Chronology of Events in 1969

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JANUARY

1 Czechoslovakia adopted a federal government composed of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic.

3 The U.S. House of Representatives voted to seat Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., but fined him $20,000 and denied him seniority.
3 An earthquake shook Iran, killing about 50 persons, injuring 300, and leaving 2,000 persons homeless.

4 Spain ceded Ifni to Morocco.

4 Over 100 persons were injured when Roman Catholics and Protestants clashed in Londonberry, Northern Ireland.

5 Henry Cabot Lodge was named to succeed W. Averell Harriman as chief U. S. negotiator at the Vietnam Peace Talks in Paris, France.
5 The Soviet Union launched Venus 5 toward Venus.
5 An Ariana Afghan Airways Boeing 727 crashed into a home in Gatwick, England, killing 2 of its 3 occupants and 48 of the 63 persons on the plane.

7 Eighty-one Cubans fought their way past Cuban Army guards to enter the U. S. naval base at Guantanamo.
7 The trial of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, the accused assassin of Robert Kennedy, opened in Los Angeles, California.

10 The Soviet Union launched Venus 6 toward Venus.

12 About 5,000 persons marched in central London, England, to protest discrimination against nonwhite immigrants in Britain.
12 The New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts, 16-7, to win the Super Bowl.

13 A Scandanavian Airlines DC-8 crashed into Santa Monica Bay while attempting to land at Los Angeles (California) International Airport, killing 15 of the 45 persons aboard.

14 Fire swept the flight deck and portions of the interior of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise after a Zuni rocket attached to an aircraft detonated.

16 The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and 5 docked in space and two cosmonauts "walked" from one craft to the other.
16 Jan Palach, a 21-year-old student, set himself on fire in Prague, Czechoslavakia, to protest Soviet occupation of his country.

18 A United Airlines Boeing 727 crashed into Santa Monica Bay soon after taking off from Los Angeles (California) International Airport, killing all 38 persons aboard.

19 About 5,000 anti-war demonstrators marched up Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D. C.

20 A U. S. Navy court of inquiry into the capture of the USS Pueblo by North Korea opened in Coronado, California.

21 Striking Uruguayan government employees rioted in Montevideo, leaving one person dead and 32 injured.

22 A Soviet lieutenant fired on a motorcade carrying cosmonauts and Soviet leaders through the Kremlin.

23 An explosion in a gold mine near Welkom, South Africa, killed 15 men.
23 Tornadoes killed 31 persons in southern Mississippi.

24 The government of Spain placed the country under a state of emergency.

25 Nineteen persons were reported injured and at least 30 homes were damaged when 26 tank cars filled with butane derailed and burst into flames at Laurel, Mississippi.
25 A series of bomb explosions rocked government buildings in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

28 An oil well off the shore of Santa Barbara, California, blew out.

FEBRUARY

3 Eduardo Mondlane, leader of Mozambique's largest nationalist group, was assassinated.

4 Between 20,000 and 30,000 persons demonstrated in front of the U. S. air base on Okinawa, Japan, to protest the presence of B-52 bombers on the island.

5 Millions of workers in Italy demanding higher pensions staged a 24-hour strike.

6 The government of Peru seized virtually all of Standard Oil Company's holdings in that country.

7 A Nigerian fighter-bomber strafed and bombed a Biafran market, killing 200-300 people and injuring hundreds more.

8 The last issue of the Saturday Evening Post was published.

9 The Boeing 747 made its maiden test flight.

12 Four aquanats took up "residence" in the underwater Project Tektite laboratory.

13 National Guardsmen moved onto the campus of the University of Wisconsin with fixed bayonets and tear gas in an attempt to restore order after five days of disturbances.
13 Police armed with clubs and tear gas fought with students at Duke University.
13 A homemade bomb exploded in the Montreal, Canada, stock exchange, injuring many traders and visitors.

14 A Peruvian Navy gunboat fired on two American boats fishing off the coast.

17 Aquanat Berry L. Cannon died of carbon monoxide poisoning on the first day of the U. S. Navy's Project Sealab 3.

18 Arab terrorists attacked an Israeli airliner at the Zürich, Switzerland, airport; six persons aboard the plane were wounded and one attacker was killed.
18 A "gamblers special" returning 35 persons from Hawthorne, Nevada, to Burbank, California, crashed into Mount Whitney (near Los Angeles, California); all aboard were killed.
18 Eight persons succumbed to fumes after a freight train fell onto and ruptured two tank cars filled with anhydrous ammonia in Crete, Nebraska.

21 A bomb exploded in Jerusalem's largest supermarket during the store's busiest period of the week, killing two persons.

22 A disgruntled employee set fire to a major telephone exchange in Zürich, Switzerland.

23 North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops launched an offensive against Saigon and more than 100 towns and military targets.

24 A Far Eastern Air Transport twin-engine prop jet crashed about 10 minutes after taking off from Tainan, Taiwan, killing all 36 persons aboard.
24 Mariner 6 was launched toward Mars.

25 Eleven persons died when a fire broke out on the third floor of a five-story ofice building in New York City, New York.

26 Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died.
26 The General Motors Corporation began the largest recall operation in automotive history.

MARCH

1 East German border guards closed the main autobahn to West Berlin.
1 Mickey Mantle announced his retirement.

2 The French-British Concorde made a subsonic maiden test flight.

3 The Apollo IX mission was launched.

8 Israel and the United Arab Republic exchanged heavy artillery fire across the Suez Canal.

10 James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the murder of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

13 A Soviet fishing trawler and a Panamanian tanker collided off North Carolina; the trawler and its crew of more than 20 went down.

