Vintage Photos Show What Life In 1980s America Really Looked Like

The decade that made America great again

The 1980s in America were a time of big movies, big tunes and equally big hair. The election of President Ronald Reagan brought renewed optimism but also massive challenges as he confronted the specter of the ‘evil empire,’ the Soviet Union.

Read on as we relive the most incredible moments from a decade that completely revolutionized music, fashion – and the world..

1980: The miracle on ice

February 1980 saw the XIII Olympic Winter Games held at Lake Placid in New York. The games were marked by underlying tensions between the US and the USSR over the latter’s invasion of Afghanistan the previous December, with protestors calling for the Soviet Union to be banned. The Men’s Ice Hockey semifinal became a de facto battle between the two countries, with the US defeating the heavily fancied Soviet Union 4-3, in an upset victory that became known as the ‘Miracle on Ice.’

The US, along with 64 other countries, promptly boycotted the summer games in Moscow barely five months later.

1980: Reagan promises to make America great again

In November 1980, Americans went to the polls amid double-digit inflation, rising unemployment, and the ongoing Iran hostage crisis, where 52 American embassy staff had been held captive since the previous year. The situation left incumbent President Jimmy Carter looking weak and ineffective, while his opponent, former movie star Ronald Reagan, radiated easy-going charm and confidence.

Reagan’s promise to 'Make America Great Again' struck a chord with voters, and he carried 44 of the 50 states, securing 489 electoral votes – one of the largest landslides of the era.

1980: John Lennon murdered

Shockwaves reverberated around the world on December 8, 1980 when John Lennon was brutally shot outside his apartment building in New York City. The former Beatle was returning to the Dakota Building with his wife Yoko Ono when his murderer stepped out of the shadows and fired five shots, hitting Lennon four times in the back and shoulder.

The gunman, Mark David Chapman, waited to be apprehended and has since said that he was "angry and jealous" at the way the Beatle was living and was seeking "glory" for himself. Here we see mourners gathered at an impromptu vigil the next day, shock and disbelief etched in their faces.

1981: President Reagan shot

Barely three months after John Lennon was murdered, an assassination attempt was made on the life of the newly inaugurated president, Ronald Reagan. Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington DC on March 30 when John Hinckley Jr fired six shots at the President and his security team.

Reagan was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off his heavy armored limousine and spent 13 days in hospital. His press secretary, James Brady, was shot in the head and never fully recovered. Hinckley later admitted he was trying to impress the actress, Jodie Foster.

1981: First space shuttle launched

April 1981 saw the launch and successful return of the world’s first reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle Columbia. The Space Shuttle was designed to launch like a rocket, orbit like a spacecraft and land like a plane, making transport to and from Earth more efficient and affordable.

Over the next 30 years the Columbia and her siblings carried astronauts into space, launched and repaired satellites, conducted scientific experiments and helped build the International Space Station (ISS), the largest structure ever built in space.

1981: MTV launched

The latter half of 1981 saw another equally seismic launch, that of the music video channel MTV, Music Television. It was the first channel to broadcast music videos 24/7 and went on to revolutionize the music industry, shape popular culture and make superstars out of the likes of Madonna, Dire Straits, and Michael Jackson.

The first images shown on the channel were a montage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, with the astronauts planting an MTV flag rather than an American one. The first video, appropriately, was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.

1982: America mourns 'The man in the water'

Americans watched in horror as workers used a crane to lift the wreckage of Air Florida Flight 90 out of the icy Potomac River in Washington DC in January 1982. The plane crashed shortly after take-off killing 74 on board and four motorists who were on the bridge the aircraft hit – but it is the selfless acts of the ‘man on the water’, Arland Dean Williams Jr, that people remember most.

Williams was one of six passengers who survived the crash, but drowned while selflessly helping the other five escape the wreckage.

1982: Jane Fonda single-handedly creates the fitness industry

In April 1982, Hollywood actress Jane Fonda made a video of the exercise routines she was teaching at her workout studio in Beverly Hills and kickstarted the fitness industry. Released just as VHS players were becoming more affordable, the video became a worldwide bestseller, selling more than 17 million copies and bringing leg warmers firmly back into fashion. It also saw Fonda inducted into the Video Hall of Fame, the first non-engineer to receive that honor.

1982: Vietnam Veteran Memorial dedication

After years of being ignored and vilified, Vietnam War veterans received long-overdue recognition with the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. Located on the National Mall, near the Lincoln Memorial, the deliberately minimalist black granite wall appears as a 'gash' on the landscape, symbolizing an unhealed wound. It bears the names of more than 58,000 service members who died or went missing during the war between 1955 and 1975.

The memorial was dedicated on Veterans Day, November 13, 1982, and drew the large crowds seen here. 

1983: The CD revolution begins

When Compact Discs finally reached American shores in March 1983, CD players – like this Philips one advertised in National Geographic – cost over $1000, and the discs were almost $20 a pop. But the crisp, clear sound and convenience quickly won over music lovers and they became extremely popular. (It also helped that they were very cheap to produce for the music labels.) CDs would not overtake vinyl sales until 1988, but their impact was much more far reaching.

By turning music into ones and zeros, CDs opened the way for the streaming service that dominate the way we listen to music today.

1983: The US invades Grenada

At dawn on October 25, 1983, the United States and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the tiny island of Grenada. The aim of the operation, codenamed ‘Urgent Fury,’ was to overthrow the military government that had taken power in a bloody coup a few days earlier and to counter growing Soviet and Cuban influence in the region.

The operation only lasted four days, but it was a forerunner of other US ‘interventions’ across the region in Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti.

1983: Thriller aired

Directed by Jon Landis and reported to have cost up to a million dollars to make, the nearly 14-minute-long musical horror video for Michael Jackson’s song, Thriller, was a truly cultural event. When it first aired on MTV on 2 December 1983, the channel received 10 times the usual amount of viewers and the Thriller album went on to sell 29 million copies in the US alone, topping the charts for an unprecedented 37 weeks.

The video sealed MTV's reputation as a new cultural force and its impact can still be seen today in Thriller-themed flash mob routines across the globe.

1984: LA Olympics

Tainted by a tit-for-tat boycott by the Soviet Union and the nations within its orbit, the XXIII Olympic Games held in Los Angeles in 1984 were nevertheless memorable. Carl Lewis matched Jesse Owens’ 1936 record, winning four gold medals. Mary Lou Retton became the first American woman to win the gymnastics all-around competition. And thanks to corporate deals the Olympics turned a profit for the first time since 1932.

Ask any kid, however, and the undisputed highlight was the man wearing a jetpack (pictured), hovering over the opening ceremony.

1984: A stellar year for music

The year 1984 saw the biggest names in US popular music release career-defining albums. Prince gave the world Purple Rain, Madonna unleashed Like A Virgin and Bruce Springsteen (pictured) dropped his juggernaut, Born in the USA, which was also the first CD to be pressed in the USA. Tina Turner, Van Halen and Lionel Ritchie also released best selling records. So monumental, in retrospect, was the year’s music,

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently opened an entire exhibition dedicated to the music of 1984, describing it as ‘pop music’s best ever year.’

1985: New Coke fails the taste test

Faced with Pepsi gaining market share and their own blind taste tests showing that consumers preferred the taste of their rival, in April 1985 Coca Cola took the unprecedented step of introducing a new version of Coca Cola. Called New Coke, it was sweeter and tasted more like Pepsi – but the backlash was almost immediate.

By July, ‘New Coke’ was gone and ‘Classic Coke’ was back. Some cynics suggested it was all an elaborate marketing ploy. “We’re not that dumb and we’re not that smart,” admitted company president Donald Keough.

1985: Rock Hudson dies of AIDS

Actor Rock Hudson was tall, dark and handsome and the epitome of Hollywood masculinity. He was also gay, something that his legions of fans were unaware of until he revealed that he had AIDS in 1985. Suddenly he was the human face of a disease that had been ignored by the mainstream press for much of the decade as a ‘gay plague.’  

When Hudson died of complications from AIDS on October 2, 1985, he had raised public awareness of the epidemic and softened the public mood. 

1985: The first version of Windows released

When the first version of Microsoft’s now ubiquitous operating system, Windows, was released on November 20, 1985, it was met with an almost universal ‘meh.’ It was clunky and confusing, especially when compared with the more user-friendly graphical user interface developed by Apple for the Macintosh. But Bill Gates, the (then) young president of Microsoft, seen here in March of the same year, had the foresight to license his OS to other computer manufacturers, meaning it was used in office computers across the nation.

By version 3.0, Windows was more user-friendly, transforming Microsoft into the trillion-dollar company it is today.

1986: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

The Challenger Space Shuttle’s mission on January 28, 1986 was meant to go down in history as the first flight to launch a non-astronaut citizen into space. Just 73 seconds into its flight, Challenger made a different kind of history when it broke apart, killing high school teacher Christa McAuliffe and her six fellow crew members.

It was the worst space disaster ever, witnessed live by millions of horrified Americans. A subsequent commission found a faulty O-ring was to blame and $2 billion was spent making nearly 400 improvements before the next shuttle flight was launched on September 29, 1988.

1986: Hands Across America unites the nation

After enjoying huge success raising money for the hungry and needy of Africa with the star-packed charity single We Are the World, charity chief Ken Kragen decided to turn his mind to helping the hungry and homeless of America. The result was Hands Across America, a charity stunt that saw over five million people form a human chain across the nation.

