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Computer Floppy Disks Introduced
The floppy disk was introduced in the 1970's, and it revolutionized data storage in the PC. It ran strongly for some time, but faded in the 1990's. It is rare to see a working machine being used in this day and age with a floppy drive in it. -
18 Year Olds Given The Vote
“Old enough to fight, old enough to vote.” This was the slogan for when 18 year olds wanted to vote. The issue was that if they were old enough to risk their lives for our country and to be forced into war; shouldn’t they get a say in the decisions that our country makes? This movement was happening all over the country. Eventually, the government gave in and the 26th Amendment was born, allowing people 18 and over to vote. -
Beatles Break Up
The Beatles broke up in 1970. The reason for this is because their old business manager, Brian Epstein had passed away, leaving the band in search of a new manager. Three out of the four boys were all wanting to hire a man named Allen Klein. However, the 4th Beatle, Paul McCartney, was completely against this. He released a public statement saying he would never again perform with The Beatles, thus destroying the band. -
Apollo 13 Suffers A Setback
A ruptured air tank on their way to the moon almost sealed the fate of the three astronauts on board the spacecraft. -
First Earth Day
April 22nd, 1970 was the first Earth Day. This idea was floating around for 7 years before it was actually instigated. People were not happy with the fact that the condition of the environment was not an issue in politics. Citizens created this day to finally insert the environment into the politics of the day. Events were held all over the country as everyone participated in Earth Day. Dennis Hays was the main person to launch Earth Day. -
Kent State Shooting
There were many college students that went to Kent State protesting against the Vietnam War. The protest eventually got so bad that the National Guard had to be called in the calm the situation. Everything got out of hand and a shot was fired somehow. This sent the Nation Guard into a shooting frenzy. Four students were killed and nine others were injured. However, the four that were killed, were not even protesting in the first place. -
Aswan High Dam Completed
The Aswan High Dam was located in Egypt. Lake Nasser was created by this dam. The dam was built to create hydro-electric power. There were many people in Egypt and not enough resources to go around. Therefore, building this dam was a huge help to their general power and resources. The Aswan High Dam was constructed for 11 years. It was acrossed the Nile River in Egypt. It was completed July 21, 1970. It costed $1 Billion dollars to complete, but it successfully ended the flood, and drought. -
Palestinian Group Hijacks 5 Planes
On Sept. 6, 1970, terrorists belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) almost simultaneously hijack three jetliners shortly after they take off from European airports on routes toward the United States. When hijackers on one plane are foiled, hijackers seize a fourth jet, divert it to Cairo, and blow it up. The two other hijacked planes are ordered to a desert air strip in Jordan known as Dawson Field. -
US Soldiers Found Guilty Of Murder In My Lei Massacre
Brigade commander Henderson was the only officer who stood trial on charges relating to the cover-up; he was acquitted on December 17, 1971. In a four-month-long trial, despite claims that he was following orders from his commanding officer, Captain Medina, Calley was convicted, on March 29, 1971, of premeditated murder for ordering the shootings. He was initially sentenced to life in prison. Two days later, however, President Nixon made the controversial decision to have Calley released from pr -
EPA Is Created
The EPA was established as an independent agency of the U.S. government on December 2, 1970. The first EPA administrator, William D. Ruckelshaus, was sworn in on December 4, 1970. The date should be registered as one of the most important environmental milestones of the 20th century. Yet some have asked what the EPA has really done aside from making a bunch of rules and regulations that slowed so-called progress. Their record within the first decade of their formation speaks to their effectivene -
World Trade Center Is Completed
The World Trade Center (WTC) was a complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan in New York City that were destroyed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. completion, they were the tallest building in the world, surpassing the Empire State Building, which is also in Manhattan. The cost for the construction was $400 million. The original World Trade Center was designed by Minoru Yamasaki in the early 1960s using a tube-frame structural design for the twin 110-story towers. In gaining app -
Cigarette Ads Banned On TV
Americans began a new year free of cigarette advertisements broadcast on television today. "As of midnight Friday night, all TV and radio commercials for cigarettes are banned by federal law, since tobacco has been alleged hazardous to health and because of the apparent statistical relationship between smoking and high death rates from lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema," explained the Delta Democrat-Times on January 3, 1971. -
Microprocessor Is Introduced
In 1958 a young engineer at Texas Instruments named Jack St. Clair Kilby developed the integrated circuit. He put together a few transistors and capacitors, linking them with a thin layer of silicon, a semiconducting material. The silicon completed the circuit between the electronic components. All the building blocks of an electronic circuit -- transistors, diodes, capacitors, resistors, etc. -- could be placed on a small board and linked. This type of "chip" would revolutionize an industry. Te -
End Of Gold Standard For US Currency
- The Nixon Shock was a series of economic measures taken by U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1971 including unilaterally cancelling the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold that essentially ended the existing Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange. We switched to Fiat Money.
