1980 in the United States

1980 in the United States
Decades:	1960s 1970s – 1980s – 1990s 2000s
Years:	1977 1978 1979 – 1980 – 1981 1982 1983
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Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1980–1991)

Events from the year 1980 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
• Vice President: Walter Mondale (1977–1981)
• Chief Justice: Warren Earl Burger (1969–1986)
• Senate Majority Leader: Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) (1977–1981)
• 96th United States Congress (1979–1981)

Events

January

January 27: The Canadian Caper rescues six hostages from Iran

February 13: The Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid

• January – The United States enters a minor recession spawned by the 1979 oil crisis.
• January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
• January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
• January 7 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation approving $1.5 billion in loan guarantees to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
• January 20 – Super Bowl XIV: The Pittsburgh Steelers become the first NFL franchise to win four Super Bowls, defeating the Los Angeles Rams 31–19 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
• January 24 – The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad is ordered liquidated due to bankruptcy, and debt owed to creditors.
• January 27 – Canadian caper: Six United States diplomats, posing as Canadians, manage to escape from Tehran, Iran as they board a flight to Zürich, Switzerland.

February

• February 2–3 – The New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot takes place; 33 inmates are killed and more than 100 inmates injured.
• February 2 – Abscam: FBI personnel target members of the Congress of the United States in a sting operation.^{[citation needed]}
• February 13 – The XIII Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
• February 22 – The United States Olympic Hockey Team defeats the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the Winter Olympics, in the Miracle on Ice.

March

• March 1 – The Voyager 1 probe confirms the existence of Janus, a moon of Saturn.
• March 21 – Mafioso Angelo Bruno is assassinated in Philadelphia.
• March 21 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
• March 22 – The Georgia Guidestones are erected in Elbert County, Georgia.
• March 27 – The Silver Thursday market crash occurs.
• March 31 – Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad operates its final train.

April

April 15: The Mariel boatlift begins

April 24–25: Operation Eagle Claw fails to rescue the hostages in Iran

May 18: Mount St. Helens erupts

• April 1 – New York City's Transport Works Union Local 100 goes on strike, which continues for 11 days.
• April 7 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions, following the taking of American hostages on November 4, 1979.
• April 15 – A mass exodus of Cubans to the United States known as the Mariel boatlift begins. It ends on October 31 by agreement between the two countries.
• April 21 – Rosie Ruiz wins the Boston Marathon, but is later exposed as a fraud and stripped of her award.
• April 24–25 – Operation Eagle Claw, a commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages, is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops are killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
• April 24 – Pennsylvania Lottery Scandal: the Pennsylvania Lottery is rigged by six men including the host of the live TV drawing, Nick Perry.

May

• May 7 – Paul Geidel, convicted of second-degree murder in 1911, is released from prison in Beacon, New York, after 68 years and 245 days (the longest-ever time served by an inmate).
• May 9 – James Alexander George Smith "Jags" McCartney the Turks and Caicos Islands’ first Chief Minister, was killed in a plane crash over New Jersey.
• May 9 – In Florida, the Liberian freighter Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, sending 35 people (most of whom were in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapses.
• May 11 – Mobster Henry Hill is arrested for drug possession.
• May 16 – The Department of Education begins operations.
• May 17 – A Miami, Florida court acquits four white police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, provoking three days of race riots.
• May 18 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage.
• May 21 – Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released.
• May 22 – Pac-Man, the best-selling arcade game of all time, is released.
• May 24 – The New York Islanders win their first Stanley Cup, from a goal by Bobby Nystrom in overtime of game six of the Stanley Cup playoffs's final round.
• May 24 – The International Court of Justice calls for the release of U.S. Embassy hostages in Tehran.
• May 25 – Indianapolis 500: Johnny Rutherford wins for a third time in car owner Jim Hall's revolutionary ground effect Chaparral car; the victory is Hall's second as an owner.
• May 29 – Vernon Jordan is shot and critically injured in an assassination attempt in Fort Wayne, Indiana by Joseph Paul Franklin (the first major news story for CNN).

