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<< | 1980 | 1981 |
1982 | 1983 |
1984 | 1985 |
1986 |
1987|
1988 |
1989
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| 01 - Spain and Portugal
join the European Economic Community (EEC) |
| 04 -
Thin Lizzy bass player
and vocalist, Phil Lynott dies of heart failure after laying in a
coma for a week following a drug overdose. He is 34 years old (b.
August 20 1951) |
| 07 -
President Reagan
announces economic sanctions against Libya, in response to their
involvement in terrorist attacks on the Rome and Vienna airports last
month |
| 09 - British Defence
Secretary Michael Heseltine resigns after a Cabinet row about the
procurement of helicopters in the "Westland Affair" |
| 20 - Britain and France
agree (again) to construct a tunnel beneath the English Channel
linking the two countries |
| 24 - Voyager 2 space
probe flies past the planet Uranus |
| 28 -
Space Shuttle
Challenger explodes 74 seconds after take-off at Cape Canaveral,
Florida, killing the crew of seven, including schoolteacher Christa
McAuliffe, the first private citizen to participate in a space
shuttle flight |
| 02 - Nurse Anita Cobby
raped and murdered in Sydney |
| 04 - Electrification of the
Illawarra railway line in NSW, Australia |
| 06 - The mother and sister
of The Undertones' vocalist Feargal Sharkey are held at gunpoint by
terrorists in Londonderry |
| 07 - In Australia, Lindy
Chamberlain, convicted of murdering her child, is freed after a
desert find |
| 07 - Haitian
president-for-life Baby Doc Duvalier flees to France after
demonstrations against his regime |
| 15 - President Marcos flees
the Philippines to the USA. Mrs Corazon Aquino is sworn in as
president |
| 16 - 700 rescued from
sinking Russian cruise ship in New Zealand |
| 25 - Aquino forces Marcos
to flee Manila |
| 28 - Swedish PM Olof Palme
is assassinated in a Stockholm street. He is gunned down by a lone
sniper as he and his wife walk home from a night out at the cinema |
| 02 - "The Australia Bill"
becomes law, cutting Australia's legal ties with Britain |
| 07 - The state of emergency
imposed in South Africa in 1985 is lifted |
| 20 - Jacques Chirac becomes
Prime Minister of France |
| 24 - Libya launches a
missile attack on US Navy vessels in the Gulf of Sidra. The US fleet
responds with missile attacks that damage a Libyan missile site and
destroy two Libyan patrol boats |
| 25 - US Congress approves
$20 million in military aid to Honduras, where Nicaraguan Contra
rebels have set up bases just inside the country's border |
| 27 - Police HQ in
Melbourne, Australia, is bombed |
| 30 - Actor James Cagney
dies |
| 02 - Bomb explodes on TWA
flight from Rome to Athens. Four people sucked to their deaths |
| 04 - Film star Clint
Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel, California |
| 05 - 60 Americans die as a
bomb explodes in a West Berlin discothèque. US officials blame Libya
for the bombing |
| 14 - US launches an air
strike from British bases against targets in Tripoli and Benghazi,
Libya, in retaliation for the April 5 bombings in West Germany. 39
people are killed, including Colonel Gadaffi's baby daughter |
| 24 - Duchess of Windsor,
Wallis Simpson, dies in Paris |
| 26 - Soviet nuclear power
plant at Chernobyl, Ukraine, explodes releasing dangerous radiation
into the air across Europe |
| 06 -
Michael Jackson is
paid $15 million to become a sponsor for Pepsi, the biggest
sponsorship deal of its kind to date |
| 13 - A US Justice
Department commission on pornography, headed by Attorney General
Edwin Meese, rules that such material is potentially harmful and can
lead to violent behaviour against women and children |
| 16 -
Elvis Costello marries Cait O'Riordan of
The Pogues |
| 25 - To raise money for the
homeless, six million Americans form a 'Hands
Across America' human
chain across the continent |
| 04 - Ex-US Navy analyst,
Jonathan Jay Pollard, 31, found guilty as spy for Israel |
| 08 - Kurt Waldheim elected
Austrian President, despite allegations of wartime Nazi involvement |
| 12 - British government
dissolves the Northern Ireland Assembly set up in 1982 |
| 13 - Jazz clarinet legend
Benny Goodman dies |
| 16 - Millions of South
African blacks refuse to go to work following the government's
declaration of a state of emergency and the arrest of over 1,000
black activists |
| 17 - Chief Justice Warren
Burger retires from the US Supreme Court. Reagan names the more
conservative William Rehnquist as his successor, and also names
Antonin Scalia to the court |
| 27 - The International
Court of Justice in The Hague rules that US aid to Contra rebels in
Nicaragua is illegal |
| 27 - After New Zealand bans
US nuclear-armed warships in its waters, the US declares it cannot be
bound by the 1951 ANZUS pact on NZ defence |
| 29 - Argentina win the
soccer World Cup in Mexico, beating West Germany 3-2 |
| 30 - US Supreme Court rules
5-4 that homosexual activity between consenting adults in the privacy
of the home is not protected by the Constitution |
| 04 - The Statue of Liberty
is re-opened after refurbishments. A 30 minute firework show along
with a French jet fighter display help celebrate the Statue’s 100th
birthday |
| 04 - In Australia, Neville
Wran retires. Barrie Unsworth is new NSW Premier |
| 07 - Australians Barlow and
Chambers hanged in Malaysia for drug trafficking |
| 08 - 'Classic' Coke is
reintroduced after New Coke’s failed ten week run on the
market |
| 23 - Prince Andrew marries
Sarah Ferguson |
| 27 - The International
Court of Justice orders the US to stop training and arming
Nicaragua's Contra rebels, and to pay restitution to Nicaragua |
| 30 - Boy George of
Culture Club is fined £250 for possession of heroin |
| 30 - American journalist
Nicholas Daniloff is seized by Soviet authorities and accused of
being a spy, seven days after the FBI arrest a Soviet diplomat to the
UN on charges of espionage. In September Daniloff will be exchanged
for the diplomat, though the White House denies it negotiated a swap |
| 31 - Former
Boomtown Rats
vocalist Bob Geldof marries Paula Yates in Las Vegas |
| 07 - Restrictions on civil
liberties are imposed in Chile following an assassination attempt on
General Pinochet |
| 07 - Desmond Tutu is
enthroned as South Africa's first black archbishop |
| 28 - Sir Robert Helpmann
dies, aged 77 |
| 02 - USA imposes sanctions
on South Africa |
| 05 - Pilot Eugene Hasenfus
is captured by the Nicaraguan Sandinistas and admits that the CIA has
been involved in privately arming the Contra rebels. Hasenfus is
tried in Managua and sentenced to 30 years in prison |
| 20 - Yitzhak Shamir takes
over from Shimon Peres as prime minister of Israel |
| 21 - Aussie Labor Party
icon Justice Lionel Murphy dies of cancer |
| 22 -
Reagan signs a revised
federal income tax law, lowering taxes for everyone, especially those
in the highest tax brackets |
| 02 - Billy Bragg is
arrested for cutting through wire fences surrounding a US Air Force
base in Norfolk |
| 13 -
President Reagan
admits a secret arms deal with Iran, in the so-called Iran-Contra
scandal |
| 14 - Financier Ivan Boesky
agrees to pay the US government $100 million as a penalty for illegal
insider trading on the security exchange. The Securities and Exchange
Commission bars Boesky from participating in the securities business
for the rest of his life. He is also sentenced to three years in
prison |
| 22 - 20-year-old boxer Mike
Tyson becomes youngest ever world heavyweight champion, beating
Canadian Trevor Berbick in two rounds |
| 24 - Pope John Paul II
begins tour of Australia |
| 25 - Vice Admiral
Poindexter and Colonel Oliver North are dismissed from the National
Security Council after it is revealed that money from arms sales in
Iran funded Contra rebels in Nicaragua |
| 30 - "Irangate" row over
hostage release |
| 30 - British-born actor
Cary Grant dies |
| 19 - Soviet dissident
Andrei Sakharov and his wife are permitted to return to Moscow after
seven years internal exile |
| 23 - The Voyager, a
two manned super-light airplane, circles the globe in nine days. The
Voyager required only one tank of gas |
| 29 - Former British PM
Harold McMillan dies |
<< | 1980 | 1981 |
1982 | 1983 |
1984 | 1985 |
1986 |
1987|
1988 |
1989
|
|
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Jan 28 - Space shuttle Challenger explodes on take-off - kills all
onboard
Feb 02 - Anita Cobby raped and murdered in Sydney
Feb 15 - Corazon Aquino new Philippines president
Apr 02 - Bomb explodes on TWA flight from Rome to Athens
Apr 26 - Soviet nuclear plant at Chernobyl explodes
Jun 17 - Rehnquist is new US Chief Justice
Jul 04 - Statue of Liberty is refurbished for 100th birthday
Jul 23 - Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson
Soviet premier Mikhail
Gorbachev institutes a policy of glasnost (openness) in the arts and
literature, allowing many previously banned works to be published
Halley's
Comet passes the Earth - An event that only occurs every 76 years
Edinburgh Commonwealth Games opens (minus 23 nations)
'At Talaq'
wins Melbourne Cup
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