Portal:1970s

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P: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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AC/DC in Buenos Aires in 2009. From left to right: Malcolm Young, Phil Rudd, Cliff Williams, Angus Young and Brian Johnson

AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and heavy metal, but the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formative influence on the new wave of British heavy metal bands.

AC/DC was founded in 1973 by Angus (lead guitar) and Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar), with Colin Burgess (drums), Larry Van Kriedt (bass guitar) and Dave Evans (lead vocals). They underwent several line-up changes before releasing their debut Australasian-only album, High Voltage (1975). Membership stabilised after the release of Let There Be Rock (1977), with the Young brothers, Rudd on drums, Williams on bass guitar and Bon Scott on lead vocals. Seven months after the release of Highway to Hell (1979), Scott died of alcohol poisoning and English singer Brian Johnson was then recruited as their new frontman. Their first album with Johnson, Back in Black (1980), dedicated to Scott's memory, became the second best-selling album of all time. The eighth studio album, For Those About to Rock (1981), was their first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200. Rudd was fired partway through the Flick of the Switch sessions in 1983 and was replaced by Simon Wright, who was replaced by Chris Slade six years later. (Full article...)

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... that the art of Irma Blank, of "drawing languages without words" and including sounds, was recognised in the 1970s but fell into obscurity until a rediscovery in the 2010s?
... that the Yerevan Children's Art Museum deliberately kept no records from the 1970s to the 1990s?
... that American teenagers of the 1960s and 1970s used to chat and arrange dates over the sound of the busy signal?
... that Midwest Scientific was the only maker of microcomputers in Kansas City in the late 1970s?
... that health economist Selma Mushkin estimated in the early 1970s that up to 50 percent of poor children in Washington, D.C., were affected by lead poisoning?
... that John Kinch worked two jobs in the late 1970s, as a mail carrier and a professional football player?

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Gandhi in 1983

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindi: [ˈɪndɪɾɑː ˈɡɑːndʱi] ^ⓘ; née Indira Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and, to date, only female prime minister, and a central figure in Indian politics as the leader of the Indian National Congress (INC). She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, and the mother of Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded her in office as the country's sixth prime minister. Gandhi's cumulative tenure of 15 years and 350 days makes her the second-longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father. Henry Kissinger described her as an "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her tough personality.

During Nehru's premiership from 1947 to 1964, Gandhi was his hostess and accompanied him on his numerous foreign trips. In 1959, she played a part in the dissolution of the communist-led Kerala state government as then-president of the Indian National Congress, otherwise a ceremonial position to which she was elected earlier that year. Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had succeeded Nehru as prime minister upon his death in 1964, appointed her minister of information and broadcasting in his government; the same year she was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. After Shastri's sudden death in January 1966, Gandhi defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, in the INC's parliamentary leadership election to become leader and also succeeded Shastri as prime minister. She led the Congress to victory in two subsequent elections, starting with the 1967 general election, in which she was first elected to the lower house of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha. In 1971, her party secured its first landslide victory since her father's sweep in 1962, focusing on issues such as poverty. But following the nationwide state of emergency she implemented, she faced massive anti-incumbency sentiment causing the INC to lose the 1977 election, the first time in the history of India to happen so. She even lost her own parliamentary constituency. However, due to her portrayal as a strong leader and the weak governance of the Janata Party, her party won the next election by landslide with her return to the premiership. (Full article...)

