An early heat wave killed dozens in the south, southeast and northeast. A record 105° was reached in New York City on June 10th.

The U.S. won 40 gold medals and finished first in team standings at the Summer Olympics in Helsinki.

In the first TV "closed-circuit" event held in U.S. theaters, Rocky Marciano won the heavyweight boxing championship.

President Truman refused to run for re-election.

Under the campaign slogan "I Like Ike," General Dwight D. Eisenhower helped the Republicans take control of the White House for the first time in 20 years. His vice president was California Senator and attorney Richard M. Nixon. Nixon - accused of using campaign funds for personal benefit - made a nationwide TV appeal known as the "Checkers speech" - explaining how he accepted a dog named Checkers for his daughters and wouldn't give it back.

Right after the election, President-elect Eisenhower flew to Korea to inspect troops, including a secret visit to the front lines of battle.

Mr. Potato Head was the first toy advertised on television. The ad campaign was so successful, nearly a quarter of TV's advertising and programming would be aimed at children within a few years.

I Love Lucy was America's favorite TV show. Dragnet won an Emmy for best TV mystery.

On radio's Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show, Charlie prepared to marry guest Marilyn Monroe.
 

Betty Hutton & Cornel Wilde starred in the year's most popular movie, The Greatest Show On Earth.

Hit tunes included Your Cheatin' Heart, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Glow Worm, and Jumbalaya.
 
 

1953
The House Interior Committee unanimously voted to admit Ohio as a state, after it had been discovered that an official vote had never been taken on Ohio's statehood in 1803.
A Senate report on the notorious Republican "Commie hunter," Senator Joseph McCarthy, said much of "McCarthyism" was motivated by his self-interests.

In his inaugural address, President Eisenhower said his administration's priorities included world policy aimed at promoting freedom.

The Korean War ended when an armistice was signed, but President Eisenhower cautioned that the free world had only won a battle - not the whole war - against Communist oppression.

Tornadoes in June killed a total of 305 in Texas, Ohio, Michigan and Massachusetts.

Scrabble became America's favorite board game.

The New York Yankees became the first to win five world championships in a row, defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 50th annual World Series.

Bob Hope hosted the first coast-to-coast telecast of The Academy Awards on NBC-TV.

After a long battle over the method of technology, RCA's color television system was chosen over CBS's by the Federal Communications Commission. The RCA system was compatible with existing black & white TV sets.

Arthur Godfrey's audience began to decline when he fired his much-loved singer, Julius LaRosa, live on the radio.

Hit songs included Ebb Tide, How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? and You You You.
 
 

1954
The U.S.'s first hydrogen bomb detonation took place at Eniwetok Atoll.
Dr. Jonas Salk - developer of the anti-polio vaccine, began testing his final version on school children in Pittsburgh. The serum would be approved for national vaccine programs the next year.

Nationally televised hearings and an Edward R. Murrow interview in which Senator Joseph McCarthy was caught in several lies - helped end McCarthy's witch hunt for Communists in show business and the armed forces. The senator was later rebuked by a condemnation in the Senate for his tactics and behavior.

Congress and the Pentagon authorized creation of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

The Iwo Jima statue was dedicated in Arlington National Cemetery.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against racial segregation in schools.

Hurricanes killed 170 Americans and over 200 Canadians.

A massive air raid drill was conducted in June in the 48 states, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

The Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio, began hosting a Yankees TV pre-game show.

Captain Midnight encouraged kids to be popular by using the advertiser's products.

Successes at the box office included Bing Crosby in White Christmas, Humphrey Bogart in The Caine Mutiny, and Ethel Merman & Marilyn Monroe in There's No Business Like Show Business.

Hit songs included Mr. Sandman, Sh-Boom, Hernando's Hideaway, and the first rock & roll tune to make the hit parade, Joe Turner's Shake, Rattle & Roll.
 
 

1955
President Eisenhower endorsed the use of nuclear weapons in the case of war. School children were taught in government drills that they could avoid the devastation of nuclear weapons by ducking and covering when they saw "the flash." Military films told soldiers witnessing nuclear tests that they wouldn't experience any side effects if they wore sunglasses.
The Presbyterian Church approved the ordination of female ministers.

The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper - where Walt Whitman had once served as editor - went bankrupt following a 45-day strike. The paper had been published daily for 115 years.

The major labor advocates, the AFL and the CIO, merged.

Dr. Albert Einstein died at age 76.

Cole Porter's Silk Stockings opened on Broadway.

Long before his stint as straight-ahead TV journalist and 60 Minutes anchor, Mike Wallace became the TV spokesman for Fluffo Shortening.

On the big screen, James Dean & Julie Harris starred in East Of Eden and Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones teamed up for Oklahoma!.

DJ Alan Freed coined the term "Rock & Roll." Bill Haley & the Comets had the first #1 rock hit, Rock Around The Clock, which they introduced on Freed's radio show.
 
 

1956
Many school districts in the South defied the Supreme Court ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Many schools were closed down when federal funding was cut off for non-compliance.
A Super Constellation and a DC-7 which had left L.A. three minutes apart collided and crashed into the Grand Canyon, killing 130.

For the second time, the Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson for president, and for the second time he lost the election to Republican Dwight Eisnehower.
 

Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Ranier II of Monaco, renouncing her U.S. citizenship to take the title of Princess.

NBC-TV gave Tonight! host Steve Allen his first of many prime-time variety shows.

Elvis Presley skyrocketed to fame with Heartbreak Hotel, Don't Be Cruel, Hound Dog and Love Me Tender. Presley's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show brought TV its highest viewer numbers to date.

My Fair Lady began its seven-year run on Broadway.

The top-grossing film was The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston.
 
 

1957
Rock & Roll took over the music charts, with number one songs like That'll Be The Day by the Crickets (with Buddy Holly), Honeycomb by Jimmie Rodgers, You Send Me by Sam Cooke, and Party Doll by Buddy Knox. Elvis Presley's #1 hits included Too Much, All Shook Up, Teddy Bear, Jailhouse Rock, and Treat Me Nice.
Seven earthquakes and dozens of aftershocks rocked the San Francisco area.

America watched nervously as Fidel Castro led an uprising against the government of Cuba's Fulgencio Batista.

In a major technological bruise to the U.S., Russia successfully launched the first man-made orbiting satellite, the Sputnik. The announcement was made - in English - on Radio Moscow.  The "Space Race" had begun.

In January, TV game show Truth Or Consequences, starring Bob Barker, became the first regular program produced on video tape. The recording medium was employed in March to delay CBS News With Douglas Edwards on the west coast.

Meredith Willson's The Music Man, starring Robert Preston & Barbara Cook, opened on Broadway.
 

Leonard Bernstein was appointed director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
 
 

1958
East German police captured nine Army crewmen when a helicopter accidentally landed beyond the West German border. The International Red Cross negotiated their release.

Fidel Castro's army captured 37 Americans and 4 Canadians at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Navy Base.

The nuclear-powered submarine Seawolf ran underwater without surfacing for 60 days.

Besting the Soviet Union, America launched three successful Earth-orbiting satellites. Four attempts to reach the moon with rockets during the year were unsucessful.

The vocally anti-American Nikita Khrushchev became the premier of the Soviet Union.

An engineer suffered a heart attack just before his Jersey Central commuter train plunged off an open draw bridge over Newark Bay, killing 45.

U.S. first class postage was increased to 4¢.

The Beat Movement had begun, fueled by the literature of Jack Kerouac, the sounds of progressive jazz, and espresso.

In the 1958 Miss America telecast, host Bert Parks was told by a contestant that America should not try to reach the moon.

Danish-born comic Victor Borge was given his own one-man TV show by CBS.

David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian, cousin of William Saroyan) had two novelty hits, Witch Doctor and The Chipmunk Song, using sped-up voice tracks. Other 1958 chart-toppers included At The Hop by Danny & The Juniors, All I Have To Do Is Dream by the Everly Brothers, and Hard-Headed Woman by Elvis Presley.
 
 

1959
Alaska and Hawaii became America's 49th and 50th states.
Vice president Richard Nixon toured Poland and the Soviet Union and debated with Nikita Khrushchev. The premier visited visit the U.S. later in the year.

Oklahoma repealed its Prohibition Law, leaving Missouri as the only "dry" state.

America's first second-generation black general, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was promoted to major general.

2,000 anti-American Panamanians unsuccessfully attempted to seize the Canal Zone.

Rockers Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens died in an air crash.

The first TV cartoon aimed at adults as well as kids, Rocky & His Friends, debuted in syndication. The Jay Ward production starred Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose, whose middle initials came from their producer. William Conrad of radio's Gunsmoke was the show's announcer.

Gunsmoke had become the top-rated TV show, and NBC introduced Bonanza, the first series filmed entirely in color.
 

Ben Hur, starring Charlton Heston, was the year's top box office hit.

Hit songs included The Battle Of New Orleans by Johnny Horton, A Big Hunk O'Love by Elvis Presley, and Mack The Knife by Bobby Darin.

1960
A U.S. military transport plane collided with a Brazilan airliner near Rio De Janeiro, killing 62 persons, including 19 members of the U.S. Navy Band.
16 members of the Cal State Polytechnic College football team died in an Arctic Pacific plane crash.

The first automated post office was dedicated in Providence, Rhode Island.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev canceled President Eisenhower's visit to the U.S.S.R. after the Soviets shot down a U.S. U2 spy plane. The pilot was exchanged two years later for a Soviet spy jailed in America.

After a series of televised debates, Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon in the November presidential election.

200 were arrested in anti-integration riots in New Orleans.

The 7,222nd episode of The Romance Of Helen Trent marked the end of the radio soap's 28-season run.

Broadway was closed down for nearly two weeks due to an actors' strike.

16-year-old Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Chess Championship.
 
 

1961
Shortly before leaving office, President Eisenhower severed all U.S. ties with Cuba.
In his inaugural speech, John F. Kennedy called on Americans to serve their country.

President Kennedy established the Peace Corps.

America took a diplomatic bruise from the CIA's involvement in the Bay Of Pigs Invasion, an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Communist Cuba's dictator, Fidel Castro.

Another bruise came during the space race, as Soviet Yuri Gagarin became the first man to slip from the bonds of Earth. Later in the year, the U.S. launched Alan Shepard, Jr. and Gus Grissom into space in separate missions.

President Kennedy ordered U.S. marshalls into Alabama due to violent clashes between a bi-racial anti-integration organization and integration advocates.

Wildfires destroyed nearly 500 plush homes in the Brentwood and Bel Air suburbs of Los Angeles.

As the Soviets broke an international moratorium against nuclear bomb testing, President Kennedy urged Americans to build fallout shelters.

Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway shot and killed himself.

The Threepenny Opera closed its 7-year run on Broadway after 2,600 performances.

Wagon Train usurped Gunsmoke as America's favorite TV western.

Allen Funt's Candid Camera moved to CBS-TV. The series began as radio's Candid Microphone and made its 1948 television debut on ABC.

Hit songs included Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean, Hit The Road, Jack by Ray Charles, and Running Scared by Roy Orbison.
 
 

1962
President Kennedy rejected the Soviet Union's proposal to withdraw its offensive weapons from Cuba if America did the same in Turkey. The U.S. Navy was ordered to sink any ships en route to Cuba with weaponry.
John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

The World's Fair opened in Seattle with a "space age" theme, including the city's now-famous Space Needle and Monorail.

