Events from the year 1969 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas) (until January 20) Richard Nixon (R-New York, then R-California) (starting January 20) Vice President: Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota) (until January 20) Spiro Agnew (R-Maryland) (starting January 20) Chief Justice: Earl Warren (California) (until June 23) Warren E. Burger (Virginia) (starting June 23) Speaker of the House of Representatives: John William McCormack (D-Massachusetts) Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-Montana) Congress: 90th (until January 3), 91st (starting January 3)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January January 1 – In college football, Ohio State defeats UcC 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 Wineslow Homer for 6 weeks. January 12 – Super Bowl III: The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts of the National Football League 16–7. 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 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 18 – In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Institution displays the art of Winslow Homer for 6 weeks. January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th president of the United States, and Spiro Agnew is sworn in as the 39th vice president. January 26 – 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 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. The controversial television show Turn-On premieres on the ABC network and is canceled after one episode following protests by viewers and ABC affiliate stations. 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 4 – Arrest warrants are issued by a Florida court for Jim Morrison on charges of indecent exposure during a Doors concert three days earlier."Singer Sought for 'Lewd Show'", AP report in Bridgeport (CT) Post, March 6, 1969, p22 March 10 – In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. (he later retracts his guilty plea). The United States Navy establishes the Navy Fighter Weapons School (also known as Top Gun) at Naval Air Station Miramar. The novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo is first distributed to booksellers by the publisher G. P. Putnam's Sons."Trio of Best-Sellers?", Books Happening column by Gene Shalit, Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1969, "Calendar" section, p46 ("'The Godfather'... could be the sleeper of the season... Putnam is the publisher, March 10 is the publication date, and a second printing is already off the press.") March 13 – Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module. March 18 – Operation Breakfast, the covert bombing of Cambodia by U.S. planes, begins. 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..
April 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. April 20 – 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".
May
May 1 – Semiconductor company AMD is founded. 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 25 – Midnight Cowboy, an X-rated, Oscar-winning John Schlesinger film, is released. May 26 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first crewed Moon landing.
June June 3 – Melbourne-Evans collision: The Australian aircraft carrier collides with the U.S. destroyer 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 18–22 – 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 4 – Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin are shot at Blue Rock Springs in California. They are the second (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer. Mageau survives the attack while Ferrin is pronounced dead-on-arrival at Richmond Medical Center. 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 January 13, 1920, that stated that spaceflight is impossible. July 18 – Chappaquiddick incident – Ted 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 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 – Captain D's is founded as "Mr. D's Seafood and Hamburgers" by Ray Danner with its first location opening in Donelson, Tennessee. August 15–18 – 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.