1969
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'''1969''' '''(MCMLXIX)''' was a common year starting on Wednesday
:''For other uses, see 1969 (number)|Number 1969.''
:''For the movie, see 1969 (movie).''
:''For the The Velvet Underground|Velvet Underground live album, see'' .
Events
January
January 1 - Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper ''The News Of The World''
January 3 - Pele scores his 1000th goal
January 5 - The Derry Riots leave over 100 people injured
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 (CVN-65)|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 Montreal Stock Exchange|Stock Exchange in Montreal, Quebec
February 24 - Launch of the Mariner 6 Mars probe
February 24 - Tinker v. Des Moines Independent 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 - During a performance at Miami, Florida|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 War|Vietnam
March 2 - In Toulouse, France the first Concorde test flight is conducted
March 2 - Soviet Union|Soviet and People's Republic of China|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 17 - The Longhope lifeboat in Scotland is lost, the entire crew of eight die.
March 19 - British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla.
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 Royal Air Force|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 circumnavigation|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 Union|Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus (planet)|Venus
May 17 - Venera program: Soviet Union|Soviet Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus (planet)|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-May 20|20 - French Foreign Legion paratroopers land onto Kolwezi, Zaire, to rescue Europeans in a middle of a civil war
May 20 - United States National Guard|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 (music)|rock band official birthday
May 30 - Riots in Curaçao, marking the start for a movement for Afro-Caribbean civil rights on the island.
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 language|French is made equal to English language|English throughout the Canada|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 Organization of American States|OAS works out a cease-fire on July 18, taking effect on July 20
July 18 - Edward M. Kennedy|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 France|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 (planet)|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 - United Kingdom|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 I of Libya|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 - September 25|25 Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco after al-Aqsa Mosque fire (Augusr 21) condemns Israeli occupation of Jerusalem
September 28 - Social Democrats and Free Democratic Party (Germany)|Free Democratic Party have received a majority of votes in the Germany|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 Charge-coupled device|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 (activist)|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 (SSN-615)|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 (activist)|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, U.S. retains rights to military bases on island, but must be nuclear-free.
November 21 - The first ARPANET link is established
November 21 - The senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, the first such rejection since 1930.
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 Order of the British Empire|OBE to protest the British government's support of the US war in Vietnam
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, Washington|Seattle to New York City.
December 4 - Black Panther Party|Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot dead in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago, Illinois|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 Committee|Parker Morris Standards became mandatory for all council house|Council housing in the United Kingdom|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)
1970 War of Attrition|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
Births
January
January 2 - Christy Turlington, American fashion model
January 2 - Tommy Morrison, American boxer
January 3 - Michael Schumacher, German race car driver
January 5 - Marilyn Manson (person)|Marilyn Manson, American singer
January 14 - Jason Bateman, American actor
January 14 - David Grohl, American drummer and composer (Nirvana (band)|Nirvana; later, Foo Fighters)
January 16 - Roy Jones Jr., American boxer
January 17 - Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film director
January 20 - Patrick K. Kroupa, American writer, hacker
January 20 - Skeet Ulrich, American actor
February
February 1 - Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine footballer
February 3 - Retief Goosen, South African golfer
February 5 - Bobby Brown, American singer
February 11 - Jennifer Aniston, American actress
February 12 - Hong Myung-Bo, South Korean footballer
February 17 - Tuesday Knight, American actress
March
March 1 - Javier Bardem, Spanish actor
March 1 - Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh drummer (Super Furry Animals)
March 19 - Connor Trinneer, American actor
April
April 6 - Bret Boone, baseball player
April 10 - Billy Jayne, American actor
April 11 - Cerys Matthews, Welsh singer
April 17 - Henry Ian Cusick, Peruvian actor
April 19 - Susan Polgar, Hungarian chess player
April 25 - Joe Buck, baseball and American football broadcaster
April 25 - Darren Woodson, American football player
April 25 - Renée Zellweger, American actress
May
May 2 - Brian Lara, West Indian cricketer
May 3 - Daryl F. Mallett, American author and actor
May 7 - Eagle Eye Cherry, Swedish-born musician
May 10 - Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch soccer player
May 13 - Nikos Aliagas, French-born television host
May 14 - Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
May 15 - Emmitt Smith, American football player
May 16 - Tracey Gold, American actress
May 16 - Steve Lewis (athlete)|Steve Lewis, American athlete
May 18 - Martika, American singer
May 21 - Georgiy R. Gongadze, Ukrainian journalist (d. 2000)
June
June 11 - Steven Drozd, American drummer (The Flaming Lips)
June 14 - Steffi Graf, German tennis player
June 15 - Oliver Kahn, German football goalkeeper
June 17 - Paul Tergat, Kenyan athlete
June 18 - Pål Pot Pamparius, Norwegian guitarist and keyboardist (Turbonegro)
June 24 - Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer
June 25 - Matt Gallant, American television host
July
July 5 - John LeClair, American hockey player
July 10 - Gale Harold, American actor
July 18 - Masanori Murakawa, Japanese professional wrestler
July 20 - Josh Holloway, American actor
July 24 - Jennifer Lopez, American actress and singer
July 27 - Triple H, American professional wrestler
August
August 2 - Fernando Couto, Portuguese footballer
August 6 - Elliott Smith, American musician (d. 2003)
August 9 - Troy Percival, baseball player
August 13 - Midori Ito, Japanese figure skater
August 18 - Edward Norton, American actor
August 18 - Christian Slater, American actor
August 19 - Matthew Perry (actor)|Matthew Perry, American actor
August 28 - Jack Black (actor)|Jack Black, American actor
September
September 2 - Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey, American singer
September 5 - Dweezil Zappa, American actor and musician
September 9 - Rachel Hunter, New Zealand model and actress
September 13 - Shane Warne, Australian cricketer
September 24 - Donald DeGrate, Jr., American music producer
September 25 - Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (d. 2002)
September 25 - Hal Sparks, American actor and comedian
September 25 - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress
October
October 1 - Igor Ulanov, Russian hockey player
October 3 - Gwen Stefani, American singer (No Doubt)
October 8 - Julia Ann, American porn actress
October 10 - Brett Favre, American football player
October 13 - Nancy Kerrigan, American figure skater
October 14 - David Strickland, American actor (d. 1999)
October 17 - Ernie Els, South African golfer
October 19 - Trey Parker, American television producer
October 20 - Juan Gonzalez, baseball player
October 30 - Clay Enos, American photographer
November
November 4 - Matthew McConaughey, American actor
November 7 - Michelle Clunie, American actress
November 7 - Hélène Grimaud, French pianist
November 7 - Bryant H. McGill, American poet
November 11 - Carson Kressley, American fashion expert
November 12 - Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian politician
November 17 - Jean-Michel Saive, Belgian table tennis player
November 18 - Sam Cassell, basketball player
November 20 - AQi Fzono, Japanese composer
November 21 - Ken Griffey, Jr., baseball player
November 28 - Bosco Tesanovic, Bosco accountancy franchiser
November 29 - Mariano Rivera, Panamanian Major League Baseball player
November 29 - Pierre van Hooijdonk, Dutch footballer
December
December 4 - Jennifer Unger, Public health researcher
December 15 - Rick Law, American illustrator and producer
December 19 - Kristy Swanson, American actress
December 21 - Julie Delpy, French actress
December 23 - Martha Byrne, American actress and singer
December 28 - Linus Torvalds, Finnish computer programmer
December 30 - Jason Kay|Jay Kay, English singer (Jamiroquai)
Deaths
January
January 4 - Violet Hilton|Violet and Daisy Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (b. 1908)
January 8 - Albert Hill, British athlete (b. 1889)
January 19 - Jan Palach Czech student protester (suicide) (b. 1948)
January 25 - Irene Castle, English dancer (b. 1893)
January 29 - Allen Dulles, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1893)
January 30 - Georges Pire, Belgian monk, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1910)
February
February 4 - Thelma Ritter, American actress (b. 1905)
February 9 - Gabby Hayes, American actor (b. 1885)
February 20 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)
February 23 - King Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
February 26 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1895)
March
March 4 - Nicholas Schenck, Russian-born film empresario (b. 1881)
March 11 - John Wyndham, British author (b. 1903)
March 21 - Pinky Higgins, American baseball player and manager (b. 1909)
March 26 - John Kennedy Toole, American author (b. 1937)
March 27 - B. Traven, German writer
March 28 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (b. 1890)
May
May 4 - Osbert Sitwell, English writer (b. 1892)
May 14 - Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (b. 1888)
May 19 - Coleman Hawkins, American musician (b. 1904)
June-December
June 21 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (b. 1934)
June 22 - Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
July 5, Walter Gropius, German architect (b. 1883)
July 18 - Mary Jo Kopechne, American campaign aide to U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (b. 1940)
July 24 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (b. 1904)
August 9 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
August 9 - Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943)
August 17 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
August 27 - Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (b. 1884)
August 27 - Erika Mann, German writer (b. 1905)
August 31 - Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)
September 2 - Ho Chi Minh, President of Vietnam (b. 1890)
October 4 - Natalino Otto, Italian singer (b. 1912)
October 12 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912)
October 21 - Jack Kerouac, American author (b. 1922)
October 21 - Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (b. 1882)
October 30 - Pops Foster, American musician
November 12 - William F. Friedman, American cryptanalyst (b. 1891)
November 15 - Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan
November 18 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., American politician (b. 1888)
December 4 - Fred Hampton, Black Panther (shot by police) (b. 1948)
December 4 - Mark Clark, Black Panther (shot by police) (b. 1896)
December 12 - Magic Sam, American musician (b. 1937)
December 31 - George Lewis (clarinetist)|George Lewis, American musician (b. 1900)
Nobel Prizes
Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics - Murray Gell-Mann
Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry - Derek Harold Richard Barton, Odd Hassel
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine - Max Delbrück, Alfred Hershey, Salvador Luria
Nobel Prize in Literature|Literature - Samuel Beckett
Nobel Peace Prize|Peace - International Labour Organization
Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel|Economics - Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen
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