Top News Stories from 1969

World Events

• Nixon begins "Vietnamization" in Southeast Asia. Background: Vietnam War
• The United States, USSR, and about 100 other countries sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT). Background: nuclear disarmament
• Russian and Chinese troops clash along the Ussuri River.
• 27-year-old Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi deposes King Idris of Libya and establishes a pro-Arabic, anti-Western, Islamic republic.

U.S. Events

• Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated 37th President of the US (Jan. 20).
• Stonewall riot in New York City marks beginning of gay rights movement (June 28).
• Sen. Edward M. Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving scene of fatal accident at Chappaquiddick, Mass. (July 18) in which Mary Jo Kopechne was drowned—gets two-month suspended sentence (July 25). Background: Timeline of Kennedy tragedies
• Apollo 11 astronauts—Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., —take first walk on the Moon (July 20).

Economics

Sports

Super Bowl

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• In August, more than half a million people gather in the small, upstate New York town of Bethel (near Woodstock, N.Y.) for four days of rain, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Performers include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jefferson Airplane and Sly and the Family Stone.
• A Rolling Stones fan is killed at the group's Altamont, California, concert by members of Hell's Angels.
• Children's Television Workshop introduces Sesame Street.
• The FCC bans all cigarette advertising on television and radio.

Movies

• Midnight Cowboy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch, Easy Rider, Anne of the Thousand Days

Books

• Robert Coover, Pricksongs and Descants
• John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman
• Mario Puzo, The Godfather
• Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
• Jean Stafford, Collected Stories
• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

Science

• Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the moon. Background: US Staffed Space Flights
• The first in vitro fertilization of a human egg is performed in Cambridge, England. Background: Birth & Contraception
• ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) goes online in December, connecting four major US universities. Designed for research, education, and government organizations, it is the foundation upon which the Internet will eventually be built. Background: Computers and Internet
• The scanning electron microscope is developed.
• The use of DDT is banned in residential areas.

Death

• Dwight David Eisenhower
• Joseph P. Kennedy
• Jack Kerouac

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