109 Fun Facts About Decades

Which American comic strip debuted in October 1950 and ran until its creator's death in 2000?

Charles Schulz hated the name Peanuts, which United Feature Syndicate imposed on him, and grumbled about it for the rest of his life.

Which company's frozen 'TV Dinner', launched in the 1950s, came in a compartmented aluminum tray?

Swanson sold just 5,000 TV Dinners at first, but within a year its sales had passed 10 million.

The 1954-55 Disney serial that launched the coonskin-cap craze dramatized which frontiersman?

Davy Crockett died at the Alamo in the third episode, but the show proved so popular that Disney made two more Crockett episodes, aired in late 1955.

'Rock Around the Clock' became a hit after playing over the opening credits of which 1955 film?

Blackboard Jungle turned it into a smash, though the record had been only a minor US hit when it first came out in 1954.

How did cameras show Elvis Presley on his third Ed Sullivan Show appearance?

From the waist up, yet at the end of that show Sullivan told viewers Presley was 'a real decent, fine boy'.

Wham-O's Frisbee, launched in 1957, was a renamed version of which earlier flying disc?

The Pluto Platter got its new name because New England college students had been tossing empty tins from the Frisbie Pie Company.

How long did Sputnik 1 transmit its radio signal after the Soviet launch of October 1957?

Three weeks: then Sputnik 1's batteries ran flat, and the silent sphere kept circling until it burned up in January 1958.

Wham-O's plastic hula hoop, the craze of 1958, copied bamboo exercise hoops from which country?

Australia's bamboo hoops came to the US, Joan Anderson said, when her mother shipped her one; Wham-O did not credit her.

Barbie, launched in March 1959, was based on a doll from which country?

Germany's Bild Lilli doll was based on a cartoon in the tabloid Bild, and Mattel later bought the rights to Lilli.

Chubby Checker's 'The Twist' topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960, then returned to number one in which later year?

1962: the twist had caught on with New York society at clubs like the Peppermint Lounge, sending the record back to number one.

The Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show appearance in February 1964 drew about how many US viewers?

73 million viewers tuned in, yet Capitol Records had turned down releasing the Beatles' singles in America for most of 1963.

Which Ford executive championed the Mustang's 1964 launch?

Lee Iacocca made his name with the Mustang, yet Henry Ford II fired him in 1978, freeing him to take over Chrysler.

Which film was the highest-grossing release of 1965?

The Sound of Music opened to mixed reviews, but it went on to displace Gone with the Wind as the highest-grossing film of all time.

Twister took off in 1966 after Johnny Carson played it on The Tonight Show with which actress?

Eva Gabor's turn with Carson rescued Twister, whose sales had been lackluster until that night.

Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek as which TV Western 'to the stars'?

Wagon Train was Roddenberry's model, yet NBC turned down his first pilot before ordering a second one.

Which bank opened what is often called the world's first cash machine, in June 1967?

Barclays' machine came from inventor John Shepherd-Barron, who was inspired by chocolate vending machines.

Roughly how many people watched Neil Armstrong's July 1969 moonwalk live on television?

600 million is the usual estimate, yet NASA's original moonwalk tapes, which held a sharper picture, were most likely erased and reused.

At Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix played a feedback-drenched version of which song?

The Star-Spangled Banner, bent into the sound of rockets and bombs, reached only the remnants of a crowd that had mostly gone home.

What did HBO show in 1975 when it began delivering programming by satellite?

The Thrilla in Manila went out live by satellite, the step that turned HBO from a regional pay service into a national one.

What nickname did editor Howard Simons give the secret Watergate source later revealed as the FBI's Mark Felt?

Deep Throat borrowed the title of a 1972 film, and Woodward said he signalled for meetings by moving a flowerpot on his balcony.

Where did Gary Dahl source the rocks for his 1975 Pet Rock fad?

Mexican beaches supplied the stones, and Dahl got the idea in a bar while listening to his friends complain about their pets.

What made a 1975 mood ring change colour?

Finger temperature was all it read, so simply rubbing your hands warm could turn a stressed black stone to a relaxed blue.

Which 1975 box-office flop, revived at midnight screenings, had by 2020 become the longest-running theatrical release ever?

The Rocky Horror Picture Show became a ritual after midnight showings began at New York's Waverly Theatre in 1976, as fans dressed up and talked back.

What kind of program was the Apple II's 1979 killer app?

A spreadsheet called VisiCalc ran only on the Apple II for its first year, so offices bought the computer just to use it.

Which toy company made the original Star Wars action figures, released in 1978?

Kenner couldn't make the figures by Christmas 1977, so it sold boxes holding a certificate for four figures to be mailed later.

