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1969
Year 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
[] Events of 1969
[] January
- January 24 - Martial law is declared in Madrid, the University is closed and over 300 students are arrested.
- January 27 - Fourteen men, 9 of them Jews, are executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel.
- January 27 - Reverend Ian Paisley, hardline Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, is jailed for 3 months for illegal assembly.
- January 27 - The present-day Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse, rated at 100,000 KVA, is completed and placed in operation.
- January 30 - The Beatles give their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.
[] February
[] March
- 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 (James McDivitt, David Scott, Rusty Schweickart) to test the lunar module.
- March 10 - In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. (he later retracts his guilty plea).
- March 13 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
- March 17 - The Longhope, Orkney lifeboat in Scotland is lost; the entire crew of 8 die.
- March 17 - Golda Meir becomes the first female prime minister of Israel.
- March 18 - Operation Breakfast, the secret bombing of Cambodia, begins.
- March 19 - British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla.
- March 19 - A 385-metre (1,265-foot) tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, UK, collapses because of icing.
- March 28 - Former United States General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C..
[] April
[] May
- May 10 - Zip to Zap, a harbinger of the Woodstock Concert, ends with the 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 Hamburger Hill, begins during the Vietnam War.
- May 13 - May 13 Incident: Race riots occur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- May 14 - Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi visits Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
- May 16 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
- May 17 - Venera program: Soviet probe Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus' atmosphere, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
- May 18 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 (Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, John Young) is launched, on the full dress-rehearsal for the Moon landing.
- May 19-20 - French Foreign Legion paratroopers land onto Kolwezi, Zaire, to rescue Europeans in the middle of a civil war.
- May 20 - United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California.
- May 21 - Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, aka Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
- May 22 - Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies to within 15,400 m of the Moon's surface.
- May 26 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth, after a successful 8-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.
- May 29 - General strike and civil unrest in Cordoba, Argentina, aka Cordobazo.
- May 29 - Guided tours begin at the Kremlin and other government sites in Moscow.
- May 30 - Riots in Curaçao mark the start of an Afro-Caribbean civil rights movement on the island.
[] June
- June 1 - In Montreal, Canada, Give Peace a Chance is recorded in a famous bed-in for peace by John Lennon. The song, the first single recorded solo by a Beatle, and released under the name Plastic Ono Band, is still a strong anthem for peace.
- June 2 - In Ottawa, Canada, the National Arts Centre opens its doors to the public for the first time.
- June 3 - Melbourne-Evans collision - The Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne collides with the U.S. destroyer Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea; 74 U.S. sailors are killed.
- June 5 - International communist conference begins in Moscow.
- June 8 - U.S. President Richard Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet at Midway Island. Nixon announces that 25,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn by September.
- June 18-22 - The National Convention of the Students for a Democratic Society, held in Chicago, collapses, and the Weatherman faction seizes control of the SDS National Office. Thereafter, any activity run from the National Office or bearing the name of SDS is Weatherman-controlled.
- June 20 - Georges Pompidou is elected President of France.
- June 21 - Soviet musicologist Pavel Apostolov dies during the general rehearsal of Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony.
- June 23 - Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States by retiring chief Earl Warren.
- June 24 - The United Kingdom and Rhodesia sever diplomatic ties.
- June 28 - The Stonewall riots in New York City mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.
[] July
- July 1 - Charles, Prince of Wales, is invested with his title at Caernarfon.
- July 3 - Brian Jones, former member of The Rolling Stones, drowns in his swimming pool.
- July 5 - Tom Mboya, Kenyan Minister of Development, is assassinated.
- 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 - Donald Crowhurst's trimaran Teignmouth Electron is found drifting and unoccupied. It is assumed that 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 Salvadoran 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, which takes effect on July 20.
- July 16 - Apollo program: Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins) lifts off toward the first landing on the Moon.
- July 18 - Edward M. 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 19 - Gloria Diaz wins the Miss Universe pageant, with the Philippines receiving its first title.
- July 20 - Apollo program: The Eagle lands on the lunar surface. The world watches in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the moon.
- July 24 - The Apollo 11 astronauts return from the first successful Moon landing, and are placed in biological isolation for several days, on the chance they may have brought back lunar germs. The airless lunar environment is later determined to preclude microscopic life.
- July 25 - Vietnam War: U.S. 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 starts the "Vietnamization" of the war.
- July 30 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam, meeting with President Nguyen Van Thieu and U.S. military commanders.
