Countdown to 40 - 5 (REPOST

Today I reflect on the popular culture and history during my 40 years of life. Some fun facts, some not so fun facts. I'll go decade to decade (only 4) picking out some highlights. But anyone who knows me, knows I love history, Jeopardy, trivia and a ton of useless information. I also enjoy long walks on the beach. LOL. So this post is long but fun. At least I think so.




Disclaimer: most of this is from wikipedia. I didn't have the time to verify everything especially little things. I do believe the historical events are in the proper decade though.



1970s





An 8 track tape for all of you youngins. - Goodbye 8 track hello cassette. Personally, I must qualify this by saying that I don't remember 8 tracks. I never owned one. But my dad and grandfathers had old ones rolling around the house so I know what they look like.

- Nixon resignation

- Recession and oil crisis (wait...sound familiar?!?)

- Andy Warhol and Freddy Mercury "came out"

- VCRs and Floppy Disks (remember those?)

- Lava Lamps, Disco, bell bottoms and platform shoes

- Space Invaders and Asteroids

- Rapper's Delight - Hotel, Motel, Holiday Iiinnnnn

-Roberto Clemente dies in an airplane crash during a humanitarian mission

- The 10 highest-grossing films of the decade are (in order from highest to lowest grossing): Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Jaws, Grease, The Exorcist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Godfather, Saturday Night Fever, Rocky and Jaws 2.

- And Ladies, you know I have throw in some women's history. In the decade of the 70s many women made political strides. You may not have agreed with their politics but they deserve credit for making it in a man's dirty world of politics - Isabel Peron (Juan Peron's 3rd wife) became first, non-monarch, female leader in the Western World; Lidia Tejada became the first women president of Bolivia (she was interim but it still counts). Indira Ghandi in India and Golda Meir in Israel made important contributions to their nations. Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister of England.

- oh and most importanly, I was born!



1980s



Olivia Newton-John has 80s written all over her don't you think?-Nintendo, Commodore and Apple came on the scene (once you go mac, you never go back)

- Walkmans and Boomboxes

- Halley's Comet

- The Yugo (remember, it was a car)

- Tianneman Square

- The DeLorean (interesting fact: John DeLorean became a coke dealer to save his company, but got busted in a sting operation - who knew!?)

- War on Drugs: Just Say No

- Ronald Reagan becomes President in his 70s

- Berlin Wall came down

- Mt. St. Helena, Hurricane Hugo, Exxon Valdez, Chernobyl

- John Lennon, Indira GandhiMarvin Gaye, Anwar Sadat assassinated. Attempts on Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II (The 80s was crazy huh?!?)

- Bad fashion: Acid Wash Jeans, neone and Leg Warmers

- Great fashion: The wrap dress (hides it all). Thank you Diane Von Furstenburg

- Political Correctness, rejection of smoking and nukes and using Ms. came into vogue

- the Marielitos of Cuba and Operation Peter Pan (Pedro Pan) - come on look it up.Scar Face is an extremely fictional story about it. Bet you didn't know that! You talkin to me?

- Michael Jackson's leather jacket, glove and moonwalk

- Madonna and Duran Duran

- The 15 highest-grossing films of the decade are (in order from highest to lowest domestic grossing): E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, Rain Man, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Top Gun, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Back to the Future Part II, Crocodile Dundee, Fatal Attraction and Beverly Hills Cop. But let's not forget all the Brat Pack Movies (Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink) and all the Break Dancing Movies

- Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Iced Tea, the Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul (I LOVED THEM), Eric B and Rakim, Public Enemy, 2 Live Crew, Run DMC, KRS One, and the list goes on and on

- Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotlands (Syracuse University students on that flight)

- Corazon Aquino with all of her shoes becomes first president of the Phillippines

- the Jamaican Bobsled team (blut, blut)

- Mike Tyson, youngest heavy weight champion of the world

- Pac Man, Super Mario, Frogger, Tetris

- Oprah's On!



1990s



Kurt Cobain epitomized grunge.- Apartheid Ends and Nelson Mandela is given his freedom and eventually elected president of South Africa

- The Internet - wouldn't be writing this without it.

- End of the Cold War

- First attack on the WTC, Timothy McVeigh

- Monica Lewinsky (I like Bill Clinton, but he'll never live that down!)

- Legalization of cannabis in California (medical purposes only of course)

- NAFTA

-Welfare Reform

- Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo and AOL (the list goes on and on and on and on)

-CD rom, MP3, USB, DSL, Digital Cameras

- Saturn cars

- Dolly, the cloned sheep

- 1992 dubbed "year of the woman"

- Anita Hill (I believed her)

- JFK, Jr., Princess Diana and Mother Teresa die

- OJ Simpson, Columbine

-500th anniversary of the "discovery" of the Americas by you know who. He sailed the ocean blue in 1492.

- The 15 highest-grossing films of the decade are (in order from highest to lowest grossing): Titanic, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Lion King, Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, Armageddon, Home Alone, Pulp Fiction, Ghost, Twister, Saving Private Ryan, Pretty Woman, The Matrix, Mission: Impossible, Dances with Wolves, The Mummy, and The Bodyguard

- Martin, Fresh Prince, Beavis and Butthead, The Simpsons, South Park and Anime

- Brittney, Mariah, Spice Girls

- Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil and Final Fantasy, Sega

- Jennifer Aniston's hair, grunge look

-Boy Bands, Biggie, TuPac, Puff Daddy, Jay Z, Dr. Dre

-Selena



2000s





OMG! Lady Gaga defies definition. This is one of the tamer outfits I could find. - New Millennium

- Y2K

- 9/11

- Outser of Aristede in Haiti, Sadam Hussein

- katrina, Gulf oil spill

- Fidel resigned, Michele Bachelet, first woman president of Chile, Barack Obama, first black president of the US (born a US citizen)

- Benazier Bhutto assasinated

- H1N1, Avian Flu

- Recession and energy crisis (wasn't that in the 70s)

- online dating, google, myspace, twitter, facebook, youtube (remember MiGente and Black Planet?)

- Mars Rover, Human Genome Project

- climate change, tsunami

-Elian Gonzalez

- Virginia Tech

- The 20 highest-grossing films of the decade are (in order from highest to lowest grossing): Avatar, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Spider-Man 3, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Finding Nemo, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Shrek the Third.

- Reality TV (Sarah Palin just won't go away)

- Xbox, Wii, Guitar Hero, Grand Theft Auto

- Uggs and Crocs; Wedges and spiked heels

-Harry Potter, Twilight, DaVinci Code

- Vampires and Werewolves (True Blood, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Van Helsing, Underworld)



2011 - Barely half way there but Osama is captured and killed, Elizabeth Taylor dies, Donald Trump thinks he and his comb over can run for president, Newt Gingrich (just today) announces he is running for president, The terminator and Maria Shriver seperate, Mariah and Nick had twins, Betty White was on Hot 97, everything old is new again....I TURN 40!



This is me yesterday wearing a wrap dress.