In case you missed the first two installments in this mini-series, here’s the ‘60s post and yesterday’s ‘70s post. Today, of course, we move on to the ‘80s. This is the decade I came of age, as many of you reading this blog did. Hence all our ‘80s-themed quizzes! Some of this will be referenced in the images below, but for me, personally, the big moments were the day MTV first launched that rocket during the summer of ‘81, the President Reagan assassination attempt a little earlier, during the spring of ‘81, my Philadelphia Phillies finally winning the World Series in 1983 (I happened to be at the game with my father, which made it all the more amazing!) and, finally, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, and watching the aftermath on TV in gym class in high school that sad day in January. Fashion-wise, the ‘80s, for me, were a disaster. Parachute pants, sports jackets with shoulder pads and mullets—three things I’m very guilty of! What about you all What are your fondest, or least fondest memories of the decade that brought us the following 8 images?
1. March, 1981
On Monday, March 30, 1981, John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, who escaped with nothing more than a punctured lung.
2. April, 1981
Space Shuttle Columbia launched on the 12th of April, and returned to two days later after orbiting the Earth 37 times, the first of 135 NASA Space Shuttle missions from 1981 to 2011.
3. August, 1981
On August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m., MTV launched with The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Few people know the second video shown, however, which was Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run.”
4. November, 1982
Released on November 30, 1982, Michael Jackson’s Thriller became—and currently remains—the best-selling album of all time, with sales estimated by various sources as somewhere between 65 and 110 million copies worldwide.
5. January, 1984
The very first Mac was introduced on the now-famous 1984 commercial that most notably aired on CBS during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. The computer retailed for a whopping $2,495!
6. January, 1986
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight.
7. December, 1988
Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members en route from London to NYC. It wasn’t until 2003 that Libya formally admitted responsibility for the terror attack.
8. February, 1989
The last Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan, ending a 9-year war.
