1969 Jan 3, 30,000 copies of the John Lennon, Yoko Ono album,
Two Virgins, were confiscated by police in Newark, NJ. A nude photo of
John and Yoko on the cover violated pornography laws in Jersey.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1969 Jan 4, Spain returned the Ifni province to Morocco.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1969 Jan 5, President Nixon appointed Henry Cabot Lodge as negotiator
at the Paris Peace Talks.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1969 Jan 7, US Congress doubled the president’s salary.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1969 Jan 9, The Concorde jetliner's 1st test flight took place
in Bristol, England.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1969 Jan 12, The New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts, 16-7,
in Super bowl III at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
(AP, 1/12/99)
1969 Jan 14, 25 crew members of the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise
were killed in an explosion that ripped through the ship off Hawaii. A
blast on the U.S. carrier Enterprise in the Pacific resulted in 24 dead
and 85 injured.
(AP, 1/14/98)(HN, 1/14/99)
1969 Jan 15, The Russian Soyuz 5 went into orbit. The crew then
maneuvered to dock with Soyuz 4 and Yevgeny Khrunov (d.2000 at 67) became
the first astronaut to transfer between linked capsules.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A26)
1969 Jan 20, Richard Nixon in his first inaugural address proclaimed
that Americans "cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at
one another." He also said: "the greatest honor history can bestow is the
title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America."
(HNQ, 6/30/98)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1969 Jan 23, NASA unveiled a moon-landing craft.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1969 Jan 25, US-North Vietnamese peace talks began in Paris.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1969 Jan 26, California was declared a disaster area after two
days of flooding and mud slides.
(HN, 1/26/99)
1969 Jan 27, In Damascus, Syria, 9 Jews were publicly executed.
(MC, 1/27/02)
1969 Jan 30, Allan Welsh Dulles (75), US diplomat, director (CIA
1953-61), died.
(MC, 1/30/02)
1969 Feb 2, Boris Karloff (81), [Pratt], British actor (Frankenstein),
died.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1969 Feb 2, Giovanni Martinelli (83), opera singer (NY Met),
died.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1969 Feb 3, The Palestine National Congress appointed Yasser Arafat
head of PLO.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1969 Feb 4, John Madden was named head coach of NFL's Oakland
Raiders.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1969 Feb 4, Yasser Arafat officially took over as chairman of
PLO.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1969 Feb 5, US population reached 200 million.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1969 Feb 7, Al-Fatah-leader Yasser Arafat became president of
PLO.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1969 Feb 8, Last edition of Saturday Evening Post was published.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1969 Feb 8, The Boeing 747, largest commercial plane, made its
first flight.
(TMC, 1994, p.1969)(HN, 2/7/97)
1969 Feb 8, A meteor shower hit Mexico creating a luminance in
the night sky as bright as day. A meteorite weighing over 1 ton fell in
Chihuahua, Mexico.
(TMP, KCTS-Video, 1987)(MC, 2/8/02)
1969 Feb 9, World's largest airplane, Boeing 747, made its 1st
commercial flight.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1969 Feb 9, [George] Gabby Hayes (83), actor (Albuquerque, Colorado),
died.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1969 Feb 17, Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash recorded an album that
was never released.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1969 Feb 17, Russia and Peru signed their first trade accord.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1969 Feb 18, PLO (PFLP-GC) machine-gunned an El-Al plane in Zurich,
Switzerland.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)(MC, 2/18/02)
1969 Feb 23, Pres. Nixon approved the bombing of Cambodia. [see
Mar 18]
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1969 Feb 25, In Vietnam Navy Lt. Bob Kerrey (25) took part in
a SEAL raid in the Mekong Delta where over a dozen women, children and
old men were killed in the village of Thanh Phong. Kerry received a Bronze
Star for the raid and later strongly regretted his actions. Soon after
the raid Kerry lost a leg at Hon Tam Island and was later awarded a Congressional
medal of Honor. In 2001 Kerrey, former Gov. and Senator from Nebraska,
made public his participation in the raid. In 2001 Bui Thi Luom of Thanh
Phong, the only survivor from her hut of 16, said 20 people were killed
"Only civilians, women and children." Kerry described the event in his
2002 memoir "When I Was a Young Man." In 2002 Gregory L. Vistica authored:
"The Education of Lieutenant Kerry."
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/27/01, p.A3)(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A12)(SFC,
6/1/02, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/23/03, p.D14)
1969 Feb 26, Levi Eshkol [Sjkolnik], Israeli premier, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1969 Feb 26, Karl Jaspers (86), German psychiatrist, philosopher,
died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1969 Feb 27, Thousands of students protested President Nixon's
arrival in Rome. Nixon visited West Berlin.
(HN, 2/27/98)(MC, 2/27/02)
1969 Feb 27, Gen. Hafez al-Assad became head of Syria via military
coup.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1969 Feb 28, A Los Angeles court refused Robert Kennedy assassin
Sirhan Sirhan's request to be executed.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1969 Mar 1, "Red, White, and Maddox" closed at Cort Theater in
NYC after 41 performances.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1969 Mar 1, After 88 weeks Sergeant Pepper dropped off the charts.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1969 Mar 1, Mickey Mantle of the NY Yankees announced his
retirement from baseball.
(HN, 3/1/98)(SC, 3/1/02)
1969 Mar 1, Jim Morrison (d.1971), lead singer for the Doors,
was arrested for exposing himself at Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami before
10,000 people.
(SC, 3/1/02)(SFC, 12/24/02, p.A13)
1969 Mar 2, Dmitri Shostakovich completed his 14th Symphony.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1969 Mar 2, Phil Esposito became the 1st NHL Player to score
100 points in a season.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1969 Mar 2, 1st test flight of the supersonic Concorde.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1969 Mar 2, In a Chinese-Russian borders fight approximately
70 died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1969 Mar 3, Sirhan Sirhan testified in a court in Los Angeles
that he killed Robert Kennedy.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1969 Mar 3, Apollo 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission
to test the lunar module. It made 151 Earth orbits over 10 days.
(AP, 3/3/98)(SC, 3/3/02)
1969 Mar 4, George Wald (d.1997 at 90), Nobel Prize winner, declared
his opposition to the war in Vietnam at MIT in the speech: "A Generation
in Search of a Future."
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A19)
1969 Mar 5, Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw," premiered in London.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1969 Mar 5, Gustav Heinemann was elected West German President.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1969 Mar 10, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the murder of Dr.
Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tenn., and was sentenced to 99 years in
jail. Ray later repudiated that plea.
(AP, 3/10/98)(HN, 3/10/98)
1969 Mar 11, Levi started to sell bell-bottomed jeans.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1969 Mar 12, Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman in London.
(AP, 3/12/98)
1969 Mar 13, The Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission
that included the successful testing of the lunar module.
(AP, 3/13/97)
1969 Mar 15, US Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1969 Mar 15, A violent Chinese-Russian border dispute left 100s
dead.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1969 Mar 16, "1776," a musical about the writing of the Declaration
of Independence, opened on Broadway.
(AP, 3/16/99)
1969 Mar 17, Golda Meir (d.1978) became the 4th prime minister
of Israel. She held the office to 1974.
(AP, 3/17/97)(AP, 12/8/97)(MC, 3/17/02)
1969 Mar 18, President Richard M. Nixon authorized Operation Menue,
the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia. [see Feb 23]
(HN, 3/18/99)
1969 Mar 19, The Chicago 8 were indicted in aftermath of Chicago
Democratic convention.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1969 Mar 20, US president Nixon proclaimed he would end Vietnam
war in 1970.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1969 Mar 20, Senator Edward Kennedy called on the U.S. to close
all bases in Taiwan.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1969 Mar 20, John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1969 Mar 23, Rally for Decency in Miami.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1969 Mar 25, John and Yoko Ono staged a bed-in for peace in Amsterdam.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1969 Mar 25, Max F. Eastman (86), US critic, essayist (Love and
Revolution), died.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1969 Mar 26, Marcus Welby MD, a TV movie was shown on ABC-TV.
It began a popular series with Robert Young and ran to 1976.
(SS, 3/26/02)(WSJ, 1/10/03, p.A10)
1969 Mar 26, Writer John Kennedy Toole committed suicide at the
age of 32. His mother helped get his first and only novel, "A Confederacy
of Dunces," published. It went on to win the 1981 Pulitzer Prize.
(HN, 3/26/01)
1969 Mar 26, B. Traven, novelist and short-story writer, died.
He lived most of his life incognito in Mexico. His work included "The Treasure
of the Sierra Madre," "The Death Ship," The Rebellion of the Hanged" and
"The General from the Jungle." In 1976 Michael L. Baumann authored "B.
Traven, An Introduction." In 2000 Michael L. Baumann authored "Mr. Traven,
I Presume."
(SFEC, 10/15/00, BR p.8)
1969 Mar 26, Nuclear reactor in Dodewaard, Netherlands, went
into use.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1969 Mar 26, Soviet weather Satellite Meteor 1 was launched.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1969 Mar 28, Dwight D. Eisenhower (b.1890), the 34th president
of the United States, died at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington
at age 78. In 2002 Carlo D’Este authored "Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life."
