For four weeks in the summer of 1969, the world was changing before our eyes.
Between July 18 and Aug. 15, just shy of a month, four major news events shook our senses. The '60s weren't going out quietly. Mixed in with peace and love was tragedy and pain. And news desks were buzzing.
On July 18, Mary Jo Kopechne, a young political aide, drowned off Chappaquiddick Island when Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) drove his car off a bridge. Although there was strong evidence that he had been drinking, Kennedy was only charged with leaving the scene of an accident.
Two days later, on July 20, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon when he stepped out of Apollo 11's lunar module.
On Aug. 8, actress Sharon Tate and four others were brutally murdered in Tate's Beverly Hills home. Cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his disciples were later convicted of the crime.
The very next weekend, Aug. 15-17, was the musical event of a lifetime -- Woodstock, a three-day festival that drew half a million people to a small farm in Bethel, N.Y.
What a month, huh?
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