1GUNRUNNER:
1981 IBM launches their PC. BMW develops the first in-car computer. PacMan hits the arcades. Shuttle Columbia launched. Prince Charles and Lady Di wedded.
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1982 Barney Clark receives artificial heart - operation by Dr William de Vries. European doctors offer liposuction. Rings around Neptune discovered. First papal visit to Britain since 1531. PacMan is Time Magazine's "Man of the Year."
1983 HIV virus identified. Cabbage Patch Kids debuts, as does Madonna. Sally Ride is first US woman in space. Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to travel beyond the solar system. Grandson of Alexander Graham Bell answers first commerical cell phone call. Computer hackers break into US defence computers. Programmer Jaron Lanier coins the term "virtual reality".
1984 Apple Computers launch the Macintosh. Canadian writer invents the word "cyberspace". Dr William Clewall perform the first operation on an unborn foetus. Bruce McCandless becomes the first man to fly in space without a safety line.
1985 British scientist Joe Farman discovers the hole in the ozone. Dr Alec Jeffreys discovers genetic fingerprint, using DNA, at Leicester University. Lasers are first used in surgery. Clive Sinclair introduces the battery-operated car. Commercial whaling banned.
1986 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeagar makes the first non-stop non-refuelling flight around the world. Nuclear reactor explodes in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Soviet Union launches Mir space station. Fuji introduces disposable camera. Tom Cruise stars in Top Gun.
1987 World population reaches 5 billion. World stock exchanges collapse on Black Monday, 20 Oct. First optic cable is laid across Atlantic Ocean. Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand make first transatlantic hot air balloon crossing. GM invents active suspension, on Lotus F1 car.
1988 US introduces the F-117 stealth fighter. Prozac launched, as is RV486, an abortion-inducing drug. Bombs set by Lybian terrorists explodes on Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" is published..... ......... ...............