Glancing at 1969
Friday, September 18, 2009 at 3:50PM Glancing at 1969
Facts And Foibles And Wal-Marts, Oh My! (It was forty years ago today...)
January 1, 1969
Australian media hoo-ha Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper, The News of the World.
January 10
After 147 years, the final issue of The Saturday Evening Post is published. Norman Rockwell breathes a sigh of relief.
January 12
The New York Jets defeat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III.
Led Zeppelin I, an album considered by many to be one of the first in the heavy metal genre, is released. Somewhere a hand is locked into the “horn” postion for the first time in history.
January 20
Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the United States of America. He’s back and he will be kicked around.
January 30
The Beatles give their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. They hope they passed the audition.
March 3
In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. He also admits that his parents had a slight OCD problem when naming him.
March 10
In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. (he later retracts his guilty plea). In related news, Charles Nelson Reilly is the secret square.
March 17
Golda Meir becomes the first female prime minister of Israel.
March 18
Operation Breakfast, the secret bombing of Cambodia, begins. Operation Lunch, Dinner and Midnight Snack are still in planning stages.
March 28
Former United States General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
April 4
Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart. The Tin Man rejoices, while the Lion is still cowardly. The Scarecrow can’t comprehend what all this means.
April 9
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.
May 20
United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California. A year later, at Kent State, they decide it’s a little more effective just to shoot and kill the protestors.
May 26 - June 2
John Lennon and Yoko Ono conduct their Bed-In at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. Ringo joins in solidarity by taking a lengthy nap.
May 29
Guided tours begin at the Kremlin and other government sites in Moscow. It’s two rubles to enter and three more to leave.
June 1
In Montreal, Canada, “Give Peace a Chance” is recorded in a famous bed-in for peace by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Tommy Smothers and others. The song is the first single recorded solo by a Beatle, and it’s released under the name of Plastic Ono Band. Ringo continues to nap.
June 8
President Richard Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet at Midway Island. Nixon announces that 25,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn by September.
June 22
The National Convention of the Students for a Democratic Society, held in Chicago, collapses, and the Weatherman faction seizes control of the SDS National Office. Thereafter, any activity run from the National Office or bearing the name of SDS is Weatherman controlled. Also on this day, Al Roker decides what he wants to do in life.
June 28
The Stonewall riots in New York City mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S. Also on this day, Kevin Spacey decides what he wants to do in life.
July 3
Brian Jones, former member of The Rolling Stones, drowns in his swimming pool. Upon hearing the news, Keith Richards drowns himself in heroin and Jack Daniels.
July 8
The very first U.S. troop withdrawals are made in Vietnam.
July 16
Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins) lifts off toward the first landing on the Moon. Children everywhere also discover that Tang sucks.
July 18
Ted 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 who was in the car with him, dies in the incident. Ted gets wet, wears a neckbrace and gets off with a slap on the wrist.
July 20
Apollo 11 lands on the lunar surface. The world watches in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the moon. Tom Hanks patiently waits for Apollo 13.
July 24
The Apollo 11 astronauts return from the first successful Moon landing, and are placed in biological isolation for several days, on the chance they may have brought back lunar germs. The airless lunar environment is later determined to preclude microscopic life.
August 9
Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder Sharon Tate, (who was 8 months pregnant), and her friends Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring at Tate and husband Roman Polanski’s home in Los Angeles, California. Steven Parent, leaving from a visit to the Polanskis’ caretaker, is also killed. More than 100 stab wounds are found on the victims, except for Parent, who had been shot almost as soon as the Manson Family entered the property.
August 15 - August 18
The Woodstock Festival is held in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era. The acid is brown and it is bad. John Sebastian makes a fool out of himself.
September 2
The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.
September 5
Lieutenant William Calley is charged with 6 counts of premeditated murder, for the deaths of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
September 24
The “Chicago Eight” trial begins in Chicago, Illinois.
October 5
And now for something completely different: Monty Python's Flying Circus first airs in the United Kingdom.
October 9-October 12
In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in to control demonstrations involving the radical Weathermen, in connection with the “Chicago Eight” Trial. It will come to be known as “The Days of Rage.”
October 16
The “miracle” New York Mets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1.
October 21
Writer and poet Jack Kerouac died at the age of 47, resulting from an internal hemorrhage, caused by cirrhosis, the result of a lifetime of heavy drinking. Cheers!
October 29
The first message was sent over ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet. It’s not known if this message contained the letters, “LOL!!!!”
October 31
Wal-Mart incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. A death knell is sounded for mom and pop stores across this nation.
November 3
U.S. President Richard M. 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. No one knows if they did because they were silent.
November 10
Sesame Street premieres on the National Educational Television network.
November 12
Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.
November 14
NASA launches Apollo 12 (Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon, Alan Bean), the second manned mission to the Moon. A nation yawns and collectively thinks” “Been there, done that.”
November 15
Dave Thomas opened his first restaurant in downtown Columbus, Ohio. He named the chain Wendy’s after his 8-year-old daughter Melinda Lou—nicknamed Wendy by her siblings. Ronald McDonald is not amused.
November 20
The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
November 25
John Lennon returns his MBE medal to protest the British government's support of the U.S. war in Vietnam. Ringo continues to nap.
December 1
The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II. This is one lottery you didn’t want to win.
December 2
The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle, Washington to New York City.
December 4
Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot dead in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers. No word whether or not the police officers shouted, “Freeze,” to the sleeping men.
December 6
The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway in San Francisco. Headlined by the Rolling Stones, it is an attempt at a “Woodstock West” and is best known for the violence and murder that occurred. It is viewed by many as the “end of the sixties.”
January 1st, 1970
Everything starts to suck.
Reader Comments (7)
???
Seems like it was only...well...40 freakin' YEARS ago, Marty!
I thought we'd all be dead by now!
LOL... I'm going to put the mess but.....you made a mistake on July 20 ! :D
July 20 : America let believe to the whole wide world that they landed on the lunar moon ! ;)
HAHAHAHA :D Viva Zioums !
Oh! and by the way... I wonder how they could think at the time to bring germs from the moon because there is no air on the moon and it seems that scientists just to dicover in 2009 that the life is possible without air!! haha! I like their jokes! good NASA comic! I'm waiting for the next joke! an alien invasion?? huh? Maybe.....
HAHAHAHAHA ! I need a beer or my cynicism will kill me ! hahahah
That last entry is all too true!
The dream was over! I tried to keep it going until 74 but crashed and burned in a bad way! I became a fuckin robot like everybody else.............livin for a paycheck instead of the dream! I admit.......i am ashamed to say this out loud but i declare, here on the Marty Wombacher Show that i am going out of this world, doing what i was born to do! Fucking the Chicken!
You forgot November 7.