1980’s Terms and Personalities 1

1.  Ronald Reagan - American politician, actor, and 40th president of the US (republican); one of the most prominent conservative figures in history 

2.  Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act - act that put the first binding spending constraints on the federal budget

3.  John Hinckley - American who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration

4.  Strategic Defense System (Star Wars) - proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles)

5.  Iran-Contra Affair - Occured during the second term of the Reagan administration where officials secretly facilitated the illegal sale of arms to Iran, which was subject to an arms embargo at the time. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, an anti-Sandinista rebel group in Nicaragua

6.  Glasnost - concept relating to openness and transparency, means  "openness to public scrutiny" in Russian 

7.  Perestroika - political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the late 1980s widely associated with CPSU general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost policy reform

8.  Mikhail Gorbachev -  Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991

9.  Yuppies - "young urban professional"; a young professional person working in a city

10.  AIDS - chronic immune system disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus; an epidemic of the disease happened in the 80s

11.  George H.W. Bush - American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993

12.  Americans with Disabilities Act – civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability that was passed in 1990 

13.  Proposition 13 – amendment of the Constitution of California that rolled back most local real estate assessments, limited the property tax rate, and limited future property tax increases

14.  Billy Graham – American evangelist, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, and a civil rights advocate whose broadcast and live sermons became well known internationally in the mid-to-late 20th century

15.  Televangelists – an evangelical preacher who appears regularly on television to preach and appeal for funds

16.  Supply Side vs. Demand Side Economics – 

supply side: a theory that maintains that increasing the supply of goods and services is the engine of economic growth

demand side: the theory that the demand for goods and services drives economic activity

17.  Sandra Day O’Connor - American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

18.  William Rehnquist – American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years; one of the most successful Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States

19.  Walter Mondale – American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter

20.  Geraldine Ferraro – American politician, diplomat, and attorney who was the first woman to run on a major party national ticket in the United States, and the first Italian American

21.  “Peace Through Strength” – phrase used by Reagan during his election challenge against Jimmy Carter by accusing the incumbent of weak, vacillating leadership that invited enemies to attack the United States and its allies.

22.  The Reagan Doctrine – United States provided overt and covert aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements in an effort to "roll back" Soviet-backed pro-communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

23.  Oliver North – came into the public spotlight as a result of his participation in the Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal during the Reagan administration, in which he claimed partial responsibility for the sale of weapons through intermediaries to Iran, with the profits being channeled to the Contras in Nicaragua

24.  Sally Ride –  American astronaut and physicist who was the first American woman and the third woman to fly in space

25.  Boris Yeltsin – Soviet and Russian politician who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990

26.  Tiananmen Square – square where protests and a massacre that ended with a military crackdown due to international media coverage, internet and global connectivity, its political implications, and other factors occured in 1989

27.  Michael Dukakis – American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts and longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history; ran against Bush in 1988

28.  Manuel Noriega - Panamanian politician, military officer who was the de facto ruler of Panama who was overthrown by the US in 1989