Roller skating

HISTORY

Roller-skates made their first recorded appearance at a party in Carlisle House, London in 1760. A young Belgian musician who rolled into a London party while playing the violin wore these first roller skates. It was not a successful introduction as the violinist crashed into a mirror causing nearly a thousand dollars' worth of damage.

Man on the Edvard Petrini's pedaled roller skates, known as Takypod in Sweden, circa 1910

Robert John Tyers of London applied for the first patent for roller skates on April 22, 1823. The fruit seller's "Volito" ("I voltigiere" in Latin) inline skates were made of wood and metal and had five wheels in a single row with the middle wheel being the largest, and the other four being of unequal size. The skater could only be on two wheels at a time and could turn by bending forward or backward. The skates also had hooks in the front and back for brakes. 

While an exhibition of Tyers' skates was given in Haymarket, London, the invention did not become popular, although roller skates were used in a ballet performance in Bordeaux.

The first public skating rinks were opened in 1857 at The Strand, London and Floral Hall.West Morwood.

In 1863 New Yorker James Plimpton came up with the four-wheeled turning roller skate, or quad skate. It was a huge success, so much that within three years the first American public skating rinks were opened in 1866 in Plimpton's Big Apple furniture store and in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1866 former civil war arms producer Everett Barney patented the all-metal screw clamp skate. They clamped on to the edges of the soles of shoes and were tightened with a key. However, with the advent of athletic shoes, there was no place to secure the skates so they eventually disappeared.

As the UK Home Secretary, Winston Churchill refused to agree to a by-law that banned skating on pavements, ‘as it affords outdoor exercise for young people, which is badly wanted in London’.

Roller skates in the United States around 1905

The quad skate remained the dominant roller skate design until Minnesotans Scott Olson and Brennan Olson came up with idea of roller blades in 1979. They were inspired after coming across a pair of inline skates created in the 1960s by the Chicago Roller Skate Company and, seeing the potential for off-ice hockey training, set about redesigning the skates using modern materials and attaching ice hockey boots. Within a few years the Rollerblade-branded skates were more popular than the traditional quads.

ROLLER DERBY

Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members. It has its origins in the banked-track roller skating marathons of the 1930s, and by 1940 had become a popular American sport with more than five million spectators watching in about 50 American cities.

Windy City Rollers (Chicago, Illinois). By Joe M500 from 24hr Siren City 

On November 29, 1948, Roller Derby debuted on New York television—broadcasting well before television viewership was widespread.

In 2001, a group of women in Austin, Texas started a roller derby league. Five years later, an A&E Network reality show Rollergirls started broadcasting examining the personalities, antics and motivations of the women involved with the Austin Lonestar Rollergirls roller derby league. Soon, women in every big city in the USA and Canada were starting their own roller derby clubs. There were even clubs starting up in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Here's some more songs about roller skating.

Roller coaster

The oldest roller coasters were built in 18th century Russia. They were specially constructed hills of ice, built on the slopes of St. Petersburg mountains.

The Empress Catherine the Great had her architect, one Antonio Rinaldi, draw up plans for a sledding hill in 1784 in the gardens of her palace at Oranienbaum in St. Petersburg. The track held bobsleds in the winter and roller coaster style cars in the summer. She called the place Coasting Hill.

The idea for the coaster soon spread, with the French adopting the Russians' initial design. In July 1817, a French banker named Nicolas Beaujon opened the Parc Beaujon, an amusement park on Paris' Champs Elysees. Its most famous feature was the Promenades Aériennes or "Aerial Strolls," which featured wheeled cars securely locked to the track, guide rails to keep them on course, and higher speeds.

The Promenades-Aériennes in Paris (1817).

August 16 is celebrated by many people around the world as roller coaster Day. It is the anniversary of the day in 1898 when the first roller coaster with a vertical loop patent was granted to Edwin Prescott from Massachusetts.

Prescott’s “Loop the Loop” rollercoaster was installed at Coney Island Amusement Park in 1901. Capable of carrying only four riders, the “Loop-the-Loop” roller coaster, drew not only paying riders, but crowds of spectators willing to pay to watch the coaster in action,

A sister "Loop the Loop" roller coaster was installed at Young's Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey the same year.