- July 31 - The halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in the UK.
[] August
- August 4 - Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. They eventually fail since both sides cannot agree to any terms.
- August 5 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
- August 8 - A fire breaks out in the Bannerman's Castle in the Hudson River; most of the roof collapses and crashes down to the lower levels.
- August 9 - Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder Sharon Tate, (who was 8 months pregnant), and her friends Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring at Tate and husband Roman Polanski's home in Los Angeles, California. Steven Parent, leaving from a visit to the Polanskis' caretaker, is also killed. More than 100 stab wounds are found on the victims, except for Parent, who had been shot almost as soon as the Manson Family entered the property.
- August 10 - The Manson Family kills Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, wealthy Los Angeles businesspeople.
- August 12 - Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
- August 13 - Serious border clashes occur between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
- August 14 - British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland following the three-day Battle of the Bogside.
- August 15-18 - The Woodstock Festival is held in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.
- August 17 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille, the most powerful tropical cyclonic system at landfall in recorded history, hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars).
- August 21 - An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, set the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire.
[] September
- September 1 - A coup in Libya ousts King Idris, and brings Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi 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: Lieutenant William Calley is charged with 6 counts of premeditated murder, for the deaths of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
- September 9 - Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 collides in flight with a Piper PA-28, and crashes near Fairland, Indiana United States.
- September 22-25 - An Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco, following the al-Aqsa Mosque fire (August 21), condemns the Israeli ownership of Jerusalem.
- September 24 - The "Chicago Eight" trial begins in Chicago, Illinois.
- September 28 - The Social Democrats and the Free Democrats receive 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 1 - The Beijing Subway begins operation.
- October 2 - A 1.2 megaton thermonuclear device is tested at Amchitka Island, Alaska. This test is code-named Project Milrow, the 11th test of the Operation Mandrel 1969-1970 underground nuclear test series. This test is known as a "calibration shot" to test if the island is fit for larger underground nuclear detonations.
- October 5 - Monty Python's Flying Circus first airs in the United Kingdom.
- October 9-12 - Days of Rage: In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in to control demonstrations involving the radical Weathermen, in connection with the "Chicago Eight" Trial.
- 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 4 games to 1.
- October 17 - Willard S. Boyle and George Smith invent the CCD at Bell Laboratories. Thirty years later, this technology is widely used in digital cameras.
- October 21 - Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany.
- October 21 - General Siad Barre comes to power in Somalia in a coup, six days after the assassination of President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke.
- October 21 - Writer and poet Jack Kerouac died at the age of 47, resulting from an internal hemorrhage (bleeding esophageal varices) caused by cirrhosis, the result of a lifetime of heavy drinking
- October 29 - The first message was sent over ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet.
- October 31 - Wal-Mart incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
[] November
- November 3 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity with the Vietnam War effort, and to support his policies. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounces the President's critics as 'an effete corps of impudent snobs' and 'nattering nabobs of negativism'.
- November 9 - A group of Amerindians, led by Richard Oakes, seizes Alcatraz Island for 19 months, inspiring a wave of renewed Indian pride and government reform.
- November 10 - Sesame Street premieres on the National Educational Television (NET) network.
- November 12 - Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre - Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.
- November 14 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12 (Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon, Alan Bean), the second manned mission to the Moon.
- 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, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters stage a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".
- November 15 - Regular colour television broadcasts begin on BBC1 and ITV in UK.
- November 15 - Dave Thomas opened his first restaurant in a former steakhouse on a cold, snowy Saturday in downtown Columbus, Ohio. He named the chain Wendy's after his 8-year-old daughter Melinda Lou - nicknamed Wendy by her siblings.
- November 17 - Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, to begin the 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"), becoming the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
- November 19 - Soccer great Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.
- 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 Alcatraz for $24 (he leaves the island January 1970).
- November 21 - U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington, D.C. to the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. retains rights to military bases on the island, but they must be nuclear-free.
- November 21 - The first ARPANET link is established (the progenitor of the global Internet).
- November 21 - The United States Senate votes down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement 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 MBE medal to protest the British government's support of the U.S. 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 will run 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 to New York City.
- December 4 - Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot dead in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
- December 6 - The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway in northern California. Hosted by the Rolling Stones, it is an attempt at a "Woodstock West" and is best known for the uproar of violence that occurred. It is viewed by many as the "end of the sixties."
