Timeline, AE160 at OSU

TIME LINE 1945-1999

**Index Table**
				1945	1946	1947	1948	1949	1950
1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960
1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970
1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980
1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990
1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998

1945

War efforts spark advances in computing and interrupt developments in television. Victory over Germany and Japan after years of war in 1945. The liberation of the Nazi death camps revealed shocking measures taken the Nazi's against the Jewish population of Europe. All these events raised unprecedented questions of morality as humankind tried to come to terms with the seemingly limitless potential for destruction it now possessed. One of the results was the development of major grassroots movements within Western democracy against atomic and other weapons of mass destruction.

Death of US president Roosevelt; he is succeeded by Harry Truman
Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.
Ex-dictator and fascist leader Mussolini is shot and killed.
US troops liberate the concentration camps in Germany.
The United Nations (UN) is established.
Germany accepts unconditional surrender May 8.
US atomic bomb destroys the Japanese city of Hiroshima and kills 78,000. A second more powerful bomb is dropped three days later on Nagasaki.
Japan surrenders and two months later the formal surrender is signed.
Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in Major League baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers).
Charlie Parker records for the first time with a band under his own name.
First solo exhibitions by painters Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko, all at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery in New York.
Vinyl records marketed by RCA Victor.
John Eckert, and John Mauchly develop ENIAC, acknowledged to be the first
genuine electronic computer. ENIAC can perform 5000 calculations per second, weighs 30 tons and takes up the space of about 80 rooms.
Penicillin is invented.

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1946

The craze for jukebox music begins in the US.
The invention of the ball-point pen.
Xerography is invented.
The Slinky is introduced.
Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" is released.

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1947

President Truman establishes the "Truman doctrine" to oppose Communism throughout the world.
A Congressional committee launches an investigation into Communism in Hollywood resulting in writers and producers being "black listed".
Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier.
The first microwave oven goes on sale.
First Polaroid camera.
Christian Dior introduces the "new look" in women's fashion, an ultrafeminine full-skirted antithesis to wartime styles and hand me downs.

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1948

Transistors are first patented. As transistors come to replace vacuum tubes they will revolutionize electronics by allowing the miniaturization of devices including hearing aids, radios, and television.
Reel to reel tape recorder and long-playing 33 rpm records invented.
The term cybernetics is first used.
Jackson Pollock exhibits his controversial "action painting" for the first time.
Velcro invented.
The middle-eastern state of Israel comes into existence.
Communist aggression appears to justify American fears of Communist expansion.
The "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe is developed.

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1949

In New York, RCA unveils a system for color television broadcasting.
The first 7-inch microgroove records produced by Columbia and RCA go on sale.
George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four".

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1950

Korean War (1950-1953).
First multipurpose credit card- The Diners Club Card.
Harry Truman orders the US to research and build the atomic bomb.
First transmission of color television.
John Huston: The Asphalt Jungle.
McCarthy launches his vitriolic crusade against Communism in the US.

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1951

3-D movies, viewed through polarized glasses are shown for the first time.
John Cage- Imaginary Landscape No.4, using radio receivers, and Music of Changes, for which decisions were made by tossing a coin.
J.D. Salinger: "The Catcher in the Rye" epitomizes the American teenager in the 50's.
Film makers and writers serve jail time for refusing to testify before the HUAC.
GM, Chrysler, and Ford are the three largest corporations in the world.
Radio Free Europe in Munich broadcasts Western propaganda to the Eastern bloc.
In East Berlin over 1 million Communist Youth protest against the USA.
The LP (long playing) record is introduced by Deutsche Grammophon.
War between North and South Korea continues despite UN efforts for a truce.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death in NY for selling atomic secrets to the USSR (after many unsuccessful appeals are sent to the electric chair in 1953).
UNIVAC- the first publicly marketed computer becomes available.
Black and white video tape recordings are first demonstrated by Bing Crosby Enterprises.

