May 1969


The following events occurred in May 1969:

[May 1], 1969 (Thursday)

[May 2], 1969 (Friday)

[May 3], 1969 (Saturday)

[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)

[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)

[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

[May 11], 1969 (Sunday)

[May 12], 1969 (Monday)

[May 13], 1969 (Tuesday)

[May 14], 1969 (Wednesday)

[May 15], 1969 (Thursday)

  • The American nuclear submarine became stuck in the bottom of California's Napa River. Damages of over 15 million dollars, made by mistakes by two construction crews, had caused the submarine to take on water. Before the vessel could be raised, a U.S. Navy salvage team had to pump out 1,300 tons of seawater without letting the Guitarro roll over. About of the submarine's conning tower remained above water; Rear Admiral Norbert Frankenberger commented that "The sub's nuclear reactor was not aboard, thank God." The accident was traced by a Congressional investigation to a lack of communication between two civilian construction groups, with neither group aware of what the other one was doing, and both filling ballast tanks at opposite ends of the sub with water as part of calibrating instruments. The front of the submarine dipped low enough that water began pouring into an open hatch while the crew at the front was away for a 30-minute dinner break. Because of the number of cables and lines running through openings, responders were unable to seal the sub's watertight doors and hatches as water poured in. Not including the cost of refloating, the cost of repairing and replacing damaged equipment and electronics was estimated at between $15,200,000 and $21,850,000 in 1969, equivalent to between $105 million and $150 million in 2018. The Guitarro would be commissioned in 1972 and would serve the U.S. Navy until 1992.
  • Abe Fortas became the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to resign as the result of a scandal. In 1966, while serving on the Court, Fortas entered into an agreement with a charitable foundation funded by financier Louis Wolfson, which contemplated that Fortas would receive $20,000 per year for life for services. The story of the pact with the Wolson Family Foundation — and Fortas's acceptance of a $20,000 payment — was revealed on May 4 by Life magazine. After the news was removed, Fortas informed Chief Justice Earl Warren of the details of the arrangement. The seat vacated by Fortas would remain empty for the entire 1969–70 U.S. Supreme Court term, until filled after 389 days by Justice Harry Blackmun on June 9, 1970. The U.S. Supreme Court vacancy would remain a record until 2017, when Neil Gorsuch's succession to the seat of Antonin Scalia following a 422-day vacancy.
  • Robert Rayford, a 16-year-old black American teenager identified years later as "Robert R.", died at the Washington University medical center in St. Louis, Missouri, of complications from a baffling medical condition that caused lesions of Kaposi's sarcoma. In 1986, after the human immunodeficiency virus had been found to be the cause of AIDS, Robert R.'s tissue samples would be examined and found to have had the antibodies to HIV and the P24 antigen, making Robert R. the earliest confirmed case of AIDS in America.
  • Born: Emmitt Smith, American NFL running back primarily for the Dallas Cowboys, College Football and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, and the NFL record holder for most yards in a career; in Pensacola, Florida
  • Died: Joe Malone, 79, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee who holds the standing record for most goals scored in a National Hockey League game, with 7 for the Quebec Bulldogs on January 31, 1920.

[May 16], 1969 (Friday)

[May 17], 1969 (Saturday)

  • The Soviet probe Venera 6, launched five days after Venera 5, arrived after its predecessor and began to descend into Venus' atmosphere at 6:05 UTC. It transmitted atmospheric data for 51 minutes, ending at 6:56 UTC, before being crushed by pressure.

