Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
1979
The Camp David peace accord negotiated by President Jimmy Carter brings an end to the
thirty-year war between Egypt and Israel, marking the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty. Under its
terms, the Sinai Peninsula, occupied by Israel since 1967, is returned to Egypt.
1979
Iran becomes an Islamic republic led by Ayatollah Khomeini following the deposing of the
U.S.-backed shah of Iran.
1979
The leftist-rebel Sandanistas take control of the Central American nation of Nicaragua. Elected
in 1980, Ronald Reagan commits his administration to the overthrow of the Sandanistas by support-
ing rebel fighters known as contras.
1980
Iraq attacks Iran, beginning a bloody ten-year war that ends inconclusively.
1982
The Falklands War. Argentine forces invade the small islands off its coast to which it claims
ownership, but are defeated by British troops.
1983
In Kenya, Dr. Meave G. Leakey finds a fossil jaw tentatively dated at sixteen to eighteen mil-
lion years ago, and identified as
Sivapithecus.
1984
The first hole in the ozone layer of the atmosphere is observed over Antarctica.
1984
An expedition in Kenya led by Andrew Hill finds a jawbone from an
Australopithecus afar-
ensis
that is dated to five million years, the oldest known representative of the hominid line.
1984
Working in the Kola Hole in Siberia, Soviet researchers drill the world's deepest hole, going
to a depth of 7.5 miles (12 km) and reaching the earth's lower crust.
1986
President Ferdinand Marcos flees the Philippines after ruling for twenty years; he is succeeded
by newly elected president Corazon Aquino.
1986
Paleontologists Tim White and Donald Johanson locate 302 pieces of a female
Homo habilis
,
known as OH62, now known to be 1.8 million years old.
1987
The Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment suggests that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are re-
sponsible for the ozone hole, leading to calls for international action against CFCs.
1988
French and Israeli scientists discover fossils in a cave in Israel that are the remains of a
92,000-year-old modern-type
Homo sapiens
, more than doubling the length of time that modern hu-
mans are thought to have existed.
1989
Tens of thousands of pro-democracy students protest against harsh authoritarian rule in Ch-
ina's Tiananmen Square until Chinese authorities brutally repress the dissent.
1989
The Berlin Wall is opened after twenty-eight years, allowing free movement between the two
halves of the formerly divided city.