Marilyn Monroe died of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills in her Los Angeles mansion.

Incumbent Edmund Brown defeated Richard Nixon in his bid for governor of California.

The Beverly Hillbillies debuted on CBS-TV and shot straight to number one in the ratings.

Chubby Checker introduced America to its biggest dance craze of the century, The Twist. Other hits of the year included The Stripper by David Rose & His Orchestra, Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, and Telstar by the Tornadoes.

The release by small U.S. record label Vee Jay of the Beatles' singles Please Please Me and From Me To You went unnoticed.
 
 

1963
A hotline was established between Washington, D.C. and Moscow for dealing with hot issues like the Cuban Crisis.
The Hearst Corporation closed New York's Daily Mirror after unions got their pay raises following a 114-day strike.

A quarter-million people joined the civil rights March On Washington, at which Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. [RealAudio® Page] delivered his legendary "I Have A Dream" speech.

20 weeks after civic leaders and civil rights groups negotated an integration plan in Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb killed four children at a black church.

The U.S. Post Office implemented the Zip Code, which replaced zone designations in large cities and added 5 digits to all American addresses. Ethel Merman sang the official campaign jingle.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated during a motorcade procession in Dallas on November 22nd. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as chief executive hours after the assassination. American TV networks dropped all programming and advertising to cover the event. Top 40 radio stations began playing sombre choral music. Two days after president's murder, alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Municipal Building. A stunned audience watched the killing on live television as police were escorting Oswald to the county jail.

Little Stevie Wonder made his chart debut with Fingertips Part II, a harmonica instrumental. Other hits included It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To) by Leslie Gore, He's So Fine by the Chiffons, and the hootenanny hit, Walk Right In by the Rooftop Singers.

The day after Christmas, Capitol Records released I Want To Hold Your Hand by the Beatles.
 
 
 
 

1964
The British music invasion began with the Beatles' chart-topping I Want To Hold Your Hand and their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Their first major-label U.S. album, Meet The Beatles, became America's best-selling LP of all time within a week of its release. In April, the Beatles occupied the top five positions on the U.S. singles chart.
An earthquake near Anchorage with an estimated Richter scale magnitude of 8.6 killed 131 Alaskans.

The "long, hot summer" of civil unrest resulted in major riots in Harlem, Philadelphia, Chicago and Jacksonville.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Martin Luther King, Jr. [RealAudio® Page] received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was removed from the Communist Party and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. Aleksei Kosygin was appointed premier.

The Futurama exhibit by General Motors was the most popular attraction at the World's Fair in New York. Lower-than-expected attendance caused many of the attractions to close before the end of the fair.

An unmanned U.S. spacecraft captured the first detailed pictures of the crater-ridden lunar surface.

Campaigning with his Great Society theme, President Johnson was elected to his first full term, in a landslide vote over Republican Barry Goldwater.

The Warren Commission determined that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone Kennedy assassin, and there was no conspiracy in the Dallas shooting.

40 people died in heavy flooding, blizzards and ice storms during December in the Pacific Northwest.

Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore received Emmys for best actor and actress, and their Dick Van Dyke Show was named best comedy series.

McDonald's Restaurants expanded into the eastern states and became a national chain.

Hello, Dolly! was Broadway's biggest hit.
 
 

1965
America accomplished the first space walk as part of NASA's preparation for humans to reach the moon.
Four radicals were arrested after a thwarted attempt to blow up the Statue of Liberty.

Black Nationalist founder Malcolm X, who had been moving towards a stance of cooperation with whites, was assassinated by rival Black Muslims. Muslim headquarters in San Francisco and New York were torched two days later.

The Boston Celtics won their seventh straight NBA championship.

The world's first communications satellite, the ComSat Early Bird, was successfully launched, substantially improving the video and sound quality of network TV.

16-year-old Peggy Fleming charmed the world with her women's singles victory at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

Race riots in the Watts section of Los Angeles left 35 dead and caused $190,000,000 in damages.

Martin Luther King, Jr. [RealAudio® Page] led a five-day civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Over 5,000 were injured and 280 were killed when no less than 35 tornadoes ripped through six midwestern states.

President Johnson authorized the first bombing raids in the Viet Nam War, and began increasing troop levels dramatically.

Due to increasing anti-Viet Nam War protests, the federal government made it a crime to burn draft cards.

The northeastern states and eastern Canada were darkened by a 16-hour blackout, which was later blamed on a squirrel short-circuiting a power transformer in upstate New York.

Construction was completed on St. Louis' Gateway Arch.

Popular toys included the Tick Toy Clock, Mr. Machine, G.I. Joe and the Dick Tracy 2-Way Wrist Radio.

Nat "King" Cole died of lung cancer at age 45.

English pop and Detroit's Motown sound dominated the charts.
 
 

1966
Four H-bombs were lost - but quickly recovered - after an American B-52 collided with a cargo jet over Spain.
10,000 protested the Viet Nam War outside the White House. Over 60,000 signed a protest sign at the Washington Monument pledging to vote for anti-war candidates.

Pacifist Martin Luther King, Jr. [RealAudio® Page] debated militant Stokely Carmichael after the shooting of black voter registration advocate James Meredith.

The Supreme Court's Miranda decision declared that arresting officers must inform suspects of their rights.

Richard Speck was indicted for murdering eight student nurses in Chicago. He was convicted a year later.

43 perished when the American carrier Oriskany burned in the Gulf of Tonkin.

A crazed sniper killed 13 and wounded 31 at the University of Texas in Austin. After police shot and killed Charles Whitman in the university's bell tower, they discovered he had earlier killed his wife and mother.

Shortly after completing the first docking of two spacecraft, Gemini 8 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott were thrown into a spin and forced to make an emergency landing. Technical problems plagued subsequent Gemini flights throughout the year.

The Beatlesque TV series The Monkees took the Emmy for best comedy. Mission: Impossible premiered during the summer and won the Emmy for best drama series.

The Baltimore Orioles took the World Series from the L.A. Dodgers. For the first time since 1912, the New York Yankees finished last in the American League.

Hit songs included Sunshine Superman by Donovan, Sounds Of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, We Can Work It Out and Day Tripper by the Beatles and Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys.
 
 

1967
Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee died in a fire while testing an Apollo space craft. Meanwhile, Soviet Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died when his capsule crashed to earth after re-entry.
North Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh's refused to engage in peace talks, resulting in an escalation of the war effort, followed by increasing protests against the war.

350,000 anti-war demonstrators marched on the U.N. building in New York.

The Pentagon's antiballistic missile symbol was transformed by anti-war demonstrators into the "peace symbol." The V-For-Victory hand sign became the "peace sign."

Nearly 700 people were arrested when 50,000 peace demonstrators stormed the Pentagon.

A pro-war parade in New York to show support for the troops in Viet Nam drew 70,000.

America's young people at home, united against the war, were forming a counterculture based on peace, drug use and psychedelic music. Sgt. Pepper by the Beatles signaled the start of the "psychedelic era."

While Tuskegee, Alabama swore in the south's first black sheriff, racist Lester "Axe Handle" Maddox was sworn in as governor of Georgia. Thurgood Marshall became the first black Supreme Court justice. Carl Stokes became the first black mayor of Cleveland.

26 died in Newark, New Jersey and 43 were killed in Detroit during race riots.

85 people died when a Boeing 727 collided with a private plane over Hendersonville, North Carolina.

A Union Oil Of California tanker broke apart in the English Channel polluting beaches from from southwestern England to Normandy, France.

56 people died and over 1,000 were injured when a string of tornadoes ripped through Illinois.

Super Bowl I was covered by both NBC and CBS.

NBC-TV broadcast a summer comedy special called Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, which had such high ratings, a series was created to premiere in September.

The highest-rated night on TV came when Americans tuned in to see a commercial which had been hyped in newspaper and magazine ads:  the introduction of the 1968 Ford Mustang.

The first world-wide live TV broadcast, using communications satellites, was carried by America's National Educational Television, the forerunner of PBS. The Beatles closed the broadcast by premiering their new single, All You Need Is Love.

There were a lot of exclamation points on Broadway marquees, including Hello, Dolly!, a Yiddish spoof called Hello, Solly!, Hallelujah, Baby! and Sherry!

Hit songs included Respect by Aretha Franklin, The Happening by the Supremes, Incense & Peppermints by the Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Letter by the Box Tops.
 
 

1968
While America had a record amount of troops fighting in Viet Nam, the anti-war and black power movements grew on campuses. Over 735 incidences of protesters clashing with police were chronicled at America's schools and universities in the course of the year.
At Columbia University, students claiming to be "the New Left" occupied several campus buildings until forcibly removed by the National Guard.

At San Francisco State College, students staged a sit-down strike, calling for changes in the Black Studies program. After four months, college president S.I. Hayakawa had the protesters removed by police in a bloody confrontation.

In major cities, FM "underground" stations, shunning the commercial hits in favor of psychedelic and folk-rock album tracks, grew so much in popularity they became the commercial successes they claimed they were countering.

Drug-soaked riffs from Jerry Garcia's Grateful Dead and other eclectic bands set the soundtrack for a youth population which was overwhelmingly anti-war. Pro-war youth had very few voices in the U.S. because most of them were fighting overseas.

Dr. Benjamin Spock was indicted for conspiracy to aid and abet draft evasion. He and "beat poet" Allan Ginsberg had been arrested in an attempt to shut down the draft induction center in New York City.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [RealAudio® Page] was assassinated at a motel in Memphis, shortly after giving a speech in which he hinted that his days were numbered. Two days earlier, one person died when violence broke out at a march in Memphis led by Dr. King in support of a garbage collectors' strike.

North Korea seized the U.S.S. Pueblo, claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters. The crew - who were physically and mentally abused by their captors - were freed after eleven months of touch-and-go negotiations.

President Johnson announced he would not seek re-election.

Chicago Police and the National Guard attempted to control anti-war protesters with violence at the Democratic National Convention. Bystanders, politicians and news reporters were beaten on live television in the ensuing mayhem.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the slain president, was assassinated moments after he learned he'd won the Democratic primary election in California. Jordanian Sirhan Sirhan was charged with the killing.

John F. Kennedy's widow, Jaqueline, married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

Republican Richard M. Nixon narrowly defeated Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey for the presidency. Independent George Wallace received over 9,000,000 popular votes.

As psychedelic album rock proliferated on the FM band, AM hit radio had a resurgence of pop songs like This Guy's In Love With You by Herb Alpert, Honey by Bobby Goldsboro and Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat. Rock songs ruling the charts included Hello, I Love You by the Doors, People Got To Be Free by the Rascals and I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye.
 
 

1969
As President Nixon took office, the American death toll in the Viet Nam war reached 34,000.
CBS canceled one of its most popular shows, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, because a copy of the show hadn't reached the censors in time. The network was under pressure to dump the politically potent variety show, which Vice President Spiro Agnew had claimed was "subversive."

Senator Ted Kennedy was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after he drove a car off a bridge in Chappaquidick, Massachusetts. A campaign aide, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Kennedy appealed to a TV audience to forgive him.

Millions of Americans participated in a Viet Nam Moratorium Day, with candelight vigils and prayers for peace. President Nixon ignored the event, but Vice President Spiro Agnew called the participants "an effete corps of impudent snobs."

