Neurology was there - 1980

The Iran hostage crisis began in November 1979, when a mob of Iranians seiz ed the US embassy in Tehran. In March 1980, a helicopter rescue effort by U S troops failed. In part, this failure led later in the year to the electio n of Ronald Reagan who replaced Jimmy Carter as President. The hostages wer e finally released on January 20, 1981-only a few hours after Carter left o ffice. In 1980, Iraq began a costly 8-year war with Iran, which ended in a stalemate. In Poland, Lech Walesa led a strike by shipyard workers and esta blished the Solidarity Party, the first independent labor union behind the Iron Curtain. The death of Yugoslavian communist president Tito initiated a long power struggle, which ultimately resulted ill fragmentation of the co untry. The United States and 57 other countries boycotted the summer Olympi cs held in Moscow to protest Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Mount St Hel ens erupted violently on May 18, 1980, sending a volcanic plume 60 000 feet into the air. Ted Turner launched the first 24-hour a day cable news telev ision network. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) explore d Saturn with the Voyager I probe. In the scientific, social, and political realms of medicine, neurology was there.