The 1980s (pronounced "nineteen-eighties", shortened to "the '80s" or "the Eighties") was a
decade that began January 1, 1980, and ended December 31, 1989.
The final decade of the Cold War opened with the US-Soviet confrontation continuing largely without any interruption. Superpower tensions escalated rapidly as President Reagan scrapped the policy of détente and adopted a new, much more aggressive stance on the Soviet Union. The world came perilously close to nuclear war for the first time since the
Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, but the second half of the decade saw a dramatic easing of superpower tensions and ultimately the total collapse of Soviet communism.
Developing countries across the world faced economic and social difficulties as they suffered from multiple debt crises in the 1980s, requiring many of these countries to apply for financial assistance from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank.
Ethiopia witnessed
widespread famine in the mid-1980s during the corrupt rule of
Mengistu Haile Mariam, resulting in the country having to depend on foreign aid to provide food to its population and worldwide efforts to address and raise money to help Ethiopians, such as the
Live Aid concert in 1985.
By 1986, nationalism was making a comeback in the Eastern Bloc, and the desire for democracy in
socialist states, combined with economic recession, resulted in
Mikhail Gorbachev's
glasnost and
perestroika, which reduced Communist Party power, legalized dissent and sanctioned limited forms of capitalism such as
joint ventures with companies from
capitalist countries. After tension for most of the decade, by 1988 relations between the communist and capitalist blocs had improved significantly[2] and the Soviet Union was increasingly unwilling to defend its governments in satellite states.
The 1980s was an era of tremendous population growth around the world, surpassing the 1970s and 1990s, and arguably being the largest in human history. During the 1980s, the world population grew from 4.4 to 5.3 billion people. There were approximately 1.33 billion births and 480 million deaths. Population growth was particularly rapid in a number of African, Middle Eastern, and
South Asian countries during this decade, with rates of natural increase close to or exceeding 4% annually. The 1980s saw the advent of the ongoing practice of
sex-selective abortion in China and India as
ultrasound technology permitted parents to selectively abort baby girls.[3]
The 1980s saw great advances in genetic and digital technology. After years of animal experimentation since 1985, the first genetic modification of 10 adult human beings took place in May 1989, a
gene tagging experiment[4] which led to the first true gene therapy implementation in September 1990. The first "
designer babies", a pair of female twins, were created in a laboratory in late 1989 and born in July 1990 after being sex-selected via the controversial
assisted reproductive technology procedure
preimplantation genetic diagnosis.[5]Gestational surrogacy was first performed in 1985 with the first birth in 1986, making it possible for a woman to become a biological mother without experiencing pregnancy for the first time in history.[6]
The global
internet took shape in academia by the second half of the 1980s, as well as many other
computer networks of both academic and commercial use such as
USENET,
Fidonet, and the
Bulletin Board System. By 1989, the Internet and the networks linked to it were a global system with extensive transoceanic satellite links and nodes in most
developed countries.[7] Based on earlier work, from 1980 onwards
Tim Berners Lee formalized the concept of the
World Wide Web by 1989.
Television viewing became commonplace in the
Third World, with the number of TV sets in China and India increasing by 15 and 10 times respectively.[8]
Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) – part of the cold war conflicts, reached its peak in the 1980s, 70,000 Salvadorans died.
Argentina invaded the
Falkland Islands, sparking the
Falklands War. It occurred from April 2 to July 14, 1982, between the
United Kingdom and
Argentina as British forces fought to recover the islands. Britain emerged victorious and its stance in international affairs and its long-decaying reputation as a
colonial power received an unexpected boost. The
military junta of Argentina, on the other hand, was left humiliated by the defeat; and its leader
Leopoldo Galtieri was deposed three days after the end of the war. A military investigation known as the Rattenbach Report even recommended his execution.
1982 Lebanon War – the
Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom,
Shlomo Argov, by the
Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the terrorist organizations which resided in Lebanon. After attacking the
PLO, as well as
Syrian, leftist and
MuslimLebanese forces, Israel occupied southern Lebanon and eventually surrounded the
PLO in west
Beirut and subjected to heavy bombardment, they negotiated passage from Lebanon.
In October 1985 eight Israeli
F-15 Eagles carried out
Operation Wooden Leg intending to bomb the
PLO's new headquarters in
Tunis,
Tunisia, more than 2,000 km from Israel. The attack cost 270 lives, most of them Tunisian civilians. The attack was later condemned by the
United Nations Security Council. The United States is thought to have assisted or known of the attack.
The
Iran–Iraq War took place from 1980 to 1988.
Iraq was accused of using illegal
chemical weapons to kill
Iranian forces and against its own dissident
Kurdish populations. Both sides suffered enormous casualties, but the poorly equipped Iranian armies suffered worse for it, being forced to use soldiers as young as 15 in human-wave attacks. Iran finally agreed to an armistice in 1988.
The United States launched an
aerial bombardment of Libya in 1986 in retaliation for Libyan support of terrorism and attacks on US personnel in
Germany and
Turkey.
The United States engaged in significant direct and indirect conflict in the decade via alliances with various groups in a number of Central and South American countries claiming that the U.S. was acting to oppose the spread of
communism and end illicit drug trade. The U.S. government supported the government of
Colombia's attempts to destroy its large illicit
cocaine-trafficking industry and provided support for right-wing military government in the
Salvadoran civil war which became controversial after the
El Mozote massacre on December 11, 1981, in which U.S.-trained Salvadoran paramilitaries killed 1000 Salvadoran civilians. The United States, along with members of the
Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States,
invadedGrenada in 1983. The
Iran–Contra affair erupted which involved U.S. interventionism in
Nicaragua, resulting in members of the U.S. government being indicted in 1986. U.S. military action began against
Panama in December 1989 to overthrow its dictator,
Manuel Noriega resulting in 3,500 civilian casualties and the restoration of democratic rule.
The most notable internal conflicts of the decade include:
The
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 occurred in the People's Republic of China in 1989, in which pro-democracy protesters demanded political reform. The protests were crushed by the People's Liberation Army.
The
First Intifada (First Uprising) in the
Gaza Strip and
West Bank began in 1987 when Palestinian Arabs mounted large-scale protests against the Israeli military presence in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, largely inhabited by Palestinians. The First Intifada would continue until peace negotiations began between the
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government in 1993.
Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) – Throughout the decade, Lebanon was engulfed in civil war between Islamic and Christian factions.
El Mozote massacre in
El Salvador on December 11, 1981, against civilians, committed by government forces supported by the
United States during their anti-guerrilla campaign against Marxist–Leninist rebels.
Air India Flight 182 was destroyed on June 23, 1985, by Sikh-Canadian militants. It was the biggest mass murder involving Canadians in Canada's history.
On December 21, 1988,
Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over the village of Lockerbie, Scotland, while en route from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's JFK. The bombing killed all 259 people on board, 243 passengers and 16 crew members, plus 11 people on the ground, totaling 270 fatalities who were citizens of 21 nationalities. The bombing was and remains the worst terrorist attack on
UK soil.
The "
Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution" – a series of interconnected coups d'états – take place in
Yugoslavia from 1988 to 1989 through mass protests organized and committed by supporters of Serbian politician
Slobodan Milošević overthrow the governments of Serbia's autonomous provinces of
Kosovo and
Vojvodina, and the government of
Montenegro, and finally the main government of
Serbia with Milošević becoming
President of Serbia.
US President Reagan's decision to station intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe provoked mass protests involving more than one million people.
In 1982, Canada gained official independence from the United Kingdom with the
Canada Act 1982, authorized by the signature by
Elizabeth II. This act severed all political dependencies of the United Kingdom in Canada (although the Queen remained the head of state).
In 1986, Australia gained full independence from the United Kingdom with the
Australia Act 1986, which severed the last remaining powers of the British government over the Australian government, including the removal of the privy council as the highest court of appeal. Australia retained the queen as head of state.
In 1986, New Zealand and the United Kingdom fully separated New Zealand's governments from the influence of the British Parliament, resulting in New Zealand's full independence with the
Constitution Act 1986 which also reorganized the
New Zealand government.
Independence was granted to
Vanuatu from the British/French condominium (1980),
Kiribati from joint US-British government (1981) and
Palau from the United States (1986).
Zimbabwe becomes independent from official colonial rule of the United Kingdom in 1980.
Ronald Reagan was elected U.S. president in 1980. In international affairs, Reagan pursued a hardline policy towards preventing the spread of communism, initiating a considerable buildup of U.S. military power to challenge the Soviet Union. He further directly challenged the
Iron Curtain by demanding that the Soviet Union dismantle the
Berlin Wall.
The
Reagan Administration accelerated the
War on Drugs, publicized through anti-drug campaigns including the
Just Say No campaign of First Lady
Nancy Reagan. Drugs gained attention in the US as a serious problem in the '80s. Cocaine was relatively popular among celebrities and affluent youth, while crack, a cheaper offshoot of the drug, was linked to high crime rates in inner cities during the
American crack epidemic. [citation needed]
The
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (1968) (PATCO) declared a strike on August 3, 1981, seeking better working conditions, better pay, and a 32-hour workweek. The strike caused considerable disruption of the U.S. air transportation system. Resolution came when
Ronald Reagan fired over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, banning them from federal service for life. After seeking appeals, many of the controllers were re-hired while the FAA attempted to replace much of their air traffic control staffing. The remainder continued to be banned until President Clinton lifted the final aspects in 1993.
Political unrest in the province of
Quebec, which, due to the many differences between the dominant francophone population and the anglophone minority, and also to francophone rights in the predominantly
English-speaking Canada, came to a head in 1980 when the provincial government called a public
referendum on partial separation from the rest of Canada. The referendum ended with the "no" side winning majority (59.56% no, 40.44% yes).
In 1983,
Bettino Craxi became the first
socialist to hold the office of
Prime Minister of Italy; he remained in power until 1987, becoming one of the longest-serving Prime Ministers in the history of Italian Republic. At the end of his presidency the
Mani pulite corruption scandal broke up, causing the collapse of the political system.
Significant political reforms occurred in a number of communist countries in eastern Europe as the populations of these countries grew increasingly hostile and politically active in opposing communist governments. These reforms included attempts to increase individual liberties and market liberalization, and promises of democratic renewal. The collapse of communism in eastern Europe was generally peaceful, the exception being
Romania, whose leader
Nicolae Ceaușescu tried to keep the people isolated from the events happening outside the country. While making a speech in Bucharest in December 1989, he was booed and shouted down by the crowd, and then tried to flee the city with his wife
Elena. Two days later, they were captured, charged with genocide, and shot on Christmas Day.
In
Yugoslavia, following the death of communist leader
Josip Broz Tito in May 1980, the trend of political reform of the communist system occurred along with a trend towards
ethnic nationalism and inter-ethnic hostility, especially in Serbia, beginning with the 1986
Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts followed by the agenda of Serbian communist leader
Slobodan Milošević who aggressively pushed for increased political influence of Serbs in the late 1980s, condemning non-Serb Yugoslav politicians who challenged his agenda as being enemies of Serbs.
There was continuing civil strife in Northern Ireland, including the adoption of hunger strikes by Irish Republican Army prisoners seeking the reintroduction of political status.
Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, and initiated major reforms to the Soviet Union's government through increasing the rights of expressing political dissent and opening elections to opposition candidates (while maintaining legal dominance of the Communist Party). Gorbachev pursued negotiation with the United States to decrease tensions and eventually end the
Cold War.
