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Chinese military suppresses Tiananmen Square demonstration, killing thousands of students

Poland. For the first time in a communist country of the Soviet bloc, partially free elections are held, renewing part of the Polish parliament. The Communist Party loses 72 seats, and Solidarity, despite only having a few weeks to organize, wins 161 seats, gaining 35%

Warsaw. The Polish communist government agrees to negotiate with the Solidarity trade union. Shortly thereafter, the country holds its first free elections.

First targeted modification of an animal genome, that of the mouse.

Davide Deutsch suggests for the first time a universal and reversible quantum logic gate, based on the Toffoli Gate

Regime causes thousands of deaths in suppressing demonstrations in Burma

Nobel Prize in Physics to Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz Jack Steinberger for the demonstration of the dual nature of leptons, with the discovery of the mu neutrino

World military spending is equal to 3 trillion USD (in 1996, after the end of the Cold War, it will have dropped to 700 billion USD)

Panamanian dictator Noriega is indicted on drug trafficking charges by a Miami court.

Richard Feynman, founder of quantum electrodynamics and member of the Manhattan Project, dies in Los Angeles.

Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev passes the radical Cooperative Law, allowing private business for the first time since Stalin had banned it in 1928.

Paul Chu’s group in Houston, Texas, submitted a paper to Physical Review Letters on the superconductivity of ytterbium (YbBaCuO). Initially, it was yttrium, but a few days before publication, it was changed to ytterbium. A few weeks later, it was demonstrated that YbBaCuO is conductive

The allure of conspiracy theories and conspiracy theories is framed as one of the ways people explain the reality of certain events, attributing meaning to a fragmented and chaotic world characterized by uncertainty, and thus reducing anxiety. Two relevant studies in this regard are Graumann

Scottish writer Iain M. Banks publishes “Consider Phlebas” (later published in Italy as “Pensa a Fleba” or “La Mente di Schar”); the first in a series of novels set against The Culture, a society of machines, artificial minds, and humans, where everyday entertainment is accompanied

The London Sunday Times publishes on its front page the article with the photos of Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician of Moroccan origin, which prove that Israel is building atomic bombs.

Chernobyl, Soviet Union (now Ukraine). Two weeks have passed since the disaster, and the quantity (and variety) of material dumped on reactor number 4 is already frightening. Six thousand tons of material have already been dumped on reactor number 4 at the Vladimir Lenin nuclear

The Soyuz T-15 cosmonauts leave the Mir space station, make a short spaceflight, and successfully dock with the Salyut 7 station, where they will reactivate experiments left unfinished by the last crew of Salyut 7. This is the space station repaired during a historic mission

Swedish technical staff, on their way to work this morning at the Studsvik reactor south of Stockholm, measure unusual levels of radioactivity. Initially alarmed by a small leak at the Studsvik facility, they quickly realize that it must have been a major disaster in the

The Soviet authorities ordered the temporary evacuation of the Chernobyl area and recommended bringing three days’ worth of food rations.

DengXiaoPing accelerates transition to free market: 14 cities granted special status

First mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-51J)

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is completed

The American ISEE-3 mission, which had been parked at a Lagrangian point at the end of its mission, was revived by the legendary Robert Farquhar, sent crashing toward the Moon five times to gain momentum, and then set off toward a comet, 21P/Gioacobini-Zinner, even passing

Intel releases the 80386 microprocessor (300,000 transistors), 32-bit

Philips launches CD-ROM for PCs

David Deutsch publishes a paper demonstrating that a single computation can be performed on all possible states of the inputs of a quantum computer simultaneously; the output is essentially a superposition of all the results.

