What happened in the 1980s?
The 1980s were the decade of the Walkman, MTV, the personal computer and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
83 events, oldest first.
Timeline of The 1980s
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1980
Björn Borg wins his fifth straight Wimbledon
His final against John McEnroe included a famous 18-16 tie-break.
History of sport
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1980
CNN launches as the first 24-hour news channel
Ted Turner vowed it would stay on air until the end of the world, and had a farewell video made just in case.
Pop culture history
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1980
Mount St. Helens erupts
The blast lowered the mountain's summit by about 400 metres.
Natural history & deep time
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1980
Pac-Man is released
Its designer said the shape was inspired by a pizza with a slice missing.
Pop culture history
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1980
Post-it Notes go on sale
Their weak glue was an accidental discovery by a 3M scientist trying to make a super-strong adhesive.
Science & technology history
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1980
Smallpox is declared eradicated
It remains the only human disease ever wiped out worldwide.
Science & technology history
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1980
Solidarity is founded in Poland
It began at the Gdańsk shipyard and grew to around 10 million members.
Modern history
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1980
The Miracle on Ice
A team of US college players beat the Soviet Union's Olympic ice hockey team.
History of sport
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1980
'Who shot J.R.?' grips TV viewers
About 83 million Americans tuned in to find out.
Pop culture history
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1980
Zimbabwe gains independence
Bob Marley performed at the independence celebrations.
Politics & society history
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1981
France's TGV high-speed train enters service
It was first designed to run on gas turbines until the oil crisis pushed the engineers to electric power.
Science & technology history
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1981
Ian Botham inspires a famous Ashes comeback
Bookmakers had offered 500-1 against England winning the Headingley Test.
History of sport
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1981
MTV launches
The first video it played was 'Video Killed the Radio Star'.
Pop culture history
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1981
Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer
Diana's silk taffeta dress had a 25-foot train, the longest in British royal wedding history.
Pop culture history
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1981
Raiders of the Lost Ark is released
Tom Selleck was the first choice for Indiana Jones.
Pop culture history
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1981
The first London Marathon
The two leading men crossed the line holding hands.
History of sport
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1981
The IBM Personal Computer is launched
It ran an operating system Microsoft had bought from another firm for about $50,000.
Science & technology history
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1981
The Space Shuttle flies for the first time
It was the first time a new US spacecraft carried a crew on its very first launch.
History of exploration
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1981
Trivial Pursuit is launched
It was invented by two Canadian journalists.
Pop culture history
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1982
Adobe is founded
It was named after a creek that ran behind one founder's house.
Food & brand history
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1982
CDs go on sale for the first time
The first CD album released commercially was Billy Joel's 52nd Street.
Science & technology history
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1982
Diet Coke is launched
It was the first new brand to use the Coca-Cola trademark.
Food & brand history
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1982
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is released
Much of E.T.'s raspy voice came from a woman who was a heavy smoker.
Pop culture history
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1982
Elk Cloner, an early computer virus, spreads
It was written by a 15-year-old as a prank and spread on Apple II floppy disks.
Science & technology history
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1982
Ferrero Rocher is launched
It is named after a rocky grotto at Lourdes.
Food & brand history
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1982
Henry VIII's warship Mary Rose is raised
It had lain on the seabed of the Solent for 437 years.
History of exploration
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1982
The Falklands War
The conflict between Britain and Argentina lasted 74 days.
Modern history
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1982
The first permanent artificial heart is implanted
Patient Barney Clark lived 112 days with the Jarvik-7, which was powered by an external air compressor.
Science & technology history
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1982
The smiley :-) is proposed
Scott Fahlman suggested it to mark jokes on a university message board.
Science & technology history
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1983
Antarctica records Earth's coldest temperature
Russia's Vostok Station measured -89.2°C.
Natural history & deep time
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1983
Australia II wins the America's Cup
It ended the longest winning streak in sport: 132 years of American victories.
History of sport
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1983
Costco opens its first warehouse
Its famous hot dog and soda combo has cost $1.50 for decades.
Food & brand history
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1983
Michael Jackson first moonwalks on TV
He debuted it performing Billie Jean on the Motown 25 TV special.
Pop culture history
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1983
Swatch launches its plastic watches
Built from just 51 parts instead of over 90, it helped rescue Switzerland's struggling watch industry.
Food & brand history
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1983
The Cabbage Patch Kids craze
Shoppers scuffled in stores trying to buy them for Christmas.
Pop culture history
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1983
Tokyo Disneyland opens
It was the first Disney park built outside the United States.
Pop culture history
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1984
An astronaut flies untethered in space for the first time
Bruce McCandless drifted about 98 metres from the Space Shuttle using a nitrogen-jet backpack.
History of exploration
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1984
Band Aid records 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'
It became the best-selling single in UK chart history at the time.
Pop culture history
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1984
Carl Lewis wins four Olympic golds
He matched Jesse Owens's haul from 1936.
History of sport
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1984
Ghostbusters is released
Its firehouse headquarters is a real fire station in New York.
