The World in 1975 the year two rivals shook hands in orbit
$439Altair 8800 computer kit
23 secTo save one digital photo
$0.57Gallon of gas (US)
$2.03Movie ticket (US)
35Signers of the Helsinki accords
67%Britons voting to stay in Europe
8 yrsTime the Suez Canal stayed shut
1stCricket World Cup (West Indies)
1stUS visit by a Japanese emperor
An engineer at Kodak built the first digital camera in December. It weighed eight pounds, held 30 pictures on a cassette tape, and needed 23 seconds to save each one. A phone today does the job before you can blink.
Life back then

People walked out of Jaws that June and stayed out of the sea for the rest of the summer. The studio had bought heavy television advertising and opened the film everywhere at once, and big films have worked that way ever since. Shoppers paid a few dollars for a Pet Rock that came in a cardboard carrying case with air holes. In November Sony sold the first video recorder made for the home, at a price close to a used car.
The year in 8 events
- ๐ณ๏ธFeb 11 Margaret Thatcher takes over the Conservative Party, the first woman to lead a big British party.
- ๐ปApr 4 Bill Gates and Paul Allen start Microsoft to write software for the new Altair computer.
- ๐ฏ๏ธApr 17 The Khmer Rouge take Phnom Penh and empty it. Cambodians are marched out to work in the countryside.
- ๐Apr 30 Saigon falls to North Vietnamese forces and the Vietnam War ends.
- ๐ฆJun 20 Jaws opens in US theaters and empties beaches for the rest of the summer.
- ๐Jul 17 An American Apollo capsule docks with a Soviet Soyuz. The two crews shake hands in orbit.
- ๐บOct 11 Saturday Night Live goes on the air from New York with a live studio audience.
- ๐๏ธNov 20 Francisco Franco dies after ruling Spain for 36 years. Spain begins a slow return to democracy.