Under what name was Sony's Walkman first sold in the United States in 1980?

Sound-about didn't last: Sony soon dropped its regional names, including Britain's Stowaway, and sold the player as the Walkman everywhere.

Why was Japan's Puck Man renamed Pac-Man for its 1980 American release?

Midway feared vandals would alter the P on arcade cabinets into an F, so Puck Man became Pac-Man for America.

Before settling on Rubik's Cube for the 1980 launch, Ideal Toy considered which name?

The Gordian Knot suited a puzzle so tangled that Ernő Rubik himself needed about a month to solve his first scrambled Cube.

Which song did MTV play first when it went on air on 1 August 1981?

'Video Killed the Radio Star' followed a moon-landing network ID whose astronaut later became the Video Music Awards trophy.

Which candy company turned down product placement in E.T. (1982)?

Mars said no, so Hershey's Reese's Pieces lured E.T. instead, and sales of the candy soared after the film opened.

Which horror-film actor recorded the spoken-word section of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' in two takes?

Vincent Price needed just two takes to read lines Rod Temperton had written in a taxi that day, for a song first demoed as 'Starlight'.

Which struggling car maker's founder was arrested in an FBI cocaine sting in October 1982?

John DeLorean was acquitted in 1984 after arguing FBI entrapment, but by then his company had gone bankrupt and its car factory had closed.

Which performer played both Live Aid shows, Wembley and Philadelphia, by flying Concorde?

Phil Collins also drummed for Eric Clapton and a Led Zeppelin reunion so shaky he later said he'd have walked off if he could.

What was Christa McAuliffe's profession before she flew aboard the doomed shuttle Challenger in 1986?

A teacher: McAuliffe was to teach lessons from orbit, and her backup, fellow teacher Barbara Morgan, finally reached space in 2007.

Every Cabbage Patch Kid, the toy craze of Christmas 1983, came with what?

Adoption papers fit the act: Xavier Roberts charged an adoption fee, not a price, for his handmade dolls at craft shows and later at Babyland General Hospital.

Nirvana's Nevermind replaced which album atop the Billboard 200 in January 1992?

Dangerous by Michael Jackson fell to a surprise, a college-rock record from Nirvana that was by then selling more than 300,000 copies a week.

What did Ty Inc. regularly do to Beanie Babies designs to fuel the 1990s collecting craze?

Retiring them ended production of each design, and the resulting scarcity fed a booming resale market for the $5 toys.

Which Rolling Stones song did Microsoft license for its Windows 95 launch campaign?

'Start Me Up' suited the new Start button, and Microsoft insisted its fee was only a fraction of the $12 million reported at the time.

Which Spanish act first recorded 'Macarena', before a remix ruled the US charts in 1996?

Los del Río sang it in Spanish, but a remix by the Miami producers the Bayside Boys, who added English lyrics, sent it to number one.

Which Japanese company launched the Tamagotchi, the virtual-pet craze of 1997?

Bandai's virtual pets needed tending all day, so many schools banned them to cut down on distractions in class.

How many hardbacks were in Bloomsbury's first print run of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?

500 hardbacks was a cautious start, and Bloomsbury also had her publish as J.K. Rowling, fearing boys might shun a book by a woman.

Which band sued Napster in April 2000 after a demo of its song 'I Disappear' leaked onto the service?

Metallica then handed Napster a list of more than 335,000 users it said were sharing its songs, and demanded they be blocked from the service.

In 2000, Blockbuster turned down the chance to buy Netflix for how much?

$50 million was the asking price Blockbuster refused, and a decade later it was Blockbuster, not Netflix, filing for bankruptcy.

Which comedian was originally cast as Shrek and recorded most of the dialogue before dying in 1997?

Chris Farley had recorded most of Shrek's lines when he died in December 1997; Mike Myers replaced him and gave the ogre a Scottish accent.

Apple's iPod got its name from a copywriter who was reminded of a line in which film?

2001: A Space Odyssey came to mind once Chieco saw the stark white prototype, which recalled the film's white pods.

Crocs launched its first foam clog in 2002 at what kind of event?

A boat show suited Crocs: three Boulder friends had built the brand around a foam clog from Canada, and sold it to sailors first.

YouTube's first video, uploaded on April 23, 2005, showed co-founder Jawed Karim where?

At the San Diego Zoo, Karim stood before two elephants, and in 2021 he rewrote the video's description to protest YouTube hiding dislikes.

Nintendo's Wii console was developed under which codename?

Revolution was only a codename: in April 2006 Nintendo chose Wii, saying it sounds like 'we' to show the console is for everyone.

