Timeline - 1980 - 1989

On reflection, I think the 1980s were a dreadful, abysmal time.

Pete Burns

1980

4th January - The United States halted wheat sales to the Soviet Union, a sanction imposed after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
23rd January - US president Jimmy Carter, in his State of the Union Address, promised to respond to any Soviet aggression against American allies in the Middle East. This position became known as the Carter Doctrine.
7th April - The USA severed diplomatic relations with Iran.
24th April - The US military launched a failed attempt "Operation Eagle Claw" to rescue American civilians being held hostage by the fundamentalist regime in Iran. Eight American servicemen were killed.
8th March - The Tbilisi Rock Festival began in Georgia, the first rock music festival held in the Soviet Union. It continued for a week and was dubbed the "Soviet Woodstock".
21st March - The United States and 64 allies announced the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics (July 19-August 3) in Moscow.
30th April - 5th May - Iranian Embassy siege in London.
4th May - Josip Broz Tito, communist leader of Yugoslavia since 1945, died at the age of 88 in Belgrade.
3rd June - A device fault caused US defence computers in several locations to report an incoming attack from Soviet missiles, and trigger an Alert Reaction. Cross checking soon exposed these reports as false alarms.
19th July - The 22nd Summer Olympic Games began in Moscow. A total of 65 nations refused to attend, due to a US-led boycott in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
31st August - Seeking to end a series of general strikes, Poland's communist government signed an agreement (known as the Gdansk Agreement) with Lech Walesa the leader of the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) movement. It agreed to improve civil rights and allow the formation of non-communist unions.
22nd September - War broke out between the Islamic state of Iran, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and Ba'athist Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein. The Iran-Iraq War lasted almost eight years and claimed up to 600,000 lives, some of them from the use of chemical weapons.
4th November - Republican candidate and former California governor Ronald Reagan was elected president. Reagan defeated the incumbent president Jimmy Carter, winning 44 states to Carter's six.

1981

January - The USSR launched Project RYAN (Raketno-Yadernoe Napadenie) under the leadership of the KGB. The objective was to detect war preparations by the West.
15th January - Pope John Paul II met with Lech Walesa and other members of the Polish reform group Solidarnosc.
20th January - Ronald Reagan was inaugurated 40th President of the United States. He had been elected on a platform opposed to the concessions of détente. His inauguration speech focused mainly on domestic and economic issues
The Iran hostage crisis ended. After 444 days in captivity, the 52 American civilians held hostage were released.
30th March - Two months after his inauguration Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest while leaving a Washington hotel. The gunman, John Hinckley jr. was found to have mental health problems and to be obsessed with actress Jodie Foster.
13th May - While riding in an open-topped car through the Vatican, Pope John Paul II was shot four times in the abdomen and right arm. The gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, was a Turkish Kurd his motives were uncertain.
19th August - In the Gulf of Sidra Incident, Libyan planes attacked U.S. jets in the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya had illegally annexed. Two Libyan jets are shot down; no American losses are suffered.
6th October - Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated by Islamist military officers.
27th October - A Soviet submarine, the U137, ran aground not far from the Swedish naval base at Karlskrona.
23rd November - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began its illegal support of anti-Sandinista Contras.
13th December - Communist General Wojciech Jaruzelski introduced martial law in Poland and arrested leaders of the Solidarnosc trade union. It was an attempt to crush the Solidarity trade union and the political opposition against communist rule.

1982

24th February - President Ronald Reagan announced the "Caribbean Basin Initiative", a plan to extend friendly economic terms to regional governments at risk from communism, and thus restrict the threat of the overthrow of governments in the region by the forces of communism.
2nd April - Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Islands, a self-governing British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. This led to the Falklands War.
22nd March - Ronald Reagan endorsed a joint resolution of Congress, calling on the Soviet Union to "...cease its abuses of the basic human rights of its citizens, in particular, the right to freely practice one's religion and the right to emigrate to another country...''
30th May - Spain joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
6th June - Israel invaded Lebanon to end raids and clashes with Syrian troops based there.
12th June - A nuclear disarmament rally in Central Park, New York City attracted an estimated 750,000 people. They heard addresses from prominent peace activists and musicians. Speakers included Coretta Scott King. Among those who sang were Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Linda Ronstadt.
14th June - The Falkland Islands were liberated by a British task force bringing the end of the Falklands War.
10th November - Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in Moscow after a heart attack. He was replaced two days later by former KGB chief Yuri Andropov.
14th November - Solidarnosc leader Lech Walesa was released from detention and returned to Poland.