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1952

Samuel Beckett's "Waiting For Godot".
Telephone area codes.
Transistor radios and hearing aids.
First cloning experiment with a frog is unsuccessful.
First hydrogen bomb exploded in the South Pacific.
35 million watch on TV as largest atomic bomb ever is exploded in Nevada.
The Cold War heats up fast as the USSR claim to have atomic weaponry.
First sex change operation.
Contraceptive pill is developed.
It is proven that DNA is the genetic information carrier.
TWA introduces "tourist class".
The "Diary of Anne Frank" is published.
South African government bans meetings of more than 10 blacks.
Eisenhower is elected president.
US occupation of Japan ends.

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1953

The first frozen TV dinners: sliced turkey, cornbread dressing, peas, sweet potatoes and gravy.
Hilliary and Norgay climb Mt. Everest.
US air force determines that high number of UFO sightings could be problematic.
Research from tobacco smoke indicates that it can cause cancer.
Poems by Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac are published in the Black Mountain Review.
"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", with Marilyn Monroe debuts in New York.
Ernest Hemmingway receives the Pulitzer Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea".
Charlie Chaplin accused of Communism and moves to Switzerland.
Death of Joseph Stalin, followed by Nikita Krushchev's rapid rise to power.
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London.

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1954

Vietnam war begins.
Regular color TV network broadcasting begins.
RCA begins mass production of color TV's retailing at just under $1000.
Beginning of the Rock and Roll age and teenage fashions are signaled by Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" and Elvis' first single: "That's All Right Mama".
The release of "The Wild One" starring a leather jacket clad Marlon Brando influences beatnik fashions. Teddy Boys first seen on the streets of London.
Roger Bannister became the first man to run the mile in under four minutes.
First solar powered battery developed.
Victor markets the first prerecorded tapes.
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (I & II).
Supreme court rules that segregation in public schools in unconstitutional.
The Communist party is outlawed in the US.

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1955

Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat. A year later, a US Supreme Court ruling outlaws segregation on public transportation.
Disneyland opens.
Albert Einstein pleads on radio for a halt to the arms race shortly before his death.
Death of teen idol James Dean overshadows death of century's greatest scientist, Albert Einstein.
Originator of bebop, Charlie Parker dies at age 34.
Marilyn Monroe in "The Seven Year Itch" movie promo results in "cheesecake shot".
RCA demonstrates a "synthesizer".
Jasper Johns: Flags, Targets, and Numbers beginning the movement toward Pop Art.
The USA agrees to pay Japan 2 million dollars for damages caused by atomic tests.
The USA gives South Vietnam $216 million in aid.
The Soviet Union, with its satellites, formed the Warsaw pact in response to W.
Germany's inclusion in NATO, giving them the right to station troops in other member countries.
US defense policy of retaliation "we will retaliate instantly by means and at places of our choosing".
Third World countries demand an end to Colonialism.

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1956

Videotape recorder introduced, is the size of a desk, and costs $50,000.
Transatlantic telephone cable completed.
First television broadcast made from videotape.
Allen Ginsberg's long experimental poem "Howl", described as an elegy for the American dream, typifies the American Beat generation; this century's first counterculture.
"Heartbreak Hotel"tops the charts and Elvis emerges as a teen idol.
Brigitte Bardot introduced.
Bell Telephone develops first "visual phone"
University of Alabama admits their first African-American student, who was suspended after campus riots.
Protesters march in the UK against nuclear arms and the dangers of radiation.
The US explodes hydrogen bombs near the island of Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. Excessive radioactive contamination forces all inhabitants of surrounding areas to relocate. (Source of the term for two piece bathing suit "bikini". When the garment was introduced its designer said it would "cause a bigger explosion than the bombs of Bikini").

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1957

Partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in England causes a radioactive cloud to form and move across Western Europe.
The first videotaped commercial for Kellogg's Cornflakes.
Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"
USSR's Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite. Sputnik II launched with a dog, Laika, demonstrating that space flight held no hidden threats to life.
USSR announces the first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas enforce desegregation in public schools.
First prime time rock music TV network special.
Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story.
The first stereo disks are marketed in the US.
The first book is printed using phototypeset- a revolution in printing technology after 400 years of typesetting from metal type.

