The
1980s (The Eighties) was the decade that ran
from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 1989.
The time period saw social, economic and general change as wealth
and production migrated to newly industrializing economies. As
economic liberalization increased in the developed world, multiple
multinational
corporations associated with the manufacturing industry
relocated into Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan,
China, and new market economies in eastern Europe following the
collapse of communism in eastern Europe. Japan and Germany are the
most notable developed countries that continued to enjoy rapid
economic growth during the decade.
Developing
countries across the world faced economic and social difficulties
as they suffered from multiple debt crises in the 1980s, requiring
many of these countries to apply for financial assistance from the
International
Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World
Bank. Ethiopia
witnessed
widespread famine in the mid-1980s, resulting in the country having
to depend on foreign aid to provide food to its population and
worldwide efforts to address and raise money to help Ethiopians,
such as the famous Live Aid concert in
1985.
Major
civil discontent and violence occurred in the Middle East,
including the Iran-Iraq War, the
ongoing Soviet-Afghan War, major
conflict and violence in Lebanon
from 1982 to
1983, U.S. military action against Libya
in 1986, and
the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip
and the West
Bank
.
In the
eastern world, hostility to authoritarianism and the failing
command economies of communist states resulted in a wave of
reformist policies by communist regimes such as the policies of
perestroika and glasnost in the USSR, along with the
overthrows and attempted overthrows of a number of communist
regimes, such as in Poland, Hungary, the Tiananmen Square
protests of 1989
in China
, the
Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution",
and the overthrow of the dictatorial
regime in Romania
and other
communist Warsaw Pact states in Central and Eastern
Europe. It came to be called the late 1980s "purple
passage of the
autumn of nations".
By 1989
with the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union
announced the abandonment of political hostility to
the western world and thus the Cold War
ended. These changes continued to be felt in the 1990s and
into the 21st century.
The 1980s was also an era of tremendous population growth around
the world, surpassing even the 1970s and 1990s, thus arguably being
the largest in human history. Population growth was particularly
rapid in a number of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian
countries during this decade, with rates of natural increase close
to or exceeding 4% annually.
During the 1980s, for the first time in world history, transpacific
trade (with East Asia, such as China, and Latin America, primarily
with Mexico) equaled that of transatlantic trade (with Western
Europe or with neighboring Canada)., solidifying American economic
power.
Zeitgeist and characterization
The 1980s saw a revival of capitalism and
laissez-faire economics. Consumers
became more sophisticated in their tastes (a trend begun in the
'70s), and things such as European cars and designer clothing
became fashionable. The financial world and the stock market were
glamorized in a way they had not been since the 1920s, and figures
like
Donald Trump and
Michael Milken were widely seen as symbols of
the decade. Widespread fear of Japanese economic strength would
grip the United States in the '80s.
The
kitsch of the
1970s,
while itself rejected, influenced the fashion of the 1980s – in the
beginning of the decade marked by the
New
Romantic movement and later by fashion inspired by
heavy metal bands, including teased hair,
ripped jeans and neon clothing.
Michael Jackson was a popular
entertainer of the 1980s and his
leather
jacket,
glove and
Moonwalk dance were often imitated.
The
keyboard synthesizer and
drum machine, introduced in the
1970s, were among the most popular in music in
the 1980s, especially in
New Wave
music. After the 1980s, electronic instruments were no longer
popular in rock but continued to be the main component of
mainstream pop.
Trends
- The Reagan Administration
accelerated the War on Drugs,
publicized through anti-drug campaigns including the Just Say No campaign of First Lady Nancy Reagan. Drugs became a serious problem
beginning in the '80s. Cocaine was popular among celebrities and
the young, sophisticated "yuppies" (a trend that also had started
in the '70s), while crack, a cheaper and more potent offshoot of
the drug, turned the inner cities into war zones.