AP, 3/28/97)(HN, 3/28/98)(WSJ, 7/12/02, p.W12)
1969 Apr 1, Helena Rubinstein (89), US cosmetic manufacturer,
died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1969 Apr 4, Denton Cooley implanted the 1st temporary artificial
heart. [see Apr 8]
(MC, 4/4/02)
1969 Apr 7, The Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting
private possession of obscene material.
(AP, 4/7/97)
1969 Apr 8, First artificial heart was implanted into human. [see
Apr 4]
(HN, 4/8/98)
1969 Apr 9, Students and police clashed at Harvard Univ. In 1997
the incident was described by Roger Rosenblatt in his book: "Coming Apart."
(WSJ, 4/15/97, p.A16)
1969 Apr 9, The 1st flight of Concorde 002 was from Filton to
Bristol.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1969 Apr 12, Simon and Garfunkel released "The Boxer."
(MC, 4/12/02)
1969 Apr 14, In the 41st Academy Awards "Oliver," C. Robertson
and K. Hepburn, Streisand won.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1969 Apr 14, The first major league baseball game was played
in Montreal, Canada.
(HN, 4/14/98)
1969 Apr 14, Student Afro-American Society seized at Columbia
College.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1969 Apr 14, Tornado struck Dacca in East Pakistan killing 540.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1969 Apr 15, North Korea shot at US airplane above Japan sea.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1969 Apr 17, A jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of
assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
(AP, 4/17/97)(HN, 4/17/98)
1969 Apr 17, Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander
Dubcek, considered the architect of Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring, was
deposed.
(AP, 4/17/97)(MC, 4/17/02)
1969 Apr 18, Melina Mercouri established the Greek Aid Fund.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1969 Apr 19, In Ithaca N.Y. some 80 armed, militant black students
at Cornell Univ. took over Willard Straight Hall. They demanded a black
studies program and cut a deal with frightened administrators for total
amnesty. In 1999 Donald Alexander Downs described the events in his book:
"Cornell '69."
(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A18)
1969 Apr 22, In the Golden Globe boat race one man became the
1st to single-handedly sail nonstop around the world. In 2001 Peter Nichols
authored "A Voyage for Madmen."
(SSFC, 8/5/01, DB p.61)
1969 Apr 22, The 1st human eye transplant was performed.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1969 Apr 23, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating
New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The sentence was later reduced to life
imprisonment.
(AP, 4/23/97)(HN, 4/23/99)
1969 Apr 24, Paul McCartney denied rumors he is dead.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1969 Apr 24, US B-52's dropped 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1969 Apr 24, The Lebanese army battled with Palestinians.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1969 Apr 28, French President Charles de Gaulle resigned his office.
Alain Pohrer (1909-1996) as president of the Senate then served as interim
president for 7 weeks.
(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C8)(AP, 4/28/97)
1969 Apr 30, US troops in Vietnam peaked at 543,000. Over 33,000
had already been killed.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1969 May 2, Franz JHMM von Papen (89), German chancellor (1932),
died.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1969 May 4, F. Osbert S. Sitwell (76), English poet (Who Killed
Cock Robin?), died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1969 May 5, A Pulitzer prize was awarded to Norman Mailer (Armies
of the Night).
(MC, 5/5/02)
1969 May 7, The Cunard Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) sailed into New
York Harbor for the first time under Commodore William Warwick (d.1999
at 86).
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A17)
1969 May 10, The Battle of Hamburger Hill began and lasted to
May 20. In Vietnam US military strength peaked in this year with 550,000
men. Identified on American battle maps as Hill 937 the battle for Hamburger
Hill, actually Ap Bia Mountain, which cost Americans 46 killed and 400
wounded, was one of the most significant battles of the Vietnam War as
it spelled the end of major American ground combat operations. The ground
gained in the battle was soon abandoned to the North Vietnamese Army, which
lost some 633 soldiers killed in the fight. The American losses at Hamburger
Hill, though not the most in one single action of the war, set off a firestorm
of protest in the U.S. [see May 20]
(HFA, '96, p.30)(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A15)(HNQ, 4/4/99)(SFC, 4/27/00,
p.A18)
1969 May 11, The Monty Python comedy troupe formed.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1969 May 11, The Battle of Hamburger Hill began. [see May 10]
(HFA, '96, p.30)(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A15)
1969 May 12, Viet Cong sappers tried unsuccessfully to overrun
Landing Zone Snoopy in Vietnam.
(HN, 5/12/99)
1969 May 13, P. Wild discovered asteroid #1775, Zimmerwald.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1969 May 14, Three companies of the 101st Airborne Division failed
to push North Vietnamese forces off Hill 937 (Hamburger Hill) in South
Vietnam.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1969 May 14, Abortion and contraception was legalized in Canada.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1969 May 15, Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned amid a
controversy over his past legal fees.
(AP, 5/15/99)
1969 May 15, UC officials fenced People’s Park and planned to
build dormitories. This prompted some 3,000 protesters to try to seize
it back. Gov. Reagan placed Berkeley under martial law and dispatched tear
gas-spraying helicopters and riot police who shot and killed one man.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F7)
1969 May 16, Venera 5 landed on Venus and returned data on atmosphere.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1969 May 18, "Canterbury Tales" closed at Eugene O'Neill in NYC
after 122 performances.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1969 May 18, In Vietnam two battalions of the 101st Airborne
Division assaulted Hill 937 (Hamburger Hill) but could not reach the top
because of muddy conditions.
(HN, 5/18/00)
1969 May 18, Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Thomas P. Stafford
and John W. Young blasted off aboard Apollo 10.
(AP, 5/18/97)
1969 May 20, U.S. troops of the 101st Airborne Division and South
Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, Hill 937, after nine days of
fighting entrenched North Vietnamese forces. Apbia was referred to as Hamburger
Hill by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam
War.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/02)
1969 May 21, Robert Kennedy's murderer, Sirhan Sirhan, was sentenced
to death.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1969 May 22, The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the
command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a
dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1969 May 23, BBC ordered 13 episodes of Monty Python's Flying
Circus.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1969 May 23, The Who released their rock opera "Tommy."
(MC, 5/23/02)
1969 May 25, Anne Heche, actress (Donnie Brasco, Juror, Volcano),
was born in Aurora, OH.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1969 May 25, Matt Borlenghi, actor (Brian Bodine-All My Children),
was born in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1969 May 25, "Midnight Cowboy" was released with an X rating.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1969 May 25, The Israeli Army made the first of four unsuccessful
assaults on Arab forces in the town of Latrun, Israel.
(HN, 5/25/99)
1969 May 25, Sudanese government was overthrown in a military
coup.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1969 May 26, The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after
a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.
(AP, 5/26/97)
1969 May 27, Walt Disney World construction began in Florida.
(HN, 5/27/98)
1969 May 28, Rhys Williams (71), actor (Nightmare, Okinawa, Corn
is Green), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1969 May 29, Britain's Trans-Arctic expedition made the 1st crossing
of Arctic Sea ice.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1969 May 31, John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded "Give Peace a Chance."
(HN, 5/31/98)
1969 Jun 1, Tobacco advertising was banned on Canadian radio
& TV.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1969 Jun 2, Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne sliced the destroyer
USS Frank E. Evans in half off the shore of South Vietnam. 74 people were
killed.
(HN, 6/2/98)(SC, 6/2/02)
1969 Jun 3, Last episode of Star Trek aired on NBC (Turnabout
Intruder).
(MC, 6/3/02)
1969 Jun 4, A 22-year-old man sneaked into wheel pod of a jet
parked in Havana & survived a 9-hr flight to Spain despite thin oxygen
levels at 29,000 ft.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1969 Jun 5, There was a race riot in Hartford, Connecticut.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1969 Jun 6, Joe Namath resigned from NFL after Pete Rozelle, football
commissioner, said he must sell his stake in a bar.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1969 Jun 7, Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash combined on a Grand Ole
Opry TV special.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1969 Jun 7, Tommy James & the Shondells released "Crystal
Blue Persuasion."
(SC, 6/7/02)
1969 Jun 8, President Richard Nixon met with President Thieu of
South Vietnam to tell him 25,000 U.S. troops will pull out by August.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1969 Jun 9, The U.S. Senate confirmed Warren Burger to be the
new chief justice of the United States, succeeding Earl Warren.
(AP, 6/9/97)
1969 Jun 11, David Bowie released "Space Oddity."
(SC, 6/11/02)
1969 Jun 11, John L. Lewis (89), formed Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO), died.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1969 Jun 11, Soviet and Chinese troops clashed on Sinkiang border.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1969 Jun 17, The raunchy musical review "Oh! Calcutta!"
opened in New York.
(AP, 6/17/97)
1969 Jun 17, Black Panther William Brent became the 28th person
this year to hijack a US airplane to Cuba. The Cubans put him in jail for
two years. He published his memoir in 1996 titled "Long Time Gone."
(SFC, 6/3/96, BR p.3)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.C10)
1969 Black Panther Anthony Garnet Bryant, aka Tony Bryant (d.1999
at 60), hijacked a National Airlines plane enroute from NY to Miami and
directed it to Cuba. He was arrested in Cuba and spent a year and a half
in jail and was pardoned in 1980. His 1984 book "Hijack" described his
experience in Cuban prisons.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.C10)
1969 Byron Vaughn Booth hijacked a National Airlines jet to Cuba
after escaping from a California prison. He was arrested in Nigeria in
2001 and returned to the US.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.C14)
1969 Jun 19, R.C., "Jumping Jack Flash" by the Rolling Stones
peaked at #1 on the U.K. pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1969 Jun 21, Dmitri Shostakovitch's 14th Symphony, premiered in
Moscow.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1969 Jun 22, Aretha Franklin was arrested in Detroit for creating
a disturbance.
