The Movie Timeline - be obsessive, be very obsessive
Movie history events from 1968
After the death of his mentor, Frank Lucas takes over the New York drug trade. (New York City, New York) (American Gangster)
Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker born. (Hill Valley, CA) (Back to the Future)
Future diamond-smuggler Danny Archer is born. (Rhodesia) (Blood Diamond)
Born on the 4th of July. (Born on the Fourth of July)
Layla is born. (Buffalo, New York) (Buffalo '66)
Tri-City Service Fuel is established. (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules)
'68 Charger is made. (The Dilemma)
Bryan Johnson dies of leukemia. (Dogma)
Jim Morrison is arrested during a Doors concert. (New Haven, Connecticut) (The Doors)
The Dreamers. (The Dreamers)
F.F.Fox is Whack Bat Most Player of the Fox-Year of '68 and '68 1/2. (Fantastic Mr. Fox)
Ourumov graduates from Moscow Military Academy. (Moscow, Russia) (Goldeneye)
A writer stays at the Grand Budapest Hotel and meets the owner, Zero Moustafa, who tells him his story, such as it is. (Zubrowka) (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
A Soviet satelite is destroyed during a rescue mission, containing pictures of US and Soviet missle silos. (Drift Ice Station Zebra) (Ice Station Zebra)
Mr. Nunemaker and 72 other people purchase Rambler Wagons. (Louisiana) (Joe Dirt)
Jamie Wilkinson dies. (New York City, New York) (Kick-Ass 2)
Bullock says that sloths fall from decayed branches often. (Life of Pi)
Jocelyn Jordan is born. (The Manchurian Candidate)
Three US astronauts are trapped in Earth orbit with 43hrs of oxygen after spending 5 months in an orbital lab. (Earth Orbit) (Marooned)
Buck Dolby is born. (Middle Men)
Rhonda, future sister of future lyricist and plant-waterer Sophie Fisher, is born. (Music and Lyrics)
John M. Johnson Jr. M.D. dies. (Night of the Living Dead 3D)
A zombie outbreak takes place. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) (Night of the Living Dead 3D)
Amanda Krueger dies. (A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)
Freddy Krueger is released on a legal technicality; vigilante parents burn Freddy alive in his Boiler Room; Amanda Krueger, driven insane after the trial, hangs herself, but her body is not found. (A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child)
Richard Nixon at Republican Convention. (Miami) (Nixon)
Dylan Rhodes is born. (New York City, New York) (Now You See Me)
Faith gets the name of her soulmate, Damon Bradley, from a fixed ouija board. (Pennsylvania, PA) (Only You)
Beloved children's TV show marionette Froggie-Doo is stolen. Brothers Eliot and Rocky Plumm and their neighbor Haley DuBois team up to find it. (Montana) (A Plumm Summer)
Frank Castle born, according to his tombstone. (The Punisher)
Maria Castle, wife of Frank Castle, born. (The Punisher)
Maria Elizabeth, future wife of Frank Castle, is born. (Punisher: War Zone)
Edward Bailey receives a pipe for a wedding anniversary either this year or the next. (Red 2)
Beverly D'Onofrio marries Ray Hasen becuase she is pregnant with his child; her friend Faye tells people she is also pregnant. (Conneticut) (Riding in Cars with Boys)
Wendell Rohr starts working in the courtroom. (New Orleans, Louisianna) (Runaway Jury)
Gus Colyard is born. (Saw II)
Dan Freeman becomes the first black man to work for the CIA. (Virginia) (The Spook Who Sat by the Door)
Dale Doback is born. (Sacramento, CA) (Step Brothers)
Dennis is born. (Still Waiting...)
Truman Burbank is born, as is the world's biggest TV show as cameras begin to follow his every moment. (The Truman Show)
Bud Kilmer begins coaching the West Caanan High School football team. (West Caanan, Texas) (Varsity Blues)
Dewey Cox meets the four Beatles from Liverpool. (India) (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story)
January: During the Communist Tet offensive, Marines include Joker come under sniper fire. (Hue, Vietnam) (Full Metal Jacket)
January: The film is in two halves, Marine training in the US, Marines in action in Vietnam. We know that the fighting in the latter half takes place in Hue so this places events in late January 1968, the time of the communist Tet offensive. For some reason you also have 1963 listed for this film. The only reason for this could be the assumption that the training sequence takes place in '63. There is no evidence for this in the film that Im aware of. Its more likely that the first half is set in 1967, though this is never said. (City of Hue, South Vietnam) (Full Metal Jacket)
Monday 1st January: Sgt Barnes murders a Vietnamese woman, and his platoon burns their village. (Vietnam) (Platoon)
Monday 1st January: The theoretical Zodiac killer confides to a colleague about his plans. (Zodiac)
Saturday 6th January: Ben Wilson, husband of Annie Wilson, born. (The Gift)
Tuesday 9th January: Dana Ellis is born. (Wrong Turn)
Saturday 13th January: Johnny Cash performs at Fulsome Prison. (Represa, CA) (Walk the Line)
Thursday 1st February: Richard M. Nixon announces his candidacy for the U.S. Presidency. (Nixon)
Saturday 10th February: Laura Tollins is born. (The Number 23)
Monday 12th February: Christopher Johnson McCandless born. (El Segundo, California) (Into the Wild)
Wednesday 14th February: Lara Croft born. (Wimbledon, London) (Tomb Raider)
Thursday 22nd February: June Carter finally accepts Johnny Cash's marriage proposal, live on stage. (Ontario, Canada) (Walk the Line)
