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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Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade video game, developed and released by Taito in Japan and licensed to Midway Manufacturing for overseas distribution. Commonly considered to be one of the most influential video games of all time, Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser cannon to earn as many points as possible.

Designer Tomohiro Nishikado drew inspiration from North American target shooting games like Breakout (1976) and Gun Fight (1975), as well as science fiction narratives such as the novel The War of the Worlds (1897), the anime Space Battleship Yamato (1974), and the film Star Wars (1977). To complete development, he had to design custom hardware and development tools. Upon release, Space Invaders was an immediate commercial success; by 1982, it had grossed $3.8 billion ($14 billion in 2023-adjusted terms), with a net profit of $450 million ($1.7 billion in 2023 terms). This made it the best-selling video game and highest-grossing entertainment product at the time, and the highest-grossing video game of all time. (Full article...)

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... that Midwest Scientific was the only maker of microcomputers in Kansas City in the late 1970s?
... that the Twin Parks housing project in New York City, the site of a January 2022 fire that killed seventeen people, won architectural awards after it was constructed in the early 1970s?
... that the manga series Sora ga Suki! depicted two male characters kissing each other although it was a taboo for manga in the 1970s?
... that American teenagers of the 1960s and 1970s used to chat and arrange dates over the sound of the busy signal?
... that Zzzzzz had the busiest residential telephone number in the United States in the 1970s?
... 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?

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Bowie in 2002

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie (/ˈboʊi/ BOH-ee), was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft had a significant impact on popular music.

Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. He released a string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a solo album before achieving his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart with "Space Oddity" (1969). After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of "Starman" and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the Berlin Trilogy. "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. (Full article...)

