80's Rewind

80's Rewind

Timeline of the 80s, 1989

This is a list of important events the occured during 1989. Exact dates are listed when known.

The fall of the Berlin wall on November 9th.
Cold fusion is announced in March and then denounced at the end of summer as clumsy science.
Arsenio Hall becomes first African-American to host a nightly talk show January 3rd.
The "beginning of the end" for the communist rulers in Eastern Europe; the Cold War comes to an end
Salmon Rushdie wanted dead by Iranian leader Khomeini
Kim Basinger buys Braselton, Georgia for $20 million.
Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska in March.
Lucille Ball dies April 26.
Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, UK: 96 dead, 170 wounded during a soccer match between Liverpool F.C. and Nottingham Forest F.C. in April.
Students protest on Tienanmen Square, Beijing, China - the army intervenes; 3000-7000 killed, June 3rd.
Worldwide ban of ivory
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989
The stealth bomber is finished.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles become an over night sensation
Time and Warner combine to become Time Warner Inc.
Panama invasion, loud rock music drives Manuel Noreiga from his asylum.
Rob Lowe is spotted in a soft porn video with an underage girl.
The parents of the Menendez brothers are found murdered, Lyle and Erik are later accused of the murders.
Milli Vanilli gets Best New Artist Grammy which is later stripped when it's learned they were lip synching for another (much uglier) duo.
Geraldo Riveria gets his nose broken on his show by a violent guest
Pete Rose is banned from baseball for betting on games, August 24.
Collin Powell is appointed Joint Cheifs of Staff, highest army post to ever be held by a black officier.
October 17th quake disrupts the third game of the world series between San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics.
TV Guide releases a picture of a newly slim Oprah Winfrey which turns out to be her head on Ann-Margret's body.
Princess Anne anounces her seperation from her husband.
Michael Milken is indicted on 98 fraud and racketering charges.
Vietnam withdraws from Cambodia, September 26, after almost 11 years of occupation.
Pan Am files chapter 11
Burma changes it's name to Myanmar
Earthquake hits Newcastle, N.S.W. Australia in December. Several people died with more injured. Millions of dollars of damage.
Soviet Union begins fully withdraws from Afghanistan after 10 years of fighting with Afghan mujihadeen forces.
December 6, 1989 deemed the Montreal Massacre. At approximately 5 o'clock pm, 25 year old women hater walks into Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and kills 14 women, injuring 13 others before turning the shot gun on himself. This day is remembered as the worst single-day massacre in Canadian history. Attached to his suicide note was a list of 19 women in Montreal who had succeeded in non-traditional female employment - firefighters, police officer, journalist but said "The lack of time (because I started too late) has allowed these radical feminists to survive." Ironically, everyone remembers the murderer but only their survivors remember the women murdered because they were female. The women were:Genevi? Bergeron, aged 21; H?ne Colgan, 23; Nathalie Croteau, 23; Barbara Daigneault, 22; Anne-Marie Edward, 21; Maud Haviernick, 29; Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31; Maryse Leclair, 23; Annie St.-Arneault, 23; Mich? Richard, 21; Maryse Lagani?, 25; Anne-Marie Lemay, 22; Sonia Pelletier, 28; and Annie Turcotte, aged 21.
Vance vs. Judas Priest: Parents of two teenaged Judas Priest fans who attempted suicide in December 1985 sue the band, claiming that a subliminal message in the song "Better by You, Better than Me" influenced their actions. (Justice Jerry Carr Whitehead will rule in favor of the band in 1993.)

You might be a child of the 80's if:

...you know, by heart, the words to any "Weird" Al Yankovic song

...the Brady Bunch movie brought back cool memories

...you remember the first time "Space: Above and Beyond" aired - it was called "Battlestar Galactica"

...three words: "Atari" "IntelliVision" and "Coleco". Sound familiar?

...you remember the days that hooking your computer into your television wasn't an expensive option that required gadgets - it was the ONLY WAY to use your computer!

...you remember "Friday Night Videos" before the days of MTV

...you ever owned a pair of "Pop-Wheels" - that handy little combination of shoe and roller skate that lasted about a year on the open market

...a predominant color in your childhood photos is "plaid"

...you're pissed that you couldn't really participate in the 60's, pissed that you were a part of the 70's, think you wasted too much time doing stupid, meaningless things in the 80's, and still have no clue what the 90's are all about

...you see teenagers today wearing clothes that show up in those childhood photos, and they still look bad

...while in high school, you and all your friends discussed elaborate plans to get together again at the end of the century and play "1999" by Prince over and over again

...you remember when music that was labeled "alternative" really was

...one of the top five questions you've always wanted answered was to Robert Smith of the Cure - "What WAS that head on the door thing anyway?"

...you were shocked and horrified at the Challenger explosion (which you were probably watching in school at the time), and yet, when someone mentions the name "JFK", the first thing you think of is "Oliver Stone"

...you, yes you, sat down and memorized the entire lyric sheet to "It's the end of the world as we know it"

...you can't remember when the word "networking" didn't have a computer connotation to it as well

...you took family trips BEFORE the invention of the mini-van. You rode in the back of the station wagon and you faced the cars behind you.

...you knew all the words to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire", but it really didn't hold any meaning for you until about the third verse

...you've recently horrified yourself by using any one of the following phases:

"When I was younger"
"When I was your age"
"You know, back when..."
"Because I SAID so, that's why"
"Just can't (fill in the blank) like I used to"

...you can't remember a time when "going out for coffee" DIDN'T involve 49,000 selections to choose from

...Schoolhouse Rock played a HUGE part in how you actually learned the English language

...Kids that work in restaurants and supermarkets are starting to piss you off by calling you "sir" or "ma'am"

...you're starting to view getting carded to buy alcohol as a GOOD thing, and you're ready to marry the next person who cards you when you want to buy cigarettes.

...flashback: it was your first chance to vote in a presidential election, and you were SO disappointed because, just for laughs, you really wanted to vote for Gary Hart

...the first time you heard the candidates names, you were pumped because you thought MICHAEL Jackson was running for President, not this Jesse character.

...you ever dressed to emulate a person you saw in either a Duran Duran, Madonna, or Cyndi Lauper video

...at one point during your teenage years, you walked with a noticeable tilt to one side due to the number of plastic rings on that arm

..."Celebration" by Kool & the Gang was one of the hot new songs when you first heard it at a school dance

...the first time you ever kissed someone at a dance fell during "Crazy for You" by Madonna

...there were at least three people in your school that voluntarily went by the names of "Skip" "Buffy" "Muffy" or "Dexter"

...you ever owned one of those embarrassing crimping irons

...you used to hold in your head the thought that all those gold chains on Mr. T actually looked kinda cool and the thought that Mr. T made millions seemed rational to you at the time

...you remember with pain the sad day when the Green Machine hit the streets and made your old big wheel quite obsolete

...the phrase "Where's the beef?" still doubles you over with laughter

...you read the "Hot Video Games Player's Secrets" guide for Mortal Kombat just so you could find the hidden screen, and play Pong again for old time's sake

...honestly remember when film critics raved that no movie could ever possibly get better special effects than those in the movie TRON.

...you ever had nightmares about the giant red evil robot Maximillian from the Disney movie "The Black Hole" and those blender attachments he had for hands

...you were convinced for years that Batman was a mildly overweight man with a moderate beer belly who wore his underwear outside of his clothes and talked strangely

...(girls) you thought Sean Cassidy was "dreamy", and lusted after "Ted, your ship's photographer" on the Love Boat, and Ponch and John from CHiPs

...you're still occasionally suffering flashbacks from your 21st birthday party

...you're starting to dread your 30th birthday, and have even begun going into denial about it's possibility

...you've ever said "I'm a vegetarian" and immediately had someone call you a hypocrite by saying "Nice leather jacket you have there...and gee, is that a suede bag...those shoes leather, too?"

...you're starting to believe that maybe 30 isn't so old after all, and it's those people over 40 you have to look out for

...you freaked out when you found that you now fall into the "26 - 50" age category on most questionnaires

...you have begun to lust after women (or men) that it would be socially inappropriate for you to date due to their age

...your hair, at some point in time in the 80's, became something which can only be described by the phrase "I was experimenting"

...you've ever shopped at a Banana Republic or Benetton, but not in the last five years, okay?

