Major historical events of the period 1969

1. MAJOR HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE PERIOD 1969-1989
1969 THE FIRST SPACE RACE ON THE
MOON - Apollo 11 was a spatial mission
that that landed humans on the Moon.
Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin landed on July 20. The first walk on
the Moon was broadcast on tv for a world
public. Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space
Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in
1961.

2. 1974 RECOVERY OF THE SKELETON OF
THE AUSTRALOPITHECUS LUCY - On 24
november 1974 some paleanthropologists
discovered in Ethiopa the most completed skeleton
of an ancient human being. This skeleton was 3
millions of years oleleton s. The same day of the
discovery, the paleanthropologists gave it a name:
Lucy, taking the cue from a famous song of Beatles
"Lucy in the sky with diamonds".
1975 END OF THE WAR IN VIETNAM - In 1975 at
a news conference, President Richard Nixon said that
the Vietnam War was coming to a conclusion. Nixon
had announced at a conference in Midway in June that
the United States would be following a new program he
termed “Vietnamization”. The War in Vietnam was a
conflict that pitted the communist government of
North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam against
the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally,
the United States. Called the “American War” in
Vietnam, the war was also part of a larger regional
conflict and a manifestation of the Cold War between
the United States and the Soviet Union and their
respective allies.
1978 ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER
ALDO MORO KIDNAPPING - On
the morning of 16 March 1978 the
car of Aldo Moro, former prime
minister and then president
of Christian Democracy, was
assaulted by a group of terrorists in
Via Fani in Rome. Firing
automatic weapons, the terrorists
killed Moro's bodyguards and
kidnapped him.

3. 1978 POPE PAUL VI DEATH - On 6
August Pope Paul VI died. On 26 August of
the same year he was succeeded by Pope
John Paul I who died only after thirty-three
days of papacy. On 6 October 1978 the
Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected
Pople, with the name of John Paul II. His
papacy lasted 27 years and he left a deep
track in our modern history.
1979 LAUNCH OF THE FIRST COMPACT DISC - In
1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to
design a new digital audio disc. After a year of
experimentation and discussion, the Red Book CD-
DA standard was published in 1980. After their commercial
release in 1982, compact discs and their players were
extremely popular. The Compact Disc is an evolution
of LaserDisc technology, where a focused laser beam is used
that enables the high information density required for high-
quality digital audio signals.
1981 POPE JOHN PAUL II
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT - The first
attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took
place on Wednesday, 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's
Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and
wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was
entering the square. The Pope was struck four
times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was
apprehended immediately, and later sentenced to
life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination
attempt. He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope's
request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000.

4. 1982 ISRAEL INVADED LEBANON - In
1982 Israel invaded Lebanon and occupied
its Southern area. After that invasion, the
Palestinian Lebanon Arafat is forced to leave
Lebanon in order to go to Tunis. In Lebanon
started a long civil war.
1983 DEATH OF THE LAST ITALIAN KING UMBERTO II - Umberto II was
the last King of Italy, reigning for slightly over a month, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June
1946. However, he was de facto head of state from
1944 to 1946. He was nicknamed the May King.
Umberto II lived for 37 years in exile, in Cascais,
Portugal. He never set foot in his native land again;
the 1947 constitution of the Italian Republic not
only forbade amending the constitution to restore
the monarchy, but until 2002 barred all male heirs
to the defunct Italian throne from ever returning to
Italian soil. Female members of the Savoy family
were not barred, except queens consort. He
travelled extensively during exile, and was often to be seen in Mexico visiting his
daughter Maria Beatrice. At the time when Umberto was dying, in 1983,
President Sandro Pertini wanted the Italian Parliament to allow Umberto to return to
his native country. Ultimately, however, Umberto died in Geneva and was interred
in Hautecombe Abbey, for centuries the burial place of the members of the House of
Savoy. No representative of the Italian government attended his funeral.
1985 PROTEST FOR BLACK PEOPLE
RIGHTS - In 1985 there were hundred of
people killed for their protest in favour of black
people's rights. This protest was guided by
Nelson Mandela who, in the African National
Congress, asked more rights and liberties. The
USA and the European Economic Commission
imposed economical taxes against apartheid.
Mandela fought for black people's rights and for
this reason he was arrested. He refused an offer
of unconditional freedom in return for an armed fight surrender, so he remained in
prison until 1990 obtaining the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993.

5. 1986 CERNOBYL DISASTER - The Chernobyl
disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that
occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant in the town of Pripyat, in
Ukraine, which was under the direct jurisdiction of
the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An
explosion and fire released large quantities of
radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which
spread over much of the western USSR
and Europe.
1989 FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL - 9
November 1989 marks the infamous fall of the
Berlin Wall. On midnight of that day, East
Germany's Communist rulers gave permission
for gates along the Wall to be opened as a
result of days of mass protest. After decades of
partition, East Berliners surged through
cheering and shouting and were greeted by
West Berliners on the other side. Ecstatic crowds immediately began to climb on top
of the Wall and destroy segments of the concrete fort.