1980s

Bulletin board system popularity
Popularization of personal computers, Walkmans, VHS videocassette recorders, and compact disc or 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
Framework launched

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Science

Discovery of the W and Z bosons at CERN
Development of the scanning tunneling microscope by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer

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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 Ceausescu
Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism dominate British politics. The so-called Reagan Revolution introduces neoconservatives to Washington
Falklands War; Argentine invades the Falkland islands in 1982 but defeated by Great Britain
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 Airlift
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
The Reagan doctrine supports anti-communist insurgencies in El Salvador and elsewhere, but leads to the Iran-Contra scandal

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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

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Popular 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. USA for Africa single "We Are the World" benefits famine relief in Ethiopia. Other artists push for nuclear disarmament. 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.

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Others

Assassination of John Lennon and Olof Palme, attempts on Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.
President Tito of Yugoslavia dies.
Release of Americans held hostage in Iran
Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini isssues a fatwa urging the killing of Salman Rushdie
Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland
The AIDS epidemic is identified and named
Violent crime and drug trafficking soar to record levels in most large American cities