50 Things That Have Happened Since 'General Hospital' Debuted
ABCNEWS.com
"General Hospital." Two commonplace words forming a phrase that by now seems equally commonplace, as if it's been part of our lives forever.
It hasn't been forever, but it has been 50 years. For a sense of how long that is, here is a list of events that have occurred during the iconic soap's remarkable run.
Watch "General Hospital - The Real Soap Dish," a Special Edition of "20/20" hosted by Katie Couric, Saturday at 9 ET.
1.
| April 1, 1963: "General Hospital" premieres. |
2.
| Nov. 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. |
3.
| 1964: The Beatles have six No. 1 Billboard hits during the year. |
4.
| March 8, 1965: The first U.S. troops arrive in Vietnam. |
5.
| June 27 1967: The first ATM is installed in Barclays Bank in London. |
6.
| April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. |
7.
| July 21, 1969: American astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to set foot on the moon. |
8.
| Sept. 26, 1969: The premiere of "The Brady Bunch." |
9.
| Jan 22-23, 1970: The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its first commercial flight, from New York to London, chartered by Pan Am. |
10.
| Aug. 8, 1974: President Richard Nixon resigns on national television following his involvement in the Watergate scandal. |
11.
| April 30, 1975: The Vietnam War comes to an end. |
12.
| Oct. 11, 1975: The premiere of "Saturday Night Live." |
13.
| April 1, 1976: Apple Computer is founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. |
14.
| May 25, 1977: "Star Wars" is released. |
15.
| Aug. 16, 1977: Elvis Presley dies at his home, Graceland. |
16.
| May 4, 1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first female Prime Minister. |
17.
| April 24, 1980: San Francisco man diagnosed with the first recorded case of AIDS in the U.S. |
18.
| Dec. 8, 1980: John Lennon is shot and killed outside his apartment building in New York City. |
19.
| July 29, 1981: Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. |
20.
| Spring 1983: Barack Obama graduates from Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations. |
21.
| Feb. 1984: Madonna releases the song "Borderline," and it becomes her first Top 10 pop single. |
22.
| January 28, 1986: The U.S. space shuttle Challenger explodes, killing all seven crew members. |
23.
| September 8, 1986: The Oprah Winfrey Show debuts. |
24.
| Nov. 9, 1989: The Berlin Wall comes down after separating East and West Berlin for 28 years. |
25.
| Feb. 11, 1990: Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison after more than 27 years in captivity. |
26.
| Aug. 2, 1990: Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, marking the beginning of the Persian Gulf War. |
27.
| December 1990: British engineer and computer scientist Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, along with Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau, introduce the World Wide Web. |
28.
| October 6, 1991: Elizabeth Taylor marries Larry Fortensky at Neverland Ranch, her eighth and final marriage. |
29.
| March 1, 1994: Justin Bieber is born. |
30.
| May 10, 1994: Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa's first black president. |
31.
| Oct. 3, 1995: O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of killing Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. |
32.
| Aug. 31, 1997: Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed are killed in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. |
33.
| Aug. 2, 1998: San Luis Obispo, Calif., becomes the first city in the world to ban indoor smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants. |
34.
| April 20, 1999: The Columbine High School massacre occurs in Littleton, Colo. |
35.
| January 15, 2001: Wikipedia launches. |
36.
| Sept. 11, 2001 |
37.
| Oct. 7, 2001: The U.S. invades Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. The invasion marks the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. |
38.
| Nov. 10, 2001: Apple releases the iPod. |
39.
| March 19, 2003: U.S. and allied forces invade Iraq, beginning the Iraq War. |
40.
| Feb. 4, 2004: Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg. |
41.
| Dec. 26, 2004: An Indian Ocean tsunami sends waves of up to 98 feet crashing into coastal communities and killing approximately 230,000 people in 14 countries. |
42.
| February 2005: YouTube is founded by three former PayPal employees. |
43.
| June 1, 2005: "Dancing With the Stars" kicks off. |
44.
| March 2006: Twitter is founded by Jack Dorsey. |
45.
| Jan. 21, 2008: Stock markets around the world crash amid a financial crisis brought on in part by the end of the housing market bubble. |
46.
| Jan. 20, 2009: Sen. Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, and the first African-American to be elected to the office. |
47.
| June 25, 2009: Michael Jackson dies. |
48.
| Aug. 31, 2009: President Obama announces the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, bringing the war to a close. |
49.
| April 29, 2011: The wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey in London. |
50.
| April 1, 2013: "General Hospital" celebrates 50 years; it is the longest-running American soap opera currently in production. |
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