World Events 1981-1989

Date

Event

1980s	Computers become popular in businesses and homes.
1981	The United States Centers for Disease Control publishes its first report on AIDS.
1981	President Reagan survives an assassination attempt.
1981	United States Navy jets shoot down two Libyan fighter planes over the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya claims as territorial waters.
1983	President Reagan dubs the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) the 'Evil Empire' and proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as 'Star Wars.'
1984	Scientists discover that ozone is being lost from the earth's atmosphere in an area above Antarctica.
1985	Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev becomes general secretary of the Communist Party in the USSR.
1986	The United States bombs sites in Libya declared by President Reagan to be 'terrorist centers.'
1986	American political scandal, the Iran-Contra Affair, begins. High-ranking members in the Reagan administration arranged for the secret sales of arms to Iran in direct violation of existing United States laws. Profits from the $30 million in arms sales were channeled to the Nicaraguan right-wing 'Contra' guerrillas to supply arms for use against the leftist Sandinista government.
1987	President Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev sign an agreement eliminating medium-range missiles from the military arsenals of the two countries.
1988	Benazir Bhutto is elected prime minister of Pakistan, the first woman to hold this office in any modern Muslim state.