In 1969, Richard Nixon became president of the USA, HMAS Melbourne sailed into a US destroyer, Boeing flew a B747 for the first time, human beings walked on the moon, Ho Chi Minh died, and Cessna, Piper and Beechcraft ruled the general aviation world.
Into that last year of one of the 20th century's most tumultuous decades was born an ambitious project: to create an indigenous aircraft manufacturing industry in Brazil.
The idea took hold, developed, evolved and was very successful. Today, we call the result of that project Embraer.
São Paulo-based Embraer has gone from building ag aircraft and copies of other designs to manufacturing state-of-the-art airliners to rival Airbus and Boeing and executive jets that give Cessna, Gulfstream and Dassault a run for their money.
The company has plenty of reason to celebrate its 55th anniversary.
"The Brazilian aeronautical industry is a global reference, and we are proud to celebrate Embraer and its history of achievements," said Francisco Gomes Neto, President and CEO of Embraer.
"We have been producing aircraft for 55 years, developing cutting-edge technology, training highly qualified people and contributing to the development of society.
“We look to the future with confidence in the ability of our people to carry forward this legacy with efficiency, quality, innovation, social responsibility and a commitment to a more sustainable aviation.”
Embraer was created by Decree-Law No. 770 on 19 August 1969. The intent of the government was to establish a company "capable of transforming science and technology into engineering and industrial capacity."
The name is a contraction of Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Brazilian Aeronautics Corporation) and the company has built over 9000 airframes that have operated in more than 50 countries.
It wasn't until January 1970 that Embraer began operations in the town of São José dos Campos, with orders from the Brazilian government to produce the Italian military jet Xavante and the new EMB-200 Ipanema agricultural aircraft.
Within 10 years, the company also produced the Bandeirante and EMB-121 Xingu twin turbo-props, which earnt very welcome export earnings for Brazil.
In the 1980s, Embraer made technological leaps with the development of new aircraft such as the EMB-312 Tucano military training turbo-prop, the 30-seater commercial aircraft EMB-120 Brasilia and the ground-attack jet AMX in collaboration with Italian manufacturers Aeritalia and Aermacchi.
An intense period of financial turbulence resulted in government fully privatising Embraer in December 1994. Its sale to private investors enabled it to stave off bankruptcy.
The new organisation recovered quickly and in 1996 started delivery the 37-50-seat ERJ-145 family of regional passenger jets.
By the time the century turned, Embraer was among the largest Brazilian exporters and had development a new family of commercial aircraft, the E-Jets. It had listed on the São Paulo and New York stock exchanges and had production lines in Brazil and China
Diversification and expansion took Embraer into the executive aviation marketing, launching the Legacy 600/650 business jets, Phenom 100, Phenom 300, Lineage 1000, and Legacy 450/500.
Since then, innovation and development has delivered new designs to the market, such as the second-generation E-Jets, the E2, and the Praetor 500 and Praetor 600 mid-size executive jets.
The Embraer of today produces market-leading passenger and executive jets, but has turned its technological expertise also to the development of sustainable aircraft with the Energia concept, and through establishing Eve Air Mobility, the emerging urban mobility sector.
Today, Embraer has a backlog valued at US$21.1 billion, more than 19,000 employees and international branches in China, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore and USA.
And through all that, the Ipanema has survived, built by subsidiary Embraer Agricultural in Botucatu, Brazil. Now with winglets and the ability to run on ethanol fuel, the Ipanema has been upgraded, but stands as a heritage link to the company that started by government decree in 1969.