1968

Production of nuclear weapons begins in Israel.

The coaster Scheersberg-A sets sail from Antwerp to Genoa with two hundred tons of uranium. The boat does not arrive in Italy as scheduled but in Iskenderun, Turkey, empty of its cargo. Years later the owner of the ship is located in a Norwegian prison and is identified as an Israeli secret agent.

January 21
A B-52 bomber crashes on the sea ice off Thule, Greenland, after the crew bail out over the Thule Air Force Base. The high explosive components of all four nuclear weapons aboard detonate scattering plutonium over the ice. The US must remove hundreds of tons of radioactive ice.

March 8-10
A Soviet Golf-II class submarine with three nuclear-armed missiles aboard sinks 750 miles off the coast of Oahu in the Hawaiian island chain.

April 1
The United States signs the Additional Protocol II to the Treaty of Tlateloclo . [see February 14, 1967 ]

April 22
Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America ( Treaty of Tlateloclo ) for a Latin America nuclear-weapons-free zone enters into force. [see February 14, 1967 ]

May 21
The American nuclear submarine Scorpion sinks in the Atlantic near the Azores, killing 99 crewmen.

May 24
An accident aboard the Soviet nuclear submarine K-27 kills five crew members. After unsuccessfully attempting to repair the submarine, the Soviets scuttle it along with its nuclear fuel near Novaya Zemlya.

July 1
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is signed at Washington, Moscow and London. Article VI of the NPT provides, that "Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."

August 24
France tests its first hydrogen bomb at Fangataufa Atoll in the South Pacific. (2.6 megatons)