June

• June 1 – The Cable News Network (CNN) is officially launched.
• June – The 1980 recession ends.
• June 3 – U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy wins several primaries, including California, on 'Super Tuesday', but not enough to overtake President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic Party nomination.
• June 3 – A series of deadly tornadoes strikes Grand Island, Nebraska, causing over US$300 million in damage, killing five people and injuring over 250.
• June 9 – In Los Angeles, comedian Richard Pryor is badly burned trying to freebase cocaine.
• June 10 – A Unabomber bomb injures United Airlines president Percy Wood in Lake Forest, Illinois.
• June 20 – Augusta AVA becomes the first federally recognized American Viticultural Area.
• June 23 – September 6 – The 1980 United States heat wave claims 1,700 lives.
• June 27 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs Proclamation 4771, requiring 19- and 20-year-old males to register for a peacetime military draft, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

July

July 16: Reagan is nominated as the Republican candidate for President

• July 15 – A severe and destructive thunderstorm strikes four counties in western Wisconsin, including the city of Eau Claire. It causes over US$250 million in damage, and one person is killed.
• July 16 – Former California Governor and actor Ronald Reagan is nominated for U.S. President, at the Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan. Influenced by the Religious Right, the convention also drops its long standing support for the Equal Rights Amendment, dismaying moderate Republicans.

August

• August 10 – Hurricane Allen, after becoming a Category 5 storm and the strongest hurricane of the season, hits southeastern Texas as a Category 3.
• August 14
  • U.S. President Jimmy Carter defeats Senator Edward Kennedy to win renomination, at the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City.
  • Actress Dorothy Stratten is murdered in Los Angeles in the south of California, apparently raped and shot by her estranged husband Paul Snider before he killed himself.

September

• September 5 – William Reeves joins The Graphics Group.
• September 19 – The Robert Redford-directed film Ordinary People, based on the novel by Judith Guest, premieres. Redford's directorial debut later wins him his first Oscar, and wins three other Academy Awards, and five Golden Globe awards.
• September 29 – The Washington Post publishes Janet Cooke's story of Jimmy, an 8-year-old heroin addict (later proven to be fabricated).
• September 30 – Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel and Xerox introduce the DIX standard for Ethernet, which is the first implementation outside of Xerox, and the first to support 10 Mbit/s speeds.

October

November 4: Reagan defeats Carter in a landslide

The Dakota, where John Lennon was shot

• October 14 – The Staggers Rail Act is enacted, deregulating American railroads.
• October 15 – James Hoskins forces his way into WCPO's television studio in Cincinnati, holding nine employees hostage for several hours before releasing them and taking his own life.
• October 21 – World Series: The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals 4–2 in game 6.
• October 28 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan debate in Cleveland, Ohio. Reagan's genial, witty performance causes him to overtake Carter in the polls.

November

• November 4 – United States presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger and former Governor Ronald Reagan of California defeats incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter, exactly one year after the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis.
• November 10 – November 12 – Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn, when it flies within 77,000 miles of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth.
• November 20 – A Texaco oil rig breaks through to a mine under Lake Peigneur.
• November 21 – Millions of viewers tune into the U.S. TV soap opera Dallas to learn who shot lead character J.R. Ewing. The "Who shot J.R.?" event is a national obsession.
• November 21 – A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip kills 85 people.

December

• December 8 – John Lennon is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City.
• December 11 – CERCLA is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
• December 26 – Richard Chase, the "Vampire of Sacramento," kills himself by overdose on San Quentin prison death row.

Ongoing

• Cold War (1945–1991)
• 1970s energy crisis (1973–1980)
• Iran hostage crisis (1979–1981)

Births

This section requires expansion.

• August 26 – Macaulay Culkin, actor

Deaths

This section requires expansion.

Lennon rehearsing "Give Peace a Chance" in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1969

• August 14
  • Dorothy Stratten, Canadian-born model, actress and murder victim (b. 1960)
  • Paul Snider, Canadian-born murderer (b. 1951)
• December 8 – John Lennon, British-born member of The Beatles (b. 1940)
• December 26 – Richard Chase, serial killer (b. 1950)

External links

• Media related to 1980 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons