7 Iconic 70s Moments That Shaped Our World
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The 1970s were marked by liberation and free thinking, and certain events that took place still loom large everywhere from pop culture to human rights. Our fall seasonal beaded collection is inspired by those iconic years. Take a look at seven key moments from the so-called “Me” Decade that we can be thankful for today.
1. June, 1970: NYC’s First Gay Rights March Takes Place Recent legislative victories for the LGBT community have roots that can be traced back to New York City in the 1970s. Galvanized by the police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar that's now a designated historic landmark, activists organized the city’s first gay rights march. The march became an annual tradition that’s known today as the Pride Parade.
2. August, 1974: Beverly Johnson Graces the Cover of Vogue When Vogue put African-American model Beverly Johnson on their cover, it wasn’t just beautiful – it made history. Johnson’s appearance broke barriers for all women of color, and set a new, more inclusive standard of beauty that continues to evolve today.
3. October, 1975: Saturday Night Live Airs for the First Time “Live from New York…. It’s Saturday Night!” may be one of the most iconic lines in television today. Comedian George Carlin hosted Saturday Night Live’s first show, ushering in an era in television that has launched dozens of comedic careers – from Gilda Radner to Maya Rudolph – and is still going strong, 41 years later.
4. October, 1976: Barbara Walters Becomes ABC Evening News Co-Anchor It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when broadcast journalism was strictly a male profession. However, when Barbara Walters signed a contract with ABC to co-anchor the network’s evening newscast, she became a trailblazer for generations of successful women broadcast journalists that have come after her.
5. May 1977: Star Wars Premieres As evidenced by last year’s blockbuster success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the Star Wars film series is one of Hollywood’s most enduring and popular franchises –39 years after its first release. The next installment, Rogue One, is due out this coming December, and Lucasfilm plans to release a new Star Wars film every year through 2020. Glad to know we haven’t heard the last of Rey and her crew yet!
6. June, 1977: Apple II Makes Its Market Debut Steve Jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had been tinkering with computers for several years already by this point, and Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975. However, 1977 stands out in the history of the modern digital age because that year, the Apple II – one of the first successful, mass-produced home computers – hit the market. Fun fact: Its maximum memory capacity was 64KB, which isn’t even 1/10th of the size of a selfie taken with a smartphone today.
7. May, 1979: Margaret Thatcher Becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The recent election victory of Theresa Mary May, the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, to the U.K.’s top post of prime minister, echoes the legacy of another leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher, the U.K.’s first female prime minister. Thatcher served three terms, the longest tenure of any British prime minister of the 20th century. Written by Erin Lindholm
