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

For other uses, see Number 1969.

For the movie, see 1969 (movie).

Events

January

• January 1 - Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper The News Of The World
• January 5 - The Derry Riots leave over 100 people injured
• January 6 - Cheryl Winters begins her career at the Federal Reserve in Jacksonville.
• January 10 - After 147 years, the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post is published
• January 14 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 25
• January 15 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5
• January 16 - Ten paintings defaced in New York's Metropolitan Art Gallery
• January 16 - Student Jan Palach sets himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union. Three days later he died.
• January 20 - Richard Nixon succeeds Lyndon Johnson as President of the United States of America
• January 24 - Martial Law declared in Madrid, the University is closed and over 300 students are arrested
• January 27 - 14 men, nine of them Jews, were executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel
• January 27 - Reverend Ian Paisley, radical protestant leader in Northern Ireland, is jailed for three months for illegal assembly
• January 30 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The imprompt concert was broken up by the police

February

• February 1 - Birth, in Paris, France, of Denis Cheyrouze , French media guru.
• February 4 - In Cairo Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress and takes command the next day
• February 8 - The last issue of the Saturday Evening Post hits magazine stands
• February 13 - FLQ terrorists bomb the Stock Exchange in Montreal, Quebec
• February 24 - Launch of the Mariner 6 Mars probe

March

• March 1 - Major league baseballer Mickey Mantle announces his retirement.
• March 1 - Dad's Army episode Operation Kilt is first broadcast
• March 1 - During a performance at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium, Jim Morrison of the Doors is arrested for exposing himself during the show. Morrison is officially charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent behavior, open profanity and public drunkenness.
• March 1 - John Kerry officially leaves active duty in Vietnam
• March 2 - In Toulouse, France the first Concorde test flight is conducted
• March 2 - Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River
• March 3 - In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
• March 3 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module
• March 10 - In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Ray would later retract his guilty plea
• March 13 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module
• March 17 - Golda Meir of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, becomes Prime Minister of Israel
• March 19 - British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla expecting resistance from the "Republican Defence Force"’ of self-declared "President" Ronald Webster . Locals bid the soldiers welcome instead
• March 28 - Dwight D Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Hospital, Washington DC.

April

• April 1 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF
• April 4 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart
• April 20 - British troops arrive in Northern Ireland
• April 22 - Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping
• April 28 - General de Gaulle steps down as president of France after having suffered a defeat in a referendum the day before.
• April 29 - First anniversary of the Broadway production of the musical Hair is celebrated with free concert at Wollman Skating Rink

May

• May 10 - Zip to Zap, a harbringer of the Woodstock Concert, ends with dispersal and eviction of youth and young adults at Zap, North Dakota by the National Guard.
• May 13 - May 13th Incident: Race riots occur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• May 16 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus
• May 17 - Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus', atmosphere sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure
• May 17 - Tom McClean completes the first solo transatlantic crossing by a rowboat
• May 18 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 launches
• May 20 - National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California
• May 22 - Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 15,400 m of the moon's surface
• May 26 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first manned moon landing
• May 26-June 2: John Lennon and Yoko Ono conduct their Bed-In at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, and record the song "Give Peace a Chance."

June

• June 2 - In Ottawa, Canada the National Arts Centre opens its doors to the public for the first time
• June 2 - Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne collides with the US destroyer Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea - 74 US sailors dead
• June 8 - After the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) cancels the program, the last Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour airs
• June 20 - Georges Pompidou elected President of France
• June 23 - Warren E. Burger is sworn in as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring chief Earl Warren.
• June 24 - United Kingdom and Rhodesia sever diplomatic ties
• June 27 - The Stonewall riots mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.

July

The Apollo Moon landings

• July 5 – Assassination of Mboya , Kenyan Minister of Development
• July 7 - French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government
• July 8 - Vietnam War: The very first U.S. troop withdrawals are made
• July 14 - Football War - after Honduras lost a soccer game against El Salvador, rioting broke out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. Of the 300,000 Salvadorean workers in Honduras, tens of thousands were expelled, prompting a brief Salvadoran invasion of Honduras. The OAS worked out a cease-fire on July 18, taking effect on July 20
• July 18 - Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, an aide who was in the car with him, dies in the incident
• July 20 - Apollo program: The human race, represented by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, lands on the Moon. Apollo 11 lifted off for the moon on July 16 and returned safely on July 24
• July 25 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war
• July 30 - Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with US military commanders
• July 31 - Halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in the UK

August

• August 4 - Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, US representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail
• August 5 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers)
• August 9 - Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder five people including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and, Abigail Folger. The next day The Family would murder Rosemary and Leno LaBianca
• August 12 - Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, makes a speech to the nation in which he asks the British Government to deploy a UN Peace-Keeping mission in Northern Ireland.
• August 13 - Serious border clash between Soviet Union and People's Republic of China
• August 14 - British troops deployed in Northern Ireland
• August 15 - The Woodstock Festival of music begins in upstate New York lasting three days and featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era
• August 17 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars)
• August 21 - Part of the al-Aqsa Mosque is destroyed by arson

