KPRC-TV, December 1982: "Game of the Century" Retrospective

On January 20, some 53,000 basketball fans filled the Houston Astrodome to watch the no. 2 Houston Cougars play the no. 1 UCLA Bruins. Both teams were undefeated. The Cougars won 71–69, ending the Bruins' 47-game winning streak. Players from both teams went on to have successful professional careers, including Houston’s Elvin Hayes and UCLA’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This 1982 retrospective asks former UH men’s basketball players and coaching staff to reflect on the “Game of the Century.” As the first NCAA regular season game broadcast nationwide in prime time, the matchup demonstrated the profitability of college basketball coverage.

On January 23, North Korean sub chasers and torpedo boats intercepted the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence vessel, in the Sea of Japan. One crewman was killed in the attack, while the other 82 were taken prisoner and moved to camps. The crewmen spent 11 months in captivity before the United States and North Korea negotiated a settlement for their release on December 23. The Pueblo stayed in North Korea, and is currently on display at the Pyongyang Victorious War Museum.

The President, April 1968

In a nationally televised speech on March 31, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced a partial end to air and naval attacks against North Vietnam. The administration's strategy of military escalation had proved ineffective, and Johnson hoped a bombing halt would encourage peace negotiations. The president's concluding remarks, however, eclipsed the military pronouncement. To the surprise of the nation, Johnson declared that he "shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president." His stunning exit precipitated a fierce Democratic presidential primary, fracturing party support largely on the issue of the Vietnam War. This segment from The President revisits the night of Johnson's announcement.

At 6:01 pm on April 4, James Earl Ray fatally shot Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. The civil rights leader was rushed to the hospital to undergo surgery, but never regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 7:05 pm. Police apprehended Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, at London Heathrow Airport on June 8.

From April 6 to October 6, San Antonio welcomed more than 6 million visitors to HemisFair '68, the year's official World's Fair exhibition. Bearing the theme "Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas," the international exposition commemorated the 250th anniversary of the city's founding. Attractions included exhibits, a monorail, a lagoon, and a variety of performances. Famous attendees included Bob Hope, Louis Armstrong, and Princess Grace of Monaco.

Remarks Upon Signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968

On April 11, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968—also known by the name of its main provision, the Fair Housing Act—into law. The legislation prohibited discrimination in the rental or sale of housing on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. This television news broadcast captures Johnson's remarks upon the bill's signing. In his speech, the president describes the legislation as an important step forward in the cause against injustice and invokes the memory of Dr. King, who was assassinated a week prior. Then CBS News correspondent Dan Rather provides voiceover commentary of the ceremony, describing the law's provisions and naming recipients of the signing pens.

KHOU-TV, May 3: Press Conference with Dr. Denton Cooley

On May 3, Dr. Denton Cooley and his surgical team at Houston's St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital successfully transplanted the heart of 15-year-old Kathleen Martin into 47-year-old Everett Thomas, an accountant from Phoenix. Cooley was not the first to perform the operation, that distinction went to Dr. Christiaan Barnard five months earlier in South Africa, but he was arguably the first to prove it successful. While other patients died soon after the procedure, Thomas lived for 204 days. Cooley's team performed two more heart transplants by May 7. In this news segment, Cooley holds a press conference to describe Thomas' operation. Helen Thomas then speaks to the media about how her husband was referred for surgery (01:45).

The Poor People’s Campaign, also known as the Poor People’s March on Washington, brought thousands of Americans to Washington, DC, to demand economic justice for the nation’s poor. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. initially organized the campaign. Ralph Abernathy, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), took over leadership following King’s assassination. Demonstrations began on May 12, when Coretta Scott King led a march and rally in support of an Economic Bill of Rights. Throughout the month, SCLC mobilized nine caravans of protesters from across the nation to converge on Washington. In the nation’s capital, some 3,000 demonstrators set up a protest camp, known as "Resurrection City," on the National Mall.

AstroWorld opened on June 1, welcoming an estimated 50,000 guests in its first weekend. The seasonal amusement park was part of the Astrodomain, a development complex that also included the Astrodome stadium, Astro Hall event space, and associated hotels. Six Flags purchased AstroWorld in 1975, operating it until its closure in 2005.

Just after midnight on June 5, Sirhan Sirhan fatally shot US Senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy as he exited through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Sirhan fired multiple times, wounding five others besides Kennedy, before bystanders disarmed and subdued him. Kennedy died nearly 26 hours later. He had been at the hotel to address campaign supporters following his win in the California primary election.

From 1952 to 1972, contestants from each state flocked to San Angelo for a competition of poise and beauty known as the Miss Wool of America Pageant. The winner represented the wool industry nationally for the following year, touring the country in all the latest woolen fashions. San Angelo was once known as the Inland Wool Capital of the World, and its Producers' Livestock Auction is the nation’s largest for sheep and lambs.

