1969

Events

   * January 10 - After 147 years, the last issue of the Saturday Evening
     Post is published.
   * January 14 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills
     25.
   * January 15 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5
   * January 19 - Student Jan Palach sets himself on fire in Prague's
     Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the
     Soviet Union in 1968.
   * January 20 - Richard Nixon succeeds Lyndon Johnson as President of the
     United States of America
   * "War of Attrition," between Egypt and Israel, which lasted until August
     1970. This conflict was characterized by escalating artillery duels,
     air raids and commando missions.
   * January 30 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple
     Records. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.
   * February 3 - In Cairo Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestinian Liberation
     Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress and takes
     command the next day.
   * February 8 - The last issue of the Saturday Evening Post hits magazine
     stands.
   * February 13 - FLQ terorists bomb the Stock Exchange in Montreal, Quebec
   * March 2 - In Toulouse, France the first Concorde test flight is
     conducted.
   * March 2 - Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the
     Ussuri River
   * March 3 - In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that
     he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
   * March 3 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar
     module.
   * March 10 - In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to
     assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Ray would later retract his guilty
     plea.
   * March 13 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after
     testing the Lunar Module.
   * March 17 - Golda Meir of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, becomes Prime
     Minister of Israel.
   * April 1 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF.
   * April 4 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial
     heart.
   * May 16 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
   * May 17 - Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus',
     atmosphere sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by
     pressure.
   * May 18 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 launches.
   * May 22 - Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 15,400 m
     of the moon's surface.
   * May 26 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful
     eight-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first
     manned moon landing.
   * June 27 - The Stonewall riots mark the start of the modern gay rights
     movement in the U.S.
   * July 7 - French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian
     national government.
   * July 14 - Football War - after Honduras lost a soccer game against El
     Salvador, rioting broke out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant
     workers. Of the 300,000 Salvadorean workers in Honduras, tens of
     thousands were expelled, prompting a brief Salvadoran invasion of
     Honduras. The OAS worked out a cease-fire on July 18, taking effect on
     July 20.
   * July 18 - Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a
     party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, an
     aide who was in the car with him, dies in the incident.
   * July 20 - Apollo program: The human race, represented by Neil Armstrong
     and Buzz Aldrin, lands on the Moon. Apollo 11 lifted off for the moon
     on July 16 and returned safely on July 24.
   * July 25 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon
     Doctrine stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to
     take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the
     "Vietnamization" of the war.
   * July 30 - Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon makes an
     unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van
     Thieu and with US military commanders.
   * August 4 - Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean
     Sainteny in Paris, US representative Henry Kissinger and North
     Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations.
     The negotiations will eventually fail.
   * August 5 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars
     (3,524 kilometers).
   * August 9 - Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder five people
     including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and, Abigail Folger. The next day
     The Family would murder Rosemary and Leno LaBianca.
   * August 13 - Serious border clash between Soviet Union and China.
   * August 14 - British troops deployed in Northern Ireland.
   * August 17 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast
     killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars).
   * September 22-25 Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco after al-Aqsa
     Mosque fire (Augusr 21) condemns Israeli occupation of Jerusalem.
   * October 1 - In Sweden, Olof Palme is elected Labour party leader,
     replacing Tage Erlander as prime minister om October 14.
   * October 21 Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany following
     gains by his Social Democratic Party in elections on September 28.
   * November - Creation of ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet
   * November 10 - Sesame Street premieres.
   * November 19 - Apollo 12 lands on the Moon.
   * November 21 - U.S. President Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato
     agree in Washington on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in
     1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the US is to retain its rights
     to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
   * December 12 - Piazza Fontana Slaughter in Italy (Strage di Piazza
     Fontana). A U.S. officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett
     involved.

Art, Culture & Fashion

   * 1969 in film
        o Midnight Cowboy
        o Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
        o True Grit starring John Wayne, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper and
          others

   * 1969 in literature
        o Portnoy's Complaint

   * 1969 in music
        o The National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame
          founded.
        o August 15 - August 17: The Woodstock Music and Art Festival was
          held at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, near
          Woodstock. Although 10,000 or 20,000 people were expected, over
          400,000 attended. Among the many artists who performed were Jimi
          Hendrix, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, The Who, Crosby, Stills, Nash &
          Young and the Grateful Dead. The weekend was rainy, the facilities
          were overcrowded, and attendees shared food, alcohol, and drugs,
          although no violence was reported. The Woodstock Festival
          represented the culmination of the counterculture of the 1960s and
          the high point of the "hippie era."
        o The #1 Song was "Aquarius (Let the Sunshine In)"
        o Graffiti art had fully developed into an art form, with
          distinctive styles, trends and schools, by 1969; graffiti art is
          one of the four elements of hip hop, the musical form of which is
          influenced by the success of the Last Poets and similar artists,
          beginning in 1969

   * 1969 in sports

   * 1969 in television
        o Tiny Tim gets married on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.
        o A live transmission from the moon is viewed by 600 million people
          around the world when Neil Armstrong walks in the moon.
        o The Brady Bunch premieres

Births

   * January 3 - Michael Schumacher, Formula One driver
   * January 5 - Marilyn Manson, singer
   * January 14 - Jason Bateman, actor
   * January 14 - David Grohl, drummer, composer
   * January 16 - Roy Jones Jr., boxer
   * January 20 - Skeet Ulrich, actor
   * February 5 - Bobby Brown, singer
   * February 9 - Gabby Hayes, actor
   * February 11 - Shannon Long Gladstone, Australian, Playboy magazine's
     playmate for October 1988.
   * February 11 - Bryan Eversgerd US baseball player.
   * February 11 - Jennifer Aniston, American actress.
   * March 1 - Javier Bardem, actor
   * April 25 - RenŽe Zellweger, actress
   * May 7 - Eagle Eye Cherry, musician
   * May 15 - Emmitt Smith, American football player
   * May 18 - Martika, Cuban-American singer
   * May 26 - Alain Knaff, programmer
   * August 18 - Edward Norton, actor
   * August 19 - Matthew Perry, American actor
   * September 5 - Dweezil Zappa, actor, musician, eldest son of Frank Zappa
   * December 21 - Julie Delpy, actress
   * December 28 - Linus Torvalds, programmer

Deaths

   * January 4 - Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins, actresses
   * January 19 - Czech student Jan Palach sets himself on fire in Wenceslas
     Square, Prague in protest at the communist regime and the USSR's
     occupation of the country.
   * January 25 - Irene Castle, dancer
   * January 29 - Allen Dulles, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
   * February 4 - Thelma Ritter, actress
   * February 11 - James Lanphier, actor.
   * February 20 - Ernest Ansermet, conductor
   * March 26 - John Kennedy Toole, author
   * March 27 - B. Traven, writer
   * March 28 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, US General of the Army, 34th president
     of the United States
   * May 14 - Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer
   * May 19 - Coleman Hawkins, jazz musician
   * June 21 - Maureen Connolly, tennis star
   * August 9 - Sharon Tate, actress
   * September 2 - Ho Chi Minh, President of North Vietnam
   * October 12 - Sonja Henie, Olympic and World Champion figure skater
   * October 21 - Jack Kerouac, US author
   * October 21 - Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician
   * November 12 - William F. Friedman, cryptanalyst

Nobel Prizes

   * Physics - Murray Gell-Mann
   * Chemistry - Derek H R Barton, Odd Hassel
   * Medicine - Max Delbrźck, Alfred D Hershey, Salvador E Luria
   * Literature - Samuel Beckett
   * Peace - International Labour Organization
   * Economics - Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen