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On the date

Tuesday, August 18, 1981

From the day

Perspective: The Future Historian · Sight

The neon glow of the arcade glass catches the sharp angles of shoulder pads as a woman adjusts her spandex leggings, looking as if she stepped straight out of a synth-pop dream. Street corner radios are locked in an iron grip by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie’s "Endless Love," the saccharine melody drifting past headlines about federal bailouts and the high price of bread. Through my lens, I see the rigid geometry of the new IBM PC beginning to flatten the world into data, while the sky above reflects the shimmering heat of a summer held captive by blockbuster idols. Every silhouette is a bold statement of excess, a colorful veneer over a shifting economy that will define the coming decade.

Memories from that day

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#1 on the Billboard Hot 100

Endless Love

Diana Ross and Lionel Richie

#1 at the box office

Raiders of the Lost Ark

$4,183,784

The must-have

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

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 1981

  • Take a chill pill

Tech Check

IBM PC, MS-DOS & Space Shuttle.

Cost of Living (1980)

Loaf of Bread

$0.50

Gallon of Gas

$1.19

Average Home

$47,200

New Car

$7,200

Time Elapsed

16,362 days ago

(44 years, 302 days)