'Time' Magazine Reports: The 1980s Quiz

Answer: Abscam Scandal

Abscam was the first major scandal involving Congress to play out on television thanks to FBI videotapes of bribes being handed to five representatives and one senator.
"Everybody was laughing at what was happening. It was like guys coming out of the bush, saying, 'Hey, give me some of the money.' They'd pay one guy and the next day five guys would be calling them, guys they didn't know. The tapes are hilarious."
"So said a former federal prosecutor last week, but on Capitol Hill no one shared the amusement. Too many of "the guys" were members of Congress, and "the tapes" were both video and audio, catching the sight and sound of them accepting money to perform special favors."

Also in 1980: Japan becomes worlds largest auto producer, Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington killing 57, oil platform capsizes off Norway with the loss of 123.

Answer: Brixton Riots

'Time' continued, "Rocks, bricks and Molotov cocktails began to fly. As police reinforcements rushed in, an orgy of burning and looting swept down Railton Road, a principal neighborhood shopping avenue, leaving automobiles gutted and shops in flames."
By the time the violent weekend was over, almost 300 police and 65 citizens were injured; several buildings were burned and more looted.
"As a Brixton resident gloomily put it, "Next time it might be Cardiff or Liverpool. They've got the same problems: rundown cities and high unemployment."
Eddy Grant's 1982 song 'Electric Avenue' was about the Brixton Riots. Electric Avenue is a street in Brixton, although little occurred there during the riots.

Also in 1981: John Kennedy Toole posthumously awarded Pulitzer prize for novel 'A Confederacy of Dunces,' MTV signs on 24 hour music videos with "Video Killed the Radio Star," Iran releases 52 American hostages held for 444 days.

Answer: Equal Rights Amendment

The amendment was one sentence.
"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
'Time' said that the opposition to the ERA, "the Eagle Forum, Fundamentalist Christian churches, the Moral Majority, the John Birch Society, the Mormon Church, the American Farm Bureau-was well financed and smoothly organized almost from the start. While ERA supporters staged national demonstrations, foes visited state legislators to argue that women are already protected by the 14th Amendment, which offers equal protection to "all persons." They quickly co-opted the fight and mired it down in dire warnings of homosexual marriages and unisex toilets."
Polls showed consistently that its passage was favored by more than two-thirds of U.S. citizens but that made no difference to legislators in five states who actually voted in 1979 to rescind earlier ratificaation of the amendment.

Also in 1982: John Belushi dies of a drug overdose at 33, Grammy album of the year 'Double Fantasy' by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, British submarine sinks the Argentine cruiser 'General Belgrano' during Falklands War.

Answer: Adolf Hitler

Time described 'Stern's own coverage of its embarrassing boondoggle, "The cover image was Stern at its low-down best: a man in a black gangster-style fedora aiming a gun out toward the reader. Inside the West German photoweekly was a pulse-quickening tale of intrigue: clandestine meetings of unrepentant Nazis, secret trips across a Communist border, bags of money tossed from one speeding car to another. What made Stern's investigation so notable, however, was that the magazine exposed its own management's gullibility..."
Oddly, the forgery scandal may have done more for 'Stern's circulation than the "diaries" themselves which only increased sales a little above normal numbers.

Also in 1983: UK mandates use of auto seatbelts, cost of 1983 Ford Mustang $6,572, Motorola begins testing cellular phone service in Chicago.

Answer: Union Carbide

"A few hundred yards from the chemical plant, M.A. Khan, a farmer, was lying in bed when he heard several thumps at a nearby dairy farm and sensed that his own cows were milling about restlessly. He arose and went outside. Two cows were dead on the ground. A third gave out a loud groan and collapsed as Khan watched. Then the farmer's eyes began to smart painfully. He ran into the darkness. The day after, at Bhopal's Hamidia Hospital, his eyes shut tightly and tears streaming down his cheeks, Khan described his fear: "I thought it was a plague.""
The death toll is still subject to discussion. The government estimate is about 3800 fatalities. Other estimates state that there were 8000 deaths from the leak in the first two weeks and another 8000 since the incident. The Indian government maintains that poor maintenance caused the leak. Union Carbide blames sabotage.

