Explore 4219 historical events from 1980–1989.
George Thomas "Mickey" Leland III was an American politician and anti-poverty activist. He served as a congressman from the Texas 18th District and chair of the Congressional Black…
Mickey Leland, American lawyer and politician (born 1944)
John Meillon was an Australian character actor known for dramatic as well as comedy roles. He portrayed Walter Reilly in the films Crocodile Dundee and Crocodile Dundee II. He also…
John Meillon, Australian actor (born 1934)
Aimo Allan Koivunen was a Finnish soldier in the Continuation War and the first documented case of a soldier overdosing on methamphetamine during combat. The case gained more notor…
Aimo Koivunen, Finnish soldier and corporal (born 1917)
William Bradford Shockley was an American physicist. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were j…
William Shockley, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910)
Timothy Lee Richmond was an American race car driver from Ashland, Ohio. He competed in IndyCar racing before transferring to NASCAR's Winston Cup Series. Richmond was one of the f…
Tim Richmond, American race car driver (born 1955)
Larkin Irvin Smith was an American congressman from Mississippi serving for seven months until he was killed in a plane crash in Perry County, Mississippi in 1989.
Larkin I. Smith, American police officer and politician (born 1944)
General Minoru Genda was an Imperial Japanese Navy flight officer, JASDF general and politician. He is best known for helping to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war he …
Minoru Genda, Japanese general, pilot, and politician (born 1904)
Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos was a distinguished Hellenic Army Lieutenant General who served in World War I, the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, World War II and the Greek Civil War, ri…
Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, Greek general and diplomat (born 1897)
Amanda Blake was an American actress best known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty Russell" on the Western television series Gunsmoke. Along with her fo…
Amanda Blake, American actress (born 1929)
Raul Santos Seixas was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, considered the "Father of Brazilian Rock". His musical work consists of seventeen albums…
Raul Seixas, Brazilian singer-songwriter and producer (born 1945)
Robert Grondelaers was a road cyclist from Belgium. He won the silver medal in the men's individual road race at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. At the same tournam…
Robert Grondelaers, Belgian cyclist (born 1933)
Huey Percy Newton was an African American revolutionary and political activist who co-founded the Marxist–Leninist political and militant organization the Black Panther Party (BPP)…
Huey P. Newton, American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party (born 1942)
Mohammed Abdul-Hayy or Muhammad Abd al-Hayy was a member of the first generation of post-colonial Sudanese writers and academics. Together with Ali El-Mak and Salah Ahmed Ibrahim, …
Mohammed Abed Elhai, Sudanese poet and academic (born 1944)
Ronald David Laing, usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness, particularly psychosis and schizophrenia. Politically, Laing …
R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist and author (born 1927)
Irving Stone was an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Among the best known are Lust for Life (1934), abou…
Irving Stone, American author (born 1903)
John Steptoe was an author and illustrator children's books dealing with aspects of the African-American experience. He is best known for Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters (1987), which…
John Steptoe, American author and illustrator (born 1950)
A gun turret is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable we…
A gun turret exploded on board the United States Navy battleship Iowa, killing 47 sailors
The April 26 Editorial was a front-page article published in People's Daily on April 26, 1989, during the Tiananmen Square protests. The editorial effectively defined the student m…
An editorial was published in the People's Daily denouncing the growing unrest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing which woul
The Daulatpur–Saturia tornado was an intense tornado that occurred in Manikganj District, Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. While it was destructive and extremely deadly, there is grea…
A tornado struck the Manikganj District of Bangladesh and killed an estimated 1,300 people, making it the deadliest torn
Severe Tropical Storm Cecil was a deadly and destructive typhoon that caused devastating floods in central Vietnam which killed 751 people in May of 1989. The storm developed as a …
Tropical Storm Cecil dissipated over Laos after devastating Quảng Nam province, Vietnam, and causing the deaths of 751 p
On June 30, 1989, a structure fire occurred at the Peachtree 25th Building, a high-rise office building in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The fire cau…
A building fire in Atlanta killed five people
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, commonly known simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is an Islamist Palestinian paramilitary organization formed in 1981.
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad member carried out a suicide attack by hijacking a bus and forcing it into a ravine near…
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the primary armed forces of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of fo…
The People's Liberation Army suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, leaving hundreds of people dead and wo
Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the leader of …
Following the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, the Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei to be Supreme Leader of Iran