- Jan 1 34th Orange Bowl: #3 Oklahoma beats #2 Tennessee, 26-24
- Jan 1 34th Sugar Bowl: LSU beats #5 Wyoming, 20-13
- Jan 1 54th Rose Bowl: #1 Southern California beats #4 Indiana, 14-3
- Jan 1 ABC radio splits into 4 networks (Info, Entertainment, Contemp & FM)
- Jan 1 Netherlands gets color TV
- Jan 1 Pennsylvania Railroad and NYC Central merge into Pennsylvania Central
- Jan 1 WDCO TV channel 15 in Cochran, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Jan 2 "Zizi" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 49 performances
Day-Lewis Poet Laureate
Jan 2 Cecil Day-Lewis is appointed British Poet Laureate by Queen Elizabeth II
World's Second Heart Transplant
Jan 2 Christiaan Barnard performs the world's second heart transplant on Philip Blaiberg
- Jan 2 KBHK TV channel 44 in San Francisco, California (IND) begins broadcasting
- Jan 4 Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas
- Jan 4 Leo Fender sells Fender Guitars for $13 million to CBS
Dubček succeeds Novotný
Jan 5 Alexander Dubček succeeds Antonín Novotný as communist party leader of Czechoslovakia
Spock Indicted
Jan 5 Dr Benjamin Spock indicted for conspiring to violate draft law
- Jan 6 Dr Norman E. Shumway performs 1st US adult cardiac transplant operation
- Jan 6 Surveyor 7 (last of series) launched by US for soft-landing on Moon
- Jan 6 The Beatles' album "Magical Mystery Tour" goes #1 and stays #1 for 8 weeks
- Jan 7 "GE College Bowl" quiz show premieres on NBC TV
- Jan 7 1st class US postage raised from 5 cents to 6 cents
- Jan 7 Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off
Cousteau's 1st TV Special
Jan 8 Jacques Cousteau's 1st undersea special on US network TV
Irish and Northern Irish PMs meet
Jan 8 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill travels to Dublin to meet with Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch to continue discussions on matters of joint interest to the two governments
- Jan 9 1st ABA All-Star Game: East 126 beats West 120 at Indiana
- Jan 9 Surveyor 7 space probe soft lands on Moon
- Jan 10 US Surveyor 7 lands near lunar crater Tycho
- Jan 11 Explorer 36 (GEOS-B) launched into earth orbit (1080/1570 km)
- Jan 12 Beatles Film Production Ltd changes name to Apple Film Production Ltd
- Jan 12 Nighttime version of "Hollywood Squares" premieres on NBC TV
- Jan 13 "Hallelujah, Baby!" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 293 performances
- Jan 13 "Illya Darling" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 320 performances
Cash Performs at State Prison
Jan 13 Johnny Cash performs for inmates at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California; show is recorded for live album release
- Jan 13 Minnesota North Stars NHL player Bill Masterson, suffers head injuries during a game and dies two days later, becoming the 1st player to die as result of a game
Super Bowl II
Jan 14 Super Bowl II, Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL: Green Bay Packers beat Oakland Raiders, 33-14; MVP: Bart Starr, Green Bay, QB
- Jan 15 KDCD TV channel 18 in Midland, Texas (IND) begins broadcasting
- Jan 15 Minnesota North Stars forward Bill Masterton dies 2 days after suffering a head injury in a game against the Oakland Seals; the only death as a result of a game injury in NHL history
- Jan 16 21st NHL All-Star Game, Maple Leaf Gardens: Toronto Maple Leafs beat All-Stars 4-3; MVP: Bruce Gamble, Toronto, G
- Jan 16 Jay Allen's "Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" premieres in NYC
- Jan 16 The Youth International Party is founded.
