By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
January 18, 2005
12:34 PM EST (17:34 GMT)
After being beaten on a last-lap slingshot pass the year before, LeeRoy Yarbrough used the same move to beat Charlie Glotzbach in the 11th Daytona 500 on Feb. 23, 1969. More than 100,000 people attended the Daytona 500 for the first time. In August, more than 450,000 slogged through three days of rain, a massive traffic jam and limited resources to attend the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. If Yarbrough had "gotten back to the garden" from his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla., the 1,006-mile trip to Bethel, N.Y., would have taken 20 hours at freeway speeds (not including finding a place to park), or six hours and 41 minutes at Yarbrough's race-winning average of 157.950 mph.  |  | KNOW YOUR NASCAR | |
| ALSO IN 1969... |
| • | Major League Baseball player Mickey Mantle announces his retirement (March 1) |
| • | Former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower dies in Washington, D.C., after a long illness (March 28) |
| • | Vietnam War: The very first U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam are made (July 8) |
| • | Members Charles Manson's cult murder five people including actress Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger. The next day they would murder two more. (Aug. 9) |
| • | The first automatic teller machine (ATM) in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York (Sept. 2) |
Courtesy: Wikipedia
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Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins aboard, lifted off for the moon on July 16. Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon four days later. In order to break out of Earth's orbit, Apollo 11's escape velocity was 24,900 mph, or 500 miles in one minute, 12 seconds. The Beatles didn't play Woodstock (or the Moon), although police were called in on Jan. 30 to break up an improptu Beatles concert on the roof of Apple Records in London. It would be their last public appearance. "The Love Bug" was one of the hit movies in February of 1969. Dean Jones and Buddy Hackett drove the No. 53 Volkswagen Beetle to victory in the movie. Billy Taylor's No. 53 Pontiac didn't fare as well at Daytona, finishing 48th out of 50 cars. A 1969 Volkswagen Beetle retailed for $1,799. Yarbrough could have bought 21 1/2 Beetles with his first-place check of $38,950. Mickey Mantle was making $100,000 a season when he announced his retirement in March. "Sesame Street" made its debut in 1969, as did "The Brady Bunch." "Everyday People" by Sly and the Family Stone was No. 1 on the Cash Box charts. In February, Yasser Arafat was appointed leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. In July, the first U.S. troop withdrawals were made -- and President Richard Nixon took an unscheduled trip to South Vietnam later that month. By the end of the year, the United States held the first draft lottery since the end of World War II. In August, Hurricane Camille decimated the Mississippi coastline, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage. Current drivers born in 1969:
• Greg Biffle (Dec. 23)
• Kerry Earnhardt (Dec. 8)
• Robby Gordon (Jan. 2)
• Tina Gordon (March 14)
• Shane Hall (Aug. 25)
• P.J. Jones (April 23)
• Jeremy Mayfield (May 27)
• Hermie Sadler (April 24) → Click here for more Daytona Countdown. | 
