May 15, 1942 - Lieutenant Ronald Reagan, a cavalry officer, applies for reassignment to the Army Air Force, where he would eventually put his thespian background to use on World War II propaganda films; June 9, 1942 - given a job as a public relations officer for the First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU)--produced military training, morale and propaganda films to aid the war effort.

November 8, 1966 - Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California.

January 20, 1981 - Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days (after assistance of Algerian intermediaries to establish negotiations), minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan; took off from Teheran in two Boeing 727 airplanes at 12:25 P.M., Eastern standard time, the very moment that Mr. Reagan was concluding his solemn Inaugural Address at the United States Capitol; the United States freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets; next day, Jimmy Carter flew to West Germany to greet the Americans on their way home; Reagan = oldest man to assume the Presidency (69), and in five months became the oldest man to serve in the office.

January 20, 1981 - Ronald Reagan sworn in as the 40th president of the United States. Broke tradition by taking place on the west front terrace of the U.S. Capitol, rather than the east front (to accommodate more visitors).

January 22, 1981 - Donald Regan took the oath as the nation's sixty-sixth Secretary of the Treasury.

January 27, 1981 - President Ronald Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.

February 19, 1981 - U.S. government releases a report detailing how the "insurgency in El Salvador has been progressively transformed into a textbook case of indirect armed aggression by communist powers." The report was another step indicating that the new administration of Ronald Reagan was prepared to take strong measures against what it perceived to be the communist threat to Central America. In response to this perceived threat, the United States dramatically increased its military assistance to the government of El Salvador, provided U.S. advisors to the Salvadoran armed forces, and began a series of National Guard "training exercises" in and around El Salvador; conflict in El Salvador escalated quickly and charges of torture, kidnapping, and assassination flew from both sides of the civil war.

March 23, 1981 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.

April 4, 1981 - Henry Cisneros became the first Mexican-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city - San Antonio, Texas.

April 12, 1981 - The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first test flight; becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space. Piloted by astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young, the Columbia undertook a 54-hour space flight of 36 orbits; April 14, 1981 -  successfully touched down at California's Edwards Air Force Base; February 1, 2003 - Columbia, on its 28th mission, disintegrated during re-entry of the earth's atmosphere; seven astronauts aboard were killed; July 2005 - Discovery returned to space amid concerns that the problems that had downed Columbia had not yet been fully solved.

April 24, 1981 - U.S. ends grain embargo against U.S.S.R.

May 10, 1981 - Socialist Francois Mitterrand defeated incumbent Valery Giscard d'Estaing in France's presidential election.

May 13, 1981 - Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca (23) as he was standing in an open car moving slowly among more than 10,000 worshipers in St. Peter's Square. Escaped Turkish murderer had previously threatened the Pope's life in the name of Islam. Pontiff (60), who was struck by two pistol bullets and wounded in the abdomen, right arm and left hand, underwent 5 hours and 25 minutes of surgery in which parts of his intestine were removed.

May 21, 1981 - Francois Mitterrand becomes president of France.

June 5, 1981 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cases of what became known as AIDS.

June 18, 1981 - Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart retires, replaced by Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on high court.

June 25, 1981 - The Supreme Court decided that male-only draft registration was constitutional.

July 7, 1981 - President Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court; 51-year-old judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals. With the selection, Mr. Reagan fulfilled a campaign promise last year to pick a woman for the Court at one of his earliest opportunities. Associate Justice Stewart announced his retirement last month after 23 years on the Court. September 21 - Senate unanimously approved her appointment to the nation's highest court; September 25 - she was sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger. July 1, 2005 - announced her retirement from the Supreme Court.

August 3, 1981 - 13,000 members of the U.S. Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) chose this day to walk off the job, tired of working clock-busting shifts on "obsolete" equipment. Reagan, citing a law that forbade strikes by federal employees, threatened to fire any workers who were still on the picket line as of August 5th; August 5, 1981 - President Reagan began firing 11,359 air traffic controllers who had gone on strike in violation of his order for them to return to work.

August 13, 1981 - President Ronald Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (also known as the Kemp Roth Tax Cut), historic package of tax and budget reductions, in a ceremony at his California ranch.

August 28, 1981 - John W. Hinckley Jr. pleaded innocent to charges of attempting to kill President Ronald Reagan.

September 25, 1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

October 6, 1981 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was shot to death by Islamic militants (men in military uniforms) who hurled hand grenades and fired rifles at him as he watched a military parade commemorating the 1973 war against Israel. The 62-year-old leader was rushed to Maadi Military Hospital by helicopter and died several hours later.

October 7, 1981 - Egypt's parliament named Vice President Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat; October 13, 1981 - Egyptians voted in a referendum to elect Vice President Hosni Mubarak the new president, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

October 22, 1981 - The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.

November 23, 1981 - President Ronald Reagan signs off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gives the Central Intelligence Agency the power to recruit and support a 500-man force of Nicaraguan rebels to conduct covert actions against the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. A budget of $19 million was established for that purpose. NSDD-17 marked the beginning of official U.S. support for the so-called Contras in their struggle against the Sandinistas; March 1982 - news of the directive leaked to the press, significance downplayed.

November 30, 1981 - The United States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) in Europe; SALT I (1972) and SALT II (1979) reduced the number of strategic nuclear weapons held by the two superpowers; prior to the talks, President Reagan announced the so-called "zero option" as the basis for the U.S. position at the negotiations - United States would cancel deployment of its new missiles in western Europe if the Soviets dismantled their INFs in eastern Europe; December 17 - talks end inconclusively.

December 11, 1981 - The U.N. Security Council chose Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru to be the fifth secretary-general of the world body.

December 13, 1981 - Poland's Communist government declared martial law, arrested Lech Walesa and other Solidarity leaders, and declared the Solidarity trade union illegal. (Martial law formally ended in 1983).

December 14, 1981 - Israel annexed the Golan Heights, which it had seized from Syria in 1967.

