Today we discussed a few of the events in the U.S. in the 1980s: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War. John Lennon was murdered in NYC in 1980. The AIDS epidemic became recognized in the 1980s and has since killed tens of millions of people. Global warming became well known to the scientific and political community in the 1980s. The 1980s were considered to be the final decade of the Cold War. In the 1980s many terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, started acts of terrorism. This increased around the world. Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington state in May, 1980, killing 57 people. In 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up seconds after take off on live TV. The 1980s was the dawning of the information era, with the growth of personal computers and the internet.