1976
Apr 1 – Apple Computer founded in Los Altos, California, U.S.

1979
Mar 16 – The China Syndrome, Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas
Mar 28 – 3 Mile Island accident
Jul 12 – Disco Demolition Night, Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois

1980
Feb 22 – The Miracle on Ice, Lake Placid Olympic Center,New York
Apr 27 – Ted Turner announces the creation of CNN, the first 24-hour cable news network.
Apr 28 – The U.S. makes attempt to rescue American hostages held in Iran since Nov 1979.
May 01 – Rubiks Cube released
May 18 – In Washington State, Mt. St. Helens erupts, killing more than 50 people.
May 21 – “The Empire Strikes Back,” premieres in movie theaters.
May 22 – The Pac-Man video game is released in Japan, followed by its U.S. release in October.
Jun 1 – CNN launches
Nov 21 – A record 350 million people worldwide watch “Dallas” to find out who shot J.R. Ewing.
Nov 04 – Ronald Reagan wins the presidential campaign
Oct 30 – Sherman Oaks Mega Mall Opens, Los Angeles
Dec 8 – Singer John Lennon is assassinated in front of his New York City apartment.

1981
Jan 12 – Dynasty TV series premiers
Jan 20 – Ronald Reagan becomes 40th President of the United States.
Jan 20 – Iran releases the 52 U.S. hostages held in Tehran for 444 days.
Mar 30 – Ronald Reagan Shot, Union Speech, Washington Hilton, Washington, DC, 2:27pm
Apr 12 – The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched for the first time.
May 13 – In Vatican City, an assassin shoots Pope John Paul II (1920–2005), wounding him.
Jun 5 – The CDC publishes a paper describing what is to become Aids
Aug 01 – MTV – “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” – MTV Launches
Aug 12 – The IBM Personal Computer – model 5150 – $4665.00 in today’s dollars
Aug 19 – Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first female Justice on the Supreme Court.
Sep 24 – You can do the cube is published
ooo 00 – VCR cost $3500 in todays dollars
– Royal Wedding

1982
Jan 7 – The Commodore 64 personal computer is unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Apr 2 – Argentine forces land on the British-owned Falkland Islands, beginning the Falklands War
May 1 – The World’s Fair begins in Knoxville, Tennessee.
May 31 – Los Angeles Times publishes first front page article about AIDS
Jun 1 – Valley Girl by Moon Unit Zappa is released
Jun 11 – Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” opens and instantly becomes a blockbuster.
Jun 14 – Argentina surrenders after two months battle on sea on land in the Falklands.
Aug 13 – Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Sep 15 – Editor Al Neuharth publishes the first edition of the nation-wide newspaper “USA Today.”
Sep 22 – Family Ties, Alex Keaton poster boy for the conservative movement
Nov 13 – Architect Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial is established in Washington DC as a National Memorial.
Nov 30 – 24-year-old pop star Michael Jackson releases his best-selling album “Thriller.”
Oct 1 – The Walt Disney Company opens EPCOT Center (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow)
Dec 2 – American heart surgeon William DeVries (born 1943) implants the Jarvik 7, the world’s first permanent artificial heart, into the chest of Seattle dentist Barney Clark—he will survive another 112 days. .

1983
Jan 1 – The Internet is born when ARPAnet adopts TCP/IP protocols
Jan 2 – Mount Kilauea, Hawaii’s youngest volcano, begins eruption
Feb 28 – After 11 years and 256 episodes, “MASH,” the U.S. television series set during the Korean War, ends
Mar 8 – Ronald Reagan, National Association of Evangelicals – “The Evil Empire”
Apr 08 – John Sculley Joins Apple as CEO
May 25 – Spielberg’s third entry in the Star Wars trilogy, “Return of the Jedi” opens in theaters.
Jun 18 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space when she boards the space shuttle Challenger.
Jul 27 – Madonna releases first studio album, Madonna
Oct 23 – The U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, is bombed by terrorist, killing 241 military personnel.
Oct 25 – U.S. troops invade the Caribbean island of Grenada
Sep 1 – Korean Air Lines KAL-007) shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor, killing all 246 passengers and 23 crew.
Sep 21 – First Cell Phone – the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x – cost $3,995
Nov 2 – Reagan signs legislation making Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a federal holiday, effective Jan. 20, 1986.
Dec xx – No communication between United States and the USSR
Nov 20 – “The Day After” TV Movie – 100 million Americans watch
– United States deploys Intermediate Range Nuclear Missiles in Europe
– First MLK Day

1984
Jan 1 – AT&T, known as the Bell System, is broken up into a series of regional telephone companies
Jan 22 – Macintosh Super Bowl Ad
Jan 24 – Macintosh 128k Computer
Feb. 8 – The XIV Olympic Winter Games open in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
Mar 25 – Pop singer Michael Jackson moonwalks for the first time at the MTV Awards in May.
Jun 4 – Singer Bruce Springsteen releases his album “Born in the U.S.A.”
Jul 28 – The Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles, California, where Carl Lewis wins four gold medals in track and field.
Jul 1 – The “PG-13” rating for movies, first applied to John Milius’s “Red Dawn.”
Sep 14 – First MTV Video Music Awards
– Madonna sings “Like a Virgin” at MTV VMA, shocking middle America
Sep 26 – Great Britain agrees to hand over control of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Oct 31 – India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi is shot and killed by two of her bodyguards
Nov 6 – President Ronald Reagan is elected to a second term, defeating Democrat Walter Mondale.
Nov 12 – Madonna’s second studio album “Like a Virgin” is released
Dec 2–3- A storage tank at the Union Carbide pesticide plant at Bhopal, India springs a leak and spills methyl isocyanate into the surrounding community, killing between 3,000–6,000 people.
ooo 00 – Supreme Court rules VCR legal ( Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studio)
ooo 00 – First CD Sony Walkman

1985
Jan 28 – The R&B single written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie called “We Are The World” is recorded
Mar 4 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the first blood test to detect the virus that causes AIDS.
Mar 7 – We Are The World is released, USA for Africa, raises $60 million
Mar 11 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the new leader of the U.S.S.R.
Mar 15 – The world’s first registered .com – Symbolics.com
Apr 23 – The Coca-Cola Company introduces “New Coke”. Pulled from shelves 78 days later
Jun 10 – David Blum publishes his now famous “Brat Pack Article”
Jun 14 – TWA Flight 847, a flight from Cairo to San Diego, was hijacked by terrorists, who killed one passenger and held others hostage until June 30th.
Jun 23 – Air India Flight 182 is destroyed by a terrorist bomb off the Irish coast. All 329 aboard are killed.
Jul 3 – “Back to the Future,” premieres, and will become the highest grossing film of the year.
Jul 13 – Live Aid
Sep 1 – U.S. oceanographer Robert Ballard find the wreckage of the “Titanic,” a luxury liner which sank in 1912.
Sep 16 – Steve Jobs leaves Apple Computer
Sep 22 – Farm Aid, Memorial Stadium, Champagne, IL
Oct 18 – The Nintendo Entertainment System debuts in the U.S.
Dec 22 – Subway vigalante Bernhard Geotz shoots 3 blacks on a NY subway
– PC outsells Mac by 20:1
– Next Computer is founded

1986
Jan 28 – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes over Cape Canaveral, killing all seven astronauts aboard, including the civilian social studies teacher Christa McAuliffe.
Feb 9 – Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to the sun on its 76 year periodic visit to our solar system.
Feb 20 The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station, the first modular space station that will be assembled in orbit for the next decade.
Feb 25 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos is forced into exile after 20 years in office.
Mar 14 – Microsoft goes public with an initial public offering of shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
Apr 26 – Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the Ukraine spreading radioactive material across Europe.
May 25 – Hands Across America attempts to form a human chain from New York to California to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness.
Jun 19 – Len Bias dies from a cocaine overdose
Jul 4 – Run-DMC releases “Walk This Way”
Sep 8 – The syndicated talk Oprah Winfrey Show airs nationally.
Oct 28 – Following extensive renovations, the Statue of Liberty celebrates its centennial.
Nov 3 – A transport ship carrying 50,000 assault rifles is shot down over Nicaragua, the first alert to the American public of the Iran-Contra arms deal. The ensuing scandal will continue for next two years.

