1980s
1980
- Children in Need
- CNN is launched by Ted Turner
- US break diplomatic ties with Iran
- BBC drama featuring women cops
- Ronald Reagan elected president in Republican sweep
- ‘Who shot JR?’ prompted a national obsession over who the killer was. Dallas was a popular primetime soap which led to the spin offs Knots Landing and Dynasty.

1981
- MTV is launched on air 24/7
- First woman on US supreme court - Sandra Day O'Connor
- Air controllers strike
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Supreme Court allows television cameras in the court room
- Introduction of the Police Complaints Authority, aimed at improving trust between ethnic minority communities and the police force

1982
- Falklands war
- Launch of Channel 4
- E.T
- MRI diagnostic machines introduced in Britain
- Brookside aired on Channel 4

1983
- Breakfast TV on BBC
- CD’s go on sale
-US Supreme Court declares many local abortion restrictions unconstitutional

1984
- Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards.
- Apple introduces the user-friendly Macintosh personal computer
- Michael Buerk reports about the famine in Ethiopia which prompts a public response
- Italy and Vatican agree to end Roman Catholicism as state religion
- The Supreme Court rules that taping television shows at home on VCRs does not violate copyright law

1985
- Coca-Cola attempts to change its 99-year-old formula in an effort to attract younger drinkers. "New" Coke is poorly received, and the company soon reintroduces the original, "Classic" beverage
- 50 newspapers now offer online access to news texts.
- First episode of eastenders aired on BBC1, seen as a response to ITV’s Coronation Street
- Mikhail Gorbachev becomes soviet leader. He is described as ‘an orthodox Marxist’

1986
- ‘Don’t die of ignorance’ AIDS campaign
- Major nuclear accident at Soviet Union's Chernobyl power station alarms world
- US Supreme Court bars racial bias in trial jury selection
- FOX television network created
- Supreme Court affirms abortion rights

1987
- Women Priests in Church of England
- Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wins a rare third term
- Supreme Court rules that rotary clubs must admit women
- Fatal Attraction

1988
- The British government tries to get extracts from Peter Wright’s book ‘Spycatcher’ banned – as it included some controversial revelations.
- Benazir Bhutto, first Islamic woman prime minister, chosen to lead Pakistan
- The government fails to prevent an investigative documentary on British Special Forces controversial killing of 3 IRA gunmen.

1989
- Fall of the Berlin Wall
- SKY launches the UK’s first satellite television service
- Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses offensive and sentences him to death
- Tiananmen Square massacre
- First World Wide Web server and browser developed
- The Simpsons makes debut on FOX TV