Events, Verisoph

1978 Orion Pictures is named for the hunter of Greek myth 0 cit. Orion Pictures, founded in 1978, is named after the constellation Orion, itself named for the giant hunter of Greek mythology. culture / economy / religion ●

c. December 1978 Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms begin in China 0 cit. Deng Xiaoping launches market-oriented reforms in China, introducing household responsibility in agriculture and opening the economy to foreign investment and trade. Although rooted in China's own political context rather than Chicago School doctrine, the reforms are often cited alongside Thatcher's and Reagan's as part of the broader global turn toward market liberalization in this period. economy / politics ●●●

1978 Moi builds a Kalenjin-centered coalition 1 cit. When Kenyatta died in 1978, Vice-President Daniel arap Moi took power and over time shifted patronage, security posts, and state resources toward a coalition centered on his Kalenjin community and allied smaller groups. The pattern of an ethnic inner circle controlling the state carried on, only with a different group at the center. Elite competition for that central prize kept ethnicity at the heart of national politics. Moi's rise and the shift in patronage are documented history. economy / politics ●●

December 1978 Deng Xiaoping launches China's reform and opening 0 cit. At a Communist Party meeting in December 1978, Deng Xiaoping set China on a course of market reforms and opening to the outside world. Farms were decontrolled, special economic zones invited foreign investment, and private enterprise slowly returned. This began the transformation that made China a manufacturing power. economy / politics ●●●●

1978 Moi appoints Kibaki Vice President 1 cit. When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta in 1978, he picked Kibaki as Vice President and initially allowed him to keep the finance docket. Kibaki therefore bridged Kenyatta-era technocracy and Moi-era succession politics. He was close to the center of state power before his gradual marginalization under Moi. economy / politics ●●●●●

3 May 1979 Margaret Thatcher wins power 0 cit. The Conservatives win the British general election and Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister on a program of privatization, union curbs, and monetarism. Her victory begins the neoliberal turn in Western politics. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 1979 Second Oil Shock 0 cit. The Iranian Revolution disrupted oil supply and sent world prices to new highs. The shock brought another surge of revenue into the Gulf monarchies. economy ●●●

c. 1979 Opening of Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone 0 cit. Dubai opened the giant Jebel Ali port, later adding a free trade zone that drew foreign firms. The project anchored Dubai's shift from oil toward trade, logistics, and services. economy ●●●

1979 to 1982 The Volcker shock and rising interest rates 0 cit. The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates sharply to fight inflation, pushing up the cost of the variable-rate debt many developing countries had taken on. The move helped trigger the Latin American debt crisis. economy / politics ●●●●

August 1979 Paul Volcker becomes chairman of the Federal Reserve 0 cit. Paul Volcker becomes chairman of the Federal Reserve amid double-digit inflation in the United States. He moves the Fed toward the monetarist approach of targeting the money supply rather than interest rates directly, applying the logic Friedman had argued for since the 1960s. economy ●●

6 October 1979 The Volcker shock 2 cit. The Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker sharply raises interest rates, pushing the federal funds rate above 19 percent to break the inflation of the 1970s. The policy triggered a severe recession and high unemployment in the early 1980s but succeeded in bringing inflation down, and it is widely seen as the practical vindication of monetarist thinking in U.S. policy. economy ●●●

4 May 1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes British prime minister 0 cit. Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister of the United Kingdom, having drawn on Hayek's ideas and the Institute of Economic Affairs in developing her program of privatization, trade union reform, and monetary restraint. Her government's policies became one of the two flagship national applications of Hayekian and monetarist economics, alongside Ronald Reagan's in the United States. economy / politics ●●●

