ENGL C101 Guide for Debilyn Kinzler: The 1980s

1980

• Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th United States President
• Ted Turner created the first 24-hour cable network for news, new coverage through CNN. 
• MTV burst into the television cable industry. 
• IBM released the first Model 1550 personal computer. 
• Mount Saint Helens in Washington state erupts. 

1981

• Sandra Day O'Connor is the first woman United States Supreme Court Justice
• Assassination attempts on Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. 
• AIDS is identified. 
• Iranian hostages released. 
• Royal marriage of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles. 

1982

• Equal Rights Amendment fails ratification. 
• A brief undeclared war erupted between the United Kingdom and Argentina over control of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and associated island dependencies.
• Michael Jackson released Thriller, one of the most successful albums in the world. Its sales are helped by Jackson's music videos for MTV cable television.

1983

• Sally Ride was the first United States female astronaut to head to space.
• United States invades Grenada
• The Internet, an electronic computer and information-exchange network created to support communication between scientists, opens.

1984

• The Macintosh Computer was released. 
• India's first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated. 

1985

• The wreckage of the RMS Titanic was discovered at a depth of about 13,000 feet by a team of oceanographers led by Robert Ballard. The ship sank in 1912.
• The benefit concert Live Aid is held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia. Featuring numerous performers, the event raises millions of dollars for famine relief in Ethiopia.
• The Microsoft Corporation released the Windows operating system, a sequel to its popular MS-DOS.

1986

• Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during lift-off in what would have been its 9th mission, killing all seven crew members.
• Explosions at the nuclear power plant at Chornobyl, Ukraine, brought about the worst nuclear reactor accident in history.
• The Oprah Winfrey Show is nationally syndicated. Winfrey's compassion and honesty attract a wide audience, and the talk show becomes a leader of the genre.

1987

• Iran-Contra hearings
• On 12th June 1987, Germany made history as the Berlin Wall was brought down. 

1988

• George H. W. Bush was elected the 41st President
• Global Warming Warning

1989

• One of the worst oil spills in history occurred in Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez ran aground, spilling more than 10 million gallons of crude oil and badly damaging the ecosystem.
• Tiananmen Square Massacre: A series of protests and demonstrations in China culminated with a government crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
• Scientists at CERN, a physics research facility in Switzerland, begin work on the World Wide Web, a network to speed the circulation of scientific preprints and research reports.
• On 9 November 1989, Eastern Germany opened its borders and reunited Germany.