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On the date

Saturday, May 17, 1980

From the day

Perspective: The Future Historian · Tactile

I sit in my study, tracing the sharp, cold edges of a first-generation Rubik’s Cube, marveling at how these plastic pivots signaled the shift toward a digitized logic. Above me, the morning paper screams of fiscal collapse: $345 million claims by New York State turned down by U.S., a Medicaid rejection that surely felt catastrophic to the bureaucrat in his polyester-blend suit. The texture of 1980 is friction—the static of a perm against a synthetic Lycra shoulder pad and the gritty resolution of a new fax machine. It is an awesome, looming pivot point where the sheer weight of New York’s budgetary fallout began to reshape the very social fabric we now analyze through silicon lenses.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

$345 MILLION CLAIMS BY NEW YORK STATE TURNED DOWN BY U.S.; MEDICAID PAYMENTS INVOLVED Action Could Upset Carey Budget --Mrs. Harris Asserts Albany Drew Funds Improperly U.S. Deductions Are Planned U.S. Rejects $345 Million in Claims by New York State

Read in The New York Times →

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100

Call Me

Blondie

The must-have

Rubik's Cube

On This Day

  • On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in Chuschi (a town in Ayacucho), starting the Internal conflict in Peru.

    Wikipedia →
  • General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea seizes control of the government and declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.

    Wikipedia →

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

awesomebodaciouscheesychill

Valley Girl

as ifbarf me outgag me with a spoongrodytotally

Hip Hop

baddefdopeflyfreshword

Yuppie

greed is goodpower lunchnetworking

Catchphrases of 1980

  • Here's Johnny!
  • Who shot J.R.?

Tech Check

Fax Machine Boom, Pac-Man & Flash Memory.

Style of 1980

Silhouette: Oversized inverted triangle

Material: Lycra and sequins

  • Shoulder pads
  • Perms
  • Neon accessories

Cost of Living (1980)

Loaf of Bread

$0.50

Gallon of Gas

$1.19

Average Home

$47,200

New Car

$7,200

Time Elapsed

16,821 days ago

(46 years, 31 days)