This collection started with FedEx and Continental Drift. Secondary ones: Mental assylums have gone away. Smoking is no longer accepted. Civil rights. Womens rights. Homosexuals and accepted, same sex marriage, sex change operations. Two high-tech toys are near the top, both because they are neat technology and because they have a huge impact on society. GPS is now in widespread use. Units are available for under $100. Aside from atomic clocks in orbit and the processing needed to recover the signal, Special Relativity is needed to correct for about 7 microseconds per day. PCs, Internet, and Digital Cameras http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/11/revolutionary-t/ Interesting changes during my lifetime: Transportation Diesel-electric locomotives Cheap air fares Commercial jets Flight simulators Concorde (1976-2003) Helicopters FedEx Shipping containers Computerized reservations systems Death of travel agents Deregulation of US air cariers Mountain Bikes Cars Tail fins, white sidewalls Steel belted radials Studded snow tires Seat belts Air bags Child seats Air conditioning Interstate highway system Self serve gas stations Compact cars, foreign cars SUVs Polution controls Fuel economy No lead gasoline Cruise Control Disk brakes ABS, Anti-lock brakes ?? Power brakes, Power steering Automatic transmissions (Olds in 1938) Communication General price reduction on phone calls Long distance was expensive in 50s Operator/reservations to call England No telemarketing Area codes, Touch tone phones 800 numbers, speaker phones, answering machines AT&T breakup Party lines Mobile phones Transistors, computers Transistor radio, hand held 1954: http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/tradio.html Core memory Bubble memory Fiber optics Satellites, broadcast and point-point TV, VCRs, Casstte tapes, CDs, DVDs, Stereo, Boom boxes 2009: End of analog broadcast TV Xerox copier, FAX machines Leap Seconds (1972) Internet, email, web Polaroid cameras Digital cameras Do-it-yourself T-shirts SAGE, BEMEWS ARPANet Streisand Effect 1962: Josephson junction 2006: Western Union gets out of the telegram business 2010: USGS data for free Computing: Artificial Intelligence Social Alaska, Hawaii (1959) statehood McCarthy era Military Industrial Complex, 1961 (Ike's farewell speech) End of mental asylums (60s) Détente Lawyers - sue/blame somebody else Desegregation, Civil Rights Movement 1954: Brown vs Board of Education 1964: Civil Rights Act 1965: Voting Rights Act 1967: Loving vs Virginia (interracial marriage) Roe vs Wade Bikini, 1947 1955: Miranda Miniskirts Women's movement Women in the workplace, ERA (1972, not ratified) 1966: Bobbi Gibb runs Boston Marathon 1972: Women sports, Title IX Covered non-sports too. http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfST/ST37no1.pdf 1973: Tennis: Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs 1977: Janet Guthrie, first woman to drive in Indy 500 1981: Sandra Day O'Connor appointed to US Supreme Court 1984: Geraldine Ferraro Democratic vice president candidate Birth control pills Breast implants (60s) Sex change operations Gay/Lesbian retirement communities FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Comission) DADT: Don't Ask, Don't Tell (1993-2011) 2013: Women allowed in combat positions War on Drugs POSSLQ (1980 census) SO, Significant Other Yuppies Space Race Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg 2002: Sarbanes-Oxley Environmental movement Global Warming Fast food, ethnic resturants DNA testing Computerized privacy invasion End of mental institutions => homeless people Outsourcing, jobs moving off shore (Global economy) Family farm => mega farm Cleaning up your dog poop Woodstock Korean war Vietnam Independence of African colonies Business: 1951: MICR (checks) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Recording_Machine,_Accounting http://www.sri.com/about/ermastory.html Legal: 1970: Rowan vs U.S. Post Office Dept http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_v._U.S._Post_Office_Dept. 1980: Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruneyard_Shopping_Center_v._Robins Evolution: 1987: Edwards v. Aguillard (creation science) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwards_v._Aguillard 2005: Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (inteligent design) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District Cold War Iron curtain, Berlin Wall 1947: Marshall Plan 1948: Berlin Airlift 1956: Hungarian Revolution 1959: China gobbles up Tibet 1960: Gary Powers, U-2 shot down 1961: Berlin Wall goes up 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis 1973: All Volunteer Army 1972: Nixon China 1982: Falklands war: UK vs Argentina 1983: KAL 007 