Timeline for 1960s to 1990 CE

1980 CE The World Health Organization formally announces the worldwide eradication of smallpox (G)

The US Supreme Court rules that a microbe created by General Electric to eliminate oil waste can be patented (G)

Walter Alvarez (US) and colleagues discover a worldwide layer of iridium-enriched clay; this may be residue of a gigantic meteorite that struck the Earth and wiped out dinosaurs (G)

1981 CE Scientists identify Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (G)

NASA scientists announce that two unusual meteorites found in the Antarctic may have originated from Mars (G)

IBM launches its ''home'' or ''personal'' computer (the P.C.) (G)

David Pilbeam determines that ''Ramapithecus'' was probably an early ancestor of the orangutan rather than of humanity (G)

Chinese scientists are first to clone a fish successfully (a golden carp) (G)

1980 CE

Six U.S. embassy aides escape from Iran with Canadian help (Jan. 29). (Info)

F.B.I.'s undercover operation ≴Abscam” (for Arab scam) implicates public officials (Feb. 2). (Info)

U.S. breaks diplomatic ties with Iran (April 7). (Info)

Eight U.S. servicemen are killed and five are injured as helicopter and cargo plane collide in abortive desert raid to rescue American hostages in Teheran (April 25). (Info)

Supreme Court upholds limits on federal aid for abortions (June 30). (Info)

Shah of Iran dies at 60 (July 27). (Info)

Iraq troops hold 90 square miles
of Iran after invasion; 8-year Iran-Iraq war begins (Sept. 19). (Info)

Pope John Paul II visits six African nations, followed later in the year by journeys to France, Brazil, and West Germany (G)

Polish radio broadcasts a Mass for the first time under Polish communist rule (G)

1981 CE

U.S.-Iran agreement frees 52 hostages held in Teheran since 1979 (Jan. 20); hostages welcomed back in U.S. (Jan. 25). (Info)

Pope John Paul II wounded by gunman (May 14). (Info)

A new translation of the Koran is printed in China (G)

Salvation Army withdraws from the World Council of Churches in protest for the WCC's ''political'' support for guerrilla movements (G)

Kelly Segraves (US), a leading Baptist ''creationist,'' argues in a Sacramento court against the teaching of evolution in state schools (G)

The South African Presbyterian Church instructs its clergy that they can marry people of different races in defiance of the apartheid laws (G)

Ethiopia's Marxist government closes Christian churches and Muslim mosques and especially persecutes Ethiopian Lutheran Church; 600 Christian and Muslim leaders executed (G)

Reform Jews of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations decide to end its 400-year old ban on proselytization (G)

Egypt's President Anwar Sadat assassinated.

1982 CE Nobel Prize to Aaron Klug for analysis of the structure of viruses and DNA (G)

The UN Law of the Sea Conference adopts an international convention to supervise the exploration of the world's sea beds as the ''common heritage of mankind,'' but the US and UK do not sign (G)

The centenary of Charles Darwin's death is marked by conferences throughout the world; ''punctuated evolution'' is a controversial new theory about the was life developed (G)

Karl Setter discovers a primitive bacterium that can live in boiling water around undersea volcanoes, geysers, etc. (G)

A Federal court in Little Rock, AK, declares it unconstitutional to teach ''creationism'' equally with the theory of evolution (G)

Evidence grows that children living near traffic routes are more affected by lead poisoning (G)

The first magnetized tissues to be discovered in mammals are found in dolphins; they may assist navigation (G)

Scientists at Groningen University, Netherlands, postulate the existence of a black hole at the center of our galaxy (G)

The first commercial product of genetic engineering appears when human insulin produced by bacteria is marketed (G)

Canada blames environmental damage to its forests on acid rain mainly from US industry and calls for extensive anti-pollution measures (G)

Items highlighted in red signify these as global change issues.

Combined heart-lung and kidney-pancreas transplants are carried out successfully (G)

1982 CE

Lebanon war results as Israel invades to stop PLO raids. PLO exiled to Tunisia as part of deal resulting in Israel's partial withdrawl from occupied territory.