January 22, 1982 - President Ronald Reagan announces that further progress on arms talks will be linked to a reduction of Soviet oppression in Poland ("diplomacy "linkages"); Soviet-backed communist government imposed martial law in late 1981 in an effort to destroy the growing Solidarity movement among Poland's labor unions. The U.S. ploy was but one more piece of the increasingly complex jigsaw puzzle of nuclear arms reduction.

February 24, 1982 - Reagan announces Caribbean Basin Initiative; new program of economic and military assistance to nations of the Caribbean designed to "prevent the overthrow of the governments in the region" by the "brutal and totalitarian" forces of communism; proposal was in response to what he and his advisors believed to be an increasing Soviet presence in the Caribbean and Central America; had little impact on improving the economic situation of the nations it was trying to aid. Eventually the entire concept was allowed to simply fade away, and the Reagan administration chose to employ more forceful anti-communist measures in the region. These included support of the anti-Sandinista Contras, massive military aid to the Salvadoran government, and, in 1983, the invasion of Grenada to remove its leftist government.

March 10, 1982 - President Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya.

March 26, 1982 - Groundbreaking ceremonies took place in Washington, DC for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

April 1, 1982 - U.S. formally transfers Canal Zone to Panama.

April 2, 1982 - Argentina invades the Falklands Islands, located about 300 miles off the southern tip of Argentina, a British colony since 1892 and British possession since 1833. Argentine amphibious forces rapidly overcame the small garrison of British marines at the town of Stanley on East Falkland and the next day seized the dependent territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich group. The 1,800 Falkland Islanders, mostly English-speaking sheep farmers, awaited a British response. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher assembled a naval task force of 30 warships to retake the islands. As Britain is 8,000 miles from the Falklands, it took several weeks for the British warships to arrive. On April 25, South Georgia Island was retaken, and after several intensive naval battles fought around the Falklands, British troops landed on East Falkland on May 21. After several weeks of fighting, the large Argentine garrison at Stanley surrendered on June 14, effectively ending the conflict. Britain lost five ships and 256 lives in the fight to regain the Falklands, and Argentina lost its only cruiser and 750 lives. Humiliated in the Falklands War, the Argentine military was swept from power in 1983, and civilian rule was restored. In Britain, Margaret Thatcher's popularity soared after the conflict, and her Conservative Party won a landslide victory in 1983 parliamentary elections.

April 19, 1982 - Sally Ride announced as first woman astronaut.

April 25, 1982 - In accordance with Camp David, Israel completes Sinai withdrawal.

April 27, 1982 - John W. Hinckley Jr., went on trial in Washington, D.C., in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley was acquitted by reason of insanity.

May 3, 1982 - President Reagan begins 5 minute weekly radio broadcasts.

June 8, 1982 - In the first speech by an American president to a joint session of the British Parliament, President Ronald Reagan predicted that Marxism-Leninism would wind up ''on the ash heap of history.''

June 14, 1982 - Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands. Argentine defenses were reported to have crumbled under the onslaught of artillery, naval gunfire, air attacks and the charge of as many as 7,500 foot soldiers - paratroopers, marines, Gurkhas and Guards.

June 15, 1982 - Supreme Court rules all children, regardless of citizenship, are entitled to a public education.

June 21, 1982 - A jury in Washington, D.C., found John Hinckley Jr. innocent by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Ronald Reagan and three others.

June 24, 1982 - Equal Rights Amendment defeated.

June 24, 1982 - Supreme Court rules President can't be sued for actions in office.

June 29, 1982 - Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended.

June 30, 1982 - The Equal Rights Amendment (passed by Congress in 1972), prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, failed to secure ratification by a sufficient number of states to ensure its inclusion in the Constitution.

July 1982 - Census Bureau announced that the poverty rate had risen to 14 percent (marked a rapid-fire 7.4-percent increase over its mark in 1980); November 1982 - Labor Department revealed that the cost of living had suffered a 6-percent increase during the past twelve months; December 16, 1982 - Federal Reserve released a report indicating that the operating capacity of U.S. factories had plummeted to 67.8 percent (nation's lowest mark since the indicator was introduced in 1948).

July 9, 1982 - Margaret Thatcher begins her second term as British prime Minster.

July 15, 1982 - Senate confirms George Shultz as 60th sec of state by vote of 97-0.

August 20, 1982 - During the Lebanese Civil War, a multinational force including 800 U.S. Marines lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. It was the beginning of a problem-plagued mission that would stretch into 17 months and leave 262 U.S. servicemen dead. February 7, 1984 - President Ronald Reagan announced the end of U.S. participation in the peacekeeping force.

September 14, 1982 - Lebanon's president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was killed by a bomb.

October 1, 1982 - Helmut Kohl became federal chancellor of West Germany, succeeding Helmut Schmidt.

October 7, 1982 - Olof Palme forms Swedish government.

October 8, 1982 - All labor organizations in Poland, including Solidarity, were banned. The Polish Parliament overwhelmingly approved a law that bans Solidarity, the independent trade union that once captured the imagination and allegiance of nearly 10 million Poles. The law abolishes all existing labor organizations, including Solidarity, whose 15 months of existence brought exhilaration to many but drew the anger of the Soviet Union and other Eastern-bloc countries. It replaces them with a new set of unions whose ability to strike is sharply restricted. In the Parliament, whose 460 members include 262 representatives of the ruling Polish United Workers' Party and 113 representatives of its affiliated United Peasants' Party, the debate was less than heated. Introducing the bill to Parliament, Wlodzimierz Berutowicz, a law professor and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said that it ''fulfilled the agreement made with the workers'' at Gdansk in August 1980 - although it was that very agreement that gave birth to Solidarity; October 10, 1982 - U.S. imposes sanctions against Poland for banning Solidarity trade union.

October 14, 1982 - President Reagan proclaims war against drugs.

October 28, 1982 - Felipe González became Spain's first Socialist prime minister.

