1970-1989 Vietnam, Falklands, Berlin Wall, Tiananmen, AIDS, PCs, VCRs

It was the reign of Elizabeth II and the longest period of relative world peace and safety in this 20 years period was from 1972 to 1982 - the end of the Vietnam War to the start of the Falklands War and the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon - 10 years.

1970 was the year after Woodstock and the Moon Landing of 1969, but the Vietnam War was really hotting up.

Bloody Sunday occurred in Northern Ireland in 1972. when British troops killed 13 Catholics and the sectarian violence continued for years afterwards.

Then there was the military coup in Chile by General Pinochet in 1973; the resignation of President Nixon in 1974; the deposing of the Shah of Iran by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 (who was later responsible for the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, the author of the Satanic Verses); and the Lech Walesa shipyard strike in Poland in 1980.

Elvis Presley also died in 1980.

Apart from coups in other parts of the world, there was general peace from 1972 until the Falklands War and the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon in 1982. And then came the Tiananmen square massacre of students and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The greatest human scare was the advent of a new disease -- AIDS -- in the 1980s. Those grim reaper ads really spooked everyone who saw them.

On a bright note, this period saw the advent of mass production color TV in the 1970s; personal computers and VCRs in the 1980s; and the glam rock era of the 1970s, the Abba phenomenon, and the disco craze of the 1980s.

Also, it was a time when women's liberation was having a real effect on the everyday lives of girls who grew up with a greater sense of confidence and far more opportunities than their mother's generation. Many girls went straight from school to university; were given a car when they turned 17; and avoided the fate of becoming a housewife.

Social life for teenagers was dominated by going out to rock concerts. Most had personal computers for essays and spreadsheets, and a VCR for recording TV shows.

1950-1969 Korea, Cold War, Vietnam, TV, Elvis, Moon Landing

It was the reign of King George VI who died in 1952 and was succeeded by his daughter Elizabeth II. The longest period of relative world peace and safety in this 20 year period came after the end of the Korean War in 1953 and the start of the Vietnam War in 1965 - 12 years.

In 1950 it was five years after the end of WWII and the start of the Korean War which was all over in 3 years, but although there was never a declared war, the Cold War between the capitalist West and the communist USSR and China then broke out (and persists to this day).

People lived in fear of an atomic war wiping us all out, and Cold War McCarthyism made everyone scared of speaking out against what our government was doing. It was like a witch-hunt. If you spoke out, you were branded a communist. And then, just as we thought all that stupidity was over the ongoing Vietnam War hotted up for real in 1965.

In 1952 King Georve VI died and Elizabeth became queen of England. Then came Stalin's death in 1953; the Hungarian revolution, the Suez crisis and the Cuban Revolution of 1956; Asian flu broke out in 1957 lasting till 1958; the Sharpeville massacre of 1960; the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961; and the Great Train robbery of Ronald Biggs, the Civil Rights Movement and the assassination of JFK in 1963.

Up until the 1960s life was still bleak in Europe. Everything, including food, was rationed and English children saw and ate their first oranges and bananas. Housing remained severely strained by thousands of war-displaced Europeans and former colonial subjects pouring into Europe. Parents often turned the living and dining rooms into bedrooms and lived in the kitchen with a big table in the middle of the room.

On a bright note, the 1950s saw the mass production of Television (black and white) and for the first time ever families stayed at home to watch world events on their TVs rather than go out to the newsreel movie houses. They watched at home the televising of the Queen's coronation, the climbing of Mt Evererst in 1953 by Edmund Hilary and Roger Bannister in 1954 running the 4 minute mile and on the news heard about the exploration of space when Sputnik was launched by the USSR in 1957.

This period also witnessed the birth of rock n' roll with Bill Haley and the Comets and the phenomenon of Elvis Presley; and then came Beatlemania that swept the world in 1964.

Social life for teenagers was free and easy -- despite the Cold War. Kids were raised on TV and it dominated their lives, as did home movies and tape recorders and LP records. Later in the 60s came the hippy generation that experimented with drugs, zonked out at Woodstock, watched man land on the Moon in 1969 and protested against the Vietnam War.