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1958

Implantable pacemakers are introduced.
Texas Instruments develops the first microchip.
Ownership of television sets in the US rises from 9% in 1950 to 83% in 1958.
Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba introducing Communism to the Americas.
Nonstick frying pans.
President Eisenhower's Christmas message to the nation is broadcast from a rocket circling the earth-a prelude to satellite communications.
Elvis enters the army for two years service.
The first commercial nuclear power plant in the USA.
NASA is established which assumes the direction of space exploration in the US.
9,000 scientists from 43 countries petition to the UN to halt test of nuclear bombs.

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1959

Pop music stars Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and "the Big Bopper" die in an airplane crash.
Barbie dolls.
William Borroughs: "The Naked Lunch".
Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum is opened.
The far side of the moon is photographed for the first time.
The first commercial Xerox copier.
Sony markets the first portable television.
The UN condemns apartheid in South Africa and racial discrimination anywhere in the world.
The world bank warns that the "poverty gap" between rich and poor nations is a greater danger than the Cold War.
Hawaii becomes the 50th state.

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1960

Lasers introduced- first used in eye surgery.
Martin Luther King urges president Eisenhower to intervene to defuse racial tension in Alabama.
The communications satellite Courier IB is launched by the US providing the US with in international communications system.
Cuba renews diplomatic relations with USSR
U2 spy plane shot down over USSR.
John F. Kennedy elected president, becoming the youngest ever.
Tension mounts between US and Cuba: trade embargo's, Castro nationalizes all US-owned property.

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1961

First official US military assistance in Vietnam; 400 troops arrive in Saigon.
Berlin wall erected to prevent thousands of East Germans fleeing to the west fearing Communist crackdown.
Soviet's the first man in space and orbits the earth.
TWA offers first in-flight movie.
The Peace Corps are created by Kennedy to bring progress to underdeveloped areas of the world.
Ernest Hemmingway commits suicide.
Chubby Checker's pop single "The Twist" causes a new dance craze.
"Catch-22" reflects a sharply cynical attitude towards war.
Mini skirts.
Piero Manzoni creates his "Living Sculpture".
Christo begins wrapping objects including automobiles and architectural monuments.
Exhibit at MOMA "The Art of Assemblage" marks the change in art from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art, Happenings, and Earth art.
The US severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.

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1962

John Glenn is the first American to orbit the earth.
Cuban Missile crisis.
Marilyn Monroe is found dead of a drug overdose.
Coining of the expression "the global village" with reference to the electronic communications revolution.
Bob Dylan releases "Blowin' in the Wind"
Andy Warhol: Marilyn Monroe silk-screen, and Green Coca Cola Bottles painting.
"Dr. No", the first James Bond film (Kennedy's favorite fictional hero).
Telstar allows TV transmission between Europe and the US.
GM installs the first industrial robot on the production line.
Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" alerts the general public to the dangers of the introduction of chemicals into the ecosystem.
Riots at Mississippi University over enrollment of black students (2 die, 70 injured).

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1963

Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington at massive civil rights demonstration.
Soviet is first woman in space.
President Kennedy is assassinated.
Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is shot dead by Jack Ruby.
Kodak instamatic camera with film in self-contained cartridges.
British invasion of US popular music by the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and others.
Zip codes are first used.
The Beatles have 5 hits in thetop 25.
The Mona Lisa visits Washington and New York.
First lung and liver transplant.
Limited nuclear test ban treaty in US, USSR, and Britain.

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1964

Bob Dylan's "The Times they are a-Changin".
Vidal Sassoon changes he face of modern hairdressing with the short cut, the epitome of the "swinging sixties".
Walt Disney's Animatronics, among them a moving, talking Abraham Lincoln, is exhibited at the New York World's Fair.
The "Whiskey-a-go-go", the worlds first discotheque, opens in LA.
The Beatles arrive in New York: Beatlemania ensues.
Sidney Poitier is the first black actor to win the Oscar for best actor in "Lilies of the Field".
Frank Stella- post painterly abstraction.
The first word processor is introduced by IBM.
Cassius Clay becomes the heavyweight champion of the world.
The US civil rights act is signed by President Lyndon Johnson, a month later riots break out in Harlem and Rochester.
Martin Luther King wins Nobel Peace Prize.
African Nationalist Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison.
The Gulf of Tonkin resolution opens the floodgates to military escalation in Vietnam.
The Vietcong launch a major attack on the US base.

