May 1969

[May 1], 1969 (Thursday)

• James Chichester-Clark became the new Prime Minister of Northern Ireland by being elected the new leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in voting by the 33 members of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Chichester-Clark defeated party rival Brian Faulkner by a margin of one vote and took office immediately to replace outgoing prime minister Terence O'Neill.
• Born: Wes Anderson, American film director and screenwriter known for The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel; in Houston, Texas
• Died: Ella Logan, 59, Scottish-born American Broadway stage actress and singer, died from cancer.

  [May 2], 1969 (Friday)

• The world's newest ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth 2 of the Cunard Line, set off from Southampton on its maiden voyage with 1,000 passengers and 400 crew. The $72,000,000 ship made the first private use of a satellite Global Positioning System, relying on "four U.S. Navy satellites to pinpoint her position within 100 feet" for navigation. An Associated Press reporter commented days later, "it means the days of dead reckoning and sextant are over." The "QE2", commanded by Captain William Warwick, arrived at New York City on May 7 and docked at the West 52nd Street pier.
• The farewell episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. was telecast on U.S. television, with Private Pyle transferring out of fictional Camp Henderson after five seasons. Although the military situation comedy was the second most watched television show in its fifth season, Jim Nabors decided to retire from the program in order to pursue his own short-lived variety show, The Jim Nabors Hour, where his co-star, Frank Sutton, would be a recurring guest.
• Born: Brian Lara, batsman for the West Indies cricket team 1990 to 2007, known for the highest individual score in first-class cricket history, with a score of 501 ; in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago
• Died: Franz von Papen, 89, former Chancellor of Germany prior to Adolf Hitler's taking of the office. Von Papen had been acquitted of all charges of war crimes at the Nuremberg Trial.

  [May 3], 1969 (Saturday)

• Varahagiri Venkata Giri, more commonly known as V. V. Giri, was sworn in as the Acting President of India a few hours after the sudden death of President Zakir Husain from a heart attack. President Husain had returned to New Delhi the night before from a tour of India's eastern region and had been preparing for a scheduled checkup from his team of physicians when he was found collapsed in his room at 11:20 in the morning, and doctors were unable to resuscitate him after 40 minutes. Vice-President Giri had been in Bhopal to begin a tour of the Madhya Pradesh state. After being told the news, Giri was flown back to New Delhi and sworn into office after his arrival.
• Majestic Prince finished ahead of Arts and Letters and seven other thoroughbred horses to win the 1969 Kentucky Derby. Majestic Prince would beat Arts and Letters again to win the second stage of the American horse racing Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes, but would sustain an injured tendon in the process. Against the advice of trainer Johnny Longden, owner Frank M. McMahon would reverse a decision to keep Majestic Prince out of the final jewel of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes. This time, Majestic Prince finished second to Arts and Letters and suffered a career-ending injury.
• Italy created the world's first police division to specialize in investigating and combating crimes involving antiquities works of art. T.P.C. is a commando unit of the Carabinieri police force within the Italian Ministry of Defense.
• Died:
• *Karl Freund, 79, German cinematographer known for his invention of the unchained camera technique, for the 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis, and for TV's I Love Lucy.
• *Amy Ashwood Garvey, 72, Jamaican political activist, wife of Marcus Garvey from 1919 to 1922

  [May 4], 1969 (Sunday)

• James Forman, a militant black leader who had formed the National Black Economic Development Conference and had issued what he called the "Black Manifesto" seeking $500,000,000 in reparations from white Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, followed through with his April 29 pledge to disrupt church services by appearing at New York City's venerable Riverside Church during interdenominational Christian services. Reverend Ernest T. Campbell signaled the organist and choir to play a recessional hymn to drown out Forman's attempt to speak while he led a walkout of the congregation. Campbell would later read Forman's manifesto and preach a controversial sermon, "The Case for Restitution", though the Riverside Church would decline Forman's demands for 60 percent of the church's income from investments. At least one house of worship, the Washington Square United Methodist Church in New York's Greenwich Village, would donate $15,000 to Forman's fund.
• In a repeat of the previous season's finals, the Montreal Canadiens completed a four-game sweep of the National Hockey League's best-of-seven championship series to win the Stanley Cup. The Canadiens defeated the St. Louis Blues 2–1 before a St. Louis crowd of 16,126 fans. The Blues had taken a 1–0 lead midway through the second period, but Montreal's Harris and Ferguson scored back-to-back goals in the first three minutes of the final stanza.

  [May 5], 1969 (Monday)

• The Boston Celtics won the National Basketball Association championship by two points in the seventh game of the best-of-seven series, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 108 to 106. The Lakers had overcome a 17-point deficit in the game's final 10 minutes, closing from being down 100–83 to within one point before falling behind again 108–102. During the 1960s, with the exception of the 1966–67 season, the Celtics won nine of the ten championships played during the decade.
• Born: Hideki Irabu, Japanese-born baseball pitcher who played for Japan's Pacific League Chiba Lotte Marines and in American Major League Baseball for the Yankees, Expos and Rangers; in Hirara, Okinawa

  [May 6], 1969 (Tuesday)

• The United States Navy announced that it would not seek a court-martial against any of the crew of the USS Pueblo, whose crew had been held captive in North Korea for 11 months after the ship's seizure in 1968, and then were questioned in 80 days of testimony taken by the Naval Court of Inquiry in Coronado, California. U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Chafee disclosed that the court of inquiry had recommended a general court-martial against the Pueblo skipper, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher and the officer in charge of the ship's intelligence section, Lieutenant Stephen R. Harris, for allowing the ship, equipment and codebooks to fall in the hands of the enemy. Secretary Chafee said that he had overruled the recommendation because the crew of the Pueblo "have suffered long enough" and added that "I am convinced that neither individual discipline, nor the state of discipline or morale of the Navy, nor any other interest requires further legal proceedings."
• Thirty-four servicemen were killed, and 35 others injured, in the most deadly helicopter crash of the Vietnam War when the U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter experienced mechanical failure while flying near Khe Sanh. All but two of the dead were South Vietnamese Army infantrymen and officers; the other fatalities were the American helicopter crew.
• Born: Jim Magilton, midfielder for the Northern Ireland soccer football team from 1991 to 2002; in Belfast
• Died: Don Drummond, 37, Jamaican ska trombonist, died of natural causes in the Bellevue Asylum prison in Kingston.

  [May 7], 1969 (Wednesday)

• The Oakland Oaks won the second American Basketball Association championship, 4 games to 1, over the Indiana Pacers in overtime, 135 to 131.
• Born: Anies Baswedan, Indonesian politician, education minister and Governor of Jakarta from 2017 to 2022; in Kuningan

  [May 8], 1969 (Thursday)

• The Sysco Corporation, the world's largest private distributor of food and related products to hospitals, schools, hotels, industrial caterers and other institutions ordering lower-cost foods in mass quantities, was founded in Texas by John F. Baugh, Herbert Irving and Harry Rosenthal. Sysco is an acronym for Systems and service company.
• The 1969 Cannes Film Festival opened.

  [May 9], 1969 (Friday)

• Saint Christopher, formerly venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as the patron saint of travelers, was dropped from the Church's liturgical calendar along with more than 40 other names of people who had been designated as saints. The image of St. Christopher had been on millions of medallions as a symbol of a prayer for safe travel, and the Caribbean Sea nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis commemorates his name as well. The 40 names had been dropped following research within the Vatican that concluded that the persons identified as saints had never actually existed. In addition to Christopher, Saint Susanna — for whom a Roman Catholic Church for American visitors to Rome was built — was also dropped from the list.

  [May 10], 1969 (Saturday)

• "Zip to Zap", the invasion of the 339-person town of Zap, North Dakota, by more than 2,000 college students and young revelers, was brought to a quick end by the North Dakota National Guard and local law enforcement. The uninvited visitors "transformed the main street of this tiny village into a shambles overnight", breaking windows, setting bonfires in the middle of the street, and destroying retail merchandise. The heaviest damage was to Zap's two beer taverns, "Lucky's Bar" and "Paul's Bar". The event had started as a joke in the student newspaper at North Dakota State University, which suggested that students could come to the "Fort Lauderdale of the North" for a celebration. Village Mayor Norman Fuchs had endorsed the idea in a letter to several of the state's colleges, welcoming students to "good, clean, beer-bust, food-munching, tear-jerking, rib-ticklin' fun."
• The Battle of Hamburger Hill, which would prove to be the most costly U.S. offensive of the Vietnam War began as an air strike during Operation Apache Snow. Major General Melvin Zais ordered a U.S. Army jet and helicopter assault against North Vietnamese artillery on Hill 937 of the South Vietnamese mountain range of Dong Ap Bia, and paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division were sent in the next day.
• Born: Dennis Bergkamp, Netherlands soccer football forward for Ajax Amsterdam, Inter Milan and Arsenal F.C., as well as the Dutch National Team; in Amsterdam