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The United States Olympic Committee, responding to the request of President Jimmy Carter on March 21, votes to withdraw its athletes from participation in the Moscow Summer Olympic Games, due to the continued involvement of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
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On May 22, 1980, the Pac-Man video game was released in Japan and by October of the same year it was released in the United States.
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Ronald Reagan wins with 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49 electoral votes.
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25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. opened fire on U.S. President Ronald Reagan just outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. President Reagan was hit by one bullet, which punctured his lung.
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The United States Senate confirmed O'Connor in a vote of 99 for and zero against.
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The movie E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was a hit from the day it was released (June 11, 1982) and quickly became one of the most beloved movies of all time.
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The first visitors toured the newly completed Vietnam Veterans Memorial near the National Mall in Washington.
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When she blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger, she became the first American woman—and, at 32, the youngest American—in space.
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241 Marines killed in Beirut in a terrorist attack.
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The court-ordered reorganization of AT&T into seven independent regional telephone companies takes place.
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July 12, 1984 - Democratic candidate for President, Walter Mondale, selects Geraldine Ferraro as his Vice Presidential running mate, the first woman chosen for that position.
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The opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games is held. There is a retaliatory boycott by most allies of the Soviet Union due to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow games
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The first meeting in six years between the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States occurs when Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan engage in a five hour summit conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
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The Space Shuttle Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. As the world watched on TV, the Challenger soared into the sky and then, shockingly, exploded just 73 seconds after take-off. All seven members of the crew, including social studies teacher Sharon "Christa" McAuliffe, died in the disaster. An investigation of the accident discovered that the O-rings of the right solid rocket booster had malfunctioned.
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The first reporting of the Iran-Contra affair, diverting money from arm sales to Iran to fund Nicaraguan contra rebels, begins the largest crisis in the Reagan tenure.
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The stock market crash known as Black Monday occurred on the New York Stock Exchange, recording a record 22.6% drop in one day. Stock markets around the world would mirror the crash with drops of their own.
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Vice President under Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, claims victory in the presidential election over Democratic challenger Michael S. Dukakis, Governor of Massachusetts. The Electoral College vote tallied 426 for Bush and 111 for Dukakis.
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A Pan Am passenger jet explodes 31,000 feet above Scotland, killing all 259 persons on board as well as 11 on the ground (189 Americans). An investigation determines that a bomb caused the explosion and the U.S. offers a $500,000 reward for information leading to the prosecution of those responsible.
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The Exxon Valdez crashed into Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, causing the largest oil spill in American history, eleven million gallons, which extended forty-five miles.
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The Berlin Wall, after thirty-eight years of restricting traffic between the East and West German sides of the city, begins to crumble when German citizens are allowed to travel freely between East and West Germany for the first time. One day later, the influx of crowds around and onto the wall begin to dismantle it, thus ending its existence.
