1969 - What happened in 1969 ?

January 1969

Wednesday 15:

The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.

Thursday 16:

Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before. The Metroliner train begins service between New York and Washington with one round trip per day.

Sunday 19:

Student Jan Palach died after setting himself on fire 3 days ago in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.

Monday 20:

The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.

Thursday 30:

The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.

February 1969

Monday 03:

In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

Tuesday 04:

Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Saturday 08:

The last weekly issue of the Saturday Evening Post hits magazine stands.

Saturday 22:

Barbara Jo Rubin wins a United States thoroughbred horse race making history as the first woman to do so.

Tuesday 25:

George Jones marries Tammy Wynette

March 1969

Monday 03:

In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

Monday 10:

In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Ray would later retract his guilty plea.

Thursday 13:

Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.

Tuesday 25:

During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace in the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).

Thursday 27:

Mariner 7 is launched.

April 1969

Thursday 03:

U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.

Friday 04:

1969 - The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour is cancelled after the brothers failed to submit an episode before its broadcast date.

Saturday 05:

Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations are held in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the United States.

Monday 14:

At the Academy Awards, a tie between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand results in the two sharing the Best Actress Oscar; Hepburn also becomes the only actress to win three Best Actress Oscars.

Tuesday 29:

Jazz musician Duke Ellington receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

May 1969

Saturday 10:

The first "Zip to Zap" rural outdoor rock concert at Zap, North Dakota, is ended prematurely as North Dakota National Guard is ordered to disperse the unruly crowd.

Tuesday 13:

Race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, later known as the 13 May Incident.

Thursday 22:

Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface.

Monday 26:

John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their second Bed-In for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.

Wednesday 28:

Sound engineer Glyn Johns mixes the second of the Beatles Bootlegs.

June 1969

Monday 02:

In Ottawa, Canada the National Arts Center opens its doors to the public for the first time.

Tuesday 03:

Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.

Sunday 08:

After the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) cancels the program, the last Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour airs.

Sunday 15:

Hee Haw debuts on CBS television, quickly becoming an institution.

Saturday 28:

Stonewall riots in New York city mark the beginning of the modern gay rights era.

July 1969

Tuesday 01:

Rock group The Band release their influential debut Music From Big Pink.

Monday 07:

The Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language is equal to English language throughout the Federal government.

Tuesday 08:

IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer.

Friday 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.

Wednesday 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 1969

Monday 04:

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.

Saturday 09:

Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder five people,Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent, and Abigail Folger.

Sunday 10:

A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Friday 15:

The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.

Sunday 17:

Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.

September 1969

Monday 01:

A coup in Libya brings Col. Moammar Qaddafi to power, ousting King Idris I.

Tuesday 02:

1984 - Seven Die + Fifteen wounded in a clash between rival bikie gangs the Bandidos + the Comancheros @ the Millpera Tavern Millpera, Sydney.

Friday 05:

My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.

Monday 15:

Baseball: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Steve Carlton sets a record by striking out 19 New York Mets in a single game.

Tuesday 23:

The Chicago 8 trial opens in Chicago, Illinois

October 1969

Wednesday 01:

The Concorde supersonic transport plane breaks the sound barrier for the first time.

Sunday 05:

The first broadcast of Monty Python's Flying Circus

Tuesday 14:

A race riot occurs in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Thursday 16:

The "miracle" New York Mets win the World Series.

Wednesday 29:

The first computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET.

November 1969

Monday 03:

Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.

Monday 10:

National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts the children's television program Sesame Street.

Tuesday 11:

Jim Morrison (The Doors) is arrested by the FBI after repeatedly prodding a stewardess.

Wednesday 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.

Thursday 20:

Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

December 1969

Monday 01:

Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.

Saturday 06:

The Rolling Stoness concert at Altamont leads to the stabbing death of a concert-goer by Hell's Angels providing security.

Friday 12:

Strage di Piazza Fontana in Italy.

Thursday 18:

Capital punishment is ended in the United Kingdom

Wednesday 24:

Curt Flood writes to Bowie K. Kuhn, the Commissioner of Baseball, asking to be declared a free agent .