Top News Stories from 1969

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion 

Nobel Peace Prize: International Labour Organization

More World Statistics...

• Nixon begins "Vietnamization" in Southeast Asia. Background: Vietnam War
• The United States, USSR, and about 100 other countries sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT). Background: nuclear disarmament
• Russian and Chinese troops clash along the Ussuri River.
• 27-year-old Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi deposes King Idris of Libya and establishes a pro-Arabic, anti-Western, Islamic republic.

U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Richard M. Nixon

Vice President: Spiro T. Agnew

Population: 202,676,946

Life expectancy: 70.5 years

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 36.8

Property Crime Rate (per 1,000) 33.5

Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 7.7

More U.S. Statistics...

• Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated 37th President of the US (Jan. 20).
• Stonewall riot in New York City marks beginning of gay rights movement (June 28).
• Sen. Edward M. Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving scene of fatal accident at Chappaquiddick, Mass. (July 18) in which Mary Jo Kopechne was drowned—gets two-month suspended sentence (July 25). Background: Timeline of Kennedy tragedies
• Apollo 11 astronauts—Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., —take first walk on the Moon (July 20).

Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $982.2 billion

Federal spending: $183.64 billion

Federal debt $365.8 billion

Median Household Income(current dollars): $8,389 billion

Consumer Price Index: $36.7

Unemployment: 3.6%

Cost of a first-class stamp 6 cents

Sports

Super Bowl

NY Jets d. Baltimore

World Series

NY Mets d. Baltimore (4-1)

NBA Championship

Boston d. LA Lakers

Stanley Cup

Montreal d. St. Louis

Wimbledon

Women:

Ann Jones d. B.J. King

(3-6 6-3 6-2)
Men: Rod Laver d. J. Newcombe (6-4 5-7 6-4 6-4)

Kentucky Derby Champion

Majestic Prince

NCAA Basketball Championship

UCLA d. Purdue

NCAA Football Champions

Texas (11-0-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction: House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday

Music: String Quartet No. 3, Karel Husa

Drama: The Great White Hope, Howard Sackler

Academy Award, Best Picture: Oliver!, John Woolf, producer (Columbia)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Samuel Beckett (Ireland)

Record of the Year: "Mrs. Robinson," Simon and Garfunkel

Album of the Year: By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Glen Campbell (Capitol)

Song of the Year: "Little Green Apples," Bobby Russell, songwriter

Miss America: Judith Anne Ford (IL)

Events

• In August, more than half a million people gather in the small, upstate New York town of Bethel (near Woodstock, N.Y.) for four days of rain, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Performers include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jefferson Airplane and Sly and the Family Stone.
• A Rolling Stones fan is killed at the group's Altamont, California, concert by members of Hell's Angels.
• Children's Television Workshop introduces Sesame Street.
• The FCC bans all cigarette advertising on television and radio.

Movies

• Midnight Cowboy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch, Easy Rider, Anne of the Thousand Days

Books

• Robert Coover, Pricksongs and Descants
• John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman
• Mario Puzo, The Godfather
• Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
• Jean Stafford, Collected Stories
• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Derek H. R. Barton (UK) and Odd Hassel (Norway), for study of organic molecules

Physics: Murray Gell-Mann (US), for study of subatomic particles

Physiology or Medicine: Max Delbruck, Alfred D. Hershey, and Salvador E. Luria (all US), for study of mechanism of virus infection in living ce

• Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the moon. Background: US Staffed Space Flights
• The first in vitro fertilization of a human egg is performed in Cambridge, England. Background: Birth & Contraception
• ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) goes online in December, connecting four major US universities. Designed for research, education, and government organizations, it is the foundation upon which the Internet will eventually be built. Background: Computers and Internet
• The scanning electron microscope is developed.
• The use of DDT is banned in residential areas.

Death

• Dwight David Eisenhower
• Joseph P. Kennedy
• Jack Kerouac