What happened in 1969

“Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)”

The 5th Dimension · 6 weeks at #1 in 1969

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1. Jan 4I Heard It Through The GrapevineMarvin Gaye4 wks
2. Feb 1Crimson And CloverTommy James And The Shondells2 wks
3. Feb 15Everyday PeopleSly & The Family Stone4 wks
4. Mar 15DizzyTommy Roe4 wks
5. Apr 12Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)The 5th Dimension6 wks
6. May 24Get BackThe Beatles With Billy Preston5 wks
7. Jun 28Love Theme From Romeo & JulietHenry Mancini And His Orchestra2 wks
8. Jul 12In The Year 2525Zager & Evans6 wks
9. Aug 23Honky Tonk WomenThe Rolling Stones4 wks
10. Sep 20Sugar, SugarThe Archies4 wks
11. Oct 18I Can't Get Next To YouThe Temptations2 wks
12. Nov 1Suspicious MindsElvis Presley1 wk
13. Nov 8Wedding Bell BluesThe 5th Dimension3 wks
14. Nov 29Come Together/SomethingThe Beatles1 wk
15. Dec 6Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him GoodbyeSteam2 wks
16. Dec 20Leaving On A Jet PlanePeter, Paul & Mary1 wk
17. Dec 27Someday We'll Be TogetherDiana Ross & The Supremes1 wk

Dates are the first chart week at #1 in 1969; weeks count only those in 1969.Find the #1 song on your birthday →

1. Mar 18Vietnam War: The United States began secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.
2. May 30A demonstration by workers and activists on the Caribbean island of Curaçao escalated into a violent uprising which destroyed much of Willemstad.
3. Jun 28In response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, groups of gay and transgender people began demonstrations, a watershed event for the worldwide gay rights movement.
4. Jul 16The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission is launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida, USA.
5. Jul 20The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle landed on the Sea of Tranquillity, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.
6. Jul 24Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
7. Aug 9Members of the Manson Family invaded a house and murdered American actress Sharon Tate and four guests in Los Angeles, before killing two more people the following night.
8. Aug 10A day after murdering actress Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
9. Oct 1Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time.
10. Oct 8Demonstrations organized by the Weather Underground known as the Days of Rage began in Chicago, aimed at ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
11. Oct 29The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
12. Nov 10The children's television series Sesame Street premiered in the United States.
13. Nov 20A group of Native American activists began a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
14. Dec 4Fred Hampton, the leader of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Mark Clark were killed in a raid by Chicago police officers in what many scholars consider an illegal assassination.

Event summaries from Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each links to its article.

• U.S. President

  Lyndon B. Johnson → Richard Nixon

• UK Prime Minister

  Harold Wilson

• Prime Minister of Canada

  Pierre Trudeau

• President of France

  Charles de Gaulle → Alain Poher → Georges Pompidou

• German Chancellor

  Kurt Georg Kiesinger → Willy Brandt

• Prime Minister of Japan

  Eisaku Satō

• Soviet leader

  Leonid Brezhnev

Everyone who held the office at some point in 1969, from Wikidata.

A selection of the best-documented titles on Wikidata, by first release year; not a box-office ranking.

• Marilyn MansonAmerican singer-songwriter, actor, and director · Jan 5
• Shea WhighamAmerican actor · Jan 5
• Norman ReedusAmerican actor and model · Jan 6
• Jason BatemanAmerican actor, director, and producer · Jan 14
• Dave GrohlAmerican singer-songwriter, guitarist, and drummer · Jan 14
• Dave BautistaAmerican wrestler, mixed martial artist, and actor · Jan 18
• Patton OswaltAmerican comedian and actor · Jan 27
• Bobby BrownAmerican singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor · Feb 5
• Jennifer AnistonAmerican actress and producer · Feb 11
• Darren AronofskyAmerican director, producer, and screenwriter · Feb 12

From Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0.