Timeline 1969
Return to home
1969
Jan 1, President Nixon nominated Henry Cabot Lodge,
former American ambassador to South Vietnam, as negotiator at the Paris
Peace Talks.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1969 Jan 2, The play "To be Young,
Gifted & Black," by Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) premiered in NYC.
(www.aetna.com/foundation/aahcalendar/1992gifted.html)
1969 Jan 3, police in Newark, NJ,
confiscated 30,000 copies of the John Lennon, Yoko Ono album, Two
Virgins. A nude photo of John and Yoko on the cover violated
pornography laws in Jersey.
(www.goatview.com/january03.htm)
1969 Jan 4, Spain returned the
Ifni province to Morocco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifni)
1969 Jan 5, Henry Cabot Lodge
replaced Harriman as chief US negotiator at Paris.
(www.bartleby.com/67/4271.html)
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, An explosion on the
US carrier Enterprise, 75 miles from Hawaii, resulted in 28 dead and
over 300 injured.
(http://tinyurl.com/64clvh)
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 20, The US president’s
salary doubled to $100,000.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States)
1969 Jan 22, In Massachusetts
Francis Sargent (1915-1998) became governor after John Volpe was made
transportation secretary in the Nixon administration.
(SFC, 10/24/98,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_W._Sargent)
1969 Jan 23, Gregorio Ordonez,
deputy mayor of San Sebastian, Spain, was assassinated by an ETA
terrorist.
(Econ, 5/17/08,
p.66)(www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/basque/stories/overview.html)
1969 Jan 25, US-North Vietnamese
peace talks began in Paris.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1969 Jan 26, California was
declared a disaster area after two days of flooding and mud slides.
(HN, 1/26/99)
1969 Jan 27, Byron Vaughn Booth
and fellow convict Clinton Robert Smith, also a robber, escaped from
the California Institution for Men at Chino. The next day they bought a
ticket for a flight from Los Angeles to Miami with a connection in New
Orleans. National Airlines Flight 64 was hijacked over the Gulf of
Mexico after the plane left New Orleans. The plane ended up landing at
Camaguey, Cuba, where Cuban officials removed the hijackers. The flight
continued on to Miami. Booth was arrested in Nigeria in 2001 and
returned to the US.
(SFC, 2/24/01,
p.C14)(http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/17/local/me-64627)
1969 Jan 27, Transamerica Corp.
announced its wish to build a 1,000-foot tower in San Francisco. Work
on the Pyramid began in 1970 and the 853-foot tower was completed in
1972.
(SSFC, 12/27/09, p.A19)
1969 Jan 27, In Iraq 14 people,
including 9 Jews, were hanged for alleged espionage.
(http://tinyurl.com/5u75cx)
1969 Jan 29, An undersea oil well
off Santa Barbara, Ca., suffered a blowout and over the next 11 days
released some 200,000 gallons of oil that spread over 800 square miles
of ocean and soiled 35 miles of coastline.
(www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/sb_69oilspill/69oilspill_articles2.html)
1969 Jan 29, Allan Welsh Dulles
(b.1893), US diplomat, director (CIA 1953-61), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Dulles)
1969 Jan, A 50-cent one-way toll
became permanent on the Golden Gate Bridge following efforts to reduce
congestion by Bruce Goecker (1919-2006), former mayor of Corte Madera.
Soon toll bridges around the world began following suit.
(SFC, 9/14/06, p.B5)
1969 Feb 2, Boris Karloff
(b.1887), British actor born as William Henry Pratt, died. He is best
remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of
Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Karloff)
1969 Feb 2, In Marin County, Ca.,
a fire destroyed a 22-room mansion at Rancho Olompali occupied by
members of “the Chosen Family” led by Donald McCoy (1932-2004).”
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.B7)(SFC, 1/14/09, p.B12)
1969 Feb 2, Giovanni Martinelli
(b.1885), Italian opera singer, died. He enjoyed a long career at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York City and appeared at other international
theatres.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Martinelli)
1969 Feb 4, John Madden (b.1934)
was named head coach of NFL's Oakland Raiders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Madden_(American_football))
1969 Feb 4, Al-Fatah-leader Yasser
Arafat officially took over as chairman of PLO.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1969 Feb 6, The Broadway musical
"Dear World," a musical version of Jean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of
Chaillot, opened with Angel Lansbury at the Mark Hellinger Theater.
(SFEC, 12/8/96, Par
p.18)(www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=202004)
1969 Feb 8, The last edition of
Saturday Evening Post was published. It had begun publishing in 1869.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saturday_Evening_Post)
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.
(http://wapi.isu.edu/geo_pgt/Mod05_Meteorites_Ast/mod5.htm)(TMP,
KCTS-Video, 1987)
1969 Feb 9, The Boeing 747, the
world's largest airplane, made its 1st commercial flight.
(www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/pf/pf_milestones.html)
1969 Feb 9, Gabby Hayes (b.1885),
American film and TV actor, died. He played the sidekick to Hopalong
Cassidy and later Roy Rogers Westerns.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_%27Gabby%27_Hayes)
1969 Feb 11, A Lockheed SP2E
Neptune crashed in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County, Ca., while
on night training. 7 seamen were killed.
(SFC, 5/7/08,
p.B8)(http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/thirdseries15.html)
1969 Feb 13, In North Carolina the
Afro-American Society students of Duke Univ. led a black student
takeover of the Allen Building to spark University action on the
concerns of Black students. The takeover brought attention to issues
such as establishment of an Afro-American studies program, a black
cultural center, and increasing the number of black faculty and
students.
(http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/uabsa/inv/)
1969 Feb 14, The new red, plastic
Olivetti typewriter, designed by Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007, was
released.
(SFC, 1/3/08, p.B5)
1969 Feb 15, Charles Ellsworth
Russell (b.1906), aka Pee Wee Russell, jazz clarinet player, died in
Alexandria, Va. His albums included “Portrait of Pee Wee” (1958).
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9064474)(WSJ,
5/17/06, p.D14)
1969 Feb 17, Bob Dylan &
Johnny Cash recorded an album that was never released.
(http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/57340.html)
1969 Feb 17, Russia and Peru
signed their first trade accord.
(www.historynet.com/tdih0217.htm)
1969 Feb 18, The PLO (PFLP-GC)
machine-gunned an Israeli El-Al plane in Zurich, Switzerland. One
Palestinian was killed and 4 were arrested.
(SFC, 5/21/02,
p.A16)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/incidents.html)
1969 Feb 19, Elvis Presley
recorded the Eddie Rabbit song "Kentucky Rain."
(www.anelvisfan2001.com/KentuckyRain.html)
1969 Feb 20, Ernest Ansermet
(b.1883), Swiss conductor and composer, died.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Ansermet-Ernest.htm)
1969 Feb 23, Pres. Nixon approved
the bombing of Cambodia.
(www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a04242670parrotsbeak)(SFEC,
4/23/00, p.A19)
1969 Feb 24, 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)(www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html)
1969 Feb 25, In Vietnam Navy Lt.
Bob Kerry (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
Kerry, 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 (b.1895),
born in the Ukraine as Levi Shkolnik, died. He had served as the 3rd
Israeli premier (1963-1969).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Eshkol)
1969 Feb 26, Karl Jaspers
(b.1883), German psychiatrist, philosopher, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Jaspers)
1969 Feb 27, President Nixon
arrived in Rome from West Berlin amid protests by thousands of students.
(www.historynet.com/today_in_history?tihMonth=2&tihDay=27)
1969 Feb 28, A Los Angeles court
refused Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan's request to be executed.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1969 Feb, Gen. Hafez al-Assad
became head of Syria.
(http://i-cias.com/e.o/assad_hafiz.htm)
1969 Mar 1, "Red, White, and
Maddox" closed at Cort Theater in NYC after 41 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3452)
1969 Mar 1, Mickey Mantle of the
NY Yankees announced his retirement from baseball.
(HN,
3/1/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mantle)
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,
Russian composer, completed his 14th Symphony.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._14_(Shostakovich))(http://tinyurl.com/66tpar)
1969 Mar 2, Phil Esposito of the
Boston Bruins became the 1st NHL Player to score 100 points in a season.
(www.nhl.com/history/030269.html)
1969 Mar 2, The Concorde
jetliner's 1st test flight took place in Bristol, England.
(www.xent.com/pipermail/fork/Week-of-Mon-20031013/026200.html)
1969 Mar 2, Chinese and Russian
soldiers clashed on Damansky Island and approximately 70 died. The
Soviet and Chinese border troops had been skirmishing since 1959 along
the 2,500 mile border. Recent skirmishes were along the Ussuri River
border. The Soviets used a full scale tank assault to repulse a Chinese
attack on the island of Damansky. A border treaty in the 1990s gave the
island to China.
(www.jstor.org/pss/1957173)(WSJ, 11/19/96,
p.A1)(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/16/05,
p.A1)(www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1971/jul-aug/marks.html)
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 carried
astronauts James McDivitt, Russell Schweickart and David Scott and made
151 Earth orbits over 10 days.
(AP, 3/3/98)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.B2)
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, “What the Butler Saw,”
the final play of Joe Orton (1933-1967), was first performed in London.
The sex farce was set in a mental hospital.
(SFC, 6/12/09,
p.E1)(http://talkingbroadway.org/regional/sanfran/s823.html)
1969 Mar 5, Gustav Heinemann was
elected West German President.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1969 Mar 6, 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)(http://tinyurl.com/aopyo)
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 13, In Vietnam Navy Lt.
John Kerry rescued Jim Rassman on the Bay Hap River while under Viet
Cong fire. In 2004 Kerry became the Democratic nominee for President.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A1)
1969 Mar 14, US Supreme Court
Justice Abe Fortas resigned under pressure for the acceptance of an
allegedly illegal payment from a former business associate.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas)
1969 Mar 14, Ben Shahn (1898),
Lithuanian-born American painter and photographer, died in NYC. 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Shahn)
1969 Mar 15, A violent
Chinese-Russian border dispute left 100s dead.
(www.jstor.org/pss/1957173)
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)
1969 Mar 18, President Richard M.
Nixon authorized Operation Menu, the 'secret' bombing of Cambodia [see
Feb 23].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Menu)
1969 Mar 20, Senator Edward
Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1969 Mar 20, The Chicago 8 were
indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention.