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Amtrak Created
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak (reporting mark AMTK), is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union Station in Washington, D.C. All of Amtrak's preferred stock is owned by the U.S. federal government. The members of its board of directors are appointed by the President of the Uni -
Pentagon Papers Released
Daniel Ellsberg found the Pentagon Papers and released them to the public. They contained information and plans to attack Cambodia, Laos, and other countries. They contained many war plans and basically stated the opposite of what the government was telling the people. This led to an extremely heavy distrust of the government. -
First Benefit Concert For Bangladesh Organized By Georg Harrison
The Concert For Bangladesh was the event title for two benefit concerts organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7:00 p.m. 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 worl -
Direct Dial Between New York And London
This was a big deal because if you ever wanted to make an overseas phone call, it was a pain. You would have to go through so many operators and it would take a very long time. Sometimes, they could not reach the person you were trying to reach and it was all a big waste of time. Direct Dial made it so you could directly call friends or relatives overseas without the hassle of operators. -
VCR's Introduced
- Released in September of 1971, the Sony U-matic system was released in Tokyo first. It was officially the world’s first commercial videocassette format. It used three- fourth inch tape, and had a maximum playing time of sixty minutes. These sixty minutes was soon extended to ninety minutes. However, it was extremely expensive. The model cost over one thousand dollars—today, that would be roughly seven thousand dollars if adjusted for inflation. Thus, the majority of Americans were unable to af
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Attica State Prison Riots
The Attica Prison Riots occurred at the Attica Correctional Facility 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, a black radical activist prisoner who had been shot to death by corrections officers in California's San Quentin Prison on August 21, about 1,000 of the prison' -
Disney World Opens
On Friday October 1, 1971 - after seven years of planning - about 10,000 visitors converged near Orlando, Florida, to witness the grand opening of Walt Disney World. The Magic Kingdom (the only theme park at the time on Disney property) featured Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Tomorrowland, a Main Street USA, and about 5,500 Cast Members. The price of admission was $4.95! -
London Bridge Brought To USA
London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States, that is based on the 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, that was bought by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London. McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original bridge numbered and transported to America, in order to construct the present bridg -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board Of Ed
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971) was an important United States Supreme Court case dealing with the busing of students to promote integration in public schools. After a first trial going to the Board of Education, the Court held that busing was an appropriate 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 assignmen -
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. China's seat in all UN organs had been previously held by the Republic of China (ROC) since the UN's founding (1945–1971), until replaced by the PRC. As the Republic of China is n -
D.B. Cooper
D. B. Cooper is the name popularly used to refer an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, USA on November 24, 1971, extorted USD $200,000 in ransom, and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and an exhaustive (and ongoing) FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. To date, the case remains the only unsolved airline hijacking in American aviation histor -
KKK Riots In NYC
3 people died. -
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. -
George Wallace Shot While Campaigning
Gov. George C. Wallace is shot in Maryland while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president. The assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer left the Governor paralyzed from the waist down and effectively ended his chances at the nomination. He campaigned again for president in 1976, marking his fourth consecutive run for that office. -
First Succesful Video Game (Pong) Launched
Pong (marketed as PONG) is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. Several publications consider Pong the game that launched the video game industry as a lucrative enterprise. -
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
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Supreme Court Rules Against Death Penalty
Furman v. Georgia. The court rules the death penalty does not violate the Constitution, but the manner of its application in many states does. The court notes capital punishment was likely to be imposed in a discriminatory way and that blacks were far more likely to be executed than whites. The decision essentially ends the practice of executions. -
