1969 History, Trivia and Fun Facts |
| Quick Facts from 1969: |
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| Top Ten Baby Names of 1969: Lisa, Michelle, Jennifer, Kimberly, Melissa, Michael, David, James, John, Robert |
| The Hotties and Fashion Icons: Jamee Becker, Dyan Cannon, Veronica Carlson, Julie Christie, Catherine Deneuve, Barbara Eden, Barbara Feldon, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Peggy Lipton, Ann-Margret, Elizabeth Montgomery, Caroline Munro, Ingrid Pitt, Diana Rigg, Elke Sommer, Tina Turner, Twiggy, Raquel Welch, Natalie Wood |
| Leading Men, Sex Symbols and Hollywood Hunks: Jim Morrison, Paul Newman, Robert Redford |
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“The Quotes:” “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong, upon stepping on the moon. “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” |
| Time Magazine’s People of the Year: Middle Americans |
| Miss America: Judith Ford (Belvidere, IL) |
| Miss USA: Wendy Dascomb (Virginia) |
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The Scandals and War: On Christmas Day, 1969, Francisco Macias Nguema executed 150 people with soldiers dressed as Santa Clause in the former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea, while Those Were the Days, My Friend by Mary Hopkin played in the background. El Salvador and Honduras had a brief war with each other after tension arose in a 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifier. This war became later known as the “Soccer War”. It was more complicated than that, but over 3,000 people died. The Manson “Family” committed a series of murders, under the influence of Charles Manson’s Helter Skelter philosophy. One of the victims was Sharon Tate and her unborn child. |
| Unsolved Mystery: Jim Sullivan recorded an album called U.F.O., which featured strange lyrics about leaving his family and being abducted by aliens. Sullivan disappeared six years later without a trace, the only piece of evidence being his abandoned car found on a desert road. |
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Penn State student Betsy Aardsma was doing research in the campus library when she was stabbed in the chest. Because the wound was so small and the fact that she was wearing a red dress, paramedics thought that she had a seizure before she died. The case is still unsolved. On April 24, Paul McCartney announced that he was not dead, contrary to rumors. |
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1969 Firsts: Monty Python’s Flying Circus first aired on BBC One. Sesame Street premiered on the NET (Later PBS) network. In 1963, Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, “They’ll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run.” On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Perry hit his first and only home run. Hee Haw premiered on CBS (1969 to 1971), later in syndication (1971 to 1993) and on TNN (1996 to 1997). Chemical Bank installed the first automatic teller machine in the United States, in Rockville Centre, New York. Led Zeppelin, the first Led Zeppelin album, was released in the United States. Frank Zappa’s album Hot Rats was one of the first albums to use a 16 track recorder, and among the first to record drums on multiple tracks, giving stereo drums, all of which helped achieve outstanding technical quality. Wendy’s Hamburgers was founded by Dave Thomas in Columbus, Ohio. The Godfather by Mario Puzo was released. Soft drink Capri Suns first went on sale. |
| Woodstock On August 15, 1969, The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opened in upstate New York. Tickets were $18 in advance and $24 at the gate, and there was sufficient sound for the 500,000 attendees, but only about 1/2 actually paid for a ticket. It had 32 acts over 3 days and there were 2 births and a few minor incidents, but overall it was 3 Days of Love, Peace & Music. You can usually find tickets on eBay for under $100. |
| The Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams (1984) |
| US Politics: January 20, 1969 (Monday) First inauguration of Richard Nixon |
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Pop Culture History: Bambi Meets Godzilla is a two-minute short film by Marv Newland that featured (spoiler alert) Bambi getting stepped on by Godzilla. It was later admitted into the Academy Film Archive in 2009. |
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We don’t know Mariah Carey’s real age. Her year of birth is disputed by multiple sources as either 1969 or 1970, on March 27. In 1963, San Francisco Giants manager Alvin Dark joked, “they’ll put a man on the moon before (Giants pitcher) Gaylord Perry hits a home run.” On July 20, 1969, less than an hour after Neil Armstrong’s historic moonwalk, Perry hit his first career homer. Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane was invited to the White House for a tea party in 1969 and planned to spike President Nixon’s tea with 600 micrograms of LSD. The plan was thwarted by White House security. Jimi Hendrix insisted on being the final performer at the 1969 Woodstock and was scheduled to perform Sunday at midnight. He didn’t take the stage until 9 AM on Monday morning and played for 2 hours to a relatively small audience. Jimi’s version of The Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock was considered by some to be controversial and disrespectful on August 16, 1969. The Beatles originally planned to have an album titled Everest. However, the band didn’t want to travel all the way to Mount Everest for the album cover photo shoot. This lead album title changing to Abbey Road, which was the street right outside their studio. The Dominos Pizza Logo has 3 dots because that is how many stores they opened with. In 2018, hey had over 14,000 stores worldwide. About 300 1969 Dodge Chargers were destroyed during the filming of The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1985) television series, averaging two Chargers per episode. About 90% of American Schoolchildren walked to school in 1969. On May 1, 1969, Fred Rogers appeared before the U.S Senate Commerce Committee requesting funds to help support the growth of National Public Television. |
