Our Family History

The Genealogy of Robert and Christina Barritt

1978 - 1995 (17 years)

	Date	Event(s)
1	1978	1978: London, UK - Writer and broadcaster Georgi Markov dies after an assassin stabs him with a poisoned umbrella at a London bus stop. 1978: Rome, Italy - Pope John Paul II elected by cardinals: first non-Italian for 450 years 1978: UK - Jonestown Massacre 1978: UK - The artificial heart Jarvik-7 invented by Robert K. Jarvik. 1978: UK - Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister to 1990 (Conservative)
2	1979	1979: UK - Public sector strike paralyses country 1979: Tehran, Iran - Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran 1979: Tehran, Iran - Iran Takes American Hostages in Tehran 1979: Stockholm, Sweden - Mother Theresa Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1979: NY, USA - Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island 1979: Japan - Sony Introduces the Walkman 1979: UK - Cellular phones invented. 1979: USA - Cray supercomputer invented by Seymour Cray. 1979: USA - Scott Olson invents roller blades.
3	1980	1980: Tehran, Iran - Failed U.S. Rescue Attempt to Save Hostages in Tehran 1980: New York, NY, USA - John Lennon Assassinated 1980: USA - Mount St. Helens Erupts 1980: UK - Rubik's Cube Popular 1980: Atlanta, GA, USA - Ted Turner Establishes CNN 1980: UK - The hepatitis-B vaccine invented. 1980: Cape Canaveral, FL, USA - First US Space Shuttle (Columbia) launched
4	1981	1981: UK - Worst April blizzards of 20th century 1981: London, UK - Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer 1981: UK - Assassination Attempt on Pope John Paul II 1981: USA - Ronald Reagan president 1981-1989. 1981: USA - Assassination Attempt on U.S. President Ronald Reagan 1981: UK - AIDS Identified 1981: UK - Pac-Man is Extremely Popular 1981: USA - Personal Computer (PC) Introduced by IBM 1981: Seattle, WA, USA - MS-DOS invented. 1981: Falkland Islands - Argentina invades Falkland Islands
5	1982	1982: UK - Unemployment reaches 3 million 1982: Berkshire, UK - Women's peace protests against cruise missiles begin at Greenham Common 1982: USA - E.T. Movie Released 1982: UK - King Henry VIII's Ship the Mary Rose Raised from seabed After 437 Years 1982: New York, NY, USA - Reverend Sun Myung Moon Marries 2,075 Couples at Madison Square Garden 1982: USA - Human growth hormone genetically engineered. 1982: UK - Margaret Thatcher wins landslide second term election victory, taking 397 seats to Labour's 209
6	1983	1983: UK - 1983: USA - Ronald Reagan Announces Defense Plan Called Star Wars 1983: USA - Soviet Union Shoots Down a Korean Airliner 1983: Grenada - United States Intervention 1983: UK - Soft bifocal contact lens invented. 1983: USA - First Cabbage Patch Kids sold. 1983: USA - Programmer Jaron Lanier first coins the term virtual reality. 1983: UK - Miners' strike - High Court orders sequestration of NUM assets
7	1984	1984: Bhopal, India - Huge Poison Gas Leak from Union Carbide chemical plant 1984: India - Indira Gandhi, India's Prime Minister, Killed by Two Bodyguards 1984: UK - The CD-ROM invented. 1984: CA, USA - The Apple Macintosh invented. 1984: UK - BBC launches EastEnders as soap rival to Coronation Street
8	1985	1985: Ethiopia - Famine shocks the world 1985: Antarctica - Hole in the Ozone Layer Discovered 1985: USSR - Mikhail Gorbachev Calls for Glasnost and Perestroika 1985: UK - Wreck of the Titanic Found 1985: Seattle, WA, USA - Windows operating system created by Microsoft 1985: Libya - US bombing of Libya
9	1986	1986: Chernobyl, USSR - Chernobyl nuclear accident 1986: LiveAid, the biggest music event staged to date 1986: Cape Canaveral, FL, USA - Seven dead in Challenger space shuttle disaster 1986: Phillipines - Ferdinand Marcos Flees 1986: UK - Iran-Contra Scandal Unfolds 1986: USSR - Mir Space Station Launched 1986: Japan - Fuji introduced the disposable camera. 1986: UK - Margaret Thatcher wins record third term as prime minister
10	1987	1987: UK - DNA First Used to Convict Criminals 1987: Hague, Netherlands - Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Butcher of Lyons, Sentenced to Life in Prison 1987: New York, NY, USA - New York Stock Exchange Suffers Huge Drop on Black Monday 1987: Moscow, USSR - West German Pilot Lands Unchallenged in Red Square 1987: UK - The first 3-D video game invented. 1987: UK - Disposable contact lenses invented. 1987: Lockerbie, Scotland - Pan Am Flight 103 Is Bombed
11	1988	1988: UK - U.S. Shoots Down Iranian Airliner 1988: UK - Digital cellular phones invented. 1988: UK - The RU-486 'morning after' pill invented. 1988: UK - Doppler radar invented by Christian Andreas Doppler. 1988: UK - Prozac 1988: Harvard, MA, USA - The first patent for a genetically engineered animal is issued to Harvard University researchers Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart. 1988: Berlin, Germany - Berlin Wall Falls
12	1989	1989: Alaska, USA - Exxon Valdez Spills Millions of Gallons of Oil on Coastline 1989: Beijing, China - Students Massacred in Tiananmen Square 1989: Panama - Invasion of Panama: United States vs Panama 1989-1990. 1989: USA - George H.W. Bush president of the USA 1989-1993. 1989: USA - High-definition television invented. 1989: UK - John Major Prime Minister to 1997 (Conservative)
13	1990	1990: Kuwait - Iraq invades Kuwait, triggering first gulf war 1990: London, UK - Violence flares in London Poll Tax demonstration 1990: London, UK - Margaret Thatcher quits as UK prime minister 1990: South Africa - Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela freed from prison after 27 years 1990: Cape Canaveral, FL, USA - Hubble Telescope Launched Into Space 1990: Poland - Lech Walesa Becomes First President 1990: Geneva, Switzerland - The World Wide Web/Internet protocol (HTTP) and WWW language (HTML) created by Tim Berners-Lee. 1990: UK - Bronze Age Man Found Frozen in Glacier
14	1991	1991: USSR - Collapse of the Soviet Union 1991: Iraq - Operation Desert Storm 1991: South Africa - Apartheid Laws Repealed 1991: UK - The digital answering machine invented. 1991: Official End of the Cold War
15	1992	1992: Waco, TX, USA - Cult Compound in Waco, Texas Raided
16	1993	1993: Use of the Internet Grows Exponentially 1993: New York, NY, USA - World Trade Center Bombed 1993: USA - William Jefferson Clinton president of the USA 1993-2001. 1993: USA - The pentium processor invented. 1993: Europe - Channel Tunnel Opens, Connecting Britain and France
17	1994	1994: USA - Lorena Bobbit Takes Brutal Revenge 1994: South Africa - Nelson Mandela Elected President 1994: USA - O.J. Simpson Arrested for Double Murder 1994: Rwanda - Rwandan Genocide Begins 1994: UK - HIV protease inhibitor invented. 1994: Zaire - Ebola Virus Spreads
18	1995	1995: Tokyo, Japan - Gas Attack in Subway 1995: UK - Yitzhak Rabin Assassinated 1995: Balkans - Intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina: United States as part of NATO acted peacekeepers in former Yugoslavia 1995-1996. 1995: USA - The Java computer language invented. 1995: USA - DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) invented. 1995: UK - Mad Cow Disease Hits Farms