What was the 2ed birthdate called in the vitenman war draft 1969
Executive summary
The second birthdate drawn in the U.S. Selective Service Vietnam draft lottery held December 1, 1969, was April 24, meaning all men born on April 24 in the eligible years were assigned the second lottery position (number 2) for induction order [1]. Contemporary records and later data reproductions of the draw sequence support that April 24 followed the first date drawn in the televised selection [2] [3].
1. The draw and why the exact order mattered
The December 1, 1969 lottery assigned a single lottery number to each calendar birthdate so that every man born on that date between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1950 would share the same draft priority; the first date drawn received lottery number 1 and dates drawn thereafter received subsequent numbers, so the identity of the second date drawn directly translated into who was second in line for induction [1] [3].
2. What sources report as the second date — April 24
Multiple historical summaries and transcriptions of the 1969 drawing list the sequence of the first several dates and identify April 24 as the second birthday drawn, immediately after the first date (reported by many official and secondary sources as September 14) and before subsequent dates such as December 30 and February 14 [1] [2]. Public reproductions of the lottery table used in teaching and archival sites also map April 24 to the lottery position 2 for the 1969 draw [2] [4].
3. Conflicting accounts about the first date and how that affects confidence
While the majority of sources and the Selective Service’s own historical summary record the first date drawn as September 14 — implying April 24 as the second — at least one secondary account has reported September 16 as the first date, which introduces ambiguity if taken alone [3] [5]. Because the question is about the second birthdate called, the mainstream archival record and data tables that reproduce the complete sequence are the most direct evidence pointing to April 24 as number two [1] [2].
4. Why discrepancies appear in reporting
Discrepancies in reporting stem from live coverage, later retellings, and statistical re-analyses that focus on later perceived irregularities in randomization rather than the precise early-order dates; some popular or derivative accounts may misremember or mis-transcribe single dates while formal reproductions of the capsule draws and official tables preserve the order used to assign lottery numbers [6] [7]. Statisticians and analysts later challenged the fairness of the mixing and selection process, but those critiques do not change the commonly cited recorded sequence that places April 24 second [7] [8].
5. Documentary and data support for April 24 as the second date
Archival summaries that describe the televised event and data tables compiled from the Selective Service results list the sequence of dates drawn and show April 24 in the second slot; specialized repositories that reproduce the exact mapping from calendar date to lottery number — including educational PDFs and draft-lottery data sites — consistently report April 24 as assigned lottery number 2 in the December 1, 1969 drawing [2] [4].
6. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
Taken together, the authoritative contemporary records and multiple later data reproductions identify April 24 as the second birthdate called in the 1969 Vietnam draft lottery; however, a minority of secondary narratives offer different single-date claims about the first draw, so readers should prefer primary tables and the Selective Service’s historical page when verifying the exact sequence [1] [3] [5]. If an exact image or transcript of the televised scroll is required, those primary archival artifacts should be consulted; the summary sources cited here provide the standard historical answer that April 24 was the second date drawn [2] [3].