Looping the loop, Atlantic City, circa 1901

Prescott patented a number of other inventions including a wagon-jack and a mop-wringer.

FIRSTS

The first roller coaster with a vertical loop was a French invention called a “Centrifugal Railway” installed in Paris in 1848.

The Switchback Railroad was the first roller coaster designed as an amusement ride in America. The brainchild of Sunday school teacher and hosiery businessman LaMarcus Thompson, he created the first rollercoaster on Coney Island, New York to persuade his Americans away from sinful places like saloons and brothels. It opened on June 16, 1884.

Thompsons Switchback Railway 1884

Admission for the Switchback Railroad was 5 cents a ride. The riders would climb a 50 ft tower to board the large bench-like car and were pushed off to coast 600 ft (183 m) down the track to another tower traveling approximately six miles per hour. The passengers left the train and attendants pushed the cars over a switch to a higher level. They then returned to their seats and rode back to the original starting point. LaMarcus Thompson called it a "scenic railway."

The new entertainment was an instant success and LaMarcus Thompson grossed an average $600 per day. By the turn of the century there were hundreds of roller coasters around the country.

The Serpentine Railway, built in 1885 at Coney Island, was the first gravity roller coaster to tie the track end together and return passengers to their starting point without them needing to disembark while the car was placed on the return track. The train, with its passengers seated sideways on a wooden bench, ran atop an undulating wooden structure. The train was slow and took several minutes to complete its circuit.

The Flip Flap Railway was the name of a looping wooden roller coaster which operated for a number of years at Paul Boyton's Sea Lion Park on Coney Island, New York. The coaster, which opened in 1895, was notable for being the first looping roller coaster to operate in North America. It was also notable for producing such strong G-forces that many passengers passed out.

Flip Flap Railway at Coney Island Source: Encyclopædia Britannica

The Rollercoaster Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain, located north of Los Angeles, in 1976.

Space Mountain at Walt Disney World was the first roller coaster in history to be controlled by computer.

When Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Opened opened Magnum XL-200 in 1989, it was the first roller coaster to break the 200 ft height barrier, spawning what is considered to be the "coaster wars".

Theme parks in Japan banned screaming on roller coasters in 2020, because it spreads coronavirus, They advised riders: “Please scream inside your heart.”

RECORDS

The Beast is a wooden roller coaster located at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. When it opened in the spring of 1979 in the Rivertown section of the park, it was the longest, tallest, and fastest wooden roller coaster in the world. It is still the longest wooden roller coaster, lasting more than four minutes and sprawling over 35 acres.

The tallest roller coaster in the world is Falcon’s Flight, located at Six Flags Qiddiya near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It reaches a height of approximately 640 feet (195 meters).  Falcon’s Flight is not only the tallest but also the fastest and longest roller coaster globally. It achieves speeds up to 155 mph (250 km/h) and spans a track length of nearly 2.5 miles (4 kilometers). The ride features a dramatic drop that simulates a plunge over a cliff edge, offering an unparalleled thrill experience .

Previously, Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey  held the title of the world's tallest roller coaster from its opening in 2005 until its closure in November 2024. Kingda Ka was demolished in early 2025 to make way for new attractions .

With 19 roller coasters, Six Flags Magic Mountain holds the world record for most roller coasters in an amusement park.

The Formula Rossa rollercoaster in Abu Dhabi is the world's fastest with a top speed of 240 km/h (149 mph).

The Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers in England boasts a record number of 14 inversions.

FUN ROLLER COASTER FACTS

Roller coaster loops are inverted teardrop shapes because perfectly circular ones would subject riders to up to 6Gs, resulting in injury.

That "stomach in your mouth" feeling you get on roller coasters is caused by your organs moving around inside of you.

There are more roller coasters in China than any other country: 824 at the last count. USA comes second on 659.

Most of the world's biggest, longest, and tallest rollercoasters are built by a company from Liechtenstein, Intamin.

Sources Daily Express, Kids Fun

Rolex

Rolex is the largest single luxury watch brand with estimated revenues of around £1.75 billion. The company was founded by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, England in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis.

