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Jimmy Carter Elected President
As a dark-horse candidate not well known outside of Georgia, Carter won the Democratic nomination and narrowly defeated incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. presidential election. -
Star Wars Movie Premier
It was released in a small number of theaters in the United States on May 25, 1977, and quickly became a surprise blockbuster hit, leading to it being expanded. -
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 the capital city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. -
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
In January 1981, Iran released the original 52 hostages as the costs finally outweighed the benefits. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in September 1980 at a time when Iran was militarily vulnerable after dismantling the monarchy's military. -
Assassination Attempt on President Reagan
On March 30, 1981, President of the United States Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton. -
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
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. -
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. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
At a press conference on 9 November, East German spokesman Günter Schabowski announced that East Germans would be free to travel into West Germany, starting immediately. -
Start of the Persian Gulf War
What incident triggered the Persian Gulf War? The Persian Gulf War, also called Gulf War (1990–91), was an international conflict triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. -
Rodney King Decision & L.A. Riots
The 1991 videotaped beating of Rodney King by L.A.P.D. officers, and subsequent riots triggered by the acquittal of the officers involved, rocked L.A. and the nation. The events brought to the forefront concerns about racism and police brutality within the L.A.P.D -
Original U.S.A. Olympic Basketball Dream Team
Their names were already legend before the players were tapped for the roster of the 1992 US men's Olympic basketball team: Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen and of course, Michael Jordan, the brightest star in a constellation of supergiants. -
Bill Clinton Elected President
Clinton was elected president in the 1992 election, defeating the incumbent Republican Party president George H. W. Bush, and the independent businessman Ross Perot. He became the first president to be born in the Baby Boomer generation. -
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 Democrat nominee Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. -
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
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
On 11 September 2001, 19 terrorists from the Islamist extreme group al Qaeda hijacked four commercial aircraft and crashed two of them into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back, and the plane crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania about 20 minutes by air from Washington, D.C.