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Frank Zappa’s album Hot Rats was one of the first albums to use a 16 track recorder, and among the first to record drums on multiple tracks, giving stereo drums, all of which helped achieve outstanding technical quality. Georges Perec wrote a novel called La Disparition which completely lacked the letter ‘e’. It has since been translated into a dozen languages maintaining this limitation, including an English version entitled A Void. Robert Crumb’s R-rated Fritz The Cat was the comic strip that all the tuned-in folks read. Illinois representative Charlotte Reid (R) was the first woman to wear pants to Congress. Women were officially forbidden to wear pants onto the floor until 1993. David Paul Gregg patented the optical or laserdisc, although he came up with the idea in 1958. When Candid Camera host Allen Funt’s airplane was hijacked by Cubans, the passengers believed they were on a hidden camera tv show. He could not change their minds. The Iron Horse Ranch and Vineyards opened in Sebastopol, California. Near Bethel, New York, the first mega-concert, the Woodstock Music Festival took place on August 15-18. Claims of up to one million people came; it was more likely half that number, still an incredible amount of people! The Beatles give their last public performance, of several tracks on the roof of Apple Records, in London. Donald and Doris Fisher opened their clothing store, The Gap, in San Francisco. The new North Face Sierra Parka was destined to be the clothing of choice for outdoors people. The company was named after the north-facing mountains of North America. American Astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on June 20th. There was no comment from Mr. Gorsky. Cost of a Superbowl ad in 1968: $55,000 Frank Sinatra recorded his signature song, My Way nearly three decades after he began his singing career. The American side of Niagara Falls was “shut off” briefly. In 1969, James Brown released five different songs about popcorn – The Popcorn, Mother Popcorn, Lowdown Popcorn and Let a Man Come In and Do the Popcorn (parts 1 & 2) The 1969 3-D adult film The Stewardesses was the most profitable 3-D film ever released until James Cameron’s Avatar beat it in 2009. 24 journalists came together to write the worst novel they could come up with, Naked Came The Stranger, to make fun of the US’s vulgar and declining literary culture. The book became a bestseller. You have probably heard this drumbeat, The Amen Break: |
| Nobel Prize Winners: Physics – Murray Gell-Mann Chemistry – Derek Harold Richard Barton, Odd Hassel Medicine – Max Delbrück, Alfred Hershey, Salvador Luria Literature – Samuel Beckett Peace – International Labour Organization Economics – Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen |
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RIP: An American teenager known as ‘Robert R.’ died in St. Louis, Missouri, of a baffling medical condition. In 1984, he was identified as the earliest confirmed HIV/AIDS fatality in North America. During the Production of the 1969 Film, Shark!, Stuntman Jose Marco, was attacked and killed by a Shark they thought was sedated. The Studio distributing the Film (Excelsior Pictures) used this as a way to advertise it. |
| The Cold War: The EC-121 shootdown incident occurred when North Korean jets shot down an American reconnaissance plane in international airspace killing 30 American citizens. America never retaliated. |
| Doomsday Clock: 10 minutes to midnight, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 1969: Nearly all of the world’s nations come together to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The deal is simple–the nuclear-weapon states vow to help the treaty’s non-nuclear weapon signatories develop nuclear power if they promise to forego producing nuclear weapons. The nuclear weapon states also pledge to abolish their own arsenals when political conditions allow for it. Although Israel, India, and Pakistan refuse to sign the treaty, the Bulletin is cautiously optimistic: “The great powers have made the first step. They must proceed without delay to the next one–the dismantling, gradually, of their own oversized military establishments.” |
| 1st appearances & 1969’s Most Popular Christmas gifts, toys and presents: Tog’l, Upsy Downsys, Silly String, Astrolite, Toss Across, Big Wheels, Nerf Ball |
| Best Film Oscar Winner: Oliver! (presented in 1969) |
| Broadway Shows: 1776 (Musical) Opened on March 16, 1969, and Closed: February 13, 1972 Oh! Calcutta! (Review) Opened on June 17, 1969, and Closed: August 12, 1972 Butterflies Are Free (Play) Opened on October 21, 1969, and Closed: July 2, 1972 |
| Popular and Best-selling Books From 1969: Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert The Edible Woman, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall The Godfather by Mario Puzo The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The Inheritors by Harold Robbins The Love Machine by Jacqueline Susann My Book About Me (by Me, Myself) by Dr. Seuss Naked Came the Stranger by Penelope Ashe The Promise by Chaim Potok The Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth Pretenders by Gwen Davi The Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand The Salzburg Connection by Helen MacInnes The Seven Minutes by Irving Wallace Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle |
| 1969 Most Popular TV shows: 1. Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In (NBC) 2. Gunsmoke (CBS) 3. Bonanza (NBC) 4. Mayberry R.F.D. (CBS) 5. Family Affair (CBS) 6. Here’s Lucy (CBS) 7. The Red Skelton Hour (CBS) 8. Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC) 9. Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (ABC) 10. The Doris Day Show (CBS) |
1969 Billboard Number One Songs: February 1 – February 14: February 15 – March 14: March 15 – April 11: April 12 – May 23: May 24 – June 27: June 28 – July 11: July 12 – August 22: August 23 – September 19: September 20 – October 17: October 18 – October 31: November 1 – November 7: November 8 – November 28: November 29 – December 5: December 6 – December 19: December 20 – December 26: December 27, 1969 – January 2, 1970: |
Sports: Leonard Tose bought the Philadelphia Eagles for $16,500,000, a record-high amount for a sports team at the time. |
