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Current Events by Year, 1970–1989

Based on the clues, guess these things that happened in each year.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 25, 2019
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First submittedAugust 27, 2013
Times taken58,498
Average score70.0%
Rating4.45
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Year
Hint
Answer
1989
City which ceased to be divided by a wall
Berlin
1988
Country responsible for the crash of Pan Am 103 into Lockerbie, Scotland
Libya
1987
British P.M. who won a rare third term in office
Margaret Thatcher
1986
Space shuttle which exploded
Challenger
1985
Reformer who became leader of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev
1984
City which hosted the Summer Olympics, boycotted by the Soviet Union
Los Angeles
1983
Singer who did the "moonwalk" for the first time
Michael Jackson
1982
War which pitted the United Kingdom against Argentina
Falklands War
1981
Political leader who quipped "Honey, I forgot to duck" after being shot in
an assassination attempt
Ronald Reagan
1980
Volcano which erupted in Washington state
Mount St. Helens
1979
Country where Ayatollah Khomeini seized power
Iran
1978
Beverage which over 900 followers of Jim Jones mixed with poison and used
to commit suicide
Flavor Aid
1977
Singer who "left the building" for the last time
Elvis Presley
1976
Canadian tower which became the highest free-standing structure in the world
CN Tower
1975
Country in which Pol Pot became dictator
Cambodia
1974
Scandal which forced Richard Nixon to resign as U.S. President
Watergate
1973
Jewish holy day on which several neighboring countries invaded Israel
Yom Kippur
1972
Country which fought the second "Cod War" against the UK
Iceland
1971
Sport in which US athletes competed against Chinese athletes in an
effort to reduce political tensions
Table tennis
1970
Country where the Aswan Dam was completed
Egypt
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52 Comments
kalbahamut
+10
Level 81
Nov 23, 2013
100%. Never heard of the first or second Cod Wars, but got Iceland on my first guess.
kalbahamut
+40
Level 81
Nov 23, 2013
always knew there was something fishy about that place
sillie
+2
Level 77
Nov 5, 2014
Likewise.
IsleAuHaulte
+4
Level 89
Jul 11, 2019
The world may never know how truly close they came to using the haddock option.
mattBk
+10
Level 72
Jun 13, 2020
Who knew they were gonna raise hallibut it....
ander217
+6
Level 75
Jun 13, 2020
It was my sole concern.
AnnikaKim
+1
Level 63
Feb 2, 2024
That's total pollocks!
BlackLab
+1
Level 66
Feb 6, 2024
I have a haddock now from reading this
PacoGee
+1
Level 44
Mar 22, 2018
never heard of it either, I guessed a few countries before I got Iceland lol
AlexThirkell
+4
Level 75
Dec 21, 2020
I read it as the second COLD war, tried places like China and Egypt (which gave me the last one).
NMI
+1
Level 89
Sep 18, 2021
Me too, @AlexThirkell. And I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t heard of it before. Facepalm.
nettybet
+1
Level 75
Nov 23, 2013
Only missed Mount St Helens but should have got that too.
burntfrost
+2
Level 48
May 7, 2014
If you grow up in Washington you get really, really tired of hearing about that damn thing.
TheWombat
+9
Level 73
Nov 25, 2013
Much as I disliked the man, it's a bit unfair to say that Khomeini 'seized' power. He came to power after a popular revolution, supported by the majority of Iranians. The fact that he betrayed their trust and imposed the theocracy they still have now does not change the fact that they initially welcomed him.
kalbahamut
+7
Level 81
Nov 26, 2013
There was definitely a seizure of power in Iran. A couple of them, actually. A lot of people don't know that the Shah, who was last in the line of kings going back 2500 years to Cyrus the Great, was actually forced out of power twice. The popular narrative seems to be that he was forced on the Iranian people by Americans. Prime Minister Mosaddegh had seized power similar to how Hitler seized power in Germany, both were popularly elected but then went on to take more power than they were granted by their office. Mosaddegh oversaw the wholesale theft of the energy infrastructure in Iran that had been built by foreign companies, and this was part of why foreign powers helped to see the rightful ruler (the Shah) returned to power over Mosaddegh. We only hear about the Shah being unpopular in the West because of his oppressive police state-like policies, but in truth he was mostly unpopular because he wanted things like equality and education for women and peace with other states (Israel).
kalbahamut
+5
Level 81
Nov 26, 2013
this made him very unpopular with the ignorant, violent, misogynistic clerics of the country, and so they, along with spiritual leader in exile Khomeini, fanned the flames of discontent which eventually resulted in the popular uprising that sent the Shah packing a second time. There were other factors, including the rise of Communist influence and (significantly) a slumping economy, but the issues that took center stage were the religious ones which is of course why the people were happy to see Khomeini's return from exile. However, he was not given supreme power, and it was in the same year that he did in fact seize it from the interim government, citing authority from God. The extent to which this was a popular movement or not can be argued. He probably was supported by a majority of Iranians. But it's still accurate to say that he seized power. He was not elected. Coups can be popularly supported.
Tecumseh94
+7
Level 48
Jan 21, 2014
comparing Mosaddegh to Hitler shows your true colours.
burntfrost
+4
Level 48
May 7, 2014
Educated?
joeythelemur
+9
Level 83
Sep 3, 2014
What a stinging rebuttal Tecumseh!! Way to address the core of kalbahamut's argument with a well thought out parry! Impressive rhetoric, I must say!
kalbahamut
+8
Level 81
Nov 26, 2016
I'm only comparing the way in which they usurped power. Aside from that, they were both nationalists, and a little xenophobic, but that's about where the similarities end.
divantilya
+1
Level 36
Feb 5, 2018
Agree with you 100% regarding the Shah and Khomeini. It's a shame that people form opinions based on the media reports and not by doing their own research!
travelfan
+5
Level 67
Jun 5, 2014
Thank you Forrest Gump for teaching me the answer to the 1971 question :).
kalbahamut
+2
Level 81
May 3, 2016
Could have helped for '74, '77, and '81, too
thecoolestdude2
+4
Level 68
Sep 20, 2014
Ah... the cod wars, we meet again.
CmdrKeen
+2
Level 32
May 5, 2016
I tried every iteration of Mount St Helens and it didn't work. Are we seriously supposed to include the period!?
bkemp2001
+1
Level 61
May 11, 2016
Leave out the Mount. It worked for me, no period necessary.
blizzrd33
+2
Level 80
Nov 20, 2019
Mt St Helens worked for me
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Dec 5, 2023
Just a reminder that punctuation and capitalization have never mattered on JetPunk. Our software simply ignores them.
Findlay
+5
Level 82
May 6, 2016
Not that it actually caused a problem for me, but for the sake of accuracy, I feel like maybe including Kampuchea as a correct answer as well as Cambodia would be a good move. That was (and, in Khmer at least, still is) the name of the country at the time and Democratic Kampuchea is widely used in English for at least that particular period of its history.
drlancy
+1
Level 57
Jun 17, 2019
Got them all with 2 seconds left. Last one finally came to me after many guesses, and I had just played a game of it at lunch.
blizzrd33
+2
Level 80
Nov 20, 2019
Learnt something today, about the connection between Jonestown and the "drinking the Kool Aid" expression, thanks!
Carry
+1
Level 63
Feb 20, 2020
Same here. The moment I saw the answer it clicked.
dogmeat
+2
Level 68
Dec 26, 2019
What is flavor aid?
kalbahamut
+2
Level 81
Dec 26, 2019
cheap Kool-Aid knock off.
IsleAuHaulte
+3
Level 89
Dec 26, 2019
You won't know until you try it.
FreeStater
+2
Level 75
Feb 2, 2024
After you try it, you won't drink anything else again.
kalbahamut
+7
Level 81
Dec 26, 2019
What new developments in the 70s and 80s required resetting my points on this quiz? :)
mightythor
+3
Level 66
Jun 13, 2020
Shouldn't things that happened 30 to 50 years ago be "historical events"? I mean, I know I was there, but still.
NMI
+2
Level 89
Sep 18, 2021
Does that make you and me ancient artifacts, @mighythor?
Geordy
+2
Level 68
Mar 2, 2021
Why doesn't punch work for the drink? It's mentioned as 'punch' in all articles I ever read about it. Heck, I even wrote an article myself about the Jonestown massacre.

