As Euromoney celebrates its 50th year, I was curious to research where the world was in 1969. I have been left intrigued by the advancements of five decades but also by the similarities between then and now.
In 1969, social unrest was palpable, inequality in all its forms high on the political radar and government regimes were unreliable – if not terrifying. Dictatorships ruled most of Latin America, leading to protest, civil war and mass displacement. In Northern Ireland, what came to be called the Troubles were beginning; Britain deployed 300 troops to the province.
Millions protested against the government on the streets of France and marches took place across Europe, Russia and throughout Africa. In the Middle East, Gadhafi had taken control of Libya. In Asia, the Sino-Soviet conflict brought China and the USSR to the brink of war; Pol Pot was leading the Khmer Rouge; and the war in Vietnam still raged.
In the US, the civil rights movement, still reeling from the assassination of its leader, Martin Luther King, found solidarity with anti-Vietnam protestors, the second wave of feminists calling for greater equality and a gay rights movement that been spurred by the Stonewall riots that year.
