1980s World Events

Unemployment in England in the 80s had reached record-breaking numbers, the highest it’s ever seen since The Great Depression. It caused mass hysteria, riots, rebellion against manufacturing plant shutdowns and protests. Much of these numbers were caused by the government’s monetarist policies to tackle inflation. Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also cut benefits to state workers in half. Despite her being the least popular prime minister, she remained in office for 18 years. The highest unemployment rate exceeded 3 million in 1984, reaching almost 12%. It didn’t come down until the economic boom during the mid 1980s, dropping below 2 million in early 1989 and reached 1.6 million at 7% by the end of the year.

1980
Capture of “The Yorkshire Ripper”
The “Yorkshire Ripper” was identified as Peter William Coonan, who was a serial killer of 13 women and attempted to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980. He was found guilty on May 22nd, 1980, being sentenced to 20 concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, which converted to a whole life order in 2019. All of his murders took place in West Yorkshire and some in Manchester.

Death of John Lennon
On the evening of December 8th, 1980, John Lennon of The Beatles was shot dead in the archway of The Dakota in his New York City apartment. His killer, Mark David Chapman, was an American Beatles fan who travelled from Hawaii but was angered by his lifestyle and public statements. His statement regarding the Beatles being “more popular than Jesus” was what really got to him as well as the lyrics of his later songs “God” and “Imagine”. Chapman said he was also inspired by the fictional character Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. Chapman had also planned the killing for several months, waiting for Lennon at the Dakota since the morning of December 8th. He even met John Lennon who signed his copy of the album Double Fantasy. After coming back from a recording session with his wife, Yoko Ono, Chapman fired five hollow-point bullets from his .38 revolver, four of which hit John in the back. After being rushed to the Roosevelt Hospital in a police car, he was dead upon arrival at age 40. Thousands of music fans later held a 10-minute vigil in Liverpool in his memory.