Raye's History House

Gen X.

The Baby Bust Generation.

Generation MTV.

Whatever you want to call the group born between 1965 and 1980, this generation grew up watching some of the biggest events of the 20th century. From the tail end of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War to Women’s Liberation and the Iranian Revolution, Gen X surely experienced a time of radical change more than their children or *sometimes* grandchildren.

So, get ready to travel from the swingin’ ’60s to the beginnings of 1980s Reaganism in this timeline that explores the events, music, TV, and movies that defined a generation.

*For each year, I’ve added the average US prices for commodities such as a gallon of gas and a home. For comparison, I’ve listed the prices in 2023 dollars below.

2023

Median Salary: $58,563

Minimum Wage: $7.25

Price of:

• A Home: $391,900
• A Dozen Eggs: $3.45
• A Gallon of Gas: $3.83
• A New Corvette: $64,500
• Yale Tuition: $64,700

Percent of Women in the Labor Force (US): 57%

• 1965

  Median Salary: $4,122 (2022: $39,211)

  Minimum Wage: $1.25 (2022: $11.89)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $20,000 (2022: $190,254)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.53 (2022: $5.04)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.31 (2022: $2.95)
  • A New Corvette: $4,106 (2022: $39,059)
  • Yale Tuition: $2,800 (2022: $26,636 )

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 39%

• 1965: Tokyo becomes the largest city in the world. The former largest was New York City.

  British engineer Denys Fisher sells the first Spirographs.

• January 20 1965: Lyndon B. Johnson is inaugurated US President.

• January 24 1965: Winston Churchill dies. His funeral is held in London on January 30 and is the largest gathering of dignitaries to date.

• February 21 1965: Malcolm X is shot during a speech in Harlem, NYC by members of the Nation of Islam.

• March 2 1965: The Sound of Music is released.

• March 7 1965: Alabama State Troopers attack 525 civil rights demonstrators with billy clubs and tear gas in Selma, Alabama. On March 9, Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists hold a prayer service on the site. The march is re-held on March 25 and the demonstrators make it to the state capitol in Montgomery.

• March 8 1965: The first US ground combat troops arrive in Vietnam.

• March 12 1965: Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs release “Wooly Bully.”

• March 27 1965: Hasbro releases Operation.

• June 5 1965: The Rolling Stones release “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

• July 14 1965: The US’ Mariner 4 becomes the first spacecraft to take up-close photos of Mars.

• July 19 1965: The Beatles release “Help!”

  

• July 30 1965: Lyndon Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.

• August 6 1965: Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibiting racial discrimination concerning voting.

• August 19 1965: The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials end with 66 ex-SS personnel receiving life sentences.

• August 30 1965: Bob Dylan releases his sixth album, Highway 61 Revisited, which includes “Like a Rolling Stone.”

• August 31 1965: In the US, burning draft cards becomes illegal, and offenders can receive up to 5 years in prison.

• September 17 1965: Hogan’s Heroes premieres on CBS. The final episode airs on March 28 1971.

• September 18 1965: I Dream of Jeannie premieres on NBC. The final episode airs on May 26 1970.

• October 1965: James Brown and the Famous Flames release “I Got You (I Feel Good).”

• October 6 1965: British serial killers, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, commit their final murder. Together the pair murdered five children beginning in July 1963.

• October 26 1965: Sylvia Likens dies in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA after months of torture, starvation, and sexual humiliation by the Baniszewski family and neighborhood children.

• October 29 1965: The Who release “My Generation.”

• December 8 1965: The Mamas & the Papas release “California Dreamin’.”

• December 16 1965: Nancy Sinatra releases “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”

• December 22 1965: Doctor Zhivago is released.

• 1966

  Median Salary: $4,273 (2022: $39,881)

  Minimum Wage: $1.25 (2022: $11.67)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $21,400 (2022: $199,731)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.60 (2022: $5.60)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.32 (2022: $2.99)
  • A New Corvette: $4,084 (2022: $38,117)
  • Yale Tuition: $3,000 (2022: $28,000)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 40%

  

• January 12 1966: Batman premieres on ABC. The final episode airs on March 14 1968.

• January 19 1966: Indira Gandhi becomes India’s first female prime minister.

  

• March 1 1966: The Soviet Union’s Venera 3 lands on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to reach another planet.

• March 4 1966: John Lennon states in an interview that the Beatles are “more popular than Jesus now.” When republished in the US in July, Beatles albums are burned, particularly across the “Bible Belt” states.

• March 16 1966: Vans shoe company is founded in Anaheim, California.

• April 3 1966: The Soviet Union’s Luna 10 becomes the first manmade object to enter lunar orbit.

• April 8 1966: The Addams Family airs its final episode.

• May 1966: Ike & Tina Turner release “River Deep – Mountain High.”

• May 12 1966: The Munsters airs its final episode.

• May 16 1966: The Cultural Revolution begins in China and continues until the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. 1.5 to 2 million people die.

  Martin Luther King Jr makes his first public speech about the Vietnam War following massive protests throughout the country over the last year.

• May 28 1966: The It’s a Small World boat ride opens at Disneyland.

• June 1 1966: The Dick Van Dyke Show airs its final episode.

• June 13 1966: The US Supreme Court rules that police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning. These rules are referred to as Miranda rights.

