World News and Events in 1969

• British troops quell clashes between Catholics & Protestants in Northern Ireland
• IRA launches a terrorist campaign against British troops in Ireland
• Richard Nixon becomes President of US
• Nixon begins to withdraw US troops from Vietnam
• Charles de Gaulle resigns & George Pompidou become President of France
• Willi Brandt succeeds Kurt Kiesinger as Chancellor of Germany
• Levi Eshkol dies & Golda Meier becomes Prime Minister of Israel
• Yasir Arafat becomes Chairman on the Palestine Liberation Organization
• Gustav Husak replaces liberal Alexander Dubcek in Czechoslavakia
• Colonel Qaddafi deposes King Idris in Libya 
• Apollo 8 makes the first manned orbit if the Moon
• Stonewall Riots spark the gay rights movement
• Equal pay for women doing the same work as men introduced in Australia
• US Destroyed Frank E Evans cut in two in accidental collision with Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne (69 US sailors killed)
• Edward Kennedy's female companion dies in a car accident off Chappaquiddick bridge
• Cult followers of Charles Manson kill Sharon Tate and six others
• First flight of the Concorde, the first supersonic transport
• Massive "Poseidon" nickel strike in Western Australia
• Standard gauge rail line between Sydney and Melbourne completed.
• Woodstock music festival attracts 500,000
• Oh! Calcutta shocks Broadway audiences with nudity
• Hair! plays in Sydney
• Michael Leunig's first "everyman" cartoon is published
• US introduces "X" rating system for movies
• Platform shoes in fashion