Tech Project #3 1980-2001

By Davidpinilla

  • President Carter announces

    that U.S. athletes will not attend Summer Olympics in Moscow unless Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan.

  • Abscam

    FBI's undercover bribery investigation, code named Abscam, implicates a U.S. senator, seven members of the House, and 31 other public officials.

  • Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president.

  • U.S. hostages held in Iran are released after 444 days in captivity.

  • Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice.

  • Deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution passes without the necessary votes.

  • U.S. invades Caribbean island of Grenada after a coup by Marxist faction in the government.

  • Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members. It is the worst accident in the history of the U.S. space program.

  • Iran-Contra scandal breaks when White House is forced to reveal secret arms-for-hostages deals.

  • In a speech in Berlin, President Reagan challenges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” and open Eastern Europe to political and economic reform.

  • George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president.

  • Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, spilling more than 10 million gallons of oil. It is the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

  • Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, leading to the Persian Gulf War.

  • Persian Gulf War: U.S. leads international coalition in military operation (code named “Desert Storm”) to drive Iraqis out of Kuwait.

  • Iraq accepts terms of UN ceasefire, marking an end of the war.

  • Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in Dec. 1991, President Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin meet at Camp David and formally declare an end to the cold war.

  • President Bush authorizes sending U.S. troops to Somalia as part of UN relief effort.

  • Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president.

  • President Clinton orders missile attack against Iraq in retaliation for alleged plot to assassinate former President Bush.

  • President Clinton signs North American Free Trade Agreement into law.

  • Bombing of federal office building in Oklahoma City kills 168 people.

  • Clinton's second inauguration.

  • President Clinton denies having had a sexual relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky.

  • NATO wages air campaign against Yugoslavia over killing and deportation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

  • School shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., leaves 14 students (including the 2 shooters) and 1 teacher dead and 23 others wounded.

  • U.S. and China sign historic trade agreement.

  • George W. Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd president.

  • U.S. and Britain launch air attacks against targets in Afghanistan after Taliban government fails to hand over Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

  • Two hijacked jetliners ram twin towers of World Trade Center in worst terrorist attack against U.S.; a third hijacked plane flies into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashes in rural Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people die in the attacks.