Timeline February 1968

Events in February 1968 7

• 1926 – 1968 Neal Cassady (1926-1968) Died 4 February 1968, aged 41 The Beat Generation figure who inspired Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and later drove Ken Kesey's bus Furthur, died after collapsing beside a railroad track in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He was a central real-life character in Beat literary circles rather than a writer himself. His life became emblematic of the era's restless countercultural spirit.
• 1968 Fleetwood Mac release their debut album British blues A British blues album that stays in the charts for over a year.
• 1968 Proposes to June Carter on stage London, Ontario Proposed marriage to June Carter on stage during a concert in London, Ontario, in February 1968 — a moment so dramatic that audiences and biographers alike found it almost unbelievable, yet it really happened.
• 1968 1968 Winter Olympics X Winter Games - Grenoble First time the IOC conducted drug and gender testing. Winner: Norway.
• 1968 – 2010 Gary Coleman (1968-2010) Died 28 May 2010, aged 42 Coleman was an American actor who rose to fame as a child star on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. He struggled with health problems related to a congenital kidney condition throughout his life and later faced financial and legal difficulties. He died after a fall at his Utah home caused a brain hemorrhage.
• 1968 Aretha Franklin Day in Detroit Award from Martin Luther King King presents her with an award two months before his death.
• 1968 Kerner Commission report released US panel warns nation is moving toward two societies, separate and unequal A presidential commission investigating the causes of 1967's urban riots concluded that white racism, not black militancy, was primarily responsible for the violence. Its widely quoted finding warned that America was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal." Many of its policy recommendations were not adopted.