1968

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• On 5 January, Alexander Dubcek becomes first secretary of the Czech Communist party. He introduces liberal reforms, leading to the 'Prague Spring', which is brutally suppressed by Soviet tanks in August.

• On 30 January, the North Vietnamese Tet (New Year's) offensive against South Vietnamese cities discredits the US military's assurances that the Vietnam War is almost won. On 31 March, President Lyndon B Johnson announces that he will not seek re-election.

• On 4 April, Dr Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. A week of rioting and looting in American cities follows.

• In May, French student protests escalate into a near revolution as workers strike and bring the country to a standstill. Street protests also occur in other European cities, and the 'spirit of '68' becomes an inspiration for student radicals, revolutionaries and militants all over the world.

• On 3 June, senator Robert Kennedy, brother of JFK and front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is assassinated in Los Angeles after winning the California primary.

• On 28 August, anti-Vietnam War protesters disrupt the Democratic party's national convention in Chicago, and are brutally attacked by police.

• On 5 November, Richard Nixon is elected 37th president of the United States against Hubert Humphrey.

• American film-maker Stanley Kubrick makes 2001: A Space Odyssey, a mystical science-fiction film.

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