Counterculture Timeline: The Eighties: Nuclear Freeze and US a Debtor Nation 1982 - 1984 1981-2001 GenX generation (Nomad/Reactive) born 1961-1981 turns 20 [next generation after Baby Boomers] [children of the Silent Generation (Artist), NOT of Hippies] [A Nomad (or Reactive) generation is born during an Awakening, spends its rising adult years during an Unraveling, spends midlife during a Crisis, and spends old age in a new High. Nomadic leaders have been cunning, hard-to-fool realists, taciturn warriors who prefer to meet problems and adversaries one-on-one.] |
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| EVENTS | ARTS | |||
| 1982 | Recession of 1981-1982 ("Worst
since the 1930s") ("Due to Paul Volcker's tight money policies") Highest unemployment since 1940/WWII: 10.8% / 11 mill people Peak year of U.S. arms exports to third world countries mid-year: Stock market starts great rise Highest rate of business failures since 1933 (including Banks - from ca 9 to 42 & S&L's) Texas (Houston) oil-based boom starts to go bust Three +? increases in prime rate (July: 13%) Unemployed steelworkers organize ad hoc relief programs such as Northeastern Minnesota Food Shelves Divorce rates, rising through the 60's & 70's, peak in 1979 and 1981, and stabilize early 1982: public officials disclose that toxic solvents from Fairchild semiconductor's south San Jose plant have contaminated Silicon Valley water supply (-> high tech not so clean) New York Fire Department hires women Congress places moratorium on ocean dumping of nuclear wastes until the end of 1984 Amory & Hunter Lovins found Rocky Mountain Institute ?First nuclear-free zone municipality declared Santa Monica mayor Ruth Yanatta Goldway loses re-election to David Epstein of All Sa Mo Coalition ?to Dennis Zane?? Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) founded Scandel at Swami Muktananda's ashram In the 10 years since DDT banned, bald eagle, osprey, brown pelican & peregrine falcon populations have increased Return of Halley's Comet after 77 years First implant of an artificial heart ERA defeat| Dr. William DeVries at University of Utah performs first artificial heart implant Height of the Nuclear Freeze demonstrations |
1982 |
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| Jan | Greece asks removal of American
nuclear missiles if no progress in making Balkan peninsula nuclear-free
zone |
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| Jan 7 | Reagan continues draft registration |
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| Jan 8 | AT&T lawsuit settled: AT&T
gives up the 22 local Bell System phone companies |
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| Feb 1 | General Motors announces small
profit for 4th quarter 1981 |
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| Feb | Mexico devalues peso |
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| Feb | Dresden peace demonstration
- first in East Germany since 1954 - call for disarmament & sing Lennon's
Give Peace A Chance |
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| Feb 28 | Puerto Rican bombs both stock
exchanges & Merrill Lynch & Chase Manhattan headquarters |
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| Mar 2 | Great Britain reduces price
of its North Sea oil by 4 dollars/barrel to 31 dollars/ barrel (2nd cut
in a month by British) |
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| Mar 20 | OPEC agrees to cut its oil
production to 17.5 million barrels/day (1979 production was 31 million barrels/day) |
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| Apr 2 | Argentina seizes the Falkland
Islands, U.K. sends navy |
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| Apr | U.S. orders demolition of homes
in Navajo/Hopi "Joint Use Area", elders resist |
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| Apr 18-25 | Ground Zero Week - Nuclear Freeze | |||
| Apr 19 | Reagan re-bans travel to Cuba |
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| Apr ? | United Nations Law of the
Sea, international sea treaty, completed after ten years negotiations among
151 nations (rejected by President Reagan in July 1982 & still NOT SIGNED
BY THE UNITED STATES IN 2005!!!) |
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| May 18 | Rev Sun Myung Moon convicted
of tax fraud |
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| June 1 | The Revolutionary Cells Terrorist
Group explodes bombs at 4 U.S. military bases in West Germany |
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| June 12 | 700,000 Nuclear Freeze march
from United Nations to Central Park Largest protest in New York City's history New York Central Park & Los Angeles Rose Bowl: hundreds of thousands sing Lennon's "Imagine" when? Peace & Freedom NYC march (is this the same? |
