Verisoph story dossier
The hinge year of modern money and power: Nixon closes the gold window, the Pentagon Papers break, China rejoins the world, and the microprocessor and Nasdaq seed the digital economy.
The hinge year of modern money and power: Nixon closes the gold window, the Pentagon Papers break, China rejoins the world, and the microprocessor and Nasdaq seed the digital economy.
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also in Capitalism, liberalism, and the isms, The humanitarian conscience
Canadian and American activists in Vancouver charter a boat to protest US nuclear testing at Amchitka, Alaska, founding the campaign that became Greenpeace, the global direct-action environmental organization.
also in How technology remade the world, Infrastructure and logistics, Science and technology
Intel released the 4004, the first commercial microprocessor, putting a computer's processing on a single chip. Cheap microprocessors made personal computers, phones and countless devices possible.
doing school work for the rewards it will bring in the form of good grades and teacher approvalLife in Classrooms
Therefore, as perceived by their administrative superiors, these teachers comprise the top 5 or 10 percent of the instructional staff. The sample was drawn chiefly from suburban communities surrounding Chicago.Life in Classrooms
In a sense he is working for the school and against it at the same time.Life in Classrooms
The result, it is claimed, will be the transformation of teaching from an art to a science.Life in Classrooms
also in World order: the transnational forums
Klaus Schwab founded the body first known as the European Management Forum and held its first meeting in Davos. It was renamed the World Economic Forum in 1987 and hosts an annual gathering of business and political leaders.
The Nasdaq opened as the world’s first electronic stock market, quoting prices by computer rather than on a trading floor. It would become the home of the technology industry and a model for markets everywhere.
also in Media, education, and information, Media, propaganda, and influence
On 8 March 1971 activists burglarized an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and leaked files that revealed the COINTELPRO program to the press. The disclosure forced the FBI to shut the program down and helped prompt later congressional investigations.
Bangladesh declares independence from Pakistan, triggering a nine-month liberation war that ends with Pakistani surrender in December 1971.
also in The space race: rivalry, rendezvous, and spying
The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1, the first space station, shifting the contest from the Moon to long-duration life in orbit. The USSR would lead in space stations for decades, culminating in Mir.
also in Curriculum, programming, and propaganda, Global sport as power: the Olympics and FIFA
An invitation to American table tennis players to visit China, after a chance encounter at the World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, becomes the first significant contact between the two countries in over two decades. The visit paved the way for Nixon's 1972 trip to China and is a textbook documented case of sport used deliberately as diplomatic soft power.
also in Anatomy of a superpower: the American state, Leaks, whistleblowers, and disclosures
The New York Times began publishing a secret government history of the Vietnam War leaked by Daniel Ellsberg. The case tested press freedom against government claims of national security.
also in The global drug trade and how it ties to everything, The militarization of the police
President Richard Nixon called drug abuse "public enemy number one" and launched a federal campaign that reframed narcotics as a security threat to be fought rather than a public health problem. The framing pushed money, arrests, and enforcement powers toward police and set the stage for treating drug suspects as combatants. Critics, including former Nixon aide John Ehrlichman in a much-quoted later interview, argued the campaign was aimed in part at the political left and Black communities.
also in Ecology and environment, The resource curse: how the South fed the North
Chile's congress voted unanimously to nationalize the large copper mines, taking them from the American companies Anaconda and Kennecott under President Salvador Allende. Copper was called the country's wages, and reclaiming it was hugely popular. Two years later Allende was overthrown in a US-backed coup, and the episode remains central to debates about resources, sovereignty, and outside intervention.
The 26th Amendment lowered the US voting age from 21 to 18, ratified faster than any amendment in history, driven by the argument that those drafted for Vietnam deserved a vote. It added millions of young voters to the rolls.
Henry Kissinger slipped into China on a secret mission to meet Zhou Enlai, arranging the opening that would bring Nixon to Beijing the next year. It split the communist world and reshaped the Cold War balance against the Soviet Union.
Philip Zimbardo’s simulated prison, with students as guards and inmates, was halted early as the guards turned abusive. Widely cited for decades on how roles and situations drive cruelty, it was later criticised for its methods, but it fixed a lasting question about authority and conformity.
also in Northern Ireland: the Troubles and collusion
The British Army and RUC launched dawn raids arresting 342 men suspected of IRA involvement and interning them without trial under the Special Powers Act. Intelligence was poor and outdated, and the operation initially targeted only nationalists, since loyalist paramilitaries were not interned until 1973. Some detainees were subjected to interrogation techniques later ruled by the European Court of Human Rights to constitute inhuman and degrading treatment. Internment intensified the conflict and boosted recruitment to the IRA.
also in Anatomy of a superpower: the American state, Money and finance, The history of money
President Richard Nixon suspended the dollar's convertibility into gold, ending the Bretton Woods system. The move ushered in an era of floating exchange rates and fiat currency.
also in Military and security, The history of policing and the police state
New York state troopers and prison guards retook Attica Correctional Facility after a four-day inmate uprising over prison conditions, killing 29 inmates and 10 hostages in gunfire, with initial official reports falsely claiming hostages had been killed by inmates. Subsequent investigation found troopers fired indiscriminately and that injured inmates were later beaten and denied medical care. The state ultimately paid 12 million dollars to survivors in a 2000 settlement following decades of litigation.
Disney World opened in central Florida, a resort far larger than Disneyland that turned swampland into one of the world’s most visited destinations. It reshaped Florida’s economy and the business of mass leisure.
The UN General Assembly voted to seat the People’s Republic of China and expel the Republic of China on Taiwan, recognising Beijing as the legitimate government. It was a turning point in the Cold War and a step toward the US opening that followed.
NASA’s Mariner 9 entered orbit around Mars, the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, and mapped almost the whole surface once a planet-wide dust storm cleared. It revealed the great canyons and volcanoes and reset what was known of Mars.
also in From Bretton Woods to the euro: monetary regimes around Japan, Princes of the Yen: Japan built, bubbled, and broken, The world trade and money order
After the yen rose following the Nixon shock, the short-lived Smithsonian Agreement of December 1971 fixed the yen at 308 to the dollar.
Then, the yen rose, triggering the short-lived Smithsonian Agreement, which fixed it at ¥308/$ in December 1971.Princes of the Yen
also in The humanitarian conscience
French doctors and journalists, marked by the Biafra famine, found Doctors Without Borders in Paris to deliver emergency medical aid regardless of borders and to speak out about what they witness. It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
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