Editing 1980s (section)

==Disasters==

===Natural disasters===
[[File:MSH80 st helens eruption plume 07-22-80.jpg|thumb|upright|[[1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens]]]]
[[File:Surb Amenaprkitch.jpeg|thumb|240px|The [[Holy Saviour's Church, Gyumri|Holy Saviour's Church]] in [[Gyumri]] after the [[Spitak earthquake]]]]
* [[Mount St. Helens]] [[1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens|erupted]] in [[Washington (state)|Washington]], US on 18 May 1980, killing 57 people.
* [[HIV/AIDS]], a global pandemic that has killed over 40 million people, was [[History of HIV/AIDS|identified]] in the 1980s, with the first reported cases in 1981.
* On 17 October 1989, the [[Loma Prieta earthquake]] struck the San Francisco Bay Area during Game 3 of the [[1989 World Series]], gaining worldwide attention. Sixty-five people were killed and thousands injured, with major structural damage on freeways and buildings and broken gas-line fires in San Francisco, California. The cost of the damage totaled US$13 billion (1989 US$).
* The [[1988–89 North American drought]] decimated the US with many parts of the country affected. This was the worst drought to hit the United States in many years. The drought caused $60 billion in damage (between $80 billion and $120 billion for 2008 US$). The concurrent [[heat wave]]s killed 5,800 to 17,000 people in the United States.
* [[Hurricane Allen]] (1980), [[Hurricane Alicia]] (1983), [[Hurricane Gilbert]] (1988), [[Hurricane Joan–Miriam|Hurricane Joan]] (1988), and [[Hurricane Hugo]] (1989) were some notably destructive Atlantic hurricanes of the 1980s.
* Other natural disasters of the 1980s include the 1982–1983 [[1982–83 El Niño event|El Niño]] which brought destructive weather to most of the world; the [[1985 Mexico City earthquake]], which registered 8.0 on the [[moment magnitude scale]] and devastated Mexico City and other areas throughout central Mexico; the 1985 [[Nevado del Ruiz]] [[lahar]] in [[Colombia]]; the 1986 [[Lake Nyos]] [[limnic eruption]] in [[Cameroon]]; and the [[1988 Armenian earthquake]], which rocked the [[Caucasus]] region of the [[USSR]].