Veterans' Day ceremonies around the country consisted of pro-America demonstrations. Vice President Agnew called U.S. patriots "the silent majority." Three days later, 250,000 people marched on Washington to protest the war. Simultaneously, 100,000 demonstrated in San Francisco.

The world's largest TV audience to date watched astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the moon.

340 Harvard students took over the university's administration building. 400 state troopers and police officers cleared them out with teargas and beatings from nightsticks. At Cornell University, a 36-hour sit-in was held in the student union building by black militants brandishing automatic weapons. At Berkeley, a National Guard helicopter dropped caustic chemicals on a protesters' area called People's Park. 19 University of California faculty members were among those burned by the substance.

Max Yasgur's farm near Bethel, New York became the second-largest city in New York, when nearly 400,000 converged on the area for the Woodstock Music And Art Fair. Police looked the other way as the counterculture celebrated its largest gathering with peace, music, sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Charles Manson and several members of his cult were charged with the brutal murders of actress Sharon Tate and four others in Los Angeles. Tate was married to film director Roman Polanski.
 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman William Fullbright disclosed that the Pentagon and the Nixon administration had been waging an illegal war in Laos, without the required knowledge of the Congress. Meanwhile, Lt. William Calley, Jr. was under investigation on charges that his infantry unit had massacred 450 women, children and other villagers at My Lai, South Viet Nam.

Leonard Bernstein stepped down as director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Judy Garland died of a drug overdose at age 47.

The counterculture-gone-commercial was evident in many of the year's hit songs, including Everyday People, Age Of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In, Come Together, Crimson & Clover and In The Year 2525.

Charmin Bathroom Tissue went from obscurity to America's best-seller, due to an ad campaign featuring grocer Mr. Whipple, portrayed by character actor Dick Wilson.

1970
U.S. troops were withdrawn from Cambodia.
Cigarette ads were banned from TV and radio.

Joseph Yablonski, who had campaigned against corruption for the presidency of the United Mine Workers, was found murdered along with his wife and daughter.

Millionaire H. Ross Perot gave up on his attempt to deliver Christmas presents to American POWs in North Viet Nam via the chartered jet Peace On Earth.

The so-called Chicago Seven were found not guilty of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. But five of them were found guilty of crossing state lines for the purpose of inciting a riot, resulting in five-year sentences.

Black militant Angela Davis was indicted on murder and conspiracy charges.

The FBI captured Father Daniel Berrigan, the Rhode Island priest who advocated burning draft cards to protest the Viet Nam war. He and his brother, Father Phillip Berrigan, were accused by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover of plotting to kidnap Nixon aide Henry Kissinger and blow up a federal building.

On May 4th, Ohio National Guard troops killed four students at Kent State University who were protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. Five days later, 100,000 anti-war protesters rallied in Washington.

The Spiro T. Agnew Wrist Watch - bearing the likeness of the vice president - became a hot seller.

The Apollo 13 crew returned to Earth following a harrowing mission in which they repaired their ship with duct tape following an oxygen tank explosion.

The Army appointed the nation's first two female generals.

26 people were killed when Hurricane Celia crossed Florida and the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Construction of New York's World Trade Center was completed.

Hello, Dolly! closed on Broadway after 2,850 performances.

Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel won Grammy awards for Record, Song and Album Of The Year. Vice President Agnew stated that the song was about heroin addiction. Other hits included I'll Be There by the Jackson Five, My Sweet Lord by George Harrison, Let It Be by the Beatles and I Think I Love You by TV's Partridge Family.

The Mary Tyler Moore show debuted. CBS canceled The Ed Sullivan Show.
 
 

1971
The voting age was lowered to 18. Those who sought the new age of majority contended that if people were old enough to fight and die in Viet Nam, they were old enough to vote.
28 prisoners and 9 hostages were killed when state troopers stormed Attica Prison in New York state, where inmates were holding 38 guards hostage.

65 died when a major earthquake rumbled through southern California on February 9th. The quake caused $500,000,000 damage.

Nearly 100 died when tornadoes plowed through Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

111 perished when an Alaska Airlines jet crashed into a mountain near Juneau.

No one was injured when a bomb planted by the Weather Underground exploded in a U.S. Capitol rest room.

Orders were mistakenly given by teletype to enact the Emergency Broadcast System. The minority who followed the Saturday morning instructions began telling their listeners to prepare for nuclear attack. Those who assumed the alert was an error proved the EBS plan was ineffective. The "actual alert" - complete with an authenticating code word - was wired to stations at the time set aside for weekly tests. As a result, the tests would become random.

For the first time in U.S. history, imports began to exceed exports. President Nixon was upset when he was informed that White House visitors were being given commemorative U.S. flag pins that were made in Japan.

Bobby Fischer became the first American to make the World Chess Championships. He would defeat Boris Spassky for the world title the next year.

Jesus Christ Superstar and You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown opened on Broadway.

Norman Lear's All In The Family became America's top-rated TV show.

Hit songs included Me And Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin, Carol King's You've Got A Friend by James Taylor and The Theme From "Shaft" by Isaac Hayes. Carole King won Grammys for Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Song Of The Year.
 
 

1972
President Nixon spent eight days on his groundbreaking trip to the People's Republic of China and became the first sitting president to visit Moscow.
Alabama Governor George Wallace was shot and paralyzed during a presidential primary appearance in Maryland. Arthur Bremer was charged with attempted assassination.

Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern dropped Thomas Eagleton as his running mate when it was revealed Eagleton had undergone shock therapy for depression. Sargent Shriver was named the Democrats' new vice presidential candidate.

Former Beatle John Lennon, who, with his wife Yoko Ono, actively demonstrated against America's Viet Nam policy, was given a deportation order by the Immigration & Naturalization Service. The action was orchestrated by the White House. After a series of court battles and hearings, Lennon would be granted a green card five years later.

Washington police arrested five suspects who were attempting to bug the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel. Seven were initially indicted in the incident. The operation became connected to President Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President, which was nicknamed "CREEP" by detractors. Attorney General John Mitchell resigned as the committee's chairman.

Despite the brewing Watergate controversy, Richard Nixon was re-elected president in a landslide victory over George McGovern.

The U.S. resumed heavy bombing of North Viet Nam shortly after Nixon's re-election. By the end of the year, presidential aide and peace negotiator Henry Kissinger announced that "peace was at hand."

118 died when a dam collapsed in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia.

91 died in a silver mine fire in Kellogg, Idaho.

A clerk in Sacramento County, California created a public outrage when he rejected voter registrations that bore the title "Ms." instead of "Miss" or "Mrs."

George Bush was named chairman of the GOP.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover died at age 77.

Grease became the top Broadway attraction.

Hit songs included Let's Stay Together by Al Green, My Ding-A-Ling by Chuck Berry, I Am Woman by Helen Reddy and American Pie by Don McLean. The Concert For Bangla Desh, featuring George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar and Leon Russell, received the Grammy for Album Of The Year.
 
 

1973
Former president Lyndon B. Johnson died of a heart attack.
The U.S., North Viet Nam, South Viet Nam and the Viet Cong signed a peace agreement in Paris. 142 POWs were released and sent home to the U.S. 14 days later. The last U.S. troops departed South Viet Nam March 29th.

Henry Kissinger was nominated and confirmed as Secretary of State.

The American Indian Movement - AIM - occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota for eight days. They surrendered after U.S. officials promised to investigate corruption in the Bureau Of Indian Affairs.

G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were convicted in the Watergate break-in. Aides H.R. Haldeman, John Dean and John Erlichman were asked to resign. Attorney General Richard Kleindeinst resigned over the scandal. Aide Alexander Butterfield disclosed that there was a White House taping system. President Nixon's new Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, appointed Archibald Cox as special Watergate prosecutor. But when testimony in the Senate Watergate Hearings seemed to point the blame toward the Oval Office, President Nixon fired Cox, Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Upon appointing William Saxbe as his fourth Attorney General and Leon Jaworski as special Watergate prosecutor, Nixon declared his innocence in the scandal. Days later, the White House disclosed that 18½ minutes of a taped White House conversation between Nixon and H.R. Haldeman had been mysteriously erased.

Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in disgrace, just days before pleading no contest to charges of racketeering and tax evasion while he was governor of Maryland.

Gerald Ford, the only surviving member of the Warren Commission, was sworn in as the new Vice President.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws banning abortions.

88 died when a jetliner crashed while landing at Boston's Logan Airport.

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee founder H. Rap Brown was sentenced to 5 to 15 years for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

The Exorcist was number one at the box office. Other popular films included The Sting, Serpico, The Way We Were and American Graffiti.

Hit songs included Roberta Flack's Grammy-winning Killing Me Softly, Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group, Give Me Love by George Harrison, Half Breed by Cher and You're So Vain by Carly Simon.
 
 

1974
The Skylab III astronauts finished the longest manned space flight to date - 85 days. The unmanned Mariner craft took photos of the planet Mercury.
19-year-old Patty Hearst - heiress and granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst - was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Hearst would later be seen on film helping the SLA rob a bank. 6 members of the SLA died in a shootout with Los Angeles police, but Hearst eluded authorities until September of 1975.

Journalist Karen Silkwood died in a mysterious car crash while investigating safety conditions at the Kerr McGee Nuclear Power Plant.

Chet Huntley, co-anchor of the Huntley-Brinkley Report, died of cancer at age 63.

TV journalist Edwin Newman's book, Strictly Speaking, chided Americans for allowing the electronic media to corrupt the English language with such improper usage as turned up missing and non-words like funeralize.

Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves surpassed Babe Ruth's record by hitting his 715th home run.

U.S. Representative Wilbur Mills of Arkansas resigned as Ways & Means chairman due to a scandal involving stripper Fannie Fox.

The House Judiciary Committee voted three articles of impeachment against President Nixon for tampering with the Watergate probe.

When White House tapes proved President Nixon had obstructed justice in the Watergate investigation, Nixon resigned.

Shortly after assuming the presidency, Gerald Ford granted Nixon a pardon for all or any crimes committed while Nixon was president.

Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in as vice president.

Congress passed the Freedom Of Information Act.

Georgia governor Jimmy Carter announced his candidacy for the 1976 presidential election.

President Ford declared an amnesty for Viet Nam deserters and draft evaders whereby they could return to the U.S. and perform two years of public service.

After a New York Times exposé, the CIA admitted to President Ford that domestic spying by the agency against war dissidents had been taking place.

President Ford named George Bush as America's first envoy to the People's Republic of China.

94 died when a Miami-to-Washington jetliner crashed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

After a 41-year ban, Americans could resume the private possession of gold.

The low-power wireless transmitter called Mr. Microphone - which broadcast to nearby radios - was an extremely popular gadget.

Hit tunes included I Can Help by Billy Swann, The Joker by the Steve Miller Band, the anti-Nixon You Haven't Done Nothin' by Stevie Wonder with the Jackson Five, Eric Clapton's cover of Bob Marley's I Shot The Sheriff and Band On The Run by Paul McCartney.
 
 

1975
The Marianas Islands became a U.S. Commonwealth.
Puerto Rican nationalists bombed a cafe in New York City, killing 4 and wounding 50.

As remaining Americans fled South Viet Nam, the government surrendered to the Communists.

Americans and Soviets symbolically united their space programs as the Apollo and Soyuz docked in space.