Watergate Scandal Begins
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Effects of the scandal ultimately led to the resignation of the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, on August 9, 1974, the first and only resignation of any U.S. President. It also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of several Nixon administratio -
Mark Spitz Wins Seven Gold Medals
Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is a retired American swimmer. He won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, an achievement surpassed only by Michael Phelps who won eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics. -
Pocket Calculators Introduced
The first American-made pocket-sized calculator, the Bowmar 901B (popularly referred to as The Bowmar Brain), measuring 5.2×3.0×1.5 in (131×77×37 mm), came out in the fall of 1971, with four functions and an eight-digit red LED display, for $240, while in August 1972 the four-function Sinclair Executive became the first slimline pocket calculator measuring 5.4×2.2×0.35 in (138×56×9 mm) and weighing 2.5 oz (70g). It retailed for around $150 (GB£79). By the end of the decade, similar calculators w -
Terrorists Attack At The Olympic Games In Munich
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. Members of Black September contended that Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization secretly endorsed the operation. -
• M*A*S*H T.V. Show Premiers
M*A*S*H Premiered on CBS Friday Night Movie on September 13. -
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Introduced
President Richard Nixon signed the Social Security Amendments of 1972 on October 30, 1972 which created the SSI Program. The SSI program officially began operations in January 1974 by federalizing states' programs, designating the Social Security Administration (SSA) to administer the SSI program -
HBO Launched
Launched, November 8, 1972 -
Last Man On The Moon
On December 11, 1972, Cernan, the commander of Apollo 17, became the last man to step foot on the moon. In his own words, "I lowered my left foot and the thin crust gave way. Soft contact. There, it was done. A Cernan bootprint was on the moon." -
The Wars Act Passed
the First War Powers Act, was an American emergency law that increased Federal power during World War II. The act was signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and put into law on December 18th, 1941, less than two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The act was similar to the Departmental Reorganization Act of 1917 as it was signed shortly before the U.S. engaged in a large war and increased the powers of the president's U.S. Executive Branch. -
UPC Barcodes Come To US
The first company to produce bar code equipment for retail trade use (using UGPIC) was the American company Monarch Marking in 1970, and for industrial use, the British company Plessey Telecommunications was also first in 1970. UGPIC evolved into the U.P.C. symbol set or Universal Product Code, which is still used in the United States. George J. Laurer is considered the inventor of U.P.C. or Uniform Product Code, which was invented in 1973. It was made to define a numeric format for product iden -
Abortion Legalized In The US
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. -
OPEC Doubles Price OF Oil
Throughout the post war period exporting countries found increasing demand for their crude oil but a 40% decline in the purchasing power of a barrel of oil. In March 1971, the balance of power shifted. That month the Texas Railroad Commission set proration at 100 percent for the first time. This meant that Texas producers were no longer limited in the volume of oil that they could produce. More importantly, it meant that the power to control crude oil prices shifted from the United States (T -
US Pulls Out Of Vietnam
President Nixon had been elected on a promise to Vietnamize the war, meaning more fighting would be turned over to the South Vietnamese army, and to start bringing home American troops. When the President ordered US troops into Cambodia and ordered more bombings, the result was a tremendous uproar at home with more marches and demonstrations. Congress reacted to the antiwar feeling and repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave the President the authority to send troops and fight the war -
Sears Tower Built
The building of the Sears Tower began in 1969 and the building was completed in 1973. It is located in Chicago, Illinois. It was built as a sort of headquarters for Sears, or to “house” the many employees for the company. The Sears Tower is a mighty 110 stories, or 1,707 feet high. When it was built, it surpassed the height of even the twin towers, which were yet to be built. However, the tower did not last long. -
Paul Getty Kidnapped
In early 1971, he was expelled from St. George's English School (later St. George's British International School), in Rome, Italy. His father moved back to England, and at 3am on 10 July 1973, Getty was kidnapped in the Piazza Farnese in Rome.[1] 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 -
