50 Fun Facts About 60s and 70s

Which variety-show host introduced the Beatles to 73 million American viewers in February 1964?

Ed Sullivan had watched fans greet the band at London's Heathrow Airport in late 1963. Their first appearance on his show set a U.S. television audience record.

Which Apollo 11 lunar module pilot followed Neil Armstrong onto the Moon's surface in July 1969?

Buzz Aldrin, a Presbyterian elder, privately took communion on the Moon. The bread and wine became the first food and drink ever consumed there.

Which Washington Post reporter teamed up with Carl Bernstein to break the Watergate story?

Bob Woodward often met his secret FBI informant at 2 a.m. on the bottom level of an underground garage. The informant's identity stayed hidden until 2005.

Which actor won an Oscar for The Godfather, then sent Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse it?

Marlon Brando stayed away from the 1973 ceremony in protest at the film industry's treatment of American Indians. Only George C. Scott had turned down the Best Actor award before him.

Which powdered drink mix saw its sales take off after NASA sent it into orbit with John Glenn?

Tang was never a NASA invention: General Foods had formulated it in 1957 and put it on sale in 1959. Sales were poor until the 1962 Mercury flight.

Which 1975 novelty gift came in a cardboard carrier with ventilation holes and straw bedding?

Pet Rock made advertising executive Gary Dahl a millionaire. He sold nearly 1.5 million of the stones at just under $4 each after dreaming up the idea in a bar.

Which 1966 party game took off after Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played it on The Tonight Show?

Twister had rivals accusing Milton Bradley of selling sex in a box. It was the first popular American game to use human bodies as playing pieces.

Which chestnut colt won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths to complete the Triple Crown?

Secretariat was the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years. His winning margin broke a Belmont record that Count Fleet had held since 1943.

Which Alfred Hitchcock thriller shocked audiences by killing its leading lady in a motel shower?

Psycho also worried the censors by showing a toilet being flushed. Flushing toilets had gone unseen in mainstream American film and television until then.

At which Memphis mansion did Elvis Presley die in August 1977, aged 42?

Graceland was named after Grace Toof, the daughter of an earlier owner of the land. Presley bought the house in 1957 for $102,500.

Which vice president took the oath of office aboard Air Force One after John F. Kennedy was shot?

Lyndon Johnson was sworn in by federal judge Sarah T. Hughes, the first woman to administer the presidential oath. Twenty-seven people squeezed into the plane's stateroom to watch.

From the steps of which landmark did Martin Luther King Jr. address the 1963 March on Washington?

At the Lincoln Memorial, King left his prepared text near the end and improvised the passage about his dream. More than 250,000 civil rights supporters heard it.

Which 1969 music festival, held on Max Yasgur's dairy farm, turned into a free concert?

Woodstock actually took place in Bethel, New York, dozens of miles from the town it was named after. The fences and ticket booths were never finished, so the crowd of over 460,000 got in free.

Which actor supplied the voice of Darth Vader in 1977's Star Wars but asked to go uncredited?

James Earl Jones dubbed the lines in post-production. George Lucas had judged the West Country accent of David Prowse, the man inside the costume, unsuitable for the villain.

Which 1975 Steven Spielberg thriller, set in beachside Amity, created the summer blockbuster?

Jaws owes its suspense to a breakdown. The mechanical sharks, nicknamed Bruce by the crew, malfunctioned so often that Spielberg mostly hinted at the creature instead of showing it.

Which 1960s sitcom followed seven castaways shipwrecked on the charter boat SS Minnow?

Gilligan's Island named its doomed boat after Newton Minow, the FCC chairman whose landmark 1961 speech had lambasted television producers for their formula comedies.

Which heavyweight champion was stripped of his title in 1967 for refusing the Vietnam War draft?

Muhammad Ali was found guilty of draft evasion but stayed out of prison while he appealed. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971.

Which South Vietnamese capital fell to communist forces in April 1975, ending the Vietnam War?

Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the victors, after the North Vietnamese president who had died in 1969. Many residents went on using the old name anyway.

Which record label, started by Berry Gordy with an $800 family loan, made stars of the Supremes?

Motown was founded in 1959 as Tamla Records. Its Detroit studio, known as Hitsville U.S.A., stayed open 22 hours a day while artists recorded between tours.

Which Atlanta Braves slugger passed Babe Ruth's career home run record in April 1974?

Hank Aaron chased the record through death threats and hate mail from people who did not want Ruth's mark to fall. He finished his career with 755 home runs.

Which barrier did East Germany start building in August 1961 to stop its citizens fleeing west?

Berlin Wall was never its official name: East German authorities called it the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart. It began as barbed wire strung on a day remembered as Barbed Wire Sunday.

Which actor originated the half-Vulcan science officer Spock on television's Star Trek in 1966?

Leonard Nimoy based the Vulcan salute on a Jewish priestly blessing. He had peeked at it being performed as a child, when his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue.

Which failed 1961 landing by CIA-funded exiles was meant to topple Fidel Castro?

Bay of Pigs invaders were defeated within three days by Castro's armed forces. The brigade of Cuban exiles had been trained for the mission in Guatemala.

Which Soviet cosmonaut became the first person in outer space aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961?

Yuri Gagarin circled Earth once in a flight that lasted just 108 minutes. It was the only spaceflight he ever made.

Which fictional North Carolina town did Sheriff Andy Taylor police on The Andy Griffith Show?

Mayberry is said to be based on Mount Airy, North Carolina, the hometown of its star. Residents of the real town call it by both names.

