1969
| Timeline for 1969 |
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1969 was the year that Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon. (TV: Day of the Moon [+]Loading...["Day of the Moon (TV story)"]) According to some accounts, this year saw several events which led to the formation of UNIT by 1975. (PROSE: The Forgotten Son [+]Loading...["The Forgotten Son (novel)"] et al) However, other accounts indicate that UNIT had been formed before 1969 and that the Third Doctor's exile on Earth began in this year. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"] et al.)
Events
Dated
January - June
On 3 January, the Revolution Man attacked the US Air Force base in High Racoon, destroying its B-52 Bombers and carving his symbol on the side of the blacktop. Following this, the US Defence Forces went onto DEFCON Two.
On 4 January, The Washington Post reported on the Revolution Man attack of the previous day. (PROSE: Revolution Man [+]Loading...["Revolution Man (novel)"])
On 30 January, the Beatles performed an impromptu concert on the roof of the Apple Records building on Abbey Road in London. Ace prevented the killing of John Lennon during this concert. Huitzilin had hoped to feed upon the psychic energy released by the violence. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird [+]Loading...["The Left-Handed Hummingbird (novel)"]) The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones attempted to witness the concert but ended up in 1669 instead. (COMIC: Black Death White Life [+]Loading...["Black Death White Life (comic story)"])
For several weeks in February, (PROSE: The Forgotten Son [+]Loading...["The Forgotten Son (novel)"]) the Great Intelligence invaded London through the Underground with an army of Robot Yeti. It manifested itself as a dangerous web which could mind control those that touched it. As the Yeti spread the web, the city was evacuated and the British Army were called in to deal with it. (TV: The Web of Fear [+]Loading...["The Web of Fear (TV story)"])
In late February, (PROSE: The Forgotten Son [+]Loading...["The Forgotten Son (novel)"]) the Second Doctor was brought to London along with his companions Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield by the Intelligence so that the Intelligence could absorb the Doctor's mind. Albert Arnold was possessed and used to bring the Doctor to the mind-absorbing machine, but the process was interrupted by the Doctor's companions and his newfound allies Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and Anne Travers. The Intelligence's control spheres were smashed and it dissipated, leaving London safe once again. (TV: The Web of Fear [+]Loading...["The Web of Fear (TV story)"])
In early March, the British government cleaned up London to remove evidence of the invasion. Hundreds of corpses were taken to various morgues and the Yeti and control spheres were taken to the Vault.
On 12 March, two weeks after the London Event, all traces of the invasion had been removed. The evacuated began returning and all traffic in and out of the city was back to normal.
In mid-March, a version of the Great Intelligence many centuries older than the one that invaded London the previous month was accidentally awoken from its hibernation in Remington Manor by Owain Vine. The Intelligence was in a severely weakened near-death state and it used the little power it had to reach out to other fragments of itself and bring them to Remington Manor. It took control of Albert Arnold's corpse and made Arnolds bring Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart's mother Mary Gore to the Manor. It also made the employees at the Vault bring all of the technology collected from the London Event to the Manor, including the Yeti and the mind-absorbing device. Alistair followed his mother to the Manor and confronted the Intelligence just before it tried to regain its strength by absorbing Mary, Arnold, and Owain. He disrupted the process by shooting Arnold, destroying the link to the younger Intelligence and utterly destroying the older Great Intelligence. (PROSE: The Forgotten Son [+]Loading...["The Forgotten Son (novel)"])
On 8 April, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song and Canton Everett Delaware III were hired by President Richard Nixon to investigate a young girl who kept phoning him. The Doctor traced her to a building in Florida. River and Rory discovered a passageway of ancient caves, populated with aliens whom they would forget about once they looked away. Amy shot the astronaut, thinking it was the one who would kill a future version of the Doctor in 2011, (TV: The Impossible Astronaut [+]Loading...["The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)"]) though the little girl inside the suit survived. The suit served as a life support. The group eventually went on the run for several months, uncertain of how to fight these aliens. (TV: Day of the Moon [+]Loading...["Day of the Moon (TV story)"])
On 18 May, the Eighth Doctor, Sam Jones and Fitz Kreiner confronted the Revolution Man at Wembley Stadium. (PROSE: Revolution Man [+]Loading...["Revolution Man (novel)"])
July
In July, after spending months on the run, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Roy feigned capture, while River leapt out of a building to be caught by the TARDIS, continuing their plot to take down the aliens whom they would forget about when they turned away. Canton captured one of these creatures, who claimed to be of the Silence. The Doctor interrogated it. The Doctor and River discovered the girl who had contacted Nixon had escaped from the astronaut suit. (TV: Day of the Moon [+]Loading...["Day of the Moon (TV story)"])
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On 16 July, the Saturn V rocket that held the Apollo 11 pod on its mission to the Moon was launched from the Kennedy Space Center. The Tenth Doctor watched this launch from the ground. Meanwhile, after Apollo had picked up a visual of unidentified objects, the secret agents Spencer and Milledge took command of Mission Control.