September

• September 1 - A coup in Libya oust King Idris and brings Col. Moammar Qaddafi to power
• September 2 - The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.
• September 5 - My Lai Massacre: Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai
• September 22 - 25 Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco after al-Aqsa Mosque fire (Augusr 21) condemns Israeli occupation of Jerusalem
• September 28 - Social Democrats and Liberals have received a majority of votes in the German parliamentary elections and decide to form a common government

October

• October 1 - In Sweden, Olof Palme is elected Labour party leader, replacing Tage Erlander as prime minister on October 14
• October 9 - In Chicago, Illinois, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection to the trial of the "Chicago Eight" (trial started on September 24)
• October 15 - Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States
• October 16 - The ("miracle") New York Mets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles, four games to one.
• October 17 - Willard S. Boyle and George Smith invent the CCD at Bell Laboratories. Today, this technology is widely used in digital cameras.
• October 21 - Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany
• October 21 - Siad Barre comes to power in Somalia in a coup
• October 31 - Wal-Mart incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

November

• November - Creation of ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet
• November 3 - Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon addresses his nation on television and radio asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies
• November 10 - Sesame Street premieres
• November 12 - Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre - Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story
• November 13 - Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, DC stage a symbolic "March Against Death "
• November 14 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon (landed on the Moon on November 19)
• November 15 - Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea
• November 15 - Vietnam War: In Washington, DC, 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war
• November 17 - Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides
• November 19 - Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon
• November 20 - Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam
• November 21 - U.S. President Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972 Under the terms of the agreement, the US is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free
• November 21 - The first ARPANET link is established
• November 24 - Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon
• November 25 - John Lennon returns his OBE to protest the British government's support of the US war in Vietnam
• November 28 - The Newcomers stopped airing on the BBC

December

• December 1 - Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II (on January 4, 1970, the New York Times ran a long article, "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random")
• December 2 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle to New York City.
• December 4 - Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot to death in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
• December 12 - Piazza Fontana Slaughter in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana). A U.S. officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett involved.

Undated events

• Parker Morris Standards became mandatory for all Council housing in the UK.
• Summer saw the invention of UNIX
• In the autumn, the first four nodes of the ARPAnet went up
• In December, Linus Torvalds ( creator of the Linux) was born

Ongoing events

• Vietnam War (1964 - 1975)
• War of Attrition, between Egypt and Israel, which lasted until August 1970. This conflict was characterized by escalating artillery duels, air raids and commando missions

Year in topic

• 1969 in film
  • Midnight Cowboy
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • True Grit starring John Wayne, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper and others
• 1969 in literature
  • Portnoy's Complaint
• 1969 in music
  • The National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame founded.
  • August 15 - August 17: The Woodstock Music and Art Festival was held at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, near Woodstock. Although 10,000 or 20,000 people were expected, over 400,000 attended. Among the many artists who performed were Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, The Who, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the Grateful Dead. The weekend was rainy, the facilities were overcrowded, and attendees shared food, alcohol, and drugs, although no violence was reported. The Woodstock Festival represented the culmination of the counterculture of the 1960s and the high point of the "hippie era."
  • The #1 Song was "Aquarius (Let the Sunshine In)"
  • Graffiti had fully developed into an art form, with distinctive styles, trends and schools, by 1969; graffiti is one of the four elements of hip hop, the musical form of which is influenced by the success of the Last Poets and similar artists, beginning in 1969
• 1969 in rail transport
  • ALCO ceases manufacuring of new diesel locomotives.
• 1969 in sports
• 1969 in television
  • A live transmission from the moon is viewed by 600 million people around the world when Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.
  • Tiny Tim gets married on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.
  • The Brady Bunch premieres

Births

January

• January 3 - Michael Schumacher, Formula One driver; seven-time champion of that series
• January 5 - Marilyn Manson, singer
• January 14 - Jason Bateman, actor
• January 14 - David Grohl, drummer, composer
• January 16 - Roy Jones Jr., boxer
• January 17 - Lukas Moodysson, film director
• January 20 - Skeet Ulrich, actor

February

• February 1 - Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine football player
• February 3 - Retief Goosen, South African golfer
• February 5 - Bobby Brown, singer
• February 11 - Jennifer Aniston, American actress
• February 11 - Bryan Eversgerd US baseball player.
• February 12 - Hong Myung-Bo, South Korean football player

March

• March 1 - Javier Bardem, actor
• March 1 - Rob Janssen , baseball player
• March 1 - Dafydd Ieuan, drummer with the band Super Furry Animals
• March 19 - Connor Trinneer, actor (Star Trek: Enterprise)

April

• April 6 - Bret Boone, Major League Baseball All-Star
• April 11 - Cerys Matthews, singer
• April 17 - Henry Ian Cusick, actor
• April 19 - Susan Polgar, chess player
• April 25 - Joe Buck, baseball and American football broadcaster
• April 25 - Darren Woodson, American football player
• April 25 - Renée Zellweger, actress