US Antitrust Commission Breaks Up AT&T

The Warsaw Pact’s plans for a possible invasion of Western Europe envision the use of the Second Strategic Echelon, primarily positioned in Belarus and western Ukraine. Most of the Red Army’s tanks and troop transports bound for West Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium would transit

The Chrysler M1-Abrams heavy tank, in the M1A1 version, is fitted with the German Rheinmetall 120mm gun

New Zealand mathematician Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones, an expert in knot theory, invented the Jones Polynomial, the knot invariant. This won him the Fields Medal in 1990. This paved the way for other knot invariants, including the generalization called HOMFLY-PT, from the authors’ initials. Nevertheless,

Grace Hopper was awarded the rank of commodore (a US Navy rank now called rear admiral) by President Ronald Reagan. Grace Hopper can be considered the inventor of high-level programming language compilers, which she envisioned as a way to communicate with computers in English. She

Microsoft introduces Word, the first WYSIWYG word processor

Ruben Rausing, founder of Tetra Pak, dies

Leningrad. Vladimir Volodya Putin and Lyudmila Alexandrovna Ocheretnaya are getting married at the Wedding Palace on Petr Lavrov Street, near the Tauride Gardens. They will honeymoon in Yalta, Crimea. Putin has already sold his Zaporozhets car and bought a Zigulì: the top of the line

Lebanon and Israel sign an agreement declaring the end of the state of war between the two countries. A 30-kilometer buffer zone is established and a multinational force composed of Americans, French, British, and Italians is deployed, against which a wave of attacks by the

Stern’s Koch and Schulte-Hillen fly to New York to beg Rupert Murdoch to reopen negotiations for Hitler’s diaries; when he agrees, he is in a position to dictate the price: $800,000 for the US, $400,000 for the UK.

After a week of negotiations between Stern and Newsweek and Murdoch to sell the rights to Hitler’s diaries, after a proposal from Newsweek of 3,750,000 USD, Schulte-Hillen, director of Gruner & Jahr, raises the offer and wants 4,200,000 USD, the anger of the representatives of

English historian Trevor-Rope examines Hitler’s diaries submitted to him by Stern, who requests a preliminary authentication within hours: Trevor-Rope will announce that the diaries are original.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) allows DNA sequences to be multiplied in vitro. Characterization and manipulation of DNA sequences in vitro become possible for a large portion of naturally occurring DNA.

Heidemann, Henke, and Oldenhage were summoned by the Wiesbaden police, to whom they had submitted some parts of Hitler’s diaries for authentication; the police informed them that at least 6 of the 9 documents in their possession were fakes due to the typewriter used (produced

Marham RAF Base, England. A Victor tanker crashes on takeoff due to a catastrophic failure of one of the Rolls-Royce engines. The crew quickly evacuates the aircraft and escapes.

Argentina invades the Falklands. Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, or Malvinas, a British possession for 149 years. The British have long claimed sovereignty thanks to the explorations carried out by English navigators in the 17th century, but the islands have been claimed and occupied in

Israel. The law formally annexing the Golan Heights, originally the Syrian provinces of Kuneitra and Fiq, is passed. These fertile heights, suitable for agriculture, are key to controlling the Upper Galilee and the Jordan River, as well as the water resources of a third of

The Commodore 64 is born: 17 million will be sold from 1982 to 1993; it has 64 kilobytes of memory, a sophisticated graphics card, several games and a low cost of $595

General Dynamics delivers the first Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarine (USS Ohio SSBN726) equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles; 18 more will be operational over the next 20 years (US Navy)

David Hubel, Torsten Wiesel receive the Nobel Prize for showing that visual information is processed even before it reaches the visual cortex in the occipital (back) part of the encephalon (brain)

Power MOSFET transistors are introduced into the market

Microsoft introduces MS-DOS for IBM PCs

After the IBM XT PC was launched, Steve Jobs ordered one purchased and dissected. He deemed it a rip-off. Then he took out a full page of the Wall Street Journal to write a single sentence: “Welcome, IBM, indeed.”

IBM releases the IBM PC XT personal computer

Ronald Reagan, upon taking office, signed a collective dismissal letter and 11,359 individual dismissals for the long-striking American air traffic controllers. A special law granted himself powers of intervention, then gave the air traffic controllers a week to return to work. After that deadline, he

Tehran, Iran. The last 52 American hostages held at the Tehran embassy have been released: the US has unblocked approximately $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and the remaining hostages have also been freed.

