015,000 (right)

20th The government announces plans to end free milk in secondary schools

20th England bowler Fred Titmuss loses four toes in a boating accident in Barbados

22nd The Government announces that Asian immigration is to be reduced to 1,500 per year

27th 25 year old pop singer Frankie Lymon dies of a heroin overdose

27th Astronomer, Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, announces the discovery of the first 'pulsar'

2nd In America, Lockheed present the world's largest aircraft, the Galaxy

3rd Radio Caroline goes off air when both ships are moved to Amsterdam for repair

4th Joe Frazier becomes World Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( N.Y. State Title )

6th Pop singer Sandie Shaw (right) marries fashion designer Jeff Banks at Greenwich register office

7th Dr. Emil Savundra is sentenced to 8 years imprisonment and fined £50,000 for insurance fraud

7th The First Battle of Saigon begins in Vietnam

11th Newham Council takes possession of the Ronan Point highrise flats in Canning Town

12th Mauritius achieves independence from Britain

15th The British Minister of Foreign affairs, George Brown, resigns

18th The US Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back the dollar

19th The government announces an increase in Purchase Tax

21st The 'breathalyser' cuts road deaths by 23% in its first 3 months

27th 34 year old Yuri Gagarin is killed in a plane crash during a training flight

29th Rolls-Royce wins a £150 million order, its largest ever, for RB2-11 engines, from Lockheed

31st American President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that he will not seek re-election

2nd Bombs placed by Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin explode at midnight in Frankfurt-am-Main

4th Martin Luther King is assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee

7th Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheim circuit in Germany
Other Grand Prix drivers to lose their lives in '68 were Ludovico Scarfiotti, Jo Schlesser and Mike Spence

11th President Lindon B.Johnson signs the U.S.A. Civil Rights Act

11th London Bridge is sold to Robert McCullough, to be dismantled and re-erected in Arizona

11th Ulrike Meinhof is among left-wing students arrested during the Springer Press blockade in Berlin

20th Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes Canada's fifteenth prime minister

21st Enoch Powell makes his 'rivers of blood' speech in Birmingham

23rd The first decimal coins are introduced, the 5p and 10p coins

23rd Surgeons at the Hopital de la Pitie, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant on Clovis Roblain

29th The musical 'Hair' is first seen officially on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre

Ten million workers come out in a general strike in France

Cliff Richard delivers 3 sermons at Kensington Temple, Notting Hill, for the Billy Graham Crusade.

3rd The first British heart transplant operation is carried out

3rd Students, police, and right-wing agitators clash outside of the Sorbonne University

6th Student revolution closes the Sorbonne University for the first time in its 700 year history

9th Scottish actor Finlay Currie dies

15th Tariq Ali publishes the first issue of 'Black Dwarf'

16th A gas explosion causes Ronan Point tower block (right) to collapse, killing only 4 people

21st Rolling Stone Brian Jones is arrested for drug possession for the second time

22nd The U.S. atomic submarine 'Scorpion' is lost 400 miles SW of the Azores with 99 crew

24th An arson attack occurs on the French Stock Exchange

24th General de Gaulle promises a referendum on the French constitution in a television address

27th Georges Pompidou reaches agreement with employers and workers over salary and conditions

1st Helen Keller dies in her sleep in Connecticut

3rd Andy Warhol, working on a film in New York, is shot by actress and 'militant feminist' Valerie Solanis

5th Senator Bobby Kennedy is shot (right top) by Sirhan Sirhan at The Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles
      after his victory speech in the California primary election. He dies early the following day

5th Post codes are launched in London W1

7th Mrs E. Matthews becomes the first woman to receive a heart transplant

8th James Earl Ray is arrested at London Airport

10th Prescription charges are re-introduced at 2s 6d per item

11th The Rolling Stones are involved in a studio fire while recording 'Sympathy For The Devil'

12th The Tremeloes cancel their American tour when they are refused work visas

24th Comedian Tony Hancock (right, bottom) commits suicide in Sydney, Australia

25th Brian Jones' jury trial begins at Marlborough Street Court, London

28th 'The Nice' burn a US flag while performing and are banned for life from the Royal Albert Hall

29th The first free Hyde Park concert features Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Roy Harper, and Tyrannosaurus Rex