1983

January - Soviet spy Dieter Gerhardt, a former officer in the South African Navy, was arrested for espionage in New York. His Soviet handler, Vitaly Shlykov, was arrested a fortnight later.
February 2nd - US president Ronald Reagan hosted a delegation of Afghan mujahideen or freedom fighters in the White House.
8th March - In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Ronald Reagan labelled the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
23rd March - Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or "Star Wars").
3rd June - WarGames, a fictional film depicting a computer simulation that almost triggered World War III, opened in American cinemas.
7th July - Samantha Smith, a 10 year old girl from Maine, visited the Soviet Union at the invitation of Yuri Andropov. She had earlier written to Andropov, asking if he intended to wage war on America.
1st September - Civilian Korean Air Lines Flight 007, with 269 on board, including U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald, was shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft, all died.
5th September - Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Soviet attack on Flight 007, calling it a "crime against humanity".
September 6th - After five days of denials, Moscow admitted that Soviet fighters were responsible for shooting down Flight 007.
September 26th - A Soviet air force officer, Stanislav Petrov, averted nuclear war by ignoring computer reports of five incoming missiles. The reports were later found to be false, caused by cloud reflections.
5th October - Polish unionist and political reformer Lech Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
25th October - U.S. forces invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada in an attempt to overthrow the Marxist military government, expel Cuban troops, and abort the construction of a Soviet-funded airstrip.
2nd November - Exercise Able Archer 83 - Soviets misinterpreted a test of NATO's nuclear warfare procedures as a fake cover for an actual NATO attack; in response, Soviet nuclear forces were put on high alert.
13th November - The USA deployed nuclear weapon carrying cruise missiles at Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The site is surrounded and blockaded by anti-nuclear weapons protestors, most of them were women.
20th November - The Day After, a film depicting a nuclear attack on American cities, was shown on US television.
23rd November - Soviet delegates walked out of arms reduction talks in Vienna, as a protest against the deployment of US cruise missiles in Europe.

1984

January - US President Ronald Reagan outlined foreign policy which reinforced his previous statements.
13 February - Konstantin Chernenko was named General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party following the death of Yuri Andropov.
13th May - A fire swept through the Severomorsk naval base in remote northern Russia, it burned for four days. It caused a series of munitions blasts that killed as many as 300 people and destroyed much of the Soviet Union's naval missile stockpile.
28th July - 12th August - The Soviet Union and 13 of its allies boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

11th August - While warming up for a radio address, Ronald Reagan joked that he had "...outlawed Russia forever..." and that "...we begin bombing in five minutes".

Ronald Reagan - We Begin Bombing In 5 Minutes

31st October - Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
6th November - President Ronald Reagan was elected for a second term, defeating Democratic candidate Walter Mondale. Reagan won almost 59% of the popular vote and carried 49 of 50 states.
16th December - Margaret Thatcher and the UK government, in a plan to open new channels of dialog with Soviet leadership candidates, met with Mikhail Gorbachev at Chequers.

1985

20th January - Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term as US president.
6th February - Reagan announced that his administration would arm and support "freedom fighters" against communist regimes. This became known as the Reagan Doctrin
11th March - Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and hence leader of the Soviet Union.
24th March - Major Arthur Nicholson, a US Army intelligence officer, was shot dead by a Soviet sentry while photographing military equipment in East Germany. The incident caused a significant deterioration in US-Soviet relations.
20th May - John Anthony Walker Jnr., a warrant officer in the US Navy, was arrested for espionage. It later emerged that Walker had been providing intelligence information to the Soviets since 1968. His son and brother also formed part of the spy ring.
10th July - French agents sink the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing one man. The Rainbow Warrior had been involved in protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
6th August - Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union began what it announced was a 5-month unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons. The Reagan administration dismissed the dramatic move as nothing more than propaganda and refused to follow suit. Gorbachev declared several extensions, but the United States failed to reciprocate, and the moratorium came to an end on February 5, 1987.
19th November - Gorbachev and Reagan meet for the first time, at a three day summit in Switzerland. They agreed to more meetings in the future.

