1980s

Space Shuttle Columbia End of the Cold War Iran–Iraq War Fall of the Berlin Wall Live Aid Space Shuttle Challenger disaster Chernobyl disaster
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From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is considered to be the most momentous event of the 1980s; In 1986, six astronauts and one teacher died in the Challenger disaster; In 1985, the Live Aid concert was held in order to fund relief efforts for the famine in Ethiopia; Ukraine and much of the world is filled with radioactive debris from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster; The Iran–Iraq War leads to over one million dead and $1 trillion spent.
Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s – 1980s – 1990s 2000s 2010s
Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
Categories: Births – Deaths – Architecture
Establishments – Disestablishments

The 1980s, often called "the Eighties," was the decade that began on January 1, 1980 and ended on December 31, 1989 and was the ninth decade of the 20th century.

The time period saw social, economic, and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies. As economic liberalization increased in the developed world, multiple multinational corporations associated with the manufacturing industry relocated into Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and new market economies in Eastern Europe following the collapse of communism in eastern Europe. Japan and West Germany are the most notable developed countries that continued to enjoy rapid economic growth during the decade whilst other developed nations, particularly the United States and United Kingdom re-adopted laissez-faire economic policies.

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, 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 famous Live Aid concert in 1985.

Major civil discontent and violence occurred in the Middle East, including the Iran-Iraq War, the ongoing Soviet-Afghan War, the 1982 Lebanon War, the Bombing of Libya in 1986, and the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

In the eastern world, hostility to authoritarianism and the failing command economies of communist states resulted in a wave of reformist policies by communist regimes such as the policies of perestroika and glasnost in the Soviet Union, along with the overthrows and attempted overthrows of a number of communist regimes, such as in Poland, Hungary, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in China, the Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution", and the overthrow of the Nicolae Ceauşescu regime in Romania and other communist Warsaw Pact states in Central and Eastern Europe. It came to be called the late 1980s' "purple passage of the autumn of nations". By 1989, with the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union announced the abandonment of political hostility toward the western world and, thus, the Cold War ended. These changes continued to be felt in the 1990s and into the 21st century.

Contents

Politics and wars

Terrorist attacks

1983 Beirut barracks bombing

The most notable terrorist attacks of the decade include:

Wars

The most prominent armed conflicts of the decade include:

International wars

Invasion of Grenada, 1983.
Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, 1988.
Aftermath of Halabja poison gas attack by Saddam Hussein committed during the Iran-Iraq war.

The most notable wars of the decade include:

  • Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989) - a war fought between the Soviet Union and the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance in Afghanistan. The mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other Muslim nations through the context of the Cold War and the regional India-Pakistan conflict.
  • Invasion of Grenada (1983) - a 1983 U.S.-led invasion of Grenada, triggered by a military coup which ousted a brief revolutionary government. The successful invasion led to a change of government but was controversial due to charges of American imperialism, Cold War politics, the involvement of Cuba, the unstable state of the Grenadian government, and Grenada's status as a Commonwealth realm.
  • 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 Muslim Lebanese forces, Israel occupied southern Lebanon and eventually surrounded the PLO in west Beirut and subjected to heavy bombardment, they negotiated passage from Lebanon.

Civil wars and Guerrilla wars

The most notable Internal conflicts of the decade include:

Coups

The most prominent coups d'état of the decade include:

Nuclear threats

The Israeli Air Force F-16A Netz '243' which was flown by Colonel Ilan Ramon during Operation Opera.

Decolonization and Independence

Prominent political events

Americas

U.S. President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev signing the INF Treaty, 1987.

Europe

Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were the leaders of the UK and the USA. Both leaders led the revival of conservative politics. These policies eventually became known as Thatcherism and Reaganomics respectively in their home countries.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the beginning of German reunification.

Asia

Disasters

Natural disasters

1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Non-natural disasters

The space shuttle Challenger disintegrates on January 28, 1986.

Assassinations

Anwar Sadat
Reagan assassination attempt

The 1980s were marked by several notable assassinations and assassination attempts:

Technology

Electronics and computers

IBM 5150 as of 1981. The first model of the IBM PC, the personal computer whose successors would fill the world.

Arcade games and video games had been growing in popularity since the 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 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.

Computers experienced explosive growth in the '80s, going from being a toy for electronics hobbyists to a full-fledged industry. The IBM PC, launched in 1981, become 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. Apple was committed to resisting the tide of IBM PC clones. Graphical user interface and mouse started to become general features in computers after the middle of the decade.

Space exploration

The Space Shuttle Columbia seconds after engine ignition, 1981

After a five-year hiatus, manned American space flights 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 on January 28, 1986, taking with it seven astronauts, including Christia 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 burned through the external fuel tank and caused 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 manned program 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.