The original iPhone, launched in June 2007, came only with a contract from which US carrier?

AT&T had the iPhone to itself, and when Apple cut $200 from the price that September, angry early buyers were given a $100 store credit.

A 2009 Facebook campaign made which 1992 track the UK Christmas number one?

'Killing in the Name' beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry, ending four straight years of X Factor acts at Christmas number one.

Which artist's video became the first on YouTube to reach one billion views, in December 2012?

Psy's 'Gangnam Style' kept climbing toward the most views a 32-bit counter can store, and YouTube said its engineers upgraded the counter months ahead.

The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge raised money for research into which disease?

ALS: the challenge raised more than $115 million, and some of it funded Project MinE, whose scientists linked the gene NEK1 to ALS in 2016.

Pokémon Go grew out of a 2014 April Fools' Day prank by which tech company?

Google Maps hid Pokémon on its map as a 2014 April Fools' joke, and Niantic, then a startup inside Google, turned the idea into a real game.

TikTok went global in 2018 after merging with which lip-sync platform ByteDance had bought?

Musical.ly, bought by ByteDance in late 2017, was folded into TikTok on 2 August 2018; by October TikTok was the most-downloaded app in the US.

Which 2016 Netflix series turned Eggo waffles into a pop-culture prop?

Stranger Things made Eggos Eleven's favourite food, and in the first season she steals Eggo waffles from a grocery store.

Which book was the best-selling title of the 2010s in the United States?

Fifty Shades of Grey sold 15.2 million US copies from 2010 to 2019, yet it began life as Twilight fan fiction posted online.

Which film's all-time box-office record did Avengers: Endgame break in 2019?

Avatar lost its crown to Endgame in July 2019, months after Disney bought Avatar's studio, Fox, and a 2021 re-release in China put Avatar back on top.

Which Philadelphia department store hosted the first Slinky demonstration in 1945?

Richard James demonstrated it at Gimbels in November 1945 after watching a spring 'walk' off a shelf; the first 400 Slinkys sold out in 90 minutes.

Which US body reportedly banned Furbies from its premises in January 1999?

The National Security Agency feared Furbies would repeat classified talk, and its memo told staff who had brought one in to contact their security officer.

What was the first item sold on eBay, then a hobby site called AuctionWeb, in 1995?

A broken laser pointer sold for $14.83, and founder Pierre Omidyar checked that the buyer knew it didn't work. The buyer replied that he collected broken laser pointers.

French designer Louis Réard named his 1946 two-piece swimsuit, the bikini, after the site of what?

A nuclear bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific had made headlines four days before the Paris launch. No fashion model would wear the design, so Réard hired a casino dancer, Micheline Bernardini.

Which modelling compound, launched as a children's toy in 1956, began life as a wallpaper cleaner?

Play-Doh was a putty for wiping coal soot off wallpaper until gas heating shrank the market. Kay Zufall, who worked at a nursery school, had read that the putty was good for art projects.

What were the real colours of 'the dress', the viral photo that divided the internet in February 2015?

Blue and black was the true colouring, but the photo's lighting made many viewers see white and gold. A bride's mother took it in a shop near Chester, England, about a week before the wedding.

Which kitchen appliance did Percy Spencer develop in 1945 after a radar set melted a snack in his pocket?

The microwave oven grew from a candy bar that melted in Spencer's pocket beside an active radar set at Raytheon. The first food he cooked on purpose was popcorn; the second, an egg, exploded.

Why did Atari's first Pong prototype stop working days after its 1972 trial began at Andy Capp's Tavern?

Its coin box was full: designer Allan Alcorn opened the cabinet and found the mechanism overflowing with quarters. Drinkers had been coming to the bar just to play the game.

Which animal became the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, at Scotland's Roslin Institute in 1996?

A sheep named Dolly was grown from a mammary gland cell, which is why her creators named her after the singer Dolly Parton. She later produced several lambs of her own.

Which BBC science-fiction series began the day after President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963?

Doctor Who began 80 seconds late on 23 November 1963 because of announcements about the shooting. With its launch overshadowed, the BBC repeated the first episode a week later, just before the second.

Which company changed its flagship drink's recipe in April 1985, then restored the original only 79 days later?

Coca-Cola received more than 40,000 angry calls and letters about 'New Coke'. The old formula returned under the name Coca-Cola Classic, and sales rose.

Whose 1938 radio version of The War of the Worlds reportedly convinced some listeners that Martians had landed?

Orson Welles staged the Halloween-eve play as a string of news bulletins breaking into dance music. The scale of the panic is disputed, but he told reporters the next day he never meant to cause one.

