70's, 80's, 90's, 00's Timeline

  • Jimmy Carter Elected President

    Jimmy Carter Elected President
    As a dark-horse candidate not well known outside of Georgia, Carter won the Democratic nomination and narrowly defeated the incumbent Republican Party president Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders on his second day in office.
  • Star Wars Movie Premier

    Star Wars Movie Premier
    The date May 25, 1977 is immortalized forever as the "birthdate" of one of the most popular movies ever made: "Star Wars." Do you remember the cities and theatres it opened in?
  • Three Mile Island Meltdown

    Three Mile Island Meltdown
    The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, near Harrisburg, the capital city of Pennsylvania, United States.
  • Mount. St. Helens Eruption

    Mount. St. Helens Eruption
    On March 27, 1980, a series of volcanic explosions and pyroclastic flows began at Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, United States. A series of phreatic blasts occurred from the summit and escalated until a major explosive eruption took place on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am.
  • Iran Hostages Released

    Iran Hostages Released
    Iran's demands centered largely on releasing frozen Iranian assets and lifting a trade embargo that the U.S. had coordinated. An agreement having been made, the hostages were released on January 20, 1981.
  • Assassination Attempt on President Reagan

    Assassination Attempt on President Reagan
    John Hinckley Jr. Reagan was seriously wounded by a revolver bullet that ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine and hit him in the left underarm, breaking a rib, puncturing a lung, and causing serious internal bleeding. This bullet was for President Reagan
  • Iran/ Contra Affair

    Iran/ Contra Affair
    The Iran–Contra affair, often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan administration.
  • Challenger Shuttle Explosion

    Challenger Shuttle Explosion
    On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST.
  • Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

    Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
    The Chernobyl disaster began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR, close to the border with the Byelorussian SSR, in the Soviet Union.
  • George H.W. Bush Elected President

    George H.W. Bush Elected President
    Bush, a Republican from Texas and the incumbent vice president for two terms under President Ronald Reagan, took office following his victory over Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election.
  • Fall of the Berlin Wall

    Fall of the Berlin Wall
    The fall of the Berlin Wall (German: Mauerfall, pronounced [ˈmaʊ̯ɐˌfal]) on November 9, 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions were overwhelmed and discarded.
  • Start of the Persian Gulf War

    Start of the Persian Gulf War
    The Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.
  • Bill Clinton Elected President

    Bill Clinton Elected President
    Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (370 electoral votes) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (168 electoral votes) and billionaire populist Ross Perot (zero electoral votes), who ran as an independent on a platform that focused on domestic issues.
  • Original U.S.A. Olympic Basketball Dream Team

    Original U.S.A. Olympic Basketball Dream Team
    The 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the "Dream Team", was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association
  • Rodney King Decision & L.A. Riots

    Rodney King Decision & L.A. Riots
    The city of Los Angeles agrees to pay King $3.8 million for medical bills, pain and suffering sustained as a result of the beating he took by our officers. The settlement resolves a long legal battle during which the city and King sued each other.
  • Launch of Google

    Launch of Google
    Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were PhD students at Stanford University in California.
  • Bill Clinton Impeached by the House of Representatives

    Bill Clinton Impeached by the House of Representatives
    Clinton was the second U.S. president to face a Senate impeachment trial, after Andrew Johnson. An impeachment inquiry was opened into Clinton on October 8, 1998. He was formally impeached by the House on two charges (perjury and obstruction of justice) on December 19, 1998.
  • World Trade Center/Pentagon/Shanksville, PA Attacks

    World Trade Center/Pentagon/Shanksville, PA Attacks
    Global Terrorist attacks on major constitutional buildings throughout the 70s to early 2000s