Former Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.

As part of the administrative shake-up known as the "Halloween Massacre", Henry Kissinger resigned as Security Council head, and President Ford named George Bush as CIA director.

President Ford visited China, the Philippines and Indonesia.

The corruption investigation that had toppled Vice President Agnew resulted in indictments for Maryland governor Marvin Mandel and five staffers on racketeering charges.

A former Charles Manson follower, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate President Ford in Sacramento. Two weeks later, FBI informant Sara Jane Moore was arrested on charges of attempting to shoot Ford in San Francisco.

The Vatican canonized Elizabeth Seton as its first American-born Catholic saint.

113 died when lightning struck a jet approaching New York's Kennedy International Airport. The strike shut down the jet's power, causing it to spin in and crash.

11 died and 75 were injured when a bomb exploded in a passenger terminal at LaGuardia Airport.

Nabisco's Nutterbutter cookies briefly surpassed Oreos as America's favorite.

All In The Family was America's top TV show for the fifth straight year. Hollywood Squares was the leading daytime show. Saturday Night Live received an Emmy for outstanding comedy series.

Hit songs included Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by Elton John with John Lennon, Fame by David Bowie with John Lennon, Black Water by the Doobie Brothers, Jive Talkin' by the Bee Gees, Shining Star by Earth, Wind & Fire, Love Will Keep Us Together by the Captain & Tenille and the disco anthem The Hustle by Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony.
 
 

1976
America's bicentennial year included hundreds of thousands of special events and celebrations, Bicentennial Minutes on TV, and a stepped-up American History curriculum at many schools and colleges. Six million gathered in New York and another three million in Philadelphia for massive Independence Day celebrations.
The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. entered into a nuclear weapons agreement which allowed mutual inspection of test sites.

Pesticides containing mercury were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hotel air conditioning containing a virus dubbed Legionairres' Disease killed 29 people who attended a convention in Philadelphia.

Former President Richard Nixon discussed his failed presidency with British talk show host David Frost.

The Viking I  landed on Mars and began beaming back photographs.

With Nelson Rockefeller declining to run, President Ford chose Senator Bob Dole as his running mate for the presidential election. Ford & Dole were narrowly defeated by Democratic candidates Jimmy Carter & Walter Mondale.

The brand new Teton River Dam in Idaho collapsed. A billion dollars damage occurred and 14 died when water flooded 320 square miles.

140 died in flash floods along the Big Thompson River in Colorado.

Ohio Democrat Wayne Hays resigned from the U.S. House over an ethics investigation into his relationship with a former employee.

Broadway hits included California Suite and Godspell.

Rock, disco, pop, funk and country songs could all be found on the Top 40 charts, including Rock'n Me, Shake Your Booty, I Write The Songs, Play That Funky Music and Convoy. Stevie Wonder's brilliant Songs In The Key Of Life received Grammy awards for Best Male Vocal and Album Of The Year.

Happy Days became the number one TV show. On her first ABC-TV interview special, Barbara Walters chatted with Jimmy Carter and Barbra Streisand.

All The President's Men, based on the Woodward/Bernstein Watergate chronicles, was the year's most lucrative film. Sylvester Stallone's Rocky won the Oscar for Best Picture.
 
 

1977
Shortly after taking office, President Carter stressed his human rights agenda by cutting off aid to Argentina, Ethiopia and Uruguay.
President Carter announced an unconditional pardon to Viet Nam War draft evaders.

42,000 pages of FBI material on the assassination of President Kennedy was made public. There were few new facts in the highly-censored materials.

Over 150 inches of snow fell in a rapid series of crippling blizzards in the northeastern U.S.

7,700,000 gallons of crude oil leaked from a grounded tanker off Nantucket, Massachusetts.

In the first presidential radio talk show, 9 million people attempted to call President Carter. Only 40 got through.

The Carter administration created the Department Of Energy, and called for voluntary cutbacks on energy use.

Oldsmobile introduced America's first diesel-fueled passenger car.

Jaqueline Means became the Episcopal Church's first female priest.

The Li'l Abner comic strip came to an end after 70 years in syndication.

Two of America's most popular singers died in 1977. Col. Tom Parker confirmed that Elvis Presley died of a heart attack on August 16th. Two months later, Bing Crosby died at age 73.

Woody Allen's Annie Hall earned three Academy Awards. Saturday Night Fever was released, and would go on to be one of 1978's biggest hits. Star Wars and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind were the year's biggest box office draws.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended its 7-year run.

Hit tunes included Rich Girl by Hall & Oates, Dancing Queen by Abba, Car Wash by Rose Royce, Evergreen by Barbra Streisand, Hotel California by the Eagles, You Light Up My Life by Debbie Boone and You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by Leo Sayer. The Grammy for Album Of The Year went to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.
 
 

1978
The Senate voted to turn the Panama Canal over to Panama on December 31st, 1999.
The average life span of an American increased to 67, despite the many deaths of young men in Viet Nam. The mandatory retirement age was raised from 65 to 70.

911 members of the People's Temple cult, under the leadership of Reverend Jim Jones, committed suicide in Guyana.

The so-called "Son Of Sam," David Berkowitz, was given six concurrent life sentences for his New York City-area murders.

Americans were urged to stop the practice of making ice cream from snow when it was determined snowflakes contained dangerous levels of lead.

The Marine Corps appointed its first female General.

President Carter declared the Love Canal development in Niagara Falls, New York a disaster area, due to toxic waste leeching through the soil and groundwater. The area had been used as a dump for highly poisonous chemical waste from 1947 to 1953.

9 Lives spokescat Morris died at age 17.

Three's Company became America's number one TV show, but Taxi got the Emmy for outstanding comedy. 11 years after it was launched, 60 Minutes began to win the weekly TV ratings race.

The New York Yankees defeated the L.A. Dodgers four games to two in the World Series.

Saturday Night Fever, National Lampoon's Animal House, The Deer Hunter, Heaven Can Wait and the movie version of Grease were the year's biggest films.

Hit songs included You're The One That I Want by John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, Grease by Frankie Valli, Kiss You All Over by Exile and Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees.
 
 

1979
As the year began, full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic Of China were enacted.
Thousands were evacuated when a cooling system failed at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The General Accounting Office admitted that thousands of U.S. troops had been sprayed with Agent Orange during the Viet Nam war. The toxic herbicide was known to cause mild to severe neurological problems.

121 people died in a blizzard that blanketed most of the midwest with snow and ice.

60 died and over 820 were injured when tornadoes ripped across the Texas-Oklahoma border.

Hurricane Frederic caused $1,500,000,000 damage along the Gulf Coast of Texas, Louisiana and Florida. 8 people were killed.

275 persons died when a DC-10 crashed shortly after taking off from O'Hare Airport in Chicago.

The Sioux Nation was compensated for its land under terms of an 1877 treaty. Adjusted for inflation, the tribe was awarded $17,497,500.

The Skylab III broke up upon crashing to Earth. Fragments were recovered in New Zealand and Australia.

Andrew Young resigned as U.N. ambassador after admitting he had conducted unsanctioned meetings with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Puerto Rican nationalists killed two American sailors after ambushing a U.S. military bus near San Juan.

Iranian revolutionaries seized the U.S. Embassy in Teheran and took 65 Americans hostage. 15 were let go. The militants demanded that he U.S. turn over the deposed Shah of Iran, who was in the U.S. for cancer treatments.

At the urging of President Carter, Congress voted to guarantee the financially-troubled Chrysler Corporation a loan credit of $1,500,000,000.

Ronald Reagan announced he would run for president in the 1980 primaries.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. dedicated the library bearing his father's name in Boston.

Hit movies included Superman - The Movie, Kramer Vs. Kramer, The China Syndrome, Norma Rae and Being There. During the Hollywood premiere of Being There, the movie was stopped as the theater manager announced that its star, Peter Sellers, had died of a heart attack.

Disco & rock continued to duke it out on the music charts, with hits including My Sharona by the Knack, Pop Muzik by M, Do You Think I'm Sexy? by Rod Stewart, Tragedy by the Bee Gees and Ring My Bell by Anita Ward. The Grammy for Album Of The Year was awarded to Billy Joel's 52nd Street.
1980
President Carter authorized the use of government land for the Viet Nam War Memorial.
U.S. Senator Harrison Williams and seven members of congress were among 31 public officials implicated in Operation Abscam, an FBI corruption investigation.

Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigned in opposition to a failed mission to rescue American hostages from Iran.

The doctor of the late Elvis Presley was indicted on charges of over-prescribing medication to Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Mt. St. Helens in southwest Washington erupted, killing 62 and spreading thick ash over an area of 250 square miles. A geologist who barely escaped after monitoring the eruption said the blast was hundreds of times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The eruption toppled trees and stripped them of their bark in a national forest 20 miles from the explosion.

14 died in race riots in Miami following the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating death of a black man.
 

Ronald Reagan was nominated as the Republican candidate for U.S. President. Reagan and running mate George Bush soundly defeated Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale in the November election.

John Lennon was murdered by a deranged fan outside his apartment building on New York's Central Park West.
 

Richard Burton returned to Broadway for a 56-performance revival of Camelot.

Popular movies included Best Picture-winner Ordinary People, The Empire Strikes Back, Raging Bull, Superman II and Coal Miner's Daughter.

Dallas was the top TV show. Hill Street Blues debuted on NBC.

Hit tunes included Funkytown by Lipps, Inc., Call Me by Blondie, (Just Like) Starting Over by John Lennon, It's Still Rock & Roll To Me by Billy Joel and Sailing by newcomer Christopher Cross, who snagged Grammys for Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Song Of The Year.
 
 

1981
After 444 days in captivity, 52 American hostages were released by Iran on the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th president.
John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan with a .22 handgun. The president quickly recovered from a wound to his left lung after surgery, but press secretary James Brady suffered severe brain damage. A secret service agent and Washington police officer were also shot.

The federal minimum wage was raised to $3.35 per hour.

President Reagan lifted a ban on commercial recycling of nuclear fuel, despite fears that the action could put weapons-grade plutonium in the hands of terrorists. The president authorized development of the neutron bomb.

President Reagan issued an excutive order giving the CIA its first full authority to conduct domestic covert operations.

The U.S. Navy shot down two Libyan jets that had fired upon them while conducting training excercises in the Gulf Of Sidra.
 

Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Columbia, the nation's first space shuttle, was launched April 12th.

The royal wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana drew more Americans to their TV sets than coverage of the assassination attempt on the president.

Chariots Of Fire won the Oscar for best picture. Raiders Of The Lost Ark became the first film to draw over $100 million in its first two weeks at the box office.

Walter Cronkite retired from The CBS Evening News.

The top-selling song of the year was Physical by Olivia Newton-John.
 
 

1982
San Francisco banned the sale and possession of handguns.
President Reagan reinstituted draft registration for young men aged 18 to 21.

George Schultz replaced Alexander Haig as Secretary Of State.

The president proposed a $26,000,000,000 program to develop MX multiple-warhead missiles.

Although the Justice Department cleared Richard Allen of taking $1000 from a foreign newspaper in exchange for an interview with the first lady, the national security advisor resigned his post.

Conservative columnist Phyllis Schlaffley expressed her pleasure at the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, which failed to get the required ratification of 38 states.

