Part 2
Also, during my 19th year:
18 year-olds gained the right to vote when the 26th Amendment was ratified.
In June of 1971, the New York Times published excerpts of the Pentagon Papers and later won a U.S. Supreme Court First Amendment case when the government challenged it.
A man calling himself D. B. Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked, with U.S. $200,000 in ransom money (he was never heard from again).
Brian’s Song aired on ABC TV. CBS introduced the Waltons in The Homecoming: A Christmas Story. All in the Family became popular. A Clockwork Orange premiered in December.
Number one songs included: Carole King (It’s Too Late), James Taylor (You’ve Got a Friend), Bee Gees (How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?), Isaac Hayes (Shaft), Don McLean (American Pie), America (A Horse With No Name), Roberta Flack (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face) and Sammy Davis, Jr. (The Candy Man).
Peace protests continued against the Vietnam War. President Nixon visited China. The Federal debt was $408.2 billion. A stamp rose to 8 cents, up from 6 cents earlier in the year. Minimum wage was $1.60. A gallon of gas was $.36.
In May of 1972, Arthur Bremer shots George Wallace in Maryland.
Federal Express was founded. Intel introduced the microprocessor. Disney World opened in Florida.
And that, my friends, were a few of the things happening when I was 19.
3 comments:
I was born in 1969, but all the songs you listed, I know them by heart.
I remember D.B. Cooper. I had often wondered if he was ever caught or found! Thanks for putting that to rest for me.
Songs are what really bring that time back to me. And minimum wage, which was $1.25, even less if under age sixteen.
I worked it out I earned only $0.65 per day then and yet managed to go overseas every second year.
Love those songs and the memories that go with them. I was going through my Hippy phase around that time.
Back wearing t-shirts with the Peace sign again. Favorite one being "Love. peace and vegetables" combining my veggie life and my anti-war status :)
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