This section of the Timeline of United States history concerns events from 1970 to 1989.

1970s

• 1970 - Environmental Protection Agency enacted
• 1971 - 26th Amendment ratified
• 1972 - U.S. presidential election, 1972 (including Watergate burglary)
• 1972 - Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with USSR
• 1973 - Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling over-turns state laws against abortion
• 1973 - Skylab, USA's first space station launched
• 1974 - Richard Nixon resigns Presidency over Watergate
• 1974 - Gerald R. Ford becomes President (by succession rather than election)
• 1976 - U.S. presidential election, 1976
• 1977 - Jimmy Carter becomes President
• 1978 - Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act
• 1978 - Camp David Accords (1978)
• 1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear accident
• 1979 - Iran hostage crisis begins

1980s

President Reagan was the face of the United States during the 1980s

• 1980 - Refugee Act
• 1980 - Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington kills 57 (see 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens)
• 1980 - U.S. boycotts Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• 1980 - U.S. presidential election, 1980
• 1981 - Ronald Reagan becomes President (Iran releases hostages)
• 1981 - Kemp-Roth Tax Cut
• 1983 - 241 U.S. Marines killed by suicide bomb in Lebanon
• 1983 - United States loses the America's Cup for the first time in 142 years, ending the longest winning streak in sports.
• 1983 - United States invades Grenada
• 1984 - Most of Eastern Bloc boycotts Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
• 1984 - U.S. presidential election, 1984 (Ronald Reagan is re-elected)
• 1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger accident
• 1986 - Tax Reform Act of 1986
• 1986 - Gramm Rudman Hollings Balanced Budget Act
• 1986 - Marshall Islands become independent
• 1987 - Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 22.6% in single session on Black Monday
• 1987 - Dennis Conner onboard "Stars & Stripes" returns the America's Cup to America.
• 1988 - Discovery launched as first post-Challenger space shuttle flight
• 1988 - U.S. presidential election, 1988
• 1988 - Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty went into effect.
• 1989 - George H. W. Bush becomes President
• 1989 - Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound