August 29, 1974

A Big Mac cost $0.70 that summer of 1974, and the Dow Jones sat at 616 — Turkish troops were shelling and seizing towns in Cyprus as Cold War tensions rippled across the Mediterranean. On American radio, George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby" was the song everyone knew, while families packed theaters to catch "The Exorcist," which had been pulling in record crowds since its late 1973 release. That July, the National Air and Space Museum received its federal charter, setting in motion what would become the most visited museum in the world when it opened on the National Mall two years later.