Contemporary
Eradication of Smallpox (1967–1980): How a Disease Was Ended
Smallpox became the first human disease to be eradicated; the World Health Assembly declared the world free of it on 8 May 1980.
Region
Worldwide
Contemporary
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968): Curbing the Bomb
The treaty entered into force in 1970, was extended indefinitely in 1995 and became the most widely joined arms control agreement in the world.
Contemporary
Apollo 11 Moon Landing (1969): The First Humans on the Moon
Armstrong and Aldrin landed and walked on the Moon and the crew returned safely to Earth, fulfilling the goal set by President Kennedy in 1961.
Contemporary
Iran Hostage Crisis 1979-1981: 444 Days at the US Embassy
The 52 remaining hostages were freed under the Algiers Accords on 20 January 1981; US-Iranian relations were broken and have never been fully restored.
Contemporary
1980 Moscow Olympics Boycott: The US-Led Protest Over Afghanistan
About 65 invited nations stayed away, only 80 took part, and the Soviet bloc retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Contemporary
Live Aid (1985): The Global Concert for Ethiopian Famine Relief
The concerts and the wider Band Aid campaign raised well over 100 million pounds for famine relief and changed how celebrities and the public engaged with humanitarian causes.
Contemporary
Ozone Hole Discovery (1985): CFCs and the Antarctic Ozone Layer
The discovery of springtime ozone loss over Antarctica confirmed the danger of chlorofluorocarbons and led to the Montreal Protocol of 1987, which phased out ozone-depleting chemicals worldwide.
Contemporary
Montreal Protocol (1987): The Treaty That Saved the Ozone Layer
Governments agreed to cut and later eliminate ozone-depleting chemicals; the treaty became the first to be ratified by every UN member state and the ozone layer is now slowly recovering.
Contemporary
Founding of the IPCC (1988): The UN Climate Science Panel
The IPCC became the world's main body for assessing climate change science, producing six assessment cycles and sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Contemporary
Invention of the World Wide Web (1989) by Tim Berners-Lee
Berners-Lee created HTML, HTTP, URLs, the first web server and the first browser; CERN released the technology royalty-free in 1993, allowing the Web to spread worldwide.
Contemporary
Gulf War 1990-1991: Kuwait Invaded and Operation Desert Storm
A US-led coalition expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait and restored its government, but Saddam Hussein remained in power in Baghdad.
Contemporary
Human Genome Project (1990-2003): Mapping Human DNA
An essentially complete reference sequence of the human genome was published in April 2003, freely available to all, launching the era of genomic medicine; the final gaps were closed in 2022.