| 1971 | In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre thousands, mostly Bengali Hindus. |
| 1980 | In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, by 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada. |
| 1983 | First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier. |
| 1983 | Church Street bombing: A car bomb planted by Umkhonto we Sizwe explodes on Church Street in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, killing 19 people and injuring 217 others. |
| 1985 | Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba. |
| 1989 | The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre. |
| 1990 | The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary
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