Timeline (1930s-1970s)

Media and events during the half-century between the **1930s and 1970s**.

## Paper money

### $1

Since the debut of small-size currency in 1929 but prior to 1963, the $1 bill was almost always a Silver Certificate. It was redesigned in 1934, 1935 and 1957. There was also a United States Note variant that was printed in 1933 but not released to circulation until 1948.

The $1 Federal Reserve Note was introduced in November 1963, after its Silver Certificate counterpart phased out, and today, is still in the same design as it was since back then. By late 1965, the $1 Federal Reserve Note was now the mostly circulated of all $1 bills.

### $2

The $2 bill started off as only a United States Note in 1929, with changes made in 1953 and 1963. The Federal Reserve Note variant was released to circulation on April 13, 1976, as a Series 1976, the only series year that the BEP in Washington, D.C. printed.

Within a period of 20 years, an average of 2.4 million new Series 1976 $2 bills were released to circulation per month.

### $5 and higher

The first small-size Federal Reserve Notes since 1929 came in $5 and higher denominations. These notes were redesigned in 1934, 1950 and 1964 (1966 for the $50 and $100, starting with Series 1963A). There were Gold Certificates once for $10 and higher denominations, but when the Gold Reserve Act became law on January 30, 1934, the $5 and $10 bills got Silver Certificate counterparts of themselves, while anything worth $20 or more were now only Federal Reserve Notes ever since.

Denominations above $100 were last printed on December 27, 1945 and officially discontinued on July 14, 1969; ever since then, the $100 bill has always remained the largest in production.

A $100 United States Note also existed in 1968 and 1971. Afterwards, for nearly half a century since then, all currency in production have now always been Federal Reserve Notes.

During the 1976-1977 fiscal year, only notes with serial numbers from 99840001 to 99999999 were printed through conventional equipment, before COPE became permanent afterwards, and the maximum serial number appearing on BEP reports decreased to 99840000, because starting in 1981, these high serials only appearing on uncut sheets from then on and did not appear in any further BEP reports.

By October 1979, all twelve Federal Reserve Districts have printed Series 1977 notes of all denominations except the $2 bill, which was still a Series 1976. Also by 1979, the Series 1977 notes were the most common within all $1, $5 and $10 bills in circulation.

## Movies

A sequel to the first Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, began drafting in November 1977, and lasted through April 1978. Filming of this film began on March 5, 1979, and was completed on September 24, 1979.

## Books

 The Lorax (1971)

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## Television

In the beginning, there was only VHF television broadcasting, with channels numbered 2 through 13. However, in 1953, when UHF television broadcasting was introduced, it came with more channel numbers -- to be exact, 14 through 69.
In the 1940s, very few people had television sets because there was only a limited number of stations across America back then. By 1949, about 100 stations existed, then over 300 in 1953, almost 400 in December 1954, 500 in 1956, 600 in 1960, 700 in 1964, 800 in 1967, 900 in 1970, and 1,000 in 1973 or 1974, all before the launch of cable television.

### Broadcasts

By the end of 1979, there were approximately 12 cable networks (9 basic and 3 premium).

## Other events

* Modern Japan was officially established on May 3, 1947. Unfortunately, most of this country's cultural products were banned in South Korea since then, due to their rocky history with the Japanese since the 1930s.
* South Korea's first republic was established on August 15, 1948. Altogether, there were four republics through the early 1980s.
* Before 1959, there were 48 U.S. states. The last ones, Alaska and Hawaii, began U.S. statehood in January and August, respectively.