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

Image 11970 Dodge Challenger Trans Am, an example of a muscle car in the earlier part of the decade. (from 1970s)
Image 2Punk pioneer Lene Lovich in 1979, with her trademark long plaited hair. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 3Two punks from the late 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 41973 Volvo P1800 sportwagon. (from 1970s)
Image 5Mao Zedong wearing gray Zhongshan suit, 1972. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 6Frisbee player Ken Westerfield wearing draw string bell bottoms in the 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 7Nixon displays the V-for-victory sign as he departs the White House after resigning (from 1970s)
Image 8Singer Billy Preston in 1974 wearing an Afro hairstyle. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 9The Swedish band ABBA was one of the most commercially successful European bands of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 101979 Iranian Revolution (from 1970s)
Image 11The Vietnam War (1955–1975) (from 1970s)
Image 12Line at a gas station in Maryland, June 15, 1979. (from 1970s)
Image 13Alan Bennett in 1973, wearing a wide necktie (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 14British 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 15Silk scarves were popular fashion accessories for women in the 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 16Actress Camille Keaton in 1972. Throughout most of the decade, women preferred light, natural-looking make-up for the daytime. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 17AC/DC, August 1979 (from 1970s in music)
Image 18Rigo Tovar (from 1970s in music)
Image 19The CN Tower was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure. (from 1970s)
Image 20In 1971 hotpants and bell-bottomed trousers were popular fashion trends (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 21America's first space station Skylab in orbit February 8, 1974 (from 1970s)
Image 22Isabel 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 23Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shake hands, Camp David, 1978 (from 1970s)
Image 24Microvision (1979) is the first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges. (from 1970s)
Image 25American casual attire, 1974. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 26Loretta Lynn (from 1970s in music)
Image 27Charlie Rich (from 1970s in music)
Image 28David Bowie in the early 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 291974 Ford Mustang interior (from 1970s)
Image 30El Tri Band founder Alex Lora, on stage with the band in 2006 (from 1970s in music)
Image 31John Denver, 1975 (from 1970s in music)
Image 32Los Angeles high school students, 1973. The tousled, blond surfer hair was popular for young men in southern California. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 33Nixon and Zhou toast, 1972 (from 1970s)
Image 34A couple at prom in late 1970s: Powder Tuxedo and sleeved dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 35TRS-80 (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 36United States President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II treaty, June 18, 1979, in Vienna, Austria (from 1970s)
Image 37 Fairchild Channel F (1976) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 38Fashion models in Leipzig, GDR, 1972. One of the girls is modelling a "maxi" dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 39Linda Ronstadt in 1976 (from 1970s in music)
Image 40Siouxsie Sioux of the English punk group Siouxsie and the Banshees. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 41Pong (1972) (from 1970s)
Image 421976 flyer advertising the racing game Fonz (from 1970s in video games)
Image 43Iranian prince Reza Pahlavi wearing Peacock Revolution-inspired velvet Nehru jacket and geometric print scarf, 1973. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 44Singer Barry Manilow wears his hair longish in the soft, layered style favoured by men in the 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 45Susana Giménez wearing hotpants, 1977 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 46Jose Jose (from 1970s in music)
Image 47Apollo 17 Astronaut Gene Cernan becomes the last man on the Moon, December 13, 1972 (from 1970s)
Image 48Clockwise 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 49Salah Zulfikar and Zubaida Tharwat in The Other Man (1973) (from 1970s)
Image 50Galaxian (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 51Ramones's lead guitarist Johnny Ramone performing in Toronto, 1977 (from 1970s in music)
Image 52Margaret 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 53Aldo Moro (from 1970s)
Image 54Mid-70s Western-inspired outifts worn by country music group Asleep at the Wheel. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 55King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (from 1970s)
Image 56Honda Civic sold well throughout the decade. (from 1970s)
Image 57Singer Rod Stewart performing in 1976. He was one of the major British soft rock artists of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 58Pong arcade machine (1972) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 59Flared 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 60In the 1970s, women's hair was usually worn long with a centre parting (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 61Anti-war protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 1971. (from 1970s)
Image 62British girls in 1975 in flared jeans (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 63British singer Rod Stewart, 1976. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 64The world map of military alliances in 1970s: Western allies (blue), Non-aligned countries (green) and Soviet allies (red) (from 1970s)
Image 65Debby Boone song "You Light Up My Life" had the most weeks at number one (from 1970s in music)
Image 66The 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 67British rock band Killing Floor, 1971. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 68Pakistan 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 69Steve McQueen with sideburns, 1972. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 70Woman in miniskirt, 1970 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 71Typical mid to late 1970s Ted gear, as worn by Shakin' Stevens. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 72Three Los Angeles Chicanos in 1974. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 73Home Pong console (museum recreation) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 74Pink Floyd, 1973 (from 1970s in music)
Image 75Footballer George Best wore long hair in 1976. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 76A Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from 1970s)
Image 77Voyager 1 passing by Jupiter's Great Red Spot February 25, 1979 (from 1970s)
Image 78Microvision (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 79American 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 80Queen, 1975 (from 1970s in music)
Image 81The British band The Bee Gees were one of the biggest musical acts of the 1970s leading the disco phenomenon (from 1970s in music)
Image 82Pink 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 83A West German school girl with Schultüte in 1970, with a 'hippyish' outfit on. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 84Egyptian military vehicles crossing the Suez Canal on October 7, 1973, during the Yom Kippur War. (from 1970s)
Image 85Dave Schultz won Stanley Cup two times (from 1970s)
Image 86Apple II (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 87Example of glam rock costume worn by Roy Wood and Wizzard, early 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 88Willie Nelson became one of the most popular country music artists during the 1970s. (from 1970s in music)
Image 89Henry Mancini (from 1970s in music)
Image 90Intellivision (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 91Bruce Lee fostered the popularity of martial arts cinema (from 1970s)
Image 92An 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 93Asteroids (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 94Diane von Fürstenberg's wrap dress, designed in the 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 95English girl in the mid-1970s wearing a wide-sleeved shirt, belted at the waist. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 96Concorde landing at Farnborough in September 1974 (from 1970s)
Image 97Bob Marley, 1980 (from 1970s in music)
Image 98Death Race (1976) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 99The Bee Gees, in 1968 (from 1970s in music)
Image 100Aerosmith had seven studio albums chart on the Billboard 200 in the 1970s. Their success in the decade, particularly of their albums Toys in the Attic (1975) and Rocks (1976), helped inspire future rock artists such as Slash and Kurt Cobain (from 1970s in music)
Image 101African American couple, Michigan Avenue, Chicago, July 1975 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 102Girl in 1973 with a "flicked" hairstyle. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 103Led Zeppelin, 1977 (from 1970s in music)
Image 104The early 1970s' fashions were a continuation of the hippie look from the late 1960s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 105Viking 1, the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars, takes this picture of the landing site in Chryse Planitia (1978) (from 1970s)
Image 106Park Chung Hee (from 1970s)
Image 107Paul Anka in 1961 (from 1970s in music)
Image 108Hank Williams (from 1970s in music)
Image 109Elton John was one of the most commercially successful solo pop acts of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 110By 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 111VT100 (1978) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 112British 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 113Haile Selassie was overthrown from power in Ethiopia, ending one of the longest-lasting monarchies in world history. (from 1970s)
Image 114Commodore PET (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 115Kansas (from 1970s in music)
Image 116Two 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 117Idi Amin (from 1970s)
Image 118Swedish model Efva Attling in a "midi" dress, Kings Road, London, 1971. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 119Swedish model Ulla Jones dressed in a lurex halter top and matching flared trousers (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 120A young woman wearing a wrap dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 121Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson from Sanford and Son (from 1970s)
Image 122Polistil VG2 Pong clone (1978), made in Italy (from 1970s in video games)
Image 123Debbie Harry of Blondie in 1977. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 124Magnavox Odyssey (1972) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 125Color TV-Game (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 126The Eagles (from 1970s in music)

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