History of U.S.A. Panic Attacks (1980s-2016) Quiz

Answer: flight attendants

According to "How The Role Of A Flight Attendant Has Evolved Throughout History" at simplyflying.com, in the 1980s, 80.7% of flight attendants were women. But today 78.4% are women according to zippia.com's "Flight Attendant Demographics and Statistics In The US". A landmark case against Pan American Airlines saw the Supreme Court rule that airlines could not prevent men from being flight attendants.

From the early 1970s to 1985 women's share of professional jobs increased from 44% to 49%. According to "Women in the Legal Profession - ABA Profile of the Legal Profession" only 8% of lawyers were women, but that percentage increased to 29% by the year 2000. The percentage of women in financial management rose from 25% to 40% from 1980 to 2010 according to "What the Data Says About Women in Management Between 1980 and 2010". From 1970 to 1984 the sheer number of women butchers in packinghouses rose by over a third and in that same time, 80% of new bartending jobs were women. The percentage of women butchers today is over 25% according to statistica.com, whereas in 2010 the percentage was half that according to zippia.com. By most accounts, society has not collapsed.

Answer: Princess Diana

It may seem crazy today, but the scare back then posited that AIDS could be transmitted via hand shakes. AIDS can be traced back as early as 1971 in the U.S., and, as early as 1983, scientists at the CDC had already determined that the disease could not be spread by casual contact, such as hand shakes. But the public fear about contracting AIDS in such a way did not abate.

Then, on April 19, 1987, Lady Diana entered the London Middlesex Hospital to open England's first medical unit specializing in treating people with HIV and AIDS. It was there she was photographed shaking hands with an unidentified AIDS patient. And the "People's Princess" wasn't wearing any gloves. It was a photograph seen around the world, and triggered the idea that education and compassion, once again, rule the day.

Answer: Judas Priest

On December 23, 1985, two young men made a suicide pact after binging on drugs and alcohol. Both attempted to kill themselves with a shotgun; one of them succeeded, and the other was disfigured. It was discovered that they had been listening to Judas Priest's album, "Stained Class", and people accused the band of deliberately inserting backward and subliminal messages calling for listeners to kill themselves.

In a few years the band went on trial for this. This actually happened. Despite the tragic nature of the reasons for the trial, one can't help but shake one's head almost in tragic amusement at the prosecution. Their "expert witness" had also been revealed to pronounce that there were backwards messages on Ritz Crackers boxes, $5 bills, and chocolate cookies. When the prosecution played backwards a part of the record that sounded like, "Do it", the band, who appeared in person to testify rebutted, "Do what? Mow the lawn?" They also countered that if they were going to insert subliminal messages they would've said, "Buy more records", not "Kill yourself".

Answer: The McMartin Preschool

FACAA, ABC House, and Providence House are organizations that are amongst the most prominent defenders of children in the battle against child abuse.
Sex abuse upon children is most usually perpetrated by adults. In fact, less than 1% occurs in day care centers. Nevertheless, during the 1980s, day care centers in several states around the country fell victim to the investigation committed by panicked and scared parents.

Located in Manhattan Beach, California, the McMartin Preschool was unjustly accused of the most horrible crimes including kidnapping, but even far more hideous acts. The recrimination was precipitated by the accusations levied by one parent who was later found to be a paranoid schizophrenic. Thankfully, a new district attorney reviewed the evidence while both the jury and other academicians found the interviewing techniques gravely troubling. Children were nudged toward making untrue accusations, even to the point of being offered rewards. The McMartin trial was the quintessential example of the wave of similar accusations between 1983 and 1995.

Answer: The Equal Rights Amendment

After Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972 it was sent to the states for ratification. But then the Senate postponed voting until the next session. And when the time came, the Senate actually failed to pass the bill and conservative groups fostered growing opposition, saying the ERA would actually hurt women by forcing them to use unisex bathrooms, forcing them into the military, allowing women to become Catholic priests, and by fostering unrestricted abortions.

