July 23: Post-party #5

I created a newsletter-type thing of 1968 events for the party, just in case everyone got bored and felt like reading. Here’s the stuff that was in it.

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1968: The Year in Review

In honor of 40 fabulous years

Future bright, said prognosticators—they were right!

Jan. 2–Cuba Gooding Jr., actor
Jan. 10–Sherrice Neil Croft, a most lovely person indeed
Jan. 14–LL Cool J, actor
Jan. 24–Mary Lou Retton, gymnast
Jan. 28–Sarah McLachlan, singer

Feb. 1–Lisa Marie Presley, singer
Feb. 3–Vlade Divac, ball player
Feb. 5–Roberto Alomar, ball player
Feb. 8–Gary Coleman, actor
Feb. 18–Molly Ringwald, actress

Mar. 2–Daniel Craig, actor
Mar. 26–Kenny Chesney, musician
Mar. 29–Lucy Lawless, actress
Mar. 30–Céline Dion, singer

Apr. 4–Deanna Peterson Gutierrez, silly Boise girl
Apr. 14–Anthony Michael Hall, actor

May 2–Lisa Ross Nicholson, party pooper
May 12–Tony Hawk, skateboarder
May 27–Frank Thomas, ball player
May 28–Kylie Minogue, singer
May 29–Karen Byrd Heinrich, winner of high school belching contest

Jun. 13–Kimberly Gibson Quishenberry, housemate extraordinaire
Jul. 16–Barry Sanders, ball player
Jul. 24–Trudy Whittaker, Jen’s cool neighbor
Jul. 24–Kristin Chenoweth, actress
Jul. 27–Julian McMahon, actor

Aug. 15–Debra Messing, actress
Aug. 25–Rachael Ray, TV personality
Aug. 31–Hideo Nomo, ball player

Sep. 4–Mike Piazza, ball player
Sep. 18–Jennifer Saltmarsh Manullang, gossipy blogger (so be nice!)
Sep. 25–Will Smith, actor
Sep. 26–April Knudson Jordan, most perfect and delightful traveling companion
Sep. 26–James Caviezel, actor
Sep. 28–Naomi Watts, actress

Oct. 1–Ted Manullang, middlest brother
Oct. 11–Jane Krakowski, actress
Oct. 12–Hugh Jackman, actor
Oct. 17–Ziggy Marley, musician
Oct. 29–Sherilee Goerlitz Coffey, ten-fingered caterer
Oct. 31–Vanilla Ice, rapper/punch line

Nov. 8–Parker Posey, actress
Nov. 12–Sammy Sosa, ball player
Nov. 18–Owen Wilson, actor

Dec. 2–Lucy Liu, actress
Dec. 5–Margaret Cho, comedian
Dec. 8–Mike Mussina, ball player

Average Prices in 1968

New house: $24,950
Annual income: $7,850
Minimum wage: $1.15
New car: $2,822
Gas per gallon: 34¢
First-class stamp: 6¢
Movie ticket: $1.50

Major political events of 1968

March 31–U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek re-election
April 11–President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968
April 20–Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes Canada's 15th Prime Minister
June 5–Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in San Francisco. The 42-year-old Kennedy dies in the early morning of June 6.
June 21–Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren announces he will resign
August 5-8–The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President
August 22-30–Police clash with anti-war protesters in Chicago, Illinois, outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. President, and Edmund Muskie for Vice President
October 14–Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will send about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours
November 1–President Johnson orders an end to bombing in Vietnam
November 5–Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace

Making history

January 1–Federal guidelines state that all passenger vehicles must be equipped with shoulder harnesses
January 6–America’s first heart transplant was performed at Stanford University
February 16–The nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala.
March 1–Singers Johnny Cash (36) and June Carter (38) wed
March 13–Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) and Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon Company, U.S.A.) announced the discovery of oil on Alaska’s North Slope (Prudhoe Bay). The oil companies soon began efforts to construct a pipeline, but work was suspended due to environmental concerns.
April 4–Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward.
April 18–London Bridge was sold to a US oil company. It was later erected in Arizona.
May 25–The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is dedicated
May 27–Memorial Day, which began in 1868 as Decoration Day, was set aside to remember those who have died in the service of their country. Celebrated on May 30 for the first 100 years, Memorial Day was officially changed to the last Monday in May in 1968.
June 16–The first automated teller machine in the U.S. is installed in Dallas, Texas
July 15–Commercial air travel began between US & USSR
July 15–The Intel Corporation was founded
September 30–the first Boeing 747 is rolled out
October 14–First live network transmission of video from inside a manned US space capsule in orbit (Apollo 7)
October 20–Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry on the Greek island of Skorpios
October–Redwood National Park is established in northern California
November 14–Yale University announces it is going co-educational
December 22–President Eisenhower’s grandson David Eisenhower marries Julie Nixon, the daughter of U.S. President-elect Richard Nixon
December 24–U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William A. Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole.
The Pathmark supermarket chain is established
Roy Jacuzzi invented the first whirlpool bath