Lebanese Christian Phalangists kill hundreds of people in two Palestinian refugee camps in West Beirut (Sept. 15). (Info)

John Paul II becomes first Pope to visit the UK; in 1982 also travels to Ireland, Argentina, West Africa, Spain, and Portugal (G)

The Vatican orders Czechoslovakian clergy to stop collaborating with the government (G)

An Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission recommends that the Pope should be recognized as ''universal Primate'' but this is fiercely opposed by many Anglicans (G)

The General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church merges with the Presbyterian Church, US, having split from them in the Civil War (G)

A Covenant of Unity is agreed between the Methodist, United Reformed, and Mauritian churches (G)

The Pope meets Easier Abaft in the Vatican despite strong Israeli protests (G)

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches suspends South Africa's two Dutch Reformed Churches for the ''heresy'' of racial segregation (G)

1983 CE An ancient fossil skull discovered in Pakistan may be from missing link between whales and land animals; ''Pakicetus'' lived approximately 50 million years ago (G) [Director's note:Such ''links'' may also be objectively viewed as forms that appear in-between similarly designed other life forms; and remain so until clear evidence can establish the transitional ties between forms]

The world's first artificially made chromosome is created at Harvard University and grafted into yeast cells (G)

A gene markers that identify muscular dystrophy and Huntington's Disease are identified. (G)

A method of obsidian dating is developed similar to that of carbon dating (G)

After 11 years in flight, Pioneer 10 becomes the first spacecraft to leave the solar system (G)

The compact disc is launched (G)

1983 CE

Pope John Paul II signs new Roman Catholic code incorporating changes brought about by Second Vatican Council (Jan. 25). (Info)

U.S. Supreme Court declares many local abortion restrictions unconstitutional (June 15). (Info)

Terrorist explosion kills 237 U.S. Marines in Beirut (Oct. 23). (Info)

The Roman Catholic Church ends its automatic excommunication of Freemasons (G)

The Vatican and Sweden resume diplomatic relations after a break of 450 years (G)

The World Council of Churches reaches new levels of consensus on central aspects of Christian faith and worship (G)

1984 CE Nobel Prize for research on monoclonal antibodies and for studies on immune system (G)

Nobel Prize for discovery of W and Z particles (G)

The Apple Macintosh micro-computer with mouse is launched (G)

US and Trench teams independently discover the AIDS virus (G)

A silicon microchip that stores 4 times more data than previously possible is developed (G) ...and this trend continues well into the 21st Century!

Test-tube triplets and quadruplets are born in UK (G)

A 5-million-year old jawbone of ''Australopithecus afarensis'' is discovered in Kenya; this is the earliest known ancestor of ours that is not also an ancestor of the apes (G) [Director's note: as noted above, language by Grun implies evolution but objectively such assumptions often remain unfounded by lack of empirical data]

DNA analysis reveals that chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than to gorillas or other apes; the genetic difference is barely 1% (G) [Director's note: yet that 1% is a significant number of genetic base pairs and DNA information common to species may, objectively, also be elements of common design by information overlap]

There are currently 1,462 spacecraft and satellites in space ... according to NASA (G)

The world record total of 71,830 patents are filed in the US (G)

1984 CE

Reagan orders U.S. Marines withdrawn from Beirut international peacekeeping force (Feb. 7). (Info)

Italy and Vatican agree to end Roman Catholicism as state religion (Feb. 18). (Info)

Reagan ends U.S. role in Beirut by relieving Sixth Fleet from peacekeeping force (March 30). (Info)

Soviet Union withdraws from summer Olympic games in U.S., and other bloc nations follow (May 7). (Info)

The Vatican publishes a document on the ''Theology of Liberation'' warning against Marxism (G)

The largest demonstrations in French history, with nearly a million marchers, force the government to abandon its challenge to the independence of church schools (G)

1982 - Union of Third Temple Groups

1987- Temple Mount Faithful enters court action in Israel in hopes of preventing Muslim destruction of Temple Mount remains for previous temple structures. (IP)

1985 CE Scientists at University of California, Berkeley, gain more evidence of a gigantic black hole in the middle of our galaxy (G)

Switzerland becomes the first European country to make catalytic converters, which need lead-free fuel, mandatory for private automobiles (G)

The earliest well-preserved amphibian skeleton is found in Scottish oil shale and is 340 million years old (G)

Deep oceanic vents are found in Mid-Atlantic Ridge (G)

The British Antarctic Survey discovers a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica (G)

1985 CE

Two Shi'ite Muslim gunmen capture TWA airliner with 133 aboard, 104 of them Americans (June 14); 39 remaining hostages freed in Beirut (June 30). (Info)

P.L.O. terrorists hijack Achille Lauro, Italian cruise ship, with 80 passengers, plus crew (Oct. 7). (Info)

