It’s been quite a long time since the Kansas City Chiefs won a Super Bowl. In fact, it’s been a whole 50 years — the Chiefs won Super Bowl IV in the 1969 season. Kansas City had the fourth-longest active drought without a Super Bowl appearance until it earned a bid this season.
Here’s what was most popular the last time the Chiefs and 49ers each won the Super Bowl
Things were quite different in 1969 and 1994.
The San Francisco 49ers, on the other hand, have won a championship more recently. Their last Super Bowl win came in the 1994 season, when the Steve Young-led 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers in Miami.
This year’s Super Bowl is also in Miami, but that’s about all that remains the same. A lot has changed in the world since the last time these two won championships.
Let’s take a look at what was happening in sports, TV, movies, pop culture, and technology the last time the Chiefs and 49ers won the Super Bowl.
1969 vs. 1994 in sports
- 1969 The New York Mets won the World Series, 4-1, over the Baltimore Orioles. Nicknamed the “Amazin Mets,” the victory was one of the biggest upsets in World Series history. The Mets it had a losing season each year before that.
- The Boston Celtics were the NBA champions, as they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. We saw the Celtics-Lakers rivalry heat up during this decade, and the two played in the finals six times — Boston won them all.
- In college football, the Texas Longhorns won the national title, beating Notre Dame, 21-17, in the Cotton Bowl, and thus, Texas was truly back. What’s also interesting about this season is after the Longhorns defeated No. 2 Arkansas in December earlier that season, President Richard Nixon presented Texas with a plaque claiming the Longhorns to be the No. 1 team in the land.
1994
Major League Baseball strike: 1994 was a chaotic year for the MLB. Owners wanting to implement salary caps led to a players’ strike in August. It didn’t end for 232 days, the longest stoppage in MLB history, and there was no World Series. The strike cost management close to $1 billion, and players lost millions. It effectively ended Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson’s MLB careers, too.
- The Nebraska Cornhuskers won the college football national championship by beating then-No. 1 Miami in the Orange Bowl. It marked head coach Tom Osborne’s first national title, though he’d go on to win two more in the 90s.
- The Houston Rockets won their first-ever NBA championship, taking the seven-game series against the New York Knicks.
- The O.J. Simpson chase: During Game 5 of Knicks-Rockets, NBC’s telecast was interrupted for the police chase of Simpson in his white Bronco:
- Tonya Harding won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship. As you probably know, that was before she was later stripped of her title for her role in the attack on her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, which happened that same year.
1969 vs. 1994 in music
- 1969The Billboard No. 1 song in 1969 was “Sugar, Sugar,” by a cartoon band named The Archies, from the animated TV show The Archie Show. Yes, this is incredibly weird to me, too.
- Other big hits during this year included “Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones, “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” by the 5th Dimension, and “I Can’t Get Next To You” by the Temptations.
- The Woodstock music festival was held in August 1969. More than 400,000 people gathered on a farm in New York to see artists like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin.
Photo by John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
The festival is known as one of the biggest and most important music events in history, lasting four days (it was originally supposed to be only three) while heavy rains caused delays of several acts.
- The Beatles recorded their final album together, Abbey Road, which included classics like “Here Comes the Sun” and “Come Together.” That year, the group gave its final live performance, which took place on the roof of Apple Records.
- 1994The No. 1 Billboard single for 1994 was “The Sign” by Ace of Base, which was the title track of the Swedish group’s debut album. This one was an absolute banger:
Other hits like “Don’t Turn Around” and “All That She Wants” were on this album.
- Some other popular songs from this year included Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do,” and Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You.” This year Mariah Carey released her Christmas album, which is the greatest holiday album in history. I’m not 100 percent sure about that fact, but I’m right, OK? Hootie and the Blowfish’s Cracked Rearview Mirror album was released, though it became more popular the following year in 1995.
- This was a pretty big year for debuting artists. Some of the more notable ones, to name a few: Weezer, Outkast, Beck, Notorious B.I.G., and Oasis.
- Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain sadly died in April 1994.
1969 vs. 1994 world events
- 1969One of the biggest moments in both the U.S. and the world history was the Apollo 11 mission, which successfully put the first-ever man on the moon. The mission, led by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, launched on July 11, 1969, and landed on the moon on July 20.
Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
- On July 18, 1969, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off of a bridge in Chappaquiddick, which resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker of Robert Kennedy’s. Although the news made headlines in the beginning, it ultimately was largely overshadowed by the Apollo 11.
- President Richard Nixon was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 1969, for his first term.
- On Dec. 1, 1969, a draft lottery was reinstated, for the Vietnam War. It was the first since World War II.
- 1994Bill Clinton was sued for sexual harassment by Paula Jones while serving his first term as the President of the United States. The accusations Jones brought forward were allegedly from when Clinton was the governor of Arkansas in 1991. Judges allowed Clinton to avoid trial for the lawsuit until after he left office. Jones later settled her lawsuit in November 1998 after Clinton won the 1996 election.
- The Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America. Before Republicans took control. Gingrich signed the contract which laid out legislation that would be passed within the first 100 days of Congress.
- Nelson Mandela was elected as South African’s president, in the country’s first-ever democratic election. The elections marked the end of apartheid in South Africa, and Mandela later established a commission to investigate human rights and political violations that happened during apartheid. Beyond his time in office, which lasted until 1999, Mandela is considered to be one of the greatest champions of peace and social justice, both in South Africa and around the world.
1969 vs. 1994 television and movies
- 1969The No. 1 grossing movie was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It later won four Oscars, including for Best Original Screenplay.
- The children’s television show Sesame Street debuted on PBS in 1969. Sesame Street is still airing new episodes on TV to this day!
- Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In was the most-watched TV show, a sketch comedy show hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. The show featured actresses like Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn as performers, too.
- 1994Seinfeld was the most-watched television show, while Friends and ER premiered this year. Nearly 22 million people watched the Friends premiere, and ER had over 23 million viewers. All three shows were the anchors of NBC’s Must-See TV lineup.
- Disney’s The Lion King was the top-grossing movie that year, and other greats like Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, and Pulp Fiction were released.
- Frasier won its first Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. It went on to win 112 Emmys until it last aired in 2004.
1969 vs. 1994 celebrities
- 1969Celebrities born this year included: Brett Favre, Renee Zellweger, Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd (who’s a huge Chiefs fan), and Jennifer Lopez, who coincidentally is performing the halftime show at Super Bowl LIV.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower and Judy Garland passed away. Eisenhower died of congestive heart failure. Garland was just 47 when she died of a barbiturates overdose.
- John Lennon and Paul McCartney both got married this year, McCartney to Linda until her death in 1998, and Lennon to Yoko Ono until his assassination in 1980.
- 1994Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson. The marriage lasted two years before the couple filed for divorce.
- Time to feel old! Celebrities born this year include Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, Dakota Fanning, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid.
- Richard Nixon and Jackie Kennedy both passed away. Nixon was 81, and he died after suffering a stroke. Jackie O passed away of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at just 64 years old.
- Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley divorced after 10 years of marriage. Brinkley was said to have partially inspired Joel’s hit “Uptown Girl.”
1969 vs. 1994 Technology
- 1969The first-ever ATM was installed in the U.S.: On Sept. 2, 1969, the ATM became available to the public at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York.
This one could only give customers cash, though more ATM advancements came soon after.
- Televisions looked a lot different!
- On July 3, 1969, the internet’s first message was sent from UCLA: Two machines on campus that were linked together through ARPANET. There was an attempt to send “login” over the network to a group of Stanford students, but the program crashed after “l” was typed in.
- 1994DirecTV’s first satellite digital television service launched. That year, there were just 320,000 subscribers.
- Something called “Netscape Navigator” was the leading web browser at the time. I am 27 years old, and have no idea what this thing is:
Screenshot via Wikipedia
- The IBM Simon debuted as the first-ever “smartphone” for sale: Thank God we have iPhones now.
Via Microsoft
There have been many changes in the 25 years since the 49ers last won a Super Bowl, and in the 25 years before that, when the Chiefs last earned the Lombardi Trophy. Fans of both teams are hoping they won’t have to wait as long to see them play in the Super Bowl again. But if they do, one thing’s for sure: the world will look a lot different.
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