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989: Tiananmen Square 1990: German Reunification 1990: End of Apartheid in South Africa 1991: End of Soviet Union 1993: Czechoslovakia splits 1994: End of Apartheid in South Africa 2001: 9/11 Politics: 1968: Chicago Democratic Convention 1970: Kent State shootings: May 4 1960: Catholic elected President (Kennedy) 2008: African American elected President (Obama) Various wars: 1967: Six Day War (Israel) 1973: Yom Kippur War Sports: 1947: Jackie Robinson, first black in MLB 1954: Roger Bannister: 4 minute mile 1973: Billie Jean King, The Battle of the Sexes (tennis) Food: Fast food Slow food Yellow potatoes Portabella mushrooms, Kiwis Canned whipped cream general availability of fresh food (transportation) general availability of ethnic food Atrocities: Cambodia Rwanda East Timor Kosova Household Float Glass Freezers Ball point pen End of home milk delivery (milk man) Air conditioners Garbage disposals Carbon-tet fire extinguishers Microwave ovens Self cleaning oven Electric can opener Plastic lenses (glasses, cameras) Polytarps Ziplocks, Foam cups, Plastic forks Velcro, Tie wraps, Shrink wrap tubing Wheels on suitcases Child proof containers Smoke detectors Aluminum beer/soda cans, pop tops Single use bottles, Deposits on cans Teflon frying pans Copper pennies Head Start, Pre-school, Day-care Sesame Street Bar code scanners, ISBN Environment DDT, Rachael Carson: Silent Spring, 1962 EPA prohibits DDT, 1972 Pesticide resistant bugs Drug resistant bacteria Dutch Elm Disease Lead out of gas Anti-Smoking: 1964 Surgeon General's report Wilderness Act: Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964 Clean Air Act: 1963, 1967, 1970, 1977, ... EPA started: 1970 Nixon Clean Water Act: 1972 Endangered Species Act: 1973 Love Canal: 1978 Superfund: 1980 Moratorium on commercial whaling: 1986 Spotted Owl (listed in 1990) Curbside Recycling 1967: Torrey Canyon (Cornwall, England) First major oil spill 1969: Santa Barbara oil spill (California) 1978: Amoco Cadiz (Brittany, France) 1989: Exxon Valdez (Prince William Sound, Alaska) 2010: Deepwater Horizon (Gulf of Mexico) 1968: End of Glacier Point Firefall 1980: Mount St Helens 1989: Loma Prieta Earthquake, Bay Bridge 1996: Happy Isles Rockfall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Yosemite_Valley_Landslide 1997: Yosemite Flood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Merced_River_flood Medicine Doctors making house calls Hearing aids (1952) Polio vaccine bottom of http://www.humanistsofutah.org/humanists/jonas_salk.html Smallpox eradication Birth control pills Smoking causes cancer (Surgeon General's report, 1964) http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/Views/Exhibit/narrative/smoking.html AIDS Open heart surgery Organ transplants Arthroscopic surgery MRI, CAT scans DNA, Double helix, genetic engineering, genetic diseases Routine cornea operations Cochlear implant Pacemakers Contact lenses, soft contact lenses, extended wear Lasix (eye/lens fixing) 1951: HeLa cells http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa Hip replacements Helicopter ambulance Alcohol, MADD Alzheimer's Explosion of drugs Drug resistant bacteria Pesticide resistant bugs LSD Military Nuclear submarines (Nautilus, 1954) Sidewinder (1956) Spy Satellites (Corona, 1959) SLBM (Polaris 1960) ICBM, MIRV, Minuteman, 1962 (others earlier) Titan, (Titan II 1963) Cruise Missles ABM Stealth Test Ban Treaty(ies) 1963, 1996 [Seismic work] Dentistry High speed drills Implants (titanium) TV Shows: Muppets Mickey Mouse Club, Disneyland Julia Childs Star Trek Calculators (hand held) End of slide rules Digital Watches Back hoes (vs steam shovels) Satellites Echo: 1960 Apollo: July 20 1969 Apollo lands on moon DSP FFT 1955: Atomic clocks LORAN, OMEGA GPS LEDs, including flashlights Lasers, Fiber optics 1969: Exploratorium founded Radio astronomy, microwave background 1967: Pulsars Extra solar planets polycarbonate [Nope: Electron microscope, 30s] Cold Fusion Bucky balls, tubes Artifical diamonds earrings on men (I saw one on a bank teller. 2008) California wine Bhopal, 1984 Nuclear accidents: SL-1, Idaho, 1961 Detroit, ??? Three Mile Island, 1979 Chernobyl, 1986 Japan, 2011 Pluto defrocked (2006) Extrasolar planet, exoplanet Pumping concrete Panama canal PC Virus Moris worm Green stamps Credit cards, ATM machines Shopping centers, Malls Frisbe Hula hoop Pogo stick Hang gliders Four minute mile - 1954 Everest climbed - 1953 Continental Drift Iridium Layer Big Bang, Microwave background Dinosaurs were cold blodded Exoplanets - 1988 Moore's Law Computers Climbing: Nylon ropes RURP Chromoly pitons Friends, SLCDs Nuts Sticky rubber Goretex Ice tools Plastic boots Wilderness areas Gyms Bear boxes Plastic sleeping bags Kelty Packs