November 10, 1982 - The newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to its first visitors in Washington, DC. The names of the dead are without gilding, showing flat gray in the black stone in letters less than an inch high. The lists tally above the reach of visitors on the walls that reach a maximum height of 10 feet 1 1/2 inches, and extend in a gradually shrinking slope in two 246-foot stretches until they seem to disappear into the ground. The memorial was a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict, arranged in order of death, not rank, as was common in other memorials. The designer of the memorial was Maya Lin, a Yale University architecture student who entered a nationwide competition to create a design for the monument. November 13, 1982 - Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated.

November 12, 1982 - Yuri V. Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee. At home, he tried to reinvigorate the flagging Russian economy and attacked corruption and rising alcoholism among the Soviet people. In his foreign policy, Andropov faced off against the adamantly anticommunist diplomacy of President Ronald Reagan. Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were severely strained when Soviet pilots shot down a Korean airliner in September 1983. Later that year, Soviet diplomats broke off negotiations concerning reductions in Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces and the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START). Andropov had suffered from nearly debilitating illnesses since early 1983, and died on February 9, 1984. He was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko .

November 28, 1982 - Representatives from 88 nations gathered to discuss the state of world trade in Geneva. During the conference, which convened on this day in 1982, officials developed a framework for a global fiscal system predicated on the eradication of protectionist trade policies. At the close of the Geneva meetings, the participants released their suggestions for nurturing a worldwide free trade system.

December 7,1982 - Charles Brooks is the first person executed by lethal injection in the U.S. (Texas).

December 23, 1982 - Senate finally gave the go-ahead to President Ronald Reagan's gas tax bill. The legislation called for a five-cent hike in the federal tax on gasoline, which, on paper, was expected to haul in $5.5 billion a year to fund highway and bridge repairs. And though Reagan was an avowed opponent of using public funds to spark job growth, the tax increase nonetheless promised to create 320,000 jobs. January 6, 1983 - The president signed the bill into law.

February 7, 1983 - First female secretary of transportation, Elizabeth Dole, sworn-in.

February 24, 1983 - A congressional commission released a report condemning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as a ''grave injustice.''

March 6, 1983 - Helmut Kohl, the interim chancellor of West Germany since the fall of Helmut Schmidt's Social Democrat government in 1982, is elected German chancellor as his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party is voted back into power. Fall 1989 - communist government of East Germany collapsed, and Kohl led the efforts to reunify the two Germanys. March 1990 - in the first all-German elections in six decades, Kohl was elected the first chancellor of a reunified Germany. During his third term as chancellor, Kohl oversaw the formidable task of absorbing East Germany's crippled economy into the West and was an advocate of the movement for a united Europe. 1994 - Kohl was elected to a fourth term; 1998 -   increasing unemployment in Germany and his cuts to the country's welfare system led to his defeat by Gerhard Schroder and the Social Democrats.

March 23, 1983 - President Ronald Reagan proposed the development of technology to intercept enemy nuclear missiles; the plan was dubbed ''Star Wars'' by its critics.

April 6, 1983 - Interior Secretary James Watt banned the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall, saying rock 'n' roll bands attract the ''wrong element.''

April 12, 1983 - Harold Washington was elected Chicago's first black mayor.

April 20, 1983 - President Reagan signs $165 billion Social Security rescue.

April 25, 1983 - Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov invited Samantha Smith to visit his country after receiving a letter in which the fifth-grade Maine schoolgirl expressed fears about nuclear war; rather unusual piece of Soviet propaganda was in direct response to President Ronald Reagan's vigorous attacks on what he called "the evil empire" of the Soviet Union. Smith had written the Soviet leader as part of a class assignment, one that was common enough for students in the Cold War years. Andropov ended by inviting Samantha and her parents to visit the Soviet Union. In July 1983, Samantha accepted the invitation and flew to Russia for a three-week tour. Just a year later, Andropov died. Tragically, Samantha Smith, aged 13, died just one year after Andropov's passing, in August 1985 in a plane crash.

April 29, 1983 - Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago.

May 18, 1983 - Senate revises immigration laws, gives millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program.

May 24, 1983 - Supreme Court rules government can deny tax breaks to schools that racially discriminated against students.

June 13, 1983 - The U.S. space probe Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune. March 31, 1997 - NASA officially ended the Pioneer 10 project with the spacecraft having traveled a distance of some six billion miles.

June 18, 1983 - Dr. Sally Ride, mission specialist board space shuttle Challenger on its (6-day) second mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, became the first American woman to travel into space; astrophysicist from Stanford University, operated the shuttle's robot arm, which she had helped design; June 16, 1963 - cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova of the Soviet Union became the first woman ever to travel into space.

September 19, 1983 - St. Kitts and Nevis declared independence from England.

September 21, 1983 - In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Interior Secretary James G. Watt described a special advisory panel as consisting of ''a black ... a woman, two Jews and a cripple.'' Watt later apologized and resigned.

September 23, 1983 - Argentina military regime gives amnesty to military/political assassins.

October 13, 1983 - Congress passed Federal Anti-Tampering Act; made it a crime to tamper with packaged consumer products.

October 23, 1983 - A suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon killed 241 U.S. Marines and sailors; a near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.

October 25, 1983 - U.S. Marines and Rangers, assisted by soldiers from six Caribbean nations, invaded Grenada; President Ronald Reagan said the action was needed to protect nearly 1,000 U.S. citizens there; Grenada's government overthrown in about a week; Reagan administration claimed a great victory, called it the first "rollback" of communist influence since the beginning of the Cold War.

November 2, 1983 - President Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday on the third Monday of January in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

November 11, 1983 - President Reagan became first U.S. President to address Japan's legislature.

January 10, 1984 - The United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.

January 12, 1984 - Efficiency panel, under the lead of Chairman J. Peter Grace, the chairman of W.R. Grace & Co., who had been appointed by President Ronald Reagan to head a private sector survey on cost control, outlined ways for cutting federal spending by $424.4 billion as a means to reign in the deficit.

February 13, 1984 - Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.

