Counterculture Timeline: The Eighties: End to Apartheid in South Africa & Iran-Contra 1985 - 1987 Start of Unraveling period 1981-2001 GenX generation (Nomad/Reactive) born 1961-1981 continues to turn 20 |
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| EVENTS | ARTS | |||
| 1985 | Dollar reaches peak high:
ca 250 yen and ca 3.50 mark "Yen suddenly doubles in value, largely at US instigation" US Commerce Department announces US had become a debtor nation (Sept 16) (Sept 20 NYT) & that the US economy has been in ill health since 1968. U.S. arms exports to third world countries decline strongly Worries about glut economy (Dow passes 1500) T-Boone Pickens? Arbitrageur Ivan Boesky pleads guilty of fraud on Wall Street Europeans having trouble with unemployment Farmers recession ("due to high dollar") No longer lower wages overseas People Express (airline) ?GM-Toyota joint venture auto plant opens Fremont, California ?Sanctuary movement (gets media notice) (actually began 1980 in Arizona) (explain xx) Swiss become first country in Europe to require catalytic converters on automobiles & to begin selling lead-free gasoline needed to work with them, in effort to deal with the death of their forests Petris bill requiring warning signs when dangerous pesticides are sprayed on a field finally passed by California legislature but vetoed by Gov. Deukmejian Efforts to pass bottle bills in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (7 other states already have them) Work begins at VPL on creation of Virtual Reality machinery DSA active through 85-> (Michael Harrington dies July 1989) Virtual ban on leaded gasoline U.K.: black uprisings in Handsworth (Birmingham) & Broadwater Farm [hsg devmt] (Tottenham, northeast London - Oct) Mother of Michael Donald, young black man who was lynched in 1981 by KKK, sues KKK with the Southern Poverty Law Center Fundamentalists Anonymous formed Use of crack cocaine becomes a national problem Ecstasy |
1985 MUSIC/CINEMA/PUBLISHING ?Rambo The Killing Fields (end 84) (saw again as 84) Witness (Amish) Alamo Bay - Louis Malle (Viet fishermen in Texas) (Carmen) White Nights (Gregory Hines & Baryshnikov as defectors) Brazil Kerouac Desperately Seeking Susan (Back to the Future) Habits of the Heart - Bellah et al Women Who Love Too Much - Robin Norwood Deep Ecology - Devall & Sessions Acid Dreams - Lee & Shlain Uncovering the Sixties: The Life & Times of the Underground Press - Abe Peck Mime Troupe: Troupers (the movie) |
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| Jan | P.M. David Lange of New
Zealand refuses to allow US Navy destroyer into port which might be carrying
nuclear weapons |
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| Jan | California: Mono Lake (Rush
Creek) fight starts? |
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| Jan 30 | OPEC cuts oil prices |
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| Feb 5 | P.M. Robert Hawke of Australia
refuses to allow US use of bases to monitor an MX missile test |
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| Feb | US auto workers announce record
profits (= recovery) |
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| Feb 11 | President Reagan meets with
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia; afterwards Fahd doubles monthly contribution
to Nicaraguan contras to $2 million |
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| Feb 13 | South African police arrest
13, nearly all the leaders of the United Democratic Front (main opposition
group) |
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| Feb 18-21 |
South African police kill 18 demonstrators at Crossroads near Capetown, injure 200 | |||
| Feb | (by end) some 1900 arrested
in the US demonstrating against South African apartheid in last several
months |
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| Mar | On 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville
massacre (1960), South African police kill 69 |
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| Mar 1 | ABC bought by Capital Cities
Communications, Inc. (Biggest merger in US history outside the oil industry) |
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| Mar 11 | Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General
Secretary of the USSR Communist Party |
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| Mar 21 | During funeral march for 3 killed
in Sharpeville memorial demonstration, South African police kill 19 |
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| Mar - Apr? | Kesterson reservoir starts? | |||
| Apr | Mono Lake (Rush Creek) decision Farley Mowat denied entry into U.S. |
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| Apr 1 | EPA orders end to dumping of
sludge off the New Jersey coast |
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| Apr 4 | Congress rejects Reagan's appeal
for support for Nicaraguan contras |
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| Apr 7 | Gorbachev announces USSR
moratorium (til Nov) on deployment of intermediate-range nuclear missiles |
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| Apr 10 | Rally at UC Berkeley calling
on corporate divestment from South African companies starts a sit-in |
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| Apr 16 | UC Berkeley sit-in on South
Africa continues despite 141 arrests; 2000 attend noon rally; shantytowns
continue into May; Also demonstrations at UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and other UC campuses |
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| Apr 18 | Ted Turner launches bid to take
over CBS |
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| May | Nature magazine publishes
new research by Dr. Joe Farman which indicates ozone layer levels are falling Ret. Gen. John Singlaub sells Nicaraguan contras $5 million in arms |
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| May 1 | Reagan ends U.S. trade with
(declare embargo against) Nicaragua |