1986

8th January - President Reagan froze Libyan assets in the USA.
28th January - The US space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch, killing all seven astronauts on-board.
12th February - After spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labour camps, human rights activist Anatoly Scharansky was released.
13th February - France launched Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk) in an effort to repulse the Libyan invasion of Chad.
25th February - The People Power Revolution took place in the Philippines, overthrowing Ferdinand Marcos, dictator since 1965. The Philipines first female president is Corazon Aquino.
Speaking at a Communist Party congress, Mikhail Gorbachev unveiled the keywords of his reformist policy - Glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).
15th April - U.S. planes bombed Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon.
26th April - A Soviet nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, exploded, killing 56 people and contaminating a large area. The Chernobyl disaster has long-lasting physical, social and economic consequences, being the largest civil nuclear incident ofg all time.
5th July - The opening ceremony of the first Goodwill Games was held in Moscow. Created by American broadcaster Ted Turner, the Goodwill Games were designed to heal the acrimony created by the 1980 and 1984 Olympic boycotts.
11th-12th October - Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for a second time, at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. This meeting failed to reach agreement on arms control.
17th October - Ronald Reagan signed into law an act of Congress approving $100 million of military and "humanitarian" aid for the Contras in Nicaragua.
3rd November - The Iran-Contra affair - The Reagan administration publicly announced that it had been selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages and illegally transferring the profits to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1987

5th January - Ronald Reagan underwent prostate surgery. Some sections of the media speculated whether Reagan might have to resign from office.
16th January - Gorbachev expressed his hope that through initiatives of openness, debate and participation, that the Soviet people would support Perestroika (economic development). Natives within the Party opposed his policies of economic reform.
4th March - Reagan addressed the nation on television and denied approving or ordering the sale of arms to Iran, in order to fund the Contras movement in Nicaragua.
17th May - The American frigate USS Stark was attacked by an Iraqi jet, which fired two Exocet missiles. The blast killed 37 American sailors.
June - Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev announced new policies of open debate (glasnost) and economic reform (perestroika).
8th June - Western musicians including David Bowie, Genesis and the Eurythmics perform in West Berlin, close to the Berlin Wall. A large crowd of East Berliners gathered on the other side to listen and ignored police orders to disband.

12th June - During a visit to Berlin, Germany, U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously challenged Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in a speech - "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (The Berlin Wall).

Ronald Reagan - Tear Down This Wall!

August - American singer-pianist Billy Joel held a brief tour of the Soviet Union, performing in Moscow, Leningrad and Tbilisi.
10th September - The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola began.
18th November - After nearly a year of hearings into the Iran-Contra scandal, the Joint Congressional Investigating Committee issued its final report. It concluded that the scandal, involving a complicated plan whereby some of the funds from secret weapons sales to Iran were used to finance the Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, was one in which the administration of Ronald Reagan exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law."
8th December - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Some later claimed this was the official end of the Cold War. Gorbachev agreed to the START I treaty banning all medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe.

