Discover 1982: Top 9 Fun Facts From This Retro Year That Will Surprise and Delight You!

1. Global Rubik's Craze

Long before binge-watching and TikTok dances took over, folks were relentlessly twisting and turning to satisfy their insatiable hunger for a squared puzzle solved: In 1981, Rubik's Cube became a global sensation with an estimated 200 million cubes sold between 1980 and 1983, earning multiple awards and experiencing a resurgence in the early 2000s thanks to video-sharing sites like YouTube, where fans shared their solving secrets and boosted sales to 15 million in 2008.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

2. Computers: Time's Machine of the Year

Before Siri and Alexa were even a twinkle in their creators' eyes, computers were starting to make waves and knock on people's doors in the year of groovy eight-two: In 1982, personal computers began gaining widespread popularity in American offices, schools, and homes, prompting Time Magazine to name the computer as its "Machine of the Year" and featuring a cover with a papier mache sculpture of a man using a personal computer at his kitchen table, symbolizing the dawn of the information revolution.
Source => ibm.com

Uncover the long-lost secret pastime of 1983: Trivial Pursuit editions that spiced up trivia nights with bobsledding, Marilyn Monroe, and flavors that put neon-colored cocktails to shame! 🕶️🍸🚀

=> Fun Facts about 1983

3. MJ's Thriller Conquers the World

When the zombie apocalypse was moonwalking at its peak in 1982, Michael Jackson danced his way into history with a Thriller of an album: Thriller went on to become the best-selling album of all time, racking up over 105 million sales worldwide by June 2016, spawning the iconic "Thriller" single and music video which topped charts in multiple countries and bagged numerous awards, including three MTV Video Music Awards and a spot in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
Source => michaeljackson.com

4. Buried E.T. Game Sparks a Collapse

Before Steven Spielberg's beloved alien could phone home, he had to make a pit stop in the New Mexico desert, thanks to a disastrously awful video game: In 1982, Atari's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, designed in just five weeks by Howard Scott Warshaw, flopped magnificently, leaving millions of unsold cartridges to be buried in a landfill and contributing to an industry-wide gaming collapse. But fear not, Warshaw traded pixels for healing, finding his new calling as a therapist guiding the ambitious through the rollercoaster of success and failure.
Source => npr.org

5. Birth of the Emoticon

Before emojis came to rule our texts and DMs, saving us from awkward misinterpretations and making CAPS LOCK feel like YELLING: Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist, paved the way for expressing our digital emotions back in 1982, when he posted the first documented emoticons :-) and 🙁 on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System, sparking their popularity in early online communication like text messages, internet forums, and emails.
Source => scihi.org

6. The Iconic Brick Phone

Before the smartphone era, when the 'brick' was the ultimate status symbol and a gym workout in itself: The DynaTAC 8000X became the first widely available mobile phone in 1984, weighing 790 grams, costing $3,995 (equivalent to $11,500 / £9,300 in 2023), and offering 30 minutes of talk-time after a 10-hour charge. This hefty piece of technology was a must-have accessory for London's yuppies and gained widespread fame after being featured in the 1987 movie Wall Street.
Source => mobilephonemuseum.com

7. Russia Digs the Deepest Hole

In 1982, while the rest of humanity was busy Moonwalking to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," mother Russia decided to delve deep into the bowels of the Earth, presumably to find the warmest place for a cold Siberian night: This oddly adventurous drilling endeavor, known as the Kola Superdeep Borehole, reached a staggering 12,262 meters (40,230 ft) in 1989, securing its title as the world's deepest manmade hole as of 2023. Along the way, it uncovered the presence of water at previously unimaginable depths and unearthed geological revelations that shook the bedrock of scientific theories!
Source => en.wikipedia.org

8. Ozzy Bites a Real Bat

In a shocking twist straight out of Ozzy Osbourne's guide to alternative cuisine: Ozzy unknowingly chomped down on a real dead bat in 1982 during his Diary of a Madman tour, after a fan named Mark Neal hurled the expired pet of his late brother on stage. Ozzy, believing it to be a rubber prop, seized the opportunity for a dramatic rockstar moment and suffered three weeks of rabies shots as a result.
Source => loudwire.com

9. Sun Microsystems Rises from Stanford

When Sun Microsystems decided to take their rays over to Stanford: In 1982, a tribe of tech-savvy Stanford graduate students came together to form Sun Microsystems, pioneering the computer systems and components industry. However, the Sun set on their Newark campus in 2004, an unfortunate casualty of the dot-com downturn.
Source => exhibits.stanford.edu