Timeline of United States history (1970–89)

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

1970s

The Watergate scandal causes Nixon to be the first U.S. president to resign from office.

• 1970 — Kent State and Jackson State shootings occur during student protests which grow violent.
• 1970 — The first Earth Day is observed.
• 1970 — Environmental Protection Agency created
• 1970 — American Top 40, hosted by radio personality Casey Kasem, becomes the first successful nationally syndicated radio program featuring a weekly countdown.
• 1970 — The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) begins operations, succeeding National Educational Television (NET).
• 1970 – Singer-songwriter-guitarist-musician Jimi Hendrix dies of a drug overdose at the age of 27.
• 1970 – Singer Janis Joplin dies of a drug overdose at the age of 27.
• 1970 — The Occupational Safety and Health Act, or OSHA, is signed into law.
• 1971 – Singer Jim Morrison dies of a drug overdose at the age of 27.
• 1971 — President Richard Nixon ends the United States Gold standard monetary policy known as the Nixon Shock
• 1971 — A ban on radio and television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States
• 1971 — The landmark situation comedy, All in the Family, premieres on CBS.
• 1971 — 26th Amendment ratified, allowing 18-year-olds to vote.
• 1971 — In New York Times Co. v. United States, The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Pentagon Papers may be published, rejecting government injunctions as unconstitutional prior restraint.
• 1972 — President Richard Nixon visits China, an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and China.
• 1972 — Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed with USSR
• 1972 — Watergate scandal: Five men arrested for the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
• 1972 — U.S. presidential election, 1972 (President Nixon re-elected)
• 1972 — Apollo 17 flies to the Moon, and becomes the last manned mission there (as of 2017)
• 1973 — Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling overturns state laws against abortion
• 1973 — Paris Peace Accords ends direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War
• 1973 — The Senate Watergate hearings begin, highlighted by Fred Thompson's discovery of Nixon's secret tapes
• 1973 — Skylab launched as the USA's first space station
• 1973 — Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns in disgrace as part of a plea bargain. Congressman Gerald R. Ford of Michigan becomes the first person to be appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution
• 1973 — Watergate scandal: President Nixon fires three Attorneys General over disposition of the secret tapes and the actions of the Special Prosecutor.
• 1973–1974 — The United States is affected by the Arab Oil Embargo; gasoline prices skyrocket as supplies of gasoline and heating oil are in short supply. In response, Daylight Savings Time is started in January (nearly four months earlier than usual), and the national speed limit is lowered to 55 mph.
• 1974 — The 1974 Super Outbreak, the second-largest series of tornadoes in history (at 148), hits 13 U.S. states and one Canadian province; 315 people are killed and more than 5,000 are injured.
• 1974 — Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves breaks Babe Ruth's home run record by hitting his 715th career home run.
• 1974 — Watergate scandal: The House Judiciary Committee votes to impeach the President
• 1974 — President Nixon resigns, becoming the first (and as of 2017, the only) President to step down. Vice president Ford becomes President. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York becomes the second person to be appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution
• 1974 — Watergate scandal: Ford pardons Nixon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while President, believing it to be in the "best interests of the country"
• 1974 — Restrictions removed on holding private gold within the United States
• 1975 — Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
• 1975 — Fall of Saigon
• 1975 — Bill Gates founds Microsoft, which in time will dominate the home computer operating system market.
• 1975 — The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, where an American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
• 1975 — President Ford survives two assassination attempts in a 17-day time span.
• 1975 — The television series Wheel of Fortune and Saturday Night Live premiere on NBC.
• 1975 — Sony's Betamax becomes the first commercially successful home video recording unit
• 1976 — The Copyright Act of 1976 makes sweeping changes to United States copyright law
• 1976 — Americans celebrate the Bicentennial
• 1976 — U.S. presidential election, 1976 (Jimmy Carter of Georgia defeats President Ford)
• 1977 — Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as President
• 1977 — The first home personal computer, Commodore PET, released for retail sale
• 1977 — The television miniseries Roots is aired on ABC, to critical acclaim and gaining record audiences
• 1977 — The New York City blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours, resulting in looting and other disorder
• 1977 — Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll dies in his home in Graceland at age 42. 75,000 fans lined the streets of Memphis for this funeral
• 1977 — Atari 2600 becomes the first successful home video game system, popularizes the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code
• 1978 — Volkswagen becomes the second (after Rolls-Royce) non-American automobile manufacturer to open a plant in the United States, commencing production of the Rabbit
• 1978 — Camp David Accords, where Menachem Begin (Israel) and Anwar Sadat (Egypt) begin the peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
• 1978 — Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act signed into law, adjusting the government's economic goals to include full employment, growth in production, price stability, and balance of trade and budget
• 1978 — The Senate votes to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999
• 1978 — Harvey Milk is assassinated by Dan White in San Francisco on November 27.
• 1979 — Three Mile Island nuclear accident, which is America's most serious nuclear power plant accident in its history.
• 1979 — Iran hostage crisis begins. In the aftermath, a second energy crisis develops, tripling the price of oil and sending gasoline prices over $1 per gallon for the first time.
• 1979 — American Airlines Flight 191 crashes after takeoff from O'Hare International Airport killing all 271 aboard and 2 on the ground, making it the deadliest aviation incident on U.S. soil
• 1979 — Facing bankruptcy, Chrysler receives government loan guarantees upon the request of CEO Lee Iacocca to help revive the company