Rolex began trading under that name on November 15, 1915. The name Rolex is a contradiction of 'horological excellence', the 'rol' taken from the first word, and the 'ex' from the second.

The company moved its base of operations to Geneva, Switzerland in 1919 due to English wartime taxes levied on luxury imports as well as to export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases driving costs too high.

Rolex created the first ever waterproof and dustproof wristwatch, the Oyster, in 1926. The watch featured a hermetically sealed case which provided optimal protection for the movement.

Rolex replaced (for free) all watches seized by the Germans from shot down allied pilots in World War 2. It was also Rolex's policy to give watches to British prisoners during the war and allow them to pay for them after they had been released. One of these watches was sold for more than $65,000 in Sydney, Australia in 2006.

The Rolex Datejust was introduced in 1945. It was the first watch with an automatically changing date on the dial.

Rolex Datejust on Jubilee bracelet with Turn-o-graph bezel. By Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ 

The GMT Master was launched in 1954. Designed in collaboration with Pan American Airways for use by their pilots and navigators, it was the first watch to show time zones.

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay wore Rolex Oysters during their 1953 Everest expedition.

On July 28, 1996, a man’s body washed up on a trawler in the UK seas. There was no identification on the body except a 25-year-old Rolex Oyster on his wrist. As Rolex maintains such meticulous service records, they were able to ID the victim and ultimately the murderer.

The most expensive Rolex ever produced by the company's factory was the GMT Ice reference 116769TBR with a retail price of US$485,350.

Rolex has three watch lines: Oyster Perpetual, Professional and Cellini.

Rolex watches are frequently counterfeited, often illegally sold on the street and online.  O. J. Simpson wore a counterfeit watch during his murder trial.

Counterfeit Rolex watches displayed in Arlington, Virginia, USA (2008)

Dominos Pizza - the world’s second-largest pizza chain - awards all store managers who achieve $25,000 in sales a week for four consecutive weeks with a customized Rolex watch, in a contest called "The Rolex Challenge".

Source Daily Mail

Rodeo

The rodeo is a competition of skill that arose in what today is the western United States, northern Mexico and western Canada. It was developed from the skills practiced by the Mexican ranch hands (vaqueros) and later, cowboys.

The American English word "rodeo" is taken directly from Spanish word rodeo, which roughly translates into English as "round up." It was first used in approximately 1834 to refer to a cattle round-up.

The word rodeo was only occasionally used for American cowboy sports until the 1920s, and professional cowboys themselves did not officially adopt the term until 1945. From the 1880s through the 1920s, frontier days, stampedes, and cowboy contests were the most popular names.

Rodeo contests began in the early days of the cattle industry when men gathered in cow towns at roundup time.

Following the American Civil War, rodeo competitions emerged, with the first exhibition held on July 4, 1869 in Deer Trail, Colorado. It is documented as the first organized rodeo within the country with prizes awarded. First prize was a new suit of clothing, according to a Facebook page dedicated to the event.

Many of these early rodeo events were based on the real life tasks required by cattle ranching such as branding calves,

Branding calves, 1888.

The first professional rodeo, which charged admission as well as awarding trophies was held on July 4, 1881 in Prescott, Arizona.

In 1882 a rodeo sponsored by Buffalo Bill Cody at North Platte, Nebraska, attracted 1,000 contestants. Its success prompted Cody to open his traveling Wild West show.

When cowboy/actor Slim Pickens (Blazing Saddles/Dr. Strangelove) joined the military during World War 2 he stated his profession was “rodeo”, the recruiter heard “radio” and Slim spent the entire war as a radio operator.

Professional rodeo cowboy Cody Lambert created the protective vest that most professional bull riders now wear, after seeing the death of his friend, Lane Frost at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on July 30, 1989.

After Keifer Sutherland's fiancée Julia Roberts ran away to Europe with his best friend, the actor took solace in steer roping. And despite breaking three fingers at his first rodeo he persevered to become a tournament-winning rider on the rodeo circuit.

A roadeo is a rodeo, but for motor vehicles.

Rocket

A rocket is a projectile driven by the reaction of gases produced by a fast burning fuel. Some rockets are manned (e.g. Saturn V). Other rockets, for example missiles, are unmanned.