===Non-natural disasters===
[[File:Challenger explosion.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Space Shuttle Challenger|space shuttle ''Challenger'']] disintegrates on January 28, 1986]]
* In 1980, [[Dan-Air Flight 1008]], a [[Boeing 727]], crashed on approach to [[Tenerife]] in the [[Canary Islands]], killing 146 people on board.
* In 1980, [[Saudia Flight 163]], a [[Lockhead L-1011 TriStar]], caught fire moments after takeoff from the [[Saudi Arabia]]n capital of [[Riyadh]]. The flight immediately returned to the airport, but evacuation of the plane was delayed and all 301 people aboard died.
* In 1982, [[Pan Am Flight 759]], a Boeing 727, was forced down by [[microburst]] while on approach to [[New Orleans International Airport]], killing 153 people.
* In 1983, [[Korean Air Lines Flight 007]], a [[Boeing 747]] carrying 269 people between New York City and [[Seoul]] via [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]], was shot down by Soviet fighter jets after accidentally straying into Soviet [[prohibited airspace]], killing everyone on board.
* In 1984, the [[Bhopal disaster]] resulted from a toxic [[methyl isocyanate]] (MIC) gas leak at the [[Union Carbide]] plant in [[Bhopal, India]], killing 3,000 immediately and ultimately claiming 15,000–20,000 lives.
* In 1985, the [[Heysel Stadium disaster]] occurred before the [[1985 European Cup final|European Cup final]] in [[Brussels]], Belgium, when a [[Crowd collapses and crushes|crowd crush]] led to 39 deaths and 600 injuries.
* In 1985, [[Air India Flight 182]], a Boeing 747 flying from [[Montreal]] to [[Mumbai|Bombay]] via London and Delhi, is blown up over Irish waters by a bomb planted by [[Khalistan movement|Sikh separatists]], killing all 320 passengers and crew on board. This was the deadliest act of aviation terrorism until the [[September 11 attacks]] of 2001.
* In 1985, [[Delta Air Lines Flight 191]], a [[Lockheed L-1011 TriStar]], crashed on approach to [[Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport]] in [[Texas]] due to a microburst. 137 people were killed while 27 survived.
* [[Japan Air Lines Flight 123]], a Boeing 747 carrying 524 people, crashed in 1985, while on a flight from Tokyo to [[Osaka]], killing 520 of the people on board, leaving four survivors. This was the deadliest single-aircraft crash to date.
* In 1985, [[Arrow Air Flight 1285R]], a [[Douglas DC-8]], [[stall (aerodynamics)|stalled]] and crashed seconds after taking off from [[Gander, Newfoundland]]. All 256 people on board, many of them US servicemen returning home from duty overseas, perished.
* In 1986, the NASA [[Space Shuttle Challenger|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'']] [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|disintegrated]] 73 seconds after launch, killing all of the crew on board. This was the first disaster involving the destruction of a NASA Space Shuttle. A faulty [[O-ring]] was the cause of the accident.
* On 26 April 1986, the [[Chernobyl disaster]], a large-scale [[nuclear meltdown]] in the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR]], Soviet Union, spread a large amount of radioactive material across Europe, killing 47 people, dooming countless others to future radiation-related cancer, and causing the displacement of 300,000 people.
* In 1986, [[Aeroméxico Flight 498]], a [[Douglas DC-9]], crashed after colliding with a private [[Piper Cherokee]] over [[Cerritos, California]], killing 64 on both aircraft and 15 others on the ground. On the same day, the Soviet passenger ship ''[[SS Admiral Nakhimov|Admiral Nakhimov]]'' sank after colliding with the bulk carrier ''Pyotr Vasev'' in the [[Black Sea]], killing 423 people.
* In 1987, [[LOT Flight 5055]], an [[Ilyushin Il-62M]] caught fire due to an [[uncontained engine failure]] and subsequently crashed, killing all 183 passengers and crew.
* In 1987, [[Northwest Airlines Flight 255]], a [[McDonnell Douglas MD-82]], crashed almost immediately after takeoff [[Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport|Detroit Wayne Airport]] in [[Michigan]] due to [[pilot error]], killing 156 on board.
* In 1987, a fire broke out on [[South African Airways Flight 295]], a Boeing 747, eventually causing the aircraft to crash into the Indian Ocean. All 159 aboard were killed.
* On 20 December 1987, the [[Philippines|Philippine]] passenger ferry [[MV Doña Paz|MV ''Doña Paz'']] burned and sank after colliding with the oil tanker [[MT Vector|MT ''Vector'']] off the island of [[Marinduque]]. With an estimated death toll of over 4,000, this was and remains the world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster.
* In 1988, [[Iran Air Flight 655]], an [[Airbus A300]] en route from Tehran to [[Dubai]] via [[Bandar Abbas]], was shot down by the US missile cruiser {{USS|Vincennes|CG-49|6}} over the [[Strait of Hormuz]], killing all 290 people on the plane. The event is one of the most controversial aviation occurrences of all time, with the true cause disputed between the Americans and the Iranians.
* In 1988, [[Pan Am Flight 103]], a Boeing 747 en route from Frankfurt to Detroit (via London and New York), was destroyed by a bomb while it was flying over [[Lockerbie]], Scotland, killing the 259 passengers and crew members on board and 11 people on the ground. This was the worst terrorist attack to have occurred on British soil.
* On 24 March 1989, the [[oil tanker]] [[Exxon Valdez]] ran aground on [[Bligh Reef]] in [[Alaska]]'s [[Prince William Sound]] [[Exxon Valdez oil spill|spilling]] an estimated equivalent of 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil. Although not among the largest oil spills in history, its remote and sensitive location made it one of the most devastating ecological disasters, with after-effects continuing to be felt present-day.
* In 1989, the [[Hillsborough disaster]] occurs during a [[FA Cup]] semi-final in [[Sheffield]], England, fatally crushing 96 football fans and injuring nearly 1,000 more.
* In 1989, [[United Airlines Flight 232]], a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 carrying 296 people, suffered an in-flight engine failure and was forced to crash-land at [[Sioux City, Iowa]]. 185 survived, while 111 were killed when the plane burst into flames upon touchdown.