Years and Decades
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2013 10 Years Ago
Prices : Cost of a gallon of Gas $3.80
News Events : Boston Marathon Bombing, US Government Shut Down, Target Security Breach, Edward Snowden leaks information about the NSA's secret internet and cell-phone data gathering program, massive EF-5 tornado hits Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th
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2003 20 Years Ago
Prices : Cost of a gallon of Gas $1.83
Popular Music :Elton John
Beyoncé
Christina Aguilera
Limp Bizkit
Coldplay
News Events :Human Genome Project, Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster, Final Concorde Flight, U.S. invasion of Iraq, Do Not Call List
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1993 30 Years Ago
Prices : Average Income per year $31,230.00
Popular Movies : Jurassic Park, Sleepless in Seattle , Schindler's List , Mrs. Doubtfire
News Events :Brady bill signed into law, World Trade Center Bombing, Ethnic Fighting Bosnia, Beanie Babies Launched
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1983 40 Years Ago
Prices : Cost of a gallon of Gas 96 cents
Popular Music : Final Episode of M*A*S*H airs record 125 million watch Cabbage Patch Dolls are sold in shops and become a success
News Events : U.S Embassy bombed in Beirut, IRA Bomb Exploded outside Harrods, Ethiopia Famine Kills Millions, Cruise Missiles Deployed in Europe
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1973 50 Years Ago
Prices : Component-type 8-track stereo tape player $44.50
Popular Music : Pink Floyd " Dark Side Of The Moon " Rolling Stones with " Angie " Elton John with " Crocodile Rock "
News Events OPEC Oil Embargo, Roe v. Wade Decision, Secretariat Triple Crown, US Troops withdrawn from Vietnam, Sears Tower is completed, IRA Bombing on UK Mainland
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1968 55 Years Ago
Prices : Movie Ticket $1.50
Popular Music : The Beatles with -- " Hey Jude " Simon and Garfunkel -- " Mrs Robinson " Marvin Gaye -- " I heard it through the Grapevine "
News Events : Prague Spring Czechoslovakia, Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., The Poor Peoples March on Washington, D.C, Senator Robert Kennedy Assassinated, Redwood National Park created
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1963 60 Years Ago
Prices : Cost of a gallon of Gas 29 cents
Popular Culture : This was the year an Insurance firm State Mutual Life Insurance invented the Smiley Face found on anything and everything around the world including T Shirts , it's popularity was at it's peak in the 1960's
News Events : President John F Kennedy assassinated, ZIP Codes Introduced, Beatlemania, Profumo Scandal, Alcatraz Closes, Ku Klux Klan dynamite Baptist Church
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1958 65 Years Ago
Prices : Average Cost of new house $12,750.00
Popular Music : Elvis Presley , Billie Holiday , Ricky Nelson , Frank Sinatra
News Events : NASA Formed, Munich air disaster, Wham-O company introduces the Hula Hoop, Sir Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole,
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1953 70 Years Ago
Prices : Average Cost of Rent $85.00 per month
Popular Culture : Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the United Kingdom , Playboy Magazine's 1st issue features Marilyn Monroe as its first cover girl and nude centerfold.
News Events : Korean War Ends, Polio Vaccine Developed, Queen Elizabeth II, North Sea flood, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Mount Everest
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1948 75 Years Ago
Prices :Movie Ticket 60 Cents
Popular Culture : The game of Scrabble is introduced
News Events : Mahatma Gandhi is murdered, Porsche is founded, technology advances include Random Access Storage Device, Long Playing Record, Velcro and Transistor Radio, Apartheid begins in South Africa
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1943 80 Years Ago
Prices : Cost of a gallon of Gas 15 cents
Popular Films :For Whom the Bell Tolls
Heaven Can Wait
Lassie Come Home
News Events : Pentagon completed, Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising, America sees it's first rationing, German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces
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1938 85 Years Ago
Prices : Average wages per year $1,780.00
Popular Culture : Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, Seabiscuit and War Admiral have their long awaited race to decide the best horse -- Seabiscuit beats War Admiral
News Events March of Dimes, (Fannie Mae - FNMA) Established, Neville Chamberlain declares (Peace in our time), War of the Worlds,
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1933 90 Years Ago
Prices : Average wages per year $1,550.00
Popular Culture : The original King Kong Movie is shown The First ever drive in Theatre is established in New Jersey
News Events : 25% US unemployment, dust storms, Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany, Repeal of prohibition, Golden Gate Bridge
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1928 95 Years Ago
Prices :Olympic Flyer Wagon $4.98
Popular Culture : Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, Home Pregnancy Test is first introduced
News Events : The cartoon star Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie St. Francis Dam Some of the Southern California towns that suffered included Castaic, Saugus, Santa Paula, Saticoy, and Filmore. World - First Trans-Pacific Flight Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin
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1923 100 Years Ago
Prices : Electric Sewing Machine Price: $78.95
Popular Music : Time Magazine is launched, The Ten Commandments directed by Cecil B. DeMille
News Events :King Tut Burial Chamber, Yankee Stadium, Time Magazine, Insulin Used For Diabetes, Great Kanto earthquake
Each Month In History
January
1937 Federal Old Age Pensions started, 1942 United Nations established, 1929 Influenza Epidemic death toll over 200,000, 1914 Henry Ford introduces $5.00 per day wages, 2007 Apple introduces the Apple iPhone, 1952 "Today" Program Begins on NBC, 1966 Indira Gandhi becomes prime minister of India, 1920 Prohibition takes effect, 2008 Black Monday in worldwide stock markets, 1935 First Canned Beer Sold, 1926 John Logie Baird first public demonstration of a television system, 1951 Nevada Nuclear Test begin In Nevada1986 The space shuttle Challenger explodes, 1969 The Beatles make their last public performance February
1925 Sears Roebuck opens its first store, 1949 First 45 RPM vinyl record released, 1959 Barbie Doll invented by Ruth Handler, 2004 Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg, 1910 Boy Scouts of America incorporated, 1952 Queen Elizabeth II becomes Queen, 1990 Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years, 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre, 1879 1st Woolworth 5 Cents store opened, 1991 Gulf War Ends
March
1936 Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) is completed, 1965 "The Sound of Music" starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer has its world premiere in New York, 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention the telephone, 1974 Work on the 800 mile long Alaska Oil pipeline begins, 1931 Nevada Legalizes Gambling, 1995 Sarin gas terrorist attack on the Japanese Subway, 1981 Prince Charles and Diana Wedding, 1963 The Beatles' first album "Please Please Me" is released in England, 1973 Pink Floyd release the album "Dark Side of the Moon," 1980 Mount St. Helen's Erupts 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps
April
2005 Pope John Paul II Dies, 2010 Apple Releases iPad, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. murdered, 1865 Robert E. Lee surrenders, 1954 Bill Haley and the Comets record "Rock Around the Clock," 1999 Columbine High School Shooting, 2010 Deepwater Horizon explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, 1989 Student Protest Tiananmen Square, 1985 The Coca-Cola Company announced New Coke, 1956 Elvis Presley has his first number one hit with "Heartbreak Hotel," 1994 Nelson Mandela voted as President of South Africa
May
1931 The Empire State Building in New York officially opens, 1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes British Prime Minister, 1937 The German airship Hindenburg (the largest dirigible ever built) burst into flames, 1945 VE Day/Victory In Europe Declared, 1948 The independent state of Israel is proclaimed as British rule in Palestine came to an end, 1954 The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education, 1977 First of the Star Wars films opens, 1911 The first ever running of the Indianapolis 500
June
1938 Superman appears for the first time in D.C. Comics, 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band released by the Beatles, 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests end when Chinese troops kill hundreds, 1944 World War II Operation Overlord/D-Day, 1994 O.J. Simpson police car chase following the murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson, 1982 The Falkland Islands War ends, 1975 The summer blockbuster movie "Jaws" is released, 1944 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the GI Bill, 1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway has its official opening, 1997 First Harry Potter book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" released in the UK
July
1776 United States Declaration of Independence signed, 1996 The first cloning of an animal Dolly the Sheep, 1985 The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior is sunk, 2008 Oil hits an all time high of $147 a barrel, 1954 "Operation Wetback" is launched by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1923 Insulin introduced, 1969 Apollo 11 astronauts make history when the first man lands on the moon, 1956 Suez Crisis begins 1971 Voting Age in the United States is lowered to 18
August
1990 Iraq Invades Kuwait, 1914 Germany and France declare war, 1989 The US Savings and Loan Crisis, 1974 Richard Nixon announces his resignation, 1945 Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki, 1945 Truman announces Japanese surrender, 1981 IBM releases its first Personal Computer, 1914 Panama Canal opens, 1969 Woodstock Music Festival, 1968 Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, 2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans
September
1939 Britain and France declare war on Germany, 1956 Elvis Presley appears on Ed Sullivan's show, 2001 9/11 Attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon, 1975 Inflation hits 26% in the UK, 1960 Chubby Checker has a number 1 record with The Twist, 1937 J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" published, 1908 First factory-built Ford Model T completed, 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor becomes first female U.S. Supreme Court justice in history
October
1927 Work begins on Mount Rushmore, 1947 US minimum wage of 40 cents per hour, 1973 Sydney Opera House opens, 1966 Aberfan Disaster, 1929 Wall Street crash (Black Monday)
November
1938 Seabiscuit race against War Admiral at Pimlico, 1969 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) established, 1979 U.S. embassy in Tehran 90 hostages taken, 1960 Senator John F. Kennedy wins the election for the president of the United States, 1989 Berlin Wall comes down allowing East and West Berlin to visit, 1926 U.S. Route 66 established, 1990 Sir Tim Berners-Lee formal proposal for the World Wide Web
December
1990 Channel Tunnel links UK to Europe, 1984 Bhopal Chemical Accident, 1954 First Burger King is opened in Miami, 1941 US enters World War II, 1939 Gone With The Wind premieres, 1983 Harrods Department Store bombing, 1997 The film "Titanic" opened in American theaters, 2004 A tsunami caused by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean leaves 216,000 dead in 13 countries
Other Sections
When ever possible we have included prices and inflation on each decade and year ( includes 1930s Food Prices, inflation wages house prices etc.
