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American forces failed in the attempt to retrieve American hostages that were held captive in the United States' Iranian embassy. Eight Americans were killed.
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The Republican governor of California Ronald Reagan defeats the incumbent President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory. Reagan also defeated independent candidate John B. Anderson.
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While walking to his limousine in Washington D.C., President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest by a would-be assassin. Reagan was able to recover from this attack and continued his presidency.
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Sandra Day O'Connor became the first-ever female Supreme Court associate justice under unanimous approval from the Senate.
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This proposal brought forth by President Ronald Reagan was to develop technology to intercept incoming missiles, called the Strategic Defense Initiative Program, or Star Wars.
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A terrorist truck bomb killed 241 U.S. peacekeeping troops that were stationed at the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon.
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This summit conference would be the first meeting between leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union in six years. Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan engaged in a five-hour summit conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
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The stock market crash known as Black Monday occurs 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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After having served as Ronald Reagan's Vice President, Republican George Herbert Walker Bush defeated Democratic challenger Governor Michael S. Dukakis.
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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.
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Iraq invades its geographical neighbor, Kuwait, which subsequently sets into motion the U.S. involvement in the Gulf War.
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Iraq withdraws its forces from Kuwait and a cease-fire is declared.
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two hundred and two years after its initial proposal. It bars the United States Congress from giving itself a midterm or retroactive pay raise.
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The World Trade Center is bombed by Islamic terrorists when a van parked below the North Tower of the structure explodes. Six people are killed and over 1,000 are injured.
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The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect, creating a free trade zone between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
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The World Trade Organization (WTO) is created, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) formed from a series of post-war treaties on trade.
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Anarchists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols explode a bomb outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing one hundred and sixty-eight people in a domestic terrorism attack.
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The Monica Lewinsky scandal begins when U.S. President Bill Clinton denies his relationship with the White House intern in a televised interview. This denial, and other denials to a grand jury investigation, would lead to the impeachment of the president.
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Islamic fundamentalist terrorists hijack four U.S. airliners and crash them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York City. The attack of two planes levels the World Trade Center and the crash of one plane inflicts serious damage to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, causing nearly 3,000 deaths.