The ruse worked and in 1973, Congress rejected the bill by a 10-vote margin, even though they had previously passed it by 90 votes in 1972, when it first came up for vote.

Answer: The Navy

Recruits were training at the Navy Training Center and after a two-week period they had been playing sports and having barbecues when several of them started having breathing problems. After evacuating 600 of the men, County Hazardous Materials officials could find no evidence of toxic fumes or food poisoning as the cause.

Theories such as a virus or particles in the air from fires or smog, combined with the heat could have caused the trouble. But still, further investigation found no toxic chemicals in their blood. Navy Lt. Kenneth Luchka surmised that after the men saw just a few people get sick, "there is a possibility of mass hysteria."

Answer: Y2K

Y2K stood for Year 2000, and the fear was that computer programming would not be able to deal with years beyond December 31st, 1999. Specifically, people thought computers would misinterpret 00 as the year 1900, instead of 2000, which prompted the nickname, the "Millenium Bug." The fear was that everything from bank records to power plants would be affected.

But the truth was that technology experts had been on the case for a decade already, long before 1999 rolled along.

Answer: Naval officer Captain Stack reports "a Pakistan CCT" heading for the U.S. in 2005

According to "Update to the LeRoy (NY) teenagers' mystery neurological illnesses", the conversion disorder experienced by cheerleaders at a high school in Le Roy, NY manifested itself in a way similar to Tourette's syndrome: they had facial spasms, involuntary arm swings, they stuttered, and exhibited verbal outbursts. Everything from a strep infection, to vaccines, and the human papilloma­virus were blamed. Even Erin Brockovich investigated, but in the end, all environmental and infectious culprits were ruled out. The conversion disorder isn't well understood but basically it is psychological; people convert stress into physical symptoms, and basically it is the brain making the people sick.

In "The Week" magazine's article, "Conversion disorder: An epidemic spread by sight", one of the very first conversion disorders affected those Tarheel cheerleaders in 2002; the girls experienced fainting spells and twitches, but examination of their brain waves determined the phenomenon was psychogenic, and not epileptic.

The magazine "The Guardian" tells of "The outbreak of hysteria that's no fun at all": Virginia's Department of Health ruled out environmental factors in the William Byrd high school phenomenon in which, similarly, students exhibited twitching, dizziness, and headaches. The outbreak was deemed "sociogenic in nature." Psychiatrist Jim Bolton believed it was mass hysteria, citing the tendency of these cases occurring in close communities, particularly schools, sports teams, and convents, and adding that it was actually surprisingly common, especially during times of stress.

Captain Stack never reported a CCT from Pakistan heading toward the USA. In fact, both "Captain Stack" and "a Pakistan CCT" are both anagrams of "Panic Attacks."

Answer: Zombie Apocalypse

Perhaps the CDC didn't help matters, since earlier they themselves had sent promotional materials on how to survive a zombie attack, saying later that they were "a tongue in cheek campaign to engage new audiences with preparedness messages." Hmm. Anyway, the panic was precipitated by some violent attacks in Canada, Florida, New Jersey, Washington, and Maryland, which, coupled with the jokey promotional materials, got people thinking, "Zombie Apocalypse!"

Among the actual bizarre crimes were a man stripping off his clothes and attempting to chew a homeless man's face off, a man then stabbing himself and throwing his own intestines at police, a shooting spree, and a student eating the brain and heart of his roommate. I guess with all that happening one can understand the zombie panic attack!

Answer: evil clowns

It all began in Green Bay, Wisconsin, when photographs revealed an evil-looking clown lurking about a parking lot. TV news media picked up on it, but it was soon confirmed to be a promotional stunt for a horror film being shot in Wisconsin. Pranksters unrelated to the horror production, however, took up the hoax and began dress up as creepy clowns here and there, and scaring people.

The fun even spread to Canada, England and Australia. Evil clown sightings however, actually were reported just a few years earlier in the United Kingdom, when pranksters dressed like the character "Pennywise" from Stephen King's "It."