The Charleston dance craze, the first Winnie-the-Pooh book and the discovery of penicillin all belong to which decade?

The 1920s saw Winnie-the-Pooh published in 1926, two years before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. The dance took off after a 1923 Broadway tune called 'The Charleston'.

Which decade saw the first FIFA World Cup, the Golden Gate Bridge's opening and Superman's comic-book debut?

The 1930s began with Uruguay hosting and winning the first World Cup in 1930. Superman arrived in 1938 in the first issue of Action Comics, which sold for 10 cents.

In which decade was the United Nations founded, India made independent and Anne Frank's diary first published?

The 1940s saw the United Nations charter signed in June 1945, as the Second World War was ending. Anne Frank's diary came out in Amsterdam in 1947, the year India became independent.

Which pharaoh's almost intact tomb did Howard Carter's team uncover in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1922?

Tutankhamun's tomb turned up in November 1922, in the one more season that Carter's patron, the Earl of Carnarvon, had agreed to fund after years of finding little.

Which 1928 cartoon short, made with synchronized sound, was the first Mickey Mouse film to be distributed?

Steamboat Willie was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon produced but the first to be distributed. Walt Disney had seen the talking picture The Jazz Singer and wanted a sound cartoon of his own.

What name was given to the illegal bars that sold alcohol during American Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933?

Speakeasies were named for the habit of speaking quietly about them, so that police and neighbours would not hear. Most disappeared once Prohibition ended.

Which American athlete won four gold medals, including the long jump, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?

Jesse Owens also took the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the sprint relay. Carl Lewis won the same four events at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

Which team did Jackie Robinson join in April 1947, breaking Major League Baseball's colour line?

The Brooklyn Dodgers signed him after general manager Branch Rickey noticed him playing for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues. Robinson started at first base on 15 April.

Which airship burst into flames while docking at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in May 1937?

The Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen and caught fire as it tried to dock with its mooring mast. It had left Frankfurt three days earlier on the first of ten round trips to the United States planned for that year.

Which silent war film was named Outstanding Picture at the first Academy Awards ceremony, held in May 1929?

Wings is the only fully silent film to have won the award now called Best Picture. William Wellman got the job as the only director in Hollywood who had been a combat pilot in the First World War.

Which decade saw Disneyland open, the double helix of DNA described and Alaska and Hawaii join the United States?

The 1950s closed with Alaska and Hawaii becoming states in 1959. James Watson and Francis Crick had published the double helix in 1953, two years before Walt Disney opened his California theme park.

The Berlin Wall went up, the first Super Bowl was played and the first human heart was transplanted in which decade?

The 1960s brought all three, starting with the wall in August 1961. South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the transplant in December 1967, the year the Green Bay Packers won that first Super Bowl.

Which American pilot became the first to break the sound barrier, flying the Bell X-1 in October 1947?

Chuck Yeager flew a rocket plane he had named Glamorous Glennis, after his wife. He did it with two ribs broken in a fall from a horse two nights earlier.

Which company put the first instant camera on sale in 1948, under its founder Edwin Land?

Polaroid owed the idea to Land's three-year-old daughter, who asked on holiday why she couldn't see the picture he had just taken of her. He had worked out the concept within the hour.

Which New Zealand beekeeper reached the summit of Everest with Tenzing Norgay in May 1953?

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing were the first climbers confirmed to have stood on the top. Word reached Britain on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, and the press called it a coronation gift.

The 1969 Woodstock festival was held on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in which New York town?

Bethel lies about 60 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, which gave the festival its name. An audience of more than 400,000 turned up.

Which toy, launched in 1952, was the first to be advertised on television?

Mr. Potato Head began as loose plastic parts on pushpins, and children had to supply a real potato or another vegetable to stick them into.

Which film director made Apple's '1984' advert, shown during the Super Bowl to launch the Macintosh?

Ridley Scott directed the commercial for the advertising agency Chiat/Day. Its only national airing in the United States came in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, on 22 January 1984.

Which Soviet cosmonaut became the first human in space, orbiting Earth once aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961?

Yuri Gagarin's whole flight lasted 108 minutes. He did not land inside his capsule: he ejected at about 7,000 metres, as planned, and came down by parachute.

Which Hanna-Barbera cartoon became the first animated series with a prime-time television slot, in September 1960?

The Flintstones was also the first animated sitcom, and one of its inspirations was the live-action comedy The Honeymooners. It ran on ABC until 1966.

Which decade saw the first Earth Day, the fall of Saigon and Margaret Thatcher's election as British prime minister?

