1980s

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s

Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Table of contents

1 Events and trends

1.1 Computers, technology
1.2 Science
1.3 War, peace and politics
1.4 Economics
1.5 Culture
1.6 Others

2 World Leaders
3 Film
4 Television
5 Sports figures
6 Music

Events and trends

Computers, technology

Bulletin board system popularity
Popularization of personal computers
Home video games become enormously popular, most notably Atari until the market crashes in 1983; the rise of Nintendo brings about full recovery
Space Shuttle Challenger explodes
Accident at Chernobyl nuclear reactor, April 1986

Science

Discovery of the W and Z bosons at CERN
Development of the scanning tunneling microscope by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer

War, peace and politics

Fall of the Iron Curtain
- Solidarity movement in Poland eventually topples the country's Communist regime.
- Gorbachev introduces Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union
- Fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany, preparing the way to German reunification
- Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia
- Revolution in Romania, execution of Ceausescu
Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism dominate British politics.
Falklands War Britain fights off Argentine invasion of Falkland islands in 1982
Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 kills one million people.
Soviet Union ends its disastrous military campaign in Afghanistan.
Students protest on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China
"People Power" in the Philippines topples the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship
In Europe, rise of right wing parties (Le Pen in France, Schönhuber/Republikaner in Germany, Haider in Austria), parallel to a rise of Green parties.
Political correctness
Iran-Contra Scandal

Economics

Reaganomics
Largest one-day stock market drop, on October 19, 1987
Late 1980s recession

Culture

Rise of cable television
Music videos (and MTV) begin to have an effect on record industry in the United States
24 hour television news channels (e.g., CNN)
He-Man, the first animated children's television program built exclusively around a toyline, starts a new trend of increasing the connection between children's programming and toy advertising, alarming many parents and watchdog organizations; an explosive number of toy tie-in cartoons follow
Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial hits theaters
Hip hop began to achieve mainstream success in the United States, with artists like Kurtis Blow and N.W.A; hip hop's spread outside of New York City, especially to Los Angeles, accelerates
The Rubik's cube captures the interest of the American public, then fades to relative obscurity

Others

Assassination of John Lennon and Olof Palme, attempts on Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.
President Tito of Yugoslavia dies.
Release of Americans held hostage in Iran
Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini isssues a fatwa urging the killing of Salman Rushdie
Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland
The AIDS epidemic is identified and named

World Leaders

Chancellor Bruno Kreisky (Austria)
Chancellor Fred Sinowatz (Austria)
Chancellor Franz Vranitzky (Austria)
Prime Minister Bob Hawke (Australia)
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Canada)
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (Canada)
Deng Xiaoping (People's Republic of China)
President Chiang Ching-kuo (Republic of China on Taiwan)
Erich Honecker (East Germany)
President Anwar Sadat (Egypt)
President Hosni Mubarak (Egypt)
President Urho Kekkonen (Finland)
President Mauno Koivisto (Finland)
President François Mitterrand (France)
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (India)
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Iran)
President Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Israel)
Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Israel)
Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
Pope John Paul II
President Patrick Hillery (Ireland)
Taoiseach Charles Haughey (Ireland)
Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald (Ireland)
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore)
Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union)
Prime Minister Olof Palme (Sweden)
Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom)
President Jimmy Carter (United States)
President Ronald Reagan (United States)
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (West Germany)
Chancellor Helmut Kohl (West Germany)
President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Film

Television

Sports figures

Alexis Arguello
Wilfred Benitez
Larry Bird
George Brett
Julio Cesar Chavez
Roberto Duran (Panamanian boxer)
Ric Flair
Wilfredo Gómez;
Wayne Gretzky (Canadian ice hockey player)
Florence Griffith Joyner (U.S. track and field athlete)
Marvin Hagler (U.S. boxer)
Thomas Hearns (U.S. boxer)
Hulk Hogan (U.S. wrestler)
Larry Holmes (U.S. boxer)
Bo Jackson
Jahangir Khan (Pakistani squash player)
Earvin "Magic" Johnson (U.S. basketball player)
Michael Jordan (U.S. basketball player)
Jarmila Kratochvílová (Czech track and field athlete)
Greg LeMond (U.S. cyclist)
Sugar Ray Leonard (U.S. boxer)
Carl Lewis (U.S. track and field athlete)
Ronnie Lott
Diego Maradona (Argentinian soccer player)
John McEnroe (U.S. tennis player)
Mark Messier
1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team ("Miracle On Ice")
Joe Montana (U.S. American football player)
Martina Navratilova (Czech/U.S. tennis player)
Jack Nicklaus (U.S. golfer)
Michel Platini (French soccer player)
Alain Prost (French racing driver)
Nolan Ryan
Ozzie Smith
Michael Spinks (U.S. boxer)
Lawrence Taylor
Isiah Thomas
Daley Thompson (English track and field athlete)
Mike Tyson (U.S. boxer)