Reagan and Gorbachev meet at summit (Nov. 19); agree to step up arms control talks and renew cultural contacts (Nov. 21). (Info)

Terrorists seize Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner after takeoff from Athens (Nov. 23); 59 dead as Egyptian forces storm plane on Malta (Nov. 24). (Info)

Large crowds visit a statue of the Virgin Mary in Ballinspittle, County Cork, Ireland, which is said to move back and forth (G)

China releases the former Roman Catholic Bishop of Shanghai... after 30 years' imprisonment for his religious beliefs; Beijing's Roman Catholic cathedral is reopened (G)

1986 CE Voyager 2 flies by Uranus and discovers 10 more moons (G)

The space shuttle ''Challenger'' explodes on take-off, killing all seven crew members (G)

In Egypt, archeologists uncover the 3,000-year-old tomb of Maya, Tutankhamen's treasure (G)

Using a submarine, a West German scientists films living coelacanths in their natural habitat 600 feet below the sea's surface (G)

A Dominican miner finds a 35-million-year old frog encased in amber (G)

25,000 AIDS cases are diagnosed in the US (G)

Major nuclear accident at Soviet Union's Chernobyl power station alarms world (April 26). (Info)

1986 CE

Spain and Portugal join European Economic Community (Jan. 1). (Info)

President freezes Libyan assets in U.S. (Jan. 8). (Info)

Austrian president Kurt Waldheim's service as Nazi army officer revealed (March 3). (Info)

U.S. planes attack Libyan "terrorist centers” (April 14). (Info)

Three Lutheran church groups in U.S. set to merge (Aug. 29). (Info)

Secret initiative to send arms to Iran revealed (Nov. 6.). (Info)

Reagan denies exchanging arms for hostages and halts arms sales (Nov. 19); diversion of funds from arms sales to Nicaraguan Contras revealed (Nov. 25). (Info)

John Paul II becomes the first Pope in recorded history to visit a synagogue and also leads a hundred world religious leaders (Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Shinto, Sikh) in prayers for peace at St. Francis' Basilica, Assisi (G)

Desmond Tutu becomes the first black Archbishop of Cape Town (G)

Israeli archeologists discover a 2,600-year-old biblical text (G)

South Africa's Dutch Reformed Church votes to open its membership to all races (G)

Church of England bishops publish ''The Nature of Christian Belief,'' which reaffirms their belief in the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection (G)

Martin Gilbert: ''The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy'' (G)

1987 CE The 25th anniversary of the launch of the Telstar communications satellite; 3.6 billion telephone calls have been relayed by communications satellites since then (G)

The nearest supernova detected since 1604 is observed in the Large Magellanic galaxy (G)

Sir Clive Sinclair launches the Z88 portable computer weighing under 2 pounds (G)

Spearpoints made by the first Americans (the Clovis) are found, dating from 11,500 years ago (G)

The second nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs to be found is identified in Albert, Canada (G)

A Arkhipov of Moscow's Radio Astronomy Institute identifies 9 out of 4,500 ''sun-like'' stars that may be the focus of intelligent life (G)

The 2,000th satellite to be launched is the Soviet ''Cosmos'' (G)

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko returns to Earth from the Mir space station after a record 326 days in space (G)

1987 CE

William Buckley, U.S. hostage in Lebanon, reported slain (Jan. 20). (Info)

Iraqi missiles kill 37 in attack on U.S. frigate Stark in Persian Gulf (May 17). (Info)

Klaus Barbie, 73, Gestapo
wartime chief in Lyon, sentenced to life by French court for war crimes (July 4). (Info)

Oliver North, Jr., tells
congressional inquiry higher officials approved his secret Iran-Contra operations (July 7—10). (Info)

Admiral John M. Poindexter, former National Security Adviser, testifies he authorized use of Iran arms sale profits to aid Contras (July 15—22). (Info)

Secretary of State George P. Shultz testifies he was deceived repeatedly on Iran-Contra affair (July 23—24). (Info)

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger tells inquiry
of official deception and intrigue (July 31, Aug. 3).(Info)

Reagan says Iran arms-Contra policy went astray and accepts responsibility (Aug. 12). (Info)

The Church of England ordains the first female Anglican deacons (G)

The Pope visits the US and Canada (G)

The Rev. Pat Robertson announces his Republican candidacy for the Presidency (G)

