Explore 4219 historical events from 1980–1989.
Emily Fox is an American former basketball player and former world record holder in sport stacking. She set the overall world record in the cycle in April 2002 and the 3–6–3. Howev…
Emily Fox, American basketball player
The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. It was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia – New Zealand hosted 21 matches while Australia hosted 11 matches. The tournam…
First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand
Mathias Rust is a German aviator. In 1987, as a teenage amateur pilot, he flew from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow, without authorization. According to Russian claims, he was tracked…
An 18-year-old West German pilot, Mathias Rust, evades Soviet Union air defences and lands a private plane in Red Square
New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island —and over 600 smaller islands. It is th…
New Zealand's Labour government establishes a national nuclear-free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarm
The June Democratic Struggle, also known as the June Democracy Movement and the June Uprising, was a nationwide pro-democracy movement in South Korea that generated mass protests f…
June Democratic Struggle: The June Democratic Struggle starts in South Korea, and people protest against the government
Diane Julie Abbott is a British politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. She was the first black woman elected to …
Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain
Benjamin John Howard is an English singer-songwriter, musician and composer. His self-released debut extended play (EP) Games in the Dark (2008) was followed by two more EPs, These…
Ben Howard, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
Rein Taaramäe is an Estonian professional road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Continental team Kinan Racing Team.
Rein Taaramäe, Estonian cyclist
Jan Bert Lieve Vertonghen is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a defender. Mainly a centre-back, he also played as a left-back.
Jan Vertonghen, Belgian international footballer
Varun Dhawan is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. One of India's highest-paid actors, Dhawan has appeared in a variety of genres, from romantic-comedies to action. Between …
Varun Dhawan, Indian actor
The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country located in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the east, the Demo…
The Central African Republic's former emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed durin
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc …
Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate, U
The dusky seaside sparrow is an extinct non-migratory subspecies of the seaside sparrow, found in Florida in the natural salt marshes of Merritt Island and along the St. Johns Rive…
With the death of the last individual of the species, the dusky seaside sparrow becomes extinct
ETA, an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, was an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization active in Spain and France between 1959 and 2018. It was founded in 1959, dur…
Basque separatist group ETA commits one of its most violent attacks, in which a bomb is set off in a supermarket, Hiperc
Mustard gas or sulfur mustard are names commonly used for the organosulfur chemical compound bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as o…
For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombe
Abdoul-Razak "Razak" Boukari is a Togolese professional footballer who plays as a winger.
Razak Boukari, Togolese footballer
Jorge Andújar Moreno, known as Coke, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a right-back.
Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer
Taylor Chorney is a Canadian-born American former professional ice hockey player. A defenceman, he played parts of eight seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonto…
Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player
William Peter Moseley is an English actor. He is known for his portrayal of Peter Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia (2005–2010) trilogy, which won him a Kids' Choice Award, in a…
William Moseley, English actor
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created …
Vincent van Gogh's painting, the Le Pont de Trinquetaille, is bought for $20
WFAN is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, United States, with a sports radio format, branded "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audac…
The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station.
The Sri Lankan civil war was fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, it was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of …
Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE uses suicide attacks on the Sri Lankan Army for the first time. The Black Tigers are…
MV Bridgeton, ex-al-Rekkah, was a Kuwait Oil Company oil tanker that was reflagged to a U.S flag and renamed during Operation Earnest Will. The ship was built by Mitsubishi Heavy …
US supertanker SS Bridgeton collides with mines laid by IRGC causing a 43-square-meter dent in the body of the oil…
Hulda Hoehn Crooks was an American mountaineer, dietitian and vegetarianism activist. Affectionately known as "Grandma Whitney" she successfully scaled 14,505-foot (4,421 m) Mount …
Hulda Crooks, at 91 years of age, climbed Mt. Fuji. Crooks became the oldest person to climb Japan's highest peak.