The United Kingdom was governed by the
Conservative Party under Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, the first female leader of a Western country. Under her
Premiership, the party introduced widespread economic reforms including the
privatisation of industries and the de-regulation of
stock markets echoing similar reforms of
U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan. She was also a staunch opponent of communism, earning her the nickname The Iron Lady.
Poor industrial relations marked the beginning of the decade; the
UK miners' strike (1984–85) was a major
industrial action affecting the
UK coal industry. The strike by the
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was led by
Arthur Scargill, although some NUM members considered it to be unconstitutional and did not observe it. The
BBC has referred to the strike as "the most bitter industrial dispute in British history."[9] At its height, the strike involved 142,000 mineworkers, making it the biggest since the
1926 General Strike.[10]
In November 1982,
Leonid Brezhnev, who had led the Soviet Union since 1964, died. He was followed in quick succession by
Yuri Andropov, the former KGB chief, and
Konstantin Chernenko, both of whom were in poor health during their short tenures in office.
Asia
Following the
assassination of Park Chung-hee, South Korean president
Chun Doo Hwan came to power at the end of 1979 and ruled as a dictator until his presidential term expired in 1987. He was responsible for the
Gwangju Uprising in May 1980 when police and soldiers battled armed protesters. Relations with North Korea showed little sign of improvement during the 1980s. In 1983, when Chun was in Burma,
a bomb apparently planted by North Korean agents killed a number of South Korean government officials. After leaving office, he was succeeded by
Roh Tae Woo, the first democratic ruler of the country, which saw its international prestige greatly rise with hosting the Olympics in 1988. Roh pursued a policy of normalizing relations with China and the Soviet Union, but had to face militant left-wing student groups who demanded reunification with North Korea and the withdrawal of US troops.
In the Philippines, after almost 20 years of dictatorship, Philippine president
Ferdinand Marcos left the presidency and was replaced by
Corazon Aquino through the "
People Power Revolution" from February 22 to 25, 1986. This has been considered by some a peaceful revolution despite the fact that the Armed Forces of the Philippines issued an order to disperse the crowds on
EDSA (the main thoroughfare in Metro Manila).
Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, was
shot in Washington, D.C. by a mentally disturbed individual. Reagan's press secretary,
James Brady, was also shot, along with a police officer and a U.S. Secret Service agent.[12]
Indira Gandhi, 3rd Prime Minister of India, is
assassinated by her own
bodyguards in response to the Indian Army's attack on Golden Temple to destroy
Sikh Militant stronghold in Amritsar earlier in the decade.[19]
On October 17, 1989, the
Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area during Game 3 of the
1989 World Series, gaining worldwide attention. Sixty-five people were killed and thousands injured, with major structural damage on freeways and buildings and broken gas-line fires in
San Francisco, California. The cost of the damage totaled $13 billion (1989
USD).
The
1988–89 North American drought decimated the US with many parts of the country affected. This was the worst drought to hit the United States in many years. The drought caused $60 billion in damage (between $80 billion and $120 billion for 2008
USD). The concurrent
heat waves killed 5,800 to 17,000 people in the United States.
On August 19, 1980,
Saudia Flight 163 caught fire moments after takeoff from the
Saudi Arabian capital of
Riyadh. The flight quickly returned to the airport, but evacuation of the plane was delayed and all 301 people aboard died.
On July 9, 1982,
Pan Am Flight 759 was forced down by a wind shear microburst, killing 153 people.
On June 2, 1983, an internal fire on
Air Canada Flight 797 forced the plane to divert to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Ninety seconds after the plane landed and the doors were opened,
flashover conditions developed and the plane's interior immediately became engulfed in flames, killing 23 passengers, including Canadian folk musician
Stan Rogers.
On September 1, 1983, Soviet Union fighter jets shot down
Korean Air Lines Flight 007, which was carrying 269 people, none of whom survived.
In 1984, the
Bhopal disaster resulted from a toxic
MIC gas leak at the
Union Carbide plant in
Bhopal, India, killing 3,000 immediately and ultimately claiming 15,000–20,000 lives.
On June 23, 1985,
Air India Flight 182, flight from Montreal Canada is blown up over Irish waters by a bomb placed in the luggage compartment. This was the greatest act of terrorism until the
September 11 attacks of 2001.
Japan Airlines Flight 123, carrying 524 people, crashed on August 12, 1985, while on a flight from Tokyo to Osaka killing 520 of the people on board, leaving four survivors. This was, and still is, the worst single-plane crash ever.
On December 12, 1985,
Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashed seconds after lifting off from
Gander, Newfoundland. All 256 people on board, many of them U.S. servicemen returning home from duty overseas, perished.
On January 28, 1986, the NASA
Space Shuttle Challengerdisintegrated 73 seconds after launch, killing all of the crew on board. This was the first disaster involving the destruction of a NASA space shuttle. A faulty
O-ring was the cause of the accident.
On February 8, 1986 near Hinton, Alberta, Canada (west of Edmonton) a westbound Canadian National (CN Rail) freight train slammed head-on into an oncoming eastbound VIA Rail passenger train, resulting in twenty-six casualties & dozens of serious injuries. A judicial inquiry that followed concluded that the freight train crew failed to obey signals (which were working properly) & ran through the switch off a siding, back into the single main track. It was also noted that the crew of the freight train were possibly asleep on duty.
On April 26, 1986, the
Chernobyl disaster, a large-scale
nuclear meltdown in the
Ukrainian SSR,
Soviet Union, spread a large amount of radioactive material across Europe, killing 47 people, dooming countless others to future radiation-related cancer, and causing the displacement of 300,000 people.
On August 31, 1986,
Aeroméxico Flight 498 crashed after colliding with a private
Piper Cherokee over
Cerritos, California, killing everyone on both airplanes and several others on the ground. On the same day, the Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov sank after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev in the
Black Sea, killing 423 people.
