-
Ronald Reagan, the actor, became the 40th president of the United States defeating Jimmy Carter in a landslide credited to the people being fed up with the Democratic big government.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/09/25/the-most-consequential-elections-in-history-ronald-reagan-and-the-election-of-1980 -
Rock legend John Lennon was shot outside of his New York City apartment building by a crazy man, Mark David Chapman, causing worldwide vigils and mourning.
https://time.com/4131751/john-lennon-1980-anniversary/ -
Harrison Ford debuted in Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark as an adventurous archaeologist on the hunt for the Ark of the Covenant.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082971/ -
Epic Records released Michael Jackson's Thriller album which would have 7 out of 9 songs reaching the top 10 Billboard Hot 100 and become the best selling pop album of all time.
https://wncmusicacademy.com/michael-jackson-releases-thriller-1982-november-30-2015/ -
President Ronald Reagan proposed a defense system, nicknamed Star Wars, to protect the U.S. against nuclear ballistic missiles.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/president-reagan-calls-for-launching-star-wars-initiative-march-23-1983-236259 -
The Gulf Coast was battered with 115 mph winds as Category 3 Hurricane Alicia touched down causing over $2 billion in damages and killing 21 people.
https://abc13.com/texas-hurricanes-hurricane-alicia-gulf-coast/1474417/ -
The 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, California with 6,829 participating athletes.
https://www.olympic.org/news/los-angeles-1984-an-indelible-legacy -
The first Apple Macintosh personal computer was mass produced marketed with its user friendly operation.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/01/24/apple-launched-macintosh-on-january-24-1984-and-changed-the-world----eventually -
President Ronald Reagan defeated former Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale with 49 states and an approval rating of over 58% to claim the biggest win in presidential history.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-world/walter-mondale-1984-election-one-state/507-e207a201-3c0d-4922-800c-90b9d22a97d6 -
Legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan, was named NBAs Rookie of the Year.
https://air.jordan.com/card/the-aji-rookie-of-the-year/#:~:text=On%20May%2016%2C%201985%2C%20a,short%20and%20to%20the%20point. -
Bill Watterson's comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" debuted featuring a 6 year old boy and his stuffed tiger.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/589621/read-first-ever-calvin-hobbes-comic-published-30-years-ago-today -
NASA's Shuttle Challenger had a booster engine fail just 73 seconds after take off and exploded killing all seven passengers.
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_gallery_2437.html -
U.S. President Ronald Reagan addressed Mikhail Gorbachev and demanded that he tear down the wall.
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/summer/berlin.html -
The American sitcom "Full House" debuted featuring a widower father and his two buddies who live together to raise his 3 daughters.
https://fullhouse.fandom.com/wiki/Full_House -
Campaigning on the Reagan legacy, Vice President George H. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis
https://www.politico.com/magazine/gallery/2013/11/how-bush-beat-dukakis-000005?slide=0 -
The Supreme Court protected the rights of protestors who burned the flag with a controversial First Amendment decision.
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/blog/when-the-supreme-court-ruled-to-allow-american-flag-burning#:~:text=On%20June%2021%2C%201989%2C%20a,who%20had%20burned%20the%20flag. -
After the US deployed troops to Kuwait and oil prices rose, the government raised interest rates contributing in a recession.
https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/debt/1990srecession.html -
A treaty was signed between the United States and the Soviet Union to control arms and remove nuclear weapons that existed.
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/start1 -
Ross Perot ran as an independent and stole votes that could have gone to incumbent President George H. Bush allowing Democratic candidate Bill Clinton to pull off the win.
https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/debt/1992presidentialelection.html -
Federal agents stormed the Waco Branch Davidian compound after a 51 day standoff and a fire broke out which killed 76 people.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/02/27/breaking-through-the-myths-surrounding-the-1993-branch-davidian-raid/ -
Americans could not pull their eyes away from the tv to focus on the NBA finals as they were glued to watching OJ Simpson's white Ford Bronco being chased by the police as a suspect in his wife's murder.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/june-17-1994-o-j-simpson-car-chase-mesmerizes-nation/ -
A domestic terrorist attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols shocked Americans and killed 168 people.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/13/oklahoma-city-bombing-20-years-later-key-questions-remain-unanswered -
President Bill Clinton won a second term defeating former senator Bob Doyle with a large margin campaigning on the successful recovering economy.
https://www.270towin.com/1996_Election/ -
President Bill Clinton appointed Madeleine Albright to be the first woman to serve as Secretary of State.
https://fairygodboss.com/career-topics/first-female-secretary-of-state -
Exxon-Mobile joined forces to become the largest corporation in the world.
https://money.cnn.com/1998/12/01/deals/exxon/ -
Two high school students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, planned and carried out a horrific massacre gunning down their classmates before committing suicide.
https://www.pennlive.com/life/2020/04/just-normal-kids-killed-13-people-the-columbine-high-school-shooting-in-1999.html -
Napster was released as a file sharing platform for music.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/feb/24/napster-music-free-file-sharing -
Texas Republican Governor George W. Bush led the electoral college to win the closest presidential election in history over Democratic opponent Al Gore.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/modern-us/1990s-america/a/the-election-of-2000 -
Islamic extremist terrorist group al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, attacked America by hijacking four airplanes and flew them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against the terrorists.
https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/9-11-attacks