- Political correctness in
the 1980s & increasingly in the following 1990's, was a trend
of opposing, condemning, fighting and preventing racism, discrimination
or other forms of prejudice against
minority groups in societies like the
United States, Canada, Western Europe and Australia/New
Zealand.
- The role of women in the workplace increased greatly.
Continuing the 1970s' trend, more and more women in the
English-speaking world took to calling themselves "Ms.", rather than "Mrs." or "Miss." A similar change
occurred in Germany, with women choosing "Frau" instead of
"Fräulein" in an effort to disassociate marital status from title.
In most western countries, women began
to exercise the option of keeping their maiden names after
marriage; in Canada, legislation was enacted to end the practice of
automatically changing a woman's last name upon marriage.
- National safety campaigns raised awareness of seat belt usage to save lives in automobile
accidents, helping to make the measure mandatory in most parts of
the world by 1990. Similar efforts arose to push child safety seats and bike helmet use, already mandatory in a number
of regions.
- Rejection of smoking based on
health concerns increased throughout the western world.
- Increased awareness and opposition to white-minority apartheid rule in South Africa occurred in the
western world.
- Counterculture in the eastern world revolved around
"pro-democracy" stances in opposition to multiple communist states
perceived as authoritarian.
- Opposition to nuclear power plants grew, especially after
the catastrophic 1986 Chernobyl accident
.
- Environmental concerns intensified. In the United Kingdom,
environmentally friendly domestic products surged in popularity.
Western European countries adopted "greener" policies to cut back
on oil use, recycle
most of their nations' waste, and increase focus on water and energy conservation efforts. Similar
"eco-activist" trends appeared in the U.S. in the late 1980s.
- Gay rights became more widely
accepted in the Western world, particularly with suspected gay
figures such as Boy George and Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The
discovery of AIDS however, allowed the Christian Right to condemn homosexuals,
claiming AIDS was God's punishment for homosexuals' "loose
morals".
- There were numerous protests demanding that the government take
action against AIDS, which were fueled by the AIDS-related deaths
of celebrities such as Rock Hudson and
Liberace, and by the case of Ryan White, a
child who became infected by the HIV virus through contaminated
blood supplies.
Culture
Sports
- The 1980 Summer Olympics in
Moscow were disrupted by a boycott led by the United
States and 64 other countries in protest of the 1979 Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan.
- The 1980 Winter Olympics
are forever remembered for the Miracle on
Ice, where a young United States hockey team defeated the
heavily favored Soviet team for the gold medal.
- The 1984 Summer Olympics in
Los Angeles were boycotted by the Soviet Union and most of the
communist world (China, Romania, and Yugoslavia participated in the
games) in retaliation for the 1980 boycott.
- The
1984 Winter Olympics are held
in Sarajevo
, Yugoslavia (now
Sarajevo, Bosnia and
Herzegovina
). Yugoslavia becomes the second communist
country to host the Olympic Games, but
unlike the Soviet
Union in 1980, there were no boycotts of the Games by
western countries.
- The
Jamaica national bobsled
team received major media attention and stunned the world at
the 1988 Winter Olympics in
Calgary
, Canada for
its unexpected good performance. It overcame the stereotype
that northern countries were the only efficient competitors in
winter Olympic Games due to their experiencing an actual winter.
The
events surrounding the Jamaica bobsled team in 1988 would lead to
the creation of the Disney movie Cool Runnings five years later which was
based on Jamaica
's 1988 bobsled team.
- The
1988 Summer Olympics are held
in Seoul
, South
Korea. Attempts to include North Korea in the games were
unsuccessful, and it boycotted along with six other countries, but
with 160 nations participating, it had the highest attendance of
any Olympics to date.
- FIA bans Group B
rallying after a series of deaths and
injuries take place in the 1986 season.
- Canadian hockey player Wayne
Gretzky rises to fame as a dominant player in the North
American National Hockey
League (NHL) during the 1980s.
- In the US, basketball player Michael
Jordan bursts onto the scene in the 1980s, bringing a surge in
popularity for the sport and becoming one of American culture's
most beloved icons.