RAE1, the first radio astronomy satellite, is launched

Trident Studios introduce 3M 8-track recording decks

1st Britain and 60 other nations sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty

4th Alec Rose completes his solo round the world voyage in 'Lively Lady'

5th Lone yachtsman Alec Rose is knighted

6th The two-day Woburn Music Festival opens

9th The Monopolies Commission vetoes a merger of Lloyds, Barclays and Martin's banks

10th Dr. Spock and three others are sentenced to two years jail in America for draft evasion

12th 'Monkee' Mickey Dolenz marries 'Top of the Pops' co-presenter Samantha Juste

13th Australian group 'The Seekers' disband (right, top)

17th 'Yellow Submarine' premieres at the London Pavilion (right, bottom)

25th Barclays Bank merges with Martin's Bank

25th Pope Paul VI announces an encyclical entitled "Humanae Vitae", condemning birth control

26th Decca refuses to release 'Beggars Banquet' by the Rolling Stones because of the 'graffiti' cover

26th South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to 5 years hard labour

26th Anthony Wedgewood-Benn announces a plan to convert to metric measurement

31st Apple Records is formed but the Beatles' Apple boutique closes down after only 8 months

1st The first Mountbatten class SRN4 hover ferry, Princess Margaret, is used by Seaspeed on the Channel crossing

3rd The Countryside Act comes into force

9th The 3-day National Jazz and Blues Festival begins in Sunbury

17th Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup

21st 200,000 troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of liberalisation (right)

22nd Ringo Starr quits the Beatles, only to return on September 4th

22nd Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota, Colombia, for the first papal visit to Latin America

24th France becomes the world's fifth nuclear power as it explodes a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific

29th Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time for centuries

31st Gary Sobers becomes the first man to hit six sixes in one over in County cricket

'Cream' announce that they will disband after a farewell tour

1st The first part of the £80 million Victoria underground line opens between Walthamstow and Highbury

6th GEC announces a n £892 million merger with General Electric

6th Swaziland becomes independent

13th Banks open on a Saturday for the last time

15th Michael Carr, composer of tunes for The Shadows and others, dies

16th The two-tier post system comes into operation

17th The MCC tour of South Africa is cancelled as they refuse to accept Basil D'Oliveira (right) being in the side

26th Stage play censorship is abolished by the Theatres Act

26th Brian Jones (right, bottom) is fined £50 and £105 in court costs for possession of cannabis

27th 13 cast members appear nude when the musical 'Hair' opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London

27th Marcelo Caetano becomes Prime Minister of Portugal

27th France yet again vetoes the UK's entry into the EEC

5th A civil rights march in Derry, N.I. is batoned off the streets by the Royal Ulster Constabulary

6th Radio Free London, Viking Radio, and Radio Tower broadcast briefly in defiance of the government's ban

8th US and South Vietnamese forces launch Operation Sealords in the Mekong Delta

11th NASA launches the first manned Apollo (7) mission with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham - the mission will include the first live television broadcast from orbit

13th British publisher Sir Stanley Unwin dies

14th The new Euston Station is opened by The Queen

14th Apollo 7 transmits TV images from inside the capsule to the USA

16th The Foreign and Commonwealth offices merge

16th Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their arms in a black power salute (right) at the Mexico Olympics

18th John Lennon appears in his first solo film role in 'How I Won The War'

18th John Lennon and Yoko Ono are charged with the possession of cannabis

18th The National Giro Bank opens at Bootle, Liverpool

20th Comedian Bud Flanagan of 'The Crazy Gang' dies aged 72

20th The Yardbirds make their last performance, playing at Liverpool University

20th Jackie Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis on the isle of Skorpios

31st Lyndon B. Johnson announces a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective from November 1

5th Peter Noone (right) - 'Herman' of Herman's Hermits - marries Mireille Strasser

5th In one of the closest US presidential elections in history, Republican Richard Nixon defeats Hubert       Humphrey and George C. Wallace

6th 2300 jobs are lost as British Eagle airlines stop flying

8th The last uncaught 'Great Train robber' Bruce Reynolds is arrested in Torquay

8th Actor Wendell Corey dies aged 54

9th The Rolling Stones finally work out an agreement over the cover art for 'Beggars Banquet'

