History
History
The 80s
Film
Film
100

This man nailed his 95 thesis to the Catholic church in 1517 and was a central figure in the Protestant Revolution.

Martin Luther

100

In 1781, after a battle fought between the British army and the combined forces of the Continental Army and the French Army, General Charles Cornwallis surrendered in this town.

Yorktown

100

This iconic 80s basketball shoe was released in 1985 and generated 126 million dollars of revenue in one year.

Air Jordans

100

Robin William’s tour de force that freshman year Geoff would not stop talking about and begging us to watch, but when finally given the opportunity to watch on his birthday chose the Godfather instead.

Flubber

100

This hit movie from the 80s is the last film ever watched in Celeste and Reena’s freshman dorm room on Celeste’s giant monitor.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

200

Not Lincoln or JFK, this other less famous US president was also assassinated.

James Garfield

200

This word means forcibly throwing someone out of a window, and has been used to describe three separate incidents in Prague.

Defenestration

200

This novel supposedly inspired Mark David Chapman to wait outside the apartment of a famous musician and shoot him four times in the back.

The Catcher in the Rye

200

This actor is a close friend of Rian Johnson and has appeared in every single one of his projects.

Joseph Gordon Levitt

200

This gritty film about a middle school teacher with a serious drug problem released in 2006 and gained Ryan Gosling his first ever Oscar nomination.

Half Nelson

300

In 1956 this man famously swam across the Yangtze river which later led to a revolution that caused one of the biggest famines in human history.

Mao Zedong

300

This man is known as a Texan hero for his actions during the Texas Revolution despite being from East Tennessee, and is immortalized through his famous quote “You can all go to hell, but I’m going to Texas”

Davy Crockett

300

This flavor of chip debuted in 1986 and are still sold worldwide today, although in other countries could be referred to as “cool American” flavor.

Cool ranch doritos

300

This mockumentary style cult classic film features a hilarious debut performance from Amy Adams.

Drop Dead Gorgeous

300

In the queer masterpiece DEBS, a DEBS agent named Amy Bradshaw falls in love with this iconic supercriminal, played by Jordana Brewster.

Lucy Diamond

400

This nickname was created for a regime of Soviet women pilots in WWII who were famous for idling their engines midair to silently drop bombs on the enemy.

Night witches

400

This gun is the first fully automatic machine gun used by the British for imperial conquest, and has a famous poem written about it in Hilaire Belloc’s satirical novel The Modern Traveller. This poem claims that “Whatever happens, we have got / the ____ gun, and they have not”.

Maxim

400

This US president, who shares his last name with a country singer, lived longer than any other in history; when he died in 2024 he was 100 years old.

Jimmy Carter

400

The horror film Sinners received a record breaking 16 Oscar nominations and won this many actual Oscars.

4

400

The Texan actor Jesse Plemons has starred in a number of award winning films and tv shows, including The Power of the Dog, Fargo, Bugonia, and Breaking Bad. However, he got his start as a teenager on this show set and filmed in Texas.

Friday Night Lights

500

This South African tribe beat the British army in the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879 despite having a serious technological disadvantage, which was an embarrassing loss for Britian and helped to dispel the myth of European military superiority.

Zulu tribe

500

This Roman poet wrote 25 poems for his lover, whom he called Lesbia, including the famous epigram “I hate and I love. You may wonder why I do this. / I do not know, but I feel it happening and I am crucified.”

Catullus

500

This Houston born heartthrob was a triple threat, and could dance, sing, and act. In the 80s he starred in an iconic film that showcased all of these talents.

Patrick Swayze

500

In the quirky rom com Down with Love, Ewan McGregor plays a womanizing reporter named Catcher Block who uses this fake name to pretend to be a Southern gentleman to seduce and expose feminist writer Barbera Novak.

Zip Martin

500

In the award winning film Brick, the femme fatale Laura recites an excerpt from this European opera at Brad Bramish’s Halloween party.

The Mikado