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

 Deaths 

 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)

 April 

 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

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