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Ronald Reagan wins the Presidential Election
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” he asked the American people at the conclusion of the debate.27 The American people answered no. Reagan won the election with 51 percent of the popular vote to Carter’s 41 percent. (Independent John Anderson captured 7 percent.) -
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The emergence of AIDS
The emergence of a deadly new illness, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), simultaneously devastated, stigmatized, and energized the nation’s homosexual community. When AIDS appeared in the early 1980s, most of its victims were gay men. -
Reagan survives assassination attempt
Then on March 30, 1981, Reagan survived an assassination attempt by a mentally unstable young man named John Hinckley. -
MTV
MTV premiers in 1981 -
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Economic Recession
The United States experienced a severe economic recession in 1981 and 1982. Unemployment rose to nearly 11 percent, the highest figure since the Great Depression.40 Reductions in social welfare spending heightened the impact of the recession on ordinary people. -
Thriller released
In 1982, pop singer Michael Jackson released Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. -
Reagan wins a second term as President of the United States
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Farm Aid
In September 1985, prominent musicians including Neil Young and Willie Nelson organized Farm Aid, a benefit concert at the University of Illinois’s football stadium designed to raise money for struggling farmers. -
The Immigration Reform and Cotrol Act
In 1986, Reagan also signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act. American policy makers hoped to do two things: deal with the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the United States while simultaneously choking off future unsanctioned migration. The former goal was achieved (nearly three million undocumented workers received legal status) but the latter proved elusive. -
Stock Market Crash of 1987
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. -
"Tear down this wall!"
By the late 1980s the Soviet empire was crumbling. Reagan successfully combined anticommunist rhetoric (such as his 1987 speech at the Berlin Wall, where he declared, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace . . . tear down this wall!”) with a willingness to negotiate with Soviet leadership. -
The Soviet Union vanishes
Within the Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s proposed reforms unraveled the decaying Soviet system rather than bringing stability. By 1991 the Soviet Union itself had vanished, dissolving into a Commonwealth of Independent States.” -
September 11, 2001
On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen operatives of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization hijacked four passenger planes on the East Coast... nearly three thousand Americans had been killed.