1969

Events from the year **1969 in the United States**.

## Incumbents

### Federal Government

* President: Lyndon B. Johnson (D–TX) (until January 20), Richard Nixon (R–CA) (starting January 20)
* Vice President: Hubert Humphrey (D–MN) (until January 20), Spiro Agnew (R–MD) (starting January 20)
* Chief Justice: Earl Warren (CA) (until June 23), Warren E. Burger (MN) (starting June 23)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: John William McCormack (D–MA)
* Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D–MT)
* Congress: 90th (until January 3), 91st (starting January 3)

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Albert Brewer (Democratic)
* Governor of Alaska: Wally Hickel (Republican) (until January 29), Keith Harvey Miller (Republican) (starting January 29)
* Governor of Arizona: Jack Richard Williams (Republican)
* Governor of Arkansas: Winthrop Rockefeller (Republican)
* Governor of California: Ronald Reagan (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: John Arthur Love (Republican)
* Governor of Connecticut: John N. Dempsey (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: Charles L. Terry Jr. (Democratic) (until January 21), Russell W. Peterson (Republican) (starting January 21)
* Governor of Florida: Claude R. Kirk Jr. (Republican)
* Governor of Georgia: Lester Maddox (Democratic)
* Governor of Hawaii: John A. Burns (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: Don Samuelson (Republican)
* Governor of Illinois: Samuel H. Shapiro (Democratic) (until January 13), Richard B. Ogilvie (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Governor of Indiana: Roger D. Branigin (Democratic) (until January 13), Edgar Whitcomb (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Governor of Iowa:
	+ until January 1: Harold E. Hughes (Democratic)
	+ January 1-January 16: Robert D. Fulton (Democratic)
	+ starting January 16: Robert D. Ray (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: Robert Docking (Democratic)
* Governor of Kentucky: Louie B. Nunn (Republican)
* Governor of Louisiana: John J. McKeithen (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: Kenneth M. Curtis (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: Spiro Agnew (Republican) (until January 7), Marvin Mandel (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Massachusetts: John A. Volpe (Republican) (until January 22), Francis W. Sargent (Republican) (starting January 22)
* Governor of Michigan: George W. Romney (Republican) (until January 22), William Milliken (Republican) (starting January 22)
* Governor of Minnesota: Harold LeVander (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: John Bell Williams (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Warren E. Hearnes (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: Tim M. Babcock (Republican) (until January 6), Forrest H. Anderson (Democratic) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Nebraska: Norbert T. Tiemann (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: Paul Laxalt (Republican)
* Governor of New Hampshire: John W. King (Democratic) (until January 2), Walter R. Peterson Jr. (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Governor of New Jersey: Richard J. Hughes (Democratic)
* Governor of New Mexico: David F. Cargo (Republican)
* Governor of New York: Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: Dan K. Moore (Democratic) (until January 5), Robert W. Scott (Democratic) (starting January 5)
* Governor of North Dakota: William L. Guy (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Jim Rhodes (Republican)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Dewey F. Bartlett (Republican)
* Governor of Oregon: Tom McCall (Republican)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Raymond P. Shafer (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: John Chafee (Republican) (until January 7), Frank Licht (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Governor of South Carolina: Robert Evander McNair (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Nils Boe (Republican) (until January 7), Frank Farrar (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Tennessee: Buford Ellington (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: John Connally (Democratic) (until January 21), Preston Smith (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Governor of Utah: Cal Rampton (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Philip H. Hoff (Democratic) (until January 9), Deane C. Davis (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Virginia: Mills E. Godwin Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Daniel J. Evans (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: Hulett C. Smith (Democratic) (until January 13), Arch A. Moore Jr. (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Warren P. Knowles (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Stanley K. Hathaway (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Alaska: Keith Harvey Miller (Republican) (until January 29), Robert W. Ward (Republican) (starting January 29)
* Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Maurice Britt (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Robert Hutchinson Finch (Republican) (until January 8), Edwin Reinecke (Republican) (starting January 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Mark Anthony Hogan (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Attilio R. Frassinelli (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Sherman W. Tribbitt (Democratic) (until January 21), Eugene Bookhammer (Republican) (starting January 21)
* Lieutenant Governor of Florida: vacant (until January 7), Ray C. Osborne (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Georgia: George T. Smith (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii: Thomas Gill (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Jack M. Murphy (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: vacant (until January 13), Paul Simon (Democratic) (starting January 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Robert L. Rock (Democratic) (until January 13), Richard E. Folz (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Robert D. Fulton (Democratic) (until January 1), Roger Jepsen (Republican) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: John Crutcher (Republican) (until January 13), James H. DeCoursey Jr. (Democratic) (starting January 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Wendell H. Ford (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: C. C. Aycock (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Francis W. Sargent (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: William G. Milliken (Republican) (until January 22), vacant (starting January 22)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: James B. Goetz (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Charles L. Sullivan (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Thomas Eagleton (Democratic) (until January 13), William S. Morris (Democratic) (starting January 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Ted James (Republican) (until January 6), Thomas Lee Judge (Democratic) (starting January 6)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: John E. Everroad (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Edward Fike (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Elias Lee Francis II (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Malcolm Wilson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Robert W. Scott (Democratic) (until January 3), Hoyt Patrick Taylor Jr. (Democratic) (starting January 3)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Charles Tighe (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Richard F. Larsen (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: John William Brown (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: George Nigh (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Raymond J. Broderick (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Joseph O'Donnell Jr. (Republican) (until January 7), J. Joseph Garrahy (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: John C. West (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Lem Overpeck (Republican) (until January 7), James Abdnor (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Frank Gorrell (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Preston Smith (Democratic) (until January 21), Ben Barnes (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: John J. Daley (Democratic) (until January 9), Thomas L. Hayes (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Fred G. Pollard (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: John Cherberg (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Jack B. Olson (Republican)

## Events

### January

* January 1 – In college football, Ohio State defeats USC in the Rose Bowl Game to win the national title for the 1968 season.
* January 9 – In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Institution displays the art of Winslow Homer for 6 weeks.
* January 12 – Super Bowl III: The New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts 16–7 at Miami Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
* January 13 – Elvis Presley steps into American Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, recording "Long Black Limousine" thus beginning the recording of what becomes his landmark comeback sessions for the albums "From Elvis In Memphis" and "Back in Memphis." The sessions yield the popular and critically acclaimed singles "Suspicious Minds", "In the Ghetto" and "Kentucky Rain."
* January 14
	+ USS *Enterprise* fire: An explosion aboard aircraft carrier USS *Enterprise* near Hawaii kills 27 and injures 314.
	+ CBS greenlights *Peanuts* as a primetime television series. It runs for one season commencing April 10.
* January 16 – Ten paintings are defaced in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
* January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the United States, and Spiro Agnew is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
* January 27 – The modern-day powerhouse of the Hetch Hetchy Project at Moccasin, California, rated at 100,000 kVA, is completed and placed in operation. On February 7, the original is removed from service.
* January 28 – 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill: A blowout on Union Oil's Platform A in the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field spills 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil into a channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County in Southern California; on February 5 the oil spill closes Santa Barbara's harbor. The incident inspires Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day in 1970.

### February

* February 5
	+ Aquanaut Berry L. Cannon dies of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair the SEALAB III habitat off San Clemente Island, California.
	+ Four hundred Major League Baseball players boycott spring training over owners' refusal to increase their pension-fund contributions along with television broadcast revenues.
	+ The U.S. population reaches 200 million.
* February 8 – The last issue of *The Saturday Evening Post* in its original form hits magazine stands after 147 years.
* February 9 – The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight, from Paine Field at Everett, Washington.
* February 24
	+ The Mariner 6 Mars probe is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
	+ *Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District*: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the First Amendment applies to public schools.
* February 26 – The baseball players' boycott of spring training is settled, largely on their terms.

### March

* March 3
	+ In a Los Angeles court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
	+ Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 (James McDivitt, David Scott, Rusty Schweickart) to test the Apollo Lunar Module.
* March 10 – In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. (he later retracts his guilty plea).
* March 13 – Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
* March 28 – Former United States General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C..
* March 30 – Bee Gees' album, *Odessa* is released in the United States.

### April

* April 1 – A grassroots movement of Berkeley community members seizes an empty lot owned by the University of California to begin the formation of "People's Park."
* April 9 – The Harvard University Administration Building is seized by close to 300 students, mostly members of the Students for a Democratic Society. Before the takeover ends, 45 are injured and 184 are arrested.
* April 14 – The 41st Academy Awards ceremony, the first with no official host since 1939, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Carol Reed's *Oliver!* receives 11 nominations and wins five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Reed. Stanley Kubrick also receives his only Oscar win - Best Visual Effects for *2001: A Space Odyssey*.