Unlike the jet engine, which is also a reaction engine, the rocket carries its own oxygen supply to burn and fume and it's totally independent of any surrounding atmosphere.

The name Rocket comes from the Italian rocchetta, meaning "bobbin" or "little spindle", given due to the similarity in shape to the bobbin or spool used to hold the thread to be fed to a spinning wheel.

ROCKETS IN WARFARE

In warfare the head of the rocket carries an explosive device. The military rocket was invented by the Chinese while using gunpowder. The earliest known use of rockets in war between Mongols and Chinese occurred in 1232.

In Europe, Konrad Kyeser described rockets in his military treatise Bellifortis around 1405.

Depiction of a rocket (1405)

Rockets carrying an explosive device were encountered in India in the 18th century by the British forces.

The rocket missile was re- invented by Sir William Congreve in England around 1805 and remained in use by various armies in the 19th century.

German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun invented the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany.

During World War II, rockets were effectively used by aircraft, and by the Germans in their V-2 attacks in the London area in 1944-45.

Peenemünde Museum replica of V-2. By AElfwine at the French language Wikipedia,

During World War II more people were killed building V-2 Rockets than were killed by the rockets themselves.

Nazi Germany spent 50% more on the V2 rocket program than the U.S. did on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.

Since World War II the devastating combination refined precise guidance systems with atomic warheads has produced rocket missiles which are the key to enter international power politics.

ROCKETS AS SPACE TRANSPORT

Rockets have been valued as fireworks over the last seven centuries, but the intense development as a means of propulsion to high attitudes - carrying payloads - started only in the interwar years.

Cyrano de Bergerac’s satirical novel L’Autre Monde (The Other World) published after the author's death, in 1657 suggested that rockets could carry humans into space.

In 1903 the Russian mathematician Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published a paper showing that liquid fuels and multistage rockets could attain lift-off for a spacecraft. His formulae are still in use.

In 1914 pioneer rocket scientist and New England physics professor Robert H. Goddard patented liquid rocket fuel, though he didn't get a rocket off the ground for another dozen years.

Robert H. Goddard was inspired to invent the rocket technology by H.G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds.

Robert H. Goddard successfully launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts on March 16, 1926. It rose 41 feet and went 184 feet, in 2.5 seconds.,

Goddard with a liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket (1926)

Wernher von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) was the greatest German rocket scientist. Among his designs were the V-2 ballistic missile used by Germany during World War II and the Saturn V rocket used by NASA on the Apollo moon missions.

In 1928 the German film director Fritz Lang introduced the 5-4-3-2-1 when he used a backward countdown in his movie By Rocket To The Moon. He thought it would make things more suspenseful if the count is reversed.

The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket was made from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany on October 3, 1942.

21 months later, a V-2 rocket became the first man-made object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on June 20, 1944

Following World War II, Von Brann was secretly moved from Germany to the United States, along with about 1,600 other scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip, where he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1, and the Apollo program manned lunar landings.

Von Braun in 1960

The Space Age begun in 1949 with the first rocket, a V2/WAC-Corporal, blasted into outer space from White Sands, Mexico.

Berthold Seliger launched a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres near Cuxhaven in 1963. It was the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.

In 1920, The New York Times ridiculed Robert H. Goddard and claimed that rockets could not function in space. On July 17, 1969, a day after the Apollo 11 launch, the newspaper formally acknowledged their error.

Britain’s Black Arrow rocket launched the satellite Prospero into space from Woomera in South Australia to orbit the Earth on October 28, 1971. It was the first and last launch of a solely British space rocket.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos funded a team that searched the Atlantic Ocean for discarded NASA rockets. By 2013, the team had salvaged two rockets. After careful inspection, the team realized they found part of the rockets used to carry Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon on Apollo 11.

Falcon 9 Flight 20 (also known as Orbcomm OG2 M2), was a Falcon 9 space launch that occurred on December 21, 2015, the first time that the first stage of an orbital rocket made a successful return and vertical landing.

First stage of Falcon 9 flight 20 landing on a ground pad in December 2015

Electron is a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed by New Zealand aerospace company Rocket Lab to cover the commercial small satellite launch segment (CubeSats). Its Rutherford engines are the first electric pump-fed engine to power an orbital rocket. Electron became the first rocket to reach orbit using an electric pump-fed engine on January 21, 2018.

