USA History (1980-1990)
January 4, 1980-President Carter announces punitive measures against the USSR including an embargo on high technology and the sale of grain in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
April 12, 1980-The U.S. Olympic Committee votes against U.S. participation in the Moscow Summer Olympics.
May 18, 1980-In Washington Mount St. Helens erupted in a violent blast estimated to be 500 times as powerful as the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
1980-Republicans gain control of the U.S. Senate.
December 8, 1980-Former Beatle member John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment building in New York City.
1981-The PC is launched by IBM.
1981-AIDS is identified by scientists.
January 20, 1981-The 52 Americans who had been held hostage in Iran for 444 days were flown to freedom following an arrangement in which the U.S. agreed to return to Iran $8 billion in frozen assets.
March 30, 1981- President Reagan was shot in the chest by an unsuccessful assassin in Washington, DC as he was walking to his limousine following an address.
April 12, 1981-The space shuttle Columbia, the world's first reusable spacecraft, was sent into space.
July 29, 1981-Congress passes President Reagan's tax cut legislation which was the largest tax cut in the the nation's history. It was expected to save the taxpayers $750 billion over the next five years.
August 3, 1981-Federal air traffic controllers began an illegal nationwide strike. Most of them defied a back-to-work order and were fired by President Reagan on August 5.
1982-Nearly one million people join an antinuclear demonstration in New York City.
1982-The Equal Rights Amendment fails to be ratified by Congress.
December 2, 1982-Dr. Barney B. Clark, a 61 year-old retired dentist, became the first recipient of a permanent artificial heart after a seven and a half hour operation.
1983-The compact disc or "CD" is launched.
April 13, 1983-I was born in Pennsacola, Florida. Not yet an4 important event in American History, but very important to me.
July 18, 1983-Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to travel in space on the space shuttle Challenger.
1983-President Ronald Reagan announces S.D.I. (Star Wars Initiative.)
1983-A group of Shiite Moslems bomb the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
1983-U.S. troops invade in the caribbean island of Grenada.
1984-The Macintosh computer with a mouse is launched.
1984-French and U.S. teams discover the AIDS virus.
1984-Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman to run for the vice presidency on a major party ticket.
1985-The great defense budget of the U.S. was being spent at a rate of half a million dollars per minute.
January 20, 1986-The U.S. officially observes Martin Luther King Jr. Day for the first time.
January 28, 1986-Moments after liftoff the space shuttle Challenger explodes killing six astronauts and a New Hampshire teacher on board named Christa McAuliffie.
June 12, 1986-U.S. officials predict that AIDS cases and deaths will increase tenfold in the next 5 years.
1986-Benghazi and Lybia are bombed by U.S. war planes.
November 6, 1986-Press reports brake the first news of the Iran-contra scandal involving the secret U.S. sale of arms to Iran.
May 17, 1987-An Iraqi warplane missile kills 37 sailors on the frigate U.S.S. Stark in the Persian Gulf. Iraq calls it an accident, and the Stark's officers were found negligent.
1987-A world stock market crash occurs.
1987-The Senate decides to reject Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court.
December 8, 1987-President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev meet in Washington and sign an unprecedented agreement calling for the dismantling of all 1,752 U.S. and 859 Soviet missiles within a 300 to 3,400 mile range.
1988-An internet virus jams more than 6,000 military computers.
1989-Homelessness and other local problems start to increase.
1989-U.S. military troops invade Panama and install a new government.
1989-The Berlin Wall falls uniting communist East Germany and capitalistic West Germany. This was a great day for freedom and a celebration for the rest of the world.
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