Portal:1970s

The 1970s Portal

**Clockwise from top-left:**
U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the **Watergate scandal** in 1974;
The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War in the early decade. The New York Times leaked information regarding the nation's involvement in the war. Political pressure led to America's withdrawal from the war in 1973, and the **Fall of Saigon** in 1975 leading to evacuations of South Vietnamese that same year;
The **1973 oil crisis** causes a financial crisis throughout the developed world;
Both the leaders of Israel and Egypt shake hands after the signing of the **Camp David Accords** in 1978;
In 1971, the Pakistan Armed Forces commits the **1971 Bangladesh genocide** to curb independence movements in East Pakistan, killing 300,000 to 3,000,000 people; this consequently leads to the Bangladesh Liberation War;
The **1970 Bhola cyclone** kills an estimated 500,000 people in the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan in November 1970, and became the deadliest natural disaster in 40 years;
The **Iranian Revolution** of 1979 ousts Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who is later replaced by an Islamic theocracy led by Ayatollah Khomeini;
The popularity of the **disco** music genre and subculture peaks during the mid-to-late 1970s.

P:1970sP:1970s

The 1970s (pronounced "nineteen-seventies"; commonly shortened to the "Seventies" or the "'70s") was a decade that began on January 1, 1970, and ended on December 31, 1979.

In the 21st century, historians have increasingly portrayed the 1970s as a "pivot of change" in world history, focusing especially on the economic upheavals^[1] that followed the end of the postwar economic boom.^[2] On a global scale, it was characterized by frequent coups, domestic conflicts and civil wars, and various political upheavals and armed conflicts which arose from or were related to decolonization, and the global struggle between NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Many regions had periods of high-intensity conflict, notably Southeast Asia, the Mideast, and Africa.

In the Western world, social progressive values that began in the 1960s, such as increasing political awareness and economic liberty of women, continued to grow. In the United Kingdom, the 1979 election resulted in the victory of its Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher, the first female British Prime Minister. Industrialized countries experienced an economic recession due to an oil crisis caused by oil embargoes by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries. The crisis saw the first instance of stagflation which began a political and economic trend of the replacement of Keynesian economic theory with neoliberal economic theory, with the first neoliberal government coming to power with the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. The 1970s was also an era of great technological and scientific advances; since the appearance of the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004 in 1971, the decade was characterised by a profound transformation of computing units – by then rudimentary, spacious machines – into the realm of portability and home accessibility.

On the other hand, there were also great advances in fields such as physics, which saw the consolidation of quantum field theory at the end of the decade, mainly thanks to the confirmation of the existence of quarks and the detection of the first gauge bosons in addition to the photon, the Z boson and the gluon, part of what was christened in 1975 as the Standard Model.

In Asia, the People's Republic of China's international relations changed significantly following its recognition by the United Nations, the death of Mao Zedong and the beginning of market liberalization by Mao's successors. Despite facing an oil crisis due to the OPEC embargo, the economy of Japan witnessed a large boom in this period, overtaking the economy of West Germany to become the second-largest in the world.^[3] The United States withdrew its military forces from the Vietnam War. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, which led to the Soviet–Afghan War.

The 1970s saw an initial increase in violence in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria declared war on Israel, but in the late 1970s, the situation in the Middle East was fundamentally altered when Egypt signed the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty. Political tensions in Iran exploded with the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty and established an Islamic republic under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini.

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Mass demonstrations of people protesting against the Shah and the Pahlavi government on the day of Ashura on 11 December 1978 at College Bridge, Tehran

The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the monarchical government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was superseded by Ruhollah Khomeini, an Islamist cleric who had headed one of the rebel factions. The ousting of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, formally marked the end of Iran's historical monarchy.

In 1953, the CIA- and MI6-backed 1953 Iranian coup d'état overthrew Iran's prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The coup reinstated Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as an absolute monarch and significantly increased the level of influence of the United States over Iran. (Full article...)

