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Aswan High Dam
during 1960 and 1970, the Aswan High Dam was being constructed to increase economic production by modifying river flooding and to provide storage of water for the use of agriculture and to later generate hydroelectricity. It is located in Aswan, Egypt whose reservoir is Lake Nasser. Before the dam was created, the Nile River was flooding during the late summer and water flowed down into the valley from the East African drainage basin. The water did fertilize the soil and brought high nutrients -
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was intended to be the third mission to carry humans to the surface of the Moon, but an explosion of one of the oxygen tanks and resulting damage to other systems resulted in the mission being aborted before the planned lunar landing could take place. Apollo 13 was launched on a Saturn V on 11 April 1970 from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. During second stage boost the center engine of the S-II stage cut off 132 seconds early, causing the remaining four engines to burn 34 seconds lon -
The first Earth Day
Responding to widespread environmental degradation, Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, called for an environmental teach-in, or Earth Day, to be held on April 22, 1970. Over 20 million people participated that year, and Earth Day is now observed on April 22 each year by more than 500 million people and several national governments in 175 countries. Nelson had conceived the idea for Earth Day following a trip he took to Santa Barbara right after the horrific oil spill off the -
Black Power
Responding to widespread environmental degradation, Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, called for an environmental teach-in, or Earth Day, to be held on April 22, 1970. Over 20 million people participated that year, and Earth Day is now observed on April 22 each year by more than 500 million people and several national governments in 175 countries. Nelson had conceived the idea for Earth Day following a trip he took to Santa Barbara right after the horrific oil spill off the -
World Tarde Center
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US Soldiers found guilty of murder in My Lei Massacre
During the war, twenty-five US soldiers were charged with war-crimes but William Calley was the only one found guilty Calley received considerable sympathy from the American public when he stated: "When my troops were getting massacred and mauled by an enemy I couldn't see, I couldn't feel, I couldn't touch... nobody in the military system ever described them anything other than Communists." Even Seymour Hersh, the reporter who had first published details of the My Lai killings. -
Kent Sate Shootings
The Kent State shootings,also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacre, occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the American invasion cambodia -
Computer Floppy Disks Introduced
The first “floppy disk” was introduced in 1970 to technology. It came about when the IBM gave their storage development center a task to develop something that was inexpensive, reliable, and had good capacity to load microcode(Microcode is a layer of hardware-level instructions and/or data structures involved in the implementation of higher level machine code instructions in many computers and other processors) into their computer systems. The floppy disk was the IBM’s first computer system th -
18 year olds given right to vote
The Twenty-sixth Amendment (Amendment XXVI) to the United States Constitution limited the minimum voting age to no more than 18. It was adopted in response to student activism against the Vietnam War and to partially overrule the Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. Mitchell. It was adopted on July 1, 1970. -
EPA created
It was in this atmosphere that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970. EPA was not a carefully crafted well integrated organization in the beginning. President Nixon, by Executive Order "reorganized" the Executive Branch by transferring 15 units from existing organizations into a now independent agency, EPA. Four major Government agencies were involved.It was not an easy birth. Air, Solid Waste, Radiological Health, Water Hygiene, and Pesticide Tolerance functions. -
Beatles
The Universally well known “Beatles” publically announced their breakup on December 31, 1970, it created much shock and upset to all of the fans. Up till then, the Beatles have accomplished to set a record to be the best selling musical group of all time, most platinum selling artists, most number one selling albums and several other accomplishments that no other band, artist or musicians has able to defeat to this day. It was all caused by when first Brian Epstein passed away, who was the Engl -
Cigerette Ads Banned
In 1967, the Fairness Doctrine required that all TV stations broadcast 1 anti-smoking public service announcement (PSA) for every 3 cigarette ads that aired. These PSA's were very effective in the war against smoking. In 1969, Congress proposed a ban on all cigarette advertising on TV and radio. As expected, the tobacco companies were initially against it. However, they soon realized that a ban on TV commercials would free up funds for other types of advertising, and would also remove the anti- -
Direct Dial between New York and London
Gateway offices were set up in New York, London and Paris, connected to the ordinary automatic toll network. The New York gateway was at 32 Avenue of the Americas. The new LT1 5XB switch on the tenth floor of 435 West 50th Street received new 15 digit Originating Registers, Outgoing Senders, and appropriate modifications to Completing Markers and other equipment. Other 5XB in the next few years were installed with IDDD as original equipment, and in the 1970s ESS offices also provided the servic -
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. Now there are one Disney World, and one Disney Land. -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg 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 deliberateassignment -
South Vietnam and US invade Laos
On April 30 President Richard Nixon announced to a national television audience that US troops were invading Cambodia, the country west of Vietnam through which the North Vietnamese military was supplying their troops in the South. In fact, the US had been conducting bombing raids in Cambodia for over a year. The image of the President's hand resting over an abstract map of Cambodia circulated widely. It appeared not only in the New York Times but on the cover of Time. Millions also saw it on li -
Amtrak created
The Amtrak was created in May, 1 1971. The Amtrak was created to provide intercity passenger train. The headquarters of the Amtrak is Union Station in Washington, D.C. The Amtrak runs on 21,000 miles of track, connected to 500 destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces. It also served 28.7 million passengers daily. In April of 1971, the government created Amtrak to rescue America's long-distance passenger trains. Ridership had been decreasing since the late 1950s because of competi -
London Bridge brought to USA (Arizona)
The London Bridge which was built in 1820 was dismantled stone by stone and reassembled at Lake Havasu City in Arizona in 1973. The bridge was replaced because it could no longer cope with modern traffic conditions. 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 1 -
Pentagon Papers released
it showed the American people that they should blindly trust the government and not just take their word for it. Despite an attempt to conceal the evidence researched by the government, the 47 volume study was given to the New York Times and The Washington Post who printed excerpts from the study. It revealed the Eisenhower had been warned against involvment by his generals, Kennedy had approved the overthrow of the Sout Vietnam president, and Johnson's covert operations had sparked the Tonkin G -
First benefit concert organized for Bangladesh by George 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 world history. -
End of Gold Standard for US Currency
Due to the excess printed dollars, and the negative U.S. trade balance, other nations began demanding fulfillment of America’s “promise to pay” - that is, the redemption of their dollars for gold. Switzerland redeemed $50 million of paper for gold in July. France, in particular, repeatedly made aggressive demands, and acquired $191 million in gold, further depleting the gold reserves of the U.S. On August 5, 1971, Congress released a report recommending devaluation of the dollar. -
VCR's introduced
Sony claim the 1st ever video cassette recorder, was the VP 1100, (invented by Sony in 1971)
however, this was a playback machine (as was the VR-1000) and actually the first record / playback
machine was the Sony VO 1600. The Umatic system used the 3/4 inch tape UMATIC video system.
UMATIC was the very first video cassette system.
