Twilight 2000 Countdown to Armageddon: 1980
1980: The Year in Review
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January 1980
January 1980. D
9 January 1980. In Saudi Arabia, 63 Muslim fanatics are beheaded for their part in the siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca in November 1979.
26 January 1980. The State of Israel and the Arab Republic of Egypt formally establish diplomatic relations.
February 1980
February 1980. D
4 February 1980. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banishar as the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
13 February - 24 February 1980. The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated from 13 February through 24 February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932. The only other candidate city to bid for the Games was Vancouver-Garibaldi, British Columbia, Canada; they withdrew before the final vote.
22 February 1980. The United States Olympic Hockey Team defeats the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the Winter Olympics, in the 'Miracle on Ice'.
23 February 1980. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
March 1980
March 1980. D
8 March - 16 March 1980. The Spring Rhythms. Tbilisi-80 (Russian: Весенние ритмы. Тбилиси-80, Vesennye ritmy. Tbilisi-80) was a musical event held in Tbilisi, capital of the Georgian SSR, Soviet Union, from March 8 to March 16, 1980. It was the first official rock festival in the Soviet Union and is frequently considered the turning point in the history of Soviet and Russian rock music. The festival was organized by the Georgian National Philharmonic Hall, the Union of Composers of the Georgian SSR, and the Republican Center for Youth Culture at the Georgian Komsomol Central Committee. The acclaimed Russian musicologist and the first Soviet rock-critic Artemy Troitsky was also heavily involved in organizing the event. The organizers enjoyed the support of Eduard Shevardnadze, the contemporary First Secretary of Georgian Communist Party, who is said to have sought, in this way, to pacify the Georgian youth increasingly involved in nationalist and dissident activities after the April 1978 demonstrations in Tbilisi, and to nurture his image as a liberal leader. Although dubbed by some as a "Soviet Woodstock", the festival was essentially a state-sanctioned musical competition with the declared aim "to promote the development of original Soviet VIA music... and to discover new talented performers and composers." The jury, formed by the officially established Soviet composers and musicologists, was chaired by Yuri Saulsky and included Murad Kazhlayev, Giya Kancheli, Konstantin Pevzner, Vladimir Rubashevsky, Arkadi Petrov, and others. Many suspected that the festival was an attempt by the Soviet establishment to channel the Soviet rock movement into a controllable ideological vessel. However, the event was truly democratic in that it allowed amateur performers to contest on equal terms with professional musicians. Over twenty groups from seventeen cities of the Soviet Union arrived in Tbilisi to take part in the event. Yet, several notable bands, for example Sergei Rudnitsky's Araks and Aleksey Romanov’s Voskresenie were not invited to take part in the competition.
18 March 1980. Fifty people are killed at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, when a Vostok-2M rocket explodes on its launch pad during a fueling operation.
21 March 1980. US President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics being held in Moscow, much to the disappointment of the American people.
April 1980
April 1980. D
7 April 1980. The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions, following the taking of American hostages on 4 November 1979.
24 April 25 April 1980. 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.
30 April - 5 May 1980 (Iranian Embassy Siege). Six Iranian-born terrorists take over the Iranian embassy in London, UK. SAS retakes the Embassy on May 5; 1 terrorist survives.
May 1980
May 1980. D
4 May 1980. Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito dies. The funeral ceremony later becomes the world's biggest diplomatic meeting and media event ever, with more than 140 state delegations in Belgrade from all over the world (only the funeral of Pope John Paul II will have more news coverage and a higher number of delegations).
21 May 1980. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released.
22 May 1980. Pac-Man (the best-selling arcade game of all time) is released.
24 May 1980. The International Court of Justice calls for the release of U.S. Embassy hostages in Tehran.
June 1980
June 1980. D
1 June 1980. The Cable News Network (CNN) is officially launched.
27 June 1980. U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs Proclamation 4771, requiring 18- to 25-year-old males to register for a peacetime military draft, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
July 1980
July 1980. D
19 July – 3 August 1980. The 1980 Summer Olympics are held in Moscow, Soviet Union. The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament were held in Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk. The 1980 Games were the first to be staged in Eastern Europe. The United States and a number of other countries boycotted the games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, though some athletes from some of the boycotting countries participated in the games, under the Olympic Flag.
August 1980
August 1980. D
7 August – 31 August 1980. Lech Wałęsa leads the first of many strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard.
31 August 1980. Victory of the strike in Gdańsk Shipyard, Poland. Gdańsk Agreement is signed, opening a way to start the first in the communist block free organization not controlled by regime "Solidarność" i.e. Solidarity.
September 1980
September 1980. D
17 September 1980. After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.
22 September 1980. The command council of Iraq orders its army to "deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets," initiating the Iran–Iraq War.
22 September 1989 - 20 August 1988 (The Iran-Iraq War). The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the Imposed War (Jang-e-tahmīlī) and Holy Defense (Defā'-e-moqqaddas) in Iran, Saddām's Qādisiyyah (Qādisiyyat Ṣaddām) in Iraq, and the (First) Persian Gulf War, was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century. It was initially referred to in English as the "Persian Gulf War" prior to the "Gulf War" of 1990. The war began when Iraq invaded Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land into Iranian territory on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, and fears of Shia insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution. Iraq was also aiming to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of the revolutionary chaos in Iran and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and within several months were repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive.[19] Despite calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The war finally ended with a United Nations brokered ceasefire in the form of United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, which was accepted by both sides. It took several weeks for the Iranian armed forces to evacuate Iraqi territory to honor pre-war international borders between the two nations (see 1975 Algiers Agreement).
29 September 1980. The Washington Post publishes Janet Cooke's story of Jimmy, an 8-year-old heroin addict (later proven to be fabricated).
30 September 1980. 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 1980
October 1980. D
31 October 1980. The Polish government recognizes Solidarity.
November 1980
November 1980. D
December 1980
December 1980. D
4 November 1980. The United States presidential election or 1980, Republican challenger and former Governor Ronald W. Reagan of California defeats incumbent Democratic President James Earl 'Jimmy' Carter, exactly one year after the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis.