Construction begins on the Very Large Array in New Mexico
The Very Large Array is the most versatile, widely-used radio telescope in the world.
Post-modernity (1945 - 2016 C.E.)
Five feminists create the first women’s owned-and-operated record label, Olivia Records
Olivia Records was a collective founded in 1973 to record and market women’s music.
Sweden goes first to ban aerosol sprays
Scientific evidence had mounted that CFCs were damaging to Earth’s ozone layer. Sweden was the first to act on this evidence.
Bill Bowerman invents the Waffle Trainer
The origins of the Oregon Waffle, afterwards named the Waffle Trainer, derive from Bowerman’s experiments with a simple waffle iron, the grooves of which proved to be a near perfect mold for a running shoe.
Motorola employee Martin Cooper makes the world’s first cell phone call
Using a prototype of what would become the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, the world’s first commercial cell phone, Cooper placed a call to the headquarters of Bell Labs in New Jersey.
World’s first plastic recycling mill opens in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
By the 1980s, plastic recycling was widely practiced in many communities across the United States.
The United Church of Christ becomes the first mainline Protestant denomination in the U.S. to ordain an openly gay clergyperson
The Rev. Dr. William R. Johnson was the first openly gay person ordained in the United States and perhaps the first worldwide in a mainline Protestant denomination. His ordination took place on June 25, 1972 at the Community UCC in San Carlos, California, authorized by the Golden Gate Association of the Northern California/Nevada Conference UCC.
The Republic of Sri Lanka is officially formed
Dominion status within the British Commonwealth was retained until 22 May 1972 when the country became the Republic of Sri Lanka.
Atari releases Pong, the first commercially successful video game
Pong quickly became a success and was the first commercially successful video game, which helped to establish the video game industry along with the first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey.
U.S., Soviet Union, and 70 other nations agree to ban biological weapons
The Biological Weapons Convention was the world’s first multilateral disarmament treaty to ban the production of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.