1969 Newspaper Headlines Summary
An authentic 1969 newspaper will provide fascinating insights into the key events that shaped this year in history, from the perspectives of those who experienced it at the time. Headlines range from the phenomenal to the inconceivable: the canonical Hippie festival Woodstock took place, which attracted crowds of over 400,000 people, and the same summer saw the notorious Tate murders take place, masterminded by Charles Manson.
It was also the year that Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch bought The News of the World, a newspaper that became a pillar of his media empire for years to come. Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, achieving a major feat for humanity. Discover which other events of interest took place in 1969 below.
Read a fascinating breakdown of 1969 events in our very own 1969 timeline.
January 1, 1969
Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper, The News of the World.
January 12, 1969
Super Bowl III takes places, with the New York Jets defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Colts 16-7.
January 2, 1969
Richard Milhous Nixon succeeds Lyndon Baines Johnson as the 37th President.
January 16, 1969
Ten paintings are defaced in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
January 28, 1969
The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill occurs, with 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil spilling into a channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County. The incident inspires Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day in 1970.
January 30, 1969
The Beatles give their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
February 9, 1969
The Boeing 747 takes-off on its maiden flight.
March 3, 1969
Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
March 10, 1969
James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., later retracting his guilty plea.
March 28, 1969
Former United States General and President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington D.C.
April 22, 1969
Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world on his own without stopping.
May 15, 1969
A teenager known as Robert R. dies in St. Louis, Missouri, of a baffling medical condition. In 1984, it will be identified as the first confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in North America.
June 1, 1969
“Give Peace a Chance” is recorded in Montreal during the famous Bed-In for Peace protest by John Lennon. This is the first solo single recorded by a member of The Beatles. The song was released under the name Plastic Ono Band and is still a strong anthem for peace.
June 28-1, 1969
The Stonewall Riots in New York City mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S. They were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations committed by the gay community against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village.
July 1, 1969
Prince Charles of England is invested with the title ’Prince of Wales’ at Caernarfon in a televised ceremony.
July 8, 1969
The first U.S. troops withdrawals are made from the Vietnam War.
July 20, 1969
Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the Moon.
August 9, 1969Â
Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder Sharon Tate, who was 8 months pregnant, and her friends. More than 100 stab wounds were found on the victims.
August 15-18, 1969
The Woodstock Festival takes place in upstate New York, featuring some of the era’s top rock musicians.
September 2, 1969Â
The first automatic teller machines (ATM) in the U.S. is installed in Rockville, New York.
September 20, 1969Â
The last Warner Bros. cartoon of the original theatrical Looney Tunes series is released: Injun Trouble.
September 26, 1969
The Beatles release their “Abbey Road” album, receiving critical praise and enormous commercial success.
October 15, 1969
Hundreds of thousands of people take part in antiwar demonstrations across the United States called by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.
October 16, 1969
The New York Jets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1.
November 10, 1969
The children’s TV show Sesame Street premieres on NET.
November 14, 1969
Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (“Oceans of Storms”), becoming the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
November 19, 1969
Football great Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.
November 20, 1969
A group of Native American activists calling themselves “Indians of All Tribes” begin an 18-month occupation of Alcatraz Island as surplus federal land to call attention to U.S. policies and treaty obligations to Native Americans and their tribal communities.
November 25, 1969
John Lennon returns his MBE medal in protest to the British government’s support of the war in Vietnam.
December 6, 1969
The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway in northern California. It is hosted by the Rolling Stones and is an attempt at a “Woodstock West”. It’s best known for the uproar of violence that occurred and is viewed by many as the “end of the sixties”.
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