The 1970s opened with Earth Day in April 1970 and closed with Thatcher taking office in May 1979 as Britain's first female prime minister. Saigon fell in April 1975.

Which decade saw the first space shuttle launch, the Chernobyl disaster and the debut of Nintendo's Game Boy?

The 1980s began with the shuttle Columbia's first flight in April 1981 and ended with the Game Boy reaching Japanese shops in April 1989. Chernobyl's reactor exploded in 1986.

What nickname did the Jaws crew give their mechanical sharks, in honour of Steven Spielberg's lawyer?

Bruce was named after lawyer Bruce Ramer. Three prop sharks were built for the 1975 thriller after the producers gave up on the idea of training a real great white.

Which tennis champion beat Bobby Riggs in 1973's televised 'Battle of the Sexes' at the Houston Astrodome?

Billie Jean King, then 29, won in three sets against the 55-year-old former champion. Riggs had beaten Margaret Court 6–2, 6–1 that May, a win that put him on magazine covers.

In which African country did Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman in 1974's 'Rumble in the Jungle'?

Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, staged the fight in a Kinshasa stadium. Foreman arrived as the undefeated champion, and Ali knocked him out in the eighth round.

Which Apple co-founder gave up his 10% stake in the company for just $800, days after signing up in 1976?

Ronald Wayne held the stake as a tie-breaker between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who had 45% each. He withdrew his name twelve days after drawing up the document that created the company.

Under what name did Mario first appear in the English instructions for Nintendo's 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong?

Jumpman was his name in the English instructions; he had gone unnamed in the Japanese release, and a sales brochure called him 'little Mario'.

Whom did Motorola's Martin Cooper phone in April 1973 to make the first public call from a handheld mobile?

A rival engineer at Bell Labs, Motorola's competitor in the race to build a mobile phone, took the call. Cooper rang from a Manhattan sidewalk on a prototype DynaTAC.

In which city did Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in 1975, close to the maker of the Altair computer?

Albuquerque, New Mexico, was where the pair demonstrated their first product, a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800, to its maker MITS in March 1975.

Which board game did two Canadian journalists create in Montreal in December 1979?

Trivial Pursuit has several origin stories, most of them involving a game of Scrabble. Its creators were Chris Haney, a photo editor at the Gazette, and a sports editor for The Canadian Press.

The Soviet Union dissolved, the Channel Tunnel opened and Hong Kong returned to China in which decade?

The 1990s saw the Soviet Union formally dissolved on 26 December 1991. The Channel Tunnel opened in May 1994, and Britain handed Hong Kong back at midnight on 1 July 1997.

Which decade saw euro notes and coins enter circulation, Wikipedia go online and Pluto lose its status as a planet?

The 2000s brought euro cash on 1 January 2002, a year after the free encyclopedia went live. Astronomers redefined the word planet in 2006, which left Pluto classed as a dwarf planet.

Which decade brought the first iPad, the Paris climate agreement and the first image of a black hole?

The 2010s opened with the iPad going on sale in April 2010. The Paris deal was adopted in December 2015, and the black hole picture, showing the heart of the galaxy Messier 87, followed in April 2019.

From which prison did Nelson Mandela walk free on 11 February 1990, holding his wife Winnie's hand?

Victor Verster held him from 1988, in the relative comfort of a warder's house with a personal cook. He had left Robben Island back in 1982.

Under what name did Jeff Bezos found Amazon in July 1994, months before choosing the river's name?

Cadabra lasted only until November 1994, when Bezos renamed his online bookstore after the world's largest river to reflect his ambitions for it.

The puzzle that reached The Times of London in 2004 as sudoku first appeared in 1979 under what name?

Number Place was most likely the work of Howard Garns, a retired architect from Indiana. A Japanese puzzle company republished it in 1984, and its president shortened the new name to Sudoku in 1986.

Which IBM computer beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game rematch in 1997?

Deep Blue won two games and drew three in the rematch. A year earlier Kasparov had beaten an older version of the machine, losing only one game of the six.

Whose record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics did swimmer Michael Phelps break in Beijing in 2008?

Mark Spitz, a fellow American swimmer, had held the record since the 1972 Games. Phelps passed it by winning eight events in Beijing.

Which word for a smartphone habit did Oxford Dictionaries name its Word of the Year for 2013?

Selfie's earliest known use is a September 2002 post on an Australian internet forum by a man named Nathan Hope. Oxford's editors crowned it eleven years later.

In which country were 33 miners rescued in October 2010 after 69 days trapped underground?

Chile brought the men up in a narrow rescue capsule named Fénix. They had been trapped 700 metres down in a copper and gold mine in the Atacama Desert since a cave-in on 5 August.