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| 1969, Jan |
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| Unrest in the universities and other schools continued unabated, centering on violent opposition to the Vietnam War, but including various other demands. | 1 |
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| Feb. 23–March 2 |
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| Pres. Nixon visited Europe to strengthen and revitalize NATO. His trip included a visit to the Vatican. | 2 |
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| March 28 |
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| Death of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower. | 3 |
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| March |
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| Hispanic activists came together in a Denver conference of La Raza Unida (The United Race), a new political party, to reaffirm the heritage of Latin American cultures and the Spanish language. | 4 |
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| June |
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| The gay liberation movement was born, following a riot between police and the gay customers at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. From about 1900, scientists and the popular media had characterized homosexuality as a deviant and socially threatening lifestyle. | 5 |
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| July 20 |
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| Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., walked on the moon. | 6 |
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| Summer |
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| Woodstock. About 400,000 young people gathered at White Lake in Bethel, N.Y., for a rock festival. | 7 |
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| Sept. 10 |
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| Oil leases on the newly discovered Alaskan North Slope fields netted over $900 million. | 8 |
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| Sept. 24 |
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| The trial of eight radicals (the “Chicago Eight”) began. They were charged with conspiring to incite riots in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention in Aug. 1968. The trial produced so much disorder in the courtroom that ultimately Bobby Seale, the Black Panther leader, was ordered bound and gagged. On Nov. 5, Seale was cited for contempt of court and sentenced to four years in prison. | 9 |
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| Oct. 2 |
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| Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. | 10 |
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| Oct. 15 |
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| Moratorium Day was observed, expressing nationwide opposition to the Vietnam War and demanding that the troops be brought back immediately. There was, however, no agreement as to the best and quickest means of achieving peace. | 11 |
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| Oct. 30 |
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| The Supreme Court ordered an immediate end to separate school systems for blacks and whites. | 12 |
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