February 26, 1984 - The last U.S. Marines sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force leave Beirut, the war-torn Lebanese capital where some 250 of the original 800 Marines lost their lives during the problem-plagued 18-month mission; 1975 - a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist Muslim guerrillas battling militias of the Christian Phalange Party, the Maronite Christian community, and other groups; August 20, 1982 - a multinational force including 800 U.S. Marines was ordered to Beirut to help coordinate the Palestinian withdrawal.

March 20, 1984 - Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools.

April 26, 1984 - President Ronald Reagan arrives in China for a 6-day diplomatic meeting with Chinese President Li Xiannian. The trip marks the first time a U.S. president had traveled to China since President Richard Nixon’s historic trip in 1972. Trip highlighted his administration’s desire to improve diplomacy with China in light of the growing economic relationship between the two nations. Other topics of discussion: development of commercial nuclear power in China and China’s displeasure with continuing U.S. support for nationalists in Taiwan. Trip failed to break through the deadlock between China and the U.S. over the issue of Taiwanese independence.

May 8, 1984 - Citing fears for the safety of its athletes in what it considered a hostile and anti-communist environment, the Soviet government announces a boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles, California. In the days following the Soviet announcement, 13 other communist nations issued similar statements and refused to attend the games. Without competition from the Soviet Union, East Germany, and other communist nations, the United States swept to an Olympic record of 83 gold medals.

July 5, 1984 - Supreme Court weakens 70-year-old "exclusionary rule"-evidence seized with defective court warrants can now be used in criminal trials.

July 11, 1984 - Government orders air bags or seat belts would be required in cars by 1989.

July 12, 1984 - Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale announced he had chosen U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate; Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.

July 18, 1984 - Walter F. Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco.

July 19, 1984 - Congresswoman Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York won the Democratic nomination for vice president at the party's convention in San Francisco.

August 11, 1984 - President Ronald Reagan joked during a voice test for a paid political radio address that he had ''signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.''

August 19, 1984 - Republican convention in Houston nominates Ronald Reagan for president.

September 10, 1984 - Walter Mondale, the Democratic nominee for President, unveiled a plan to reduce the deficit by $175 million; plan was derided by a large portion of the public, including some of his fellow Democrats, mainly because it revolved around the always unpopular tax increase. Although the increases would only impact the wealthy and corporations, a strong backlash against Mondale's brand of "tax and spend" liberalism developed.

September 19, 1984 - Great Britain and China announced their agreement to transfer Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.

October 7, 1984 - President Ronald Reagan and Democratic challenger Walter Mondale squared off in a presidential debate. Mondale was poised to criticize the president's economic record, specifically the government's astronomical debt and the growing chasm between the "haves" and "have-nots" in American society. Little support for Mondale's talk of tax hikes and austerity. Reagan successfully convinced Americans that Mondale's economic policies would bring back the damaging inflation of the 70s.

October 15, 1984 - Central Intelligence Agency's CIA Information Act of 1984 passes (to amend the National Security Act of 1947 to regulate public disclosure of information held by the Central Intelligence Agency, and for other purposes).

October 31, 1984 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated near her residence by two Sikh security guards. Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, both Sikhs, emptied their guns into Gandhi as she walked to her office from an adjoining bungalow. Although the two assailants immediately surrendered, they were both shot in a subsequent scuffle, and Beant died. As Gandhi was dying from her wounds, her supporters argued-ultimately in vain-with each other over who would be able to donate blood. In 1980, Gandhi became prime minister again, enjoying fairly widespread popularity. However, in June 1984, she ordered an army raid on a Sikh temple in Punjab to flush out armed Sikh extremists, setting off a series of death threats. Due to the fear of assassination, Beant Singh, her longtime bodyguard, was to be transferred because he was a Sikh. However, Gandhi personally rescinded the transfer order because she trusted him after his many years of service. Obviously, this was a fatal mistake for both of them. Satwant Singh, who survived to stand trial, was convicted in 1985 and executed in 1989. Following Gandhi's assassination, riots broke out in New Delhi. Nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed in indiscriminate attacks over the course of two days. Many of the victims were burned alive by the rioters, yet no official intervention was implemented. Gandhi's son, Rajiv, succeeded her as prime minister; November 1, 1984 - Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, was sworn in as prime minister of India.

November 4, 1984 - Nicaragua holds first free elections in 56 years; Sandinistas win 63%.

November 6, 1984 - Ronald Reagan defeats Walter Mondale to be re-elected in one of the largest electoral landslides in United States election history. Mondale received 40.5 percent of the popular vote.

December 19, 1984 - Britain and China signed an accord to return Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

January 8, 1985 - President Ronald Reagan announced that his Treasury secretary Donald Regan and chief of staff James Baker were planning to swap jobs.

January 23, 1985 - Debate in Britain's House of Lords was carried live on TV for the first time.

February 6, 1985 - President Ronald Reagan defines some of the key concepts of his foreign policy, establishes what comes to be known as the "Reagan Doctrine"; served as the foundation for the Reagan administration's support of "freedom fighters" around the globe; laid the foundation for its program of military assistance to "freedom fighters." In action, this policy translated into covertly supporting the Contras in their attacks on the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua; the Afghan rebels in their fight against the Soviet occupiers; and anticommunist Angolan forces embroiled in that nation's civil war.

February 23, 1985 - U.S. Senate confirms Edwin Meese III as attorney general.

March 2, 1985 - The federal government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.

March 11, 1985 - Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko.

March 16, 1985 - Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; December 1991 - he was released.

March 8, 1985 - Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported the number of millionaires in the nation had doubled since 1980 (407,700 Americans). But, the wealth was not necessarily distributed evenly; to a large degree, the rich prospered, while the poor suffered. 1977 to 1990 - wealthiest fifth of the population saw their incomes swell by one third; the wealthiest 1 percent fared even better, as their incomes doubled. During the same period, the combined income of the bottom 60 percent of Americans declined, while people living below the poverty line experienced the highest drop-off in income. Economists Barry Blueston and Bennett Harrison described this fiscal shift as the "Great U-Turn" and declared that the gulf between the "rich and the poor...is higher today than at any point in the lifetimes of all but our most senior citizens, the veterans of the Great Depression."