1980s

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

• 1980 — U.S. boycotts Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, also announces grain embargo against the Soviet Union with the support of the European Commission.
• 1980 — Refugee Act, which reformed United States immigration law and admitted refugees on systematic basis for humanitarian reasons
• 1980 — Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington kills 57
• 1980 — U.S. presidential election, 1980
• 1980 — John Lennon assassinated
• 1981 — Ronald Reagan becomes President, inaugurated on the same day Iran releases hostages
• 1981 — Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr.
• 1981 — Kemp-Roth Tax Cut
• 1981 — MTV signs on, becoming the first 24-hour cable network dedicated to airing music videos.
• 1981 — A hotel walkway collapses in Kansas City, Missouri, killing 114 and injuring over 200; it was the deadliest structural collapse to occur in the United States until 9/11.
• 1981 — The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched, marking America's first return to space since 1975
• 1981 — Sandra Day O'Connor becomes first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court
• 1981–1982 — The killing of 7-year-old Adam Walsh (1981), and the disappearance of Johnny Gosch, a 12-year-old newspaper carrier from Des Moines, Iowa (1982), raise awareness of missing children cases in the United States.
• 1983 — 241 U.S. Marines killed by suicide bomb in Lebanon
• 1983 — United States invades Grenada
• 1983 — Chrysler unveils its minivans — the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager (as 1984 models) — to the public
• 1984 — Most of Eastern Bloc boycotts Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
• 1984 — U.S. presidential election, 1984 (Ronald Reagan is re-elected)
• 1984 — The drug problem intensifies as crack (a smokable form of cocaine) is first introduced into the Los Angeles area
• 1984 — Awareness of child sexual abuse by pedophiles raised through high-profile media coverage on programs such as 60 Minutes and 20/20.
• 1985 — Bernhard Goetz is indicted in New York on charges of attempted murder after shooting four young men whom he claimed were intent on mugging him
• 1985 — Professional wrestling hits the mainstream with the World Wrestling Federation's first WrestleMania and the debut of Saturday Night's Main Event, and the WWF's flagship star, Hulk Hogan, becoming a cultural icon.
• 1985 — World awareness of famine in Third World countries spark "We Are the World" and Live Aid. Also, awareness of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is raised with the death of actor Rock Hudson.
• 1985 — Country music singer Willie Nelson organizes the first Farm Aid, to raise money for family farmers facing financial crisis
• 1985 — The Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable (as 1986 models), Nintendo Entertainment System are released to the public.
• 1985 — Gramm Rudman Hollings Balanced Budget Act
• 1986 — Iran–Contra affair breaks
• 1986 — Space Shuttle Challenger accident, killing all seven aboard (including school teacher Christa McAuliffe) and grounding the nation's space program for 2½ years.
• 1986 — Firearm Owners Protection Act signed into law by President Reagan.
• 1986 — Tax Reform Act of 1986
• 1986 — Marshall Islands become independent
• 1986 — Fox Broadcasting Company launched, becomes the first network since DuMont to offer nightly programming
• 1987 — Assorted scandals involve popular televangelists, including Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart.
• 1987 — During a visit to Berlin, Germany, President Reagan challenges Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall!" (referring to the Berlin Wall).
• 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.
• 1987 — The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. President Reagan and Soviet Premier Gorbachev.
• 1988 — Drunk driving awareness raised after a drunk driver's car crashes into a church bus near Carrollton, Kentucky, killing 27.
• 1988 — Severe droughts and massive heat wave grip the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states. The crisis reaches its peak with the Yellowstone fires of 1988.
• 1988 — Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, becomes the last Major League Baseball park to add lights for night games.
• 1988 — Discovery launched as first post-Challenger space shuttle flight
• 1988 — U.S. presidential election, 1988 (Vice president George H. W. Bush is elected)
• 1988 — Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty goes into effect
• 1989 — George H. W. Bush inaugurated as President.
• 1989 — Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger, forming Time Warner.
• 1989 — Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound
• 1989 — Awareness of stalking is raised with the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer by an obsessed fan
• 1989 — Hurricane Hugo strikes the East Coast, causing $7 billion in damage.
• 1989 — Loma Prieta earthquake kills 63 in greater San Francisco Bay Area
• 1989 — President Bush declares a "War on Drugs."
• 1989 — The animated comedy The Simpsons debuts
• 1989 — President Bush and Soviet Premier Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end. Symbolic elsewhere around the world was the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany