Highlights of a Boomer's Life
Well, Savvy Readers, 2020 was a heck of a year and 2021 does not seem to be shaping up without being fraught with its share of scary events. It is only January!
I am feeling a bit claustrophobic after nearly a year of isolation and a whole lot fearful for our country. I wanted to see if, perhaps, I was making too much of the “now” and minimizing my memories of “then.”
Don’t feel an obligation to read every item but I was indeed struck by how much has happened in my lifetime. It might be interesting to see how much you remember and what events you think I forgot! Some are just interesting, but much of it is sad and a bit scary. Seems like every new and exciting event has an equal number of sad or catastrophic ones. Maybe we just get used to what is happening without thinking too far in the future as we go about our daily routines. Maybe every generation feels this way? Maybe?
1946: ENIAC--the first computer; AT&T car phones; Dr. Spock’s Common Sense Baby and Child Care; I am born.
1948: Supreme Court rules religious education in schools is unconstitutional (most schools ignored for a long time).
1953: The CIA uses LSD in human research trials.
1954: Polio vaccine; Disneyland breaks ground in California.
1956: Elvis appears on Ed Sullivan’s show; American Bandstand with Dick Clark begins.
1958: Khrushchev becomes Russian premier.
1959: I am 13 and have to watch the news every evening (yep, whole family): Big Year, though: NASA selects seven astronauts; first Barbie dolls; international flights on Pan Am; Khrushchev not allowed into Disneyland (no idea why I remembered this).
1960: Another big year: Civil Rights Sit-In at Woolworth’s in N.C.; Civil Rights Bill passed; first contraceptive pills on the market; JFK elected 35th President.
1961: Berlin Wall built; Alan Sheperd first American in space; Bay of Pigs near catastrophe.
1962: Marilyn Monroe found dead in bed; first Wal-Mart opens.
1963: MLK delivers “I Have A Dream” in front of Lincoln memorial; JFK assassinated; census = U.S. 190 million (2020 listed at 331 million); Equal Pay Act (whatever happened to it?); March on Washington.
1964: MLK receives Nobel Peace Prize; Beetles appear on Ed Sullivan show; World’s Fair in NY; Head Start education program for young children; Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed President Johnson actively into Vietnam; I graduate from high school.
1965: Voting Rights Act (still a bit of trouble with this one); Watts Riots in L.A.
1966: Huey Newton and Bobby Seale start the Black Panther Party.
1968: Vietnam – remember Mi Lai? MLK assassinated; I graduate from William & Mary; Chicago Seven at Democratic Convention (I went to school with Rennie Davis’s brother and sister.).
1971: Kent State students protest Vietnam and National Guard opens fire; Nixon visits China.
1972: Roe v. Wade (and it’s still an issue!); Watergate scandal; Munich Olympics--Palestinians attack Israeli athletes.
1974: Nixon resigns over Watergate; Ford becomes President and pardons Nixon.
1975: End of U.S. in Vietnam War--Saigon falls, becomes Ho Chi Minh City.
1979: Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident.
1980: Ronald Reagan elected President.
1981: Sandra Day O’Connor--first woman on Supreme Court; AIDS diagnosed.
1985: Gorbachev becomes Russian leader.
1986: Space shuttle Challenger explodes--seen live on TV (we were on a ski trip taking a break in snack bar and saw it on TV); Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes in Ukraine.
1987: Stock market drops over 500 points – worst in history – Black Monday (which I still don’t understand).
1988: Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda; George Bush elected President; Libyans blow up plane over Scotland.
1989: (a volatile year!): Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons oil off Alaska; Tiananmen Square; Berliners continue tearing down wall; U.S. invades Panama to get rid of Noriega.
1981: Sandra Day O’Connor--first woman on Supreme Court; AIDS diagnosed.
1985: Gorbachev becomes Russian leader.
1986: Space shuttle Challenger explodes--seen live on TV (we were on a ski trip taking a break in snack bar and saw it on TV); Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes in Ukraine.