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... that the basic tune for "As Long as You're Mine" from 2003's Wicked was written by Stephen Schwartz in the 1970s?
... that the oldest surviving synagogue building in Wisconsin was almost razed in the 1970s?
... that Michael Lippman had his breakthrough in the music business in the 1970s by working as an attorney and manager for David Bowie?
... that Diego García Miravete and his college football team's games were closely monitored by the Mexican government in the early 1970s?
... that Spaceship House was originally built as a 1970s-era bachelor pad?
... that the gray stonecrop was little known in the 1970s but became so popular by the 1990s that demand exceeded supply?

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Portrait by Allan Warren, 1987

Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath also served for 51 years as a Member of Parliament from 1950 to 2001. Outside politics, Heath was a yachtsman, a musician, and an author.

Born in Broadstairs, Kent, Heath was the son of a chambermaid and a carpenter. He became a leader within student politics while studying at Balliol College at the University of Oxford. During World War II, Heath served as an officer in the Royal Artillery. He worked briefly in the Civil Service, but resigned to stand for Parliament, and was elected for Bexley at the 1950 election. He was promoted to become Chief Whip by Anthony Eden in 1955, and in 1959 was appointed to the Cabinet by Harold Macmillan as Minister of Labour. He later held the role of Lord Privy Seal and in 1963, was made President of the Board of Trade by Alec Douglas-Home. After the Conservatives were defeated at the 1964 election, Heath was elected as Leader of the Conservative Party in 1965, becoming Leader of the Opposition. Although he led the Conservatives to a landslide defeat at the 1966 election, he remained in the leadership, and at the 1970 election led his party to an unexpected victory. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various 1970s-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Willie Nelson became one of the most popular country music artists during the 1970s. (from 1970s in music)
Image 2A West German schoolgirl with Schultüte in 1970, with a 'hippyish' outfit on. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 3The early 1970s' fashions were a continuation of the hippie look from the late 1960s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 4American casual attire, 1974. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 51976 flyer advertising the racing game Fonz (from 1970s in video games)
Image 6Jose Jose (from 1970s in music)
Image 7Commodore PET (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 8Diane von Fürstenberg's wrap dress, designed in the 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 9John Denver, 1975 (from 1970s in music)
Image 10Honda Civic sold well throughout the decade. (from 1970s)
Image 11Atari 2600 (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 12Silk scarves were popular fashion accessories for women in the 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 13Loretta Lynn (from 1970s in music)
Image 14Nixon and Zhou toast, 1972 (from 1970s)
Image 15Intellivision (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 16 Fairchild Channel F (1976) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 17The Vietnam War (1955–1975) (from 1970s)
Image 18King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (from 1970s)
Image 19Frisbee player Ken Westerfield wearing drawstring bell bottoms in the late 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 20Viking 1, the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars, takes this picture of the landing site in Chryse Planitia (1978) (from 1970s)
Image 21Microvision (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 22The Eagles (from 1970s in music)
Image 23The world map of military alliances in 1970s: Western allies (blue), Non-aligned countries (green) and Soviet allies (red) (from 1970s)
Image 24Anti-war protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 1971. (from 1970s)
Image 251979 Iranian Revolution (from 1970s)
Image 26Home Pong console (museum recreation) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 27Public at the farewell concert of Sui Generis (1975) (from 1970s)
Image 28Punk pioneer Lene Lovich in 1979, with her trademark long plaited hair. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 29Aldo Moro (from 1970s)
Image 30Singer Barry Manilow wears his hair longish in the soft, layered style favoured by men in the 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 31Debby Boone song "You Light Up My Life" had the most weeks at number one in the US Billboard chart (from 1970s in music)
Image 32America's first space station Skylab in orbit February 8, 1974 (from 1970s)
Image 33Park Chung Hee (from 1970s)
Image 34Bob Marley, 1980 (from 1970s in music)
Image 35Two punks from the late 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 36Woman in miniskirt, 1970 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 37The CN Tower was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure. (from 1970s)
Image 38Isabel Perón becomes the first woman President of Argentina in 1974 and the first woman non-monarch head of state in the Western hemisphere. (from 1970s)
