1969 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

• A Senate hearing was convened to determine whether to cut funding to PBS. Then unknown kids show host Fred Rogers spoke for six minutes and ended with a song. The senator teld him "looks like you just earned the $20 million." A few years later, when Burger King ran a commercial with a parody look-alike named "Mr. Rodney" in 1984, Rogers asked them to stop. The senior vice president of the company pulled the $15,000 ad without a second thought, saying, "Mr. Rogers is one guy you don't want to mess with... hopefully now we have peace in the neighborhood."
• The Top Song was Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In by The 5th Dimension
• The Big Movies included Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Midnight Cowboy and Vally of the Dolls
• Price of a daily newspaper in 1969: 10 cents
  Campbells Soup, 10.7 oz can: 10 cents
• The World Population was ~ 3,591,000,000
• Randolph Smith and Kenneth House patented the battery-powered smoke detector in 1969.
• Whizzzer toy was introduced, along with the Big Wheel tricycle.
• Sports: In 1963, San Francisco Giants Manager Alvin Dark joked, "they'll put a man on the moon before pitcher Gaylord Perry hits a home run." On July 20, 1969, less than an hour after Neil Armstrong's historic moon walk, Perry hit his first career homer.
• And... The Beatles originally planned to have an album titled Everest. However, the band didn't want to travel all the way to Mount Everest for the album cover photoshoot. This lead album title changing to Abbey Road, which was the street right outside their studio.

"That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."
- Neil Armstrong, upon stepping on the moon.

"I'm walking here! I'm walking here!"
- Dustin Hoffman, in Midnight Cowboy

"On Sept. 2, our bank will open at 9:00 and never close again!"
- Long Island branch of Chemical Bank, advertisement from 1969 for their autoomated teller machine (ATM).

There was a commercially sold adult board game called Chug A Lug, it involved smoking, beer and marijuana, The purpose was to win the most Alcoholic Unnanimous cards and penalties involved liquor store runs, removing clothing or not being allowed to go to the bathroom.

In 1969 Laugh-In ran a "News of the Future" sketch in which they accurately predicted the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Ronald Reagan being president in 1988.

An airplane was hijacked to Cuba in 1969, but the passengers didn't think it was real because they saw Candid Camera creator Allen Funt on board.

Grace Slick (of Jefferson Airplane) the very first person in history to say the 'F word' on American TV, on August 19th, 1969.

Ted Kennedy (Democrat) was involved with the drunk driving 'Chappaquiddick' incident involving the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

Rock and Roll Death: Rolling Stone Brian Jones drowned.

Bill Cosby won a man of the year award and jokingly suggested re-naming the award "the nice guy as far as we know" award.

Spiritual master and self-proclaimed 'god' in human form named Meher Baba, voluntarily went silent from July 1925 until his death in 1969.

The Manson "Family" committed a series of murders, under the influence of Charles Manson's "Helter Skelter" philosophy. One of the victims was Sharon Tate and her unborn child.

US POWs in the Vietnam War used taps to communicate while held in isolation. To initiate conversation, they tapped Shave and a Haircut (dah da-da dah dah). The correct response was Two Bits (dah dah). Captors, unfamiliar w/the jingle, tapped back the five beats--revealing they weren't American.

A musician named Jim Sullivan recorded an album called "U.F.O.", which featured strange lyrics about leaving his family and being abducted by aliens. Sullivan disappeared six years later without a trace, the only piece of evidence being his abandoned car found on a desert road.

President Nixon's speech writer had prepared a speech "In Event of Moon Disaster" in case Apollo 11 astronauts were stranded on the Moon.

FYI - In 1969, it would have been harder to fake the moon landings then actually landing on the moon

Tog'l, Upsy Downsys, Silly String, Astrolite, Toss Across, Big Wheels, Nerf Ball

Donald and Doris Fisher opened their clothing store, The Gap, in San Francisco.

The arpanet (first internet) invented, connecting four computers