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The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters. ... Under the CWA, EPA has implemented pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. -
The first inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th president of the United States was held on Tuesday, January 20, 1981, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the first inauguration to be held on the building's west side. -
Reagan proposes increased defense spending, and decreased taxes and domestic spending in speech to Congress -
On March 30, 1981, United States President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C. as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Hinckley believed the attack would impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had become obsessed. -
The United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union was enacted by Jimmy Carter in January 1980 in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. It remained in effect until Ronald Reagan ended it in 1981 upon taking the office of president. -
On August 5, following the PATCO workers' refusal to return to work, the Reagan administration fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, and banned them from federal service for life. ... PATCO was decertified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority on October 22, 1981. -
Sandra Day O'Connor was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Reagan on August 19, 1981, thus fulfilling his 1980 campaign promise to appoint the first woman to the highest court in the United States. -
President Reagan announced yesterday that he will seek Congress' approval to build 100 MX land-based missiles and 100 B1 bombers under a $180.3 billion program to upgrade the nation's nuclear forces. -
President Reagan ordered a series of economic reprisals against the Polish government yesterday and warned that he is prepared to impose more serious sanctions against both Poland and the Soviet Union if "the outrages in Poland do not cease." -
Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. President, began the practice of newly inaugurated presidents instead delivering an address to Congress in February of the first year of their term, but not designating that speech as an official "State of the Union". -
On June 8, 1982, in the first speech by an American president to a meeting of both houses of the British Parliament, President Ronald Reagan presents his hope for a future that would "leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history." -
The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) is federal legislation passed in 1982 to cut the budget deficit through federal spending cuts, tax increases, and reform measures. The legislation reversed some elements of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA). Both pieces of legislation were passed early in the presidency of Ronald Reagan. -
With the completion of negotiations signified by the signing of the Algiers Accords on January 19, 1981, the hostages were released on January 20, 1981. That day, minutes after President Reagan completed his 20‑minute inaugural address after being sworn in, the 52 American hostages were released to U.S. personnel. -
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed the "Star Wars program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles). -
October 23, 1983 - 241 US service personnel – including 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel – are killed by a truck bomb at a Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon. ... This was the deadliest attack against US Marines since the battle over Iwo Jima in 1945. -
The United States invasion of Grenada began at dawn on 25 October 1983. The U.S. and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the island nation of Grenada, 100 miles (160 km) north of Venezuela. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in military occupation within a few days. -
Congress passed and President Reagan signed into law the 1983 Amendments. Under the '83 Amendments, up to one-half of the value of the Social Security benefit was made potentially taxable income. The specific rules adopted in 1983 were: ... Effective for taxable years beginning after 1983. -
In 1985 farmers throughout the Midwest US struggled to keep the family farms that had been in their families for generations. Tight money policies by the Federal Reserve (intended to bring down high interest rates upwards of 21%) caused farmland value to drop 60% in some parts of the Midwest from 1981 to 1985. Record production resulted in a glut of farm commodities, forcing prices down. -
The United States embargo against Nicaragua was declared by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan on May 1, 1985 and prohibited all trade between the U.S. and Nicaragua. In a strategy similar to the embargo against Cuba, it was intended to undermine the Sandanista government which came to power in 1979 -
The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 was a law enacted by the United States Congress. The law imposed sanctions against South Africa and stated five preconditions for lifting the sanctions that would essentially end the system of apartheid, which the latter was under at the time. -
The Geneva Summit, the first meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, was held on November 19 and 20, 1985. ... Hosted in Geneva, Switzerland, the meeting was the first American-Soviet summit in more than six years. -
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives,” Reagan said. “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God. ' -
Reykjavík summit of 1986, meeting held in Reykjavík, Iceland, on October 11 and 12, 1986, between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. ... The Reykjavík summit almost resulted in a sweeping nuclear arms-control agreement in which the nuclear weapons of both sides would be dismantled. -
The Reykjavík Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 11–12 October 1986. -
Democrats gained a net eight seats, and recaptured control of the Senate from the Republicans with a 55–45 majority. They defeated seven incumbents, all but one of whom had been elected in 1980, and gained open seats held by retiring Republicans in Maryland and Nevada -
Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. ... The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. -
The Commission's report, published on February 27, 1987, concluded that CIA Director William Casey, who supported the Iran-Contra arrangement, should have taken over the operation and made the president aware of the risks and notified Congress as legally required. -
The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty required the United States and the Soviet Union to eliminate and permanently forswear all of their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. -
President Reagan will soon announce rules prohibiting abortions and abortion counseling by family planning programs that receive Federal funds -
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Reagan called for the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open the Berlin Wall, which had separated West and East Berlin since 1961. The name is derived from a key line in the middle of the speech: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
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