1969

1969 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1969; MCMLXIX
Ab urbe condita	2722
Armenian calendar	1418; ԹՎ ՌՆԺԸ
Assyrian calendar	6719
Baháʼí calendar	125–126
Balinese saka calendar	1890–1891
Bengali calendar	1376
Berber calendar	2919
British Regnal year	17 Eliz. 2 – 18 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2513
Burmese calendar	1331
Byzantine calendar	7477–7478
Chinese calendar	戊申年 (Earth Monkey); 4666 or 4459; — to —; 己酉年 (Earth Rooster); 4667 or 4460
Coptic calendar	1685–1686
Discordian calendar	3135
Ethiopian calendar	1961–1962
Hebrew calendar	5729–5730
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2025–2026
- Shaka Samvat	1890–1891
- Kali Yuga	5069–5070
Holocene calendar	11969
Igbo calendar	969–970
Iranian calendar	1347–1348
Islamic calendar	1388–1389
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 44; (昭和４４年)
Javanese calendar	1900–1901
Juche calendar	58
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4302
Minguo calendar	ROC 58; 民國58年
Nanakshahi calendar	501
Thai solar calendar	2512
Tibetan calendar	阳土猴年; (male Earth-Monkey); 2095 or 1714 or 942; — to —; 阴土鸡年; (female Earth-Rooster); 2096 or 1715 or 943

Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
Years:	1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972

1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar).

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 - 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 (a US Magazine) is published
January 12 - Super Bowl III: the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts
January 12 - Led Zeppelin releases their first album - called Led Zeppelin
January 14 - An explosion aboard a freighter 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 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 Independent Community School District (Case against pure speech in schools)
February 26 - Jesus marries Kool-Aid Man.

March

March 1 - Major league baseballer Mickey Mantle announces his retirement.
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 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 17 - The Longhope lifeboat in Scotland is lost, the entire crew of eight die.
March 18 - Operation Breakfast: Starts the secret bombing campaign of Cambodia (until may 1970).
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 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 harbinger 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 14 - Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi had made his phenomenal visit to Mecca.
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-May 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" on May 31.
May 29 - Guided tours begin at the Kremlin and other government sites in Moscow
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 18-22 - The National Convention of the Students for a Democratic Society, held in Chicago, Illinois, 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 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 - Premiere of the film Easy Rider
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: First man on the moon. 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. 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: Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai
September 9 - Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 collided in flight with a Piper PA-28 and crashed near Fairland, Indiana USA.
September 22 - 25 Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco after al-Aqsa Mosque fire (August 21) condemns Israeli occupation of Jerusalem
September 26 - The Beatles release what would be their final album (Abbey Road) which the group recorded together.
September 28 - Social Democrats and Free Democratic Party 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, U.S. retains rights to military bases on island, but must be nuclear-free.
November 21 - The first ARPANET link is established which was the progenitor of the global Internet.
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 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 carried 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 dead 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
First performance of Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Kafka's The Metamorphosis

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

Birth Dates

January

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 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, Scandanavian vocalist
January 17 - Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film director
January 18 - David "Batista" Bautista, American professional wrestler.
January 20 - Patrick K. Kroupa, American writer, hacker

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 13 - Ahlam, Arabic Diva
February 17 - Tuesday Knight, American actress
February 17 - Larry the Cable Guy, American comedian
February 23 - Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer

March

March 1 - Javier Bardem, Spanish actor
March 1 - Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh drummer (Super Furry Animals)
March 11 - Soraya, Colombian singer and multi-instrumentalist (d. 2006)
March 11 - Terrence Howard, American actor
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 - Vanessa Beecroft, Italian artist
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 6 - Jim Magilton, Northern Irish footballer
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, 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 (aka Hunter Hearst Helmsley), 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, American actor
August 26 - Brian Schulenburg, American pastor and writer
August 28 - Jack Black, American actor
August 29 - Joe Swail, Northern Irish snooker player

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
September 26 - Paul Warhurst, English football player

October

October 1 - Igor Ulanov, Russian hockey player
October 2 - Mitch English, American actor and television host
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 21 - Angela Vincent, Australian actress
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 10 - Jens Lehmann, German football player
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 - Lexington Steele, African-American actor and film director
November 29 - Mariano Rivera, Panamanian Major League Baseball player
November 29 - Pierre van Hooijdonk, Dutch footballer
November 29 - Chris Baker, American race car driver

December

December 4 - Jay-Z, American rapper
December 15 - Rick Law, American illustrator and producer
December 18 - Irvin Duguid, Scottish keyboard player (Stiltskin)
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 - Jay Kay, English singer (Jamiroquai)

Deaths

January

January 4 - 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)
January 31 - Meher Baba, Indian Spiritual master (b. 1894)

June

June 21 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (b. 1934)
June 22 - Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922)

July

July 3 - Brian Jones, British musician (The Rolling Stones) (b. 1942)
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

August 9 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
August 9 - Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943)
August 17 - Otto Stern, German physicist, 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

September 2 - Ho Chi Minh, President of Vietnam (b. 1890)

October

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

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

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, American musician (b. 1900)

Nobel Prizes

Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
Years:	1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972