n 1925), in the Hotel Ambassador, Los Angeles. Kennedy, younger brother of President Kennedy, died 25 hours later. Sirhan was arrested. He was protesting against Kennedy’s outspoken support for Israel, on the first anniversary of the Six Day War.
10/5/1968. Peace talks began between the USA and North Vietnam in Paris. The talks failed because North Vietnam wanted the country unified under the Vietcong, whilst the United States wanted North Vietnam to withdraw from the South which would remain an independent state. Eventually the North agreed to Southern independence and the US agreed not to demand the withdrawal of Communist forces from the North. However the North was to invade the South two years later as US forces withdrew from the South.
30/4/1968, Frankie Lymon, US pop star, died of a heroin overdose.
7/4/1968, US President Johnson ordered a slowdown in the bombing of North Vietnam.
17/3/1968, Violent anti-Vietnam War demonstrations outside the US Embassy in London.
17/3/1968, Violent anti-Vietnam War demonstrations outside the US Embassy in London. 25,000 Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) marchers fought with police. The VSC, which wanted a victory for North Vietnam, had been organised by the Trotskyist International Marxist Group, whose members included Pat Jordan, Tariq Ali and David Horowitz.
16/3/1968. The My Lai massacre; US soldiers massacred over 500 Vietnamese civilians in a raid on hamlets in Son My district, where Communist Vietcong rebels were suspected to be hiding out. US forces believed that 250 Vietcong guerrillas were hiding in My Lai and that all civilians would have left for market. As the 30 US troops went in under the command of Lieutenant William Calley they threw grenades and deployed flamethrowers on the thatched roof huts; it was soon clear that only women, children and the elderly were present. There was no counter fire. However a ‘contagion of slaughter’ had set in and the rape and murder continued. Senior US army officials turned a blind eye to the event; only five people were ever court-martialled, with just one, Lieutenant Calley, found guilty. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but served 3 ½ years before release on parole. This event turned many civilians within the US against the Vietnam War.
16/2/1968, The first 911 emergency phone service was inaugurated in the USA, at Haleyville, Alabama. It was free; other phone calls cost 10 cents.
23/1/1968, The USS Pueblo, an intelligence ship, and its 89 man crew was seized by North Koreans in the Sea of Japan.
12/9/1967. Governor Reagan called for an escalation of the Vietnam War.
28/8/1967, Death of Charles Darrow, US inventor of the board game Monopoly.
15/4/1967. 100,000 protested against the Vietnam War in New York.
4/4/1967, Martin Luther King denounced the Vietnam War.
26/3/1967. 10,000 hippies held a rally in New York's Central Park.
10/3/1967. The US bombed industrial targets in North Vietnam.
26/2/1967, The US stepped up the Vietnam war with an attack on the Vietcong HQ.
18/2/1967, Robert Oppenheiner, American scientist who developed the US atom bomb, died in Princeton, New Jersey.
3/1/1967, Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President Kennedy, died of natural causes at a Dallas hospital. Mr Ruby was awaiting the retrial of his murder case.
1966, The Department of Transportation was created, and began operations in 1967.
15/12/1966, Walt Disney, US film producer and leader in animation, died
For more events of Vietnam War see South East Asia
26/10/1966. US President Johnson visited US troops in Vietnam.
5/7/1966. Dozens of captured USA airmen in the Vietnam War were paraded through the streets of Hanoi to shouts of ‘death to the American air pirates’.
3/7/1966. Anti-Vietnam war protests outside the US Embassy, London.
23/3/1966. In New York, 20,000 people marched down Fifth Avenue demanding an end to the Vietnam War.
20/2/1966, Chester Nimitz, American General and Pacific Fleet Commander in World War II, died in San Francisco, four days before his 81st birthday.
1965, The US Department of Housing and U