March 11, 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev is selected as the new general secretary and leader of the Soviet Union, following the death of Konstantin Chernenko the day before. Gorbachev oversaw a radical transformation of Soviet society and foreign policy during the next six years. During the next six years, Gorbachev led the Soviet Union through a dizzying pace of domestic reforms and foreign policy changes. He relaxed political oppression and led the push for reform of the nation's crumbling economic system. On the foreign policy scene, he worked hard to secure better relations with the United States, and in 1987, he and President Ronald Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which reduced the number of medium-range missiles each nation kept in Europe. The pace of change, however, might have been too rapid. By the late-1980s, the Soviet Union was cracking to pieces. Eastern European satellites were breaking free, various Russian republics were pushing for independence, and the economy was on a downward spiral. December 1991 - Gorbachev resigned as president and the Soviet Union formally ceased to exist.

April 12, 1985 - Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral, FL.

May 1, 1985 - President Reagan ends embargo against Nicaragua.

May 5, 1985 - President Ronald Reagan attended a wreath-laying ceremony at a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany. The visit drew worldwide condemnation because 49 members of the Waffen SS (Schutzstaffel, the paramilitary organization that planned and carried out the massacre of approximately 6 million people in death camps during World War II) were buried there.

June 4, 1985 - The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing for a daily minute of silence in public schools.

July 13, 1985 - Before undergoing surgery for colon cancer, President Ronald Reagan transferred power temporarily to Vice President George Bush. It was the first time the Constitution's presidential disability clause was invoked.

September 9, 1985 - President Reagan orders sanctions against South Africa.

October 11, 1985 - President Reagan bans importation of South African Krugerrands.

November 6, 1985 - "Irangate" scandal: The American press reveals that US President Ronald Reagan had authorized the shipment of arms to Iran.

November 19, 1985 - President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began summit in Geneva (first time in eight years for both nations); October 1986  - next summit in Reykjavik (Reagan's commitment to the Strategic Defense Initiative, "Star Wars" missile defense system, provided a major obstacle to progress on arms control talks); 1987 - third summit (both sides made concessions in order to achieve agreement on a wide range of arms control issues).

November 21, 1985 - National Security Council staff member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, begin shredding documents that would have exposed their participation in a range of illegal activities regarding the sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of the proceeds to a rebel Nicaraguan group. November 25 - North was fired but Hall continued to sneak documents to him by stuffing them in her skirt and boots. Though the communist Sandinistas had been legitimately elected in Nicaragua, the Reagan administration sought to oust them by supporting the Contras, an anti-Communist group. During the Iran-Contra hearings, North claimed that the entire Reagan administration had known about the illegal plan. After admitting that he had lied to Congress, he was convicted of shredding documents, obstruction of justice, and illegally receiving a security fence for his own residence. He received a light sentence of a fine, probation, and community service.

November 26, 1985 - Random House paid Ronald Reagan an unprecedented $3 million for the rights to publish his autobiography.

November 27, 1985 - The British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord, giving Dublin a consultative role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland.

December 12, 1985 - President Reagan signed the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act into law; mandated congressional spending limits in an effort to eliminate the federal deficit by 1991. Gramm-Rudman cut budget projections but was ineffective in cutting actual spending. Its sponsors are congressmen Phil Gramm (R-TX), Warren B. (Bruce) Rudman (R-NH), and Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC).

January 20, 1986 - Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.

January 28, 1986 - The space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, FL. Seventy-three seconds later shuttle exploded in a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions watched tragedy on live television. There were no survivors. On board - Christa McAuliffe,  37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire; first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space; had won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training; January 23 - forced to wait six days as the Challenger's launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. The presidential commission was headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, and included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. The investigation determined that the explosion was caused by the failure of an "O-ring" seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold temperature at launch time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the massive explosion. As a result of the explosion, NASA did not send astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a number of features of the space shuttle.

February 7, 1986 - Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country, ending 28 years of family rule.

February 7, 1986 - Marcos was declared victorious in election against Marcos's old political opponent Benigno Aquino, Jr.'s widow, Corazon Aquino. Independent observers charged the regime with widespread electoral fraud. Aquino's followers proclaimed her president, and much of the military defected to her side as massive anti-Marcos demonstrations were held. February 25, 1986 - Corazon Aquino becomes president of Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos, his wife, and their entourage were airlifted from the presidential palace in Manila by U.S. helicopters and fled to Hawaii. After substantial evidence of Marcos' corruption emerged, including the looting of billions of dollars from the Philippine economy, Marcos and his wife were indicted by the U.S. government on embezzlement charges. 1989 - After Ferdinand Marcos' death, Imelda was cleared of the charges; 1991 - she was allowed to return to the Philippines where she unsuccessfully ran for the presidency the following year. 1993 - Imelda Marcos was convicted of corruption by a Philippine court, but she avoided serving her 12-year prison sentence. 1995 - she was elected to the House of Representatives. 1998 - she unsuccessfully ran for president again and subsequently retired from political life.

February 19, 1986 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide, 37 years after the pact had first been submitted for ratification.

April 14, 1986 - The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, air strikes against Libya (Tripoli and Banghazi) in retaliation for the Libyan sponsorship of terrorism against American troops and citizens. The raid involved more than 100 U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft (14 A-6E navy attack jets based in the Mediterranean and 18 FB-111 bombers from bases in England), was over within an hour. Five military targets and "terrorism centers" were hit, including the headquarters of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi (Qaddafi's 15-month-old adopted daughter was killed in the attack on his residence, and two of his young sons were injured). France refused to allow the F-111s to fly over French territory, which added 2,600 total nautical miles to the journey from England and back. Three military barracks were hit, along with the military facilities at Tripoli's main airport and the Benina air base southeast of Benghazi. All targets except one were reportedly chosen because of their direct connection to terrorist activity. The Benina military airfield was hit to preempt Libyan interceptors from taking off and attacking the incoming U.S. bombers.

