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Timeline of the Twentieth Century: 1980-1989

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1980

Failed U.S. Rescue Attempt to Save Hostages in Tehran

John Lennon Assassinated

Mount St. Helens Erupts

Rubik's Cube Popular

Ted Turner Establishes CNN

1981

Assassination Attempt on the Pope

Assassination Attempt on U.S. President Reagan

First Woman Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court

Millions Watch Royal Wedding on T.V.

New Plague Identified as AIDS

Pac-Man is Extremely Popular

Personal Computers (PC) Introduced by IBM

1982

E.T. Movie Released

Falkland Islands Invaded by Argentina

King Henry VIII's Ship the Mary Rose Raised After 437 Years

Michael Jackson Releases Thriller

Reverend Sun Myung Moon Marries 2,075 Couples at Madison Square Garden

1983

Cabbage Patch Kids are Popular

Reagan Announces Defense Plan Called Star Wars

Sally Ride Becomes the First American Woman in Space

Soviets Shoot Down a Korean Airliner

U.S. Embassy in Beirut Bombed

1984

Huge Poison Gas Leak in Bhopal, India

Indira Gandhi, India's Prime Minister, Killed by Two Bodyguards

PG-13 Movie Rating Created

Vietnam War Memorial Opened in Washington, DC

1985

Famine in Ethiopia

Hole in the Ozone Layer Discovered

Mikhail Gorbachev Calls for Glasnost and Perestroika

New Coke Hits the Market

Wreck of the Titanic Found

1986

Challenger Space Shuttle Explodes

Chernobyl Nuclear Accident

Ferdinand Marcos Flees the Philippines

Iran-Contra Scandal Unfolds

U.S. Bombs Libya

U.S.S.R. Launches Mir Space Station

1987

DNA First Used to Convict Criminals

Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Butcher of Lyons, Sentenced to Life in Prison

New York Stock Exchange Suffers Huge Drop on "Black Monday"

West German Pilot Lands Unchallenged in Russia's Red Square

1988

Pan Am Flight 103 Is Bombed Over Lockerbie

U.S. Shoots Down Iranian Airliner

1989

Berlin Wall Falls

Exxon Valdez Spills Millions of Gallons of Oil on Coastline

Students Massacred in China's Tiananmen Square

U.S. President Bush Announces That He Doesn't Like Broccoli

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