RETRO Timeline

	Take a trip down the RETRO timeline. Do you remember the impact these events had on you or your environment? Ask your teen what she thinks of the more recent events.
Jump:	1950... 1960... 1970... 1980... 1990... 2000

	1950's
1954	Supreme Court rules on Brown v. Board of Education, banning segregation in public schools.
1955	December 1955. Rosa Parks is arrested after not giving up her seat to a white person on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
1956	Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show, but is only shown from the waist up due to his seductive dance moves.
	Howl, by Allen Ginsberg, is seized by the police, but courts later decide that it is not obscene and release the book. The controversy creates widespread publicity for the Beat movement.
1957	May 4, 1957. Alan Freed hosts the first prime-time television special featuring rock and roll music.
	July 12, 1957. The U.S. Surgeon General reports a direct relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. But 60 percent of males and 30 percent of females keep right on puffing.
1958	Wham-O Manufacturing introduces the Frisbee® and the Hula-Hoop.
1959	May 31, 1959. Troubled jazz great Billie Holiday, who was in a coma, dies from complications of cirrhosis of the liver and cardiac failure after a long history of heroin and alcohol addiction.
	1960's
1960	October 17, 1960. Former star contestant on the TV quiz show Twenty-One, Charles Van Doren is arrested on charges of perjury. He and 13 other people told a grand jury they had not received answers to questions before going on air, when in fact, they had. The popular 1990s film Quiz Show was based on this true story.
	Birth control pills are approved for marketing in the United States
1961	Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno (in a role created on stage by Chita Rivera, another acclaimed Puerto Rican performer), dances her way to an Academy Award in the film version of West Side Story.
1962	August 5, 1962. Marilyn Monroe dies at 36 of a massive overdose of prescription drugs. The coroner's report, and later official investigations, calls her death a "probable suicide."
1963	The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is published, laying the groundwork for the second wave of feminism in the 1970s.
	August 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech to over 250,000 people during the Civil Rights March on Washington.
	November 22, 1963. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
1964	The Civil Rights Act passes, prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, or religion.
	Patsy Mink (D-HI) is the first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
1965	Congress passes the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act requiring the Surgeon General’s warning on cigarette packs.
1966	Dr. Timothy Leary, a former psychologist at Harvard University, advocates LSD as a way to escape reality. He later went to jail, escaped, and fled to Algeria.
1967	Elizabeth Taylor wins an Academy Award opposite Richard Burton in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Her performance is one of the reasons a new movie code, “suggested for mature audiences,” is put into use.
1968	Shirley Chisholm (DNY) is the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
	April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated.
	June 5, 1968. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated.
	November 1, 1968. After 3½ years, Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam comes to an end. More than 800 pilots are dead or missing, and hundreds more are in captivity.
	What’s Hot in 1968? Nehru Jackets, wide ties, and Levi’s for girls are introduced. Tiny Tim sings Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Peggy Flemming wins an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.
1969	June 1969. The Stonewall uprising occurs, in which gays fight police harassment at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, giving birth to the gay rights movement.
	July 1969. Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.
	August 15—17, 1969. The Woodstock music festival draws more than 200,000 people.
	1970's
1970	September 18, 1970. James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix dies at 27 from a drug overdose.
	October 4, 1970. Janis Joplin dies at 27 from a drug overdose.
1971	The United States lowers the voting age to 18 with the passage of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution.
	January 1, 1971. Cigarette advertisers impose a voluntary ban on radio and television advertising.
	Jim Morrison, lead singer for The Doors, dies of a suspected drug overdose.
1973	Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in "The Battle of the Sexes," a televised tennis tournament watched by nearly 48 million people.
	The Supreme Court rules on Roe v. Wade and establishes a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion.
	The American Psychiatric Association rules that homosexuality is not a mental disorder.
	Maynard Jackson is elected first black mayor of Atlanta; Thomas Bradley becomes the first black mayor of Los Angeles; Coleman Young is named the first black mayor of Detroit.
	March 1973. The last American combat soldiers leave South Vietnam, though military advisors and the Marines, who are protecting U.S. installations, remain. For the United States, the war is officially over. Of the more than 3 million Americans who have served in the war, almost 58,000 are dead, and over 1,000 are missing in action.
	What’s Hot in 1973? Bruce Lee starts a nationwide Kung Fu craze with Enter the Dragon. TV covers the Watergate hearings. The United States experiences the OPEC oil embargo. The Mary Tyler Moore Show is one of the top-rated sitcoms.
1974	August 1974. Richard Nixon resigns as President.
	Atari develops the first play-athome video game. Mood rings and VCRs also are new this year.
1975	Saturday Night Live debuts on television, starring John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, and Chevy Chase.
1977	January 1977. Roots, an epic about slavery, is watched by over 100 million Americans.
	August 16, 1977. Elvis Aaron Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, dies after an apparent heart attack at his Graceland Mansion home, where he was found unconscious in his night clothes and rushed to the hospital. His death was believed to be drug related.
1978	Zoot Suit, a play affirming Chicano identity, sets box-office records in Los Angeles.
	What’s Hot in 1978? Biorhythms, torn jeans, and hot tubs. Mickey Mouse turns 50. Eight is Enough is one of the top-rated TV shows. Popular songs: Last Dance and My Way.