1987
Jan 8 – Dow Jones closes over 2,000 for the first time in its history.
Jan 20 – Terry Waite, special envoy for the Anglican Church, is kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon. He will be held until 1991.
Feb 16 – The Dow Jones, the second largest U.S. market index, hits 200 on
Mar 9 – U2 releases its “Joshua Tree” album.
Apr 2 – Ronald Reagan first speech on AIDS, declares AIDS a public health enemy
May 11 – The jury trial of Nikolaus “Klaus” Barbie, the Nazi “Butcher of Lyon,” begins in Lyon, France.
May 12 – “Dirty Dancing,” premieres at the Cannes Film Festival, released on August 21.
May 28 – Teen-aged German aviator Mathias Rust makes headlines for making an illegal landing in Red Square, Moscow.
Jun 12 – President Ronald Reagan visits West Berlin and challenges leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” the Berlin Wall which had divided the city since 1961.
Jul 15 – Taiwan ends 38 years of martial law.
Aug 17 – Former Nazi Rudolf Hess commits suicide in his prison cell in Berlin.
Oct 12 – British pop singer George Michael releases “Faith,” his debut solo studio album.
Oct 14 – Jessica McClure falls into an abandoned well in Midland, Texas, at the age of 18 months.
Oct 19 – “Black Monday,” the Dow Jones experiences a sudden and largely unexpected drop of 22.6%.
Sep 28 – the first episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” airs
Dec 11 – Movie “Wall Street” released

1988
Feb 18 – Anthony Kennedy (born 1937 and a Reagan nominee) is sworn in as Associated Justice to the Supreme Court.
May 15 – Soviet Troops begin pulling out of Afghanistan after nine years of armed conflict.
Jul 3 – The USS Vincennes shoots down the passenger plane Iran Airlines Flight 655, mistaking it for a F-14 Tomcat and killing all 290 aboard.
Aug 11: Osama bin Laden (1957–2011) forms Al Qaeda.
Aug 22: After 8 years and more than 1 million dead, the Iran-Iraq War ends when Iran accepts a U.N.-brokered ceasefire.
Oct 9: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” opens on Broadway, with Michael Crawford in the title role
Oct 12 – Next Computer is launched, $14,890 in today’s prices
Nov 8: George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) bests the Democratic challenger Michael Dukakis (born 1933) to become the 41st president, the third straight victory for the Republican party.
Dec 1: The first annual World AIDS Day is held.
Dec 21: Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland killing all 259 on-board and 11 people on the ground, the result of a terrorist bombing attributed to Libyans.

1989
Jan 7 – Japanese Emperor Hirohito dies, ending a 62-year reign.
Jan 20 – George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as president.
Mar 24 – The Exxon Valdez oil taker runs aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound
Apr 18 – Students march through Beijing to Tienanmen Square calling for a more democratic government.
Apr 21 – Ninetendo releases Gameboy
Jun 4 – Chinese troops fire on civilians and students in Tienanmen Square
Aug 10 – General Colin Powell is nominated to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, becoming the first African-American to hold that position.
Aug 14 – The Sega Genesis is released in the U.S.
Aug 28 – Jim Baker found guilty of fraud
Nov 9 – The Berlin Wall falls, after an announcement by the East German government that the border checkpoints were open. The impromptu celebration was televised around the world.
Dec 20 – U.S. troops invade Panama in an attempt to oust leader Gen. Manuel Noriega.
– Step Aerobics

Nov 7, 1991 – Magic Johnson announces he has aids
ooo 00, 1992 – First Text Message
Oct 15, 1993 – John Sculley is forced out at Apple Computer
ooo 00, 1995 – First DVD Player
ooo 00, 1997 – First MP3 player
Sep 16, 1997 – Steve Jobs returns to Apple