May 25, 1986 - An estimated seven million people participated in ''Hands Across America,'' forming a line across the country to raise money for the nation's hungry and homeless.

June 8, 1986 - At the end of a controversial campaign marked by allegations that he had participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II, former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is elected president of Austria, a largely ceremonial post. 1986 - documents were discovered showing he had been a German army staff officer stationed in the Balkans from 1942 to 1945, not studying law in Vienna as he head claimed. 1987 - United States banned him from entering the country; 1971 - he ran for the Austrian presidency but lost. However, that same year, he became U.N. secretary-general. 1976 - he was reelected. 1981 - Chinese veto blocked a third term. During his tenure as head of the U.N., he attempted, with little success, to end the Iran-Iraq War, the Sino-Vietnam War, and to gain the release of American hostages in Iran.

June 9, 1986 - The Rogers Commission released its report on the Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.

June 11, 1986 - A divided Supreme Court struck down a Pennsylvania abortion law while reaffirming its 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion.

June 17, 1986 - Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger resigns; Antonin Scalia nominated.

June 30, 1986 - The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.

July 3, 1986 - President Ronald Reagan presided over a ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.

July 7, 1986 - Supreme Court struck down Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.

July 8, 1986 - Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.

July 9, 1986 - The attorney general's Commission on Pornography released a report linking hard-core porn to sex crimes.

August 13, 1986 - President Ronald Reagan publicly praises bipartisan Congressional approval of $100 million in aid for what he called "freedom fighters" in Nicaragua. Reagan called Congress’ action a "historic vote in favor of democracy." Congress also approved an additional $300 million to bolster economic development in the neighboring Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala.

September 17, 1986 - The Senate confirmed the nomination of William H. Rehnquist as the 16th chief justice of the United States.

September 26, 1986 - William H. Rehnquist was sworn in as the 16th chief justice of the United States, while Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as an associate.

October 5, 1986 - Beginning of the Iran Contra scandal (involved the secret sale of U.S. weapons to Iran (which was supposed to help in the release of U.S. hostages in the Middle East) when troops of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua captured Eugene Hasenfus after the plane in which he is flying is shot down; under questioning, Hasenfus confessed that he was shipping military supplies into Nicaragua for use by the Contras, an anti-Sandinista force that had been created and funded by the United States; claimed that operation was really run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - specifically in violation of the Boland Amendment passed by Congress in 1984 which forbade the CIA or any other U.S. agency from supporting the Contras; a Congressional investigation, begun in December 1986, revealed the scheme to the public; 11 members of the President's administration eventually were convicted of a variety of charges related to the scandal.

October 11, 1986 - President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened two days of talks, concerning arms control and human rights, in Reykjavik, Iceland; talks fell apart amid accusations and recriminations when Gorbachev requested that the talks concerning the missiles be expanded to include limitations on America's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI - supposed to use space technology to provide a "shield" from nuclear attacks ), referred to as the "Star Wars" initiative by opponents = one of Reagan's pet projects; Reagan refused to consider Gorbachev's suggestion, and the talks ended the next day with no agreement. Reagan charged the Soviet leader with bad faith in trying to expand the parameters of the talks; Gorbachev reported that Reagan seemed to be lying about his desire for serious negotiations concerning arms limitations; October 12, 1986 - The superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States; December 1987 - Talks on the missile issue  resumed when the two leaders met for a third summit in Washington; Gorbachev dropped his insistence on including SDI in the negotiations.

October 17, 1986 - President Reagan signs into law an act of Congress approving $100 million of military and "humanitarian" aid for the Contras (an armed force of Nicaraguan exiles intent on removing the leftist Nicaraguan regime); Iran-Contra scandal is just about to break wide open, seriously compromises goal of overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

November 3, 1986 - A Lebanese magazine, "Ash-Shiraa," reported that the United States had been secretly selling arms to Iran in hopes of securing the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

December 17, 1986 - Eugene Hasenfus, the American convicted by Nicaragua for his part in running guns to the Contras, was pardoned and released.

January 9, 1987 - The White House released a memorandum prepared for President Ronald Reagan in January 1986 that showed a definite link between U.S. arms sales to Iran and the release of 7 American hostages in Lebanon.

February 25, 1987 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action, 5-4.

February 26, 1987 - The Tower Commission issued its report on the Iran-Contra affair, rebuking President Ronald Reagan for failing to control his national security staff.

February 27, 1987 - Donald Regan resigned as White House chief of staff.

February 28, 1987 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicates that his nation is ready to sign "without delay" a treaty designed to eliminate U.S. and Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe; December 1987 - Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed; Soviets eliminated about 1,500 medium-range missiles from Europe and the United States removed nearly half that number.

March 4, 1987 - President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had ''deteriorated'' into an arms-for-hostages deal; accepted full responsibility for the Iran-Contra scandal.

April 1, 1987 - In his first major speech on the epidemic, President Ronald Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, ''We've declared AIDS public health enemy No. 1.''

April 27, 1987 - The Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.

May 3, 1987 - Miami Herald reported a woman spent Friday and Saturday with Gary Hart; wrecked Hart's plans to seek Democratic nomination for President; May 6, 1987 - Gary Hart denies affair with model Donna Rice.

May 5, 1987 - Congress begins Iran-Contra hearings.

May 8, 1987 - Gary Hart (D-CO), dogged by questions about his personal life, withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

June 2, 1987 - President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating economist Alan Greenspan to succeed Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

June 8, 1987 - Fawn Hall, secretary to national security aide Oliver L. North, testified at the Iran-Contra hearings, saying she had helped to shred some documents.

June 11, 1987 - Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term in office.

June 12, 1987 - During a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, President Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to ''tear down this wall.'' Speaking 100 yards from the Berlin wall that was thrown up in 1961 to thwart an exodus to the West, Mr. Reagan made the wall a metaphor for ideological and economic differences separating East and West. Mr. Reagan made the remarks with the Brandenburg Gate in East Berlin in the background. An East Berlin security post was in view.

