Subtitle: Accelerating into Madness

The following dates are not to be taken too seriously. The specific year may be off by a digit or two, but if it is, get a grip. This is not the American Hysterical Society. It's just me, representing the Baby Boomer Generation and the self-appointed psychoanalyst of a paranoid schizophrenic nation. References to particular corporate entities were sourced from directly from the companies? own websites. Bring on the sacred cows....

1692 - The Salem Witch Trials 1773 - The year we threw the tea in the lake 1776 ? The nation was officially founded 1861 - The Civil War begins 1865 - The Civil War ends and the slaves begin a long journey into freedom 1886 - Coca-Cola invented by an Atlanta druggist 1896 - First full-size, comprehensive Sears & Roebuck catalog 1925 - First Sears retail store opens in Chicago 1927 - The birth of the Craftsman and Kenmore brands 1928 - The last year that cocaine was an ingredient in Coca-Cola 1929 - The Stock Market Crash sets off The Great Depression of the '30's 1940 - The first McDonald's opens 1945 - Sears exceeds $1 billion in sales 1948 - World War II is over and the Baby Boomers have already begun 1950 - The beginning of the ultra-conservative '50's - The "I Like Ike" years continue 1953 - The Corvette and Playboy Magazine are launched 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education 1955 - The T-bird takes flight, Chevy and Ford both introduce small-block V-8's, and Elvis gets famous for swiveling hips and a quivering lip - Disneyland opens 1956 - Elvis performs his last small-town concert in Tupelo, MS 1957 - Car tailfins expand and proliferate - fuel injection makes its appearance 1958 - The T-bird becomes the first "Personal Luxury Car" 1959 - The first Honda motorcycles come to America - 100 McDonald's nationwide 1960 - Sony brings the transistor radio to America 1961 - The lunch counter sit-in by four black students in Greensboro, NC 1962 - The first Wal-Mart opens in Rogers, AR (home of Daisy BB guns) - James Meredith enrolls at Ole Miss 1963 - The Beatles appear on The Jack Paar Show via videotape - "The Times They Are A'Changin" - The Corvette Sting Ray and the last model of Studebaker, The Avanti, appear - the one-billionth McDonald's hamburger sold - 500 McDonald's nationwide - Ronald McDonald appears - the assassinations begin with JFK 1964 - The Civil Rights Act and The Beatles come to America - Mustang & GTO arrive - the most famous Civil Rights slaying by the KKK in Neshoba County, MS 1965 - Vietnam - The Sexual Revolution - musclecars - "Like a Rolling Stone" - Honda brings its first car to California, The S-600 Convertible 1966 - Six Flags Over Texas opens - Revolver (Yes, Maybelle, The Beatles do smoke pot.) - John Lennon quotes "We're more popular than Jesus now." 1967 - Jimi Hendrix - Cream - Jefferson Airplane - Haight-Ashbury - Monterey Pop - Sgt. Pepper 1968 - Electric Ladyland - Wheels of Fire - Stingray - Toyota Corona distributed nationwide - the first Big Mac - 1000 McDonald's - "The Graduate" hears about plastics - 2001: A Space Odyssey 1969 - the peak of America's best days 1970 - You can never go home again - the beginning of the end - Ross Perot introduces his town meeting concept on national television 1971 - The Egg McMuffin test marketed 1972 - 2000 McDonald's 1973 - The Oil Embargo - Six Flags starts a trend with the first of the new generation of supercoasters at its Atlanta park, The Great American Scream Machine - Egg McMuffin officially introduced 1974 - 3000 McDonald's 1975 - The Wal-Mart Cheer introduced to employees by Sam Walton - first McDonald's Drive-Thru opens in Arizona 1976 - Watergate - Did we learn anything from it? - Honda Accord introduced - Cadillac swears that it is building its last convertible - 4000 McDonald's 1977 - Star Wars is born - The King is Dead 1979 - First Home Depot opens in Atlanta 1980 - Let's elect an actor President. Yeah, that's the ticket (to our insanity)! - John Lennon assassinated - 6000 McDonald's 1982 - 7000 McDonald's 1983 - The first Sam's Club opens in Midwest City, OK - Chicken McNuggets 1984 - 50 billionth hamburger sold - 17 million customers daily - 22 people shot in McDonald's in San Diego - Apple Macintosh introduced during the Superbowl 1985 - First Dell computer - Microsoft Windows introduced - Sears introduces Discover card 1986 - Sixty Home Depot stores 1987 - The next big stock market crash - 20 million McDonald's customers daily 1988 - Bush, Sr., continues the downhill slide of the American economy - the first Wal-Mart Supercenter opens in Washington, MO 1989 - Fox Network premiers the first reality TV show, Cops 1990 - Wal-Mart becomes the nation's #1 retailer 1991 - 174 Home Depot stores 1992 - The death of Bill Hicks, the most poignant comic of the '80's era - Bush Sr. gives Sam Walton the Medal of Freedom 1993 - Wal-Mart has its first $1 billion sales week 1994 - 15,000 McDonald's 1995 - 423 Home Depot stores 1996 - $200 million McDonald's marketing blitz 1997 - Wal-Mart becomes the #1 employer in the U.S. - annual sales of $105 billion 1998 - 761 Home Depot stores 1999 - The biggest stock market bubble in our nation's history - Wal-Mart becomes the largest private employer in the world 2000 - The tech bubble pops - 1123 Home Depot stores 2001 - The airline industry crashes and the Dow falls on its face - Enron - Worldcom - Wal-mart sells $1.25 billion on the day after Thanksgiving 2002 - Bush starts a war just to please his oil company cronies - Fortune Magazine ranks Wal-Mart as the #1 "Most Admired Company in America" - 1532 Home Depot stores 2003 - The national deficit sets new records - Fortune Magazine ranks Wal-Mart #1 again - Cedar Point features 16 roller coasters 2004 - Karl Rove comes to power to destroy America through his puppet, Dubya - Wal-Mart has 1625 Supercenters and employs 1.2 million in the U.S. alone - FCC slaps Fox Network with $1 million indecency fine, the largest in history - 23 Six Flags theme parks in the U.S. 2005 - KKK member / Baptist preacher Edgar Ray Killen arraigned in Philadelphia MS for the murder of the three Civil Rights workers in 1964 - 1800 Home Depot stores - a new Home Depot store opens every 48 hours