Planetary probes continued in the '80s, the Voyager duo being the most famous. After making a flyby of Jupiter in 1979, they visited 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 ignominiously.

The arrival of Halley's Comet in 1986 was met by a series of American, Soviet, Japanese, and ESA probes.

Automobiles

The American auto industry began the 1980s in a thoroughly grim situation, faced with poor quality control, rising import competition, and a severe economic downturn. Chrysler and American Motors (AMC) were near bankruptcy, and Ford was little better off. 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 countless jokes. It was sold up to 1991, when economic sanctions against Yugoslavia forced its withdrawal from the American market.

Car design in the 1980s can be seen a continuance and evolution of the dominant automobile design styles of the 1970s. As the decade progressed, cars became smaller and more efficient in design while retaining the straight-edge and boxy styling of their 1970s counterparts. In 1983, Ford design teams began revolutionizing existing automobiles with a new philosophy which was called "Aero". The idea was to design cars to incorporate pro-aerodynamic round styling to increase airflow and decrease drag while in motion. The Thunderbird was one of the first cars to receive these design changes and it was an instant hit. Later, in 1985, Ford released the Taurus which was considered a dramatic step in automobile design and its aerodynamic style was so popular and revolutionary at the time that other manufacturers scrambled to emulate it which eventually caused a design revolution which is still evident to the present day which increasingly round and aerodynamic designed being implemented by many companies worldwide.

GM began suffering significant losses in the late-1980s, partially the result of chairman Roger Smith's restructuring attempts, and partially because of increasingly stale and unappealing cars. For example, "yuppies" increasingly favored European luxury cars to Cadillac. 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, however.

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 seemingly endless succession of K-cars followed. But the biggest success was the arrival of the minivans in 1984. These proved a huge hit, and despite competition, they would dominate the van market for more than a decade. And 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.

The DeLorean DMC-12 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 DMC-12 gained renewed fame afterward as the time machine in the Back to the Future motion picture 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 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 in the eighties.

Economics

Society

The 1980s was also an era of tremendous population growth around the world, surpassing even the 1970s and 1990s, thus arguably being the largest in human history. 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.

Additional significant world-wide events

Worldwide

During the 1980s AIDS started spreading throughout the world
RMS Titanic's bow, with the forestay shackle fallen forwards, as seen from the Russian MIR I submersible.

Africa

Americas

Asia

Popular culture

The most prominent events and trends in popular culture of the decade include:

Music

See also 1980s in music, Timeline of musical events#1980s
Stage view of Live Aid concert at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium in the United States in 1985. The concert was a major global international effort by musicians and activists to sponsor action to send aid to the people of Ethiopia who were suffering from a major famine.

Film

The majority of Hollywood movies in this decade were made for mass audiences. The 1980s tended to consolidate the gains made in the seventies rather than to initiate any new trends equal to the large number of disaster and buddy films that characterized the previous decade.[4]

This was the period when the 'high concept' films were introduced. The movies were supposed 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 from the 1980s. The one who was credited with the creation of the high-concept picture of the modern Hollywood blockbuster was the producer Don Simpson.[5]

Television

Main article: 1980s in television

The very popular British Soap Opera Eastenders aired for the first time on BBC1 on 19 February 1985.

The 1980s was the decade of transformation in television. Cable television became more accessible and therefore, more popular. By the middle of the decade, almost 70% of the American population had cable television and over 85% were paying for cable services such as HBO or Showtime.[6]

The 1980s was also the period of glory for primetime soap operas such as Dallas and Dynasty.

The popular animated sitcom The Simpsons debuted in 1989. There were also the TV talk shows that were increasing in popularity and some of the most viewed were the ones hosted by Geraldo Rivera or David Letterman.[7]

Sports

Video gaming

Pac-Man (1980)
The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the mid 1980s and became the best-selling gaming console of its time

Fashion

Ray-Ban sunglasses

Significant fashion trends of the 1980s include:

Miscellaneous

Rubik's Cube

People

World leaders

Entertainers

Michael J. Fox, 1988

Musicians

Michael Jackson, 1984

Sports figures

Film makers

See also

Timeline

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989

References

  1. ↑ "The Next Hundred Years", George Friedman, 2009, pg 4
  2. ↑ "The Next Hundred Years", George Friedman, 2009, pg 45
  3. ↑ [1]
  4. ↑ Film History of the 1980s FilmSite. Retrieved on 2010-03-09
  5. ↑ Fleming, Charles (1998). High concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood culture of excess. Doubleday. ISBN 9780385486941. 
  6. ↑ The Politics and Pop Culture of the 1980s The Eighties Club. Retrieved on 2010-03-08
  7. ↑ An overview on 80's Television Retrieved on 2010-03-08

External links