-
Olympic Boycott by USA
President Carter announces the boycott of the Summer Olympics held in Moscow in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This protest would be joined by multiple different nations as well -
Ronald Regan (R)
Ronald Regan is elected the 39th President of the United States. He wins the election over the incumbent President Jimmy Carter. -
Iranian hostage crisis ended
After 444 days the American hostages are released back to the United States. -
Assassination Attempt on Regan
The president had just finished addressing a labor meeting at the Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking with his entourage to his limousine when Hinckley, standing among a group of reporters, fired six shots at the president, hitting Reagan and three of his attendants. -
Challenger
Seventy three seconds after launch the Challenger explodes. The crew, including a science teacher from New Hampshire, perish when the titanium crew capsule impacted on the ground after the launch. The cause of the accident was a broken O ring the was damaged by the oddly cool Florida morning. Even with warnings from engineers NASA decided to launch anyways. -
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"
In a moving speech delivered to West Germans, President Regan challenges the Soviet leader to tear down the wall to end the separation of Germany that was establishes in 1945 after WWII. The wall would later fall in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union. -
World Wide Web
A computer programmer in Switzerland named Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web: an internet that was not simply a way to send files from one place to another but was itself a “web” of information that anyone on the Internet could retrieve. Berners-Lee created the Internet that we know today. -
George Bush (R)
Former Vice President Bush, under Regan, is elected into office and becomes the 40th President of the United States. -
Gulf War
US troops are deployed in Saudi Arabia as tension in the region rises from the reign of Hussein and the oil theft in the region. -
Jihad
Hussein declares "Jihad," or holy war, on the United States. -
Desert Storm
Operation Desert Storm commences officially starting the Gulf War. The U.S. was accompanied by troops sent by NATO allies as well as Egypt and several other Arab nations. The coalition effort benefited from the latest military technology, including Stealth bombers, Cruise missiles, so-called “Smart” bombs with laser-guidance systems and infrared night-bombing equipment. The Iraqi air force was either destroyed early on or opted out of combat under the relentless attack. -
Bill Clinton (D)
Bill Clinton, Former governor of Arkansas, is elected the 41st President of the United States. Clinton would win the election over the incumbent President Bush. -
Impeachment
After nearly 14 hours of debate, the House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. He is technically the first president to be impeached while in office. Nixon resigned before he was officially impeached. This came from and investigation into Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinsky. -
George W. Bush (R)
George W. Bush, the former Governor of Texas, is elected the 43rd President of the United States. This would also be the second time in history a son would be elected president following his father whom was also president. -
America attacked
On the morning of September 11th, four us commercial airliners were hijacked by radical terriorists of the Al-Qaeda. They crashed into US targets such as the World Trade center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. The fourth plane, United 93, crashed in a field located in Pennsylvania. This was after the passengers attacked their hijackers in attempt to regain control of the aircraft.
