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The 1980s (pronounced "nineteen-eighties", shortened to "the '80s" or "the Eighties") was a decade that began on January 1, 1980, and ended on December 31, 1989. The decade saw a dominance of conservatism and free market economics, and a socioeconomic change due to advances in technology and a worldwide move away from planned economies and ...
The 1980s have been called “the decade of decadence,” and one of the era’s most notable movie characters, Wall Street ’s Gordon Gekko, famously declared that “greed is…good.” But the decade was about more than just excess. It was a period marked by defining events that continue to resonate.
- Jennifer Rosenberg
- 1980. The first year of the decade was memorable for political drama, cable TV, and games we couldn't keep our hands off of. Arcades were jammed with people playing a new video game called Pac-Man.
- 1981. By 1981, homes and offices were beginning to adapt to new technologies. If you had cable TV you probably were watching MTV after it began broadcasting in August.
- 1982. The big news in 1982 literally was the news when USA Today, with its colorful graphics and short articles, made headlines as the first nationwide newspaper.
- 1983. The year that saw the birth of the Internet also saw volcanic eruptions and aircraft tragedies; the first woman in space and that holiday season craze of the Cabbage Patch Kids.
Start: August 1st, 1981, the launch date of MTV. End: September 24, 1991, the release date of Nevermind by Nirvana.
- Reagan Revolution
- Reaganomics
- Reagan Doctrine
- Fall of Communism
- Yuppie Culture
- Movies in The 1980s
- Television in The 1980s
- Music in The 1980s
- Fashion in The 1980s
- Aids Crisis
The populist conservative movement known as the New Right enjoyed unprecedented growth in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It appealed to a diverse assortment of Americans including evangelical Christians, anti-tax crusaders, advocates of a more powerful American presence abroad, disaffected white liberals and defenders of a free market with few if ...
Reagan advocated for industrial deregulation, reductions in government spending and tax cuts for both individuals and corporations, as part of an economic plan he and his advisors referred to as “supply-side economics.” His economic and social agenda was largely shared by his across-the-pond friend, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The res...
Like many other American leaders during the Cold War, Reagan believed that the spread of communismanywhere threatened freedom everywhere. As a result, his administration was eager to provide financial and military aid to anticommunist governments and insurgencies around the world. This policy, applied in nations including Grenada, El Salvador and N...
While Reagan and Thatcher trumpeted the march of conservative politics and capitalism, the foundations of communism grew increasingly shaky. In Poland, former electrician Lech Walesa led striking workers to form Solidarity, the first labor union to develop in a Soviet bloc nation. In 1980, representatives of the communist government of Poland agree...
In some respects, the popular culture of the 1980s reflected the era's political conservatism. For many people, the embodiment of the decade was the young, urban professional, or “yuppie,” a baby boomer with a college education, a good-paying job and expensive taste. Many people derided yuppies for being self-centered and materialistic, and surveys...
Unlike the 1970s, when hard-hitting movies addressed controversial subjects, lighthearted fare seemed to reign supreme in the 1980s. Films like “Ghostbusters,” “Die Hard,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” kept audiences enthralled and box office receipts high. The decade was also the era when blockbusters dominated: Movies li...
At home, millions watched family sitcoms like “The Cosby Show,” “The Simpsons,” “thirtysomething” “Family Ties,” “Roseanne” and “Married...with Children.” They also skipped broadcast network fare and watched rented movies on their new VCRs. By the end of the 1980s, broadcast networks realized they were in serious trouble as 60 percent of American t...
The music videos MTV played made stars out of bands like Duran Duran, R.E.M. and Culture Club and megastars out of artists like Madonna, Prince, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson, whose elaborate "Thriller" video helped sell 600,000 albums in the five days after its first broadcast. Later, MTV became a forum for those who went against the grain o...
In addition to serving as a platform for music, MTV also influenced fashion: People across the country (and around the world) did their best to copy the hairstyles and fashions they saw in music videos. Soon, musicians like Madonna, MC Hammer and Boy George also became style icons. But behind the gloss of MTV, another influence grew in both music a...
In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other sources began reporting on an outbreak of unusual health conditions in otherwise healthy, young gay men in New York City, San Franciscoand other urban areas. Within a few years, an alarmed public learned about the spread of a deadly infectious disease now known as AIDS, or Acqu...
The epidemic’s global impact has been staggering, claiming the lives of more than 39 million people worldwide, including 500,000 people in the United States. In the United States, an estimated 1.1 million people live with HIV/AIDS and every year, about 38,000 new HIV infections occur.
Jun 4, 2021 · This timeline covers some of the highlights over the past 40 years at UCSF, in the nation and around the world after a mysterious outbreak affecting gay men was first reported on June 5, 1981. 1981. UCLA’s Michael Gottlieb, MD, and others author the first report identifying the appearance of diseases that would later become known as AIDS on June 5.