An Itavia plane with 81 people on board disappears off the coast of Ustica.

NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. 2:30 a.m. One of the climactic moments of the Cold War is about to cause the irreparable. National Security Advisor Zbigniev Brzezinsky is awakened in Washington, DC, by a possible Soviet nuclear attack. The political situation is indeed very tense, following

Geologist Walter Alvarez and renowned quantum physicist Luis Alvarez publish the article “Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction,” which uncovers the cause of the dinosaurs’ extinction, attributed to a meteorite impact. This evidence comes from samples found in Gubbio.

Iran. Operation Eagle Claw. US President Jimmy Carter decides to launch a raid to free the 52 American diplomats still in Iranian hands. The mission is detailed and complex. Problems begin immediately upon approaching the Desert 1 base set up in the desert east of

Tehran, Iran. Operation Argo. CIA agent Antonio Mendez lands at Mehrabad Airport with the Argo portfolio and fake passports.

First Full Duration test of SSMEs (Space Shuttle Main Engines)

failed attempt to free the hostages by the Task Force sent by President Carter to Iran; the two helicopters crash to the ground due to a technical problem caused by the infiltration of desert sand; all eight occupants die.

Tehran, Iran. Swedish Ambassador Kaj Sundberg, who is still hosting American diplomat Lee Schatz, is nervous and asks the Canadian ambassador for help, who promptly offers to host Schatz as well.

Tehran, Iran. Following negotiations mediated by the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), 13 American hostages, including women, African Americans, and people with health problems, are freed.

Tehran, Iran. American hostage crisis. The escaped American diplomats are guests of the Canadian Embassy.

Following the Iran hostage crisis, US President Carter orders a halt to all shipments of military materials and components to Iran.

The U.S. Department of Defense equips B-52s with SRAM missiles. There are 12 missiles per aircraft, launched from a rotating turret system. Each missile carries a 200,000-ton nuclear payload and is intended to destroy Soviet aircraft and air defenses, giving the B-52 a better chance

Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) engaged in an epic duel with René Arnoux (Renault Turbo); after countless overtaking maneuvers and collisions, Gilles emerged victorious, finishing second behind Jabouille (Renault). Many consider it the greatest Grand Prix of all time.

Pope Woytila’s visit to his native Poland

China. Deng Xiaoping is the country’s supreme leader. Regarding the Cultural Revolution that preceded it, he claims it nearly destroyed the Communist Party as an institution, while completely destroying, at least temporarily, its credibility.

Jody Sheckter World Champion

Ridley Scott directs Alien: “Collect specimen. Absolute priority. Ensure organism’s return for analysis. Crew expendable.”

William Foege, an American epidemiologist, played a central role in developing a global strategy for the eradication of smallpox worldwide through the use of vaccines. He helped save 131 million lives (estimated at the beginning of the 21st century).

Central America. The civil war in El Salvador claims 75,000 lives.

35 deaths in Italy due to terrorism

Nobel Prize in Physics to Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa for his work on low-temperature physics

Launch of Pioneer Venus 1, which entered into orbit around Venus and remained there until 1992, collecting a huge amount of data.

Beijing, China. Den Xiaoping places semiconductors at the center of his agenda.

Cupertino, California. Olivetti manager Carlo De Benedetti, after opening a Cupertino, California office a few years earlier, when Steve Jobs was still working at Atari, turned down an offer from Steve Jobs, who wanted to combine a keyboard, monitor, hard drive, microprocessor, and a simple

Launch of the Soviet Progress rocket, capable of carrying a payload of 2,500 kg. It would prove to be one of the most reliable Soviet rockets. Forty-two of them would be flown by 1989.

Voyager 2 launch

Elvis Presley dies. The American “King of Rock and Roll” dies at 42. The event draws millions of fans to Graceland, his Memphis home. Doctors declared the artist dead of a barbiturate-induced heart attack, but some ruled it a suicide.

The bottom quark is discovered at FermiLab