Significant Events in 1980

 Why did I choose
1980 and what happened that was so significant? It's is the year I was born. What could be more significant than that? J

Quite a few things actually but I’ve selected one event from each month which I think are significant. I have tried to be international in choosing events, and to pick a variety of subjects, from natural disasters, politics, entertainment and sports. I hope you find it interesting and feel free to let me know your significant event from 1980 in the comments section below.

January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.

Despite GPS project being developed in 1973 and the network not being fully operational until 1994, this date is marked as the beginning of the GPS age as it is when the GPS time and UTC time were correlated. GPS has been of signifcance to the military and civilians in day to day life for many years. Thanks to GPS tracking of military craft is easier and civilians need never be lost again, though every system has its glitches and my car’s GPS has been known to think I was 100m away from where I actually was, making driving down the road an interesting prospect, what with the GPS telling me to stop driving down the middle of a Golf Course.

February 19 – Bon Scott of AC/DC dies of alcohol poisoning.

Bon joined AC/DC in 1974 as son writer and lead vocalist. He was instrumental in the production of some of the biggest AC/DC albums, including “High Voltage”, “T.N.T.”, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”, “Let There Be Rock”, “Powerage” and “Highway to Hell”. Following a night of heavy drinking in a London club called the Music Machine, Bon passed out in a friends car and was discovered lifeless the next morning. Official cause of death is listed as acute alcohol poisoning and death by misadventure. Bon was cremated and interred in Fremantle Cemetery. His grave has been listed as a heritage site by the National trust of Australia due to its cutural significance. Although the remaining band members considered quitting, they decided to continue after receiving blessings from the Scott family. I have had a very strange relationship with AC/DC music over the years (as a little kid I didn’t like them but I had terrible taste back then) but now I hear them every day and I can’t get enough.

March 21 – US President Jimmy Carter announces that the US will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Along with a number of other countries, the United States announced it would boycott the games due to the Soviet invasion of Afganistan. They held their own games, entitled the Olympic Boycott Games (also known as the Liberty Bell Classic). The Soviets then led a return boycott of the 1984 Games held in Los Angeles. I feel for the athletes who trained so hard to make the team only to be told they couldn’t go because of a political statement. There would have been no danger for the athletes and it’s just another case of using sport to push a political agenda.

April 10 – Spain and the United Kingdom agree to reopen the border between Gibraltar and Spain.

The border was ultimately closed in 1969 following a referendum in 1967 in Gibraltar to decide whether to return to Spanish rule or to remain under British rule which overwhelmingly favoured remaining under the British. Although the agreement was made in 1980, the border was not fully opened until 1985, following a partial reopening in 1982, proving once again that countries are quick to act in the negative and slow to act in the positive.

May 17 – a Tampa, Florida court acquits white police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive.

McDuffie initially led police on an 8-minute high speed chase through residential streets before apparently losing control of the motorbike he was riding and being subdued by chasing officers. The police accused McDuffie of kicking them. McDuffie sustained multiple skull fractures, the result of being hit with clubs and fists. The police attempted to cover up the attack by running over McDuffie’s motorbike and claiming the injuries he’d sustained were the result of an accident.

• Veverka – immunity – testified that officers hit McDuffie 10-12 times until motionless and that they attempted to cover this up by running over McDuffie’s motorbike.
• William Hanlon – immunity – testified he had choked McDuffie to the ground and that Marrero struck McDuffie with a flashlight. Also testified that he ran over McDuffie’s motorbike.
• Meier – immunity – testified that McDuffie had slowed down to 25mph and shouted “I give up” and that 3 to 8 officers surrounded McDuffie, pulled off his helmet and proceeded to beat him. Testified that Marrero had struck McDuffie at least twice.
• Ubaldo Del Toro – acquitted by the judge as he said the state failed to prove it’s case
• Alex Marrero – aquitted by all white jury as the murder weapon was never correctly identified.
• Ira Diggs – aquitted by all white jury
• Michael Watts – aquitted by all white jury
• Herbert Evans – aquitted by all white jury

The lack of any convictions led 5,000 people to take to the Miami streets in protest. By nightfall the protest had turned into a riot. Over course of the next few days 3,500 National Guard Troops had been sent in to quell the violence and 15 people were killed. The next year the McDuffie family were awarded a $1.1million settlement in return for dropping their civil suit against the police for wrongful death. Unfortunately, the lessons learned here did not stick. Maybe one day people will learn to get along with each other, regardless of the differences between them.

June 25 – a Muslim Brotherhood assasination attempt against Syrian President Hafez al-Assad fails.

After the 1963 coup by the Ba’thist military, political freedoms were restricted and the Brotherhood were outlawed in 1964. In March, stikes and protests were made all over Syria in reaction to the 17^th anniversary of the Ba’thist coup. The regime of Hafez al-Assad sent tens of thousands of troops, along with tanks and hilcopters, in to disperse the demonstrators, in the process killing hundreds and arresting over 8,000. It took Syrian intelligence almost two years to infiltrate the Brotherhood. In 1982, the so-called Hama Massacre too place in which as many as 40,000 people were killed in the town of Hama when Assad ordered the Syrian Army to bambard the town to quell a revolt by the Brotherhood. Despite this atrocity and it’s leadership being forced into exile, the Brotherhood has continued to advocate for democracy in Syria.

