August 13, 2008
This week 40 years ago marks an active time of worldwide political unrest contrasted by technological advancement. Step back in time as we examine the week of August 8th through 17th, 1968.
By August 8th, the political frenzy of the Republican National Convention was coming to a close. The Convention met in Miami, Florida from August 5th through 8th, prompting race riots near the Miami Convention center in which four people were left dead. During this convention, former Vice President of the United States Richard Nixon, became the Republican frontrunner with Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running-mate. Nixon beat out both Nelson Rockefeller and California Governor Ronald Reagan for the nomination. The Republican platform promised peace in Vietnam and called for stronger defense, reduced taxes and an increased focus on the United States’ domestic needs. As the Republican National Convention came to a close, the Democrats began to gear up for their own tumultuous convention two weeks later.
Across the pond, England marked the end of an era when a main-line passenger train called the “Fifteen Guinea Special” became the last train to be hauled by a steam locomotive on British Rail on August 11, 1968. The following day, a steam ban in the UK went into effect, forcing all public train operating companies to run their locomotive by diesel or electric power.
In another part of Europe, the morning of August 13, 1968 marked a day of violent political protest. That day, Georgios Papadopoulos, the leader of the military government that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974, was en route from his relaxing summer residence in Lagosini to Athens. Political activist Alexandros Panagoulis, an outspoken resistor of the Papadopoulos’s militaristic regime, set a bomb to detonate on the coastal road where Papadopoulos was traveling. The murder attempt failed, but Panagoulis was captured in a sea cave soon after his failed assassination. Apparently, he had arranged for a boat to lead him to safety at a specific time, but he was unable to swim to the boat in time for a successful escape due to rough ocean currents. He was arrested, incarcerated and tortured, but was eventually saved by a general amnesty granted to political prisoners held under the military regime.
2 comments
This is SO great! Awesome information.
Thanks for the historical perspective. It's fascinating to hear what was going on in the world leading up to the first official concert of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.