What happened onJanuary 11, 1980Friday Week 2

Today is September13, 2026 Sunday.

January 11 is a Friday again in 1985.

About January 11

January 11 Events On this day through the years

Born ?

January 11FamousBirthdays

In loving memoryFamous DeathsJanuary 11

The World in 1980 the year the cube took over

Three networks ran American television, and cable reached only about one home in five. Kids fed quarters into the new Pac-Man machines at the mall, then went home and twisted a Rubik's Cube until the stickers peeled off. Hardly anyone owned a video recorder, so a missed episode was simply gone until the summer reruns. In Poland people queued with ration cards for meat, and those queues were part of what put the shipyards on strike.

The year in 8 events

A Rubik's Cube can be twisted into about 43 quintillion arrangements, and only one of them has each side a single color. At one try a second you would still be turning it long after the sun burns out.

• 🌍Apr 18 Zimbabwe becomes an independent country, with Robert Mugabe as its first prime minister.
• 🕯️May 4 Tito dies at 87 after 35 years running Yugoslavia. Leaders from both sides of the Cold War come to the funeral.
• 🌋May 18 Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington state. Ash drifts over towns hundreds of miles away.
• 🏅Jul 19 The Olympics open in Moscow, and dozens of countries stay away in protest at the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
• ✊Aug 31 Poland's government gives in to striking shipyard workers in Gdansk. They win the right to a union of their own, called Solidarity.
• ⚔️Sep 22 Iraq invades Iran. The war between them lasts eight years.
• 🗳️Nov 4 Ronald Reagan wins the US presidential election by a wide margin.
• 🕯️Dec 8 John Lennon is shot and killed outside his apartment building in New York.

Who Was in Charge?

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