1979	Sony introduces the Walkman, a personal, portable radio-cassette player.
	The sounds of disco, like Donna Summers’ Bad Girls and Y.M.C.A. by the Village People, play long into the night at clubs like Studio 54. Meanwhile, there is a new urban sound being played by New York City musicians like the Sugar Hill Gang. In a few years, the music will be known as rap.
	Illicit drug use in the United States peaks. The number of users reaches 25.4 million, or 14.1 percent of the U.S. population. Sixty percent of high school students report having tried marijuana at least once.
	January 11, 1979. The U.S. Surgeon General says smoking kills. Dr. Julius Richmond says "cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in both men and women."
	December 3, 1979. Eleven concertgoers are trampled to death in a rush for festival seating at The Who concert.
	1980's
1981	March 1981. John Hinckley, Jr. attempts to assassinate President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, and manages to wound Reagan’s press secretary, James Brady.
	Sandra Day O'Connor is the first woman ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
	August 1, 1981. MTV is launched.
1982	March 5, 1982. John Belushi dies from an overdose of cocaine and heroin.
1983	What’s Hot in 1983? Break dancing is the fad. Sally Ride is the first woman astronaut and Guion Builford is the first black astronaut in space. Aspartame, a.k.a. Nutrasweet, is approved for soft drinks. Compact discs are made available. The first Cabbage Patch Kid dolls are sold. Jimmy Connors wins the U.S. Open tennis singles. The Love Boat is a top-rated TV show.
1984	Federal researchers announce that they've isolated the retrovirus that causes AIDS.
	July 17, 1984. Congress raises the national drinking age to 21. The President signs a bill giving States until October 1 to raise their minimum drinking ages to 21 or face a 5 percent cut in Federal highway funds.
	September 1984. The Huxtables of television’s The Cosby Show become TV’s most popular family ever.
1985	Rock Hudson acknowledges he has AIDS.
	A crack cocaine epidemic spreads across the Nation. The use of crack becomes widespread, particularly within inner cities. Violent crime rates soar, fueled in large measure by the drug trade.
	Oprah Winfrey begins her talk show.
	December 10, 1985. A complete ban on tobacco advertising is urged. The American Medical Association says cigarettes kill many people. The U.S. Surgeon General agrees, saying that cigarettes are a greater health risk than anything else in the workplace.
1986	January 1986. Americans watch in horror as the space shuttle Challenger explodes in a ball of flames 1 minute after liftoff. In addition to the astronaut crew, the civilian on board, school teacher Christa McAuliffe, is also killed.
	June 19, 1986. Len Bias, basketball star, dies at 22 from a drug-induced heart attack. Bias dies after using cocaine to celebrate his lucrative contract with the Boston Celtics. This, and other similar events, caused management in professional sports to lay down tougher rules to prevent drug use by players.
1987	October 11, 1987. The Names Project Foundation’s AIDS Quilt is unfurled for the first time on the Mall in Washington, DC.
1988	What’s Hot in 1988? Safari jackets and ankle length skirts are fashion statements. Mac computer experiences the first computer virus. A bomb kills 259 people on Pan Am Flight 103 from Lockerbie, Scotland. Popular songs: Don’t Worry Be Happy and One Moment in Time.
	April 23, 1988. A ban on smoking on domestic airline flights takes effect.
1989	Hundreds of people are killed during a student uprising in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, when the Chinese army retaliates against their protest for democracy.
	In Germany, the wall separating democratic West Berlin from communist East Berlin is torn down by protestors, ushering in the uneasy rebirth of democracy in Eastern Europe.
	1990's
1990	January 18, 1990. Marion Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC, is arrested on charges of possession of crack cocaine.
1991	January 1991. President George Bush declares war on Iraq and the Gulf War begins.
	The first raciallybased riots in years erupt in Los Angeles and other cities after a jury acquits L.A. police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
1992	Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) is the first Mexican American woman and Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) is the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the House of Representatives.
1994	April 8, 1994. Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to his head. At the time, his blood contained 1.52 milligrams of morphine, three times the lethal dose.
	December 1994. Chris Mitchell, a Rockland County teenager, dies after being dropped on his head, in a mosh pit, at a Bronx club in New York.
1996	The Internet, gaining popularity, becomes a feature in coffee houses. People can “surf” the “Net” while socializing at these cyber cafes.
	September 13, 1996. Tupac Shakur is shot by unknown gunmen and dies in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1997	March 10, 1997. Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls) is shot dead at the age of 24 in Los Angeles, California.
	April 1997. Ellen DeGeneres “comes out” on her television show, Ellen.
	April 13, 1997. Tiger Woods wins the 61st Masters Tournament and becomes the first black and youngest person to win the Masters.
	December 1997. Comedian Chris Farley overdoses on cocaine and morphine.
1998	The Office of National Drug Control Policy launches its National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, a multidimensional effort designed to educate and empower youth to reject illicit drugs.
1999	About 9,000 people attend the fourth annual “Boardstock”—an end of summer party and professional wakeboarding competition in northern California.
	2000's
2000	June 23, 2000. Seattle’s Experience Music Project (EMP) opens. The guitarshaped museum tells the story of the “creative, innovative, and rebellious expression that defines American popular music.” Grand opening concerts feature Patti Smith, rappers Dr. Dre and Eminem, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kid Rock, Rikki Lee Jones, and Joe Jackson.
2001	January 2001. Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) is the first quadriplegic to serve in the U.S. Congress. He uses a battery-powered wheelchair and voice-recognition software to dictate letters, legislation, and speeches on his computer. His special needs prompted the House of Representatives to install an accessible voting machine and podium.