What Was the Year?

[Trollheart]

Simple as a meerkat trying to sell you home insurance: I'll give you a number of clues - events, music releases, movies, that sort of thing - and see if you can guess the year. I'm keeping it within the range 1900 to this year, and choosing the year at random.

The year was....?

Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th President of the United States

First test flight of the US Space Shuttle programme, to see if Enterprise can be carried on board a 747 jet

Earthquake in Romania kills over 1,500 people

The deadliest aircrash in history occurs when two Boeing 747s crash into each other at Tenerife

The first Apple II computers hit the market

The SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) group receive a radio transmission from space. The signal is so strong it's nicknamed the "WOW!" signal.

NASA launches the Voyager probes

The last execution by guillotine takes place in France

Several hijackings and kidnappings take place this year, mostly orchestrated by the German Red Army Faction

Smallpox is finally said to be totally eradicated

Concorde begins regular scheduled flights from London to New York

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Floyd Mayweather, Danny Dyer, Tom Brady, Thierry Henry and Donald Trump Jr. all born, while Anthony Eden, Peter Finch, Joan Crawford, Groucho Marx, Charlie Chaplin and Steve Biko all pass away.

In music

Three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd die in a plane crash

The Sex Pistols release Never Mind the  Bollocks

Shakira, Chris Martin, Ronan Keating (!) and Kanye West all born while Elvis, Marc Bolan, Maria Callas and Bing Crosby all pass away.

Significant releases in this year include Bowie's Low, Pink Floyd's Animals, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, AC/DC's Let There Be Rock, Thin Lizzy's Bad Reputation, Rush's A Farewell to Kings, Iggy Pop's Lust for Life and Steely Dan's Aja.

In Film

Movies released: Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Eraserhead, The Spy Who Loved Me, Smoky and the Bandit, The Hills Have Eyes and Saturday Night Fever.

If you haven't got it by now then you have no excuse unless you're under 12!

[innerspaceboy]

I know this only through articles detailing the xennial microgeneration. In 2017, The Guardian noted, "In internet folklore, xennials are those born between the release years of the original three Star Wars films."

Never seen the films but I'm proud to be a xennial.

[Trollheart]

Cool enough. I was fourteen when I first saw Star Wars in the cinema.

So, what's the year? Is it clear? Put your answer here and you'll be next, never fear!

[Lexi Darling]

1977?

[Psy-Fi]

I figured it from the Jimmy Carter question but the music and film clues would've worked just as well.

I would've had to look up the rest of them, though.

[Trollheart]

Yeah it's 1977 all right. I think I'll do the next one in an information drip way, rather than give all the details at once.

So...

What was the year in which...

London taxis first began using taximeters

Hersehy Park opened in Hershey, PA.

The Irish Crown Jewels were stolen

UPS was set up

RMS Lusitania had her maiden voyage

Marconi began transatlantic radio transmissions

Oklahoma became the 46th state

There were two separate mining disasters, one in Virginia, one in Pennsylvania

The Hoover vacuum cleaner was invented