It’s hard to keep up with all the things that happened during the 1980s. While some events have become a permanent fixture in people’s minds, other things have seemingly been forgotten. For example, who knows how many U.S. presidents there were during this decade? How about the name of the most popular movie of the decade? Well, here are some fun questions that will challenge anyone’s memory, even Gen-Xers.
It’s hard to keep up with all the things that happened during the 1980s. While some events have become a permanent fixture in people’s minds, other things have seemingly been forgotten. For example, who knows how many U.S. presidents there were during this decade? How about the name of the most popular movie of the decade? Well, here are some fun questions that will challenge anyone’s memory, even Gen-Xers.
Ironically, they’re not actual people. Luke and Laura are fictional characters from the soap opera “General Hospital.” But to millions of viewers, they were real enough and might as well been royalty.
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” was recorded in July of 1989 and released on September 27, 1989. Billy Joel did not mention Jackie Kennedy in his song, but oddly enough, her late husband, John F. Kennedy, was mentioned two times.
There was no ghost named Tinky in the game. Pinky, Blinky and Inky banded together with another ghost named Clyde to take down Pac-Man through a maze in this classic arcade game.
The Cable News Network, or CNN for short, has been around for over 40 years. The network’s first story dealt with civil rights leader Vernon Jordan and an attempt on his life.
The “Just Say No” campaign was the U.S. government’s movement to tackle the growing crisis of controlled substances use. And Nancy Reagan spearheaded the campaign. With her help, the country was able to shine a much needed light on the problem.
"Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger played in the background as actor Tom Cruise danced and lip synched in his underwear. The scene continues to live on in pop culture history.
In the film that spawned several spin-offs, Robert Englund played Freddy Krueger, a serial killer who stalked his prey in their dreams and used a glove with knives for fingers to take down his victims.
When the character J.R. (played by Larry Hagman) was shot, viewers were dying to know who did it and why. Eventually, the culprit was revealed to be none other than Kristin Shepard and about 83 million viewers tuned in to find that out.
On October 14, 1987, Jessica McClure from Midland, Texas, fell down a well that was twenty-nine feet deep and she was trapped there for 56 hours. Fortunately, rescue teams worked tirelessly to get her back to her family alive and well.
On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington. The volcanic explosions that followed created a massive cloud that was covered by pretty much every local and national news outlet.
Bill Clinton became president in 1993 and he served two terms until 2001. He was also impeached in 1998 but he was later acquitted over a scandal with former intern Monica Lewinsky. But none of these events happened in the 1980s.
President Reagan had a habit of pipe smoking, but when he gave it up, he took up another vice—jelly beans. So, anyone who was fortunate enough to visit the White House during his time in office was given Jelly Belly brand jelly beans.
In 1980, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker had the ultimate showdown. But it’s during this conflict that Darth delivered the iconic line that left audiences reeling— ”Luke, I am your father.”
The Little People dolls were developed by Xavier Roberts, who at the time was nothing more than an art student. But eventually, his dolls became the Cabbage Patch Kids, one of the most iconic toys of the 1980s.
“The Bionic Woman” premiered in 1976. It was a spin-off of “The Six Million Dollar Man.” In the original series, Jaime Sommers was made bionic after a skydiving accident. But she rejected her implants and died. But audiences loved her so much that producers revived the character and gave her a spin-off series.
The British rock group broke up after a Live Aid concert in 1985, which they deemed a total failure. Years later, guitarist Andy Taylor said that the concert revealed vulnerabilities in the group’s unity off-stage.
The Falklands War happened in 1982 over a territorial dispute about which country owned the island. But after 10 weeks, Argentina surrendered after suffering devastating casualties. And to this day, the islands remain a part of British territory.
Simon tested players’ memories by flashing lights and sounds on the saucer-shaped game. Then the player had to tap the lights in the same order and it wasn’t always as easy as it looked.
People created this crimping style by using an iron on their hair. However, others preferred a safer approach by leaving their hair in braids for a while to create the same effect.
In July of 1988, Bruce Springsteen gave a message of hope to the people in East Berlin during a concert there. Ironically, the Berlin Wall finally fell little over a year after he made this statement.
Music legend John Lennon was the founder of the Beatles. He and his bandmates became famous around the world. But sadly, the English singer died in December of 1980.
“Baby Be Mine” was one of the songs that was not released as a single. The other song on the album that wasn't a single was called “The Lady in My Life.” But no one can deny that all the songs on the album were epic.
About a billion people across the world tuned into their television sets on July 29, 1981 to watch Prince Charles and Princess Diana get married. At the time, they were considered a fairy tale couple. Unfortunately, they separated in 1992, but they didn’t officially divorce until 1996.
In today’s world, people drool over the large shoe collections of celebs like the Kar-Jenners. But in the 1980s, it wasn’t the norm to have so many shoes. Unfortunately, this was the least of Imelda’s problems as she was later forced into exile along with her husband.
While there were other male characters in the Strawberry Shortcake universe, Huckleberry Pie was the main one. And according to the official Strawberry Shortcake site, he’s from Berry Big City.
The phrase “what’s your damage?” was included in the 1989 teen comedy film after screenwriter Daniel Waters heard it said by a camper when he was working as a camp counselor.
The song “Video Killed the Radio Star” was recorded by the band The Buggles, and it was only the third song that the band had ever written. But despite it’s place in music history, neither the song or the band were very popular in the U.S. following its TV debut.
New Coke, as it was dubbed by customers, first appeared on the market in 1985 as a reformulation of the classic soft drink. But fans weren’t impressed by the new taste and the company discontinued it years later in 2002.
Tommy Tutone is often considered a one-hit wonder for their hit song “Jenny,” but the band released five albums from 1980 to 1989. The famous number is now used by a variety of businesses with different area codes across the United States.
Although director Robert Zemeckis didn’t set out to accurately predict the future in the film, his entertaining look at 2015 got a few things right, like fingerprint scanning technology, tablet computers, hands-free video games and flying drones.
“Mystic Pizza” jump started a lot of careers, including first time director Donald Petrie, and actor Matt Damon, who made his film debut with a cameo in the movie.
“The Golden Girls” ran for seven seasons from 1985 to 1992 and featured actresses Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty. The series also won three Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series.
“The Princess Bride” wasn’t a major box office success after its release in 1987, but it has since gained a cult following and it has been inducted into the National Film Registry of the United States for being deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Ride was the first American woman in space and the third woman to go to space in history, after Valentina Tereshkova, who made a solo voyage in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya, who was the first woman to perform a spacewalk.
Run DMC’s cover of “Walk This Way,” which featured the rock band Aerosmith, helped revitalize the career of the rock n’ roll group and convert more listeners to the new genre of hip hop.
The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was manufactured from 1983 to 1994 and at the time of its release, it was priced at $3995, which would be equivalent to $9,831 today.
The Apple company was founded in 1976, but in 1985, when the Macintosh failed to succeed over PCs, the board of directors removed Jobs from the Macintosh group. It was during this time that Jobs founded the film studio Pixar.
The Sony walkman was first released in 1979 as a portable cassette player, and the Walkman was later adapted as a portable CD player. Production stopped on the Walkman in 2010 after Sony had built about 200 million cassette-playing Walkmans.
The game “Donkey Kong” was released in 1981 and it featured the soon-to-be iconic plumber four years before the Super Mario Brothers series was released.
Mr. T was born Laurence Tureaud in 1952. After his father left his life when he was five years old, Tureaud shorted his last name to Tero, and he legally changed his last name to “T” in 1970 at the age of 18.