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• Apollo 13 mission suffers huge setback
James A. Lovell Jr., Ken Mattingly, and Fred W. Haise Jr. were the crew that piloted the Apollo 13 mission on April 11, 1970. Their goal was to land on the moon but this goal was foiled because an oxygen tank ruptured, severely damaging the spacecraft's electrical system. Despite this unfortunate event the crew survived by relying on the lunar modules supplies. The crew landed back on earth by crashing into the water on April 17, 1970. This mission was considered by NASA as a “successful failure -
First Earth Day
Earth Day was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson. People felt that the environment was a non-issue for the US. They wanted a day to inspire awareness and appreciation for the earth. April 22, 1970. In 1990, it finally became international. It is now coordinated by the Earth Day Network. It is celebrated in over 175 countries each year. It is celebrated for the awareness of the environment, for energy conservation, and the protection of endangered animals. -
Computer Floppy Disk Introduced
The earliest floppy disks, invented at IBM, were 8 inches in diameter. They became commercially available in 1971. In 1976 Shugart Associates introduced the first 5¼-inch FDD and associated media. By 1978 there were more than 10 manufacturers producing 5¼-inch FDDs, in competing disk formats: hard or soft sectored with various encoding schemes such as FM, MFM and GCR. -
The microprocessor is introduced
The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators. The first known advertisement for the 4004 is dated November 1971 and appeared in Electronic News. The project that produced the 4004 originated in 1969. -
• Kent State Shootings
College Students were protesting on Vietnam. This is what led to the shootings Kent State University, in Pennsylvania on May 4, 1970. The guards started shooting at protesters because they were throwing rocks and yelling at guards. -
• Bar codes introduced in the UK on retail products:
This allows us to do inventory and it can tell you how much something goes out for sale in one day and how much they make from a sale. While it may seem like barcodes have been with us forever, barcodes didn’t really make an impact until the 1970’s. It wasn’t until 1974 that the first barcode scanner was employed and the first product barcoded. -
• 18 year olds given the vote
Richard Nixon was the President of the United States during the ratification of the 26th Amendment. On July 1,1970, when the 26th Amendment it gave the 18 year olds the right to vote. The 26th amendment was located in Washington DC. Because the military wanted the president to change the voting age to 18 because if you can go in the military at 18 why not vote at 18. -
The Aswan Dam
The Aswan Dam was built in 2960 and was opened in 1970. It was built by the Soviets. You can find the Aswan Dam in Aswan, Egypt. It is situated across the Nile River. The United States and Great Britain helped by loaning US$270 million dollars. It was supposed to help with increasing the economic production by further regulating the annual river flooding. Also to provided storage of water for agriculture. Later that helps with hydroelectricity. -
US Soldiers found guilty of murder in My Lei Massacre
On November 17, 1970, the United States Army charged 14 officers, including Major General Samuel W. Koster, the American Division's commanding officer, with suppressing information related to the incident. Most of those charges were later dropped. Brigade commander Henderson was the only. The people that were founded guilty killed women, children, babies, and men. The wanted to kill the people that were Vietnamese and that were trying to get over the wall in Vietnam. -
• EPA is created
Richard Nixon made the Environmental Protection Agency on December 2, 1970 in Washington D.C. To do something about the deteriorating conditions of water, air, and land. EPA was established to consolidate in one agency a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities to ensure environmental protection. -
• World Trade Center is completed
Minoru Yamasaki, Emery Roth and Sons consulting, and engineers John Skilling and Leslie Robertson of Worthington, Skilling, Helle and Jackson all had a part in developing and constructing the world trade center in New York. They stared building it on August 1968 and finished on December 23, 1970. The reason for building the world trade center was so business men could do business in the United States and with other countries. This was before the internet -
The Beatles Break Up
Both George Harrison and Ringo Starr temporarily 'left' the group at various points during 1968–1969 and all four band members had begun working on solo projects by 1970 as the appeal of working together as a group began to wane. Ultimately, animosity made it impossible for the group to continue working together and Paul McCartney made the break-up public knowledge as part of the press release for his first solo album, McCartney. -
Cigarette ads are banned on TV
It was banned on TV because too many little kid and teenagers could have been watching it. So they banned it so they would not have kids go buy cigarettes. January 2, 1971 -
The microprocessor is introduced
The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators. The first known advertisement for the 4004 is dated November 1971 and appeared in Electronic News. The project that produced the 4004 originated in 1969. -
South Vietnam and U.S. invade Laos
Nixon’s administration began to withdraw troops from Vietnam. Bombing raids, though, were intensified. The war shifted from Vietnam to neighboring Cambodia and Laos. In April of 1970, President Nixon ordered an invasion of Cambodia, and the North Vietnamese were forced to use more supply routes through Laos. In February of 1971 The Army of the Republic of Vietnam troops invaded Laos in a disastrous raid. The fighting lasted for 45 days, and killed or wounded more than half of the ARVN’s force. -
VCRs Introduced
VCR stands for Video Cassette recorder. The invention of VCR was initiated by the invention of Audio Cassette players. The first type of VCR was the U-matic that was developed by Sony Japan during 1970. The home VCR system that we see now were developed by Philips in 1972. Since large organizations like Philips and Sony work in research teams. It is difficult to tell one name that invented the VCR as it was a collaborative effort of the team working on it. -
• First Benefit Concert organized for Bangladesh by George Harrison
on August 1, 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Organized for the relief of refugees from East Pakistan (now independent Bangladesh) after the 1970 Bhola cyclone and during the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities and Bangladesh Liberation War, the event was the first benefit concert of this magnitude in world history. -
Amtrak created
Amtrak was created in the 1970s because private railroad corporations such as Union Pacific did not want to run their passenger railroad services anymore because they deemed them as not profitable due to compitition by airline and road travel so the government created Amtrak to maintain the passenger rail travel in the U.S. Amtrak is a government owned passenger railroad corporation that maintains passenger rail routes throughout the United States. -
• End of Gold Standard for US Currency
During most of the 1800s the United States was had a bimetallic system of money, however it was essentially on a gold standard as very little silver was traded. A true gold standard came to fruition in 1900 with the passage of the Gold Standard Act. The gold standard effectively came to an end in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlawed private gold ownership (except for the purposes of jewelry). -
• London Bridge Brought to the U.S.
It was falling apart, so when millionaires wanted people to come to their little town they went to London and bought the bridge. This became the Lake Havasu Bridge. It was built in 1971. The purchaser, Robert McCulloch, was the founder of Lake Havasu which purchased the bridge to serve as a tourist attraction to his retirement real estate development at Lake Havasu City, which at that time was far off the usual tourist track. The idea was successful, bringing interested tourists and retirement -
Attica State Prison Riots
occurred- in Attica, New York, United States in 1971. The riot was based in part upon prisoners' demands for better living conditions, and was led in large part by a small band of political revolutionaries. On September 9, 1971, responding to the death of prisoner George Jackson, about 1,000 of the prison's approximately 2,200 prisoners rioted and seized control of the prison, taking 33 staff hostage. When the uprising was over, at least 39 people were dead. -
Disney World Opens
Wlliam Windsor, Jr. and his families were the first guests at the new park. On Friday October1, 1971 after seven years of planning about 10,000 visitors converged near Orlando, Florida, to witness the grand opening of Walt Disney World. The price of admission was $4.95! Disney world is an amusement park Disney world was founded by Walt Disney himself he came up with all the theme park ideas. -
London Bridge Brought to the U.S.
It started to be built in 1968 and was done being built in 1971. The purchaser, Robert McCulloch, was the founder of Lake Havasu and the chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation. McCulloch purchased the bridge to serve as a tourist attraction to his retirement real estate development at Lake Havasu City, which at that time was far off the usual tourist track. The idea was successful, bringing interested tourists and retirement home buyers to the area. -
• Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Ed
on October 12, 1970 the case of Swann v. charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Ed entered the Supreme Court. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg was an important United States Supreme Court case dealing with the busing of students to promote integration in public schools. This was a remedy for the problem of racial imbalance among schools, even where the imbalance resulted from the selection of students based on geographic proximity to the school rather than from deliberate assignment based on race. -
China joins the UN
China's seat in the United Nations and membership of the United Nations Security Council has been occupied by the People's Republic of China (PRC) since October 25, 1971. The representatives of the PRC first attended the UN, including the United Nations Security Council, as China's representatives on November 23, 1971. -
D. B. Cooper
D. B. Cooper (boarded the plane as Dan Cooper, but a media misconception labeled him as "D.B. Cooper, which stuck) was a man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the United States on November 24, 1971 claiming to have a bomb on board. D.B Cooper robbed a bank and stole the money and hide it in the woods because he didn’t want to get caught. -
George Wallace shot while campaigning
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, who served 4 terms. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, he ran for U.S. president four times, running officially as a Democrat three times and in the American Independent Party once. A 1972 assassination attempt left him paralyzed; he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life. -
Nixon visits China
U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one of its staunchest foes. The visit has become a metaphor for an unexpected or uncharacteristic action by a politician. February 21-28, 1972 -
Title IX signed into law by Nixon
December 7, 1972 in Apollo 17 Eugene Cernan was the last man on the moon. Eugene "Gene" Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) is a retired United States Navy officer and a former NASA astronaut and engineer. He has been into space three times: as pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972 -
Terrorists Attack at the Olympic Games in Munich
5– 6 September The Munich massacre is an informal name for events that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in Southern Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by the Islamic terrorist group Black September. By the end of the ordeal, the terrorists had killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and 1 West German police officer. -
Pocket Calculators Introduced
The HP-35 Scientific Calculator, so called because it had 35 keys, was introduced in 1972. It was the world's first handheld scientific calculator. In one of the most amazing displacements in the history of technology, the HP-35 Scientific Calculator electronic calculator, and others like it, quickly replaced the faithful slide rule that had been used by generations of engineers and scientists for rapid calculation and simple computation. -
Nixon visits Soviet Union
After World War II, Americans saw relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorating and Many Americans felt concern communists might cause the downfall of schools or labor unions. One of the main reasons Richard Nixon became the 1952 Vice-president candidate on the Eisenhower ticket was his strong anti-communism stance. The President and First Lady arrived in Moscow on May 22, 1972. -
Title IX signed into law by Nixon
President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) into law on June 23, 1972. The wording of Title IX is very brief; thus, specific language and clarifications with regards to how the law would be implanted was very important. These clarifications were to be articulated in its implementing regulations -
First successful video game (Pong) launched
Bushnell and Dabney felt they did not receive enough earnings by licensing Computer Space to Nutting Associates and founded Atari, Inc. in 1972 before releasing their next game: Pong. Pong was the first arcade video game with widespread success. The game is loosely based on table tennis: a ball is "served" from the center of the court and as the ball moves towards their side of the court each player must maneuver their paddle to hit the ball back to their opponent. Atari sold 19,000 Pong machine -
KKK riots in NYC
The KKK is people that dressed up in white and they cover their faces. They are against black people, if they He was welcomed into the student body by the school administration, and was assigned an escort to introduce him to the white students. He made friends quickly, was well-received and attended until his father received orders and transferred. -
Watergate Scandal Begins
Men hired by the Nixon re-election team broke into the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate building to get info they could use in the election. When discovered, Nixon, who did not approve the break-in, covered it up, instead of turning them in, tried to kill the investigation, resulting in the Watergate cover-up, interfering with an ongoing police investigation, and other illegal moves. Had he turned over the men, he would have never been forced to resign. -
M*A*S*H T.V. Show Premiers
M*A*S*H is an American television series developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film MASH. The series is a medical drama/black comedy that was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS. It follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. M*A*S*H premiered 9/17/72. -
HBO launched
HBO, an initials’ of its full (legal) name Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. HBO's programming consists primarily of theatrically-released motion pictures, along with original series, made-for-cable movies and documentaries, and occasional boxing matches. Launched November 8, 1972. -
The Wars Act passed
The term "Resolution" can be misleading; this law originated as a Joint Resolution and was passed by both Houses of Congress pursuant to the Legislative Process, and has the same legal effect as a Bill which has passed and become a law. For more information on Bills and Joint Resolutions see this explanation of Congressional Forms of Action. -
Last man in the moon
December 7, 1972 in Apollo 17 Eugene Cernan was the last man on the moon. Eugene "Gene" Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) is a retired United States Navy officer and a former NASA astronaut and engineer. He has been into space three times: as pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972 -
Mark Spitz Wins Seven Gold Medals
At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich (West Germany), Spitz was back to maintain his bid for the six gold medals. He did even more, winning seven Olympic gold medals. Further, Spitz set a new world record in each of the seven events. Originally Spitz was reluctant to swim the 100m freestyle fearing a less than gold medal finish. -
• U.S. Pulls Out of Vietnam
In January of 1973 the Paris Accords went into effect. The US agreed to withdraw all its troops from Vietnam in 60 days. Congress had stopped funding the war effort. The North Vietnamese government agreed to release all prisoners, which they never did. Free elections were to be held in Vietnam. The President of South Vietnam considered the agreement between North Vietnam and the US as a sell out. -
Abortion Legalized in U.S.
Abortion in the United States has been legal in every state since the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973. Prior to "Roe", there were exceptions to the abortion ban in at least 10 states; "Roe" established that a woman has a right to self-determination (often referred to as a "right to privacy") covering the decision whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, but that this right must be balanced against a state's interest in preserving fetal life. -
UPC Barcodes come to US
The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a barcode symbology (i.e., a specific type of barcode), that is widely used in North America, and in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand for tracking trade items in stores. -
Paul Getty Kidnapped
On 10 July 1973, Getty was kidnapped in the Piazza Farnese in Rome. A ransom note was received, demanding $17 million in exchange for his safe return. When that ransom message arrived, some family members suspected the kidnapping was merely a ploy by the rebellious youngster as he had frequently joked about staging his own kidnapping to extract money from his frugal grandfather. He was blindfolded and imprisoned in a mountain hideout. -
Sears Tower Built
Willis Tower (formerly named, and still commonly referred to as Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of its completion in 1973, it was the tallest building in the world, surpassing the World Trade Center towers in New York, and it held this rank for nearly 25 years. The Willis Tower is the tallest building in the United States and the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the world, as well as the fifth tallest building in the world to the roof. -
• U.S. Vice President Resigns
On October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew became the second Vice President to resign the office. Unlike John C. Calhoun, who resigned to take a seat in the Senate, Agnew resigned and then pleaded no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion,part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme wherein he was accused of accepting $29,500 in bribes during his tenure as governor of Maryland. Agnew was fined $10,000 and put on three years' probation. -
OPEC doubles price of oil
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC (consisting of the Arab members of OPEC, plus Egypt, Syria and Tunisia) proclaimed an oil embargo "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war; it lasted until March 1974. -
The War Powers Act
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 is a U.S. federal law intended to restrict the power of the President to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of Congress. This provides that the President can send U.S. armed forces into action abroad only by authorization of Congress. Became a law on November 7, 1973 -
• Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation." -
• National speed limit 55
The National Maximum Speed Law (NMSL) in the United States was a provision of the 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act that prohibited speed limits higher than 55 mph (90 km/h). It was drafted in response to oil price spikes and supply disruptions during the 1973 oil crisis. The uniform speed limit was signed into law by President Nixon on January 2, 1974 and became effective 60 days later. -
• Patty Hearst Kidnapped
February 4, 1974 Patricia Campbell Hearst, now known as Patricia Campbell Hearst Shaw. After her kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army she ultimately joined her captors in furthering their cause. Apprehended after having taken part in a bank robbery with other SLA members, Hearst was imprisoned for almost two years before her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. She was later granted a presidential pardon by President Bill Clinton in his last official act before leaving office -
• Girls allowed to play in Little League Baseball
From 1951 through 1974, Little League was for boys only. In 1974, Little League rules were revised to allow participation by girls in the baseball program following the result of a lawsuit filed by the National Organization for Women on behalf of Maria Pepe. -
• U.S. President Nixon Resigns
The most immediate task facing President Nixon was a resolution of the Vietnam War. He initially escalated the conflict, overseeing incursions into neighboring countries, though American military personnel were gradually withdrawn and he successfully negotiated a ceasefire with North Vietnam in 1973, effectively ending American involvement in the war. He resigned on August 9, 1974. He was later pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford, for any federal crimes he may have committed while in office. -
• Gerald Ford pardons Nixon
On September 8, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while President. This probably caused Ford the election. -
• Freedom of Information Act passed over Ford’s veto
The documents include President Ford's handwritten notation on his first legislative briefing document after succeeding President Nixon in August 1974 that “a veto presents problems How serious are our objections?" White House aide Ken Cole wrote Ford on September 25, 1974, "There is little question that the legislation is bad on the merits, the real question is whether opposing it is important enough to face the political consequences -
• President Ford assassination attempts (2)
In January 1975, Ford proposed a 1 year tax reduction of $16 billion to stimulate economic growth, along with spending cuts to avoid inflation. Ford was criticized greatly for quickly switching from advocating a tax increase to a tax reduction. In Congress, the proposed amount of the tax reduction increased to $22.8 billion in tax cuts and lacked spending cuts. -
• Microsoft Founded
Microsoft Corporation was established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. -
• Saigon falls to communism
At 4:03 a.m., April 30th, 1975, two U.S. Marines were killed in a rocket attack at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airport. They were the last Americans to die in the Vietnam War. At dawn, the remaining marines of the force guarding the U.S. Embassy lifted off. Only hours later, South Vietnamese looters ransacked the embassy as Soviet-supplied tanks, operated by North Vietnamese, rolled south on National Highway 1. On the morning of April 30th, Communist forces captured the presidential palace in Saigon, -
• Arthur Ashe First Black Man to Win Wimbledon
In 1975, Ashe won Wimbledon, unexpectedly defeating Jimmy Connors in the final. He also won the season ending championship WCT Finals. Arthur played for several more years, but after being slowed by heart surgery in 1979, he retired in 1980.Ashe remains the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. -
• Jimmy Hoffa disappears
Hoffa disappeared at, or sometime after, 2:45 pm on July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit. According to what he had told others, he believed he was to meet there with two Mafia leaders—Anthony Giacolone from Detroit, and Anthony Provenzano from Union City, New Jersey and New York City. -
• Catalytic converters introduced on cars
A catalytic converter is a device used to reduce the array of emissions from an internal combustion engine. A catalytic converter works by using a catalyst to stimulate a chemical reaction in which the by-products of combustion are converted to produce less harmful and/or inert substances, such as the very poisonous carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide. In automobiles, this typically results in 90% conversion of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides into less harmful gases. -
• Francisco Franco dies
Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo de Franco (20 November 1975), commonly known as Franco, was a Spanish military general and head of state of Spain from October 1936 (whole nation from 1939 onwards), and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November 1975. As head of state, Franco used the title Caudillo de España, por la gracia de Dios, meaning Leader of Spain, by the grace of God. -
• Apple Computer launched
Established on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, California, and incorporated January 3, 1977, the company was previously named Apple Computer, Inc., for its first 30 years, but removed the word "Computer" on January 9, 2007, to reflect the company's ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers. -
• Betamax VCR’s released
Betamax (sometimes called Beta) is a home videocassette tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1976. The cassettes contain 1/2-inch (12.7mm)-wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional 3/4-inch (19.05mm) U-matic format. The format is generally considered obsolete, though it is still used in specialist applications by a small minority of people. -
• Karen Ann Quinlan
Quinlan became unconscious after arriving home from a party. The paramedics arrived and took her to the hospital, where she lapsed into a persistent vegetative state. After she was kept alive on a ventilator for several months without improvement, her parents requested the hospital to stop active care and allow her to die. The hospital refused, and the subsequent legal battles made newspaper headlines and set significant precedents. The tribunal eventually ruled in her parents' favor. -
• Entebbe Air Raid
France, Switzerland, and West Germany. They threatened that if these demands were not met, they would begin to kill hostages on 1 July 1976. The hijackers deliberately sorted the hostage into two groups Israeli nationals and others, or Jews and Gentiles. As they did so a Holocaust survivor showed Böse a camp registration number tattooed on his arm on this day in 1977. -
• Nadia Comaneci Given Seven Perfect Tens
At the age of 14, Comăneci became one of the stars of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. During the team portion of the competition, her routine on the uneven bars was scored at a 10.0. It was the first time in modern Olympic gymnastics history that the score had ever been awarded. The scoreboards were not even equipped to display scores of 10.0—so Nadia's perfect marks were reported on the boards as 1.00 instead. July 17 -
• Legionnaire’s disease strikes 182, kills 29
Legionellosis is a potentially fatal infectious disease caused by Gram negative, aerobic bacteria belonging to the genus Legionella. Legionellosis takes two distinct forms: Legionnaires' disease, also known as "Legion Fever", is the more severe infection and produces pneumonia. Pontiac fever is caused by the same bacteria but produces a milder respiratory illness without pneumonia that resembles acute influenza. -
• Mao Tse-tung dies
September 9 was chosen because it was an easy day to remember. Mao had been in poor health for several years and had declined visibly for at least 6 months prior to his death. His body was later placed into the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, even though he had wished to be cremated and had been one of the first high-ranking officials to sign the "Proposal that all Central Leaders be Cremated after Death" in November 1956. -
• Miniseries Roots Airs
Roots are a 1977 American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's work Roots: the Saga of an American Family. Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations, winning nine; it also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still standing as the third-highest rated U.S. television program ever. It was shot on a budget of $6 million. January 23, 1977. -
• Red Dye #2 is banned
In the 1970s, Soviet scientists claimed a link between the dye — used in everything from sausage casings and ice cream to makeup — and cancer, and U.S. tests proved some correlation as well. Though it was never linked to any deaths or illnesses, the substance was banned from U.S. shelves in 1976. Feb. 02, 1976. -
• First black Miss Universe
Janelle Commissiong (born 1953) was born in Trinidad and Tobago. Commissiong migrated to the United States at the age of 13, and returned to Trinidad and Tobago ten years later. After winning the Miss Trinidad and Tobago title, she went on to be crowned Miss Universe 1977 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic -
• President Carter pardons Vietnam Draft Dodgers
On this day in 1977, President Jimmy Carter, in his first day in office, fulfilled a campaign promise by granting unconditional pardons to hundreds of thousands of men who had evaded the draft during the Vietnam War by fleeing the country or by failing to register. Gerald Ford. Carter’s predecessor in the White House, offered conditional amnesty to some draft dodgers. -
• New York City blackout
The New York City Blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout that affected most of New York City from July 13, 1977 to July 14, 1977. The only neighborhoods in New York City that were not affected were the Southern Queens, and neighborhoods of the Rockaways, which are part of the Long Island Lighting Company System. -
• Alaskan Pipeline completed
The pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977 after the 1973 oil crisis caused a sharp rise in oil prices in the United States. This rise made exploration of the Prudhoe Bay oil field economically feasible. Environmental, legal, and political debates followed the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, and the pipeline was built only after the oil crisis provoked the passage of legislation designed to remove legal challenges to the project. -
• Elvis Found Dead
Elvis Aaron Presley (August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King". Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42. -
• First Test-Tube Baby Born
Louise Brown was born to Lesley and John Brown, who had been trying to conceive for nine years, but without success because of Lesley's blocked fallopian tubes. On 10 November 1977, Lesley Brown underwent the procedure developed by Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards, later to become known as IVF. Brown was born 25 July 1978 at 11:47 p.m. at Oldham General Hospital, Oldham, via planned Caesarean section delivered by registrar John Webster. -
• Love Canal in New York declared federal disaster
• Love Canal in New York declared federal disaster: Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, which became the subject of national and international attention, controversy, and eventual environmental notoriety following the discovery of 21,000 tons of toxic waste that had been buried beneath the neighborhood by Hooker Chemical. The dumpsite was declared an unprecedented state emergency on August 2, 1978. -
• Camp David accords for Middle East Peace
The Camp David Accords had their origin in Sadat’s unprecedented visit to Jerusalem on November 19-21, 1977. Sadat’s visit initiated peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt that went on sporadically through 1977 and into 1978. Reaching a deadlock, both Sadat and Begin accepted President Carter’s invitation to a US – Israeli – Egyptian summit meeting at the Presidential retreat, Camp David (in Maryland) on September 5, 1978. -
• Jonestown Massacre
Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple, a cult led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby airstrip and in Georgetown, Guyana's capital. -
• Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran
Were an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran? On Thursday, 1 February 1979, Khomeini returned in triumph to Iran, welcomed by a joyous crowd of up to five million people, estimated in at least six million. -
• Sony Introduces the Walkman
The original Walkman was marketed in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan, the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden and the Stowaway in the UK. Advertising, despite all the foreign languages, still attracted thousands of buyers in the US specifically. Morita hated the name "Walkman" and asked that it be changed, but relented after being told by junior. -
• Jerry Falwell begins Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was a political organization of the United States which had an agenda of evangelical Christian-oriented political lobbying. It was founded in 1979 and dissolved in the late 1980s. -
• ESPN starts broadcasting
the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major sporting events, along with commentary, previews and feature stories. The show has proven highly durable, having been aired more times than any other program in American television, with more than 30,000 unique episodes. -
• The Greensboro Massacre
The Greensboro massacre occurred on November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Five protest marchers were shot and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. The protest was the culmination of attempts by the Communist Workers Party to organize mostly black industrial workers in the area. -
• Iran Takes American Hostages in Tehran
Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. Fifty-two US citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamic students and militants took over the Embassy of the United States in support of the Iranian Revolution.