On December 1, 1969, the Selective Service System of the United States held a lottery to determine the order of draft (induction) into the Army for the Vietnam War.
The days of the year, represented by the numbers from 1 to 366 (including Leap Year Day), were written on slips of paper and the slips were placed in plastic capsules. The capsules were mixed in a shoebox and then dumped into a deep glass jar. Capsules were drawn from the jar one at a...
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On December 1, 1969, the Selective Service System of the United States held a lottery to determine the order of draft (induction) into the Army for the Vietnam War.
The days of the year, represented by the numbers from 1 to 366 (including Leap Year Day), were written on slips of paper and the slips were placed in plastic capsules. The capsules were mixed in a shoebox and then dumped into a deep glass jar. Capsules were drawn from the jar one at a time.
The first day number drawn was 257 (September 14), so all registrants with that birthday were assigned lottery number 1. Men of draft age (those born between 1944 and 1950) whose birthday fell on the corresponding day of the year would all be drafted at the same time. Only the first 195 birthdates drawn in the 1969 lottery were called to serve; the last date called was September 24.
A secondary lottery was also held on the same day, to construct a random permutation of the 26 letters of the alphabet. For men born on a given day, the...
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