1980s
Population: 226,546,000
Unemployed in 1980:
National Debt: 1980 - $914,000,000,000
National Debt: 1986 - $2,000,000,000,000
Average salary: $15,757
Life Expectancy: Male 69.9 Female 77.6
Minimum Wage: $3.10
BMW was $12,000; Mercedes 280 E was $14,800
Attendance: Movies 20 million/week
The 1980s became the Me! Me! Me! generation of status seekers.
During the 1980s, hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and mega-mergers spawned a new breed of billionaire. Donald Trump, Leona Helmsley, and Ivan Boesky iconed the meteoric rise and fall of the rich and famous. If you've got it, flaunt it and You can have it all! were watchwords.
Forbes' list of 400 richest people became more important than its 500 largest companies. Binge buying and credit became a way of life and 'Shop Til you Drop' was the watchword. Labels were everything, even (or especially) for our children. Tom Wolfe dubbed the baby-boomers as the 'splurge generation.' Video games, aerobics, minivans, camcorders, and talk shows became part of our lives. The decade began with double-digit inflation, Reagan declared a war on drugs, Kermit didn't find it easy to be green, hospital costs rose, we lost many, many of our finest talents to AIDS which before the decade ended spread to black and Hispanic women, and unemployment rose.
On the bright side, the US Constitution had its 200th birthday, Gone with the Wind turned 50, ET phoned home, and in 1989 Americans gave $115,000,000,000 to charity. And, Internationally, at the very end of the decade the Berlin Wall was removed - making great changes for the decade to come!
Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman Supreme Court Justice.
52 hostages were released from their 444 days of captivity in Iran, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial inscribed with 57,939 names of American soldiers killed or missing in Vietnam was dedicated
Average income climbed more than 20 percent, the stock market tripled in 7 years yet survived the 1987 crash, and televangelist Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years for selling bogus lifetime vacations.
The sexual revolution encountered a major adversary when Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985. Prisons overflowed and violent crime rates which, in 1980, had tripled since 1960, continued to climb with the appearance of crack in 1985. From 1985 to 1990 the use of cocain addiction was up 35 percent, though the number of users had declined. Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign had great influence. Toward the end of the decade, President Bush called for a kinder, gentler nation and volunteerism and contributions reached an all time high.
Families changed drastically during these years. The 80s continued the trends of the 60s and 70s - more divorces, more unmarrieds living together, more single parent families. The two-earner family was even more common than in previous decades, more women earned college and advanced degrees, married, and had fewer children.
1980
System developed to hold, transport, and deliver broilers and turkeys from the farm to the processing plant.
Human medicine; W.H.O. (World Health Organization) announces smallpox is eradicated.
The first American patent for a genetically engineered organism, a bacterium used to clean up oil spills, is granted
1981
Foot-and-mouth disease vaccine developed; first effective subunit vaccine for any animal or human disease using gene splicing.
Developed method for vaccinating chicks against Marek's disease through the eggshell, demonstrating for the first time that resistance to disease could be established by that method.
Determined that locoweed poisoning, in combination with high altitudes, could cause congestive heart failure in cattle.
Human medicine: First vaccine for hepatitis B.
Ioannis Yannas, professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, collaborates with John Burke, MD, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, to develop artificial skin. The membrane is successfully implanted onto Mark Walsh, saving his life from injuries sustained in an explosion in an aerosol-can factory.
Gay cancer," later called GRID, (Gay Related Immuno Deficiency) claims 121 deaths in the U.S. since the mid-1970s To be called AIDs in 1982 The HIV virus discovered in 1983
1982
New infectious agent, "prions," discovered; proposed as cause of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases.
Genetically engineered human insulin produced.
First genetically engineered crop plant developed (tomato).
Human medicine: Dr. William DeVries implants the Jarvik-7 artificial heart into patient Barney Clark. Clark lives 112 days.
American Medical Association lifts ban on physician advertising after losing court battle with Federal Trade Commission.
First biosynthetic human insulin is introduced.
1983
Human medicine; HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is identified.
Dr. Luigi Mastroianni, Jr., performs the first successful human in-vitro fertilization
1984
Dr Ross, author of this site graduates from Michigan State Veterinary College
The Mac Apple computer is launched
First transgenic farm animals born (sheep and pigs).
Human medicine; Leprosy Vaccine made
ASPCA called for a boycott of Ringling Brothers after it tried to pass off goats w/horns surgically implanted in their skulls as "living unicorns."
1984 Leprosy Vaccine made (Human)
1985
Hole in Earth's ozone shield discovered over Antarctica.
Discovered that chemicals produced by aquatic microorganisms, geosmin and BIV, cause off-flavors in catfish.
USDA scientists indicate that agricultural chemicals infiltrate ground water more than previously thought
1986
First genetically engineered vaccine licensed by USDA, for pseudorabies in swine.
Discovered that pyrrolizidine alkaloids--natural chemicals found in hundreds of plants--kill livestock by causing cumulative and irreversible damage to the liver.
England saw its first cases of mad cow disease
1987
Discovered that boron is a nutritionally necessary trace mineral.
Revlon agreed to stop animal testing and contributed millions of dollars to alternate research.
1988
Virus genes transferred to chickens to impart resistance to avian leukosis virus.
First authorized release of genetically altered bacteria outdoors.
First patent for genetically engineered animal issued.
Discovered that lactose significantly reduced Salmonella bacteria in infected chickens.
Developed anaplasma probe used to detect infected ticks.
Human medicine; Patricia Bath became the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention.
Patricia Bath's is a method for removing cataract lenses, transformed eye surgery, using a laser device making the procedure more accurate.
Scientists warn that global warming may affect the future viability of American farming; one of the worst droughts in the Nation's history hits Midwestern farmers
1989
Successfully separated living sperm into male- and female-producing batches.
Identified a new parasite, Neospora caninum, as a cause of birth defects in cattle and sheep.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hype leads to record numbers of pet turtles being released into the wild.
