September 12, 1969

That fall of 1969, gas ran $0.35 a gallon and Nixon was in the White House — the U.S. and Soviet Union had just signed a nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a landmark agreement between the two superpowers to limit the spread of atomic weapons. On screens and radio, audiences were watching "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" as the top show on television and lining up at theaters for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," which was the biggest film at the box office that season. The New York Mets shocked the baseball world by defeating the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series, and on November 10, a new children's program called "Sesame Street" premiered on public television, setting the stage for what would become the most recognized preschool series in American history.