Chiia.com 
"Explore a unique viewpoint" 
Home      Historical Events III

Historical Events in Time, the Sixties Continued.

1968


Robert Kennedy is shot (at the hands of Serhan Serhan in Los Angles) while on the campaign trail to win his party’s nomination for President for the United States. He died as a result of the shooting the next day.
Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win a major men’s tennis title.
April 11th, President Johnson signs a Civil Rights Bill that outlaws racial discrimination in the rental of eighty percent of U.S. housing.
       

On February 29, the Kerner Commission (check for history) stated in a report to President Johnson that the U.S. is "moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." Recommendations included sweeping reforms in housing, education, welfare, and employment. They also recommended aggressive changes in federal and local law enforcement. 

On April 12th Dr King Martin Luther King Jr was felled by an assassins bullet while standing on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel. James Earl Ray is serving 99 years for the murder.
 
Anti-war demonstrators clash with Chicago Police at the Democratic Convention. The number of troops in Vietnam increases to over 500,000.  

Facing enormous pressure because of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, President Johnson announces he will not seek his party’s nomination, and if selected will not run for a second term as President of the United States. This action would later set up a run for the presidency between Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and former Vice President (under Dwight D. Eisenhower) Richard M. Nixon

1968


Douglas Engelbart introduced a Prototype Mouse as part of a console. The demonstration took place at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. The console consisted of a keyboard (resembles today’s keyboard) , a device with five piano-like keys (called a chord keyset), and a square shaped device (with three buttons) he called a mouse. All were the work of fifteen years of exploring a better way to communicate with a computer. By 1984, the mouse would become popular as an device connected to the Apple Computer.

 

Republican Richard M. Nixon is elected as the 37th president of the U.S. Spiro T. Agnew is his Vice President.
 

The U.S. Supreme Court outlaws racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. Prairie View A& M College of Texas became the first NROTC unit established at a predominantly black school. National Center of African American artist founded by Elma I. Lewis.


                                           

1969


James Earl Ray is sentenced to 99 years for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Sirhan Sirhan is convicted and sentenced for assassinating Senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and stated his historical quote, "One small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind".

 Anti-war demonstrators, numbering over 200,000 protest the war in Washington D.C. U.S. troops in Vietnam has reached 543,000. Later in the year, President Nixon withdraws 35000 troops as the number of U.S. troops begin to decrease as withdrawals continue.

The Children’s Television Workshop, Sesame Street, with a host of puppets, interacting with regular live characters make its debut on public stations throughout the country. Its clear that creator Jim Henson has found an attractive formula to teach as well as entertain children and adults alike. It is a rousing success while federal funding for public television continuous to be a hot debate.     .

Historical Events in Time, the Seventies

1970


President Nixon signs a bill to extend the 1965 Voting Rights Act to 1975.
 
Black Rock music guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies from a drug overdose.  
        
 
The Beatles break up and go their separate ways.
 
John M. Burgess became bishop of theBoston diocese of the Episcopal Church. Known for his social progressivism he served until 1976.

The Banking Industry first ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) was installed in Valdosta, Georgia. At that time the amount withdrawn was recorded on the customers magnetized card. This allowed the bank to enforce daily withdrawal amounts. Despite today’s popularity, customers were not enthused by the new machine.

   

1971


Reverend Jessie Jackson forms People United to Save Humanity or PUSH. Its headquarters are located in Chicago, Ill.        
 
The Lunar Rover explores the moon’s surface during Apollo’s 15th mission.Intel 4004, the first Microprocessor was advertised for sale. Ted Hoff designed thecustom chip for Busicom, a Japanese calculator maker. The amazing 4004 packed 2,250 transistors onto a silicon sliver comparable to the size of the head of a thumbtack. It performed 60,000 operations per second, handled data in four-bit chunks, and functioned exactly like a computer’s central processing unit.

1971.


Busing to integrate public schools is a constitutionally acceptable method. So said the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling handed down in the Swann versus Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case.

The 26th Amendment passed and lower the voting age qualification to 18 years old. The action placed over 25 million potential voters eligible to vote in 1972.

Captain Samuel L. Gravely, Jr became the first African American to ascend to the rank of Admiral in the United States Navy. Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
IBM invented a eight-inch Floppy Diskette capable of programming and storing data. It won rave reviews for its reusability, portability, and inexpensive high-density storage capability.     

1972


Nolan Bushnell sold his company for $15 million dollars. Atari’s founder and creator of the game circuit board introduced Pong (coin-operated table tennis) to the masses. Have you heard of video games?
 
The debut of Intel’s 8008 microprocessor introduced a chip with eight-bit word (a byte). A vast improvement over it’s predecessor, the four-bit 4004. This chip could handle all of the letters of the alphabet-both uppercase and lowercase-all ten numerals, punctuation marks, and numerous other symbols. Talk about a game changer.

Long Binh (Air force base?) was transferred to South Vietnam as part of President Nixon plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from the region.

Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress. W. Sterling Cary (of New York) became the first African American head of the National Council of Churches. He served a three- year term.
 
The Viet Cong and North Vietnamse troops renew their offense in South Vietnam with the aim of reuniting the country.

1972


Five men were apprehended at the Watergate Hotel and charged with an attempted burglary. They were looking for damaging info to use on the Democrats in the upcoming election. Despite troubling suspicions of the Presidents involvement, Richard M. Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew were reelected as president and vice president respectively. Nixon defeated George McGovern.

IBM’s Edgar F. Codd is credited with implementing the first Relational Database. The database allowed the sorting and storing of a multitude of data in tables with rows of entries crossed by columns of information. It is another significant development in computer technology.

Alan Kay, working for Xerox developed Smalltalk. The technology allowed the viewer to partition the monitor screen to display menus, files, and icons. A mouse was used to manipulate the functions and later became the feature that made the Macintosh interesting to user and potential user alike. Can you spell Windows?