11th A second republic is declared in the Maldives

14th Edward Heath appoints Margaret Thatcher as shadow Transport Minister

17th BAC 1-11 enters commerical service with BEA

26th The Race Relations Bill becomes law

26th Cream hold their last concert, playing at The Royal Albert Hall

28th John Lennon is fined £150 for possession of cannabis

30th Steve Winwood leaves Traffic. They reform with Dave Mason and Mick Weaver

Peter Tork leaves The Monkees

6th Tory chiefs ban Enoch Powell from making a planned speech on Rhodesia

7th Nat Hiken, producer, director and writer of 'Bilko' and 'Car 54 Where Are You?' dies

11th The Rolling Stones, The Who, and others begin filming 'Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus'

12th Legendary actress and personality Tallulah Bankhead (right) dies of pneumonia aged 66

15th World Heavyweight boxing champion 1915-1919 Jess Willard 'The Pottawatomie Giant' dies

19th Colin Davis is chosen to succeed Georg Solti as Director of the Royal Opera House

19th At the London Palladium, The Shadows give their last performance

20th In Spain, Franco banishes Prince Carlos, pretender to the Spanish throne

20th American 'Grapes of Wrath' and 'East of Eden' author John Steinbeck dies aged 66

24th Apollo 8 enters lunar orbit. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders are the first humans to see the far side of the moon and the planet earth as a whole

29th Cunard postpone the first voyage of the QEII as she is still unfit to sail

31st The 'Giant New Year's Eve Gala Pop and Blues Party' happens at Alexandra Palace

31st Steve Marriot leaves the Small Faces during their performance at the Ally Pally

January 6 John Singleton, director and writer
January 14 LL Cool J, rapper, actor
January 24 Mary Lou Retton, gymnast
January 27 Mike Patton, singer
January 28 Sarah McLachlan, singer
January 29 Edward Burns, actor
February 1 Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, actress
February 5 Roberto Alomar, baseball player
February 8 Gary Coleman, actor
February 14 Jules Asner, model, television personality
February 22 Brad Nowell, musician
February 22 Jeri Ryan, Star Trek
February 27 Matt Stairs, baseball player
March 4 Patsy Kensit, actress
March 11 Lisa Loeb, singer
March 28 Iris Chang, author
March 29 Lucy Lawless, actress, singer
March 30 Celine Dion, singer
April 8 Patricia Arquette, actress
April 15 Stacey Williams, supermodel
April 19 Ashley Judd, actress
May 1 D'Arcy Wretzky, musician
May 7 Traci Lords, actress
May 12 Tony Hawk, skateboarding legend
May 22 James Luecke, saxophonist, musician
May 26 Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark
May 28 Kylie Minogue, actress and singer
June 4 Rachel Griffiths, actress
June 26 Shannon Sharpe, American football player, commentator
June 28 Adam Woodyatt, actor
June 29 Theoren Fleury, Canadian ice hockey player
June 30 Philip Anselmo, heavy metal musician
July 10 Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian athlete
July 16 Barry Sanders, Pro Football Hall of Fame
August 9 Eric Bana, actor
August 17 Ed McCaffrey, American football player
August 31 Todd Carty, actor
September 1 Mohammed Atta, Egyptian hijacker and terrorist
September 4 Mike Piazza, baseball star
September 7 Marcel Desailly, French footballer
September 11 Kay Hanley, musician
September 20 Darrell Russell, NHRA drag racer
September 25 Will Smith, rapper, actor
September 26 James Caviezel, actor
September 28 Naomi Watts, actress
October 7 Toni Braxton, singer
October 11 Jane Krakowski, actress
October 12 Hugh Jackman, actor
October 31 Vanilla Ice, rapper
November 8 Zara Whites, Dutch actress
November 12 Sammy Sosa, baseball player
November 13 Pat Hentgen, baseball player
November 15 Jennifer Charles, singer
November 15 Ol' Dirty Bastard, rapper
November 18 Owen Wilson, actor
November 27 Michael Vartan, actor
December 2 Lucy Liu, actress
December 8 Mike Mussina, baseball player
December 9 Kurt Angle, WWE and Olympic gold wrestler
December 17 Paul Tracy, auto racing champion