US 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,[12] part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme wherein he was accused of accepting $29,500 in bribes[13] during his tenure as governor of Maryland. Agnew was fined $10,000 and put on three years' probation.[14] The $10,000 fine only covered the taxes and interest d -
The War Powers Act
The War Powers Act is found as 50 USC S.1541-1548, passed in 1973 over the veto of President Nixon. It's supposed to be the mechanism by which the President may use US Armed Forces. It purports to spell out the situations under which he may deploy the Forces with and without a Congressional declaration of war. -
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (7 U.S.C. § 136, 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq. , ESA) 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 -
Patty Heart Kidnapped
On February 4, 1974, the 19-year-old Hearst was kidnapped from the Berkeley, California apartment she shared with her fiancé Steven Weed by a left-wing urban guerrilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army. When the attempt to swap Hearst for jailed SLA members failed, the SLA demanded that the captive's family distribute $70 worth of food to every needy Californian – an operation that would cost an estimated $400 million. -
National Speed Limit 55
The Nation Maximum Speed Law was created in response to gas prices rising way above normal. It was made into law because it was at this speed, 55 mph, that the government believed is the most efficient way to get somewhere fast but still not waste as much gas. Therefore, you would not fall victim to the ever rising gas prices. -
Girls Allowed To PLay In Little League Baseball
Girls were never allowed in little league. This made some people very mad. People would say that baseball and little league were just as American as the hotdog, or apple pie, and that people should not be denied any of these based on gender.
So, in 1974, Little League Softball for girls was created, and the baseball rules and regulations were made non-gender specific. In 1974, nearly 30,000 girls signed up for the softball program. One in 57 Little Leaguers that year was a girl. -
US President Nixon Resigns
President Nixon had people break into the Democratic headquarters to find out what their plans for so he could increase his chance of being re-elected as president. The people he hired got caught. The evidence against Nixon was undeniable. He would either have to resign as president or get arrested. He decided to resign as president. After he resigned, Gerald Ford, the vice president, was the new president. He ended up “pardoning” Nixon, or excusing him from all of his crimes. -
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. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country, and that the Nixon family's situation "is a tragedy in which we all have played a part. -
Freedom Of Information Act Passed Over Ford's Veto.
Presdient Gerald For Veto-ed a bill. However, it was still passed. -
Microsoft Founded
The first computer, the Altair was created a little before Microsoft was founded. Bill Gates and Paul Allen seized the opportunity to study this PC. They came to the conclusion that all it needed was software, a programming language to actually make it useful for something. The first computer language that they created was called BASIC. After finally creating an operating system they licensed it to MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems). -
Saigon Falls To Communism
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front on April 30, 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period leading to the formal reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. North Vietnamese forces under the command of the Senior General Văn Tiến Dũng began their final attack on Saigon, which was commanded by General Nguyen Van Toan on April 29, with a heavy ar -
Arthur Ashe First Black Man To Win Wimbledon
Arthur Ashe was a very serious tennis player. He was excellent at the game, and eventually landed himself a spot in Wimbledon, the Super Bowl of tennis. At this time, racism was still present in society. Many people did not support him. However he stunned them all, and ended up becoming the champion at Wimbledon. This was an important event because it somewhat proved to people all over the world, that African-Americans were just as competent as everyone else. It was quite an event. -
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. Provenzano was also a union leader with the Teamsters in New Jersey, and had earlier been quite close to Hoffa. Provenzano was a national -
President Ford Assasination Attempts (2)
September 5, 1975: On the northern grounds of the California State Capitol, Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, drew a Colt M1911 .45 caliber pistol on Ford when he reached to shake her hand in a crowd. There were four cartridges in the pistol's magazine but the firing chamber was empty. She was soon restrained by Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf. Fromme was sentenced to life in prison, but was released from custody on August 14, 2009, nearly 3 years after Ford's death. September 22 -
Catalytic Converters Introduced On Cars
