Civil-rights leader Andrew Young is elected mayor of Atlanta, Ga., an office he holds through 1989.
1982
Singer Michael Jackson creates a sensation with the album Thriller, which becomes one of the most popular albums of all time, selling more than 40 million copies.
1983
Writer Alice Walker receives the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple.
1983
Harold Washington wins the Democratic nomination by upsetting incumbent Mayor Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley and is elected the first African-American mayor of Chicago.
1983
Civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson announces his intention to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the first African-American to make a serious bid for the presidency.
1987
Basketball forward Julius Erving, noted for his balletic leaps toward the basket and climactic slam dunks, retires after becoming the third professional player to score a career total of 30,000 points.
1989
President George Bush nominates Colin Powell chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the first black officer to hold the highest military post in the United States.
1990
Author Walter Mosley publishes his first novel, Devil in a Blue Dress, which introduces the enduring character of "Easy" Rawlins, an unwilling amateur detective from the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1948.
1991
The Senate votes 52-48 to confirm the nomination of Justice Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court following charges of sexual harassment by former aide Anita Hill during confirmation hearings.
1992
Riots break out in Los Angeles, sparked by the acquittal of four white police officers caught on videotape beating Rodney King, a black motorist. The riots cause at least 55 deaths and $1 billion in damage.
1992
Mae Jemison becomes the first African-American woman astronaut, spending more than a week orbiting Earth in the space shuttle Endeavour.
1992
Carol Moseley-Braun becomes the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, representing the state of Illinois.
1993
Poet Maya Angelou, author of the autobiographical work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), composes and delivers a poem for the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
1993
Cornel West, progressive postmodern philosopher, finds a mainstream audience with the publication of his text Race Matters, which closely examines the black community around the time of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
1993
Writer Toni Morrison, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Beloved, receives the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1995
In one of the most celebrated criminal trials in American history, former running back O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
1996
At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., sprinter Michael Johnson becomes the first man to win gold medals in the 200 metres and the 400 metres, setting a 200-metre world record of 19.32 seconds.