1980

1981

January - The USSR launched Project RYAN (Raketno-Yadernoe Napadenie) under the leadership of the KGB. The objective was to detect war preparations by the West.
15th January - Pope John Paul II met with Lech Walesa and other members of the Polish reform group Solidarnosc.
20th January - Ronald Reagan was inaugurated 40th President of the United States. He had been elected on a platform opposed to the concessions of détente. His inauguration speech focused mainly on domestic and economic issues
The Iran hostage crisis ended. After 444 days in captivity, the 52 American civilians held hostage were released.
30th March - Two months after his inauguration Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest while leaving a Washington hotel. The gunman, John Hinckley jr. was found to have mental health problems and to be obsessed with actress Jodie Foster.
13th May - While riding in an open-topped car through the Vatican, Pope John Paul II was shot four times in the abdomen and right arm. The gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, was a Turkish Kurd his motives were uncertain.
19th August - In the Gulf of Sidra Incident, Libyan planes attacked U.S. jets in the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya had illegally annexed. Two Libyan jets were shot down; no American losses were suffered.
6th October - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated by Islamist military officers.
27th October - A Soviet submarine, the U137, ran aground not far from the Swedish naval base at Karlskrona.
23rd November - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began its illegal support of anti-Sandinista Contras.
13th December - Communist General Wojciech Jaruzelski introduced martial law in Poland and arrested leaders of the Solidarnosc trade union. It was an attempt to crush the Solidarity trade union and the political opposition against communist rule.

1982

24th February - President Ronald Reagan announced the "Caribbean Basin Initiative", a plan to extend friendly economic terms to regional governments at risk from communism, and thus restrict the threat of the overthrow of governments in the region by the forces of communism.
2nd April - Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Islands, a self-governing British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. This led to the Falklands War.
22nd March - Ronald Reagan endorsed a joint resolution of Congress, calling on the Soviet Union to "...cease its abuses of the basic human rights of its citizens, in particular, the right to freely practice one's religion and the right to emigrate to another country...''
30th May - Spain joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
6th June - Israel invaded Lebanon to end raids and clashes with Syrian troops based there.
12th June - A nuclear disarmament rally in Central Park, New York City attracted an estimated 750,000 people. They heard addresses from prominent peace activists and musicians. Speakers included Coretta Scott King. Among those who sang were Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Linda Ronstadt.
14th June - The Falkland Islands were liberated by a British task force bringing the end of the Falklands War.
10th November - Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in Moscow after a heart attack. He was replaced two days later by former KGB chief Yuri Andropov.
14th November - Solidarnosc leader Lech Walesa was released from detention and returned to Poland.

1983

January - Soviet spy Dieter Gerhardt, a former officer in the South African Navy, was arrested for espionage in New York. His Soviet handler, Vitaly Shlykov, was arrested a fortnight later.
February 2nd - US president Ronald Reagan hosted a delegation of Afghan mujahideen or freedom fighters in the White House.
8th March - In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Ronald Reagan labelled the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
23rd March - Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or "Star Wars").
3rd June - "WarGames", a fictional film depicting a computer simulation that almost triggered World War III, opened in American cinemas.
7th July - Samantha Smith, a 10 year old girl from Maine, visited the Soviet Union at the invitation of Yuri Andropov. She had earlier written to Andropov, asking if he intended to wage war on America.
1st September - Civilian Korean Air Lines Flight 007, with 269 on board, including U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald, was shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft, all died.
5th September - Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Soviet attack on Flight 007, calling it a "crime against humanity".
September 6th - After five days of denials, Moscow admitted that Soviet fighters were responsible for shooting down Flight 007.
September 26th - A Soviet air force officer, Stanislav Petrov, averted nuclear war by ignoring computer reports of five incoming missiles. The reports were later found to be false, caused by cloud reflections.
5th October - Polish unionist and political reformer Lech Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
25th October - U.S. forces invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada in an attempt to overthrow the Marxist military government, expel Cuban troops, and abort the construction of a Soviet-funded airstrip.
2nd November - Exercise Able Archer 83 - Soviets misinterpreted a test of NATO's nuclear warfare procedures as a fake cover for an actual NATO attack; in response, Soviet nuclear forces were put on high alert.
13th November - The USA deployed nuclear weapon carrying cruise missiles at Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The site was surrounded and blockaded by anti-nuclear weapons protestors, most of them were women.
20th November - The Day After, a film depicting a nuclear attack on American cities, was shown on US television.
23rd November - Soviet delegates walked out of arms reduction talks in Vienna, as a protest against the deployment of US cruise missiles in Europe.