June 19, 1987 - The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creationism science as well.

July 1, 1987 - Robert Bork nominated to Supreme Court, rejected in October by senate.

July 7, 1987 - Lt. Col. Oliver North began his public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing, telling Congress that he had ''never carried out a single act, not one'' without authorization.

July 8, 1987 - Kitty Dukakis, wife of Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, revealed she had been addicted to amphetamines but had sought help and was drug-free.air.

July 9, 1987 - Oliver North admits to shredding Iran-Contra evidence.

July 11, 1987 - Formally announced that the world population had reached 5 billion, double the level of 1950.

July 22, 1987 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicates that he is willing to negotiate a ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles without conditions. Gorbachev's decision paved the way for the groundbreaking Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the United States. Gorbachev's change of mind was the result of a number of factors: 1) His own nation was suffering from serious economic problems and Gorbachev desperately wanted to cut Russia's military spending. 2) the growing "no-nukes" movement in Europe was interfering with his ability to conduct diplomatic relations with France, Great Britain, and other western European nations. 3) Gorbachev seemed to have a sincere personal trust in and friendship with Ronald Reagan, and this feeling was apparently reciprocal. In December 1987, during a summit in Washington, the two men signed off on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons.

August 3, 1987 - The Iran-Contra congressional hearings ended, with none of the 29 witnesses tying President Ronald Reagan directly to the diversion of arms-sales profits to Nicaraguan rebels.

August 4, 1987 - The Federal Communications Commission voted to rescind the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and TV stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.

September 16, 1987 - Two dozen nations signed the Montreal Protocol, an agreement to save the ozone layer by curbing harmful emissions.

October 6, 1987 - The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-5 against the nomination of Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court.

October 23, 1987 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork, 58-42.

October 24, 1987 - Thirty years after it was expelled for refusing to answer allegations of corruption, the Teamsters union was welcomed back into the AFL-CIO.

November 12, 1987 - The American Medical Association issued a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person has AIDS or is HIV-positive.

November 18, 1987 -  Joint Congressional investigating committee issued its final report on Iran-Contra scandal (involving a complicated plan whereby some of the funds from secret weapons sales to Iran were used to finance the Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua): administration of Ronald Reagan exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law"; that Reagan must bear "ultimate responsibility."

December 8, 1987 - President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed one of the most significant arms control agreements of the Cold War: Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty - called for elimination of all 2,611 intermediate-range nuclear ground cruise and ballistic missiles and launchers in Europe with ranges of 320 to 3,400 miles; June 1991 - United States had eliminated over 800 missiles and the Soviets had eliminated 1,800 such weapons; first arms control agreement that eliminated, rather than simply limited, nuclear weapons, also required on-site inspections to ensure compliance, part of Reagan's famous "trust but verify" credo; June 1988 - treaty went into effect (after ratified by the Senate).

December 9, 1987 - In Israel, the first riots of the Palestinian intifada erupted on the occupied Gaza Strip in protest of Israeli occupation of former Arab territory in the Middle East.

January 11, 1988 - Vice President George H.W. Bush met with representatives of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to answer questions about the Iran-Contra affair.

January 25, 1988 - Vice President George Bush and Dan Rather clashed on ''The CBS Evening News'' as the anchorman attempted to question the Republican presidential candidate about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

February 3, 1988 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected President Ronald Reagan's request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.

February 5, 1988 - Two federal grand juries in Florida announce indictments of Panama military strongman General Manuel Antonio Noriega (de facto dictator of Panama since 1983) and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges; charged with smuggling marijuana into the United States, laundering millions of U.S. dollars, and assisting Colombia's Medellin drug cartel in trafficking cocaine to America; March 1988 - the United States froze all Panamanian assets in U.S. banks and imposed sanctions; May 1989 - Noriega annulled a presidential election that would have made Guillermo Endara president, and demonstrators protesting the fraud were attacked by the Noriega-subsidized Dignity Battalions; December 17, 1989 - President Bush authorized Operation Just Cause--the U.S. invasion of Panama to overthrow Noriega; December 20,1989 - 9,000 U.S. troops joined the 12,000 U.S. military personnel already in Panama and were met with scattered resistance; January 3, 1990 - Noriega surrendered and was taken to Howard Air Force Base, where he was arrested by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials for his grand jury indictments; April 9, 1992 - found guilty on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering; marked the first time in history that a U.S. jury had convicted a foreign leader of criminal charges; sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. 

February 18, 1988 - Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as the 104th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

March 16, 1988 - Former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, former White House aide Oliver L. North and two others were indicted on charges relating to the Iran-Contra affair. (The convictions of Poindexter and North were thrown out).

March 16, 1988 - President Ronald Reagan orders over 3,000 U.S. troops to Honduras, claims that Nicaraguan soldiers had crossed its borders; result was confusion and criticism. New York Times reported that Washington, not Honduras, had initiated the call for the U.S. troops, Honduran government could not confirm whether Sandinista troops had actually crossed its borders, and Nicaragua steadfastly denied that it had entered Honduran territory; troops stayed for a brief time and were withdrawn. The Sandinista government remained unfazed.

March 24, 1988 - Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter pleaded innocent to Iran-Contra charges.

April 7, 1988 - Russia announced it would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

April 14, 1988 - Representatives of the USSR, Afghanistan, the United States, and Pakistan sign an agreement calling for the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. In exchange for an end to the disputed Soviet occupation, the United States agreed to end its arms support for the Afghan anti-Soviet factions, and Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed not to interfere in each other's affairs.

May 3, 1988 - The White House acknowledged that first lady Nancy Reagan had used astrological advice to help schedule her husband's activities.

May 8, 1988 - Francois Mitterrand elected president of France.

