Timeline of United States history (1970–1989)

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This section of the Timeline of United States history concerns events from 1970 to 1989.

[edit] 1970s

• 1970 - Kent State shootings
• 1970 - Environmental Protection Agency created
• 1971 - 26th Amendment ratified
• 1972 - President Nixon goes to China
• 1972 - Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with USSR
• 1972 - U.S. presidential election, 1972 (including Watergate burglary, Richard Nixon re-elected)
• 1972 - Apollo 17 flies to the Moon, the last manned mission there for many decades
• 1973 - Vietnam Peace Treaty. Troops and POWs return home.
• 1973 - Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling over-turns state laws against abortion
• 1973 - The celebrated Senate Watergate hearings, highlighted by Fred Thompson's discovery of Nixon's secret tapes.
• 1973 - Skylab, USA's first space station launched
• 1973 - Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns in disgrace as part of a plea bargin
• 1973 - Congressman Gerald R. Ford of Michigan becomes the first person to be appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the constitution
• 1973 - In a single day, President Nixon fires three Attorneys General over disposition of the secret tapes and the actions of the Special Prosecuter.
• 1974 - The House Judiciary Committee votes to impeach the President
• 1974 - Richard Nixon resigns Presidency over Watergate
• 1974 - Gerald R. Ford becomes President (by succession rather than election)
• 1974 - Nelson A Rockefeller of New York becomes the second person to be appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the constitution
• 1974 - Ford Pardons Nixon
• 1975 - Fall of Saigon
• 1976 - U.S. presidential election, 1976
• 1977 - Jimmy Carter becomes President
• 1978 - Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act
• 1978 - Camp David Accords (1978)
• 1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear accident
• 1979 - Iran hostage crisis begins

[edit] 1980s

President Reagan was the face of the United States during the 1980s

• 1980 - Refugee Act
• 1980 - Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington kills 57 (see 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens)
• 1980 - U.S. boycotts Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• 1980 - U.S. presidential election, 1980
• 1980 - John Lennon Assassination
• 1981 - Ronald Reagan becomes President (Iran releases hostages)
• 1981 - Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley
• 1981 - Kemp-Roth Tax Cut
• 1983 - 241 U.S. Marines killed by suicide bomb in Lebanon
• 1983 - United States invades Grenada
• 1984 - Most of Eastern Bloc boycotts Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
• 1984 - U.S. presidential election, 1984 (Ronald Reagan is re-elected)
• 1985 - Bernhard Goetz is indicted on charges of attempted murder
• 1986 - Iran-Contra scandal breaks
• 1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger accident
• 1986 - Tax Reform Act of 1986
• 1986 - Gramm Rudman Hollings Balanced Budget Act
• 1986 - Marshall Islands become independent
• 1987 - Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 22.6% in single session on Black Monday
• 1987 - Dennis Conner onboard "Stars & Stripes" returns the America's Cup to America.
• 1988 - Discovery launched as first post-Challenger space shuttle flight
• 1988 - U.S. presidential election, 1988
• 1988 - Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty went into effect.
• 1989 - George H. W. Bush becomes President.
• 1989 - Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound
• 1989 - Loma Prieta earthquake kills 63 in greater San Francisco Bay Area