Which New York Jets quarterback guaranteed an upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III?

Joe Namath made the promise at the Miami Touchdown Club three days before the game. His Jets, 18-point underdogs from the upstart AFL, then won 16–7.

Which singer turned Otis Redding's 1965 song Respect into her signature hit two years later?

Aretha Franklin rearranged and rephrased the song for her breakout hit. Spelling out the title letter by letter was her sister Carolyn's idea, the recording engineer recalled.

Which folk singer drew boos at 1965's Newport Folk Festival by playing with an electric band?

Bob Dylan played three songs with the band that night, his first concert with electric instruments. Critics and fans later came to regard his electric period as producing some of his best music.

Which Greenwich Village bar did police raid in June 1969, touching off several nights of riots?

Stonewall Inn patrons fought back in the early morning of June 28. A year later, marches on the anniversary in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago became the first Gay Pride marches in US history.

Which 1963 Kenner toy got its heat from a pair of ordinary light bulbs?

Easy-Bake Oven buyers snapped up 500,000 units in its first year. Children slid small pans of cake mix inside, and the finished cake was pushed out through a slot at the other end.

Which bigoted Queens family man did Carroll O'Connor play on the sitcom All in the Family?

Archie Bunker's armchair became so famous that it entered the permanent collection of the National Museum of American History.

Which 1977 miniseries based on an Alex Haley book aired on ABC over eight consecutive nights?

Roots was scheduled that way because nervous ABC executives wanted to cut their predicted losses in one fell swoop. Its finale drew unprecedented ratings instead.

Which Swedish group won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Waterloo?

ABBA took its name from the first letters of its four members' first names. The group sang its winning entry in English instead of Swedish.

Which daredevil tried to jump Idaho's Snake River Canyon in a rocket-powered Skycycle in 1974?

Evel Knievel survived with minor injuries after his parachute deployed too early and the jump failed. He had first noticed the canyon from an airplane window.

Which company, co-founded by Nolan Bushnell, released the arcade game Pong in 1972?

Atari engineer Allan Alcorn built the game as a training exercise. Its concept came from a ping-pong game on the Magnavox Odyssey, and Magnavox later sued for patent infringement.

At which Ohio university did National Guard soldiers kill four students at a May 1970 antiwar rally?

Kent State saw guardsmen fire about 67 rounds in 13 seconds at a rally against the war's expansion into Cambodia. The deaths swelled a student strike already under way.

In which capital were 52 Americans held hostage at their embassy for 444 days from November 1979?

Tehran let the captives go just minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, while he was still giving his inaugural address.

Which former Teamsters boss vanished from a suburban Detroit restaurant in July 1975?

Jimmy Hoffa had gone to the Machus Red Fox for a 2 p.m. meeting and phoned his wife to complain that he had been stood up. He was declared legally dead in 1982.

Which American beat Boris Spassky in Reykjavík in 1972 to break the Soviet hold on world chess?

Bobby Fischer ended a 24-year Soviet monopoly on the world title. The Cold War contest drew unprecedented media coverage for a chess match and was dubbed the Match of the Century.

Which Queen single, called a mock opera by Freddie Mercury, topped the UK chart for nine weeks?

Bohemian Rhapsody later became the first song to reach number one in the UK twice with the same version. In the US it peaked higher in 1992, after the film Wayne's World, than in 1976.

Which 1962 satellite relayed the first live television show between the United States and Europe?

Telstar inspired a hit record within months. An instrumental named after it by the English band the Tornados topped the British chart that October and the American chart in December 1962.

Which 1969 drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight is the only X-rated Best Picture winner?

Midnight Cowboy also won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 42nd Academy Awards. The X rating it carried was the forerunner of NC-17.

Which American long jumper beat the world record by 55 centimeters at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics?

Bob Beamon collapsed to his knees in shock when a teammate told him how far he had jumped. His mark of 8.90 meters stood as the world record for almost 23 years.

In which country did Christiaan Barnard perform the first human-to-human heart transplant in 1967?

South Africa made medical history at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. The patient, Louis Washkansky, woke and talked easily with his wife but died of pneumonia 18 days later.

Which comedian hosted the very first episode of Saturday Night Live in October 1975?

George Carlin fronted a show then titled NBC's Saturday Night. The name it later made famous was already in use by a Howard Cosell program on rival network ABC.

Which Pittsburgh Steelers fullback caught a deflected pass to score 1972's Immaculate Reception?

Franco Harris grabbed the ball just before it hit the ground, with 22 seconds left. His touchdown gave the Steelers their first playoff win ever, after four decades of futility.

Which English baby, born in Oldham in July 1978, was the first person conceived by IVF?

Louise Brown was called a test tube baby by the media, though her conception actually took place in a Petri dish. One of the technique's developers won a Nobel Prize in 2010.

Which US space station scattered debris over Western Australia when it fell from orbit in 1979?

Skylab earned NASA a light-hearted A$400 littering fine from the Australian shire of Esperance. A radio host's listeners finally paid it in 2009.

Which Pittsburgh Pirates star died in a 1972 plane crash carrying earthquake aid to Nicaragua?

Roberto Clemente had collected 3,000 hits in his major league career. The Hall of Fame changed its rules after his death, and he was inducted in 1973.

Which 1971 Carole King album spent 15 consecutive weeks at number one in America?

Tapestry earned its maker four Grammys in 1972, including Album of the Year. She became the first solo female artist to win Record of the Year and the first woman to win Song of the Year.