On May 9, 1987, an
uncontained engine failure on
LOT Flight 5055 caused an in-flight fire on board the airliner, which subsequently crashed, killing all 183 passengers and crew.
On November 28, 1987, a fire broke out on
South African Airways Flight 295, eventually causing the aircraft to crash into the Indian Ocean. All 159 aboard were killed.
On December 7, 1987, 43 people were killed when an irate former
USAir employee went on a rampage aboard
PSA Flight 1771.
On December 20, 1987, the
Philippine passenger ferry
MV Doña Paz burned and sank after colliding with the oil tanker
MT Vector. With an estimated death toll of over 4,000, this was and remains the world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster.
On July 3, 1988,
Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the U.S. missile cruiser
USS Vincennes over the
Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 people on the plane. The event is one of the most controversial aviation occurrences of all time, with the true cause disputed between the Americans and the Iranians.
On December 21, 1988, an American passenger 747 airliner en route from Frankfurt to Detroit (via London and New York)
Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb while it was flying over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing the 259 passengers and crew members on board and 11 people on the ground. This was the worst terrorist attack to have occurred on British soil.
On March 24, 1989, the
oil tankerExxon Valdez ran aground on
Bligh Reef in
Alaska's
Prince William Soundspilling an estimated equivalent of 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil. Although not among the largest oil spills in history, its remote and sensitive location made it one of the most devastating ecological disasters ever. The after effects of the spill continue to be felt to this day.
On April 15, 1989, The
Hillsborough disaster occurs during a
FA Cup Semi-Final in
Sheffield, England fatally crushing 96 football fans and injuring nearly 1,000 more.
On July 19, 1989,
United Airlines Flight 232, carrying 296 people, suffered an in-flight engine failure and was forced to crash-land at
Sioux City, Iowa. 185 survived, while 111 were killed when the plane burst into flames upon touchdown.
The 1980s had many fundamental advances in medicine and biology. The first
surrogate pregnancy of an unrelated child took place on April 13, 1986, in Michigan.[6] The first
genetically modified crops,
tobacco (Nicotiana) plants were grown in China in 1988.[22]
Gene therapy techniques became established by the end of the 1980s, allowing
gene tagging and
gene therapy to become a possibility, both of which were first performed in human beings in May 1989 and September 1990, respectively.
Electronics and computers
Arcade and video games had been growing in popularity since the late 1970s, and by 1982 were a major industry. But a variety of factors, including a glut of low-quality games and the rise of home computers, caused a
tremendous crash in late 1983. For the next three years, the video game market practically ceased to exist in the US. But in the second half of the decade, it would be revived by
Nintendo, whose Famicom console and mascot
Mario had been enjoying considerable success in Japan since 1983. Renamed the
Nintendo Entertainment System, it would claim 90% of the American video game market by 1989. The 1980s are considered to be the decade when video games achieved massive popularity. In 1980, Pac-Man was introduced to the arcades, and became one of the most popular video games of all time. Also in 1980,
Game & Watch was created; it was not one of the most well known game systems, but it facilitated mini-games and was concurrent with the NES. Donkey Kong, released in 1981, was a smash arcade hit and market breakthrough for
Nintendo. Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda, and the Mega Man series would become major hits for the console.
The
personal computer experienced explosive growth in the 1980s, transitioning from a hobbyist's toy to a full-fledged consumer product. The IBM PC, launched in 1981, became the dominant computer for professional users.
Commodore created the most popular home computers of both 8-bit and 16-bit generations.
MSX standard was the dominant computer platform in
Japan and in most parts of
Asia.
Apple Computer superseded its
Apple II and
Lisa models by introducing the first
Macintosh computer in 1984. It was the first commercially successful personal computer to use a
graphical user interface (GUI) and
mouse,[23] which started to become general features in computers after the middle of the decade. Electronics and computers were also at the forefront of the advertising industry, with many commercials like "1984" from Apple achieving acclaim and pop-culture relevance.[24]
IBM PC (model 5150), the first
DOS-compatible PC was released in 1981. The IBM PCs and compatible models from other vendors would become the most widely used computer systems in the world.
Commodore 64, with sales estimated at more than 17 million units between 1982 and 1994 became the best-selling computer model of all time.
The
Macintosh 128K, the first commercially successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface, was introduced to the public in 1984.[25]
The
IBM PC Convertible (model 5140; 1986), the first
DOS-compatible PC to be a
laptop and to use the standard 3+1⁄2-inch floppy disk drives.
The
Amiga 500, the first "low-end" 16 and 32 bit multimedia home/personal computer, was introduced in October 1987.[26]
Walkman and
boomboxes, invented during the late 1970s, became very popular as they were introduced to various countries in the early 1980s, and had a profound impact on the music industry and youth culture. Consumer
VCRs and video rental stores became commonplace as
VHS won out over the competing
Betamax standard. In addition, in the early 1980s various companies began selling compact, modestly priced
synthesizers to the public. This, along with the development of
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), made it easier to integrate and synchronize synthesizers and other electronic instruments, like drum machines, for use in musical composition.
High definition television (HDTV) of both the analog and digital variety were first developed in the 1980s though their use did not become widespread until the mid-2000s.
In 1981,
Hayes Microcomputer Products started selling the Smartmodem. The Smartmodem paved the way for the modern modems that exist today, mainly because it was the first modem to transform what had previously required a two-stage process into a process involving only one stage. The Smartmodem contributed to the rise in popularity of
BBS systems in the 1980s and early 1990s, which were the main way to connect to remote computers and perform various social and entertainment activities before the
Internet and the
World Wide Web finally became popular in the mid-1990s.
In 1984, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X becomes the first commercially available mobile phone model
During the decade the standardization of Group 3 facsimile terminals by the International Telecommunication Union contributed to the significant spread of the fax machine.
VHS won out over the competing Betamax standard, becoming the leading standard in home video systems
The CD - the most basic CD ("Digital Audio Compact Disc") was released in October 1982 for distribution and listening to
digital audio, and at the time contained up to 74 minutes of music.
TCP/IP:
ARPANET officially changed its main protocol from NCP to
TCP/IP on January 1, 1983, when the new protocols were activated. The TCP/IP protocol will become the dominant communications protocol from then onwards, and would be used as the foundation on which the
Internet would be based.
FidoNet - In 1984, FidoNet was launched, enabling
BBS users to send private messages (e-mails) and public messages (in the forum) between all BBS systems that were connected to the FidoNet network, in addition to sending files to each other. The rise in popularity and availability of the Internet around the world around the mid-1990s eventually contributed to the irrelevance of FidoNet.
World Wide Web - In 1989, the British computer scientist
Tim Berners-Lee first proposed a project to his employer
CERN, based on the concept of
hypertext, to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers. In mid-November 1989 he would develop the first successful communication between a
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the
internet. In the coming years Berners-Lee developed the system which would later become the foundation of the
World Wide Web.
In 1981, Microsoft introduced the
MS-DOS operating system, which would become the world's most widely used
operating system in the 1980s and first half of the 1990s.
The most basic
CD was first introduced in October 1982 for the purpose of distribution and listening to digital audio
In 1989, the British computer scientist
Tim Berners-Lee first proposed the
World Wide Web, which he would develop in the coming years
Space exploration
American interplanetary probes continued in the 1980s, the Voyager duo being the most known. After making a flyby of Jupiter in 1979, they went near Saturn in 1980–1981. Voyager 2 reached Uranus in 1986 (just a few days before the Challenger disaster), and Neptune in 1989 before the probes exited the Solar System.
No American probes were launched to Mars in the 1980s, and the
Viking probes, launched there in 1975, completed their operations by 1982. The Soviets launched two Mars probes in 1988, but they failed.
After a six-year hiatus, American space flights with astronauts resumed with the launch of the
Space Shuttle Columbia in April 1981. The shuttle program progressed smoothly from there, with three more orbiters entering service in 1983–1985. But that all came to an end with the
tragic loss of the
Challenger (
STS-51-L) on January 28, 1986, taking with it seven astronauts, including
Christa McAuliffe, who was to have been the first teacher in space. In full view of the world, a faulty O-ring on the right solid rocket booster allowed hot gases to burn through the external fuel tank and cause it to explode, destroying the shuttle in the process. Extensive efforts were made to improve
NASA's increasingly careless management practices, and to make the shuttle safer. Flights resumed with the launch of
Discovery in September 1988.
The Soviet program with cosmonauts went well during the decade, experiencing only minor setbacks. The
Salyut 6 space station, launched in 1977, was replaced by
Salyut 7 in 1982. Then came Mir in 1986, which ended up operating for more than a decade, and was destined to be the last in the line of Soviet space stations that had begun in 1971. One of the Soviet Union's last "superprojects" was the
Buran space shuttle; it was only used once, in 1988.
Automobiles
The American auto industry began in the 1980s in a thoroughly grim situation, faced with poor quality control, rising import competition, and a severe economic downturn.[27]Chrysler and
American Motors (AMC) were near bankruptcy, and Ford was little better off.[28] Only GM continued with business as usual. But the auto makers recovered with the economy by 1983, and in 1985 auto sales in the United States hit a new record. However, the Japanese were now a major presence, and would begin manufacturing cars in the US to get around tariffs. In 1986, Hyundai became the first Korean auto maker to enter the American market. In the same year, the Yugoslavian-built
Yugo was brought to the US, but the car was so small and cheap, that it became the subject of jokes. It was sold up to 1991, when economic sanctions against Yugoslavia forced its withdrawal from the American market.
As the decade progressed, cars became smaller and more efficient in design. In 1983, Ford design teams began to incorporate aerodynamic styling to decrease drag while in motion. The Thunderbird was one of the first cars to receive these design changes. In 1985, Ford released the Taurus with a design that was revolutionary among domestic mass market automobiles.
General Motors began suffering significant losses in the late 1980s, partially the result of chairman Roger Smith's restructuring attempts, and partially because of increasingly dated cars. An example were customers who increasingly purchased European luxury cars rather than Cadillacs. In 1985, GM started
Saturn (the first new American make since the Edsel), with the goal of producing high-quality import fighters. Production would not begin until 1990.
Chrysler introduced its new compact, front-wheel drive
K-cars in 1981. Under the leadership of
Lee Iacocca, the company turned a profit again the following year, and by 1983 paid off its government loans. A succession of models using this automobile platform followed. The most significant were the minivans in 1984. These proved a to be popular and they would dominate the van market for more than a decade. In 1987, Chrysler purchased the Italian makes of Lamborghini and Maserati. In the same year, Chrysler bought AMC from Renault laying to rest the last significant independent U.S. automaker, but acquiring the hugely profitable
Jeep line and continuing the
Eagle brand until the late 1990s.[29]
The
DMC DeLorean was the brainchild of
John DeLorean, a flamboyant former GM executive. Production of the gull-winged sports car began in Northern Ireland in 1981. John DeLorean was arrested in October 1982 in a sting operation where he was attempting to sell cocaine to save his struggling company. He was acquitted of all charges in 1984, but too late for the DeLorean Motor Company, which closed down in 1983. The DeLorean gained renewed fame afterward as the time machine in the
Back to the Future film trilogy.
The imposition of CAFE fuel-mileage standards in 1979 spelled the end of big-block engines, but performance cars and convertibles reemerged in the 1980s. Turbochargers were widely used to boost the performance of small cars, and technology from
fuel injection began to take over from the widely used application of
carburetors by the late 1980s. Front-wheel drive also became dominant.
