1980s ::: Project ETERNITY

Software
Free
Download
Audio
Graphics
Utilities
Internet
Screen Savers
Games
Development Tools
Business
Audio
Home/Hobby
Education

Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium

1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:
Years:

----

Events and trends

Computers, technology

Bulletin board system popularity

Popularization of personal computers, Walkmans, VHS videocassette recorders, and compact disc ("CD") players

Home video games become enormously popular, most notably Atari until the market crashes in 1983; the rise of Nintendo brings about full recovery

Space Shuttle Challenger explodes

Accident at Chernobyl nuclear reactor, April 1986

Science

Discovery of the W and Z bosons at CERN

Development of the scanning tunneling microscope by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer

War, peace and politics

Cold War peaks; fall of the Iron Curtain

Jimmy Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow; Eastern Bloc countries boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles

Solidarity movement in Poland launched in 1981. It eventually topples the country's Communist regime

Ronald Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative, derided as "Star Wars." Deploys Pershing missiles in Western Europe to counter the Soviety SS-20, to widespread protests

Soviet fighters down Korean Air Flight 7 in 1983

Gorbachev introduces Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union

Fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany, preparing the way to German reunification

Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia

Revolution in Romania, execution of Ceauşescu

Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism dominate British politics. The so-called Reagan Revolution introduces neoconservatives to Washington

Falklands War; Argentina invades the Falkland islands in 1982 but defeated by the United Kingdom

Israel invades Lebanon in 1982. A suicide bomber kills 241 U.S. marines stationed there as peacekeepers.

Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 kills one million people

Over 120,000 flee Cuba in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift

P.W. Botha suppresses anti-apartheid activists; international boycotts of South Africa continue

King Juan Carlos of Spain prevents a military coup in 1980. Spain joined NATO in 1982; it joined the European Union with Portugal in 1986.

In 1989 students protest on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China and are ruthlessly suppressed

"People Power" in the Philippines topples the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship; military rule ends after protests in Argentina and South Korea

The Soviet Union ends its disastrous military campaign in Afghanistan

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is exposed as a former Nazi

Vietnam continues its military occupation of Cambodia

In Europe, rise of right wing parties (Le Pen in France, Schönhuber/Republikaner in Germany, Haider in Austria), parallel to a rise of Green parties.

Political correctness

U.S. invades Grenada

U.S. invades Panama

The Reagan doctrine supports anti-communist insurgencies in El Salvador and elsewhere, but leads to the Iran-Contra scandal

Economics

Reaganomics in the United States

In the United States the longest bull market in history begins in 1983; Dow Jones Industrial Average passes 2000 point milestone January 8, 1987

OPEC controls slip; petroleum prices collapse below $10 per barrel by mid-1986, devastating oil-producing nations such as Mexico

U.S. Midwest Farm Crisis 1981–1985

East Asian Tigers' share of world trade rises significantly

U.S. balance of trade falls into chronic deficit; populists criticize trade relations with Japan

The New York Stock Exchange suffers its largest one-day stock market drop, on October 19, 1987

Late 1980s recession

Culture

The "Me Generation" manifests itself in conspicuous consumption among American yuppies, but fashions and dialogue trend conservative

Television networks are challenged by cable television. In the U.S., Cheers and The Cosby Show top ratings and the Fox network is launched. CNN becomes the first 24-hour news channel.

The video game console outstrips the arcade game

Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opens in 1982 and shatters records for box office gross receipts

Music videos (and MTV) begin to have an effect on record industry in the United States. Pop artists Michael Jackson and Madonna are pioneers; groups such as Duran Duran benefit

Massive sales for Ethiopian famine relief records by Band Aid ("Do They Know It's Christmas?") and USA for Africa ("We Are the World"), followed by Live Aid famine relief concert in London and Philadelphia. Other artists push for nuclear disarmament

In the United States, hair metal enjoys popularity

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Schönberg and Boublil's Les Misérables dominate musical theatre

He-Man, the first animated children's television program built exclusively around a toyline, starts a new trend of increasing the connection between children's programming and toy advertising, alarming many parents and watchdog organizations; an explosive number of toy tie-in cartoons follow

Hip hop began to achieve mainstream success in the United States, with artists like Kurtis Blow and N.W.A.; hip hop's spread outside of New York City, especially to Los Angeles, accelerates

"Gorbymania"

The Rubik's cube, Cabbage Patch Kids, "Baby on Board" signs, and Trivial Pursuit fads capture the interest of the American public

Soap operas gain popularity among high-schoolers and college students in the United States, thanks in part to the supercoupling of Luke and Laura on the most popular soap of the day, General Hospital.