Drew Gagnon Brandon Hodge

Lindsay Webber Lexy Braverman

-How did the 1980s impact America?

-How did advancements benefit Americans?

80’s slang and vocab! 80’s slang and vocab!

Book- to leave a place quickly.

“Dude, we should book it before the cops get here”

Down- in agreement

“Cindy asked me to go to the movies, I’m down”

Kicks- pair of shoes

“I bought some sweet new kicks, they’re sweet Reeboks”

Legit- legitimate, real, honest

“When I say I don’t want to go, I’m being legit”

Roller- police officer

“Watch out for the Roller hiding over there”

Michael Jackson- this pop stars music first leaped into the billboards top 100s during the 80s

Ronald Reagan- The 40th president of the united states. he took office in 1981

Madonna- American recording artist, actress and also entrepreneur. Music became popular in the 1980s

John Lennon- an English singer songwriter whose rise to fame was being a member of the Beatles. He was assassinated on December 8th, 1980 outside his apartment in New York.

John Hinkley Jr. - attempted to assassinate president Reagan on March 30, 1981 in Washington D.C.

Sally Ride - was the first American women to travel into space through NASA in 1983

Donald Trump - an American businessman, socialite, author, and television personality. very popular through the 80's.

George Bush - the 43rd president of the United States and took office in 1989

Sandra Day O'Connor - American jurist who was the first women in the US Supreme Court in 1981

P O L I T I C S

Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. He tried to prevent the spread of communism. He ordered the Soviet Union to take apart the Berlin Wall.

Reagan and his wife, Nancy fought against the War On Drugs, by campaigning “Just Say No”

“Just Say No” was used to teach kids to say no to drugs to prevent them from the recreational use of them.

On March 30th, 1981, President Reagan is shot by John Hinkley Jr. Press Secretary, James Brady, was also shot, as was a police officer and secret service member. They all survived.

The AIDS pandemic started in the 1980s. They believe it moved from Africa, to Haiti, to the United States.

The CDC reported the virus found in 5 homosexual men from Los Angeles. They didn’t have a name for the virus at first but referred to it by the diseases associated with it.

There was and still is discrimination against those with AIDS.

The people of the 80s wanted answers and wanted the government to do something about the virus. Reagen made

AIDs education, research, and prevention a priority.

MTV was launched with the song “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. This created a new show filled with

epic music videos and media conversation, soon to become a show that would be important in music evolution

for two prolonged decades.

Above: Mark David Chapman- the fan who shot John Lennon

The world was shocked on December 8th, 1980 to learn the news that John Lennon had been shot outside of his apartment in New York.

Michael Jackson’s album, “Thriller” was released on November 30, 1982. It would soon become the greatest album ever released. The whole

world knew Michael Jackson.

His video for the song “Thriller” would be known as the greatest video ever made with 14 minutes

of ware wolves, grave yards, zombies and incredible dance moves.

Take a look for yourself…

Cocaine was the most widely used drug in the 1980’s. This

decade was known as the “War On Drugs” even though

people knew the harmful side effects. In 1985, six million

Americans used cocaine. Notable deaths, Len Bias, who

was just drafted for the Boston Celtics and Don Rogers,

who played for the Cleveland Browns both died due to

Cocaine use.

DRUGS

SCIENCESCIENCE ANDAND

TECHNOLOGTECHNOLOGYY

The Big Bang Theory became a very well known and accepted theory in the 1980s. The theory is centered around the creation of our universe.

The Theory:

about 12 to 14 billion years ago, this universe was only a few millimeters wide. It’s believed that the matter expanded, heated up, and popped and exploded into a trillion pieces. Those pieces are known as the stars and planets today. The theory was first introduced by Albert Einstein in 1916.

The space shuttle Challenger was NASA’s second space shuttle put into

orbit, after the Columbia. The Challenger’s first flight was in 1983,

and completed 9 missions before breaking apart on its 10th mission, 73 seconds into the launch. All seven crew members died. NASA took a

break for about 3 years, grounding all flights until it launched its next shuttle, Discovery in 1988. The Discovery was a huge success for NASA and is still in

operation today.

The German satellite Sputnik forced the Americans to create space technology. The Advanced Research

Project Agency started creating ideas of a satellite that could enable users on computers to be connected

everywhere, all the time. This led to the first World Wide Web, the Local Area Network (LAN). LAN was used by primarily used by companies in the early 1980s but in a

few years, home computers were also using this network.

This opened gates to the world wide web we have now.