50 Years Ago in Photos: A Look Back at 1968 (1/5)

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/01/50-years-ago-in-photos-a-look-back-at-1968/550208/

50 Years Ago in Photos: A Look Back at 1968

ALAN TAYLOR

JAN 10, 2018

A half-century ago, much of the world appeared to be in a state of crisis. Protests erupted in France, Czechoslovakia. Germany, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and many other places. Some of these protests ended peacefully; many were put down harshly. Two of the biggest catalysts for the protest were the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and the ongoing lack of civil rights in the U.S. and elsewhere. Two of America’s most prominent leaders, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, were assassinated within months of each other. But some lessons were being learned and some progress was being made—this was also the year that NASA first sent astronauts around the moon and back, and the year President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. It’s fitting that I post this retrospective today, since it is the day I was born—January 10, 1968. So, a 50th birthday present from me to you today: a look back at 1968.

U.S. National Guard troops block off Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, as Civil Rights marchers wearing placards reading, "I AM A MAN" pass by on March 29, 1968. It was the third consecutive march held by the group in as many days. Bettmann / Getty

The Supremes, with Diana Ross, front, Cindy Birdsong, and Mary Wilson dance with their arms in the air as they perform at the annual "Bal pare" party in Munich, West Germany, on January 21, 1968. The American trio was backed by the West German Rolf Hans Mueller big band and was celebrated with thundering applause. Frings / AP

The flag of South Vietnam flies atop a tower of the main fortified structure in the old citadel as a jeep crosses a bridge over a moat in Hue during the Tet Offensive in February of 1968. AP

South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, fires his pistol, executing suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem (also known as Bay Lop) on a Saigon street on February 1, 1968, early in the Tet Offensive. Lem was suspected of commanding a death squad which had targeted South Vietnamese police officers that day. The fame of this photo led to a life of infamy for Nguyen Ngoc Loan, who quietly moved to the United States in 1975 and opened a pizza shop in Virginia. Eddie Adams / AP

A U.S Marine with several days of beard growth sits in a helicopter on July 18, 1968, after being picked up from a landing zone near Con Thein on the southern edge of the demilitarized zone in South Vietnam. His unit had just been relieved of duty after patrolling the region around the DMZ. Stone / AP

A speaker addresses a mass rally in support of democracy organized by the youth of Prague at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on May 18, 1968. During a period called the "Prague Spring," Alexander Dubček, the newly-elected leader of the Warsaw Pact nation, enacted numerous reforms loosening state control and expanding individual rights, which both encouraged citizens and angered the Soviet Union. Bettmann / Getty

Prague residents surround Soviet tanks in front of the Czechoslovak Radio station building in central Prague during the first day of a Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. Within a year, Dubček was removed from office, his reforms were undone, and a more Soviet-controlled government was installed. Libor Hajsky / Reuters

American figure skater Peggy Fleming practices on an outside rink on February 1968 in Grenoble, in the French Alps, during the 1968 Winter Olympic Games. Fleming took the gold medal in women's figure skating. AFP / Getty

Fashion in 1968. Left: A male model wears a silk jersey print pajama leisure suit, sandals, and a necklace at a fashion show in New York on January 9. The show was entitled "Clothing for the Emancipated Man." Center: A sculpted silver necklace designed by Pierre Cardin features a diamond worth $60,000. The necklace is built into the halter that is part of a long black crepe evening gown presented in his spring collection in Paris, France, in February. Right: A cocktail dress of printed pure silk with a full skirt, a creation by the Fontana Sisters fashion house of Rome, to be presented at the upcoming Italian spring-summer ready-to-wear fashion show that opened in Florence on November 6, 1968. AP, AP, Mario Torrisi / AP