| |
| 1983 |
| |
| American troops invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada (See Overview). | 1 |
| Oct. Two hundred and forty-one American soldiers died in Beirut, Lebanon, after their barracks were rammed by a car laden with explosives. | 2 |
| |
| 1984 |
| |
| Ronald Reagan defeated Democratic candidate Walter Mondale and was reelected as president. George Bush was reelected as vice president. Democratic candidate Mondale broke precedent when he selected Geraldine Ferraro as his vice presidential running mate. Ferraro was the first woman to be nominated to the national ticket of a major party. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson also ran for president. Though Jackson was not the first African American to run for the office, he was the first to make a strong political showing, mobilizing large numbers of neglected constituents. | 3 |
| |
| 1985 |
| |
| Congress passed the Gramm-Rudman Balanced Budget and Emergency Reduction Control Act. The measure aimed to balance the budget by 1991 through a program of automatic budget cuts. | 4 |
| |
| 1986 |
| |
| Iran-Contra Affair. The Reagan administration had secretly sold arms to Iran, which was at war with Iraq, hoping to gain Iran's cooperation in freeing American hostages. The negotiations took place with the same revolutionary government that Reagan had denounced in the early 1980s and resulted in only one hostage release. The arms sales, however, generated large profits, most of which were sent as military aid to the Contras in Nicaragua (See 1986, June). The illegal diversion of funds to the Contras seemed to have been the idea of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, who had been assigned to the National Security Council. North destroyed numerous incriminating memos to cover up the scandal, but he missed one that linked the White House to the plan. | 5 |
| Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which permitted some people who had immigrated illegally to the U.S. before 1982 to gain legal status. | 6 |
| |
| 1987 |
| |
| Savings and loan crisis. The nation's “thrifts,” as the S&Ls were called, were deregulated in the early 1980s to allow them to invest in commercial real estate and business. However, the thrifts became unstable because many of their investments reflected the growth in the 1980s of high-risk “junk bonds,” which were speculative or fraudulent. In 1987, the instability of these investments became apparent as stock prices plummeted and with them the solvency of the thrifts. The losses were so great that many of the thrifts lost their depositors' funds, requiring the government to cover the federally insured deposits. The bill to American taxpayers to bail out the industry was projected at $200 billion. | 7 |
| |
| 1988 |
| |
| Republican George Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis in the presidential elections. Dan Quayle was elected vice president. Jesse Jackson ran for president for a second time and again made a strong showing with his “Rainbow Coalition.” | 8 |
| |
| 1989 |
| |
| Poverty. Close to 12.8 percent of all Americans, about 31.5 million people, were classified as poor by federal standards; that is, they sustained an income of $12,675 or less for a family of four. This group included 10 percent of all whites and over 25 percent of African Americans and Hispanics. Poverty was most common among families headed by women. Also, in the 1980s homelessness became a problem. By the end of the decade, families with children made up one-third of the urban homeless population. On the other hand, largely because of Social Security and Medicare, the elderly, who used to be among the poorest segments of society, were comparatively well off. | 9 |
| |
| 1990 |
| |
| The U.S. Census Bureau released figures showing a total of 246.9 million Americans. One in four Americans now claimed non-European ancestry. | 10 |
| |
| 1991, Jan. 16 |
| |
| Persian Gulf War. The U.S. led a multinational force to liberate Kuwait from Iraq (See 1991, Jan. 16). The war lasted for 42 days and was a success for the U.S.-led coalition forces. Pres. Bush called for a “new world order” in which nations recognized and shared responsibility for “peace and justice.” | 11 |
| |
| March 3 |
| |
| Black motorist Rodney King was arrested and brutally beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department. A civilian video of the arrest and beating led to criminal charges against the officers. The case gained wide publicity when news stations throughout the nation picked up the story and repeatedly aired the violent scene. | 12 |
| Clarence Thomas, a black conservative nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, received confirmation despite the allegations of former assistant Anita Hill that he had sexually harassed her on the job at a federal agency that he had headed. | 13 |
| |
| |