Music

Compact Disc introduced, gradually replaces vinyl records.
see hip hop, old school rap, heavy metal music, twee pop, hair metal, New Wave music, New Romantic, shoegazing, jangle pop, alternative rock, dream pop, techno, house, acid house, two-tone
Aerosmith (Pump)
Afrika Bambaataa (Planet Rock)
Alabama (awarded ACM "Artists of the Decade")
Anthrax (State of Euphoria)
a-ha (Hunting High and Low)
Public Enemy (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back)
The B-52's (The B-52's)
Bad Religion (Suffer)
The Bangles (All Over the Place)
Beastie Boys (License to Ill)
Clint Black (Killin' Time)
Black Flag
David Byrne (The Catherine Wheel)
Kurtis Blow (Kurtis Blow)
The Cars (Heartbeat City)
Celtic Frost (Into the Pandemonium)
Tracy Chapman (Tracy Chapman)
The Clash (London Calling)
Cocteau Twins (Head over Heels)
Phil Collins (Face Value)
De La Soul (Three Feet High and Rising)
Def Leppard (Pyromania)
Devo (Freedom of Choice)
Dokken (Tooth and Nail)
Duran Duran (Rio)
Embrace (Embrace)
Brian Eno & David Byrne (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts)
Eric B. & Rakim; (Follow the Leader)
Faith No More (The Real Thing)
Fields of the Nephilim (Dawnrazor)
A Flock of Seagulls (A Flock of Seagulls)
John Fogerty (Centerfield)
Peter Gabriel (''Gabriel III (melting face cover))
The Go-Go's (The Beauty and the Beat)
Amy Grant (Straight Ahead)
Guns n' Roses (Appetite for Destruction)
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five; (The Message)
Hüsker Dü (Zen Arcade)
John Cougar Mellencamp (Scarecrow)
Menudo (Reaching Out)
Mercyful Fate (Don't Break the Oath)
Michael Jackson (Thriller)
Mission UK (The First Chapter)
The Jam (Sound Affects)
Jane's Addiction (Nothing's Shocking)
Jesus & Mary Chain; (Pyschocandy)
Joy Division (Closer)
Kraftwerk (Computer World)
Cyndi Lauper (She's So Unusual)
k.d. lang (Shadowland)
LL Cool J (Radio)
Madonna (Like a Virgin)
Bob Marley (Uprising)
Ministry (The Land of Rape and Honey)
Sugar Minnott (Good Thing Going)
Mötley Crüe (Shout at the Devil)
My Bloody Valentine (Isn't Anything)
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (I See Good Spirits & I See Bad Spirits;)
Nine Inch Nails (Pretty Hate Machine)
N.W.A (Straight Outta Compton)
The Offspring (The Offspring)
Quiet Riot (Metal Health)
Augustus Pablo (Earth's Rightful Ruler)
Pennywise (Pennywise)
Pixies (Doolittle)
Poison (Open Up & Say...Ahh;)
The Police (Synchronicity
The Pogues (Rum Sodomy & the Lash;)
The Pretenders (The Pretenders)
Prince (Purple Rain)
R.E.M (Murmur)
Rainbow (Down to Earth)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (Freaky Styley)
The Replacements (Tim)
Rick Springfield (Working Class Dog)
Rockin' Sidney (My Zydeco Shoes Got the Zydeco Blues)
Run DMC (Kings of Rock)
Sepultura (Beneath the Remains)
Simple Minds (Once Upon a Time)
The Sisters of Mercy (Floodland)
Skinny Puppy ((VIVISect VI)
Slick Rick (The Great Adventures of Slick Rick)
The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead)
Soft Cell (Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing)
Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation)
Sting (The Dream of the Blue Turtles)
The Specials (More Specials)
Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A)
Stryper (The Yellow and Black Attack)
Talking Heads (Speaking in Tongues)
Tina Turner (Private Dancer)
Randy Travis (Storms of Life)
Peter Tosh (Mama Africa)
U2 (The Joshua Tree)
Van Halen (Women and Children First)
Violent Femmes (Violent Femmes)
W.A.S.P (F**k Like a Beast)
Wham (Make It Big)
Whitesnake (Saints and Sinners)
Yellowman (Mister Yellowman)
Yo La Tengo (New Wave Hot Dogs)
Dwight Yoakam (Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc)
ZZ Topp (Afterburner)
Various artists - C-86