10-12-2018
News Headlines and History
March 27, 1975 - Construction began on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.
Some pipeline facts from the company https://www.alyeska-pipe.com/TAPS/PipelineFacts
In 1988, TAPS was delivering 25 percent of all U.S. oil production. As North Slope oil production declined, so did TAPS share of U.S. production. Today, TAPS provides less than 17 percent of U.S. oil production. From Wiki Trans-Alaska Pipeline System A long read, but some interesting information.
Even as a kid I remember this in the news, I think it is what peaked my interest in Alaska, I am glad I did get to make it up here.
April 4, 1975 - Bill Gates founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And so history began. Good, Bad, Ugly, Indifferent, the cards were dealt and he did play a good hand.
It would not be until 1980 that I started playing around with computers, 5 years later. The Tandy TSR80 CoCo (color computer)
July 17, 1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations. It is also the last Apollo mission and the last manned U.S. space mission until STS-1 (the first Space Shuttle orbital flight).
This was big, I remember this on TV, and on the news. It is a shame that what could have been a great boost to exploration, was pretty much the death knell of manned exploration for quite awhile.
November 5 – Travis Walton, a 22-year-old logger, is working in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest with six co-workers near Snowflake, Arizona, when he suddenly disappears. Walton is found five days later and says that he has been abducted by extraterrestrial aliens. His book, The Walton Experience (1978), will become the basis for a film, Fire in the Sky (1993). Source: Wiki page Travis Walton UFO incident “For five days, the authorities thought he’d been murdered by his co-workers, and then he was returned. All of the co-workers who were there, who saw the spacecraft, they all took polygraph tests, and they all passed, except for one, and that one was inconclusive"
This to me is and has been one of the most compelling since the Barney and Betty Hill case.
I think that pretty much sums up a few of the things I remember form 1975. I did not remember the microsoft start, but still thought I would throw that in there. the other stories yes I actually remembered them, even the Travis Walton story. Aliens and abduction stories are always interesting, some obvious hoaxes, some, like Betty and Barney and Travis, real questions. I am still saddened by the state of our space explorations, and hope one day we do return to space.
Music:
The Number one song for the year was: ""Love Will Keep Us Together"" by Captain & Tennille.
A varied musical year.
John Denver
and David Bowie:
It was a varied year for number one hits in 1975. Over all another pretty good year for music, much of it still being played on radios today and in people's memories.
Autos
So I could not find a single car from 1975, or car review from 1975 that struck my fancy back then or even now. 1975 was the pits for automobiles it seems. So I found the above list featuring car picks from 1950-2008, 58 years of picks, and 1975 owns seven of the picks, lucky number seven, not so lucky a year for cars in 1975. And it wasn't just American Cars that were picked, it seems it was also a poor year for British automakers.
#59. 1975 Chevrolet Monza: Variation on the flimsy Vega that could be ordered with a 262-cubic-inch small-block V8 that only made 110 hp and needed to be tilted with a hoist to change its rearmost spark plugs.
#48. 1975 Clenet Series I: An MG Midget body on a Mercury Cougar chassis with massive fiberglass fenders. The Clenet was a disgrace to the term "classic" and the shame of Santa Barbara, California, where it was built.
#47. 1975 Triumph TR7: British Leyland's lame attempt to reinvent the British sports car for the 1970s. An underpowered, four-cylinder, wedge-shaped hardtop that seemed to disintegrate around its owners.
#44. 1975 Rolls-Royce Camargue: Pininfarina designed the body for this two-seat version of the Silver Shadow. Boring and weirdly proportioned, it looked like an oversize Volvo.
#41. 1975 Bristol 412: Britain's most hideous bespoke gentleman's express. The Zagato-built body rode on an ancient Bristol chassis, with a Chrysler 383-cubic-inch V8 tasked with outrunning the nasty looks.
#31. 1975 Chevrolet Corvette: Base power for '75 was the ZQ3 350-cubic-inch V8 rated at — ACK! — 165 hp. The optional L82 version of the 350 only wheezed out 205 horses. An abomination.
#20. 1975 AMC Pacer: Desperate AMC bets on weird and wide small car with a fishbowl greenhouse and archaic six-cylinder drivetrain. It's been an icon of disenfranchised losers ever since.
Conclusion
That brings to a close a few of my memories of 1975, a really bad year for cars, gas prices going up, gas lines, gas embargoes. The sentencing of the Watergate defendants, after Nixon's Resignation. At least we still had a lot of good music and varied music at that. Some good things in 1975, and except for the gas and automobile issues not to bad of a year.