On April 20, 2023, SpaceX conducted the Starship Flight Test, an orbital test flight that involved the inaugural launch of the Starship spacecraft coupled with the Super Heavy first stage booster. This mission established the Starship as the tallest and most robust rocket ever launched, producing double the thrust of the Saturn V rocket from the 1960s. The launch took place from the Starbase launch facility situated in the vicinity of Boca Chica, Texas. It exploded almost four minutes into the flight after it reached a peak altitude of 24 miles (39 km).

FUN ROCKET FACTS

Both of actor Jack Black's parents were rocket scientists.

Jack Black's mom, Judith Love Cohen, helped create the Abort-Guidance System which rescued the Apollo 13 astronauts. She went to work on the day she was in labor and took a printout of a problem she was working on to the hospital. She called her boss and said she'd finished the problem then gave birth to Jack Black.

The insulation of the fuel tanks on a Saturn V rocket was so good an ice cube placed inside would take eight years to melt.

Some rockets may reach speeds of up to 30'000 km/hr (Mach 25) when in orbit.

A rocket engine has to supply its own oxygen so it can burn fuel in outer space.

Source Hutchinson Encyclopedia

John D. Rockefeller

John Davison Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York on July 8, 1839.

His father William Avery "Bill" Rockefeller was a traveling salesman who identified himself as a "botanic physician" who sold elixirs and intentionally lent money to impoverished farmers to take their land. He was a sworn foe of conventional morality who preferred a vagabond existence and returned to his family infrequently.

John D. Rockefeller in 1885

WORK 

Rockefeller got his first job when he was sixteen as an assistant bookkeeper working for a small produce commission firm called Hewitt & Tuttle. Making 50 cents a day, the full salary for his first three months' work was $50 (equivalent to $1 thousand in 2016 dollars). His dream as a kid was to make $100,000.

Rockefeller at age 18

Rockefeller went into the produce commission business with a partner, Maurice B. Clark in 1859, and they raised $4,000 ($106,622 in 2016 dollars) in capital. Rockefeller went steadily ahead in business from there, making money each year of his career.

During the Civil War, John D Rockefeller paid another man to join the Union Army in his place. Rockefeller's commission business in Cleveland, Ohio was flourishing and felt he was more valuable to the war effort by providing employment for people who were involved with supplying food and grain to the military.

In 1866, William Rockefeller Jr., John's brother, built a refinery in Cleveland and brought John into the partnership. Within a couple of years, John D, Rockefeller's practice of borrowing and reinvesting profits, controlling costs, and using refineries' waste, resulted in the company owning two Cleveland refineries and a marketing subsidiary in New York, making it the largest oil refinery in the world.

Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in 1870, capitalizing on a time when there was a soaring demand for kerosene and gasoline.

John D Rockefeller dominated the petroleum industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at his peak controlling 90 per cent of all oil in the U.S.

Standard Oil Trust Certificate 1896

The famous New Yorker brought on a new era of wealth in America, when he nearly monopolized the oil industry in the late 1800s. Rockefeller became so wealthy that he left his company in 1897 and spent the last 40 years of his life retired.

PERSONAL LIFE 

In 1864, Rockefeller married Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman (1839–1915), daughter of Harvey Buell Spelman and Lucy Henry. They had four daughters and one son together.

Photographic portrait of Laura Spelman Rockefeller

Following her wedding, Spelman joined Rockefeller's congregation, the Northern Baptists where she remained active. Once the family business, Standard Oil, began to take off, she further devoted her time to philanthropy and her children.

A devout Northern Baptist, he was a faithful congregant of the Erie Street Baptist Mission Church.

Rockefeller would read the Bible daily, attend prayer meetings twice a week and even led his own Bible study with his wife.

Rockefeller adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life.

Rockefeller spent his retirement at Kykuit, the Rockefeller Family Home in Westchester County, New York. It has been home to four generations of the Rockefeller family.

Kykuit By Gryffindor  

WEALTH 

Rockefeller is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. He amassed his fortune from the Standard Oil company, of which he was a founder, chairman and major shareholder.

