The 1970s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Chronology

1970:      For the first time in American history, a majority of Americans live in suburbs.

1970:      Police touch off a riot in the barrio of East Los Angeles, resulting in the death of prominent Hispanic journalist Ruben Salazar and inspiring the growing Chicano consciousness movement.

1970:     August 29 A parade of ten thousand women in New York celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote; the women demand abortion reform, day care, and equal opportunity.

1971:      The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, lowering the voting age form twenty-one to eighteen, is ratified.

1971:      Hot pants, very brief shorts for women, become a fashion sensation.

1971:      In Reed v. Reed, the U.S. Supreme Court bans gender discrimination.

1971:      In Chicago, the Reverend Jesse Jackson forms People United to Save Humanity (PUSH).

1972:      The U.S. Congress approves the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and sends it to the states to be ratified.

1972:      Protesting Native Americans march in Washington, D.C.

1972:      The U.S. Congress passes the Ethnic Heritage Studies Act "to legitimatize ethnicity and pluralism in America."

1972:      Phyllis Schlafly organizes the National Committee to Stop the ERA.

1973:      The American Psychiatric Association rules that homosexuality is not a mental disorder.

1973:      Three men are sworn in as the first African American mayors in their respective large cities: Maynard Jackson in Atlanta, Thomas Bradley in Los Angeles, and Coleman Young in Detroit.

1974:      A fad known as "streaking," where people sprint naked through public places and events, sweeps the country.

1974:      Maternity leave for teachers is approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1974:     February 4 In Berkeley, California, nineteen-year-old newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1975:      Twenty million mood rings, a type of jewelry that changes color with body temperature, are sold in the United States.

1975:      The pet rock, an elaborately packaged stone, becomes a popular holiday gift.

1975:      Polyester and mixed-blend fabrics become popular in both men's and women's wear.

1975:     July 2 The United Nations-sponsored International Women's Year Conference meeting ends in Mexico City.

1976:      Punk fashions from London arrive in American shops.

1976:      The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) accepts its first female astronaut trainees.

1976:     September 18 The Reverend Sun Myung Moon presides over a God Bless America rally in Washington, D.C. Fifty thousand followers of Moon attend.

1977:      Twenty-five million CB (citizens' band) radios are in use by American motorists

1977:      Diane Keaton, in her starring role in the film Annie Hall, catapults Ralph Lauren's rumpled men's look for women to high fashion.

1977:     April 16 Steve Rubell and Ian Shrager open the doors of Studio 54, the exclusive New York discotheque.

1978:      In Washington, D.C., sixty-five thousand women march in support of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

1978:      After a popular exhibit of Egyptian relics travels to several major U.S. museums, a "King Tut" craze sweeps the nation.

1978:     October 6 At the University of Chicago, Hannah H. Gray is inaugurated as the first female president of a coed university.

1978:     November 18 Authorities discover the mass suicides and murders of over nine hundred members of Jim Jones's People's Temple cult in Guyana.

1979:      Over 14.5 million Americans identify themselves as Hispanic.

1979:      Jerry Falwell organizes the conservative Moral Majority political lobbying group.

1979:      One hundred thousand people march in Washington, D.C., in support of gay liberation.

1979:     April 3 Jane Byrne is elected Chicago's first female mayor, winning the election by the largest majority since 1901.