Pop Culture

Events

January 8–Jacques Cousteau's first undersea special airs on US network TV
February 16–The Beatles travel to the Maharishi's ashram in northern India to meditate and bring Eastern worship back to the West. Now, four decades later, meditation is widely accepted within the scientific community as a beneficial practice.
February 19–The first episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood airs nationally
April 29–The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway
September 29–Spanish tenor Placido Domingo makes his debut
October 18–Circus Circus Las Vegas opens
November 1–The Motion Picture Association of America adopts its film-rating system (G, M, R, X)
November 22–William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols share the first interracial kiss on US television in the Star Trek episode “Plato's Stepchildren”

• Hot Wheels die cast toy cars are introduced by American toymaker Mattel
  
• The original Lava Lamp is patented in the U.K.
  
• Nearly 200 million households now own television sets, (78 million of which are in the US)
  
• Knott’s Berry Farm fences in the property and begins charging admission
  
• McDonalds introduces its Big Mac
  
• The fourth Betty Crocker (General Mills advertising icon) makes her appearance
  
• The J.M. Smucker Co. introduces Goober Grape, a single container with peanut butter and grape jelly swirled together

Musical groups established

Bread
Rush
Yes
Judas Priest
Led Zeppelin

Pop singles

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, by Iron Butterfly
Build Me Up, Buttercup, by The Foundations
Born to Be Wild, by Steppenwolf
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, by Dick Van Dyke & Sally Ann Howes
I Heard It Through the Grapevine, by Marvin Gaye
I Say a Little Prayer, by Dionne Warwick
(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay, by Otis Redding
Stand By Your Man, by Tammy Wynette
Do You Know the Way to San José, by Dionne Warwick
MacArthur Park, by Richard Harris
Mrs. Robinson, by Simon & Garfunkel
What a Wonderful World, by Louis Armstrong
Yummy Yummy Yummy, by The Ohio Express
Put Your Head on My Shoulder, by Paul Anka
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, by The Beatles
For Once in My Life, by Stevie Wonder
Hey Jude, by The Beatles
Revolution, by The Beatles
Classical Gas, by Mason Williams

Films

2001: A Space Odyssey
The Lion in Winter
The Love Bug
Barbarella
Blackbeard’s Ghost
Funny Girl
Finian’s Rainbow
The Green Berets
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Bullitt
Coogan’s Bluff
Heidi
Night of the Living Dead
The Odd Couple
Oliver!
Planet of the Apes
Romeo & Juliet
Rosemary’s Baby
Yours, Mine and Ours
Charly
Hang ‘Em High
The Producers
The Thomas Crown Affair
Yellow Submarine

Television series debuts

60 Minutes
Adam-12
The Mod Squad
Hawaii Five-O
The Dick Cavett Show
Banana Splits
Here’s Lucy
The Doris Day Show
One Life to Live
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Television series endings

Batman
I Spy
Lost in Space
The Monkees
George of the Jungle
The Lucy Show
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Andy Griffith Show
The Danny Thomas Hour
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Best-selling books

Fiction
Airport, Arthur Hailey
Couples, John Updike
The Salzburg Connection, Helen MacInnes
A Small Town in Germany, John Le Carre
Testimony of Two Men, Taylor Caldwell
Preserve and Protect, Allen Drury
Myra Breckinridge, Gore Vidal
Vanished, Fletcher Knebel
Christy, Catherine Marshall
The Tower of Babel, Morris L. West

Nonfiction
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
The Random House Dictionary of the English Language: College Edition, Laurence Urdang
Listen to the Warm, Rod McKuen
Between Parent and Child, Haim G. Ginott
Lonesome Cities, Rod McKuen
The Doctor's Quick Weight Loss Diet
The Money Game, Adam Smith
Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows, Rod McKuen
The Weight Watcher's Cook Book
Better Homes and Gardens Eat and Stay Slim

The Wide World of Sports

January 14–Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl II
January 20–Game of the Century in college basketball between the University of Houston Cougars and the UCLA Bruins played at the Houston Astrodome. It was the first prime-time national broadcast of a college basketball game and paved the way for the CBS March Madness television coverage.
February 6-February 18–The 1968 Winter Olympics were held in Grenoble, France
May 2–NBA Finals: Boston Celtics won 4 games to 2 over the Los Angeles Lakers
May 8–Catfish Hunter of the Oakland Athletics pitched the first perfect game in the American League in 47 years before a crowd of 5,000 at the Oakland Coliseum
June 16–Lee Trevino wins the US Open golf championship
September 9–Arthur Ashe became the first African-American to win US Open tennis tournament
October 10–World Series: Detroit Tigers won 4 games to 3 over the St. Louis Cardinals
October 12-27–The Games of the XIX Olympiad are held in Mexico City, Mexico
November 17–The Heidi game: NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders-New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland (which had been trailing 32–29) score two late touchdowns to win 43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the NBC switchboards to protest.
December 5–Heisman Trophy Winner: O.J. Simpson
Teams established: Atlanta Hawks, Cincinnati Bengals, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Nets, Oakland Athletics, Phoenix Suns, Denver Spurs

In the Northwest

February 13–Voters approve $40 million of “Forward Thrust” bonds to build the Kingdome, the Aquarium, youth centers and highways
May 3–Opening ceremonies are held for Portland’s Civic Auditorium (now Keller)
May 28–Senator Eugene McCarthy wins the Democratic primary in Oregon
July 31–Westfield Southcenter Mall opens in Tukwila, Washington
September 30–the Boeing 747 is rolled out
November 30–Aaron Frank, primary founder of the Meier & Frank store chain, dies at the age of 77
December 3–The Central Association unveils its plan for Westlake Park in downtown Seattle
North Cascades National Park is established in Washington State
Eddie Bauer retires and sells his company
Seattle’s Best Coffee is founded in Coupeville, Washington under the name “Wet Whisker,” an ice cream and coffee shop
Bob Packwood is elected to represent Oregon in the U.S. Senate
The Rogue River in southern Oregon is named one the country's first national wild and scenic rivers
Sunriver Resort in central Oregon is created
Ted Bundy manages the Seattle office of Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential campaign
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense established its Seattle chapter, one of the first outside California
The John Day Dam project is completed 76 miles downstream to form Lake Umatilla
Scientists cross the Pacific oyster with the Kumamoto oyster to produce the Gigomoto oyster. They had hoped for a cross that would have the best traits of both oysters but instead produced a cross with the worst traits of both oysters.

Goodbyes

Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1929); Helen Keller, American spokeswoman for deaf and blind (b. 1880); Robert F. Kennedy (b. 1925); Rose Wilder Lane (b. 1886), American author and reporter, and the first child of Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder; Upton Sinclair, U.S. novelist and social reformer (b. 1878); Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (b. 1902); John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)

You’re over 40 if...

• People who call at 9 p.m. ask, “Did I wake you?”
  
• There is nothing left to learn the hard way
  
• Things you buy now won’t wear out
  
• You enjoy hearing about other people’s operations
  
• You get into heated arguments about pension plans
  
• You have a party and the neighbors don’t even realize it
  
• You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge
  
• Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off
  
• You sing along with elevator music
  
• Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either

“Life begins at 40 - but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the same person three or four times.”

Did you know that turning 40 means you are now older than 58% of America, and that you’ve lost 10% of your muscle mass in the last decade? And that almost 90% of 40-year-olds are in debt? But don’t despair—at 40, Lucille Ball’s television career was just beginning, Gandhi’s plan for civil disobedience was just an outline, and John Glenn’s career was about to go into orbit. Chances are you own a home (71%), you feel you’re in good or excellent health (87%), and you are happy (51%). About 91% of women and 88% of men have been married, 82% have children, and, best of all, you’re still gettin’ it on—1.8 times a week. —“The Big 40”

The “I just woke up” face of your 30’s is the “all day long” face of your 40’s. —Libby Reid