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1980s News Quiz | Turning Points in World Affairs, Technology and the Environment

1 / 100.0s

Problem 1

On May 8, 1980, the Thirty-third World Health Assembly officially declared the global eradication of an infectious disease after years of vaccination and surveillance.

Which disease was declared eradicated?

View explanation

The declaration concerned smallpox. Surveillance continued after the last known naturally occurring case in 1977, and the World Health Assembly formally recognized eradication in 1980. Polio and the other diseases listed have not been declared globally eradicated.

Problem 2

In April 1981, STS-1 launched with John Young and Robert Crippen aboard and returned to a runway about two days later.

Which statement correctly describes the mission?

View explanation

STS-1 was the first Space Shuttle mission, flown by Columbia. It tested the combined shuttle system, safe ascent to orbit and the return of both crew and orbiter. It was neither a lunar mission nor an ISS assembly flight.

Problem 3

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea opened for signature at Montego Bay, Jamaica, on December 10, 1982. Following ratifications and other procedures, it entered into force on November 16, 1994.

Which conclusion follows correctly from this timeline?

View explanation

The Convention opened for signature in 1982 but entered into force in 1994. Signature, ratification or accession, and entry into force are distinct treaty stages. The Convention provides a comprehensive legal framework for the oceans and their resources.

Problem 4

In 1984, Apple introduced a product that the company later described as redefining the personal computer in the 1980s.

Which product was it?

View explanation

The original Macintosh was introduced in 1984. The iMac arrived in 1998, the iPhone in 2007 and the Apple Watch in 2015, so all three belong to later periods in Apple's product history.

Problem 5

In September 1985, finance ministries and central banks from five major economies agreed that exchange rates should help correct external imbalances.

Which coordinated action most closely followed the Plaza Agreement?

View explanation

The Plaza Agreement addressed the strong dollar and external imbalances and led to coordinated dollar-selling intervention by the G5. It did not restore fixed exchange rates or create a common currency; the later 1987 Louvre Accord addressed a different phase of exchange-rate coordination.

Problem 6

On April 26, 1986, a test at unit 4 of a nuclear power station in what was then Soviet Ukraine led to destruction of the reactor core and part of the building and released radioactive material into the environment.

Which accident does this describe?

View explanation

This describes the accident at unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Three Mile Island occurred in the United States in 1979, Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in 2011 and the Windscale fire in the United Kingdom in 1957.

Problem 7

An international protocol adopted in September 1987 created a system to phase down the production and consumption of nearly 100 human-made chemicals in order to protect the stratospheric ozone layer.

Which protocol and principal target are correctly paired?

View explanation

The Montreal Protocol phases down substances such as CFCs that damage the ozone layer. The Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement primarily address climate change, while the Ramsar Convention concerns the conservation and wise use of wetlands.

Problem 8

On March 13, 1988, the Tsugaru-Kaikyo Line opened through the Seikan Tunnel, creating a rail link under the sea between Honshu and Hokkaido.

Which transport change occurred on the same day?

View explanation

The Seikan ferry service ended on the same day that the Tsugaru-Kaikyo Line opened through the tunnel. Shinkansen services began using the Seikan Tunnel in 2016, not at the tunnel's 1988 rail opening.

Problem 9

At the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games, Daichi Suzuki won Japan's first Olympic swimming medal in sixteen years.

In which event did Suzuki win gold?

View explanation

Daichi Suzuki won gold in the men's 100 m backstroke. He also competed in the 4 × 100 m medley relay, but Japan finished fifth there, so the individual backstroke result must be distinguished from the relay result.

Problem 10

In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee proposed a system at CERN to make it easier for scientists dispersed among universities and institutes in different countries to share information.

Which account correctly distinguishes the 1989 event from later developments?

View explanation

The first proposal for the Web was written in 1989. CERN had the first Web server and browser running by the end of 1990, and in 1993 made the software freely reusable. The proposal, implementation and public release should not be treated as one event in a single year.