 | President: Richard M Nixon, Vice President: Spiro T Agnew |
 | The population of the United States is 201,385,000 |
| National Debt is 365.8 Billion (-2.9 billion) |
| Unemployment is 3.6% (down just a pinch) |
| Life Expectancy: 70.5 years |
| Family median income = $8,389. (up $646. from 1968) |
| Inflation rate = 6.2% |
| Academy Award : Oliver! (click to buy)  (Best Picture) |
| Grammy Award : Mrs. Robinson (click to buy)  (Best Song); By the Time I Get to Phoenix (click to buy)  (Best Album) |
| Best Selling Books : The Godfather (click to buy)  ; Slaughterhouse-Five (click to buy)  ; Portnoy’s Complaint (click to buy)  |
| Man walks on the moon!! Affirming the late President Kennedy’s promise, Neil Armstrong is the first person to ever step onto the lunar surface exclaiming “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind” |
| Yasser Arafat is elected Palestine Liberation Organization leader a post he will hold until his death in 2004 |
| Golda Meir becomes the first female prime minister of Israel |
| An explosion and oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, spills 100 – 300,000 barrels of oil |
| An American teenager known as Robert R. becomes patient #1 in the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic |
| John Lennon records “Give Peace a Chance” for his bed-in for peace demonstration |
| Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island killing his companion Mary Jo Kopechne |
| The movie Midnight Cowboy (click to buy)  is the first ever X Rated film to win an Oscar |
| The Woodstock Festival is held in upstate New York, it is a mecca for 500,000 anti-war activist and hippies (see Famous People – Entertainers) |
| Hurricane Camille, a Category 5 hurricane, hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage |
| Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas opens the first restaurant in Columbus, Ohio it is named after his daughter’s nick-name |
| The first ARPANET link is established laying the foundation for the internet |
| Long John Silver’s restaurant chain opens its first store in Lexington, KY |
| The GAP opens its first store in San Francisco named for the “generation gap” they sold records and blue jeans |
| The Unix computer operating system is introduced by Bell Laboratories for use with larger computer systems |
| Frosted Mini-Wheats, Kaboom breakfast food and Pringles potato chips all find their way onto American tables |
| The U.S. military goes to a lottery type draft to select inductees, it proves to be flawed however and the math behind it is changed the next year |
| The Cuyahago River in Cleveland, Ohio literally caught on fire because of massive pollutants and is credited as the start of the environmental movement |
| The book On “Death and Dying” is written by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, it defines the 5 stages of death and is the foundation in the near future for hospices |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average rises above 1,000 for the first time in history |
| The following TV shows debuted: The Liver Birds, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, The Bill Cosby Show, The Flip Wilson Show, Hee Haw, Marcus Welby M.D., The Brady Bunch, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Sesame Street |
See also Celebrity Birthdays 1969
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