Oral Roberts raises $4.5 million after declaring that God would ''call him home'' if he failed to do so (G)

1988 CE Nobel Prize for discovering structure of proteins involved in photosynthesis (G)

Stephen Hawking: ''A Brief History of Time'' (G)

The world population is growing by 220,000 a day, according to the UN (G)

Australia unveils the most powerful radio telescope in the southern hemisphere (G)

The first transatlantic optical fiber telephone cable to enter service links France, the UK, and US; it can process 40,000 simultaneous conversations (G)

''Discovery'' launch is first shuttle since loss of Challenger - 20 months previously (G)

Carbon dating establishes that Turin Shroud dates to about 1330 CE and so is not burial cloth of Jesus (G) [Director's note: research on shroud continues well into the 90s]

''Internet'' computer virus designed by a US student jams over 6,000 military computers across the US (G)

Eight major toiletry companies decide to phase out ozone hostile aerosols by late 1989 (G)

Surgeons perform the first UK brain cell transplants

The US B-2 ''Stealth'' bomber is unveiled (G)

1988 CE

Robert C. McFarlane, former National Security Adviser, pleads guilty in Iran-Contra case (March 11). (Info)

U.S. Navy ship shoots down Iranian airliner in Persian Gulf, mistaking it for jet fighter; 290 killed (July 3). (Info)

Terrorists kill nine tourists on Aegean cruise (July 11). (Info)

Pan-Am 747 explodes from terrorist bomb and crashes in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 aboard and 11 on ground (Dec. 21). (Info)

Salman Rushdie's latest novel, ''The Satanic Verses'' is attacked by Muslims for sacrilege and blasphemy (G)

The film ''The Last Temptation of Christ,'' directed by Martin Scorsese, is condemned by many Christian religious leaders as blasphemous (G)

Eugene Antonio Marino becomes the US's first black Roman Catholic Archbishop (of Atlanta) (G)

The North Korean government allows a Roman Catholic mass to be celebrated in Pyongyang by two South Korean priests (G)

1989 CE Florida and Virginia allow DNA genetic ''fingerprinting'' as admissible evidence in some rape cases (G)

Israeli archeologists discover a Neanderthal skeleton (G)

US archeologists discover an ancient Assyrian city, Mashkanshapir, in Iraq (G)

The Large Electron-Positron Collider begins operation in Switzerland; the world's largest scientific apparatus - 16.5 miles in circumference (G)

Toshiba produces the first commercial samples of 4-megabit DRAM computer chips (G)

Computer viruses infect computer networks worldwide (G)

g1
The 'CARBON spike' and
Global Change

Meteorologists pronounce 1989 the warmest on record; this may be a sign of the greenhouse effect (G)

80 nations adopt a declaration agreeing to stop producing, by 2000, CFCs which damage the world's ozone layer (G)

Astronomers discover a large, thin ''sheet'' of galaxies with vast emptiness on either side; it is dubbed the ''Great Wall'' and is unexplained by current theories of gravitational attraction (G)

Mysterious ''crop circles'' appear in UK cornfields (G)

The UN Population Fund predicts that world population will rise to 14.2 billion by 2100 CE (current population is under 5 billion) (G)

1989 CE

U.S. planes shoot down two Libyan fighters over international waters in Mediterranean (Jan. 4). (Info)

Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses offensive and sentences him to death (Feb. 14). (Info)

Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (April 19). (Info)

U.S. jury convicts Oliver North in Iran-Contra affair (May 4). (Info)

More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation (mid-May). (Info)

Mikhail S. Gorbachev named Soviet president (May 25). (Info)

Thousands killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators (June 4 et seq.). (Info)

After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West (Nov. 11). (Info)

Czech Parliament ends Communists' dominant role (Nov. 30). (Info)

Romanian uprising overthrows communist government (Dec. 15 ). (Info)

The Polish Parliament grants the Roman Catholic Church legal stature and renews diplomatic relations with the Vatican (G)

Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the first Soviet leader to meet a Pope (G)

Rev. Jerry Falwell announces that Moral Majority Inc. will be dissolved and states that it has achieved its aim of reactivating the religious Right (G)

Indian Hindu fundamentalists attempt to demolish an important Islamic mosque sited on the alleged birthplace of the Hindu god Rama; this becomes an important controversy in the Indian national elections

Temple Mount Faithful (TMF) make first attempt to put a cornerstone for future Temple on the Temple Mount. (IP)