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| May 2 | Senate votes to limit Pentagon
spending to 85 levels, adjusted for inflation |
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| May 12 | Washington Post reports Lebanese
counterterrorist unit responsible for car bomb in Beirut suburb which killed
80 on March 8 was trained by the CIA |
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| May 12 | Philadelphia police bomb &
destroy 61 row houses & kill 11 in confrontation with anarchist group
MOVE |
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| May 17 | US Fed cuts interest rate to
7.5% (lowest since 78) Two major banks immediately drop rate 10.5 to 10% |
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| May 20 | (Next trading day) Stock Market
rises 19.54 points to finish above 1300 for the first time |
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| May 23 | Reagan & Senate agree to
compromise limiting MX missiles to 50 |
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| June 2 | General Motors acquires Hughes
Aircraft |
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| June 5 | Senate votes to ask Reagan to
stay within SALT II treaty limits |
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| June 10 | Reagan announces U.S. will
stay within SALT II treaty limits |
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| June 11 | Gorbachev calls for economic
reforms in USSR |
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| June 27 | Senate refuses to approve Reagan
appointee for associate attorney general |
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| June? | Pesticide Action Network names
list of "Dirty Dozen" pesticides used internationally which should
be banned |
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| July 13 | Live Aid Concert raises
$70,000 for African famine relief 17 hour broadcast on radio & tv to 152 countries from live locations in London & Philadelphia attended by 160,000 Baez, Bowie, Dylan, Jagger, McCartney, Elton John, Tina Turner take part (previously did USA for Africa with "We Are the World") |
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| July 15-27 | 12,000 women attend U.N. World Conference of Women, Kenya | |||
| July 18 | UC Regents vote to divest
from South Africa |
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| July | Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior,
protesting France'scapproaching nuclear tests in the region, is sunk in
Auckland harbor, New Zealand by French secret service |
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| August | United Farm Workers starts campaign
against "Deadly Dozen" worst pesticides still in use in the U.S. |
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| Aug 11 | Leakage of toxic gas from Union
Carbide ?pesticide plant, West Virginia |
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| Aug 15 | Congress approves $27 million
in non-lethal aid to Nicaraguan contras; all other prohibitions of the Boland
Amendment remain in effect |
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| fall | California legislature makes
Oct 1 "Free Speech Day" in California to commemorate the Free
Speech Movement in 1964 |
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| Sept 1 | To avert Senate's passage
of South African sanctions, Reagan announces more restrained sanctions (11
western nations have already imposed sanctions) |
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| Sept | US unemployment, which has stayed
at 7.2% for 6 months, finally drops to 6.9% (lowest since 1980) |
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| Sept? | Mexico City earthquake gets
too much aid |
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| Oct | Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh arrested
(& deported) |
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| Oct 26 | Australian government gives
Ayers Rock back to the Aborigines |
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| Nov 15 | Great Britain & Republic
of Ireland sign agreement giving the Republic consultive role in governing
of Northern Ireland |
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| Nov | Oil prices about 28/barrel Under Gorbachev, leaders of the USSR and the US meet for the first time since 1979; issue statement supporting 50% reduction in strategic nuclear arms |
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| Dec 2 | General Dynamics executives
indicted for defense contract fraud |
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| Dec 4 | Congress amends Boland Amendment
to allow communications and advice to Nicaraguan contras. |
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| Dec 8 | OPEC announces new strategy
to compete for world oil market; In next few days, oil futures drop from 28.74 to 25.23/barrel, then recover somewhat Guatemala elects civilian president after 30 years of military rule |
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| Dec 11 | General Electric to buy RCA Congress passes Gramm-Rudman forced reductions in deficit |
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| Dec | Uprising of New Zealand Maori
youths, Auckland "Big music scene LOS ANGELES" (Rolling Stone magazine: Madchester article) |
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| 1986 | Oldest Baby Boomers start
to turn 40 Volcker tight money policy almost causes another recession Interest rates down (ca 8%) worries over third world debts U.S. bank failures ca. 140 and rising; 1600 banks in trouble (FDIC list) U.S. trade deficit with Japan grows to $58 billion ?51 and U.S. banks borrow $46 billion Dollar starts to drop steeply against the yen and mark (or is it be devalued?) -> tourism to U.S. increases Insurance companies raise their liability rates (at end of 1986, declare 11.5 billion net income) Ivan Boesky accused Fourteen socially responsible investment funds Sanctuary Movement court case (get more xx) Prozac introduced commercially in Belgium when? California voters adopt Prop 65 Toxics Initiative with mechanism for citizen enforcement -> law suits when? California legislature passes Bottle Bill (AB 2020) when? Immigration Reform Act (ck name) grants amnesty to illegal immigrants workers (ck details) U.K.: Greater London Council & 6 metropolitan counties abolished Thailand Puket? Island protests against airplane glue manufacture |