Note that I'm not an American and therefore I'm not famillair with all American brands.

partdavid
+5
Level 72
Oct 29, 2021
This took me down a bit of a rabbit hole.

Flavor Aid is not a popular or well-known brand. It still exists in the U.S. but people in casual usage (and even people at the time) would call it Kool-Aid, since that's become a generic term for instant drink mix. The piece of "interesting" trivia here is the brand.

Punch may mean different things to different people. I don't think every flavor of instant drink mix would be described as "punch", in fact. Lemonade, for example, and maybe not even the grape flavor.

I'm not sure how reliable this is, but apparently grape was the flavor of Flavor Aid used at Jonestown. Is that "punch"? I'm not sure.

Some people might use punch as a general term for this kind of drink. But it's even more generic than that, since it also includes non-instant drinks maid with mixed fruit juices and a number of alcoholic drinks. So "punch" may be correct, but if so, it's meaninglessly, tautologically so; as if we were to accept "beverage" itself.

kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
May 5, 2022
Grape flavor-aid is not punch. Though the term is somewhat vague, I think it at least has to have a mix of fruit flavors to be called that.
ElijahCaine
+4
Level 50
May 10, 2022
The Jonestown massacre is where the expression "Don't drink the Kool Aid" comes from
lavendermoon
+3
Level 52
Jan 7, 2022
Come on...st helen should have worked
ElementalPixel
+1
Level 69
May 9, 2022
That would sort of be like accepting Chin for China.

And besides, it's not that hard to type one more letter...

JWatson24
+1
Level 71
May 5, 2022
I've never in my entire life heard of the Cod Wars, and I got all of the other answers easily. If there are any Brits here, can you please explain this?
ooftownroad
+2
Level 62
May 5, 2022
Basically, Iceland did not like the UK's EEZ, which gives them fishing, drilling, and other rights. Iceland wanted access to the Cod, and "war" was fought. Iceland won, and got to expand their EEZ.

I think

nsbidsmp
+1
Level 20
Jun 5, 2023
i tried mt st helena, mt helena, st helena before finally realizing its helens.

*face palm*

Polandball6
+1
Level 46
Jan 18, 2024
I only knew table tennis from forest gump
sarielise
+1
Level 68
Feb 2, 2024
Thanks, Forrest.
JohnnyYeet
+1
Level 59
Feb 4, 2024
Kampuchea should be accepted
kcirceo
+1
Level 61
Sep 10, 2024
The moonwalk had been done for decades before Michael Jackson was even born.
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