1984

January - US President Ronald Reagan outlined foreign policy which reinforced his previous statements.
13 February - Konstantin Chernenko was named General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party following the death of Yuri Andropov.
13th May - A fire swept through the Severomorsk naval base in remote northern Russia, it burned for four days. It caused a series of munitions blasts that killed as many as 300 people and destroyed much of the Soviet Union's naval missile stockpile.
28th July - 12th August - The Soviet Union and 13 of its allies boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
11th August - While warming up for a radio address, Ronald Reagan joked that he had "...outlawed Russia forever..." and that "...we begin bombing in five minutes".

31st October. Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
6th November - President Ronald Reagan was elected for a second term, defeating Democratic candidate Walter Mondale. Reagan won almost 59% of the popular vote and carried 49 of 50 states.
16th December - Margaret Thatcher and the UK government, in a plan to open new channels of dialog with Soviet leadership candidates, met with Mikhail Gorbachev at Chequers.

1985

20th January - Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term as US president.
2nd February - Ronald Reagan broadcast his State of the Union Speech. His key message was of opportunity and freedom.
6th February - Reagan announced, in his State of the Union address, on his 74th birthday, that his administration would arm and support "freedom fighters" against communist regimes. This became known as the Reagan Doctrine.

11th March - Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and hence leader of the Soviet Union.
24th March - Major Arthur Nicholson, a US Army intelligence officer, was shot dead by a Soviet sentry while photographing military equipment in East Germany. The incident caused a significant deterioration in US-Soviet relations.
20th May - John Anthony Walker Jnr., a warrant officer in the US Navy, was arrested for espionage. It later emerged that Walker had been providing intelligence information to the Soviets since 1968. His son and brother also formed part of the spy ring.
10th July - French agents sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing one man. The Rainbow Warrior had been involved in protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
6th August - Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union began what it announced was a 5-month unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons. The Reagan administration dismissed the dramatic move as nothing more than propaganda and refused to follow suit. Gorbachev declared several extensions, but the United States failed to reciprocate, and the moratorium came to an end on February 5, 1987.
19th November - Gorbachev and Reagan met for the first time, at a three day summit in Switzerland. They agreed to more meetings in the future.

1986

8th January - President Reagan froze Libyan assets in the USA.
January 28th - The US space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch, killing all seven astronauts on-board.
12 February - After spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labour camps, human rights activist Anatoly Scharansky was released.
13 February - France launched Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk) in an effort to repulse the Libyan invasion of Chad.
25 February - The People Power Revolution took place in the Philippines, overthrowing Ferdinand Marcos, dictator since 1965. The Philipines first female president was Corazon Aquino.
Speaking at a Communist Party congress, Mikhail Gorbachev unveiled the keywords of his reformist policy - Glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).
15th April - U.S. planes bombed Libya in "Operation El Dorado Canyon".
26th April - A Soviet nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, exploded, killing 56 people and contaminating a large area. The Chernobyl disaster had long-lasting physical, social and economic consequences, being the largest civil nuclear incident of all time.
5th July - The opening ceremony of the first Goodwill Games was held in Moscow. Created by American broadcaster Ted Turner, the Goodwill Games were designed to heal the acrimony created by the 1980 and 1984 Olympic boycotts.
11th-12th October - Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for a second time, at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. This meeting failed to reach agreement on arms control.
17th October - Ronald Reagan signed into law an act of Congress approving $100 million of military and "humanitarian" aid for the Contras in Nicaragua.
3rd Nov.ember - The Iran-Contra affair - The Reagan administration publicly announced that it had been selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages and illegally transferring the profits to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1987

5th January - Ronald Reagan underwent prostate surgery. Some sections of the media speculated whether Reagan might have to resign from office.
16th January - Gorbachev expressed his hope that through initiatives of openness, debate and participation, that the Soviet people would support Perestroika (economic development). Natives within the Party opposed his policies of economic reform.
4th March - Reagan addressed the nation on television and denied approving or ordering the sale of arms to Iran, in order to fund the Contras movement in Nicaragua.
17th May - The American frigate USS Stark was attacked by an Iraqi jet, which fired two Exocet missiles. The blast killed 37 American sailors.
June - Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev announced new policies of open debate (glasnost) and economic reform (perestroika).
8th June - Western musicians including David Bowie, Genesis and the Eurythmics perform in West Berlin, close to the Berlin Wall. A large crowd of East Berliners gather on the other side to listen and ignore police orders to disband.
12th June - During a visit to Berlin, Germany, U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously challenged Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in a speech - "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (The Berlin Wall).

August - American singer-pianist Billy Joel held a brief tour of the Soviet Union, performing in Moscow, Leningrad and Tbilisi.
10th September - The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola began.
18th November - After nearly a year of hearings into the Iran-Contra scandal, the Joint Congressional Investigating Committee issued its final report. It concluded that the scandal, involving a complicated plan whereby some of the funds from secret weapons sales to Iran were used to finance the Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, was one in which the administration of Ronald Reagan exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law."
8th December - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Some later claimed this was the official end of the Cold War. Gorbachev agreed to the START I treaty banning all medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe.

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Timeline - 1980-1989

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989