1980's Events

By Yariana

  • Ronald Reagan beats President Jimmy Carter (elections)

    Ronald Reagan beats President Jimmy Carter (elections)
    Ronald Reagan, the former Republican governor of California, beats President Jimmy Carter and independent candidate John B. Anderson, also a Republican, in a landslide victory, ousting the incumbent from office. The victory in the Electoral College, 489 to 49, as well as an 8 million vote margin in the popular vote over Carter, ensured a mandate for the new president.

  • Assassination Attempt

    Assassination Attempt
    President Ronald Reagan withstands an assassination attempt, shot in the chest while walking to his limousine in Washington, D.C.

  • Racial Integration

    Racial Integration
    The Senate passes a bill that virtually eliminated the practice of busing to achieve racial integration.

  • U.S Embassy bombed in Beirut, Lebanon

    U.S Embassy bombed in Beirut, Lebanon
    A terrorist truck bomb kills two hundred and forty-one United States peacekeeping troops in Lebanon at Beirut International Airport. A second bomb destroyed a French barracks two miles away, killing forty there.

  • Fall of the Berlin Wall

    The Berlin Wall, after thirty-eight years of restricting traffic between the East and West German sides of the city, begins to crumble when German citizens are allowed to travel freely between East and West Germany for the first time. One day later, the influx of crowds around and onto the wall begin to dismantle it, thus ending its existence.