July 9 – Pope John Paul II visits Brazil.

This may not seem like a significant event except for the fact that 7 people were crushed to death in a crowd metting him. More than 1.5 million people turned out to see the Pope on his first visit to Brazil and for it to turn out like it did is tragic. I have never understood the stampede effect. Why do people rush forward? I can understand if you’re in the second row, maybe leaning forward over the first row to shake the Pope’s hand or whatever, but if you’re any further back, what is gained by pushing forward? Why would you risk other people’s lives for a non-existent reward? This goes for any celebrity, not just the Pope.

August 17 – baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from a campsite at Uluru (then known as Ayers Rock).

I grew up with this story hanging over me. Even though I was only 8 months old when it happened, it was always in the news when I was little because of the conviction of her mother and the subsequent appeals and finally release in 1988 after new evidence came to light. While it is generall accepted that she was perhaps taken by a dingo, especially as there have been other attacks and deaths, there are still those who believe that Lindy killed her 9-week-old daughter. The truth of what happened to baby Azaria will be lost to the rock forever and maybe that’s how it was always meant to be.

September 12 – Kenan Evran stages a military coup in Turkey.

Leading up to the 80s, Turkey was facing strikes and the partial paralysis of the political system thanks to a myriad of economic and social problems. The pretext of the coup was to resolve these problems. The coup put a halt to the rampant inflation which had seen the economy on the verge of collapse and the coup also resulted in a complete re-writing of the constitution which was put to a referendum in 1982 and was accepted with 92% of the vote, though evidence would suggest that the referendum was not held with any other result but this in mind. The coup also rounded up between 250,000 and 600,000 people or which 230 were tried, 14,000 were stripped of their citizenship and 50 were executed. Hundreds were tortured and thousands went missing, many of whom are still missing, presumed dead. Hundreds of members of the paramilitary group the Grey Wolves were also imprisoned to prevent them from staging their own coup. Kenan Evran organised general elections to be held in November 1983 however they were hardly democratic in the true sense of the word as parties had to be appoved and the prevailing party was led by one of the instigators of the initial coup. After this election, however, the military regime dissolved itself and the country has’? been relatively free from political trouble and has enjoyed democratic elections ever since.

October 10 - El Asnam, Algeria is destroyed by an earthquake, which claims more than 2,600 lives.

Previously known as Orléansville, the town had previously been almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1954, which took the lives of over 1,500 inhabitants. The 1980 quake claims 2,600 lives (though reports have put the number as high as 3,000). After El Asnam was rebuilt it changed its name to the city of Chlef. Though this earthquake was devastating, with many people losing lives, loved ones and homes, it did show the need to rethink how buildings were constructed in Algeria generally and, more specifically, in the Atlas Mountains, though it also begs the question as to why these lessons weren’t learnt after the 1954 quake. Maybe the construction technologies weren’t available, maybe the communication technologies to get the information through weren’t available. Whatever the reason, if they had rebuilt after the 1954 quake in a shock-resistant method then maybe a lot of lives would have been saved and a lot of people wouldn’t have had to suffer such economic hardship.

November 23 – a magnitude 7 earthquake hits southern Italy.

The quake and its subsequent 90 aftershocks killed approximately 4,800 people and left 300,000 homeless. The Italian government, as well as many other nations, spent millions on reconstructing the affected area, though a major corruption scandal broke in the early 1990s claiming that much of the money earmarked for construction and reliefe efforts actually lined the pockets of the power-hungry and corrupt officials and politicians, meaning only approximately one quarter of the money actually went where it was supposed to. The fact that people can be so selfish saddens me beyond words. I cannot bear the fact that lining ones own pockets is of greater importance than the welfare of your fellow man.

Dec 8 – John Lennon is murdered in New York City.

After the Beatles broke up and John Lennon and Yoko moved to New York, life seemed pretty good. They had two sons, Sean and Julian. John’s solo efforts had been successful. Yet one man saw Lennon as a sell out and a phony. Mark David Chapman, a somewhat sanity challenged individual who (after becoming obsessed with the novel The Catcher in the Rye) saw himself as a real life equivalent of the books protagonist. While he originally entered a not guilty by reason of insanity, he later withdrew this plea and entered a plea of guilty. Discussion has raged over whether Chapman was schizophrenic, sociopathic or just delusional. Being a celebrity attracts the attention of a lot of different people, some good and some bad. The more outspoken you are the more attention you receive. Lennon was not only a member of one of the most famous and successful bands of all time, he was also a passionate activist for world peace. His untimely death perhaps made him a bigger character than he would have been had he either survived the assassination or not been the target in the first place. It’s not the first time this has happened and it certainly won’t be the last but maybe we can learn something from this event to make the world a better and safer place for future generations of popular activists.