September 7, 1971

That fall of 1971, gas ran $0.36 a gallon and Nixon was in the White House — and negotiations over Vietnam were a constant presence in the news, with U.S. troop levels falling to their lowest point since 1966 as the Nixon administration pressed forward with Vietnamization. On television, "All in the Family" was drawing millions of viewers each week with its unvarnished look at American family life, while Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" sat at the top of the charts and played on radios from diners to dormitories. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles in seven games, and on November 13, NASA's Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft ever to successfully enter orbit around another planet, locking into Mars orbit and beginning what would become a landmark survey of the Martian surface.