May

• May 2 - Brian Lara, Trinidadian cricketer
• May 3 - Daryl F. Mallett, American author & actor
• May 7 - Eagle Eye Cherry, musician
• May 13 - Nikos Aliagas, French-born Greek host of a French music reality show Star Academy.
• May 14 - Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
• May 15 - Emmitt Smith, American football player
• May 16 - Tracey Gold, actress
• May 16 - Steve Lewis, American athlete
• May 18 - Martika, Cuban-American singer

June

• June 14 - Steffi Graf, German tennis player
• June 15 - Oliver Kahn, German football player
• June 24 - Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer

July

• July 5 - John LeClair, American NHL star

August

• August 2 - Fernando Couto, football player
• August 6 - Elliott Smith, musician
• August 9 - Troy Percival, Major League Baseball All-Star
• August 13 - Midori Ito, Japanese figure skater
• August 18 - Edward Norton, actor
• August 18 - Christian Slater, actor
• August 19 - Matthew Perry, actor

September

• September 2 - Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey, R&B singer
• September 5 - Dweezil Zappa, actor, musician, eldest son of Frank Zappa
• September 13 - Shane Warne, Australian cricketer
• September 24 - Donald DeGrate, Jr. aka Devante Swing of Jodeci, R&B music producer
• September 25 - Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (d. 2002)
• September 25 - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress

October

• October 3 - Gwen Stefani, No Doubt lead singer
• October 10 - Brett Favre, American football player
• October 13 - Nancy Kerrigan, figure skater
• October 17 - Ernie Els, South African golfer
• October 19 - Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park
• October 20 - Juan Gonzalez, baseball player
• October 30 - Clay Enos, photographer

November

• November 4 - Matthew McConaughey, American actor
• November 7 - Hélène Grimaud, French pianist
• November 7 - Bryant H. McGill, American poet
• November 11 - Carson Kressley, fashion expert on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
• November 18 - Sam Cassell, NBA basketball player
• November 20 - AQi Fzono, Japanese composer
• November 21 - Ken Griffey, Jr., baseball player
• November 29 - Mariano Rivera, baseball relief pitcher

December

• December 15 - Rick Law, illustrator, producer
• December 21 - Julie Delpy, actress
• December 23 - Martha Byrne, soap opera actress and singer
• December 28 - Linus Torvalds, Finnish programmer; original developer of Linux
• December 30 - Jay Kay, Jamiroquai frontman

Deaths

January

• January 4 - Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins, actresses (b. 1908)
• January 8 - Albert Hill, British athlete (b. 1889)
• January 19 - Jan Palach Czech student protester (set himself on fire) (b. 1948)
• January 25 - Irene Castle , dancer
• January 29 - Allen Dulles, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1893)

February

• February 4 - Thelma Ritter, American actress (b. 1905)
• February 4 - Fred Hampton, Black Panther (shot by police) (b. 1948)
• February 4 - Mark Clark, Black Panther (shot by police) (b. 1896)
• February 9 - Gabby Hayes, actor
• February 11 - James Lanphier , actor
• February 20 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)
• February 26 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1895)

March

• March 4 - Nicholas Schenck, motion-picture empresario (b. 1881)
• March 11 - John Wyndham, British science fiction author (b. 1903)
• March 26 - John Kennedy Toole, American author (b. 1937)
• March 27 - B. Traven, German writer
• March 28 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, US General of the Army, 34th president of the United States (b. 1890)

May

• May 14 - Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (b. 1888)
• May 19 - Coleman Hawkins, American jazz musician (b. 1904)

June-December

• June 21 - Maureen Connolly, tennis star (b. 1934)
• June 22 - Judy Garland, US actress and singer (b. 1922)
• July 18 - Mary Jo Kopechne, aide to Robert F. Kennedy (b. 1940)
• July 24 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (b. 1904)
• August 9 - Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943)
• August 27 - Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (b. 1884)
• August 27 - Erika Mann, oldest daughter of Thomas Mann (b. 1905)
• August 31 - Rocky Marciano, world heavyweight champion boxer (b. 1923)
• September 2 - Ho Chi Minh, President of North Vietnam (b. 1890)
• October 4 - Natalino Otto, Italian singer
• October 12 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian Olympic and World Champion figure skater (b. 1912)
• October 12 Serge Poliakoff , Russian painter
• October 21 - Jack Kerouac, US author
• October 21 - Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician
• October 30 - Pops Foster, jazz musician (b. 1892)
• November 12 - William F. Friedman, cryptanalyst
• November 15 - Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan
• November 18 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., US politician and father of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy
• December 5 - Her Serene Highness Princess Alice of Battenberg, mother of Prince Philip, consort of Queen Elizabeth II.
• Magic Sam, blues musician and guitarist
• December 31 - George Lewis, jazz musician (b. 1900)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Murray Gell-Mann
• Chemistry - Derek H R Barton , Odd Hassel
• Medicine - Max Delbrück, Alfred D Hershey , Salvador E Luria
• Literature - Samuel Beckett
• Peace - International Labour Organization
• Economics - Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen