1980s
During the 1980s, conservative politics and Reaganomics held sway as the Berlin Wall crumbled, new computer technologies emerged, AIDS ravaged the United States, especially the gay male community, and blockbuster movies and MTV reshaped pop culture.
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Power dressing. ’Eatertainment.’ Fad toys that sparked near-riots. Which trends did you participate in?
Health officials first became aware of AIDS in the summer of 1981, but U.S. leaders remained largely silent for four years.
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was made worse when Soviet authorities initially denied the event and then acted slowly to contain it.
The president and Congress clashed over welfare, crime, defense spending and whether to fund Contras in Nicaragua.
Challenger Disaster
How the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Unfolded
Seventy three seconds after take off the Space Shuttle Challenger encounters unexpected disaster. Find out more in this clip from Season 1, "Challenger Disaster."
3 Major Events of the 1980s
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The NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986, claiming the lives of all seven astronauts aboard.
As D&D enchanted imaginative youth, it also became a battleground for parents and pundits who feared its influence.
Chernobyl is a nuclear power plant in Ukraine that was the site of the worst nuclear accident in history when a routine test went horribly wrong on April 26, 1986.
In 1989, five New York teenagers were falsely accused of rape.
Hudson’s illness galvanized efforts to confront the AIDS crisis Hollywood had been ignoring.
The chief architect of McCarthyism prosecuted the Rosenbergs, purged suspected communists and LGBT government workers and was portrayed in 'Angels in America.'
Fear of satanic cults and secret rituals swept the nation across music, media and even day care centers.
HIV and the syndrome it causes, AIDS, was first identified in the United States in 1981.
In the mid-1980s American farmers faced a dire future. Willie Nelson and other artists decided to help using what they knew best—music.
The 1982 strike led by immigrant women earned better workplace conditions and benefits for New York City’s garment workers.
At its height, the USSR comprised of more than a dozen republics stretching across Europe and Asia. After the collapse, each forged a different path.
The young New York graffiti artist and Pop Art icon produced more than 150 works together. Critics in the '80s panned them. Now, some sell for millions.
The Deaf President Now! protests thrust disability rights into the national spotlight—and sparked ongoing questions.
With Chernobyl's nuclear radiation raining down, Communist party officials dithered, delayed and hid the truth. Then they gave residents of nearby Prypiat 50 minutes to evacuate.
From a 25-year-old with his finger on the wrong button to a grizzled Communist Party apparatchik who thought evacuation was for sissies, here are the protagonists at the center of the tragedy.
