December 4, 1970

By the winter of 1970, Nixon was in the White House and the federal minimum wage stood at $1.60/hr — and the United States Environmental Protection Agency had just been established, marking a new federal commitment to regulating air, water, and land pollution across the country. At the movies, "Midnight Cowboy" had taken home the Oscar for Best Picture, while Erich Segal's novel "Love Story" sat at the top of the New York Times fiction bestseller list and was drawing readers of all ages. The Baltimore Orioles had defeated the Cincinnati Reds to claim the 1970 World Series title, the same season Japan successfully launched Ohsumi, its first satellite, becoming only the fourth nation in history to place an object in Earth's orbit under its own power.