Jackie Wronkowski
1980’s Timeline of Events
1980

January: Rubik’s Cube debuts at International Toy Fair
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March 18: President Jimmy Carter signs The Refugee Act of 1980
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April 24: U.S. rescue attempts to save hostages in Tehran Falls
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May 18: Mount St. Helens erupts
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May 22: Pac-Man video game is released
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June 1: CNN is established
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President Jimmy Carter signs the Refugee Education Assistance Act into law and
brings thousands of Cuban and small number of Haitian refugees to Florida

Ronald Reagan is elected president, bringing upon a new conservative era
1981
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March 30: John Hinckley Jr.
attempts to assassinate President
Reagan
April 12: The Space Shuttle
Columbia is launched
John Holt’s book, Teach Your
Own: A Hopeful Path for
Education, adds momentum to
homeschooling movement
IMB introduces its version of the
PC (personal computer) with the
Model 5150
1982

April 2: Argentina invades the Falkland
Islands
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June 11: The movie “E.T.” released

November 13: Vietnam War Memorial
opens in Washington, D.C.

Calvin Klein’s first underwear ad
featuring Tom Hintnaus stops traffic in
Times Square

Madeline C. Hunter's book, Mastery
Teaching, is published

In the case of Board of Education v.
Pico, the U.S. Supreme court rules
that books cannot be removed from a
school library because school
administrators deemed their content to
be offensive
1983
 February 28: “M*A*S*H” ends after 251
episodes

March 23: President Reagan announces
defense plan called Star Wars

April 18: U.S. Embassy in Beirut bombed

June 18: Sally Ride becomes the first
American woman in space

December 2: Michael Jackson releases hit
song, “Thriller”
1984

January 24: Steve Jobs introduces
the first Macintosh computer

September 14: Madonna performs
“Like a Virgin” at the first-ever MTV
Awards
1985

May 24: Steve Jobs leaves Apple
Computers

September 20: “The Cosby Show”
debuts

September 3: Bob Ballard discovers
the wreck of the Titanic

Bernhard Goetz shoots four would-be
attackers on a New York subway.

November 20: Microsoft introduces
Windows

The Emergency Immigrant Education
Act is enacted to provide services and
offset the costs for school districts
that have unexpectedly large
numbers of immigrant students

First hole in the ozone is reported

Nike releases the Air Jordan 1

The movie, “Back to the Future”
starring Michael J. Fox is released

Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first
independent version of Windows is
released
1986
 January 28: Space Shuttle
Challenger explodes 73
seconds after its launch

Christa McAuliffe was chosen
by NASA from more than
11,000 applicants to be the
first teacher-astronaut by is
killed along with six other
members of the crew

February 20: USSR launches
Mir Space Station

July 4: RUN DMC releases
the hit song, “Walk This Way”
1987
 October 4: U.S. and Canada
sign free trade agreement

October 19: U.S. stock
market plunges on Black
Monday

December: Eli Lilly Drug
Company receives final
approval to market Prozac

DNA first used to convict
criminals and exonerate
innocent prisoners on death
row
1988

February 20: Salt n’ Pepa’s “Push It”
peaks on the Billboard charts at #19

President Reagan names Ben and
Jerry Small Business Persons of the
Year.

May 15: Soviet troops begin to
withdraw from Afghanistan after nineyear occupation

November: George Bush Sr. elected
president of the United States

“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is the topgrossing film of the year

CDs outsell vinyl records and tapes for
the first time
1980’s Pop Culture
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Boom box
Break dancing
Care Bears
Cabbage Patch Kids
Converse all stars
Friendship bracelets
Nintendo
Rubix cube
Valley girl
Tetherball

Horror Movies:
Nightmare on Elm
Street, Jaws

TV Shows: Saved by
the Bell, The Smurfs

Fashion:
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Goatee beards
Shoulder pads
Big hair
Denim jackets
Miami vice jackets
Mullet hair style
Education in the 1980’s

Biggest concern: quality of American education

Significant shift: changing the role and nature of testing

State-by-state assessment

Pressure for school improvement increases

Private sector’s recognition of the need for better schools
 Locally: business communities created partnerships with public
schools and also established scholarship programs
 Nationally: corporate leaders support school reform
Education in the Late 1980’s

1989: President Bush organized a firstever education conference of the
nation’s government

