executions since UDI, prompting international condemnation. March 7 – Vietnam War: The First Battle of Saigon ends. March 8 The first student protests spark the 1968 Polish political crisis. The Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 sinks with all 98 crew members, about 90 nautical miles (104 miles or 167 km) southwest of Hawaii. March 10–11 – Vietnam War: Battle of Lima Site 85, the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members (12) during the (at this time) secret war later known as the Laotian Civil War. March 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson mandates that all computers purchased by the federal government support the ASCII character encoding. March 12 Mauritius achieves independence from British rule. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson barely edges out antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a vote which highlights the deep divisions in the country, and the party, over Vietnam. March 13 – The first Rotaract club is chartered in North Charlotte, North Carolina. March 14 – Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah. March 16 Vietnam War – My Lai Massacre: American troops kill scores of civilians. The story will first become public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam. U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy enters the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. March 18 – Gold standard: The United States Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency. March 19–23 – Afrocentrism, Black Power, Vietnam War: Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., signal a new era of militant student activism on college campuses in the U.S. Students stage rallies, protests and a 5-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program and the Vietnam War, and demanding a more Afrocentric curriculum. March 22 – Daniel Cohn-Bendit ("Danny the Red") and 7 other students occupy the administrative offices of the University of Nanterre, setting in motion a chain of events that lead France to the brink of revolution in May. March 24 – Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashes en route from Cork to London near Tuskar Rock, Wexford, killing 61 passengers and crew. March 28 – Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is shot by the police in a protest for cheaper meals