• June 20 1966: Bob Dylan releases his seventh album, Blonde on Blonde.

• August 1 1966: A sniper atop a tower at the University of Texas at Austin kills 14 people after murdering his wife and mother.

• August 5 1966: Caesars Palace opens in Las Vegas.

  The Beatles release their seventh album, Revolver.

• September 8 1966: Star Trek premieres on NBC. The final episode airs on June 3 1969.

• September 12 1966: The Monkees TV show premieres on NBC. The final episode airs on March 25 1968.

• September 29 1966: The first Chevrolet Camaros go on sale.

• October 1966: The Black Panther Party is founded in Oakland, California. The organization is dissolved in 1982.

• October 6 1966: LSD is made illegal in the US. All scientific research on the drug ceases in the country.

• October 10 1966: The Beach Boys release “Good Vibrations.”

• November 12 1966: The Monkees release “I’m a Believer.”

• November 15 1966: The Mothman legend begins after two teenagers reportedly see a moth creature in West Virginia.

• December 14 1966: Hasbro releases Twister.

• December 15 1966: Walt Disney dies from lung cancer in Burbank, California.

• December 26 1966: The first Kwanzaa is celebrated.

• 1967

  Median Salary: $4,527 (2022: $40,839)

  Minimum Wage: $1.25 (2022: $11.28)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $22,700 (2022: $204,781)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.49 (2022: $4.42)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.33 (2022: $2.98)
  • A New Corvette: $4,141 (2022: $37,357)
  • Yale Tuition: $3,300 (2022: $29,770)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 41%

• 1967: Gabriel García Márquez publishes One Hundred Years of Solitude in Colombia. It was translated into English in 1970.

  Hasbro releases Lite-Brite.

  Boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter is sentenced for murder, later prompting the 1975 Bob Dylan song “Hurricane.”

• January 1967: The Turtles release “Happy Together.”

• January 15 1967: The first Super Bowl ends in a victory for the Green Bay Packers.

• January 23 1967: Wilhelm Harster goes on trial in Munich for the murder of 82,000 Jews including Anne Frank.

• March 17 1967: The Grateful Dead release their debut album, The Grateful Dead.

  The Jimi Hendrix Experience release “Purple Haze.”

  

• April 17 1967: Gilligan’s Island airs its final episode.

• April 24 1967: The Doors release “Light My Fire.” The band creates controversy when Morrison sings the word “higher” on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 17, going against TV censors.

  S.E. Hinton publishes The Outsiders in the US. The film adaptation premieres on March 25 1983.

• April 28 1967: Muhammad Ali refuses military service and is stripped of his boxing title.

• May 1 1967: Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.

• May 12 1967: The Jimi Hendrix Experience releases their debut album, Are You Experienced.

• May 26 1967: The Beatles release their eighth album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album is often called the soundtrack to the Summer of Love.

• Summer 1967: Dubbed the “Long, Hot Summer of 1967”, 150 race riots break out across the US. Some of the most notable occur in Tampa, Buffalo, Newark, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

  The Summer of Love takes place across US cities, but is centered in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. The summer is marked by Hippie fashion, anti-war and anti-capitalist ideology, free love, and hallucinogenic drugs.

• June 1967: Jefferson Airplane release “White Rabbit.”

• June 5-10 1967: Israel captures land from Syria, Jordan, and Egypt, heightening tensions in the Middle East.

• June 12 1967: The US Supreme Court rules in Loving v. Virginia that states do not have the right to ban interracial marriage.

• June 16-18 1967: The Monterey Pop Festival is held in Monterey, California, introducing the American public to Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Janis Joplin.

• June 27 1967: The first ATM is installed in Barclays Bank in Enfield, England.

• July 7 1967: The Beatles release “All You Need Is Love.”

• August 4 1967: Bonnie and Clyde premieres at the Montreal International Film Festival.

• October 2 1967: Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American Supreme Court Justice.

• October 9 1967: Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is executed by shooting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

• October 18 1967: The Jungle Book, the final animated film supervised by Walt Disney, premieres.

• October 20 1967: The Patterson-Gimlin film, claiming to show Bigfoot, is recorded in Bluff Creek, California.

• October 21 1967: 70,000 people hold an anti-Vietnam War rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

• October 31 1967: Cool Hand Luke premieres.

• November 1967: Cream releases “Sunshine of Your Love.”

• December 2 1967: The UK begins its first full color TV service.

• December 3 1967: The world’s first heart transplant occurs in Cape Town, South Africa.

• December 17 1967: Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt goes missing during a swim in Victoria. He is never seen again.

• December 29 1967: The Hyundai Motor Company is founded in South Korea.

• 1968

  Median Salary: $4,786 (2022: $41,656)

  Minimum Wage: $1.40 (2022: $12.19)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $24,700 (2022: $214,982)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.53 (2022: $4.61)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.34 (2022: $2.96)
  • A New Corvette: $4,320 (2022: $37,600)
  • Yale Tuition: $3,300 (2022: $28,722)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 42%

• January 22 1968: Otis Redding releases “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.”

• January 31 1968: The Tet Offensive begins. It is one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War and continues until September 23.

  

• February 8 1968: Planet of the Apes premieres in New York City.

• March 1968: The Zombies release “Time of the Season.”

• March 16 1968: US troops kill 350-500 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians. Rape and body mutilation also occurs.

• April 1 1968: The Andy Griffith Show airs its final episode.

• April 2 1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey premieres in Washington DC.

• April 4 1968: Martin Luther King Jr is killed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Over 100 US cities experience riots, with the most notable in DC, Baltimore, Chicago, and Kansas City.

• April 5 1968: Simon & Garfunkel release “Mrs. Robinson.”

• May 1968: Steppenwolf releases “Born to Be Wild.”

• May 18 1968: Mattel releases Hot Wheels.

• June 5 1968: Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He dies at 1:44am the next day.

• June 12 1968: Rosemary’s Baby premieres.

• July 18 1968: Intel is founded.

• July 20 1968: The first International Special Olympics takes place in Chicago.

• August 26 1968: The Beatles release “Hey Jude.”

• September 24 1968: 60 Minutes premieres on CBS.

• October 1 1968: Night of the Living Dead premieres.

• October 11 1968: Barbarella premieres in New York City.

  

• October 16 1968: Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in the Black power salute at the Olympic Games in Mexico City.

  Jimi Hendrix releases his final album, Electric Ladyland, which includes “All Along the Watchtower.”

• October 30 1968: Marvin Gaye releases “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.”

• November 1968: Tommy James and the Shondells release “Crimson and Clover.”

• December 20 1968: The Zodiac Killer commits his first known murder in Benicia, California.

• December 24 1968: Apollo 8 crew members become the first people to see the dark side of the moon.

• 1969

  Median Salary: $5,168 (2022: 43,086)

  Minimum Wage: $1.60 (2022: $13.34)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $25,600 (2022: $213,427)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.62 (2022: $5.17)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.35 (2022: $2.92)
  • A New Corvette: $4,438 (2022: $37,000)
  • Yale Tuition: $3,600 (2022: $30,013)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 43%

• 1969: The first Big Wheels are manufactured in Girard, Pennsylvania.

  Parker Brothers introduces the Nerf toy brand.

  The Crips street gang is formed in Los Angeles by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams.

• January 12 1969: Led Zeppelin releases their debut album, Led Zeppelin.

• January 20 1969: Richard Nixon is inaugurated as US President.

  

• March 20 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono marry in Gibraltar. For their honeymoon, they have a Bed-in for Peace at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam. They have another bed-in from May 26 to June 1 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.

  

• March 28 1969: Former US President and General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower dies in Washington, DC.

• March 31 1969: Kurt Vonnegut publishes Slaughterhouse-Five in the US.

• May 15 1969: Robert Rayford, the first probable case of HIV in the US, dies at 16 years old.

• May 24 1969: The Archies release “Sugar, Sugar.”

• May 25 1969: Midnight Cowboy premieres.

• May 28 1969: Neil Diamond releases “Sweet Caroline.”

• June 3 1969: Eric Carle publishes The Very Hungry Caterpillar in the US.

• June 12 1969: True Grit premieres in Little Rock, Arkansas.

• June 27 1969: Canada legalizes gay sex.

• June 28 1969: The Stonewall Riots occur in New York City in response to police raids on the Stonewall Inn gay bar. This incident is typically considered the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.

• July 4 1969: The Rolling Stones release “Honky Tonk Women.”

• July 20 1969: Apollo 11 touches down on the Moon’s surface, and Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to set foot on the Moon.

  

• August 9 1969: Manson Family members murder Sharon Tate and four others in Los Angeles. Charles Manson is sentenced to death on April 19 1971; however, his sentence is later commuted to life.

• August 14 1969: Britain’s Operation Banner begins when British Armed Forces enter Northern Ireland to assert British rule. The operation continued until July 31 2007.

• August 15-18 1969: The Woodstock Festival occurs in Bethel, New York. Performers included Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix.

• September 1 1969: Muammar Gaddafi becomes the de facto leader of Libya. He remains the leader until his murder on October 20 2011.

• September 23 1969: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid premieres in New Haven, Connecticut.

• September 26 1969: The Beatles release their eleventh album, Abbey Road, which includes “Come Together.”

  The Brady Bunch premieres on ABC. The final episode airs on March 8 1974.

• October 1969: Creedence Clearwater Revival release “Fortunate Son.”

  B. J. Thomas releases “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”

• October 29 1969: ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet, is used for the first time.

• November 10 1969: Sesame Street premieres on NET.

• December 1 1969: The US holds the first draft lottery since WWII.

• 1970

  Median Salary: $5,662 (2022: $44,457)

  Minimum Wage: $1.60 (2022: $12.56)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $23,400 (2022: $183,731)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.61 (2022: $4.79)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.36 (2022: $2.83)
  • A New Corvette: $4,849 (2022: $38,073)
  • Yale Tuition: $3,900 (2022: $30,622)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 43%

  

• 1970: Toni Morrison publishes The Bluest Eye in the US.

  

  1970 is typically considered the beginning of the Information Age (the economic shift from industrial and factory work to information and services) in North America and West Europe.

• January 26 1970: Simon & Garfunkel release their final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.

