1969 in science

The year 1969 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

Neil Armstrong on the Moon

• January 15 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.
• March 3 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.
• March 13 – Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
• May 16 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
• May 17 – Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus', atmosphere sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
• May 18 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 launches.
• May 22 – Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 15,400 m of the Moon's surface.
• May 26 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first manned Moon landing.
• July 20 – Apollo program: The human race, represented by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, lands on the Moon. Apollo 11 lifted off for the Moon on July 16 and returned safely on July 24.
• August 5 – Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
• September 20 – Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is identified by Soviet astronomers Klim Churyumov and Svetlana Gerasimenko.
• November 14 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon (landed on the Moon on November 19).
• November 19 – Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.

Biology

• Thomas D. Brock and Hudson Freeze of Indiana University publish their findings on hyperthermophilic bacteria, most notably Thermus aquaticus, a thermophilic bacterium species living at a temperature of 60-80 °C in a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park.^[1] T. aquaticus (Taq) later becomes a standard source of enzymes able to withstand higher temperatures than those from E. Coli and is significant in the history of polymerase chain reaction.
• Last Przewalski's Horse sighted in the wild, in Mongolia.
• Marked decline in common whitethroats due to Sahel drought draws attention to effects of climate on migratory species.

Chemistry

• Dorothy Hodgkin and colleagues at the University of Oxford determine the structure of insulin.^[2]

Computer science

• April 7 – RFC 1, the first Request for Comments document from the Internet Engineering Task Force, is published.
• October 29 – The first ARPANET message is sent, between computers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford Research Institute.^[3]
• November 21 – The first permanent ARPANET link is established, between Interface Message Processors at UCLA and Stanford.^[4]
• The laser printer is invented at Xerox by Gary Starkweather.^[5][6]
• CCD invented at AT&T Bell Labs, used as the electronic imager in still and video cameras.

Medicine

• April 4 – Surgeons Denton Cooley and Domingo Liotta implant the first temporary artificial heart.
• Reported as being the year the first strain of the AIDS virus (HIV) migrates to the United States via Haiti.^[7]
• The condition diffuse panbronchiolitis is named, in Japan.^[8]
• International adoption of the diagnostic term 'Sudden infant death syndrome'.^[9]

Meteorology

• Late January – Eugene, Oregon, has a record snowfall of 3 feet in 3 days: a pineapple express moves into the region with a shot of cold air, followed by some snow showers.
• Herbert Saffir and Bob Simpson develop the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

Paleontology

• John Ostrom publishes his findings on the dinosaur Deinonychus, describing it as being a small, agile species closely related to the birds.^[10][11]

Physics

• Yoichiro Nambu and Leonard Susskind make the first presentations of string theory.^[12]
• Spain withdraws from CERN.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – Murray Gell-Mann
  • Chemistry – Derek Harold Richard Barton, Odd Hassel
  • Medicine – Max Delbrück, Alfred D. Hershey, Salvador Luria
• Turing Award – Marvin Minsky

Births

• October 7 – Karen L. Nyberg, American space engineer and astronaut.
• December 16 – Adam Riess, American astrophysicist, Nobel laureate in Physics in 2011.
• December 28 – Linus Torvalds, Finnish computer programmer.
• Thomas Reardon, American computer programmer.

Deaths

• March 3 – Elizabeth Laird (born 1874), Canadian physicist.
• May 14 – Walter Pitts (born 1923), American logician and cognitive psychologist.
• June 24 – Willy Ley (born 1906), German American scientific populariser.
• August 8 – Otmar von Verschuer (born 1896), German eugenicist.
• August 17 – Otto Stern (born 1888), German physicist, Nobel laureate in Physics in 1943.
• September 16 – Henry Fairfield Osborn, Jr. (born 1887), American conservationist.
• September 24 – Warren Sturgis McCulloch (born 1898), American neurophysiologist and cybernetician.
• October 21 – Wacław Sierpiński (born 1882), Polish mathematician.
• November 12 – William F. Friedman (born 1891), Russian American cryptanalyst.

References