1969 - the year I was born - has always held a great fascination for me; since we are shaped by the times we live in (and, in my case, by the media created in those times) it's always been a year I've regarded as special - and not just because it's the year I was born either, although in personal terms that does make 1969 the most special of them all.
The year began, as it ended, with the US embroiled in an unjust foreign war declared on the basis of specious intelligence; thank goodness people today have evolved beyond all that. Not that I was aware of it. I wasn't even aware of
Sesame Street, the show that would have the greatest impact on my young psyche, which made its
debut 18 days before I made mine.
1969 was the year evil media baron
Rupert Murdoch began making his inroads into British media, with his purchase of
News of the World, yet also the year the media's saviour was born, namely me; of course, in those days blogs, the Internet, and even the concept of pop culture were all just glimmers in various eyes, awaiting the One who would whip them all into a frenzy affectionately known as the
Pop Culture Institute.
The
New York Jets defeated the
Baltimore Colts in
Super Bowl III, President
Lyndon Baines Johnson left office prior to the inauguration of
Richard Milhous Nixon, and martial law was declared in Spain as
The Beatles gave their final public performance (on the roof of
Apple Records) which was included in their film
Let It Be; the event later paid homage to in the
U2 video
Where The Streets Have No Name. And that was just in January!
February saw
Yasser Arafat appointed head of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, an oil slick fouled the harbour of
Santa Barbara, California, and
FLQ bombs
fouled the
Montreal Stock Exchange. In March
Concorde made its initial test flight,
Sirhan Sirhan confessed to killing
Robert F. Kennedy while a week later
James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating
Martin Luther King Jr.,
NASA launched
Apollo 9 to test the
lunar module (later returning safely to the Earth),
Golda Meir became the first female Prime Minister of Israel, and either Nixon or
Kissinger hatched the brilliant plan to bomb the shit out of Cambodia.
In April the
Harrier jet entered service in the RAF, 300 members of the
Students for a Democratic Society seized the administration building at Harvard, and
Charles de Gaulle stepped down as President of France; things got really interesting in May, when the Soviets landed
Venera 5 on the surface of Venus where NASA's
Apollo 10 flew within 15,400 m of the Moon as
John Lennon and
Yoko Ono were conducting a
Bed-In at Montreal's
Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
While still in bed in Montreal in June John Lennon recorded
Give Peace a Chance (the first solo single by a Beatle), whereas an hour away in Ottawa the finishing touches were being put on Canada's
National Arts Centre; at the end of that month, the event that would most profoundly effect the way I live occurred at the
Stonewall riots.
In July
Charles, Prince of Wales, was invested with his title beneath a vast perspex pavilion at
Caernarfon, French was elevated to official language status in Canada, the first American troops were withdrawn from Vietnam,
Ted Kennedy drove Mary Jo Kopechne to her doom at
Chappaquiddick,
Gloria Diaz became the first Filipina
Miss Universe, and the
Apollo 11 mission went to the moon and back.
In August
Sharon Tate and her friends were murdered by
Charles Manson and his "family", a suitably ironic prelude to the peace, love, and harmony promoted at the
Woodstock Festival.
In September Libya's King
Idris was ousted by
Muammar al-Gaddafi, information about the
My Lai Massacre was suppressed by a co-operative (or, if you prefer, collusive) media, and the
Chicago Eight trial began; October saw the opening of the
Beijing Subway, Willard S. Boyle and George Smith invented the
CCD at
Bell Laboratories (precipitating the digital age whose fruits we currently enjoy),
Willy Brandt became Chancellor of
West Germany, the first message was sent over
ARPANET (which would later become the Internet, the greatest invention in the history of mankind), and
Wal-Mart (among the worst inventions in human history) was incorporated.
November - as has already been discussed - saw the arrival of both me and
Sesame Street; additionally,
Seymour Hersh broke the story of My Lai,
Apollo 12 went to the moon, the UK's BBC1 and ITV began broadcasting in colour, the US Senate voted against the appointment of
Clement Haynsworth to the Supreme Court, and John Lennon returned his
MBE in protest of British support for the Vietnam War.
The year ended with the murders of
Black Panther Party members
Fred Hampton and
Mark Clark in their sleep by the Chicago police department, the fiasco at
Altamont, and the
Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy, all recently discussed on the
Pop Culture Institute.
Among those born in this year:
Christy Turlington,
"Brian Warner",
Jason Bateman,
Dave Grohl,
Jennifer Aniston,
Chastity Bono,
Paul Rudd,
Renée Zellweger,
Cate Blanchett,
Steffi Graf,
Ice Cube,
Jennifer Lopez,
Elliott Smith,
Edward Norton,
Christian Slater,
Matthew Perry,
Jack Black,
Catherine Zeta-Jones,
Gwen Stefani,
Brett Favre,
Trey Parker,
Sean "Diddy" Combs,
Matthew McConaughey,
Ken Griffey, Jr.,
Jay-Z,
Martha Byrne, and
Jay Kay.
Among those who died include
Violet and
Daisy Hilton,
Jan Palach,
Boris Karloff,
Thelma Ritter,
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Osbert Sitwell,
Judy Garland,
Brian Jones,
Rocky Marciano, and
Jack Kerouac.
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Despite the tenterhooks upon which I sat during the evening of the Michigan Primary (which nobody bothered to explain to me beforehand wasn't a real primary at all - thanks guys!) Nevada was a real primary, although like Iowa they called it a caucus. Clinton managed to triumph by six points, earning 51% of the votes to Obama's 45%.
