1982 — November 30, Michael Jackson releases “Thriller”; with sales of $110 million, it becomes the best-selling recording of all time.
1983 — April 12, Harold Washington is elected Mayor of Chicago. Why was his tenure short? Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award.
1984 — Jesse Jackson wins one-fourth of the votes cast in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, and one-eighth of the convention delegates in his first presidential bid. What’s his famous slogan?
1989 — March, Frederick Drew Gregory becomes the first African-American to command a space shuttle, the Discovery. Who was the first black woman in space?