The 1968 Project aims to highlight some of the historic events of the year. From protests and famous battles to chart-topping popular hits and box office smashing film, 1968 was a huge historical year with reverberations that we still feel today. The 1968 Project looks to grab snippets of these events on a monthly basis and list them here with links for further exploration.
May of 1968 was extremely tumultuous in France. Students in Paris were bringing the country to the brink of revolution and the country witnessed some of the largest general strikes in its history. Information on some of the daily events will be highlighted below. For a quick overview, click here.
May 2nd Staff Sergeant Roy Benevidez of the U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group was wounded four different times whilst saving the lives of 8 men under heavy gunfire. Benevidez was awarded the medal of honor in 1981.
May 3rd
A group of 500 students from the Sorbonne in Paris protested against the closure of the University of Paris at Nanterre. As police arrived to disperse the students, the first riots of May began.
May 9th
Harold Gray, the creator of the comic strip, Little Orphan Annie passes from cancer.
Mercedes de Acosta, poet, novelist, playwright and former lover of Greta Garbo, passes at the age of 75.
May 10th
The French government orders the state run television station, ORTF to stop televising the student protests. Later that evening, students begin erecting barricades in the Latin Quarter of Paris to keep the police out.
May 11th
The Paris police storm the Latin Quarter to disperse the students. It was this event, that brought the news of the civil unrest to the rest of the world.
May 12th
On this day, pianist Reginald Kenneth Dwight decides to co opt the names of his Bluesology bandmates, saxophonist Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry.
Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leads the National Welfare Rights Organization’s Mother’s Day mobilization. This mobilization leads to protests and sit ins all across the country.
May 15th The Swimmer, starring Burt Lancaster is released.
May 17th
A group of anti-war protesters enter the selective services offices of Catonsville, Maryland, steal the draft records and destroy them with napalm. This group is later dubbed, the Catonsville Nine.
May 18th
The first Miami Pop Festival is held at horse racing grounds in Hallandale, Florida. Headliners included The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Blue Cheer.
May 19th
Nigerian troops capture Port Harcourt and surround Biafra. This blockade leads to severe famine in the country.
May 21st
Two million workers walk off their jobs in France, this brought the number of striking workers to close to 8 million. On this day in France, banks closed fearing cash runs and the French stock exchange in Paris does not open. President Charles De Gaulle uses his powers to pardon student protesters.
Henry Zbyszynski – Flickr: Resurrection City Washington D.C. 1968
May 23rd Henry Dumas, an African American poet from Harlem, is shot three times by a New York City Transit officer, killing him instantly. Dumas was only 33 at the time.
May 25th
Negotiations begin between the Prime Minister Georges Pompidou’s government, trade unions and students.
May 27th
The results of the above negotiations become the Grenelle agreements. These agreements would lead to the end of the massive strikes, a 35% increase in minimum wage and an overall 10% wage increase.
May 28th The Detective, starring Frank Sinatra, is released.
Frank Sinatra and Horace McMahon, The Detective
May 29th
President De Gaulle postpones a meeting with the Council of Ministers and removes all of his personal papers from his office, a sign that a new government could be formed soon.
May 30th
Prime Minister Pompidou suggests that President De Gaulle dissolve the National Assembly, call a new election, and then resign. De Gaulle refuses to resign, but calls for elections on June 23rd. All parties agreed to the election.
Be sure to come back at the end of next month for events from June 1968!
On June 12, voters will cast ballots in a statewide Special Referendum Election and Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap is reminding all Maine voters of an informational resource that can help them make an informed decision at the polls: the 2018 Maine Citizen’s Guide to the Referendum Election.
The Citizen’s Guide is intended to provide as much information as possible so that voters have a convenient resource to educate themselves before casting their ballot. The Department of the Secretary of State, in collaboration with the attorney general, prepared the guide as an unbiased and non-partisan review of the People’s Veto question that voters will consider at the polls this June.
In the guide, voters can read the full text of the People’s Veto legislation, along with an analysis of its intent and content. Voters can also learn the impact of a yes or no vote. Election law also allows for citizen advocacy statements to be published supporting or opposing questions, which provides voters with those viewpoints to consider; one public comment was filed in support of this question and no public comments were filed in opposition
Question 1: People’s Veto
Do you want to reject the parts of a new law that would delay the use of ranked-choice voting in the election of candidates for any state or federal office until 2022, and then retain the method only if the constitution is amended by December 1, 2021, to allow ranked-choice voting for candidates in state elections?
A “YES” vote favors the people’s veto, meaning that ranked-choice voting would be the method for choosing party nominees in future primary elections for all state and federal offices, and in determining the winners of general elections for U.S. Senate and Congress.
A “NO” vote opposes the people’s veto, meaning that ranked-choice voting would be delayed until after December 1, 2021, and repealed unless the Legislature and the voters adopt a constitutional amendment by that date authorizing RCV in general elections for Governor, State Senator and State Representative.
