You are here -> HOME – RETROVILLE – 1971
Welcome to Retroville! It’s 1971!
IN THE NEWS:
- Supreme Court rules that bussing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation in public schools
- Pentagon Papers are published
- Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution lowers the voting age to 18
- An anti-war rally in Washington D.C. disrupts business as police and military units arrest and detain more than 12,000 protestors, most of whom are released after less than 24-hours in custody
- The first dot-matrix printers are introduced
- James Fergason introduces LCD (liquid crystal display) technology
- Gilbert Hyatt invents the microprocessor
- On February 21 the Mississippi Delta is hit by 3 major tornadoes that rip across Louisiana and Mississippi leaving 119 dead and more than 1,000 people injured in what would become known as the Mississippi Delta Outbreak
- Pittsburgh Pirates defeat Baltimore Orioles to win the World Series
- Billie Jean King becomes the first woman athlete to earn more than $100,000 per year
ON THE RADIO:
- Big Story
- Big Town
- Jean Shepard
- Cinnamon Bear
- Curtain Time
- Dangerous Assignment
ON TELEVISION:
- Getting Together
- The Persuaders
- All in the Family
- The New Dick Van Dyke Show
- Cannon
- Sarge
- The Funny Side
- Night Gallery
- Alias Smith and Jones
- Bearcats!
- O’Hara, United States Treasury
- The D.A.
- Columbo
FADS & FASHION:
- Food processors
- Stay Alive (the game)
- Kicktail skateboards
- Whip antennas, flags, sissy bars, and banana seats for bicycles
WHAT THINGS COST:
- Car: $3,742
- Gasoline: 36 cents per gallon
- House: $28,300
- Bread: 25 cents per loaf
- Milk: $1.32 per gallon
- Postage Stamp: 8 cents
- Average Annual Salary: $11,583
- Minimum Wage: $1.60 per hour
ACADEMY AWARD – BEST PICTURE:
- The French Connection – crime drama by Philip D’Antoni
TONY AWARD – BEST MUSICAL:
- Company – based on the book by George Furth, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, choreographed by Harold Prince, starring Dean Jones, Elaine Stritch, Barbara Barrie, and John Cunningham
PULITZER PRIZES:
- The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel (drama)
- Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom by James MacGregor Burns (history)
- Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph by Lawrance Thompson (biography)
- The Carrier of Ladders by William S. Merwin (poetry)
- The Rising Sun by John Toland (non-fiction)
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:
- Willy Brandt, West Germany, 1913-1992, former Chancellor of West Germany, initiator of West Germany’s Ostpolitik, a new attitude toward Eastern Europe and East Germany
TOP SONGS:
- Knock Three Times by Tony Orlando and Dawn
- Go Away Little Girl by Donny Osmond
- Theme From Shaft by Isaac Hayes
