Pornology

A timeline on pornography in the United States

April 22, 1970 - First-ever Earth Day celebrated

April 30, 1970 - Nixon announces U.S. troop movements into Cambodia

May 4, 1970 - Four students shot dead at the Prentice Hall parking lot at Kent State University.  Students are shot by National Guardsmen during a protest against the US invasion of Cambodia. The students were Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder

May 14, 1970 - Two black students, Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green, killed and 15 people wounded at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss.

June 16, 1970 - Kenneth Gibson becomes the first black mayor of a major Eastern Seaboard city

June 22, 1970 - New law gives 18-year-olds the right to vote in federal elections

June 29, 1970 - Army announces the movement of the last U.S. ground troops out of Cambodia

Aug. 3, 1970 - Military announces the first successful underwater firing of a Poseidon missile

Sept. 6, 1970 - Four passenger jets bound for New York are hijacked by Arab terrorists; three of the four land in the Middle East, while the fourth lands in London

Sept. 18, 1970 - Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies at age 27

Sept. 30, 1970 - The Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography submits its final report

Oct. 4, 1970 - Rock singer Janis Joplin dies at age 27

Oct. 12, 1970 - Nixon announces that 40,000 troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam by Christmas

Oct. 13, 1970 - Nixon (and a majority of the Senate, by a vote of 60 to 5) rejects the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography report

Oct. 24, 1970 - President Nixon disavows the commission's findings, saying that pornography is "a nuisance, not an evil." He says, "Smut should be outlawed in every state in the union."

Nov. 12, 1970 - State University of New York biologists announce the first artificial synthesis of a living cell

Dec. 11, 1970 - Nixon announces that George Bush will succeed Charles Yost as the US Delegate to the United Nations

1971 - All in the Family premieres on CBS.  The Flip Wilson Show, Marcus Welby, MD, Gunsmoke, Sanford and Son, and The Courtship of Eddie's Father are among the other popular TV shows

1971 - Start of blaxploitation era begins when Marvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song premieres

1971 - Gloria Steinem helps launch and becomes editor of Ms magazine

1971 - Xaviera Hollander's The Happy Hooker is published and sells more than 16 million copies. The book, made into a movie in 1975, stars Lynn Redgrave as the Manhattan madam

January 1971 - Linda meets Chuck Traynor

Jan. 1, 1971 - All cigarette advertising on TV and radio ceases. The last cigarette commercial (for Virginia Slims) is broadcast on Johnny Carson's Tonight show at 11:59 PM

March 5, 1971 - Damiano Film Productions is formed. Damiano signs a stockholder's agreement with Louis Peraino Sr.. It is agreed that Damiano will produce and direct and that Louis will handle distribution and financing.  Profits will be divided one-third Damiano, two-thirds Peraino.  Prior to this, Peraino and Damiano had made a verbal agreement. It isn't until March that they put it in writing

April 24, 1971 - 200,000 peaceful protestors gather in D.C. to protest the war

May 5, 1971 - More than 12,000 people arrested during a three-day anti-war protest in DC

June 1971 - The article "Cocksucker" appears in the first issue of FagRag magazine. The article explores the political significance of fellatio

Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation by Dennis Altmas discusses the political and theoretical issues raised by a sexual liberation movement created by homosexuals

July 1, 1971 - 26th Amendment (to give 18-year-olds the right to vote) is ratified

Sept. 4, 1971 - Linda and Chuck Traynor are married in Valdosta, Ga.

Sept. 13, 1971 - More than 1,000 state troopers storm and take back the state prison in Attica, NY, leaving 10 hostages and 30 convicts dead

Nov. 13, 1971 - Mariner 9 becomes the first space probe to orbit another planet as it encounters Mars

Dec. 10, 1971 - William Rehnquist becomes the fourth Nixon Supreme Court appointee to be confirmed by Congress

1972 - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, directed by Woody Allen, opens. Gene Wilder stars as a psychiatrist who falls in love with a sheep

1972 - Landmark year for sexual disease:  2.3 million new cases of gonorrhea, 100K new cases of syphilis. "VD is for everyone" public service announcements appear on TV

Time and Newsweek produce cover stories on herpes. The gay male community is swept by waves of gonorrhea, syphilis and, Hepatitis B

1972 - The Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort is published. The book devotes two pages to "mouth music" aka oral sex aka fellatio aka cunnilingus. It is only a few decades since genital kisses, or rather the taboos of them, were cause for divorce on the grounds of perversity, cruelty, etc.

January 1972 - Deep Throat is shot over six days at the Voyager Inn on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami, Fla. Harry Reems earns $100 a day and Linda Lovelace is paid a total of $1,200

February 1972 - Nixon becomes the first president to visit China

1972 - Women first began living in Harvard's residence houses

March 22, 1972 - Equal Rights Amendment is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The amendment dies in 1982 when it fails to achieve ratification by a minimum of 38 states

April 1972 - Burt Reynolds is the Cosmopolitan centerfold

April 1972 - Louis Peraino Sr. pays Damiano approximately $15,000 for his interest in Gerard Damiano Film Productions, Inc.

April 12, 1972 - First erotic animated film, Fritz the Cat, opens

April 15, 1972 - Bombing of North Vietnam by the US begins again

May 3, 1972 - J Edgar Hoover dies after serving 48-year reign

May 11, 1972 - The Godfather opens

June 5, 1972 - Screw magazine's review of Deep Throat hits stands.  Publisher/writer Al Goldstein, who gives himself credit for starting the buzz that helped make Deep Throat a national sensation, gives the film the highest rating possible on the Peter-Meter.

June 12, 1972 - Deep Throat premieres at the New World Mature Theatre in Manhattan

June 16, 1972 - Variety favorably reviews Deep Throat

June 17, 1972 - Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters

(to be continued)