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1965

Audio tape cassettes.
Kodak Super 8 for home movies.
US involvement in the Vietnamese war increases dramatically and begins bombing military targets in North Vietnam despite protests at home. Draft calls double.
The National Endowment for the Arts established.
Malcolm X is assassinated.
The first computer art exhibit in New York.
The first minicomputer introduced.
Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music".
Pictures of the moon's surface are relayed back to earth appearing on TV.
First Soviet "space walk" lasts 20 minutes.
Soft contact lenses.
World's first commercial communications satellite links the US, Canada and Europe exchanging TV programs.
Massive race riots in Watts, Los Angeles.
The ambiguous nature of the pop revolution was reflected in the furor provoked in Britain when the queen bestowed upon the Beatles an honor usually reserved for distinguished servants of the state.

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1966

Fax machine introduced.
Unmanned space craft lands on the moon.
Eight track tape player.
"Star Trek" airs on television.
With London as the temporary fashion hub, Twiggy is the face of the "swingin' sixties, typified by Warhol's film Chelsea Girls.
Legal Distribution and production of LSD discontinues.
Inscrutability had been overtaken by lunacy as the aging Mao Zedong let loose his Red Guards in an effort to purge the communist state of revisionism and bourgeois thinking. Other Communist countries protest but to no avail.
Civil rights rallies continue and in Vietnam the bombs keep falling.

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1967

US congress passes the Endangered Species Act.
First microwave oven for home use is introduced.
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Monterey Pop Festival the first of its kind (Hendrix, Joplin, The Who).
The Dolby noise-reduction system is invented.
Outbreaks of racial violence continue in many US cities.
Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title, sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000 for refusing to be drafted.
Martin Luther King calls for a campaign of massive civil disobedience to pressure Congress to respond to black demands.
380,000 troops in Vietnam. *100,000 people march through New York in protest of the Vietnam war.

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1968

Revolution was in the air in the spring of '68 on student campuses around the world.
Civil rights, anti war, anti government and labor issues spawn protest in France, Brazil, Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Spain, Italy and the US.
In Eastern Europe the Prague Spring was followed only too rapidly by the Soviet Winter as tanks rolled in to re-impose hard-line communism.
Assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.
Stanley Kubrick's film" 2001: A Space Odyssey", where a computer takes over a space ship.
A computer system, including a keyboard, keypad, mouse, and "windows" is introduced.
Protests against the war in Vietnam raised the specter of civil violence on a scale not seen since the civil war prompting Lyndon Johnson not to run again for the presidency.
Hippy musical 'Hair" opens on Broadway.
USA and USSR sign an agreement to cooperate in the fields of science and technology.
The Tet Offensive in Vietnam.

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1969

Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.
Public Broadcast System is founded.
First automatic teller machine (ATM).
"Sesame Street" and "Monty Python's Flying Circus" debut on television.
"Easy Rider" epitomizes the acid culture.
Brian Jones, guitarist of the Rolling Stones dies at age 24.
Massive national antiwar demonstrations continue in the US.
USA and USSR start SALT talks (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks).
Richard Nixon inaugurated as the 37th US president.
"Vietnamization"- gradual withdrawal of US troops.
Isle of Wight festival attracts 250,000 people in the UK.

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1970

First Earth Day.
Anti-Vietnam protests culminate in shootings at Kent State in Ohio and Jackson State in MS.
US troops invade Cambodia.
Nixon announces withdrawal of 150,000 troops although heavy bombing continues.
IBM introduces "floppy disks" as a way to transport information from computer to computer.
Rock opera "Tommy" is performed at The Metropolitan Opera House.
Paul McCartney quits the Beatles.
Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin die of drug overdoses, both at age 27.
Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty.
Robert Altman: "M.A.S.H." - film about young people's attitudes regarding Vietnam.
Constitutional amendment to prohibit discrimination on grounds of sex.
US Commission on Civil Rights reports a "major breakdown" in the enforcement of civil rights legislation.