21 December 1979 Zimbabwe's Lancaster House independence agreement 0 cit. The Lancaster House Agreement ended white minority rule in Rhodesia and set the terms for Zimbabwean independence in 1980, but it included a constitutional clause protecting existing land ownership from seizure without compensation for ten years, preserving the colonial-era land distribution that had left a small white minority holding most of the best farmland. The delayed and contested land question that followed is widely cited as an example of independence agreements locking in colonial-era economic structures well past the transfer of political power. economy / politics ●●

c. 1979 First IMF structural adjustment programs begin in Africa 0 cit. Facing balance-of-payments crises after the 1970s oil shocks and falling commodity prices, Senegal and several other African governments accepted IMF and World Bank loans conditioned on structural adjustment programs: currency devaluation, subsidy cuts, privatization, and reduced public spending. These programs, which spread across dozens of former colonies through the 1980s and 1990s, are widely documented as having placed macroeconomic policy decisions in newly independent states substantially under the direction of Washington-based lenders. economy ●●●

c. 1979 Tanzania and Julius Nyerere resist IMF conditionality 0 cit. Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere publicly refused IMF loan conditions he said would dismantle his government's social and economic policies, famously asking who elected the IMF to decide Tanzania's economic direction. Tanzania eventually accepted an adjustment program in 1986 after years of economic decline, an outcome frequently cited as evidence that few former colonies could sustain economic policy independence once cut off from Fund-approved financing. economy / politics ●●

October 1979 The Volcker shock raises the price of debt 0 cit. The US Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker sharply raises interest rates to fight inflation at home. Because much developing-country debt carried floating rates, repayments ballooned while commodity prices fell. A decision taken for domestic American reasons pushed dozens of borrowing nations toward default. economy / politics ●●

1979 The 1979 oil shock and the Iranian revolution 0 cit. The revolution in Iran disrupts its oil exports and sends prices spiraling upward a second time. The twin shocks of the 1970s reshaped the world economy, driving inflation, conservation, and a hunt for oil outside OPEC. economy / politics ●●●

1979 World Economic Forum ranks nations for competitiveness 0 cit. The forum that became the World Economic Forum began publishing a report that scored and ranked countries on their competitiveness, much like a league table of firms. Later measures such as the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business followed the same logic. Treating states as competitors for capital reframed government as a matter of business performance. economy / politics / society ●●

October 1979 The willing buyer, willing seller land clause is entrenched 0 cit. The land question nearly broke the conference. The settlement protected white-owned commercial farms by requiring that land be bought on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, with property rights entrenched in the constitution and unchangeable for ten years. Carrington argued this was needed to keep white farming expertise and win agreement. Critics later argued the clause locked in an unjust distribution of land and helped set up Zimbabwe's unresolved land crisis. economy / politics ●

c. 1980 Tokyo as a global financial center 0 cit. Japan's export boom and the 1980s bubble briefly make the Tokyo Stock Exchange the largest in the world by market value. Despite decades of slow growth after 1990, Tokyo remains Asia's biggest economy's financial heart and a top-ten global center. economy ●●●●

c. 1980 Seoul as a rising financial center 0 cit. South Korea's industrial rise makes Seoul's Yeouido district the country's financial hub, home to the Korea Exchange and major banks. The city now ranks in the top ten of global financial center indices. economy ●●●

c. 1980 Sydney as Australia's financial capital 0 cit. Sydney overtakes Melbourne as Australia's financial center in the late twentieth century, and the national securities exchange formed in 1987 is based there. The city anchors one of the world's largest pension fund pools. economy ●●●

4 November 1980 Ronald Reagan elected president 0 cit. Ronald Reagan wins the US presidency promising tax cuts, deregulation, and smaller government. With Thatcher's Britain, his administration anchors the free-market resurgence of the 1980s. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 1980 Nationalization of Saudi Aramco 0 cit. Saudi Arabia completed its gradual acquisition of Aramco, taking full ownership from its American partners. State control over the world's largest oil company gave the kingdom direct command of its main asset. economy / politics ●●●●

1980 Shenzhen Special Economic Zone 0 cit. China established special economic zones in 1980, with Shenzhen as the flagship. The former fishing town grew into a major manufacturing and technology hub. economy ●●●●●

1980 The rise of structural adjustment programs 0 cit. The World Bank introduced structural adjustment loans in 1980, tying financing to broad policy reforms rather than specific projects. The approach became the dominant model for lending to indebted developing countries through the 1980s and 1990s. economy / politics ●●●●●

c. 1980 to c. 1995 Africa's lost decade 0 cit. Many African economies saw per capita incomes fall through the 1980s and early 1990s under heavy debt and adjustment. The World Bank and its critics still dispute how much of the decline the programs caused versus cushioned. economy / society ●●●●

