Yearly Inflation Rate: 13.58%
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average: 963
Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve: 21.50%
Average Cost of new house: $68,700
Median Price Of and Existing Home: $62,200
Average Income per year: $19,500.00
Average Monthly Rent: $300.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas: $1.19
Average cost new car: $7,200.00
Men's Casual Shirt: $14.00
Datsun 210 Sedan: $4,516
Pontiac Firebird: $5,992
Magnavox VHS Video Recorder: $699
VHS Home Movie Camera: $1,599
Ground Beef: $1.39 per pound
Ivory Dish Soap: $0.79
Navel Oranges: $1.39 for 10
US GDP (1998 dollars): $2,784.20 billion
Federal Spending: $590.95 billion
Federal debt: $909.1 billion
Median Household Income (current dollars): $17,710
Consumer Price Index: 82.4
Unemployment: 7.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.15
Physics : James Watson Cronin, Val Logsdon Fitch
Chemistry : Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert, Frederick Sanger
Medicine : Baruj Benacerraf, Jean Dausset, George D. Snell
Literature : Czesław Miłosz
Peace : Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Economics : Lawrence Klein
01/04: President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
01/07: President Jimmy Carter signs legislation approving $1.5 billion in loan guarantees to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
01/22: Andrei Sakharov, Soviet scientist and human rights activist, is arrested in Moscow.
01/24: The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad is ordered liquidated due to bankruptcy and debt owed to creditors.
01/26: Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
01/27: Six U.S. diplomats, posing as Canadians, manage to escape from Tehran as they board a flight to Zürich.
02/02: Abscam: FBI personnel target members of the Congress of the United States in a sting operation.
02/13: The 1980 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
02/22: The United States Olympic Hockey Team defeats the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the Winter Olympics, "The Miracle on Ice".
02/23: Ayatollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
03/01: The Voyager 1 probe confirms the existence of Janus, a moon of Saturn.
03/08: The Soviet Union's first rock music festival starts.
03/21: President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
03/24: The Australia Olympic Committee announces it will send an Olympic delegation to Moscow, despite objections by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.
03/24: Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador. At his funeral 6 days later, 42 people are killed amid gunfire and bombs.
03/31: Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad operates its final train.
04/07: The U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions.
04/14: Iron Maiden's self-titled debut album is released.
04/21: Rosie Ruiz wins the Boston Marathon, but is later exposed as a fraud and stripped of her award.
04/25: A commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops are killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation, (Operation Eagle Claw).
04/30: Six Iranian-born terrorists take over the Iranian embassy in London. SAS retakes the Embassy on May 5; 1 terrorist survives.
05/04: Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito dies.
05/07: Paul Geidel, convicted of second-degree murder in 1911, is released from prison in Beacon, New York after 68 years and 245 days
(the longest-ever time served by an inmate).
05/17: A Tampa, Florida court acquits 4 white police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, provoking 3 days of race riots in Miami.
05/18: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing $3 billion in damage.
05/21: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released.
05/22: Pac-Man (the best-selling arcade game of all time) is released.
05/24: The International Court of Justice calls for the release of U.S. Embassy hostages in Tehran.
05/24: The New York Islanders win their first Stanley Cup in overtime of game six of the Stanley Cup.
05/25: Johnny Rutherford wins Indianapolis 500 for a third time.
06/01: The Cable News Network (CNN) is officially launched.
06/09: Comedian Richard Pryor is badly burned trying to freebase cocaine.
06/10: A Unabomber bomb injures United Airlines president Percy Wood in Lake Forest, Illinois.
06/27: In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter signs Proclamation 4771, requiring 18- to 25-year-old males to register fort the draft.
07/09: Pope John Paul II visits Brazil; 7 people are crushed to death in a crowd meeting him.
07/16: Former California Governor and actor Ronald Reagan (R) is nominated for President
07/19: The 1980 Summer Olympics begin in Moscow.
07/25: The album Back in Black is released by the Australian band AC/DC.
07/27: The deposed Shah of Iran dies in Cairo.
08/07: Lech Wałęsa leads the first of many strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard in Poland.
08/14: President Jimmy Carter defeats Senator Edward Kennedy to win the Democraic nomination.
08/31: Victory of the strike in Gdańsk Shipyard. Gdańsk Agreement is signed.
09/17: The nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established after weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk.
09/17: Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is killed in Asunción, Paraguay.
09/22: The command council of Iraq orders its army to "deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets" initiating the Iran–Iraq War.
09/30: Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel and Xerox introduce the DIX standard for Ethernet communication.
10/10: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher delivers her famous 'The lady's not for turning' speech.
10/14: The Staggers Rail Act is enacted, deregulating American railroads.
10/21: The Philadelphia Phillies win the World Series beating the Kansas City Royals 4–2 in game 6.
10/27: Six Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners in Maze prison refuse food and demand status as political prisoners. The hunger strike lasts until December.
10/31: The Polish government recognizes Solidarity.
11/04: Ronald Reagan is elected President defeating Jimmy Carter.
11/10: The NASA space probe Voyager I begins its closest approach to Saturn.
11/20: The Gang of Four trial begins in China.
11/21: A then-record number of viewers tune into the TV soap opera Dallas to learn "Who Shot J.R.?".
12/02: American missionary Jean Donovan and three Roman Catholic nuns are murdered by a military death squad in El Salvador while doing charity work during the country's civil war.
12/08: John Lennon is murdered in New York City.
12/16: During a summit on the island of Bali, OPEC decides to raise the price of petroleum by 10%.