1980s timeline
The 1980s witnessed the rise of the computer and banking industries, as well as iconic cultural moments and key historic events - from Live Aid to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
(Pictured right: Diana, Princess of Wales, in a Zandra Rhodes dress on tour in Japan. Photo: Tim Graham/Getty Images)
8 December 1980
John Lennon assassinated
11 April 1981
Racial tensions spark Brixton riots
5 June 1981
The US Center for Disease Control mentions a new virus in its weekly mortality report later named as AIDS
29 July 1981
Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer
1 August 1981
MTV launches in the USA
1982
Prince William is born
1982
Economic recession leads to high unemployment
2 April 1982
Argentina invades the Falkland Islands
2 November 1982
Channel 4 first airs
30 November 1982
Michael Jackson releases the album ‘Thriller’
10 June 1983
Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is re-elected by a landslide
1983
Madonna's debut album is released
1984
Prince Henry ‘Harry’ is born
12 March 1984
Twelve-month 'Miners' Strike' begins
12 October 1984
IRA bomb Conservative conference in Brighton
Spring 1985
US soap opera ‘Dynasty’ rated number one TV show in Britain and US
13 July 1985
Live Aid concerts take place simultaneously in London and Philadelphia to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia
9 November 1985
Diana, Princess of Wales dances with John Travolta at the White House
11 June 1987
Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wins a third term
1989
Diana, Princess of Wales become the President of Great Ormond Street Hospital
1989
Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web
November 1989
Berlin Wall falls
