What life was like 50 years ago in America, compared to now in 2023

Life is very different from 50 years ago.

From popular music, movies and haircuts to monumental political moments, notable economic statistics and scientific advancements, here are 10 examples of how the United States has changed from 1973 to 2023.

Best song

In early 1973, the most popular song in the United States was “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon, according to Billboard’s Hot 100 list, released on Saturday, January 6, 1973.

In the last week of 2022, Mariah Carey’s holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” once again topped the Billboard Hot 100. The song was originally released in 1987.

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Shag Haircuts

Shag haircuts, a layered style with varying hair lengths, were a popular hairstyle for both men and women in the 1970s, according to the Hair & Makeup Artist Handbook, an online resource that offers media training on hair and make-up.

In an overview of 1970s hairstyles, the hair and makeup website wrote that shag haircuts are “a unisex, no-frills cut that involved evenly-progressing layers with graduated sides and full bangs.” .

American actress Jane Fonda played the role of Bree Daniels in the 1971 film “Klute”.
(Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

Famous hairstylist Paul McGregor is said to have styled Jane Fonda’s character, Bree Daniels, in the movie “Klute” (1971).

Other celebrities who sported the shag haircut throughout the ’70s included rock ‘n’ roll star Joan Jett, singer Suzi Quatro, pop group Bay City Rollers, and “The Partridge” actor. Family” David Cassidy, according to the Hair & Makeup Artist Handbook preview. .

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Shag haircuts have reportedly made a comeback in pop culture, according to several fashion and beauty magazines.

Launch of Skylab

Skylab, America’s first space station and first crewed research laboratory in space, was launched on May 14, 1973, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The Skylab is said to have evolved from the late 1960s Apollo applications program, which sought to recycle unused hardware from the Apollo Moon landing program, NASA wrote on Skylab’s 45th anniversary.

The Skylab disintegrated on July 11, 1979, and debris fell into the Indian Ocean and Western Australia, according to History.com.

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NASA’s International Space Station was launched 19 years after the Skylab crash. It continues to operate and is expected to be decommissioned and desorbed by 2031, according to the agency’s transition plan.

Best Picture

The 45th Academy Awards, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center on March 27, 1973, honored films released in 1972, according to the Academy Awards website.

The film that won Best Picture was “The Godfather”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy.

Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in “The Godfather”, a film based on Mario Puzo’s novel. The film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, was released on March 15, 1972.
(CBS via Getty Images)

The nominees for the 95th Academy Awards, scheduled for March 12, 2023, have yet to be officially announced.

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The Hollywood Reporter named several Best Picture contenders for 2023 in a recent report, including: ‘Elvis’, ‘Emancipation’, ‘Till’, ‘The Woman King’, ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, ‘The Wonder’, ‘She Said, “Tár”, “Speaking Women”, “Pinocchio”, “Bones and All”, “Avatar: The Way of the Water”, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, “Everything Everywhere At Once”, “No and “Top Gun: Maverick.”

The Oscars will announce their nominees on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Gas prices

On average, the cost of gas in the United States in 1973 was 39 cents per gallon, according to data from the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. This average was up three cents from the previous year.

On average, the cost of gas in the United States in 1973 was 39 cents per gallon.
(Getty Pictures)

Now, national retail gasoline prices are averaging around $3.99 a gallon, according to an updated short-term forecast from the Energy Information Administration.

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The agency projects retail gasoline prices will drop to an average price of $3.51 per gallon in 2023.

Median income

According to the US Census Bureau, the median family income was $12,050 in 1973, which was calculated from approximately 55.1 million American families. The 1973 median represented an increase of about 8.4% over what the agency reported as the national median household income in 1972 ($11,120).

The national median household income rose to $70,784, according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey of 2021 and its Social and Economic Supplements Annual Report of 2022, both of which contain the highest income data. recent available to the statistical agency.

[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]

In 2020, the national median family income was $67,521, but the Census Bureau says the amount is not “statistically different” when comparing 2020 and 2021.

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Median cost of a house

In January 1973, the median selling price of a new home sold in the United States was $29,900, according to data published by the US Census Bureau. By the end of the year, median home prices reached $35,700.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research says 35,500 new single-family homes were “actually sold” in 1973, according to figures published in its report on historical data on housing conditions. housing market in the United States.

The median cost of a home has changed dramatically in America over the past 50 years.
(Stock)

More up-to-date numbers from 2022 indicate that the median sale price of a new home is around $471,200, according to monthly new home sales data the Census Bureau released on Friday, Dec. 23.

The agency will reveal the median sale price for December 2022 on January 26, 2023.

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The latest monthly new home sales report from the Census Bureau indicates that more than 7.1 million new homes were sold from January 2022 to November 2022.

Roe vs. Wade

The United States Supreme Court released its decision in Roe v. Wade – a landmark abortion rights case – January 22, 1973.

The 7-to-2 decision held that the US Constitution protected a woman’s right to seek an abortion in her first trimester, according to the Library of Congress. Learn about the history of Roe v. Wade here.

On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice Warren Burger and including Justices William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William Rehnquist, handed down a landmark decision on Roe v. Wade.
(AFP via Getty Images)

Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, 2022, after the Supreme Court released its opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case centered on the constitutionality of a Mississippi law (HB 1510, the gestational age law) that prohibited abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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The Supreme Court’s latest decision leaves abortion law in the hands of US states, according to American University, Washington, DC, a federally chartered private research university.

Watergate trial

The Watergate trial began on January 10, 1973, according to the US Senate website. The five men who stormed into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, on June 17, 1972, pleaded guilty and two were convicted by a jury.

“Chief Federal District Judge John Sirica expressed skepticism that the full facts of the case had come to light,” the US Senate website says. “Judge Sirica urged those awaiting trial to cooperate with the soon-to-be-established Senate committee.”

The Watergate office building in Washington, DC, in April 1974.
(AFP via Getty Images)

In February 1973, the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities was established to investigate campaign activities related to the 1972 presidential election.

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The committee submitted its final report in 1974. The Watergate scandal ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon that year. Learn more about the Watergate scandal timeline here.

The Senate website says the Watergate investigation “remains one of the most significant congressional investigations in United States history.”

Vietnam War

The United States ended its involvement in the Vietnam War after signing the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, according to United States of American Vietnam War Commemoration, an awareness campaign launched by the Department of Defense.

Prior to signing, the United States withdrew its last ground troops from South Vietnam on August 11, 1972.

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The war was officially declared over in the summer of 1975, and a year later North and South Vietnam were unified under the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, according to History.com. Vietnam remained a one-party communist state in Southeast Asia.