May 15, 1988 - More than eight years after they intervened in Afghanistan to support the procommunist government, Soviet troops begin their withdrawal. The event marked the beginning of the end to a long, bloody, and fruitless Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence sources estimated that as many as 15,000 Russian troops died in Afghanistan, and the economic cost to the already struggling Soviet economy ran into billions of dollars. The intervention also strained relations between the Soviet Union and the United States nearly to the breaking point. President Jimmy Carter harshly criticized the Russian action, stalled talks on arms limitations, issued economic sanctions, and even ordered a boycott of the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow.

May 16, 1988 - U.S. Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant.

May 21, 1988 - Mikhail Gorbachev dismisses the Communist Party leaders in Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan to consolidate his power; quickly replaced with men handpicked by Gorbachev; only a temporary solution to the problems.

May 21, 1988 - In an attempt to consolidate his own power and ease political and ethnic tensions in the Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev dismisses the Communist Party leaders in those two republics for "reasons of health." They were quickly replaced with men handpicked by Gorbachev. Only a temporary solution to the problems. During the next three years, the slow pace of reform in the Soviet Union could not keep up with the rapidly crumbling economy and increasingly factionalized political system. And ethnic tensions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and other Soviet republics continued unabated, sometimes exploding into violence. 1991 - clear that the Soviet Union was falling apart.

May 29, 1988 - President Ronald Reagan began his first visit to the Soviet Union as he arrived in Moscow for a superpower summit with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

June 20, 1988 - Supreme Court upholds a law that made it illegal for private clubs to discriminate against women and minorities.

July 20, 1988 - Michael Dukakis selected Democratic presidential nominee; July 21, 1988 - accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Atlanta.

August 4, 1988 - Congress votes $20,000 to each Japanese-American interned in WW II.

August 8, 1988 - U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar announced a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq.

August 9, 1988 - President Ronald Reagan nominated Lauro Cavazos to be secretary of education and the first Hispanic to serve in the Cabinet.

August 10, 1988 - President Ronald Reagan signs H.R. 442, a bill that provides monetary compensation to Japanese Americans whose families had been held in internment camps in the United States during the Second World War. The bill provided monetary restitution, in the amount of $20,000 per family, to 60,000 survivors or descendants of the 120,000 who were originally detained, though Reagan acknowledged that no money could undo the wrong committed. Reagan said the bill was a reaffirmation of "our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law. Over 120,000 persons were removed forcibly from their homes and placed in makeshift internment camps throughout the country, most notably in California where the population of Japanese Americans was greatest and where the fear of sabotage—as well as the desire to stamp out economic competition from Japanese Americans--was then rampant.

August 18, 1988 - Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle was nominated as George H. W. Bush's running mate during the Republican National Convention in New Orleans.

September 22,1988 - The government of Canada apologized for the World War II internment of Japanese-Canadians and promised compensation.

September 30, 1988 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America's return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.

October 1, 1988 - Having forced the resignation of Soviet leader Andrei Gromyko, Mikhail Gorbachev names himself head of the Supreme Soviet. Within two years, he was named "Man of the Decade" by Time magazine for his role in bringing the Cold War to a close.

October 5, 1988 - Democrat Lloyd Bentsen lambasted Republican Dan Quayle during their vice-presidential debate, telling Quayle, ''Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.''

October 12, 1988 - George Bush and Michael Dukakis meet in second debate.

October 21, 1988 - A federal grand jury in New York indicted former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, on charges of fraud and racketeering.

October 22, 1988 - Congress passed a bill designed to combat fiscal corruption; doubled the maximum prison term for insider trading (toughest sentence = ten years in jail; raised the ceiling on fines for insider trading up to $1 million for individuals and $2.5 million for corporations and partnerships; made companies responsible for improper trading committed by their employees.

November 8, 1988 - Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidential election; defeated Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.

November 15, 1988 - The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, proclaimed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

November 16, 1988 - In Pakistan, citizens voted in their first open election in more than a decade, chose as prime minister the populist candidate Benazir Bhutto, daughter of former Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (tried and executed in 1977 by General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq, who seized power in Pakistan in a military coup, on the charge of having ordered an assassination in 1974). She was the first woman leader of a Muslim country in modern history. Bhutto's PPP won a majority in the National Assembly, and on December 1 Bhutto took office as prime minister of Pakistan. Her government fell in 1990, but from 1993 to 1996 she again served as Pakistani leader.

November 16, 1988 - Estonia's parliament declared the Baltic republic sovereign.

November 18, 1988 - President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating a Cabinet-level drug czar and providing the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill.

November 22, 1988 - In the presence of members of Congress and the media, the Northrop B-2 "stealth" bomber is shown publicly for the first time at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. Designed with stealth characteristics that would allow it to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses unnoticed. At the time of its public unveiling, the B-2 had not even been flown on a test flight. It rapidly came under fire for its massive cost--more than $40 billion for development and a $1 billion price tag for each unit. 198 - the B-2 was successfully flown, performing favorably. Although the aircraft had a wingspan of nearly half a football field, its radar signal was as negligible as that of a bird. The B-2 also successfully evaded infrared, sound detectors, and the visible eye. 1991 - Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the original order for the production of 132 stealth bombers was reduced to 21 aircraft. The B-2 has won a prominent place in the modern U.S. Air Force fleet, serving well in bombing missions during the 1990s.

December 30, 1988 - President Ronald Reagan and President-elect George H.W. Bush were subpoenaed to testify as defense witnesses in the pending Iran-Contra trial of Oliver North. (The subpoenas were subsequently quashed.).

January 1, 1989 - The Montreal Protocol, an international agreement (adopted September 16, 1987) to reduce use of ozone-depleting substances, came into force. The international treaty intends to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of halogenated hydrocarbon substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion.

January 20, 1989 - Reagan becomes first President elected in a "0" year, since 1840, to leave office alive.

November 4, 1991 - Former President Ronald Reagan opened his library in Simi Valley, CA.

November 5, 1994 - Former President Ronald Reagan disclosed he had Alzheimer's disease.

June 5, 2004 - Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died in Los Angeles at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

June 11, 2004 - The nation bade farewell to former President Ronald Reagan at a stately funeral service in Washington, DC, followed hours later by a hilltop burial ceremony in California.

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