A look back at 1979 and the lasting legacy of the events that filled the public mind. 

1979 was the the year of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster and controversial SALT-II treaty negotiations with the Soviet Union. President Jimmy Carter promised to bring the hostages home from Iran as the dramatic situation inside the American embassy unfolded before a national television audience. Americans confronted rising gas prices and, increasingly, gas shortages. The year 1979 witnessed Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat sign the historic Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty, Vietnamese refugees divide national opinion, and the states debate the ratification of a proposed Equal Rights Amendment.

Now and Then series looks at pivotal years in modern American history.

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