### May

* May 10 – Zip to Zap, a harbinger of the Woodstock Concert, ends with the dispersal and eviction of youth and young adults at Zap, North Dakota by the National Guard.
* May 15 – A teenager known as 'Robert R.' dies in St. Louis, Missouri, of a baffling medical condition. In 1984 it will be identified as the first confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in North America.
* May 18 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 (Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, John Young) is launched, on the full dress-rehearsal for the Moon landing.
* May 20 – United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on protesters in Berkeley, California in the aftermath of the People's Park unrest.
* May 21 – Shirley Chisholm appears before Congress to speak about prejudices facing women in the workforce and the need for equal rights for women.
* May 22 – Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies to within 15,400 m of the Moon's surface.
* May 26 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first manned Moon landing.

### June

* June 3 – Melbourne-Evans collision: The Australian aircraft carrier HMAS *Melbourne* (R21) collides with the U.S. destroyer *Frank E. Evans* in the South China Sea; 74 U.S. sailors are killed.
* June 8 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu meet at Midway Island. Nixon announces that 25,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn by September.
* June 18 – The National Convention of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), held in Chicago, collapses, and the Weatherman faction seizes control of the SDS National Office. Thereafter, any activity run from the National Office or bearing the name of SDS is Weatherman-controlled.
* June 23 – Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren.
* June 28 – The Stonewall riots in New York City mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.

### July

* July 8 – Vietnam War: The first U.S. troop withdrawals are made.
* July 14 – The $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills are officially removed from circulation.
* July 16 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins) lifts off from Cape Kennedy toward the first human landing on the Moon.
* July 17 – *The New York Times* publicly takes back the ridicule of the rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard published on 13 January 1920, that stated that spaceflight is impossible.
* July 18 – Chappaquiddick incident: Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge after leaving a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aide to his brother, Robert, dies in the early morning hours of July 19 in the submerged car.
* July 20 – Apollo program Moon landing: At 3:17 pm ET (20:17 UTC) Apollo 11's Lunar Module Eagle lands on the Moon's surface. At 10:56 pm ET (02:56 UTC July 21), an estimated 650 million people worldwide watch in awe as Neil Armstrong takes the first historic steps by a human on the surface.
* July 21 – A.D. King, younger brother of Martin Luther King Jr., dies at age 38.
* July 24 – Apollo program: Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins return safely to Earth after the first landing on the Moon.
* July 25 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This starts the "Vietnamization" of the war.
* July 26 – The New York Chapter of the Young Lords is founded to fight for empowerment of Puerto Ricans.
* July 30 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam, meeting with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.

### August

* August 4 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. They eventually fail since both sides cannot agree to any terms.
* August 5 – Mariner program: *Mariner 7* makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
* August 9 – Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder Sharon Tate, (who was 8 months pregnant), and her friends: Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring at Roman Polanski's home in Los Angeles. Also killed was Steven Parent, leaving from a visit to the home's caretaker. More than 100 stab wounds are found on the victims, except for Parent, who had been shot almost as soon as the Manson Family entered the property.
* August 10 – The Manson Family kills Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, wealthy Los Angeles business people.
* August 15 – The Woodstock Festival is held in upstate New York, featuring some of the era's top rock musicians.
* August 17 – Category 5 Hurricane Camille, the most powerful tropical cyclonic system at landfall in history, hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars).
* August 20 – Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is established in Florissant, Colorado.
* August 21 – The first Gap store opens in San Francisco.

### September

* September 2 – The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.
* September 5 – My Lai Massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six counts of premeditated murder, for the deaths of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
* September 6 – Children's TV series *H.R. Pufnstuf* begins its run on NBC. It was also a segment in *The Banana Splits Adventure Hour* season 2.
* September 9 – Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 collides in flight with a Piper PA-28, and crashes near Fairland, Indiana.
* September 13 – *Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!*, *Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines*, and *The Perils of Penelope Pitstop* debuts on CBS.
* September 20 – The last Warner Bros. cartoon of the original theatrical Looney Tunes series is released: *Injun Trouble*.
* September 23 – *Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid*, a film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, opens to limited release in the U.S.
* September 24 – The Chicago Eight trial begins in Chicago, Illinois.
* September 26 – *The Brady Bunch* premieres on ABC.

