ORNL FCU 75 Years
The headlines dominating 1979 were turbulent at best. Nearly three thousand Iranian college students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, taking more than fifty American hostages. An energy crisis led to widespread panic about gasoline shortages. And an accident at the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania kept the world in suspense for days. Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom, China instituted its one-child-per-family rule to help control its ever-increasing population, and the space station Skylab crashed back to Earth. That year, the world was introduced to the personal computer, McDonald’s Happy Meals, rollerblades, ESPN, and the Sony Walkman. The final episode of the sitcom All in the Family was broadcast. A loaf of bread cost 29 cents, a movie ticket cost $2.57, and the average salary was $16,500.
Above: Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. (US Office of Nuclear Energy)
1979-1988 STRUGGLES & TRIUMPHS | 35
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