Counterculture Timeline: The Seventies: Global Marketplace and Deindustrialization 1979 - 1981 |
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| EVENTS | ARTS | |||
| 1979 | 1979
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| Nov | US Steel closes 15 plants:
13,000 out of work |
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| Nov 24 | US General Accounting Office
admits that thousands of US troops were exposed to Agent Orange during the
Vietnam War |
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| Dec 5 | Gold is selling for less than
136.49 dollars/ounce |
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| Dec 25-26 | USSR invades Afghanistan | |||
| Dec | US gov persuades NATO to accept
stationing of additional 464 Cruise & 108 Pershing II missiles in Europe
(in addition to 5000+ already there) Dec U.S. bail-out of Chrysler starts, UAW accepts pay cuts |
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| 1980 | U.S. Industrial output lowest
in 5 years Stagflation of 1979-1980 continues Unemployment soaring Housing prices skyrocket (I say) Government tight money anti-inflation policy Japanese cars & semiconductors? jump in sales to U.S. (Japanese investment in U.S. starts to grow ($1.2 bill in 80) Banks deregulated (see Economics p. 274) Abscam scandel (into Jan 81 - Apr 81 convictions) Pay raise for armed service recruits -> turnaround U.K.: Planning Act shifts powers from counties to districts Guardian Angels founded First Right Livelihood Awards from Sweden Rev Jerry Falwell claims Moral Majority has registered 4 million 36-year Sup Court Justice Wm O Douglas dies (MCI wins settlement from AT&T) (Color Me Beautiful - Carole Jackson) (The Official Preppie Handbook) USSR in Afghanistan, US boycotts Moscow Olympics Jerry Brown running for President (second time) Biotech breakthroughs Castro allows Cubans to leave Audubon Society & U.S. Fish & Wildlife begin California Condor Recovery Program Supreme Court rules that organisms created by genetic enginnering can be patented (sez EWJ) "11 years before 1992" first Fourth World meeting (London) [Utne #77 p 36] |
1980
MUSIC / CINEMA / PUBLISHING First Rap hit: Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight ("79") Weavers reunion concert TV: ?Shogun? The Elephant Man (The Shining) (Blues Brothers) ?Return of the Secaucus Seven - John Sayles Alvin Toffler: The Third Wave Lester Thurow: The Zero-Sum Society The Next Whole Earth Catalog A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn Medical Self-Care (the book) - Tom Ferguson, M.D. The Toilet Papers: Designs to Recycle Human Waste & Water: Dry Toilets, Greywater Systems, & Urban Sewage - Sim Van der Ryn The Old House Journal Catalog Drawing Down the Moon - Margot Adler (Clan of the Cave Bear) (the book) |
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| Jan | Myles Horton, founder of Highlander,
dies Carter proposes peacetime m/f draft Third Sundance Festival (first held Sept 1978) moves to January and becomes a showcase for non-Hollywood alternative, independent films. |
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| Jan 2 | Gold price rise starts: 562.85/ounce |
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| Jan 4 | Carter announces USSR grain
sales embargo (in the wake of USSR Afghanistan invasion) |
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| Jan 14-18 |
Gold goes up ?$176 to $835/ounce | |||
| Jan 15 | Gold price rises to 700 dollars/ounce |
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| Jan 16 | Interferon made by gene-splicing |
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| Feb | Global
oil glut -> price starts to lower |
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| Feb 23 | Fifth biggest tanker oil spill,
Navarino Bay, off Pylos, Greece 116,000 tons (Irenes Serenade); dispersant sprayed, skimmers and booms used; huge slick to ssw |
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| Mar 27 | Silver plummets to 10.80/ounce,
destroying Hunt brothers silver empire which they started building in summer
1979 |
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| Apr 2 | Carter signs the Windfall Profits
Oil Tax |
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| Apr 17 | Zimbabwe, once Rhodesia, gains
independence from U.K. |
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| Apr 17 | Recession begins |
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| May 4 | Tito dies, Yugoslavia, xx years
head of state |
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| May 17-19 | Black uprising, Miami | |||
| May 18 | Mount St. Helens erupts, Washington |
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| May 21 | Carter announces state of emergency
at Love Canal |
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| June | 800,000 anti-nuclear march New
York City (with Coretta King) |
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| June 3 & 6 |
Computer errors trigger 2 false nuclear alarms | |||
| June | Congress approves small peacetime
draft (Employees buy-out Rath Packing) |
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| July | US automobile manufacturers
report record losses, 2nd quarter 1980 |
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| Aug 14 | After 2 months of labor turmoil,
16,000 Polish workers seize the Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk |
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| Aug 30 | Polish government allows formation
of independent unions -> Solidarity formed (Lech Walesa) |