### October

* October 1 – The 5.6 Mw Santa Rosa earthquake shook the North Bay area of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (*Very strong*). This first event in a doublet earthquake was followed two hours later by a 5.7 Mw shock. Total financial losses from the events was $8.35 million.
* October 2 – A 1.2 megaton thermonuclear device is tested at Amchitka Island, Alaska. This test is code-named Project Milrow, the 11th test of the Operation Mandrel 1969–1970 underground nuclear test series. This test is known as a "calibration shot" to test if the island is fit for larger underground nuclear detonations.
* October 9 – Days of Rage: In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in to control demonstrations involving the radical Weathermen, in connection with the "Chicago Eight" Trial.
* October 11 – The Zodiac Killer murders taxi cab driver Paul Stine in San Francisco, California.
* October 15 – Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in antiwar demonstrations across the United States called by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.
* October 16 – The "miracle" New York Mets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1.
* October 17– Fourteen black athletes are kicked off the University of Wyoming football team for wearing black armbands into their coach's office.
* October 31 – Wal-Mart incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

### November

* November 3 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity with the Vietnam War effort, and to support his policies. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounces the President's critics as "an effete corps of impudent snobs" and "nattering nabobs of negativism".
* November 10 – The children's television show *Sesame Street* premieres on NET (now PBS).
* November 12 – Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.
* November 14 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12 (Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon, Alan Bean), the second manned mission to the Moon.
* November 15
	+ Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS *Gato* in the Barents Sea.
	+ Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000–500,000 protesters stage a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".
	+ Dave Thomas opens his first restaurant in a former steakhouse in downtown Columbus, Ohio. He names the chain *Wendy's* after his 8-year-old daughter Melinda Lou (nicknamed Wendy by her siblings).
* November 17 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, to begin the SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
* November 19 – Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms"), becoming the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
* November 20
	+ Vietnam War: *The Plain Dealer* (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
	+ Occupation of Alcatraz: A group of Native American activists calling themselves "Indians of All Tribes" begin an 18-month occupation of Alcatraz Island as surplus federal land, to call attention to U.S. policies and treaty obligations to Native Americans and their tribal communities.
* November 21
	+ U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Satō agree in Washington, D.C. to the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. retains rights to military bases on the island, but they must be nuclear-free.
	+ The United States Senate votes down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement Haynsworth, the first such rejection since 1930.
* November 24 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.
* November 25 – John Lennon returns his MBE medal to protest the British government's support of the U.S. war in Vietnam.

### December

* December 1
	+ Chicago: Blues musician Magic Sam dies at the age of 32 of a heart attack.
	+ Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II (on January 4, 1970, *The New York Times* will run a long article, "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random").
* December 2 – The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle to New York City.
* December 4 – Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot dead in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
* December 6 – The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway in northern California. Hosted by the Rolling Stones, it is an attempt at a "Woodstock West" and is best known for the uproar of violence that occurred. It is viewed by many as the "end of the sixties."
* December 7 – *Frosty the Snowman* airs for the first time on CBS.
* December 12 – The Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana) takes place. A U.S. Navy officer and C.I.A. agent, David Carrett, is later investigated for possible involvement.

## Memoriam

* January 1 – Barton MacLane, screen actor (aged 66; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* January 2 – Gilbert Miller, theatrical producer (aged 84; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 3
	+ Commodore Cochran, Olympic sprinter (aged 66; San Francisco, CA, USA)
	+ Howard McNear, screen character actor (aged 63; San Fernando, CA, USA)
* January 17
	+ Bunchy Carter, political activist (aged 26; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
	+ John Huggins, political activist (aged 23; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 27 – Charles Winninger, actor (aged 84; Palm Springs, CA, USA)
* January 29 – Allen Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (aged 75; Washington, DC, USA)
* February 3 – Al Taliaferro, Disney comics artist (aged 63; Glendale, CA, USA)
* February 5
	+ Conrad Hilton Jr., socialite and hotel business heir (aged 42; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
	+ Thelma Ritter, comedy actress (aged 66; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 9 – George "Gabby" Hayes, Western film actor (aged 83; Burbank, CA, USA)
* February 14 – Vito Genovese, mobster (aged 71; Springfield, MO, USA)
* February 15 – Pee Wee Russell, jazz clarinetist (aged 62; Alexandria, VA, USA)
* February 17 – Paul Barbarin, jazz drummer (aged 69; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* February 27
	+ John Boles, film actor (aged 73; San Angelo, TX, USA)
	+ William T. Innes, writer, ichthyologist and publisher (aged 95; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* March 3 – Fred Alexander, tennis player (aged 88; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* March 4 – Nicholas Schenck, film impresario (aged 88; FL, USA)
* March 9
	+ Charles Brackett, novelist and screenwriter (aged 76; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
	+ Richard Crane, screen character actor (aged 50; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* March 11 – Daniel E. Barbey, admiral (aged 79; Bremerton, WA, USA)
* March 18 – Barbara Bates, film actress, suicide (aged 43; Denver, CO, USA)
* March 21 – Pinky Higgins, baseball player and manager (aged 59; Dallas, TX, USA)
* March 25 – Max Eastman, writer (aged 86; Bridgetown, Barbados)
* March 26 – John Kennedy Toole, novelist, suicide (aged 31; Biloxi, MS, USA)
* March 28 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 (aged 78; Washington, DC, USA)
* April 4
	+ Bessie Bell Collier, violinist (aged 84; Brookline, MA, USA)
	+ Félix Conde Falcón, army soldier, recipient of the Medal of Honor (aged 31; Ap Tan Hoa, (South) Vietnam)
* April 5 – Shelby Storck, television producer (aged 52; St. Louis, MO, USA)
* April 10 – Harley Earl, automotive designer and business executive (aged 75; West Palm Beach, FL, USA)
* April 12 – Charlotta Bass, educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil rights activist (aged 95; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* April 20 – Benny Benjamin, urban and jazz drummer (aged 43; Detroit, MI, USA)
* May 1 – Ella Logan, actress and singer (aged 56; Burlingame, CA, USA)
* May 14
	+ Enid Bennett, silent film actress (aged 75; Malibu, CA, USA)
	+ Walter Pitts, logician and cognitive psychologist (aged 46; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* May 15
	+ William Gould, action film actor (aged 83; Long Beach, CA, USA)
	+ Robert Rayford, HIV/AIDS victim (aged 16; St. Louis, MO, USA)
* May 20
	+ Alex Rackley, political activist (aged 19; Middlefield, CT, USA)
	+ Fred Sherman, film actor (aged 64; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* May 21 – William Lincoln Bakewell, explorer (aged 80; Dukes, MI, USA)
* May 23 – Jimmy McHugh, song composer (aged 74; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* May 24
	+ Paul Birch, actor (aged 57; St. George's, Grenada)
	+ Mitzi Green, child actress (aged 48; Huntington Beach, CA, USA)
* May 26 – Henry Rago, poet and editor (aged 53; Chicago, IL, USA)
* May 27 – Jeffrey Hunter, screen actor (aged 42; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 8 – Robert Taylor, American actor (aged 57; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* June 11 – John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960 (aged 89; Alexandria, VA, USA)
* June 18 – Edgar Anderson, botanist (aged 71; East Lansing, MI, USA)
* June 19 – Natalie Talmadge, silent film actress (aged 73; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* June 24 – Willy Ley, scientific popularizer (aged 62; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 28
	+ Charles Carpenter, Episcopal bishop (aged 69; Birmingham, AL, USA)
	+ Gerald Fitzgerald, Roman Catholic priest (aged 74; Jemez Springs, NM, USA)
* June 30
	+ Roman Richard Atkielski, Roman Catholic bishop (aged 69; Milwaukee, WI, USA)
	+ Max Fabian, cinematographer (aged 78; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 2 – Iron Mike DiBiase, wrestler (aged 45; Lubbock, TX, USA)
* July 5
	+ Ben Alexander, film actor (aged 58; Westchester, CA, USA)