1986
MUSIC/CINEMA/PUBLISHING ??Paul Simon: Graceland (or was this 87?) The Color Purple - the movie (Dec 85) Woody Allen: Hannah & Her Sisters My Beautiful Launderette She's Gotta Have It (Peggy Sue Got Married) ??Kiss of the Spider Woman Men - Doris Dorrie (Ger) A Great Wall - Peter Wang (Aliens) (Salvador) (Sid and Nancy) Star Trek IV Contrary Warriors (Crow Indian struggle) Richard Smolan (37) and David E. Cohen (31) bestseller: A Day in the Life of America (photos all taken May 2, 1986) (creole cuisine?) |
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| Jan 1 | USSR: Gorbachev asks for
world ban on atomic weapons, including timetable for getting rid of nuclear
weapons and extending for until April the unilateral Soviet ban on nuclear
tests |
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| Jan | New York City finally stops
pumping up to 150 million gallons of raw sewage into the Hudson River daily,
with the opening of new North River Water Pollution Control Plant US unemployment rate 6.6%, lowest in 6 years oil prices lowered again (from 15 to 10 dollars/barrel) (worries about the effect of lowered oil prices) (effect on Texas starts) (also Mexico starts to go into debt) |
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| Jan 16 | Energy Dept announces 12 potential
nuclear waste sites in eastern U.S., including Penobscot site in Maine only
re-granted to them six years before and four other tribal sites |
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| Jan 20 | U.S. officially observes Martin
Luther King Day for first time |
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| Jan 28 | Space Shuttle Challenger explodes,
space program put on hold |
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| Feb 6 | Stock Market closes above 1600
for first time |
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| Feb | Texas Air takes over Eastern
Airlines to create largest U.S. airline Field testing of genetically engineered bacteria to reduce frost damage on strawberry plants planned by Advanced Genetic Sciences of Oakland, California banned by Monterey (Calif.) County Board of Supervisors (mid) oil prices in the 15-16 dollar/barrel range -> Stock Market buying frenzy |
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| Feb 16 | Duvaliers flee Haiti after 28-year
rule by the family |
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| Feb 19 | US Senate finally ratifies
1948 U.N. treaty outlawing genocide (90 other nations have already ratified) |
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| Feb | Consumer prices fall for
first time since who knows when, continue dropping into May |
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| Feb 27 | Proceed from a US arms shipment
to Iran are diverted to the Nicaraguan contras Marcos's flee Philippines, Aquino in after Feb 7 election Stock Market closes above 1700 for first time |
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| Mar 7 | US Fed cuts prime rate 7.5 to
7% (lowest since 1978) following lead of central banks in West Germany,
France, Japan |
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| Mar | Two Lyndon LaRouche supporters
chosen in Illinois Democratic primary for Lt Gov & Sec State Attention turns to LaRouche supporters who have gotten themselves onto other state ballots |
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| Mar 19 | Reagan & Canada's Mulroney
finally agree on acid rain actions |
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| Mar 27 | US Senate approves 100 million
dollars for Nicaraguan contras |
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| Apr 15 | US bombs Libya base |
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| Apr 18 | South Africa finally ends
pass laws |
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| Apr 25 | Explosion starts meltdown
at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant near Kiev in the USSR Ukraine |
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| Apr | Gorbachev publicly acknowledges
accident at Chernobyl, the first time the USSR had admitted an error in
almost 70 years |
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| May 12 | Drexel Burnham Lambert charged
with illegal "insider trading" |
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| May 25 | Hands Across America: 5
million attempt to form human chain across US & donate 10 dollars to
aid hungry & homeless in US, from Battery Park, New York City to Long
Beach, California & Sport Aid: 20 million in 266 cities in 76 countries run in benefit for hunger in Africa |
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| June 11 | South Africa: "State
of Emergency" imposed |
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| June 16 | Despite arrests, millions
stay home in South African black trade union strike on 10th anniversary
Soweto uprising |
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| June 25 | Congress approves $100 million
in military aid to Nicaraguan contras |
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| June 27 | The International Court
of Justice rules US support for Nicaraguan contras violates international
law |
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| Aug 4 | OPEC agrees to cut oil production Within days, oil prices rise from 11.50 to 15/barrel |
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| Aug 6 | Oliver North lies to Congress
about relationship with Nicaraguan contras |
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| Sept 4 | Stock Market hits all time high
of 1919.71, starts to level off |