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| fall | President Carter authorizes
CIA to funnel $1 million to opposition to Sandanista government of Nicaragua |
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| Sept 22 | After 10 months of skirmishes,
Iran-Iraq war starts, halting 60% of world's oil traffic |
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| Sept 23 | Maine referendum shuts down
Maine's only nuclear plant (Yankee) |
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| Sept 30 | Recession believed ending |
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| Oct | Socialists win in Spain (first
democracy since 1939) Indian Point 2 Nuclear Reactor shut down - New York |
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| Oct 17 | Recession ends but inflation
continues |
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| Nov | Reagan defeats Carter plus many
Republican Senators "ride in on Reagan's coattails") Weren't the Iranian hostages freed shortly after this ?? Surge in mortgage rates starts |
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| Nov 14 | Guinea-Bissau government falls |
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| Nov 25 | Upper Volta president ousted |
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| Dec 3 | Congress passes Superfund (ck
xx) $1.6 billion to clean up toxic sites |
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| Dec 5 | Carter halts US aid to El Salvador
after rape and slaying of three American nuns and a lay worker. Leftist
guerillas begin to unite as the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front). |
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| Dec 8 | John Lennon shot and killed
outside the Dakota, New York City |
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| Dec | Dingas leave Muktananda's Oakland
ashram |
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| Dec 10 | Second instance of surrogate
motherhood reported (Tenn) |
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| Dec 13 | El Salvador: Jose Napoleon Duarte,
recently returned from exile, is selected by the ruling junta as civilian
president (first in 49 years) |
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| Dec 16 | Saudi Arabia raises oil prices
$2 to $32/barrel, then OPEC allows others to rise to 40/barrel Leaders of Solidarity, leaders of a new government, and reps of Catholic Church + 150,000 gather in Gdansk to recognize the dramatic change which has come to Poland |
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| Dec 18 | Hunger strike in Northern Ireland is called off after 7 weeks |
| 1981 | Oil at
its highest price (1.35-40?/g) and starts to drop US Inflation rate starts to drop US Interest rates around 16% Japanese investment in U.S. doubles to $3 billion Number of young families buying homes drops Worldwide Stagflation of 1981-83 81 + In the wake of oil price increase, third world less 81 able to repay 400 billion in debts incurred 71-80 Savings & Loans continue to become insolvent ?U.S. Steel decides to buy Marathon Oil instead of modernizing its plants 1981-1982 "terror in the Guatemala countryside" Morris Dees starts? the Southern Poverty Law Center & takes the Texas KKK to court to stop them from harassing Vietnamese-American fishermen in Galveston Bay U.K.: black uprisings in Brixton (s. London), Toxteth (Liverpool) & Moss Side (Manchester) Indian Point Reactor fizzled 25.5 million people over 65, 28% increase over 1970 Earth First! founded CED? elects majority to Santa Monica City Council (& Dennis Zane elected mayor) [but see82] Socialist Bernard Sanders elected mayor Burlington, Vermont Assassination attempt on the Pope TriBeCa becomes New York City's hot neighborhood when Odeon opened kiwi becomes popular Space shuttle Columbia first flight Pac Man copyrighted 1980/81 Oldest baby boomers start turning 35 (up against the clock) |
1981
MUSIC/CINEMA/PUBLISHING Bob Marley dies when? Michael Jackson Reds, Tell Me A Riddle My Dinner with Andre - Louis Malle Cutter's Way, Soldier Girls Heartland, Gallipolli El Salvador: Another Vietnam (Raiders of the Lost Ark) Pixote, Zoot Suit Ragtime The French Lieutenant's Woman Mon Oncle d'Amerique - Alain Resnais Perfumed Nightmare - Kidlat Tahimik ?Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean ?Man of Iron - Andrzej Wajda Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In - Fisher & Ury |
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| Jan 5 | Second draft
registration held |
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| Jan 11 | El Salvador:
ruling junta declares martial law |
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| Jan 16 | Bernadette
Devlin shot (Northern Ireland) |
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| Jan 20 | 52 American
hostages released by Iran minutes after Reagan inauguration |
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| Jan 23 | Atlanta: 16th
child disappeared or found dead in 18 months (continues into Feb) |
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| Jan 28 | Reagan
abolishes oil price controls |
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| Jan 30 | Endangered
Species List de-emphasized "to concentrate on recovery rather than
reporting new species" |
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| Jan 31 | Indian Point
3 Nuclear Reactor (New York) malfunction in steam turbine closes down the
plant |
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| Feb 2 | US Secretary
of Education proposes bilingual education plans |
