The following events occurred in September 1968:
September 1, 1968 (Sunday) In the first reforms after the August 20 invasion by the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, the Czechoslovakian Communist Party more than doubled its Central Committee from 87 members to 194, and increased its Presidium from 11 members to 21. Party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek, Premier Oldrich Cernik, and National Assembly President Josef Smrkovsky, who had all been arrested after the invasion and held prisoner in the Soviet Union, were elected to the new Presidium and retained their positions. Austria received its first deliveries of natural gas from the Soviet Union with the opening of a pipeline across the Czechoslovakian border with Austria, fulfilling a June 1 agreement as the first Western European country to agree to a long term purchase of Soviet energy resources. Born: Mohamed Atta, Egyptian-born terrorist who led the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11 and destroyed the World Trade Center North Tower during the 9/11 attacks; in the Kafr El Sheikh Governorate. In piloting Flight 11 into the North Tower, Atta killed himself and 1,493 people in a single day.
September 2, 1968 (Monday) The Bimini Road, an underwater rock formation composed of large, rectangular limestone blocks in an almost straight line that runs for , was discovered by three divers off of the coast of the North Bimini island in the Bahamas.
September 3, 1968 (Tuesday) António de Oliveira Salazar, the 79-year-old Prime Minister of Portugal and that nation's dictator since 1932, was seriously injured at his beach resort home in Estoril when the deck chair he was sitting in collapsed and his head struck the floor. Salazar had a cerebral hemorrhage and, by Friday, was showing signs of a stroke. He went into a coma and would be replaced on September 27. The crash of a Bulgarian airliner killed 42 of the 82 passengers on board, and all but two members of the crew of five, while attempting to land at Bourgas on a flight from Dresden in East Germany. Most of the people on board were East German tourists who were on their way to a vacation at the Black Sea resort. Sir Leonard Williams, who had recently been knighted after retiring as the general secretary of Britain's Labour Party, took office as the second Governor-General of Mauritius, replacing Sir John Rennie. Died: Juan José Castro, 73, Argentinian classical composer and conductor
September 4, 1968 (Wednesday) Alphonse Massamba-Débat was forced to resign from his position as President of the Republic of the Congo, one month after relinquishing most of his power to the National Revolutionary Council following an August 4 coup. The Prime Minister, Congo Army Captain Alfred Raoul, was named as the acting President but would yield a few months later to the Council leader, Captain Marien Ngouabi, on January 1, 1969. Massamba-Debat would be executed on March 25, 1977, a week after Ngouabi's assassination.
Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Director Wernher von Braun performed a full-pressure suit test in the Saturn I Workshop immersed in the Neutral Buoyancy Tank. He reported that the upgraded seals used in the aft dome penetration sealing study were "very good", but recommended additional handholds and tether points. Born: John DiMaggio, American voice actor known for voicing Jake the Dog in Adventure Time and Bender the robot on Futurama; in North Plainfield, New Jersey Phill Lewis, Ugandan-born American television actor and director; in Kampala Mike Piazza, American major league baseball player and inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame, known for hitting 427 home runs in his 16-season career; in Norristown, Pennsylvania
September 5, 1968 (Thursday) To preserve its monopoly on the American telephone system, the AT&T Corporation introduced a small device that CEO H. I. Romnes called the "protective coupling arrangement" (PCA). On June 26, the Carterfone decision had been issued by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission allowing other companies to connect directly to the AT&T telephone network. AT&T then changed the electronic signals required for access; customers would be able to connect non-AT&T devices (such as modems or facsimile machines) to the AT&T network, but only if they paid a monthly lease for the PCA that could transmit the required electronic signal. In displaying the device and announcing the new policy to AT&T executives, Romnes said "We welcome competition... the more, the merrier... our intent is to make interfaces as simple and inexpensive as possible." Born: Catherine Tate, English television actress and comedienne; as Catherine Ford in Bloomsbury