(YarraNet, 6/22/00)
1969 Jun 22, The highly polluted Cuyahoga River in Cleveland,
Ohio, caught on fire.
(Hem., Oct. '95, p.83)(MC, 6/22/02)
1969 Jun 22, Judy Garland (47), film actress and star of "The
Wizard of Oz," died in London. In 1975 Gerold Frank authored the biography
"Judy." In 2000 Gerald Clarke authored "Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland."
(SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.6)(AP, 6/22/99)(SFEC, 6/18/00, BR p.4)
1969 Jun 23, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of
the United States by the man he was succeeding, Earl Warren.
(AP, 6/23/97)
1969 Jun 27-28, Patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New
York City's Greenwich Village, clashed with police in The Stonewall Rebellion,
an incident considered the birth of the homosexual rights movement. Some
400 to 1,000 patrons rioted against police for 3 days The event was described
by gay historian Martin Duberman in his book "Stonewall" (1993).
(WSJ, 8/23/95, p.A-1)(SFEC, 7/21/96, DB p.32)(AP, 6/27/97)(MC,
6/27/02)
1969 Jun 27, 50,000 attended the Denver Pop Festival.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1969 Jun 27, Judy Garland was buried.
(SFEC, 7/21/96, DB p.32)
1969 Jun 27, Honduras and El Salvador broke diplomatic relations
due to soccer match. El Salvador and Honduras fought a 4-day "Soccer War"
when fans brought out long-simmering tensions during World cup qualifying
matches.
(WSJ, 6/19/98, p.W7)(MC, 6/27/02)
1969 Jul 1, Britain's Prince Charles was invested as the Prince
of Wales.
(AP, 7/1/99)
1969 Jul 2, Leslie West and Felix Pappalardi formed the rock group
Mountain.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1969 Jul 2, Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones, drowned.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1969 Jul 4, "Give Peace a Chance" by Plastic Ono Band was released
in UK.
(Maggio)
1969 Jul 4, 140,000 attended Atlanta Pop Festival featuring Led
Zeppelin & Janis Joplin.
(Maggio)
1969 Jul 4, In SF Jim and Artie Mitchell opened the Mitchell
Brothers O’Farrell Theater at O’Farrell and Polk.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A15)
1969 Jul 4, The California Zodiac killer shot and killed a waitress
in Vallejo.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)
1969 Jul 4, Italian Rumor government resigned.
(Maggio)
1969 Jul 4, USSR performed nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk
USSR.
(Maggio)
1969 Jul 5, Wilhelm Backhaus (85), German pianist (Rubinstein-1905),
died.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1969 Jul 5, Walter Gropius (86), architect, founder (Bauhaus
school of design), died.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1969 Jul 7, The first U.S. troops to withdraw from South Vietnam
left Saigon.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1969 Jul 7, Canada's House of Commons gave final approval to
a measure making the French language equal to English throughout the national
government.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1969 Jul 7, Der Spiegel revealed Munich's Bishop Defregger as
a war criminal.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1969 Jul 8, US troop withdrawal began in Vietnam.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1969 Jul 8, Thor Heyerdahl and his crew sailed their reed raft
Ra for 8 weeks days from Morocco and abandoned their trip 1 week shy of
Barbados. Heyerdahl sailed across the Atlantic in his Egyptian reed boat,
Ra, and reported on garbage floating everywhere in the sea.
(V.D.-H.K.p.343)(MC, 7/8/02)
1969 Jul 16, Apollo XI set out from Cape Canaveral (Cape Kennedy),
Florida, with Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the
first manned mission to the surface of the moon..
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/16/97)
1969 Jul 16, Vu Ngoc Nha (d.2002), top aide to presidents Ngo
Dinh Diem and Nguyen Van Thieu, was arrested in Saigon. The CIA uncovered
him as the head of a Communist espionage ring. He and 2 others were convicted
of treason and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A20)
1969 Jul 17, An FBI memo titled "New Left and Extremist Movements"
revealed Gov. Reagan’s plans for the destruction of disruptive elements
on California college campuses through "psychological warfare" and other
methods.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F8)
1969 Jul 18, A car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.,
plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard. His
passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, died.
(TMC, 1994, p.1969)(AP, 7/18/97)
1969 Jul 19, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
(AP, 7/19/99)
1969 Jul 20, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his legendary "one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
made the first successful landing of a manned vehicle on the moon when
they touched down in Apollo 11. Armstrong stepped down from the ladder
of the landing module Eagle to become the first man ever to walk on the
moon. The two astronauts explored the moon's surface for 2 1/2 hours, with
amazed TV audiences looking on. Armstrong was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments and his contributions to the space
program. Edwin Aldrin became the second man to step foot on the moon shortly
after Neil Armstrong hopped off the lunar lander Eagle at 10:56 p.m. Armstrong
and Aldrin walked on the moon for about two hours during their 22-hour
lunar stay. Thomas Kelly (d.2002 at 72) was the engineer who had overseen
the building of the lunar module.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341) (TMC, 1994, p.1969)(AP, 7/20/97)(HNPD,
7/20/98)(HNQ, 9/14/00)(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A24)
1969 Jul 21, Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon at 2:56:15 a.m.
(GMT). Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin blasted
off from the moon aboard the lunar module.
(OGA, 11/24/98)(AP, 7/21/99)
1969 Jul 21, Riots in York, Pa., left 2 people dead, Lillie Belle
Allen (27) along with rookie officer Henry Schaad (22). Schaad was mortally
wounded 3 days before Allen was killed. Over 60 people were arrested as
one city block burned. In 2001 Arthur (47) and Robert Messersmith (52)
were arrested for the slaying of Allen. In 2001 Rick Lynn Knouse (48) and
Gregory Henry Neff (53), former members of the Girarders white street gang,
were also charged in the murders. In 2001 York Mayor Charles Robertson
was arrested on homicide charges for allegedly handing out ammunition to
white gang members and exhorting them to "Kill as many niggers as you can."
In 2001 Thomas P. Smith was accused in the ambush shooting of Allen. In
2001 Stephen Freeland (49) and Leon Wright (53) were charged in the murder
of officer Schaad. Robertson was acquitted in 2002. Messersmith and Neff
were found guilty of 2nd degree murder. 6 white men were sentenced up to
3 years in prison. Wright's brother Michael implicated himself in 2003
and was charged for the murder of Schaad.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A5)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A7)(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A2)(SFC,
5/22/01, p.A5)(YD, 5/24/01)(YD, 6/25/00)(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C2)(SSFC, 10/20/02,
p.A7)(SFC, 11/14/02, p.A8)(BS, 6/26/03, 5A)
1969 Jul 23, The Apollo XI astronauts, including the first two
men to set foot on the moon, splashed down safely in the Pacific.
(AP, 7/23/98)
1969 Jul 24, Muhammad Ali was convicted on appeal for refusing
induction in US Army.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1969 Jul 24, The Apollo XI astronauts, two of whom had been the
first men to set foot on the moon, splashed down safely in the Pacific.
They were picked up by the 42,000 ton USS Hornet. The Hornet was decommissioned
in 1970 and set up as a museum in 1998 in Alameda, Ca.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/24/97)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A22)
1969 Jul 25, A week after the Chappaquiddick accident that claimed
the life of Mary Jo Kopechne, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy pleaded guilty to
a charge of leaving the scene of an accident.
(AP, 7/25/99)
1969 Jul, Stokely Carmichael, black power advocate, broke ties
with the Black Panthers and moved to Guinea.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A7)
1969 Aug 5, The U.S. space probe Mariner 7 flew by Mars, sending
back photographs and scientific data. It returned 127 images of the South
Polar icecap and southern hemisphere. Mariner 6 also flew past Mars this
year and returned 75 images of the Martian equator along with the surface
temperature, atmospheric pressure and composition.
(AP, 8/5/97) (SFC, 12/8/99, p.A19)
1969 Aug 8, In England Iain MacMillan took pictures of the Beatles
as they crossed Abbey Road for the cover of their "Abbey Road" album.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, p.T4)
1969 Aug 8, Actress Sharon Tate (26) and four other people were
brutally murdered in her Beverly Hills home; cult leader Charles Manson
and a group of his disciples were later convicted of the crime. The best
writing on the Manson murders was by Joan Didion in "The White Album."
(SFEC, 3/16/97, Z1 p.4)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN, 8/9/98)(SFEC, 9/19/99,
BR p.6)
1969 Aug 9, Actress Sharon Tate and four other people were found
brutally murdered in her Los Angeles home; cult leader Charles Manson and
a group of his disciples were later convicted of the crime. Charles Manson's
followers killed actress Sharon Tate and her three guests in her Beverly
Hills home. The dead included Abigail Folger and Voyteck Freykowski.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.4)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN, 8/9/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1969 Aug 10, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their
Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson's cult, one day after actress
Sharon Tate and four other people were slain.