Image 39Mid-70s Western-inspired outifts worn by country music group Asleep at the Wheel. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 40Asteroids (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 41By the early 1970s, miniskirts had reached an all-time popularity. This young English woman is wearing a fringed suede miniskirt, 1971. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 42Line at a gas station in Maryland, June 15, 1979. (from 1970s)
Image 43Two women in 1979 wear the trendy tube tops, while the woman on the far left is wearing a rayon strapless dress (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 44Jorge Luis Borges with admirers in 1976. (from 1970s)
Image 45Bruce Lee fostered the popularity of martial arts cinema (from 1970s)
Image 46Actress Raquel Welch in 1979, wearing the shoulder pads and "retro"-look tilted hat favored by designers at the time (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 47Disco Tex & His Sex-O-Lettes Album, "Hot Lava" (from 1970s in music)
Image 48Dave Schultz won Stanley Cup two times (from 1970s)
Image 49Rigo Tovar (from 1970s in music)
Image 50Siouxsie Sioux of the English punk group Siouxsie and the Banshees. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 51American First Lady Pat Nixon wears a shirt with the wide collar that was popular until the final years of the decade. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 52Galaxian (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 53Pong (1972) (from 1970s)
Image 54Voyager 1 passing by Jupiter's Great Red Spot February 25, 1979 (from 1970s)
Image 55An artist impression of an American Apollo spacecraft and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft docking, a propaganda portrait for the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project mission (from 1970s)
Image 56VT100 (1978) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 57Fashion models in Leipzig, GDR, 1972. One of the women is modelling a "maxi" dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 58Example of glam rock costume worn by Roy Wood and Wizzard, early 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 591970 Dodge Challenger Trans Am, an example of a muscle car in the earlier part of the decade. (from 1970s)
Image 60Mario Kempes scores the first goal in the 1978 World Cup Final for Argentina (from 1970s)
Image 61Clockwise from top-left:
- U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974;
- The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War in the early decade. The New York Times leaked information regarding the nation's involvement in the war. Political pressure led to America's withdrawal from the war in 1973, and the Fall of Saigon in 1975 leading to evacuations of South Vietnamese that same year;
- The 1973 oil crisis causes a financial crisis throughout the developed world;
- Both the leaders of Israel and Egypt shake hands after the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978;
- In 1971, the Pakistan Armed Forces commits the 1971 Bangladesh genocide to curb independence movements in East Pakistan, killing 300,000 to 3,000,000 people; this consequently leads to the Bangladesh Liberation War;
- The 1970 Bhola cyclone kills an estimated 500,000 people in the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan in November 1970, and became the deadliest natural disaster in 40 years;
- The Iranian Revolution of 1979 ousts Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who is later replaced by an Islamic theocracy led by Ayatollah Khomeini;
- The popularity of the disco music genre and subculture peaks during the mid-to-late 1970s.
(from 1970s)
Image 62Alan Bennett in 1973, wearing a wide necktie (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 63Swedish model Efva Attling in a "midi" dress, Kings Road, London, 1971. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 64AC/DC, August 1979 (from 1970s in music)
Image 65Hank Williams (from 1970s in music)
Image 66Steve McQueen with sideburns, 1972. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 67David Bowie in the early 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 68In 1971 hotpants, long sideburns and bell-bottomed trousers were popular fashion trends (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 69El Tri Band founder Alex Lora, on stage with the band in 2006 (from 1970s in music)
Image 70Susana Giménez wearing hotpants, 1977 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 71Swedish model Ulla Jones dressed in a lurex halter top and matching flared trousers (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 72The Bee Gees, in 1968 (from 1970s in music)
Image 73Nixon displays the V-for-victory sign as he departs the White House after resigning (from 1970s)
Image 74The Swedish band ABBA was one of the most commercially successful European bands of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 75Mao Zedong wearing gray Zhongshan suit, 1972. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 761974 Ford Mustang interior (from 1970s)
Image 77Girl in 1973 with a "flicked" hairstyle. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 78English girl in the mid-1970s wearing a wide-sleeved shirt, belted at the waist. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 79Ramones's lead guitarist Johnny Ramone performing in Toronto, 1977 (from 1970s in music)
Image 80Elton John was one of the most commercially successful solo pop acts of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 81Magnavox Odyssey (1972) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 82A couple at a prom in late 1970s: powder tuxedo and sleeved dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 83Linda Ronstadt in 1976 (from 1970s in music)