• February 17 1970: US Army captain and medical doctor Jeffrey R. MacDonald murders his pregnant wife and two daughters at Fort Bragg. He would claim that the murders were committed by a group of hippies who chanted, “Acid is groovy, kill the pigs!”

• March 1970: The Guess Who releases “American Woman.”

• March 16 1970: The New English Bible translation is published.

• April 1 1970: US President Richard Nixon signs legislation declaring that cigarette ads will be banned from TV and radio starting January 2 1971.

• April 4 1970: Burnt human remains thought to belong to Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, and their children are crushed and scattered in the Biederitz River in East Germany.

• April 10 1970: Paul McCartney announces he has left The Beatles.

• April 13 1970: After an oxygen tank explosion, the Apollo 13 spacecraft crew abort their mission. They splashdown safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17.

• April 22 1970: The first Earth Day celebrations are held.

• May 4 1970: While protesting US involvement in Cambodia, four Kent State University students are shot and killed by the Ohio National Guardsmen.

• May 8 1970: The Beatles release their last album, Let It Be.

• June 27-28 1970: The first gay pride parades are held in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco to honor the anniversary of the Stonewall riot.

• August 18 1970: Angela Davis is added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. The FBI apprehends her on October 13.

  

• August 26 1970: The Women’s Strike for Equality takes place in New York City.

• August 28 1970: The Jackson 5 releases “I’ll Be There.”

• September 1970: Cat Stevens releases “Wild World.”

• September 20 1970: The USSR’s Luna 16 becomes the first robotic probe to land on the moon and return samples.

• November 9 1970: Former French President and leader of Free France during WWII Charles de Gaulle dies in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, France.

• November 20 1970: The Miss World 1970 pageant was disrupted by a bomb that was detonated by the far-left British terrorist group, The Angry Brigade and protesters involved with the Women’s Liberation Movement. Also, 1970 was the first year that a black contestant, Jennifer Hosten (Miss Grenada), won Miss World.

• December 2 1970: The US Environmental Protection Agency is founded.

• December 29 1970: US President Nixon signs the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

• 1971

  Median Salary: $5,966 (2022: $44,490)

  Minimum Wage: $1.60 (2022: $11.93)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $25,200 (2022: 187,922)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.53 (2022: $3.95)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.36 (2022: $2.68)
  • A New Corvette: $5,296 (2022: $39,493)
  • Yale Tuition: $4,400 (2022: $32,812)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 43%

  

• 1971: Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE gain independence from the UK.

  The first email is sent.

• January 12 1971: All in the Family premieres on CBS. The final episode airs on April 8 1979.

• January 25 1971: Idi Amin, one of the most brutal leaders of modern times, becomes president of Uganda.

• February 4 1971: The Nasdaq Stock Market is founded in New York City.

• February 7 1971: Switzerland grants women the right to vote.

• February 21 1971: The Convention on Psychotropic Substances, a UN treaty to control psychedelics, amphetamines, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines, is signed in Vienna.

• March 1971: Derek and the Dominos release “Layla.”

• March 23 1971: The Beverly Hillbillies airs its final episode.

• March 26 1971: East Pakistan declares independence beginning the Bangladesh Liberation War. At least 300,000 people lose their lives before the war ends on December 16. East Pakistan is renamed the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

• March 28 1971: The Ed Sullivan Show airs its final episode.

• March 30 1971: Starbucks is founded in Seattle, Washington.

• April 12 1971: John Denver releases “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

• April 16 1971: The Rolling Stones releases “Brown Sugar.”

• April 20 1971: In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the US Supreme Court rules that busing may be allowed to end racial segregation in schools.

  National Public Radio (NPR) airs its first broadcast.

• May 5 1971: FedEx is founded in Little Rock, Arkansas.

• June 13 1971: Excerpts from the Pentagon Papers appear on the front page of the New York Times. The papers reveal US political and military involvement in Vietnam between 1945 and 1967 and expose the lies the Johnson administration told to the public and Congress about the war. The Department of Justice tried to keep the information from being published, but the Supreme Court ruled that newspapers had the right to publish the information under the First Amendment.

• June 17 1971: Richard Nixon declares the War on Drugs that continues to this day.

• June 23 1971: Dr. Seuss publishes The Lorax in the US.

• June 30 1971: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory premieres.

• July 3 1971: Jim Morrison dies at 27 years old from heart failure in the bathtub of his Paris apartment. His death was due to a heroin overdose.

• July 5 1971: The US voter age is lowered from 21 to 18.

• July 31 1971: The Apollo 15 astronauts are the first to ride the Lunar Roving Vehicle, more commonly called the “Moon Buggy.”

  

• August 9 1971: Elton John releases “Tiny Dancer.”

  

• October 1971: Don McLean releases “American Pie.”

  John Lennon releases “Imagine.”

• October 1 1971: Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida.

• October 23 1971: The Who releases “Baba O’Riley.”

• November 1971: The world’s first domestic violence shelter is founded in London.

• November 8 1971: Led Zeppelin releases their fourth album, Led Zeppelin IV, which includes “Stairway to Heaven.”

• November 11 1971: Hunter S. Thompson publishes Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the US. The film adaptation was released on May 22 1998.

• November 15 1971: Intel releases the first microprocessor.

• November 24 1971: A man calling himself D. B. Cooper parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines flight over Washington State with $200,000 (2023: $1.46 million).

