Welcome to the 1980's!

1980

• Failed U.S. Rescue Attempt to Save Hostages in Tehran
• John Lennon Assassinated
• Mount St. Helens Erupts
• Pac-Man Video Game Released
• Rubik's Cube Becomes Popular
• Ted Turner Establishes CNN

1981

• Assassination Attempt on the Pope
• Assassination Attempt on U.S. President Reagan
• First Woman Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court
• Millions Watch Royal Wedding on T.V.
• New Plague Identified as AIDS
• Personal Computers (PC) Introduced by IBM

1982

• E.T. Movie Released
• Falkland Islands Invaded by Argentina
• King Henry VIII's Ship the Mary Rose Raised After 437 Years
• Michael Jackson Releases Thriller
• Reverend Sun Myung Moon Marries 2,075 Couples at Madison Square Garden
• Vietnam War Memorial Opened in Washington, DC

1983

• Cabbage Patch Kids Are Popular
• Reagan Announces Defense Plan Called Star Wars
• Sally Ride Becomes the First American Woman in Space
• Soviets Shoot Down a Korean Airliner
• U.S. Embassy in Beirut Bombed

1984

• Huge Poison Gas Leak in Bhopal, India
• Indira Gandhi, India's Prime Minister, Killed by Two Bodyguards
• PG-13 Movie Rating Created

1985

• Famine in Ethiopia
• Hole in the Ozone Layer Discovered
• Mikhail Gorbachev Calls for Glasnost and Perestroika
• New Coke Hits the Market
• Wreck of the Titanic Found

1986

• Challenger Space Shuttle Explodes
• Chernobyl Nuclear Accident
• Ferdinand Marcos Flees the Philippines
• Iran-Contra Scandal Unfolds
• U.S. Bombs Libya
• U.S.S.R. Launches Mir Space Station

1987

• DNA First Used to Convict Criminals
• Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Butcher of Lyons, Sentenced to Life in Prison
• New York Stock Exchange Suffers Huge Drop on "Black Monday"
• West German Pilot Lands Unchallenged in Russia's Red Square

1988

• Pan Am Flight 103 Is Bombed Over Lockerbie
• U.S. Shoots Down Iranian Airliner

1989

• Berlin Wall Falls
• Exxon Valdez Spills Millions of Gallons of Oil on Coastline
• Students Massacred in China's Tiananmen Square
• U.S. President Bush Announces That He Doesn't Like Broccoli