On the morning of January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger, the 2nd orbital craft to be built, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:38 a.m. EST. One minute and 13 seconds into its flight, Challenger exploded, killing all seven astronauts on board. Liftoff in 36 degree weather had caused a $900 O-ring on the right solid rocket booster to leak and doomed the $1.2 billion spacecraft and her crew.

The disaster shocked Americans who had come to regard shuttle missions as commonplace. The risk involved in space exploration became all too clear on that day, and foes of NASA gained an impetus to seek its demise.

More than 10 years after the Challenger disaster, NASA is only now beginning to regain the prominence it once had. The space program, which slowed in the late 80's, has now adopted stricter regulations on shuttle launches and has lessened the risk to humans by embarking on successful robotic explorations, as seen in the recent Mars Pathfinder Mission.

At the end of World War II, the western powers had a dilemma on their hands: deep inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany, the city of Berlin was split into 4 zones: the British, French, and Americans controlled the western half and the Russians were in charge of the eastern half.

As tensions among the former allies began to surface, the city of Berlin became caught in the middle of a "Cold War" between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1961, Soviet Premier Krushchev decided to blockade the passage of citizens from Communist-held East Berlin into West Berlin. A 26-mile-long "Anti-Fascist" wall of concrete and barbed wire was erected and guarded by alarms, mine fields and military personnel.

The world watched in horror as people attempting to cross over the Berlin Wall faced certain death. The Berlin Wall became a stumbling block in negotiations to end the arms race between the US and Soviet Union, and served as a powerful propaganda piece to remain ever vigilant against communist forces.

With the arrival of Soviet Premier Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the mid-1980's and his programs of "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (reform), the beginning of the end of the Cold War seemed at hand. Eastern European nations soon began to embark on similar reform campaigns. In 1989, Gorbachev eased the restrictions on citizens leaving East Germany for West Germany through other Eastern bloc countries.

On November 9, 1989, East German officials ordered their troops to allow free passage of citizens from East Berlin into West Berlin. On November 10, citizens began to tear down the wall which had divided them for so long.

On July 17, 1979 Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle was ousted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front. With the election of Ronald Reagan, the socialist Sandinista government which came to power in Nicaragua was deemed a threat to the stability of the Central American region. The signing of the Contra Aid Bill in December of 1981 gave the CIA the authority to organize anti-Sandinista forces or "Contras" to undermine and overthrow the Nicaraguan government.

However, public sentiment turned against the Contras and from 1982 to 1984, Congress passed the Boland Amendments, which barred the U.S. government from spending money to overthrow the Sandinista regime or provide the Contras with intelligence reports. In order to continue to fund the Contras, the National Security Council (NSC)- which the White House believed was exempt from the Boland Amendments - sought out private funds for the Contras.

During this time, Americans were being taken hostage in Lebanon by forces friendly to Iran, and the idea was hatched by the Reagan Administration that arms could be exchanged for hostages and profits diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras. Richard Secord, Oliver North, and Albert Hakim (among others) worked to sell TOW missiles to Iran via Israel. After two shipments of over 600 TOW and Hawk missile parts to Iran in 1985 and early 1986, no hostages were released.

On June 8, 1986 the Miami Herald uncovered evidence of the arms sales and ran an article naming Oliver North entitled "Despite Ban, US Helping Contras". On November 3, 1986 a Lebanese newspaper, Al-Shiraa, reported that arms sales to Iran by the U.S. had taken place, which President Reagan denied saying "We did not -repeat- did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages nor will we". North, CIA Director William Casey, NSC director Richard McFarlane and others began shredding incriminating documents. By December information was coming out daily of the arms-for-hostages deal and the Senate opened its own investigation while the President appointed an Independent Council.

By the end of 1987, the President's credibility had been mortally damaged; Reagan had assumed "full responsibility" for the scandal, but did not admit the policy was un-Constitutional. Many of those involved in the scandal felt that the Reagan Administration had turned its back on them and began to name the President as a willing accomplice.

Before leaving office in 1992, then-President Bush issued pardons to most of the major conspirators in the Iran-Contra Scandal. In the end, the Contras never overthrew the Sandinista government, though thousands of Nicaraguans died in their battles, Iran received lots of military equipment to use in its war against Iraq, and in 1991 the remaining hostages were finally released through diplomatic channels.