• December 2 1971: The USSR’s Mars 3 becomes the first probe to reach the surface of Mars.

• December 19 1971: A Clockwork Orange premieres in New York City.

• December 22 1971: Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is founded by a group of French doctors.

• December 23 1971: Dirty Harry premieres.

• 1972

  Median Salary: $6,243 (2022: $45,083)

  Minimum Wage: $1.60 (2022: $11.55)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $27,000 (2022: $194,976)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.52 (2022: $3.76)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.36 (2022: $2.60)
  • A New Corvette: $5,246 (2022: $37,883)
  • Yale Tuition: $4,750 (2022: $34,301)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 44%

• January 4 1972: Hewlett-Packard introduces the first pocket-sized scientific calculator. It was priced at $395 (2023: $2,875).

• January 24 1972: Imperial Japanese Army Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi is found living in the jungle in Guam. He had lived there for 28 years after failing to surrender during WWII.

• January 26 1972: Yugoslavian airline stewardess Vesna Vulović survives a 33,000 foot fall after being sucked out of a crashing plane over Czechoslovakia. In 1985, she was awarded the Guinness world record for surviving the farthest free fall without a parachute.

• January 30 1972: British soldiers shoot 26 unarmed protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland. 14 of the civilians loose their lives in the massacre. The incident is remembered as Bloody Sunday.

• February 17 1972: The Volkswagen Beetle becomes the best-selling car in history, surpassing the Ford Model T.

  

• February 21-28 1972: Richard Nixon visits China, ending 25 years of no communication between the two countries.

• March 14 1972: The Godfather premieres in New York City.

• March 22 1972: The US Supreme Court rules that laws preventing unmarried people from buying birth control pills are illegal.

• March 25 1972: Bewitched airs its final episode.

• April 17 1972: Elton John releases “Rocket Man.”

• June 8 1972: AP photographer Nick Ut photographs a naked South Vietnamese girl running down the road after being burnt with American napalm. The photograph won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1973.

• June 16 1972: David Bowie releases his fifth album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

• June 17 1972: Five White House officials are arrested for burgling Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Office Building in Washington DC.

• July 25 1972: The Washington Star breaks the story of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, where 399 impoverished African Americans were not told of their syphilis diagnosis so that the disease could be studied. Soon afterwards, the study was ended after a CDC and PHS panel declared the study unethical.

• September 4 1972: The Price Is Right premieres on CBS.

• September 5-6 1972: Arab terrorist group Black September invade the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany and murder eleven Israeli athletes.

• September 17 1972: M*A*S*H premieres on CBS. The final episode airs on February 28 1983.

• October 1 1972: Alex Comfort publishes the best-selling sex manual The Joy of Sex: A Gourmet Guide to Love Making in the UK. The guide introduces the ideas of BDSM and swinging to the general public.

• October 13 1972: Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes mountain range on the Chile/Argentina border. The sixteen survivors are found on December 20 and admit to cannibalism to stay alive in the rugged terrain.

• October 24 1972: Stevie Wonder releases “Superstition.”

• November 8 1972: Carly Simon releases “You’re So Vain.”

• November 29 1972: Atari releases Pong in North America.

• December 7 1972: Apollo 17, the final manned Moon mission, is launched.

• 1973

  Median Salary: $6,795 (2022: $47,341)

  Minimum Wage: $1.60 (2022: $11.15)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $32,500 (2022: $226,430)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.78 (2022: $5.43)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.39 (2022: $2.72)
  • A New Corvette: $5,399 (2022: $37,615)
  • Yale Tuition: $5,000 (2022: $34,835)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 45%

• 1973: Kenner Products introduces Baby Alive.

• January 27 1973: US involvement in the Vietnam War ends with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.

• March 1 1973: Pink Floyd release their eighth album, The Dark Side of the Moon.

• April 3 1973: The first cell phone call is made in New York City.

• April 4 1973: The World Trade Center opens in New York City, including the Twin Towers.

• April 5 1973: NASA’s Pioneer 11 becomes the first space probe to encounter Saturn.

• May 1973: Deep Purple releases “Smoke on the Water.”

• May 3 1973: The Sears Tower is topped off in Chicago at 1,451 feet, making it the tallest building in the world. It remains the tallest building until the Petronas Towers open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1999 at 1,483 feet.

• June 15 1973: Marvin Gaye releases “Let’s Get it On.”

• August 15 1973: The US ceases its bombing of Cambodia.

• October 10 1973: US Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns after he is accused of federal income tax evasion. Gerald Ford replaces him.

• October 17 1973: The 1973 energy crisis begins when the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaim an oil embargo against the US, Europe, and Japan. Gas prices skyrocket. The embargo ends on March 18 1974.

  

• December 26 1973: The Exorcist premieres.

• December 28 1973: The Endangered Species Act passes in the US.

• 1974

  Median Salary: $7,266 (2022: $46,277)

  Minimum Wage: $1.60 (2022: $10.19)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $35,900 (2022: $228,648)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.78 (2022: $4.97)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.59 (2022: $3.76)
  • A New Corvette: $5,766 (2022: $36,724)
  • Yale Tuition: $5,350 (2022: $34,074)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 46%

• 1974: The Rubik’s Cube is invented by Hungarian Professor Ernó Rubik. It is first released in Budapest in 1977 and worldwide in 1980.

  Guinea-Bissau gains independence from Portugal.

• February 4 1974: Patty Hearst is kidnapped from her Berkeley, California apartment by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

• April 8 1974: Hank Aaron beats Babe Ruth’s home run record and receives thousands of hate mail letters, which include racist remarks and death threats.

• July 23 1974: Democracy returns to Greece when the military dictatorship is replaced.

• August 9 1974: US President Richard Nixon resigns amid controversy after his involvement in the Watergate Scandal is made public. Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in the next day.

• September 11 1974: Little House on the Prairie premieres on NBC. The final episode airs on March 21 1983.

• October 11 1974: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre premieres.

• November 1974: Lynyrd Skynyrd releases “Free Bird.”

• November 24 1974: Lucy the Australopithecus is discovered in Ethiopia, proving that humans were walking upright by 3.2 million years ago. Lucy was some of the earliest definite evidence that humans evolved in Africa.

• December 12 1974: The Godfather, Part II premieres in New York City.

• 1975

  Median Salary: $7,653 (2022: $43,597)

  Minimum Wage: $2.00 (2022: $11.39)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $39,300 (2022: $223,880)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.77 (2022: $4.39)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.57 (2022: $3.25)
  • A New Corvette: $6,537 (2022: $37,239)
  • Yale Tuition: $5,920 (2022: $33,724)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 46%

  

• 1975: Pet Rocks are manufactured for the first time.

  Some Jehovah’s Witnesses members believe the world will end in 1975 and sell their homes and businesses.

  The first monster truck, Bigfoot, is created by Bob Chandler.

  Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé & Príncipe, Angola, and East Timor gain independence from Portugal. The Comoros gains independence from France. Papua New Guinea gains independence from Australia. Suriname gains independence from Netherlands.

  The Church Committee releases information about MKUltra to the public for the first time.

• March 1 1975: Australian TV switches to full-time color.

• March 8 1975: The United Nations celebrates International Women’s Day for the first time. However, women’s day celebrations have been observed in early March since 1911.

• March 9 1975: Construction on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins amidst great opposition from Native Americans and conservationists.

• April 3 1975: Monty Python and the Holy Grail premieres.

• April 4 1975: Microsoft Corporation is founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

• April 17 1975: The Cambodian Genocide begins as soon as the Cambodian Civil War ends. 1.5 to 2 million people die during the genocide which ends on January 7 1979.

• April 30 1975: The Vietnam War ends with the fall of Saigon.

  

• May 6: South Africa announces it will provide all black children with free education.

• June 20 1975: Jaws premieres.

• July 5 1975: American athlete Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win Wimbledon.

• August 14 1975: The Rocky Horror Picture Show premieres in the UK.

• September 5 1975: Former Manson Family member Lynette Fromme tries to kill US President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California, but is stopped by a Secret Service agent.

• October 11 1975: Saturday Night Live premieres on NBC.

• October 16 1975: The last known smallpox case, three-year-old Rahima Banu Begum, is reported in Bangladesh. On May 8, 1980, the WHO certifies the worldwide eradication of smallpox.

• October 31 1975: Queen releases “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

• November 7 1975: Wonder Woman premieres on ABC. The final episode airs on September 11 1979.

  

• November 19 1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest premieres.

• November 29 1975: US President Gerald Ford signs the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, guaranteeing all public schools accepted children with physical and mental disabilities. Before the law, most parents of special needs kids had to home school them or pay for private education.

• 1976

  Median Salary: $8,345 (2022: $44,546)

  Minimum Wage: $2.10 (2022: $11.21)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $44,200 (2022: $235,943)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.85 (2022: $4.54)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.59 (2022: $3.15)
  • A New Corvette: $7,605 (2022: $40,596)
  • Yale Tuition: $6,425 (2022: $34,297)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 47%

• 1976: Kenner Products introduces Stretch Armstrong dolls.

  Cannabis begins to be sold in coffee shops in the Netherlands. Although possession of cannabis can still result in a fine in the Netherlands, its use and sale have largely been tolerated since 1972.

• January 27 1976: Laverne & Shirley premieres on ABC. The final episode airs on May 10 1983.

• February 1976: The Ramones release “Blitzkrieg Bop.”

• February 9 1976: Taxi Driver premieres.

• April 1976: Wild Cherry releases “Play That Funky Music.”

• April 1 1976: Apple, Inc. is founded in Los Altos, California. They launch the first Apple computer, Apple I, on April 11.

• April 13 1976: The US Treasury re-releases the $2 bill.

• May 5 1976: Anne Rice publishes Interview With the Vampire in the US. The film adaptation was released on November 11 1994.

• June 21 1976: Elton John and Kiki Dee release “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.”

• July 2 1976: North and South Vietnam unite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

• July 4 1976: Celebrations take place across the US for the nation’s bicentennial.

• July 6 1976: The first women are inducted into the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

• July 12 1976: Family Feud airs on ABC.

• July 15 1976: 26 school children and their bus driver are deliberateley buried in a box truck in Livermore, California. After 16 hours, they dig themselves free.

• July 29 1976: David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) kills his first victim in New York City.

• August 1 1976: The Seattle Seahawks play their first game.

• August 15 1976: ABBA releases “Dancing Queen.”

  

• August 26 1976: The first Ebola outbreak occurs in Yambuku, DR Congo.

• September 3 1976: NASA’s Viking 2 spacecraft takes the first up-close color photos of Mars.

• September 5 1976: The Muppet Show premieres on ITV. The final episode airs on May 23 1981.

• September 9 1976: Chinese leader Mao Zedong dies of a heart attack, leading to the end of the Cultural Revolution.

• September 20-21: Punk music and fashion are introduced to the mainstream during London’s 100 Club Punk Special festival.

  

• September 22 1976: Charlie’s Angels premieres on ABC. The final episode airs on June 24 1981.

• November 3 1976: Carrie premieres.

• November 21 1976: Rocky premieres in New York City.

• December 1976: Fleetwood Mac releases “Go Your Own Way.”

• 1977

  Median Salary: $8,892 (2022: $45,113)

  Minimum Wage: $2.30 (2022: $11.67)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $48,800 (2022: $247,585)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.82 (2022: $4.16)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.62 (2022: $3.15)
  • A New Corvette: $8,648 (2022: $43,875)
  • Yale Tuition: $6,950 (2022: $35,261)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 48%

• January 20 1977: Jimmy Carter becomes the first US president from the Deep South to be elected since the Civil War.

  

• January 28 1977: Stephen King publishes The Shining in the US. The film adaptation was released on May 23 1980.

• February 22 1977: The Eagles release “Hotel California.”

• March 10 1977: American scientists discover the rings of Uranus.

• March 15 1977: Three’s Company premieres on ABC. The final episode airs on September 18 1984.

• March 19 1977: Eraserhead premieres.

• April 26 1977: Studio 54 opens in New York City and becomes one of the most famous nightclub of all time.

• May 25 1977: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope premieres.

  

• June 1977: Apple, Inc. releases the Apple II, the first successful mass-produced home computer. It sold for $1,298 (2023: $6,397).

• June 15 1977: Spain holds its first democratic elections in 41 years.

• August 16 1977: Elvis Presley dies of cardiac arrest at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee.

• September 1977: The Atari 2600 hits the North American market. The original price was $189.95 (2023: $926). The console was discontinued in January 1992.

  

• September 10 1977: Hamida Djandoubi is the final person executed in France by guillotine, and the last person to be executed in Western Europe.

• October 20 1977: Three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd die when their plane crashes near Gillsburg, Mississippi.

• October 28 1977: The Sex Pistols release their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.

• November 8 1977: Harvey Milk is elected City Supervisor in San Francisco, making him the first openly gay elected official of a large city in the US.

• November 16 1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind premieres.

• December 1977: The Bee Gees release “Stayin’ Alive.”

  Talking Heads release “Psycho Killer.”

• December 16 1977: Saturday Night Fever premieres.

• December 25 1977: Charlie Chaplin dies in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. His body is dug up on March 1 1978 and held for ransom.

• 1978

  Median Salary: $9,590 (2022: $45,540)

  Minimum Wage: $2.30 (2022: $10.92)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $55,700 (2022: $264,505)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.79 (2022: $3.75)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.63 (2022: $2.99)
  • A New Corvette: $9,351 (2022: $44,406)
  • Yale Tuition: $7,500 (2022: $35,616)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 50%

  

• February 1 1978: Roman Polanski flees the US to France to avoid statutory rape charges.

• February 27 1978: The US launches the first GPS satellite.

• March 8 1978: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series premieres on BBC Radio 4. The series ends on April 12 2018.

• April 1978: Andy Gibb releases “Shadow Dancing.”

• April 1 1978: Space Invaders is released in Japan.

• April 2 1978: Dallas premieres on CBS, becoming the first prime time soap opera. The final episode airs on May 3 1991.

• May 25 1978: The first Unabomber attack occurs when a bomb explodes in Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois), injuring a security guard.

• May 26 1978: Resorts International opens in Atlantic City, New Jersey, becoming the first legal casino in the eastern US.

• June 1978: Texas Instruments introduces the Speak & Spell.

• June 16 1978: Grease premieres.

• June 19 1978: Jim Davis publishes the first Garfield comic.

• June 25 1978: The LGBT rainbow flag flies for the first time at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

• July 25 1978: Louise Brown becomes the first baby born through in vitro fertilization at Oldham General Hospital in Lancashire, England. Her birth creates conversations around the ethics of IVF, and some believe the practice is akin to playing God.

• September 17 1978: Battlestar Galactica premieres on ABC. The final episode airs on April 29 1979.

  The Camp David Accords are signed in Washington DC. Israeli PM Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat win the Nobel Peace Prize on October 27 for working toward peace in the Middle East.

  

• September 7 1978: Bulgarian defector Georgi Marvok is injected with a poison pellet via umbrella in London.

• September 21 1978: Chic releases “Le Freak.”

• October 17 1978: The Village People release “Y.M.C.A.”

• October 23 1978: Gloria Gaynor releases “I Will Survive.”

• October 11 1978: Nancy Spungen is found dead by hotel staff in a Chelsea Hotel room. Her boyfriend, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, is accused of killing her. Sid Vicious died of a drug overdose not long after on February 2 1979 at age 21.

• October 25 1978: Halloween premieres.

• November 18 1978: More than 900 members of the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, AKA Jonestown, die in Guyana. Some commit suicide while others are murdered.

  

• December 10 1978: Superman premieres in Washington DC.

• December 22 1978: John Wayne Gacy is arrested. Gacy was executed on May 10, 1994, for the murder of 33 men and boys.

  

• 1979

  Median Salary: $10,507 (2022: $45,658)

  Minimum Wage: $2.65 (2022: $11.52)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $62,900 (2022: $273, 331)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.86 (2022: $3.74)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $0.86 (2022: $3.74)
  • A New Corvette: $10,515 (2022: $45,693)
  • Yale Tuition: $8,140 (2022: $35,371)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 51%

  

• 1979: Mother Teresa receives the Nobel Peace Prize.

  China begins its One-Child Policy.

  The remains of Tsar Nicholas II and some of the other Romanovs are found in Sverdlovsk, USSR, 61 years after their deaths in 1918.

• January 1979: Blondie releases “Heart of Glass.”

• January 1 1979: The US and China establish full diplomatic relations.

• February 11 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini becomes leader of Iran during the Iranian Revolution. The revolution shocked the world as Iran went from “The America of the Middle East” to a theocratic dictatorship.

• February 18 1979: The Daytona 500 is televised in full for the first time.

• March 4 1979: NASA’s Voyager 1 discovers Jupiter’s rings.

• March 28 1979: The Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, has a partial meltdown, leading to international fears concerning nuclear energy.

• April 1 1979: Nickelodeon becomes the first cable channel for kids.

• May 4 1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the UK.

  

• May 25 1979: Alien premieres.

• June 1979: The Knack releases “My Sharona.”

• June 15 1979: McDonald’s introduces the Happy Meal to the US after testing it at franchises in Missouri.

• July 1 1979: Sweden becomes the first country to outlaw corporal punishment in the home.

  Sony releases the Walkman in Japan.

• July 16 1979: Saddam Hussein becomes President of Iraq. He remains president until April 9 2003.

• July 24 1979: Ted Bundy is sentenced to death in Florida. Between 1974 and 1978, he is believed to have murdered 20-30 women and girls. He is executed at Florida State Prison by electric chair on January 24 1989.

• July 27 1979: The Amityville Horror premieres.

• August 17 1979: Monty Python’s Life of Brian is released in the US.

• September 7 1979: ESPN is launched in the US.

• September 16 1979: The Sugarhill Gang releases “Rapper’s Delight,” the first rap song to make the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.

• October 5 1979: Queen releases “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

• October 14 1979: The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights draws a crowd of about 100,000 people.

• November 4 1979: Iranian college students take over the US Embassy in Iran, holding 90 hostages. All of the hostages aren’t released until Jan. 20, 1981.

• November 30 1979: Pink Floyd releases their eleventh album, The Wall, which includes “Comfortably Numb” and “Another Brick in the Wall.”

• December 3 1979: 11 people are killed in a crowd crush at a The Who concert in Cincinnati, Ohio.

• December 6 1979: Star Trek: The Motion Picture premieres at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

• December 24 1979: The Afghan-Soviet War begins. 560,000-2,000,000 people are killed before the war ends on February 15, 1989.

• 1980

  Median Salary: $11,656 (2022: $44,466)

  Minimum Wage: $2.90 (2022: $11.06)

  Price of:

  • A Home: $64,600 (2022: $246,441)
  • A Dozen Eggs: $0.84 (2022: $3.20)
  • A Gallon of Gas: $1.19 (2022: $4.54)
  • A New Corvette: $13,965 (2022: $53,275)
  • Yale Tuition: $9,110 (2022: $34,753)

  Percent of Women in the Labor Force: 51%

  

• January 29 1980: Blondie releases “Call Me.”

• February 22 1980: The US hockey teams beats the Soviet Union during the 1980 Winter Olympics. This moment is remembered as the “Miracle on Ice.”

• April 14 1980: Iron Maiden releases their debut album, Iron Maiden.

• April 18 1980: Zimbabwe gains independence ending the Rhodesian Bush War.

• May 1 1980: The word “yuppie” appears for the first time in a Chicago article titled “About That Urban Renaissance…”

• May 6 1980: Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back premieres in London.

• May 18 1980: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing $3 billion in damages.

• June 27 1980: Airplane! premieres in Toronto.

• May 22 1980: Namco’s Pac-Man is released in Japan.

• June 1 1980: CNN is launched, becoming the first 24-hour news channel.

• July 25 1980: AC/DC releases their seventh album, Back in Black.

• August 1 1980: President Vigdís Finnabogadóttir of Iceland becomes the world’s first democratically elected female head of state.

• August 17 1980: 9-week-old Azaria Chamberlain is taken by a dingo at Ayers Rock in Australia.

• September 22 1980: The Iran-Iraq War begins. 300,000 to 1.1 million people will die in the conflict before the war ends on August 20 1988.

• November 3 1980: Dolly Parton releases “9 to 5.”

  

• December 8 1980: John Lennon is shot four times by Mark David Chapman. He is rushed to Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan, where he is pronounced dead on arrival.

• December 19 1980: 9 to 5 premieres.