1969

The year 1969 has been referred to as many things but whoever it was that said it was the summer of our lives was pretty close to being right. It really was the year that we came of age, with all the rioting in Ireland and the practically every month nuclear tests by either the United States, Russia or China, it seemed that we had to grow up fast because someone was bound to destroy our world.

1969 was also the summer of love from Haight Asbury all the way to Max Yasgur's Dairy Farm in New York State.

The rock and rollers were reminding us that the anthem for our youth was sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. The Beatles had started on a path to their demise, each of them releasing solo works and some of the best Beatles music ever recorded. I don't want to forget any of the other artists such as Crosby Stills Nash and Young or David Bowie, Peter Paul and Mary and the likes of Arlo Guthrie and Donovan.  There were many great artists and great songs released or recorded in 1969, so for music lovers it was a year of music. I know that most people were engulfed by the music of this year and I too enjoyed the music of our time but it wasn't my main concern, so forgive me if I don't write a whole lot at this time about music. Other than that I have said that I was part of the Ed Sullivan generation who was introduced to classical music, operas, operettas, jazz, pop and rock 'n roll. Ed Sullivan had artists of all genres on his show, from all types of entertainment and we always stayed glued to the television when the Ed Sullivan broadcast was on.

The year also brought strides in manned space exploration. There were several Russian manned and unmanned spacecraft launched culminating with the first docking of two manned spacecraft's and the transfer of cosmonauts between those spacecraft. The United States was not to be defeated in the race for space. We had launched several unmanned space exploration crafts ourselves and we successfully put four men on the moon, with Apollo 11 and 12. I can remember sitting in front of the old black and white TV on that July night, extremely excited waiting for the announcements and the play-by-play from Walter Cronkite on what was happening with the moon landing. I had my reel to reel tape recorder with a microphone taped to the speaker of the television recording every single word and every event that was taking place. It's still so real to me that we were sitting in front of those TV sets watching this extremely amazing piece of history unfold right before our eyes. We actually saw the astronauts on the moon. I remember it had to be something extremely special because it was way past my bedtime and my parents had not said a word about us going to bed. At that age I was completely absorbed in the American space program. I had every news clipping, I had listened to every news report that I could get my hands on about anything that NASA was involved with at that time.

Even though 1969 was not the year that I remember as my fondest, it was still one of the most influential years of my life. I have written down some of the major events and I have tried to cross reference the dates with more than one source but when those sources were at conflict, I chose to rely on my memory which isn't as reliable as it used to be, but writing this story gives me the perk of making that decision.

This year I was about to start the greatest adventure of my life at Airways Junior High School in Memphis, Tennessee. It was on Ketchum Street near Charjean Park and little did any of us know that this would be the happiest time in our lives, so really I would have to say that from 1969 to 1972 was almost the best years of my life.

January 3, 1969- 2 Virgins" album declared pornographic in NJ

January 5 -USSR Venera 5 launched for 1st successful planet landing (Venus)

January 6 -WLIW TV channel 21 in Garden City, NY (PBS) begins broadcasting

January 12 -Super Bowl III: NY Jets beat Baltimore Colts, 16-7 in Miami Super Bowl MVP: Joe Namath, NY Jets, QB

January 14 -Soyuz 4 launched; rendezvous with Soyuz 5 two days later

January 16- Soviet Soyuz 4 & Soyuz 5 perform 1st transfer of crew in space

January 17 -Debut album of Led Zeppelin released in US

January 20- Richard M Nixon inaugurated as president

January 23 -Cream releases their last album "Goodbye"

January 25- US-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris

January 27- 9 Jews publically executed in Damascus Syria

January 30- Beatles perform last live gig, a 42-min concert on roof of Apple HQ, London

Feb 4th - The Palestine National Congress appoints Yasser Arafat chairman of the PLO

Feb 5th - US population reaches 200 million

Feb 9th - Boeing 747 made its 1st commercial flight

Feb 17th - Golda Meir sworn in as the first female prime minister of Israel

Feb 24th - Mariner 6 launched for Mars flyby

Mar 2nd - 1st test flight of the supersonic Concorde

Mar 3rd - Apollo 9 launched for 151 Earth orbits (10 days)

Mar 19th - Chicago 7 indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention

Mar 20th - US president Nixon proclaims he will end Vietnam war in 1970

Mar 25th - John & Yoko stage their 1st bed-in for peace (Amsterdam)

Apr 12th - Simon & Garfunkel release "the Boxer”

Apr 17th - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Sen Robert F Kennedy

