Editing 1969 (section)

===January===
{{Main|January 1969}}
[[File:Aircraft burning on USS Enterprise (CVN-65).jpg|thumb|230px|right|January 14: Explosion kills 27 on USS ''Enterprise'']]
* [[January 4]] – The Government of [[Spain]] hands over [[Ifni]] to [[Morocco]].
* [[January 5]] – [[Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701]] crashes into a house on its approach to London's [[Gatwick Airport]], killing 50 of the 62 people on board and two of the home's occupants.<ref>{{cite report |last=Kelly |first=G.M. |title=Civil Aircraft Accident Report No. EW/C/303: Report on the Accident to Boeing 727-112C YA-FAR 1.5 miles east of London (Gatwick) Airport on 5th January 1969 |url=http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/YA-FAR.asp |publisher=[[Office of Public Sector Information|Her Majesty's Stationery Office]] |date=June 1970 |access-date=26 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120907045653/http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/YA-FAR.asp |archive-date=7 September 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[January 14]] – [[USS Enterprise fire|An explosion]] aboard the aircraft carrier [[USS Enterprise (CVN-65)|USS ''Enterprise'']] near [[Hawaii]] kills 28 and injures 314.
* [[January 16]] – First successful docking of two crewed spacecraft in orbit and the first transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another (by a [[space walk]]) between Soviet craft [[Soyuz 5]] and [[Soyuz 4]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Russians Master Space Docking |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=1969-01-17 |page=2}}</ref>
* [[January 18]] – Failure of [[Soyuz 5]]'s service module to separate correctly causes a near-fatal re-entry (not publicly acknowledged until 1997) but the module makes a hard landing in the [[Ural Mountains]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=James |last=Oberg |authorlink=James Oberg |journal=Flight Journal |date=June 2002 |volume=7 |issue=3 |title=Soyuz 5's Flaming Return |pages=56–60 |url=https://www.jamesoberg.com/062002flightjournalsoyuz5.html |accessdate=2024-11-24}}</ref>
* [[January 19]] – End of the siege of the [[University of Tokyo]], marking the beginning of the end for the [[1968–69 Japanese university protests]].
* [[January 22]] – [[Attempted assassination of Leonid Brezhnev]], the Soviet leader, by deserter Viktor Ilyin. One person is killed, several are injured; [[Leonid Brezhnev|Brezhnev]] escapes unharmed. Very little is publicly admitted about the incident by the Soviet authorities at this time.
* [[January 27]]
** Fourteen men, 9 of them [[Jews]], [[1969 Baghdad hangings|are executed]] in [[Baghdad]] for spying for [[Israel]].
** Reverend [[Ian Paisley]], Northern Irish Unionist leader and founder of the [[Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster]] is jailed for three months for illegal assembly.
* [[January 28]] – [[1969 Santa Barbara oil spill]]: A [[Blowout (well drilling)|blowout]] on [[Union Oil]]'s Platform A spills 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil into a channel and onto the beaches of [[Santa Barbara County]] in [[Southern California]]; on February 5 the [[oil spill]] closes [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]]'s harbor. The incident inspires [[Wisconsin]] [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Gaylord Nelson]] to organize the first [[Earth Day]] in [[1970]].