1982 New technology continues to change our buying habits with smaller and cheaper electronic gadgets appearing including the first CD player and a new industry is just beginning with the use of Genetic Engineering human insulin produced by bacteria is sold for the first time. On the world stage Argentina invades the Falkland Islands and Argentina and the UK go to war over a small island thousands of miles away. After many reports of Whales becoming and endangered species the International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling, and a major recession hits the United States.

 

Cost of Living 1982

How Much things cost in 1982
Yearly Inflation Rate USA 6.16 %
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 1046
Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 11.50%
Average Cost of new house $82,200.00
Average Income per year $21,050.00
Average Monthly Rent $320.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 91 cents
New Car Average price $7,983.00
US Postage Stamp 20 cents
Vic 20 $299.95
Satellite Receiver $245.95

What Events Happened in 1982 

• All time record lows in dozens of cities throughout the Midwestern United States.
• The largest cash robbery in History occurs in New York when $9,800,000 is stolen from an armored car
• The First Issue of USA Today is published
• Disney Futuristic Park EPCOT (Experimental Community Of Tomorrow) is opened
• Around 700,000 demonstrators gathered in New York City's Central Park protesting the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
• Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide kill 7 in Chicago
• Doctors performed the first implant of a permanent artificial heart designed by Robert Jarvik
• Severe recession begins in the United States.
• The world's largest oil rig (The Ocean Ranger) sinks in the north Atlantic
• Work begins on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC 

Popular Culture 1982

• Smileys 1982 was the year a computer scientist (Scott Fahlman) from Carnegie Mellon University first suggested the use of Smiley or emoticon as a way of expressing emotion in an email :-
• Michael Jackson releases his second adult solo album, Thriller.
• Graceland the home of Elvis Presley opens to the public
   

Popular Films

• E.T. the Extraterrestrial
• Rocky III, 
• On Golden Pond 
• Porky's 
• An Officer and a Gentleman 
• The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas 
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 
• Poltergeist 
• Annie 
• Chariots of Fire 
• Gandhi
   

Popular Musicians

• Human League with "Don't You Want Me"
• Bucks Fizz 
• Michael Jackson
• The Jam 
• Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder with "Ebony and Ivory" 
• Olivia Newton-John 
• Vangelis 
• Steve Miller band With " Abracadabra " 
• Survivor with " Eye of The Tiger " 
• Chicago with " Hard to Say I'm Sorry " 
• Lionel Richie
   

Popular TV Programs

• Magnum, P.I. 
• Dynasty 
• Falcon Crest 
• Hill Street Blues 
• Knight Rider
   

Technology 1982

• First CD player sold in Japan
• The Weather Channel airs on cable television for the first time.
• The Soviet Spaceship Vanera 13 lands on Venus and sends back color Photographs
• The First Commercial use of Genetic Engineering is Launched when human insulin produced by bacteria is marketed
• Times man of The Year is THE COMPUTER