Apr 17th - The Band (formerly The Hawks), perform their 1st concert

Apr 22nd - 1st human eye transplant performed

Apr 24th - Paul McCartney says there is no truth to rumors he is dead

Apr 28th - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France

May 2nd - British liner Queen Elizabeth II leaves on maiden voyage to NY

May 8th - Pope Paul VI publishes constitution Sacra Ritum Congregation

May 10th - Apollo 10 transmit 1st color pictures of Earth from space

May 14th - Last Chevrolet Corsair built

May 27th - Walt Disney World construction begins

May 31st - John Lennon & Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance" in Montreal hotel room

May 31st - Stevie Wonder releases "My Cherie Amore"

Jun 3rd - Last episode of Star Trek airs on NBC (Turnabout Intruder)

Jun 8th - "Smothers Brothers comedy Hour" last airs on CBS-TV

Jun 9th - Brian Jones quits (sic) Rolling Stones because of his drug problems

Jun 15th - "Hee Haw" with Roy Clark & Buck Owens premieres on CBS TV

Jun 20th - Georges Pompidou sworn in as President of France

Jun 22nd - Cleveland's Cuyahoga River catches fire

Jun 27th - 50,000 attend Denver Pop Festival

Jun 29th - 1st Jewish worship service at White House

Jul 1st - Shelby Singleton buys Sun Records from Sam Phillip

Jul 4th - 140,000 attend Atlanta Pop Festival featuring Led Zep & Janis Joplin

Jul 5th - Rolling Stones play a free concert in London's Hyde Park

Jul 8th - US troop withdrawal begins in Vietnam

Jul 11th - David Bowie releases "Space Oddity"

Jul 13th - Russia launches unmanned Luna 15 to Moon

Jul 14th - WMUL (now WPBY) TV channel 33 in Huntington, WV (PBS) 1st broadcast

Jul 16th - Apollo 11, carrying 1st men to land on Moon, launched

Jul 19th - Apollo 11 goes into Moon orbit

Jul 20th - 1st men on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr. from Apollo 11

Jul 21st - Neil Armstrong steps on Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT)

Jul 21st - Russia's Luna 15 impacts moon after 52 lunar orbits

Jul 24th - Apollo 11 returns to Earth

Jul 25th - 1st performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Fillmore East, NY)

Aug 9th - Manson family commits Tate-LaBianca murders

Aug 15th - Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in NY State (Max Yasgur's Dairy Farm) for three days of love, peace and music (and a lot of drugs)

Aug 18th - Woodstock Music & Art Fair closes with Jimi Hendrix / Band of Gypsys as the final act

Aug 22nd - Beatles record a video for "Long & Winding Road”

Sep 18th - Tiny Tim & Miss Vicky get engaged on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

Sep 20th - Archies' "Sugar Sugar" hits #1

Sep 24th - 1st Elvis convention, 2500 fans attend in Cincinnati

Oct 18th - Rod Stewart joins Small Faces

Oct 22nd - Paul McCartney denies rumors of his death

Oct 27th - Ralph Nader sets up a consumer organization known as Nader's Raiders

Oct 29th - Supreme Court orders end to all school desegregation "at once"

Nov 1st - Beatles' "Abbey Road," album goes #1 in US & stays #1 for 11 weeks

Nov 10th - "Sesame Street" premieres on PBS TV

Nov 12th - US army announces investigating William Calley for alleged massacre of civilians at Vietnamese village of Me Lai

Nov 14th - Apollo 12 (Conrad/Gordon/Bean) launched for 2nd manned Moon landing

Nov 15th -1st Jackson Five record to enter top 100 (I Want You Back)

Nov 15th - 250,000 peacefully demonstrate in Washington DC against Vietnam War

Nov 15th - Wendy's Hamburgers opens

Nov 19th - Apollo 12's Conrad & Bean become 3rd & 4th humans on Moon

Nov 24th - Apollo 12 returns to Earth

Nov 24th - Lt William L Calley charged with massacre of over 100 civilians in Me Lai Vietnam in March 1968, ordered to stand trial by court martial

Nov 26th - Cream's final concert (Royal Albert Hall)

Nov 29th - The Beatles' "Come Together/Something" reaches #1

Dec 6th - 300,000 attend Altamont California, rock concert feature Rolling Stones where one man is murdered in front of the stage

Dec 13th - Arlo Guthrie releases "Alice's Restaurant"

Dec 17th - USAF closes Project Blue Book, concluding no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings

Dec 21st - Diana Ross final TV appearance as a Supreme (Ed Sullivan Show)