17 July 1980 Bolivia's Cocaine Coup brings a narco-junta 0 cit. General Luis Garcia Meza seized power with help from fugitive Nazi Klaus Barbie and drug traffickers, in what became known as the Cocaine Coup. The regime funded itself through the cocaine trade. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1980 South Korea's hagwon cram-school culture grows 0 cit. Private hagwon academies spread as families competed for university entry, making South Korea one of the world's most exam-driven systems. Spending on private tutoring became a major household cost. culture / economy ●●●

1980 Broadcast of Free to Choose 0 cit. Milton and Rose Friedman's television series Free to Choose airs on American public television, presenting free-market economics to a mass audience through ten episodes on subjects from consumer choice to inflation. An accompanying book of the same name became a bestseller and, alongside Capitalism and Freedom, remains one of the most widely read popular statements of Chicago School economics. culture / economy ●●

1980 Structural adjustment programs arrive 0 cit. The World Bank begins lending tied to structural adjustment: cut spending, privatize state firms, open markets, and devalue the currency. Paired with IMF conditions, these programs reshaped economies across Africa and Latin America through the 1980s and 1990s. Supporters said they fixed bloated states; critics said the austerity deepened poverty and served creditors first. (See the linked IMF and World Bank story.) economy / politics ●●●

1980 The Brandt Report frames North and South 0 cit. An independent commission led by former West German chancellor Willy Brandt publishes North-South: A Programme for Survival, arguing that the rich North and poor South share one fate and need a grand bargain. It called for more aid, debt relief, and reformed trade. The report drew wide attention but little action as the 1980s turned toward austerity instead. diplomacy / economy ●

c. 1980 Saudi Arabia completes its takeover of Aramco 0 cit. The Saudi government, having bought increasing stakes since 1973, took full ownership of the Arabian American Oil Company and turned it into the state firm Saudi Aramco. The world's most valuable oil operation became national property run by the kingdom. State oil companies now control the majority of global reserves, a core feature of modern state capitalism. economy / politics ●●●

26 August 1980 China opens the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone 0 cit. China designated Shenzhen a Special Economic Zone with its own business-friendly rules, tax breaks, and openness to foreign investment, apart from the rest of the country. A fishing region was governed as a purpose-built enterprise zone and grew into a megacity. Special zones treat a patch of territory as a product designed to attract capital. economy / politics ●●

c. 1980 Heroin and the Soviet-Afghan war 0 cit. As the CIA and Pakistan's ISI funneled arms to the mujahideen fighting the Soviets, the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands became a major heroin source. Journalists and scholars have argued that the covert war and its cash pipelines helped the Golden Crescent trade expand, a claim the agencies involved have never fully accounted for. economy / politics / war ●●

1980 The collapse of the Nugan Hand Bank 0 cit. The Australian merchant bank Nugan Hand collapsed after co-founder Frank Nugan was found dead, and investigators uncovered ties to drug-money movement and to figures linked to US intelligence. Australian inquiries documented the bank's role in laundering and its intelligence connections without ever fully resolving how deep they ran. economy / politics ●

1980 The land clause entrenches willing-buyer, willing-seller 0 cit. The independence constitution obliges the new government to acquire land only on a willing-seller, willing-buyer basis for the first ten years, and requires prompt, adequate compensation at market value payable in foreign currency. This land clause is entrenched, meaning it cannot be amended until 1990. Land taken in colonial conquest can only be recovered by buying it back at full price. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1980 Britain and the US pledge land-reform money 0 cit. To make the willing-seller model workable, Britain pledges funding for land purchase, a commitment often cited as around 44 million pounds over the first decade, and the Carter administration signals American support. The money that actually arrives is limited and comes with conditions favouring market purchase. Resettlement is slowed by a shortage of funds and of land that willing sellers offer. diplomacy / economy ●●

c. 1980 The Wildenstein family holds Ol Jogi in Laikipia 3 cit. The Wildenstein family, a French-American art-dealing dynasty, holds the Ol Jogi ranch, tens of thousands of acres of Laikipia. The estate is later run as a private wildlife conservancy. It is a clear case of a former colonial ranch passing into foreign ownership and continuing as a fenced private landscape after independence. economy / environment ●

1980 The World Bank's first Structural Adjustment Loan to Kenya 0 cit. Kenya was among the first countries to take a World Bank Structural Adjustment Loan, signed in 1980. In exchange for finance it agreed to open trade, cut protection, and reduce the state's role in the economy. The programme began a long era of conditions attached to lending by the Bank and the IMF. diplomacy / economy ●●●

c. 1980 Historians answer Sutton with a profit-not-plot reading 1 cit. Mainstream historians accept the underlying record Sutton assembled: Western firms and banks did trade with and equip both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. What they reject is the idea of one coordinating hand. They see many separate companies and financiers chasing profit and markets, often in rivalry, not a single group steering both regimes as an experiment. economy / politics / society ●●●

c. 1980 Group ranches are subdivided and sold off 0 cit. Communal Maasai land held as group ranches was broken up into individual titles from the 1970s and 1980s onward. Subdivision let outsiders and speculators buy up plots, and many Maasai sold or lost land cheaply or through fraud. Fencing and private title cut across the seasonal movement that pastoralism needs, leaving herders with smaller and drier holdings. economy / society ●●●

25 May 1981 Founding of the Gulf Cooperation Council 0 cit. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE sign the GCC charter in Abu Dhabi, creating a political and economic union of the Arab Gulf monarchies amid the Iran-Iraq War. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

2 July 1981 Founding of Infosys 0 cit. N.R. Narayana Murthy and six colleagues found Infosys with about 250 dollars of capital. It becomes a flagship of India's software outsourcing industry and a maker of middle-class wealth through employee stock. economy / technology ●●

17 March 1981 The Propaganda Due (P2) scandal 0 cit. Italian investigators discovered that the secret lodge Propaganda Due, led by Licio Gelli, had enrolled hundreds of powerful figures and operated outside masonic rules. The scandal brought down a government and led regular Freemasonry to expel the lodge. economy / politics / religion ●●●●

1981 Maruti is named for the Hindu deity Hanuman 0 cit. Maruti, India's carmaker whose modern entity was established in 1981, is named after Maruti, a traditional name for the Hindu deity Hanuman, the swift and mighty son of the wind god. economy / religion / technology ●●

1981 Chile builds a school voucher system under Pinochet 0 cit. Chile's military government introduced vouchers that let public money follow students to private schools. The market-based reform was one of the world's largest and shaped debates over choice and equity. economy / politics ●●●

20 January 1981 Ronald Reagan becomes U.S. president 1 cit. Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as president of the United States on a platform of tax cuts, deregulation, and reduced government spending, drawing on Chicago School and supply-side economics. His administration, alongside Thatcher's in Britain, became the leading example of neoliberal policy applied at the level of a major national government. economy / politics ●●●

May 1981 Singapore founds GIC to invest its reserves 0 cit. The government set up the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation to manage the country's foreign reserves as a long-term global fund. Together with Temasek it made Singapore a major state investor abroad. The state runs its savings with the outlook of a professional money manager. economy / politics ●●

1981 The World Bank's Berg Report launches the adjustment agenda 0 cit. The report 'Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa', led by economist Elliot Berg, blames Africa's crisis on state intervention and prescribes market liberalization and a smaller state. It set the template for the structural adjustment programmes that spread across the continent in the following decade. The Bank presented this as the path back to growth. economy / politics ●●●

May 1981 Japan accepts voluntary export restraints on cars 0 cit. Under US pressure, Japan agreed to limit its car exports to America to about 1.68 million vehicles a year. The voluntary restraint eased political anger but pushed Japanese makers to build factories inside the United States and move upmarket. It showed how far trade tension had grown. diplomacy / economy ●●

10 December 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 0 cit. Convention defining territorial seas, exclusive economic zones, and rules for navigation, seabed resources, and marine disputes. It is often called the constitution for the oceans. diplomacy / economy / environment / politics ●●●●

August 1982 Collapse of Banco Ambrosiano 0 cit. Italy's largest private bank collapses with over a billion dollars missing, entangling the Vatican Bank, its main shareholder. Chairman Roberto Calvi, known as God's banker, is found hanged under London's Blackfriars Bridge weeks before the liquidation. economy / religion ●●●

August 1982 to 1989 The Mexican default and the Latin American debt crisis 0 cit. In August 1982 Mexico announced it could not service its foreign debt, triggering a wave of defaults across Latin America. The IMF became central to rescheduling talks, attaching austerity conditions to its loans. economy / politics ●●●●●

1982 to 1990 Latin America's lost decade 0 cit. Through the 1980s much of Latin America saw stagnant incomes, rising poverty, and shrinking public services as it serviced debt and implemented adjustment. Economists widely call it the region's lost decade. economy / society ●●●●

1982 Pandora jewelry is named for the first woman of Greek myth 0 cit. The Danish jeweler, founded in Copenhagen in 1982, is named after Pandora, the first woman in Greek mythology. Her famous jar, often called a box, held the world's evils. culture / economy / religion ●●

21 December 1982 The Boland Amendment bars Contra funding 0 cit. Congress passed the Boland Amendment to limit and then cut off US funding for the Contras. Officials skirted the ban by raising money through secret channels, which set up the Iran-Contra scheme. economy / politics ●●●●

12 August 1982 Mexico's default triggers the Latin American debt crisis 0 cit. Mexico announced it could not meet payments on its foreign debt, triggering a wave of defaults and near-defaults across Latin America built up from 1970s petrodollar lending. The crisis pulled dozens of formerly colonized nations across Latin America, Africa, and Asia into IMF-supervised restructuring and austerity programs through the 1980s, a period historians and economists call the region's "lost decade." economy ●●

1982 Gibson Greetings leveraged buyout 0 cit. William Simon's Wesray Capital bought the greeting-card maker Gibson Greetings for about $80 million, put in roughly $1 million of its own equity, and took the company public 16 months later at a valuation of around $290 million. The enormous return on a tiny equity stake became the widely cited proof-of-concept for the leveraged buyout industry that boomed for the rest of the decade. It showed financiers that large gains were possible by using debt rather than fresh capital to acquire operating companies. economy ●●

c. 1982 T. Boone Pickens raids Cities Service 0 cit. T. Boone Pickens's Mesa Petroleum launched a hostile bid for the much larger Cities Service oil company, arguing its stock traded far below the value of its oil and gas reserves. Cities Service fought off Mesa and was ultimately bought by Occidental Petroleum. The raid established Pickens as a leading practitioner of the 1980s oil-patch takeover wave, in which raiders argued they were unlocking value that entrenched management was wasting. economy ●●

1982 James Goldsmith raids Diamond International 0 cit. British-French financier Sir James Goldsmith won a hostile takeover battle for Diamond International, a paper and packaging conglomerate, and then sold off its timberland, match business, and other divisions for a combined sum well above what he had paid for the whole company. The deal became one of the clearest examples of pure asset stripping in the era: buying a company for less than the sum of its parts and profiting entirely from breaking it up. Goldsmith called it recognizing hidden value; labor unions and much of the press called it wrecking a business for a quick profit. economy ●●

August 1982 Mexico's default opens the 1982 debt crisis 0 cit. Mexico tells its creditors it can no longer service its foreign debt, triggering a wave of defaults across Latin America and beyond. To keep lending flowing, the IMF and banks tied new credit to sweeping policy conditions. The crisis began the 'lost decade' of falling incomes and forced adjustment across much of the developing world. economy / politics ●●●

18 June 1982 Banco Ambrosiano and the death of Roberto Calvi 0 cit. Roberto Calvi, head of Italy's Banco Ambrosiano and known as God's Banker for his Vatican ties, was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London. The bank collapsed amid massive fraud, and the Vatican Bank was its main shareholder. The Holy See denied wrongdoing but paid creditors about 240 million dollars in 1984, and the affair exposed the murky finances of the Vatican. economy / politics / religion ●●●

August 1982 Mexico's default opens the Latin American debt crisis 0 cit. Mexico tells its creditors it can no longer service its foreign debt, triggering a wave of defaults across Latin America. Much of the borrowing had come from recycled petrodollars at floating dollar interest rates, which spiked after the US Federal Reserve raised rates sharply. The crisis showed how exposure to dollar debt could break economies far from Washington. economy / politics ●●●