KPRC-TV, July 30: Catholic Students Discuss Pope's "Humanae Vitae"

With the introduction of oral contraceptives—commonly known as “the Pill”—in 1960, faith communities began to reconsider religious policy surrounding sex and marriage. On July 29, Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical letter relating the position of the Roman Catholic Church on birth control. Entitled "Humanae Vitae: On the Regulation of Birth," the letter reaffirmed Church policy banning the use of most artificial contraceptives. The edict thus rejected the 1966 recommendation made by the Pontifical Commission of Birth Control, a majority of whom believed the Church should allow Catholic couples to decide for themselves. In this news segment, Catholic students studying at the University of Houston discuss what the encyclical means and how the Catholic community will respond.

On August 5, Republican delegates, party leaders, and an army of press representatives convened at the Miami Beach Convention Center for the Republican National Convention. Over the next three days, convention attendees drafted a national party platform and voted on presidential and vice presidential candidates. Richard Nixon received enough votes to win the party's presidential nomination after the first ballot. He selected Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland as his running mate. Television viewers watched nightly convention updates on the evening news.

On the night of August 20, approximately 200,000 communist troops from five Warsaw Pact nations—the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, and Poland—invaded Czechoslovakia. The invading force detained government leaders and transported them to Moscow, as well as seized control of Prague television and radio stations. More than 120 Czechoslovakian civilians were killed, most of them protesters. The attack was intended to crush the democratic reforms of the “Prague Spring,” a brief period of liberalization in the communist country. On August 27, Czechoslovakia First Secretary Alexander Dubček returned to Prague and announced he had agreed to curtail his reforms.

A contentious primary season drew to a close on August 26 as delegates and party officials gathered in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Intra-party dissidence persisted on the floor of the International Amphitheater, with a failure to compromise on the Vietnam plank and rumors of a last-minute nomination of Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Vice President Hubert Humphrey nevertheless easily won the presidential nomination, and offered Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as his running mate. National and local television news stations broadcast nightly convention updates.

On October 11, Apollo 7 launched from Launch Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station. The mission was NASA's first since the ill-fated Apollo 1 to carry a full crew aboard a spacecraft. As such, Commander Wally Schirra, Command Module Pilot Donn Eisele, and Lunar Module Pilot Walt Cunningham became the first to successfully complete a manned Apollo spaceflight. The mission's primary objective was to demonstrate the functionality of the command and service module, including its rendezvous capability. Apollo 7 also provided the first live television transmission from space. The flight crew returned to Earth on October 22.

The President, October 1968

Days after Dr. King's death, Congress introduced a bill later known as the Gun Control Act of 1968. The bill banned the mail-order sale of handguns, rifles, and shotguns as well as prohibited certain felons, drug users, and those found mentally incompetent from buying firearms. A joint conference committee approved the legislation on October 10, and President Johnson signed it into law on October 22. This segment from The President captures Johnson's remarks at the signing ceremony.

On October 31, President Johnson ordered an end to American air and naval bombardment of North Vietnam effective November 1. With the action, the federal government aimed to facilitate expanded peace negotiations with delegations from South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Viet Cong. The talks—scheduled for November 6 in Paris—were postponed after the South Vietnamese government refused to participate, citing opposition to the Viet Cong's equal standing at the table. It was later revealed that the Nixon campaign lobbied South Vietnamese officials to hold out for a better deal under the candidate's presumed administration.

An eventful presidential election ended on November 5 as Americans cast their ballots. The race proved too close to call that night, with television networks not declaring Republican Richard Nixon the winner until the following morning. Nixon received 301 electoral votes to Democrat Hubert Humphrey's 191. The popular vote was significantly tighter, with Nixon receiving just over 500,000 more votes than his chief opponent. Third-party presidential candidate George Wallace won five Southern states, receiving 46 electoral votes. Texas went for Humphrey by a 1.27 percent margin.

The union contract for the International Longshoremen’s Association expired at midnight on September 30. All longshoremen would effectively be on strike until the union and employers reached a contract agreement. On October 1, the federal government issued an application for an 80-day cooling-off period as provided by the Taft-Hartley Act, allowing striking longshoremen to return to work while negotiations continued. When the 80 days concluded without an agreement, however, some 75,000 dockworkers went on strike along the Atlantic and Gulf ports. Eleven ships sat idle off the coast of Texas, including seven at the Port of Houston. Agreements for each port were not finalized until 1969. With an estimated loss of $2 billion, the dock strike became the longest and costliest of its kind at the time.

On December 21, astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders launched from John F. Kennedy Space Center to conduct the Apollo 8 mission. The flight marked the first manned mission to employ the 363-foot tall, 7,500,000-pound force Saturn V launch vehicle. The mission's primary objectives were for the flight crew to perform translunar injection and mid-course corrections as well as test the navigation equipment. The astronauts returned to Earth on December 27.