Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term as president. A star-studded lineup of rock musicians in Philadelphia and London put on Live Aid, a 16-hour concert to benefit African famine victims. Phil Collins managed to perform at both …
This was the year made infamous by the George Orwell dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949). It was also an Olympic year in which UCLA took part in the Los Angeles hosting of the Summer Olympics. The 1984 Summer …
1983 was marked by geopolitical upheaval and technological invention alike. President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire, inflaming already tense U.S./USSR relations. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, tracked and shot down a South Korean 747 that had strayed …
MTV launched on August 1, playing its first video, “Video Killed the Radio Star” (The Buggles) and nine other music videos. The first personal computer—not the first Macintosh—was introduced. In world and national politics, Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat, who shared …
Jimmy Carter was still president, mired in the ongoing Iranian hostage crisis and an aborted raid to resolve it that ended in catastrophe. (Carter was defeated in November 1980 by Ronald Reagan in a Republican landslide.) America led a boycott …
Jimmy Carter was still president. In Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady,” was elected the first female Prime Minister. The dictator Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia was overthrown by Vietnam-backed insurgents. Nicaraguan President General Somoza resigned and fled …
Jimmy Carter was still president; one of his signal accomplishments that year was the 13-day Camp David summit resulting in a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The Blizzard of 1978 (Northeast Edition) paralyzed New England and the Northeast, …
Jimmy Carter was elected U.S. president. Elvis Presley died. Star Wars (the original) premiered; Saturday Night Fever and its movie soundtrack highlighted the Age of Disco, though the Sex Pistols and The Clash released landmark punk albums in the same …
It was America’s Bicentennial. It was also a year of the Summer and Winter Olympics. In the Summer Olympics, Nadia Comaneci, the 14-year-old Romanian gymnast, scored seven perfect 10s and won three gold medals. The U.S. men’s swimming team won …