1980s

Encyclopedia : 1 : 19 : 198 : 1980s

Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
Years:	1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive, informally sometimes including the years 1979, 1990 and 1991.

Like the 1960s, the decade was an era of frantic change, characterised by political and economic decentralisation, especially in countries with mixed and command economies. Political events and trends of the 1980s culminated in the toppling of military governments and authoritarian regimes, and the downfall of the military juntas of Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. In most of the third world, the decade was characterized by debt crisis that began in 1982.

The 1980s is also generally considered to be the transition between the industrial and information ages. The petroleum supply disruptions which had marked the 1970s were not repeated, and new oil-field discoveries boosted supply and helped keep energy prices relatively low in most places during the decade. The 1980s saw rapid developments in numerous sectors of technology which have defined the modern consumer world. Electronics like personal computers, gaming systems, the first commercially available hand-held mobile phones, and new audio and data storage technologies such as the compact disc, are all still prominent well into the 2000s. On the strength of their high-technology industries, the Japanese economy soared to record highs in the 1980s, prompting many American companies to frantically study and adopt Japanese management practices.

The decade was one of contrasts. Whilst yuppies bestrode the world's stock exchanges, social consciences were much in evidence: celebrities gathered to record major charity records and perform major charity concerts such as Live Aid; environmental concerns became ever more pressing in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster; the deployment of cruise missiles in Western Europe led to a resurgence of CND protests and marches and the start of the long vigil of the Greenham Common women in England; and political correctness became common verbal and ideological currency.

In the United States, the decade was most poignantly symbolized by the presidency of Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989 (termed as the "Reagan Years") as it epitomized the rise of conservatism as the dominant creed in American political and cultural life. This extended somewhat into the early 1990s with the first George Bush, but the recession of the late '80s and early 1990s caused significant backlash against Bush and the Republican Party.

Though much of the 1980s was characterized by Reaganomics in the USA , following the election of Ronald Reagan as President in 1980, Thatcherism in the UK, and social conservatism throughout the world, the late 1980s played host to several dramatic events, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. The era was characterized by the blend of conservative family values alongside a period of increased telecommunications and a shift towards liberal market economies and the new openness of perestroika and glasnost. The transitional passage also saw massive democratic revolutions like the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in China, the Czechoslovak velvet revolution, and the overthrow of the dictatorial regime in Romania and other communist Warsaw Pact states in Central and Eastern Europe. These changes continued to be felt in the 1990s and on into the 21st Century.

Contents

0.1 Technology
0.2 Science
0.3 War and politics
0.4 Economics

1 Political correctness and trends
2 Popular culture
3 Fashions
4 Music
5 Television
6 Film
7 Video games
8 Others
9 People

9.1 Entertainers
9.2 Sports figures

10 Films
11 Television shows
12 See also
13 External links

Technology

IBM PC.

Mir.

Bulletin board system popularity.
Compact discs are introduced in 1983.
Popularization of personal computers, Walkmans, VHS videocassette recorders, and cassette players.
IBM PC, the predecessor of modern PC computers, was introduced in 1981. Other significant home computers include Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, BBC Micro and Apple Macintosh.
Home video games become enormously popular, most notably Atari until the market crashes in 1983; the rise of the NES and the Sega Genesis/Megadrive brings about full recovery. Handheld consoles are introduced in the late 1980s.
The first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, launched in 1981.
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
The Soviet Union launches the space station Mir in 1986.
Interest in space exploration wanes as the space shuttle takes precedence. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 pass Saturn in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Voyager 2 goes on to give the first up-close looks at Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989). Japan and Europe have their first ventures into interplanetary exploration with the launches of Giotto, Sakigake, and others in the "Halley Armada".
Apple Macintosh, first commercially successful graphical user interface, is released in 1984.
Accident at Chernobyl nuclear reactor, April 1986.
Framework (office suite) launched
In England, Sir Clive Sinclair introduces the environmentally friendly but short-lived C5 car in 1985.
Microsoft releases the first versions of Windows
First commercial hand-held mobile phone - Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983).
New digital technology contributes to the popularity of synthesizers in electronic music, and in popular music in general.

Science

Discovery of the W and Z bosons at CERN.
Development of the scanning tunneling microscope by Colin Mullins and Heinrich Rohrer.
Discovery of the Carbon allotrope fullerene, also known as buckyballs.
English physicist Tim Berners Lee invents the World Wide Web at CERN.
Geneticist Dr Alec Jeffreys develops DNA fingerprinting, which will be of immense impact on crime-fighting.
American chemist Kary Mullis discovers polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which will become the basis of genetic fingerprinting and one of the key tools for all sorts of work with genetics.

War and politics

Berlin Wall.

Cold War peaks; fall of the Iron Curtain. Roughly defined as Communism versus Capitalism, or USA versus USSR (via proxy war in communist countries.)
* Jimmy Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow; Eastern Bloc countries boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
* Solidarity movement in Poland launched in 1981. It eventually topples the country's Communist regime.
* Ronald Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative, derided as "Star Wars." Deploys Pershing missiles in Western Europe to counter the Soviet SS-20, to some protests.
* Three Soviet Premiers die in rapid succession: Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko.
* American schoolgirl Samantha Smith visits Russia after writing to Yuri Andropov and becomes involved in the growing peace movement between East and West before her death in 1985.
* Gorbachev introduces Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union.
* Fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany in 1989, preparing the way to German reunification.
* Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia.
* Revolution in Romania, execution of Ceauşescu.
* Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi tackles with a growing Sikh insurgency and the Khalistan Movement. She orders Operation Blue Star on the holy Golden Temple. She is assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.
* In 1989 students protest on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China and are eventually suppressed.
* Soviet fighters down Korean Air Flight 007 in 1983, leading to a high point in international tensions.
* Ronald Reagan decides to invade Grenada in 1983 and depose the nascent hard-line communist government.
* The United States launches a covert war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and is condemned by the World Court for mining Nicaragua's harbour, an authority and judgment the U.S. administration did not recognize.
* The Reagan Doctrine implements support for anti-communist or anti-Soviet insurgencies most notably in Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. This leads to continued civil war, the deposition of several regimes, some democratization, and the Iran-Contra scandal.
* President Tito of Yugoslavia dies.
* Over 120,000 flee Cuba in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift, during which Fidel Castro released many criminals into American harbors.
The continued rise of Islamic Fundamentalism following the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
* Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 causes an estimated 1 million deaths.
* Israel invades Lebanon in 1982, Israel drops bombs in Iraq in 1982 to destroy their chemical and nuclear weapons programs. A suicide bomber kills 241 U.S. marines stationed there as peacekeepers.
* In 1985, A radical PLO offshoot called Palestine Liberation Front hijacks the Achille Lauro and shoots the wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, throwing him overboard.
* Terror groups Abu Nidal and Hezbollah rise to prominence in Western attention.
* Release of Americans held hostage in Iran.
* Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa urging the killing of Salman Rushdie.
* Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, UK.
Several military dictatorships fell or faced destabilization attempts
* Large protests in the Philippines topples the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship; military rule ends after protests in Argentina and South Korea.
* Under George H. W. Bush, the U.S. invades Panama in 1989 to overthrow Manuel Noriega.
* The Reagan administration bombs Libya in 1986 in response to alleged Libyan support for attacks on U.S. servicemen in Europe.
* King Juan Carlos of Spain prevents a military coup in 1981. Spain joined NATO in 1982; it joined the European Union with Portugal in 1986.
* Augusto Pinochet forms a new constitution, holds a referendum on rule and loses. Democracy is restored.
Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism dominate British politics.
The "Reagan Revolution", beginning with the election of 1980, introduces so-called neoconservatives to Washington.
In 1981, François Mitterrand becomes France's President, the most politically successful Socialist in French history.
Helmut Kohl is elected in West Germany in 1982, leading to the defeat of the anti-deployment movement; in the 1990s he becomes the longest serving Chancellor of Germany so far.
Falklands War; Argentina invades and occupies the Falkland islands in 1982 but is subsequently defeated by the United Kingdom.
P.W. Botha suppresses anti-apartheid activists; international boycotts of South Africa continue.
The Soviet Union ends its disastrous military campaign in Afghanistan.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is exposed as a former Nazi
Vietnam continues its military occupation of Cambodia.
In Europe, rise of alleged neo-fascist parties (Le Pen in France, Schönhuber/Republikaner in Germany, Haider in Austria), parallel to a rise of Green parties.
Dark years for Malta and its politics. Violence is culminated by the murder of Raymond Caruana and blocking entry to Nationalist supporters into the southern village of Zejtun.
The Rainbow Warrior is sunk by French secret service agents.
Samuel Doe regime in Liberia.df