1982 Mauritius becomes the gateway to India 0 cit. A tax treaty signed between India and Mauritius in 1982 meant profits on Indian investments routed through Mauritius went almost untaxed. For years Mauritius was the single largest source of foreign investment into India, and it became a similar conduit for money flowing into Africa. Critics, including Indian tax authorities, said much of this was "round-tripping", local money disguised as foreign; India revised the treaty in 2016. diplomacy / economy ●●

c. 1982 War and forced settlement push Sakuye into peri-urban poverty 0 cit. The loss of livestock and the state's containment measures forced many Sakuye off the range and into small towns. By the early 1980s a large share of the Boran and Sakuye of the district had drifted into peri-urban shanty settlements around new administrative centres. Many turned to subsistence farming, casual wage labour and famine relief. economy / society ●●

c. 1983 The conditionality package 0 cit. Structural adjustment loans typically required currency devaluation, privatization of state firms, deregulation, trade liberalization, and cuts to subsidies and public spending. Supporters saw these as needed reforms; critics saw a rigid one-size-fits-all template. economy / politics ●●●●

1983 to 1990 Structural adjustment in Ghana 0 cit. Ghana was promoted by the World Bank as a model reformer, posting renewed growth after adopting adjustment. Critics noted that gains were uneven and that fees for health and schooling hit the poor, a debate that captured the mixed record of the programs. economy / society ●●●

c. 1983 Pentagon spare-parts pricing scandal 0 cit. Investigative reporting and congressional hearings revealed the US military had paid grossly inflated prices for basic hardware, including widely publicized figures of over 400 dollars for a hammer and 600 dollars for a toilet seat cover, due to overhead accounting practices in defense contracts. The disclosures fueled a wave of procurement reform efforts and public distrust of defense spending during a period of rising Reagan-era military budgets. Several contracting practices were subsequently tightened, though cost overruns remained a recurring issue. economy / politics ●●

c. 1983 Ghana adopts a World Bank-backed Economic Recovery Program 0 cit. Facing economic collapse, Ghana's government under Jerry Rawlings adopted an IMF- and World Bank-designed Economic Recovery Program involving currency devaluation, subsidy removal, and privatization of state enterprises. Often cited as the model case for African structural adjustment, it was credited with stabilizing some macroeconomic indicators while critics documented rising poverty and reduced public services during the adjustment years, illustrating the trade-offs built into externally designed reform programs. economy ●●

c. 1983 The great famine of 1983 to 1985 0 cit. Drought combined with war and government policy to produce a famine that killed a very large number of people, with estimates commonly ranging from around 400,000 to a million dead. Television coverage of the crisis prompted the Live Aid concerts and a huge global relief effort. Researchers such as Alex de Waal argue that the Derg's counter-insurgency, forced resettlement, and use of aid as a weapon made the disaster far worse than drought alone, a point the government long denied. economy / politics / society ●●●

c. 1983 NED's four core institutes 0 cit. NED channels much of its money through four core institutes. The International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute are tied to the two US parties, the Center for International Private Enterprise to the Chamber of Commerce, and the Solidarity Center to the AFL-CIO labor federation. Working through counterpart parties, business groups, and unions abroad lets NED reach across a country's whole political spectrum. economy / politics ●●

April 1983 Ghana adopts a flagship structural adjustment programme 0 cit. Ghana's IMF- and World Bank-backed Economic Recovery Programme cuts subsidies, devalues the currency, and retrenches tens of thousands of civil servants and state-enterprise workers. It became the model adjustment case that lenders held up as a success. Critics counter that the cuts thinned out public administration and services that were hard to rebuild. economy / politics ●●

17 May 1984 Collapse of Continental Illinois 0 cit. A run on America's seventh largest bank, weakened by bad energy loans, forces the FDIC to rescue it with a guarantee of all depositors and creditors. The bailout makes 'too big to fail' a fixture of banking policy debates. economy / politics ●●●

1 January 1984 Founding of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China 0 cit. China spins the commercial banking business of the People's Bank of China into a new institution, completing the creation of the big four state banks. ICBC becomes the largest bank in the world by assets. economy ●●●●