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1971

The first e-mail program and software are developed.
CAT scans are first performed.
The Electronic Kitchen (later The Kitchen) opens in New York as a venue for new media performances and projects.
Art and Technology exhibit at Los Angles County Museum of Art; Warhol, Serra, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Smith.
Jim Morrison dies in Paris at age 27.
A concert in Madison Square Gardens is held to raise money for victims of flood and civil war in Bangladesh organized by ex-Beatle George Harrison.
The first "pocket calculator" weighs 2.5 lbs., and costs $150.
The USA extends full voting rights to all 18 year olds.
A week of antiwar protests takes place in Washington as Nixon announces further troop reduction.

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1972

First digital watches.
Gloria Steinem founds Ms. Magazine.
Digital sound and half inch videotape first used in broadcasting.
First videocassettes.
Atari is founded and with it comes "Pong", the first popular video arcade game.
Nixon is the first US president to visit China and the USSR.
Brittish troops overreact against rioters killing 13 in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday.
Moog patents his electronic synthesizer intended to make any sound available through electronic synthesis.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono play Madison Square Garden.
"Fiddler on the Roof" hits a record 3,225 performances.
Carl Andre's prefabricated bricks are purchased by the Tate Gallery provoking a storm of protest.
Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather.
The VW "Beetle" overtakes the sales record of the Model T Ford.
Nixon is reelected.
Nixon orders full-scale heavy bombing and mining of North Vietnam. Decision is criticized by East and West.

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1973

US troops pull out of Vietnam.
First manmade spacecraft enters deep space.
Skylab manned space observatory is launched.
Arab oil-embargo and world energy crisis. State of emergency in UK.
Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizes abortion in the US.
The world's tallest building is erected in Chicago (Sears Tower).
Death of Picasso.
A calf is produced from a frozen embryo.
Computer-coded labels are introduced in supermarkets.
Drink cans with push through tabs are first manufactured.
Native Americans occupy South Dakota site protesting for 6 months demanding investigation of Federal treatment of their people.
Serious famine in Ethiopia results in 100,000 deaths.
Watergate begins to unfold.

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1974

The term "Internet" comes into use.
The German rock band Kraftwerk brings electronics to the forefront of its music.
Watergate hearings.
Nixon becomes the first president to resign.
Concern over aerosols effect on the ozone layer.
Mrs. Alberta King (MLK's mother) is assassinated during a church service.
Evita Peron (Argentina) is first female head of state in the Americas
India becomes the sixth nation with a nuclear bomb (UK, China, France, USSR, US).

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1975

Microsoft founded.
Rubik's cube patented.
Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run.
Bob Marley becomes popular with the album "Natty Dread".
Disco music starts to become popular.
Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" terrorizes movie-goers.
LCD's (liquid crystal displays) are marketed for the first time.
Work begins on the Alaskan pipeline.
First ever joint venture between USA and USSR in space.
Communists take over South Vietnam as thousands flee to US.
Margaret Thatcher becomes first female leader of Britain's Conservative Party.

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1976

Apple computer company is created.
Punk music emerges on the streets of London.
Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky".
US space probes land on Mars.
Glass fiber cable is developed for use in telecommunications.
US bicentennial.
Gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored first ever 10 out of 10 in Montreal Olympics.
The struggle against apartheid in South Africa continues with hundreds killed and thousands injured.
Mao Zedong dies.

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1977

First female to male sex change operation.
"Saturday Night Fever" heats up the disco craze.
"Star Wars", whose "stars" include robots R2D2 and C3PO.
Elvis Presley dies at 42.
High tech postmodernist architecture in Paris with the Georges Pompidou Center.
Jimmy Carter becomes president.
The Sex Pistols make headlines in UK as their concerts are banned from TV.
Woody Allen's "Annie Hall".
First AIDS victims in NYC (although the disease is not classified as such until 1981).
The neutron bomb is developed.