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| June | when? Tom Hayden elected to
Calif State Assembly ($1.7 million campaign) June?? Gore Vidal not elected to Caliornia Senate xx [from email: "It would be more accurate to say that Vidal loses California Democratic Senatorial primary to outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown (neo-Nazi activist Tom Metzger comes in a surprisingly strong third, after Vidal, in a crowded field). Brown is subsequently defeated by dim bulb Pete Wilson."] California: Peripheral Canal (Prop. 9) defeated Reagan vetoes Congressional settlement of Native American water rights claim (Papago tribe of Arizona) |
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| June 15 | USSR announces at U.N. that
Brezhnev has pledged no first use of nuclear weapons |
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| June 17 | National Marine Fisheries Service
of US Dept of Commerce, after 14 month SAM-SCAM investigation of illegal
fish sales on the Columbia River - using wire taps, body microphones, aerial
reconnaissance photography & river patrols, & zeroing in on the
147-mile stretch between the Bonneville and McNary Dams where only Native
Americans fish under the 1974 Boldt decision based on the 1855 treaty, raids
camp of and arrests David SoHappy, 50, Howard Jim, 65, & 73 other Native
Americans. |
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| June 24 | Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
supporters admit defeat: 33 states have ratified in 10 years, 3 short
of the three-quarters needed by the June 30 deadline |
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| Jul 15 | Rev Sun Myung Moon performs
a mass-marriage for 4,150 |
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| Jul 23 | International Whaling Commission
votes to ban all commercial whaling effective 1986 |
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| Aug 4 | US Court of Appeals rules that
all new autos sold after Sept 83 must have seat belts |
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| Aug | IRS rules Mother Jones magazine
is commercial & removes its tax exempt status Interest rates start to fall, Stock Market starts series of sharp rises Mexico's near-default on its "debt" |
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| Sept 12 | First dump trucks loaded
with PCBs drive into Afton, Warren County, the poorest county in North Carolina,
are met by vigil of 50 to 300 protestors waiting daily for the last month;
510 arrests made |
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| Sept | First American Indian International
Tribunal held at Deqanawida-Quetzalqualtal University in Davis, California
to gather testimony from native peoples of the world on the economic effects
of U.S. foreign & domestic policies; Also world pilgrimage of indigenous peoples from 450 countries arrives at Yellow Thunder Camp in South Dakota to help save it from usurpation by coal and uranium corporations. |
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| Oct 8 | Polish government bans Solidarity |
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| Oct 19 | John Delorean, chairman of Delorean
Motor Co, arrested LA on possession of 59 lbs cocaine (explain xx) |
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| Nov | Deukmejian elected governor
of California (vs Bradley) (end of Jerry Brown's term as California governor) |
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| Nov 3 | Stock Market rises record 43.41
points to close at all-time high of 1,065.49 But recession is deepening: October unemployment rose to 10.4% (11.6 million) & industrial production has 13th decline in 15 months; utilization of factory capacity is 68.4%, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1948 |
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| Nov 5 | Demonstration at Honeywell,
Minnesota's largest defense contractor, 36 arrested |
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| Nov 13 | Vietnam Veterans Memorial "Wall"
dedicated, Washington D. C. |
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| Dec | In These Times: Jerry Rubin
holding Business Networking salons |
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| Dec? | Bethlehem Steel lays off
10,000 |
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| Dec 17 | Federal District Court Judge
decides not to grant preliminary injunction against completion of the Gasquet-Orleans
Road thru Siskiyou Indian religious area |
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| Dec 22 | Congress passes first version
Boland amendment (411-0) prohibiting covert efforts by President Reagan