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| Feb 4 | Reagan
cuts synthetic fuel projects |
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| Mar? | James Watt
appointed Secretary of Interior Sierra Club membership skyrockets: By 1987 national environmental group membership has risen from 4 million to 7 million |
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| Mar 2 | ?Reagan cuts
35.1 billion from spending & reduces taxes 23% (check xx) Mental Health Institutions cut back (Soc. Sec.) - by the end of the year homeless people, hardly seen in the US since the 1930s, are a common sight in many California cities. Reagan: tax act benefits high-income taxpayers and large corporations Also: US sends 20 more military advisors & $25 million military equipment to El Salvador Duarte ?junta |
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| Mar 9 | President
Reagan authorizes CIA to undertake cover activities against the Sandanista
government of Nicaragua |
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| Mar 13 | President
Reagan sends US Green Berets to serve as advisers to the Salvadorean ?armed
forces? |
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| Mar 30 | Reagan wounded
in assasination attempt - Hinckley |
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| Apr | A group of
Lakota & Sioux Indians occupy a section of South Dakota's Black Hills
& set up Yellow Thunder Camp (part of national forest officially returned
to them in 1980) |
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| Apr 9 | Robert (Bobby)
Sands elected to Parliament in 6th week of hunger strike |
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| Apr 11-12 | Uprising in Brixton, Jamaican section of London | |||
| Apr 24 | Reagan ends
curb on sales of wheat to USSR |
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| May 5 | Robert (Bobby)
Sands dies in Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, after 66-day hunger
strike asking the British government to grant political prisoner status
to Irish Nationalist inmates, instead of treating them as common criminals |
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| May | US House passes
Nuclear Freeze, to be tabled by Senate |
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| May 23 | 30th black
youngster found dead in Atlanta |
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| June | First half-dozen
cases of AIDS diagnosed - Los Angeles |
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| June 6 | Backlog of
6,000 Haitians facing deportation hearings |
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| June 21 | Arrest in
Atlanta finally stops killings |
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| July - Sept | California fruit fly battle; first mis-use? of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) | |||
| July 3 | 195 demonstrators
arrested in series of White House sit-downs against Reagan administration
cuts & involvement with El Salvador |
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| July
3-14 |
Neo-Nazi Front
riots in London & a dozen other English cities |
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| July 29 | UK: Prince
Charles weds Lady Diana |
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| Aug 1 | Seventh hunger
striker dies, Belfast |
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| Aug 3 | 12,000 air-traffic
controllers go on strike |
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| Aug 5 | Reagan
breaks air-traffic controllers strike by hiring non-union workers |
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| Aug 6 | Reagan
endorses neutron bomb |
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| Aug | Bhagwan Shree
Rajnesh and followers move to 66,000 acre Big Muddy Ranch near Antelope,
Oregon IBM introduces the Personal Computer (PC) Reagan ?signs? income tax reductions for rich (explain) |
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| Aug 20 | Tenth
& last hunger striker dies, Belfast |
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| Aug | (end) Mexico
announces inability to pay interest on its debt |
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| Aug 24 | South Africa
invades Angola |
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| Aug 26 | Two-year death
toll in El Salvador reaches 26,000 |
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| Sept | US mortgage
rates 17.71% |
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| Oct | Weatherpeople
surface with bungled robbery Papandreou & Socialist party elected in Greece, on platform including a call for shutdown of American bases |
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| Oct 22 | Cancun: 22
Third World leaders convene in Mexico |
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| Nov | West Germans
protest (?US Cruise missiles) |
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| Nov 23 | Reagan
allocates $19 million to CIA to establish a paramilitary opposition to the
Sandanista government of Nicaragua |
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| Dec | Co-Evolution
Quarterly: Bioregional Quiz |
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| Dec 13 | Solidarity
crushed in Poland - martial law imposed |
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| Dec 26 | US Supreme
Court upholds right of 3 Indian tribes to use gillnets to fish in Lakes
Michigan, Superior, & Huron |
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On to The Eighties: Nuclear Freeze 1982-1984 |
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