1969

**1969** (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar.

## Events

- January 12 – Led Zeppelin's first album is released.
- January 20 – Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States, after Lyndon Johnson.
- February 3 – Yasser Arafat becomes Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
- April 9 – Around 300 students take over Harvard University, because they do not like the Vietnam War being fought.
- May 10 – Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam.
- May 20 – National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on Vietnam War protesters in California.
- May 31 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance" at their "Bed-In" in Montreal.
- June 8 – Nixon announces that 25,000 US troops will start to leave Vietnam before September.
- July 8 – As promised, some US troops begin to leave Vietnam.
- July 16–24 – The Apollo 11 mission makes Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first people on the Moon.
- August 9 – The Manson Family murders the actress Sharon Tate and members of her family.
- August 15 – The Woodstock music festival starts in Upstate New York.
- August 17 – Hurricane Camille hits Mississippi, killing 248 people.
- August 31 – Boxer Rocky Marciano dies in a plane crash on the day before his 46th birthday.
- September 1 – King Idris I of Libya is removed from power in a coup.
- September 7 – _Monty Python's Flying Circus_ airs for the first time on British television.
- October 15 – Hundreds of thousands of people across the US protest against the Vietnam War by not going to work.
- October 21 – Willy Brandt becomes the first SPD-Chancellor of Germany
- November 9 – A group of American Indians takes over Alcatraz Island and holds it for 19 months.
- November 10 - Sesame Street first aired.
- November 13 – Up to 500,000 anti-war protesters march and protest in Washington DC.
- December 1 – The United States holds the first "draft lottery", to pick who is going to be sent to fight in Vietnam.

## Births

- January 2 – Christy Turlington, American model
- January 3 – Michael Schumacher, German Formula one driver
- January 5 – Marilyn Manson, American singer
- January 14 – Dave Grohl, American musician
- January 16 – Roy Jones, Jr., American professional boxer
- January 18 – Dave Bautista, American professional wrestler
- February 1 – Brian Krause, American actor
- February 11 – Jennifer Aniston, American actress
- March 6 – Greg Scott, English television presenter
- April 25 – Renée Zellweger, American actress
- May 14 – Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
- May 25 – Stacy London, American fashion consultant
- June 14 – Steffi Graf, German tennis player
- June 15 – Oliver Kahn, German football player
- June 24 – Nicodemo Gentile, Italian lawyer
- June 27 – Colleen Fitzpatrick, American singer and actress
- July 17 - Kazuki Kitamura, Japanese actor
- July 20 – Josh Holloway, American actor
- July 24 – Jennifer Lopez, American singer and actress
- July 27 – Triple H, American professional wrestler
- August 6 – Elliott Smith, American singer and musician (d. 2003)
- August 18 – Edward Norton, American actor
- August 19 – Matthew Perry, American actor
- August 28 – Jack Black, American actor, comedian, and musician
- October 24 - Adela Noriega, Mexican television actress
- November 10 – Jens Lehmann, German football player
- December 4 – Jay-Z, American rapper
- December 9 – Bixente Lizarazu, French footballer
- December 19 – Kristy Swanson, American actress
- December 28 – Linus Torvalds, Finnish computer scientist
- Buckethead, American musician

### January

- January 1 – Barton MacLane, American actor (b. 1902)
- January 1 – Bruno Söderström, Swedish track and field athlete (b. 1881)
- January 4 – Paul Chambers, American jazz double bassist (b. 1935)
- January 9 – Jacques van Egmond, Dutch racing cyclist (b. 1908)
- January 17 – Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish composer (b. 1909)
- January 19 – Jan Palach, Czech activist (b. 1948)
- January 30 – Dominique Pire, Belgian friar (b. 1910)
- January 31 – Meher Baba, Indian mystic (b. 1894)

### February

- February 2 – Boris Karloff, English actor (b. 1887)
- February 23 – Madhubala, Indian actress (b. 1933)
- February 23 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
- February 26 – Levi Eshkol, 3rd Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1895)

### March

- March 24 – Joseph Kasa-Vubu, 1st President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1917)
- March 28 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (b. 1890)

### May

- May 2 – Franz von Papen, 22nd Chancellor of Germany (b. 1879)
- May 3 - Zakir Husain, 3rd President of India (b. 1897)

### June

- June 8 – Robert Taylor, American actor (b. 1911)
- June 22 – Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922)

### July

- July 3 – Brian Jones, British musician (the Rolling Stones) (b. 1942)

### August

- August 6 - Theodor W. Adorno, German philosopher (b. 1903)
- August 9 – Sharon Tate, American actress (b. 1943)
- August 31 – Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)

### September

- September 2 – Ho Chi Minh, 1st President of Vietnam (b. 1890)

### October

- October 12 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912)
- October 21 – Jack Kerouac, American writer and poet (b. 1922)

### November

- November 8 – Vesto Slipher, American astronomer (b. 1875)
- November 12 - Iskander Mirza, 1st President of Pakistan (b. 1899)
- November 12 – Liu Shaoqi, 2nd President of China (b. 1898)
- November 18 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., American businessman (b. 1888)
- November 21 – Mutesa II of Buganda, President of Uganda (b. 1924)

### December

- December 13 – Spencer Williams Jr., American actor (b. 1893)
- December 17 - Artur da Costa e Silva, 27th President of Brazil (b. 1899)

## Nobel Prizes

- Nobel Prize in Physics – Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist (for his work on the theory of elementary particles)
- Chemistry – Derek H R Barton, Odd Hassel
- Medicine – Max Delbrück, Alfred D Hershey, Salvador E Luria
- Literature – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer
- Peace – International Labour Organization
- Economics – Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen

## Movies released

- _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_
- _Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice_
- _Cactus Flower_
- _Easy Rider_
- _Midnight Cowboy_
- _Shart_
- _The Wild Bunch_

## Hit songs

- "Aquarius"/"Let The Sunshine In" – Fifth Dimension
- "The Ballad of John and Yoko" – The Beatles
- "But You Know I Love You" – Kenny Rogers and The First Edition
- "The Boxer" – Simon and Garfunkel
- "In The Ghetto" – Elvis Presley
- "Cloud Nine" – The Temptations
- "Come Together" – The Beatles
- "Get Back" – The Beatles
- "Good Times Bad Times" – Led Zeppelin
- "Honky Tonk Women" – Rolling Stones
- "I'd Wait A Million Years" – The Grass Roots
- "Listen to the Band" – The Monkees
- "Pinball Wizard" – The Who
- "Proud Mary" – Creedence Clearwater Revival
- "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" – B.J. Thomas
- "Something" – The Beatles
- "Suspicious Minds" – Elvis Presley
- "Touch Me" – The Doors
- "Whole Lotta Love" – Led Zeppelin

## New Books

- _Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle_ – Vladimir Nabokov
- _The Andromeda Strain_ – Michael Crichton
- _The Edible Woman_ – Margaret Atwood
- _The Godfather_ – Mario Puzo
- _The Green Man_ – Kingsley Amis