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U.S. boycott of 1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980's Summer Olympic Games in Moscow was used to protest the late 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In total, 65 nations refused to participate in the games, whereas 80 countries sent athletes to compete. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (“Star Wars”)
Under President Ronald Reagan SDI was created, the intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. -
“Caribbean Basin Initiative”
The Caribbean Basin Initiative was a temporary United States program initiated by the 1983 Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act. Its purpose was to provide tariff and trade benefits to many Central American and Caribbean countries. -
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
This long name was the title given to the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev, he was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 when the party was dissolved. -
Iran-Contra Affair
August 20, 1985 – March 4, 1987. The scandal began as an operation to free the seven American hostages being held in Lebanon by a group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) ratified
The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles. -
Berlin Wall Collapses
For 30 years, the Berlin Wall was the defining symbol of the Cold War, separating families and keeping the people from jobs and opportunity in the west. the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete fence/barrier between West and East Germany. -
1st McDonalds opens in Moscow
The Soviet Union’s first McDonald’s fast food restaurant opens in Moscow. Large groups of people line up to pay the equivalent of several days’ wages for Big Macs, shakes, and french fries. The arrival of McDonald’s in Moscow was a small but certain sign that change was on the horizon. In fact, less than two years later, the Soviet Union ceased to exist as a nation, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as leader of the country, and various Soviet republics proclaimed their independence. -
Germany is reunified
The German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany to form the reunited nation of Germany, and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. -
Warsaw Pact is dissolved
After 36 years in existence the Warsaw Pact dissolved. The pact’s Political Consultative Committee met for one final time and formally recognized the Warsaw Pact was no more. -
Boris Yeltsin elected President of Russia
Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.He vowed to transform Russia's socialist command economy into a free market economy. -
End of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was formally enacted as a result of the declaration no. 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, acknowledging the independence of the erstwhile Soviet republics and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States.