"Your Own Thing"
Jan 18 Hal Hester and Danny Appolinar's rock musical "Your Own Thing", loosely based on Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", premieres at the Orpheum Theater, NYC; runs for 933 performances
Music Premiere
Jan 18 John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical "The Happy Time", starring Robert Goulet, opens at Broadway Theater, NYC; runs for 286 performances
- Jan 18 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Jan 19 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill calls for "a new endeavour by organisations in Northern Ireland to cross denominational barriers and advance the cause of better community relations"
- Jan 19 WKBF TV channel 61 in Cleveland, Ohio (IND) begins broadcasting
"Bonnie and Clyde"
Jan 20 Arthur Penn's film "Bonnie and Clyde" premieres in Paris, France with stars Warren Beatty & Faye Dunaway in attendance
- Jan 20 Houston Cougars defeat the UCLA Bruins 71-69 to win basketball's Game of the Century and end UCLA's 47 game winning streak
Fleming US Champion
Jan 20 US female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming
- Jan 20 US male Figure Skating championship won by Tim Wood
18th NFL Pro Bowl
Jan 21 18th NFL Pro Bowl, LA Memorial Coliseum: West beats East, 38-20; MVPs: Gale Sayers, Chicago Bears, HB; Dave Robinson, Green Bay Packers, DT
7th AFL All-Star Game
Jan 21 7th AFL All Star Game, Gator Bowl, Jacksonville: Eastern Division beats Western Division, 25-24; MVPs: Joe Namath, NY Jets, QB; Don Maynard, NY Jets, F; Speedy Duncan, LA Chargers, DB/KR
- Jan 21 The Battle of Khe Sanh - one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War - begins at the Khe Sanh Air Base
- Jan 21 US B-52 bomber with nuclear bomb on board crashes in Greenland
Lady Soul
Jan 22 "Lady Soul" 14th studio album by Aretha Franklin is released (Billboard Album of the Year, 1968)
- Jan 22 "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" premieres on NBC
- Jan 22 Apollo Lunar Module is launched to Moon; unmanned lunar module tests made
- Jan 22 NBA announces expansion franchise licences awarded to Milwaukee (Bucks) and Phoenix (Suns)
- Jan 23 18th NBA All-Star Game, Madison Square Garden, NYC: East beats West, 144-124; MVP: Hal Greer, Philadelphia 76ers, PG
- Jan 23 Joe Medwick elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- Jan 23 Spy ship USS Pueblo & 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by North Korea
- Jan 24 Operation Coburg begins, an Australian and New Zealand military action during the Vietnam War
- Jan 25 Risse St in Bronx named
- Jan 25 Robert Anderson's "I Never Sang for My Father" premieres in NYC
- Jan 26 Israeli submarine Dakar sinks in Mediterranean Sea, 69 die
- Jan 27 "Darling of the Day" opens at George Abbott Theater NYC for 31 performances
- Jan 27 French submarine Minerve disappears in the Mediterranean with the loss of 52 crew
- Jan 28 29th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Chandler Harper
- Jan 28 Goose Goslin & Kiki Cuyler elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- Jan 28 Radiation alert following B-52 crash in Arctic air base of Thule in Greenland
- Jan 28 Thai boxer Chartchai Chionoi retains his world flyweight title with a 13th-round TKO of home favourite Efren Torres in Mexico City; first of 3 meetings between the pair
- Jan 29 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: Australian Bill Bowrey wins his first and only Grand Slam title; beats Juan Gisbert Sr. of Spain 7-5, 2-6, 9-7, 6-4
King Defeats Court
Jan 29 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: American Billie Jean King beats home favourite Margaret Court 6-1, 6-2 for her 13th Grand Slam singles title
- Jan 29 Nauru (formerly Pleasant Island) adopts constitution
- Jan 30 1968 NFL Draft: Ron Yary from USC first pick by Minnesota Vikings
- Jan 30 Bobby Goldsboro records his biggest hit, "Honey"
- Jan 30 Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese launch the Tet offensive against South Vietnames and US forces
- Jan 31 Bobby Simpson takes 5-59 v India in his last Test for ten years
- Jan 31 Nauru (formerly Pleasant Island) declares independence from Australia
- Jan 31 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
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