...you can't remember a time when "hitting the outlet stores" meant going to an electrical warehouse

...you're starting to believe (now that it wouldn't affect YOU) that maybe having the kids go to school year-round wouldn't be such a bad idea after all

...you're doing absolutely nothing with anything pertaining to your major degree

...you won't walk into the place where you once knew every bartender on a first name basis because "there's too many kids there"

...going to keg parties no longer involves hiding out in the woods when the cops show up

...you want to go out dancing, you really, REALLY do, but your back hurts, sorry

...you're starting to get that "why aren't you married yet" shpiel, not just from parents, but now from friends that are married

...you've recently horrified yourself by groaning as you get out of bed, not because of a hangover, but because it genuinely just hurt to do so

...you're finding that you just don't understand more than half the lingo used on MTV any more

...you ever wanted to be gagged with a spoon

...U2 is too "popular" and "mainstream" for you now

...you ever used the phrase "kiss mah grits" in conversation

...When someone mentions two consecutive days of the week, the Happy Days theme is stuck in your head for hours on end

...you remember trying to guess the episode of the Brady Bunch from the first scene.

...you spent endless nights dreaming about being the Bionic Woman or Wonder Woman or the Six Million Dollar Man

...you had ringside seats for Luke and Laura's wedding (on General Hospital)

...you remember "Hey, let's be careful out there"

...your parents wanted you to attend medical school, but you decided it was pointless since Quincy got all the babes, anyway.

...you know who shot J.R.

...this rings a bell: "and my name, is Charlie. They work for me."

Twenty years of technology

Think the iPhone is pricey? The cool cell phone of 1988 cost $4,382 in today's dollars. A 150MB hard drive? $8,755. Take a trip down memory lane and you'll never whine about the price of a gadget again.

Nostalgic about your first PC or cell phone? It's easy to forgive your Tandy desktop or your Motorola portable for their limitations -- after all, they were technological infants.

Home Desktop PCs

1988: Tandy 1000 TL

Price: $1,400 ($2,454 adjusted for inflation)
CPU: Intel 80286
RAM: 640KB
Storage: 3.5-inch floppy
Monitor: 14-inch, 640-by-200 RGB CRT, 16 colors

2008: HP Pavilion Elite m9100z series

Price: about $1,000
CPU: 2.8-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ dual-core
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 750GB HD, CD/DVD recorder
Monitor: 17-inch, 1440-by-900 LCD, 16.7 million colors

Laptop PCs

1988:Toshiba T1200H

Price: $4,098 ($7,182 adjusted for inflation)
CPU: 4.77-/9.54-MHz Intel 80C86
RAM: 1MB
Storage: 20MB hard drive, 720KB floppy drive
Display: 9.4-inch supertwist LCD
Weight: 14 pounds (including modem, charger, and case)
Battery life: 2 hours

2008:Lenovo ThinkPad X61

Price: $1,724
CPU: 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 160GB HD, PC Card slot, SD Card slot, external CD/DVD recorder
Display: 12.1-inch 1024-by-768 LCD, 16.7 million colors
Weight: 3.6 pounds (6.1 pounds including adapter, ultrabase, and DVD burner)
Battery life: 6 hours

Color Printers

1988: AlpsALQ300

Price: $995 ($1,744 adjusted for inflation)
Printhead: 24-pin color dot-matrix
Speed: 31 seconds/page in letter-quality mode, up to 10 minutes/page for color graphics
Interface: Serial

2008: Canon Pixma iP3500

Price: $80
Printhead: 4800-by-1200-dpi color, 1,600 nozzles
Speed: as fast as 3.5 seconds/page in color
Interface: USB 2.0 and PictBridge

Internet Access

1988: CompuServe

Price: $6.00 to $47.50 per hour ($11 to $83 adjusted for inflation)
Connection: dial-up
Speed: 300 to 9,600 baud
Services: 400 databases, covering news, shopping, finance and the like; 140 discussion groups, e-mail