(AP, 8/10/97)
1969 Aug 12, American installations at Quan-Loi, Vietnam, came
under Viet Cong attack.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1969 Aug 12, The Apprentice Boys, a Protestant fraternal group,
led a parade that ignited rioting in the Bogside section of Londonderry,
Northern Ireland, that led to the bloody period known as The Troubles.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A8)
1969 Aug 14, British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene
in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics. The outlawed
Irish Republican Army came into Northern Ireland to protect and encourage
Catholics and the Provisional IRA soon began terrorist actions against
the British troops and Protestant civilians. This culminated in an attack
on the Bogside which started on August 12 and ended Aug 14. Some 500 houses
were burned to the ground, 1,500 people forced from their homes, and 9
people murdered.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A8)(AP, 8/14/97)(HNQ, 8/17/99)(MC, 8/14/02)
1969 Aug 15, The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate
New York. 400,000 young people gathered at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in the
Bethel hamlet of White Lake, N.Y. for the Woodstock music festival. Wavy
Gravy (Hugh Romney) and companions from the Hog Farm Commune handled security
and ran a free kitchen and "bad trips tent." The performers included Joan
Baez; Crosby, Stills and Nash; Creedence Clearwater; the Grateful Dead;
Jimi Hendrix; the Jefferson Airplane; Janis Joplin; Canned Heat and Ravi
Shankar. The 1st group to perform was the band Sweetwater with lead singer
Nansi Nevins.
(TMC, 1994, p.1969)(SFC,5/17/96,p.E-1)(WSJ,10/22/96,p.A20)(SFEC,1/26/97,
p.A14)(AP, 8/15/97)(SFC,10/27/97, p.C2)(SFC, 2/3/99, p.E1)(WSJ, 8/9/99,
p.A16)
1969 Aug 17, The Woodstock Music and Art Fair concluded near Bethel,
N.Y.
(AP, 8/17/97)
1969 Aug 17, 248 people were killed as Hurricane Camille slammed
into the Gulf Coast at Pass Christian, Miss. Damage was later estimated
at $3.8 billion.
(AP, 8/17/97)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A17)
1969 Aug 18, Two concert goers died at the Woodstock Music and
Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from an overdose of heroin, the other
from a burst appendix.
(HN, 8/18/99)
1969 Aug 28, In Quang Nam province of Vietnam Corporal Jose Francisco
Jimenez died of wounds after leading an attack that took out an antiaircraft
weapon and an entrenchment of automatic weapons fire.
(WSJ, 11/11/96, p.A14)
1969 Aug 31, Andrew Phillip Cunanan, serial killer, was born.
His victims included fashion designer Gianni Versache.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1969 Aug 31, Boxer Rocky Marciano died in a light airplane crash
in Iowa, the day before his 46th birthday.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1969 Sep 1, A coup in Libya overthrew the monarchy and brought
Moammar Gadhafi to power. Gadhafi deposed King Idris in a Libyan revolution.
(AP, 9/1/99)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C12)(MC, 9/1/02)
1969 Sep 1, Drew Pearson (71), newscaster (Drew Pearson), died.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1969 Sep 2, The 1st 2 machines of ARPANET were connected at Prof.
Len Kleinrock's lab at UCLA. The US Dept. of Defense’s Advanced Research
and Projects Agency (ARPANET) launched a self-healing computer network
with TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). By the
early 1980’s the military component became a separate network and the true
birth of today’s Internet is marked.
(CompuServe Mag., 6/95, p.18)(SFC, 8/30/99, p.C10)(SFC, 9/3/99,
p.C1)
1969 Sep 2, North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh died. The
son of a poor scholar, Ho Chi Minh led the nationalist movement of his
country for three decades. Ho Chi Minh became an active socialist while
in France where he petitioned for colonial reforms following World War
I. His involvement with the international communist movement continued
into the 1920s, meeting and working with communist leaders in Europe and
the newly formed Soviet Union. He formed the Indochinese Communist Party
in 1930 and its successor, the Viet-Minh, in 1941, going on to serve as
president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death.
[see Sep 3]
(AP, 9/2/97)(HNQ, 5/1/01)
1969 Sep 3, Ho Chi Minh [Nguyen Ta't-Tanh], the leader of North
Vietnam, died at age 79. [see Sep 2]
(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1969 Sep 4, The Food and Drug Administration issued a report calling
birth control pills safe, despite a slight risk of fatal blood-clotting
disorders linked to the pills.
(AP, 9/4/99)
1969 Sep 6, "Cabaret" closed at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 1166
performances.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1969 Sep 7, Senate Republican leader Everett McKinley Dirksen
(Sen-R), ("The Wizard of Ooze") died at 73 in Washington, D.C.
(AP, 9/7/97)(MC, 9/7/01)
1969 Sep 9, Allegheny Flight 853 collided with Piper Cherokee
above Indiana. 82 were killed.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1969 Sep 11, Heavy bombing of Vietnam resumed under orders from
President Nixon. [see Sep 12]
(MC, 9/11/01)
1969 Sep 12, President Richard Nixon ordered a resumption in bombing
North Vietnam. [see Sep 11]
(HN, 9/12/98)
1969 Sep 13, John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, presented the
Plastic Ono Band in concert for the first time at the Toronto Peace Festival
(Lennon's first in four years). The 1st hit by the new group, "Give Peace
a Chance", made it to number 14 on the charts.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1969 Sep 14, Males of Swiss canton Schaffhausen rejected female
suffrage.
(MC, 9/14/01)
1969 Sep 18, Tiny Tim & Miss Vicky were engaged. They married
Dec 17.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1969 Sep 22, Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants became the
first baseball player since Babe Ruth to hit 600 home runs.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1969 Sep 23, The 1st broadcast of "Marcus Welby MD" on ABC-TV.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1969 Sep 24, The trial of the "Chicago Eight" (later seven) began.
Demonstrations began outside the court house, proclaiming the "Days of
Rage" in protest of the trial. The Chicago Eight staged demonstrations
at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to protest the Vietnam
War and its support by the top Democratic presidential candidate, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey. These anti-Vietnam War protests were some of
the most violent in American history as the police and national guardsmen
beat antiwar protesters, innocent bystanders and members of the press.
Five defendants (Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger,
Rennie Davis) were convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at
the 1968 Democratic national convention; the convictions were ultimately
overturned.
(AP, 9/24/99)(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A5)(MC, 9/24/01)
1969 Sep 26, The family comedy series "The Brady Bunch" premiered
on ABC-TV.
(AP, 9/26/99)
1969 Sep 26, The Beatles last album, "Abbey Road," was released.
Beatles Forever has the date as May 1970. The last hit LP for the "fab
four" zoomed quickly to the #1 spot on the charts and stayed there for
11 weeks.
(HFA, '96, p.38)(HN, 9/26/99)(Beat. For., 1995, p. 58)(MC, 9/26/01)
1969 Sep 27, The California Zodiac killer pulled a gun on two
teenagers at Lake Berryessa. He stabbed them repeatedly and killed the
girl.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)
1969 Sep 30, Nazi war criminals Albert Speer, the German minister
of armaments, and Baldur von Schirach, the founder of the Hitler Youth,
were freed at midnight from Spandau prison after serving twenty-year prison
sentences. In 2002 Joachim Fest authored the biography: "Speer: The final
Verdict."
(MC, 9/30/01)(SSFC, 10/6/02, p.M3)
1969 Sep, The first Internet message was a packet switch delivered
to UCLA from BBN (Bolt Beranek and Newman).
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.3)
1969 Sep, Susan Nason (8) of Foster City, Ca., was bludgeoned
to death. Her body was found 2 months later near Crystal Springs. In Dec
1989 Nason's neighbor and schoolmate, Eileen Franklin-Lipsker, told police
that she suddenly remembered seeing her father batter her friend and hide
the body. George Franklin was convicted in the first case to use recovered-memory
testimony. Franklin was released after 6 1/2 years when a federal judge
ruled a mistrial.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A21)
1969 Oct 1, Guernsey & Jersey begin issuing their own postage
stamps.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1969 Oct 1, The prototype Concorde 001, designed by the British
and French, broke the sound barrier during a test flight. Commercial service
began in 1976.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.B1)(MC, 10/1/01)
1969 Oct 5, Monty Python's Flying Circus made its debut on BBC
Television. It ran on British TV until 1974.
(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)(AP, 10/5/98)
1969 Oct 5, A Cuban defector entered US air space undetected
and landed his Soviet-made MiG-17 at Homestead Air Force Base near Miami,
Florida, where the presidential aircraft Air Force One was waiting to return
President Richard M. Nixon to DC.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1969 Oct 6, Special Forces Captain John McCarthy was released
from Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary, pending consideration of his appeal
to murder charges.
(HN, 10/6/99)
1969 Oct 11, The Zodiac killer shot and killed SF cab driver Paul
Stine (29) at Cherry and Washington in Presidio Heights. This was his last
known murder. His last authenticated communication was in 1974.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)
1969 Oct 12, Nancy Ann Kerrigan, figure skater (Olympics-silver-1994)
was born in Woburn, Mass.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1969 Oct 12, Serge Poliakoff, Russian-French painter, died.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1969 Oct 14, Race riots took place in Springfield, Mass.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1969 Oct 15, Peace demonstrators staged activities across the
country, including a candlelight march around the White House, as part
of a moratorium against the Vietnam War.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1969 Oct 15, The Bank of America World Headquarters, 555 California
St. in SF, was dedicated.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1969 Oct 19, J. Bock's and S. Harnick's musical "Rothschilds,"
premiered in NYC and ran for 505 performances.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1969 Nov 10, The children's educational program "Sesame Street"
made its debut on PBS.
(AP, 11/10/99)
1969 Oct 13-25, Pres. Nixon ordered a worldwide "secret" nuclear
alert to scare the Soviets into forcing concessions from North Vietnam.
Nixon called that tactic a "madman strategy," and it did not work.
(SFC, 12/25/02, p.A7)
1969 Oct 15, Peace demonstrators staged activities across the
country, including a candlelight march around the White House, as part
of a moratorium against the Vietnam War.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1969 Oct 16, The New York Mets capped a miraculous season, winning
the World Series in Game 5, a 5-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
(AP, 10/16/99)
1969 Oct 18, The federal government banned artificial sweeteners
known as cyclamates because of evidence they caused cancer in laboratory
rats.
(AP, 10/18/97)
1969 Oct 21, Picasso painted "Painter and Infant," an allegory
of artistic transmission from one generation to the next.
(SFC, 7/17/01, p.A16)
1969 Oct 21, Leonard Gersh's "Butterflies are Free," premiered
in NYC. It was written by Leonard Gershe (d.2002) and was adopted to film
in 1972.
(MC, 10/21/01)(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A27)
1969 Oct 21, Jack Kerouac (47), Beat Generation chronicler, died
of alcoholism in St. Petersburg, Fla. He wrote "On the Road," "Desolation
Angels," "Vanity of Duluoz," and "Dharma Bums." Japhy Ryder the Zen hobo-poet
in the book was modeled after poet Gary Snyder. In 1979 Dennis McNally
authored the biography "Desolate Angel." In 1998 Ellis Amburn published
"Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac." In 1999 Barry
Miles published "Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats: A Portrait."
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A22)(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.30)(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A17)(SFEC,
8/9/98, BR 9 p.3)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.3)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.M1)
1969 Oct 22, Giovanni Martinelli, Italian opera singer (NY Met),
died on his 84th birthday.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1969 Oct 27, Ralph Nader set up a consumer organization known
as Nader's Raiders.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1969 Oct 29, The U.S. Supreme Court ordered immediate desegregation,
superseding the previous "with all deliberate speed" ruling.
(HN, 10/29/98)
1969 Oct 31, There was a race riot in Jacksonville, Florida.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1969 Oct, The painting "Nativity" by Caravaggio was stolen from
the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily. Peter Watson, English novelist,
later wrote "The Caravaggio Conspiracy," an account of his 1981-1982 attempt
to recover the work.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A20)
1969 Oct, Researchers at Stanford sent the first e-mail message
across the Arpanet. The US Dept. of Defense’s Advanced Research and Projects
Agency (ARPANET) launched a self-healing computer network with TCP/IP (Transmission
Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). By the early 1980’s the military
component became a separate network and the true birth of today’s Internet
was marked. [see Sep 2]
(CS Mag., 6/95, p.18)(WSJ, 1/14/99, p.A1)
1969 Oct, In Somalia Marxist dictator Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre
staged a coup and threw PM Mohamed Ibrahim Egal in jail, where he spent
12 years.
(SFC, 8/16/96, p.A18)(SFEC, 8/31/97, Par p.16)
1969 Nov 5, In Chicago Judge Hoffman ordered that the trial of
Bobby Seale be separated from 7 others in the Chicago 8 trial.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A5)
1969 Nov 5, Bobby Seale, the founder of the Black Panther Party
for Self-Defense and one of the Chicago Eight, was sentenced to four years
in prison on sixteen counts of contempt of court.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1969 Nov 9, A group of American Indians occupied Alcatraz Island.
The story is told in the 1996 book "The Occupation of Alcatraz Island,
Indian Self-Determination and the Rise of Indian Activism" by Troy R. Johnson.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. H2)(SFEC, 1/5/97, BR p.8)
1969 Nov 12, The US Army admitted to the 1968 Vietnam massacre
of civilians at My Lai and announced an investigation of Lt William Calley
for massacre of civilians at the Vietnamese village on March 16, 1968.
The number of civilians who were killed numbered at least 100. Lt. Calley
was later found guilty of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment at
hard labor. Calley was the only person ever charged in connection with
the events at My Lai. The nation was shocked and divided by the claims
from Calley that he was following orders and that he was a scapegoat. President
Richard Nixon in 1971 ordered him released from prison and placed under
house arrest, and finally a federal judge threw out all charges against
Calley and ordered him freed. Although the charges were later re-instated
on appeal, he served no more jail time for the massacre at My Lai.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)(MC, 11/12/01)
1969 Nov 12, Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from
Soviet Writers Union.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1969 Nov 13, Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spiro
T. Agnew accused network television news departments of bias and distortion,
and urged viewers to lodge complaints.
(AP, 11/13/97)
1969 Nov 14, The United States launched Apollo 12 for the moon
from Cape Kennedy.
(AP, 11/14/97)(HN, 11/14/98)
1969 Nov 15, A quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful
demonstration in Washington, D.C., against the Vietnam War.
(AP, 11/15/97)(HN, 11/15/98)
1969 Nov 15, Wendy's Hamburgers opened.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1969 Nov 18, Financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis
Port, Mass., at age 81.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1969 Nov 19, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean
made man's second landing on the moon. The second manned craft to land
on the moon was the lunar module Intrepid. It landed on the lunar surface
at 1:54 a.m. Intrepid landed 500 feet from the Surveyor 3 spacecraft. It
spent 31 hours on the moon and docked with command module Yankee Clipper
on November 20 and splashed down in the Pacific on November 24.
(AP, 11/19/97)(HN, 11/19/98)(HNQ, 7/19/99)
1969 Nov 20, The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential
use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase-out.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1969 Nov 20, A group of 80 Native Americans, all college students,
seized Alcatraz Island in the name of "Indians of All Tribes." The occupation
lasted 19 months. They offered $24 in beads and cloth to buy the island,
demanded an American Indian Univ., museum and cultural center, and listed
reasons why the island was a suitable Indian reservation.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)
1969 Nov 21, The Senate voted down the nomination of Clement F.
Haynsworth to the Supreme Court, the first time since 1930 that a candidate
for the nation's highest court was rejected.
(AP, 11/21/97)
1969 Nov 22, The Isolation of a single gene was announced by scientists
at Harvard Univ.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1969 Nov 24, Lt. William L Calley, charged with massacre of over
100 civilians in My Lai Vietnam in March 1968, was ordered to stand trial
by court martial.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1969 Nov 24, Apollo 12 splashed down safely in the Pacific, ending
the second manned mission to the moon.
(AP, 11/24/97)
1969 Nov 25, John Lennon returned OBE to protest UK's support
for Vietnam War.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1969 Nov 26, Lottery for Selective Service draftees bill was signed
by President Nixon.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1969 Nov 28, The Rolling Stones' "Let It Bleed" album was released.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1969 Dec 1, The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since
World War II in 1942.
(AP, 12/1/97)(HN, 12/1/98)
1969 Dec 2, Kliment J. Voroshilov, president USSR (1953-60), died.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1969 Dec 3, John Lennon was offered the role of Jesus Christ in
Jesus Christ Superstar.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1969 Dec 4, In Chicago police stormed an apartment on the West
Side and killed 2 Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Panther
defense minister Bobby Rush had left the site just hours earlier.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA4)
1969 Dec 6, The Rolling Stones staged a rock concert at the Altamount
Speedway in Livermore, Ca. for some 300,000 fans. The Stones hired the
Hells Angels for security. Fans were beaten and one person, Meredith Hunter,
was stamped and stabbed to death by a Hell's Angel during the show. The
1970 documentary film "Gimme Shelter" was about the Rolling Stones concert
at Altamount.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W28,36)(SFEC, 3/8/98, DB p.47)(SFEC, 5/23/99,
Z1 p.4)(AP, 12/6/99)(SFC, 6/10/00, p.B5)
1969 Dec 8, Police made a surprise attack on Black-Panthers in
LA.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1969 Dec 13, Arlo Guthrie released "Alice's Restaurant."
(MC, 12/13/01)
1969 Dec 13, Raymond A. Spruance (83), US Admiral (Battle of
Midway), died.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1969 Dec 16, The British House of Commons voted 343-185 to abolish
the death penalty. [see Dec 18]
(MC, 12/16/01)
1969 Dec 17, An estimated 50 million TV viewers watched singer
Tiny Tim marry his fiancé, Miss Vicky, on NBC's "Tonight Show."
(AP, 12/17/99)
1969 Dec 17, The U.S. Air Force closed its Project "Blue Book"
by finding no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands
of UFO sightings. It had begun in 1948 as Project Sign.
(AP, 12/17/97)(HNQ, 5/30/00)
1969 Dec 18, Britain's Parliament abolished the death penalty
for murder. [see Dec 16]
(AP, 12/18/97)
1969 Dec 20, Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane"
reached #1.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1969 Dec 21, Diana Ross made her final TV appearance as a Supreme
on the Ed Sullivan Show.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1969 Dec 21, Vince Lombardi (Redskins) coached his last football
game and lost.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1969 Dec 21, U.S. draft evaders gathered for a holiday dinner
in Montreal, Canada.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1969 Dec 26, Timothy Leary was sentenced to 10 years in prison
for possession of marijuana.
(SFC, 6/1/96, p.A7)
1969 Dec 28, Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers," premiered
in NYC.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1969 Dec 31, In Clarksville, Pa., Joseph Yablonski was murdered
with his wife and daughter. Yablonski had lost an election for the presidency
of the United Mine Workers 3 weeks earlier. [see Jan 5, 1970]
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C2)
1969 Dec 31, Salvatore Baccaloni (69), opera basso buffa and
actor (Full of Life), died.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1969 Dec, A US recession began.
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A12)
1969 Fernando Botero, surrealist Colombian painter, created "The
Butcher's Table," a pig's head laughing at his own slaughter.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.W12)
1969 Artists Douglas Huebler (d.1997 at 72), Robert Barry and
Lawrence Weiner held an exhibition in New York that was later (1971) credited
by a critic as originating the conceptual movement. This was an emphasis
on art as an idea rather than an object in a reaction to the pop and op
art of the 1960s.
(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A18)
1969 Robert Rauschenberg created his "Carnal Clock" series of
collages.
(WSJ, 9/25/97, p.A20)
1969 Artist Sol LeWitt wrote his seminal article "Sentences on
Conceptual Art" and stated that "Ideas can be works of art."
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.C5)
1969 Robert H. Boyle wrote: "The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural
History."
(Nat. Hist, 3/96, p.5)
1969 Joan Erikson, psychologist, wrote "The Universal Bead."
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A19)
1969 Buckminster Fuller wrote his "Operating Manual for Spaceship
Earth."
(Wired, 9/96, p.34)
1969 Frances and Joseph Gies wrote "Life in a Medieval City."
(MT, Fall ‘96, p.7)
1969 Peter V. Glob, Danish archeologist, authored "The Bog People:
Iron Age man Preserved."
(AM, 7/97, p.62)
1969 Eric F. Goldman authored "The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson."
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.D4)
1969 David Halberstam authored "The Best and the Brightest," a
book about the men who managed the US war in Vietnam.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A24)
1969 Grace Halsell authored "Soul Sister," which described her
experiences disguised as a black woman.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D8)
1969 Alan Harrington (d.1997 at 79) published "The Immortalist."
It was about a future utopia in which death has been conquered by technology.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.C4)
1969 Anton LaVey published his "Satanic Bible" in SF.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A22)
1969 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote "On Death and Dying." The book
helped to launch the hospice movement in the US.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A13)
1969[?] Vera Brodsky Lawrence (1909-1996), pianist, editor and historian
of American music, published "The Piano Music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk."
(SFC, 9/22/96, C12)
1969 Seymour Lubetzky (d.2002 at 104), former US Library of Congress
cataloger and UCLA professor, published "Principles of Cataloging," which
became a staple for library schools.
(SFC, 4/17/03, p.A22)
1969 Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert published "Perceptrons:
An Introduction to Computational Geometry." It was a mathematical proof
that devices, as they existed, could never "learn" to recognize complex
shapes and so could never become more than interesting toys.
(Wired, 5/97, p.146)
1969 D.W. Sciama published his book "The Physical Foundations
of General Relativity."
(TNG, Klein, p.154)
1969 Prof. Edward Shils (d.1995) published "Dreams of Plenitude,
Nightmares of Scarcity" in which he compared the radicalism of the 1930s
to that of the 1960s.
(WSJ, 7/21/97, p.A22)
1969 Herbert Stein told the story of the Kennedy-Johnson tax cut
in his book: "The Fiscal Revolution in America."
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A14)
1969 "The Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton was published.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A5)
1969 Diane de Prima authored "Memoirs of a Beatnik."
(SSFC, 4/22/01, BR p.5)
1969 Clifford Irving published "Fake," the story of Hungarian
art forger Elmyr de Hory (d.1976). The int'l. de Hory scam became public
in 1967. Irving and De Hory were featured in the 1975 Orson Welles film
"F" for Fake.
(SFC, 7/29/99, p.E6)
1969 James Michener (d.1997 at 90) wrote "Presidential Lottery."
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)
1969 Mario Puzo wrote his novel "The Godfather." It was made into
a hit movie in 1972.
(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)
1969 Kurt Vonnegut wrote "Slaughterhouse-Five." It was set in
Dresden, Germany, during the allied bombing of the city on Feb 13, 1945.
He also wrote "Mother Night" (1961) which was made into a film in 1996.
(WSJ, 10/22/96, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/1/96, p.A11)
1969 "Dear World" played with Angel Lansbury.
(SFEC, 12/8/96, Par p.18)
1969 The musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" by Andrew Lloyd Weber was produced.
1969 The "Della Reese Show" played one season on TV.
(SFEC,1/19/97, Par p.22)
1969 George Vicas (d.1997 at 71) produced a TV film for NBC on
Artur Rubinstein.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A21)
1969 "Sesame Street" began on PBS TV.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.39)
1969 Captain Beefheart (aka Don Van Vliet, b.1941) and His Magic
Band recorded "Trout Mask Replica." In 1999 a 5-CD Beefheart set was released
by Revenant Records. In 1999 Bill Harkleroad published: "Lunar Notes: Zoot
Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience." In 2002 Mike Barnes authored
"Captain Beefheart: The Biography."
(SFEC, 6/6/99, DB p.46)(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.M3)
1969 Luciano Berio composed his 10-minute imagistic piano duet
"Memory." "The piece is punctuated at unpredictable intervals with jarring
discords."
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.C13)
1969 Dave Brubeck composed "The Gates of Justice," a 45-minute
oratorio for chorus, tenor, bass-baritone, brass, percussion and jazz trio.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, DB p.33)
1969 Credence Clearwater Revival put out its "Willy and the Poorboys"
LP. The cover featured a photo of the band in front of the Duck Kee Market
in Oakland. Creedence had a hit this year with "Oh! Lord, I'm stuck in
Lodi again.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A19)(WSJ, 7/21/99, p.CA1)
1969 Merle Haggard made a hit with his song "Okie From Muskogee"
and "The Fightin’ Side of Me."
(SSFC, 12/10/00, Par p.7)
1969 The Iron Butterfly rock group scored a hit with the 17-minute
tune "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida."
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A20)
1969 The group It's A Beautiful Day recorded "White Bird."
(SFEC, 12/19/99, DB p.41)
1969 Kenny Rogers made a hit with his song "don’t Take Your Love
to Town."
(SSFC, 5/20/01, Par p.22)
1969 Oliver (William Oliver Swofford, d. 2000 at 54) recorded
the hits "Jean" and "Good Morning Starshine."
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.C2)
1969 Warner Bros. released the Bernie Krause album "In a Wild
Sanctuary." It was an album of nature oriented sounds. In 1999 Krause authored
"Into a Wild Sanctuary: A Life in Music and Natural Sound."
(SFEC, 5/16/99, BR p.4)
1969 San Francisco Guitarist Carlos Santana and his band recorded
their first album featuring such tunes as "Evil Ways," "Black Magic Woman"
and Oye Como Va." The other members were Jose Chepito Areas (percussionist),
Michael Carrabello (percussionist), David Brown (bassist), Gregg Rolie
(keyboardist) and Michael Shrieve (drums). The band was inducted in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.E1)
1969 Former 'Puff the Magic Dragon' gunship pilot James P. 'Bull'
Durham was a true balladeer of the Vietnam War.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1969 Shel Silverstein (d.1999 at 66) wrote the song "A Boy Named
Sue," which became a hit for Johnny Cash. Silverstein, a playwright and
cartoonist, established himself as a children's writer and published the
classic "The Giving Tree" in 1964.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A19)
1969 Skip Spence (d.1999 at 52), the original drummer for the
Jefferson Airplane and founding guitarist-member of Moby Grape, recorded
his folk-psychedelic solo album, "Oar." He gave the Bay Area band, Pud,
a new name - the Doobie Brothers. He recorded the "Oar" album fresh from
involuntary commitment at New York's Bellevue Hosp. In 1999 the album "More
Oar - A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album" was released.
(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A19)(WSJ, 9/20/99, p.A26)
1969 The Rolling Stones released their "Let It Bleed" album.
(SFC, 8/27/02, p.D1)
1969 Dusty Springfield (d.1999) recorded her album "Dusty in Memphis."
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.D2)
1969 Rod Stewart made his solo debut with "The Rod Stewart Album."
(USAT, 3/24/99, p.5E)
1969 Sir Michael Tippett, British composer, premiered his 3rd
opera "The Knot Garden" based on a love scene between two men.
(SFC, 1/10/98, p.A19)
1969 Tony Williams (d.1997) left Miles Davis and helped form the
Jazz-rock fusion trio Lifetime with guitarist John McLaughlin and organist
Larry Young.
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.B2)
1969 In Fremont, New Hampshire, Austin Wiggin led his 3 daughters,
named The Shaggs, to record "Philosophy of the World." The recording became
an underground legend and in 1999 RCA Victor released a CD version. Writer
Irwin Chusid devoted a chapter to the group in his 1999 book "Songs in
the Key of Z."
