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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 landslide victory over Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. -
Jimmy Carter Elected President
Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democrat from Georgia, took office following his narrow victory over Republican incumbent president Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. -
Star Wars Movie Premier
The Star Wars Trilogy began with Star Wars: A New Hope (originally released as simply Star Wars) in 1977. -
Three Mile Island Meltdown
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor, near Middletown, Pa., partially melted down on March 28, 1979. This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history, although its small radioactive releases had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public. -
Mount. St. Helens Eruption
Mount Saint Helens, volcanic peak in the Cascade Range, southwestern Washington, U.S. Its eruption on May 18, 1980, was one of the greatest volcanic explosions ever recorded in North America. -
Iran Hostages Released
An agreement having been made, the hostages were released on January 20, 1981, minutes after the inauguration of the new U.S. president, Ronald Reagan. -
Assassination Attempt on President Reagan
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
Discovery and scandal. After a leak by Mehdi Hashemi, a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa exposed the arrangement on 3 November 1986. -
Challenger Shuttle Explosion
The Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. -
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
The Chornobyl disaster[a] began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chornobyl 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
The fall of the Berlin Wall (German: Mauerfall, pronounced [ˈmaʊ̯ɐˌfal]) on 9 November 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. -
Original U.S.A. Olympic Basketball Dream Team
The first ten players for the team were selected on September 21, 1991: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls, John Stockton and Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz, Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers, Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks, Chris Mullin of the Golden. -
Start of the Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm or the First Gulf War, began in 1991 after President Saddam Hussein of Iraq ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. -
Rodney King Decision & L.A. Riots
a dispirited Bradley, the city's first African American mayor, chose not to run for a sixth term. Ultimately, King received a $3.8 million settlement from Los Angeles after two of the officers who had beaten him were convicted in a civil suit of violating his civil rights. -
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. -
Launch of Google
Google is an American search engine company, founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Since 2015, Google has been a subsidiary of the holding company Alphabet, Inc. More than 70% of worldwide online search requests are handled by Google, placing it at the heart of most Internet users' experience. -
Bill Clinton Impeached by the House of Representatives
After Andrew Johnson, Clinton was the second U.S. president to face a Senate impeachment trial. An impeachment inquiry was opened into Clinton on October 8, 1998. The House formally impeached him on two charges (perjury and obstruction of justice) on December 19, 1998. -
World Trade Center/Pentagon/Shanksville, PA Attacks
The Defense Department honors the memories of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pa.