A World of Trouble
1968, often dubbed the "year of the barricades," was a turbulent time in the US and around the world. In January, the war in Viet Nam exploded with the start of the Tet Offensive. The issue of civil rights was also heating up. Three students were killed in Orangeburg, SC and 27 others were injured when S.C. Highway Patrolmen opened fire on a crowd of unarmed protesters on the campus of what was then SC State College on February 8. The movement was dealt a severe blow that April when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot down in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. Violence broke out in cities across the country. This tragedy was followed just two months later by the assassination of Robert Kennedy, just after announcing his victory in the California primary race.People, especially youth and students around the world were protesting for change, often with dire consequences. Young people in Czechoslovakia and Poland rioted against communism; and in Spain and Portugal against fascism. In the United Kingdom, Catholics in Northern Ireland were seeking equal treatment, but were increasingly being met with violence from the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Protestant hardliners. France was nearly brough to a standstill as student discontent erupted into a strike on May 3 followed by a month of protest by the National Labor Unions. While in Mexico, the Tlatelolco Massacre took place during the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City. The death toll remains controversial, however most sources, however, report between 200 and 300 deaths.
Meanwhile, back in the United States, the Democratic National Convention was marred by clashes between police and war protestors. The war in Viet Nam that was being protested continued with massive cassualties and Richard Nixon accepted his party's nomination and went on to win the presidency.
Finding Hope
The world was looking for some hope and found it starting on Dec. 21.Much like the shepherds and wise men during the first Christmas, people around the world had their attention turned toward the heavens as Christmas approached that year.
Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders launched aboard Apollo 8 on a mission to become the first humans to orbit the Moon in preparation for the big event of Apollo 11. They entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. They were also the first astronauts to spend Christmas in space.
As a commemoration of this event, the Apollo 8 crew sent Christmas greetings and live images back to Earth and read from the Book of Genesis. Borman closed the message with the words "good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you -- all of you on the good Earth."
It is estimated that as many as one billion people watched the historic broadcast or listened on the radio. The Apollo 8 crewmembers ended their history-making journey when they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 27. One woman wrote to the Apollo 8 astronauts and expressed the sentiments of millions of people worldwide when she said, "You saved 1968."