1987: Stock market drops over 500 points – worst in history – Black Monday (which I still don’t understand).
1988: Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda; George Bush elected President; Libyans blow up plane over Scotland.
1989: (a volatile year!): Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons oil off Alaska; Tiananmen Square; Berliners continue tearing down wall; U.S. invades Panama to get rid of Noriega.
1991: Rodney King beaten; Soviet Union dissolved.
1993: NAFTA--free trade agreement U.S./Canada/Mexico; NYC bombing of World Trade Center; Toni Morrison first Black to receive Nobel Prize for Literature.
1994: Nelson Mandela sworn in as President of S. Africa; Oklahoma bombing.
1995: O.J. Simpson trial--not guilty.
1996: Dolly the sheep is cloned.
1998: President Clinton impeached.
1999: Clinton acquitted; Panama Canal transferred to Panama.
2001: 9/11 bombing of World Trade Center and later Pentagon.
2003: U.S. and Britain wage war against Iraq; Columbia space shuttle explodes on re-entry.
2004: Four hurricanes devastate south coast.
2005: Hurricane Katrina wrecks Mississippi and Louisiana; Justice Rehnquist dies, O’Connor resigns, John Roberts becomes Chief Justice.
2007: Nancy Pelosi becomes first woman speaker of the House of Representatives; mass shootings at Virginia Tech.
2008: Barack Obama elected first Black President.
2010: Instagram founded.
2011: Osama Bin Laden killed by Navy Seals.
2012: Obama re-elected; Sandy Hook Elementary School killings; Hurricane Sandy ravages east coast.
2013: Black Lives Matter emerges as a political movement; Boston Marathon killings; Supreme Court strikes down “defense of marriage” act.
2015: Same-sex marriage allowed in all 50 states.
2016: Donald Trump elected President over Hillary Clinton.
2017: White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; three more devastating hurricanes--Maria, Irma, and Harvey; film producer Harvey Weinstein accused of sexual harassment and #ME TOO MOVEMENT begins.
2018: Steven Hawking dies; Stan Lee dies; George H.W. Bush dies.
2019: Government shutdown (seems partly due to Trump wanting money for Mexican border wall); first photo of a black hole; shootings continue: Virginia Beach, Dallas, South California, El Paso, Dayton, Ohio; Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein found dead in prison cell; impeachment against Trump for presidential abuses of power.
2011: Osama Bin Laden killed by Navy Seals.
2012: Obama re-elected; Sandy Hook Elementary School killings; Hurricane Sandy ravages east coast.
2013: Black Lives Matter emerges as a political movement; Boston Marathon killings; Supreme Court strikes down “defense of marriage” act.
2015: Same-sex marriage allowed in all 50 states.
2016: Donald Trump elected President over Hillary Clinton.
2017: White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; three more devastating hurricanes--Maria, Irma, and Harvey; film producer Harvey Weinstein accused of sexual harassment and #ME TOO MOVEMENT begins.
2018: Steven Hawking dies; Stan Lee dies; George H.W. Bush dies.
2019: Government shutdown (seems partly due to Trump wanting money for Mexican border wall); first photo of a black hole; shootings continue: Virginia Beach, Dallas, South California, El Paso, Dayton, Ohio; Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein found dead in prison cell; impeachment against Trump for presidential abuses of power.
2020: Coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and global shut-down; a Black man, George Floyd, killed during police arrest – protests and riots follow; Biden and Harris elected with Harris being first woman and first Black to hold v-p office; first COVID-19 vaccines given; two of my heroes die: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Alex Trebek.
And What Is Next?
(The information was collected from various websites: digitalhistory.uh.edu, pbs.org/americanmasters, historynewsnetwork.org, Infoplease.com/history, Wikipedia.org/u.s.history and a variety of google searches which give one/two sentence descriptors)
Here’s to better times!
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