The Eighties marked the decline of European brands in North America by the end of the decade.
Renault,
Citroen, and
Peugeot ceased importation by the end of the decade.
Alfa Romeo would continue until 1993.
Fiat also ceased imports to North America in the Eighties.
Economics
The early 1980s was marked by a severe global
economic recession that affected much of the developed world.
Inflation peaked in the U.S. in April 1980 at 14.76% and subsequently fell to a low of 1.10% in December 1986 but then rebounded to 4.65% at the end of the decade.[30]
Finland's economy grew by almost the fastest pace in the world, which eventually culminated in the recession of the 1990s Finnish economy. In Finland, the 1980s were called the "Nousukausi", or "economic upswing".
International debt crisis in developing countries, reliance of these countries on aid from the
International Monetary Fund.
Revival of
laissez faire/
neoliberal economics in the developed world led by the UK and US governments emphasising reduced government intervention, lower taxes and deregulation of the stock markets associated with an economic revival in the mid- to late-1980s. Consumers became more sophisticated in their tastes (a trend begun in the 1960s), and things such as European cars and designer clothing became fashionable in the US.[citation needed]
Enactment of the
Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement in 1989 to further establish a strong economic bond between the two prosperous neighbor countries of North America.
The
Solidarity movement began in Poland in 1980, involving workers demanding political liberalization and democracy in Poland. Attempts by the Communist government to prevent the rise of the Solidarity movement failed and negotiations between the movement and the government took place. Solidarity would be instrumental in encouraging people in other communist states to demand political reform.
The financial world and the stock market were glamorized in a way they had not been since the 1920s, and figures like
Donald Trump and
Michael Milken were widely seen as symbols of the decade. Widespread fear of Japanese economic strength would grip the United States in the '80s.
The "Black Monday"
stock market crash on October 19, 1987, decreased the value of the
Dow Jones Industrial Average by more than 22%, causing widespread secondary drops in world markets.
During the 1980s, for the first time in world history, transpacific trade (with
East Asia, such as China, and
Latin America, primarily with Mexico) equaled that of transatlantic trade (with
Western Europe or with neighboring Canada),[31] solidifying American economic power.[32]
The phrase
Big Bang, used in reference to the sudden deregulation of financial markets, was coined to describe measures, including abolition of fixed commission charges and of the distinction between stockjobbers and stockbrokers on the London Stock Exchange and change from open-outcry to electronic, screen-based trading, effected by Margaret Thatcher in 1986.
Michael Jackson's Thriller became the best-selling album of all time, followed by the critically acclaimed album Bad five years later, and a musical film adaptation titled Moonwalker.
MTV was launched in 1981, which had a great influence on the way music is marketed and on the rise of many prominent rock stars during the decade. Early CGI also caught on within music videos in the 1980s, including the popular music video for "
Money for Nothing".
Along with early hip hop culture like 1988's Straight Outta Compton, graffiti became more mainstream in the 1980s.
Before the more mainstream use of the internet in the 1990s, many computer systems had searchable
databases during the decade. These databases could be used to search a students' grades, computerized library and video rental systems to track books and video rentals.
Duran Duran (top),
Michael Jackson (bottom left) and
Madonna (bottom right) were among the best-selling musical talents of the decade, all considered some of the most globally popular and culturally significant
pop and
R&B talents of the 1980s, pictured here in 1983, 1988 and 1985 respectively.
In the United States,
MTV was launched and
music videos began to have a larger effect on the record industry. Pop artists/bands such as
Duran Duran,
Michael Jackson,
Whitney Houston,
Prince,
Cyndi Lauper and
Madonna mastered the format and helped turn this new product into a profitable business.
New wave and
synthpop were developed by many British and American artists, and became popular phenomena throughout the decade, especially in the early and mid-1980s. Music grew fragmented and combined into subgenres such as house, goth, and rap metal.[33]
The advent of numerous new technologies had a significant impact on 1980s music, and led to a distinct production aesthetic that included
synthesizer sounds,
drum machines and drum reverb.
Duran Duran, the biggest band of the 1980s, created a teen frenzy similar to that of
The Beatles during the first British Invasion of the 1960s. They were
Princess Diana's favorite band. In 1982, they released their world famous, omnipresent
Rio which ignited a global craze. Their catchy flagship song from the album,
Hungry Like the Wolf, reached number 1 in Canada, number 3 in the United States, number 4 in Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa and number 5 in the United Kingdom and Australia. It won a Grammy Award in 1984.
The title track was another mega hit song that was issued worldwide in October 1982 and became a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart. As of October 2021, "Rio" was the third most streamed Duran Duran song in the UK. By 1985, the musical band stood on top of the world as absolute conquerors of music and music video. They were the darlings of MTV and the center of female teen fan's attention. In that same year, the
A View to a Kill theme song to the same-titled
James Bond movie reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and it remains the only Bond theme to achieve this chart placing. Their massive appeal was widespread on a worldwide scale in music, video and fashion. Their influence was so intense that they helped shape how music was defined throughout the 80s decade. They extensively toured the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, Mexico, South America, Japan and other parts of Asia. Highly stylized videos showcasing their other mega hit songs like,
Planet Earth,
New Moon on Monday,
The Wild Boys,
Save a Prayer and
Notorious made Duran Duran a popular household name.
Michael Jackson was one of the icons of the 1980s and his
leather jacket, white
glove, and
Moonwalk dance were often imitated. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller became—and currently remains—the
best-selling album of all time, with sales estimated by various sources as somewhere between 65 and 110 million copies worldwide. His 1987 album Bad sold over 45 million copies and became the first album to have five number-one singles chart on the
Billboard Hot 100. Jackson had the most number-one singles throughout the decade (9), and spent the most weeks at number one (27 weeks). His 1987
Bad World Tour grossed over $125 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing world tour by a solo artist during the decade. Jackson earned numerous awards and titles during the 1980s, the most notable of which were a record eight
Grammy Awards and eight
American Music Awards in 1984, and the honor of "Artist of the Decade" by
U.S. PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush. Jackson was arguably the biggest star during this time, and would eventually sell more than one billion records around the world.
