Culture
President Reagan's Ambitious Star Wars Defense Plan
January 26, 2022
In 1983, President Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative, which sounded like a bad Steven Segal movie crossed with “Back To The Future.” The highly impl...
Disco Dancing The Night Away
January 24, 2022
Disco music arose from various subcultures; it had origins in the dance parties thrown by the New York City underground gay community as well as in the R&B scene in Philadelphia from the ...
Chilling Photographs That'll Change Your Perspective
January 20, 2022
Things aren’t always as they seem. This collection of photographs will show you a view of history – its people, places, and events – that offers a different perspective...
The Red Power Movement: Native American Civil Rights In...
December 8, 2021
With the passage of House Concurrent Resolution 108, from 1953 to 1964, the United States government ended the recognition of more than 100 tribes as soverei...
Jane Goodall’s Journey
November 13, 2021
Jane Goodall’s path may have been different had her father given her a teddy bear instead of a stuffed chimpanzee. Goodall still has that chimpanzee, named Jubilee. In 1957, she visited a fri...
Valley Of The Dolls: The Record Breaking Book Of The ‘6...
October 21, 2021
Before there was 50 Shades of Grey, Jacqueline Susann published a book in 1966 which took the bestseller charts by storm. This novel, Valley of the Dolls, ...
The Ridiculous Cleveland Balloonfest Disaster Of '86
October 16, 2021
When it comes to strange and weird disasters, Balloonfest ‘86 in Cleveland ranks right at the top. Chances are, you never heard of Balloonfest, so allow us to set ...
The Demolition Of Penn Station: Losing Historic Archite...
October 14, 2021
Today, New York’s Penn Station is a confusing, unattractive underground maze of tunnels, but it wasn’t always that way. Up until its demolition in the 1960s,...
CB Radios: When The Truckers’ Tool Became A Hobby
October 10, 2021
Prior to the proliferation of the cell phone as a means of communication, on the road, drivers found another way to communicate: the CB radio. Cell phones, of cours...
The Momentous Berkeley Free Speech Movement Of 1964
September 12, 2021
The Berkeley Free Speech Movement of the 1960s arose in response to restrictions enacted by the University of California, Berkeley. Those restrictions included rece...
Bloody Sunday: A Massacre During A Civil Rights March
September 6, 2021
British troops marching arrested citizens toward detention on Bloody Sunday 30th January 1972 (Photo by William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images) In 1969, Derry, the secon...
The 1962 University of Mississippi Riots That Changed T...
September 5, 2021
The 1962 riots at the University of Mississippi campus marked a turning point for racial equality in the region. For a state that featured the confederate em...
The Grooviest Afros Of The "60s and "70s
August 31, 2021
The ‘60s and ‘70s brought many groovy influences into the world but none groovier than the Afro. In reality, the bouncy, effervescent hairstyle represented so much more than a...
Jazzercise: The Beginnings Of A Fitness Craze
August 29, 2021
Jazzercise was born after second-wave feminism was underway, and it helped to revolutionize fitness for women; its impact continues to be felt today. Prior to the 1960s, ...
The Poor People's Campaign
August 25, 2021
On January 8, 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson addressed the nation in the State of the Union Address, proposing legislation to help combat poverty in America. The poverty rate at that point was aro...
First Super Bowl
August 12, 2021
Long before football became America’s new pastime, the Super Bowl began as a battle between the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers and the American Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs. Tha...
The Ford Mustang
August 7, 2021
Usually, any product rushed to market on a shoestring budget only leads to spectacular failures, unless of course, that product was a Ford Mustang. Originally conceived by Lee Iacocca in the early 19...
NASA's Mariner 4 Space Probe
August 3, 2021
Space, despite existing thousands of miles away, holds a special place in human history. Whether it’s stargazing, Star Wars, or just the great unknown of the final frontier, humans have s...
1960 Election of Kennedy Vs. Nixon
July 27, 2021
President John F. Kennedy persists as one of the most famous Commander in Chiefs in American history. While his historical immortality derives in part from his tragic assassination ...
The First Microprocessor Released in 1971 by Intel
July 17, 2021
When it comes to our knowledge of how electronics work, most of us understand it in the same way a dog understands algebra. You could say it ran on magic pixie dust ...
1968: Expansion of Major League Baseball
July 13, 2021
America’s original pastime, baseball, dates way back to 1846. As with America, over 150 years the game has changed and gone through many different “eras.” From the days of “Wh...
Popular toys in the 1970s
July 11, 2021
The ‘70s saw wild changes in almost every aspect of American life but, most enjoyably in toys! The decade that exposed incredible instability with Watergate and Vietnam also unleashed a torr...
How Americans celebrated Independence day in 1968
July 1, 2021
In 1968, America was in turmoil. Between the situation in Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and the riots, including the Holy ...
The 10 Grooviest Cocktails And How To Make Them
June 29, 2021
Prohibition did not stop people from drinking, but it did make the alcohol pretty unpalatable. This didn’t stand in people’s ways, as they simply started cutting the al...
Fashion You Could Make At Home: Butterick And Co
June 27, 2021
In recent years, thanks to the helpfulness of Youtube, we’ve seen a marked rise in “Do it yourself” projects. Since watching an “expert” complete whatever deed you’ve ...
Nick Drake, The Poet And Jazz-Folk Innovator We Weren't...
June 19, 2021
Nick Drake was born in 1948 in colonial Burma; his father Rodney had moved there in the 1930s to work for the Bombay Burmah Corporation, and while there, he ...
TWA Terminal At JFK: Welcome To The Future, Earthling
May 28, 2021
A security guard stands in the Hughes Wing after the ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the TWA Hotel at JFK International Airport in New York May 15, 2019. ...
Chevy El Camino, The Mullet On Wheels That Became A Cul...
May 24, 2021
The Chevrolet El Camino combined a pickup truck with a sedan, a feat of automotive design that many in the car-buying population found baffling. Was this inn...
Trader Vic's And Don The Beachcomber, A Tale Of Two Tik...
May 14, 2021
The tiki trend that ran wild in mid-century America, fostered by restaurants Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber, was sort of a booze-soaked version of the ...
What Was The Bay Of Pigs Invasion? (It's Not A Football...
May 7, 2021
Castro's soldiers at Playa de Giron, Cuba, after thwarting the ill-fated US backed 'Bay of Pigs' invasion. (Photo by Graf/Getty Images) "Bay of Pigs invasion"...
New Coke Blunder: The Pepsi Clone People Liked But Didn...
April 28, 2021
In April 1985, Coca-Cola took a huge risk with the introduction of New Coke. It had a refreshing taste that was closer to that of cola juggernaut Pepsi -- an...
1964 World's Fair Pavilions: Where Are They Now?
April 22, 2021
New York State pavilion during the World's Fair, Queens, New York, April 1964 (Photo by George Silk/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images) The 1964 World's Fair,...
Why 420? Origin Of The Pot-Smoker's Holiday
April 20, 2021
Jerry Garcia, guitarist and singer for the rock group the Grateful Dead, smokes a marijuana cigarette circa 1978. (Photo by © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty Images) Ev...
Beverly Cleary And Ramona Quimby Changed How Kids Read
April 12, 2021
Ramona Quimby, a creation of author Beverly Cleary, was a part of many young readers' childhoods in the 1970s and '80s. Though Ramona made an first appearance in...
1965: When The Houston Astrodome Was The Eighth Wonder ...
April 9, 2021
The Houston Astrodome, dubbed “the 8th Wonder of the World,” celebrated many firsts in sports arena history when construction ended in 1965. The space-age ho...
Clackers: The Toy That Was Banned Just Because It Injur...
April 4, 2021
The banned children's toys known as clackers were loud, but were they dangerous? If you played with them as a kid in the '60s or '70s, you remember the clack...
John Lennon And Yoko Ono's 'Bed-Ins:' What Was The Poin...
March 25, 2021
John Lennon and Yoko talking to Donald Zec about their seven day event at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel. March 1969 Z03078-011 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpi...
With 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas,' Hunter S. Thomps...
March 21, 2021
Hunter S. Thompson's Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, depicting a pair of misfits on a drug-fueled lost weekend, is an essential book of the '70s. Published i...
With 'Paper Lion,' George Plimpton Played Pro Football ...
March 18, 2021
In 1966, George Plimpton's book Paper Lion, recounting his attempt to play football with the Detroit Lions, allowed millions of Americans to vicariously live...
The Mustang Revolution: Ford's 'Pony Car' That Changed ...
March 9, 2021
When the Ford Mustang hit the market in 1964, the public went crazy for the stylish four-seater. It seemed like a new kind of car, and it was -- it invented ...
Capitol Bombing Of 1971: What Was The Weather Undergrou...
March 1, 2021
FBI bulletin showing suspected members of the Weather Underground. Source: flickr.com/photos/washington_area_spark In the early 1970s, the Weather Underground...
'Do You Believe In Miracles?' U.S. Olympic Hockey's Mir...
February 22, 2021
United States Olympic Hockey players jump with jubilation after beating the Soviet Union hockey team on February 22, 1980 during the Winter Olympics. The game w...
What's a 'Stepford Wife'? The Anti-Feminist Stereotype ...
February 12, 2021
Even if you've never seen The Stepford Wives, the dark 1975 film sci-fi/horror film where wealthy suburban men turn their partners into subservient robots, y...
The 'Jamaica Girl' Poster: Story Of The Best Tourism Im...
February 8, 2021
Could poster of a girl in a wet t-shirt make Jamaica an appealing tourist destination? Well it was worth a try. In 1972, Sintra Bronte waded into the water o...
Young Queen Elizabeth II: England's Monarch Since 1952,...
February 6, 2021
Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral in Scotland, photograph taken by Studio Lisa, 1953. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)...
Dyatlov Pass Incident: A Frightening Russian Mystery --...
February 1, 2021
Mass psychosis, ice slabs, nuclear fallout, UFOs and a Yeti, the Dyatlov Pass Incident, named for the 23-year-old leader of this failed camping trip, remains...
Vesna Vulovic: The Flight Attendant Who Fell 6 Miles An...
January 26, 2021
Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant for JAT Yugoslav Airlines in 1972, set a Guinness world record when she fell some 33,000 feet and lived. Vulovic's odds-def...
Steve Prefontaine: A Runner's Tragedy And The '70s Jogg...
January 25, 2021
15 Sep 1972: Steve Prefontaine of the USA in action during a track and field event at Crystal Palace in London, England. Photo by Tony Duffy /Allsport Steve P...
Why did the US Boycott the 1980 Olympics?
January 20, 2021
Left: US President Jimmy Carter discusses the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, suggesting a US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics. Right: a scene from the closing ceremony in Mos...
Not In Kansas Anymore: How 'The Wiz' Made An Urban Clas...
January 5, 2021
Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and The Lion embarked upon a soulful twist on their adventure to the magical land of Oz in the 1975 musical The Wiz. The ...
Did '55' Save Lives? How The National Speed Limit Faile...
January 2, 2021
In 1974, President Richard Nixon put a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour (mph) on every road in the United States, including interstate highways, in ...
Diane von Furstenberg's Wrap Dress: '70s Disco-Ready Fe...
December 31, 2020
The wrap dress created by Diane von Furstenberg is arguably the most important women's clothing item of the '70s and it remains fashionable today. It's simpl...
The Kecksburg Incident: Mysterious UFO Crash Of The '60...
December 10, 2020
The Kecksburg UFO incident that occurred on December 9, 1965, may have happened over Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, but it was seen by people across North America....
What Was The John Birch Society? Anti-Communist Fervor ...
December 8, 2020
The John Birch Society was the grassroots network of the American anti-Communist crusade of the '50s, '60s and '70s. Society members, called "Birchers," saw ...
8-Track Tape History: The Portable Music Format's Rise ...
November 29, 2020
Today the 8-track tape is the ultimate in obsolete technology, but it was once a revolution in music. Music in your car, and not just any music -- you had th...
D.B. Cooper, a 727, And $200,000: The Greatest Unsolved...
November 24, 2020
D.B. Cooper was a thief and a hijacker who escaped capture by jumping out of a Boeing 727 -- and left us with one of the biggest unsolved crimes of the '70s....
Abortion On A Sitcom? Bea Arthur's Dilemma On 'Maude'
November 22, 2020
In November 1972, the Bea Arthur sitcom Maude took on the topic of abortion, which was as much a hot-button issue then as now. The two-part story "Maude's Dilemma...
1968: The 'Heidi Bowl' Pre-Empts Namath And The New Yor...
November 17, 2020
Heidi (Jennifer Edwards) bumped Joe Namath and his Jets off the air. Sources: Amazon.com; Photo by Bill Young/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images The New...
What is LSD? Albert Hofmann's Invention, Explained
November 16, 2020
A man with LSD sign on May 5, 1967 in New York, New York. (Photo by Santi Visalli/Getty Images) LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide, or acid) permeates '60s and '70s pop ...
Hello Kitty: Origin Of Sanrio's '70s Phenom (Who Isn't ...
November 1, 2020
Who's British, loves apple pie, and looks like a cat but is actually a pre-teen girl and definitely isn't a cat? Clearly it's Hello Kitty, the Japanese chara...
Bebe Buell, Rock Star Arm Candy And Liv Tyler's Mom, Th...
October 17, 2020
Photo of Bebe Buell circa 1980. Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Bebe Buell, mother of Liv Tyler, never liked the word "groupie" -- she prefers to ...
The Trial Of The Chicago 7: The Real Story Behind The N...
October 16, 2020
The members of the Chicago Seven (Rubin, Dellinger, Weiner, Froines, Hayden, Davis, Hoffman) pose with others holding a poster of Bobby Seale, Chicago, Illinois...
What Were The Black Panthers? Facts And Truth About A C...
October 15, 2020
The Black Panthers -- officially, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense -- strike a fearsome pose in the racial tumult of the late 1960s. The assassinatio...
Was Roger Moore The Best James Bond? The Case For Sean ...
October 14, 2020
Actor Roger Moore on the set of "Octopussy". (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images) Is Roger Moore "your" James Bond? Or is Sean Connery the quin...
How The ABA Changed Basketball, Then Sold Out And Died
October 13, 2020
On October 13, 1967, the Oakland Oaks defeated the Anaheim Amigos in the debut game of the revolutionary American Basketball Association. Although short-lived, ...
Who Was Jay Sebring? The Celebrity Hairdresser And Mans...
October 10, 2020
Chic barber Jay Sebring, working on actor Paul Newman's hair while he is reading the paper, sitting on motorcycle (only seat available) on the set of the film M...
How The Chemical Companies Fought 'Silent Spring's Inco...
September 27, 2020
Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring questioned the use of pesticides, particularly DDT. Despite, and because of, chemical companies' campaign to discredi...
Chariots Of The Gods: Sketchy Tales Of Ancient Aliens B...
September 22, 2020
Erich Von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods told us that aliens were responsible for everything from the pyramids at Giza to the statues of Easter Island. The b...
'Daisy,' LBJ's Anti-Goldwater TV Ad That Ran Only Once ...
September 7, 2020
On September 7th, 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson's "Daisy" TV advertisement changed political campaigns forever. The ad, which presented Johnson as a peaceful lead...
Al Pacino's Gayest Movie: The 'Cruising' Controversy Of...
August 29, 2020
Al Pacino as an undercover cop trying to fit in at a leather bar in 'Cruising.' Photo by Lorimar/Getty Images. In 1980 William Friedkin and Al Pacino made Cru...
Slim Aarons, King Of Hollywood Photographers (A Story O...
August 26, 2020
Left: 'Poolside Glamour' by Slim Aarons. Right: Photographer Slim Aarons (right) on board a yacht off Capri, Italy, September 1968. Sources: Amazon.com; Slim Aa...
When The Grateful Dead Helped Lithuania Win Basketball ...
August 23, 2020
When Lithuania's men's basketball team played at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, they did so with help from the Grateful Dead. The relationship with the long...
How Julia Child Made Americans Want To Be French Chefs
August 15, 2020
Author and cook Julia Child during a 'Tonight Show' segment with host Johnny Carson on March 19, 1980 -- Photo by: Gene Arias/NBCU Photo Bank . Julia Child was on...
Remember Bell-Bottoms? History Of Flares Worn By Hippie...
August 14, 2020
American soul group Chairmen of the Board, featuring (L-R) Eddie Custis, Harrison Kennedy and General Norman Johnson, circa early 1970s. From Insight Talent Inc...
Easy Bake Oven: The Joy Of Cooking With A Light Bulb
August 5, 2020
In 1963, the light-bulb-powered Easy Bake Oven by Kenner arrived in stores, a thrilling development for young girls. The gender roles were set in stone, and the cu...
What Happened To Jimmy Hoffa? Facts And Theories About ...
July 30, 2020
James R. Hoffa, heir-apparent to the Presidency of the giant Teamsters Union, as he appeared before Senate Rackets probers on August 22, 1957. Source: Bettmann ...
S.E. Hinton: The Teenaged 'Outsiders' Author Who Invent...
July 22, 2020
Writing novels for and about teenagers -- The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, Tex and others -- S.E. Hinton invented the Young Adult (YA) fiction genre. Hinton wrote...
Hunter S. Thompson: Stories And Quotes From The '70s Go...
July 18, 2020
Known for his seminal works like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell’s Angels, Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist (or "gonzo journalist") who was down f...
The New York City Blackout Of '77: Darkest Day Of A Dar...
July 13, 2020
Aerial view of a building burning in the wake of the New York City blackout, Brooklyn, New York, New York, July 14, 1977. (Photo by Robert R. McElroy/Getty Imag...
What Changed Richard Simmons? The 'Fat People Die Young...
July 12, 2020
Richard Simmons has been a flamboyant fitness evangelist for over four decades. What makes him such a tireless fanatic? A near-death experience -- if only a ...