- On November 26, 1986 Mike Tyson became the Youngest Heavyweight
Champion of the world.
Music
- See also 1980s in music,
Timeline of musical
events#1980s
- The decade began with an anti-disco
backlash in the US, and '80s music would be characterized by the
widespread use of synthesizers and keyboards.
- In the United States, MTV was launched and
music videos began to have a huge effect
on the record industry. Pop artists such as Duran Duran,Prince ,Madonna, Queen, and Michael
Jackson mastered the format and helped turned this new product
into a profitable business.
- New Wave and Synthpop were developed by many British and
American artists, and became popular phenomena throughout the
decade, especially in the early and mid eighties.
- Hard rock, heavy metal, and glam metal experienced extreme popularity in
1980s, becoming one of the most dominant music genres of the
1980s.
- 1985's Live Aid
concert, featuring many artists, promoted attention and action to
send food aid to Ethiopia whose people were suffering from a major famine.
- The hip hop scene continued to
evolve, gaining recognition and exhibiting a stronger influence on
the music industry.
- Punk rock continued to make strides in
the musical community; it gave birth to many sub-genres like
hardcore, which has continued to be
moderately successful, giving birth in turn to a few counterculture
movements, most notably the Straight
Edge movement which began in the early era of this decade.
- Techno is a form of electronic dance
music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, USA during the mid to late
1980s.
- House music is a style of electronic
dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, USA in the late
1970s and early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s
discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino and gay
communities, first in Chicago, then in New York City and Detroit.
It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream
pop & dance music worldwide.
- College Rock caught on in the
underground scene of the 1980's in a nationwide movement with a
distinct D.I.Y approach. Bands like the
Pixies, REM, The Replacements, Minor Threat, Sonic
Youth, etc. experienced success in this genre.
Film
Technology
Electronics and computers
Arcade games and video games had been
growing in popularity since the 1970s, and by 1982 were a major
industry. But a variety of factors, including a glut of low-quality
games and the rise of home computers caused a
tremendous crash in
late 1983. For the next three years, the video game market
practically ceased to exist in the US. But in the second half of
the decade, it would be revived by
Nintendo, whose Famicom console had been enjoying
considerable success in Japan since 1983. Renamed the
Nintendo Entertainment System,
it would claim 90% of the American video game market by 1989.
Computers experienced explosive
growth in the '80s, going from being a toy for electronics
hobbyists to a full-fledged industry. The IBM PC, launched in 1981,
would become the dominant platform in less than a decade, although
8-bit machines such as the
Ataris and
Commodores also enjoyed great success in the home
and educational markets.
Meanwhile, Apple
was
committed to resisting the PC juggernaut at all costs by launching
the first Macintosh in 1984, which
popularized GUIs, 3.5" floppy disks, and
mice.
Space exploration
After a five-year hiatus, manned American space flights resumed
with the launch of the space shuttle Columbia in April 1981. The
shuttle program progressed smoothly from there, with three more
orbiters entering service in 1983–1985. But that all came to an end
with the tragic loss of the
Challenger on January 28, 1986,
taking with it seven astronauts, including Christia McAuliffe, who
was to have been the first teacher in space. In full view of the
world, a faulty O-ring on the right solid rocket booster burned
through the external fuel tank and caused it to explode, destroying
the shuttle in the process.
Extensive efforts were made to improve
NASA's
increasingly careless management practices, and to
make the shuttle safer. Flights resumed with the launch of
Discovery in September 1988.
The Soviet manned program went well during the decade, experiencing
only minor setbacks. The Salyut 6 space station, launched in 1977,
was replaced by Salyut 7 in 1982. Then came Mir in 1986, which
ended up operating more than a decade, and was destined to be the
last in the line of Soviet space stations that had begun in 1971.
One of the Soviet Union's last "superprojects" was the Buran space
shuttle; it was only used once, in 1988.
Planetary probes continued in the '80s, the Voyager duo being the
most famous. After making a flyby of Jupiter in 1979, they visited
Saturn in 1980–1981. Voyager 2 reached Uranus in 1986 (just a few
days before the Challenger disaster), and Neptune in 1989 before
the probes exited the solar system.
No American probes were launched to Mars in the 1980s, and the
Viking probes, launched there in
1975, completed their operations by 1982. The Soviets launched two
Mars probes in 1988, but they failed ignominiously.
The arrival of
Halley's Comet in 1986
was met by a series of American, Soviet, Japanese, and ESA
probes.
Automobiles
The American auto industry began the 1980s in a thoroughly grim
situation, faced with poor quality control, rising import
competition, and a severe economic downturn.
Chrysler and
American
Motors (AMC) were near bankruptcy, and Ford was little better
off. Only GM continued with business as usual. But the auto makers
recovered with the economy by 1983, and in 1985 auto sales in the
United States hit a new record. However, the Japanese were now a
major presence, and would begin manufacturing cars in the US to get
around tariffs. In 1986, Hyundai became the first Korean auto maker
to enter the American market. In the same year, the
Yugoslavian-built
Yugo was brought to
the US, but the car was so small, cheap, and primitive that it
became the subject of countless jokes. It was sold up to 1991, when
economic sanctions against Yugoslavia forced its withdrawal from
the American market.
Cars were generally straight and boxy in the 1980s, but Ford set a
trend starting in 1983 with the arrival of new designers who
favored aerodynamic styling. By the end of the decade, Ford was the
number one American make, with sales winners such as the Taurus and
the most efficient corporate structure in the industry. GM began
suffering significant losses in the late-1980s, partially the
result of chairman Roger Smith's restructuring attempts, and
partially because of increasingly stale and unappealing cars. For
example, "yuppies" increasingly favored European luxury cars to
Cadillac. In 1985, GM started Saturn (the first new American make
since the Edsel), with the goal of producing high-quality import
fighters. Production would not begin until 1990, however.
Chrysler introduced its new compact, front-wheel drive K-cars in
1981. Under the leadership of Lee Iacocca, the company turned a
profit again the following year, and by 1983 paid off its
government loans. A seemingly endless succession of K-cars
followed. But the biggest success was the arrival of the minivans
in 1984. These proved a huge hit, and despite competition, they
would dominate the van market for more than a decade. And in 1987,
Chrysler purchased the Italian makes of Lamborghini and Maserati.
In the same year, Chrysler bought AMC from Renault laying to rest
the last significant independent U.S. automaker, but acquiring the
hugely profitable
Jeep line and continuing the
Eagle brand until the late
1990s.
The
DeLorean DMC-12 was the
brainchild of
John DeLorean, a
flamboyant former GM executive. Production of the gull-winged
sports car began in Northern Ireland in 1981. John DeLorean was
arrested in October 1982 in a sting operation where he was
attempting to sell cocaine to save his struggling company. He was
acquitted of all charges in 1984, but too late for the DeLorean
Motor Company, which closed down in 1983. The DMC-12 gained renewed
fame afterwards as the time machine in the
Back to the Future motion
picture trilogy.
The imposition of CAFE fuel-mileage standards in 1979 spelled the
end of big-block engines, but performance cars and convertibles
reemerged in the 1980s. Turbochargers were widely used to boost the
performance of small cars, and fuel injection began to take over
from carburetors. Front-wheel drive also became dominant.
The eighties marked the decline of European brands by the end of
the decade.
Renault,
Citroen, and
Peugeot ceased
importation by the end of the decade.
Alfa
Romeo would continue until 1993.
Fiat
also ceased
imports in the eighties.
International news
- Militance against communist governments in Europe and Asia,
collapse of the Warsaw Pact precipitates
the end of the Cold War.
- International debt crisis in developing
countries, reliance of these countries on aid from the International
Monetary Fund.
- Spread of neoliberal economics in
developed world.
Africa
Americas
- Ten
thousand Cubans stormed the Peruvian
embassy in Havana
seeking
political asylum on April 6, 1980. On April 7 the Cuban
government granted permission for the emigration of Cubans seeking
refuge in the Peruvian embassy.
- Peru faced the
beginning of internal
conflict by the communist Túpac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement in 1980 that would continue until the
end of the 1990s.
- Famous former Beatles
musician John Lennon was assassinated
in 1980 in the United States.
- Political unrest in the province of Quebec
, which, due
to the many differences between the dominant francophone population
and the anglophone minority, and also to francophone rights in the
predominantly English-speaking
Canada, came to a head in 1980 when the provincial government
called a public referendum
on partial separation from the rest of Canada. The
referendum ended with the "no" side winning majority (59.56% no,
40.44% yes).
- Ronald Reagan was elected U.S.
President in 1980. In international affairs, Reagan pursued a
hardline policy towards preventing the spread of communism,
initiating a considerable buildup of U.S. military power to
challenge the Soviet
Union. He further directly challenges the Iron Curtain by demanding that the Soviet Union
dismantle the Berlin
Wall
.
- Mexico suffers from a debt crisis starting in 1982.
- Argentina invaded the Falkland
Islands
, sparking the Falklands
War. It occurred from 2 April 1982 – 14 July 1982
between the United Kingdom and Argentina
as British forces fought to liberate the Falkland
Islands. Britain emerged victorious and its stance in
international affairs and its reputation as a great power increased substantially. Argentina,
on the other hand, was left humiliated by the defeat; its dictator
Leopoldo Galtieri was deposed
three days after the end of the war.
- Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1981 by
John Hinckley, a mentally disturbed
young man. Reagan's press secretary James
Brady was also shot, along with a police officer and a Secret
Service agent. The latter two recovered, along with Reagan himself,
but Brady used a wheelchair thereafter and would become an advocate
of gun control.
- Canada gained official independence from the United Kingdom
with a new Constitution on April 17, 1982, authorized by the
signature by Queen Elizabeth II.
This act severed all political dependencies of the United Kingdom
in Canada (although the queen remained the titular head of
state).
- The United States engaged in significant direct and indirect
conflict in the decade via alliances with various groups in a
number of Central and South American countries claiming that the
U.S. was acting to oppose the spread of communism and end illicit drug trade. The U.S. government
supported the government of Colombia
's attempts to destroy its large illicit cocaine-trafficking industry and provided support
for right-wing rebels in El Salvador
which became controversial after the El Mozote
massacre
on December 11, 1981 in which U.S.-trained
Salvadoran paramilitaries killed 1000 Salvadoran civilians.
The
United States, along with members of the Organisation of Eastern
Caribbean States, invaded
Grenada
in 1983. The Iran-Contra affair erupted which involvee
U.S. interventionism in Nicaragua
, resulting in members of the U.S. government being
indicted in 1986. U.S. military action began against Panama
in December
1989 to overthrow its president, Manuel
Noriega.
- Air India Flight 182
was destroyed on June 23, 1985 by Sikh-Canadian militants. It was the largest mass
murder involving Canadians in Canada's history.
- The
Space Shuttle
Challenger broke apart during takeoff
off the coast of central Florida
on January 28, 1986, killing all 7 crew members
onboard.
- Haitian
dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was overthrown by
a popular uprising on February 6, 1986.
- The 1986 World's Fair, Expo 86, was held
in Vancouver, Canada. It was the last fair held in North America
and was considered a great success in comparison to the then-recent
American Expositions.
- Enactment of the Canada-United States
Free Trade Agreement in 1989.
- Military
dictatorships give way to democracy in
Argentina (1983), Uruguay (1984–5), Brazil (1985–8) and Chile
(1988–9).
- Independence was
awarded to Antigua
, Belize
, (both
1981) and Saint
Kitts and Nevis
(1983).