The joy of new books! Nonfiction is where it’s at this May, and plenty of unique and dynamic titles are already here. You can also log in to your library account and place holds on the new nonfiction books we have on order, including intriguing options like The Secret Life of Cows, The Right Words to Solve Every Parenting Dilemma, or Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan. Read on as a few of our Youth Services and Adult Services staff members share their own new nonfiction picks and reading ideas.
I love family cookbooks and this British import is sure to become a family favorite! With metric and imperial measurements, heavy binding, and wipeable pages, this book has it all. The Easy Family Cookbook is packed with recipes that children will actually enjoy and families can make together on a weeknight without a lot of fuss. Organized by mealtimes and full of inventive and family friendly recipes, but still well balanced and healthy, this cookbook will grow with your family. Recipes include lovely photographs to entice even the most picky eaters.
Research shows families that regularly eat dinner together benefit in myriad ways. From lower rates of obesity and eating disorders, to higher grade-point averages and self-esteem, the health benefits of family dinner are well documented. And family dinner conversation has even been shown to be a more potent vocabulary builder than reading! So why not start a new family tradition and let the kids pick a dinner or two a week to plan, cook, and clean up after? Everyone will benefit from the time spent together, the skills and confidence gained by learning to cook, and the magic that happens when families slow down and make eating well together a priority.
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Cindy’s Pick
The Girl Guide, 50 Ways to Learn to Love your Changing Body by Marawa Ibrahim is a lovely new non-fiction choice for middle-grade readers who may just be sashaying into puberty. Ibrahim’s very cheerful, friendly writing invites you to explore the many mysteries of puberty. Whether it is hair growing in new places, periods, embarrassment, meditation, exercise, body positivity or body parts, Ibrahim covers it all nicely.
It’s very inclusive of different body types and skin colors, without being pushy in any direction, which was refreshing to see. There are illustrations and photographs aplenty, including one showing Ibrahim’s own beautiful face: one half picturing an unrealistic, airbrushed side of her face, smoothed out with flawless makeup, while the other half remains unedited with her natural skin, acne and all.
What you come away with most strongly in this wonderful guide is that it is okay to be whoever you are, whatever you look like or feel like. If only we had all gone through Middle School with this book in our backpacks!
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Teen Services New Nonfiction
Kelley’s Pick
I LOVED For Everyone by Jason Reynolds, read it twice in one sitting, and want to buy it FOR EVERYONE.
Harper’s Pick
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the Worldby Pénélope Bagieu is more than just another collection of women to admire. With art that is both cute and expressive without being overwhelming, Bagieu tells the stories of a diverse array of women. The depth of information on each is amazing, especially considering how each biography fits in just a few short pages. Brazen had me adding a number of names to my ‘cool people to learn more about’ list, including: Nzinga, Las Mariposas, Tove Jansson, Sonita Alizadeh, Mae Jemison, and so many more.
Adult Services New Nonfiction
Eileen’s Pick
I want to know everything. A little bit at a time. The Dewey decimal system is my map. Today I am making a beeline for 508.7414.
We are anchored to a marvel of natural wonder that is our home address: Planet Earth. Acadia is a small slice of Earth’s slow cooked story, a physical and eventually an ethnic amalgam of the past and present, with a whiff of the inevitable yet to come right in our own backyard. Wessels steps onto the path that Acadia has travelled for billennia, wending his way through the fantastic evolution of a place, to my mind rivalling the most unbelievable fiction as it roiled, boiled, compressed, rose up, sparked life.
On my second time reading Granite, Fog, & Fire, I again am enamored of the emotionally grounding nature of bedrock and what carves and covers it. To wit: lichens, mosses, glacial striations, igneous intrusions, crevice communities and such like amazements. Wondering what defines a bog versus a fen? Look no further than page 44, although I cannot imagine stopping there. You’ll not have met wind as sculptor or the travails of the Wabanaki who summered in Acadia for over 100 generations of regenerative lifestyle or the paper birch’s role as a “canary in the coal mine” of climate change… so many things I didn’t think to wonder about before reading Wessels’ gem. It is eminently accessible, written by a devoted fan of Acadia who is also a professor of ecology at Antioch University of New England, part guide, part history book, all engaging.
Did I mention that there is a glossary? I do love a good glossary!
Nonfiction has inspired and informed me, sometimes improved me, occasionally outed me as inept. I have lamented my neck with Nora Ephron, cooked vegetarian for everyone with Deborah Madison to guide me, and slept with a helmet for my pillow in the Pacific theater ‘long side Robert Leckie. DIY. Travel guides. Philosophy and religion. It’s all there, a smorgasbord that will feed me forever. I am ravenous and will not be satisfied anytime soon.
