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.
The 1976 Summer Olympics (
French: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1976), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad (
French: Jeux de la XXIe Olympiade) and commonly known as Montreal 1976 (
French: Montréal 1976), were an international
multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games at the 69th
IOC Session in
Amsterdam on May 12, 1970, over the bids of
Moscow and
Los Angeles. It was the first and, so far, only Summer Olympic Games to be held in Canada.
Toronto hosted the
1976 Summer Paralympics the same year as the Montreal Olympics, which still remains the only
Summer Paralympics to be held in Canada.
Calgary and
Vancouver later hosted the Winter Olympic Games in
1988 and
2010, respectively.
... that during the 1960s and 1970s, American artist Robert Bauer painted figures that were a mixture of 20th-century avant-garde
funk and 17th-century Dutch
realism?
On May 27, 1995, Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in
Culpeper, Virginia. He used a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life. Reeve returned to creative work, directing In the Gloaming (1997) and acting in the television remake of Rear Window (1998). He also made two appearances in the Superman-themed television series Smallville, and wrote two autobiographical books, Still Me and Nothing Is Impossible. Over the course of his career, Reeve received a
BAFTA Award, a
Screen Actors Guild Award, an
Emmy Award, and a
Grammy Award. (Full article...)
Image 4British 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 5Viking 1, the first of two spacecraft sent to
Mars, takes this picture of the landing site in
Chryse Planitia (1978) (from 1970s)
Image 61970
Dodge Challenger Trans Am, an example of a muscle car in the earlier part of the decade. (from 1970s)
Image 46Isabel 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 51By 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 80Singer
Barry Manilow wears his hair longish in the soft, layered style favoured by men in the 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 81Pink 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 95Los Angeles high school students, 1973. The tousled, blond
surfer hair was popular for young men in southern California. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 96Willie Nelson became one of the most popular country music artists during the 1970s. (from 1970s in music)
Image 99Margaret 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 100Bruce Lee fostered the popularity of martial arts cinema (from 1970s)
Image 101The British band
The Bee Gees were one of the biggest musical acts of the 1970s leading the disco phenomenon (from 1970s in music)
Image 102A young woman wearing a wrap dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 103Nixon displays the
V-for-victory sign as he departs the White House after resigning (from 1970s)
Image 109British 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 110American 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 111Haile Selassie was overthrown from power in Ethiopia, ending one of the longest-lasting monarchies in world history. (from 1970s)
Image 122The
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 124Actress
Camille Keaton in 1972. Throughout most of the decade, women preferred light, natural-looking make-up for the daytime. (from 1970s in fashion)
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