to overthrow the Nicaraguan government |
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| 1983 | First year
of (small) U.S. trade deficit with Europe Bank failures continue to rise (ca 47) but "economy expanding" for next 6 years Number of Americans over 65 surpasses number of teenagers (July) (WER Spring 89 p.85) First California condor chick born in captivity Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space 253 Marines killed in suicide bombing in Beirut Scott Nearing dies at age 100 PCP ("angel dust") deaths AIDs May 15 NYT: Vast Office Glut Plagues Downtowns: Average vacancy rate across the nation hits 10.8% in March (includes Denver, Houston, Chicago, etc) up from 3.4% in 1980 Garry Trudeau takes a year off doing Doonesbury comic strip break-dancing digital ripped sweatshirts "a la Flashdance" anti-nuclear: Shoreham Apple Computer hires Sculley when? Southern Poverty Law Center firebombed by KKK. Three KKK caught & convicted. early Hopi & Navajo both elect new tribal chairs (Hopi: Ivan Sidney; Navajo: Peterson Zah) who work to resolve historic dispute between the two tribes |
1983
MUSIC/CINEMA/PUBLISHING Hearts of Space radio show goes national Bergman: Fanny & Alexander Never Cry Wolf Gandhi Trading Places (black man becomes prince) Baby It's You - John Sayles Staying Alive (Travolta) Flashdance Terms of Endearment Local Hero The Big Chill Streamers - Altman (Viet) ?Four Corners: A Natl Sac Area? The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez Monty Python: The Meaning of Life Season of Thunder (Philippine resistance) Alsino and the Condor (Nicaraguan struggle) Under Fire (Nicaraguan struggle) The Year of Living Dangerously [This movie is about (among other things) the turmoil leading up to the 1965 Indonesian (not Thai) coup in which President Sukarno is deposed by Suharto.] Sept 29 - Chorus Line becomes longest-running play on Broadway The Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings, Community Abandonment & the Dismantling of Basic Industry - Bluestone & Harrison (ck - saw as 82) In The Spirit of Crazy Horse - Peter Mathiessen (sp?) Break-dancing |
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| Jan | California
Gov Deukmejian extradites Dennis Banks (52) to South Dakota, where most
of the 40 AIM members murdered since 74 were killed. Banks flees to New
York. |
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| Jan 3 | Times Beach,
Mo. declared disaster area due to dioxin contamination |
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| Jan 4 | Colorado farmers
protest foreclosures |
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| Jan 22 | 3000 West
Germans protest construction of new runway at Frankfurt airport |
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| Feb | Economic indicators
begin to show upturn in economy |
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| Feb 4 | One of two
biggest oil spills, Nowruz oilfield, north of Kharg Island, Persian Gulf
600,000 tons; still going August 7 |
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| Mar 14 | OPEC lowers
oil prices for the first time (34 to 29 dollars/barrel) |
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| Mar | Greens
win over 5% of vote in West German elections Animal rights activists confront U.C. Berkeley over E.I.R. for new animal facility |
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| Mar 25 | Congress passes
legislation to "rescue" the Social Security System from bankruptcy
(by putting a greater burden on younger wage-earners) (explain xx) |
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| April | San Francisco
Zen Center roshi asked to leave Reagan vetos Congressional settlement of American Indian land claims (Pequot tribe of Connecticut) |
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| Apr 12 | First black
mayor of Chicago elected (Harold Washington) |
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| May 4 | US House of
Representatives passes (watered down) Nuclear Freeze, to be tabled in Senate |
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| May | Over 1 million
Sicilians have signed a petition against US base at Comiso (1/5 of total
population of Sicily) |
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| May | Gasquet-Orleans
Road bulldozers blockaded by Earth First! & the Kalmiopsis Action Alliance
Injunction finally granted in late May |
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| June | President
Reagan approves operation to bypass Congress's restrictions on giving aid
to to the opponents of Nicaragua's government Alice Kahn creates the concept of Yuppie in the East Bay Express (California) |
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| July 14 | Earth First!
& the Oregon Natural Resources Council granted preliminary injunction
against building of the Bald Mountain Road, after over 40 arrests |
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| July 21 | Israel is
reported to be giving weapons to the Nicaraguan contras, at US request |
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| Aug 6 | Second biggest
ever tanker oil spill off Cape Town, South Africa 250,000 tons (Castillo de Bellver); luckily rain, wind, and calm seas spared nearby wildlife sanctuary |
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| Aug
6-7 |
(Hiroshima
Day) French freeze movement launched in meetings at Larzac |
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| Aug 21 | Philippine
opposition leader Benigno Aquino killed Manila |
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| Aug 27 | 300,000 march
in Washington on 20th anniversary of MLK march for "Jobs, Peace, &
Freedom" (NYT estimates 200,000) (Almanac sez 250,000) |
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| Sept | Continental
& Eastern Airlines file bankruptcies (the first fall-outs to deregulation) Sept? First Conference on the Fate of the Earth Sept? Craxi & Socialist Party win power in Italy from 40 years of Christian Democrats |
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| Oct 4- | Vietnam: A
Television History (13 weekly segments) |
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| Oct 9 | James Watt
resigns as Interior Secretary |
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| Oct 10 | CIA operatives
attack fuel-storage tanks at Corinto, Nicaragua |
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| Oct 22 | Protest
against placement of nuclear missiles in Europe?? 1.2 million Germans, including 180,000 at Bonn and 64 mile human chain between Stuttgart & New Ulm (+ Hamburg, W. Berlin) + hundreds of thousabds London + 350,000 Rome + 100,000 Vienna, 25,000 Paris, 20,000 Stockholm, 4000 Dublin + 140 sites in US |
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| Oct 23 | U.S. Marine
headquarters in Beirut bombed - 241 killed (U.S. Marines have been there
since 1958, when 5000 were sent to protect the elected government from threatened
overthrow July-Oct [ck]); In February, Reagan removes all marines from Lebanon |
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| Oct 25 | U.S. invasion
of Grenada |
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| Oct 30 | 500,000
Dutch anti-nuclear missile rally, the Hague |
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| Oct 31 | Conference
on "The Long Term Worldwide Biological Consequences of Nuclear War",
Wash D.C.: Nuclear Winter Scientists from the U.S., U.S.S.R. & other nations participate |
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| Nov | German government
report finds great damage to Germany's forests due to air pollution and
acid rain |
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| Nov | (mid) nuclear
Cruise missiles deployed in England |
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| Nov 20 | German
opposition Socialist Democratic party opposes US placement of nuclear Cruise
missiles in Europe The Day After shown on television - 100 million watch |
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| Dec | Dow stops
manufacture & sale of 2,4,5-T (Agent Orange ingredient) in US |
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| Dec 8 | Congress sets
maximum of $24 million that can be spent by the CIA, the Pentagon or any
agency "involved in intelligence activities" for the purpose of
"supporting, directly or indirectly, military or paramilitary operations
in Nicaragua" |
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| Dec 11 | 20,000
women demonstrate at Greenham Common anti-nuclear (?1985- encampment) |
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| Dec | Dennis Banks
granted asylum in the Onandaga Indian Nation, New York (50,000 letters delivered
to Governor Cuomo) U.S. Steel lays off 15,500 & closes all or part of 29 mills, the largest shut-down in American history |
| 1984 | U.S. trade deficit with
Europe jumps to $13 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan is $36.8 billion "due to high U.S. dollar" and U.S. banks also borrow $21.6 billion Japanese invest $4.7 billion in the U.S. Mergers/takeovers skyrocket (from $52.2 bill (83) to 124.8 bill) Bank failure rate skyrocket to worst since 1938 (79 banks) (Debt $172 billion - $111 billion interest on past debts) "Savings & Loan problem first came up, but no politicians talked about the problem until the day after the 1988 elections." Farmers going bankrupt Farm Policy Reform Act not adopted by Reagan Foreign debt repayment worries year #2 U.S. deficit worries Foreign investment has doubled since 1979 British miners fight Thatcher's coal pit closures European left asking for 35-hour week Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson (& hymie