Seven deaths due to cyanide-filled Tylenol capsules led the government to impose new tamper-resistant packaging for over-the-counter drugs.

78 died when an Air Florida jet crashed into a bridge over the Potomac River in D.C.

154 died when a Pan Am jet crashed after takeoff in New Orleans.

22 died in flooding in Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri.

The first successful artificial heart transplant took place at the University Of Utah Medical Center.

Comedian John Belushi died of an overdose of cocaine and heroin.

Automobile mogul John Delorean was arrested for cocaine possesion.

Cats and the musical version of Little Shop Of Horrors opened on Broadway.

CBS's 60 Minutes returned to the #1 ratings spot. Cheers debuted on NBC.

Elvis Presley's Memphis home, Graceland, was opened to the public.

Hit tunes included Maneater by Hall & Oates, I Love Rock & Roll by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Mickey by Toni Basil and Always On My Mind by Willie Nelson.
 
 

1983
The Justice Department launched an investigation of the Reagan presidential campaign's alleged 1980 theft of briefing books from President Jimmy Carter's staff.
Elizabeth Dole replaced Drew Lewis as Secretary Of Transportation.

General Motors announced a partnership with rival Toyota to produce fuel-efficiant cars car for U.S. market.

President Reagan challenged the country's weapons engineers to create a Star Wars system which would ward off nuclear attack with armed satellites.

A federal disaster area was declared when dangerous amounts of dioxin were found in the soil at Times Beach, Missouri.

California's strongest earthquake in 12 years caused massive destruction in Coalinga and western Fresno county, an area not usually affected by temblors.

The United American Bank Of Knoxville failed, forcing the FDIC to pay off $760,000,000 to depositors.

250,000 participated in a 20th anniversary recreation of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights March On Washington.

William Clark replaced Interior Secretary James Watt after Watt joked about minorities at a press briefing.

241 U.S. Navy and Marines personnel were killed in a suicide bombing attack in Beirut. Seven Americans were killed in embassy bomb attacks in Kuwait.

U.S. forces invaded Grenada to guard evacuations of U.S. citizens after a Marxist takeover.

As a crew member of the space shuttle Challenger, Sally Ride became America's first woman in space.

Hit films included Flashdance, Return Of The Jedi, The Big Chill, Risky Business, The Right Stuff and Sudden Impact.

120 million watched as M*A*S*H ended its CBS-TV run with a two-hour special.

Chart-topping songs included Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics, Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners, Total Eclipse Of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler and Down Under by Men At Work. Michael Jackson was awarded Grammys for Album Of The Year for Thriller, Record Of The Year for Beat It and Best Male Vocal for the song Thriller.
 
 

1984
President Reagan ordered the withdrawl of the U.S. Marines from Beirut.
Rev. Jesse Jackson negotiated the release of 22 Americans with Cuban premier Fidel Castro.

During an audio level check prior to his regular radio address, President Reagan joked that the U.S. had launched a nuclear attack on the Soviets. Although the remark was not broadcast on radio stations, the Soviet Union went into a brief state of red alert because they were monitoring the White House's communications satellite channel.

Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan was charged with 136 counts of fraud.

For the first time, American astronauts walked untethered in space and repaired orbiting satellites during shuttle missions.

Singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father out of self-defense during a violent argument at the home they shared in Los Angeles. The singer had been exhibiting signs of mental instability and suicidal tendencies. Gaye's last live performance had been his a capella rendition of The Star Spangled Banner at the NBA All Star Game.

The U.S. re-established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican. They had been suspended in 1867.

Texaco and Getty Oil entered into the planet's largest corporate merger to date. Texaco would later be penalized $3,000,000,000 for attempting to thwart Pennzoil's bid to merge with Getty.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale named Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate following his Democratic nomination.

In the largest landslide for Republicans in U.S. history, Ronald Reagan and George Bush were re-elected by winning 49 states.

The World Court labeled the U.S. as an aggressor nation as the CIA mined ports in Nicaragua.

25 died when winds raging over 100 miles per hour blew through Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota.

29 perished in 36 inches of blowing snow as fast-moving blizzards swept across Utah and Colorado.

18 died when a storm of sleet and hail crippled the eastern seaboard from Washington to Cape Cod.

Tornadoes in the Carolinas killed 71 and caused $400,000,000 damage.

Dow and several other chemical companies established the Agent Orange Fund for Viet Nam vets who had been exposed to the herbicide.

President Reagan dedicated the Viet Nam Memorial, a V-shaped wall of names designed by Yale student Maya Lang Yin.

Disneyland celebrated Donald Duck's 50th birthday.

A Chorus Line broke the Broadway endurance record.

Indiana Jones In The Temple Of Doom and Beverly Hills Cop were the top two movies in box office receipts. Amadeus got the Oscar for Best Picture.

The highest rated broadcast of the year was the TV Movie The Burning Bed, starring Farrah Fawcett. Miami Vice debuted on NBC and became an instant hit.

Number one songs included Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, Jump by Van Halen, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!, Like A Virgin by Madonna, When Doves Cry by Prince and the triple-Grammy-winner What's Love Got To Do With It? by Tina Turner.
 
 

1985
Outdoor portions of the Reagan/Bush inauguration were canceled due to extremely cold weather. The bitter cold wave was responsible for at least 40 deaths, with record-breaking low temperatures near -25°F from the east coast to the midwest.
13 people were charged with spying against the U.S. in the course of the year. Most were past or present members of the CIA, FBI or U.S. Navy.

William Brock was nominated to replace Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan. Ed Meece became the Attorney General.

Newport, Rhode Island millionaire Claus Von Bulow was found not guilty of attempting to murder his wife.

Coca Cola outraged its customers by introducing a reformulated version of the long-popular soft drink. 20 weeks later, the company announced it would bring back the old recipe under the name Coke Classic.

3 died and 300,000 were evacuated when hurricane Gloria ripped through coastal communities from North Carolina to Rhode Island.

Hurricane Juan killed 7 and created a billion dollars worth of damage along the Gulf Coast.

President Reagan and Communist Party Leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to work on a plan for strategic arms limitations at a summit meeting in Geneva.

After a long period of denial, Rock Hudson announced he was suffering from AIDS, and died October 2nd.  Mother Teresa dedicated an AIDS hospice in New York City on Christmas Eve.

Hit movies included Back To The Future and Cocoon. Out Of Africa received Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.

The Cosby Show became America's #1 TV show.

Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie co-wrote We Are The World, which became an all-star performance under the direction of Quincy Jones. Featuring vocals by artists as diverse as Bob Dylan and Cyndi Lauper - under the name USA For Africa - the song and its video helped raise millions of dollars for starving children in famine-stricken Africa.
 
 

1986
Reduced safety standards in an attempt to speed up the launch date resulted in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger shortly after takeoff. Elementary school teacher Christa McAulliffe - appointed to the mission by President Reagan - died in the blast as her students watched TV coverage in her Concord, New Hampshire classroom.

4 Americans were among those killed when a bomb exploded aboard a TWA jet en route to Athens from Rome.

6,000,000 participated in Hands Across America, raising money for programs for the country's homeless.

25 died when a plane and helicopter collided over the Grand Canyon.

The celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty took place on Independence Day. The statue had undergone a massive renovation before the event.

The surviving crewman of a plane shot down over Nicaragua confirmed that the CIA was running weapons to the Contras. Three weeks later, it was disclosed that the U.S. had been secretly selling arms to Iran. After Attorney General Ed Meece admitted that the arms proceeds were being diverted to arming the Contras, President Reagan fired security advisors Admiral John Pointdexter and Lt. Col. Oliver North. The president insisted he had no knowledge of the operation.

Congress authorized $20 million in military aid to Honduras to protect Contras under attack by Nicaraguan invaders.

President Reagan signed a relaxed gun control law which would allow interstate retail sales of rifles. Police associations had lobbied against the revised law. Former press secretary James Brady, who had been critically injured in the assassination attempt against the president in 1981, was appalled that Reagan signed the measure.

By a landslide vote, Republican Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, California.

Popular movies included Top Gun, The Color Of Money, Crocodile Dundee, Platoon, Alien and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Fatherhood by Bill Cosby topped the bestseller list, and his TV series remained #1. L.A. Law debuted on NBC. Bruce Willis received an Emmy for Best Actor In A Drama for ABC's Moonlighting.

That's What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick & Friends (Gladys Knight, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder) was the number one song of the year. Royalties benefitted pediatric AIDS research.
 
 

1987
Incorrect track assignments resulted in the crash of an Amtrak passenger train into three Conrail engines in Maryland. 15 were killed and 180 were injured.
A freak blizzard blanketed the entire east coast - from Florida to Maine - with snow. Over 20 inches of snow fell in a 24-hour period in North Carolina. The storm caused 41 deaths.

7 died and 111 were injured when the Los Angeles area was rocked by a 6.1-Richter-Scale earthquake.

Congress overrode President Reagan's veto of the Clean Water Act.

The Tower Commission blamed President Reagan for failing to understand the impact of selling arms to Iran and diverting the proceeds to Contra rebels. The commission also laid blame on Chief Of Staff Donald Regan, who the president fired the next day. After three months of Iran-Contra hearings conducted by a Congressional committee, Reagan was blamed for failing his constitutional duties as president in allowing aides to carry out the operations, whether or not they did so with his knowledge.

TV Evangelist Jim Bakker, who with his wife Tammy hosted the popular PTL Club, was convicted of 24 counts of fraud and defrocked by the Assemblies Of God church.

28 died and 53 were injured when a Continental passenger jet broke into three pieces attempting to take off during a heavy snowstorm in Denver.

Vice President George Bush declared his intention to seek the GOP nomination for the presidency. Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew from the primary race after a sex scandal.

Greg Lamonde became the first American to win the Tour De France.

Popular movies included Fatal Attraction, Broadcast News, Moonstruck and The Last Emperor.

The angst-ridden yuppie drama Thirtysomething debuted on ABC-TV. The Cosby Show was still number one.

Hit tunes included I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2, Faith by George Michael, At This Moment by Billy Vera & The Beaters (reissued after being featured in an episode of Family Ties), and Open Your Heart by Madonna.
 
 

1988
The Arizona State Senate voted 21-to-9 to remove the governor. Evan Mecham had been convicted of lending $80,000 in state money to his car dealership. He also was convicted of obstructing justice in the investigation into an alleged death threat made by one of his staffers to a Grand Jury witness.
Structural failure was blamed when a hole in the fuselage of a Boeing 737 over Hawaii caused a flight attendant to be sucked out of the jet.

Attorney General Ed Meece resigned after an investigation claimed he had attempted to take a bribe from a company in exchange for defense contracts. A special prosecutor also accused Meece of filing a false income tax return.

The Puyallup Indians of Washington State were given $162 million in exchange for dropping their claim to the city of Tacoma.

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart confessed his sins to Jesus on live TV after it was learned he had a trist with a prostitute. His church banned him from preaching for a year.

The first shuttle since the Challenger exploded, the Discovery, was launched successfully. Celebrities like William Shatner, The Beach Boys and Robin Williams volunteered their talents to do special wake-up messages for the crew.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. was named Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine shortly after delivering a charismatic address to the Democratic National Convention. Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen were nominated to the ticket.

On a platform which included a promise of no new taxes, George Bush won his party's nomination, with running mate Dan Quayle. A tearful Ronald Reagan passed the torch to Bush upon his victory in November.

