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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. ... "Clean Water Act" became the Act's common name with amendments in 1972. -
November 17, Khomeini had ordered the release of 13 hostages, all women or African Americans, on the grounds that they were unlikely to be spies (another hostage, who became gravely ill, was released on July 11, 1980, producing the final number of 52 hostages). -
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. -
TEFRA was introduced November 13, 1981 and was sponsored by Representative Pete Stark of California. After much deliberation, the final version was signed by President Ronald Reagan on September 3, 1982. -
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. -
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. -
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." -
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 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. -
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 Strategic Defense Initiative, derisively nicknamed the "Star Wars program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. -
Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon, a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War. -
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 north of Venezuela. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in military occupation within a few days. -
The Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984 was signed into law by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan on 9 October 1984. ... It has been described as "one of the key pieces of social welfare legislation" enacted toward the end of Reagan's first term in office. -
The Reagan Administration, which called 1985 a watershed opportunity to reform and shrink the Federal farm support program, is backing away from much of its plan in the face of a deepening recession in agriculture. -
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 Geneva Summit of 1985 was a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held on November 19 and 20, 1985, between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met for the first time to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race. -
The 1986 State of the Union Address was given by the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, on Tuesday, February 4, 1986, at 9 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 99th United States Congress. -
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 crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. 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. -
Democrats won the national popular vote for the House of Representatives by a margin of 7.7 percentage points, making a net gain of five seats. ... Despite sweeping Democratic gains, many of the losing Republicans incumbents lost by small margins. -
A special review board portrayed President Reagan today as a confused and remote figure who failed to understand or control the secret arms deal with Iran, and who thus had to ''take responsibility'' for a policy that in the end caused ''chaos'' at home and embarrassment abroad. -
Gorbachev, tear down this wall", also known as the Berlin Wall Speech, was a speech delivered by United States President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12, 1987.
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In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF Treaty. This landmark agreement proposed to eliminate all intermediate and short-range ground-based missiles and launchers from Europe. -
In the first formal step of what promises to be a major legal battle, the Reagan Administration today prohibited most of the nation's family planning clinics from providing advice or other assistance that would help women obtain abortions. -
On this day in 1988, President Ronald Reagan, while walking through Red Square and the Kremlin in Moscow, declared that the Cold War with the Soviet Union had ended. Reagan’s reflections came in the final year of his presidency during a largely ceremonial summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. -
This is the 34th time I'll speak to you from the Oval Office and the last. We've been together 8 years now, and soon it'll be time for me to go. But before I do, I wanted to share some thoughts, some of which I've been saving for a long time. It's been the honor of my life to be your President. So many of you have written the past few weeks to say thanks, but I could say as much to you. Nancy and I are grateful for the opportunity you gave us to serve.