1969

1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar.

• January 12 – Led Zeppelin's first album is released.
• January 20 – Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States, after Lyndon Johnson.
• February 3 – Yasser Arafat becomes Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
• April 9 – Around 300 students take over Harvard University, because they do not like the Vietnam War being fought.
• May 10 – Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam.
• May 20 – National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on Vietnam War protesters in California.
• May 31 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance" at their "Bed-In" in Montreal.
• June 8 – Nixon announces that 25,000 US troops will start to leave Vietnam before September.
• July 8 – As promised, some US troops begin to leave Vietnam.
• July 16–24 – The Apollo 11 mission makes Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first people on the Moon.
• August 9 – The Manson Family murders the actress Sharon Tate and members of her family.
• August 15 – The Woodstock music festival starts in Upstate New York.
• August 17 – Hurricane Camille hits Mississippi, killing 248 people.
• August 31 – Boxer Rocky Marciano dies in a plane crash on the day before his 46th birthday.
• September 1 – King Idris I of Libya is removed from power in a coup.
• September 7 – Monty Python's Flying Circus airs for the first time on British television.
• October 15 – Hundreds of thousands of people across the US protest against the Vietnam War by not going to work.
• October 21 – Willy Brandt becomes the first SPD-Chancellor of Germany
• November 9 – A group of American Indians takes over Alcatraz Island and holds it for 19 months.
• November 10 - Sesame Street first aired.
• November 13 – Up to 500,000 anti-war protesters march and protest in Washington DC.
• December 1 – The United States holds the first "draft lottery", to pick who is going to be sent to fight in Vietnam.

• January 2 – Christy Turlington, American model
• January 3 – Michael Schumacher, German Formula one driver
• January 5 – Marilyn Manson, American singer
• January 14 – Dave Grohl, American musician
• January 16 – Roy Jones, Jr., American professional boxer
• January 18 – Dave Bautista, American professional wrestler
• February 1 – Brian Krause, American actor
• February 11 – Jennifer Aniston, American actress
• March 6 – Greg Scott, English television presenter
• April 25 – Renée Zellweger, American actress
• May 14 – Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
• May 25 – Stacy London, American fashion consultant
• June 14 – Steffi Graf, German tennis player
• June 15 – Oliver Kahn, German football player
• June 24 – Nicodemo Gentile, Italian lawyer
• June 27 – Colleen Fitzpatrick, American singer and actress
• July 17 - Kazuki Kitamura, Japanese actor
• July 20 – Josh Holloway, American actor
• July 24 – Jennifer Lopez, American singer and actress
• July 27 – Triple H, American professional wrestler
• August 6 – Elliott Smith, American singer and musician (d. 2003)
• August 18 – Edward Norton, American actor
• August 19 – Matthew Perry, American actor
• August 28 – Jack Black, American actor, comedian, and musician
• October 24 - Adela Noriega, Mexican television actress
• November 10 – Jens Lehmann, German football player
• December 4 – Jay-Z, American rapper
• December 9 – Bixente Lizarazu, French footballer
• December 19 – Kristy Swanson, American actress
• December 28 – Linus Torvalds, Finnish computer scientist
• Buckethead, American musician

• January 1 – Barton MacLane, American actor (b. 1902)
• January 1 – Bruno Söderström, Swedish track and field athlete (b. 1881)
• January 4 – Paul Chambers, American jazz double bassist (b. 1935)
• January 9 – Jacques van Egmond, Dutch racing cyclist (b. 1908)
• January 17 – Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish composer (b. 1909)
• January 19 – Jan Palach, Czech activist (b. 1948)
• January 30 – Dominique Pire, Belgian friar (b. 1910)
• January 31 – Meher Baba, Indian mystic (b. 1894)

• February 2 – Boris Karloff, English actor (b. 1887)
• February 23 – Madhubala, Indian actress (b. 1933)
• February 23 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
• February 26 – Levi Eshkol, 3rd Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1895)

• March 24 – Joseph Kasa-Vubu, 1st President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1917)
• March 28 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (b. 1890)

• May 2 – Franz von Papen, 22nd Chancellor of Germany (b. 1879)
• May 3 - Zakir Husain, 3rd President of India (b. 1897)

• June 8 – Robert Taylor, American actor (b. 1911)
• June 22 – Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922)

• July 3 – Brian Jones, British musician (the Rolling Stones) (b. 1942)

• August 6 - Theodor W. Adorno, German philosopher (b. 1903)
• August 9 – Sharon Tate, American actress (b. 1943)
• August 31 – Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)

• September 2 – Ho Chi Minh, 1st President of Vietnam (b. 1890)

• October 12 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912)
• October 21 – Jack Kerouac, American writer and poet (b. 1922)

• November 8 – Vesto Slipher, American astronomer (b. 1875)
• November 12 - Iskander Mirza, 1st President of Pakistan (b. 1899)
• November 12 – Liu Shaoqi, 2nd President of China (b. 1898)
• November 18 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., American businessman (b. 1888)
• November 21 – Mutesa II of Buganda, President of Uganda (b. 1924)

• December 13 – Spencer Williams Jr., American actor (b. 1893)
• December 17 - Artur da Costa e Silva, 27th President of Brazil (b. 1899)

• Nobel Prize in Physics – Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist (for his work on the theory of elementary particles)
• Chemistry – Derek H R Barton, Odd Hassel
• Medicine – Max Delbrück, Alfred D Hershey, Salvador E Luria
• Literature – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer
• Peace – International Labour Organization
• Economics – Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
• Cactus Flower
• Easy Rider
• Midnight Cowboy
• Shart
• The Wild Bunch

• "Aquarius"/"Let The Sunshine In" – Fifth Dimension
• "The Ballad of John and Yoko" – The Beatles
• "But You Know I Love You" – Kenny Rogers and The First Edition
• "The Boxer" – Simon and Garfunkel
• "In The Ghetto" – Elvis Presley
• "Cloud Nine" – The Temptations
• "Come Together" – The Beatles
• "Get Back" – The Beatles
• "Good Times Bad Times" – Led Zeppelin
• "Honky Tonk Women" – Rolling Stones
• "I'd Wait A Million Years" – The Grass Roots
• "Listen to the Band" – The Monkees
• "Pinball Wizard" – The Who
• "Proud Mary" – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" – B.J. Thomas
• "Something" – The Beatles
• "Suspicious Minds" – Elvis Presley
• "Touch Me" – The Doors
• "Whole Lotta Love" – Led Zeppelin

• Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov
• The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
• The Edible Woman – Margaret Atwood
• The Godfather – Mario Puzo
• The Green Man – Kingsley Amis

Media related to 1969 at Wikimedia Commons