Important Historical Events of the year 1969, Year 1969 in History
List of 1969 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1969
What happened in the year 1969?
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 5, 1969 | The Venera 5 space probe is launched at 06:28:08 UTC[25] from Baikonur.[26] |
| January 5, 1969 | Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes in Fernhill, West Sussex, while on approach to Gatwick Airport, killing 50 people. |
| January 12, 1969 | The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League to win Super Bowl III in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history. |
| January 14, 1969 | USS Enterprise fire: An accidental explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 28 people. |
| January 15, 1969 | The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5. |
| January 16, 1969 | Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before. |
| January 16, 1969 | Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk. |
| January 17, 1969 | Black Panther Party members Bunchy Carter and John Huggins are killed during a meeting in Campbell Hall on the campus of UCLA. |
| January 18, 1969 | United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay killing all 32 passengers and six crew members. |
| January 19, 1969 | Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest. |
| January 25, 1969 | Brazilian Army captain Carlos Lamarca deserts in order to fight against the military dictatorship, taking with him ten machine guns and 63 rifles. |
| January 30, 1969 | The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police. |
| February 17, 1969 | American aquanaut Berry L. Cannon dies of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair a leak in the SEALAB III underwater habitat. The SEALAB project was subsequently abandoned. |
| March 2, 1969 | In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted. |
| March 3, 1969 | Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module. |
| March 10, 1969 | In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. He later unsuccessfully attempts to recant. |
| March 13, 1969 | Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module. |
| March 16, 1969 | A Viasa McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing 155.[13] |
| March 17, 1969 | Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel. |
| March 18, 1969 | The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam. |
| March 19, 1969 | The 385-metre-tall (1,263 ft) TV-mast at Emley Moor transmitting station, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up. |
| March 20, 1969 | A United Arab airlines (now Egyptair) Ilyushin Il-18 crashes at Aswan international Airport, killing 100 people. |
| March 28, 1969 | Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece. |
| April 1, 1969 | The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing capabilities, enters service with the Royal Air Force. |
| April 3, 1969 | Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort. |
| April 4, 1969 | Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart. |
| April 5, 1969 | Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities. |
| April 7, 1969 | The Internet's symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1. |
| April 9, 1969 | The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford. |
| April 15, 1969 | The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board. |
| April 17, 1969 | Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy. |
| April 17, 1969 | Communist Party of Czechoslovakia chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed. |
| April 22, 1969 | British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world. |
| April 22, 1969 | The formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) is announced at a mass rally in Calcutta. |
| April 28, 1969 | Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France. |
| May 2, 1969 | The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City. |
| May 9, 1969 | Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks. |
| May 10, 1969 | Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill. |
| May 13, 1969 | May 13 Incident involving sectarian violence in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. |
| May 16, 1969 | Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus. |
| May 17, 1969 | Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure. |
| May 18, 1969 | Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched. |
| May 20, 1969 | The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends. |
| May 21, 1969 | Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student. |
| May 22, 1969 | Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface. |
| May 26, 1969 | Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first crewed moon landing. |
| June 3, 1969 | Melbourne–Evans collision: off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half; resulting in 74 deaths. |
| June 22, 1969 | The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to water pollution, and spurring the passing of the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. |
| June 23, 1969 | Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. |
| June 23, 1969 | IBM announces that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry. |
| June 28, 1969 | Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement. |
| July 16, 1969 | Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida. |
| July 19, 1969 | Chappaquiddick incident: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal pond at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. |
| July 20, 1969 | Apollo program: Apollo 11's crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later. |
| July 20, 1969 | A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, six days after the beginning of the "Football War". |
| July 21, 1969 | Apollo program: At 02:56 UTC, astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon, followed 19 minutes later by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. |
| July 24, 1969 | Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean. |
| July 25, 1969 | Vietnam War: U.S. 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 is the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war. |
| July 30, 1969 | Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders. |
| August 4, 1969 | Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail. |
| August 5, 1969 | The Lonesome Cowboys police raid occurs in Atlanta, Georgia, leading to the creation of the Georgia Gay Liberation Front. |
| August 7, 1969 | Richard Nixon appoints Luis R. Bruce, a Mohawk-Oglala Sioux and co-founder of the National Congress of American Indians, as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. |
| August 8, 1969 | At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan takes the iconic photo that becomes the cover image of the Beatles' album Abbey Road. |
| August 9, 1969 | Tate–LaBianca murders: Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent. |
| August 10, 1969 | A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. |
| August 11, 1969 | The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine following their liftoff from the moon. |
| August 12, 1969 | Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside. |
| August 13, 1969 | The Apollo 11 astronauts enjoy a ticker tape parade in New York City.[7] That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon. |
| August 14, 1969 | The Troubles: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland as political and sectarian violence breaks out, marking the start of the 37-year Operation Banner. |
| August 15, 1969 | The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in Bethel, New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era. |
| August 17, 1969 | Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 256 and causing $1.42 billion in damage. |
| September 1, 1969 | A coup in Libya brings Muammar Gaddafi to power. |
| September 5, 1969 | Mỹ Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai. |
| September 9, 1969 | In Canada, the Official Languages Act comes into force, making French equal to English throughout the Federal government. |
| September 9, 1969 | Allegheny Airlines Flight 863 collides in mid-air with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee over Moral Township, Shelby County, Indiana, killing all 83 people on board both aircraft. |
| September 12, 1969 | Philippine Airlines Flight 158 crashes in Antipolo, near Manila International Airport in the Philippines, killing 45 people. |
| September 25, 1969 | The charter establishing the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is signed. |
| September 26, 1969 | Abbey Road, the last recorded album by the Beatles, is released. |
| October 1, 1969 | Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time. |
| October 8, 1969 | The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago. |
| October 9, 1969 | In Chicago, the National Guard is called in as demonstrations continue over the trial of the "Chicago Eight". |
| October 17, 1969 | The Caravaggio painting Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence is stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo. |
| October 21, 1969 | The 1969 Somali coup d'état establishes a Marxist–Leninist administration. |
| October 29, 1969 | The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. |
| November 3, 1969 | Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies. |
| November 10, 1969 | National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts Sesame Street. |
| November 12, 1969 | Vietnam War: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre. |
| November 13, 1969 | Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. stage a symbolic March Against Death. |
| November 14, 1969 | Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon. |
| November 15, 1969 | Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea. |
| November 15, 1969 | Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death". |
| November 17, 1969 | Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides. |
| November 19, 1969 | Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon. |
| November 19, 1969 | Association football player Pelé scores his 1,000th goal. |
| November 20, 1969 | Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. |
| November 20, 1969 | Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971. |
| November 21, 1969 | U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Satō agree on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. The U.S. retains rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free. |
| November 21, 1969 | The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI. |
| November 24, 1969 | Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to land on the Moon. |
| December 1, 1969 | Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II. |
| December 4, 1969 | Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers. |
| December 6, 1969 | Altamont Free Concert: At a free concert performed by the Rolling Stones, eighteen-year old Meredith Hunter is stabbed to death by Hells Angels security guards. |
| December 8, 1969 | Olympic Airways Flight 954 strikes a mountain outside of Keratea, Greece, killing 90 people in the worst crash of a Douglas DC-6 in history. |
| December 9, 1969 | U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970. |
| December 12, 1969 | The Piazza Fontana bombing; a bomb explodes at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (the National Agricultural Bank) in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88. The same afternoon, three more bombs are detonated in Rome and Milan, and another is found unexploded. |
| December 17, 1969 | Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs. |
| December 24, 1969 | Nigerian troops capture Umuahia, the Biafran capital. |