| 1969-07-03
The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N-1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad.
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| 1969-01-18
United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay killing all 32 passengers and six crew members.
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| 1969-05-17
Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
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| 1969-02-08
Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
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| 1969-11-20
Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
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| 1969-04-05
Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities.
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| 1969-07-25
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 is the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.
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| 1969-06-22
The Cuyahoga River catches fire, which triggers a crack-down on pollution in the river.
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| 1969-12-12
Strategy of tension: Piazza Fontana bombing – The offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, are bombed.
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| 1969-05-13
Race riots, later known as the May 13 Incident, take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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| 1969-11-19
Football player Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.
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| 1969-03-27
Mariner 7 is launched.
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| 1969-08-13
The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they're awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.
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| 1969-09-09
Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 collides in flight with a Piper PA-28 and crashes near Fairland, Indiana.
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| 1969-04-04
Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.
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| 1969-08-10
A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
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| 1969-10-14
The United Kingdom introduces the British fifty-pence coin, which replaced, over the following years, the British ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalization of the British currency in 1971, and the abolition of the shilling as a unit of currency anywhere in the world. (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, etc., had already abolished the shilling in favor of a decimal currency with exactly 100 pence per pound sterling or dollar, whichever was applicable.}
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| 1969-08-21
An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire
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| 1969-12-06
Meredith Hunter is killed by the Hells Angels during a The Rolling Stones's concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.
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| 1969-08-09
Members of a cult led by Charles Manson brutally murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring, and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
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| 1969-04-03
Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
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| 1969-10-08
The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago, Illinois.
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| 1969-04-17
Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
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| 1969-07-20
Apollo Program: Apollo 11 successfully lands on the Moon at 20:17 UTC on July 20.
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| 1969-08-27
Israeli commando force penetrates deep into Egyptian territory to stage a mortar attack on regional Egyptian Army headquarters in the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt.
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| 1969-02-09
First test flight of the Boeing 747.
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| 1969-08-16
Day two of the Woodstock Festival.
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| 1969-03-25
During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).
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| 1969-11-22
In American football, the University of Michigan upset Ohio State University, 24-12, in Bo Schembechler's first season as Michigan's head coach. The win set off the 10 Year War between Schembechler and Ohio State's Woody Hayes. (See also Michigan-Ohio State rivalry).
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| 1969-06-05
The International communist conference begins in Moscow.
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| 1969-04-17
Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed.
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| 1969-06-28
Stonewall Riots begin in New York City marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.
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| 1969-10-29
The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
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| 1969-02-18
Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 crashes into Mount Whitney killing all on board.
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| 1969-11-24
Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.
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| 1969-09-23
The Chicago Eight trial opens in Chicago.
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| 1969-11-15
Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".
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| 1969-06-23
Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren.
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| 1969-08-12
Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
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| 1969-08-17
Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.
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| 1969-06-03
Melbourne-Evans collision: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
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| 1969-03-03
Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.
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| 1969-05-15
People's Park: California Governor Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student park owned by University of California at Berkeley fenced off from student anti-war protestors, sparking a riot called Bloody Thursday.
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| 1969-07-08
IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer.
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| 1969-03-02
Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.
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| 1969-07-18
After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.
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| 1969-07-21
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission.
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| 1969-12-21
The Gay Activists Alliance is formed in New York City.
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| 1969-08-05
Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
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| 1969-01-05
Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary damage property and assault occupants in the Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland. In response, residents erect barricades and establish Free Derry.
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| 1969-05-16
Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
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| 1969-07-24
Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
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| 1969-04-09
The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford.
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| 1969-11-10
National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts the children's television program Sesame Street.
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| 1969-11-19
Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
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| 1969-12-04
Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
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| 1969-04-01
The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the Royal Air Force.
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| 1969-05-29
General strike in Córdoba, Argentina, leading to the Cordobazo civil unrest.
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| 1969-07-04
Two teens (one male, one female) are attacked at Blue Rock Springs in California. They are the second (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer. The male survives.
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| 1969-12-18
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years.
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| 1969-03-02
In Toulouse, France the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
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| 1969-12-01
Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
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| 1969-04-14
At the U.S. Academy Awards there is a tie for the Academy Award for Best Actress between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand.
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| 1969-01-25
Brazilian Army captain Carlos Lamarca deserts in order to fight against the military dictatorship, taking with him 10 machine guns and 63 rifles.
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| 1969-03-13
Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
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| 1969-03-28
The McGill français movement protest occurs, the second largest protest in Montreal's history with 10,000 trade unionists, leftist activists, CEGEP students, and even some McGill students at McGill's Roddick Gates. This led to the majority of the protesters getting arrested.
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| 1969-09-01
A revolution in Libya brings Muammar al-Gaddafi to power, which is later transferred to the People's Committees.
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| 1969-05-02
The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
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| 1969-11-15
Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.
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| 1969-08-14
British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
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| 1969-08-15
The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.
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| 1969-08-04
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. The negotiations will eventually fail.
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| 1969-11-21
The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.
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| 1969-10-05
The first episode of the famous comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus aired on BBC.
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| 1969-07-14
Football War: after Honduras loses a soccer match against El Salvador, riots break out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers.
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| 1969-10-19
The first Prime Minister of Tunisia in twelve years, Bahi Ladgham, is appointed by President Habib Bourguiba.
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| 1969-10-01
The Concorde supersonic transport plane breaks the sound barrier for the first time.
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| 1969-03-10
In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. He later retracts his guilty plea.
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| 1969-03-17
Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel.
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| 1969-07-04
The Ohio Fireworks Derecho kills 18 Ohioans and destroys over 100 boats on Lake Erie.
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| 1969-04-09
The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
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| 1969-10-29
October 29, 1969: the Supreme Court ruled that school districts must end segregation “now and hereafter".
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| 1969-03-19
The 385 metres (1,263 ft) tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up.
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| 1969-11-03
Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.
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| 1969-04-22
British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.
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| 1969-11-15
In Columbus, Ohio, Dave Thomas opens the first Wendy's restaurant.
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| 1969-11-17
Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
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| 1969-01-16
Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
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| 1969-03-28
Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.
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| 1969-07-20
A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, 6 days after the beginning of the "Football War"
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| 1969-05-09
Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks.
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| 1969-04-13
Closure of the Brisbane tramway network.
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| 1969-01-30
The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
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| 1969-09-05
My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
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| 1969-10-09
In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection with the trial of the "Chicago Eight" that began on September 24.
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| 1969-08-18
Jimi Hendrix plays the unofficial last day of the Woodstock festival.
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| 1969-10-21
A coup d'état in Somalia brings Siad Barre to power.
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| 1969-06-30
Nigeria bans Red Cross aid to Biafra.
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| 1969-11-12
Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre – Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.
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| 1969-11-14
Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.
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| 1969-07-16
Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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| 1969-12-17
The SALT I talks begin.
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| 1969-04-28
Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
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| 1969-05-26
Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
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| 1969-01-15
The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.
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| 1969-07-07
In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government.
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| 1969-11-13
Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. stage a symbolic March Against Death.
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| 1969-07-30
Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and U.S. military commanders.
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| 1969-05-20
The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
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| 1969-01-19
Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
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| 1969-05-18
Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.
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| 1969-05-22
Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface.
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| 1969-05-21
Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
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| 1969-07-14
The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation.
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| 1969-11-21
U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington, D.C. on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
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| 1969-02-03
In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
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| 1969-04-07
The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.
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| 1969-02-04
Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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| 1969-12-17
Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of "A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of various conventional objects."
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| 1969-05-10
Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
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