a bird's-eye view of the latter half of '69 . . . principle source:
Day by Day: the Sixties by Thomas Parker and Douglas Nelson
July 5 The Rolling Stones release their 20th US single, "Honky Tonk Women"/"You Can't Always Get What You Want."
July 8 Mick Jagger, on the set of Ned Kelly in Sydney, Australia, finds companion Marianne Faithfull in a coma after an overdose of sodium amytal.
July 12 Communist and South Vietnamese forces clash near the demilitarized zone.
July 16 US manned spaceflight Apollo 11 blasts off for moon trip.
July 19 White House names a panel to investigate corruption in the Pentagon.
July 20 Vietnam combat lull enters its fifth week. US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin leave their spacecraft and walk on the moon.
July 30 President Nixon pays an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam.
August 4 US reports that unemployment increased to 3.6% in July.
August 6 Moon dust samples show signs of organic matter.
August 7 Viet Cong indicates that it may consider working with non-Communist elements.
August 9 Police find bodies of five brutally murdered persons including actress Sharon Tate in Los Angeles.
August 10 Communist troops kill 19 US Marines near the demilitarized zone. Reports indicate that California Governor Ronald Reagan's tough stand on campus disorders is popular with voters. US ends quarantine of moon astronauts who are reportedly in excellent health.
August 12 Communists launch heaviest offensive in three months as lull comes to an end in South Vietnam.
August 15-17 Three-to-five hundred thousand youths attend a rock festival in Bethel, New York; no major incidents.
August 18 Keith Richards picks up Anita Pallenberg from the hospital with Marlon, their first child.
August 19 Hurricane leaves at least 170 dead and causes major property damage in Mississippi.
August 21 US suffers highest weekly death toll in two months in South Vietnam.
August 22 Virginia flooding leaves at least 80 dead.
August 29 Bay area reports indicate that in Berkeley alone the number of juvenile runaways apprehended virtually doubled from 424 in 1966 to 846 last year.
September 2 Hartford, Connecticut imposes a curfew as Negro youths riot.
September 3 North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh dies at 79.
September 4 Gunmen kidnap US Ambassador-to-Brazil Burke Elbrick.
September 12 US civil rights leaders charge that the Nixon administration has retreated in the fight for desegregation.
September 13 Viet Cong launch an artillery attack against a South Vietnamese civilian village which leaves more than 100 dead. Disputes over sex education in the schools are seen splitting many US communities.
September 15 President Nixon backs a manned space flight to Mars but rejects a crash program.
September 16
Whites and blacks exchange gunfire in Cairo, Illinois. President Nixon
announces a withdrawal of about 35,000 US troops from
South Vietnam.
September 19 President Nixon announces a 50,000-man cut in planned draft calls for the rest of the year.
September 20
Reports indicate that Mexican farmers are growing more marijuana for export.
US officials pledge to step up the fight against
the use of marijuana in Vietnam.
September 24 Reports indicate that pressure on President Nixon to speed troop withdrawals from Vietnam is growing in Congress.
September 26 President Nixon urges the US public to give him time to end the Vietnamese War on "honorable terms."
September 30 US orders a curb on codeine-based cough syrups because of a health hazard.
October 2 US military command reports the lowest Vietnam War fatality level in two years; US conducts an underground nuclear test in Alaska.
October 6 US reports that unemployment has risen to four percent, the highest rate since 1967.
October 9 US combat fatalities are lowest since 1966; Defense Secretary Melvin Laird says that the US is speeding the shift of the burden of the war to the South Vietnamese Army.
October 12 Charles Manson apprehended at the Barker Ranch in Death Valley, California.
October 13 President Nixon vows not to be swayed by growing Vietnam War protests.
October 15 About 22,000 demonstrators protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, DC.
October 19 Nixon Administration seeks softer penalties for marijuana users; Vice-president Spiro Agnew calls anti-war demonstrators "effete snobs."
October 21 US novelist Jack Kerouac dies in St. Petersburg, Florida at 47.
October 23 US weekly casualty rate in Vietnam is the lowest in three years.
October 30 President Nixon vows to enforce a Supreme Court decision mandating immediate desegregation of schools.
November 1 President Nixon is reportedly doing well in survey polls
November 3 Sixty Yale students hold the university's business manager captive because of a recent dismissal of a Negro employee for negligence; in a nationwide address President Nixon asks for public support of his phased withdrawal from South Vietnam
November 4 President Nixon declares that the "silent majority" supports his Vietnam policy
November 6 A US court orders school integration in Mississippi by December 31
November 10
US officials report a big jump in enemy activity in South Vietnam during
the last week; Vice-president Spiro Agnew denounces
anti-war demonstrators as "the strident minority"
November 15 Two-hundred-fifty thousand war protesters stage a peaceful rally in Washington
November 19 US Apollo 12 astronauts land on the moon and go for a walk of several hours
November 26
US veteran Varnado Simpson says that he killed 10 South Vietnamese civilians
on March 16, 1968 at Songmy; President Nixon signs a bill creating a draft
lottery
December 6
300,000 fans show up for the free rock festival at Altamont; there are
four deaths, one a murder perpetrated by Hell's Angels right in front of
the Rolling Stones and Maysles Film's rolling cameras