- The
Exxon
Valdez oil spill
occurred in March 1989.
Asia
- The Iran-Iraq war took place from
1980 to 1988. Iraq
was
accused of using illegal chemical
weapons to kill Iranian
forces and against its own dissident Kurdish populations. Both sides
suffered enormous casualties, but the poorly equipped Iranian
armies suffered worse for it, being forced to use boys as young as
15 in human-wave attacks. Iran finally agreed to an armistice in
1988.
- Serious conflicts erupted in Lebanon in the
1980s. The 1982 Lebanon
War occurred when Israel
attacked
Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO) forces inside Lebanon, in which
Israel faced war with Lebanese and Syrian
armed
forces inside Lebanon. The controversial Siege of Beirut by Israeli military forces
resulted in enormous damage to the infrastructure and significant
civilian casualties in Lebanon's capital and was internationally
condemned, even by the United States, a traditional close ally of
Israel.[6099].
- Vietnam
continued to occupy Cambodia
and battle the Khmer Rouge throughout the entire
decade. Relations with China remained hostile, and there
were frequent border skirmishes, although none were comparable to
the 1979 conflict. The country remained one of Asia's poorest and
was totally dependent on Soviet economic assistance. Mikhail
Gorbachev began reducing foreign aid to the communist bloc in the
late '80s, and this combined with the deaths of elderly Vietnamese
leaders such as Le Duan brought about the
gradual adoption of a free market system similar to that of
China.
- The
Bhopal
disaster
occurred
in 1984 when a toxic gas leak occurred in Bhopal
, India,
killing, poisoning, or blinding thousands.
- Indian prime minister Indira
Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984 by Sikh militants.
- The Soviet army became bogged down in the Soviet-Afghan War during the '80s,
suffering heavy losses at the hands of US-backed Islamic militias.
Mikhail Gorbachev began the
process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, which was completed in
1988.
- Under the leadership of Deng
Xiaoping, China embarked on extensive reforms in the 1980s,
introducing market economics and downgrading ideology. Increasing
demands for political freedom culminated in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in June
1989, when tanks and troops of the People's Liberation Army crushed
student protesters who were camped in the square, killing or
injuring 3000 or more people. Hardliners took over the government
afterwards, and China ended the '80s as an international
pariah.
- In the Philippines, after almost 20 years of dictatorship,
Philippine president Ferdinand
Marcos left his presidency and was replaced by Corazon Aquino through a peaceful revolution
called the "People Power
Revolution" from February 22 to 26, 1986. This has been
considered by some a peaceful revolution despite the fact that the
Armed Forces of the Philippines issued an order to disperse the
crowds on EDSA (the main thoroughfare in Metro Manila).
- Benigno "Ninoy"
Aquino, husband of the 11th and the first female president of
the Philippines
was shot dead at the Manila International Airport
on August 21, 1983. The killers were never identified.
- South Korean president Chun Doo
Hwan came to power at the end of 1979 and ruled as a dictator
until his presidential term expired in 1987. He was responsible for
the Kwangju Massacre in May 1980
when police and soldiers battled armed protesters. Relations with
North Korea showed little sign of improvement during the 1980s. In
1983, when Chun was in Burma, a bomb apparently planted by North
Korean agents killed a number of South Korean government officials.
After leaving office, he was succeeded by Roh Tae Woo, the first democratic ruler of the
country, which saw its international prestige greatly rise with
hosting the Olympics in 1988. Roh pursued a policy of normalizing
relations with China and the Soviet Union, but had to face militant
left-wing student groups who demanded reunification with North
Korea and the withdrawal of US troops.
Europe
- The Solidarity movement
began in Poland in 1980, involving workers demanding political
liberalization and democracy in Poland. Attempts by the communist
government to crush the Solidarity movement failed and negotiations
between the movement and the government took place. Solidarity
would be instrumental in encouraging people in other communist
states to demand political reform.
