The time

Do you remember Ronald Reagan, Leonid Brezhnev, the Union of Democratic Center (UCD), the Popular Alliance (AP), space war games, green screens, or vinyl records? No? Then I am afraid you do not belong to our class.

In this page some of the events that happened in the world while we were studying are given. You can see that in Spain events were taking place at a frantic pace.

1977

Most of us start the major.
Jimmy Carter president of the United States.
First democratic elections in Spain after 40 years of Franco dictatorship. We were the first generation of university students that started with democracy, what gave us some peace in the classroom. Adolfo Suárez becomes Prime Minister.
Discovery of the rings of Uranus.
Nobel Prize in Physics to Philip W. Anderson, Sir Nevill F. Mott and John H. van Vleck.
Apple II computer. Although it was one of the first personal computers its high price made it unaccessible to most homes. We tried our first computers at the space war machines in the pubs.

1978

Pope Paul VI dies. John Paul I and John Paul II are elected successively.
Approval of the Spanish Constitution.
Nobel Prize in Physics to Pyotr L. Kapitsa, Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson.

1979

Vietnam invades Cambodia.
Iranian Revolution and Islamic Republic in Iran.
The former Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
The Sandinista Front takes power in Nicaragua.
Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Adolfo Suárez wins again the general elections in Spain.
First democratic local elections in Spain. Enrique Tierno Galván mayor of Madrid. Starts the 'movida'.
Nobel Prize in Physics to Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg.

1980

Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community.
Iran-Iraq war.
Burning of the Embassy of Spain in Guatemala.
Nobel Prize in Physics to James Watson Cronin and Val Logsdon Fitch.

1981

Ronald Reagan president of the United States.
Adolfo Suárez quits as Prime Minister of Spain.
Failed coup d'état in Spain (that night we studied little).
Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo Prime Minister of Spain.
Robbery to the Banco Central bank in Barcelona.
Terrorist attack against Pope John Paul II.
The President of Egypt Anwar el-Sadat is assesinated.
First mission of the space shuttle.
Nobel Prize in Physics to Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Kai M. Siegbahn.

1982

Statutes of Autonomy in Spain.
Falklands war.
Felipe González (Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE)) Prime Minister of Spain.
Football World Cup in Spain ('Naranjito', the mascot, misled us on the final exams).
The compact disk (CD) appears (throught the major we studied and danced with the record player and the cassette).
Commodore 64 personal computer. Personal computers start to popularize, but their capacities were still very limited. In Spain the Sinclair ZX81 became popular and featured a RAM of only 1 KB!.
Nobel Prize in Physics to Kenneth G. Wilson.
Most of us finish the major.

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Last updated on May 14, 2020