Questions tagged [1970s]

Referring to the time period between 1970 A.D. and 1979 A.D. by the Gregorian calendar.

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Why weren't army snipers used at the Munich massacre?

I was reading about the history of the GSG 9 and found the following statement on Wikipedia: "Police did not have a specialized tactical sniper team at that time. The army had snipers, but the ...
physicss's user avatar
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25 votes
10 answers
9k views

What was the 1970s name for skinny jeans?

I'm currently writing something set loosely in the 1970s. One character refers to another (who is not present) in a disparaging way. The insulting phrase includes the detail that this person only ...
916's user avatar
  • 429
23 votes
3 answers
21k views

Why did Ford pardon Nixon?

Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon for the crimes he committed during his presidency was quite an unpopular and controversial move. Why did he make this decision?
Edoardo Pirovano's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why didn't Nixon erase the smoking gun?

Given that President Nixon was bold enough to erase 18 minutes of the "Nixon tapes" before turning them over to the Watergate investigators, why didn't he also erase the "smoking gun," the ...
Mithras's user avatar
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15 votes
4 answers
7k views

Why was Khomeini in France? Who allowed him to leave and why? [closed]

I never knew that Khomeini was in France until I saw What was President Jimmy Carter's role in the Iranian Revolution?. Why was Khomeini in France? Who allowed him to leave France and why?
edward's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
2k views

Did airports have security checks before the 1970s?

I just accidentally discovered a few pictures on the web, that seem to imply, that there were some sort of airport security checks on passengers all the way back in the 1960s. It was always my general ...
Kit Smith's user avatar
  • 351
12 votes
1 answer
665 views

What were the factors that aided Margaret Thatcher in her victory against the trade unions when her predecessors failed?

Industrial strife has often been cited as a major reason for weakness in the British economy during the 1970s. For much of the 1970s, UK politics appeared to be a battle between the government and the ...
curious's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
3k views

Was there a US state where video games were banned by accident?

I remember reading about some US state that banned video games up until something like the mid-seventies, not intentionally, but as collateral damage of a vaguely worded law intending to ban slot ...
rwallace's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
510 views

Which operating system were the hackers at the MIT AI Lab using in 1971?

From the interview of Richard M. Stallman, I learned that when Richard Stallman joined the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971, the community of programmers (...
Pandya's user avatar
  • 183
9 votes
4 answers
924 views

Did American leaders give any serious consideration to proceeding with Nixon's impeachment and trial after he resigned?

After President Nixon resigned, was any serious consideration (e.g. by members of Congress or important opinion leaders) given to proceeding with his impeachment and trial? The motive, of course, ...
bof's user avatar
  • 467
9 votes
1 answer
739 views

How big was the IMF loan Britain received in the 1970's?

During the turbulent times of the 1970's, the United Kingdom had to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan to meet its obligations. The National Archives state that in September 1976, a ...
James's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
677 views

What was the attitude of the other European countries in the 1970s Cod War?

In the 1970s Britain and Iceland came close to a shooting war in the so called Cod War. Using these stats (admittedly from some decades later) as a guide, Norway, Denmark and Spain also have ...
Tea Drinker's user avatar
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7 votes
6 answers
8k views

What was the hippie movement? Why did it decline? [closed]

When we look back at 1960s-1970s, many times we come across the term 'Hippie movement' or 'Counter-Culture'. Hippies were described as people who made themselves stand out from the rest of the world. ...
demonofthemist's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
4k views

What were the factors that led to stagflation in the United States during the 1970s?

Economics teaches that faster economic growth leads to higher inflation and slower economic growth leads to lower inflation. In the 1970s, United States suffered high inflation and slow economic ...
curious's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
450 views

What is this "d-mac" device?

The only current page I found for this device is this Chinese one, which didn't clarify anything. It looks like she's digitizing a blueprint.
Cees Timmerman's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
523 views

Is this 60's Atlanta airport security picture geniuine, and if so, what is happening here?

Following the advice I got from the user Semaphore I would like to split my original airport security question into separate parts and go into a bit more detail in regards to what I would like to know ...
Kit Smith's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
974 views

What was the social condition of a pregnant single woman in the late 1970s in England?

I am writing a story set in the late 1970s in England. One of my characters, a 17 year old girl, gets pregnant, and the father of the baby disappears for various reasons. I want my story to be as ...
Cris's user avatar
  • 41
4 votes
1 answer
140 views

Where can I find video of Pierre Elliott Trudeau's concession in 1979?

The Canadian parliamentary elections of May 1979 were a defeat for the Liberals and a victory for the Progressive Conservatives, resulting in Pierre Elliott Trudeau's replacement by Joe Clark as prime ...
Michael Hardy's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
132 views

What was this security screening process in Swiss airports, circa 1970?

Following the advice I got from the user Semaphore I would like to split my original airport security question into separate parts and go into a bit more detail in regards to what I would like to know ...
Kit Smith's user avatar
  • 351
4 votes
0 answers
125 views

Why the different jail terms for the brigatisti involved in Aldo Moro's death?

Wikipedia's summary of the sentences applied to each of the brigatisti involved in Aldo Moro's death shows a wide range of jail terms. In particular Barbara Balzerani served 21 years until 2011 while ...
Tea Drinker's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
344 views

Why was there a sharp decline in the number of municipalities in West Germany in the 1970s?

According to a graph on wikimedia, and the corresponding wikipedia page merging of municipalities applied to an extreme scale in western germany between 1972 and 1979. Most states had less than 1/3 ...
Bregalad's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
345 views

What was the attendance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970? Was it the largest gathering ever in the UK? If not, what was?

I'm researching a book about UK hippies. I've seen a few estimates of attendance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, ranging between 300k and 800k. I wonder if anyone has a definitive, or near ...
marchanti's user avatar
  • 149
3 votes
1 answer
454 views

Why was there an increase in literature regarding fire safety in America during the 1970s?

I came across this n-gram on Google Books: It shows a substantial spike in mentions of "fire safety" in American literature starting in 1970 and going on until almost the end of 70s. What caused this?...
terminex9's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
402 views

What was the Soviet reaction to the revelations about secret US programs like Projects ARTICHOKE, MKULTRA, MOCKINGBIRD, etc., revealed in the 1970s?

I imagine the perception among the party elites in Moscow would have been that all these programs, projects, experiments and so on were initiated with them in mind, and would have inevitably been ...
M. Y. Zuo's user avatar
  • 518
1 vote
1 answer
509 views

Why didn't the Pakistani military try to gain Kashmir from India in 1971 instead of launching an offensive in Rajesthan?

In the 1971 India-Pakistan war, while the Indian Army with the help of the Bengali guerillas were making inroads into East Pakistan, the Pakistan Army launched an offensive through the Rajesthan ...
Saaqib Mahmood's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
90 views

Did António de Spínola request a Spanish intervention in Portugal?

The English Language Wikipedia article on the Iberian Pact claims that "In March 1975, after the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, António de Spínola attempted to invoke the pact to demand ...
Pere's user avatar
  • 3,871
0 votes
1 answer
171 views

Is there a difference between original 1768-71 and 1968-71 facsimile of 1st edition Encyclopaedia Brittanica

I was browsing a second hand book store and stumbled upon a 1968 facsimile of the 1768 1st edition Encyclopaedia Brittanica. I am aware that a facsimile is an exact replica, but I still assumed that ...
George Reith's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
753 views

Can you identify this Soviet uniform from the 1970s to ~90s

I really like this uniform, but I don't know what the name of it is or where to find one. It would be really nice if somebody could identify this uniform for me.
Derpmasturguy's user avatar