(www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml)
1969 Mar 20, John Lennon married
Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1969 Mar 23, The teenage crusade
Rally for Decency in Miami drew some 30,000. Teenagers organized the
rally after Jim Morrison (24), the lead singer of The Doors rock group,
was charged with indecent exposure during a concert in Miami on March 1.
(http://forum.johndensmore.com/lofiversion/index.php/t2673.html)
1969 Mar 25, John and Yoko Ono
staged a bed-in for peace in Amsterdam.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1969 Mar 25, Max Forrester Eastman
(b.1883), US critic and essayist, died. His books included “Love
and Revolution: My Journey Through an Epoch” (1964).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Eastman)
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.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0064636/)(WSJ, 1/10/03, p.A10)
1969 Mar 26, Writer John Kennedy
Toole (b.1937) 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy_Toole)
1969 Mar 26, B. Traven (b.1890),
novelist and short-story writer, died. He lived most of his life
incognito in Mexico. His work included "The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre" (1934), "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)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/traven.htm)
1969 Mar 26, The Nuclear reactor
in Dodewaard, Netherlands, went into use.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodewaard_nuclear_power_plant)
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 US, died at Walter Reed General
Hospital in Washington at age 78. In 2002 Carlo D’Este authored
"Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life." In 2006 John Wukovits authored
“Eisenhower. In 2007 Kasey S. Pipes authored “Ike’s Final Battle: The
Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality.” In 2007 Michael
Korda authored “Ike: An American Hero.”
(AP, 3/28/97)(WSJ, 7/12/02, p.W12)(WSJ, 3/7/07,
p.D7)(AH, 6/07, p.70)(SFC, 8/22/07, p.E1)
1969 Apr 1, Lin Biao (1907-1971)
was named Mao's constitutional successor. Chinese historical accounts
later said Biao showed his true nature two years later as a murderous
opportunist obsessed with seizing power.
(AP, 7/16/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Biao)
1969 Apr 4, In Houston, Texas, Dr.
Denton Cooley implanted the 1st temporary artificial heart.
(www.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/health/27docs.html)
1969 Apr 6, Sir Wally Herbert
(1934-2007), English explorer, reached the North Pole on foot. He
became the first man to cross the entire frozen surface of the Arctic
Ocean on foot covering the 3,720 miles in 16 months. Roy Koerner, a
glaciologist accompanying Herbert, drilled more than 250 ice core
samples during the journey.
(AP, 6/13/07)
1969 Apr 7, The
US Supreme Court in Stanley v. Georgia unanimously struck down laws
prohibiting private possession of obscene material.
(AP, 4/7/07)
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 maiden flight of
Concorde 002 was from Filton to Bristol.
(www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/aeronautics/1977-45.aspx)
1969 Apr 10, Harley Jefferson Earl
(1893-1969), American car designer, 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)(www.motorera.com/corvette/1950/vet56-1.htm)
1969 Apr 12, Simon and Garfunkel
released "The Boxer."
(www.radiowest.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3300&sid=72232d290dfd00e819b5932236c4c632)
1969 Apr 14, In the 41st Academy
Awards "Oliver" won as best picture, Cliff Robertson won as best actor
(Charly), Katherine Hepburn tied as best actress (Lion in Winter) with
Barbara Streisand (Funny Girl).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41st_Academy_Awards)
1969 Apr 14, The first major
league baseball game in Canada was played in Montreal. The expansion
Montreal Expos hosted their first game north of the border, marking the
first time a regular season major league game is played outside of the
US. The Expos won their debut at Jarry Park, edging the St. Louis
Cardinals, 8-7.
(HN,
4/14/98)(www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/1969_Expos)
1969 Apr 14, In NYC the student
Afro-American Society seized Columbia College.
(http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/stand_columbia/Timeline1965-69.html)
1969 Apr 14, A tornado struck
Dacca in East Pakistan killing 660.
(www.bangladeshtornadoes.org/climo/btorcli0.htm)
1969 Apr 15, North Korea shot down
a US airplane above the Sea of Japan. All 31 men aboard the plane were
believed dead.
(www.willyvictor.com/History/Korean_Shootdown/Korea.html)
1969 Apr 15, In SF Officer Rene
Lacau had a fatal heart attack during a struggle with a person
suspected of stealing a car.
(SFC, 1/27/07, p.A8)
1969 Apr 17, A jury in Los Angeles
convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. 6 days
later he was sentenced to death.
(AP,
4/17/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy_assassination)
1969 Apr 17, Czechoslovak
Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek (1921-1992), considered the
architect of Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring, was deposed.
(AP,
4/17/97)(http://referat.kulichki.net/files/page.php?id=35421)
1969 Apr 18, George Whittell, Jr.
(b.1881), born in SF to wealth amassed in real estate and mining, died.
His construction of a lakefront estate at lake Tahoe, the Thunderbird
Lodge, began in 1937 and was completed in 1939.
(SFC, 7/21/07,
p.F1)(www.thunderbirdlodge.org/theman.html)
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, sponsored by the British Sunday Times newspaper, 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 for John Madden in Houston.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1969-4/1969-04-23-NBC-23.html)
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 23, The Lebanese army
battled with rioting Palestinians.
(http://tinyurl.com/5m9aj6)
1969 Apr 24, President Nixon
orders US and South Vietnamese troops to secretly invade the “Parrot’s
Beak” region of Cambodia, thought to be a Viet Cong stronghold.
(www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a04242670parrotsbeak)
1969 Apr 26, Morihei Ueshiba
(b.1883), Japanese martial arts master, died. He evolved aikido through
a synthesis and repatterning of various Japanese martial arts forms.
Ueshiba is remembered by his pupils as a master of the martial arts,
whose studies transcended technical matters to include a moral and
philosophical view of the world based around harmony in the face of
aggression.
(SFC, 5/25/09,
p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morihei_Ueshiba)
1969 Apr 27, Gen. Rene Barrientos
(b.1919), military president of Bolivia, died in a helicopter crash.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Barrientos_Ortu%C3%B1o)
1969 Apr 28, The US invasion of
Cambodia took place. Congress and the press learned of the invasion on
April 30.
(www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a04242670parrotsbeak)
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 Apr, In England Bernadette
Devlin (b.1947) of Northern Ireland became the youngest woman ever
elected to British Parliament. Her 1969 book, “The Price of My Soul,”
did much to publicize widespread discrimination against Roman Catholics
in Northern Ireland.
(SFEC, 3/23/97,
p.A15)(www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=6234)
1969 May 1, In SF plainclothes
Officer Joseph Brodnick was fatally shot after he and a partner stopped
some youths suspected of burglary. 6 people were acquitted at trial.
(SFC, 1/27/07, p.A8)
1969 May 2, Franz JHMM von Papen
(b.1879), German chancellor (1932), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Papen)
1969 May 4, F. Osbert S. Sitwell
(b.1892), English poet (Who Killed Cock Robin?), died at castle
Montegufoni near Florence, Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osbert_Sitwell)
1969 May 5, N. Scott Momaday
(b.1934) received the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for “House Made of
Dawn.” The Kiowa author was the first American Indian to win the prize.
Norman Mailer won the general non-fiction Pulitzer Prize for “Armies of
the Night” (1968).
(http://tinyurl.com/5naupa)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Pulitzer_Prize)
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 8, The Academy Award
Oscar for best 1968 documentary was given to runner-up “Journey Into
Self,” after it was found that “Young Americans,” the original winner
had been shown in a theater in October, 1967, making it ineligible for
the 1968 award. Alex Grasshoff had directed the “Young Americans,” a
chronicle of a summer tour by the singing group.
(SFC, 4/22/08,
p.B5)(http://theoscarsite.com/pictures1968/journeyintoself.htm)
1969 May 10, In Louisiana the 2nd
Lake Pontchartrain causeway opened. The 1st span was completed in 1956.
(www.southeastroads.com/lpc.html)
1969 May 10, Malaysia held its 3rd
general election since independence. Opposition advances at the polls
were followed by bloody race riots. Smoldering racial tensions erupted
between the Malays and the Chinese with riots that killed dozens.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_general_election,_1969)(SFC,11/24/97,
p.A11)
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 US [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.
(www.querycat.com/faq/a99b3004b7265291928d484e51b547ea)
1969 May 11, Canada’s CBC public
broadcaster announced it will no longer accept advertising from tobacco
companies.
(http://archives.cbc.ca/health/public_health/topics/1945-12678/)
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, Winnie Mandela was
detained under South Africa’s Terrorism Act and was placed in solitary
confinement for seventeen months. In 1970 she was placed under house
arrest.
(www.answers.com/topic/winnie-madikizela-mandela)(http://tinyurl.com/cynuvn)
1969 May 12, Viet Cong sappers
tried unsuccessfully to overrun Landing Zone Snoopy in Vietnam.
(HN, 5/12/99)
1969 May 13, In Malaysia deadly
race riots took place in Kuala Lumpur.
(Econ, 5/16/09, p.49)
1969 May 13, Paul Wild,
Swiss astronomer, discovered asteroid #1775, Zimmerwald.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1775_Zimmerwald)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Canada)
1969 May 15, US Supreme Court
Justice Abe Fortas resigned amid a controversy over his past legal fees.
(AP, 5/15/99)
1969 May 15, Univ. of California
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, Russia’s Venera 5
landed on Venus and returned data on atmosphere.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_5)
1969 May 18, "Canterbury Tales"
closed at Eugene O'Neill in NYC after 121 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3455)
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, In Connecticut Warren
Kimbro (d.2009 at 74), a member of the Black Panthers, fatally shot
Alex Rackley (19), another member of the Black Panthers, who was
believed to be an FBI informant. The shooting was ordered by George
Sams, a local Black Panther leader. Prosecutors later alleged that
Bobby Seale had ordered the murder.
(AP, 2/11/09)
1969 May 20, U.S. troops of the
101st Airborne Division and South Vietnamese forces captured Ap Bia
Mountain, Hill 937, after nine days of fighting entrenched North
Vietnamese forces. Ap Bia was referred to as Hamburger Hill by the
Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
(HN, 5/20/02)(AP, 5/20/08)
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, The BBC ordered 13
episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
(www.querycat.com/faq/a99b3004b7265291928d484e51b547ea)
1969 May 23, The Who released
their rock opera "Tommy."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_(album))
1969 May 25, Anne Heche, actress,
was born in Aurora, OH. Her films included “Donnie Brasco” (1997)
and “Volcano” (1997).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Heche)
1969 May 25, Matt Borlenghi,
actor, was born in Los Angeles, CA. In the early 1990s played
Brian Bodine in the soap opera “All My Children.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Borlenghi)
1969 May 25, "Midnight Cowboy" was
released with an X rating. It was based on the novel by James Leo
Herlihy and became the only x-rated film to win an Oscar.
(www.nndb.com/films/794/000032698/)
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, Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002), Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, departed with his
crew on the reed raft Ra for from Morocco. They 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. On 16 July the crew was saved by the American yacht
Shenandoah. In just 56 days they had sailed a distance of 2,700
nautical miles.
(V.D.-H.K.p.343)(www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kontiki.htm)
1969 May 25, Sudanese government
was overthrown in a military coup. Gaafar an-Nimeiry (1930-2009),
came to power with the support of communist and socialist leaders.
(http://countrystudies.us/sudan/23.htm)(AP, 5/31/09)
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
(b.1897), Welsh-born Film and TV actor, died in Los Angeles. His films
included “Corn is Green” (1945), “Okinawa” (1952) and “Nightmare”
(1956).
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0931525/)
1969 May 29, Britain's
Trans-Arctic expedition made the 1st crossing of Arctic Sea ice. Roy
Koerner (1932-2008), more commonly known as Fritz, was one of the four
members of Sir Wally Herbert’s British Transarctic Expedition which, on
April 6, 1969, stood at the North Pole.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1929131.ece)
1969 May 30, Refinery workers on
Curacao set fires in Willemstad. Marines from the Netherlands restored
order.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.38)
1969 May 31, John Lennon and Yoko
Ono recorded "Give Peace a Chance" during their “Bed-In” at the Queen
Elizabeth’s Hotel in Montreal.
(http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/lyrics2/givepeace.html)
1969 Jun 2, Australian aircraft
carrier Melbourne sliced the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half
during NATO maneuvers off the shore of South Vietnam. 74 US sailors
were killed.
(HN, 6/2/98)(SFC, 6/19/08, p.B5)
1969 Jun 3, Last episode of Star
Trek aired on NBC (Turnabout Intruder).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek)
1969 Jun 4, Armando Socarras
Ramirez (22) 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.
(http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/168489/an/0/page/25)
1969 Jun 6, Joe Namath resigned
from NFL after Pete Rozelle, football commissioner, said he must sell
his stake in a bar.
(www.truveo.com/id/3053870463)
1969 Jun 6, Gen. Franco closed the
Gibraltar border with Spain. It stayed closed for 16 years. This
effectively starved Gibraltar of workers while depriving some 9,000
former workers of much-needed jobs and of a right to claim pensions.
The frontier was not fully reopened until 1985.
(WSJ, 4/8/02, p.A8)(AP,
9/19/06)(http://web.mit.edu/cascon/cases/case_gib.html)
1969 Jun 7, The Johnny Cash Show
premiered on ABC from the Grand Ole Opry with special guest Bob Dylan
and regular cast: Tennessee Three, June Carter and Carter Family,
Statler Brothers, and Carl Perkins, stepping in for Luther Perkins, who
has just died accidentally in tragic fire. The series ran through 1971.
(www.johnnycashonline.com/biography)
1969 Jun 7, Tommy James & the
Shondells released "Crystal Blue Persuasion."
(www.cashboxmagazine.com/archives/60s_files/1969.html)
1969 Jun 8, President Nixon met
with Nguyen Van Thieu, President of South Vietnam, and informed him
that US troop levels were going to be sharply reduced. During a joint
press conference with Thieu, Nixon announced a policy of
'Vietnamization' of the war and a reduction of US troops in Vietnam.
The first phase of 'Vietnamization' was to include the withdrawal of
25,000 American military personnel.
(www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A715042)(http://tinyurl.com/9n3vpd)
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 9, The US Supreme Court,
in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, ruled the Fairness Doctrine
constitutional. The court said free-speech protections for broadcasters
are narrower than those for publishers and pedestrians. 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. The tighter regulation of broadcasting was based on
broadcasters' use of public airwaves.
(AP,
8/4/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lion_Broadcasting_Co._v._FCC)(WSJ,
3/24/04, p.A4)
1969 Jun 11, John L. Lewis
(b.1880), American labor organizer, died. He was the driving force
behind the 1935 formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis)
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 (1931-2006) 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 Jun 21, The 14th Symphony by
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) premiered in Moscow.
(www.c4md.org/hancher/kremerata.html)
1969 Jun 22, The highly polluted
Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, caught on fire.
(Hem., Oct. '95,
p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River)
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, The 3-day Denver Pop
Festival opened. The peak attendance was estimated at 50,000.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Pop_Festival)
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. Some 3,000
people died in the 4-day conflict.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/sierra/soccer1969.htm)(Econ, 11/28/09, p.52)
1969 Jun 28, In the early hours 8
police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's
Greenwich Village. Police raided the bar because it had refused to pay
an increase in bribery. This led to a clash in what came to be called
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).
(SFEC, 7/21/96, DB p.32)(AP, 6/27/97)(AP,
6/27/08)(SFC, 6/22/09, p.E1)(SFC, 6/26/09, p.F3)
1969 Jun, A block of flats near
Segovia, Spain, collapsed killing 58 people. Developer Jesus Gil y Gil
(1933-2004) was jailed for 5 years for criminal negligence, but was
pardoned after 18 months.
(Econ, 8/23/03,
p.40)(www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1462047/Jesus-Gil.html)
1969 Jul 1, Britain's Prince
Charles was invested as the Prince of Wales.
(AP, 7/1/99)
1969 Jul 1, The Tokyo Stock Price
Index (TOPIX) was inaugurated.
(WSJ, 3/15/07, p.C1)
1969 Jul 2, Barbra Streisand
(b.1942) opened for a 4-week engagement at the Las Vegas International
Hotel.
(www.barbrafile.com/6169.htm)
1969 Jul
3, Brian Jones (27), founder of the Rolling Stones (1962), was found
dead at the bottom of Cotchford Farm swimming pool.
(www.hotshotdigital.com/WellAlwaysRemember.4/BrianJones.html)
1969 Jul 4, "Give Peace a Chance"
by Plastic Ono Band was released in UK.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Peace_a_Chance)
1969 Jul 4, Some 140,000 attended
the Atlanta Pop Festival featuring Led Zeppelin & Janis Joplin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_International_Pop_Festival_(1969))
1969 Jul 4, In San Francisco Jim
(d.2007) and Artie Mitchell (d.1991) opened the Mitchell Brothers
O’Farrell Theater at O’Farrell and Polk.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A15)(SFC, 7/14/07, p.A7)
1969 Jul 4, The California Zodiac
killer shot and killed a waitress in Vallejo.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)
1969 Jul 4, Darlene Ferrin (22), a
waitress, was shot and killed at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Club in
Vallejo. She was parked with Michael Mageau (19), who survived the
shooting. The Zodiac killer reported the shooting within an hour from a
pay phone.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)
1969 Jul 4, The Italian coalition
government under Mariano Rumor (1915-1990) fell apart.
(www.speedylook.com/Mariano_Rumor.html)
1969 Jul 4, Erwin Blumenfeld
(b.1897), German-born fashion photographer and artist, died in Rome.
His autobiography “Eye to I” was published in English in 1999. In 1996
William Ewing authored “Blumenfeld: A Fetish for Beauty.”
(SFC, 4/21/06,
p.E13)(www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/blumenfeld.html)
1969 Jul 4, The USSR performed
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
(www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)
1969 Jul 5, Wilhelm Backhaus
(b.1884), German pianist (Rubinstein-1905), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Backhaus)
1969 Jul 5, Walter Gropius
(b.1883), architect, founder (Bauhaus school of design), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gropius)
1969 Jul 5, Tom Mboya (b.1930) of
Kenya’s Luo tribe was assassinated in Nairobi. He was the expected
successor to Pres. Jomo Kenyatta (1894-1978).
(SFC,12/23/97,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mboya)
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. Charges against Defregger
were dropped in 1970.
(http://tinyurl.com/5f8qts)www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909636,00.html?iid=chix-sphere)
1969 Jul 9, Howard Luck Gossage
(b.1917), American ad man, died of leukemia. 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.
(www.ciadvertising.org/student_account/fall_01/adv382j/mgautam/PAPER2/luck.html)(Wired,
Dec. '95, p.192)
1969 Jul 11, David Bowie (b.1947),
British musician, released his single “Space Oddity," supposedly in
conjunction with the July 20 Apollo 11 moon landing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Oddity)
1969 Jul 14-1969 Aug 2, In West
Papua the "Act of Free Choice" was conducted by the Indonesian military
forces. 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. In papers
released in 2004, it has been revealed that US Ambassador, Marshall
Green in 1969 had fore knowledge that Indonesia had no intention of
allowing a Papuan vote that might prevent Indonesia from annexing West
Papua as a Indonesian province; he further pointed out that any UN
member would unwise to expect free or direct elections.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A23)(SSFC, 9/1/02,
p.A15)(http://tinyurl.com/7cxq3)
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 (1932-2009), D-Mass., plunged off a bridge on
Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard. His passenger,
28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, died. Kennedy did not report the accident
until it was discovered 9 hours later.
(TMC, 1994, p.1969)(AP, 7/18/97)(Econ, 8/29/09, p.30)
1969 Jul 19, Apollo 11 and its
astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins,
went into orbit around the moon. The Apollo 11 lunar lander engine was
built by TRW.
(AP, 7/19/99)(F, 10/7/96, p.71)
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’s Sea of Tranquility 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. In 2009 Buzz Aldrin authored “Magnificent desolation: The
Long Journey Home from the Moon.”
(AP, 7/20/97)(HNPD, 7/20/98)(HNQ, 9/14/00)(SFC,
3/29/02, p.A24)(Econ, 7/18/09, p.82)
1969 Jul 21, Apollo 11 astronauts
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard
the lunar module.
(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. In 2005 York
city officials announced a $2 million settlement with the children and
sisters of Lillie Belle Allen.
(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)(SFC, 12/7/05, p.A3)
1969 Jul 22, Aretha Franklin
(b.1942) was arrested in Detroit for creating a disturbance.
(http://oldies.about.com/od/oldieshistory/a/july22.htm)
1969 Jul 22, Dictator
Francisco Franco appointed Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon as
official successor to the position of Head of State.
(www.archontology.org/nations/spain/spain_1936s/franco.php)
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 24, Petroleos del Peru
(PETROPERU S.A.) was created (law No.17753) as a state-owned entity.
(http://tinyurl.com/554vke)
1969 Jul 25, Some 70,000 attended
the Seattle Pop Festival. The music festival, organized by Boyd
Grafmyrem, was held at the Gold Creek Park, Woodinville, Washington,
from July 25 to July 28, 1969.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Pop_Festival)
1969 Jul 25, The Nixon Doctrine
was put forth in a press conference in Guam, in which he stated that
the US henceforth expected its Asian allies to take care of their own
military defense [see Nov 3, 1969].
(http://thenewnixon.org/2008/07/24/25-july-1969-the-nixon-doctrine/)
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 26, Frank Loesser,
songwriter (b.1910), died. His songs included “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
sung in the 1949 film “Neptune’s Daughter.” In 2008 Thomas L. Riis
authored Frank Loesser.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Loesser)
1969 Jul 31, The Zodiac killer
sent a poorly-spelled letter to the SF Chronicle, Examiner and Vallejo
Times-Herald and took responsibility for the July 5 shootings along
with a portion of a cipher.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)
1969 Jul 31, Gary Allen Hinman, a
California musician and UCLA Ph.D. candidate, was found murdered at his
home in Topanga Canyon, Ca. Bruce Davis, a member of Charles
Manson’s murderous cult, was later convicted for the murder of Gary
Hinman as well as stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Brunner)(SFC,
1/29/10, p.A6)
1969 Jul, The rock group Mountain
with Leslie West and Felix Pappalardi released their album Windfall
4500.
(www.mp3.com/albums/17361/reviews.html)
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 2, Bob Dylan made a
surprise appearance at the Minn. Hibbing High School 10-year reunion.
(http://oldies.about.com/od/oldieshistory/a/august2.htm)
1969 Aug 2, Richard Nixon
visited Romania becoming the first president to visit a communist
nation since the start of the Cold War.
(HNQ, 11/20/01)(www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1464.html)
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 6, Theodor Adorno, German
philosopher, died of a heart attack. In 2008 Detlev Claussen authored
“Theodor W. Adorno: One Last Genius.”
(WSJ, 4/18/08, p.W5)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/adorno.htm)
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 found 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, In Northern Ireland
the Apprentice Boys, a Protestant fraternal group, led a parade that
ignited rioting in the Bogside section of Londonderry, 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)(http://tinyurl.com/ddovv8)
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)
1969 Aug 14, Leonard Sidney Woolf
(b.1880), English publisher, writer, died. He was the husband of writer
and critic Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). His books included “The Village
in the Jungle,” a novel based on his time in Sri Lanka (1904-1911). In
2006 Victoria Glendinning authored “Leonard Woolf: A Biography.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Woolf)(Econ,
9/16/06, p.93)
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 16, Canned Heat performed
"Let's Work Together" live Woodstock.
(www.chromeoxide.com/canned.htm)
1969 Aug 17, Donald E. Wahlberg
Jr., rocker (New Kids-Hangin' Tough), was born in Boston.
(www.donniewahlberg.com/bio.htm)
1969 Aug 17, Hurricane Camille hit
the Gulf Coast at Pass Christian, Miss., leaving 256 people killed in
Louisiana and Mississippi. Damage was later estimated at $3.8 billion.
(AP, 8/17/97)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A17)(AP, 8/30/05)
1969 Aug 17, Mies van der Rohe
(b.1886), 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe)
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. The Woodstock
Music and Art Fair ended in Sullivan County, NY, with a mid-morning set
performed by Jimi Hendrix.
(HN, 8/18/99)(AP, 8/18/07)
1969 Aug 19, Miles Davis and
associates began a 3-day session recording the album "Bitches Brew"
with Tony Williams on drums at Columbia's 30th Street Studio. Other
players included Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Airto Moreira, Herbie
Hancock, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Chick Corea and
Lenny White. The album was released in the spring of 1970 and became a
commercial success.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, DB
p.40)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitches_Brew)
1969 Aug 20, Arlo Guthrie released
"Alice's Restaurant."
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0064002/)
1969 Aug 26, Donald “Shorty”
Shea (b.1933), a Hollywood stuntman, was murdered about this time. The
location of his body was not discovered until 1977. Manson family
leader Charles Manson and family members Tex Watson, Steve Grogan aka
Clem and Bruce Davis were eventually convicted of murdering Shea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_%22Shorty%22_Shea)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cunanan)
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, There was a race riot
in Hartford, Connecticut.
(http://tinyurl.com/6qb7y4)
1969 Sep 1, John Lennon returned
his OBE (Officer of the British Empire) medal. He said it is to protest
the British government’s involvement in Biafra, its support of the US
in Vietnam and the poor chart performance of his latest single, “Cold
Turkey.”
(www.rockhall.com/inductee/john-lennon)
1969 Sep 1, A coup in Libya
overthrew the monarchy of King Idris and brought Moammar Gadhafi (27)
to power. Gadhafi emerged as leader of the revolutionary government and
ordered the closure of a U.S. Air Force base.
(AP, 9/1/99)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C12)(AP, 12/30/03)
1969 Sep 1, Drew Pearson (b.1897),
Washington Post columnist and newscaster, died.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApearsonD.htm)
1969 Sep 2, The first Internet
message was a packet switch delivered to UCLA from BBN Corp. (Bolt
Beranek and Newman). 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. By 2007 some
university researchers with the federal government's blessing want to
scrap the Internet and start over.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070414/ap_on_hi_te/rebuilding_the_internet_8)(SFEC,
3/16/97, z1 p.3)(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.
(AP,
9/2/97)(www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/hochiminh4.html)
1969 Sep 4, The US 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 4, In California Gov.
Ronald Reagan signed the first no-fault divorce package into law,
effective January 1, 1970.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, Z1
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-fault_divorce)
1969 Sep 4, In Brazil Fernando
Gabeira helped kidnap the US ambassador in Rio, Charles Elbrick
(d.1983), to protest the military dictatorship. Elbrick was released
unhurt four days later, but Gabeira was banned from entering the US.
(AP,
10/27/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Burke_Elbrick)
1969 Sep 6, "Cabaret" closed at
Broadhurst Theater NYC after 1166 performances.
(http://theatre-musical.com/cabaret/show.html)
1969 Sep 7, Senate Republican
leader Everett McKinley Dirksen (b.1896) of Illinois, ("The Wizard of
Ooze") died at 73 in Washington, D.C.
(AP,
9/7/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Dirksen)
1969 Sep 9, Allegheny Flight 853
collided with Piper Cherokee above Indiana. 82 were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Airlines_Flight_853)
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.
(www.musicdirect.com/product/83704)
1969 Sep 14, Males of Swiss canton
Schaffhausen rejected female suffrage.
(www.keesings.com/search?kssp_a_id=23580n02swi&kssp_selected_tab=article)
1969 Sep 16, President Nixon
ordered the withdrawal of 35,000 soldiers from Vietnam and a reduces
the number required to be drafted.
(www.vfwpost7591.org/vietnam_war.htm)
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 22, 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. In
1990 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. DNA evidence showed Franklin was
not responsible.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A21)(SSFC, 2/8/04,
p.A28)(http://tinyurl.com/9hl2at)
1969 Sep 22, Aleksandras
Stulginskis (b.1885), the 2nd president of Lithuania, died in Kaunas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandras_Stulginskis)
1969 Sep 23, The 1st broadcast of
"Marcus Welby MD" on ABC-TV. The drama with Robert Young continued to
1976.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Welby,_M.D.)
1969 Sep 24, The trial of the
"Chicago Eight" (later seven) began. Demonstrations began outside the
court house, with the "Weatherman" group 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. In 1970 Harold Jacobs authored
"Weatherman." In 2004 Jeremy Varon authored "Bringing the War Home: The
Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction and Revolutionary Violence in
the Sixties and Seventies."
(AP, 9/24/99)(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A5)
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 in the United Kingdom. The last hit
LP for the "fab four" zoomed quickly to the #1 spot on the charts and
stayed there for 11 weeks.
(www.johnlennon.com/html/history.aspx)(HN,
9/26/99)(Beat. For., 1995, p. 58)
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 28, The Murchison
Meteorite crashed into Australia. It was found to contain amino acids
and frozen ice.
(TMP, KCTS-Video,
1987)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murchison_meteorite)
1969 Sep 30, In North Carolina a
tax on soft drinks went into effect. A soft drink excise tax is hereby
levied and imposed on and after midnight, September 30, 1969, upon the
sale, use, handling and distribution of all soft drinks, soft drink
syrups and powders, base products and other items referred to in this
section. An excise tax of one cent (1¢) is levied on each bottled
soft drink.
(http://tinyurl.com/kp2saa)
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."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Speer)(SSFC,
10/6/02, p.M3)
1969 Sep, Marvel Comics introduced
Falcon, the first African-American superhero, in an issue of its
Captain America comics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_(comics))
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. In
1990 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. DNA evidence showed Franklin was
not responsible.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A21)(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A28)
1969 Oct 1, The Channel Islands of
Guernsey & Jersey begin issuing their own postage stamps.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_postage_in_Great_Britain)
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)(www.concordesst.com/history/events/events1.html)
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, Lieutenant Eduardo
Guerra Jimenez, 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.
(www.missilesofkeywest.bravepages.com/penetrated.htm)
1969 Oct 6, Special Forces Captain
John McCarthy was released from Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary, pending
consideration of his appeal to murder charges. A 1968 court-martial had
concluded that McCarthy had murdered a Cambodian peasant.