The 4,125-mile route passed through 16 states from Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan to Long Beach in California. Here we see participants in the desert west of Phoenix, where in places ranchers filled the voids by placing their cattle hoof-to-hoof.

1986: Mike Tyson becomes the youngest ever champ

It may be hard to imagine after his recent farcical bout against internet celebrity Jake Paul, but there was a time when boxer Mike Tyson was the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet.’ In Las Vegas on November 22, 1986, he became the youngest heavyweight world champion in history by knocking out Trevor Berbick in just five minutes and 35 seconds. Tyson continued to throw ‘hydrogen bombs,’ his nickname for his deadly punches, for the rest of the decade.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” he famously said before his bout with Tyrell Biggs in 1987.

1987: Golden Gate Bridge celebrates its 50th anniversary

On May 24, 1987, a staggering 800,000 people crammed on and around San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its opening. The weight of so many people on the structure (pictured) saw the usual concave shape of the bridge flattened, although District Engineer Daniel E. Mohn was quick to point out that the structural integrity of the bridge was not overstretched.

The bridge, often shrouded in fog, had become (and remains) an enduring symbol of the city, with a dedicated team of engineers and workers continuously inspecting, repairing and repainting the bridge to protect it from corrosion caused by salt air.

1987: Reagan implores Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall”

At the beginning of the 1980s, relations between the US and the Soviet Union had hit new lows, with President Reagan calling the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire’ and threatening to ‘leave them on the ash-heap of history.’ But the appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader in 1985, with his policies of ‘Perestroika’ (restructuring) and ‘Glasnost’ (openness), provided Reagan with a man he could deal with.

By the time Reagan visited Berlin to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the city on June 12, 1987, he could famously call on Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall” and be confident that he would probably listen.

1987: Greed is Good

The movie Wall Street was released on December 11, 1987 and quickly became a box office success around the world. Michael Douglas memorably played the central character of Gordon Gecko, a cigar smoking financial trader whose mantra 'Greed is Good' came to represent the excesses of the Eighties.

Nominally the villain of the movie, many aspiring financiers saw Gecko as a role model and began emulating the anti-hero in real life, despite the stock market crash on Wall Street and around the world only a few months before on October 19, a day that became known as Black Monday.

1988: Tragedy on the ice for US skater

Every Olympic Games has its heroic tales of triumph over adversity, but sometimes it's a tale of tragedy that resonates most deeply. Here we see US speed skater Dan Jansen sitting on the ice, head in hands, after falling for the second time during the Men’s 1000m event at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. One of the favorites for the event, his sister had died of leukemia that morning.

Jansen went on to win gold at the next winter Olympics in Lillehammer, dedicating the medal to his sister.

1988: Gangsta rap goes mainstream

The Eighties are often remembered as an era of day-glow pop, but 1988 saw another darker, arguably more influential genre step into the spotlight. The release of NWA’s album, Straight Outta Compton, brought Gangsta Rap into the mainstream and threw an unrelenting light on the racism and police brutality faced by young Black men in America.

The album would go triple platinum, revolutionizing hip hop and establishing its potential for social commentary and turning the genre into a global phenomenon.

1988: Stealth bomber unveiled

The world caught sight of the US Air Force’s iconic B-2 Stealth Bomber for the first time when it was unveiled in Palmdale California on November 22, 1988. The aircraft’s innovative ‘flying wing’ design gave it a distinctive ‘alien’ look and used stealth materials and shapes to make it effectively undetectable at normal combat ranges.

It was first used in Kosovo, where it flew 1% of the total missions, yet destroyed 33% of the targets. It also became a favorite of Hollywood directors, appearing in Independence Day, Armageddon, and Iron Man 2.

1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill

On March 24, 1989, an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound in southern Alaska after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground. The spill contaminated 1,300 miles of coastline and killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds, sea otters, seals, and whales. Despite a massive cleanup effort, pockets of crude oil remain in some areas to this day, particularly in isolated or subsurface locations.

A subsequent investigation found that Captain Joseph Hazelwood had been drinking prior to the accident, and allowed an unlicensed third mate to steer the vessel, leading to the disaster.

1989: George W Bush declares war on crack

On September 5, 1989, Americans were greeted by the extraordinary sight of the recently elected President George W Bush holding a plastic bag full of crack cocaine. The bag had been seized in a park across from the White House and Bush used it as a prop in a televized speech announcing his plans to crack down on a drug that had been devastating inner city communities across the country for most of the decade.

“It's as innocent looking as candy," Bush intoned gravely. “But it's turning our cities into battle zones."