The Shah of Iran had, by 1978, angered almost every Iranian in one way or another. The poor watched as the division between them and the rich grew wider and wider, devout Muslims were angered at the growing amount of bars, discotheques and rights women were granted, and intellectuals were upset with the widespread corruption and repression exhibited by the Shah's government.

The United States saw in the Shah a stable, valuable ally in a hostile region. However, protests and riots against the Shah finally forced him to leave Iran in the hands of a handpicked successor in late 1978. Soon thereafter, the Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iranian Muslims, had returned from exile and forced the Shah's successor to flee also. Because of Khomeini's hatred of the West, and America in particular because of its support of the Shah, students stormed the U.S. Embassy compound on November 4, 1979 and held 52 Americans inside hostage.

Following the takeover of the U.S. Embassy, the Carter Administration worked feverishly to free the hostages, but a sense of impotence had spread throughout the country. This frustration was compounded by a failed military rescue attempt on April 15, 1980 - all of which resulted in President Carter losing his bid for re-election in 1980.

It is interesting to note that the central figures involved in the rescue attempt were Richard Secord, Oliver North and Albert Hakim - all of whom resurfaced as key players in the Iran-Contra Scandal. It has been alleged that the rescue operation (known as Desert 1) was purposely sabotaged to bring about the election of Ronald Reagan. Of equal interest is the fact that President Carter was close to securing the release of the hostages before the November elections. This "October Surprise" would have quashed the hopes of candidate Reagan and his CIA friendly manager William Casey. Casey is purported to have set out to keep the hostages from being released until after the election. A deal, brokered by Vice Presidential candidate George Bush, was allegedly forged to release the hostages once Reagan took office. On January 20, 1981, the Iranian military had a plane waiting to send the hostages back to America; news footage clearly shows guards listening to a radio and upon hearing of Reagan's inauguration, the plane was signaled to leave.

After returning to private life former President Carter had this to say: "We� had reports since late summer of 1980 about Reagan campaign officials dealing with Iranians concerning delayed release of the American hostages. I chose to ignore the reports. Later, as you know, former Iranian president Bani-Sadr gave several interviews stating that such an agreement was made involving (Robert) McFarlane, George Bush and Bill Casey�I have never tried to obtain any evidence about these allegations but have trusted that investigations and historical records would someday let the truth be known."

Held July 13, 1985, Live Aid was an international music event, watched on television by 1.4 billion people worldwide, and generating an estimated $100 million. The brainchild of British pop star Bob Geldof, the concert was intended to raise money for the victims of famine in Ethiopia. Geldof had been shocked to see the October 1984 BBC documentary by Michael Buerk concerning the famine victims, and teamed with friend Midge Ure to write "Do They Know It's Christmas?", which was recorded in November 1984 by 40 British and Irish rock superstars, collectively known for the occasion as Band Aid. The US effort, USA For Africa, recorded "We Are the World" written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie and featuring an equally impressive lineup of American superstars. Geldof, buoyed by his success at getting artists and the record industry to donate their talents for Band Aid, planned a gigantic multi-venue event to be broadcast world-wide. Assisted by concert promoters Harvey Goldsmith and Bill Graham, the task of organizing such an enormous concert and get it all done for free seemed insurmountable, but Geldof somehow managed to pull it off, prompting Goldsmith to quip that "Next time Bob has an idea, I'm going on holiday." The lineup Geldof managed for the concerts was dazzling. The British concert at London's Wembley Stadium featured acts such as Geldof's Boomtown Rats, U2, Sting, a reformed-for-the-occasion Who and Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Queen. In the US, Tom Petty, the Cars, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan all contributed memorable sets. Unfortunately, Geldof was not successful in obtaining permissions to release the concert footage on CD or video, so those who wish to re-visit the memories must rely on their own or others' videotapes. The success of Live Aid spawned a number of other noteworthy fund-raising concerts, particularly Farm Aid, which arose from a chance comment by Bob Dylan during his set that it would be nice to have a similar event for the American farmers.