First widely introduced on series-production automobiles in the United States market for the 1975 model year to comply with tightening U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations on auto exhaust, catalytic converters are still most commonly used in motor vehicle exhaust systems. Catalytic converters are also used on generator sets, forklifts, mining equipment, trucks, buses, trains, airplanes and other engine-equipped machines. -
Fransisco Franco Dies
Francisco Franco, 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 Go. From a military family, originally intent on entering the Spanish Navy, Franco instead became a soldier. He par -
Betamax VCR’s released
The first stand-alone Sony Betamax VCR in the United States, the SL-7200, came on the market in February 1976 priced at $1295. This unit sold much better than the previous TV/VCR combo LV-1901. The external clock to turn the unit on and off at preset times was an optional accessory. -
Apple Computer Launched
The first Apple computer was established on April 1st, 1976 in Cupertino, California. It was sold in July of the same year. The company was originally called Apple Computer Inc. However, the word computer was eventually dropped so the company was just called Apple Inc. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were the creators/inventors of Apple. -
Karen Ann Quinlann
Quinlan was removed from mechanical ventilation during 1976, she lived on in a persistent vegetative state for almost a decade until her death from pneumonia in 1985. He was paralyzed this whole time. -
Entebbe Air Raid
Operation Entebbe was a hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976.[1] A week earlier, on 27 June, an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists and supporters and flown to Entebbe, near Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Shortly after landing, all non-Jewish passengers were released. -
Legionnaire’s disease strikes 182, kills 29
Legionnaire's disease strikes 182, kills 29 The first appearance of the flu like disease struck at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. It was caused by an outbreak of Pneumonia. -
Nadia Comaneci Given Seven Perfect Tens
Nadia Comaneci is given perfect 10s at the Olympics of 1976. TheOlympic Legend.This is a first time occurence -
Mao Tse-tung dies
At five o'clock in the afternoon of September 2, 1976, Mao suffered a heart attack, far more severe than his previous two and affecting a much larger area of his heart. X rays indicated that his lung infection had worsened, and his urine output dropped to less than 300 cc a day. Mao was awake and alert throughout the crisis and asked several times whether he was in danger. His condition continued to fluctuate and his life hung in the balance -
West Point Admits Women
On October 8, 1975 , the President of the United States signed into law a bill directing that women would be admitted to America ’s service academies. -
President Carter Pardon Vietnam Draft Dodgers
On January 21st 1977, US President Jimmy Carter granted an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War. In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the late 1960s and early 70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety percent went to Canada, where after some initial controversy they were eventually welcomed as immigrants. -
MIniseries Roots Airs
Roots is 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. -
Star Wars Movie Released
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film,written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the six-film saga. It is the fourth film in terms of the series' internal chronology. Ground-breaking in its use of special effects, unconventional editing, and science fiction/fantasy storytelling, the ori -
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. Unlike other blackouts that affected the region, namely the Northeast Blackout of 1965 and the Northeast Blackout of 2003, the 1977 blackout was localized to New York City and the -
Elvis Found Dead
Elvis Presley died on 16 August 1977 at his home Graceland in Memphis. His body was found by girlfriend, Ginger Alden in the upstairs bathroom. Ginger summoned Joe Esposito & Al Strada and Dr Nick. All efforts to revive Elvis were futile. Elvis had probably been dead for many hours by the time his body was found. Elvis had not gone to bed at his customary time, between six and seven am. At about 2.30pm the Memphis Fire Department rescue unit arrive at Graceland who rush seven mile to the Bap -
Neutron Bomb Funding Began
President Jimmy Carter flashed a yellow light—proceed with caution—for the funding of a weapon that most U.S. military strategists consider necessary to avoid such a scenario. The neutron bomb,* they argue, would enable NATO commanders to foil an attack without virtually destroying West Germany in the process, as would be the case if existing tactical nukes were used. -
Red Dye #2 Is Banned
The United States Food and Drug Administration, the department tasked to ensure the safety the American food and drug supply, certifies over 11.5 million pounds of color additives a year. The use of coloring additives in food can be traced back to the Egyptians, but it has only recently become a real medical concern. Why the sudden problem? Progress and the 20th century boom in chemistry. Since the late 1950's, the food processing industries in North America have turned to using more exotic chem -