Prince was a popular star of the 1980s and the most successful chart act of the decade. His breakthrough album
1999, released in 1982, produced three top-ten hits and the album itself charted at number nine on the
Billboard 200. His sixth studio album
Purple Rain was an international success, boosting Prince to superstardom and selling over 25 million copies worldwide. The album produced the US number-one singles, "
When Doves Cry" and "
Let's Go Crazy" and sold 13 million copies in the U.S. as of 1996. Prince released an album every year for the rest of the decade, all charting within the top ten, with the exception of Lovesexy. In the
1990s, he infamously changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in response to a record dispute with
Warner Brothers. He went on to sell over 120 million records worldwide and win seven
Grammy Awards.
The '80s were above all a time of international
corporatization... [
Rock music] was reconceived as
intellectual property, as a form of
capital itself... The '80s were when stars replaced artists as bearers of significance... The '80s took rock sexuality and rock sexism over the top... The '80s were a time of renewed racial turmoil after ten-plus years of polite resegregation... Technology changed everything in the '80s.
Cable brought us
MTV and the triumph of the image.
Synthesizers inflected the sounds that remained.
Sampling revolutionized rock and roll's proprietary relationship to its own history.
Cassettes made private music portable—and public.
Compact discs inflated profitability as they faded into the background of busy lives.
The
techno style of electronic dance music emerged in
Detroit,
Michigan, during the mid- to late 1980s. The
house music style, another form of electronic dance music, emerged in
Chicago,
Illinois, in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino and gay communities, first in Chicago, then in New York City and Detroit. It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.
Several notable musical artists died of unnatural causes in the 1980s:
Bon Scott, at the time lead singer of rock band
AC/DC, died of acute alcohol poisoning on February 19, 1980; English drummer
John Bonham of the rock band
Led Zeppelin also died that year in a similar manner;
The Beatles member
John Lennon was
fatally shot outside his home in
New York City on the night of December 8, 1980;
Tim Hardin died of a heroin overdose on December 29, 1980; Reggae musician
Bob Marley died from a lentiginous skin
melanoma on May 11, 1981;
Harry Chapin died of a car accident on July 16, 1981; Motown singer
Marvin Gaye was
shot dead by his
father at his home in
Los Angeles on April 1, 1984, one day before what would've been his 45th birthday; Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist
Randy Rhoads died in an airplane crash on March 19, 1982;
Karen Carpenter died from heart failure caused by her
anorexia condition on February 4, 1983;
Metallica bassist
Cliff Burton was killed in a bus accident in
Sweden on September 27, 1986; and lastly,
Andy Gibb died in 1988 as a result of
myocarditis.
In 1984, the British supergroup
Band Aid was formed to raise aid and awareness of the economic plight of
Ethiopia. In 1985's
Live Aid concert, featuring many artists, promoted attention and action to send food aid to
Ethiopia whose people were suffering from a major
famine.
The 1980s saw the return of studio-driven films, coming from the filmmaker-driven
New Hollywood era of the 1970s.[36] The period was when '
high concept' films gained popularity, where movies were to be easily marketable and understandable, and, therefore, they had short cinematic
plots that could be summarized in one or two sentences. The modern Hollywood
blockbuster is the most popular film format from the 1980s. Producer
Don Simpson[37] is usually credited with the creation of the high-concept picture of the modern Hollywood blockbuster. In the mid-1980s, a wave of British directors, including
Ridley Scott,
Alan Parker,
Adrian Lyne and
Tony Scott (with the latter directing a number of Don Simpson films) ushered in a new era of blockbusters using the crowd-pleasing skills they had honed in UK television commercials.[38]
A significant development in the home media business is the establishment of
The Criterion Collection in 1984, an American company "dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality". Through their releases, they were able to introduce what is now a standard to home video:
letterboxing to retain the original aspect ratio,
film commentaries and supplements/special features.[39][40]
Horror films were a popular genre during the decade, with several notable horror franchises being born during the 1980s. Among the most popular were the Friday the 13th,A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Child's Play, Hellraiser, and Poltergeist franchises. The Shining although a popular film from 1980 decades later, it was initially met with mixed reviews from critics and even the
author of the
book, and was moderately successful financially. Aside from these films, the concept of the
B horror film gave rise to a plethora of horror films that went on to earn a cult status. An example of such is the 1981 film The Evil Dead, which marked the directorial debut of
Sam Raimi. Comedy horror films such as Beetlejuice and Gremlins also gained cult status.
Music video channel
MTV was launched in the United States in 1981 and had a profound impact on the
music industry and
popular culture further ahead, especially during its early run in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The 1980s was a decade of transformation in television.
Cable television became more accessible and therefore, more popular. By the middle of the decade, almost 70% of the U.S. population had cable television and over 85% were paying for cable services such as
HBO or
Showtime.[41] People who lived in rural areas where cable TV service was not available could still access cable channels through a large (and expensive)
satellite dish, which, by the mid-1990s, was phased out in favor of the small rooftop dishes that offer
DirecTV and
Dish Network services.
Scandal rocked TV evangelism when in 1987 evangelist
Jim Bakker, founder of
PTL and
Heritage USA, was defrocked for having an
affair with church secretary
Jessica Hahn years earlier and later sent to prison for
fraud. One year later, evangelist
Jimmy Swaggart was defrocked for allegedly having sexual relations with a
prostitute.