Economics

In developing countries the decade was charactized by debt crisis of enormous magnitude that began in 1982 when Mexico declared that it cannot pay back its debts. Another essential feature in development countries was structural adjustment programs driven by World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Dow Jones (19 July 1987 through 19 January 1988).

Reaganomics, Thatcherism and Rogernomics.
In the United States the longest bull market in history begins in 1983; Dow Jones Industrial Average passes 2000 point milestone January 8, 1987.
OPEC controls slip; petroleum prices collapse below $10 per barrel by mid-1986, devastating oil-producing nations such as Mexico.
U.S. Midwest Farm Crisis 1981–1985.
East Asian Tigers' share of world trade rises significantly.
U.S. balance of trade falls into chronic deficit; populists criticize trade relations with Japan.
Stockmarkets across the world crash on Black Monday, October 19, 1987. The New York Stock Exchange suffers its largest one-day stock market drop in history. Not as harsh stock market drops have been called Black Tuesday and Black Thursday.ct
Late 1980s recession

Political correctness and trends

Political correctness becomes a concern in mainstream politics.
Gay issues rise to public awareness through the tabloid talk show genre popularized by Oprah Winfrey which gave gays, bisexuals, and transvestites an unprecedented degree of high impact media visibility, the Bowers v. Hardwick Supreme Court decision, gender bending perceptions of Boy George, George Michael and Prince, as well as the increased consciousness of the AIDS epidemic and its perception as a "gay disease."
A much remarked upon new trend in the 1980s in Britain was openly gay pop stars such as Boy George and the Pet Shop Boys.
Women's Liberation movement increases women's role in the workplace, and establishes new precedents for US women. As a carry-over from the 1970s, more and more women take to calling themselves "Ms." versus "Mrs." or "Miss"
No-Fault divorce laws pave the way for increased divorce rate, as depicted in the movie, Irreconcilable Differences.
Alcohol education expands; examples are M.A.D.D. and Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign.
Environmental concerns are growing. In Britain, environmentally-friendly domestic products surge in popularity.

Popular culture

In the early 1980s, the first generation of computer graphics in arcade games produce the popular Space Invaders arcade game (technically, Space Invaders came out in 1978), followed by Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Frogger. Towards the end of the decade, home video game consoles begin to outstrip the arcade game.
Computer technology culture starts to enter the mainstream and appears in movies such as 1982's Tron and 1983's WarGames.
The Rubik's Cube, Cabbage Patch Kids, "Baby on Board" signs, Teddy Ruxpin, and Trivial Pursuit fads capture the interest of the American and British public.

Rubik's Cube.

1980s

Technology

Science

War and politics

Economics

Political correctness and trends

Popular culture

Fashions

Music

Television

Film

Video games

Others

People

Entertainers

Sports figures

Films

Television shows

See also

External links