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The Wyandotte YMCA, located in the downtown area on Biddle Avenue for many years, constructed and opened a new state-of-the-art building on Fort Street just north on Eureka.

A last-ditch effort was proposed by the Michigan Turnpike Authority in order to stop construction of the Seaway Freeway (I-75) through Downriver into downtown Detroit. The MTA had been proposing toll expressways through the area for several decades and had not been heard from since a later proposal failed back in 1955. Meanwhile, it was proposed the section of Seaway Freeway be electrified from Detroit to Toledo through an idea proposed by General Motors.

G. Mennen Williams announced that he would not run for a seventh term as Governor of Michigan.

The Detroit Tigers won 101 games but finished in second place, eight games behind the Yankees. The team’s 1961 record tied the 1934 Tigers team record of 101 wins, and only twice in team history have the Tigers won more games: 1968 (103 wins) and 1984 (104 wins).

In Washington, D.C., President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential news conference. In it, he announces that the Soviet Union has freed the two surviving crewmen of a USAF RB-47 reconnaissance plane, shot down by Soviet flyers over the Barents Sea on July 1, 1960

Kmart Corporation opens their original Southgate store on Eureka Road just east of the Southgate Shopping Center.

The Michigan State Legislature officially disbanded the Michigan Turnpike Authority, finally putting to rest attempts to have toll expressways in the Downriver-Detroit area. Construction on the Seaway Freeway would commence shortly thereafter.

The Wallenda family, performing a high wire pyramid in front of 7,000 spectators at the Shrine Circus at Detroit’s State Fair Coliseum, sustained two deaths and three other injuries when the pyramid collapsed.^] Karl Wallenda sustained a pelvis injury, his son-in-law and nephew both died, and his adopted son, Mario, was paralyzed from the waist down. Remaining members of the family went on with the show the next day.

E.J. Korvette opens their “superstore” in Southgate on land across from the Fort George drive-in theater.

The Walk to Freedom was a mass march during the Civil Rights Movement on June 23, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan. It drew crowds of an estimated 125,000 or more and was known as “the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation’s history” up to that date.

Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy, is shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas on live national television. Later that night, a hastily arranged program, A Tribute to John F. Kennedy from the Arts, featuring actors, opera singers, and noted writers, all performing dramatic readings and/or music, is telecast on ABC-TV.

Petroleum Specialties, Inc. (PSI), a small oil refinery located on Peters Road bordering Brownstown Township, Flat Rock and Woodhaven, closed its doors to active refining business, turning instead into a tanker storage facility. Two and a half decades later, they would be in the news again, but for negative reasons only as Superfund money would be targeted toward remediating the site.

APBA Gold Cup – Ron Musson in the Miss Bardahl won the 56th Gold Cup unlimited hydroplane race on July 5 before 250,000 spectators on the Detroit River. The victory was the second of three consecutive Gold Cups won by Musson and the Miss Bardahl.

Ford Motor Company began operations of a new Stamping Plant in Brownstown in January. The 400 acre project took the place of the Trombley soybean farm located between King and West Roads. The official dedication would take place the following year under its current name of the Woodhaven Stamping Plant.

Woodhaven incorporated as a city, which began the proverbial ball rolling toward Brownstown Township avoiding additional annexation of other lands.

Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race – The Gypsy won the annual race, becoming the first boat to win the race three times. The Gypsy was skippered by Milwaukee auto dealer Charles Kotovic in a corrected time of 42 hours, 44 minutes, and 13 seconds.

A partial meltdown at the Fermi I nuclear power facility in nearby Monroe put Downriver residents on edge. This would place Fermi in the position of the closest a nuclear facility in the United States ever came to a meltdown, prior to the accident at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island in 1979, in turn surpassed by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine and the 2011 Fukishima disaster in Japan.

In the latest (to date) attempt at a land swap for annexation, Rockwood sought to add the village of East Rockwood to its coffers, and Southgate sought to annex a portion of Brownstown Township as far south as King Road, while venturing as far west as Telegraph Road, in effect doubling Southgate’s size. Despite the best campaign attempts by Rockwood and Southgate’s mayors, the proposals were brought to defeat in November elections. No land swaps or annexations have taken place since.

UFO sightings by hundreds of persons in Washtenaw County in the spring which were later identified as “swamp gas” by an Air Force investigator

The 12th Street Riots in Detroit caused parts of Downriver to be put on curfew or lockdown. Routine operations district-wide were not restored until the following week.

Magical Mystery Tour is released by The Beatles as an eleven-song album in the U.S. The songs added to the original six songs on the double EP include “All You Need Is Love“, “Penny Lane“, “Strawberry Fields Forever“, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” and “Hello, Goodbye“.

1968 Detroit Tigers season – Under manager Mayo Smith, the Tigers compiled a 103–59 record, won the American League pennant, and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in the 1968 World Series. The team’s statistical leaders included Al Kaline with a .287 batting average, Willie Horton with 36 home runs, Jim Northrup with 90 RBIs, and Denny McLain with 31 wins and a 1.96 earned run average.

Kick Out the Jams by the MC5 was released in February. It was recorded live at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom on October 30–31, 1968. The album was ranked No. 294 on Rolling Stone list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.

Michigan rose to the heights of its old football glory, overwhelming supposedly invincible Ohio State, 24-12, to capture a share of the Big Ten championship and a berth in the Rose Bowl game New Year’s Day.

The first man is landed on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission by the United States and Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the Moon. The famous words “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” will become part of our history.

Grosse Ile Municipal Airport opens. Until 1969, the facility had been the Naval Air Station Grosse Ile (NASGI) since its construction in the 1930s

Southland Center mall was officially unveiled, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Taylor Mayor Richard J. Trolley. The original anchor tenants in the mall were Hudson’s, Kroger, and Woolworth dime store.