Tuesday 5th March: Ruth Marks (or Angela Bennett) is born. (The Net)
Saturday 16th March: Robert F Kennedy announces his candidacy for President of the United States. (Bobby)
Wednesday 3rd April: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is featured on the cover of Life magazine. (New York City, New York) (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
Thursday 4th April: Martin Luther King assassinated. (Bobby)
Thursday 4th April: Rev. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. (Memphis, Tennesee) (King)
Saturday 6th April: George Berger dies in the Vietnam War at a little less than 23 years of age. (Vietnam) (Hair)
Sunday 7th April: Zombie apocalypse begins as living dead begin to rise and devour the flesh of the living. . (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) (Night of the Living Dead)
Saturday 13th April: Kate Mosley is born. (Picture Perfect)
Tuesday 16th April: An article about a negotiating team is published. (Apocalypse Now)
Tuesday 16th April: Edna Ferber dies. (New York City) (Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle)
Sunday 28th April: Correction on current date listed for NOTLD. Daylight Savings Time (and the beginning of the zombie apocalypse) occurred on April 28th, 1968. The movie ends on April 29th. I made the same mistake myself, putting together a movie calendar. Time change for 1968 - http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/clockchange.html?n=179&year=1968 (Pittsburgh, PA) (Night of the Living Dead)
May: A negotiating team of West German and Iranian atomic-energy specialists meet. (Apocalypse Now)
Saturday 1st June: Helen Keller dies. (Westport, Connecticut) (The Miracle Worker)
Sunday 2nd June: Lorenzo Carcaterra released from the Wilkinson Home for Boys. (Sleepers)
Monday 3rd June: Andy Warhol shot by Valeria Solanas. (Bobby)
Monday 3rd June: Le Duc Tho, a member of the North Vietnam Communist Party's Politburo, joins the North Vietnamese negotiating team as a special counsellor. (Paris, France) (Kissinger and Nixon)
Tuesday 4th June: Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy awaits primary results; Diane Huber marries William Avery to prevent him going to Vietnam; Paul Ebbers sacks Timmons and has his affair with Angela discovered by wife Miriam. (Ambassador Hotel, LA) (Bobby)
Wednesday 5th June: Robert F Kennedy wins the California Presidential Primary, and is shot after delivering his victory speech. (Bobby)
Wednesday 5th June: Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, after winning the California presidential primary. (Los Angeles, California) (Hoover vs. the Kennedys: The Second Civil War)
Thursday 6th June: Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy dies in hospital. (Los Angeles) (Bobby)
Saturday 8th June: Robert F. Kennedy is buried. (Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia) (Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis)
Saturday 15th June: Eddie King is a no show for a performance and the rest of the group calls him on it the next day. (Uptown Theatre Philadelphia, PA) (The Five Heartbeats)
Tuesday 18th June: Captain Willard assassinates a government tax collector. (Vietnam) (Apocalypse Now)
July: Virginia Fallon plays a series of shows. (Las Vegas) (Bobby)
Tuesday 2nd July: Llewelyn Moss goes on 2nd tour to Vietnam. (No Country For Old Men)
Saturday 13th July: Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York reveals a four-stage peace plan that, he argues, could end the war in six months if North Vietnam assented to it. (Nixon)
Tuesday 23rd July: Nicholas Easter is born. (United States) (Runaway Jury)
Wednesday 24th July: Gertrude Steiney is born. (Jersey Girl)
Thursday 5th September: Dr. Robert Morgan looks for a new mirror to keep vampires away. (The Last Man on Earth)
Friday 6th September: Vampires follow Dr. Morgan from the church to his house and they damage his car at night. (The Last Man on Earth)
Saturday 7th September: Dr. Morgan sees a dog and chases after it. (The Last Man on Earth)
Friday 4th October: The new issue of Life magazine has the following headline: "Man moves into a rich new realm: Sea Probe." (New York City, New York) (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
Thursday 31st October: Stella Nicholls and her friends explore Sarah Bellows's former home -a mansion- now in ruins. She asks the spirit of Sarah Bellows to tell her a scary story after finding her book of scary stories (Mill Valley, Pennsylvania) (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark)
November: Kurtz orders assassination of three Vietnamese men and one woman. (Vietnam) (Apocalypse Now)
Tuesday 5th November: Richard Nixon elected U.S. President. (Nixon)
Sunday 10th November: Death of James Lister in the Bailey scandal, pushing Noodles out of retirement towards murder. (Once Upon a Time in America)
Monday 11th November: Walter E. Kurtz is photographed before he disappears. (Vietnam) (Apocalypse Now)
Thursday 28th November: Thanksgiving: Young Eddie Murphy stuns his gathered family with a joke about a monkey that tells a lion he can change the weather. (Eddie Murphy Raw)
December: The Doors record "Touch Me". (Los Angeles, California) (The Doors)
Tuesday 24th December: Frank Cross meets Claire Phillips for the first time. (Scrooged)
Wednesday 25th December: Clyde Northcutt doesn't receive a Superman cape from Santa for Christmas. (Fred Claus)