1971 was a turning point with long-lasting impact. Times were exciting as much as they were dangerous.
History provides insight into understanding the present. It informs our decisions, weaves our moral
fiber, influences our ability to see and seek the truth, and determines how we change with the times.
The only problem with history...is we forget all too soon.
In the Beginning...
The first prefab frozen margarita is created. FedEx is founded. McDonald’s airs "You Deserve a Break Today," the jingle of the century. Coke premieres "I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing." Florida’s Walt Disney World opens. Starbucks is founded in Seattle. Amtrak begins U.S. inter city passenger train services in May; in June Amtrak has its first fatal derailment accident. The first email is sent and chat rooms debut. Greenpeace is founded in Vancouver. The first Cup Noodle is marketed. The U.S. launches the first satellite to orbit Mars. UNIX Programmer’s Manual is published (UNIX-derived systems include macOS and mobile phone operating systems). Texas Instruments releases its first pocket calculator. Intel develops the first microprocessor and launches digitalization. NASDAQ is established and is a key driver of today's economy. The first synthetic growth hormone is produced. NPR broadcasts for the first time. Connecticut Magazine, Ms Magazine and Soccer America are founded. Eisenstadt v. Baird extends contraceptive rights to unmarried couples. The first contact lens becomes commercially available. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) are invented in Switzerland. The floppy disk is invented by IBM. The first CAT scanner is produced by EMI. The first e-book is produced. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated. J.C. Penney debuts its trademark Helvetica wordmark, still in use today.
Politics and Government
Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm and Gloria Steinem establish the National Women’s Political Caucus, a grassroots organization supporting women seeking government offices. The Supreme Court upholds busing to achieve racial desegregation. After putting forward demands to President Nixon, the Congressional Black Caucus is met with 60 rejects. Washington State is the first state to ban sex discrimination. Reverend Philip Berrigan and others are indicted by a Federal grand jury for a plot to kidnap Henry Kissinger. The 26th Amendment is ratified lowering the voting age to 18. Attempting to control inflation President Nixon implements a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents, and announces the U.S. will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value. For the second time in history, the U.S. dollar is devalued. The Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons, is signed by the U.S., U.K. and the Soviet Union. A secret taping system is installed in the White House by President Nixon. The U.S. ends its trade embargo of China, and the United Nations General Assembly admits China as a member; one day later Taiwan is expelled. The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act bans all advertisements for cigarettes on radio and television. The NY Times publishes the Pentagon Papers, revealing the Johnson Administration systematically misinformed Congress and the public about U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The government obtained an injunction to stop the publication, making it the first time in U.S. history the government was able to stop a publication by court order. The Supreme Court later allowed the publication. The Watergate team breaks into Daniel Ellsberg’s office, trying to locate discrediting information. The Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI breaks into FBI offices removing more than 1,000 classified documents. Congress ends funding for the SST program. The Knapp Commission begins public hearings on police corruption in NYC. The "War on Drugs" is declared by President Nixon.
Give Peace a Chance
U.S. troop morale in South Vietnam plummets in March after the Battle of Fire Support Base Mary Ann, and April sees the largest anti-war demonstration in Washington, DC with about 500,000 participants. In May, civil disobedience actions known as the Mayday protests are designed to disrupt government business. The immediate goal is to snarl traffic so completely that government employees can not get to their jobs. The larger objective is "to create the spectre of social chaos while maintaining the support or at least toleration of the broad masses of American people." The Mayday Tribe's slogan is "If the government won’t stop the war, we’ll stop the government." The protests result in more than 12,000 anti-war protestors being arrested over three days by the Nixon Administration, the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. This is the beginning of the end of U.S. troops in Vietnam as the war comes to a close four years later. The Address to the Women of America is made by Gloria Steinem. Prisoners take 10 corrections officers and employees hostage during New York's Attica Prison riots, resulting in the deaths of 10 hostages and 33 inmates. A bomb explodes in the men's room of the U.S. Capitol with responsibility claimed by Weather Underground, a radical student group protesting against the Laos invasion supported by the U.S. A race riot occurs in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn. Members of the Ku Klux Klan are arrested in connection with 10 school bus bombings. A state of emergency is announced after a racial disturbance breaks out in Columbus, Georgia. Charles Manson and three of his followers are convicted of first-degree murder in the almost ten month "trial of the century," the longest murder trial in American history. U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders during the My Lai Massacre and is sentenced to life in prison (he is later pardoned). The Harris Poll finds that 60% of Americans are against the Vietnam War.
It Cost What?
