Main Events Of The 1970's

 Shelly Koss


 








1970-The first Earth Day is held to raise awareness of environmental issues.
 



 






            Four students of Kent State College are shot dead by the National Guard. They were shot protesting along with about 100,000 other protesters against the Vietnam War.
            Monday Night Football and The Mary Tyler Moore show become television phenomena.
            In the music world people miss Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix from there drug overdoses. The sounds of the Carpenters and Simon & Garfunkel take over the radio.
 
 




 

1971- John, Paul, George and Ringo go their separate ways, each one a multi-millionaire.

           All In the Family debuts this year at 8:00 pm, now called "prime time".
           Intel produces the first microprocessor chip.
           The United Nations admits Communist China to their organization but expels Nationalist China.
           This year there was a total of 200,000 war protesters in Washington. There were as many as 12,000 protesters arrested for attempting to disrupt government offices.
            The United States lowers the voting age to 18 with the passage of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution.

1972- Richard Nixion is elected for president.
            Five men are caught breaking into and attempting to bug Democratic Party campaign headquarters in the elegant Watergate apartment complex in Washington, DC.
            Poet, novelist, painter, and graphic designer, Kenneth Patchen dies in Palo Alto, California.
            This year America meets the The Waltons family on television and the Corleone mafia dynasty in the film The Godfather.

For a site on The Movie The Godfather
click the picture

1973- Pet rocks and CB radios become popular fads.
            Some members of President Nixion's cabinet resign or some are fired. Among them is the Vice President and the Attorney General.
            Gas shortages occur as the OPEC cartel raises the price of oil 300 percent.
 
 


 




1974- Over 6.5 million soldiers return from Vietnam.
            Nixion resigns from president.
            Muhammad Ali wins back his heavyweight championship title from George Foreman.

1975-President Ford tells the country that the U.S. is suffering through a recession as the employment rises 50 percent.
            Oil shortage still persist.
            President Ford excapes assassins' bullets in California.
            Atari develops the first play-at-home video games.
            Mood rings and VCRs also are new this year.
            Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Dan Ackroyd star on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
            The movie Jaws is presented.
            Vietnam War ends.

 

1976- Jimmy Carter beats Gerald Ford in the Presidential election.
            The United States celebrates it's Bicentennial.
            Sylvester Stallone writes and stars in his first Rocky movie this year.

1977- The motion picture, Saturday Night Fever becomes the moment of the disco era.
 
 

For a good page on disco click disco ball!!


 








            The motion picture, Star Wars is produced.
 

            The king of rock-and-roll, Elvis Presley, dies this year.
            The United States and the U.S.S.R., sign the Nuclear-proliferation Pact, pledging to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
            Carter lifts travel bans to Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea and Cambodia.


1978- Sony invents the Walkman, a minature, cassette player/radio that you can carry in your pocket.
            Nine Hundred American cult members of the Peoples Temple die in Guyana from drinking poisoned Flavoraid.

1979- Iranian students capture 52 American hostages in the U.S. Embassy in Teheran.
             The nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island
threatens Pennsylvania, the "No Nukes" movement
begins. As many U.S. states ration gas, thousands protest
for safer, affordable fuel sources.
 
 





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