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| Sept 11 | Stock Market has fallen 86.61
points to 1792.89 |
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| Sept 15 | Texas Airlines buying out People
Express & its ill-advised acquisition, Frontier Airlines |
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| Sept 21 | 35 nations adopt treaty
to reduce risk of accidental war, including USSR agreement to on-site inspections |
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| Sept 27 | US Congress passes Tax Reform
Act (affects 87) (after 2 years) |
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| Oct 2 | US Congress overrides Reagan's
veto to pass South African sanctions |
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| Oct 3 | US Congress requires schools
to inspect for asbestos hazards |
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| Oct 5 | Eugene Hasenfus' plane shot
down while carrying arms to Nicaraguan contras, leading to exposure of Oliver
North's network to aid contras |
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| Nov 1 | Rhine River disaster:
30 tons of mercury and pesticides wash into the river during a fight against
a fire at Sandoz AG warehouse in Basel, Switz; several days later, Ciba-Geigy
admits it "accidentally" released 900 pounds of pesticide into
the river hours before |
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| Nov 3 | Al-Shiraa, a Lebanese magazine,
publishes reports of US arm shipments to Iran |
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| Nov 25 | US Attorney General Edwin
Meese discloses that funds from Iran arms sales were diverted to the Nicaraguan
contras |
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| Dec | USSR under Gorbachev releases
Andrei Sakharov from exile, then other dissenters |
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| Dec 4 | Hundreds of thousands of
French students march against Chirac's higher education bill |
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| Dec 20 | Three black men attacked by
bat-wielding young whites in Howard Beach neighborhood, Queens, NYC; one
of them, Michael Griffith (23) hit by a car and dies during flight |
| 1987 | First trillion-dollar national
budget SPLC's Klanwatch wins 7 million dollar judgement against the KKK for Michael Donald's murder - including deed to national headquarters of the United Klans of America 135+ counties and municipalities have voted to become nuclear-free zones Over half the couples getting married have lived together beforehand (Manchester Guard Wkly, Dec 31, 1989) Intifada uprising starts among Palestinians in Israel Safe sex ads ?? restrictions on US visas for visiting foreign musicians ?? John Berger's book on restoration volunteer heroes when? Columbia protest when? First national U.S. Greens conference (Amherst, Mass.) when? Congress extends Clean Water Act (over Reagan's veto?) Joseph Giovannini coins the word "deconstructivism" to describe the new architectural style of Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, Zaha Hadid, and the Coop Himmelblau |
1987 MUSIC/CINEMA/PUBLISHING Prairie Home Companion last show spring? Max Headroom, computer-generated character from Britain, premiers on U.S. tv First Nintendo (by June 1988 - 11 million units sold) |
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| Jan | Greens win 8.3% in German
elections Environmentalists, unionists & community members from BASF plant in Louisiana join Green Party in West Germany to protest Rhine River damage by BASF |
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| Feb?? Mar | Brazil announces suspension of debt payments | |||
| Mar? | Contra cease-fire - Nicaragua |
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| Apr | Dollar starts to fall, but is
propped up & rises Stock market soars Brazil suspends payment of interest on debts U.S. threatening to tariff Japan if it does not stop "dumping" microchips 1,100 demo at Honeywell, Minneapolis against manufacture of nuclear weapons; arrests since 81 total 1,820 (NYT Business 9/20/87) |
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| Apr 16 | U.S. Patent Office announces
genetically engineered animals can be patented -- when was seed patent law? |
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| Apr | New Jersey requires statewide
garbage seperating |
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| May | Start Stock Market downfall
predictions |
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| May 4? | Immigration amnesty program
(1 year) starts |
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| May-July | Hearings on Iran-Contra (Oliver North, etc) | |||
| June | Gorbachev wins approval from
USSR Communist Party Central Committee for transforming central planning
system when? 1985? glasnost & perestroika Soviet doctors visit Native American activist Leonard Peltier in prison (Canada) June Supreme Court decision on Southern California church vs LA County flood control - takings (explain xx) |
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| July | First debt-for-nature swap
announced (Bolivia's Beni Biosphere Reserve) |
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| Aug | 200 dolphins washed ashore from
Virginia to Maine, dead of unknown disease; thousands of fish, crabs, &
eels suffocated in North Carolina estuaries, apparently due to low levels
of oxygen; disease ravaged Chesapeake Bay oyster beds; lobsters were asphyxiated
in their pots by a brown tide of algae |
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| Aug 6 | Hodel: Hetch Hetchy xx |
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| Aug 7 | Cease fire Central America (Arias
peace plan) and no S.F. (whatis?) homeporting |
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| Aug 12 | Stock Market crashes |
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On to The Eighties: End of the Cold War 1987-1991 |
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