Signs poked through a swarm of angry people. Their expressions were eager because they were fighting. Not fighting for the sake of it, but for a purpose. The hand painted signs read, "Don't kill our nation, stop the use of nuclear weapons!" Others just screamed their emotions out loud.
      The 1980's was a decade of speaking out and fighting for what you believe in. It was also an age where people found interest in debates, and solving problems.
Famous Headlines Economy Entertainment
Sports Science Disasters
Famous Headlines

      The Marriage of the Decade - In 1981, the royal wedding took place at Buckingham Palace in London, England.  Prince Charles married a kindergarten teacher named Diana Spencer.  This woman was very lucky to have all of those people watching her get married. It was an unbelievable sight at the palace. The queen had a new daughter-in-law, Princess Diana.
 

       The First Woman In Supreme Court - July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O' Connor for the U.S. Supreme Court. 
 

       A Whale of a Tale - In 1988 pilots flying over the Arctic spotted two whales trapped inside the ice. They made great effort to set the poor whales free. In their great effort they managed to set one of them free. Needless to say, the other whale died in the massive clump of ice. 
 

Phenomenal Planet Photos - In July of 1981 the spaceship, Voyager 2, blasted off. It managed to capture the true beauty of Saturn's rings. The pictures came back to the station and everyone was amazed. Later new pictures came back. They were of Neptune, and what great pictures they were! 
 

         "At First Flight"- A very interesting thing happened within the year of 1981. A solar plane took flight in the wild blue yonder. It's harder than you think to fly a solar powered plane. You have to make sure you are in good sight of the sun. If a cloud passes over the sun for a instant, your plane will be hitting the ground before you can say, "Kalamazoo." Well anyway a man challenged himself to fly one. He ended up flying for 5 hours and 22 minutes. 
 

        A Flippin'-Out Good Contest - Neil Smith, age 11, flipped the same pancake 270 times in 3 minutes. In February of 1988, Neil won the Pancake Flip Off in Liberal, Kansas. This was his third time winning, in a row! 

 Economy 

     Kerplop goes the money - A terrifying event, just in. A so called tragedy in the stock market has occurred on this day, October 19,1987. Did you know it fell about 508 points?! That is almost double the drop that ushered the great depression! People fear to keep their stocks, but also afraid to sell their stocks so low. This event has caused Wall Street to become full of chaos. 
 

Sports

    The "Big Shot" of the NBA- We all know that Michael Jordan is one of the best players in the history of basketball. Big surprise, in both 1988 and 1987 Michael Jordan was the NBA basket scoring leader. He also averaged the most points out of any player in the whole league. You thought he was great, well now you see he is even greater than you expected. 
      It's a bird, a plane; no it's Flo Jo! - During the Summer Olympics millions of viewers watched as Florence Joyner, Flo Jo, speeded across the finish line. She set a world record of 10:49 seconds in the 100 meter dash! 
     The Major League strike- In June, 1981, all major league baseball players went on strike.  No games were played until August 1, 1981. 

Entertainment

        The First 3-D Puzzle- In 1981, Erno Rubik invented a difficult puzzle.  It was a cube made of 26 small colors that rotated.  The point was to unscramble the small colors until each of the sides were the same colors.  By July, 1981, over 10 million were sold.
       "Moon Walker"- In 1984 Michael Jackson received a Grammy.  As he walked out he made a wonderful, thank you speech.  He made a lot of people happy while making his speech. 

Science

    A technology breakthrough - In 1982 Barney Clark, 61, was close to death due to a heart problem. His heart was badly damaged and couldn't be repaired. In early December his doctors gave him a mechanical heart called the Jarvic-7. He was the first person to receive one of those kinds of hearts. A few weeks after the surgery, Barney was able to get out of bed and walk for a few minutes. He hadn't been able to do that for a very long time.  He only was able to live with the mechanical heart for 112 days. After that, Barney died.

Disasters

    The Terrifying Parade - June 12, 1982, a so called parade is marching against Nuclear weapons. Police have tried to stop this madness, but they just can't seem to do it.  More than 550,000 protesters from as far away as Hiroshima rallied in Central Park, in New York City, on Saturday to demand a nuclear weapons freeze in the biggest political demonstration in U.S. history.  But, Secretary of Defense, Casper Weinberg, indicated that the large turnout was unlikely to have direct impact on administration policy.

     Murder over a pair of tennis shoes?! - In January 1988, in a shoe store Eric Allen and a 14 year old kid, both spotted a pair of new high tops. There had been a commercial with a famous athlete telling them to buy them. The two kids argued over who should have the last pair. The 14 year old took out a knife and killed Eric.
 


The Mighty Exxon Valdez Spills
     In 1989 the oil tanker, Exxon Valdez, coated the ocean water with tons of sticky oil after crashing. Many of the sea creatures living in the vicinity of the Prince Williams Alaska died. This was the largest and most harmful oil spill in U.S. history. 
      The Drought That Got Us Thinking - In 1988 America went into a severe drought.  It became known as the worst drought of the century. People started to wake up and realize that we have environmental problems. Tons of people helped out by picking up trash and joining environmental groups. It really takes an incident like this one to get everyone to help out. 

      The Worst Assassins - March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest as he was walking to his limousine. His doctor removed the bullet and he recovered quickly.  The assassin , John Hinkly Jr., was not found guilty! 
        May 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot.  He was riding in a car around Rome.  An escaped criminal from Turkey shot the Pope twice from the window. 

Conclusion

           Even though that little boy had lots of sorrow in his life, he still had a lot of fun and excitement going on.  This has shown you how the 80's really was.  As you can see the 80's wasn't a really happy decade.  This boy does know that what he was thinking was very terrible.  He understands now that he should be thankful of what he has, instead of asking for even more. This boy really does symbolizes the 80's. 
 
 


Bibliography 

 Vickey Carney. Fashion Of the Decade 1980's, Facts on File, 1990 

 Richard Tames. 1980's ,Franklin Watts, 1990 

 Jane Duden.  1980  Timelines, Crestwood House, 1991 

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