- December 12 - The Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana) takes place. A U.S. Navy officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett is later investigated for possible involvement.
- December 30 - The Linwood bank robbery leaves two police officers dead.
[] Undated
[] Ongoing
[] Births
[] January-February
- January 1 - Sophie Okonedo, Academy Award nominated British actress
- January 2 - Dean Francis Alfar, Filipino author
- 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, American singer
- January 8 - Jeff Abercrombie, American musician (Fuel)
- January 13 - Stephen Hendry, British snooker player
- January 14 - Jason Bateman, American actor
- January 14 - David Grohl, American drummer and composer (Nirvana; later, Foo Fighters)
- January 15 - Meret Becker, German actress and musician
- January 16 - Roy Jones Jr., American boxer
- January 16 - Per "Dead" Yngve Ohlin, Scandinavian vocalist
- January 17 - Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film director
- January 17 - DJ Tiesto, Trance DJ
- January 18 - David "Batista" Bautista, American professional wrestler.
- January 20 - Patrick K. Kroupa, American writer, hacker
- January 22 - John Linton Roberson, American cartoonist and writer
- January 27 - Cornelius, musician, singer and producer (Flipper's Guitar)
- February 1 - Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine footballer
- February 3 - Retief Goosen, South African golfer
- February 5 - Bobby Brown, American singer
- February 9 - Ian Eagle, American sports announcer
- February 11 - Jennifer Aniston, American actress
- February 12 - Hong Myung-Bo, South Korean footballer
- February 12 - Brad Werenka, Canadian ice hockey player
- February 13 - Ahlam, Arabic Diva
- February 16 - Dean Malenko, American professional wrestler
- February 20 - Keiji Takayama, Japanese professional wrestler
- February 23 - Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
- February 23 - Marc Wauters, Belgian cyclist
- February 28 - Robert Sean Leonard American Actor
[] March-April
- March 1 - Javier Bardem, Spanish actor
- March 1 - Litefoot, Native American actor
- March 1 - Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh drummer (Super Furry Animals)
- March 4 - Chastity Bono, American actress and advocate of gay rights
- March 4 - Jason Townsend, American artist and record producer
- March 4 - Patrick Roach, Canadian actor
- March 4 - Annie Shizuka Inoh, Taiwanese actress
- March 7 - Todd Williams, American long-distance runner
- March 11 - Soraya, Colombian singer and multi-instrumentalist (d. 2006)
- March 11 - Terrence Howard, American actor
- March 15 - Timo Kotipelto, Finnish musician
- March 15 - Yutaka Take, Japanese jockey
- March 19 - Connor Trinneer, American actor
- March 20 - Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, American comedian (d. 2008)
- March 21 - Ali Daei, Iranian football player
- March 21 - Jaya, Filipino pop singer
- March 27 - Pauley Perrette, American actress
- March 28 - Rodney Atkins, America country music singer-songwriter
- April 1 - Fadl Shaker, Lebanese singer
- April 3 - Lance Storm, Canadian professional wrestler
- April 6 - Bret Boone, baseball player
- April 6 - Paul Rudd, American actor
- April 10 - Billy Jayne, American actor
- April 11 - Cerys Matthews, Welsh singer
- April 11 - Chisato Moritaka, Japanese singer
- April 17 - Henry Ian Cusick, Peruvian actor
- April 19 - Susan Polgar, Hungarian chess player
- April 22 - Dion Dublin, English footballer
- April 25 - Joe Buck, baseball and American football broadcaster
- April 25 - Vanessa Beecroft, Italian artist
- April 25 - Renée Zellweger, American actress
[] May-June
- May 2 - Brian Lara, West Indian cricketer
- May 3 - Daryl F. Mallett, American author and actor
- May 4 - Micah Aivazoff, Canadian ice hockey player
- May 6 - Jim Magilton, Northern Irish footballer
- May 7 - Eagle Eye Cherry, Swedish-born musician
- May 9 - Amber, Dutch musician
- May 10 - Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch soccer player
- May 11 - Sheila Davalloo, Iranian-American criminal
- May 12 - Kevin Nalty, Famed YouTuber
- May 13 - Nikos Aliagas, French-born television host
- May 14 - Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
- May 15 - Hideki Irabu, Japanese baseball player
- May 15 - Emmitt Smith, American football player
- May 15 - Asalah Nasri, Syrian singer
- May 16 - David Boreanaz, American actor
- May 16 - Tracey Gold, Am
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