U.S. annual inflation rate 5.7%
Unemployment rate 4.9%
Dow Jones Industrial Average year-end close 890
Average cost of new house $25,250.00
Average annual income $10,600.00
Average monthly rent $150.00
Cost of gas per gallon $.40
Dodge Charger $3,579.00
Datsun 1200 Sports Coupe $1,866.00
Annual tuition to Harvard $2,600.00
U.S. first-class postage stamp $.08
Ladies 2-piece knit suit $9.98
Ladies beret and scarf set $6.00
Movie ticket $1.50
Fresh baked bread $.25
Eggs per dozen $.53
Milk per gallon $1.18
Ground coffee per pound $.98
Sugar (5 pounds) $.62
Bacon per pound $.45
Ground beef per pound $.62
Fresh strawberries per pound $.29
Idaho potatoes (10 pounds) $.98
Jiffy Peanut Butter $.59
Side-by-side refrigerator $704.95
Malibu Barbie $1.94
Etch-A-Sketch $2.83
Rock'em Sock'em Robots $8.99
Music
Everybody in rock has hair; nobody is overweight. Led Zeppelin premieres “Stairway to Heaven." First albums released by Bill Withers, Weather Report, Crazy Horse, ZZ Top and Electric Light Orchestra. Linda Ronstadt plays Disneyland with a contract stipulating she has to wear a bra. Carole King releases Tapestry and lets James Taylor have "You've Got a Friend." Jackson Browne gives "Take It Easy" to Glenn Frey before it's completion. Marvin Gaye releases "What’s Going On" about police brutality, with Berry Gordy calling it "the worst piece of crap I ever heard." "Power to the People" is recorded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Don McLean's 8-minute version of "American Pie" is released. Muddy Waters wins his first Grammy Award. "She’s a Lady" by Tom Jones goes gold. Pink Floyd releases their critically acclaimed album, Meddle. "Imagine" by John Lennon is released. Jim Morrison dies of heart failure at age 27. Influential jazz musician Louis Armstrong dies from a heart attack at age 69. Switzerland's Montreux Casino burns down during a Frank Zappa concert and is memorialized in Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water." Staples '71 grad Tony Carey joins Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore's band Rainbow as a keyboardist. 40,000 people attend The Concert for Bangladesh, two NYC benefit concerts organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Fillmore East closes its doors. John Lennon leaves the U.K. for NYC, never to return again. By graduation time in June 1971, the #1 and #5 songs are "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night and "Never Can Say Goodbye" by the Jackson Five. #3 is "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones. Who would have known Keith Richards would become practically a neighbor?
TV, Movies, Broadway and Books
Top rated TV shows: All in the Family, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, The Flip Wilson Show, Marcus Welby MD, Gunsmoke, Sanford and Son, Mannix, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Hawaii Five-0, Ironside, The Partridge Family, The FBI, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Carol Burnett Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, Bonanza, Mod Squad. Soul Train goes national. Host Ed Sullivan holds his final TV show on CBS.
Best movies: A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry, Summer of '42, The French Connection, The Last Picture Show, Carnal Knowledge, Plaza Suite, Willard, Diamonds Are Forever, Fiddle on the Roof, Klute, Shaft, Straw Dogs, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Andromeda Strain, The Omega Man, Play Misty For Me, Kotch. In June 1971 Fine Arts I and II were showing Bananas and a French film, Claire's Knee.
Broadway: A Doll's House, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Antigone, Follies, Hedda Gabler, How the Other Half Loves, Jesus Christ Superstar, No, No, Nanette, On the Town, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Two Gentlemen of Verona, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Best-selling books: The Exorcist (William P. Blatty), Wheels (Arthur Hailey), The Day of the Jackal (Frederick Forsyth), The Winds of War (Herman Wouk), The Drifters (James A. Michener), Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Dee Brown), I'm O.K. You're O.K. (Thomas Harris), Any Woman Can! (David Reuben), Inside the Third Reich (Albert Speer), Eleanor and Franklin (Joseph P. Lash), Better Homes and Gardens Blender Cook Book (BH&G Editors), Honor Thy Father (Gay Talese)
Sports
Bill White becomes the first Black baseball announcer and Satchel Paige the first Black league player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The U.S. table tennis team visits the People's Republic of China, coining the term "Ping Pong Diplomacy." With just five seconds remaining, Baltimore Colts' Jim O’Brien scores the winning points on a 32-yard field goal to defeat the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V. Muhammad Ali’s 31-fight winning streak is ended by Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden in Ali's first loss ever. Richard Petty becomes the first NASCAR driver to win a million dollars in career earnings after winning the Dixie 500. At the All-Star game, the American League defeats the National League when Reggie Jackson's long home run hits a transformer on the roof of Tiger Stadium. Pittsburgh beats Baltimore in the World Series. The longest game in National Football League history is played for 82 minutes, 40 seconds when Miami beats Kansas City. The first major league post season game is played at night with Pittsburgh defeating Baltimore. In the first million dollar contract in NHL history, Bobby Orr signs a 5-year contract with the Boston Bruins. Billie Jean King beats Rosemary Casals in the U.S. Open Women’s Tennis Championship. Stan Smith wins his first Grand Slam event in the U.S. Open Men’s Tennis Championship. Evel Knievel sets a new world record by jumping over 19 cars on a motorbike. By the time we graduate, the Mets, Jets and Knicks have all won championships, something that seemed as likely as man landing on the moon seemed at the start of the 1960s.