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

Image 1Aldo Moro (from 1970s)
Image 2British 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 3Elton John was one of the most commercially successful solo pop acts of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 4Polistil VG2 Pong clone (1978), made in Italy (from 1970s in video games)
Image 5The British band The Bee Gees were one of the biggest musical acts of the 1970s leading the disco phenomenon (from 1970s in music)
Image 6Viking 1, the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars, takes this picture of the landing site in Chryse Planitia (1978) (from 1970s)
Image 7Pakistan Army Genarel 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 8Apple II (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 9In 1971 hotpants and bell-bottomed trousers were popular fashion trends (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 10Line at a gas station in Maryland, June 15, 1979. (from 1970s)
Image 11The Swedish band ABBA was one of the most commercially successful European bands of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 12Bruce Lee fostered the popularity of martial arts cinema (from 1970s)
Image 13Swedish model Efva Attling in a "midi" dress, with Lars Jacob, Kings Road, London, 1971. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 14An 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 15Actress Camille Keaton in 1972. Throughout most of the decade, women preferred light, natural-looking make-up for the daytime. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 16Three Los Angeles Chicanos in 1974. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 17The CN Tower was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure. (from 1970s)
Image 18Debby Boone song "You Light Up My Life" had the most weeks at number one (from 1970s in music)
Image 19Commodore PET (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 20Singer Barry Manilow wears his hair longish in the soft, layered style favoured by men in the 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 211973 Volvo P1800 sportwagon. (from 1970s)
Image 22Voyager 1 passing by Jupiter's Great Red Spot February 25, 1979 (from 1970s)
Image 23Singer Rod Stewart performing in 1976. He was one of the major British soft rock artists of the 1970s (from 1970s in music)
Image 24America's first space station Skylab in orbit February 8, 1974 (from 1970s)
Image 25Steve McQueen with sideburns, 1972. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 26TRS-80 (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 27American 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 28In the 1970s, women's hair was usually worn long with a centre parting (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 29 Fairchild Channel F (1976) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 30British 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 31Pong arcade machine (1972) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 32Rigo Tovar (from 1970s in music)
Image 33A West German school girl with Schultüte in 1970, with a 'hippyish' outfit on. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 34Henry Mancini (from 1970s in music)
Image 35Couple prom in late 1970s men wear Powder Tuxedo women wear Sleeve dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 36Led Zeppelin, 1977 (from 1970s in music)
Image 37British girls in 1975 in flared jeans (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 38Bob Marley, 1980 (from 1970s in music)
Image 39Typical mid to late 1970s Ted gear, as worn by Shakin' Stevens. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 40Apollo 17 Astronaut Gene Cernan becomes the last man on the Moon, December 13, 1972 (from 1970s)
Image 41The world map of military alliances in 1970s: Western allies (blue), Non-aligned countries (green) and Soviet allies (red) (from 1970s)
Image 42Jose Jose (from 1970s in music)
Image 43Nixon and Zhou toast, 1972 (from 1970s)
Image 44Paul Anka in 1961 (from 1970s in music)
Image 45Galaxian (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 46Idi Amin (from 1970s)
Image 47Asteroids (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 48VT100 (1978) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 49Pink 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 50Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shake hands, Camp David, 1978 (from 1970s)
Image 51Pong (1972) (from 1970s)
Image 52Egyptian military vehicles crossing the Suez Canal on October 7, 1973, during the Yom Kippur War. (from 1970s)
Image 53Footballer George Best wore long hair in 1976. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 54Woman in miniskirt, 1970 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 55Margaret 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 56Frisbee player Ken Westerfield wearing draw string bell bottoms in the 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 571979 Iranian Revolution (from 1970s)
Image 58A wrap dress Diane von Fürstenberg designed in the 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 59Susana Giménez wearing hotpants, 1977 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 60Park Chung Hee (from 1970s)
Image 61The Eagles (from 1970s in music)
Image 62Hank Williams (from 1970s in music)
Image 63Anti-war protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 1971. (from 1970s)
Image 64Salah Zulfikar and Zubaida Tharwat in The Other Man (1973) (from 1970s)
Image 65Flared 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 66United States President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II treaty, June 18, 1979, in Vienna, Austria (from 1970s)
Image 67A Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from 1970s)
Image 68Concorde landing at Farnborough in September 1974 (from 1970s)
Image 69Microvision (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 70Debbie Harry of Blondie in 1977. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 71British rock band Killing Floor, 1971. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 721970 Dodge Challenger Trans Am, an example of a muscle car in the earlier part of the decade. (from 1970s)
Image 73Girl in 1973 with a "flicked" hairstyle. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 74By 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 75The Vietnam War (1955–1975) (from 1970s)
Image 76Los Angeles high school students, 1973. The tousled, blond surfer hair was popular for young men in southern California. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 77Ramones's lead guitarist Johnny Ramone performing in Toronto, 1977 (from 1970s in music)
Image 78Queen, 1977 (from 1970s in music)
Image 79Charlie Rich (from 1970s in music)
Image 80English girl in the mid-1970s wearing a wide-sleeved shirt, belted at the waist. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 81Home Pong console (museum recreation) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 82British singer Rod Stewart, 1976. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 83Kansas (from 1970s in music)
Image 84The 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 85The early 1970s' fashions were a continuation of the hippie look from the late 1960s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 86Linda Ronstadt in 1976 (from 1970s in music)
Image 87Death Race (1976) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 88Intellivision (1979) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 89The Bee Gees, in 1968 (from 1970s in music)
Image 90Two 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 91Punk pioneer Lene Lovich in 1979, with her trademark long plaited hair. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 92Alan Bennett in 1973, wearing a wide necktie (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 93John Denver, 1975 (from 1970s in music)
Image 94Microvision (1979) is the very first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges. (from 1970s)
Image 95Clockwise 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 96Color TV-Game (1977) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 97Mid-70s Western-inspired outifts worn by country music group Asleep at the Wheel. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 98David Bowie in the early 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 99Isabel 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 100Loretta Lynn (from 1970s in music)
Image 101Mao Zedong wearing gray Zhongshan suit, 1972. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 102Siouxsie Sioux of the English punk group Siouxsie and the Banshees. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 103El Tri Band founder Alex Lora, on stage with the band in 2006 (from 1970s in music)
Image 104Pink Floyd, 1973 (from 1970s in music)
Image 105Aerosmith 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 106African American couple, Michigan Avenue, Chicago, July 1975 (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 107A young woman wearing a wrap dress. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 108American casual attire, 1974. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 109Honda Civic sold well throughout the decade. (from 1970s)
Image 110Haile Selassie was overthrown from power in Ethiopia, ending one of the longest-lasting monarchies in world history. (from 1970s)
Image 111Silk scarves were popular fashion accessories for women in the 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 112Two punks from the late 1970s (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 113Singer Billy Preston in 1974 wearing an Afro hairstyle. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 114King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (from 1970s)
Image 115Swedish model Ulla Jones dressed in a lurex halter top and matching flared trousers (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 116AC/DC, August 1979 (from 1970s in music)
Image 117Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson from Sanford and Son (from 1970s)
Image 118Magnavox Odyssey (1972) (from 1970s in video games)
Image 1191976 flyer advertising the racing game Fonz. (from 1970s in video games)
Image 120Nixon displays the V-for-victory sign as he departs the White House after resigning (from 1970s)
Image 121Willie Nelson became one of the most popular country music artists during the 1970s. (from 1970s in music)
Image 122Example of glam rock costume worn by Roy Wood and Wizzard, early 1970s. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 123Iranian prince Reza Pahlavi wearing Peacock Revolution-inspired velvet Nehru jacket and geometric print scarf, 1973. (from 1970s in fashion)
Image 124Fashion models in Leipzig, GDR, 1972. One of the girls is modelling a "maxi" dress. (from 1970s in fashion)

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