President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to dismantle short-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

Eugene Mariho became the first African American bishop in the Catholic Church.

Rain Man garnered Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. Dustin Hoffman's performance earned him the Best Actor award. Box office hits also included A Fish Called Wanda and Die Hard.

The Cosby Show was the year's most popular TV show for the fourth straight year. CBS introduced Candice Bergen as Murphy Brown. Roseanne debuted on ABC and shot to number one in the weekly ratings. Thirtysomething grabbed the Emmy for Best Drama Series.

Roy Orbison, enjoying a comeback as a member of the Traveling Wilburys and as a solo act, died of a heart attack at 52.

Number one hits included Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison and Don't Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin.
 
 

1989
3,980 were injured and 66 were killed when an earthquake measuring 6.9 shook the San Francisco-Oakland-Santa Cruz area, causing a double-tiered freeway bridge to collapse. The quake struck as the third World Series Game was about to begin at Candlestick Park. Damage to the region was estimated at $10,000,000,000.
House Speaker Jim Wright resigned after the Ethics Committee accused him of accepting inappropriate gifts. He was replaced by Thomas Foley.

President Bush - who had campaigned with the promise of no tax raises - called for an increase in income taxes to help curb the deficit which had begun to snowball during the Reagan administration.

The Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound, creating the largest domestic oil spill in history. The tanker's captain, Joseph Hazelwood, was accused of drunkeness and negligence.

97 per cent of the buildings in St. Croix were destroyed by Hurricane Hugo. The storm caused billions of dollars in damage to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and portions of the east coast. Amazingly, only 25 lives were lost.

47 sailors died in an explosion aboard the U.S.S. Iowa. The Navy originally said a sailor had caused the blast in a suicide attempt, but later recinded that conclusion without offering another explanation.

Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry was arrested after being videotaped smoking crack cocaine in a motel room.

The logging industry braced for hard times and court battles when the Northern Spotted Owl was added to the Endangered Species List.

23 Americans were killed and over 300 were wounded after President Bush authorized an invasion of Panama in an attempt to arrest General Manuel Noriega. The invasion took place just before Christmas and Noriega surrendered just after the New Year. He was taken to the U.S. to strand trial for drug trafficking.
 

Lincoln Savings & Loan chief Charles Keating was indicted on 42 criminal fraud charges.

Baseball superstar Pete Rose was banished from the game for life by the Commisioner Of Baseball. Rose had admitted to gambling on professional sports but denied the Commissioner's finding that he had bet on his own team.

Driving Miss Daisy received the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its star, Jessica Tandy, was named Best Actress.

NBC's Cheers became the number one TV series. Law & Order debuted.

Hit songs included Vogue by Madonna and Another Day In Paradise by Phil Collins, which received a Grammy for Record Of The Year.

1990
Although the Bush administration doubled its estimate for bailing out the savings & loan industry to $130,000,000,000, congress appropriated half that figure.
Former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos went on trial in the U.S. for fraud charges.

Michael Milken, the so-called Junk Bond King, was convicted for violating securities laws. He was sentenced to 10 years, fined $200,000,000 and ordered to pay back $400,000,000.

A House subcommittee determined that Americans were spending $30,000,000,000 a year on weight-loss products or programs that were ineffective or threatened their health.

Ivana Trump filed for a divorce from Donald Trump.

87 died when the illegal Happy Land Social Club burned in the Bronx, New York. Julio Gonzales was later convicted for arson and 87 counts of murder.

29 died in flash flooding in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Fog was blamed for 75 collisions that killed 15 and injured 55 on Interstate 75 in Tennessee.

Former ambassador to the U.K., Walter H. Annenberg, donated $50,000,000 to the United Negro College Fund.

Operation Desert Shield consisted of 527,000 American military personel sent to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Officials said the AIDS epidemic was spreading throughout all societal factions in America at an alarming rate. Act Up! members disrupted the opening of The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather, chanting, "Fight AIDS, not Arabs!" The opening segment was re-recorded for broadcast in the western time zones.

Paintings valued at $100,000,000 were stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The Supreme Court ruled that police must stop interrogating a suspect after her or she requests an attorney be present.

"I've fallen and I can't get up!" became a catch phrase due to a frequently-running TV ad for Lifeline, an emergency call necklace marketed to seniors.

Puppeteer and Muppets co-creator Jim Henson died at age 53 from a strain of strep known as "the flesh-eating virus."

A Chorus Line wrapped up its run on Broadway after 6,237 performances ... nearly twice the run of the former record-holder, Grease.

James "Buster" Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson to receive the world heavyweight boxing championship, only to be knocked out 8 months later by Evander Holyfield.

Kevin Costner won Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for Dances With Wolves.
 

Law & Order and Beverly Hills 90210 debuted on TV. Cheers, thirtysomething, and Murphy Brown were top-rated shows.

Hit songs included Escapade by Janet Jackson, Love Takes Time by Mariah Carey, Black Velvet by Alannah Miles, Step By Step by New Kids On The Block, It Must Have Been Love by Roxette and How Am I Supposed To Live Without You? by Michael Bolton.

1991
Less than 48 hours after Iraq ignored a U.N. deadline for withdrawing troops from Kuwait, President Bush announced that the U.S. and coalition forces had attacked Baghdad. The high-tech Operation Desert Storm, dubbed the Persian Gulf War, ended 41 days later with an announcement that Kuwait had been liberated. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein remained in power.
White Los Angeles police officers were videotaped beating black construction worker Rodney King during a traffic stop.

The body of President Zachary Taylor was exhumed to determine whether or not he was assassinated by a dose of arsenic. Tests showed no traces of arsenic.

Arkansas governor Bill Clinton announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president.

The full Senate confirmed Clarence Thomas to replace retiring justice Thurgood Marshall on the supreme court, despite claims of sexual harrassment by University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill.

25 died as 79 spring tornadoes raced through seven central and southern states in a 24-hour period.

Jane Fonda and Ted Turner were married.

Magic Johnson announced his retirement from the NBA after testing positive for HIV.

The Postal Service raised the first class stamp from 25¢ to 29¢.

President Bush and the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to reduce nuclear weapons inventories.

The Census Bureau announced that the U.S. population had reached 252,000,000.

Children's author Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel died at age 87.

Jazz greats Miles Davis and Stan Getz both died at the age of 65.

The top-selling novel of the year was Scarlett, Alexandra Ripley's sequel to Gone With The Wind.

Both Best Actor Tonys went to Englishmen - Nigel Hawthorne for the play Shadowlands, and Jonathan Price for the musical Miss Saigon.

The Silence Of The Lambs, starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, swept the top Oscar Awards - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress. Bill Murray proved to be the perfect antagonist for Richard Dreyfus in What About Bob?

60 Minutes regained its position as the number one TV show. Coverage of the Persian Gulf War helped CNN's cable news networks surge in popularity.

The Grammy Awards' Record Of The Year was Another Day In Paradise by Phil Collins. Quincy Jones' Back On The Block was named Album Of The Year. Hits included Baby Baby by Amy Grant and One More Try by Timmy T.

1992
One of the world's most destructive hurricanes, Andrew, killed 37 people, totaled nearly 100,000 buildings, and caused an estimated $20,000,000,000 damage in Florida.
Billionaire H. Ross Perot said he'd seek the presidency if volunteers got him on all the state ballots. Citing unspecified family threats, Perot withdrew from the race in July, but re-entered it in October.

While news cameras rolled, President Bush threw up and passed out while dining at the home of Japan's prime minister. He was diagnosed with a case of the flu.

Saying it would "retard technology," President Bush told the Earth Summit in Brazil that the U.S. would not sign a treaty that would protect endangered plants and animals. 172 other nations supported the measure.

Vice President Dan Quayle said the plot line to Murphy Brown, in which Candice Bergen's character chose to be a single mother, was an attack on family values.

Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore defeated incumbant Republicans George Bush and Dan Quayle for the presidency and vice presidency. Independent H. Ross Perot received over 18,000,000 votes, but received no electoral votes.

Six weeks after his defeat at the polls, President Bush pardoned six Reagan Administration members - including Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger - for any charges or convictions in the Iran-Contra operation.

Riots, looting and burning broke out in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four white police officers on the major counts in the beating of Rodney King. King appealed to blacks and whites to get along.

Large department store chains began to show losses, with Alexander's, Woolworth and Macy's closing stores. Macy's filed for bankruptcy.

A 20-block area in Chicago's Loop was paralyzed for a week when the Chicago River leaked into underground tunnels and caused widespread flooding.

The FDA warned recipients of a mechanical heart valve implant to have the valves replaced. The manufacturer reported that two-thirds of the recipients had died from the valve's mechanical failure.

By a 3-to-1 margin, Americans voted on a younger image of Elvis Presley for use on a commemorative stamp.

Glassboro State College changed its name to Rowan College of New Jersey after manufacturer Henry Rowan made a $100,000,000 donation to the facility.

Broadcast TV was beginning to lose large numbers of viewers to cable-only channels.

After three decades, Johnny Carson retired as host of The Tonight Show. Because NBC had ignored Carson's recommendation that he be succeeded by David Letterman, Carson never mentioned that Jay Leno had been chosen to take over the show. Letterman struck a multi-million-dollar deal with CBS to compete with Tonight.

The National Space & Air Museum opened an exhibit of Star Trek memorabilia, including the ears of Mr. Spock.

Basic Instinct was the year's most popular movie.

Broadway, now a 50/50 mixture of new productions and revivals, reported that its 1991-1992 season was the most financially successful ever.

Hit tunes included I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred, Save The Best For Last by Vanessa Williams and Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me by George Michael & Elton John.
 

1993
Bill Clinton was inaugurated as America's 42nd president. Fleetwood Mac, whose song Don't Stop had been used by the Clinton campaign, reunited for the inaugural ball. Group member Lindsey Buckingham commented that the music and political scenes were surprisingly similar.
In the first major act of terrorism in the continental U.S., a bomb explosion at New York's World Trade Center killed five and injured 290.

Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood were both withdrawn as candidates for Attorney General because they had employed illegal aliens as domestics. Janet Reno was confirmed for the position in March.

Branch Dividian cult members in Waco, Texas killed four officers attempting to arrest leader David Koresch in February. The standoff continued until April, when Federal officers attacked the cult's fortified compound. The resulting fire killed Koresch and 80 followers and their children. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms contended that the compound had been rigged to self-destruct.

Withdrawal began of GIs, marines and navy SEALs who had been sent to Somalia for Operation Restore Hope. 12 Americans died in the operation, which began shortly before Christmas 1992.

Space Shuttle Endeavour astronauts successfully repaired the orbiting Hubble Telescope.

Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was suspended from baseball for a year for making racist comments.

The North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Ed Begley, Jr. were among those who attended the funeral for union activist Cesar Chavez in Delano, California.

Home computers and the Internet became the hottest new technologies embraced by consumers.

Radio's Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern and TV's Jerry Seinfeld authored non-fiction best-sellers.

Former President George Bush lampooned himself when he made a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Picket Fences took the Emmy for Best Drama series. Seinfeld was chosen Best Comedy.

Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park and Schindler's List were on the big screen. Tom Hanks starred in Sleepless In Seattle and Philadelphia. Other hit films included The Firm, The Piano and The Fugitive.

