The 1980s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Chronology

1980:      Marilyn Ferguson's The Aquarian Conspiracy, explaining the philosophy and ideas of the New Age movement, is published.

1980:      The Official Preppy Handbook, edited by Lisa Birnbach, is published.

1980:     June 1 Atlanta entrepreneur Ted Turner debuts the twenty-four-hour news channel Cable Network News (CNN).

1981:     January 20 Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as president; his wife, Nancy, wears a white inaugural-ball gown designed by James Galanos; her complete inaugural wardrobe reportedly costs $25,000.

1981:     September 1 A study released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finds that women's earnings remain at about 60 percent of men's earnings in comparable jobs.

1982:      Reebok athletic shoes, introduced in fashion colors, overtake Nike running shoes in sales.

1982:      Rubik's Cube, a puzzle for which the solution proves frustrating and even obsessive for many, sells wildly in the United States and in other countries.

1982:     May 7 Baptist evangelist Billy Graham leads more than 600 religious leaders in a weeklong antinuclear conference held in the Soviet Union.

1982:     June 30 The Equal Right Amendment (ERA) misses the deadline for ratification after it fails to get the support of the full thirty-eight states necessary.

1983:      First Lady Nancy Reagan begins a nationwide program to combat drug abuse and uses the slogan "Just Say No."

1983:     November 20 Approximately 100 million people view The Day After, a controversial ABC movie simulating the effects of a nuclear war on a Kansas town.

1984:     April 16 A two-year study of religious television reports that more than 13 million Americans watch religious television programming on a regular basis.

1984:     May 1 A report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates the nation's homeless population as numbering between 250,000 and 350,000. Many other national organizations claim there are actually ten times that many homeless Americans.

1984:     July 23 Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign in the history of the pageant when a men's magazine announces it will publish nude photographs of her.

1984:     September 16 The television series Miami Vice debuts on NBC. It soon influences men's styles: sports coats worn over T-shirts, both in pastel colors.

1985:      Street style, the deliberately under-dressed look of youth, is the height of fashion.

1985:      Crack, crystallized cocaine that can be smoked to produce a short but intense high, is introduced into the United States.

1986:     May 25 More than 5 million people form a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California, in Hands Across America, a project organized to call attention to poverty, hunger, and homelessness in the country.

1986:     July 10 The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that the number of Americans killed each year in cocaine-related deaths rose from 185 in 1981 to more than 560 in 1985.

1987:     March 3 Many well-known actors and politicians take part in the "Grate American Sleep-Out" to draw attention to the plight of the homeless in America.

1987:     March 19 Praise the Lord (PTL) founder Jim Bakker resigns after revelations that he committed adultery and stole funds from his ministry.

1988:     February 21 Before 6,000 of his followers, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confesses to an unspecified sin. Later, his ministry is taken away when it is revealed that he had sexual relations with a prostitute.

1988:     May 15 Televangelist Marion "Pat" Robertson files papers to create a new political action committee, Americans for the Republic, that will train and fund conservative Christian political candidates.

1989:     March 24 Disbarred lawyer Joel B. Steinberg is given the maximum prison sentence of eight to twenty-years for the beating death of his six-year-old adopted daughter.

1989:     June 10 The Moral Majority is officially disbanded.