Decade Trivia

1980’s Events: The first music video, “Video Killed the Radio Star,” was shown on MTV on August 1, 1981. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, became the first microcomputing billionaire in 1987. Pete Rose, the 17-time all-star and former Cincinnati Reds player, was banned from baseball for life in 1989. Michael Jackson sold over 40 million albums during the 80’s thanks to the release of Thriller in 1982.

2010’s Events: Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals on May 2, 2011. On February 12, 2012, Queen Elizabeth reached the 60th anniversary on the British throne. On November 8, 2013, approximately 6,000 people were killed by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. North Korea carried out its fifth and biggest nuclear test on September 20, 2016.

1990’s Events: Dolly the sheep was born in Scotland, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. George Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing at the age of 45. Intel introduced the Pentium processor on March 22, 1993. After serving 30 years in prison, Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa.

1970’s Events: Author Stephen King launched his career with the 1974 publication of Carrie. Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minster in 1979. Cigarette advertising was banned on January 2, 1971 after the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act passed. Fifty-two members of the American Embassy were taken hostage in Iran on November 4, 1979, and held for 444 days.

2000’s Events: Four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of September 11, 2001. The Wii game console was introduced in 2006. Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. Operation Enduring Freedom--the War in Afghanistan--began on October 7, 2001. The social networking service Twitter was introduced in 2006.

1960’s Events: Robert Wise won two the Oscars for Best Director, one in 1961 for “West Side Story” and one in 1965 for “The Sound of Music.” The first manned spaceflight, Apollo 11, landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. The BASIC computer programming language was created in 1964. James Earl Ray shot and killed Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968.