Notable 'golden eras' may be caused by contact with steep energy gradients that are eventually depleted.[1] The Dutch golden age, which gave us Huygens, Sweelinck, and Vermeer, was powered by wind and peat. The Victorian era, which gave us Bosanquet among many others, coal.[2] Postwar business cycles are closely associated with changes in the price of oil.[3]
The average YoY growth rate of world oil production 1974-2013 was 1%. Minimum 1961-1973 was 5% (average was 7%).[4]
[1a] http://lumma.org/econ/AgesOfGrowth.html
[1b] https://gist.github.com/clumma/214831723c7d567cc343cc07672737a2
[2a] https://books.google.com/books?id=oQdZAAAAYAAJ
[2b] https://gist.github.com/clumma/2ffed4289963dec56d39
[3a] http://econbrowser.com/archives/2011/01/oil_shocks_and_2
[3b] http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2014/1114/ifdp1114.pdf
[3c] https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=3lgX
[3d] https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=3lgZ
[3e] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20549667
[4] http://www.opec.org
The first postwar era (1945-1974) was period of immense economic expansion. Culture benefits cumulatively, so critical events are near the end... "summer of love" 1967, first moon landing 1969, and popular music that became avant-garde, on albums like Bitches Brew (1970), The Inner Mounting Flame (1971), and Tales From Topographic Oceans (1973) to name only a few.
The last Apollo mission was in 1972 but Skylab (really the same program) ran until 1974.
From 1975-1983 there was economic malaise ("stagflation") and we got disco and smooth jazz. Then began a new expansion, now known as "the great moderation" (1984-2001). The spirit of progressive rock was revived in bands like Phish 1983, Ween 1984, the Flecktones 1988, Disco Biscuits 1995, Umphrey's McGee 1997... Phish disbanded in October 2000.
Microtonal music theory developed on a similar schedule. The journal Xenharmonikon launched in 1974 and Wilson reported all his major discoveries that year. No issues were published 1979-1985.[5] On the tuning list, the "miracle" month was May 2001, with activity centered around the rediscovery of a temperament initially discovered in... 1974.[6]
The story in competitive chess is also similar. The three greatest players of all time (in terms of Elo gap) were Capablanca, Fischer, and Kasparov. They were champions 1921-1927 (roaring 20s), 1972-1975, and 1985-2000, respectively. All three lost their titles to inferior opponents!
By far the most dominant race horse of all time was Secretariat, who won the triple crown in 1973. The single-season home run record in American baseball was set in 2001 by Barry Bonds.
The Xerox Alto was invented in 1973. The first mainstream commercialization attempt, the Apple Lisa, failed in 1983. But the second and third attempts, the Macintosh 1984 and Microsoft Windows 1985, succeeded. Windows XP and Mac OS X both shipped in 2001.
I expect basic science to progress more smoothly than its commercialization, or art. Yet the Standard Model did crystalize in 1973-74 and famously little progress has been made since.[7] String theory, though, made a big splash in 1984.[8] The AdS/CFT correspondence first came to light in 1998.[9]
[5] http://xh.xentonic.org
[6a] Alternate Tunings Mailing List
[6b] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_temperament
[6c] http://www.anaphoria.com/SecorMiracle.pdf
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model#Historical_background
[8] First Superstring Revolution
[9] https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9711200
Looking at the "highest ever live ratings" box at 2700chess.com and removing players that are still in the top 25 – that is, looking only at players who are clearly past their peak – we get
Kasparov 2000-03-03
Morozevich 2008-08-24
Ivanchuk 2008-07-06
Karpov 1994-06-01
Fischer 1972-08-04
With the exception of Karpov, these are very close to major recession-causing events. That is, they occurred at peaks of wealth accumulation:
The NASDAQ peaked on 2000-03-10
Kasparov: 7 days
IndyMac placed in conservatorship (first failure of crisis) 2008-07-11
Lehman declared bankruptcy (defining failure of crisis) 2008-09-15
Morozevich: -44 days / 22 days
Ivanchuk: 5 days / 71 days
Bretton Woods ended 1971-08-15
OPEC oil embargo 1973-10-17
Fischer: +/- 1 year
We can't take this too seriously because it's just a few data points and we have freedom in choosing comparison events. But I think it rises to the level of 'noteworthy'.
From 1929 to 2013, the inflation-adjusted S&P500 index (annual average) and total home runs by the 1st and 2nd place hitters in the National and American leagues have a correlation coefficient of 0.66. Taking 4% of the S&P500 and adding 135 gives a decent fit.