Year Of The Monkey - News & Events

Band

1968

1980

1992

2004

Band

YOM presently in pre production for an upcoming series of theatrical performances to coincide with the release of the full length recording '68'.
3 tracks have already been licensed from Yearofthemonkey to TV/film, including Pawn Kings, Leaving U Behind, and I Wanna Know...
Presently in production of the accompanying visual component to 68 under the direction of the James Hyslop.

1968

January 13 - Johnny Cash records "Live at Folsom Prison"
January 30 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins, as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
January 31 - Viet Cong soldiers attack the United States Embassy in Saigon.
February 28 - Ex-The Teenagers singer Frankie Lymon is found dead from a heroin overdose in Harlem.
March 16 - U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) enters the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward.
April 6 - A shootout between Black Panthers and Oakland police results in several arrests and deaths, including 17-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton.
April 20 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes Canada's 15th Prime Minister
April 29 - The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway. "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris lead many youth to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes, sometimes referred to as the French May, nearly bring down the French government.
July 15 - The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on ABC.
July 17 - Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'État.
September 29 - A referendum in Greece gives more power to the military junta.
October 11 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar module docking maneuver.
October 20 - Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry on the Greek island of Skorpios.
November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1968: Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.

1980

January 27 - Six United States diplomats, posing as Canadians, manage to escape from Tehran, Iran as they board a flight to Zürich, Switzerland, thus ending the Canadian caper operation.
February 22 - The United States Olympic Hockey Team defeats the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the Winter Olympics, in the Miracle on Ice.
March 1 - The Voyager 1 probe confirms the existence of Janus, a moon of Saturn.
March 3 - Pierre Trudeau returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
March 21 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
April 24-April 25 - Operation Eagle Claw, a commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages, is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops are killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
May 25 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is realesed and is a huge box office success.
May 18 - Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage.
May 18 - Ian Curtis, joy division lead singer commited suicide in his own house.
May 20 - 1980 Quebec referendum: Voters in Quebec reject by a vote of 60% a proposal to seek independence from Canada.
June 1 - In Los Angeles, comedian Richard Pryor is badly burned trying to freebase cocaine .
June 10 - Apartheid: The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a statement by their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela, which says in part: 'UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!
June 27 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs a bill requiring 19- and 20-year-old males to register for a peacetime military draft, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
July 16 - Former California Governor and actor Ronald Reagan is nominated for U.S. President, at the Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan. Influenced by the Religious Right, the convention also drops its long standing support for the Equal Rights Amendment, dismaying moderate Republicans.
July 19-August 3 - The Summer Olympic Games are held in Moscow, Soviet
Union.
August 7-August 14 - Lech Wałęsa leads the first of many strikes
at the Gdańsk shipyard.
August 17 - In Australia, baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from a campsite at Ayers Rock (Uluru), reportedly taken by a dingo.
September 30 - Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel and Xerox introduce the DIX standard for Ethernet, which is the first implementation outside of Xerox, and the first to support 10 Mbit/s speeds.
October 21 - The Philadelphia Phillies win their first World Series beating the Kansas City Royals 4-1 in game six.
October 31 - The Polish government recognizes Solidarity.
November 4 - U.S. presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger and former Governor Ronald Reagan of California defeats incumbent Democrat President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory, exactly 1 year after the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis.
November 12 - Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn, when it flies within 77,000 miles of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth.
November 21 - Millions of viewers tune into the U.S. TV soap opera Dallas to learn who shot lead character J.R. Ewing. The "Who shot J.R.?" event is a national obsession.
December 4 - The rock group Led Zeppelin formally announces its breakup.
December 8 - Former Beatle John Lennon dies in the hospital after being shot outside his New York City apartment by Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan who had received his signature earlier in the day.

1992

January 8 - George H. W. Bush is televised falling violently ill at a state dinner in Japan, vomiting into the lap of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and fainting.
January 11 - Singer Paul Simon is the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott
January 13 - Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane to the murders of 15 young men and boys.
January 15 - The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia begins to break up. Slovenia and Croatia gain independence and international recognition in some Western countries.
January 22 - STS-42: Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space, aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
February 7 - The Maastricht Treaty is signed, founding the European Union.
March 18 - On CNN's Larry King Live, Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot announces that he will run for U.S. President as an independent, if volunteers put him on the ballot in all 50 states.
March 25 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.
April 2 - In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of the murder of mob boss Paul Castellano and racketeering, and is later sentenced to life in prison.
April 9 - A Miami, Florida jury convicts former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega of assisting Colombia's cocaine cartel.
April 20 - The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held at Wembley Stadium, is televised live to over 1 billion people and raises thousands of dollars for AIDS research.
April 29 - In Simi Valley, California, the LAPD police officers accused of excessive force in their severe beating of Rodney King, are found "not guilty". The verdict results in several days of riots in L.A. and smaller riots around the country.
May 19 - In Massapequa, New York, Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
May 19 - In San Francisco, U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle gives his famous Murphy Brown speech.
June 1 - Terrorist Carlos (the Jackal) is sentenced to life imprisonment.
June 15 - During a spelling bee at a Trenton, New Jersey elementary school, U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle erroneously corrects a student's spelling of the word potato, by indicating it should have an e at the end.
July 16 - Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton is nominated for U.S. President and Tennessee Senator Al Gore for Vice President, at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
August 21 - The Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas renominates U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle. Pat Buchanan, one of Bush's opponents in the primaries, Delivers a controversial convention speech, in which he refers to a "religious war" in the country.
September 18 - Undaunted by his earlier withdrawal, supporters of U.S. presidential candidate H. Ross Perot succeed in getting his name on the ballot in all 50 states.
October 9 - A 13-kilogram (29-pound) meteorite lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York, destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu.
October 24 - The Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series in 6 games, making them the first Canadian team to win.
October 26 - In Canada, the Charlottetown Accord is defeated in a national referendum.
November 3 - U.S. presidential election, 1992: Bill Clinton defeats incumbent U.S. President George H.W. Bush and businessman H. Ross Perot.

2004

February 1 - The infamous Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy occurs when Justin Timberlake rips off a part of Janet Jackson's outfit revealing her breast.
February 3 - The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
February 12 - Same sex marriage in the United States: San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as an act of civil disobedience.
March 2 - NASA announces that the Mars rover MER-B (Opportunity) has confirmed that its landing area was once drenched in water.
April 24 - Referenda on a United Nations plan, which proposes to re-unite the island of Cyprus, take place in both the Republic of
Cyprus controlled and the Turkish controlled parts. Although the Turkish Cypriots vote in favour, the Greek Cypriots reject the proposal.
May 9 - Canada wins the World Ice Hockey Championship in Prague.
June 7 - Tampa Bay Lightning defeats Calgary Flames in 2004 Stanley Cup Finals.
June 8 - The first transit of Venus since 1882 occurs; the next one will occur in 2012.
June 15 - The Detroit Pistons upset the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers to win the 2004 NBA Finals, 4 games to 1.
July 4 - Greece beats Portugal 1-0 to win the Euro 2004.
September 17 - The 2004 Summer Paralympics commences in Athens, Greece.
September 23 - Mount St. Helens becomes active again.
October 18 - Three men attack Greek journalist Philippos Syrigos in Athens and seriously wound him.
October 20 - The Boston Red Sox defeat the New York Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 of the Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series to win the series 4 games to 3. The Boston Red Sox become the first team in baseball history to come back from a 0-3 deficit to win a series.
November 2 - U.S. presidential election, 2004: U.S. President George W. Bush defeats Senator John Kerry.
December 8 - Dimebag Darrell, guitarist for the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan is murdered onstage by Nathan Gale