Pop culture history
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1984
Tetris is created
Alexey Pajitnov programmed it on a Soviet computer at a Moscow research centre.
Pop culture history
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1984
The Apple Macintosh goes on sale
It was launched with a famous Super Bowl advert directed by Ridley Scott.
Science & technology history
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1984
The Terminator is released
Arnold Schwarzenegger was first approached to play the hero, Kyle Reese, before taking the role of the cyborg.
Pop culture history
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1984
Torvill and Dean's perfect Boléro
Every judge gave them a 6.0 for artistic impression.
History of sport
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1985
Back to the Future is released
Michael J. Fox shot it at night while filming the sitcom Family Ties by day.
Pop culture history
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1985
Boris Becker becomes the youngest Wimbledon men's champion
He was unseeded, just 17, and the first German to win the men's singles title.
History of sport
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1985
Coca-Cola launches New Coke
After a public outcry, the original formula was back on shelves just 79 days later.
Food & brand history
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1985
Super Mario Bros. is released
Mario first appeared in Donkey Kong, where he was called 'Jumpman'.
Pop culture history
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1985
The Golden Girls first airs
Betty White, who played Rose, outlived all three of her Golden Girls co-stars.
Pop culture history
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1985
The Live Aid concerts are held
Phil Collins played in both London and Philadelphia, flying between them on Concorde.
Pop culture history
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1985
The NES console launches in North America
After the 1983 video game crash, Nintendo pitched it as an 'Entertainment System', not a games console.
Pop culture history
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1985
The ozone hole over Antarctica is discovered
British Antarctic Survey scientists at first doubted their own readings.
Natural history & deep time
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1985
The wreck of the Titanic is found
It lay almost 4 km down, 73 years after the sinking.
History of exploration
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1986
Jack Nicklaus wins his sixth Masters
At 46, he became the oldest Masters champion.
History of sport
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1986
Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal
Four minutes later, he scored what was later voted the Goal of the Century.
History of sport
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1986
Mike Tyson becomes the youngest heavyweight champion
He won the title aged 20.
History of sport
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1986
Oprah's talk show goes national
It ran for 25 seasons.
Pop culture history
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1986
People Power topples Ferdinand Marcos
Corazon Aquino became the Philippines' first female president.
Politics & society history
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1986
Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik
The two leaders came close to agreeing to scrap all nuclear weapons.
Politics & society history
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1986
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster
The nearby city of Pripyat has been abandoned ever since.
Modern history
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1986
The Legend of Zelda is released
Shigeru Miyamoto drew on his childhood memories of exploring caves and forests.
Pop culture history
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1986
The Mir space station is launched
It orbited for 15 years before being steered into the Pacific Ocean.
History of exploration
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1986
The Phantom of the Opera opens in London
On Broadway, it became the longest-running show in history.
Pop culture history
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1986
Top Gun is released
US Navy recruitment reportedly rose after the film's release.
Pop culture history
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1987
Black Monday stock market crash
The Dow Jones fell about 22% in a single day.
Politics & society history
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1987
Red Bull is launched
It was based on a Thai energy drink called Krating Daeng.
Food & brand history
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1987
The first Rugby World Cup
New Zealand won the first tournament, which it co-hosted with Australia.
History of sport
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1987
The Great Storm hits Britain
A TV weatherman had assured viewers the night before that no hurricane was coming.
Natural history & deep time
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1987
The Montreal Protocol is signed
It phased out the chemicals that were damaging the ozone layer.
Politics & society history
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1987
Van Gogh's Sunflowers sells for a record price
A Japanese insurance company paid almost $40 million, then the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction.
Art & literature history
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1988
A Brief History of Time is published
It stayed on the Sunday Times bestseller list for over four years.
Art & literature history
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1988
Ayrton Senna wins his first F1 title
He won eight races that season.
History of sport
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1988
Ben Johnson is stripped of Olympic gold
He tested positive for steroids days after winning the 100 m in Seoul.
History of sport
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1988
Die Hard is released
Bruce Willis was mainly known for TV comedy when he was cast.
Pop culture history
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1988
Jamaica's bobsleigh team makes its debut
Their story inspired the film Cool Runnings.
History of sport
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1988
Steffi Graf wins tennis's Golden Slam
She won all four majors and Olympic gold in one year, a feat no other singles player has matched.
History of sport
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1988
The first internet worm spreads
The Morris worm, written by a graduate student, slowed thousands of computers to a crawl.
Science & technology history
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1989
The Berlin Wall falls
It opened after an official mistakenly announced the border was open 'immediately'.
Politics & society history
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1989
The Exxon Valdez oil spill
Millions of litres of oil polluted the coast of Alaska.
Modern history
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1989
The Game Boy is released
One Game Boy survived a bombing in the Gulf War and still works.
Pop culture history
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1989
The Simpsons first airs as a series
It is the longest-running American scripted primetime TV series.
Pop culture history
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1989
The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
Within weeks, playwright Václav Havel became president.
Modern history
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1989
Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web
His boss scribbled 'Vague but exciting...' across the top of the proposal.
Science & technology history
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