statement) Abortion-clinic bombings Native Americans at Wounded Knee, aided by Tiyospaye Crisis Center in Dever, starting to plant gardens, arrange to re-release wild horses & re-introduce buffalo Institute for Transportation & Devpmt, Wash begins sending bicycles to Nicaragua Southern Poverty Law Center's Klanwatch program goes to court to outlaw a paramilitary army built by the North Carolina Klan, which had been marching through black neighborhoods. When court order violated (arsenal built of stolen military weapons) Klanwatch wins second suit which puts North Carolina Klan out of business. Chavez calls grape boycott to persuade growers not to use five pesticides (Newsweek: year of the Yuppie (Dec 31, 84 issue) Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to Oregon? BCA majority in Berkeley First conception of a human ovum in a surrogate mother Identification of the AIDS virus Astronauts fly free in space for the first time Buckminster Fuller dies U.K.: building begins at self-build community at Lightmoor in Telford new town, awarded top prize by Prince Charles for Royal Institute of British Architects, June 1987 Soviet boycott of Olympics The Lower East Side of New York starts to turn into the East Village |
1984
MUSIC/CINEMA/PUBLISHING Replacements: Let It Be (pre-cursor of Seattle & grunge) Boy George ?Madonna *Springsteen: Born in the USA "World Beat" TV: Saturday Night Live (still) (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) Wild Style (break dancing) (or was this 83?) (or 82) Breakin' Seeing Red Silkwood (movie) Paris, Texas - Wim Wenders Moscow on the Hudson Sugar Cane Alley The Cotton Club Erendira When the Mountains Tremble (Guatemalan struggle) El Norte (Guatemalan refugees) (shot in Mexico) Nicaragua: No Pasaran (David Bradbury, Australian) farmers: The River, The Dollmaker, Country Iceman (prehistoric man) ?Hopi: Songs of the Fourth World The Gods Must Be Crazy The Brother From Another Planet - John Sayles (Ah Ying - Allen Fong (did Father & Son - 81) The Sixties Papers Green Politics - Fritjof Capra & Charlene Spretnak ?Robert Reich: The Next American Frontier Alperowitz & Faux: Rebuilding America Indian Country: Peter Matthiessen William Gibson: Neuromancer Utne Reader male empowerment Mime Troupe: Steeltown & 1985 |
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| Jan | Weirton Steel employees buy-out
plant |
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| Jan 12 | Cholesterol is linked to heart
disease after 10-yr study by the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute |
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| Jan 25 | INFACT (Infant Formula Action
Coalition) wins settlement with Nestle Corporation after seven year boycott |
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| Feb 13 | FTC approves Texaco purchase
of Getty Oil |
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| Mar 5 | Standard Oil of California
buys Gulf |
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| Mar | Major U.S. banks raise prime
lending rate from 11 to 11.5%, the first increase since August 1983 |
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| Mar 13 | Reagan agrees to cleanup Bikini
Atoll of nuclear contamination so Bikinians can return (est 42 million) |
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| Mar 14 | Hard Rock Cafe |
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| Mar 30 | U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela,
& Colombia agree to give Argentina $500 million aid to meet its payments
on $43.6 billion debt |
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| Apr 5 | Banks raise prime rate from
11.5 to 12% (highest since Oct 82) |
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| Apr 6 | Federal Reserve Board raises
its rate from 8.5 to 9% |
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| Apr | CIA reveals its participation
in the mining of Nicaraguan harbors |
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| May | Dutch government appears
to conclude it cannot accept nuclear missile deployment The MX program barely survives a House vote |
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| May 3 | Iran, Iraq attack ships in
Persian Gulf |
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| May 7 | Veterans & 7 chemical
companies settle Agent Orange suit (out of court): 15,000 vets & families
to get $180 million |
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| May 10 | US government held negligent
in above-ground testing of nuclear weapons in Nevada from 51 to 62, though
only one cancer victim compensated |
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| May 21-26 | First North American
Bioregional Congress meets in Excelsior Springs, Ozarkia bioregion, Missouri |
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| May 23 | Contra Eden Pastora admits
receiving CIA aid |
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| May 24 | Longest Run leaves New York
