And now for something completely different...
What was making the headlines 50 years ago? MARION McMULLEN turns back the clock to 1969 to the era of Moon landings, bed-ins and Monty Python
IT WAS one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind as American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon. He and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, watched by hundreds of millions of awed television viewers worldwide.
It followed a promise by American president John F Kennedy to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
Neil Armstrong later said of the landing: “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”
The year began with Richard Milhous Nixon being sworn in as the 37th president of the United States on January 20. He lost the 1960 presidential race to John F Kennedy, but had been vice president twice during the 1950s under Dwight Eisenhower. He said in his inaugural speech: “We stand on the threshold of a new era of peace in the world.”
Newly-married Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono spent a week in bed at the presidential suite at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam in March. The honeymoon couple said the protest was against world violence and war and invited the world’s press to come along each day for interviews.
The room was decorated with placards proclaiming Bed Peace and Hair Peace and a second bed-in was held in Montreal in May at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. The room in Amsterdam was later renamed the John And Yoko Suite in their honour.
And now for something completely different... irreverent comedy classic Monty Python’s Flying Circus launched on BBC2.
It was going to be called Owl Stretching Time at one point and John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman and American illustrator Terry Gilliam introduced viewers to the knotted handkerchief-wearing Gumbies, crunchy frog chocolates and dead parrots.
Other comedy favourites that launched in 1969 were In Loving Memory with Thora Hird as the head of a family of undertakers and the Benny Hill Show featuring Hill’s Angels.
Pre-school children also got a new programme with the launch of Sesame Street on American TV on November 10, which saw puppet characters help youngsters learn letters and numbers.
Production of the new seven-sided 50p coin started in October under the watchful eye of the Royal Mint’s chairman Lord Fiske.
It joined the new 5p and 10p coins already in circulation with copper coins making an appearance on February 15, 1971 to complete the new series of decimal coins.
And on the fashion front, the maxi-dress replaced the mini skirt as the trendy garment to wear and actress Una Stubbs got married to Nicky Henson in October wearing a full-length maxi outfit with a matching headscarf which she designed herself.
The Rolling Stones played a free concert in London’s Hyde Park on July 5 – two days after the death of band mate Brian Jones.
The 27-year-old was found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Surrey and the free concert became a tribute to the guitarist with Mick Jagger reading the poem Adonais by Shelley featuring the line “Peace, peace! He is not dead, he doth not sleep. He hath awaken’d from the dream of life.”
The poem was followed by the release of thousands of butterflies among the crowds.
Desmond Dekker and the Aces were also enjoying success with The Israelites while the Archies were at number one with Sugar Sugar. Meanwhile, a 500,000-strong crowd of music lovers braved the rain and blocked toilets to attend the three-day Woodstock Music Festival at White Lake, New York, in August.
Described as “an Aquarian Exposition,” the bill included The Who, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.
Football star Pele marked 1969 by scoring his 1,000th goal on November 20 and the year’s top movies included Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider and Barbra Streisand as matchmaker Dolly Levi in the film version of musical Hello Dolly!
One of the biggest box office hits of the year was Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The movie about the likeable bank robbers went on to win four Oscars, including Best Song for Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, and nine Bafta awards.