(www.fromthewilderness.com/free/hall/Mac.html)
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, was born in Woburn, Mass. In 1994 she won an Olympics
silver medal.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0449872/bio)
1969 Oct 12, Sonja Henie (b.1912),
Norwegian ice skater (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36) and film star,
died of leukemia on a flight from Paris to Oslo. Henie's career
included a record 10 consecutive world championships.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par
p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonja_Henie)
1969 Oct 12, Serge Poliakoff
(b.1900), Russian-born French modernist painter, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Poliakoff)
1969 Oct 13-1969 Oct 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 US, including a candlelight march around
the White House, as part Vietnam Moratorium Day.
(AP, 10/15/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1969)
1969 Oct 15, The $100-million,
52-story Bank of America World Headquarters at 555 California St. in
SF, was dedicated. In 1985 it was sold to Walter Shorenstein for $660
million. In 2005 a Hong Kong group offered $1.05 billion.
(http://continuumacg.net/moody2.html)(SFC, 9/23/05,
p.C1)
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 US federal
government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of
evidence they caused cancer in laboratory rats.
(AP, 10/18/97)
1969 Oct 18, 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.
(www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/dec/22/caravaggio-art-mafia-italy)(WSJ,
12/11/96, p.A20)
1969 Oct 19, US Vice President
Spiro Agnew referred to anti-Vietnam War protesters as “an effete corps
of impudent snobs.”
(www.ieatgravel.com/?p=1396)
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, The play "Butterflies
are Free," premiered in NYC at the Booth Theater. It was written by
Leonard Gershe (d.2002). It closed in 1972 after 1128
performances. Director Milton Katselas (1933-2008) then directed a film
version.
(SFC, 3/23/02,
p.A27)(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3299)(SFC, 11/4/08, p.B5)
1969 Oct 21, Jack Kerouac (47),
Beat Generation chronicler, died of alcoholism in St. Petersburg, Fla.
He wrote "On the Road" (1957), "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." In 2004
Douglas Brinkley edited “Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac.”
(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)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.M1)
1969 Oct 21, In Somalia Marxist
dictator Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre (1919-1995) 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siad_Barre)
1969 Oct 22, Giovanni Martinelli
(b.1885), Italian-American opera singer (NY Met), died on his 84th
birthday.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6001544)
1969 Oct 29, The US Supreme Court
ordered immediate desegregation, superseding the previous "with all
deliberate speed" ruling.
(HN, 10/29/98)
1969 Oct 29, Researchers sent the
first inter-node message between two sites on ARPAnet. The first e-mail
message crossed the Arpanet as a team under Professor Leonard Kleinrock
of UCLA communicated with a team under Douglas Englebart at Stanford.
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) [see Sep 2].
(http://tinyurl.com/lpq766)(WSJ, 1/14/99,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET)
1969 Oct, The Nobel prize in
Literature was awarded to Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). He
learned of the award while on holiday in Tunisia and avoided the
ceremony.
(WSJ, 7/11/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett)
1969 Oct, Economists Jan Timbergen
(1903-1994) of the Netherlands and Ragnar Frisch of Norway were awarded
the first Nobel Prize in Economics for having developed and applied
dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes. Tinbergen was a
founding trustee of Economists for Peace and Security.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Tinbergen)
1969 Nov 3, Pres. Nixon elaborated
his Nixon Doctrine in a televised speech. He stated that the US
henceforth expected its Asian allies to take care of their own military
defense. At the end of the speech, Nixon asked for the support of the
"great silent majority" of Americans. This was the start of the
"Vietnamization" of the Vietnam War. The Doctrine argued for the
pursuit of peace through a partnership with American allies [see Jul
25, 1969].
(www.watergate.info/nixon/silent-majority-speech-1969.shtml)
1969 Nov 3, The Arab League
brokered a deal in Cairo that gave the PLO in Lebanon refugee camps
freedom of government interference. They reached an agreement that
effectively endorsed PLO freedom of action in Lebanon to recruit, arm,
train, and employ fighters against Israel. The Lebanese Army protected
their bases and supply lines.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_lebanon_cairo_1969.php)(Econ,
6/2/07, p.46)
1969 Nov 4, Author Alexander
Solzhenitsyn was expelled from Soviet Writers Union.
(http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/66-1-414.shtml)
1969 Nov 5, In Chicago Judge
Hoffman ordered that the trial of Bobby Seale be separated from 7
others in the Chicago 8 trial. Seale, the founder of the Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense and one of the Chicago Eight, was later
sentenced to four years in prison on sixteen counts of contempt of
court.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/chronology.html)(SFEC,
11/7/99, p.A5)
1969 Nov 5, Bolivia nationalized
its energy sector a 2nd time. Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, the Minister
of Mines and Petroleum, nationalized the assets and concessions of the
Gulf Oil Company, under the administration of General Alfredo Ovando
Candia (1969-1970).
(http://countrystudies.us/bolivia/60.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/blqnw7)
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 10, Sesame Street, a
children’s show, premiered on the National Education Television network
(NET), which later became PBS. Jim Henson, Jeffrey A. Moss (d.1998 at
56) and Joe Raposo were the among the creators. Moss created the Cookie
Monster character and wrote such songs as "I Love Trash." Kermit Love
(1916-2008) worked as the costume designer for the show.
(AP,
11/10/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street)(SFC, 6/27/08,
p.B9)
1969 Nov 10, The SF Chronicle
received a letter from the Zodiac killer containing detailed plans for
a "death machine" to blow up a school bus.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)
1969 Nov 12, Free-lance reporter
Seymour Hersh first broke the story of the Mar 16, 1968, massacre at My
Lai. The US Army admitted to the massacre of civilians at My Lai and
announced an investigation of Lt William Calley. 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.
(WSJ, 10/22/96,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre)(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.A19)
1969 Nov 12, Liu Shaoqi (b.1898),
former Chinese president (1959-1968), died after being tortured in
prison.
(AFP,
9/6/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Shaoqi)
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,
begun by Dave Thomas, opened in Ohio. In 2008 the chain was sold to
Triarc Cos., owner of the Arby’s roast beef sandwich restaurant chain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy's)(SFC, 4/25/08,
p.D3)
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, Jonathan Beckwith and
others of Harvard Univ. announced the isolation of a single gene of E.
coli.
(http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/359/18/1970)
1969 Nov 24, Gen. William
Westmoreland assigned Lt. Gen. William R. Peers to investigate the My
Lai incident (March 16, 1968).
(www.choices.web.aplus.net/guidebooks/WAV/calley.pdf)
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, Pres. Nixon announced
an unconditional renunciation of biological weapons.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/9yy6bc)
1969 Nov 26, Lottery for Selective
Service draftees bill was signed by President Nixon.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1969 Nov 28, The Rolling Stones,
English rock band, released its "Let It Bleed" album.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Bleed)
1969 Nov, Interview magazine was
founded by artist Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga. It was dedicated to
the cult of celebrity which fascinated Warhol, and featured
cutting-edge graphics and interviews of celebrities.
(www.warholstars.org/chron/1969.html)(http://tinyurl.com/ybcdjtd)
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 1, On the initiative of
the French President, Georges Pompidou, the Heads of State or
Government of 6 European countries met in The Hague in order to define
the methods of reviving the European integration process. The Hague
Summit was held to establish the goal of European monetary union.
(WSJ, 3/25/98,
p.A22)(www.ena.lu/hague_summit_december_1969-022500027.html)
1969 Dec 2, Kliment J. Voroshilov
(b.1881), president USSR (1953-60), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kliment_Voroshilov)
1969 Dec 3, Andrew Lloyd Weber and
Tim Rice offered John Lennon the role of Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ
Superstar, but the offer was withdrawn the next day.
(http://tinyurl.com/7bvup8)(http://oldies.about.com/od/oldieshistory/a/december3.htm)
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. Alan Passaro (21) was tried
and found not guilty because Hunter was carrying a gun. One man drowned
in a nearby canal and2 people were crushed to death by a runaway car.
The 1970 documentary film “Gimme Shelter” was about the Rolling Stones
concert at Altamount.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.4)(AP, 12/6/99)(SFC, 6/10/00,
p.B5)(SFC, 5/26/05, p.B2)
1969 Dec 7, Lefty O’Doul (b.1897),
American Major League Baseball player, died. He became an
extraordinarily successful manager in the minor leagues, and also a
vital figure in the establishment of professional baseball in Japan.
One of his outstanding accomplishments while managing the SF Seals was
developing the young Joe DiMaggio, who went on to a Hall of Fame career
with the New York Yankees. His fame and popularity lived on in his
hometown of San Francisco. Lefty O'Doul's Restaurant and Cocktail
Lounge on Geary Boulevard, the popular restaurant and bar he founded
still operates. A bridge over McCovey Cove, near the Giants' home field
of AT&T Park, is named the Lefty O'Doul Bridge in his honor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefty_O%27Doul)
1969 Dec 8, The Los Angeles Police
made a surprise attack on Black-Panthers. At two separate locations,
400 officers arrested Party members and children. During one shoot-out,
Roland Freeman's body was riddled with bullets, but he survived.
(www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Chapter_History/BPP_Pieces_of_History.html)
1969 Dec 12, PanAm signed for the
first delivery of the new Boeing 747-100. Commercial service began Jan
21, 1970.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.21)(http://tinyurl.com/ye3vwv)
1969 Dec 13, Raymond A. Spruance
(b.1886), US Admiral, died. He directed US Naval forces at the WWII
Battle of Midway (1942) and the Battle of the Philippine Sea (1944).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_A._Spruance)
1969 Dec 14, The Jackson 5
appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Michael Jackson was 11.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.D6)
1969 Dec 15, President Nixon
announced the third round of Vietnam withdrawals.
(http://tinyurl.com/pxh9vu)
1969 Dec 17, An estimated 50
million TV viewers watched singer Tiny Tim marry his fiancée,
Miss Vicky, on NBC's "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.
(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.
(AP, 12/18/97)
1969 Dec 20, Peter, Paul &
Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" reached #1. It was written by John
Denver in 1967.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaving_on_a_Jet_Plane)
1969 Dec 21, Diana Ross and the
Supremes make their final television appearance on The Ed Sullivan
Show, singing "Someday We'll Be Together", which would be the last of
their 12 number one singles.
(http://forums.w3oc.com/showthread.php?p=1967)
1969 Dec 21, Vince Lombardi
(1913-1970), head coach of the Washington Redskins, coached his last
football game and lost.
(www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/was/1969.htm)
1969 Dec 28, Neil Simon's "Last of
the Red Hot Lovers," premiered in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Red_Hot_Lovers)
1969 Dec 30, Pres. Nixon signed
the Tax Reform Act of 1969. The US Congress had enacted legislation
that created a minimum tax (later known as the Alternative Minimum Tax,
AMT) after the IRS revealed that about 155 high-income households had
paid no tax in 1966. It was part of the Tax Reform Act of 1969 and
became operative in 1970. The AMT was designed to make sure everyone
pays some tax.
(www.worldcat.org/wcpa/top3mset/79655)(www.house.gov/jec/tax/amt.htm)(SFC,
12/14/05, p.A1)
1969 Dec 30, The US Federal
Aviation Administration certified the Boeing 747-100 for commercial
service.
(www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/pf/pf_milestones.html)
1969 Dec 30, In the Philippines
Ferdinand Marcos (1917-1989) won an unprecedented second term as
president.
(http://philippines-archipelago.com/history/marcos_regime.html)
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
(b.1900), Italian opera basso buffa and actor, died in NYC. His films
included “Full of Life” (1957).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Baccaloni)
1969 Dec, The world premier of
"Requiem for a Young Poet" by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970) was
conducted by Michael Gielen in Dusseldorf. Zimmermann committed suicide
9 moths later.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A20)(http://tinyurl.com/9eknvf)
1969 Dec, A US recession began. It
lasted to November 1970.
(WSJ, 7/22/98,
p.A12)(http://biz.yahoo.com/investopedia/081215/4566.html?.v=1)
1969 Dec, The modern Irish
Republican Army was founded in Belfast with the aim of forcing Northern
Ireland out of the United Kingdom. The modern “provisional wing of the
IRA” was founded with Joe Cahill (1920-2004) as the 1st Belfast
commander. The original IRA was founded in 1919.
(SFC, 7/26/04, p.B4)(AP, 7/29/05)
1969 Fernando Botero (b.1932),
surrealist Colombian painter, created "The Butcher's Table," a pig's
head laughing at his own slaughter.
(WSJ, 3/17/00,
p.W12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Botero)
1969 Artists Douglas Huebler
(1924-1997), Robert Barry (b.1936) and Lawrence Weiner (b.1942) held an
exhibition in NYC that was credited by a critic in 1971 as originating
the conceptual art 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
(1925-2008) created his "Carnal Clock" series of collages.
(WSJ, 9/25/97,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg)
1969 Artist Sol LeWitt (1928-2007)
wrote his seminal article "Sentences on Conceptual Art" and stated that
"Ideas can be works of art."
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.C5)
1969 London artists Gilbert
Proesch and George Passmore wrote their four “Laws of Sculptors.” They
later became known simply as Gilbert and George.
(SFC, 2/16/08, p.E1)
1969 Robert H. Boyle wrote: "The
Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History."
(Nat. Hist, 3/96, p.5)
1969 Vine Deloria Jr. (1933-2005),
Sioux scholar, authored “Custer Died for Your Sins.” His work
galvanized social and institutional changes involving native Americans.
(SFC, 11/15/05, p.B4)
1969 Joan Erikson (1902-1997),
psychologist, wrote "The Universal Bead."
(SFC, 8/9/97,
p.A19)(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9990822?dopt=Abstract)
1969 George MacDonald Fraser
(1925-2008), British writer, authored the novel “Flashman,” the 1st in
a series celebrating the adventures of Sir Harry Paget Flashman.
Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman is a fictional character
originally created by the author Thomas Hughes in his
semi-autobiographical work Tom Brown's Schooldays, first published in
1857. In this book, set at Rugby School, Flashman is the notorious
bully, who persecutes its eponymous hero Tom Brown.
(WSJ, 11/5/05,
p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Paget_Flashman)
1969 Buckminster Fuller
(1895-1983), American architect and futurist, authored his "Operating
Manual for Spaceship Earth."
(Wired, 9/96,
p.34)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller)
1969 Frances (b.1915) and Joseph
Gies (1916-2006) wrote "Life in a Medieval City."
(MT, Fall ‘96,
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Gies_and_Joseph_Gies)
1969 Peter V. Glob (1911-1985),
Danish archeologist, authored "The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved."
(AM, 7/97,
p.62)(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Peter-Glob)
1969 Eric F. Goldman (1915-1989),
American historian, authored "The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson."
(SFC, 6/2/00,
p.D4)(http://wist.info/g/goldman_eric_f/)
1969 David Halberstam (1934-2007),
American journalist, 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 (1923-2000)
authored "Soul Sister: The Journal of a White Woman Who Turned Herself
Black and Went to Live and Work in Harlem and Mississippi."
(SFC, 8/18/00,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Halsell)
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 (1930-1997),
American occultist, published his "Satanic Bible" in SF.
(SFC,11/8/97,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_LaVey)
1969 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
(d.1969) wrote "On Death and Dying." The book helped to launch the
hospice movement in the US.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A13)(AP, 8/25/04)
1969 Vera Brodsky Lawrence
(1909-1996), pianist, editor and historian of American music, published
"The Piano Music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk" (1829-1934) in 5 volumes.
(SFC, 9/22/96,
C12)(www.amrhome.net/contents/gotcmp.txt)
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 (b.1927),
American cognitive scientist, and Seymour Papert (b.1928), computer
scientist, 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 Bernard Rudofsky (1905-1988),
Austrian-born American writer, architect, laid out some practical
guidelines to urban design in his book “Streets for People: A Primer
for Americans.”
(SFCM, 8/1/04,
p.25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Rudofsky)
1969 D.W. Sciama (1926-1999)
published his book "The Physical Foundations of General Relativity."
(TNG, Klein,
p.154)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_William_Sciama)
1969 Prof. Edward Shils
(1911-1995), Univ. of Chicago sociologist, 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Shils)
1969 Herbert Stein (1916-1999)
told the story of the Kennedy-Johnson tax cut in his book: "The Fiscal
Revolution in America."
(WSJ, 5/30/96,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Stein)
1969 Gay Talese (b.1932) authored
“The Kingdom and the Power,” an inside story of the NY Times from the
post war period through the 1960s.
(WSJ, 1/21/06,
p.P11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Talese)
1969 "The Andromeda Strain" by
Michael Crichton (1942-2008) was published.
(SFEC, 8/11/96,
p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton)
1969 Diane de Prima (b.1941)
authored "Memoirs of a Beatnik."
(SSFC, 4/22/01, BR
p.5)(http://louisville.edu/library/uarc/diprima.html)
1969 Clifford Irving (b.1930),
American writer, published "Fake," the story of Hungarian art forger
Elmyr de Hory (1906-1976). 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Irving)
1969 Leo Kanowitz (1926-2007), UC
Hastings law professor, authored “Women and the Law: The Unfinished
Revolution.”
(SFC, 1/1/08, p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/7povpw)
1969 James Michener (1907-1997),
American writer, authored "Presidential Lottery."
(SFC,10/17/97,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Michener)
1969 Mario Puzo (1920-1999) wrote
his novel "The Godfather." It was made into a hit movie in 1972.
(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)
1969 Chauncey Starr (1912-2007),
international proponent of nuclear power, authored his article “Social
Benefits Versus Social Risks” in Science magazine. This ostensibly
launched the scientific field of risk analysis.
(SFC, 4/21/07, p.B5)
1969 Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)
authored "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 Della Reese (b.1931) hosted
her talk show "Della" for one season on TV.
(SFEC,1/19/97, Par
p.22)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0063892/)
1969 "Hee-Haw," a syndicated TV
show, debuted. It satirized country life with a mixture of music and
comedy.
(AP, 1/10/09)
1969 George Vicas (d.1997 at 71)
produced a TV film for NBC on Artur Rubinstein. Vicas won an Emmy for
this documentary.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A21)(http://tinyurl.com/8lvxqq)
1969 Toshiko Akiyoshi (b.1929),
jazz pianist and composer, married saxophonist Lou Tabackin.
(SFEM, 10/5/97,
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiko_Akiyoshi)
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 (1925-2003),
Italian composer, composed his 10-minute imagistic piano duet "Memory."
"The piece is punctuated at unpredictable intervals with jarring
discords."
(SFC, 11/1/96,
p.C13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciano_Berio)
1969 Dave Brubeck (b.1920)
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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Brubeck)
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 Placido Domingo made his SF
Opera debut in "La Boheme."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.45)
1969 The Flying Burrito Brothers
released their first album. The group included Gram Parsons (1946-1973)
and Chris Hillman (b.1944) of the Byrds, and pedal steel guitar player
Pete Kleinow (1934-2007).
(SFC, 1/16/07, p.B5)
1969 Merle Haggard (b.1937) made a
hit with his song "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin’ Side of Me."
(SSFC, 12/10/00, Par
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Haggard)
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 (b.1938) made a
hit with his song "Don’t Take Your Love to Town."
(SSFC, 5/20/01, Par
p.22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Rogers)
1969 Oliver, born as William
Oliver Swofford (1945-2000), recorded the hits "Jean" and "Good Morning
Starshine."
(SFC, 2/16/00,
p.C2)(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20124)
1969 The album “The Stooges” spent
11 weeks on the Billboard album chart peaking at No. 106. It included
the song “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” which became the group’s signature
number. The punk band formed in Michigan in 1967 and included guitarist
Ron Asheton (1948-2009), drummer Scott Asheton, singer Iggy Pop (born
as Jim Osterberg) and bassist Dave Alexander. In 2007 Paul Trynka
authored “Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed.”
(SFC, 1/8/09, p.B5)
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 (b.1947) and his band recorded their first album
featuring such tunes as "Evil Ways." Other members included 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Santana)
1969 Shel Silverstein (1930-1999)
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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shel_Silverstein)
1969 Skip Spence (1946-1999), 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_Spence)
1969 Dusty Springfield (d.1999),
English pop singer, recorded her album "Dusty in Memphis."