Image 84Actress Camille Keaton in 1972. Throughout most of the decade, women preferred light, natural-looking make-up for the daytime. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 85Kansas (from 1970s in music)
Image 86Three Los Angeles Chicanos in 1974. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 87Polistil VG2 Pong clone (1978), made in Italy (from 1970s in video games)
Image 881973 Volvo P1800 sportwagon. (from 1970s)
Image 89Singer Rod Stewart performing in 1976. He was one of the major British soft rock artists of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 90Pakistan Army General A. A. K. Niazi signing surrender agreement before Sh. Jagjit Singh Aurora of Indian Army after getting defeated in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against East Pakistan, which eventually liberated as Bangladesh later. (from 1970s)
Image 91Typical mid to late 1970s Ted gear, as worn by Shakin' Stevens. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 92TRS-80 (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 93Pink Floyd, 1973 (from 1970s in music)
Image 94African American couple, Michigan Avenue, Chicago, July 1975 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 95British rock band Queen (pictured here in 1977) was considered to be one of the most influential bands of the '70s (as well as the '80s), along with American rock band Eagles and others (from 1970s)
Image 96Flared jeans and trousers were popular with both sexes as can be seen at this East German disco party in 1977. In the socialist part of Germany (until 1990), the government regarded western influences on cultural life of their population very critical, but factually tolerated them in many fields. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 97Los Angeles high school students, 1973. The tousled, blond surfer hair was popular for young men in southern California. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 98Color TV-Game (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 99Idi Amin (from 1970s)
Image 100Singer Cher in 1971. In the 1970s, women's hair was usually worn long with a centre parting (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 101British girls in 1975 in flared jeans (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 102The 1970 Bhola cyclone, considered the 20th century's worst cyclone disaster, kills an estimated 500,000 people in the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan during November 1970. (from 1970s)
Image 103Salah Zulfikar and Zubaida Tharwat in The Other Man (1973) (from 1970s)
Image 104A young woman wearing a wrap dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 105Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson from Sanford and Son (from 1970s)
Image 106Apollo 17 Astronaut Gene Cernan becomes the last man on the Moon, December 13, 1972 (from 1970s)
Image 107Egyptian military vehicles crossing the Suez Canal on October 7, 1973, during the Yom Kippur War. (from 1970s)
Image 108British rock band Led Zeppelin was one of the most popular and influential bands of the 1970s. The band's heavy, guitar-driven sound has led them to be cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal. (from 1970s)
Image 109Henry Mancini (from 1970s in music)
Image 110A Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from 1970s)
Image 111British rock band Killing Floor, 1971. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 112Pink Floyd performing The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, the highest-selling album of the decade and one of the highest-selling of all time. (from 1970s)
Image 113The first Military Junta after the 1976 Coup d'État in Argentina, integrated by Jorge Videla, Emilio Massera and Orlando Agosti (from 1970s)
Image 114Concorde landing at Farnborough in September 1974 (from 1970s)
Image 115Queen, 1975 (from 1970s in music)
Image 116Pedro Eugenio Aramburu (from 1970s)
Image 117British singer Rod Stewart, 1976. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 118The British band The Bee Gees were one of the biggest musical acts of the 1970s leading the disco phenomenon (from 1970s in music)
Image 119Debbie Harry of Blondie in 1977. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 120United States President Jimmy Carter and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II treaty, June 18, 1979, in Vienna, Austria (from 1970s)
Image 121Pong arcade machine (1972) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 122Footballer George Best wore long hair in 1976. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 123Margaret Thatcher shortly before becoming the United Kingdom's first woman Prime Minister in 1979. Thatcher's political and economic agenda began the first government committed to neoliberalism. (from 1970s)
Image 124Apple II (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 125Singer Billy Preston in 1974 wearing an Afro hairstyle. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 126Paul Anka in 1961 (from 1970s in music)
Image 127Haile Selassie was overthrown from power in Ethiopia, ending one of the longest-lasting monarchies in world history. (from 1970s)
Image 128Death Race (1976) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 129Led Zeppelin, 1977 (from 1970s in music)
Image 130Atari 2600 (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 131Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat shake hands, Camp David, 1978 (from 1970s)
Image 132Microvision (1979) is the first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges. (from 1970s)
Image 133Charlie Rich (from 1970s in music)

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