Whitney Houston's love song from The Bodyguard, I Will Always Love You, was the top-selling song.
 

1994
Americans celebrated as South Africa's white government voted itself out of existence and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela assumed the presidency. Sadly, the good news was tempered by reports from Rwanda that 100,000 had died in a bloody civil war, and reports of escalating violence between Muslims and Serbs in Bosnia.

The U.S. population exceeded 265,000,000.

The agenda announced in President Clinton's State Of The Union Address - including national health insurance, gun control, and federal drug treatment programs - caused a bitter backlash among conservatives. Increasingly vocal Republicans - from radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to Representative Newt Gingrich - launched media-blitz attacks on Clinton's social reform, effectively killing federally-guaranteed health care. Conservative media pundits intensified their denouncements of Clinton's alleged financial and personal misconduct. Offering a "Contract With America" to restore conservativism to the federal government, Republicans gained control of the House and Senate, under the leadership of Gingrich and Senator Bob Dole.

Breathtaking photos of forming galaxies were relayed to Earth by the Hubble telescope.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died of cancer. Her son, John F. Kennedy, Jr., announced her death to admirers and media that had gathered outside her Manhattan condo building.

Actor and former football great O.J. Simpson failed to appear in court on charges of brutally murdering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. Millions watched live TV coverage as Simpson's white Ford Bronco, driven by friend Al Cowlings, led police on a "slow speed chase" through Los Angeles County. Simpson was taken into custody at the journey's end - Simpson's Brentwood estate. Simpson vehemently denied committing the murders.

A major league baseball strike over the issue of salary caps caused cancelation of the World Series. There was plenty of Texas pride as Dallas took the Super Bowl and Houston won the NBA Playoffs.

Self-annointed "King of Pop" Michael Jackson - wearing a bandage on his nose - married Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, in the Dominican Republic. Jackson said "why not?" instead of "I do" in the brief civil ceremony.

At age 47, George Foreman regained the world heavyweight title by defeating 27-year-old Michael Moorer.

Photographer and animal rights activist Linda McCartney, touring the U.S. to promote her line of vegetarian frozen foods, called on people to care more about each other. Ex-Beatle and husband Paul made surprise appearances from the reporters' section at several of her press conferences.

Pulp Fiction - directed by Quentin Tarantino - took highest honors at the Cannes Film Festival.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead from a self-inflected gunshot wound in the apartment over the garage of his Seattle home.

As alternative rock and urban hip-hop clashed on the pop music charts, hundreds of U.S. radio stations switched to "Modern Rock" or "Adult Alternative Album" formats. Others adjusted from mainstream pop to "Urban Contemporary," highlighting rhythm and blues and rap.

Acts as diverse as Cypress Hill, Metallica, Sheryl Crow, CSN, Salt-N-Peppa, Bob Dylan and the Cranberries performed at Woodstock '94, marking the 25th anniversary of the original event.
 

1995
In the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, the front half of the federal building in Oklahoma City was literally blown to bits, killing 168 and injuring hundreds more. The sound of the blast was recorded on a notetaking machine at a municipal building across the street, which also sustainted heavy damage. Army buddies Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested in the case.
After a long, televised trial in which much physical evidence was determined to be tainted and not admissible, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his estranged wife and her friend.

Seven died when storm waters washed out a two-lane bridge on Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. The state had been warned as early as 1969 that the structure was weak.

Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady became a national hero. After his F-16 was shot down over Bosnia, Captain O'Grady survived on rainwater and insects until rescued by the Marines six days later.

Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose U.S. House came under Republican control for the first time in 40 years, raised eyebrows by declaring women unfit for battle in the armed forces.

A quarter-million federal employees were temporarily unemployed during a partial shutdown of the government due to budget haggling between President Clinton and the now-Republican Congress.

Republican Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon resigned after an ethics committee accused him of sexual misconduct. Democratic Congressman Mel Reynolds of Illinois resigned after his conviction on felony charges resulting from an affair with an underage assistant.

Susan Smith - who had claimed her sons, aged 1 and 3, were kidnapped during a carjacking by a black man - was convicted of murder. She had strapped the boys into her car and rolled it into a South Carolina lake.

After much hype and promotion, the Microsoft computer operating system Windows 95 was released to brisk sales.

Baseball great Mickey Mantle died of cancer.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. launched George magazine.

Superman star Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after falling off a horse at an equestrian event in Virginia.

Forrest Gump won six Academy Awards. Its star, Tom Hanks, was awarded the Best Actor Oscar for the second year in a row.

Republican Senate leader Bob Dole announced he was running for president on Late Night With David Letterman.

Grateful Dead founder Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack at a drug rehabilitation center.

Shortly before the release of her first English-language album, Tejano superstar Selena was shot and killed. Police arrested the leader of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who was found guilty a few months later.

Hits included One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey & Boys II Men, I Can Love You Like That by All-4-One and Kiss From A Rose by Seal.
 

1996
Former Secretary of the Interior James Watt pleaded guilty to grand jury-tampering in a 1980s HUD influence-peddling investigation.
55 people perished as a result of a blizzard which dropped record amounts of snow from Maine to South Carolina.

Billionaire John duPont was charged with the shooting death of Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz.

5 died when a Navy F-14 fighter crashed into a residential neighborhood in Nashville.

12 were killed and 39 injured when Amtrak and Maryland Rail Commuter trains collided during heavy snow outside Washington, D.C.

John Salvi III was convicted of murder in the 1994 attacks on two Massachusetts abortion clinics. He killed himself in his jail cell eight months later.

After a tip to authorities from his brother, the notorious mail-bomb terrorist known as the Unabomber - Ted Kaczynski - was arrested at a remote cabin outside of Lincoln, Montana.

Former congressman Dan Rostenkowski was sentenced to 17 months in prison and ordered to pay $100,000 in fines on two counts of mail fraud.

7-year-old Jessica Dubroff was killed while attempting to become the youngest person to fly cross-country. Her father and a flight instructor also died when the overweight plane attempted to take off during bad weather in Wyoming.

109 died when ValuJet flight 592 crashed into the Everglades.

230 perished when TWA flight 800 exploded off Long Island, New York.

Nearly 200,000 school children were part of a rally at the Lincoln Memorial to protest Congress' cuts in social and educational programs.

8 people died when a Scottstown, Ohio fireworks store caught fire and exploded on the day before Independence Day.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life without parole following their convictions for slaying their parents.

Richard Allen Davis was convicted and sentenced to death in the high-profile murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas from Petaluma, California.

During testimony in the Whitewater case, President Clinton denied he had attempted to obtain an illegal loan for the venture. James and Susan MacDougal and Arkansas Governor Jim Tucker - former business partners of Bill and Hillary Clinton - were convicted of fraud. Susan MacDougal was held in contempt for refusing to tell a grand jury whether or not President Clinton perjured himself. Herby Branscum, Jr. and Robert Hill were cleared of misusing bank funds.

President Clinton - on a theme of bridging the gap to the 21st century - defeated Bob Dole to keep his presidency, but Republicans remained in control of Congress.

The U.S. fired cruise missiles into Iraq after the country invaded safe havens for the Kurds. The next day, U.S. forces destroyed an Iraqi radar site after Iraqi anti-aircraft missiles fired on U.N. forces in the No-Fly Zone.

Evander Holyfield defeated Mike Tyson for the heavyweight championship.

Radio, TV and movie comedian George Burns died at age 100.

Upon learning the clothing products bearing her name may have been made by children in foreign sweatshops, Kathie Lee Gifford implored investigators to ban offending manufacturers from exporting goods to the United States.

"Pigmania" was taking place with the popularity of the movie Babe, but it was the Sesame Street doll Tickle Me Elmo that caused stampedes at American toy stores during the Christmas season.

Three productions each received four Tony Awards:  Rent,  Bring In 'Da Funk and the revival of The King And I.

A paralyzed Christopher Reeve received a 3-minute standing ovation when he appeared at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Elizabeth Taylor filed for divorce from husband #7, Larry Fortensky.

Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson. 10 months later, Jackson married his plastic surgeon's nurse, Debbie Rowe, who was pregnant with his baby.

Madonna gave birth to a daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone.

Rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg was acquitted of murder in a gang slaying.

Hit songs included I Believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly and Sunny Came Home by Shawn Colvin.
 

1997
O.J. Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in a civil trial. He was ordered to pay $33,500,000 in compensation.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing.

39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult were found dead in their California headquarters. Detectives uncovered a video tape by leader Marshall Applewhite, who said the cult planned to travel to new bodies in a space ship accompanying the Comet Hale-Bopp.

In a 33-hour spacewalk, astronauts recalibrated the Hubble Telescope. The space shuttle Atlantis docked with Russia's Mir space station twice in four months to drop off and pick up astronaut Michael Foale. The Mars Sojourner became the first vehicle to navigate the surface of another planet.

California and Nevada flooded under heavy winter rains and melting snowpacks. 53,000 were evacuated and visitors were trapped inside Yosemite National Park. 50,000 residents were forced to abandon Grand Forks, North Dakota due to flooding. The Ohio River went over its banks at Louisville, Kentucky. Winter blizzards crippled portions of the midwest. A hard freeze in Florida destroyed $298,000,000 worth of crops. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms tore through portions of Arkansas, killing 20.

Vice President Al Gore admitted to soliciting political contributions from his White House office. A senate panel investigating 1996 campaign contributions issued 52 subpoenas to Democratic donors and members of the Clinton administration shortly after Clinton and Gore were sworn in for their second terms. A couple months later, Republicans were found to have taken illegal contributions from a Hong Kong company and announced the money would be returned.

Newt Gingrich became the first Speaker of the House in U.S. history to be censured and fined for ethical misconduct. Former Senate leader Bob Dole offered to loan Gingrich the money to pay his fine.

President Clinton re-dedicated the renovated Library of Congress on its 100th anniversary.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Paula Jones could persue her sexual harrassment case against President Clinton while he was in office. Well-off Republicans rallied to finance her lawyer fees, clothing, coiffures, living expenses and cosmetic surgery.

156 were injured when an Amtrak train derailed on a Kingman, Arizona bridge. Later in the year, President Clinton signed a $2,300,000,000 package intended to give the financially-strapped railway the ability to manage itself.

Best Stores closed all 180 outlets in 24 states. The 117-year-old Woolworth chain closed its last 405 stores.

Army drill sergeant Delmar Simpson was sentenced to 25 years for raping six subordinates.

Beth Ann Hogan became the first female to attend the Virginia Military Institute.

Over 1,300 African-American employees shared a $115,000,000 race discrimination settlement from Texaco.

President Clinton rejected an international ban on land mines that had been endorsed by 89 other countries.

America and the world mourned as Princess Diana and her fiancé died in a firey car crash in Paris while being persued by photographers. George Clooney held a press conference to denounce the tactics of the tabloid press. Four days later, the world was thrown into more grief with the passing of Mother Teresa, who died of a heart attack at 87.

Book distributor Baker & Taylor was accused of overcharging libraries and schools by hundreds of millions of dollars.

200,000 children were innoculated for hepatitis A after the disease was traced to frozen strawberries in the school lunch program.

A U.S. court overturned the life sentence for British nanny Louise Woodward in the shaking death of baby Matthew Eappan.

American Volkswagen dealers were swamped with advance orders when the redesigned Beetle model was re-introduced.

The day after a 554-point drop, the Stock Market posted its biggest-ever one-day gain to date, with 1,100,000,000 shares traded.

Comic book and trading card collector stores began springing up after a 1939 Batman comic book commanded $68,500 at an auction.

Suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan was found dead from a self-inflicted wound after the murder of fashion designer Gianni Varsache.

Living septuplets were born to Bobbie & Kenny McCaughey of Iowa.

Nearly a half-million Christian men rallied at a Promise Keepers event in Washington.

3 were killed and 5 injured when a 14-year-old fired shots into a prayer group at a West Paducah, Kentucky high school.

Bill Cosby's son, Ennis, was shot to death in a roadside robbery on a Los Angeles-area freeway. A woman claiming to be the senior Cosby's love child, Autumn Jackson, was tried for attempting to extort hush money.

The Green Bay Packers defeated the New England Patriots 35 to 10 at Super Bowl XXI.

On the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson becoming the first black major league baseball player, his number, 42, was retired.

Mike Tyson was disqualified after biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear during the heavyweight title match.

After public denial, sportscaster Marv Albert pleaded guilty to biting a lover. NBC-TV fired him within an hour of his plea. Albert avoided jail time by publicly apologizing to the woman.

Tiger Woods became the first non-white golfer to win the Masters. He was also the youngest winner and the best-scorer in the tournament's history.

The Southern Baptist Convention voted to boycott all Disney products and media, including ABC-TV, which broadcast the "coming out" episode of the sitcom Ellen.

Entertainment icons James Stewart, Burgess Meredith, Red Skelton and Robert Mitchum died. Intense Saturday Night Live comedian Chris Farley was found dead in his Chicago apartment of an overdose of drugs and alcohol.

The English Patient won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar for Fargo. Geoffrey Rush was named Best Actor for his role in Shine. Long lines formed at theaters throughout the U.S. upon the opening of Titanic.

John Denver died when his experimental plane crashed off the coast of Monterey, California.

Rapper Notorious B.I.G. was murdered in a drive-by shooting.

The self-proclaimed King of Pop, Michael Jackson, named his first-born son Prince.

Hit songs included As Long As You Love Me by the Backstreet Boys.
 
 

1998
Linda Tripp - who in 1997 pitched literary agent Lucianne Goldberg on a White House sex scandal book - handed over her secretly-taped conversations with intern Monica Lewinsky to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr. Starr broadened the investigation to include President Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky, which Clinton emphatically denied. As Starr was armed with evidence that Clinton lied about the affair during a deposition in the Paula Jones harassment case, the president admitted the misconduct during grand jury testimony, and confessed in a TV address. Starr posted explicit testimony about the Lewinsky affair on the internet and accused Clinton of 11 impeachable offenses. His report to congress cost taxpapers over $40,000,000. At the end of the year, the Republican House voted three articles of impeachment and sent the matter on to the Senate.
As the White House scandal raged on, President Clinton's approval rating with the public soared to an all-time high.

The U.S. budget posted its biggest surplus since 1969 - $70,000,000,000.

After losing the support of his fellow Republicans, House Speaker Newt Gingrich resigned. Republicans endorsed Bob Livingston - a vocal critic of President Clinton's sexual misconduct - as Gingrich's successor. But Livingston withdrew when it was disclosed that he had an extramarital affair, too.

President Clinton settled Paula Jones' sexual harrassment suit with $850,000 and no apology nor admission of guilt. To the chagrin of the conservative Christian Republicans who had paid her expenses during her long fight against Clinton, Jones used the money to start a psychic hotline.

At age 77, former astronaut John Glenn returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery.

12 Americans were among nearly 500 killed at U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates donated $100,000,000 to help children in developing countries get basic immunization.

The U.S. Army charged Major General David Hale with improper relationships with the wives of four officers.

The U.S. found itself in yet another standoff with dictator Saddam Hussein after Iraq banned American members of the United Nations weapons inspection teams.

The Chrysler Corporation was purchased by the owner of Mercedes-Benz for $37,000,000,000.

After killing over 200 in the Caribbean, Hurricane Georges caused $400,000,000 damage in Florida. January ice storms claimed 16 lives and knocked out power to millions in the northeast states. 127 died in ten southern states during heavy spring thunderstorms and tornadoes. Summer heat and drought in 11 states resulted in the appropriation of over $100,000,000 in federal disaster aid.

Unabomber Theordore Kaczynski received life in prison without parole in exchange for pleading guilty to five federal bombing counts.

Three white Texans were charged with the vehicular dragging death of African-American James Byrd, Jr.

An American military jet severed a ski tram cable in Italy, killing 20.

Astronomers determined a one-mile-diameter astroid - which some had thought was on a collision course with Earth - would miss the planet by 600,000 miles. Meanwhile, NASA announced there was enough frozen water on the moon to support a colony.

Terry Nichols received a life sentence for his part in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Tawana Brawley - an African-American who mustered the support of Bill Cosby and Jesse Jackson when she claimed she was raped by whites - was fined $185,000 for fabricating her story.

15-year-old Kip Kinkel killed his parents, then opened fire on a Springfield, Oregon school cafeteria, killing 1 and wounding 23.

The FDA approved the use of Viagra for the treatment of impotence.

Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris' 37-year-old single-season home run record.

The Yankees defeated the Padres in the World Series.

Tara Lipinski became the youngest Winter Olympics figure skater to take the gold medal.

Bob Barker hosted his 5,000th episode of the TV game show The Price Is Right.

Legendary singer Frank Sinatra died.

Photographer, animal rights activist and vegetarian foods mogul Linda McCartney died of breast cancer.

Track legend and 1988 triple gold medalist Florence Griffith Joyner died at age 38.

U.S. Representative Sonny Bono was killed in a skiing accident. Ex-wife Cher eulogized him, and his widow, Mary, took over his House seat.

An audit found improprieties in the books of Livent, the company which produced the Broadway hit musical Ragtime.

Saturday Night Live veteran and Newsradio star Phil Hartman was shot to death by his mentally unstable wife while he slept in bed. Brynn Hartman killed herself after describing her crime to a friend. Hartman co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the box office holiday hit, Jingle All The Way.

James Cameron's Titanic, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, tied an Academy Awards record by garnering 11 Oscars.

Frasier won its fifth consecutive Best Comedy Series Emmy.

CBS-TV was flooded with complaints after airing footage of assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian administering lethal drugs to a terminally ill patient.

The Cable News Network retracted a report that U.S. forces may have used nerve gas on American defectors in the Viet Nam War.

Hit songs included 1997 holdover My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme From "Titanic") by Celine Dion, You're Still The One by Shania Twain, I'll Be by Edwin McCain and My Father's Eyes by Eric Clapton.
 

1999
President Clinton's impeachment trial began in the Senate on January 7th.  He was acquitted on Lincoln's Birthday.
Linda Tripp was indicted by a grand jury on charges of violating Maryland's wiretap laws. Monica Lewinsky expressed her feelings about Tripp in a Saturday Night Live sketch in which John Goodman portrayed Tripp on a call-in show.

5 died and over 100 were injured when a rare force-4 tornado ripped a mile-wide path through Haysville and Witchita, Kansas. A force-5 tornado killed 46 and injured 800 in the Oklahoma City area.

The Republican frontrunner for the presidential primary, George W. Bush, said questions about whether or not he used cocaine in college were part of a political media game.

Technicians scrambled to fix "Y2K bugs," problems that could render computers unusable should their two-digit date systems change years from 99 to 00.

John F. Kennedy, Junior, his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren, died when the small plane he was piloting plane crashed into the ocean off the coast of Massachusetts.

Despite the fact that crime in the U.S. was steadily decreasing, there were several high-profile multiple-shooting murders during the year. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 11 students, 2 faculty members and themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. In Atlanta, a live-in boyfriend killed a family of six and then himself. 17 days later in the same city, day trader Mark Barton entered a brokerage firm complex, killed 9, wounded 13 and killed himself. 3 died in two multiple-shooting incidents in Salt Lake City. Buford Furrow, Junior was charged with wounding 5 at a Los Angeles community center, then killing a mail carrier. 7 died when Larry Ashbrook tossed a bomb into a Fort Worth church, then shot 14 people and himself. A disgruntled employee killed 7 co-workers at a Xerox repair facility in Honolulu. A man wearing camouflage wounded 2 and killed 2 at a Seattle shipyard.

Sounding eerily like the type of calls he had introduced on Rescue 911, William Shatner phoned emergency services to report that he'd found his wife at the bottom their pool. She had drowned after falling in while drunk.

Tapes were released of O.J. Simpson making a non-emergency 911 call in Florida to complain about his girlfriend.

Laws were passed to prevent sweepstakes mailing abuses, after several companies that used mail contests to promote the sale of products were found to have committed fraud.

While the World Trade Organization met in Seattle, the media focused on widespread protests in the city's streets.

John King and William Brewer were sentenced to death for the dragging murder of a black man in Jasper, Texas.

The U.S. mourned the deaths of six Worcester, Massachusetts firefighters - the most to lose their lives in a single blaze. They had gone back into a fully-involved building on a false tip that some homeless people were inside. A memorial service was broadcast nationally and attended by fire department representatives from throughout North America.

The jury in a wrongful death trial determined that Martin Luther King, Junior's convicted assassin, James Earl Ray, had been the patsy in a government-mafia conspiracy. Ray had died a year earlier while still serving his sentence.

A Colorado grand jury returned no indictments in the murder of little-girl model JonBenet Ramsey, citing a lack of evidence.

The New York Yankees won their 25th World Series championship of the 1900s.

Sports legends Joe DiMaggio, Wilt Chamberlain and Walter Peyton died. Golfer Payne Stewart was among 5 killed on a runaway lear jet. Investigators say the jet lost cabin pressure, causing its occupants to pass out, and flew uncontrolled from Florida to South Dakota before crashing.

Clayton Moore, best known as television's Lone Ranger, died of a heart attack at 85.

Other deaths among celebrities:  singer-songwriters Curtis Mayfield and Mel Torme, film critic Gene Siskel, blues pioneer Charles Brown, saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., director Stanley Kubrick and actors George C. Scott, Madeline Kahn and DeForest Kelley.

Japan's Pokemon card and video games became enormously popular with America's children. Pokemon: The First Movie had the most lucrative Thanksgiving weekend film opening of the 1900s.

Several surveys named Barbie as the most popular toy of the 1900s, and she made her movie debut in the box office blockbuster Toy Story 2.

Upon her 19th nomination, Susan Lucci won her first Daytime Emmy for her role in All My Children.

Woodstock '99 was a far cry from the original 1969 peace-and-love-fest as concert-goers were arrested for vandalism, burglary, rape, assault and arson.

Just days before former Beatle George Harrison was injured in a stabbing attack by a deranged fan at his English estate, a delusional woman was arrested for breaking into and living inside his Maui, Hawaii getaway.

Hit tunes included I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys, You'll Be In My Heart - from the soundtrack of Disney's Tarzan - by Phil Collins and Mambo #5 by Lou Bega.

Ignoring the fact that a new century and millennium would actually begin with the year 2001, concert promoters, advertisers and the media - plus a majority of the public - considered New Year's Eve 1999 to be the moment of the transition.