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| 1970s–1980s |
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| A profound change in immigration took place as millions of Hispanics, Asians, and Caribbeans poured into the U.S. Asians had increased their proportion of the total U.S. population from 1.6 percent in 1980 to 3.0 percent in 1990; the Hispanic population rose from 6.4 percent to 9.8 percent during the same period. | 1 |
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| 1980, Nov |
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| Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the presidential election. George Bush was elected vice president. Reagan's election ended almost a half century of government activism begun by the New Deal. Reagan moved to redefine government priorities by instituting tax cuts, reducing the domestic budget, and increasing the military budget by $1.7 trillion over a five-year period. Soon dubbed “Reaganomics,” the new policies resulted in a ballooning national deficit. | 2 |
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| 1980s |
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| Religious fundamentalism. A large number of people began to identify with a fundamentalist Christian religious movement. Overtly political and right-wing, this religious revival was led by several television evangelists, the most powerful of whom was Jerry Falwell, leader of the Moral Majority. Falwell's organization was a major factor in Ronald Reagan's candidacy and election. Toward the end of the decade, the fundamentalist influence began to wane, as some of its leaders faced various legal charges, including misuse of funds. | 3 |
| More than 7 million immigrants entered the country. Asians and Hispanics represented the major groups involved in this new immigration movement. | 4 |
| Cable television and satellite dishes changed the face of television by expanding station options. | 5 |
| The environmental movement gained greater momentum when New York State relocated families from the Love Canal housing development, which had been built over a chemical waste site. | 6 |
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| 1981 |
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| Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. | 7 |
| The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization union (PATCO) struck to protest a two-tier pay system and overly stressful working conditions. Pres. Reagan fired the more than 10,000 striking members of PATCO, about three-quarters of the nation's air traffic controllers. Reagan's get-tough policy began an era of business anti-unionism. | 8 |
| The first case of AIDS was reported. Initially, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome received little research funding or government attention. Some charged that the inaction was because the disease first surfaced in the gay community. After mid-decade, this fatal, often sexually transmitted disease began appearing more frequently in the heterosexual community, particularly among bisexuals and intravenous drug users and their partners. During the AIDS crisis, the U.S. began to see a growth of violence against homosexuals. | 9 |
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| 1981–82 |
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| Recession. Industrial growth dropped, raising the unemployment rate to 10.7 percent, the highest since the Great Depression. | 10 |
| Deindustrialization. In 1982 more than 1.25 million jobs were lost through 2,700 mass layoffs and plant shutdowns. | 11 |
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| 1982, Jan. 8 |
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| A 13-year Justice Department lawsuit against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) was settled. AT&T gave up 22 of its Bell System companies in exchange for approval to expand into new areas, including data processing, telephone and computer equipment sales, and computer communication systems. | 12 |
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| June 30 |
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| States failed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment despite the extended deadline of June 30, 1982. Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative activist, spearheaded an antifeminist movement to block the measure. | 13 |
| Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was killed in a Detroit bar. His assailants, unemployed autoworkers, blamed Japanese competition for the troubles of the auto industry and generalized their resentment to include all Asians. | 14 |
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