Gallery: The Decades That Invented the Future, Part 9: 1981-1990
01columbia-launch
 Today's leading-edge technology is headed straight for tomorrow's junk pile, but that doesn't make it any less awesome. Everyone loves the latest and greatest. Sometimes, though, something truly revolutionary cuts through the clutter and fundamentally changes the game. And with that in mind, Wired is looking back over 12 decades to highlight the 12 most innovative people, places and things of their day. From the first transatlantic radio transmissions to cellphones, from vacuum tubes to microprocessors, we'll run down the most important advancements in technology, science, sports and more. This week's installment takes us back to 1981-1990, when music television defined a generation, the first Nintendo console hit the U.S. and Apple's Macintosh brought about the age of the personal computer. We don't expect you to agree with all of our picks, or even some of them. That's fine. Tell us what you think we've missed and we'll publish your list later. __Above:__ 1981: Space Shuttle Columbia (Science) -------------------------------------- The world’s first and only fleet of spaceplanes earned its wings when Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on April 12, 1981. Launched on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight, the mission, STS-1, lasted 54.5 hours. Columbia’s two crew members, John Young (an Apollo veteran) and Robert Crippen, circled Earth 37 times before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Though it successfully proved the shuttle’s flight capabilities, this inaugural trip was also a portent of disaster. During the flight, the two astronauts observed damage to protective thermal tiles near the shuttle’s rear and nose. Two decades later, Columbia’s thermal protective system would fail and the orbiter would crumble in the United States' southern skies. The U.S. shuttles were the first reusable, winged spacecraft to enter Earth orbit and land. Ferried to space by two rocket boosters and an enormous fuel tank, the shuttles – Columbia, Discovery, Atlantis, Challenger, and Endeavour – were a crucial part of NASA’s spaceflight program for 30 years. Among other tasks, astronauts on board performed science experiments, repaired and maintained the Hubble Space Telescope, helped build the International Space Station, and delivered satellites (like the Chandra X-Ray Observatory) to orbit. In August 2011, the space shuttle program officially ended; in 2012, the remaining shuttles were retired with much fanfare to sites around the country. *Photo: Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off. Credit: NASA.*
02ibm-5150-2
1981: The IBM PC (Computers) ---------------------------- The most important computing moment of the 1980s? Many will say it was the arrival of the Apple Macintosh in early 1984, in the wake of an eye-opening TV advertisement/mini-movie that aired on Super Bowl Sunday. But the bigger moment was the introduction of the IBM PC three years earlier. Yes, the Mac made the PC look like a relic, introducing the mouse and the graphical user interface to a mass audience. But the PC laid the bedrock for next two decades of personal computing. For the next two decades, most people would use not Macs but the PCs that evolved from that original IBM machine. IBM, you see, allowed other manufacturers to build machines that were compatible with its own. Apple did not. This allowed not one but two companies to dominate the computer landscape — and IBM wasn't one of them. With its first PC, IBM chose a chip from Intel and an operating system — MS-DOS — from a tiny company called Microsoft, and this eventually gave rise to what became known as the Wintel architecture, a marriage of Intel chips and Microsoft's Windows operating system. In recent years, the Mac has eaten into Wintel's dominance in a big way, but the '80s and the '90s were ruled by the PC — whether you like it or not. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired*
George Widman03macintosh-3
1984: The Macintosh (Gadgets) ----------------------------- The '80s were also the beginning of the Mac vs. PC debate — even within this story and our newsroom we have internal disagreement over which was more important. But like it or not, you have Apple to thank (or blame) for how you interact with the modern computer. Specifically, [the Macintosh](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/steve-jobs-greatest-achievements/?pid=2448&viewall=true), which changed the face of desktop computing. Literally. The Mac was the first consumer computer to include a GUI (graphical user interface) instead of a command-line interface. It was the first computer for the masses. You didn’t need to have programming skills or know a nerd to use it, which meant non-techies like designers and word herders flocked to it. The Mac’s legacy lives on in the computer you’re using right now. Icons we’ve come to know and love (or hate), like the trash can, folders, and papers denoting text files, started on the Mac. It was also the first computer to use a mouse, allowing you to easily click on those lovely little icons and drag and drop items around the slick desktop interface. Apple debuted its revolutionary Macintosh with a huge media campaign that kicked off with a now-iconic TV commercial inspired by Orwell's *1984*. Going on sale Jan. 24, 1984, Apple sold 50,000 units in its first three months. It wasn’t a big hit by any means, but it was a revolutionary step forward. It even influenced Microsoft’s Windows 95 OS, and was of course the first stepping stone toward the Mac OS X we use today. *Top photo: Drexel University President William Hagerty, left, talks with chemistry Professor Allan Smith after the Institution helped unveil Apple Computer's new Macintosh in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/George Widman.* Secondary photo: [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macintosh_128k_transparency.png)
04mtv
1981: MTV (Entertainment) ------------------------- "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll." These simple words, set to stock footage from NASA, announced the launch of MTV on Aug. 1, 1981. The cable channel's 24/7 broadcast of music videos — starting audaciously with The Buggles' cover of "[Video Killed the Radio Star](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Killed_the_Radio_Star)" — signaled the dawning of a new era in which visuals would rival audio when it came to cultural impact. This emphasis on short-form video content seems only natural in today's YouTube world, but MTV's formula was revolutionary for its time. The videos came one after another, proving as addictive as [crack](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_cocaine) (another '80s innovation) for a generation of viewers. Other crack-like obsessions introduced in this decade: colorful puzzle game [Rubik's Cube](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik's_Cube) (1980), annoying bits of digital shorthand known as [emoticons](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/09/0919fahlman-proposes-emoticons/) (1982) and McDonald's terrifying chicken snack, the [McNugget](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNugget) (1983). Elsewhere on TV, the '80s brought the rebirth of a classic sci-fi franchise with *[Star Trek: The Next Generation](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2012/09/star-trek-next-generation-best-worst/)* (1987), the rise of a movie-mocking empire with *Mystery Science Theater 3000* (1988) and the first episode of epic animated series *[The Simpsons](http://www.thesimpsons.com/)* (1989). *Image: MTV*
Focus On Sport05miracle-on-ice
1980: Miracle on Ice (Sports) ----------------------------- More than 30 years later, the "Miracle on Ice" remains one for the ages. Everyone knows the story. It's part of the American lexicon, a Cold War showdown between the United States and the USSR in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York. The upstart Americans took down the mighty Soviets, who had dominated the world championships since the 1950s and won four consecutive Olympic gold medals. The Americans shouldn't have even played the Soviets, let alone beaten them. They were a seventh-seed squad comprised of amateurs and collegiate players led by Minnesota Golden Gophers coach Herb Brooks, with only one veteran of the '76 team. Their opponents were some of the best players in the world, including Boris Mikhailov, Valeri Kharlamov, Viacheslav Fetisov and legendary goalie Vladislav Tretiak. It was akin to your local high school team taking on the Stanley Cup champs. Still, the Americans surprised everyone with their dominant and physical play as they pushed their way through the group stage into the medal round. Then they met the Russians. Despite losing the lead early, Team USA fought back to a nail-biting 4-3 finish in a game *Sports Illustrated* would in 1999 name "[the top sports moment of the 20th century](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/news/1999/12/02/awards/)." The Americans went on to win the gold after defeating Finland, but that was almost anticlimactic. As was so often true during the Cold War, the match-up was about more than sports. There was no love lost between the USA and USSR, and at the time President Carter was considering boycotting the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The victory gave the country a sense of pride and unity after the unsettling economic and political climate of the 1970s and became a symbol of American determination in a time of high tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The loss so infuriated the Soviets that *Pravda* did not mention the match in its coverage of the Games. More than 8,000 people packed the stadium to watch the game, which was carried live only in Canada. The game was shown on tape delay in the United States and aired less than an hour after the game ended, but even now many people believe they watched it live. Such a thing could never happen today in the always-on, always-connected era that made the [2012 Summer Games the most-watched ever](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/playbook/2012/07/olympics-and-technology/). *Photo: The United States hockey team celebrates on the ice after defeating the Soviet Union team on Feb. 22, 1980 during the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Credit: Focus on Sport/Getty Images*
Mark Peterson06michael-milken
1980s: The Leveraged Buyout (Business) -------------------------------------- More than just an economy-altering financial flamethrower, the leveraged buyout hangs in the same gallery of 1980s pop culture iconography as the boom box, Molly Ringwald, and parachute pants. The decade's famed corporate raiders — Henry Kravis, Carl Icahn, Kirk Kerkorian — didn't invent the strategy of taking on massive amounts of debt to finance the takeover of a company while using that company as collateral. But their perfection of this aggressive, sometimes reviled investment tactic tipped the balance of power in the '80s from Main Street to Wall Street. Though the [downfall of junk bond king Michael Milken](http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-21/news/mn-4764_1_michael-milken) may have seemed like the symbolic end of the LBO era, they never really went away. The venture capital-fueled dotcom bubble came to define the 1990s, but LBOs came roaring back during the private-equity boom of the mid-2000s. Much like housing during those same years, companies were bought, stripped and flipped, yielding massive profits for the dealmakers but sometimes [leaving workers holding the bag](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/business/economy/05simmons.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0). *Photo: Michael Milken avoids eye contact and questions by reporters as he walks with his lawyer after speaking at a conference on Oct. 27, 1988. Reuters/CORBIS*
07nes-console
1985: Nintendo Entertainment System (Games) ------------------------------------------- Atari’s collapse at the beginning of the 1980s was as swift and dramatic as its rise. Electronics makers and retailers alike believed that videogame-only devices were just a stop on the road to the dominance of personal computers. Nintendo, which was enjoying remarkable success in its native Japan with a game console called Famicom, believed otherwise. It thought that the games created by its in-house genius Shigeru Miyamoto, like *Super Mario Bros.* and *The Legend of Zelda*, were unique enough to get families to invest in another game machine. The company had to fight hard to get retailers to test-market the Nintendo Entertainment System for its first Christmas, but everything snowballed from there. Some felt that Nintendo had been a bit too successful and hauled it into court over alleged non-competitive practices, but the company’s victories established the gaming business as we know it today. *Image: [Evan-Amos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NES-Console-Set.jpg)/Wikipedia*
U.S. National Archives08sandra-day-oconnor
1981: Sandra Day O'Conner (Security) ------------------------------------ The male-dominated U.S. Supreme Court finally comes to an end on Sept. 25, 1981. In July, President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor as the high court's first woman. The Senate confirmed her 99-0. O'Connor was succeeded by Justice Samuel Alito in 2006, after she retired. Three of the nine members of the high court are now women. They are Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. *Photo: The National Archives*
Staff Sgt. DERRICK C. GOODE09nighthawk-stealth
1980s: Stealth (War) -------------------- Think of the 1980s and you might conjure up images of bad haircuts, Margaret Thatcher and the punk movement. But you should also think of stealth technology. The story of stealth spans the entire decade. Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. performed a test flight of the world’s first radar-resistant aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk, in 1981. This was followed by a delivery of the aircraft to the U.S. Air Force in 1982. But true to its stealthy nature, the jet remained hidden from the public as a well-kept secret until 1988 when it became declassified. And a hell of a secret it was, too. Stealth changed the rules for battle in flight. No aircraft can lay claim to complete invisibility and immunity from antiaircraft radar systems but stealth is about as close as it gets. Stealth made air missions a lot less risky and also opened up targets that were previously thought to be too well defended against air strikes. The distinctive shape of the aircraft isn’t a tip of the hat to 1980s retro style. It’s designed to reflect radar waves away from itself in narrow beam signals rather than back to antiaircraft units. The jagged aircraft doesn’t just rely on its geometrics to stay off the grid — the entire surface of the Nighthawk is coated with a radar-absorbent material (RAM), which converts radar energy into heat. The Nighthawk is most famous for the role it played in the first Gulf War during Operation Desert Storm. The stealth power of the aircraft meant it was the only coalition jet sanctioned to approach the city limits of Baghdad and destroy targets within the Iraqi capital. The technology worked – Baghdad was peppered with thousands of antiaircraft guns and approximately 60 air-to-surface missiles, none of which deterred the Nighthawk. Not a single F-117 fell from the skies as they slipped past the Iraqi radar systems on over 1,250 sorties, proving that the $42.6 million flyaway cost of the jet was money well spent. The F-117 Nighthawk was officially retired from the Air Force in 2008 but resting might be a more accurate term. They’re currently stored in hangars at a Nevada airfield with the ability to be briskly recalled to service if they’re ever needed. The U.S. Air Force has continued to commission stealth aircraft because of the high-tech advantages it has afforded, and the technology is highly coveted by other Air Forces around the world. The U.S. currently operates the B-2 Spirit, F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning, which was developed with help from the British defense contractor, BAE Systems. The Royal Air Force also flies the F-35 after receiving the first shipment of the jets in July 2012. The Russian, Chinese, Indian and South Korean militaries are all chasing a means to catch up with the sought-after technology. *Photo: An F-117 Nighthawk. Credit: U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Derrick C. Goode*
10chuck-hull
1980s: Additive Manufacturing (Design) -------------------------------------- Additive manufacturing is a type of rapid prototyping, also known as 3-D printing. That's right — although it's only now reaching mass awareness, 3-D printing was actually invented in the '80s. The 3-D printers of the 1980s were a lot different from the desktop machines that are becoming popular today, but they both have a notable similarity: Like consumer-level desktop 3-D printers, the industrial machines of the '80s struggled to print prototypes with enough structural integrity to be useful in many products. The first designs were stereolithographic, at first, led by Charles Hull’s system of using light to cure liquid polymers. But by the end of the decade, manufacturers were using laser sintering, fused deposition modeling, and even laminate layering. With roots in topographic mapmaking, the idea of building a three-dimensional object by putting down thin layers wasn’t new. But the rise in processor power and portability in the '80s meant companies that wanted to quickly build a prototype could start to do so entirely in-house. *Video: 3D Systems*
11in-car-audio
1980s: In-Car Stereos (Vehicles) -------------------------------- Ask any audiophile, and they'll tell you the worst environment in the world to enjoy music is inside your car. But the 1980s ushered in a new era of in-car audio, and we’re not talking about the first wimpy Bose “premium” systems that became available in the early years of the neon decade. The scrappy audio aftermarket took the automotive world by storm, selling mondo amplifiers and, more importantly, the first dedicated subwoofers to kids looking for a new way to amp up their rides. It took years for the staid auto industry to get hip on how to go low by adding subwoofers to their systems. And judging from the lame imitations that still pass for real chest-pounding bass in most modern stock systems, car companies still don’t get it. Because if you’ve never heard the Beastie Boys’ “Hello Brooklyn” pumping through a pair of sufficiently powered 12-inch subs — preferably in a Camaro IROC-Z (mullet and sleeveless tee optional) — you’re missing the point. And the best part of most music.
12pentax-autofocus
1980s: Autofocus (Photography) ------------------------------ The '80s produced some of history's most iconic photos: the young Afghan girl staring into National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry's camera, Annie Leibovitz's shot of a naked John Lennon hugging Yoko Ono and the lone man in front of a line of tanks after the Tiananmen Square massacre. But it was also a decade that gave rise to a vital technology so important, everyone now takes it for granted — autofocus. Until the 1980s, one of the techniques that set professional photographers apart was their ability to manually focus their cameras on the fly. Shooting portraits might have been one thing, but trying to accurately track the action during a war or San Francisco 49ers game was something only a few could do. It was as much about dexterity as vision. But then came autofocus. Originally invented by Leica in the 1970s, this technology didn't take off until the early 1980s. The first autofocus 35mm SLR was Pentax's ME-F (above), which was released in 1981, and had focus sensors in the camera and a motorized lens. Other camera companies followed suit and released their own autofocus systems, but the next breakthrough came in 1985 when Minolta released its autofocus system, which moved the drive motor from the lens to the camera body. For sports photographers like Peter Reed Miller of *Sports Illustrated* and John Storey of the San Francisco *Examiner*, autofocus only meant the camera could now help them do something they had perfected over many years. But for the rest of us, it opened a whole new world of action — be it on the sports field, on vacation or with our kids at home. Today autofocus is standard and used by most, if not all, of the pros. Newer advancements include dozens of selectable autofocus points that the shooter can choose manually — you're not limited to focusing on what's in the middle of the lens — and autofocus modes that allow the camera to follow the action and re-focus without the user having to constantly press the autofocus button. *Photo: [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pentax_ME-F_autofocus.jpg)*