On 17 July, the Doctor told off the agents for hiding an alien species' transmission just so they could "pervert a pure and innocent gesture of faith into a weapon" to win the Cold War with. The Doctor, after recording the signal at Mission Control with a dictaphone to use for later, surrendered himself to the agents. The agents knocked the Doctor out and locked him in an office. (PROSE: Blue Moon [+]Loading...["Blue Moon (short story)"])
On 20 July, Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, landing in the Apollo 11 pod. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"], Blue Moon [+]Loading...["Blue Moon (short story)"]) the Tenth Doctor escaped his imprisonment inside Mission Control with the help of Mission Commander Cliff Boxworth. The Doctor created a visualisation of the alien language, of which an alien species had been transmitting in to contact humanity and share its knowledge, and used the symbols the TARDIS translated to get the species' attention. Before the Apollo 11 landing, the Doctor asked the aliens not to contact humanity, telling them that humanity needed to find their own way. Afterwards, the Doctor watched from a distance as Neil put his first steps on the Moon. (PROSE: Blue Moon [+]Loading...["Blue Moon (short story)"])
Meanwhile, the Eleventh Doctor secretly attached a video of one of the Silence saying humans should kill them all on sight to the broadcast of the Moon landing, causing every person who watched the landings to post-hypnotically attack the Silence. (TV: Day of the Moon [+]Loading...["Day of the Moon (TV story)"]) The Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot played on the beach on the Isle of Wight while most people were inside watching the moon landing. (PROSE: One Small Step... [+]Loading...["One Small Step... (short story)"]) Martha Jones later claimed she and the Tenth Doctor had seen the event four times. (TV: Blink [+]Loading...["Blink (TV story)"])
August - December
Between 9 and 10 August, followers of Charles Manson murdered actor Sharon Tate and others in what would become known as the Helter Skelter killings. The Seventh Doctor theorised Huitzilin influenced the killings after his plot to have John Lennon killed in London had failed.
Between 15 and 17 August, the Woodstock Music Festival was held in Woodstock, New York. The Doctor attended the festival twice in two incarnations. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird [+]Loading...["The Left-Handed Hummingbird (novel)"])
In September, James Stevens married Natasha Stevens at the Chelsea Registry Office. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"])
On 29 September, the Revolution Man cult were arrested after holding a pop festival in East Worldham. (PROSE: Revolution Man [+]Loading...["Revolution Man (novel)"])
On 1 October, Concorde broke the sound barrier on Earth for the first time. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary [+]Loading...["Time Traveller's Diary (novel)"])
On 23 December, Gerry Billing received a package from the Doctor for his thirteenth birthday containing a toy sonic screwdriver for Doctor Bear. (PROSE: Imaginary Friends [+]Loading...["Imaginary Friends (novel)"])
On 24 December, a ceasefire was held in Vietnam for Christmas. The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith visited Saigon, where they learned that an alien had crash landed in the area. (PROSE: Interesting Times [+]Loading...["Interesting Times (short story)"])
Undated
At some point before the Moon landing, the Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones and Billy Shipton arrived in London after being touched by Weeping Angels in the 2000s.[nb 1] Working with future information given to him by Sally Sparrow, the Doctor contacted Shipton and the elderly Kathy Nightingale to arrange for messages to be passed on to Sally in the 2000s, one of which was a message recorded by the Doctor. (TV: Blink [+]Loading...["Blink (TV story)"]) During their waiting period, the two of them encountered the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, and Graham O'Brien. The two Doctors and their companions teamed up to foil an Auton invasion. (COMIC: A Little Help from My Friends [+]Loading...["A Little Help from My Friends (comic story)"])
After serving many years in prison for war crimes, Oskar Steinmann was released due to health problems. (PROSE: Just War [+]Loading...["Just War (novel)"])
Great Britain readied its Mars Probes. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"])
The Slakkenkind crashed on Earth, having escaped a death sentence set by the Hunter. The Tenth Doctor and Heather McCrimmon arrived, as did the Hunter. The Hunter and the Slakkenind had a showdown as they both threatened the peace of humanity. The Doctor captured the Slakkenkind and they were taken back to their death sentence. (COMIC: The Slakken Cat [+]Loading...["The Slakken Cat (comic story)"])
The Second Doctor, John and Gillian encountered the Zagbors in London. (COMIC: The Zombies [+]Loading...["The Zombies (comic story)"])
A young woman was abducted by the Sisters of St Matilda. (AUDIO: The Cloisters of Terror [+]Loading...["The Cloisters of Terror (audio story)"])
The house at 39 Bannerman Road was demolished. (AUDIO: The Ghost House [+]Loading...["The Ghost House (audio story)"])
Births and deaths
On 12 November, Paul Magrs was born, and he had a dream about Dr Oho's party. (PROSE: In the Sixties [+]Loading...["In the Sixties (short story)"], The Story of Fester Cat [+]Loading...["The Story of Fester Cat (novel)"], Party Like it's 1979 [+]Loading...["Party Like it's 1979 (short story)"])
Footnotes
- ↑ While Blink itself uncontroversially sets its main setting in 2007 and "twenty minutes to Red Hatching" a year later in 2008—as Kathy Nightingale's letter describes taking "one breath in 2007 and the next in 1920", and the Tenth Doctor's side of his conversation with Sally Sparrow in 1969 happens 38 years before Sally says hers—these are contradicted by heavily conflicting dates in the Redacted audio series later on regarding both Kathy's disappearance and the Red Hatching. In Angels, Abby McPhail identifies 2008 as the year of Kathy's disappearance, which suggests 2009 as the year of the Red Hatching. In Salvation, the Thirteenth Doctor recognises the Red Hatching as the cause of death of Andy Proctor, who was last seen by his daughter Cleo "nearly 20 years" before 2022 according to Recruits.
