Important events of the 1980's

1980

June 1st - Ted Turner launches CNN which is a news channel broadcasting 24 hours a day on cable television.

June 1st - Comedian Richard Pryor's face is severely burned after freebasing cocaine which is initially said to have been an accident until he later admits it to being a suicide attempt.

November 4th - Ronald W. Reagan is elected U.S. President.

December 8th - John Lennon is assassinated at the age of 40 outside his apartment, the Dakota in Manhattan's Upper West Side by Mark David Chapman.

1981

January 20th - U.S. releases fifty-two hostages after being held captive for fourteen months in Iran and on the same day President Ronald Reagan is inaugurated.

March 30th - President Reagan is shot outside the Washington Wilton Hotel by John Hinkley, Jr. in an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster.

May 13th - Pope John Paul II is shot four times and wounded at St. Peter's Square in Rome by a Turkish terrorist as he blesses the crowd.

July 29th - Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer are married at St. Paul's Cathedral in London while their wedding is televised live and seen by over 750 million people worldwide.

August 1st - MTV introduces a channel airing music videos 24 hours a day.

1982

March 5th - Comedian/actor John Belushi is found dead at the age of 33 from a drug overdose in a Hollywood hotel room.

September 14th - Princess Grace of Monaco dies at the age of 52 due to injuries she sustained the previous day caused by a stroke resulting in her losing control of her vehicle and plunging down an embankment near Monte Carlo.

October 5th - Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules are laced with cyanide causing seven deaths over a period of several days which occur in the Chicago area resulting in Johnson & Johnson issung a recall of all Tylenol products nationwide. Approximately 31 million bottles are in distribution at a staggering cost of more than $100 million dollars. Eventually the company replaces the capsules with tamper-resistant caplets. The person responsible for this horrid crime is never caught.

1983

February 4th - Singer Karen Carpenter dies at the age of 32 from cardiac arrest following the strain that anorexia had put on her heart.

March 2nd - Compact discs developed by Phillips and Sony are introduced in the United States.

June 18th - Sally Ride, a physicist becomes the first American woman in space to ride on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

September 17th - Vanessa Williams becomes the first black "Miss America" only to be forced to resign the following July due to her Penthouse magazine scandal.

1984

April 1st - Motown singer Marvin Gaye is shot and killed at the age of 44 by his father stemming from an altercation.

April 23rd - The disease A.I.D.S. is identified as acquired immuned deficiency syndrome.

July 1st - PG-13 rating is introduced.

July 12th - Geraldine Ferraro is the first woman to become the Democrat Party's Vice-Presidential candidate.

November 25th - Band Aid records the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in order to raise money for famine relief in Etheopia. Several days later on December 3rd the single is released and quickly becomes #1 in twelve countries. The group is comprised of more than forty of the most popular singers and groups from both the UK and the U.S. with the album selling more than 3 million copies and helps to raise millions of dollars.

1985

January 20th - President Reagan is inaugurated for a second term.

January 28th - Following the American Music Awards many performers converge at A & M Recording Studios in Hollywood, California to record a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones to raise money for famine relief efforts in Etheopia which is inspired by the British group Band Aid. A total of twenty-one artists contribute their voices to the song and on March 7th "We Are the World" is released which quickly becomes the #1 single for four straight weeks selling over 7.5 million copies in the U.S. followed by the release of the album entitled USA for Africa: We Are the World that sells over 3 million copies. The album also includes songs from other artists and the total amount raises a universal total of approximately $50 million dollars.

April 23rd - Coca Cola introduces New Coke which turns out to be unsuccessful and on July 10th officials announce they are bringing back the original formula and appropriately title it Classic Coke.

July 13th - Bob Geldof's benefit concerts Live Aid which takes place at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia raises over $70 million worldwide for African famine relief and is televised live.

1986

January 28th - The Space Shuttle Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying seven crew members explodes seventy-three seconds after liftoff as hundreds of millions of people throughout the world watch this tragic event in horror on television.

March 27th - Mary Beth Whitehead is hired as a surrogate mother for William and Elizabeth Stern in what becomes agreed upon that Mary Beth Whitehead would carry and deliver the Stern's baby in exchange for a fee of $10,000. After Melissa is born; however, (the Stern's name the baby Melissa Elizabeth Stern while Mary Beth Whitehead names her Sara Elizabeth Whitehead) Mary Beth Whitehead refuses to give her up in addition to declining the money. Both parties are forced to go to court and after the first ruling in the Stern's favor is overturned by the Supreme Court the case is eventually taken to family court with the lower court's final ruling awarding William Stern custody and Mary Beth Whitehead visitation rights.

May 25th - In the fight against hunger and homelessness Hands Across America is a benefit that joins more than five million people who hold hands for fifteen minutes forming a human chain beginning at New York City's Battery Park and ending at a pier in Long Beach, California totaling more than 4,152 miles and helping to raise millions of dollars.

1987

March 19th - Evangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of PTL (Praise the Lord) Club after allegations of having an affair with the church secretary Jessica Hahn are made public.

October 14th - Eighteen-month-old Jessica McClure falls into an abandoned well while playing with other children at a babysitter's home in Midland, Texas. She is trapped for fifty-eight hours while rescuers work desperately to save her as countless people watch on television in disbelief.

October 19th - Black Monday is documented as the worst stock market crash in history as the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 508.32 points and loses 22.6% of its value equivalent to $500 billion dollars.

1988

February 21st - Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert admits on live television that he has commited a sin but does not disclose what particular sin it is. It is later revealed that he had been having an affair with a prostitute.

April 12th - Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California.

November 8th - George Herbert Walker Bush wins the presidency over Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

December 21st - Pan Am 747 flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland from a terrorist bomb killing all 259 on board and 11 on ground.

1989

January 20th - George Bush, Sr. is inaugurated.

January 24th - Convicted serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair at the age of 42.

March 3rd - One day after Madonna's Pepsi commercial entitled "Make A Wish" premieres during an episode of the Cosby Show MTV debuts her video "Like a Prayer" which causes an uproar due to the images of burning crosses, racial and sacrilegious content. Following numerous complaints from religious groups to the Vatican who banned her from appearing in Italy, Pepsi is forced to discontinue broadcasting the ad and even though Madonna no longer promotes Pepsi she is permitted to keep the $5 million dollars for which she is paid by the company. The controversy regarding the video is so intense that within three weeks of the music video and commercial aring "Like a Prayer" is the No. 1 single and album in America.

March 24th - The oil tanker Exxon Valdez hits Bligh Reef in Prince William, Sound Alaska spilling approximately eleven million gallons of crude oil into the water. As a result thousands of animals die and the total cost of Exxon's mistake causes the company billions of dollars in cleanup bills and lawsuit settlements.

November 9th - The Berlin Wall is torn down allowing people to travel freely from East to West Germany as thousands of people on both sides of the Wall celebrate this momentous occasion which would be properly known as the fall of the Berlin Wall.