Wayback Wednesday: 1970s Events

Wayback Wednesday: 1970s Events

Pixabay/Brigitte Werner

I turned nine years old in 1970, and by the time the decade ended had graduated from high school. Most elementary school children aren’t attuned to national events, however, dinner discussions in our house didn’t seem to have limits, so I remember many of the incidents that occurred.

Failure of the Penn Central Railroad line, at the time the largest bankruptcy in the US started off the decade and a few months later, as an extension of the Vietnam War the U.S. invaded Cambodia. In May, four Kent State University students were killed and nine wounded during an anti-war rally. The following year saw additional anti-war rallies occurring outside the White House in Washington, D.C. Many people don’t realize is that America had involved since shortly after WWII, but by 1969 more than half a million troops had been stationed in Vietnam. By the time the US withdrew in 1973, over five million servicemen and women had served. President Jimmy Carter pardoned the war’s draft dodgers in 1977.

Scandal erupted in Washington, DC in 1972 with the Watergate incident, followed by President

Nixon’s resignation and Vice President Ford taking his place as president. Intriguingly, by November of 1972, the Dow Jones broke 1000 for the very first time.

Just after the U.S. bicentennial, on July 20, 1976, Viking 1 separated from the orbiter to touch down on the Chryse Planitia region of Mars, sending back the first close-up photographs of the surface. In September, Viking 2 entered the Mars orbit where it assisted Viking 1 with capturing images, eventually sending back more than 1,400 images.

Pixabay/Marcus Distelrath

For the most part, 1979 was a frightening year, beginning in March with the incident at Three-Mile Island during which equipment failures and a stuck open relief valve prevented the removal of heat from the Unit 2 reactor’s core. Inadequate cooling water to the core caused it to overheat and suffer a partial meltdown resulting in radioactive material being released. Subsequent tests and studies indicate there were no detectable health effects on plant workers or surrounding public.

Fall saw sixty-six American citizens taken from the U.S. embassy in Iran by militants. Fifty-two of the individuals would be held for more than a year. In December, the USSR invaded Afghanistan in support of the Afghan communist government in conflict with anti-communist Muslim guerrillas. The Russians would remain until 1989.

What events do you remember from this turbulent decade?

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Dial S for Second Chances

Can years of hurt and misunderstanding be transformed into a second chance at love?

Jade Williams agrees to be on the high school reunion committee because the-one-that-got-away is out of the country and won’t be home in time to attend the festivities. Now, he’s not only home, but joined the committee. Is it too late to back out or can she set aside forty-five years of regret and pretend she isn’t to blame for her broken heart?

One of the downsides of being rich means fielding requests for money and favors. But when an old high school buddy contacts Derek Milligan to be on the reunion committee as just one of the gang, no strings attached, he can’t resist. At the first meeting, he’s dismayed to find himself sitting next to his former high school sweetheart. He should be angry. Instead, he’s attracted. Can he risk his heart a second time?

Reunion festivities include calling into to WDES’s program No Errin’ for Love with fake relationship problems. When both use their real situation, the stakes are raised higher than either imagined.

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