Contemporary Poetry

chronology xvii

Date Historical Events Literary Events

1976 Democrat Jimmy Carter defeats

Republican President Gerald Ford in

the US Presidential Election; Harold

Wilson resigns as British Prime

Minister and is replaced by James

Callaghan; the Sex Pistols play

Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall

on 4 June, in the audience are fans

who will go on to form the Buzzcocks,

Joy Division, The Fall and The

Smiths.

1977 Elvis Presley dies.

1978 Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla Tony Harrison, From the

becomes Pope John Paul II. School of Eloquence;

Andrew Motion, The

Pleasure Steamers

1979 Shah Reza Pahlavi is deposed as ruler Amiri Baraka, AM/

of Iran – the Ayatollah Khomeini TRAK; Robert Hass,

becomes the spiritual leader of a new Praise; Iain Sinclair,

Islamic Republic; Iranian Suicide Bridge; Adrienne

Revolutionary Guards seize sixty-six Rich, ‘Blood and Bread

American hostages when they take Poetry’

over the US Embassy in Tehran,

the ‘Hostage Crisis’ continues for

444 days; Vietnam invades Cambodia

and forces the removal from power of

the Khmer Rouge, widespread famine

affects the country; Conservative

leader Margaret Thatcher becomes

the UK’s fi rst woman Prime Minister

after the defeat of the Labour party

government led by James Callaghan;

the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

begins.

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