[May 18], 1969 (Sunday)

  • At 12:49 in the afternoon local time, Apollo 10 was launched from Cape Kennedy for what the Associated Press called "a dress rehearsal of a lunar landing mission" with the crew detaching the Apollo Lunar Module from the lunar orbiter and descending on the Moon's surface. After the ship made two orbits of the Earth, the engines were fired for the trip to the Moon at. When the ship was from Earth, the astronauts turned the camera toward the planet below to show television viewers on Earth "its first color portrait" to be seen live. Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young were scheduled to orbit the Moon, with the most critical portion being Stafford and Cernan taking photos of "Apollo site two", within the Sea of Tranquility, from low altitude in order to prepare for the safe landing of the Apollo 11 module.
  • Diane Toney became the first of three young girls in Connecticut to be kidnapped and murdered in the same fashion in a 13-day period. Diane, age 11, vanished from her neighborhood in New Haven after going to watch a parade. On May 27, 10-year-old Mary Mount failed to return home from playing in a park near her home in New Canaan, west of New Haven. Three days later, 14-year-old Dawn Cave vanished after walking away from her home in Bethany, about north of New Haven. The bodies of all three girls would be found later in the summer, all with fractured skulls. No person would ever be charged with the murders, although police would question another Connecticut individual who would be convicted of the killing in August 1970 of three young people with intellectual disabilities in New Haven in similar fashion.
  • Born: Martika, American singer and actress; in Whittier, California

[May 19], 1969 (Monday)

[May 20], 1969 (Tuesday)

  • A force of 1,800 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops captured "Hamburger Hill" on their 12th attempt to charge up the high slopes of Hill 937 to dislodge North Vietnamese troops. With more than 50 Americans killed and 410 wounded in a fight for a hill that Major General Zais acknowledged "has no tactical significance", the White House soon came under heavy criticism from Congress. However, Lt. Col Weldon Honeycutt, commander of the battalion explained that the hill needed to be taken as it overlooks a good deal of the A Shau Valley, which was a major supply and staging area for the North Vietnamese. Further evidence of the importance of the Mountain and the necessity to capture it came from U.S. intelligence officers who identified the area as being the headquarters of the 29th North Vietnamese Regiment.
  • A California National Guard helicopter, called to respond to the sixth day of anti-war protests at the University of California Berkeley, sprayed "heavy clouds" of tear gas on the crowd, an action not previously taken in the state for control of protesters. Governor Ronald Reagan conceded the next day that a helicopter spraying tear gas to clear crowds might have been "a tactical mistake," but added that "once the dogs of war are unleashed, you must expect things will happen, and people being human will make mistakes on both sides."

[May 21], 1969 (Wednesday)

[May 22], 1969 (Thursday)

  • Apollo 10's lunar module, designated as Snoopy, separated from the lunar orbiter with USAF Colonel Tom Stafford and U.S. Navy Commander Gene Cernan firing the descent engines to make the closest approach up to that time to the Moon, coming within of the Moon's surface, reaching its lowest altitude at 2130:43 UTC. For eight hours, the module and the orbiter were separated. At one point during the second low pass over the Moon, the module began rolling and Cernan was heard to say on live television "Son of a bitch!" before getting the vehicle back under control.

[May 23], 1969 (Friday)

  • A U.S. Air Force mechanic stole a C-130 Hercules from RAF Mildenhall in England and flew the $2,200,000 cargo plane past the Isle of Wight in an apparent attempt to return to his home at Langley Air Force Base in the United States. Sergeant Paul A. Meyer, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, requested that the Air Force set up a telephone hookup to his wife in Virginia and refused to speak directly to anyone else. After a 2-hour flight, Sgt. Meyer told his wife that he had trouble with the automatic pilot, and the aircraft was presumed lost at sea. The wreckage would be discovered days later in the English Channel, and on June 11, American investigators would advance the theory than Meyer's aberrant behavior might have been the result of a chemical interaction between antidepressant drugs that had been prescribed to him, in combination with scotch whiskey and amines within English cheddar cheese, which he had been seen to consume at a party a few hours before stealing the plane.
  • Responding to George Mueller's request for opinions, Manned Space Flight Centers Director Wernher von Braun recommended that the proposed Skylab orbiting space station use the "dry workshop" stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle rather than the Saturn IB's second stage, citing the Saturn V's "real and solid" advantages without any attendant program perturbations. Von Braun described an "organic and logical step for gaining experience" in long-duration flight and said it would "allow us to qualify subsystems for the full-fledged space station/space base." MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth concurred on May 26.
  • Died: Jimmy McHugh, 74, American songwriter and composer of the melodies of over 500 songs

[May 24], 1969 (Saturday)

  • A stuntman was killed in the filming of the West German action movie Cardillac while standing in for Gunter Sachs, a director who had a part in the film as well. Johann Tharaldsen, a 23-year old skier from Norway, was carrying out a scene where Sachs's character, Kunstsammler, was to speed down a mountain trail, "leap into space, shed his skis and parachute 1,200 feet into the valley" below the Italian Alps town of Canazei. However, Tharaldsen lost his balance, was unable to shed his skis or open his parachute, and plunged to his death.
  • Died: Mitzi Green, 48, American child film actress and later a Broadway singer, died of cancer.