- The
United
Kingdom
was governed by the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher for the entire
decade. Under her rule, the party introduced widespread
economic reforms including the privatisation of industries and the
de-regulation of stock markets echoing
similar reforms of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The closing down of
unprofitable coal mines by Thatcher was met by fierce resistance
from the miners' unions.
- President Reagan's decision to station intermediate-range
nuclear missiles in Western Europe provoked mass protests involving
more than one million people.
- In November 1982, Leonid
Brezhnev, who had led the Soviet Union since 1964, died. He was
followed in quick succession by Yuri
Andropov, the former KGB chief, and Konstantin Chernenko, both of whom were
in poor health during their short tenures in office.
- Mikhail Gorbachev became
leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, and initiated major reforms to
the Soviet Union's government through increasing the rights of
expressing political dissent and allowing some democratic elections
(though maintaining Communist dominance). Gorbachev pursued
negotiation with the United States to decrease tensions and
eventually end the Cold War.
- The European Community's
enlargement
continued with the accession of Greece in 1981 and Spain and
Portugal in 1986.
- At
the end of the decade, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 would be followed in 1990 by the German reunification. During the
course of 1989, most of the communist governments in Eastern Europe
collapsed.
Wars and Conflicts
- The
First Intifada (First Uprising) in
the Gaza
Strip and West
Bank began in 1987 when Palestinian Arabs mounted
large-scale protests against the Israeli military presence in the
Gaza Strip and West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as their
own. The Intifada soon became violent as the Israeli army
and Palestinian militants fought for control over the disputed
territories. The First Intifada would continue until peace
negotiations began between the Palestinian Liberation
Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government in 1993.
- Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor that was under
construction in 1981, and invaded Lebanon the following year, to
drive out entrenched Palestinian militants. Throughout the decade,
Lebanon was engulfed in civil war between Islamic and Christian
factions.
- Soviet-Afghan war ended on
February 15, 1989, ending almost ten years of warfare between the
two countries and would be the last war that the Soviet Union fought.
- The
Tiananmen
Square protests of 1989 occurred in the People's Republic of China in 1989,
in which pro-democracy protestors demanded political reform.
The protests were crushed by the People's Liberation Army.
- Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, sparking the Falklands War in 1982. British forces
successfully recaptured the islands.
Europe
- In
May 1981, there was an assassination attempt
on Pope John Paul II in Saint
Peter's Square
. The assassin was a Turkish man named
Mehmet Ali Agca, who was
subsequently sentenced to life in prison, but would be pardoned in
2000. At
the time, it was widely believed that he was an agent of the Soviet
Union or Bulgaria
, due to the Pope's vocal anti-communist
stance. Agca himself told dozens of conflicting stories over
the years, and his motive remains unclear.
- In
1984 there was an assassination attempt
on the British Prime Minister,
Margaret Thatcher and the
Conservative Government by the IRA.
- Swedish prime minister Olof Palme was
assassinated in February 1986. The assassin has never been
identified.
- The Rome and Vienna
airport attacks take place on December 27, 1985 against the
Israeli El Al airline. The attack was done
by militants loyal to Abu Nidal, backed by
the government of Libya.
- The European Community's
enlargement
continued with the accession of Greece in 1981 and Spain and
Portugal in 1986.
- Significant political reforms occurred in a number of communist
countries in eastern Europe as the populations of these countries
grew increasingly hostile and politically active in opposing
communist governments. These reforms included attempts to increase
individual liberties and market liberalization, and promises of
democratic renewal. The collapse of communism in eastern Europe was
generally peaceful, the exception being Romania, who's leader
Nicolae Ceaucescu tried to keep the people isolated from the events
happening outside the country. While making a speech in Bucharest
in December 1989, he was booed and shouted down by the crowd, and
then tried to flee the city with his wife Elena. Two days later,
they were captured, charged with genocide, and shot on
Christmas.
- In Yugoslavia, following the death of
communist leader Josip Broz Tito in
May 1980, the trend of political reform of the communist system
occurred along with a trend towards ethnic nationalism and inter-ethnic
hostility, especially in Serbia, beginning with the 1986 Memorandum
of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts followed by the
agenda of Serbian communist leader Slobodan Milošević who
aggressively pushed for increased political influence of Serbs in
the late 1980s, condemning non-Serb Yugoslav politicians who
challenged his agenda as being enemies of Serbs.
- There was continuing civil strife in Northern Ireland,
including the adoption of hunger strikes by Irish Republican Army
prisoners seeking the reintroduction of political status.
- Military movement in
Turkey
Oceania
Disasters
Natural disasters
- Mount St. Helens
erupted in Washington
, U.S. on May 18, 1980, killing 57
people.
- The
1989 Loma Prieta
Earthquake
struck the San Francisco Bay Area during the
1989 World Series, gaining
worldwide attention. Sixty-five people were killed and thousands
injured, with major structural damage on freeways and buildings and
broken gas-line fires in San Francisco, California
. The cost of the damage totaled $13
billion (1989 USD).
- The US Drought of 1988
decimated the US with many parts of the country becoming victim.
This was the worst drought to hit the United States in many years.
The drought caused $60 billion in damage (between $80 billion and
$120 billion for 2008 USD).
The concurrent heat waves killed 4,800 to
17,000 people in the United States.
- Hurricane Allen (1980), Hurricane Alicia (1983), Hurricane Gilbert (1988), Hurricane Joan (1988), and Hurricane Hugo (1989) were some notably
destructive Atlantic hurricanes of the 1980s.
- Other
natural disasters of the 1980s include the 1982–1983 El Niño which brought destructive weather to
most of the world; the 1985 Mexico earthquake, which registered 8.1
on the Richter scale and
devastated Mexico City and other areas throughout central Mexico;
the 1985 Nevado del
Ruiz
lahar in Colombia; the 1986 Lake Nyos
limnic eruption in
Cameroon
; and the 1988 Armenian
earthquake, which rocked the Caucasus region of the USSR
.
Non-natural disasters
- In
1984 the Bhopal
disaster resulted
from a toxic MIC gas leak at the
Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India
, killing 3,000 immediately and ultimately claiming
15,000–20,000 lives.
- On Sept. 1, 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air
Lines Flight 007
, which was carrying 269 people including a sitting
U.S. congressman, Larry
McDonald.
- Japan Air Lines Flight 123
, carrying 524 people, crashed on August 12,
1985 while on a flight from Tokyo to Osaka killing 520 of the
people on board. This was the worst ever single-plane
crash.
- In 1986, the NASA Space
Shuttle Challenger disintegrated after
launch, killing all of the crew onboard. This was the first
disaster involving the destruction of a NASA space shuttle. A
faulty O-ring was the cause of the
accident.
- In
1986, the Chernobyl
disaster, a large-scale nuclear
meltdown in the Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, spread a large amount of radioactive material
across Europe, killing 47 people, dooming countless others to
future radiation-related cancer, and causing the displacement of
300,000 people.
- In
1989 the Exxon
Valdez oil spill occurred in Alaska. Although not among the
largest oil spills in history, its remote and sensitive location
made it one of the most devastating ecological disasters ever.
External links
References
becomes independent from official colonial rule of
the United Kingdom in 1980.
in the north
and non-Muslim rebel secessionists in Southern Sudan
. The conflict continues through the present
day Darfur genocide.
people, including the famous Live Aid concert in July 1985.
on October
6, 1981.
suffered multiple military
coups in 1983 and 1985.
took place as part of the Angolan civil war and South African Border War from 1987
to 1988. The battle involved the largest fighting in
Africa since World War II between
military forces from Angola
, Cuba
(expeditionary forces), and Namibia
versus military forces from South Africa and the
dissident Angolan UNITA
organization.
ended in
1989, ending over thirty years of conflict.
, Australia.
.
(1980) and Palau
(1981).
.
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