This Week in Boomer History: Woodstock ... Berlin ... IBM PC

Notable events from our shared experience

"This year's monster movie star," Jack Nicholson, makes the cover of Time magazine Aug. 12, 1974, two months after Chinatown opened.

The IBM Personal Computer is announced Aug. 12, 1981, with a price of $1,565. According to IBM: "Two decades earlier, an IBM computer often cost as much as $9 million and required an air-conditioned quarter-acre of space and a staff of 60 people to keep it fully loaded with instructions."

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On Aug. 11, 1965, a white patrolman pulls over and arrests a young African American motorist in the South Central Los Angeles Watts neighborhood. A crowd gathers, a confrontation with police follows and 34 people die in six days of violence.

East German authorities seal the border between East and West Berlin on Aug. 13, 1961, and begin to build the Berlin Wall. The wall remains in place until Nov. 9, 1989.

Despite numerous alleged sightings since,  Elvis Presley dies at age 42 on Aug. 16, 1977, at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn.

David Berkowitz confesses on Aug. 11, 1977, to being the " Son of Sam," responsible for killing six and wounding seven in shootings in and around New York.

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Later regarded as the birth of arena rock, a concert by the Beatles draws more than 55,000 fans to Shea Stadium in Queens, N.Y., on Aug. 15, 1965. Four years later to the day, Richie Havens kicks off the outdoor Woodstock Music & Art Fair in Bethel, N.Y. By the time Jimi Hendrix closes the festival on Aug. 18, an estimated 400,000 people have come and gone.

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