Also Within This Year in History:
1969
With months to spare, the Apollo 11 astronauts fulfilled late President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Back on earth, 1969 was also the year of the Woodstock music festival, the Stonewall riots for gay rights and the Tate-LaBianca murders by followers of Charles Manson. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Love Bug" topped Hollywood box office, and a movie ticket cost about $1.50.
On January 12, 1969, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, the New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the NFL’s Baltimore Colts, 16‑7, in Super Bowl III—a result…
An explosion aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise kills 27 people in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on January 14, 1969. A rocket accidentally detonated, destroying 15 planes and injuring more than…
Richard Nixon is inaugurated as president of the United States and says, “After a period of confrontation [in Vietnam], we are entering an era of negotiation.” Eight years after losing…
On February 22, 1969, 19‑year‑old Barbara Jo Rubin becomes the first female jockey to win a race at an American thoroughbred track when she rides Cohesion to a victory by…
On March 1, 1969, New York Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle announces his retirement from baseball. Mantle was an idol to millions, known for his remarkable power and speed and…
In a dramatic confirmation of the growing rift between the two most powerful communist nations in the world, troops from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China fire…
The Dade County Sheriff’s Office issues an arrest warrant for Doors’ lead singer Jim Morrison. He is charged with a single felony count and three misdemeanors for his stage antics…
The London drug squad appears at house of George Harrison and Pattie Boyd with a warrant and drug‑sniffing canines. Boyd immediately used the direct hotline to Beatles headquarters and George…
On March 17, 1969, 70‑year‑old Golda Meir makes history when she is elected as Israel’s first female prime minister. She was the country’s fourth prime minister and is still the…
U.S. B‑52 bombers are diverted from their targets in South Vietnam to attack suspected communist base camps and supply areas in Cambodia for the first time in the Vietnam war.…
A group called Women Strike for Peace demonstrate in Washington, D.C., in the first large antiwar demonstration since President Richard Nixon’s inauguration in January. The antiwar movement had initially given…
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and one of the most highly regarded American generals of World War II, dies in Washington, D.C., at the age…
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States is moving to “Vietnamize” the war as rapidly as possible. By this, he meant that the responsibility for the fighting…
The Chicago Eight, indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, plead not guilty. The defendants included David Dellinger of the…
On April 14, 1969, during the first internationally televised Oscars ceremony, Ingrid Bergman exclaims “It’s a tie!” upon opening the Best Actress envelope—the first tie in a major acting category…
Alexander Dubcek, the communist leader who launched a broad program of liberal reforms in Czechoslovakia, is forced to resign as first secretary by the Soviet forces occupying his country. The…
On April 23, 1969, Sirhan Sirhan is sentenced to the death penalty after being convicted in the assassination of politician Robert F. Kennedy. In 1972, Sirhan’s sentence was commuted to…
Following the defeat of his proposals for constitutional reform in a national referendum, Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France. A veteran of World War I, de Gaulle unsuccessfully…
William Beecher, military correspondent for the New York Times, publishes a front page dispatch from Washington, “Raids in Cambodia by U.S. Unprotested,” which accurately described the first of the secret B‑52 bombing…
On May 11, 1969, Hamburger Hill becomes the scene of an intense and controversial battle during the Vietnam War. Known to military planners as Hill 937 (a reference to its…
