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The '80s were full of memorable events. Personally, the top ones I remember are:
The assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II.
The Falklands War.
The Challenger disaster.
Chernobyl.
The Carrollton Bus Crash (I had several friends on this bus; some lived and some did not).
The Berlin Wall comes down.

Another event I remember is the 1982 election in California. Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and Attorney General George "Duke" Deukmejian, the Republican nominee, were running for governor, while the current governor Jerry Brown was running for the Senate against San Diego mayor Petie Wilson. There were also a couple of important ballot initiatives. Propositio 12 would put Californians on record as being in favor of "freezing" the deployment of nuclear weapons at current levels--which the Soviets wanted--and Proposition 15 would place severe restrictions on firearms.

I worked hard with a group opposing Prop. 12. This was a motley crew that included conservative activists, refugees from Eastern Europe and Castro's Cuba, John Birchers and members of the Church Universal and Triumphant, an ultra-weird cult that had infiltrated many conservative groups in Southern California at the time. There were probably a few Moonies in our group as well. We had some pretty interesting discussions at our headquarters.

Among other things, we used the Fairness Doctrine to force broadcasters to air our advertisements. On a few occasions, I had the duty of taking tapes of the ads to the studios.

I spent Election Night partying with the No on 12 crowd and watching the election returns. The media predicted that Bradley would win the governorship, but Deukmejian continued to lead. He was still leading when I got home around two AM.

Early the next morning, I awoke and immediately turned on the radio. When the announcer said "Governor-elect Deukmejian," I went back to sleep.

Proposition 12 passed, but only narrowly, proving that Californians were less than enthusiastic about the "nuclear freeze," which soon vanished as an issue. Prop 15 also went down in flames, and Governor Moonbeam failed in his bid to go to Washington.

I had a friend on that bus as well. She didn’t make it out.