(WSJ, 3/2/99, p.A17)
1969 Neil Young produced his solo album with the title track "Everybody
Knows This Is Nowhere."
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A16)
1969 The world premier of "Requiem for a Young Poet" by Bernd
Alois Zimmermann was conducted by Michael Gielen in Dusseldorf. Zimmermann
committed suicide 9 moths later.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A20)
1969 Stephen Baffrey (1938-1996) reviewed "Jacques Brel Is Alive
and Well and Living in Paris." Brell, a Belgian singer, was buried in the
Marquesas Island of Hiva Oa, in the same cemetery as Paul Gauguin.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)
1969 The Roman Rite of the Catholic Mass was replaced by the Novus
Ordo Missae, whereby the Latin liturgy was replaced by the native language
of the individual congregations.
(WSJ, 5/5/97, p.A19)
1969 Bob Guccione and his wife Kathy Keeton (d.1997 at 58) brought
Penthouse Magazine from Britain to the US. It was a sex magazine with more
provocative poses than Playboy Magazine.
(WSJ, 3/22/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 9/25/97, p.B2)
1969 Toni Carabillo (d.1997 at 71) co-founded the Women’s Heritage
Corp. It published the Women’s heritage Calendar and Almanac and a series
of paperbacks on leading feminists.
(LAT, 9/29/97, p.A18)
1969 The Young America’s Foundation of Fairfax was founded to
teach patriotism, limit government and other values espoused by later Pres.
Ronald Reagan. In 1998 the foundation purchased the 680-acre Reagan ranch
north of Santa Barbara.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A3)
1969 Robert Redford bought 6000 acres in Provo Canyon with the
idea of establishing a community devoted to art and nature.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, Par p.2)
1969 Prof. Henry W. Kendall helped establish the Union of Concerned
Scientists. The initial focus of the organization was the opposition of
nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.C3)
1969 The medical volunteer organization Interplast, specializing
in reconstructive surgery, was founded at Stanford by Dr. Donald Laub.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, Z1 p.1,4)
1969 Donald I. Fine (d.1997) founded Arbor House publishing company
with a $5000 loan. It sold to the Hearst Corp. in 1978 for 1.5 million.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A20)
1969 Patrick Moore helped to start Greenpeace with a "Save the
Whales" theme and served as a leader for the next 15 years.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A9)
1969 The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in central Colorado
was established. It held a wealth of fossils from 35 million years ago.
(NH, 8/96, p.62)
1969 Curt Flood, baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals,
launched a court fight against the baseball reserve clause that bound players
to the club that owned them. The average baseball salary was $25,000.
(SFC,1/22/97, p.A18)
1969 Robert Cahn won a Pulitzer Prize for his series of articles
in the Christian Science Monitor titled: "Will Success Spoil the National
Parks."
(SFC,11/1/97, p.A17)
1969 The Nobel prize in Literature was awarded to Samuel Beckett.
He avoided the ceremony with a trip to Tunisia.
(WSJ, 7/11/97, p.A12)
1969 The National Environmental Policy Act was passed.
(WSJ, 2/25/97, p.A22)
1969 A million people gathered for Vietnam Moratorium Day.
(TMC, 1994, p.1969)
1969 The Hague Summit was held to establish the goal of European
monetary union.
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A22)
1969 Richard Nixon visited Romania and became the first
president to visit a communist nation since the start of the Cold War.
In February 1972, the Republican Nixon shook the world with his visit to
China. Nixon then followed that with a summit in Moscow, signing seven
agreements with the Soviet Union ranging from arms control to space exploration.
(HNQ, 11/20/01)
1969 Pres. Nixon held a clandestine meeting with South Vietnam
Pres. Thieu at Midway Island in an effort to end the war.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T5)
1969 Nixon withdrew the first 25,000 troops from Vietnam.
(TMC, 1994, p.1969)
1969 Pres. Nixon announced an unconditional renunciation of biological
weapons. [see biological weapons 1975]
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A14)
1969 The US Supreme Court ruled the Fairness Doctrine constitutional.
The Red Lion case was the result of a 1964 book "Goldwater: Extremist on
the Right," by Fred J. Cook. In 1987 the Federal Communications Commission
voted 4-0 to rescind the Fairness Doctrine, which had required radio and
television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.
(AP, 8/4/97)(SFC, 5/5/03, p.B4)
1969 In Mass. Francis Sargent (d.1998 at 83) became governor after
John Volpe was made transportation secretary in the Nixon administration.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A22)
1969 The US Navy established its Top Gun school for elite pilots
of fighter jets off aircraft carriers after it realized that it was losing
one fighter jet for every three it shot down in Vietnam.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.A17)
1969 The US navy lowered SeaLab III was lowered off San Clemente
Island to see if divers could exit a submarine and walk on the sea floor.
[see 1965, 1969]
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A2)
1969 The story of the Mar 16, 1968 My Lai tragedy was first done
by free-lance reporter Seymour Hersh. It showed US troops shooting down
Vietnamese peasants.
(TMC, 1994, p.1969)(WSJ, 10/22/96, p.A20)
1969 A CIA report on Soviet activities in developing biological
and chemical weapons was "removed" by order of Henry Kissinger, the National
Security Advisor, presumably so it would not interfere with arms-control
efforts.
(WSJ, 3/10/98, p.A22)
1969 HUAC was renamed the House Internal Security Committee. It
was abolished in 1975.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, DB p.66)
1969 US Congress enacted strict auto emission laws.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1969 The US Supreme Court in the Tinker vs. Des Moines School
District case ruled that students had the right to express opinions at
odds with the government.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A22)
1969 The IRS eliminated author donations of their papers as a
tax break.
(WSJ, 4/18/03, p.W13)
1969 Norman Mailer, writer, ran for mayor of New York City and
proposed making it the 51st state of the US.
(Hem, 4/96, p.51)
1969 Sam Yorty was elected mayor of Los Angeles. He defeated Tom
Bradley 53 to 47%.
(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A13)
1969 The first no-fault divorce package became law.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, Z1 p.6)
1969 People’s Park in Berkeley became the site of a dispute between
the Univ. and activists who wanted it kept as a mecca for poor people.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A17)
1969 In North Carolina US District Judge James McMillan ruled
that the Charlotte school district was intentionally segregating students
and ordered busing to achieve integration. This led to the 1971 US Supreme
Court ruling to approve the busing plan. The program was ended in 1999.
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A3)
1969 A government clerk in the Bureau of Indian Affairs dropped
the Samish Indian nation from the list of recognized tribes. In 2002 the
tribe, native to the San Juan Islands and western Scagit County of Washington
state, sued for recognition and damages.
(SFC, 10/18/02, p.J8)
1969 Best Foods Inc., changed its name to CPC International. It
had begun as American Cotton Oil in 1889.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1969 Larry Lee Hillblom started DHL Corp. upon graduation from
the Univ. of California, Berkeley, at Boalt Hall law school. The original
idea was to help cargo ships save wharf charges by air-delivering freight
documents before the ships reached port. The D was for Adrian Dalsey (d.1994)
and the L was for Robert Lynn.
(WSJ, 5/15/96, p.A-8)(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A16)(SFC, 9/6/99, p.A24)
1969 Leonard Tose (1915-2003) and several others bought the Philadelphia
Eagles pro football team for $15.155 million. Tose bought out his partners
in 1977. He sold the team in 1985 to Norman Braman of south Florida
for $65 million.
(SFC, 4/17/03, p.A23)
1969 Pan Am selected Najeeb Halaby (d.2003 at 87), former FAA
head, as successor to chairman Juan Trippe. Halaby served 3 years as CEO.
His daughter later became Queen Noor of Jordan.
(SFC, 7/4/03, p.A25)
1969 TRW built the Apollo 11 lunar lander engine.
(F, 10/7/96, p.71)
1969 Seiko marketed the first quartz watch.
(NG, March 1990, J. Boslough p. 115)
1969 At the Mayo Clinic the first hip replacement in the US was
performed.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1969 Benjamin Volcani (d.1999 at 84), microbiologist, was the
fist to show that silicon is essential for DNA synthesis in diatoms. He
was also the first to find microorganisms in the Dead Sea in 1936.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.D4)
1969 Earl Butcher (1903-1996) received the Great Teacher Award
of New York Univ. He was an early practitioner of tooth transplants and
implants.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.B2)
1969 Ken Thompson, computer scientist at Bell Labs, wrote the
first version of the UNIX operating system on a PDP-7, a closet sized computer
that arranged memory in 8,192 18-bit words. UNIX programming language was
created by Bell labs in 1970.
(Wired, 8/95, p.84)(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.B6)
1969 Intel's 1st product was a random access memory chip.
Marcian Hoff Jr., Stanley Mazor and Federico Faggin of Intel developed
the 4004 chip for a Japanese customer, Busicom, a calculator manufacturer.
Intel acquired the rights to the chip for $60,000. The 3 men were later
inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, in Sept.
1996. The 4004 packed 2300 transistors onto a single silicon chip.
(SJSVB, 7/8/96, p.12)(TAR, 1996, p.19)(WSJ, 9/22/98, p.B3)(SFC,
7/16/03, p.B1)
1969 A communications network ordered by the defense dept. was
begun when Bolt Beranek & Newman (BBN Corp.) installed the first node
at UCLA. It was to grow into the Internet.
