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1980 Election
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent. This election marked the beginning of what is popularly called the "Reagan Revolution." -
Trickle-Down Economics
Trickle-down economics is a theory that claims benefits for the wealthy trickle down to everyone else. These benefits are tax cuts on businesses, high-income earners, capital gains, and dividends. They will spend their wages to drive demand and economic growth. -
Release of the American Hostages by Iran
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages. The students set their hostages free on January 21, 1981, 444 days after the crisis began and just hours after President Ronald Reagan delivered his inaugural address. -
Assassination attempt on Reagan
John Hinckley, Jr.shoots President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. just after the president had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) AKA Star Wars
was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. -
1984 Election
The United States presidential election of 1984 was a contest between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate. Reagan was helped by a strong economic recovery from the deep recession of 1981–1982 -
The “Reagan Doctrine”
Under the Reagan Doctrine, the United States provided overt and covert aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements in an effort to "roll back" Soviet-backed communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. -
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Gorbachev’s Glasnost and Perestroika
To reform the distraught Soviet Union, the democratization of the Communist Party was promoted through Party Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of “perestroika” and “glasnost.” Perestroika refers to the reconstruction of the political and economic system established by the Communist Party. -
The Challenger Disaster
The NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after liftoff, bringing a devastating end to the spacecraft’s 10th mission and the disaster claimed the lives of all seven astronauts aboard. -
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran-Contra Affair was a secret U.S. arms deal that traded missiles and other arms to free some Americans held hostage by terrorists in Lebanon, but also used funds from the arms deal to support armed conflict in Nicaragua. -
AIDS
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is the virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, if not treated. These opportunistic infections or cancers take advantage of a very weak immune system and signal that the person has AIDS, the last stage of HIV infection. -
1988 Election
It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1988. Incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush, the Republican nominee, defeated Democratic Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts. The 1988 election is the only election since 1948 in which either major party won a third straight presidential election. -
Unraveling of the Soviet Bloc
The communist nations closely allied with the Soviet Union, including Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, whose foreign policies depended on those of the former Soviet Union. -
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Tiananmen Square Massacre
The protests were forcibly suppressed after Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law. Troops with automatic rifles and tanks fired at the demonstrators trying to block the military's advance towards Tiananmen Square. -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders. -
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Collapse of the U.S.S.R
Fall of the Soviet Union. In December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. -
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Operation Desert Storm
Operation Desert Storm was the combat phase of the 1991 Gulf War fought against Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein. Operation Desert Storm was the codename for the US-led United Nations operation to liberate oil rich Kuwait from the invasion forces of Iraq.