So, I keep on keepin’ on, trolling the stacks for books to fill the huge gaps in what I know, exploring new territory, reexamining old ways of thinking, and sometimes prying open my wallet to buy something that speaks to me, like Granite, Fire, & Fog.
Thank you, Mr Wessels.
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Jessie’s Pick
More than just a true crime book, Michelle McNamara chronicles her obsession with one of America’s most horrific unsolved crime sprees as she delves deeply into the case of the Golden State Killer in I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. Sadly, the author died suddenly before the book was finished. Her widower, actor Patton Oswalt, enlisted some of McNamara’s colleagues to complete her work using her extensive notes. McNamara’s respect for the victims is clear, and her confidence that the crimes would someday be solved shines through the deeply disturbing subject of her research: last month, two years after McNamara’s death, a suspect was finally apprehended.
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Brandie’s Pick
“History is a merciless judge. It lays bare our tragic blunders and foolish missteps and exposes our most intimate secrets, wielding the power of hindsight like an arrogant detective who seems to know the end of the mystery from the onset.”
I’d heard a lot of buzz about David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon—a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award in Nonfiction—but I don’t generally read from the 360s. Then Now Read This, a book club from PBS NewsHour and the New York Times, chose it as the book club pick for February. I’d committed to reading all the books they selected this year so I had to read it. I appreciate book clubs for so many reasons—but mostly because they get me to read outside of my comfort zone. This is a perfect example of a book I’d never have picked up on my own, but I’m so glad I read it.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a well-documented narrative of conspiracy, small-town corruption, and the mysterious murders of wealthy members of the Osage Nation in Osage County, Oklahoma, in the 1920s after oil was discovered on their land. Newspapers described the increasing number of unsolved murders as the “Reign of Terror,” and local law enforcement couldn’t be trusted to solve the case or help the Osage Nation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was created by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908: by the 1920s, though, it was still relatively small, with only a few hundred agents and a handful of offices around the country. Many agents, known for bending laws and getting cozy with criminals, were not to be trusted. The Department of Justice, Grann writes, “had become known as the Department of Easy Virtue.” J. Edgar Hoover was appointed director in 1924 and the Osage murders were to be Hoover’s first significant test of the new F.B.I.’s abilities.
Lies, greed, murder, cover-ups…this gripping true crime tale reads more like fiction than nonfiction. Grann is an extraordinary writer and really pulls you in from the first page. I don’t want to give too much away: there is so much to be discovered from all the twists and turns. It especially felt important to learn more about the Osage Nation as well as this dark piece of history. I highly recommend this read—check out the print version or you will miss all the fascinating pictures pertaining to this history.
“When it comes to justice, it does not matter whether those in a host country think they have no obligation to refugees. Keeping people in a refugee camp is punishing people who have committed no crime except trying to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones.”
In less than 200 pages, Nguyen has compiled a series of brave and moving pieces from seventeen different refugee writers. Their accounts span widely across both time and place—from post-World War II Ukraine, to 1970s Chile under Pinochet, to Mugabe’s thirty-year presidency over Zimbabwe. These authors’ voices and their reasons for writing are as varied as their countries of origin, and the result is a timely and necessary collection that aches, endures, and reaches for home.
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Elizabeth’s Pick
Powerful writing and profound responses to assault, harassment, and abuse make up the personal essays in the new collection Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, edited by Roxane Gay with writing from Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Miriam Zoila Pérez, Brandon Taylor, and a host of other contributors. Many share personal experiences and impact. Together they also call out culpability on individual and institutional levels, challenge the toxic culture they reveal, and get to the roots of systemic violence and aggression, underscoring the need for more widespread accountability of criminal actions as well as meaningful social change of the cultural norms and behaviors that cause lasting harm.
As Nora Salem writes in “The Life Ruiner,” her essay in this collection: “I’m writing this for the other girls, some of whom may be in my family. The boys, too. I’m writing this for my friend who told me to blame myself…Like all the writers I read, I’m writing to prove I exist. The Life Ruiner alone didn’t ruin me. The world that made him did—the place that continues to manufacture replicas of him and continues to create the circumstances in which he and his replicas thrive. What is there to do about that?”
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Nate’s Pick
As someone who has both struggled with and been intrigued by William Vollman’s fictional works, his nonfiction has offered slightly more grounded opportunities to explore his writing. Though not a practice in brevity, his newest undertaking, No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies presents a history of climate change, including major causes and a commentary on challenges associated with tackling the issue; it also explores the Fukushima nuclear disaster and Vollman’s travels in Japan. From the author of books dedicated to the ethics of violence and poverty, I expect a comprehensive perspective complimented by thoughtful social commentary.
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As ever, thanks for reading. For more ideas, you can always explore new additions to the library’s collections on our website here. Or try filling out our Your Next (Great!) Read form here, briefly tell us what you like to read and what you’re in the mood to read next, and you’ll receive a book list of personalized reading ideas and suggestions created for you by our Reader’s Advisory staff.