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1978

Premiere of "Dallas".
Release of "Grease", starring John Travolta.
The "Deerhunter" wins five Oscars.
Birth of the first test-tube baby.
Compact discs are first demonstrated.
Human rights and environmental concerns become a focus of public attention.
Supertanker "Amoco Cadiz" grounds on the beaches of Brittany-the worst oil spill ever.
The Unabomber strikes for the first of 16 times.

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1979

"Space Invaders" video arcade game.
Sony Walkman is introduced.
Skylab tumbles to Earth.
Sid Vicious dies of a heroin overdose.
Francis Ford Coppola:" Apocalypse Now".
Canada is first to operate Satellite TV.
Nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, PA- worst in history.
Mother Theresa wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
Iran dominates world news as the Shah is forced into exile and the Ayatollah Khomeini returns to power. US oil and economic embargo follows as US embassy workers are held hostage in Tehran.

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1980

Mt. St. Helen's erupts.
CNN begins broadcasting.
Cable television offers more channels in addition to improved reception.
John Lennon assassinated outside his NYC apartment.
Iran-Iraq war begins.
Nintendo introduces its first games.
"Pac Man" hits the video arcades.
Ronald Reagan elected president.
Olympic games in Moscow are boycotted by 45 nations due to invasion of Afghanistan.
USA and Canada sign a pact to curb acid rain.

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1981

Jamaican exponent of reggae and black rights activist Bob Marley dies.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana wed.
"Cats" opens on Broadway.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark".
Launch of the first reusable manned space shuttle Columbia.
AIDS epidemic identified.
First MTV video.
Assassination attempts on President Reagan and the Pope.
IBM launches its first PC.
Successful bone marrow transplant.
Led by shipyard worker Lech Walesa, 1 million workers go on strike against food shortage and economic crisis in Poland.

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1982

Vietnam Veterans Memorial designed by Maya Lin.
E.T.a hit movie.
First permanent artificial heart.
The first compact disc players are commercially available in Japan.
Rap music becomes popular.
Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev dies of a heart attack.

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1983

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" breaks all previous album sales records.
Prince: "Purple Rain".
Instead of selecting a person of the year, "Time" magazine chooses the PC as its "Machine of the Year".
The CD-ROM is developed by Sony.
Singer Madonna shows her navel and wears underwear as outerwear.
Christo wraps 11 islands off the coast of Miami, Florida.
First mention of greenhouse effect, and global warming as the result of burning fossil fuels.
The HIV virus is identified.
Millions starve in Ethiopia as drought and civil unrest plague East Africa-world wide relief projects begin as a result of TV coverage.

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1984

First successful clone of sheep.
First High Definition Television.
Microwave ovens are the fastest selling appliance.
The term "cyberspace" is coined in William Gibson's "Neuromancer".
First portable cellular phone weighs two pounds and costs $4000.
Toxic gas leak in India kills 2,500 and is the worst industrial accident ever.
Bishop Desmond Tutu wins Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to end apartheid.
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated.
IRA continue bombing attacks in Britain nearly killing PM Margaret Thatcher.

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1985

Scientists discover a "hole" in the ozone over Antarctica.
1.5 billion world wide watch "Live-Aid" and raise 50 million dollars to help 7 million starving in Ethiopia
Audio CD's and CD players become available.
Christo wraps Pont Neuf in Paris.
"Amadeus" wins seven Oscars.
It is confirmed that there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy.
Race riots in London.
AIDS is declared an epidemic, and Rock Hudson becomes the first celebrity casualty.
Mikhail Gorbachev new Russian premier announced a policy of "perestroika" setting in motion the momentous events of the late 80's and early 90's in Eastern Europe.

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1986

Space shuttle Challenger explodes on liftoff.
The singing "California Raisins" perform in the first computer animated commercial.
The Oprah Winfrey show syndicated nationally.
Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion.
"Out of Africa" wins seven Oscars.
"Glasnost"(openness) in the USSR.
Elie Weisel holocaust survivor wins Nobel Peace Prize.
Irangate, where Reagan admits secret arms deal with Iran.
State of emergency declared in South Africa after 10 years of opposition to apartheid.