The
1980 Winter Olympics were well remembered for the
Miracle on Ice, where a young United States hockey team defeated the heavily favored Soviet Red Army team and went on to win the gold medal.
The
New York Islanders won the
Stanley Cup for 4 straight years in
1980,
1981,
1982, and
1983. The Islanders also became the second
NHL expansion team after the
Philadelphia Flyers to win the Cup. Since their last Cup win in 1983, they were the third NHL team to win 4 consecutive championships and hold the NHL record for most consecutive playoff series' wins at 19 (stretching from the
1980 Playoffs to the
1984 Playoffs).
The
1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles were boycotted by the Soviet Union and most of the Communist world (China, Romania, and Yugoslavia participated in the games) in retaliation for the boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow.
The
1988 Summer Olympics were held in
Seoul, South Korea. Attempts to include North Korea in the games were unsuccessful and it boycotted along with six other countries, but with 160 nations participating, it had the highest attendance of any Olympics to date.
FIA banned
Group Brallying after a series of deaths and injuries took place in the 1986 season.
Canadian hockey player
Wayne Gretzky's rise to fame in the NHL coincided with the
Edmonton Oilers' first four Stanley Cup championships (
1984,
1985,
1987, and
1988) and becoming the second NHL
dynasty team of the 1980s.
On August 9, 1988, in what became the biggest trade in NHL history (also known as "The Trade Of The Century"), Wayne Gretzky was traded along with teammates
Marty McSorley and
Mike Krushelnyski from Edmonton to the
Los Angeles Kings in exchange for
Martin Gélinas,
Jimmy Carson, three first round
draft picks, and US$15 million cash (approximately $18 million
CAD in 1988).
On March 29, 1987,
WrestleMania III had a record attendance of 93,173, the largest recorded attendance for a live indoor sporting event in North America until 2010. This also remained the WrestleMania attendance record until
WrestleMania 32 at
AT&T Stadium on April 3, 2016, in Arlington, Texas
On February 5, 1988, the live broadcast of WWF's The Main Event I drew a 15.2
Nielsen rating and 33 million viewers, both records for American televised wrestling.[48]
Hawthorn Football Club dominated Australian football, reaching seven successive VFL Grand Finals and winning the premiership in 1983, 1986, 1988, and 1989
Liverpool F.C. were the most successful club side of the era, becoming English champions on six occasions (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1988) and winning two European Cups (1981, 1984). They also won the FA Cup in 1986, completing the first double in their history, and four consecutive
League Cup titles from 1981 to 1984.
Other highly successful club sides of the 1980s include
Juventus (7 major honours won),
Real Madrid (ten major honours won),
Bayern Munich (nine titles won)
PSV Eindhoven (four times Dutch champions and European Cup winners in 1988), and
Flamengo (four times Brazilian champions, South American and International Cup winners in 1981).
In the
NFL, the
San Francisco 49ers became the dynasty of the decade, winning four Super Bowls under the leadership of
Joe Montana; the
Chicago Bears won
Super Bowl XX in January 1986, in which the team has been widely remembered for their
defense; and the
Washington Redskins also enjoyed success throughout the decade, winning two of their three Super Bowls under the leadership of head coach
Joe Gibbs.
Handheld
electronic LCD games was introduced into the youth market segment. The primary gaming computers of the 1980s emerged in 1982: the
Commodore 64 and
ZX Spectrum.
Nintendo finally decided in 1985 to release its Famicom (released in 1983 in Japan) in the United States under the name
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was bundled with Super Mario Bros. and it suddenly became a success. The NES dominated the American and Japanese market until the rise of the next generation of consoles in the early 1990s, causing some to call this time the Nintendo era.
Sega released its 16-bit console,
Mega Drive/Genesis, in 1988 in Japan and in North America in 1989.
In 1989, Nintendo released the
Game Boy, a monochrome handheld console.
The game Pac-Man (1980) became immensely popular and an icon of 1980s popular culture
The beginning of the decade saw the continuation of the clothing styles of the
late 1970s and evolved into
heavy metal fashion by the end. However, fashion became more extravagant during the 1980s. The 1980s included teased and colourfully-dyed hair, ripped jeans, neon clothing and many colours and different designs which at first were not accepted.
Miniskirts returned to mainstream fashion in the mid-1980s after a ten-year absence, mostly made of
denim material. From that point on, miniskirts and minidresses have remained in mainstream fashion to this day.
Makeup on the 1980s was aggressive, shining and colourful. Women emphasised their lips, eyebrows and cheeks with makeup. They used much
blush and
eyeliner.
^Katzman, Kenneth (2001). "Iran: The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran". In Benliot, Albert V. (ed.). Iran: Outlaw, Outcast, Or Normal Country?.
Nova. p. 101.
ISBN978-1-56072-954-9.
^Knight, Gareth (2002-06-17).
"A500 Batman Bundle". Amigahistory.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-24.
^Taylor, Alexander; Redman, Christopher; Seaman, Barrett (1980-09-08).
"Detroit's Uphill Battle". Time. Archived from
the original on November 30, 2007. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
^Ebert, Roger; Bordwell, David (2008). Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (Paperback ed.). Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. p. xvii.
ISBN978-0226182018. In his pluralism, [Roger] Ebert proved a more authentic cinephile than many of his contemporaries. They tied their fortunes to the Film Brats and then suffered the inevitable disappointments of the 1980s return to studio-driven pictures.
Grimes, William. ed. The New York Times The Times of the Eighties The Culture, Politics, and Personalities that Shaped the Decade (2013)
New York Times. New York Times Film Reviews: Best Picture Picks from the 1980s by The New York Times (2013)
excerpt and text search
Sirota, David. Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now—Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything (2011)
excerpt and text search
Stanfill, Sonnet. 80s Fashion: From Club to Catwalk (2013), 160pp