1969

Years: ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??
Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1969 by topic:

Arts Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and Technology Archaeology - Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science
Countries Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - South Africa
Other Births - Deaths - Sport - State leaders - Religious leaders - Video gaming

1969 (MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday

: For other uses, see Number 1969.
: For the movie, see 1969 (movie).
: For the Velvet Underground Live album, see 1969: The Velvet Underground Live.

Events

January

January 1 - Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper The News of the World
January 3 - Brazilian soccer star, Pele, kicks his 1000th goal
January 5 - The Derry Riots leave over 100 people injured
January 6 - Cheryl Winters begins her career at the Federal Reserve in Jacksonville.
January 10 - After 147 years, the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post is published
January 12 - Super Bowl III: the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts
January 14 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 25
January 15 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5
January 16 - Ten paintings defaced in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art
January 16 - Student Jan Palach sets himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union. Three days later he dies.
January 20 - Richard Nixon succeeds Lyndon Johnson as President of the United States of America
January 24 - Martial law declared in Madrid, the University is closed and over 300 students are arrested
January 27 - 14 men, nine of them Jews, were executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel
January 27 - Reverend Ian Paisley, hardline Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, is jailed for three months for illegal assembly.
January 30 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police

February

February 1 - Birth, in Paris, France, of Denis Cheyrouze, French media guru.
February 4 - 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 terrorists bomb the Stock Exchange in Montreal, Quebec
February 24 - Launch of the Mariner 6 Mars probe
February 24 - Tinker v. Des Moines Independant Community School District (Case against pure speech in schools)
February 25 - George Jones marries Tammy Wynette

March

March 1 - Major league baseballer Mickey Mantle announces his retirement.
March 1 - Dad's Army episode Operation Kilt is first broadcast
March 1 - During a performance at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium, Jim Morrison of The Doors is arrested for exposing himself during the show. Morrison is officially charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent behavior, open profanity and public drunkenness.
March 1 - John Kerry officially leaves active duty in Vietnam
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
March 19 - British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla expecting resistance from the "Republican Defence Force"’ of self-declared "President" Ronald Webster. Locals bid the soldiers welcome instead
March 28 - Dwight D Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC.

April

April 1 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF
April 4 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary Artificial heart
April 13 - Queensland: The final day of the Brisbane Tramways after 84 years of operation.
April 20 - British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
April 22 - Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping
April 28 - General de Gaulle steps down as president of France after having suffered a defeat in a referendum the day before.
April 29 - First anniversary of the Broadway production of the musical Hair is celebrated with free concert at Wollman Skating Rink

May

May 10 - Zip to Zap, a harbringer of the Woodstock Concert, ends with dispersal and eviction of youth and young adults at Zap, North Dakota by the National Guard.
May 10 - The Battle of Dong Ap Bia, also known as the Hamburger Hill, begins in Vietnam War
May 13 - May 13th Incident: Race riots occur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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 17 - Tom McClean completes the first solo transatlantic crossing by a rowboat
May 18 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 launches
May 19-20 - French Foreign Legion paratroopers land onto Kolwezi, Zaire, to rescue Europeans in a middle of a civil war
May 20 - National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California
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
May 26-June 2: John Lennon and Yoko Ono conduct their Bed-In at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, and record the song "Give Peace a Chance."
May 29 - Mashina Vremeni russian Rock band official birthday

June

June 2 - In Ottawa, Canada the National Arts Centre opens its doors to the public for the first time
June 2 - Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne collides with the US destroyer Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea - 74 US sailors dead
June 8 - After the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) cancels the program, the last Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour airs
June 8 - President Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet at Midway Island. Nixon announced that 25,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn by September.
June 20 - Georges Pompidou elected President of France
June 23 - Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States by retiring chief Earl Warren.
June 24 - United Kingdom and Rhodesia sever diplomatic ties
June 28 - The Stonewall riots mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.

July

July 5 – Assassination of Mboya, Kenyan Minister of Development
July 7 - French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government
July 8 - Vietnam War: The very first U.S. troop withdrawals are made
July 10 - Trimaran the Teignmouth Electron of Donald Crowhurst is found drifting and unoccupied - Crowhurst might have committed suicide
July 14 - Football war - after Honduras loses a soccer game against El Salvador, rioting breaks out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. Of the 300,000 Salvadorean workers in Honduras, tens of thousands are expelled, prompting a brief Salvadoran invasion of Honduras. The OAS works out a cease-fire on July 18, taking effect on July 20
July 18 - Ted Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aide to his brother 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
July 31 - Halfpenny ceases to be Legal tender in the UK

August

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 8 - Fire in the Bannerman's Castle in the Hudson River - most of the roof collapses
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 10 - Manson family kills Leno and Rosemary LaBianca
August 12 - Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, makes a speech to the United Nations in which he asks them to deploy a peace-keeping mission in Northern Ireland.
August 13 - Serious border clash between Soviet Union and People's Republic of China
August 14 - British troops deployed in Northern Ireland
August 15 - The Woodstock Festival of music begins in upstate New York lasting three days and featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era
August 17 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars)
August 21 - Part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is destroyed by arson

September

September 1 - A coup in Libya oust King Idris and brings Col. Moammar Qaddafi to power
September 2 - The first Automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.
September 5 - My Lai Massacre: Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai
September 22 - 25 Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco after al-Aqsa Mosque fire (Augusr 21) condemns Israeli occupation of Jerusalem
September 28 - Social Democrats and Liberal have received a majority of votes in the German parliamentary elections and decide to form a common government

October

October 1 - In Sweden, Olof Palme is elected Labour party leader, replacing Tage Erlander as prime minister on October 14
October 9 - In Chicago, Illinois, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection to the trial of the "Chicago Eight" (trial started on September 24)
October 15 - Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States
October 16 - The ("miracle") New York Mets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles, four games to one.
October 17 - Willard S. Boyle and George Smith invent the CCD at Bell Laboratories. Today, this technology is widely used in digital cameras.
October 21 - Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany
October 21 - Siad Barre comes to power in Somalia in a coup
October 31 - Wal-Mart incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

November

November - Creation of ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet
November 3 - Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon addresses his nation on Television and Radio asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies
November 9 - Group of Amerindians lead by Richard Oakes seize the Alcatraz island for 19 months, inspiring a wave of renewed Indian pride and government reform
November 12 - Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre - Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story
November 13 - Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, DC stage a symbolic "March Against Death"
November 14 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon (landed on the Moon on November 19)
November 15 - Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea
November 15 - Vietnam War: In Washington, DC, 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war
November 15 - Regular colour television broadcasts begin on BBC1 and ITV in UK.
November 17 - Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides
November 19 - Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon
November 20 - Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam
November 20 - Richard Oakes returns with 90 followers and offers to buy the Alcatraz for $24 (he leaves the island January 1970)
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
November 21 - The first ARPANET link is established
November 24 - Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon
November 25 - John Lennon returns his OBE to protest the British government's support of the US war in Vietnam
November 28 - The Newcomers stopped airing on the BBC

December

December 1 - Vietnam War: The first Draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II (on January 4, 1970, the New York Times ran a long article, "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random")
December 2 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle to New York City.
December 4 - Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot to death in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
December 12 - Piazza Fontana Slaughter in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana). A U.S. officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett involved.

Undated events

Parker Morris Standards became mandatory for all Council housing in the UK.
Summer saw the invention of Unix
In the autumn, the first four nodes of the ARPAnet went up
ACM SIGGRAPH founded

Ongoing events

Vietnam War (1964 - 1975)
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