Camp David Accords For Middle East Peace
The peace between Egypt and Israel has lasted for thirty years, and Egypt has become an important strategic partner of Israel. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former defence minister known for his close ties to Egyptian officials has stated that "Egypt is not only our closest friend in the region, the co-operation between us goes beyond the strategic -
Atlantic City Permits Gambling
During a gala Memorial Day weekend in 1978, nearly 18 months after voters approved a statewide referendum to permit casino gambling in Atlantic City, Resorts International opens the nation’s first legal casino outside Nevada. Thousands of people flood the Boardwalk to gawk at what state and gambling officials have billed as a panacea for the city’s faded opulence. Visitors arrive in steadily increasing numbers for a decade. But as other parts of the country embrace gambling, A.C. fades. Three -
First Test-Tube Baby Born
On November 10, 1977, Lesley Brown underwent the very experimental in vitro ("in glass") fertilization procedure. This time, the doctors implanted the fertilized egg back into Brown in a shorter time period than they had previously tried. At 11:47 p.m. on July 25, 1978, Lesley Brown delivered a five-pound 12-ounce baby girl via Cesarean section. They baby girl was named Louise Joy Brown -
Love Canal In New York Declared Federal Disaster
These discoveries, along with the disclosure that their homes had been built near a toxic landfill, outraged residents. Residents complained of medical ailments, and although no conclusive evidence had yet been found to support a cause-and-effect relationship between the exposure and illness, it was clear that further investigation was warranted. On August 2, 1978, the New York State Commissioner of Health declared a State of Emergency in Love Canal and ordered the closing of the 99th Street Sch -
John Paul II Becomes Pope
The Papal conclave of October 1978 was triggered by the sudden death, after only thirty-three days in office, of Pope John Paul I on September 28. When the cardinals elected John Paul I on August 26, they expected he would reign for at least a decade. Instead they found themselves having to elect his successor within six weeks. The conclave to elect John Paul I's successor began on October 14, and ended two days later, on October 16, after eight ballots. The cardinals elected Cardinal Karol Wojt -
JonesTown Massacre
Almost three decades ago an unusual series of events led to the deaths of more than 900 people in the middle of a South American jungle. Though dubbed a "massacre," what transpired at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, was to some extent done willingly, making the mass suicide all the more disturbing. The Jonestown cult (officially named the "People's Temple") was founded in 1955 by Indianapolis preacher James Warren Jones. Jones, who had no formal theological training, based his liberal ministry o -
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 executives that a promotion campaign had already begun using the brand name and that it would be too expensive to chan -
Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran
On February 1, 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran in triumph after 15 years of exile. The shah and his family had fled the country two weeks before, and jubilant Iranian revolutionaries were eager to establish a fundamentalist Islamic government under Khomeini's leadership. -
Nuclear Accident At Three Mile Island
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial core meltdown in Unit 2 (a pressurized water reactor manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979. The power plant was owned and operated by General Public Utilities and Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed). It was the most significant accident in the history of the USA commercial nuclear power generating industry, resulting in the release of up to -
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
Founded by Bill Rasmussen,[1] his son Scott Rasmussen and Getty Oil executive Stuart Evey, it launched on September 7, 1979, under the direction of Chet Simmons, the network's President and CEO (and later the United States Football League's first commissioner). Getty Oil Company provided the funding to begin the new venture. Geoff Bray of New Britain, CT was chosen as the architect. -
Margaret Thatcher First Woman Prime Minister of Great Britain
- Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts; born 13 October 1925) is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who served from 1979 to 1990.Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford before qualifying as a barrister. In the 1959 general election she became MP for Finchley. Edward Heath appointed Thatcher Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 she was elected Leader of the Conse
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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
The 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.