1 January 1984 Breakup of AT&T 0 cit. A federal antitrust settlement splits the Bell System, separating AT&T from seven regional phone companies. The breakup ends a century-long telephone monopoly and opens U.S. telecommunications to competition. economy / politics / technology ●●●●

1 April 1984 Founding of ASML 0 cit. Philips and ASM International spin off ASML in Veldhoven to build chip lithography machines. Its extreme ultraviolet machines later become the only tools capable of making the most advanced chips. economy / technology ●●●

10 December 1984 Founding of Cisco 0 cit. Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner of Stanford found Cisco Systems to sell multiprotocol routers. Its equipment carries much of the internet's traffic, and in 2000 it is briefly the world's most valuable company. economy / technology ●●●

1984 TriStar Pictures uses Pegasus as its logo 0 cit. The film studio, founded in 1984, uses a winged horse as its logo, Pegasus of Greek myth, shown galloping in its opening sequence. culture / economy / religion ●●

1984 Titan watches are named for the elder gods of Greek myth 0 cit. Titan, the Indian watchmaker founded in 1984 as a Tata venture, is named after the Titans, the elder gods of Greek mythology. economy / religion / technology ●●

c. 1 January 1984 The Enterprise runs the off-the-books network 0 cit. Retired officers Richard Secord and Albert Hakim ran a private operation, nicknamed the Enterprise, that handled arms sales and Contra supply outside government oversight. It let officials fund the Contras while denying US involvement. economy / politics ●●●

June 1984 Saul Steinberg's Disney greenmail 0 cit. Saul Steinberg's Reliance Group bought a large stake in Walt Disney Productions and threatened a hostile takeover. Disney's board paid Steinberg roughly 60 million dollars more than the market price to buy back his shares and make him go away, a practice known as "greenmail." The episode was one of the most publicized greenmail deals of the decade and fueled the argument, made by shareholder advocates and later by Congress, that greenmail let raiders profit without ever having to run or fix the company. economy ●●

1984 T. Boone Pickens raids Gulf Oil 0 cit. Mesa Petroleum, led by T. Boone Pickens, built a large stake in Gulf Oil and pushed for a takeover, arguing the company's shares undervalued its oil reserves. Gulf's board responded by arranging a friendly merger with Chevron instead, then the sixth-largest corporate merger in US history at the time. Pickens did not gain control of Gulf but profited handsomely from the run-up in the stock, and the raid became a symbol of how takeover threats could force a target into a defensive sale regardless of the raider's original intent. economy ●●

1984 Bain Capital founded 0 cit. Bill Bain, Mitt Romney, and colleagues from the consulting firm Bain & Company founded Bain Capital to apply consulting-style analysis to buying and restructuring companies with borrowed money. Bain Capital grew into one of the largest private equity firms in the world over the following decades. Its deals, like those of its peers, drew a recurring debate: the firm argued its operational improvements created lasting value, while critics of specific deals pointed to layoffs, plant closures, and bankruptcies following heavy debt loads. economy ●●

November 1984 British Telecom privatized 0 cit. The Thatcher government sold shares in British Telecom to the public, the largest share offering in British history at the time and the first of the major British state utility privatizations. The sale was designed partly to raise cash for the Treasury and partly to create a wider shareholder-owning public. Supporters credited it with improving efficiency and investment in telecoms; critics argued the shares were sold below fair value and that the state gave up a valuable long-term asset for a one-off cash gain. economy / politics ●●

1984 United Brands becomes Chiquita 0 cit. The investor Carl Lindner takes control of United Brands and later renames it Chiquita Brands International, after its long-running banana label. The old United Fruit was gone in name, but its plantations, its markets, and its entanglement in Latin American politics carried on. The company remained one of the giants of the global banana trade. economy ●●

3 December 1984 The Bhopal gas disaster 0 cit. A leak of toxic gas from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal killed thousands within days and injured hundreds of thousands, in one of the worst industrial disasters in history. Survivors spent decades seeking full compensation and accountability from the American parent company and its successors. Bhopal became a defining case of the gap between a multinational's global reach and its responsibility when things go wrong. economy / society ●●●

c. 1984 Drought and food crises strain the country 0 cit. Kenya was hit by repeated droughts, including a severe one in 1984, that cut harvests and forced grain imports and food aid. The shortages were driven mainly by failed rains and weak management, not by any deliberate policy of starvation. Poor planning and corruption made the crises harder to weather. economy / society ●

1984 The British Virgin Islands mass-produce shell companies 0 cit. The 1984 International Business Companies Act, drafted with American lawyers, let people set up cheap, anonymous companies in the British Virgin Islands. The territory became the world's busiest maker of offshore shell firms, with hundreds of thousands on its register. A single owner can hide behind nominee directors, stand-ins whose names appear on paper while the real owner stays out of sight. economy / politics ●●

8 December 1985 Founding of SAARC 0 cit. Seven South Asian states sign the charter of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation at a summit in Dhaka, creating a regional body for economic and cultural cooperation. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●

22 September 1985 Plaza Accord realigns the dollar 0 cit. The United States, Japan, West Germany, France and Britain agreed to act together to weaken the dollar against the yen and the mark. The accord showed coordinated state power over exchange rates. economy / politics ●●●

c. March 1985 to c. 1991 Glasnost and Perestroika 0 cit. New leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched policies of openness and restructuring to reform the stagnant Soviet system. The reforms loosened censorship and central control but also unleashed forces that the state could not contain. economy / politics / society ●●●●

22 September 1985 Plaza Accord 0 cit. Finance officials of five major economies agreed at the Plaza Hotel to weaken the US dollar against other currencies. It was a notable case of coordinated intervention in global currency markets. economy ●●

August 1985 Bolivia's shock therapy 0 cit. Facing hyperinflation, Bolivia adopted a sweeping stabilization program of spending cuts, price liberalization, and a wage freeze. Inflation fell sharply, but unemployment rose and the human cost was heavily disputed, a case Naomi Klein later cited in her critique of shock policies. economy / politics ●●●

1985 The Saturn car brand traces to the Roman god Saturn 0 cit. General Motors created the Saturn car brand in 1985, naming it after the Saturn rockets and ultimately the planet, which carries the name of the Roman god of agriculture and time. economy / religion / technology ●●

20 August 1985 The Iran-Contra affair begins 0 cit. US officials secretly sold weapons to Iran, then under an arms embargo, and diverted the proceeds to fund the Contras. The scheme broke US law and became the biggest scandal of the Reagan years. economy / politics ●●●●●

1985 James Goldsmith raids Crown Zellerbach 0 cit. Sir James Goldsmith won control of the paper company Crown Zellerbach in a hostile takeover and then broke it up, selling off timberland and mills. As with his earlier raid on Diamond International, the profit came mainly from dismantling the company rather than running it as a going concern. The deal reinforced Goldsmith's reputation, and drew renewed criticism from unions and some lawmakers, as a leading exponent of breakup-for-profit takeovers. economy ●●

January 1985 Carl Icahn takes control of TWA 0 cit. Carl Icahn won a hostile takeover fight for Trans World Airlines (TWA), taking the airline private in 1988 through a leveraged buyout financed largely with debt. Icahn later sold off TWA's most valuable international routes and its London Heathrow slots to other airlines, and the airline itself filed for bankruptcy in 1992 and again in 1995 under the debt load. Icahn's defenders said he kept an otherwise doomed airline alive longer than it would have survived; labor unions and many industry observers said he stripped its best assets and left an emptied-out carrier behind. economy ●●●

1985 Blackstone Group founded 0 cit. Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman founded Blackstone as a small mergers-and-acquisitions advisory firm; it soon expanded into leveraged buyouts and became, over the following decades, the largest private equity firm in the world by assets under management. Blackstone's rise paralleled the broader shift of the buyout business from opportunistic 1980s raiders into large, institutionalized private equity firms managing pension and endowment money. The firm's scale later made it a frequent reference point in debates over private equity's effect on the companies and workers it acquires. economy ●●

October 1985 The Baker Plan tries growth through more lending 0 cit. US Treasury Secretary James Baker proposes that debtor nations grow their way out of trouble with fresh loans in exchange for market reforms. Banks proved reluctant to lend more, and the plan largely failed to ease the burden. Debt kept mounting, setting the stage for a different approach. diplomacy / economy ●