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Summer Olympics Boycott
As said in Jimmy Carter's Ultimatum, the US would refuse to participate in any way in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russia, due to the Soviets invadin Afganistan. This increased tensions between the US and the USSR and also led to the 1984 Summer Olmpics Boycott. -
Ted Turner creates CNN news channel
Also known as the Cable News Network, CNN has been very influential to the American people, and was the first Broadcasting Station to provide 24-hour news covering as well as being the first all-news channel in the US. They became very popular after being the only news channel to provide live news coverage of the launching and explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. -
Assasination Attempt on Ronald Reagan
During a speech adressing the trade unionists, Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr.´s .22 Caliber Revolver. John shot six times in 2'3 seconds, but only one hit Reagan, while another hit James Brady, press secretary in the head, and another hitting a police officer, Tom Delahanty in the neck. While Reagon recovered with minimal damage,this attack basically created distrust in the people, and led to more body gaurds around the president than before. -
IBM Personal Computer Launched
32 years ago, the IBM personal comuter, also known as the very first personal computer that had major success in US history, was launched. Whle many were doubtful it would a success, it became a hit in the US, and paved the way for modern PCs to enter the fray -
Anti-discrimination Bill passed
Senate passes and anti-segregation bill in 1982, which caused a lot of controversy at first, especially considering the way Black people and others were treated at that time. This led to Blacks having more freedom and becoming almost entirely equal to their white counterparts. -
Tylenol Scare
In the US, several people died due to intentional poisoning of Tylenol bottles. Further investigation found that the bottles contained traces of cyanide, a very virulent chemical compound that is very damaging to humans. Though no one knows who did this or why, this led to the creation of safety-seals on medicinal bottles. -
World's First Artificial Heart Translant
Barney Clark was the first man to recieve and artificial heart transplant. He was not allowed to move, and had to be connected to a compresser to control the artificial heart. He lived for 112 days after the transplant, and this achievement marked the race for new artificial hearts to be made, advancing life'saving technology -
Star Wars Defense Initiative
Also known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, this plan proposed creating techonlogy that would intercept incoming missles against the US, as tensions were still high against the Soviet Union. Reagan believed that the current agreement between the USSR and the US was not going to last, and so he developed this plan as a protective system against Nuclear attacks.These machines were satellites that would be sent into space as a detection system. -
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Operation Urgent Fury
Also known as the US Invasion of Grenada, which resulted in the US's near immedeat victory. The invasion occured in order to topple a recent coup that took over a four-year revolutionary governnment. Overall, this invation was not as positive as the US would have imagined, considering that it was heavily critisised for stating false accusations and their poor preperation for the invasation, however, they did free Granada -
Human Genome Project
Though its fulldate is not completely know, planning for the HGP began in 1984, began in 1990, and officially completed in 2003. This project involed the US, UK, China, France, Germany, Spain and Japan. Originally aimed to map all the nucleotides in a Human Genome, this project paved the way for advandced Genetic Engineering and discovery of several new proteins. In 2003, the entire human genome was mapped. -
Summer Olympic Games Boycott
As the US boycotted Russia's Summer Olympics, this time, Russia boycotted the US Olympic Games in retaliation. The boycotting countries (mainly Soviet) created the Friendship Games. This boycott mainly heightened the US-USSR tensions, -
Lousisiana World Exposition
The last world's fair was held in New Orleans in the US. While this was mainly used to raise money and attract attention in the US, it recieved a much smaller amount of visitors than expected, but this also raised enough money in the recovery of the US waterfront. -
Famine Relief Concert
Both the US and England were involed in this, as it took place in London and Philadelphia. This relief concert was organized by Bob Geldof and its pupose was to provide money to several famine-ridden countries in Africa. This was also ther first time that the US had been invovled in such a project, and the first time so much attention had been given to a relief project. -
Geneva Conference
The 1985 Geneva conference was the first meeting in six years between the Soviet and US leaders; Gorbachev and Reagan. This meeting was about the US and USSR talking about diplomacy and the arms race between them. This talk eventually led to a joint statment and a mutual agreement, leading to more meetings. -
US Challenger Disaster
The US shuttle, "The Challenger" was launched in to space to examine space, but blew up during the launch, killing the seven people aboard. This was considered a national disaster, and several new techniwques and ideas were then implemented into later ships to prevent from occuring again. -
Hands Across America
Hand Across America was a fundraiser movement to help the homelss in the US, which entailed in having particiapnts hold hands together to form a long chain. The longest human chain in this fundraiser was around 4,000 miles long. ARound 35 million dollars were donated to charities and created a 'fad' in helping the poor in the US -
Black Monday Stck Market Crash
Beore this crash, the stocks were incresingly higher and higher, which was devastaing for the economy after a sudden crash in the Stock market. The US lost 22.26% of their stocks and forced the US to slow its stock and economic growth. -
Treaty Between US and USSR
The INF treaty signed between the US and USSR on Washington DC was to lessen weapons the US and USSR had, destroying missles with intermediate ranges. -
First Patent for Genetic Engineering
The first petent in the world for a genetically engineered animal was issued to Harvard University in the US. The University wasnted to create GE animals to increase researching, and also helped the US to develped new theories and antibiocs because of their use. This also paved the way for a more lineant restriction on Genetically Engineered animals. -
Largest Employment Rate in 14 years
The Labor Department in the US checked economic reports from the previous year, and found that their Employment rate is at 3.8%; the largest employment rate the US had in the last 14 years. This nes was also tied with the epmloyment rate at 5.3%, which was the lowest in 14 years. This growth helped the US expand themselves and gain more political power, it also helped it gain more capital overall. -
Exxon Valdez Oil spill
The Exxon oil spill in Alaska was caused because of faulty care of the supertanker Valdez while it was refilling. This event destroyed much of Alaska's wildlife in the area and forec the US to notice the dangers of Oil shipping.
