Henkels & McCoy employee Marty Helmus (right) invents the Railroad Mounted Cable Plow, an industry changing tool which allows for rapid placement of communications cable. The revolutionary device digs trench, lays cable and covers it simultaneously. Mounted atop a flatbed railway car, the Plow uses an extended arm and turns feet per day into miles per day of completely installed cable along railroad rights-of-way (see photo below). The company receives a United States patent in 1971. Modified several times since then, the "Railroad Plow" is now an indispensable industry-standard tool. The modern era Plow has the added ability of accommodating tracks of various gauge widths, enabling the device to be used internationally, such as in Brazil in 1998-1999... Henkels & McCoy also opens a new division office, in York, Pennsylvania in 1968.

January-February
The "Tet Offensive" is simultaneously launched by the Viet Cong in Saigon and other South Vietnamese cities during the course of that holiday. Left, a South Vietnamese military officer summarily executes a suspected Viet Cong guerrilla in a Saigon street.

January 21
North Vietnamese forces launch an expected attack, and the three-month siege of Khe Sanh begins. US Marines, cut off from supplies and reinforcements, dig in for a long and bloody fight.

March 16
American soldiers massacre 347 civilians at My Lai.

March 31
President Johnson announces that he will not accept nomination for another term as president.

April 4
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Fingerprints identify James Earl Ray as the assassin; Ray is arrested while fleeing, in England, and later confesses to the killing.

April 8
US forces in Operation Pegasus retake Route 9, ending the siege of Khe Sanh. A 77-day battle, Khe Sanh is the biggest single battle of the Vietnam War to date. The official assessment of the North Vietnamese Army dead is just over 1,600 killed, thousands more were probably killed by American bombing.

April 29
Successful trial run of Henkels & McCoy’s Railroad Mounted Cable Plow occurs this day. Pictured right is the modern era Plow, modified several times since the original design.

May - June
In France, revolution is in the air (yet again) as students, after months of conflict with authorities, protest the closing of the University of Paris at the Nanterre campus. Sympathetic students occupy the Sorbonne University on Paris' Left Bank and police are called in to arrest demonstrators. From there, things go from bad to worse. DeGaulle calls in the military. A civilian is killed by shrapnel by a hand grenade. Students tear up the streets and hurl cobblestone and petrol bombs at police. French workers, in sympathy, stage plant closedowns and a crippling general strike. At the climax, there are ten million workers on strike, representing two thirds of French industry. To learn more about the May 1968 French crisis, click here.

June 5
Robert Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles moments after winning the California presidential primary election. Assassin Sirhan Sirhan is captured at the scene. He will be sentenced to life in prison. Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey later wins the Democratic nomination in Chicago.

August 20
Czechoslovakia is invaded by Russian tanks and Warsaw Pact forces to crush the liberal regime of Antonin Dubcek.

August 26-29
Democratic National Convention in Chicago erupts in antiwar demonstrations, riots and police brutality outside, and a bloodied Democratic Presidential candidate, Hubert H. Humphrey, the incumbent Vice President, emerges inside. To learn more about the infamous Chicago Convention of 1968, click here.

PLUS:
North Korea captures the USS. Pueblo, claiming it was in Korean territory. The crew is released 11 months later... Take me to my leader: The first of numerous US commercial jet airplanes is hijacked and forced to fly to Cuba... The rock musical Hair opens on Broadway.

What's On TV
Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls. Dan Rowan and Dick Martin co-host Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In on NBC and seize first place in the ratings. This year, the country could certainly use some laughs, too. During its wildly successful run, the offbeat comedy show will feature cameo appearances and walk-ons by everybody from Sammy Davis, Jr. to Dick Cavett to future President Richard M. Nixon, who intones, "Sock it to me"... 60 Minutes debuts on CBS television... Reflecting contemporary headlines, Diahann Carroll debuts in Julia, a poignant real life "dramatic comedy" about a young, black widow and her son, who idolizes his helicopter flying Daddy, killed in action in Vietnam...

Sports
In Super Bowl II, the  Green Bay Packers beat Oakland Raiders (33-14)... in the '68 World Series, Detroit Tigers take the St. Louis Cardinals (4-3)...NBA Championship sees Boston over the LA Lakers (4-2)... in the Stanley Cup it's Montreal sweeping St. Louis (4-0)... at Wimbledon, Billie Jean King defeats J. Tegart (9-7 7-5), and Rod Laver beats T. Roche (6-3 6-4 6-2)... College sports: NCAA Basketball Championship UCLA trounces North Carolina (78-55)... The NCAA Football Champions are Ohio State with a 10-0-0 record... The 1968 Summer Olympics are held in Mexico City, Mexico and the 1968 Winter Olympics are held in Grenoble, France. Norway is the big Gold winner, outpacing the Soviet Union.