Herscher Tigers

Herscher High School Class of '82 30th Reunion
August 18,  2012

1979

Cost of Living

Yearly Inflation Rate: 11.2%

Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average: 838

Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve: 15.25%

Average Cost of new house: $58,100.00

Average Income per year: $17,500.00

Average Monthly Rent: $280.00

Cost of a gallon of Gas: $0.86

Sony Walkman: $200.00

Jox Trainers: $14.99

Atari Video Computer System: $199

Atari Game Cartridges: $19.99

Ladies Lined Fashion boots: $42.90

Warm Leather Lined boots: $39.99

Toyota Corolla: $3,698

Mercury Cougar XR7: $6,430

GMC Jimmy: $7,895

Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.15

US GDP (1998 dollars): $2,557.50 billion

Federal spending: $504.03 billion

Federal debt: $829.5 billion

Median Household Income (current dollars): $16,461

Consumer Price Index: 72.6

Unemployment: 5.8%

Nobel Prizes

Physics : Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg

Chemistry : Herbert C. Brown, Georg Wittig

Medicine : Allan M. Cormack, Godfrey N. Hounsfield

Literature : Odysseas Elytis

Peace : Mother Teresa

Economics : Theodore Schultz, Arthur Lewis

Major Events

January

01/01: United Nations heralds the start of the International Year of the Child.

01/01: The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.

01/04: The state of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to the families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings.

01/07: Vietnam and Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime.

01/16: The Shah of Iran (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt.

01/19: Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell is released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.

February

02/01: Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

02/01: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.

02/07: Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was known to science.

02/11: Khomeini seizes power in Iran.

02/14: In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, who is later killed.

02/18: The Sahara Desert experiences snow for 30 minutes.

02/27: Mardi Gras is canceled due to a strike called by the New Orleans Police Department.

March

03/04: The U.S. Voyager I spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.

03/08: Philips demonstrates Compact Disc publicly for the first time.

03/26: President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign the Camp David Peace Accord.

03/28: America's most serious nuclear power plant accident occurs at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.

April

04/01: Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah of Iran.

04/01: The Pinwheel Network changes its name to Nickelodeon and begins airing on various Warner Cable systems.

04/11: Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.

04/17: Children in the Central African Empire are arrested and around 100 killed for protesting against compulsory school uniforms.

04/20: President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

May

05/04: Margaret Thatcher becomes the Great Britain's first female prime minister.

05/09: A Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.

05/21: The Montréal Canadiens defeat the New York Rangers 4 games to 1 winning the Stanley Cup.

05/25: American Airlines Flight 191 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history.

05/27: Rick Mears wins his first Indianapolis 500.

June

06/01: The Seattle SuperSonics win the NBA Championship against the Washington Bullets.

06/01: Pope John Paul II arrives in his native Poland becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

06/18: Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.

06/20: A Nicaraguan soldier kills ABC-TV news correspondent Bill Stewart and his interpreter Juan Espinosa. Other members of the news crew capture the killing on tape.

06/25: In Belgium, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.

July

07/01: The Sony Walkman goes on sale for the first time in Japan.

07/03: U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

07/11: NASA's first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months.

07/12: A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers.

07/16: Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him.

07/17: Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.

07/19: Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela wins the Miss Universe Pageant. The stage collapses after contestants and news photographers rush to her throne.

07/19: The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolution against the U.S. backed Somoza dictatorship and assumes power in Nicaragua.

August

08/10: Michael Jackson releases his breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone.

September

09/01: The U.S. Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.

09/07: The Entertainment Sports Programming Network, known as ESPN, broadcasts for the first time.

09/12: Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.

October

10/06: Pope John Paul II visits the United States.

10/06: Federal Reserve System changes from an interest rate target policy to a money supply target policy.

10/14: A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, D.C., involving tens of thousands of people.

10/17: The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the World Series. Willie Stargell is named the Series MVP.

10/26: Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by KCIA director Kim Jaegyu.

November

11/01: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.

11/03: In Greensboro, NC, 5 members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and 7 are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a "Death to the Klan" rally.

11/04: Iran hostage crisis begins. 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.

11/07: U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.

11/09: NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detect purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early warning radars, the alert was cancelled.

11/12: President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran.

11/14 President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.

11/17: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and African-American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

11/21: After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Americans had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set afire killing 4.

December

12/03: Eleven fans are killed during a crowd crush for unreserved seats before The Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

12/06: The world premiere for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

12/09: The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first human disease driven to extinction.

12/24: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin which begins the war.

12/24: The first European Ariane rocket is launched.

Exact Date Unknown

The One Child Policy is introduced in China.

VisiCalc becomes the first commercial spreadsheet program.

The first Usenet experiments are conducted by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis of Duke University.

Worldwide per capita oil production reaches an historic peak.

McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal in June.

Lego's golden age begins.

Chrysler receives government loan guarantees upon the request of CEO Lee Iacocca.


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