Latest Updated 2020 Price Basket Other stats include 2008 - 2020 Each Year Prices for Gas, Movie Ticket, First Class Stamp, College Tuition, Wrangler Jeans, Average House Rent, Average House Purchase, KW/Hr Electric, Wages, Unemployment Percentage, Fed Base Rate Percentage, Dow Jones, Inflation US Gov, CPI US Gov, Gold per Ounce.
On our 90 years of price changes we have included Average Cost Of New Home, Average Wages, Average Cost of New Car, Average Cost Gallon Of Gas, Average Cost Loaf of Bread and Average Cost 1lb Hamburger Meat starting from 1930 up to 2021
Our Price Basket
Updated Price Basket 2023
This shows the highest increase since we began collecting the data in 2008
26% increase from 2021 to 2023
Our Basket includes 20 of the basics needed to live Bread, Milk, Meat, Sugar ETC.
Fashion Clothing Over The Years Find hundreds of fashion images from the 1920s to the 2000s in our clothes and accessories page. Check out how fashion has changed in the past 100 years from flapper styles in the 1920s, Hollywood glamour of the 1930s, work clothes for the 1940s, excessive dresses from the 1950s, mini skirts of the 1960s, 1970s Fashions disco glitz, colorful and bold styles of the 1980s, and 1990s sporty fashion. Pages feature style descriptions and original prices, historical context, and a variety of items including womens, childrens, mens, accessories, shoes, and hats.
Popular Kids Toys 20s to 90s Simple wood toys and dolls proved popular in the 1920s and mass-produced toys like die-cast cars emerged. Comic books became widely available in the Thirties and many still-popular board games were invented during the decade. In the 1940s, industrial accidents created the best toys with the Slinky and Silly Putty being created during the War when other materials were being developed. Consumerism boomed in the 1950s and the Baby Boom meant more toy purchases than before, Barbie Dolls, Frisbees, Mr. Potato Head, and other classic favorites were first created during the decade. As television became more widespread, cars based on childrens' cartoons emerged in the 1960s. The first widely popular and successful video game, PONG, was released in the Seventies starting off the craze of digital entertainment. In the 1980s, the hunt for new toys was mass undertaking and the first mass hysteria for a product came in 1983 with the Cabbage Patch Doll. Popular toys from the 1990s Toys included the collectible Beanie Babies and portable digital games like the GameBoy were also a must-have for kids. On our toy pages we have brief overviews for each decade and have many toy images, descriptions, and prices from when they were originally sold.
Jazz and blues represented Popular music in the 1920s as the newly hatched recording industry found its footing. The 1930s Big Band and Swing music saw the popularity of Big Band and Swing music provide an upbeat contrast to the Great Depression which continued into the 1940s Big Band music during World War II. Rock n' Roll music emerged in the 1950s Rock n' Roll music and teenage culture developed with Elvis Presley and other rock idols providing inspiration. The 1960s rock, folk, R&B, and British Invasion music featured psychedelic rock, folk music, R&B, and the British Invasion with the Beatles and Rolling Stones commanding attention. In the 1970s Disco and Hard Rock music, the dichotomy of Disco and Hard Rock made up the music scene. During the 1980s pop stars and global celebrities music, the Music Television (MTV) cable network was launched and had a profound impact on popular culture at the time, turning musicians into pop stars and global celebrities on a much larger scale. Grunge, hip-hop, and manufactured pop music were popular during the 1990s grunge, hip-hop, and manufactured pop music. In the 2000s, dance music, rap, and indie bands dominated the airwaves.