US Events
The 1973 Oil Crisis- In 1973 after the Yom Kippur War, OPEC (The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) did not export petroleum to countries that had supported Israel in the conflict leading to a large spike in the price of oil as the quantity had dropped. This led to President Nixon asking gas stations to only sell gas on the weekdays as well as asking to ration their gas as much as possible. The economy, heavily dependent on gasoline, experienced the sudden increase of price or oil shocks which was startled Americans by changing their lifestyle. They could no longer afford to waste gasoline.
The embargo was felt by several European nations as well. Great Britain experienced similar hardships as the United States though the Netherlands were by far the worst off, experiencing a complete embargo. They had such a hard time that prison sentences were given to those who used more than their given ration of electricity.
The First Moonwalk- In 1969 the American Neil Armstrong became the first man to ever walk on the moon. By doing this he fulfilled the challenge J.F.K. prompted to "land a man on the moon, and return him safely to the Earth." There had been a number of other missions to explore the surface of the moon and the environment of space in general. The actual landing of man made Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin national heroes and greatly influenced our culture. The first thing that was ever said on the moon was "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
On the European side of things the other large contender in the space race was the USSR. They had been developing space exploration equipment at a similar and in someways faster rate than the US. For instance they had the first human in space. But in the end it was the US who took the real prize of being able to say they had the first humans on the moon.
By Ethan Puller
No comments:
Post a Comment