City, 51 days to Sactramento, California (is this AIM??) |
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| Jun 1 | Dutch cabinet votes to
postpone its decision on accepting nuclear Cruise missiles until Nov 1,
1985 |
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| Jun 9 | 150,000 in London protest
nuclear Cruise missiles |
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| Jun 14 | Reagan agrees to talks
with USSR about nuclear weapons control |
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| June 22-24 | SLATE reunion, Berkeley | |||
| July 6 | King Fahd of Saudi Arabia
gives first monthly contribution of $1 million to the Nicaraguan contras |
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| July 12 | Walter Mondale announces Geraldine
Ferraro as candidate for vice president |
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| July | Reagan's Advisory Council
on Oceans and Atmosphere recommend that the U.S. government "reconsider"
disposal of nuclear waste at sea P.M. David Lange of New Zealand comes out against nuclear warships in New Zealand's waters In the biggest environmental protest in the Soviet countries, 6-7,000 Hungarians have signed a petition protesting plan to dam or divert the Danube River for a hydroelectric project |
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| July 25 | Volcker says Fed will not
tighten growth in money supply to control inflation (any more) |
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| July 30 - Aug 3 | Heaviest trading ever on Stock
Market Stock Market rises 87.46 pts to 1,202.08 (Aug 3 - 36 pts) Even as economy slows |
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| fall? | Voter Registration in attempt
to defeat Reagan: xxx new voters registered (ITT) |
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| Aug 2 | Census Bureau: Poverty rate
up 15.2% in 1983, highest since 1965 (to 35.3 million poor) |
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| Aug | Australia, New Zealand,
and 12 other Pacific island members of the Pacific Forum declare the area
a nuclear-free zone, including ban on French nuclear testing & possible
dumping of nuclear waste by Japan and the U.S. |
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| Sept 1 | Helicopter from Civilian Military
Assistance - a US private group - crashes in Nicaragua |
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| Sept 28 | (week of) Free Speech Movement
20-year celebration, University of California Berkeley |
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| Oct 12 | Congress passes its second
version of the Boland Amendment, saying that no funds available to any US
agency may be spent for supporting military or paramilitary operations in
Nicaragua |
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| Oct 17 | Britain drops its oil price
1.35/barrel |
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| Oct 18 | Nigeria, member of OPEC, drops
its oil price 2/barrel |
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| Oct 20 | Reagan vetoes bill to improve
Federal health care for American Indian reservations Repeat of European anti-nuclear missile protests |
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| Oct 28 | OPEC decides to cut oil production |
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| Nov | Boston area is prohibited
from adding new commercial sewer connections until it cleans up its aged
sewer system which has been dumping 6 billion gallons raw sewage a year
into Boston harbor |
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| Nov | Pledge of Resistance campaign |
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| when? | Mitch Snyder, head of the
Community for Creative Non-Violence goes on hunger strike to get fed government
to make an abandoned building available to street people. Eve of election,
Reagan & Dept of Health & Human Services capitulate |
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| Nov | Reagan re-elected (versus
Mondale/Ferraro) but with Democratic Congress |
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| Dec 3 | Bhopal Union Carbide pesticide
factory disaster kills 2,000 and injures some 50,000 in India |
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| Dec 11 | U.K.: 20,000 women anti-nuclear
demo at Greenham Common |
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| Dec | Department of Energy narrows
choice of nuclear waste sites west of the Mississippi River to three: Washington,
Texas, Nevada (after activism on original nine sites through the late 70s) |
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| Dec 22 | Bernhard Goetz, riding on
NYC subway, shoots & wounds 4 teen-age boys after one of them asks for
5 dollars |
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On to The Eighties: Apartheid Ended and Iran-Contra: 1985-1987 |
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