(SFC, 3/4/99,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dusty_Springfield)
1969 Rod Stewart (b.1945), English
singer, made his solo debut with "The Rod Stewart Album."
(USAT, 3/24/99,
p.5E)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Stewart)
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 (1945-1997),
American jazz drummer, 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)(www.jazzhouse.org/gone/lastpost2.php3?edit=920671037)
1969 Neil Young (b.1945, Canadian
singer and songwriter, produced his solo album with the title track
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere."
(WSJ, 4/28/99,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young)
1969 Frank Zappa recorded a song
entitled "Electric Aunt Jemima" on his album Uncle Meat.
(www.tranglos.com/marek/yes/tr_146.html)
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)(http://tinyurl.com/7v9tqa)
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 Henry L. Beach, a retired dry
cleaner and one-time member of the Silver Shirts, a Nazi-inspired
organization that was established in the US, founded his anti-tax Posse
Comitatus movement. The Posse Comitatus received widespread media
attention in 1983 when a former member of the group, Gordon Kahl, was
involved in a violent standoff with law enforcement officers in North
Dakota and Arkansas.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A4)(Wired, 8/96,
p.88)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Kahl)
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 (1926-1997)
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)(www.now.org/nnt/01-98/toni.html)
1969 The Young America’s
Foundation was founded at Vanderbilt University to teach patriotism,
limited, 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_America%27s_Foundation)
1969 Robert Redford bought 6000
acres in Utah’s 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
(1926-1999), American physicist and Nobel Prize winner (1990), 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_W._Kendall)
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)(www.interplast.org/)
1969 Donald I. Fine (d.1997)
founded Arbor House publishing company in Maryland with a $5000 loan.
It sold to the Hearst Corp. in 1978 for 1.5 million.
(SFC, 8/19/97,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_House)
1969 William Charles "Bill" Ayers
(b.1944) co-founded the violent radical left organization Weather
Underground Organization. As head of an SDS regional group in Detroit,
the "Jesse James Gang", Ayers made decisive contributions to the
Weatherman orientation toward militancy. He later became a professor at
the University of Illinois at Chicago, and was known for his work in
school reform and community organizing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers)
1969 Ben Metcalfe (d.2003 at 83)
coordinated the initial campaigns of the Winnipeg-based Don't
Make a Wave Committee (later Greenpeace) against planned nuclear tests
in the Aleutian Islands.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
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 (1917-1997),
environmental journalist, 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)(http://tinyurl.com/6scenl)
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 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 National Commission on
Product Safety recommended that 8 toys be banned including the Zulu toy
gun, which shot plastic darts, the Empire Little Lady Stove, which had
racks that could heat to 600 degrees, and the Bird of Paradise
slingshot, with razor-sharp missiles. The commission urged Congress to
pass new legislation banning toys based on their electrical, mechanical
or thermal qualities.
(WSJ, 12/3/07, p.B1)
1969 The IRS eliminated author
donations of their papers as a tax break.
(WSJ, 4/18/03, p.W13)
1969 The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp. (FDIC), established in 1933, raised its limit to $20,000 from the
initial $2,500.
(WSJ, 7/21/08, p.A10)
1969 The Special Drawing Right
(SDR) was created by the IMF to support the Bretton Woods fixed
exchange rate system. It was created to supplement the existing
official reserves of member countries. SDRs are allocated to member
countries in proportion to their IMF quotas. The SDR also serves as the
unit of account of the IMF and some other international organizations.
Its value is based on a basket of key international currencies.
(www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/sdr.htm)
1969 Ralph Nader, helped by Gordon
Sherman and other funders, founded the Center for Study of Responsive
Law to expose corporate safety neglect and governmental failure to
protect consumers.
(www.csrl.org/csrlhistory/index.html)(http://tinyurl.com/8faupg)
1969 Claire Falkenstein
(1908-1997), sculptor and painter, created the doors, gates and tall
windows in St. Basil’s Church on Wilshire Boulevard in LA.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A22)
1969 Robert LaRue Miller
(1935-2007), artist and self described “painter with light,” helped
Frank Oppenheimer (1912-1985) create the SF Exploratorium.
(SSFC, 11/18/07,
p.B6)(www.exploratorium.edu/about/museumhistory.html)
1969 Terry Schoonhoven (d.2001),
muralist, co-founded the Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad.
(SFC, 12/24/01, p.A18)
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 In northern California the
Concord Jazz Festival began.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.D3)
1969 The Asian Art Museum was
built in Goldengate Park. The Helen Crocker Russell Library opened in
Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1969 In Marin County, Ca., the
Mill Valley Public Library was built. It was designed by Donn Emmons
(d.1997 at 87).
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.A20)
1969 The 52 story Bank of America
building at Kearny and California was built at a cost of about $100
million. It rose to 779 feet.
(SFC, 10/3/00, p.A11)
1969 In SF the new high-rise
letterman Army Hospital was built in the Presidio.
(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A20)
1969 Mark Hurley (d.2001 at 81)
was appointed Catholic bishop of the Santa Rosa diocese. In 1970 he
consecrated his younger brother Frank as a bishop.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.C5)
1969 Singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti of
Nigeria visited California for 10 months.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A10)
1969 People’s Park in Berkeley,
Ca., again became the site of a dispute between the University, who
wanted to build student housing, and activists, who wanted it kept as a
mecca for poor people.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B3)
1969 Skyline College in San Bruno,
Ca., opened.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W21)
1969 The 43-acre Shelter Creek
development in San Bruno, Ca., was constructed. In 1999 water mains to
the complex began breaking.
(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A14)
1969 The Butchertown area of SF
gave way to redevelopment. A state-owned 7.5 mile stretch from
Fisherman’s Wharf to the Bayview was transferred to SF.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A1)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A22)
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)(www.interplast.org/)
1969 In SF Jim Turner and Charlie
Stuart founded the upscale Montgomery Street Motorcycle Club.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.A19)
1969 Sam Yorty (1909-1998) was
re-elected mayor of Los Angeles. He defeated Tom Bradley 53 to 47%.
(SFC, 9/30/98,
p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Yorty)
1969 SF Mayor Alioto was accused
of splitting a $2.3 million fee with Washington state Attorney Gen’l.
John O’Connell in a suit against 29 electrical contractors. He won the
suit but the issue forced him away from governorship of 1970.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A10)
1969 In SF Charlie Walker
organized local black truckers to protest alleged discrimination in the
construction of BART. He chained his truck to a local BART job site and
made headlines which led to his winning jobs on major projects.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.A14)
1969 Archie "Red" Emerson took his
Sierra Pacific logging company public.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A1)
1969 Larry Lee Hillblom co-founded
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 co-founder Adrian Dalsey (1914-1994) and
the L was for Robert Lynn.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A16)(SFC, 9/6/99,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express)
1969 In San Mateo County, Ca.,
work on the new Tanforan Shopping Center began. It replaced the race
track the 1st opened in 1899. The center opened in 1970.
(Ind, 8/17/02, 5A)
1969 Loni Kuhn (d.1997 at 65)
started her school, Loni Kuhn’s Cook’s Tour in SF. Her
great-grandfather started the San Jose Normal School (later San Jose
State Univ.) and her grandfather helped found the First National Bank
of San Jose (later Bank of the West).
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A22)
1969 The medical volunteer
organization Interplast, specializing in reconstructive surgery, was
founded at Stanford Univ. by Dr. Donald Laub.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, Z1 p.1,4)
1969 In the SF Bay Area Nello
Bianco (1928-2006) was appointed to the BART board of directors. He was
re-elected 4 times and served a board president 3 times.
(SFC, 9/14/06, p.B5)
1969 Donald and Doris Fisher
founded the Gap in San Francisco. The 1st store opened on Ocean Avenue
selling records and Levi’s. In 1983 Gap acquired Banana Republic, and
in 1994 Old Navy, In 2004 Fisher authored "Falling Into the Gap: The
Story of Donald Fisher and the Apparel Icon He Created."
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.I1)(SFC, 1/9/07, p.A9)
1969 Fritz Maytag bought out
Laurence Steese and took over the Anchor Brewing Co.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.9)
1969 Family owners sold
California’s Beaulieu Vineyards to Heublein Inc.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1969 In northern California a
breach at the Sherman Island levee left part of Highway 160 submerged
for 6 months.
(SFC, 1/10/05, p.B1)
1969 In the SF Bay Area the Albany
Bulb, east of Golden Gate Fields, began as a site for industrial
dumping. It later was turned into a public space area and artists
constructed numerous works from debris that washed ashore. In 2007
plans called for incorporating it into the East Bay Regional Park
District and removing the art work.
(SFC, 4/13/07, p.B9)
1969 In California some 1,600
fish, mostly adult and yearling salmon, died After a heavy rain of
copper poisoning below the Kewick Dam.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1969 Euphemia Charlton Fortune
(b.1885), artist, died. She was born in Edinburgh but received most of
her training in the US and became one of the West Coast’s most
acclaimed painters.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.B1)
1969 In Maine the “Uncle Henry”
weekly advertising magazine began to be published.
(WSJ, 7/7/97, p.A1)
1969 The 62-foot-tall Skowhegan
Indian statue was built in Skowhegan, Maine.
(NW, 8/26/02, p.51)
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 Fish and wildlife officials
in New York and Vermont banned fish shooting. In 1970 the Vermont
Legislature re-instated the sport.
(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A2)
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 John Montgomery Belk
(1920-2007), head of the department store chain Belk Inc., began
serving as Mayor of Charlotte, NC. He served 4 terms to 1977.
(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.A8)
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 The National Association of
Broadcasters endorsed the phase out of cigarette ads on TV and radio.
(WSJ, 1/27/04, p.D12)
1969 Atlantic Richfield Co.
(ARCO), led by Robert O. Anderson, merged with Sinclair Oil.
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.A7)
1969 Angelo Mozilo and David Loeb
founded Countrywide. It grew to become America’s largest home-mortgage
lender. In 2008 it was sold to Bank of America for more than 80% below
its market value a year earlier due to its accumulated high risk loans.
