Dr. Robert Jarvik invented the world’s first artificial heart, the Jarvik 7.

On
Dec. 2, 1982, at the University of Utah, Dr. William DeVries successfully
implanted the Jarvik 7 into Barney Clark, a Seattle dentist who volunteered
to undergo the surgery. After the surgery, other surgeries with the Jarvik 7
were performed and it became widely used as a temporary artificial heart,
while people waited for donated real hearts.

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.
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." 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.

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.

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.