1969, year
- 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar (dominical letter E), the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1960s decade. The year is associated with the first manned landing on the Moon (Apollo 11 ).
- An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 and injures 314. [2]
- The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 4.
- The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5 , which docks with Soyuz 4 for a transfer of crew. [1]
- The Soviet Union launches Venera 5 toward Venus .
- Two cosmonauts transfer from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4 via a spacewalk while the two craft are docked together, the first time such a transfer takes place. The two spacecraft undock. Soyuz 4 will reenter Earth's atmosphere and land February 17 while Soyuz 5 will have a hard landing February 18.
- February 8 – The Allende meteorite explodes over Mexico . [2]
- February 17 – Aquanaut Berry L. Cannon dies of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair the SEALAB III habitat off San Clemente Island, California.
- February 24 The Mariner 6 Mars probe is launched.
- Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 (James McDivitt, David Scott, Rusty Schweickart) to test the lunar module.
- The United States Navy establishes the Navy Fighter Weapons School (also known as Top Gun) at Naval Air Station Miramar.
- May 16 – Venera program: Venera 5 , a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus .
- May 17 – Venera program: Soviet probe Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus' atmosphere, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
- May 18 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 (Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, John Young) is launched, on the full dress-rehearsal for the Moon landing.
- May 22 – Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies to within 15,400 m of the Moon's surface.
- Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first manned Moon landing.
- July 16 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin , Michael Collins) lifts off toward the first landing on the Moon.
- July 20 – Apollo program: The lunar module Eagle lands on the lunar surface. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watch in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the Moon at 10:56 pm ET (02:56 am UTC July 21), the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time.
- The Apollo 11 astronauts return from the first successful Moon landing, and are placed in biological isolation for several days, on the chance they may have brought back lunar germs. The airless lunar environment is later determined to preclude microscopic life.
- The Allente Meteorite is only a cover story. A Vrill ship destroys a Freon ship (Axiom File :" The Quetzalcoatl Inciden t")
- Mr, Smith of Axiom and a team of Axiom agents fight a Xeno life form in the jungles of Vietnam while the war is going on. (Axiom File "Yellow man" )
- [1] The Sovjets secret program of testing Psionics - Using Twins One on Earth and one in space result in the first Earth science proof of the existence of psionics.
- The explosion is caused by an experiment with a captured Vrill saucer.