MTV…….
August 1, 1981…….
Cable’s first 24-hour music channel debuts. The first video MTV played was Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles.
Gulf War…..
August 2, 1990…..
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein orders the invasion of Kuwait, claiming that Kuwait was threatening Iraq’s economy by overproducing oil, and that Kuwait was historically part of Iraq. These actions were immediately condemned by the United Nations who demanded Iraq’s immediate withdrawal from Kuwait.
These actions led to Desert Storm when Iraq didn’t withdraw from Kuwait.
Federal Air Traffic Controller Strike…..
August 3, 1981…….
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) goes on strike. The strike violated federal law which prohibited strikes by federal employees. U.S. President Ronald Reagan declared the PATCO strike a “peril to national safety” and declared all strikers would be fired. On August 5, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order and banned them from federal service for life (the ban was lifted by Bill Clinton in 1993). Two months later, PATCO was decertified. On Ronald Reagan’s 87th birthday in 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed legislation changing “Washington National Airport” to “Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport”.