Chronology of Events in 1969, page 2

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[January-June]

JULY

1 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom invested her son Charles as Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

5 Kenya's Minister of Economic Affairs, Tom Mboya, was assassinated in Nairobi.

7 The Canadian House of Commons approved a bill making French, along with English, an official language of Canada.
7 Charles Evers was sworn in as Mayor of Fayette, Mississippi.

12 All 35 persons aboard a Royal Nepal Airlines DC-3 died when their plane caught fire and crashed near Hetauda, Nepal.

14 A freight train crashed into a passenger train in Jaipur, India, killing 85 Hindu pilgrims.
14 Honduran planes carried out strafing runs over El Salvador.
14 The Gulf Stream Drift mission began.

15 Luna 15 was launched toward the Moon.

16 The Apollo 11 mission was launched toward the Moon.

19 Police reported that a young woman had been killed when a car driven by Senator Edward Kennedy drove off a bridge near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

20 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the Moon.

22 General Francisco Franco named Prince Juan Carlos to succeed him as Spain's chief of state, in the future.

26 Two Mexican students hijacked a Mexican airliner and forced it to fly to Cuba.

30 It was announced that Soviet writer Anatoly V. Kuznetsov had defected while on a visit to England.
30 A bomb threat forced an airliner to return to Wichita, Kansas, minutes after take off.

31 Mariner 6 passed within 2,132 miles of the surface of Mars.

AUGUST

2 U. S. President Richard Nixon arrived in Bucharest, Romania, for a 27-hour visit.
2 Rioting between Roman Catholics and Protestants broke out in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

3 The Coronado Bridge over San Diego Bay (California) was dedicated.
3 One person was killed and about 100 others injured when an explosion aboard a freight train demolished much of Noel, Missouri.

5 Mariner 7 took pictures of Mars from about 2,130 miles above the surface.

8 Zond 7 was launched by the Soviet Union.

9 Actress Sharon Tate and four others were found murdered in her Los Angeles, California, home.

12 North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces attacked more than 150 cities, towns, and bases in South Vietnam.

13 George Archer won the Masters Golf Tournament.

15 The Woodstock Music and Art Fair began.

17 Hurricane Camille struck the Gulf Coast of the United States.

18 A truck crashed through the dining room of a hotel in Fraga, Spain, killing 7 persons and injuring 14 others.

21 The el-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem was badly damaged by fire.

26 Two Austrians were killed when the Canadian Embassy in Vienna, Austria, was fire bombed.

29 Two young Arabs hijacked a U. S. passenger jet to the Damascus, Syria, airport.

31 Brazilian President Artur da Costa e Silva was incapacitated by a stroke.

SEPTEMBER

1 A revolutionary council overthrew King Idris I and declared Libya a republic.

2 The first automatic teller machine in the United States was installed in Rockville Centre, New York.

3 North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh died.

4 The U. S. Ambassador to Brazil, C. Burke Elbrick, was kidnapped by terrorists who demanded the release of 15 political prisoners.

7 U. S. Senator Everett Dirksen died.

8 U. S. President Richard Nixon and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz dedicated the Amistad Dam on the Texas-Mexico border.

9 Eighty-three persons were killed when a single-engine Piper Cherokee hit the tail section of an Allegheny Airlines DC-9 in the air near Shelbyville, Indiana.

12 A Philippine Air Lines jet crashed while making an instrument landing at Manila, Philippines, killing 45 of the 47 persons aboard.

14 The S.S. Manhattan became the first commercial ship to pass through the Northwest Passage.

20 A U.S. Air Force F-4 fighter jet and an Air Vietnam DC-4 collided in the air over Da Nang, South Vietnam, killing 77 persons.

24 More than 18,000 white pupils boycotted the Mobile County, Alabama, schools.
24 The trial of eight persons charged with conspiracy to violate antiriot laws at the 1968 Democratic National Convention began in Chicago, Illinois.

26 The government of President Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas of Bolivia was overthrown by a military junta.

29 An earthquake leveled three towns in Cape Province, South Africa; 11 persons were killed and more than 1,000 were left homeless.

OCTOBER

2 The Atomic Energy Commission exploded a 1.2-megaton hydrogen bomb beneath Amchitka Island in the Aleutian Island.

7 Police and firemen in Montreal, Canada, walked off their jobs, setting off a night of looting, arson, and other crimes.

11 Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands gave birth to her third son, Constantin.

13 Soyuz 8 was launched on a planned mission to rendezvous and dock with Soyuz 7.

14 The first Soviet international satellite, Intercosmos 1, was laiunched.

15 Somali President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated.
15 Hundreds of thousands of people across the United States participated in Moratorium Day.

16 The New York Mets won the World Series by defeating the Baltimore Orioles.

17 The Bolivia Gulf Company, a subsidiary of U. S.-owned Gulf Oil Corporation, was nationalized by the Bolivian government.
17 South Korean voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing President Park Chung Hee to hold a third term in office.

18 The Caribbean Regional Development Bank formally came into being.

21 Novelist Jack Kerouac died.

27 A nationwide strike against the General Electric Company began.
27 An earthquake destroyed much of Banja Luka, Yugoslavia; at least 20 persons were killed and about 400 were injured.

28 The first nuclear power station in Asia, at Tarapur, India, began full commercial operation.

29 The Supreme Court of the United States ruled, 8-0, that school districts in Mississippi must end segregation "at once."

31 A U. S. Marine forced a TWA airliner to fly from California to Rome, Italy.

NOVEMBER

5 The Liberian oil tanker Keo with 36 men aboard broke in two off New Jersey.

7 An explosion in a gold mine 100 miles southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, killed 60 miners; 31 men were rescued.

8 The first West German satellite, Azur, was launched into a near-polar orbit.

11 Brazilian soccer star Pele scored the 1,000th goal of his career.

12 Three men overpowered three armed guards in a Wells Fargo armored truck and escaped with almost $1.3 million, in Brooklyn, New York.

14 Apollo XII was launched toward the Moon.

15 More than 3000,000 people held a mass protest in Washington, D. C., against U. S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.

17 The United States and the Soviet Union began preliminary discussions on a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.

21 The United States Senate rejected the nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr. to the Supreme Court.

24 The United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

DECEMBER

1 The first U. S. Selective Service draft lottery since 1942 was held.

2 A fire in a home for the aged killed 38 persons in Notre-Dame-du-lac, Quebec, Canada.

3 An Air France Boeing 707 crashed into the Caribbean Sea soon after taking off from Caracas, Venezuela, killing all 62 persons aboard.

4 Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panthers, and another Black Panther leader were killed during a police raid on a Chicago apartment.

8 Olympic Airways DC-6B crashed into Mount Pan, near Athens, Greece, during a storm, killing all 90 persons aboard.

16 The British House of Commons voted 343-185 to abolish the death penalty.

19 President Milton Oboto of Uganda was shot and injured in Kampala.

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This page was last updated on April 11, 2018.