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The 1980s

2,496 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 20th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1980 CE229 entries

  • March 21 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
  • May 18 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage.
  • December 8 – John Lennon is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City.

1981 CE246 entries

  • March 30 – Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan: U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr.; two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.
  • May 13 – Pope John Paul II assassination attempt: Pope John Paul II is shot by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he enters St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to address a general audience. The Pope recovers.
  • October 6 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a military parade.

1982 CE240 entries

  • 2 May – The Government affirmed its neutrality in the Falklands war between the United Kingdom and Argentina, and opposed European Economic Community sanctions against Argentina (as did Italy).
  • June 6 – The 1982 Lebanon War begins: Israeli forces under Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut. The United Nations Security Council votes to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
  • July 11 – Italy beats West Germany 3–1 to win the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain.

1983 CE242 entries

  • October 23 – Beirut barracks bombing: Simultaneous suicide truck-bombings destroy both the French Army and United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen, 58 French paratroopers and 6 Lebanese civilians.
  • October 25 – Invasion of Grenada by United States troops at the behest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica, a member of the Organization of American States.
  • December 2 – Michael Jackson's music video for "Thriller" is broadcast for the first time. It becomes the most often repeated and famous music video of all time, increasing his own popularity and record sales of the album Thriller.

1984 CE232 entries

  • July 28–August 12 – The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California.
  • October 31 – Assassination of Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her two Sikh security guards in New Delhi. Anti-Sikh riots break out, leaving 10,000 to 20,000 Sikhs dead in Delhi and surrounding areas with the majority populations of Hindus. Rajiv Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of India.
  • December 3 – Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, kills more than 8,000 people outright and injures over half a million (with more later dying from their injuries the death toll reaches 23,000+) in the worst industrial disaster in history.

1985 CE223 entries

  • July 13 – Live Aid benefit concerts in London and Philadelphia raise over £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.
  • September 19 – An 8.0 Mw earthquake strikes Mexico City, killing between 5,000 and 45,000 people and injuring 30,000 more.
  • November 13 – Armero tragedy: The Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts, killing an estimated 23,000 people, including 21,000 killed by lahars, in the town of Armero, Colombia.

1986 CE271 entries

  • January 28 – Space Shuttle Challenger disaster – STS-51-L: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch from the United States, killing the crew of seven astronauts, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
  • Halley's Comet reaches the closest point to the Earth during its second visit to the Solar System in the 20th century. The next time it will be seen is predicted for 2061.
  • April 26 – Chernobyl disaster: A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union "killed at least 4,056 people and damaged almost $7 billion of property". Radioactive fallout from the accident is concentrated near Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and at least 350,000 people are forcibly resettled away from these areas. After the accident, "traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere".

1987 CE273 entries

  • June 29 – South Korean politician, presidential candidate of the ruling party Roh Tae-woo makes a speech promising a wide program of nationwide reforms, the result of the June Democracy Movement.
  • December 8 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
  • December 8 – The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It expired in 2019.

1988 CE225 entries

  • April 5 – Kuwait Airways Flight 422 is hijacked while en route from Bangkok, Thailand, to Kuwait. The hijackers demand the release of 17 Shiite Muslim prisoners held by Kuwait. Kuwait refuses to release the prisoners, leading to a 16-day siege across 3 continents. Two passengers are killed before the siege ends.
  • 18 November – Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Gambia, India, Nigeria, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka recognizes the State of Palestine. The Czech Republic and Slovakia continue this recognition following the 1992 dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
  • Near the end of the year, the first proper and official intercontinental Internet connection between North America (through the National Science Foundation Network) and Europe (through NORDUnet) is permanently established between Princeton, New Jersey, United States, and Stockholm, Sweden.

1989 CE315 entries

  • March 12 – Tim Berners-Lee produces the proposal document that will become the blueprint for the World Wide Web.
  • March 24 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels of oil after running aground.
  • October 17 – The 6.9 Mw Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Sixty-three people are killed and the 1989 World Series in baseball is postponed for ten days as a result of the earthquake.