[May 25], 1969 (Sunday)

[May 26], 1969 (Monday)

  • Apollo 10 returned to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first crewed Moon landing. The aircraft carrier USS Princeton was within of the splashdown target in the South Pacific and recovered the capsule. The three astronauts — Cernan, Stafford and Young — were the first to have returned from space clean-shaven after demonstrating that they could use an ordinary razor and cream without the danger of hair bristles floating in the cabin.
  • The Andean Pact, a South American free trade area, was established.
  • Born: Siri Lindley, American triathlete; in Greenwich, Connecticut

[May 27], 1969 (Tuesday)

  • Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty won a runoff election in an upset victory over Tom Bradley, despite having finished a distant second in the April 1 voting. Black city councilman Bradley afterwards accused Yorty, who was white, of having made a "blatant appeal to racial prejudice and the kind of fears that were being fanned by the Yorty camp". Among other statements, Yorty had charged that Bradley had surrounded himself with black militants. Neither Yorty nor Bradley, both Democrats, had won a majority of the vote in April when they had been part of a field of four major candidates, but Bradley had finished more than 110,000 votes ahead of Yorty.
  • Died:
  • *Jeffrey Hunter, 42, American film and television actor who portrayed Jesus in the 1961 film King of Kings, starred in the title role of the 1963 TV western Temple Houston, and was the original choice for the lead role in Star Trek, died from an intracranial hemorrhage and skull fracture related to injuries six months earlier.
  • *Fodeba Keita, 48, former Minister of Defense for the Republic of Guinea, along with finance Minister Barry Diawadou, former public works secretary Karim Fofana, Civil Service Secretary Kaman Diaby, and seven other people, were executed for their roles in a failed plot to overthrow the government of Guinean dictator Sekou Toure.
  • *Muhammad Fareed Didi, 68, the last Sultan of Maldives until the monarchy was abolished in 1968

[May 28], 1969 (Wednesday)

[May 29], 1969 (Thursday)

  • El Cordobazo, a general strike by the General Confederation of Labor began in Córdoba in Argentina, with protests that led to rioting. Four civilians were killed in the first day of violence. The next day, Argentine Army troops opened fire on 1,000 workers and students, wounding an undetermined number of them. When El Cordobazo ended, most of the 3,000 Argentine troops in the city were pulled out on June 2. The final official death toll was 14 people killed, 100 injured and $14,000,000 in property damage.

[May 30], 1969 (Friday)

  • Mario Andretti won his first and only Indianapolis 500 race, becoming the first race car driver to win both the premier American races for Formula One cars and for NASCAR stock cars. Andretti had previously won the 1967 Daytona 500. Andretti, who had sustained facial burns in a crash during practice runs on May 21, set a new Indy record with an average speed of to complete the race in 3 hours and 11 minutes.
  • Riots in Curaçao marked the start of an Afro-Caribbean civil rights movement on the island in the Netherlands Antilles. About 5,000 oil refinery workers went on strike and then began setting fires and looting stores in Willemstad. As many as 90 percent of the island's population was black, while the Netherlands colonial administrators and corporate officers were white.

[May 31], 1969 (Saturday)

  • The tightening Soviet Union grip on Czechoslovakia continued with the announcement by KSČ General Secretary Gustáv Husák of the removal of eight liberal members of the Communist Party's Central Committee. Among the more prominent members removed were economist Ota Šik and National Front leader František Kriegel, one of two Central Committee members who had voted against the October 18 treaty permitting occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops.