What major historical events do you remember?
These events got my attention:
1971 “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” by The New Seekers plays on a Coca-Cola commercial and airs in one hundred countries.
1972 Pong, the video game, is in living rooms across the country.
1973 October, Because of the Oil embargo, I wait with my parents at the gas pump.
1974 Bob Marley and the Wailers release their album Natty Dread including the song “No Woman, No Cry.”
1975 Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is released in theaters. American Motors Corporation introduces the Pacer.
1976 The television debut of Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show. Kenner Products releases Stretch Armstrong.
1977 August, Elvis Presley dies.
1978 January, The Great Blizzard hits the Ohio Valley, the Great Lakes of Michigan, and Ontario. We miss school for two weeks after having Christmas Break and use the sled to get milk and eggs when stores reopen.
1979 Atari releases a video game called “Asteroids.” The Dukes of Hazard debuts on tv with a 1969 Dodge Charger.
1980 The United States, along with 65 other nations, boycotts Summer Olympics in Moscow.
1981 President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court. President Reagan is shot. Someone reports the first HIV/AIDS case in the United States. I am allowed to wear my first pair of pants to school. August, The first broadcast of MTV.
1982 Michael Jackson releases his Thriller album that sells more than 25 million copies. Another Steven Spielberg movie, E.T. the Extraterrestrial, is at the movies.
1983 The first cellphone telephone call is made.
1984 Quaker introduces “Mr. T” cereal.
1999 Generation Z is born. Julia Roberts and Brittney Spears have Hollywood’s attention. Space Shuttle Discovery docks at the International Space Station.
1985 I receive a Cabbage Patch Kid with glasses for Christmas.
1986 The Space Shuttle Challenger Explodes.
1987 I get new contact lenses. George Strait’s All My Ex’s Live in Texas is number one on music charts.
1988 Five days before Christmas, a bomb blows up a 747 airplane going from Frankfurt, Germany to Detroit, Michigan over Lockerbe, Scotland. Suddenly, two hundred and seventy people die in a second.
1989 January, Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th point. February Kareem Abdul-Jabar is the first NBA player to score 38,000 points. Pete Rose is in trouble with the Major League Baseball commissioner for gambling.
1990 Producers put together decent shows for kids such as Arthur, The Magic School Bus, and Rugrats.
1991 Patrick Swayze is named the sexiest man alive.
1992 May, A jury acquitts four policemen in Los Angeles of beating Rodney King. City riots cause 60 deaths and more than a billion dollars damage.
1993 Got Milk? Commercial airs on tv.
1994 The World Series is cancelled because of the Major League Baseball strike. July, Forrest Gump is at the movies. Chef Gordon Ramsay earns his first Michelin star. The first food label listing amounts of fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbs. And a few vitamins appears on the backs of some foods.
1995 Kevin Von Erich (Adkisson), the only surviving brother of the famous WWE Von Erichs, known for The Iron Claw, retires. I don’t know what to watch on Friday nights.
1996 The Magnificent Seven women, including Dominque Moceanu, Amy Chow, and Shannon Miller win the first ever gold medal for the United States in gymnastics.
1997 25 million pounds of beef is recalled because of E. Coli contamination. We start to worry about food-borne illness and what we eat. Red Bull energy drink becomes popular.
1998 Kids everywhere want a Furby. November, Pokemon Pikachu comes to America from Japan.
2000 The first USB flash drive is available to replace floppy discs.
2001 September 11, I stand in my classroom listening to announcements. Our librarian rushes in to tell me to turn on the tv before the second plane. In my mind, I see it ten seconds before it hits and form words, There’s another one, but I can’t make my mouth move. I stand there, watching silently. A student leaves in tears. Her father is there, in the city chaos. I put on my teacher face and go forward. That’s what to do in front of terrified children. Do what teachers do, go forward.
2002 One of my sweet student’s parents pressure her to get straight A’s. I am the last person she speaks to, but I don’t know it for hours. At class time, a few minutes later, she is absent. She parks her car on a train track and commits suicide. Our principal gathers the students and tells them without many details. He calls in counselors from the Diocese. I listen while they cry, try to make sense of it, and remember her. I cry, too.
2003 Artist Thorton Dial finishes Don’t Matter How Raggly the Flag, It Still Got to Tie Us Together, currently at the Indianapolis Musem of Art.
2004 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins eleven Oscars at the Academy Awards. Howl‘s Moving Castle is very popular.
2005 YouTube is made.
2006 Chef Gordon Ramsey opens his first restaurants in America.
2007 McDonald’s opens a Big Mac Museum with the world’s largest Big Mac.
2008 Ben 10 action figures are a top toy inspired by the show. High School Musical is all the rage.
2009 Inventors are busy making snuggies for dogs and a bra that converts to a pair of gas masks.
2010 Honda releases the sporty CR-Z gasoline-electric hybrid in the United States that goes from zero to sixty in only ten seconds. 🙃
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