MUSIC OF THE ERA
This Bee Gees-fueled soundtrack about disco dancing turned John Travolta into a superstar in 1977.
Saturday Night Fever
This Wisconsin-set sitcom made "Fonzie" and his thumbs-up a household name from 1974–1984.
Happy Days
Harrison Ford cracked his whip as an archaeologist in this 1981 adventure film.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
This Canadian city hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics, where Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic history.
Montreal
This boxing legend, famous for the "Rumble in the Jungle" and "Thrilla in Manila," remained a dominant heavyweight into the late '70s.
Mumammad Ali
Fronted by Debbie Harry, this band hit #1 in 1981 with "Rapture," one of the first songs to top the Billboard Hot 100 with rap verses.
Blondie
This Korean War dramedy's 1983 series finale drew over 100 million viewers — still the most-watched scripted finale in U.S. TV history.
M*A*S*H
In this 1982 Spielberg film, a boy named Elliott befriends a stranded alien who just wants to phone home.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?
This Quebec political party swept to power in the 1976 provincial election under leader René Lévesque, setting the stage for a sovereignty referendum four years later.
The Parti Québécois
At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the U.S. hockey team's upset of the Soviets became known by this nickname.
Miracle on Ice
This party band out of Athens, Georgia, scored a college-radio-turned-mainstream hit with "Rock Lobster" in 1978.
The B-52s
This NBC sketch show's original cast, dubbed "the Not Ready for Prime Time Players," included John Belushi and Gilda Radner when it premiered in 1975.
Saturday Night Live
Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley battled a deadly stowaway aboard the Nostromo in this 1979 Ridley Scott sci-fi horror film.
Alien
This Canadian politician held office briefly in 1979 before Pierre Trudeau's return to office in 1980.
Joe Clark
This fiery American tennis star feuded with (and beat) Björn Borg on his way to multiple Wimbledon titles in the early '80s.
John McEnroe
This German synth-pop song, about a toy balloon scare accidentally triggering nuclear war, became a surprise 1984 U.S. hit — in its original language.
99 Luftballons
Joan Collins joined this primetime soap in 1981 as the scheming Alexis Carrington, rivaling Dallas for glossy drama.
Dynasty
This 1984 mockumentary followed the fictional, disaster-prone British metal band Spinal Tap, whose amps famously went to eleven.
This is Spinal Tap
In October 1984, this Canadian astronaut became the first of his countrymen in space, flying aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
Marc Garneau
This Boston Celtics forward's rivalry with Magic Johnson defined NBA basketball throughout the 1980s.
Larry Bird
This British synth-pop band's stark, minimalist "Don't You Want Me" topped both the UK and U.S. charts in early 1982, becoming a New Romantic anthem.
The Human League
Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox played motorcycle cops patrolling California highways in this 1977 series.
CHiPs
Scored by Vangelis and centered on British runners at the 1924 Olympics, this 1981 film beat out Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Best Picture Oscar.
Chariots of Fire
This May 1980 volcanic eruption in Washington State was the deadliest in U.S. history.
Eruption of Mount St Helens
This NHL coach led the 1976 Montreal Canadiens, which included Guy Lafleur, Yvon Cournoyer, Larry Robinson and Pete Mahovolich, to a sweep over Philadelphia to win the Stanley Cup.
Scotty Bowman