1980 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

• Politics: President Jimmy Carter signed the (very controverial) Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act, granting a $1.5 billion loan from the government to the car company.
• The Supreme Court allowed gene patenting. Companies could 'own' genetically altered life forms and DNA.
• The Top Song was Lady by Kenny Rogers
• The Big Movies included The Empire Strikes Back, 9 to 5 and Stir Crazy
• Lay's Potato Chips, 16 oz: $1.49
  Rubick's Cube: $9.99
  Minimum Wage in 1980: $3.10 per hour
• The World Population was ~ 4,392,000,000
• The Rubic's Cube was introduced in 1980.The sides are white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow.
• And... L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, has called the 1980 film The Blues Brothers a "Catholic classic"and called it "recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere."

Robert Landsburg, while filming Mount St. Helens volcano eruption in 1980 realized he could not survive it, so he rewound the film back into its case, put his camera in his backpack, and then lay himself on top of the backpack to protect the film for future researchers.

The declared winner of the 1980 Boston Marathon, Rosie Ruiz, was later stripped of her title after it was discovered that she snuck into the race a half-mile before the finish line.

Arcade game Pac-Man was originally named "Puck-Man". The name was changed to prevent vandals from changing the "P" to an "F".

Maureen Wilcox played the RI and the MA lotteries at the same time and hit the correct numbers for both. Unfortunately, she picked all the correct MA numbers on her RI ticket and all the right RI numbers on her MA ticket.

After customs found 8 ounces of cannabis in his luggage, Paul McCartney sat in jail for 10 days before eventually being released without charges.

Saddam Hussein donated $450,000 to a Chaldean church in Detroit, earning himself the key to the city.

The Olympic Village used at Lake Placid 1980 Olympics became, and is, a functioning prison.

Convicted murderer Jack Abbot wrote Norman Mailer about his experiences behind bars. Impressed with his writing, Mailer helped get Abbot's book published and spearheaded Abbot's successful parole in 1980. 6 weeks after being released, Abbot stabbed another man to death in New York City.

The mother of a 9-week-old child, Azaria Chamberlain, that went missing in 1980 insisted that a dingo took her baby. Six years after being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, the child's jacket was found in a dingo lair. In 2012, it was officially ruled that a dingo had taken and killed the child.

Saudia Flight 163 made a successful emergency landing after the plane caught fire, but all 301 people on board died because the captain did not immediately order an emergency evacuation.

During the filming of Caligula, in Rome, Malcolm McDowell took the entire production crew out to dinner to celebrate an English football win against Italy. At the end of the expensive meal, he claimed to not have enough money, and stuck the film's choreographer with the bill.

Cannibal Holocaust - a movie was made in 1980 that was so graphic and realistic that the director, Ruggero Deodato, was arrested on charges of making a snuff film.

A Washington Post reporter named Janet Cooke fabricated a story about an 8-year-old heroin addict in 1980. The story, Jimmy's World, won a Pulitzer Prize, which she returned once the editors outed her.

In 2010, Japanese welfare officials went to check on a 111-year old man, the family refused to let them see him. Returning with police, they found his mummified corpse still wearing pajamas. The man had died in 1980, but the family hid his death so they could continue to collect his pension.

Upon arrival in Tokyo for Wings' highly anticipated 1980 sold out tour, Paul McCartney was arrested at the airport after a search of his luggage revealed 219 grams of marijuana. The tour was cancelled and McCartney spent nine days in jail.

Rock Star Murder: John Lennon was shot and killed by a "fan" - Mark David Chapman.

Rock Star Deaths: John Bonham (alcohol poisoning), Bon Scott (drunk, choked on own vomit)

Nintendo's Game & Watch, Rubik's Cube, Magna Doodle

Whole Foods was founded in Austin, Texas.

Computer modem was invented.

CNN began broadcasting from Atlanta, Georgia.

(according to boxofficemojo)
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. 9 to 5
3. Stir Crazy
4. Airplane!
5. Any Which Way You can
6. Private Benjamin
7. Coal Miner's Daughter
8. Smokey and the Bandit II
9. The Blue Lagoon
10. The Blues Brothers

9 to 5, Airplane!, Any Which Way You Can, The Blue Lagoon, The Blues Brothers, Brubaker, Caddyshack, Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, Coal Miner's Daughter, Dressed To Kill, Fame, Flash Gordon, Friday the 13th, Herbie Goes Bananas, The Jazz Singer, Little Darlings, Ordinary People, Popeye, Private Benjamin, Seems Like Old Times, The Shining, Smokey and the Bandit II, Stir Crazy, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Urban Cowboy