The Détente Years
AUGUST 1974 Watergate Leads to Nixon’s Resignation
DECEMBER 1973 Irvine General Plan Envisions Non-Aviation Future for MCAS El Toro
Figure 57. Astronaut Neil Armstrong on the moon taking “one small step for a man and a giant leap for
OCTOBER 1973 Yom Kippur War, Oil Embargo
all mankind.” Image courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration.
sought protection for human beings from the debilitating effects of polluted air and water. Rachel Carson’s A Silent Spring (1962) is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement by drawing national attention to the harmful effects of toxic chemicals, especially the pesticide DDT. President Richard Nixon endorsed the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in late 1970. Nixon also signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and the Clean Air Act that same year.
JULY 1969 U.S. Lands Man on the Moon
JANUARY 1973 U.S.-North Vietnam Peace Agreement
Challenged by the Soviet Union’s achievements in space, including its success in putting the first man in earth orbit (Yuri Gagarin) and the first man-made object on the moon’s surface, President Kennedy had pledged in 1961 to land an American on, and return from, the moon within ten years. In a speech to a joint session of Congress the President had dramatically launched a space race with Moscow by urgently requesting a budget supplement of $1.7 billion to finance American lunar exploration efforts. This competition ended successfully for the United States on July 21, 1969 when, right on schedule, Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility. In the next three years, 12 Americans would land, walk, and conduct experiments on the moon. American technical superiority appeared to be confirmed. SEE FIGURE 57 DECEMBER 1970 Environmental Protection Agency Established Accompanying the demonstrations of the 1960s and early 1970s in favor of civil rights and against the Vietnam War were equally fervent protests regarding the negative effects of industrial pollution on the environment. In April 1970 millions of Americans observed the first Earth Day. These environmentalists had a much broader agenda than the one that had animated their conservationist predecessors earlier in the century. Not only did they wish to preserve large segments of nature but, more importantly, they
1972-1973 Détente Achieved with Soviet Union
JUNE 1972 California State College, Fullerton Becomes a University
DECEMBER 1971 City of Irvine Incorporated
FEBRUARY 1972 President Richard Nixon Visits China
Following the death of James Irvine in 1886, ownership of the Irvine Ranch passed to his son James II, who took control of it upon reaching the age of 25 in 1892. Moving quickly, he incorporated the ranch in 1894 with the intent of vastly expanding its production of crops as well as its cattle operations. Over the next three decades he turned it into one of the most successful agricultural areas in California. He also sold off small pieces of its property on occasion, making possible the enlargement of Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and other neighboring cities. In 1937 James founded a charitable trust, the Irvine Foundation, and established it as the majority stockholder of the Irvine Company. In the 1950s, after his death, the company began opening large sections of the ranch to suburban development, organizing them according to a detailed Irvine Ranch Master Plan. By 1970, the villages of Turtle Rock, University Park, Culverdale, The Ranch, and Walnut had come into existence. On December 28, 1971, residents of these communities voted to create the city of Irvine under a charter law form of government.
DECEMBER 1971 City of Irvine Incorporated
DECEMBER 1970 Environmental Protection Agency Established
JULY 1969 U.S. Lands Man on the Moon
THE DÉTENTE YEARS
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