Also in 1984: The AIDS virus is identified, cost of a movie ticket $2.50, Supreme Court rules taping TV shows on home VCRs does not violate copyright law.

Answer: Pete Rose

Rose had long been a player whom fans either loved or loved to hate. 'Time' reported discussions among baseball aficionados, "You know what Mickey Mantle says, 'If I'd a hit that many singles, I'd a wore a dress".
"Let's be fair. For someone to get more than 4,000 hits is a terrific accomplishment. Look at a career .328 batter like Rod Carew. It took him almost 19 years just to get to 3,000. Like him or not, Charlie Hustle is on his way to Cooperstown".
Well, Pete Rose is not on his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame but that's a story for another year.

Also in 1985: Coca Cola changes formula, introducing greatly disliked 'New' Coke and quickly returns to 'Classic' formula, Pulitzer Prize for Drama goes to 'Sunday in the Park with George', joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic.

Answer: The Channel Tunnel

Mitterand and Thatcher were in Lille to announce "that their governments had approved the construction of a 31-mile-long rail tunnel linking the two countries. For nearly two centuries, rulers, entrepreneurs and engineers have dreamed of spanning the English Channel."
The tunnel was completed in 1994, just a year after it was projected to open.

Also in 1986: Argentina Wins FIFA World Cup in Mexico, Spain and Portugal join European Community, first PC virus begins to spread via floppy disk.

Answer: The PTL Club

It was a troubled time for televangelism. 'Time' noted, "By pure chance, the Bakker scandal -- involving sex, greed and ministerial rivalries -- has coincided with a controversy swirling about another televangelist. The Rev. Oral Roberts, operator of a TV ministry, university and medical center in Tulsa, had broadcast that God would "call Oral Roberts home" unless by March 31 believers came up with $4.5 million for missionary work. Many Christians, including some Roberts followers, were scandalized by what they perceived to be implicit spiritual blackmail."

Also in 1987: Oliver North, Jr., tells Congressional inquiry higher officials approved his Iran-Contra operations, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame makes Aretha Franklin first female member, world population passes 5 billion.

Answer: First computer worm spread via Internet

ARPANET was the original name of today's internet. In 1988 a grad studemt at Cornell University developed and released the 'Morris Worm' which soon made its presence known at M.I.T. and the University of California, major links on the network.
"Last Wednesday night computers at both centers started furiously generating unwanted electronic files, clogging up their storage systems and slowing operations to a crawl. Almost immediately, similar problems began turning up at other centers throughout the network, from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington to New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Within hours, operators shut down thousands of machines across the country to quarantine them, severing their connections to other computers and rendering productive work all but impossible...Said a Government computer expert: "The kid simply put us out of action."

Also in 1988: Grammy Record of the Year 'Graceland' by Paul Simon, 290 die when US Navy cruiser shoots down Iranian airliner, mistaking it for jet fighter, UK price of gallon of petrol 1.67 pounds.

Answer: Winnie Mandela

"To much of the outside world she became the grande dame of the South African revolution, a worthy surrogate for her husband Nelson, the imprisoned black nationalist leader. But Winnie, 52, was a strong, willful person who said and did what she liked. She stirred resentment by ignoring the counsel of other black leaders..." She was officially dismissed from leadership of all major antiapartheid groups who were "outraged "by the reign of terror" conducted by the so-called Mandela United Football Club, a gang of street toughs who live at Mandela's house and act as her bodyguards. The catalyst for her tragic fall: Mandela and her "team" are at the center of a police investigation involving three murders."
Charged with several serious crimes, Winnie Mandela was eventually convicted only of kidnapping but served no jail time. A few years later she was divorced by Nelson Mandela. She remained popular with some factions in the African National Congress, but in 2003 she was charged with multiple counts of fraud and theft in an insurance scam. After being convicted, the theft charges were overturned and, again, she served no jail time. She is still involved in South African politics but remains a polarizing figure.

Also in 1989: After 28 years Berlin Wall is opened to West, average price of new house in US $120,000, free elections in Poland bring Solidarity to power.