50 things you won't believe are turning 50 this year

THREE NATIONAL PARKS In 1971, three national parks were added to the National Park Service's roster: Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, and Utah's Arches and Capitol Reef

national parks, both of which were previously national monuments. Since then 26 parks have been added, for a total of 63. SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN When Six Flags Magic Mountain opened May

29, 1971, in Valencia, California, entrance fees were $5 for adults and $3.50 for kids. Now tickets start at $45, and the “Thrill Capital of the World” boasts 19 coasters, more than any

other theme park. TAMPA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (TPA) TPA's ground-breaking hub-and-spoke-designed terminal opened on April 15, 1971. The design put the Florida airport on the map,

earning worldwide recognition as “an airport of the future.” It's now in the midst of a massive expansion project that will allow it to accommodate up to 34 million passengers a year.

AND MORE ... MALIBU BARBIE [embedded content] California dreamin’ took hold of the Barbie collection when Malibu Barbie came onto the scene as part of The Sun Set in 1971. With a twist ‘n

turn waist, bendable legs and “long, long hair you can comb!” she was a hit with kids everywhere. She still had a weirdly proportioned body with feet forever frozen to fit high-heeled shoes.

Mattel's Fashionista Barbie collection now includes dolls with more realistic curves, wheelchairs and a spectrum of skin tones. FLOPPY DISK Computer storage as we know it began in 1971

with an 8-inch disk that held 80 KB of data. By comparison, today's smartphones have at least 32 GB of storage space, or 32 million KB. EMAIL It's hard to believe something so

integral to our lives started as a side project from engineer Ray Tomlinson, who sent the first email in 1971. FEDERAL EXPRESS When Yale University undergrad Frederick W. Smith wrote a term

paper in 1965 that proposed “a system specifically designed to accommodate time-sensitive shipments,” he most likely didn't realize that he had essentially conceptualized an entire

industry. The company that would become Federal Express (FedEx) was born in August 1971, and today its network covers most of the globe. UNO One of our favorite card games was born out of

family games of Crazy Eights. Merle Robbins, a barber by trade, wound up writing the directions to Crazy Eights on a deck of cards to avoid family arguments, and invented Uno with the help

of his family. He sold the decks out of his barbershop, and then he and his wife, Marie, hit the road from their home in Ohio to sell the game at campground clubhouses. Uno was inducted into

the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2018. 26TH AMENDMENT The 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age for U.S. citizens from 21 to 18, was passed by Congress on March 23, 1971, and

ratified July 1, 1971. The amendment allowed an estimated 11 million new voters to take part in the 1972 elections. VIDEO ARCADE GAMES Before PacMan and Donkey Kong came Computer Space, the

first video arcade game created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would introduce Atari a year later. The single-player game was a “basic space-war type game where single players control

a rocket ship and face off against two flying saucers or, in the two-player version, players battle each other,” according to the International Arcade Museum. THE OREGON TRAIL GAME In an

effort to help Minnesota schoolchildren learn American history, then-student teachers Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger created The Oregon Trail in 1971. The computer game

enabled students to act as Western settlers bound for the Pacific Coast, and “choose which items to bring, how fast to travel, and what to do when food ran low or disease struck.” Many other

versions of the game have followed the original. NASDAQ The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) was created “so that investors could trade securities on

a computerized, speedy, and transparent system,” and began operating on Feb. 8, 1971, with 250 listed companies. Today, NASDAQ is the world's largest electronic stock exchange. BED

BATH & BEYOND What started in 1971 as two stores in New York and New Jersey primarily selling bed linens and bath accessories expanded into a network of 1,020 stores across North

America. It's in the midst of streamlining and modernizing many of them, in the face of serious competition from other retailers. Bettmann/Getty Images GREENPEACE In protest of U.S.

nuclear testing off the coast of Alaska, a handful of activists leased a small fishing boat in 1971 with an intent to put themselves in harm's way to bring attention to their cause.

Today, Greenpeace has more than 2.8 million members worldwide and is focused on preventing and exposing environmental abuses. NIKE SWOOSH Graphic design student Carolyn Davidson created the

iconic Nike swoosh logo, receiving just $35 for her efforts in 1971 — about $235 in today's economy. (She was rewarded with valuable Nike stock and more benefits in later years.) NPR

Incorporated in 1970 with nearly 90 original member stations, National Public Radio's first national news program, _All Things Considered_, debuted on May 3, 1971. POCKET CALCULATOR We

carry calculators with us every day on our smartphones, but the first pocket calculator hit the market in 1971. The Busicom LE-120A “HANDY-LE” cost $395, or about $2,650 in current dollars.

SOFT CONTACT LENSES If you're one of the estimated 45 million people in the U.S. who wear contacts, you're probably grateful for the invention of soft contact lenses. They were

approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1971. _Susan B. Barnes is a longtime travel writer who’s written for AFAR, Allrecipes, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and others._