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1987

VanGogh's "Sunflowers" sells for record $39.9 million.
U2: "The Joshua Tree"
Work begins on the Channel Tunnel between England and France.
Introduction of digital audio tapes.
For the first time a criminal suspect is convicted on the basis of genetic fingerprinting.
A plague of natural disasters throughout the world claim thousands of lives including the worst storm in the UK in 300 years.

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1988

60% of US households have VCRs
The Stealth Bomber- the most expensive war plane ever built.
A rock concert is held to support the release of jailed South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Terrorist bombing of Lockerbie, Scotland Pan Am flight, and rash of planes hijacked throughout the world.
25 million homeless in India after widespread flooding.
The Vietnamese withdrew from Cambodia.
The largest ever Olympic games in Seoul, Korea.

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1989

Tienamen Square massacre in Beijing, China.
The Berlin Wall comes down.
Wexner Center for the Visual Arts opens.
Painter David Hockney sends a picture piece by piece via fax machine to be reassembled in the UK.
Controversy of N.E.A. funding erupts in US.
George Bush is inaugurated as 41st president.
Exxon Valdez ruptures and spills 11 million gallons of oil
Dalai Lama wins Nobel Peace Prize.

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1990

Cold War officially ends.
Nelson Mandela, a symbol of hope for S. African blacks is released from 26 years of imprisonment.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are big with the kids.
The Hubble space telescope is launched from the shuttle Discovery.
Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
French and British workers shake hands having connected the Channel Tunnel.
Troops and tanks are sent in to Kosovo to quell ethnic violence.
America Online is created.
German reunification.
Iraq's Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait after concluding years of savage attack on Iran.

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1991

The USSR divides into independent states as Gorbachev resigns as leader of the Communist party.
The first World Wide Web program is made available on the Internet.
75% of US households own a VCR.
Gulf War (a short hi-tech campaign between US and Iraq).
Yugoslavia on the brink of full-scale civil war.
Nirvana's "Nevermind" reflects Generation X teen angst and introduces Grunge.
Aids has attacked more than 170,000 in US and it is predicted that by the year 2000, 40 million world wide will be infected with HIV.
Anita Hill accuses federal judge Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in a case that sparked widespread concern and action against sexual harassment in the work place.
The beating of Rodney King by LAPD is documented on video tape.

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1992

The term "virtual reality" is coined.
LA erupts into riots after police officers are acquitted in the Rodney King beating.
William Jefferson Clinton elected president of the United States.

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1993

98% of US households own at least one television.
The "X-Files" premieres on TV.
CD-Rom games, encyclopedias, travel tours and training simulations introduced.
First web browser and music cyberstation.
BATF assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
Computer generated dinosaurs star in the movie "Jurassic Park".

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1994

More PC's are sold in the US than televisions.
Nelson Mandella elected president of South Africa.
The first retail transactions take place on the Internet.

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1995

Terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City
First Million Man March.
OJ Simpson is acquitted of killing his former wife and friend in the most publicized trial of this century.

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1996

Windows 95 is released.
An estimated 9 million people in the US are on the Internet daily.
The tallest building in the world (Petronas Twin Towers) is completed in Malaysia.
'Tamagotchi', Japanese virtual pets become a world wide fad

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1997

Scottish geneticist successfully clones a Sheep.
The robotic Sojourner Rover explores the surface of Mars.
Supercomputer Deep Blue defeats world champion chess player Garry Kasparov.
British colonial authorities return Hong Kong over to China.
First DVD released.

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1998

Former Senator and astronaut John Glenn returns to space.
Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty to charges that he is the Unabomber.
India and Pakistan conduct nuclear arms tests.
Russian cosmonauts abandon Mir space station after 12 years.
Jim Cameron's "Titanic".
England's Princess Diana is killed in an automobile accident in Paris. Her funeral is the most watched event in television history.
Death of humanitarian Mother Theresa.
Release of the Starr Report- documenting the affair between president Clinton and intern Monica Lewinski.

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