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Election of 1980
Carter’s opponent in the general election was Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor who had served two terms as governor of California. Reagan ran as a staunch fiscal conservative and a Cold War hawk, vowing to reduce government spending and shrink the federal bureaucracy. -
Reagan's Assassination Attempt
On March 30, 1981, Reagan survived an assassination attempt by a mentally unstable young man named John Hinckley. Public support swelled for the hospitalized president. -
Debut of MTV
Few cable channels so captured the popular imagination as MTV, which debuted in 1981. Telegenic artists like Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson skillfully used MTV to boost their reputations and album sales. -
Operation Urgent Fury
When communists with ties to Cuba overthrew the government of the nation of Grenada in October 1983, Reagan dispatched the U.S. Marines to the island. The Grenada invasion overthrew the leftist government after less than a week of fighting. Despite the relatively minor nature of the mission, its success gave victory-hungry Americans something to cheer about after the military debacles of the previous two decades. -
Tax Reform Act of 1986
This bill lowered the top corporate tax rate from 46 percent to 34 percent and reduced the highest marginal income tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent, while also simplifying the tax code and eliminating numerous loopholes. -
Black Friday
Reckless speculation helped drive the stock market steadily upward until the crash of October 19, 1987. On Black Friday, the market plunged eight hundred points, erasing 13 percent of its value. Investors lost more than $500 billion. -
The Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987
The Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 was a landmark agreement which committed both sides to a sharp reduction in their nuclear arsenal. -
Operation Rescue
In 1988 evangelical activist Randall Terry founded Operation Rescue, an organization that targeted abortion clinics and pro-choice politicians with confrontational—and sometimes violent—tactics. Operation Rescue demonstrated that the fight over abortion would grow only more heated in the 1990s. -
Reunification of Germany
The reunification of Germany was a process where the German Democratic Republic became a part of the Federal Republic of Germany. The third of October is celebrated as German Unity Day in Germany. -
Soviet Union Dissolved
The Soviet Union began crumbling in the late 1980s. Mikhail Gorbachev’s proposed reforms unraveled the decaying Soviet system rather than bringing it stability. By 1991 the Soviet Union itself had vanished, dissolving into a Commonwealth of Independent States. -
Election of 2000
The 2000 election pitted Vice President Albert Gore Jr. against George W. Bush, the twice-elected Texas governor and son of the former president. Gore ran as a pragmatic, moderate liberal. Bush, too, ran as a moderate, claiming to represent a compassionate conservatism and a new faith-based politics. -
9/11 Terrorist Attacks
These were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by the militant Islamic extremist network al-Qaeda. The hijackers successfully crashed two planes into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane was intended to hit a federal government building in Washington, D.C., but instead crashed in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania following a passenger revolt.