(WSJ, 1/7/08, p.A11)
1969 Donaldson, Lufkin and
Jenrette decided to take their investment bank public thereby forcing
the NY Stock Exchange to abandon restrictions on public ownership of
member firms.
(WSJ, 5/2/05, p.C1)
1969 Donald and Doris Fisher
founded the Gap in San Francisco. The 1st store opened on Ocean Avenue
selling records and Levi’s. In 1983 Gap acquired Banana Republic, and
in 1994 Old Navy, In 2004 Fisher authored "Falling Into the Gap: The
Story of Donald Fisher and the Apparel Icon He Created."
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.I1)(SFC, 1/9/07, p.A9)
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 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 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 (1915-1999),
Palestine-born 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)(www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pages/volcani.html)
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 (b.1943),
computer scientist at Bell Labs, wrote the first version of the UNIX
operating system on a PDP-7, a $72,000 closet sized DEC computer that
arranged memory in 8,192 18-bit words. UNIX programming language was
created by Bell labs in 1970. Ken Ritchie and others helped develop
Unix. Ritchie later invented the C programming language. Dr. Thompson
wrote C’s predecessor, known as B.
(www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/thompsonbio.html)(SFEC, 1/12/97,
p.B6)(Econ, 6/12/04, p.37)
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 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 The Leonard Silver
Manufacturing Company was started by Leonard Florence (b.1932) in
Chelsea, Massachusetts, to market silver plate holloware. Products were
manufactured by firms in India. The company was acquired by Towle
Silversmiths in 1978. At that time, the headquarters were moved to
Boston, Mass. The Leonard Silver line is now a part of International
Silver Company (Syrtech Corp.).
(www.livingvictorian.com/askrenipm/askreninov03.html)
1969 Refco, a futures trading
company, was founded as Ray E. Friedman and Co. and served as a
middleman between farmers and food buyers. The company went public in
2005 at $22 per share and filed for bankruptcy 6 weeks later.
(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A1)
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
(1890-1998), American journalist and environmentalist, helped found
Friends of the Everglades, a Florida-based conservation organization.
(SFC, 5/15/98,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjory_Stoneman_Douglas)
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. The psychiatrist
and brain researcher at Yale Medical School in 1979 gave Congress an
early warning that the United States faced an epidemic of smokable
cocaine,
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A22)(http://tinyurl.com/a6bdpn)
1969 A year’s tuition at the Univ.
of Michigan was $480. By 2008 it reached $9000.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.18)
1969 John Altoon (b.1925),
American 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Altoon)
1969 Carl Schuster (b.1904),
American 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)(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_/ai_n26852642)
1969 In Afghanistan’s second
nationwide elections Babrak and Hafizullah Amin were elected.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1969 The first Panafrican Festival
took place in Algiers amid widespread euphoria. Most African nations
had just gained independence, they were full of hope, and Algeria was
spearheading the nonaligned movement balancing between the Western and
Soviet blocks. A 2nd Panafrican Festival did not take place until 2009.
(AP, 7/9/09)
1969 Filippo Casella began making
wine in Australia after having moved from Italy. Casella Wines
introduced their Yellow Tail brand in 2001.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.F2)
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 Brazilian film "Antonio
da Mortes" was directed by Glauber Rocha.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.44)
1969 Embraer SA, an aircraft
maker, was founded by Brazil’s military dictatorship in an effort to
develop an aviation industry.
(WSJ, 9/13/04, p.A8)
1969 E.J.B. "Jim" Rose (d.1999 at
89) and Nicholas Deakin published "Color and Citizenship," a report on
Britain’s integration and immigration problems.
(SFC, 9/7/99, p.C2)
1969 The Labor government of
Harold Wilson forced Pollard Bearings, led by John King (d.2005), into
a merger. Pollard sold the firm for a large profit.
(www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/world/europe/13iht-obits.html?_r=1)
1969 Hugh Fish (d.1999 at 76)
environmental engineer, was named chief purification officer of the
Thames Conservancy and set about to restore fish to the Thames River.
An angler caught the first prize salmon in 1985.
(SFC, 7/21/99, p.C3)
1969 Barbara Anne Castle (d.2002),
Britain’s Labor Cabinet minister, published a plan called "In Place of
Strife," to inject some discipline into industrial relations and to
make trade unions subject to legal sanctions.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)
1969 Britain’s chocolate maker
Cadbury merged with Schweppes. In 2006 the Schweppes unit was spun off.
(Econ, 11/7/09, p.63)
1969 Princess Alice (b.1885) died
at Buckingham Palace. In 2002 Hugo Vickers authored "Alice: Princess
Andrew of Greece."
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.M3)
1969 Georgi Markov, a renowned
writer and journalist, fled communist Bulgaria and settled in London,
where he worked for the Bulgarian-language service of the British
Broadcasting Corp.
(AP, 6/16/05)
1969 The 1st Fespaco, a
pan-African festival of cinema and television, opened in Upper Volta
(Burkina Faso).
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.82)
1969 In Saskatoon, Canada,
David Milgaard (16) was convicted for the murder and rape of Gail
Miller. He was in prison for 23 years until DNA tests proved that the
crime was done by Larry Fisher, a multiple rapist. His story was later
told by Peter Edwards and Joyce Milgaard, David's mother in the book "A
Mother's Story."
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A10)
1969 Mahele Lieko Bokoungo, a
member of Congo’s Mbuza tribe, became Mobutu’s chief body guard.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1969 In Cuba Christmas was dropped
as a holiday by the Castro government.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A1)
1969 Paul-Emile de Souza became
premier (1969-1970) of Dahomey (later Benin).
(http://tinyurl.com/9ryq5)
1969 In Egypt the construction on
the Aswan High Dam, which expanded irrigation, had led to an increase
in bilharzia infection. In this year the government began to channel
its bilharzia interventions into more comprehensive and organized
control programs and projects. During the 1970’s and 1980s a campaign
of multiple drug injections to combat the parasitic disease led to a
massive spread of hepatitis c.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.54)(http://tinyurl.com/wuwmx)
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 In India Hindustan Latex, a
government enterprise, began making condoms to the government curb the
rising population. In 2009 it was renamed to HLL Lifecare.
(Econ, 11/14/09, p.75)
1969 The film “The Italian Job”
starred Michael Caine and Noel Coward. The crime fable was set in
Turin, Italy.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.E10)
1969 The Italian film
"Qeimada" starred Marlon Brando in a tale against colonialism. It was
directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (1919-2006).
(AP, 10/13/06)
1969 The Italian film "Satyricon"
was directed by Federico Fellini with music by Nino Rota. It was based
on a satiric novel by Petronius Arbiter.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.E3)
1969 The Italian film “Una Storia
d’Amore” featured American opera star Anna Moffo (1932-2006) in what
appeared to be a nude scene.
(SSFC, 3/12/06, p.B7)
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 New Star
Orchestra was formed as a part-time avocation by young musicians. In
2000 it merged with the Tokyo Philharmonic.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A1)
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 Japan Nissan introduced
its Skyline GT-R muscle car. The car was initially introduced by the
Prince Motor Co. in June, 1957. It was discontinued in 2002. A new
version was introduced in 2007.
(WSJ, 10/24/07,
p.B1)(www.driftclub.com/SkylineHistory.htm)
1969 The first case of karoshi, a
Japanese term for death from overwork, was reported with the death from
a stroke of a male worker (29) in the shipping department of Japan's
largest newspaper company. In 1987, as public concern increased, the
Japanese Ministry of Labour began to publish statistics on karoshi.
(Econ, 1/5/08,
p.69)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi)
1969 In Nepal the royal residence
Narayanhiti Palace was completed in Kathmandu. On Feb 26, 2009, it was
opened to public.
(Econ, 3/28/09, p.51)
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 Peru’s government banned the
trade of vicuna fleece as hunters drove the animals close to extinction.
(WSJ, 2/21/07, p.A14)
1969 The Soviet film "The White
Sun of the Desert" featured the music of Isaac Schwartz (1923-2009).
(AP, 12/28/09)
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 The International Convention
for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas entered into force. ICCAT,
with headquarters based in Madrid, Spain, was established at a
Conference of Plenipotentiaries, which prepared and adopted the
convention, signed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1966.
(Econ, 11/1/08, p.93)(www.iccat.int/en/)
1969 In Venezuela the Democratic
Action party changed the law so that judges would be chosen by party
affiliation in proportion to the electoral results, which put the
courts into the hands of the deepest pockets. Social democrats lost the
presidential election but maintained a legislative majority and passed
a new law making judicial appointments a function of electoral results.
The judiciary became politicized and corrupt.
(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A15)(WSJ, 1/05/00, p.A11)
1969 Tran Van Lam (d.2001 at 88)
became the foreign affairs minister. He was replaced in 1973 by Pres.
Thieu and went to the South Vietnamese Senate. He settled in Australia
after the fall of Saigon.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A26)
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 Emmanuel Milingo (39) was
named archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.D5)
1969 In Zambia Fort Jameson, the
capital of the Eastern province, was renamed Chipata.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.63)
1969-1971 Yellowstone Park officials attempted to
force grizzly bears to return to a wild diet. 220 bears, unable to quit
junk food, were shot and killed during this period.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.88)
1969-1971 Gen. Yahya Khan led Pakistan’s military
regime.
(WSJ, 7/28/05, p.D8)
1969-1972 The TV series “The Courtship of Eddie’s
Father” starred Bill Bixby and Brandon Cruz. Miyoshi Umeki was featured
as the housekeeper in the ABC series.
(SFC, 9/12/07, p.A17)
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)
1969-1972 Jacques Chaban-Delmas (d.2000 at 85) served
as the prime minister of France. He was a hero of the French Resistance
and served as the mayor of Bordeaux for 48 years.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.D4)
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 (1911-1998 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Schumann)
1969-1974 Richard Nixon (1913-1994) 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon)
1969-1974 Willy Brandt (1913-1992), head of the
Social Democratic Party, served as the West German chancellor.
(AP,
11/21/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Brandt)
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 North Carolina’s 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)
1969-1992 Valium was the most prescribed medicine in
the US. Leo Sternbach (d.2005) of Roche Holding AG helped develop the
drug.
(WSJ, 2/11/04, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/05, p.B4)
Go to 1970