riots in Miami, Florida after white police kill black motorcyclist
John Lennon killed in NYC
beginning of recorded AIDS deaths in America
failed rescue mission of Iran hostages
U.S. boycotts Olympic Games in Moscow
Marshal Tito dies in Yugoslavia
Ronald Reagan (Republican) defeats Jimmy Carter (Democrat) in Presidential election
-- 53% of eligible voters turn out (lowest in history)

Iranian hostages released at Reagan's inauguration
Assassination attempts on Reagan & Pope John Paul II
Anwar Sadat (Egyptian President) assassinated

Argentina claims Falkland Islands / Britain invades & reclaims
Mexico defaults on billion-dollar loan payment
Federal deregulation of banks & savings-and-loans
Vietnam Veterans Memorial opens in Washington, D.C.

Reagan labels Soviet Union as "evil empire"
"Star Wars": Strategic Defense Initiative antimissile system
-- [click here for college student report on SDI]
South Korean airliner shot down by Soviet military aircraft
Strategic Arms Reduction Talks stall in Geneva
American invasion of island of Grenada
suicide bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon (240 killed)

Marines withdraw from Lebanon
Soviet Union boycotts Olympic Games in Los Angeles
Union-Carbide pesticide leak in Bhopal, India (more than 3000 die)

Mikhail Gorbachev elected General Secretary of Soviet Communist Party
Reagan & Gorbachev meet at U.S.-Russia summit talks in Geneva
beginning of U.S. savings-and-loan crisis

Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corp. (FSLIC) declared insolvent
nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine
"hole" in ozone layer attributed to man-made chlorofluorocarbons
= see EPA's Global Warming Site
= see recent BBC report
"Iran-Contra" affair (Reagan, Congress, Oliver North)
Challenger space shuttle disaster

Congress rescues FSLIC (eventual cost over $700 billion)
Reagan in Berlin: "Tear down this wall."
Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Washington
Single European Act = beginning of European Union
U.S. stock market crash (almost 25% drop in one week)

Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Moscow
-- Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty ("Trust but verify.")
U.S. warship mistakenly shoots down Iranian airliner

George H. W. Bush (Reagan's Vice President) elected U.S. President
Russia withdraws from Afghanistan
non-Communist elections in Soviet Union (first since Revolution of 1918)
-- increasing autonomy of Soviet bloc countries ("Sinatra Doctrine")
-- Berlin Wall dismantled (erected in 1961)
-- reform governments in Eastern Europe
Bush & Gorbachev meet in Malta / announce end of Cold War
U.S. Supreme Court upholds free speech right to burn U.S. flag
Bush declares "War on Drugs"
American troops invade Panama & capture General Noriega
student human rights protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing (thousands killed)
Exxon-Valdez oil tanker disaster in Alaska (10 million tons of crude oil spill into sea)
L. Douglas Wilder elected Governor of Virginia / first (elected) black governor in U.S. history / grandson of slaves

SONY "Walkman"
CD players
fax machine
cellular telephone
personal computers

University of Minnesota Media History Project 1980s timeline