MJ Oct 2020 Full

Maturity Journal
during 1968 were triple that of 1967.
206,000 additional U.S. troops for
Vietnam were requested, and South
Vietnam was asked to add 125,000
troops to their 685,000 current
troops.
C&EI railroad tracks and equipment
was sold to the L&N railroad
for $35,000,000. A Delta Airlines
Convair 440 airplane crash-landed
at the Evansville airport; none of the
42 people on board were injured. The
WWII Battleship New Jersey was refurbished
and entered into Vietnam
duty.
April 1968: President Johnson
announced he would not run for office
in 1968. Reverend Martin Luther
King was assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee (this murder set the entire
United States “on fire”). Evansville
had racial unrest with curfew, arsons,
gun injuries, fires and fire bombs.
All high school football games were
canceled. Four people died and 350
were injured in Washington DC riots,
while 24 more people died across
America in related violence.
549,000 U.S. troops were now stationed
in Vietnam; the Evansville National
Guard was called for duty on
May 13. Nine teenagers were arrested
in Evansville for the fire-bombing of
Central High School. James Earl Ray
was suspected for the murder of Martin
Luther King. The Methodist and
EUB (German Methodist) churches
met in Dallas to merge the churches
into the United Methodist Church.
Robert Kennedy campaigned in the
Roberts Stadium facility.
May 1968: Evansville riverfront
renewal began with 86 buildings
scheduled to be razed. 20 passenger
airplanes, including 12 jets, were
landing daily at the Evansville airport.
A Southern Illinois University
class building at Carbondale was
bombed at 4 AM; no injuries were
reported.
The USS Scorpion submarine was
lost at sea in the mid-Atlantic Ocean;
99 crewmen and two H-bomb weapons
were lost. The Evansville-Vanderburgh
school system adopted a new
racial balance plan. 1,000 National
Guardsmen were called to service in
riot-torn Louisville.
June 1968: 11,000 Alcoa workers
went on strike in eight plants. Robert
Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles
Heroes Work Here
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