Contemporary
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1975): The Handshake in Space
Apollo and Soyuz 19 docked for about two days, the first international crewed space mission and a symbol of US-Soviet detente.
Region
Americas
Contemporary
Viking 1 Mars Landing (1976): First Pictures From Mars
Viking 1 made the first fully successful landing on Mars and returned the first clear surface images, but its biology experiments found no convincing evidence of life.
Contemporary
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1977): Argentina's Disappeared
The mothers' weekly vigils drew world attention to the junta's disappearances; three founders were themselves abducted and killed in December 1977.
Contemporary
Harvey Milk (1977-1978): His Election and Assassination
Milk became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the US and helped defeat the Briggs Initiative before he and Mayor Moscone were assassinated by Dan White.
Contemporary
Voyager 1 and 2 (1977): The Grand Tour of the Outer Planets
The two probes explored all four giant planets between 1979 and 1989 and later became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space.
Prehistory
Maiasaura and Egg Mountain: Evidence of Dinosaur Parenting
The discovery of Maiasaura nests with juveniles provided the first strong evidence that some dinosaurs nested in colonies and cared for their young.
Contemporary
Love Canal (1978): The Toxic Waste Scandal and the Superfund Law
Hundreds of families were relocated, the site was fenced off and cleaned up, and the case led directly to the federal Superfund law of December 1980.
Contemporary
Three Mile Island Accident (1979): America's Worst Nuclear Crisis
About half of the Unit 2 reactor core melted, but the containment building held; small releases of radioactivity occurred and the accident reshaped US nuclear regulation.
Contemporary
Mount St. Helens Eruption (1980): America's Deadliest Volcano
The north flank collapsed in the largest landslide in recorded history; 57 people died, the summit lost about 400 metres and some 600 square kilometres of forest were destroyed.
Contemporary
IBM Personal Computer (1981): The PC That Set the Standard
The IBM PC became the dominant design for personal computers, and its open architecture and licensed operating system created the IBM-compatible industry.
Contemporary
Space Shuttle Columbia STS-1 (1981): The First Shuttle Flight
Columbia completed 37 orbits and landed safely, proving the reusable Space Shuttle and opening a programme of 135 missions that ran until 2011.
Contemporary
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Maya Lin's Wall in Washington, D.C.
The memorial was dedicated in 1982 and became one of the most visited and influential memorials in the United States.