Headlines & tidbits from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

American Living:

1940: 1st nylon stockings sold in US

1949: 1st Polaroid camera sold $89.95 (NYC)

1960: Taxes took 25% of earnings in US

1975: 80,000 turned out in New York City’s Central Park to celebrate the end of the Vietnam War.

Technology & Inventions:

1952: The Westinghouse Frost-Free Refrigerator was introduced

1954: The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. unveils a device that dials automatically. It is the forerunner of equipment that will soon permit a telephone user to dial direct, skipping the step of the operator.

Movies & TV:

1952: “Singin in the Rain” was in theaters starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds

1959: “Some Like It Hot” was in theaters starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon

1959: Kraft Music Hall with Milton Berle, last airs on NBC-TV

1960: Elvis Presley appears on a Frank Sinatra special

1963: Bob Dylan walks off Ed Sullivan Show

1970: Beatles movie “Let it Be” premieres

1986: “Top Gun,” premieres

Music & Radio:

1963: Peter, Paul & Mary win their 1st Grammy (If I Had a Hammer)

1966: The Pet Sounds “masterpiece” by The Beach Boys was released. It contained “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Sloop John B.,” “God Only Knows,” “Here Today,” “Caroline No” and other songs.

1977: 1st quadrophonic concert (Pink Floyd in London)

1977: Howard Stern begins broadcasting at WRNW, Briarcliff Manor NY

1981: “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes hits #1 for next 9 weeks

1985: Madonna’s “Crazy For You,” single goes #1

Hollywood Headlines:

1967: Paul McCartney meets his future wife Linda Eastman

1971: Mick Jagger married Bianca Macias at St Tropez Town Hall

1976: Keith Relf, rock vocalist (Yardbirds), electrocuted at 33 while at home tuning his guitar

1980: Brian May of rock group Queen collapses on stage with hepatitis

1987: Rita Hayworth, actress (Gilda), dies of Alzheimer’s disease at 68

The Arts:

1946: Musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” starring Ethel Merman premieres in NYC

1969: Monty Python comedy troupe forms

1981: Andrew Lloyd Webber/TS Eliot’s musical “Cats,” premieres in London

Sports:

1967: Mickey Mantle’s 500th HR off Oriole’s Stu Miller

1975: Muhammad Ali TKOs Ron Lyle in 11 for heavyweight boxing title

1983: Reggie Jackson is 1st major leaguer to strike out 2,000 times

1985: Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of Year

1986: Reggie Jackson hit his 537th HR passing Mickey Mantle into 6th place

Automobile News:

1947: BF Goodrich announced the development of the tubeless tire (Akron Ohio)

1969: Last Chevrolet Corsair built

Headlines & tidbits from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Front Page News:

1937: Dirigible Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, NJ (36 die)

1944: Gandhi freed from prison

1946: 5 die in a 2 day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco bay

1960: President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960

1961: Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in Space (aboard Freedom 7)

1970: Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on anti-war protesters
at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others,
one permanently disabled.

1977: 1414 arrested in ongoing protests at proposed nuclear power plant site in Seabrook, New Hampshire.

1980: World Health Organization announced smallpox had been eradicated

1982: IBM releases PC-DOS version 1.1

1984: American veterans of the Vietnam War reached a $180-million out-of-court settlement with seven chemical companies in their class-action suit relating to the use of herbicide Agent Orange in Vietnam.

American Living:

1961: President John F. Kennedy officially proclaims Sunday, May 13 as Mother’s Day. “The American Mother, as the heart of the American Home, by her labor and love instills in our homes and nurtures in our children the spirit of our country.”

1970: Now available at Texaco Stations - lead free gasoline.

Movies & TV:

1957: Last broadcast of “I Love Lucy” on CBS-TV

1983: “Laverne & Shirley,” last airs on ABC-TV

Music:

1959: 1st Grammy Awards: Perry Como & Ella Fitzgerald win

1962: West Side Story soundtrack album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 54 weeks which is more than 20 weeks longer than any other album

1966: Mamas & Papas “Monday Monday” hits #1

1970: The Let It Be album was released in 1970.

1970: The soundtrack to the first Woodstock festival was released

1976: Kiss performs their 1st concert

1977: The Eagles’ masterpiece, “Hotel California,” was at number 1 on the singles chart in the U.S. for its only week

1981: Bob Marley died of lung cancer and a brain tumour

Hollywood Headlines:

1960: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz divorce

1977: Joan Crawford, actress, dies at 69

1987: Actor Tom Cruise (27) & actress Mimi Rogers (33), marry

The Arts:

1940: Pulitzer prize awarded to John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath)

1953: Pulitzer prize awarded to E Hemingway (Old Man & The Sea)

1955: “Damn Yankees” opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 1022 performances

Sports:

1965: Willie Mays 512th HR breaks Mel Ott’s 511th NL record

1971: Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden

May 5, 1978: Pete Rose reaches 3,000 career hits.

Headlines & tidbits from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Front Page News:

1942: Japanese Americans in San Francisco were ordered to leave their homes and report to internment camps for the duration of World War II.

1963: Hundreds of children ranging in age from six to eighteen were arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, as they marched from Kelly Ingram Park, across from 16th Street Baptist Church, to downtown singing, “We Shall Overcome.”

1969: U.S. troop levels in Vietnam peak at 543,400. There have been 33,641 Americans killed by now, a total greater than the Korean War.

1975: The war in Vietnam ended as the government in Saigon (then the southern capital, now Ho Chi Minh City) announced its unconditional surrender to the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

American Living:

1952: Checking accounts become the new way to pay bills with Manufacturers Trust Company Bank leading the cause

1958: The government reports that the average family income last year was $6130 - 50% higher than a decade ago.

Movies & TV:

1953: I Love Lucy (CBS) - #1 Show

1954: Roman Holiday is in the theatres – starring Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn

1953: The FCC gives New Hampshire its first TV channel allocation, leaving neighbor Vermont as the only state without an allocated TV channel

Music:

1956: Heartbreak Hotel is #1 on the billboard pop charts and #6 on the R&B
RCA Victor says that Presley records are selling at the rate of 50,000 a day, accounting for about 50% of the label’s business.

1960: The Everly Brothers had their first hit for Warner Brothers Records with “Cathy’s Clown.”

1964: “The Beatles’ Second Album” reaches #1 on the Billboard LP chart in just its second week of release. It was the first album ever to make it to the top that quickly.

1967: Aretha Franklin releases “Respect”, a song that will become her signature tune.

1971: The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” is released. It would reach number one in the US and number two in the UK.

1979: Blondie brought a touch of New Wave music to the Hot 100 when “Heart Of Glass” reached #1. They would score three more chart toppers over the next two years.

1983: After leading the Billboard chart for seven weeks with “Billie Jean”, Michael Jackson was back on top with “Beat It”.

Hollywood Headlines:

1967: On May 1st, 32 year old Elvis Presley married 21 year old Priscilla Beaulieu

The Arts

1968: The Hair musical opened on Broadway in New York. It would last for 1750 performances, and featured songs like “Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In,” “Good Morning Starshine,” “Easy to Be Hard” and the title track, a hit for The Cowsills.

Sports:

First career home runs for Ted Williams (1939) and Hank Aaron (1954).

1952: In Chicago – Sugar Ray Robinson knocks-out Rocky Graziano in the third round and retains the middleweight boxing championship title

1956: Rocky Marciano (31) retires as undefeated world heavyweight boxing champ

1967: Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title for refusing induction into the U.S. Army.