back in the days - 05/01/1978

Four decades ago,

the original Star Wars movie was released in theaters, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president of the United States, the Trans-Alaska pipeline pumped its first barrels of oil, the cold war was was still going on and much more...

Take a brief look 40 years ago.

• At numerous events on May 1, demanding unionists stronger measures in the fight against unemployment. On the central May Day rally of the German Trade Union Federation in Essen the DGB chairman Heinz Oskar Vetter, a shortening of the working week, an earlier retirement age, and improved leave provisions declared unemployment could "at least mitigated."
  
  
• Wittenberg (GDR district Schwerin) about 300 angry citizens protesting the high price of goods in the West Intershop and Delicate shops.
  
  
• In Recklinghausen the 32nd Ruhrfestspiele with be opened "cultural festival for Labor Day." The festival, which lasts until June 28, is titled "Automation rationalization - crisis - unemployment - and that man?".