1980s History from Around the World Quiz

Answer: Japan

Tokyo Disneyland opened on April 15, 1983 in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, close to Tokyo. It started as just a theme park, but has grown into an entire resort complex called Tokyo Disney Resort. Tokyo Disney Resort includes two theme parks--Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea--as well as shops, entertainment venues, restaurants, and hotels.

Tokyo Disney Resort is owned and operated by the Oriental Land Company. It was the Oriental Land Company that originally approached Disney about going to Japan and establishing a park. The talks and negotiations between to two countries began in 1974 and the original contract was signed in 1979.

Answer: Six/Canada

It came to be known as "The Canadian Caper". On November 4, five Americans escaped from the consular building in the embassy grounds during the attack that focused on the main embassy building. With the help of a Thai cook, the five managed to lie low for six days, until one of them contacted John Sheardown, an official at the Canadian embassy.

Sheardown immediately agreed to take in the Americans. When the five arrived at Sheardown's home they were also greeted by Ambassador Ken Taylor. A sixth American, who had been in hiding at the Swedish embassy was also taken in by the Canadians, when the Swedes decided he was more likely to be able to pass as a Canadian than as a Swede.

The six spent the next two months in the homes of Taylor and Sheardown, while the Canadian government worked primarily with the CIA to come up with a plan to get the Americans out of Iran.

The Canadian government even had to take secret action to give six legitimate blank passports to the CIA to be turned into passports for the six--an act which was illegal under Canadian law. On January 27, 1980, the six boarded a Swissair flight out of Tehran and ordered bottles of champagne to celebrate as soon as the flight crossed out of Iranian airspace.

The Canadian embassy was closed down the next day with Taylor and Sheardown immediately leaving the country. It was a fortunate decision, since a Canadian reporter who had known for more than a month that the Americans were being sheltered by the Canadian embassy staff broke the story that day. On July 11, 1980, one of the hostages was released because he had developed multiple sclerosis, which the Iranians were unable to treat. It wasn't until January 20, 1981 that the remaining 52 hostages were released within minutes of Ronald Reagan becoming president, since the Iranians did not want to release the hostages to President Jimmy Carter, whom they despised.

Answer: Friendship Games

The official opening ceremony took place on August 18 in Moscow. The actual sporting events, however, began on July 2 in North Korea. The games lasted from July 2 to September 16, 1984, and they took place in nine different countries, including the Soviet Union, Cuba, East Germany, North Korea, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Mongolia.

The nations that boycotted the LA Olympic Games sent their best competitors to the Friendship Games, but some other nations that were competing in the Olympics also sent their reserve teams to play in the games.

Answer: All of these

It took the Soviet Union five days to admit that its military had shot down KAL007. The South Korean government immediately designated the United States and Japan as the official salvage agents. That made it illegal for the Soviet Union to salvage anything from the plane.

But the Soviets did salvage much from the plane, including the black boxes. And what was on the black box recordings was horrifying. Despite the missile strike, the pilots were alive and trying desperately to gain some control over the aircraft.

They radioed air traffic controllers in Japan, giving them a sense of the emergency but never saying the plane had been hit by a missile. It was believed that the majority of the 269 people aboard died from the impact of the plane into the water.

The Russian government didn't release the transcripts until 1992.

Answer: Assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

Gandhi had ordered "Operation Blue Star", which was to attack elements of the Sikh community that were in favor of secession from the rest of India. The Indian army attacked the temple complex, killing many Sikh pilgrims and allegedly destroying many Sikh holy books. Ironically, in the aftermath, India's Intelligence Bureau removed Sikhs from Gandhi's bodyguard detail. Fearing the perception that she was anti-Sikh, she personally ordered them put back into place, particularly her favorite, Beant Singh, who was one of the two who killed her on October 31, 1984.

Answer: Cuba

These refugees became known as the "Marielitos", since they left from Mariel Harbor in Cuba. Fidel Castro made an announcement that anyone who wanted to leave was free to do so. It was later discovered that many of the refugees who made it to the United States had been freed from prisons and mental institutions. Before this, refugees often sought asylum in the embassies of several South American countries. Once Castro gave permission for people to leave, Cuban-Americans hired boats to pick the refugees up at Mariel Harbor.

The huge influx of immigrants caused massive problems for American authorities and in October, 1980 the boatlift ended.

Answer: Mexico City

There are discrepancies about how many people died in the Mexico City quake. But the most reliable sources put the number at around 10,000. Around 4,000 people were rescued. Thousands of buildings were damaged, with hundreds destroyed. There was massive damage at the Hospital Juarez, where rescuers spent days digging through the rubble to find survivors. And one group of the tiniest survivors became known as the "Miracle Babies".

Some of the newborns were found alive up to one week after the quake, surviving without food, water or any care. Sadly, many of their mothers died in the earthquake. What happened with this earthquake helped create the System de Alert Seismic (Seismic Alert System), which uses censors to detect seismic activity and sound alarms for anything over 6.0 on the Richter scale.

Answer: Australia

The yacht that won was the "Australia II", sailed by captain John Bertrand for the Royal Perth Yacht Club. The American entry, "Liberty" was under the guidance of captain Dennis Conner, for the defending New York Yacht Club which had held the cup for the entire 132-year history of the race.

After six head-to-head races each side had won three of the matches. In a shocker, "Australia II" won the seventh race by 41 seconds, dethroning the Americans. The Royal Perth Yacht club proudly displayed the trophy until the next set of races in 1987, when the US and Dennis Conner promptly took the cup right back.

Answer: Oscar Romero

Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador in February, 1977. He actively opposed atrocities by the government, including torture, assassination and other human rights abuses. On March 24, 1980, as he was finishing a sermon at Hospital de la Providencia, a gunman entered the chapel a shot him in the heart, killing him. That came only one day after he had delivered a sermon asking soldiers to stop following the murderous orders of the government.

The Civil War in El Salvador lasted until 1992.

Answer: After the plane crashed, she guided all the passengers to safety and checked to ensure there was no one left before she exited the burning plane

The plane Wang was on crashed while in the landing pattern at Manila International Airport. After the crash Wang told passengers she would be the last to leave the plane. As the cabin filled with smoke, Wang tried to keep the passengers calm and get them out of the plane.

She had to convince some passengers to leave their luggage and had to push some of the panicking passengers out of the plane to save them. By the time she was certain there was no one left in the plane, the exit was almost completely blocked by fire. Wang, who had burns over 40 percent of her body, had to jump out of the plane, further injuring her ankle. Because of her heroic efforts, only two people died in the crash.