Tables of History : A.D. 1980 - 1999

Other periods available:
1-99 | 100-199 | 200-299 | 300-399
400-499 | 500-599 | 600-699 | 700-799
800-899 | 900-999 | 1000-1099 | 1100-1199
1200-1299 | 1300-1399 | 1400-1499 | 1500-1599
1600-1699 | 1700-1799 | 1800-1899 | 1900-1919
1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979 | 1980-1999

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1981
  • The space shuttle Columbia completes the first shuttle mission
  • Failed military coup in Spain
  • AIDS first identified and diagnosed in the U.S.A.
  • Egyptian president Muhammad Anwar Sadat assassinated
    During a troop review, Sadat is murdered by islamic fundamentalists.
1986
  • Challenger disaster
    73 seconds into its flight, the shuttle Challenger explodes. All seven crewmembers are killed.
1988
  • Lockerbie crash
    A bomb placed by terrorists, on board a Boeing 747 airplane, en route from Frankfurt to New York, explodes, causing the plane to crash into the small Scottish village of Lockerbie. 275 people, aboard the plane and on the ground, die in the disaster.
  • Piper Alpha disaster
    Piper Alpha, an oil rig in the North Sea, explodes, killing 187.
1989
  • Fall of the Berlin Wall
    In a spontaneous demonstration, the people of East and West Berlin knock holes in the hated Berlin Wall. The Iron Curtain, already in the process of dissolving, crumbles suddenly.
1990
  • Gulf War begins
    After lengthy arguments over oil rights along the border, Iraq invades Kuwait. The United Nations condemn the invasion, and a trade embargo is imposed. A massive military presence, mostly of U.S. troops, but including numerous nationalities, is built up in Saudi Arabia.
1991
  • Gulf War ends
    In January, the coalition forces amassed in Saudi Arabia launch a massive attack on Iraq, completely overrunning the more numerous but infinitely less well-equipped Iraqi military. Kuwait is liberated, and heavy sanctions are imposed on Iraq, including a number of guarantees for the destruction of Iraqi nuclear/bacteriological/chemical armaments production capability, carried out under U.N. oversight. Total allied losses in the war were approx. 150 dead. Iraqi losses were unknown but extensive.
1992
  • Danish Communist Party (DKP) dissolved
19952
  • Tokyo subway attacked with nerve gas
    Members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect release sarin neurotoxin into the subway system in Tokyo. 12 die and over 5000 are injured.
1996
  • Scotland's "Stone of Destiny" returned to Scotland
    The Scottish coronation stone (see 1950) is returned to Scotland, being placed in Edinburgh Castle.

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Last modified: July 20, 2001