16 A Viasa DC-9 crashed into a heavily populated suburb of Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing all 84 persons aboard the airplane and at least 71 on the ground.

17 Golda Meir was sworn in to succeed the late Levi Eshkol as Prime Minister of Israel.
17 More than 200 persons were reported dead and about 5,000 homeless after a flash flood swept through northeastern Brazil.

19 British paratroopers seized control of Anguilla.

20 A United Arab Airlines IL-18 exploded while landing at Aswan (United Arab Republic) Airport, killing 100 of the 105 persons aboard.

21 A locomotive and a commuter train collided in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 30-40 persons.

22 UCLA won the NCAA Basketball Championship for an unprecedented third year in a row.

25 Two passenger trains collided head-on at La Louvière, Belgium, killing 20 persons.
25 Muhammad Ayub Khan resigned as President of Pakistan.

27 Mariner 7 was launched toward Mars.

28 Former U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower died.
28 At least 53 persons were killed and 350 others were injured when an earthquake struck western Turkey.

31 An estimated 183 miners were killed in a coal mine at Barroterán, Mexico, when a gas explosion blocked all six exits.

APRIL

2 Joseph A. Ankrah resigned as Ghana's Chief of State.
2 An explosion in a coal mine at Hokkaido, Japan, killed 18 miners and injured 27 others.

4 Dr. Denton A. Cooley performed the first ever implant of an artificial heart into a human patient.

6 A Chinese freighter collided with an oil barge on the Mississippi River at New Orleans, Louisiana, killing 25 crewmen.

10 State and local police arrested 197 people as they cleared Harvard's University Hall of demonstrators.

14 A tornado struck Dacca, East Pakistan, killing at least 531 persons and injuring more than 4,000.
14 NASA launched the Nimbus 3 weather satellite into orbit.
14 North Korea shot down an unarmed U. S. Navy EC-121 reconnaissance plane over the Sea of Japan.

17 Alexander Dubcek was removed as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
17 Sirhan Sirhan was found guilty of first degree murder in the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy.
17 Nicaraguan forces seized two U. S. fishing boats within the nation's self-proclaimed 200-mile-wide territorial limit.

20 Nine post offices and a bus station in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were bombed.
20 A 36-hour occupation of the student union at Cornell University by armed black students ended peacefully.

21 An Indian Airlines Fokker F-27 crashed while approaching Khulna, East Pakistan, killing all 44 persons aboard.

22 Bernadette Devlin became the youngest person ever to take a seat in the British House of Commons.

23 Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay signed a treaty providing for the joint development of the Plata River basin.

27 Bolivian President René Barrientos was killed in a helicopter crash.

28 Charles de Gaulle resigned as President of France.

MAY

3 The President of India, Zahir Husain, died.
3 Bill Hartack rode Majestic Prince to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

4 The Montreal Canadiens defeated the St. Louis Blues to win the Stanley Cup.

10 A second causeway across Lake Pontchartrain, in Louisiana, was opened to traffic.

11 The Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production facility in Colorado was heavily damaged by fire.

14 Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman suspended the constitution of Malaysia.

15 U. S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned.

16 The Soviet spacecraft Venus 5 reached Venus.

18 The United States launched Apollo X toward the Moon.

19 The fatal shooting of a black youth by a black policeman sparked a riot in Newark, New Jersey.

20 The U. S. 101st Airborne Division and South Vietnamese forces took Apbia Mountain, aka "Hamburger Hill."

22 Thousands of students seized control of a 50-block area in the center of Rosario, Argentina.

25 Military officers staged a bloodless coup in the Sudan.
25 Thor Heyerdahl and a six-man crew set out aboard the Ra on a voyage across the Atlantic.

26 Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia signed the Andean Pact.

JUNE

2 During a SEATO exercise, the Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne sliced the U. S. destroyer Frank E. Evans in two, killing 74 crewmen from the Evans.

4 A Mexican Airways jet crashed and burned on a mountain in Monterrey, Mexico, killing all 79 persons aboard.
4 Exiles carried out an aerial bombing of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, igniting fires which killed three persons.

8 U. S. President Richard Nixon announced that 25,000 American soldiers would be withdrawn from South Vietnam by the end of August.

11 U. S. labor leader John L. Lewis died.

12 The American side of Niagara Falls was "shut down for maintenance."

15 More than 50 persons were killed and 175 injured when a new restaurant collapsed in Los Angeles de San Rafael, Spain.
15 Orville Moody won the U. S. Open Golf Tournament.

20 Rhodesian voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution declaring the country a republic and separating white and black voters.

21 Explorer 41 was launched to study solar plasma, magnetic fields, and cosmic fields.

22 An ammunition train exploded in Hanover-Linden, West Germany, killing 12 men.
22 Actress Judy Garland died.

23 Warren Earl Burger was sworn in as Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.

24 The fatal shooting of a black girl by a white policeman sparked a riot in Omaha, Nebraska.

27 Honduras and El Salvador broke off diplomatic relations due to a soccer match.
27 About 400-1,000 people rioted after police raided the Stonewell Gay Bar in Greenwich Village, New York.

28 The lower deck of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was opened to traffic.

28 The United States launched Biosatellite 3, with a pigtail monkey aboard, on a mission to study the effects of zero gravity on mental capabilities.

30 Spain formally returned Ifni to Morocco.

[July-December]

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This page was last updated on June 26, 2018.