1969 - What happened in 1969 ?

January 1969

Sunday 12:

Hard rock band Led Zeppelin release their eponymous first album.

Wednesday 15:

The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.

Monday 20:

The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.

Tuesday 21:

An experimental underground nuclear reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.

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 10:

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

Monday 17:

Golda Meir of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, becomes Prime Minister of Israel.

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.

Saturday 29:

In Madrid, Spain, four different performers tie for first place at the fourteenth Eurovision Song Contest. The medals are shared by Spain's Salomé singing "Vivo cantando" (I live singing), United Kingdom's Lulu singing "Boom Bang-a-bang", Netherlands' Lenny Kuhr singing "De troubadour" (The troubadour), and France's Frida Boccara singing "Un jour, un enfant" (One day, a child...)

April 1969

Thursday 03:

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

Monday 07:

The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.

Wednesday 09:

The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

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.

Monday 28:

Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.

May 1969

Tuesday 13:

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

Friday 16:

Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.

Tuesday 20:

The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.

Friday 23:

Rock band The Who release Tommy, the first rock opera.

Monday 26:

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

June 1969

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.

Friday 20:

Jacques Chaban-Delmas becomes Prime Minister of France

Monday 23:

Warren E. Burger is sworn in as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring chief Earl Warren.

Saturday 28:

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

July 1969

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.

Wednesday 16:

Apollo program: Apollo 11 launches from Cape Kennedy, Florida and will become the first manned space mission to land on the moon.

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.

Tuesday 05:

Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).

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.

Monday 18:

Jimi Hendrix plays the unofficial last day of Woodstock.

September 1969

Monday 01:

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

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

Friday 26:

The Beatles album Abbey Road is released in the UK.

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

Thursday 09:

Students from the University of the Philippines formed the first Upsilonian Congress and established the Upsiloan Alpha Beta Grand Fraternity in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.

Wednesday 15:

Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States.

Wednesday 29:

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

November 1969

Saturday 01:

After seven years off the top of the charts, Elvis Presley hits No. 1 on the Billboard Music charts with his song "Suspicious Minds."

Monday 10:

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

Wednesday 12:

Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.

Friday 14:

Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.

Saturday 15:

Vietnam War: In Washington, DC, 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war.

December 1969

Monday 01:

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

Monday 08:

An Olympic Airways DC-6B crashes near Athens during a storm killing 93 people.

Wednesday 17:

1969 - SALT I talks begin

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 .