100 Days: How Four Events in 1969 Shaped America
Resources
There are thousands of videos, publications, and websites about the four events that are described in 100 Days: How Four Events in 1969 Shaped America. The resources and links below are particularly compelling opportunities to supplement the book.
Publications about 1969
The Moon Landing
Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca murders
Woodstock
The Birth of the Internet
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Publications about 1969
Books and websites cover many of the key events of the year 1969, from the January Super Bowl upset win by the New York Jets to the first draft lottery since World War II in December.
- For an overview of the year in a single volume, try 1969: The Year Everything Changed, by Rob Kirkpatrick.
x - To view a time-capsule exploration of 1969, every issue of Life magazine ever published can be explored online—including the December 19, 1969, issue that featured Charles Manson and the cover story, “The Love and Terror Cult.” ” See the Life magazine collection here.
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The Moon Landing
America in Space
- Exploring the Apollo program can begin with history.nasa.gov, a website of incredible scope and content about America in space. The website features literally years of reading about every U.S. mission, as well as background, photographs, documents, and links to other sources.
x - Among the ems of the archive, “Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference” includes extensive text about each lunar mission as well as background about the creation of the program. Start here.
x - An ultra-detailed illustrated chronology of the development of the Saturn V rocket is here.
x - For all major NASA initiatives, start with the organization’s topical index.
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Space Missions
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Video
- A wide range of videos about the Apollo missions are available on the NASA Video Gallery.
x - In addition, every phase of the Apollo Program, from preparation to launch to behind-the-scenes issues, can be viewed on YouTube. For a cataogue of videos about the Apollo Program on YouTube, start here.
x - Because the internal workings of the millions of parts in a Saturn V rocket are impossible to view in the inferno of liftoff, the next best thing are the slow-motion videos of launches on YouTube, which show the incredible precision required to move the 363-foot rocket off the launch pad. Start with these videos.
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Television series
In addition to many fine video series about the moon missions themselves and the astronauts who flew them, a particularly interesting perspective on the Apollo program can be found in “Moon Machines,” a six-part series that describes the creation of the main equipment needed for the missions.
“Moon Machines” explores the challenges of creating the command module, lunar module, space suits, guidance computer, lunar rover, and the Saturn V rocket. The series is often available on YouTube or for sale on DVD. More about the series is here.
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Scientist Vannevar Bush: changing the course of the nation
- “Science: The Endless Frontier,” the landmark 1945 report by Vannevar Bush that changed the course of America’s policy on research and education, can be found on the website of the National Science Foundation here.
x - Bush’s July 1945 article titled, “As We May Think,” which inspired generations of scientists and digital pioneers, can be read on the website of The Atlantic magazine.
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Sputnik, Explorer, and the dawn of the Space Age
- As a starting point for history of the earliest space missions (Soviet Sputnik I and the U.S. Explorer satellites), including history, biographies, chronology of events, historical documents, photographs, and lists of published references, go to the NASA website on the early years of the space program.
x - Specific missions:
- You can hear the “beep beep beep” of Sputnik I here.
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President John F. Kennedy and the U.S. space program
- “Before this decade is out…” — President Kennedy’s speech to congress, which set the challenge of landing on the moon before the end of the 1960s, can be heard in its entirety here. The section of the speech that applies to the space program can be viewed here, and the transcript can be downloaded here.
x - “We choose to go to the moon” — Kennedy’s speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962, which described the the challenges of going to the moon, can be viewed here. The full text of the speech is here.
x - Concerns about the space program — the full written text of November 21, 1962 meeting between President John Kennedy and NASA administrator James Webb, during which Kennedy describes the moon mission as NASA’s top priority even while expressing his limited interest in space, can be downloaded here.
Highlights of the discussion can be heard on the Kennedy Library YouTube channel.
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Apollo Guidance Computer
- The development of the Apollo Guidance Computer, including demonstrations of the incredibly complex core rope memory used on the mission, can be seen in “Computer for Apollo,” a mid-1960s video production by MIT. The video is available on the MIT YouTube channel.
x - Details about the workings of the computer, including simulations and downloads of the actual code used on the Apollo missions, can be found on several websites, including the Virtual AGC site. A real-time simulation of the computer can be found here.
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The Space Program: national landmarks
The history of the space program in America extends well beyond the Kennedy Space Center—the National Register of Historic Landmarks includes listings for historic space-related buildings, facilities, and objects in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia. Start here for your guide.
Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca Murders
Books
- An exploration of the Tate-LaBianca murders can start with Helter Skelter, the superb book written by attorney Vincent Bugliosi (the prosecutor in the trial against Manson and his co-defendants) with writer Curt Gentry.
Helter Skelter is the world’s best-selling true-crime book, and with good reason; exhaustively detailed, the book is an insider’s account of the background of the crimes, the investigation, and the trials that followed. Particularly interesting is Bugliosi’s reporting on the many police missteps during the investigation.
- For a book specifically about Manson himself, try Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, by Jeff Guinn, which dives deep into Manson’s background and obsessions.
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Video
One can spend weeks looking at easily-available videos of Charles Manson and the story of the Tate LaBianca murders. To begin, try these:
- The 1976 miniseries based on Helter Skelter, which stars Stephen Railsback in a chilling portrayal of Manson, is a vivid true-to-life drama about the murders.
x - Some of the best interviews with Manson and Family members Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel were conducted by Diane Sawyer for various anniversaries of the Tate-LaBianca murders. These videos come and go online, depending on copyright enforcement, but many clips of them, as well as other interviews with Family members, can be found by starting here.
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Websites
There are hundreds of websites about Manson, the murders, and the Family, with credibility ranging from superb to lunacy. Two of the best are:
- Cielodrive.com includes much factual material, regular updates, and a large number of links to other responsibly managed sites.
x - Charlesmanson.com which features a particularly useful menu for reaching specific information about the crimes, victims, and participants.
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The Trial
The full transcripts of the murder trials for Manson, Patrician Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, and Susan Atkins — at the time the longest and most expensive in U.S. history — as well as the separate trial for Charles “Tex” Watson, and the parole hearings for the killers, are public record and are available online, including on cielodrive.com.
For a briefer starting point, the closing argument by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi can be read here.
Woodstock
The Woodstock Experience
- To appreciate the impact that Woodstock had on the American experience, start with the website for the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts the organization that maintains the concert’s site and serves as a hub of information and exhibitions about the culture of the 1960s.
Among the many features of the center’s website are a fully verified schedule of the performers and their set lists (which for more than 40 years had been subject of considerable debate), facts about the concert weekend, and an archive of hundreds of photographs shot by spectators and professional photographers.
Television coverage of the aftermath
- The television coverage concert wrap-up stories produced by the three television networks that appeared on August 18 and helped set the tone for how Woodstock would be remembered can be viewed on YouTube: ABC, CBS, and NBC.
x - The follow-up coverage on CBS News by reporter John Laurence that appeared two weeks after the concert can be viewed here.
The Birth of the Internet
Here is an assortment of links to material about the early years of the Internet that will supplement your reading of 100 Days:
- The original Interface Message Processor, which served as node number one of the network that led to the Internet as we know it, is on display at UCLA with other period-correct equipment in the same room where the work originally occurred in 1969. The room can be visited on tours of the university’s engineering school.
x - The groundbreaking presentation by Doug Engelbart that demonstrated the potential for personal computing and interactive technology, an event that came to be known as “The Mother of all Demos,” can be viewed on the website of the Doug Engelbart Institute.
x - The seemingly endless expansion of the Internet is vividly illustrated in several websites that display the growth of Internet use in real time, as they demonstrate the second-by-second use of social media, cloud storage, and the most popular websites. Particularly illuminating examples of the growth are shown at two websites each titled “The Internet in Real Time”: BetfyUK and FXTools.
x - Several digital “antiques” can be downloaded or accessed online, including the original Mosaic program, the Archie search engine, and a copy of the world’s first website.
x - To build a desk using a solid-core door just as Jeff Bezos and his team created them when Amazon was a struggling dot-com, instructions can be found on the Amazon Blog.
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