Family timeline

  • Tom Nassif is born.

  • Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl II

  • Soccer great Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.

  • Saeb Salam forms a government in Lebanon.

  • Fifty tornadoes rage in Mississippi, killing 74 people.

  • Atari kicks off the first generation of video games with the release of Pong

  • Watergate scandal, Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.

  • A soccer stampede occurs in Cairo, killing 49.

  • The Vietnam War ends

  • The Irish rock band U2 is formed

  • Women Marines disbanded; women are integrated into regular Marine Corps.

  • United States President Jimmy Carter signs a bill into law which allows homebrewing of beer in the United States.

  • Michael Jackson releases his first breakthrough album

  • Former California Governor and actor Ronald Reagan is nominated for U.S. President

  • Michael Donald lynched.

  • A blizzard unprecedented in size for April dumps 1–2 feet of snow on the northeastern United States, closing schools and businesses, snarling traffic, and canceling several major league baseball games.

  • The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, setting a new record for most-watched television broadcast in American history.

  • Michael Jackson's hair catches on fire during a Pepsi commercial.

  • WrestleMania debuts at Madison Square Garden.

  • Top Gun, goes on to be the highest grossing film.

  • DNA fingerprinting catches its first criminal

  • War on Drugs: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers.

  • Exxon Valdez oil spill

  • Washington National Cathedral is completed after 83 years of construction.

  • Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes against Iraq.

  • Hurricane Andrew hits south Florida and dissipates over the Tennessee valley, killing 65 and causing US$26.5 billion in damage.

  • World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing 6 and injuring over 1,000.

  • Former President Richard Nixon dies at 81. He is buried at his presidential library on April 26, following a state funeral.

  • Oklahoma City bombing: 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, are killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Timothy McVeigh and one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols, set off the bomb.

  • Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.

  • Son is born

  • Michael Fortier is sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.

  • Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France.

  • 9/11 attacks occur

  • United Airlines, the second largest airline in the world, files for bankruptcy.

  • The 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash kills 11 after one of its ferries slams into a pier.

  • Eleven American states ban gay marriage.

  • Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas.

  • NASA launches the a 9-year, 3 billion mile space mission, the first to Pluto

  • Halo 3 is released, breaking all previous records in entertainment history by generating $170 million in the first 24 hours of release.

  • United States presidential election, 2008: Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States and Joe Biden is elected the 47th Vice President. Barack Obama becomes the first African-American President-elect.

  • Alaska Governor Sarah Palin unexpectedly announces her resignation, effective July 26, 2009

  • President Barack Obama signs the don't ask, don't tell repeal into law.

  • The unemployment rate has reportedly fallen to 8.6% - the lowest since early 2009.