This site is mainly about milestone "firsts". -
Attica State Prison Riots
The Attica Prison riot 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 1,000of the prison -
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. -
Microprocessor introduced
A microprocessor is an integrated circuit which contains the entire central processing unit of a computer on a ship chip. Microprocessors are small and cheap enough that they've found their way into thousands of products, not just personal computers. While 32-bit processors are commonly found in desktop computers, the 4-bit is still the most widely used -- found in washing machines, televisions, microwave ovens, and so on. -
D.B Cooper
refers the an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, USA on November 24, 1971. The suspect purchased his airline ticket under the alias Dan Cooper, but due to a press miscommunication, he became known in popular lore as "D.B. Cooper." “I want $200,000 in unmarked 20-dollar bills.] I want two back parachutes and two front parachutes. When we land, I want a fuel truck ready to refuel. No funny stuff or I’ll do the job. -
First Successful video game (Pong) launched
PONG, was one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity. The aim is to defeat the opponent in a simulated table tennis game by earning a higher score. The game was originally manufactured by Atari Incorporated (Atari), who released it in 1972. -
Nixon visits Soviet Union
The rapprochement with China, undertaken in part to take advantage of the growing Sino-Soviet rift in the late 1960s, gave Nixon more leverage in his dealings with the Soviet Union. By 1971 the Soviets were more amenable to improved relations with the United States, and in May 1972 Nixon paid a state visit to Moscow to sign 10 formal agreements, the most important of which were the nuclear arms limitation treaties known as SALT I. -
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
A 1972 an assassination attempt left him paralyzed; he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He is known for his Southern populist, pro-segregation attitudes during the American desegregation period, convictions he renounced later in life. -
Pocket calculators introduced
The first electronic calculator was created in the 1960s, building on the history of tools such as the abacus, developed around 2000 BC; and the mechanical calculator, developed in the 17th century. It was developed in parallel with the analog computers of the day. Pocket-sized devices become available in the 1970s, especially after the invention of the microprocessor developed serendipitously by Intel for a Busicom calculator. -
KKK riots in NYC
Many gangs of armed young men were racially mortivated. Racial tensions in cities, like New York, were constant, and racist conflict was almost everywhere more violent and vehement than nativism. During the civil war, “draft riots” in NYC were thinly disguised anti-black Irish gang violence and about a thousand people were killed or injured and over a million dollars damages. While competition for jobs was a source of hostility between many ethnic groups, no other group was so brutalized. -
SSI introduced
In 1972, Congress increased Social Security benefits and provided an annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). As a result, those born from 1912 through 1916 received extra benefits. Congress corrected this error five years later, by gradually adjusting benefit levels (replacement rates) for those born after 1916. If no correction had been made, the system would have gone bankrupt and been unable to pay any benefits. -
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 (the 100 m freestyle [00:51:22], 200 m freestyle [01:52:78], 100 m butterfly [00:54:27], 200 m butterfly [02:00:70], 4 x 100 m freestyle relay [03:26:42], 4 x 200 m freestyle relay [07:35:78] and the 4 x 100 m medley relay [03:48:16]). -
Title IX digned in 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 -
Last man on the moon
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a crew of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the most recent manned Moon landing and the most recent manned flight beyond low Earth orbit. -
HBO launched
HBO, (short for Home Box Office), is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. As of December 2010, HBO's programming reaches 28.6 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium subscription channel in America (Encore's programming reaches 32.8 million subscribers as of April 2011). In addition to its U.S. subscriber base, HBO also had broadcasts in at least 151 countries worldwide. -
Sears Tower Built
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 Pulls out of Vietnam
The two sides met and arranged a cease fire. 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. But it allowed President Nixon to save face and bring -
Abortion is legalized
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. Roe estab -
UPC Barcodes come to US
The UPC encodes 12 decimal digits as SLLLLLLMRRRRRRE, where S (start) and E (end) are the bit pattern 101, M (middle) is the bit pattern 01010 (called guard bars), and each L (left) and R (right) are digits, each one represented by a seven-bit code. This is a total of 95 bits. The bit pattern for each numeral is designed to be as little like the others as possible, and to have no more than four consecutive 1s or 0s in order. Both are for reliability in scanning. -
U.S Vice President Resigns
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, in office from 1969 to 1974. He served as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961, the only person to be elected twice to both the Presidency and the Vice Presidency. A member of the Republican Party, he was the only President to resign the office. -
Endangered species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973The 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 untendered by adequate concern and conservation."The Act is administered by two federal agencies, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Nationa -
Paul Getty gets kidnapped
His father moved back to England, and at 3am 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. A second demand -
OPEC doubles price of oil
They increased the price of oil supplied under temporary contracts to $36 per barrel, a $4 increase from the $32 standard Saudi price. Yamani began hinting at Saudi willingness to eventually cut production in half, to 5 million barrels per day.(50) In mid-March, rumors began to spread that the kingdom would cut between 500,000 and 650,000 barrels per day. The Saudis denied this, saying that they sought to “unify prices within OPEC” and that “market conditions will not allow anyone to raise price -
The outbreak of Iran
His father moved back to England, and at 3am 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. -
The War Powers Act
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (50 U.S.C. 1541-1548) 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. The law was adopted in the form of a United States Congress joint resolution; this provides that the President can send U.S. armed forces into action abroad only by authorization of Congress or in case of "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories. -
Patty Hearst 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. In response, Hearst's father arranged the immediate donation of $6 -
Freedom of Information Act passed over Ford's veto
It passed the House on 14 March 1974 by a vote of 383-3. With one exception, the House legislation was focused on administration of the FOIA rather than substantive changes to the exemptions. It required public indices of agency information, timeframes for agency action on FOIA requests, appeals and litigation, recovery of reasonable attorney fees and costs, annual reporting on administration of the FOIA, and an expanded definition of an “agency.” -
Girls allowed to play in Little League Baseball
, 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.
The move came amid lively debates on women's rights. It was three years after President Nixon signed Title IX into law, giving women greater opportunities to receive scholarships and funding for college athletics. It also was three years after the Equal Right -
U.S President Nixon resigns
On September 8, 1974, one month after President Richard Nixon resigned the presidency amid the Watergate scandal, his successor, President Gerald R. Ford, announced his decision to grant Nixon a full pardon for any crimes he may have committed while in office.
The Watergate scandal stemmed from a break-in that occurred on the night of June 17, 1972, when five burglars entered the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
Subsequent investigations r -
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. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. -
National Speed Limit 55
In late November 1973, Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe recommended adoption of a 55 mph statewide limit. On December 4, the Texas Highway Commission, with a 3-0 vote, adopted this 55 mph speed limit, citing unsafe speed differentials between the flow of traffic and people driving too slowly to comply with President Nixon's and Governor Briscoe's requests for voluntary slowdowns. The legality of the measure was questioned, and two Texas legislators threatened to sue to block the limit. However, by D -
Microsoft was created
Microsoft was formed soon after the introduction of the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) Altair, the first "personal computer," a build-it-yourself kit for hobbyists. Bill Gates and Paul Allen seized the opportunity to transform this early PC into a breakthrough -- the Altair needed software, a programming language that could make it perform useful computing tasks. That's when it all began. Allen, employed by Honeywell, and his friend, Gates, a sophomore at Harvard, immediate -
Betamax VCR's released
Betamax (sometimes called Beta) is a home videocassette tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. 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. -
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. -
Computerized Supermarket checkouts begin to appear
In the 1975’s when you went to the grocery store or went somewhere to by food, clothing, or any type of item. It isn’t like the days today when you can just ring up the item and it be ready to pay for, back in the day they had to find the barcode on the bottom and type in every number on it into the register, it took a very long time to do, and if you had a lot of groceries it would take a really, really long time. But thank goodness, today we have registers where you can just scan it and there -
Arthur Ashe First Black man to win Wimbledon
American tennis player Arthur Ashe has become the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles' championship. Ashe took the first set in just 19 minutes and secured a second 6-1 rout almost as quickly -
Jimmy Hoffa Disappears
Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975, declared legally dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader and author.
Hoffa was involved with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, as an organizer from 1932 to 1975. He served as the union's General President from 1958 to 1971. He secured the first national agreement for teamsters' rates in 1964, and played a major role in the growth and development of the union, which eventually became the largest single union -
Catalytic convertors introduced on cars
A catalytic converter (colloquially, "cat" or "catcon") 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 in -
President Ford Assassination attepmts (2)
Ford faced two assassination attempts during his presidency, occurring within three weeks of each other: while in Sacramento, California, on September 5, 1975, Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, pointed a Colt .45-caliber handgun at Ford. As Fromme pulled the trigger, Larry Buendorf a Secret Service agent, grabbed the gun and managed to insert the webbing of his thumb under the hammer, preventing the gun from firing. It was later found that, although the semi-automatic pistol had four -
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. -
Francisco Franco dies
Francisco Franco, the son of a naval postmaster, was born in El Ferrol, Spain, on 4th December, 1892. Franco graduated from the Toledo Military Academy in 1910. Commissioned into the 8th Regiment he was posted to Morocco in 1913. Although physically small he proved to be a courageous officer and won rapid promotion.
Franco had reached the rank of major in 1917 and played a prominent role in strike-breaking in the Asturian coal fields and in 1920 Lieutenant Colonel Millán Astray appointed him se -
Apple Computer launched
Apple was established on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne,[1] to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. They were hand-built by Wozniak[17][18] and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club.[19] The Apple I was sold as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips)—less than what is today considered a complete personal computer.[20] The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 ($2,572 in 2011 dollars, adjusted for -
Karen Ann Quinlan
Karen Ann was an important person in the right to die controversy. She was 21 and after arriving home from a party, she was unconscious. She had consumed diazepam, and dextropopoxyphene, as well as alcohol. Karen was lapsed into vegetative state. She was kept alive on a ventilator for several months. In this time period there was no improvement, her parents requested that the hospital disconnect Karen from the ventilator and allow her to die. The hospital refused to stop active care. -
N and S Vietnam Join to Form the Socilaist Republic of Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" (1949–55) and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" (1955–75). Its capital was Saigon. The terms "South Vietnam" and "North Vietnam" became common usage in 1954 at the time of the Geneva Conference, which partitioned Vietnam into communist and non-communist zones at the 17th parallel. -
Legionnaire's disease strikes 182, kills 29
Legionnaire disease, form of pneumonia caused by the bacillus Legionella pneumophila. The name of the disease (and of the bacterium) derives from a 1976 state convention of the American Legion, a U.S. military veterans’ organization, at a Philadelphia hotel where 182 Legionnaires contracted the disease, 29 of them fatally. The largest known outbreak of Legionnaire disease, confirmed in more than 300 people, occurred in Murcia, Spain, in 2001. -
Entebbe Air Raids
On July 4th 1976, Operation Entebbe took place. It was a hostage-rescue mission carried out by the IDF (Israel Defense Force) at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda, Africa. A week earlier before this mass operation an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked by terrorists and was flown to Entebbe. -
Nadia Comaneci given seven perfect tens
Four of her seven perfect scores, including the first one, came on the uneven bars, which as you might imagine, was one of the three events Comaneci struck gold. But it was on the balance beam that she truly showed off her skill. The beam is considered one of the most difficult Olympic events, with gymnasts performing pirouettes and backflips on a beam measuring just four inches across. All Nadia did was record three more perfect scores and her second gold medal. -
Mao Tse Tung dies
. Mao Tse Tung died on September 9th 1976 at the age of 82. The cause of his death was from the disease of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, another reason for his death was due to his addiction to smoking. His death came upon the end of a long decline (5 years). During this time various factions vied to win the power struggle, his death catalyzed this event. -
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. The task of building the pipeline had to address a wid -
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. Carter, however, seeking to heal the war’s physic wounds, set no conditions, although some individuals were excluded. -
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 -
Red Dye #2 is banned
on March 9, 1977 -- the Food and Drug Administration announced its intention to ban what was then the only artificial sweetener, saccharin. The ban was prompted by a Canadian study suggesting that saccharin caused bladder cancer in rats. The FDA was following the dictates of the so-called "Delaney Clause," which prohibits the use of food additives that cause cancer in laboratory animals.There have been many food-chemical cancer scares over the years including the Great Cranberry Scare of 1959 -
Star Wars Movie released
Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year intervals. Sixteen years after the release of the trilogy's final film, the first in a new prequel trilogy of films was released, again at three-year intervals, with the final film released on May 19, 2005 -
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. In New York City, she studied fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology, but returned to Port of Spain in 1976. The following year, Commissiong had been selected to represent the Isla -
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 black out created arson and looting. -
Elvis Found Dead
At 2:33, a Memphis Fire Department ambulance from Engine House 29 responded to the call, resuscitation was attempted, and by 2:56, Elvis was taken to the emergency room of Baptist Memorial Hospital. He was officially pronounced dead there at 3:30pm. The announcement was made to the public at 4pm. After the announcement was made, 150 fans gathered outside the hospital waiting for whatever. Elvis Presley was 42 years old. Police on the scene said that there was no indication of foul play. His fa -
Atlantic City permits gambling
In an effort at revitalizing the city, New Jersey voters in 1976 approved casino gambling for Atlantic City; this came after a 1974 referendum on legalized gambling failed to pass. The Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel became Resorts International; it was the first legal casino in the eastern United States when it opened on May 26, 1978. -
Alantic City Permits Gambling
In an effort at revitalizing the city, New Jersey voters in 1976 approved casino gambling for Atlantic City; this came after a 1974 referendum on legalized gambling failed to pass. Immediately after the legislation passed, the owners of the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel began converting it into the Resorts International. It was the first legal casino in the eastern United States when it opened on May 26, 1978. Other casinos were soon constructed along the Boardwalk and, later, in the marina distri -
Love Canal
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. Love Canal officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue. Two bodies of water define the northern and southern boundaries of theneighborhood -
First Test-Tube Baby Born
Since 1966, Dr. Patrick Steptoe, a gynecologist at Oldham General Hospital, and Dr. Robert Edwards, a physiologist at Cambridge University, had been actively working on finding an alternative solution for conception for women with blocked Fallopian tubes. However, even after they found a way to fertilize an egg outside a human body, they continued to have problems replacing the fertilized egg back into a uterus. -
Camp David accords for the Middle East Peace
The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978, following thirteen days of secret negotiations at Camp David.[1] The two framework agreements were signed at the White House, and were witnessed by United States President Jimmy Carter. The second of these frameworks, A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel, led directly to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, and resulted in Sa -
John Paul II Becomes Pope
The Venerable Pope John Paul II[1] (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła /ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛf vɔiˈtɨwa/ (18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of The Holy See from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at &000000000000008400000084 years and &0000000000000319000000319 days of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted &000000000000002600000026 years and & -
Jonestown Massacre
On November 1978, California Congressman Leo Ryan arrived in Guyana to survey Jonestown and interview its inhabitants. After reportedly having his life threatened by a Temple member during the first day of his visit, Ryan decided to cut his trip short and return to the U.S. with some Jonestown residents who wished to leave. As they boarded their plane, a group of Jones's guards opened fire on them, killing Ryan and four others. -
Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran
Religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini has made a triumphant return to Iran after 14 years in exile. Up to five million people lined the streets of the nation's capital, Tehran, to witness the homecoming of the Shia Muslim imam.Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, 78, was imprisoned by the Shah in 1963 for his opposition to reforms and was expelled the following year, to Iraq via Turkey. He spent the last few months of his exile in France, near Paris, from where he co-ordinated the revolution in January. -
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 accident began at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of nuclear reactor. -
Jerry Falwell begins Moral Majority
In 1979, Falwell founded the Moral Majority, which became one of the largest political lobby groups for evangelical Christians in the United States during the 1980s. The Moral Majority was founded as being "pro-family", "pro-life", "pro-defense" and pro-Israel. The group is credited with delivering two thirds of the white, evangelical Christian vote to Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential election. -
Margaret Thatcher First Woman Prime Minister of Great Britain
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (born 13 October 1925) is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who served from 1979 to 1990.Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, she 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 Conservative party. -
Sony Introduces the Walkman
Walkman is a Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette, and now used to market Sony's portable audio and video players as well as a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones. The original Walkman introduced a change in music listening habits by allowing people to carry music with them and listen to music through lightweight headphones.The device was built in 1978 by audio-division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Akio Morita. -
ESPN starts broadcasting
The Eastern Sports Programming Network, usually referred to by its acronym ESPN, is an American cable television network focusing on sports-related programming. Founded by Bill Rasmussen 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. -
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. The marchers killed were: Sandi Smith, a nurse and civil rights activist; Dr. James Waller, president of a local textile workers union. -
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. Sixty-six Americans were taken captive when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, including three who were at the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
