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name: will baker blogrollin' other sites: |
it's my birthday, bitches!
My birthday horoscope from the Onion:
Pisces: (Feb. 19�March 20) On March 15, 1974: Both Barry Manilow and Elvis Presley held concerts (in Philadelphia and Knoxville, respectively). Pope Paul VI addressed the Third Plenary Congregation of the Secretariat for Non-Christians. The text of the speech is on the Vatican website, but it�s in Italian.
Eva Longoria was born. So was I. We�ll both be 31 tomorrow.
In 1974: �Chinatown� and �The Godfather, Part II� hit the theaters. Out of growing concern over the very large databases made possible by innovations in computer technology, Congress passed the Privacy Act of 1974, which is still in effect today (although for many types of information, the Privacy Act�s provisions are superseded by HIPAA since last year). Nixon resigned from the presidency under threat of impeachment for various misdoings. Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States. Kennedy had given us Camelot, Johnson had the Great Society. Nixon gave us the Terrible Society, and Ford would inaugurate Bored-a-lot, followed by Jimmy Carter�s Sux-a-lot. Sort of a downhill trend.
On April 3 of 1974, a series of storms swept through the Midwest, spawning a �super tornado outbreak�, the largest and most destructive cluster of tornados in American history. Over the course of 16 hours, 148 twisters touched down in 13 states, killing 330 and injuring 5,484. Roberta Flack earned a Grammy for �Killing Me Softly�, which is regarded by most people who don�t suck as the best song ever. The last Americans were evacuated from Saigon, ending the American involvement in Vietnam that began in 1950. By the time the last Americans leave, the American death toll in the Viet Nam War is 58,000. Congress passes the Vietnam Era Veterans� Readjustment Act, making Vietnam Veterans as a group protected from various forms of discrimination by federal law. Duke Ellington died. Turkey invaded Cypress, bringing fellow NATO members Turkey and Greece to the brink of war. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was deposed. Patricia Hurst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. India successfully tested an atomic device, thus becoming the world�s sixth nuclear power. Stephen King published �Carrie� (They�re breasts, Mama, and everybody has �em!)
Annie Dillard published �Pilgrim at Tinker Creek�, which is still a damned good book. Robert M. Pirsig published �Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance�, which was exactly the book I needed when I read it at age 17. Ed Sullivan and Charles Lindbergh died. (Not together.) The Skylab Missions were completed. The first public usage of the word �Internet� was recorded. Scientists proved that CFCs actually damage the earth�s ozone layer. Kate Moss was born. Plastic razors were invented by Gillette. The Kurds staged an uprising against Saddam Hussein in Iraq (sounds familiar). Abbie Hoffman went underground. In a speech at the United Nations in New York, Deng Xiaoping proposed his �Theory of Three Worlds�, from which the terms �first world� and �third world� originally derived. Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS) was organized in San Antonio, TX by Ernesto Cortez. By 1976, COPS was the largest urban community group in the US. The first ATM machines made their public debuts. Intel introduced the 8080 chip architecture. The March issue of QST Magazine carried an advertisement for the Scelbi 8H, the first personal computer to be commercially advertised. It was the first microcomputer to be based entirely on a central CPU. It had 1Kb of internal memory, and came with a cassette tape drive. It had �both teletype and oscilloscope interfaces.� It cost $580, and for a mere additional $2760, you could upgrade to a whopping 15Kb of internal memory. Here's a picture of this computational monster:
The Transmission Control Protocol (or TCP) was created to allow computers to communicate across the ARPANET. The mature version of this protocol, TCP/IP, is used by every computer connected to the Internet today, and by most private networks as well. 1974 saw the onset of most serious economic downturn in the US since the Great Depression. Following mounting inflation throughout the early 70�s, all 4 quarters of 1974 showed declining Gross National Product. The decline in GNP in the 4th quarter was the steepest in 16 years.
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