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Generation Boomer // GenerationBoomerMagazine.com
Boomer Timetable
1940s-1950s
1960s-1970s
1945: Soldiers come home after WWII to make babies at the rate of one every eight seconds over the next two decades.
1975: U.S. evacuates from Vietnam. South Vietnamese government surrenders.
1946: Dr. Benjamin Spock’s “Baby and Child Care,” published. Parents get the okay to become emotionally involved with their children. 1947: Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaks the color barrier in major league baseball. 1948: The “Kensey Report” on sexual behavior in the human male is published. 1951: Disc jockey Alan Freed coins the term rock ‘n’ roll.
1977: “Star Wars”” opens. Legions of faithful Jedis follow. 1980: John Lennon shot and killed in New York. IBM PC introduced, business boots up. Pac-Man introduced, takes arcade games to a new level. 1981: The CDC publishes report on AIDS epidemic. 1983: Chrysler Minivan introduced. Soccer moms abandon station wagons. Newsweek declares 1983 “the year of the yuppie.”
1952: “Bandstand” begins its long run on TV.
1985: Bob Geldof spearheads Live Aid concerts, raising over $100 million to fight famine in Africa.
1954: Supreme Court deems racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.
1986: The space shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff.
1955: Elvis Presley ushers in a new age of rock ‘n’ roll with “That’s All Right.” 1959: WHAM-O introduces the first Frisbee. 1960: Birth control pill approved for sale by the FDA.
1989: Berlin Wall falls, leading to the reunification of East and West Germany. 1991: Persian Gulf War liberates Kuwait. 1992: Riots erupt in Los Angeles after jury acquits policemen of beating Rodney King. 1993: Branch Davidian compound burned down near Waco, Texas.
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis – Pres. Kennedy decides not to attack Soviet missiles in Cuba, 1995: Truck bomb explodes outside federal avoids nuclear war. building in Oklahoma City. O.J. Simpson trail captivates a nation. 1968: North Vietnam launches the Tet Offensive. 1998: Viagra hits the shelves. 1969: Neil Armstrong becomes the first man 1999: Shootings at Columbine High School. to walk on the moon. Clinton’s impeachment trail ends without a conviction. 1970: Four students killed at Kent State by National Guardsmen during protest against 2000: Bush wins election after Florida vote the Vietnam War. recount. 1972: Break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters leads to Nixon’s resignation two years later.
2001: Attack on World Trade Center. 2006: First Boomers turn 60.
The Boomer Century 1946-2046 (www.pbs.org/boomercentury)
20th-21st
Century America 1883-1900 (18 years) The Lost Generation was a term originally used to identify a group of American literary expatriates living in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s; it is now used more generally to describe the generation of young people who came of age in the U.S. during and shortly after WWI. Very few Americans from this generation are currently alive. 1901-1924 (24 years) The G.I. Generation, the generation of veterans that fought and won WWII, later to become the Establishment, and the parents of children who would later become the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964). Journalist Tom Brokaw dubbed this the Greatest Generation in a 1998 book of that name. 1925-1945 (20 years) The Silent Generation was the generation born between the two World Wars, who were too young too join the service when WWII started. Many had fathers who served in WWI. 1946-1954 (8 years) The Baby Boomers (Boom Generation) were the generation born just after WWII, a time that included a 14-year increase in birthrates worldwide. Baby Boomers in their teen and college years were characteristically part of the 1960s counterculture, but later became more conservative. 1955-1964 (9 years) Generation Jones was the heretofore-lost generation between the Boomers and GenXers, which has emerged now as a bonafide distinct generation. The election of Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency created significantly increased awareness of this generation as many prominent sources referred to Obama as specifically a member of Generation Jones.