1988

2nd January - The Soviet Congress passes the first legislation implementing Gorbachev's perestroika (economic reforms).
12th January - The U.S.S. Yorktown (CG-48) and U.S.S. Caron (DD-970) were rammed off the Crimean Peninsula after entering Soviet territorial waters.
24th March - A McDonald's restaurant opened in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the first in a Soviet bloc nation. Now closed by order of the Russian Courts.
25th March - In the Slovakian capital Bratislava, approximately 5,000 Catholics participated in a "candle demonstration", demanding religious freedom.
14th April - The US, USSR, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed the Afghanistan Accords. This agreement provided a timetable for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
29th April - The Canadian branch of the McDonald's company signed an agreement with Moscow City Council, allowing for the opening of 20 restaurants in the Soviet capital. Now closed following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
11th May - Kim Philby (Harold Adrian Russell Philby), the high-ranking U.K. intelligence officer who spied for the Soviet Union, died in Moscow.
29th May - 1st June - Reagan and Gorbachev met in Moscow. They signed a treaty restricting intermediate-range nuclear forces. When asked if he still believed that the Soviet Union is still an evil empire, Reagan replied he was talking about "...another time, another era."
19th July - American singer Bruce Springsteen performed a four-hour concert in East Berlin. It was attended by an estimated 300,000 East Germans.
11th August - Saudi-born mujahideen Osama bin Laden formed an terrorist group called al-Qaeda.
11th September - Approximately 300,000 people in Estonia protested for national independence from Moscow, popularly known as the "singing revolution".
6th November - Soviet scientist and well-known human rights activist Andrei Sakharov began a two-week visit to the United States.
27th October - Ronald Reagan ordered that the US Embassy in Moscow be torn down and rebuilt, due to "...an infestation..." of KGB listening devices in its structure.
8th November - Incumbent vice president George H.W. Bush won the US presidential election, defeating Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis.
16th November - The Estonian government passed a "sovereignty declaration", proclaiming Estonian laws to be paramount over Soviet laws. It was, in effect, a declaration of independence from Moscow.

1989

4th January - The Gulf of Sidra Incident between America and Libya occurred, it was similar to the 1981 Gulf of Sidra Incident.
20th January - George H.W. Bush was inaugurated as US president.
15th April - The death of Hu Yaobang, a liberal-reformist official in the Chinese Communist Party. Students responded to Hu's death with large gatherings in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere.
26th April - The People's Daily, the official state newspaper of communist China, published an editorial condemning the growing student demonstrations. The following day up to 100,000 students marched through Beijing to Tiananmen Square.
2nd May - The Hungarian government began tearing down the barbed wire fence along its border with Austria.
16th May - Mikhail Gorbachev made a landmark visit to China in an attempt to normalise Sino-Soviet relations. Student gatherings, protests and hunger strikes continued during his visit.
20th May - With student protests and calls for democratic reform growing, the communist government in China declared martial law.
3rd June - Chinese military units were sent into Beijing to clear protestors from Tiananmen Square. Over the next 24 hours between 300 and 3,000 protestors are killed, this is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Semi-free elections in Poland showed a complete lack of backing for the Communist Party; Solidarity trade union won all available seats in the Parliament and 99% in the Senate.
5th June - Footage of a lone protestor, standing defiantly in front of a column of tanks in Beijing, was beamed around the world. It became an iconic image of protest against communist oppression.
18th June - Poland completed two rounds of democratic elections, the country's first free elections since World War II. Lech Walesa's Solidarnosc won all 161 in the Polish lower house and 99% of all of the seats in its Senate.
24th August - Christian-democratic politician Tadeusz Mazowiecki became prime minister of Poland, the first non-communist government in the Eastern Bloc.
18th October - The nearly 20-year rule of communist leader Erich Honecker came to an end in East Germany.
25th October - Gorbachev repudiated the Brezhnev Doctrine, the idea that Moscow could intervene in Soviet bloc nations if socialism was perceived to be under threat.
9th November - Revolutions occurred throughout Eastern Europe - Soviet reforms and their state of bankruptcy allowed Eastern Europe to rise up against the Communist governments there.
The Berlin Wall was breached when Politburo spokesman, Gȕnter Schabowski, not fully informed of the technicalities or procedures of the newly-agreed lifting of travel restrictions, mistakenly announced at a news conference in East Berlin that the borders had been opened.
20th November - More than 200,000 Czechoslovakians gathered in Prague to protest against the communist government there. Government leaders resigned four days later.
2nd December - Mikhail Gorbachev and US president George Bush began a two-day summit in Malta. At its conclusion, they proclaimed a new long-lasting era of peace. Many observers regard this summit as the official beginning of the end of the Cold War.
9th December - Solidarnosc leader Lech Walesa was elected President of Poland.
14th December - Democracy was restored in Chile.
16th-25th December - Romanian Revolution - rioters overthrew the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, executing him and his wife, Elena. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country to violently overthrow its Communist regime or to execute its leaders.
29th December - Vaclav Havel became President of the now free Czechoslovakia.