Despite his immense wealth, John D. Rockefeller always took the train from his mansion to his downtown New York office every day. He was often harassed by beggars and other passengers, but refused to travel with bodyguards or use private transportation.

In 1913 John Rockefeller owned 2% of the US GDP, an amount that today would be worth over $409 billion and make him three times richer than Jeff Bezos.

On September 29, 1916, Rockefeller became the first ever billionaire when he reached a nominal personal fortune of US$1 billion.

By the time of his death in 1937, estimates place Rockefeller's personal fortune as being equal to 1.53% of the American economy of that time, or about US $200 billion.

Adjusted for inflation, John D. Rockefeller was ten times richer than today's richest person.

PHILANTHROPY

He founded the philanthropic Rockefeller foundation on May 14, 1913 with the largest gift of money (to that time) of $100,000,000. The foundation promotes "the well-being of mankind throughout the world."

Rockefeller in 1911

Rockefeller used the large amounts of money he had to do various things, including donating to schools, starting the University of Chicago and the Central Philippine University in the Philippines, funding important medical research, and giving the land for the General Assembly Building of the United Nations.

Six years after the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York was founded, a small hospital was opened alongside it for clinical research. This was the first time a hospital had been built for such a purpose.

His son John D Rockefeller Jr (1874 – 1962) devoted his life to his father's Rockefeller foundation.

Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, New York (which includes Radio City Music Hall), is the world's largest privately owned business and Entertainment Center.

DEATH AND LEGACY

John D Rockefeller died aged 97 at "The Casements", his home in Ormond Beach, Florida, from arteriosclerosis on May 23, 1937.

He was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.

His grandson Nelson A Rockefeller 1908 to 1979 was governor of New York 1958-74 and Gerald Ford's vice president between 1974 and 1976.

As of 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation was ranked as the 39th largest U.S. foundation by total giving.

Source Book of Lists 3 by Amy Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the 1950s.

Rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse–chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse.

Typically there is a quartet lineup for a rock band comprising lead vocalist, drummer, guitarist and bassist.

Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006, showing a rock lineup. By flickr user xPassenger,

Rock had its beginnings in the blues, gospel music, and jazz-influenced vocal music popular among African-American audiences after World War II. Most of these kinds of black popular music were given the label rhythm and blues (or R & B) and were played on big-city radio stations. It was the power of radio that spread this music's appeal from black communities to towns throughout all of the United States. The developed into rock and roll, the most popular music of the late 1950s.

Rock developed from rock and roll with the British invasion of the mid 1960s by beat groups like the Beatles, Herman's Hermits and The Rolling Stones.

The Beatles arriving in New York in 1964 at the beginning of the British Invasion

By the late 1960s, a number of distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, psychedelic rock and jazz-rock. New genres that emerged included progressive rock and heavy metal. In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock burst on the scene which was an influence in the 1980s on new wave, post-punk, synth pop and eventually alternative rock. From the 1990s alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop, and indie rock. Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop punk, rap rock, and rap metal.

The Kinks' 1964 hit single "You Really Got Me" is considered the first hard rock recording, Dave Davies came up with the distorted guitar sound by slitting the speaker cone on his amp with a razor blade.

The 1967 American comedy movie The Graduate became one of the first major films to use rock music in its soundtrack, using songs written by Paul Simon (notably, "Mrs Robinson', which became a huge hit).

In 1969 Lillian Roxon wrote the first rock encyclopedia beginning the modern era of music criticism.

Paul McCartney played every instrument on his solo albums McCartney and McCartney II.

The first all-female hard-rock band was formed in 1975 when producer Kim Fowley puts together The Runaways, featuring Joan Jett, future Bangle Michael Steele, Sandy West, Cherie Currie and Lita Ford.

1976 promotional photo of The Runaways 

The Clash's "Rock The Casbah" was written after the banning of rock music in Iran.

The Billy Gibbons/DustyHill/FrankBeard trio has been in place since 1970. That’s enough to make ZZ Top the longest-running group with an unchanged line-up in the entire history of rock music.

It is now estimated more Ramones t-shirts have been sold worldwide than Ramones albums.

Human fetuses react to loud rock music by kicking.