(WSJ, 8/23/96, p.B1)
1969 Instinet was founded and later became owned by Reuters PLC.
It became the biggest of the electronic trading systems for institutional
traders. The name originally stood for Institutional Networks Corp. and
catered primarily to institutional fund managers seeking a way to trade
with each other without dealer intervention.
(Wired, 2/98, p.96)(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.C1)
1969 Smith & Wesson, gun manufacturers in Springfield Mass.,
began a school for training police and law enforcement officials from around
the world.
(WSJ, 9/12/97, p.A20)
1969 The American side of Niagara Falls was diverted in order
to clean up accumulated erosion. Goat Island divides the river into the
Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side and the American Falls on the US side.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, Par. p.14)
1969 Marjory Stoneman Douglas helped found Friends of the Everglades,
a Florida-based conservation organization.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.D7)
1969 American Museum of Natural History in NYC installed a 94-foot,
21,000-pound, synthetic Blue Whale. It was based on a female carcass found
in the South Atlantic in 1925.
(WSJ, 7/24/03, p.D10)
1969 Jim Bishop began building his castle in Rye, Colorado.
(WSJ, 2/7/96, p.A-1)
1969 Robert Byck (d.1999 at 66) identified MSG, monosodium glutamate,
as the cause of headaches for some people who ate Chinese food with the
additive.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A22)
1969 Eight-year-old Susan Nason was murdered. Years later her
playmate, Eileen Franklin, testified that her father committed the murder
and that her memory had been repressed for the intervening twenty or so
years. George Franklin was convicted based on Eileen’s testimony. In 1996
Janice Franklin claimed that her sister had lied during the 1990 trial.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A13)
1969 John Altoon, painter, died of a heart attack at age 43. He
painted in an abstract expressionist style with later surrealist undercurrents.
Hs works included "Untitled" (1959), "Untitled (Harper Series)" (1964),
and "Untitled ANI-42" (1968).
(SFC, 1/15/98, p.E1,5)
1969 Harley Jefferson Earl (1893-1969) died. He was a Hollywood
builder of custom cars and became GM’s VP of styling from 1940-1959. He
was the first to introduce tail fins in 1948. His design philosophy was
"You can design a car so that every time you get in it, it’s a relief--you
have a little vacation for a while."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1969 Howard Luck Gossage, American ad man, died. He wrote the
essays: Understanding Marshall McLuhan, Our Fictitious Freedom of the Press,
How to Look at a Magazine and How to Look at a Billboard. In 1995 "The
Book of Gossage," ed. by Bruce Bendinger, was published by The Copy Workshop.
(Wired, Dec. '95, p.192)
1969 Sonja Henie (b.1912), Norwegian ice skater, actress (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36),
died of leukemia. Henie's career included a record 10 consecutive world
championships.
(MC, 4/8/02)(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par p.2)
1969 Mies van der Rohe, German-born American architect, died.
He founded the Int’l. Style and designed early steel-framed and glass-jacketed
buildings. He coined the phrase: "Less is more."
(SFC, 1/17/98, p.C5)
1969 Carl Schuster (b.1904), art historian, died. He was responsible
for a 12-volume series of research on patterns in art objects. The work
was later distilled by fellow art historian Edmund Carpenter in the1996
book: "Patterns that Connect, Social Symbolism in Ancient and Tribal Art."
(SFEC, 11/3/96, BR p.7)
1969 Ben Shahn, painter and photographer, died. Much of his photography
of done in New York’s Lower East Side and Greenwich Village.
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/1/00, p.A24)
1969 In Australia the Indian Pacific Railway was completed with
a new standard gauge from Sydney to Perth, 2,720 miles. Until this time
different rail lines employed different gauges.
(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.29)
1969 The Murchison Meteorite crashed into Australia. It was found
to contain amino acids and frozen ice.
(TMP, KCTS-Video, 1987)
1969 In Brazil the Embraer SA, an aircraft maker, was founded.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A17)
1969 In Cuba Christmas was dropped as a holiday by the Castro
government.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A1)
1969 Germany passed a set of labeling laws similar to the French
1935 Appellation d’Origine Controlee (controlled place of origin). The
AOC laws were meant to protect growers and properly identify a wine’s origin.
They were not intended as an indicator of quality.
(SFC, 1/8/97, zz-1 p.4)
1969 John Latsis (1910-2003), Greek shipping magnate, established
Petrola, the 1st export-oriented oil refinery in Greece.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A24)
1969 In Guyana a group opposed to the government of Pres. Forbes
Burnham staged an uprising in the Essequibo region. It was asserted that
Venezuela had trained and armed the militants.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.A12)
1969 A UN approved referendum, involving 1,026 handpicked pro-Jakarta
tribal chiefs, ratified Indonesia’s 1963 annexation of West Papua. Many
voted at gunpoint in the unanimous decision.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A23)(SSFC, 9/1/02, p.A15)
1969 In Ireland the Apprentice Boys, a Protestant fraternal group,
led a parade that ignited rioting in the Bogside section of Londonderry,
Northern Ireland, that led to the bloody period known as The Troubles.
Loyalists attacks on Catholic areas set off rioting in Belfast. Eight people
died and British troops were sent in. The Provisional Irish Republican
Army began a 25-year sniping and bombing campaign.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A8)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.7)
1969 In Italy right-wing militants carried out a series of bombings
that Italian authorities and the media pinned on anarchists. Giuseppi Pinelli,
one anarchist that was interrogated by the police, was reported to have
fallen from a 4th floor window during interrogation. The event inspired
Dario Fo to write his 1970 play: "Accidental Death of an Anarchist."
(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.A20)
1969 The Japanese film "Otoka wa Tsuraiyo" (It’s Hard Being a
Man) with Kiyoshi Atsumi (1928-1996) was produced. It was the first of
48 installments.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)
1969 In Japan the Ichihara Prison opened to serve dangerously
irresponsible drivers. Japan had agreed to adhere to UN standards
for more lenient correctional institutions for lesser offenders.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A20)
1969 In Kenya Tom Mboya of the Luo tribe, the expected successor
to Jomo Kenyatta, was assassinated.
(SFC,12/23/97, p.D2)
1969 In Malaysia smoldering racial tensions erupted between the
Malays and the Chinese.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A11)
1969 In Nicaragua the US based Pennwalt Corp. established a chlorine
plant near Lake Managua. The plant shut down in 1991 and left 60 tons of
mercury in the lake.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A6)
1969 In Papua New Guinea Australian bulldozers arrived on Bougainville
and began work at the Panguna mine. Local women were unsuccessful in trying
to stop the work.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A14)
1969 In the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos won an unprecedented
second term as president.
(HNQ, 12/30/00)
1969 In Somaliland Mohamed Ibrahim Egal was the prime minister
until Barre took over and threw him in jail.
(SFC, 8/16/96, p.A18)
1969 A block of flats near Segovia, Spain, collapsed killing 58
people. Developer Jesus Gil y Gil was jailed for 5 years for criminal negligence,
but was pardoned after 18 months.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.40)
1969 The Soviet and Chinese border troops began skirmishes along
the 2,500 mile border.
(WSJ, 11/19/96, p.A1)
1969 At their peak in 1969, 68,889 combat troops from Australia,
New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and the Philippines were deployed
in Vietnam.
(HNQ, 4/14/00)
1969-1972 Douglas MacArthur II (d.1997 at 88) served as US ambassador
to Iran. He escaped a kidnap attempt in 1970.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A23)
1969-1973 The US Air Force dropped 539,129 tons of bombs on Cambodia
and killed some 700,000 people. The bombing drove rural people into the
cities and caused a collapse of the agricultural system that contributed
to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and a famine that was later blamed on the
Khmer Rouge.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.A25)
1969-1973 In France Maurice Schumann (d.1998 at 86) served as foreign
minister under Pres. Georges Pompidou. He was also a novelist and writer
on religion and other topics.
(SFC, 2/11/98, p.A24)
1969-1974 Richard Nixon served as the 37th President of the US. He was
forced to resign in 1974 and his Vice-President Gerald Ford assumed the
office of president.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.T8,9)
1969-1975 In 1998 the Library of Congress issued a 2-volume collection
of American journalism from the Vietnam War, "Reporting Vietnam." This
period was covered in Vol. 2.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)
1969-1976 The basketball "dunk" was illegal during this period.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, Z1 p.8)
1969-1985 Terry Sanford (d.1998 at 80) served as the president of Duke
Univ.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, p.C6)
1969-1986 An outbreak of childhood leukemia occurred in Woburn, Mass.
over this period. Known as the Woburn cluster, it was the most highly concentrated
outbreak of cancer in the nation. In 1996 researchers found the chemicals
responsible for tainted drinking water that caused the outbreak.
(SFC, 5/11/96, p.A-5)
late 1960s In West Germany the Baader-Meinhof gang was formed and named
after its founders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. Both later committed
suicide in prison. The gang became known as the Red Army Faction and led
assassinations, bombings and bank robberies in West Germany through the
1970s and 1980s. The RAF published a letter to Reuters in 1998 and declared
to have disbanded.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A18)