50 In 2019

Turning 50 In 2019

- January 12th: Martial law is declared in Madrid, as the University is closed and over 300 students are arrested.

 - January 16th: Student Jan Palach sets himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia; 3 days later he dies.

- January 20th: Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the United States.

- February 13th: Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorists bomb the Montreal Stock Exchange.

- March 17th: Golda Meir becomes the first female prime minister of Israel.

 - March 18th: Operation Breakfast, the covert bombing of Cambodia by U.S. planes, begins.

- March 19th: British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla, ending its unrecognized independence.

 - March 28th: Dwight D. Eisenhower, American general and politician, 34th President of the United States (b. 1890) dies. 

 - April 4th: Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.

- April 9th: 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 will be injured and 184 arrested.

 - April 15th: The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down the US aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.

 - May 15th: An American teenager known as 'Robert R.' dies in St. Louis, Missouri, of a baffling medical condition. In 1984 it will be identified as the earliest confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in North America.

- May 26th: The Andean Pact (Andean Group) is established.

- June 8th: Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco orders the closing of the Gibraltar–Spain border and communications between Gibraltar and Spain in response to the 1967 Gibraltar sovereignty referendum. The border remains closed until a partial reopening on December 15, 1982.

 - June 22nd: Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922) dies.

  - June 28th: The Stonewall riots in New York City mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.

  - July 7th: French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government.

- July 8th: Vietnam War: The very first U.S. troop withdrawals are made.

  - July 14th: The United States' $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation.

- July 18th: Chappaquiddick incident – Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aide to his brother, dies in the early morning hours of July 19 in the submerged car.

 - July 20th: Apollo program: The lunar module Eagle/Apollo 11 lands on the lunar surface. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watch in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the Moon at 10:56 pm ET (02:56 UTC July 21), the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time.

 - July 22nd: Spanish dictator and head of state Francisco Franco appoints Prince Juan Carlos his successor.

  - July 25th: 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.

 - August 9th: Members of the Manson Family invade the home of actress Sharon Tate and her husband Roman Polanski in Los Angeles. The followers kill Tate (who was 8 months pregnant), and her friends: Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring. Also killed is Steven Parent, leaving from a visit to the Polanski's caretaker. 

- August 12th: 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. 1,000 Northern Irish Catholics are injured and 350 Northern Irish Protestants are injured. Creation of “Free Derry” no-go area. 

  - August 14th: British troops arrive in Northern Ireland in Operation Banner. The Northern Irish Catholics initially see the British Military as a neutral force protecting them against the violence and death caused by the Northern Irish Protestants and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. That neutrality ends starting with the Falls Church Curfew in July 1970 (where 4 Northern Irish Catholics are killed, 60 Northern Irish Catholics wounded and 377 Northern Irish Catholics were arrested by the British Military) and ending in Bloody Sunday on January 30, 1972 (where the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army murdered 14 unarmed Northern Irish Catholics and wounded 14 unarmed Northern Irish Catholics.) At its peak 21,000 British soldiers are stationed in Northern Ireland. British troops withdrew from Northern Ireland on July 31, 2007.

  - August 15-18th: The Woodstock Festival is held near White Lake, New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era. 400,000 attend to watch the 32 acts perform. 

 - September 1st: Libyan coup d'état: A bloodless coup in Libya ousts King Idris, and brings Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to power.

 - September 2nd: Ho Chi Minh, the president of the North Vietnam, dies at the age of 79.

- September 2nd: The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.

 - September 13th: Scooby-Doo airs its first episode on the CBS network in the United States

 - September 26th: The Brady Bunch is broadcast for the first time on ABC.

 - October 9-12th: Days of Rage: In Chicago, the Illinois National Guard is called in to control demonstrations involving the radical Weathermen, in connection with the "Chicago Eight" Trial.

- October 15th: Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam demonstrations across the United States.

- October 29th: The first message is sent over ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet.

- November 3rd: Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the “silent majority" to join him in solidarity with the Vietnam War effort, and to support his policies.

- November 9th: A group of American Indians, led by Richard Oakes, seizes Alcatraz Island for 19 months, inspiring a wave of renewed Indian pride and government reform.

- November 10th: Sesame Street airs its first episode on the NET network

- November 12th: Vietnam War – My Lai Massacre: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story (347 South Vietnamese civilians were killed by the US troops on March 16, 1968.)

   - November 15th: Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000–500,000 protesters stage a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".

- November 15th: Regular color television broadcasts begin on BBC1 and ITV in the United Kingdom.

 - December 1st: Vietnam War: The first Draft Lottery in the United States since World War II is held. September 14th is the first of the 366 days of the year selected, meaning that those persons who were born on September 14th in the years from 1944 to 1951 would be the first to be summoned. on January 4, 1970, The New York Times will run a long article, "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random".

    - December 2nd: The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its first passenger flight. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle, to New York City.

^ 1969 was definitely a year of social, political and economic change that we continue to see the effects from 50 years later. ^