	+ Walter Gropius, Modernist architect (aged 86; Boston, MA, USA)
	+ Lambert Hillyer, film director (aged 75; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
	+ Leo McCarey, film director (aged 70; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 7
	+ Charlotte Armstrong, fiction writer (aged 64; Glendale, CA, USA)
	+ Gladys Swarthout, operatic mezzo-soprano (aged 68; Florence, Italy)
* July 17 – Harry Benham, silent film actor (aged 85; Sarasota, FL, USA)
* July 18
	+ Mary Jo Kopechne, teacher, secretary and political campaign specialist, drowned in automobile accident (aged 28; Chappaquiddick Island, MA, USA)
	+ Barbara Pepper, actress (aged 54; Panorama City, CA, USA)
* July 21 – A. D. King, African American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, accidental drowning (aged 38; Atlanta, GA, USA)
* July 26 – Raymond Walburn, character actor (aged 81; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 28 – Frank Loesser, songwriter (aged 59; East Harlem, NY, USA)
* August 1 – Donald Keith, silent film actor (aged 65; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 9
	+ Jay Sebring, celebrity hair stylist (aged 35; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
	+ Sharon Tate, screen actress and model (aged 26; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 17
	+ Otto Stern, physicist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1943 (aged 81; Berkeley, CA, USA)
	+ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect (aged 83; Chicago, IL, USA)
* August 18 – Mildred Davis, silent film actress (aged 68; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* August 31 – Rocky Marciano, heavyweight boxer (aged 45; Newton, IA, USA)
* September 3 – John Lester, cricketer (aged 98; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* September 7 – Everett Dirksen, politician (aged 73; Washington, DC, USA)
* September 8 – Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven (aged 76; Newton, MA, USA)
* September 16 – Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr., conservationist (aged 82; New York City, NY, USA)
* September 17 – Greye La Spina, dramatist and short story writer (aged 89; Wakefield, MA, USA)
* September 22 – Rachel Davis Harris, African American librarian (aged 100; Bronx Couty, NY, USA)
* September 24 – Warren Sturgis McCulloch, neurophysiologist and cybernetician (aged 70; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* October 3 – Skip James, blues singer (aged 67; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* October 6 – Walter Hagen, golfer (aged 76; Traverse City, MI, USA)
* October 7 – Johnnie Morris, vaudeville and film actor and comedian (aged 82; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* October 14 – Arnie Herber, American football player (Green Bay Packers) (aged 59; Green Bay, WI, USA)
* October 15 – Rod La Rocque, film actor (aged 70; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* October 21 – Jack Kerouac, novelist and poet (aged 47; St. Petersburg, FL, USA)
* October 29 – Pops Foster, African American jazz string bass player (aged 77; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* November 1 – Pauline Bush, silent film actress (aged 83; San Diego, CA, USA)
* November 4 – Frank G. Clement, 41st Governor of Tennessee (aged 49; Nashville, TN, USA)
* November 5 – Lloyd Corrigan, screen actor and director (aged 69; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 8
	+ Dave O'Brien, film actor (aged 57; Catalina Island, CA, USA)
	+ Vesto M. Slipher, astronomer (aged 93; Flagstaff, AZ, USA)
* November 11 – Frank Mills, politician in Ohio legislature (aged 65; Dayton, OH, USA)
* November 12 – William F. Friedman, cryptanalyst (aged 78; Washington, DC, USA)
* November 15 – Roy D'Arcy, silent and sound film actor (aged 75; Redlands, CA, USA)
* November 18 – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., political patriarch and businessman (aged 81; Hyannis Port, MA, USA)
* November 25 – Arthur E. Reimer, political activist and politician (aged 87; Boston, MA, USA)
* November 28 – Roy Barcroft, Western film actor (aged 67; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 1 – Magic Sam, Chicago blues guitarist and songwriter (aged 32; Chicago, IL, USA)
* December 3 – Ruth White, actress (aged 55; Perth Amboy, NJ, USA)
* December 4
	+ Mark Clark (aged 22; Chicago, IL, USA)
	+ Fred Hampton (aged 21; Chicago, IL, USA)
* December 7 – Lefty O'Doul, baseball player (aged 72; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* December 13 – Spencer Williams, African American screen actor and filmmaker (aged 76; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 23 – Donald Foster, television actor (aged 80; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* December 24
	+ Cortelia Clark, African American blues singer and guitarist (aged 63; Nashville, TN, USA)
	+ Seabury Quinn, government lawyer, journalist and pulp magazine author (aged 80; Washington, DC, USA)
* December 31 – Joseph Yablonski, labor leader, murdered (aged 59; Clarksville, PA, USA)