Summer of 1976 and Climate Change
The Summer of 1976 saw an exceptional drought and heat but today’s summers are far worse
1970s
News, current affairs, and cultural issues from the 1970s
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Iran on the eve of the 1979 revolution
Iran is on the verge of revolutionary change not seen since the Shah was overthrown in 1979. So, I thought it would be interesting to look at how Iran was being covered by the global media in 1978, the year before the country became an Islamic republic. Nobody doubted in 1978 that Shah Mohammad Reza…
1976 – 50 years ago in Britain
I turned 13 years of age in 1976 and was at secondary school in Buckhurst Hill, Essex. Let’s look back at a year when we experienced a never ending summer with a resulting drought. Before that, Prime Minister Harold Wilson suddenly resigned for reasons that didn’t seem very obvious. He’d just won election only two…
School summer holidays in the 1970s
2025 marked an astonishing 50 years since I went on a school holiday to Chamonix in France. So, I returned to Chamonix, not having been there since 1975. I don’t know what I expected to find or experience. But the memories came flooding back of a very eventful school summer break. In the mid-1970s, I…
Plane hijacked by samurai wielding terrorists
Imagine your plane being hijacked by nine fanatical ninjas wielding Samurai swords. That was the nasty surprise that lay in store for passengers on Japan Airlines Flight 351 in March, 1970. Members of the Japanese Red Army Faction suddenly leaped from their seats wielding the deadly swords and demanding control of the plane. You may…
Investigating the Amityville Horror – new truths!
It was a multiple murder within a family that shocked America. In November 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr drugged his parents, two brothers and two sisters and killed them one by one with a rifle. A year later, the house was bought by a newly married couple who then experienced a series of horrific incidents they…
Lester Maddox and the politics of segregation
American chat show host Jimmy Kimmel has just been taken off air by ABC/Disney after pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – which is supposed to be an independent media regulator, but has acted in a very partisan manner. However, this is nothing new. Back in 1970, the pro-segregation ex-Governor of Alabama, Lester Maddox,…
Summerland fire disaster – a forgotten tragedy
The 1970s was the decade that gave us the disaster movie, The Towering Inferno. The world’s tallest skyscraper catches fire and its height proves to be an insurmountable obstacle to rescuing the wealthy folk inside. This was a cautionary tale about the decade’s unshakable belief in modernity as well as the hubris and greed of…
Iran – the overthrow of the Shah in 1979
With Iran back in the news, it’s an opportune moment to ask how did this country come to be ruled by a theocratic caste combined with a parliamentary democracy? Up until 1979, Iran was under the thumb of a monarch – the Shah – who was pro-western and effectively policed the Middle East on behalf…
Growing up before digital – what was it like?
It’s hard to remember a world – only a quarter of a century ago – when most people had no public visibility. Imagine it. A world without social media influencers, TikTok trolls, YouTube channels, and bots. The only way you ever got your name or face in public was if a newspaper published your letter…