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

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

### October 
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* 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

## Other websites