How Much Do You Remember About the Year 1983?

Hot Pockets launched in 1983. Jewish Iranian immigrants Paul and David Merage developed the frozen sandwiches as a way to crack the lunch and dinner market after first finding success with frozen Belgian waffles. Originally called “Tastywich,” Hot Pockets were an instant success.

Magician David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear in a 1983 TV special. During the illusion, a white sheet was raised in front of the statue. When it was released, Lady Liberty appeared to be gone. What the audience didn’t know is that when the curtain was raised, the stage with Copperfield and the audience made small, undetectable movements away from the statue so that when the white sheet was let down, the statue was hidden behind a pillar where it couldn’t be detected. When it was time for the statue to reappear, the stage made a small rotation back to its starting point.

Mario, created by Shigeru Miyamoto, first appeared in Donkey Kong in 1981. Two years later, the character headlined his own arcade game when Mario Bros. launched. The game follows the fortunes of Italian American plumbers Mario and Luigi, who must defeat creatures as they emerge from sewers.

On January 10, 1983, “Fraggle Rock” debuted on HBO, becoming the channel’s first original series. The show, which featured puppet creations by Muppets creator Jim Henson, ran for five seasons. The show had a global reach and was the first North American series to air in the Soviet Union.

“Every Breath You Take” by the Police topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for eight straight weeks in 1983, becoming the year’s biggest hit. In 1984, the song won Grammy Awards for Best Song and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group, and in 2019, BMI announced that the song had become the most-played song in radio history with almost 15 million radio plays.

A number of major launches occurred in 1983. January 1, 1983, is widely considered the birthday of the modern-day internet. That same year, Microsoft launched its game-changing word-processing program, Microsoft Word, and brightly-colored Swatch watches were unleashed on the market. Rubik’s Cubes, however, made their way to shelves a few years earlier in 1980.

For decades, civil rights activists pushed for a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1983, legislation finally made it to the floor of the U.S. Senate. The bill passed with ease, and President Ronald Reagan immediately signed it. The federal holiday was first observed three years later in 1986.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan appointed Elizabeth “Liddy” Dole (whose husband was future presidential candidate Bob Dole) as U.S. secretary of transportation, making her the first woman to serve in the role. During her tenure, she oversaw the privatization of Conrail and the transfer of Dulles International Airport from the FAA to a regional authority. She also championed the installation of center-mounted brake lights on cars, which are now known as "Liddy lights" in her honor.

In July 1983, Tamil separatists in Sri Lanka attacked a group of soldiers, inciting mass mob revenge by the Sinhalese majority. These events became known as “Black July.” The brutal skirmishes escalated quickly and kicked off a 26-year civil war that ended in 2009.

In 1983, Marxist Bernard Coard ordered the assassination of Grenada Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and seized control of the government. Protesters did not agree with the government’s new direction, and violence escalated. As a result, Ronald Reagan ordered U.S. forces into the small Caribbean island, citing the threat posed to the approximately 1,000 Americans who lived there. By the time the invasion was over, 7,600 troops from the U.S. and Jamaica were involved in the fighting, and the Grenadan government was overthrown.

In 1972, Pioneer 10 was launched to complete a 21-month mission to fly by Jupiter. However, the probe has lasted more than 30 years in space, proving to be one of the greatest successes in NASA history. The 569-pound spacecraft passed Jupiter as intended, and then crossed Saturn's orbit in 1976 and Neptune's in 1983, making it the first vehicle to venture to interstellar space. In about 2 million years, it will pass by the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus.

On April 18, 1983, Disney Channel launched with the show "Good Morning, Mickey." The simple compilation of classic Mickey Mouse cartoons kicked off a channel that would become highly popular in the following decades. Since its inception, the network has aired memorable series such as "Hannah Montana" and "Lizzie McGuire," and movie franchises including "High School Musical" and "Descendants."

Starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, and Danny DeVito, the 1983 film "Terms of Endearment" was beloved by critics and audiences alike. The movie was the second-highest-grossing film of 1983, behind "Return of the Jedi," and was also the Academy Award winner for Best Picture in 1984. A sequel, "The Evening Star," was released in 1996, but failed to achieve the same success.

On October 13, 1983, Bob Barnett, the president of Ameritech, placed a call from the parking lot of Soldier Field in Chicago on an early mobile cell phone. The call went through, and on the other end, Alexander Graham Bell's great-grandson answered from Germany. In the nearly 40 years since, mobile phones have become ubiquitous, and there are now more than 15 billion mobile devices operating worldwide.

The Hawaiian volcano of Kilauea began slowly erupting in 1983 and continued to do so for 35 years. Known as the Pu‘u‘ō‘ō eruption, the event destroyed 215 structures during its span of activity, covered more than 55 square miles with lava flows, and added 439 acres of new land to the Big Island of Hawaii.

On September 19, 1983, the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis rid themselves of distant colonial rule by the United Kingdom and officially became independent countries. The islands were granted full internal self-government back in 1967, but it took time to negotiate the political break and draft their own constitution. Upon their independence, Saint Kitts and Nevis became the last new countries of the Caribbean islands.

Two years before the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the United States, the revolutionary video game system was launched in Japan with the name "Famicom," short for "Family Computer." The 1983 launch of the system took the company in a new and successful direction, allowing consumers to play arcade games such as "Donkey Kong," "Duck Hunt," and "Super Mario Bros." on their home TVs.

In 1983, Chrysler was struggling and needed major sales to save the company. They decided to disrupt the automobile industry by creating an entirely new class of family-friendly vehicles: the minivan. The Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager hit the market in 1983 and the game-changing cars have been copied by nearly every major automaker since.

Fitness fads were big business in the 1980s, especially after Olivia Newton-John urged everyone to get “Physical” in her 1981 hit song. Athletic enthusiasts were often spotted wearing neon leotards with big belts over contrasting-colored leggings and leg warmers. And the look was not just for the gym — after “Flashdance” was released in 1983, the fad became mainstream.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a military program intended to defend against potential nuclear attacks. The proposed system would require technology that hadn't yet been invented, including space- and Earth-based laser systems, leading media outlets to give SDI the nickname "Star Wars."

Tom Cruise’s breakout role came in the 1983 movie “Risky Business.” The movie follows a wealthy high school senior who sets up a brothel in his home while his parents are out of town. “Risky Business” was a critical and commercial success, and also made its mark on the fashion world after Cruise sported a pair of Ray-Ban wayfarers and sparked a new trend. Two years later, he sparked another sunglasses trend when he wore Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses in “Top Gun.”

On February 28, 1983, nearly 106 million people around the country tuned in to watch the final episode of "M*A*S*H." Titled “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen," the two-and-a-half-hour finale was so highly anticipated that advertising time for the episode cost more than it did during that year's Super Bowl. The massive total viewership makes the series finale of "M*A*S*H" the most-watched episode of TV in history.

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride boarded the Challenger and flew into space, becoming the first American woman to do so. Preceded by Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya, Ride became the third woman from any country to leave the Earth's atmosphere. Ride was the operator of the mission's robotic arm, and after a successful first flight, she proceeded to fly again the next year, and left NASA in 1987.

Margaret Thatcher, the first female British prime minister, won a second term in power in June 1983. Although Thatcher had initially been unpopular, her fortunes dramatically improved after Britain claimed victory over Argentina in the 1982 Falklands War. Thatcher’s Conservative party enjoyed a landslide victory in 1983, giving them a sizable majority.

On May 16, 1983, during the TV special “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever,” Michael Jackson performed what would become his signature move: the moonwalk. Wearing short black pants with silver socks and a single white glove, Jackson appeared to glide backward across the stage while performing “Billie Jean.” The King of Pop was so happy with his performance that he cried tears of joy after it was over.