Set national goals for improvement in
many areas:
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Academic performance
Children’s readiness for school
Dropout rate
Adult literacy
Demographics
Hispanic Population and Race Distribution for Non-Hispanic Population
1980 Number Percent
1990 Number Percent
2000 Number Percent
Total
Population
Total
Hispanics
White
226,545,805
100.00%
248,709,873
100.00%
281,421,906
100.00%
14,608,673
6.45%
22,354,059
8.99%
35,305,818
12.55%
180,256,103
79.57%
188,128,296
75.64%
194,552,774
69.13%
Black
26,104,285
11.52%
29,216,293
11.75%
33,947,837
12.06%
American
Indian and
Eskimo
Asian
1,417,110
0.63%
1,793,773
0.72%
2,068,883
0.74%
3,489,835
1.54%
6,968,359
2.80%
10,123,169
3.60%
Hawaiian and Pacific
Islander
Other
669,799
-
-
-
353,509
0.13%
0.30%
249,093
0.10%
467,770
0.17%
Two or More
Races
-
-
-
4,602,146
1.64%
-
Demographics continued
1990’s Timeline of Events
1990
• Hubble Space Telescope is launched into orbit
•
Teach for America is formed
•
Nelson Mandela is freed
•
Clean Air Act Amendment of 1990 is passed
•
First elections in Romania
•
Iraq invades Kuwait
1991
•
Gulf War – Operation Desert
Storm
•
•
The World Wide Web is
available
U.S. and U.S.S.R sign treaty
reducing strategic nuclear
arms by 25%
•
Collapse of the Soviet Union
•
Clarence Thomas joins the
Supreme Court
•
Minnesota passes first
‘charter school’ law
1992
•
Recession recovery
•
Riots occur in Los Angeles
after Rodney King was
beaten by police officers
•
Supreme Court upholds Roe
v. Wade
•
Bill Clinton is elected
President of the United States
1993
•
Congress approves NAFTA treaty
•
NAFTA is ratified
•
World Trade Center was bombed
•
The cult compound in Waco,
Texas was raided
•
Recession ends
1994
•
Republican victory in mid-term
elections
•
January 25: The Improving
America’s Schools Act (IASA) is
signed into law by President Bill
Clinton
•
Whitewater scandal begins to be
investigated
•
North Korean is suspected to
have committed nuclear
violations
•
Civil War in Rwanda occurs
•
Over 800,000 innocent Tutsi’s are
killed by Hutu’s
1995
• Oklahoma City Bombing
•
Georgia is the first state to offer universal preschool
to all four year olds whose parents choose to enroll
them
•
Dr. Bernard Harris Jr. becomes the first African
American to walk in space
•
Whiteboards find their way into the U.S. classrooms
which begin to replace the blackboard
•
First planet outside our solar system is found
1996
• Bill Clinton re-elected
President of the U.S
•
•
Theodore Kaczynski
is arrested for the
Unabomber bombings
July 27: Bombing at
Summer Olympic
Games at Centennial
Park in Atlanta,
Georgia
1997
• Princess Diana dies in
car accident
•
A sheep, named Dolly
is successful cloned
1998
•
Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks
•
•
Google co-founders Larry Page
and Sergey Brin set up a
workplace for their search engine
in a Menlo Park, California
garage
Bill Clinton is impeached by the
U.S. House of Representatives
•
California votes pass Proposition
227, requiring that all public
school instruction be in English
•
Osama Bin Laden publishes
Fatwa that announced a jihad
(“go kill them”) against all Jews
and Crusaders
•
Two U.S. embassies are bombed
in Africa
1999
•
Bill Clinton is acquitted by the
U.S. Senate
•
John F. Kennedy Jr. dies in plan
crash
•
School shooting at Columbine
High School in Littleton, Colorado
• 12 students are killed
• 1 teacher was killed
1990’s Pop Culture
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Pagers
Beanie Babies
Pokémon
Tamagotchi
Y2K scare
Grunge Look
Overalls
Nylon Windbreakers
Vintage clothes

TV Shows: Friends,
Seinfeldt, 7th Heaven

Family Movies: Aladdin,
The Lion King

Comedies: American Pie,
Sleepless in Seattle
Education in the 1990’s
1991 the Bush Administration proposed
the American 2000 Act
 About 83.5% of the U.S. population had
finished four years of high school in
1999 which was more than twice the
number in 1960
 The standards movement led to the No
Child Left Behind Act

Education in the 1990’s continued
The National Education Goals:
•
Every child will start school ready to learn
•
High school graduation rate will increase to at least 90%
•
U.S. students will be first in the world in science and
mathematics achievement
•
Every adult American will be literate and possess the
knowledge the skills to exercise rights and responsibilities of
citizenship
•
Every school in the U.S. will be free of drugs, violence, firearms
and alcohol
•
Every school will promote partnerships that will increase
parental involvement and participation in promoting social,
emotional and academic growth of children
Resources

https://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/timelines/1990-2000/

http://decades90s.weebly.com/timeline-of-events.html

http://education101intrototeaching.pbworks.com/w/page/10105614/The
%201990s%3A%20%20National%20Goals%2C%20National%20Stand
ards%2C%20and%20Choice

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1990/01/10/09200009.h09.html

http://www.eds-resources.com/educationhistorytimeline.html#1900

http://www.thegreat90s.com/90s-Fashion.html