We love 1969

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), May 15, 2004

A new car hits the market in January - the sports saloon Ford Capri.

Its slogan was `the car you always promised yourself'.

In February a human egg had been fertilised in a test tube for the first time, at Cambridge.

In March the longest ever Old Bailey trial ended with the Kray twins and four others being found guilty of murder.

Robin Knox-Johnston returns to Britain in April, winning the single-handed round-the-world yacht race.

The same month British Leyland announces its new 1500 Austin saloon, the Maxi.

May brought trouble for New York universities.

Two were closed down because of rioting. In the Monaco Grand Prix, Graham Hill won for the fifth successive time.

In June Judy Garland, who played Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, was found dead at the age of 47.

July brought Lunar success for NASA as Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. At 3.56am British Summer Time, he uttered the words: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

British troops arrived on the streets of Northern Ireland in August, to protect the Catholics against Protestant violence.

By October the maxi skirt, which plunged down to the ankles, came on the scene, just when it seemed that skirts could get no shorter.

Britain ended the year in the grip of a flu epidemic with 294 people dying in one week.