Flashbackfriday - - 1976

in flashbackfridays •  6 years ago 

10-19-18

Flashback Friday - - 1976

News Headlines and History

          I was expecting there to be a lot more stories about the American Bicentennial and it's celebrations listed, however I only saw one date in the wikipedia 1976, listing. (I use the wiki listing as a memory jogger). Rather surprising to me, the other thing that was surprising was the number of space stories and headlines. 1976 was a year of looking to the future it seems, more than to a remembrance of the past, and this is somewhat how I remember the year. Yes we had the big 200th birthday party, it was fun.

          We looked at it like we do our own birthdays, remember the past and look forward toward the future. We had a president that was not elected, 1975 seemed to have been a drain on the American populace, the people were looking for hope and a new frontier, looking toward the future, with a hope of not repeating the past.

April 1 - Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

          On 1 April 1976 Apple was founded, making the company 42 years old as of the 1 April 2018 - here's a historical breakdown of the company. Here is the link to that story, I updated the first line there to reflect 2018, not 2017 when the story was written. Apple has come a long long way in 42 years. A group of people looking toward the future.

Apple first logo
By UnknownUnknown author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

April 13 - The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration. The only mention of the Bicentennial in the wiki list.

          This was surprisingly a very interesting read on the history of the two dollar bill. From wikipedia - United States two-dollar bill

US $2 bill obverse series 2003 A
By Bureau of Engraving and Printing:
U.S. Department of the Treasury (own scanned) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

July 20 - The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.

The first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, Viking 1 was part of a two-part mission to investigate the Red Planet and search for signs of life. Viking 1 consisted of both an orbiter and a lander designed to take high-resolution images, and study the Martian surface and atmosphere

          According to wikipedia "Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to attain soft landing on Mars on 2 December 1971. It failed shortly after landing." It may have failed shortly after landing, but it did land successfully. Mars 3 was an unmanned space probe of the Soviet Mars program

For more on the history of the Viking Missions MISSION TO MARS Viking 1 JPL web page

July 31 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1.

Martian face viking
By Viking 1, NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

August 7 – Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.

September 3 – The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars, taking the first close-up color photos of the planet's surface.

mars color first.png
Source:https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA00568

September 17 – The space shuttle Enterprise is rolled out of a Palmdale, California hangar.

The Shuttle Enterprise - GPN-2000-001363
By NASA (Great Images in NASA Description) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

          While it may have never went into space itself, the Enterprise recaptured our thirst for space and knowledge. Here is a link to a nice story on the shuttle from space.com. Enterprise: The Test Shuttle

November 2 – U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.

Carter cropped
By JimmyCarterPortrait.jpg: Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Centerderivative work: wadester16 (JimmyCarterPortrait.jpg) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

          People were ready for a change, but there was still a lot of lingering doubt as to what had really transpired with Nixon. it was a very close Presidential race, 50.1% popular for Carter 48% for Ford. Electoral votes for Carter - 297, and for Ford - 240. One small footnote to the election in the electoral vote one "faithless" voted for Reagan.

Music

April 10 – Frampton Comes Alive!, the multi-platinum selling live album by English rock musician Peter Frampton hits #1 in the Billboard 200 and remains there for 10 weeks, becoming the best-selling album of the year.

Source: Giorgio Nones youtube page

          I think I will end it there, warning that is a ten minute long music video. There was a lot to look at and read for me, I went through the wiki list a couple of times cherry picking what appealed to me, I had to par it down a little bit, The 1976 winter and summer Olympics were a big hit that year. But for me the space exploration stories were what got my imagination along with the computer stories of 75 and this year. They still hold it to this day. I did find the two dollar bill story really good, he looks so bummed and pissed off sort of in that portrait of him, (Thomas Jefferson), I wonder if it was intentional that they used that particular image.

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

Wasn't 1976 the year that Star Wars was released?

Posted using Partiko Android

They started filming it early in the year in Tunisia, but it wasn't done or released until 1977. The original release date was ‎May 25, 1977. Principal photography began on March 22, 1976. (I had to relook for that info, wiki is good for that sort of trivia lookup).

upvoted because I'm a fan, and also because I owe you one from waayyy back when...

Hi @bashadow!

Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 4.096 which ranks you at #3202 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has dropped 24 places in the last three days (old rank 3178).

In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 284 contributions, your post is ranked at #150.

Evaluation of your UA score:
  • Some people are already following you, keep going!
  • The readers like your work!
  • Try to improve on your user engagement! The more interesting interaction in the comments of your post, the better!

Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server