1964
The Beatles sang "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and millions of women in England and America swooned over John, Paul, George and Ringo. Muhammad Ali (still known by his birth name of Cassius Clay) was crowned heavyweight champion of the world and Mary Poppins packed audiences into movie theaters. While Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, another future Nobel Peace laureate, Nelson Mandela, was sentenced to life in prison in South Africa. Harold Wilson was the prime minister of Britain in 1964, and Lyndon B. Johnson had recently become the president of the United States after the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. After a U.S. destroyer was allegedly attacked off the coast of North Vietnam, the U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving Johnson the power to conduct military operations and escalate the war in Vietnam.
1971
1971 saw further escalation of both the war in Vietnam and protests in the United States against the war. The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, revealing secret U.S. involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1971; 60 percent of Americans opposed the war; and the Weather Underground allegedly bombed the U.S. Capitol to protest the war's expansion into Laos. Meanwhile, Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan, General Idi Amin took control of Uganda and Switzerland finally granted women the right to vote. In popular culture, the Beatles broke up, the ground-breaking sitcom All in the Family debuted and sleekly designed Corvettes roamed the highways of America.
1978
The participants in the Up series were 21 years old. Disco reigned supreme, and the world's first "test-tube baby"--Louise Brown--was born. Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States and James Callaghan was the prime minister of England. Music from Grease and Saturday Night Fever dominated the charts, The Deer Hunter won the Academy Award for Best Picture and theatergoers made Annie Hall and Animal House two of the year's most popular films.
1985
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan led Great Britain and the United States, respectively, in 1985, while behind the Iron Curtain, Mikhail Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In Britain, a bitter, protracted miner's strike ended with the Conservative government defeating the National Union of Mineworkers and going on to privatize major national industries. In America, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. topped the charts, The Cosby Show was the most popular series on television and Rambo: First Blood Part II nearly swept the Razzie Awards with Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Original Song and Worst Screenplay honors.
1992
George H.W. Bush was coming to the end of his first and only term as the president of the United States and John Major served as the prime minister of England (1990-1997) and leader of the British Conservative Party. The European Union was founded with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. Rioting broke out in South Central Los Angeles after the acquittal of the police officers who were videotaped beating African-American Rodney King. Madonna released the controversial coffee table book Sex; the Princess Diana biography Diana: Her True Story was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic; and Wayne's World was one of the most popular movies of the year in America.
1999
Bill Clinton, the president of the United States, was impeached and then acquitted by the U.S. Senate on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Tony Blair was the prime minister of Britain, and the Euro currency was introduced. Amid overblown threats of cascading computer failures and widespread disaster when the new millennium began, billions of dollars were spent worldwide on Y2K computer upgrades. Meanwhile, the file-sharing service Napster quickly became popular by enabling users to share copyrighted music. Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France, and two students opened fire at Columbine High School, killing 15 people, including themselves.
2006
George W. Bush, president of the United States, Tony Blair, prime minister of England and Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, dominated the news in 2006. The war in Iraq, supported by the United States and by Britain, continued on, and Hussein, who had been captured and deposed in 2003, was executed in December 2006. In sports, French captain and soccer icon Zinedine Zidane head-butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the final minutes of the World Cup championship match, while top athletes such as cyclist Floyd Landis and baseball player Barry Bonds were questioned about their use of performance-enhancing drugs. The Queen, an English film dramatizing the real-life events that transpired after the death of Princess Diana in 1997, won accolades in Britain and in the United States and the American television show CSI: Miami was the most-watched show in the United Kingdom.
2013
Barack Obama began the new year by delivering his second inauguration speech as the president of the United States. The Supreme Court ruled Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied legal marriage to same-sex couples, unconstitutional. Edward Snowden intentionally disclosed classified information. Nina Davuluri made history as the first Miss America of Indian descent. On June 30, president Mohammed Morsi was deposed by Egypt's military after millions of Egyptians took to the streets in Cairo and other cities in a mass protest against his presidency. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed their first son, Prince George. On October 1, the federal government in the United States shut down (though services deemed essential were kept running). Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, passed away at 87.