Timeline of US Political Events 1985-1989
Below is a list of United States based political events that happened in the 1980s. Feel free to use them as references, research, or starting points for possible rps. [source]
1985
November 19, 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, leaders of the USSR and the US, respectively, meet in Geneva, Switzerland, for a summit conference. November 20, 1985 - The first version of Windows is released. December 11, 1985 - GE buys out RCA for 6.28 billion dollars.
1986
January 20, 1986 - The first official Martin Luther King Jr Day is observed as a federal holiday. January 28, 1986 - The Challenger Shuttle explodes, killing 7 people. May 25, 1986 - The Hands Across America campaign has five million people across the US link to make a human chain, to fight hunger and homelessness. September 18, 1986 - A tentative agreement is reached between the USSR and the US is reached to ban medium-range missiles. Long-range missiles were not banned.
1987
October 19, 1987 - Black Monday occurs; stocks drop 22.6% in one day. This results in a world-wide stock market crash. October 23, 1987 - Robert Bork, Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court, is rejected. December 8, 1987 - The Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty dismantles all US and Soviet missiles with a range of 300 and 3,400 miles, almost 3,000 missiles in all.
1988
May 4, 1988 - 1.4 million applications for amnesty by illegal aliens are allowed. An estimation of 71% of those applicants enter the US from Mexico. November 8, 1988 - Republican Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush wins the presidential election.
1989
January 6, 1989 - Labor Department reports growth rate at 3.8% and unemployment at 5.3%. March 24, 1989 - The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurs in Alaska, spilling eleven million galls of oil in Prince William Sound. August 10, 1989 - Colin Powell is placed as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first African American to be nominated. November 10, 1989 - The Berlin Wall is pulled down.