List of covers of Time magazine (1980s)

This is a list of people and subjects appearing on the cover of Time magazine in the 1980s. Time was first published in 1923. As Time became established as one of the United States' leading news magazines, an appearance on the cover of Time became an indicator of notability, fame or notoriety. Such features were accompanied by articles.

For other decades, see Lists of covers of Time magazine.

1980

January 7 – Ayatollah Khomeini, Man of the Year January 14 – Moscow's Bold Challenge January 21 – Grain as a Weapon: Who Wins, Who Loses January 28 – Squeezing the Soviets February 4 – Jimmy Carter February 11 – Eric and Beth Heiden February 18 – Operation Abscam: The FBI Stings Congress February 25 – Dan Rather March 3 – Peter Sellers March 10 – Ronald Reagan March 17 – Diplomacy In Crisis: Hostages in Bogotá, Suspense In Iran, Fiasco at the U.N. March 24 – Jimmy Carter March 31 – Interferon: The IF Drug for Cancer April 7 – T. A. Wilson April 14 – The Palestinians April 21 – Is Capitalism Working? April 28 – Jimmy Carter May 5 – Jimmy Carter May 12 – Edmund Muskie May 19 – Darth Vader (The Empire Strikes Back) May 26 – Picasso June 2 – The Big Blowup (Mount St. Helens) June 9 – Who'll Fight for America? The manpower Crisis June 16 – Help! Teacher Can't Teach June 23 – Inside the U.S.S.R. June 30 – Björn Borg (Wimbledon Championships) July 7 – Rediscovering America July 14 – That Aching Back July 21 – Feeling Super in Detroit (G.O.P. Convention) July 28 – Ronald Reagan & George H. W. Bush August 4 – Billy Carter August 11 – Larry Hagman as J. R. (Dallas) August 18 – Jimmy Carter August 25 – Jimmy Carter September 1 – Poland's Angry Workers September 8 – Thomas Murphy, Philip Caldwell & Lee Iacocca September 15 – The U.S. Voter September 22 – Poisoning of America: Those Toxic Chemical Wastes September 29 – Bear Bryant October 6 – War in the Gulf (Iran–Iraq War) October 13 – Jimmy Carter & Ronald Reagan October 20 – Carl Sagan October 27 – The Gulf: Will It Explode? November 3 – Jimmy Carter & Ronald Reagan November 10 – The Hostage Drama November 17 – Ronald Reagan November 24 – Saturn: Encounter in Space December 1 – Jane Pauley, Gene Shalit, Willard Scott, Tom Brokaw, David Hartman, Charles Kuralt & Joan Lunden December 8 – The Robot Revolution December 15 – Rocky Mountain High December 22 – John Lennon December 29 – Lech Wałęsa

1981

January 5 – Ronald Reagan, Man of the Year January 12 – Aiming High: Space Shuttle Columbia January 19 – Reagan's Biggest Challenge: Mending the Economy January 26 – The Hostages: Breakthrough February 2 – The Ordeal Ends: And the Outrage Grows February 9 – Brooke Shields February 16 – Margaret Thatcher February 23 – American Renewal March 2 – The Ax Falls: Reagan's Plan for a "New Beginning" March 9 – Herbert Boyer March 16 – Alexander Haig March 23 – The Curse of Violent Crime March 30 – How Japan Does It: The World's Toughest Competitor April 6 – Abortion: The Battle of Life vs "Choice" April 13 – Ronald Reagan April 20 – Lady Diana April 27 – Right On: Winging Into New Era (first orbital flight of NASA Space Shuttle Program) May 4 – The Money Chase: What Business Schools Are Doing To Us May 11 – Billy Martin May 18 – Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres May 25 – Terrorist's Target: Why Did They Do It? (Pope John Paul II assassination attempt) June 1 – Heart Attacks: New Insights, New Treatments June 8 – The Savings Revolution: Everybody wants Your Money June 15 – Ed Koch June 22 – Attack—and Fallout: The Target: Iraq's Reactor June 29 – François Mitterrand July 6 – High on Cocaine: A Drug with Status and Menace July 13 – Viet Nam Vets: Fighting for their Rights July 20 – Sandra Day O'Connor July 27 – Caspar Weinberger August 3 – Charles, Prince of Wales & Lady Diana Spencer (wedding) August 10 – Ice Cream: Getting Your Licks August 17 – Winging It: Coping Without Controllers August 24 – James Rouse August 31 – John Irving September 7 – Meryl Streep September 14 – Jesse Helms September 21 – Ronald Reagan September 28 – We, the Jury October 5 – Dickens' Nicholas Nickelby cast October 12 – No Free Lunch: Cost of Entitlements October 19 – Anwar Sadat October 26 – Arming the World: What Are the Limits November 2 – The Fitness Craze: America Shapes Up November 9 – Ronald Reagan November 16 – Katharine Hepburn & Henry Fonda (On Golden Pond) November 23 – Paradise Lost? South Florida November 30 – Europe's Fear and a Bold U.S. Proposal (Peace demonstrator in West Germany) December 7 – Cats (a white cat) December 14 – The President's Men: How the White House Works—And Doesn't December 21 – Muammar Gaddafi December 28 – Wojciech Jaruzelski

1982

January 4 – Lech Wałęsa, Man of the Year January 11 – Patrick Teer, Children of War: Out of the Horror, Amazing Strength January 18 – Gronk! Flash! Zap!: Video Games Are Blitzing the World January 25 – Joe Montana February 1 – Franklin D. Roosevelt February 8 – Unemployment: the Biggest Worry February 15 – Steven Jobs February 22 – Jaclyn Smith March 1 – Henry Kissinger March 8 – Paul Volcker March 15 – Salt: A New Villain? March 22 – Central America: Gunship over El Salvador March 29 – Rising fears about Nuclear War April 5 – Giorgio Armani April 12 – Jerusalem April 19 – Falklands Crisis April 26 – Howard Baker May 3 – Computer Kids May 10 – Falklands War May 17 – H.M.S. Sheffield May 24 – Social Security May 31 – Falklands D-Day June 7 – Falklands, Pope John Paul II & Ronald Reagan June 14 – Gerry Cooney & Sylvester Stallone (Rocky III) June 21 – Israel's Blitz June 28 – Spoils of War (Lebanese civilians amid the bombing of West Beirut) July 5 – George Shultz July 12 – American Women July 19 – Siege of Beirut July 26 – Ayatullah Khomeini August 2 – Herpes August 9 – Ted Turner August 16 – Destroying Beirut: Israel tightens the noose August 23 – James G. Watt August 30 – Women & Fitness September 6 – Bull market September 13 – The Inmate Nation September 20 – Menachem Begin September 27 – Lebanon Massacre October 4 – Ariel Sharon October 11 – Jimmy Carter October 18 – John Updike October 25 – Pac Men November 1 – John DeLorean November 8 – Catalogues November 15 – Election Results November 22 – Yuri Andropov November 29 – Joseph Bernardin December 6 – Paul Newman December 13 – Ronald Reagan December 20 – Miguel de la Madrid December 27 – Missionaries (protestant Leon Dillinger in Papua New Guinea)

1983

January 3 – The Computer, Machine of the Year January 10 – The debt-bomb: The worldwide Peril of go-go Lending January 17 – James Levine January 24 – The Death Penalty January 31 – Pershing II February 7 – Robert Mitchum February 14 – KGB February 21 – Menachem Begin & Ariel Sharon February 28 – Princess Diana March 7 – Franklin C. Spinney March 14 – Pope John Paul II March 21 – Lee Iacocca March 28 – Tax Fraud April 4 – Ronald Reagan April 11 – Battling Cocaine's Grip April 18 – Arms Control: Making the wrong moves? April 25 – Claude Pepper May 2 – Nastassja Kinski May 9 – Reagan & Central America May 16 – Hitler's Forged Diaries May 23 – George Lucas (Return of the Jedi) May 30 – The New Economy June 6 – Cures for Stress June 13 – Los Angeles June 20 – Margaret Thatcher June 27 – Pope John Paul II July 4 – AIDS Hysteria July 11 – IBM's John R. Opel July 18 – David Bowie July 25 – Americans on the Move August 1 – Special Issue: Japan August 8 – William P. Clark August 15 – Lisa Harap – Babies. What Do They Know? When Do They Know It? August 22 – Jesse Jackson August 29 – Daredevil Ben Colli September 5 – Domestic Violence September 12 – Soviets Destroy Airliner September 19 – Reagan & U.N. Quiz Moscow September 26 – Deng Xiaoping (Theodore H. White on China: Banishing Mao's ghost) October 3 – Marines in Lebanon October 5 – 60th Anniversary Issue October 10 – America's Schools October 17 – Peter Ueberroth October 24 – Ronald Reagan October 31 – Marines in Beirut November 7 – Grenada and Beirut November 14 – John F. Kennedy November 21 – Splitting AT&T November 28 – George Orwell December 5 – Arms Control (Soviet walkout of the INF Treaty talks) December 12 – The Press Under Fire December 19 – Hafez al-Assad December 26 – Music Videos

1984

January 2 – Ronald Reagan & Yuri Andropov, Men of the Year January 9 – Pope John Paul II & Mehmet Ali Ağca January 16 – Africa's Troubles January 23 – Arthur Rock January 30 – Phil Mahre & Tamara McKinney February 6 – Ronald Reagan February 13 – Seabrook Nuclear Plant February 20 – Yuri Andropov February 27 – Konstantin Chernenko March 5 – Martin Feldstein March 12 – Gary Hart, Walter Mondale & John Glenn March 19 – Michael Jackson March 26 – Cholesterol April 2 – Alexander Haig April 9 – End of the Sexual Revolution April 16 – Bill Gates April 23 – Mining Nicaragua's harbors: Policy collision April 30 – China's New Face (Chinese man with a Coca-Cola bottle) May 7 – Jesse Jackson May 14 – Shirley MacLaine May 21 – Olympic Turmoil May 28 – D-Day Remembered June 4 – Geraldine Ferraro & Dianne Feinstein June 11 – Mystery Behind Pain June 18 – Walter Mondale June 25 – Andrei A. Gromyko July 2 – Erma Bombeck July 9 – Shimon Peres & Yitzhak Shamir July 16 – Democrats Launch Campaign July 23 – Geraldine Ferraro (vice presidential selection) July 30 – Carl Lewis (1984 Summer Olympics) August 6 – Mexico City August 13 – Carl Lewis August 20 – Sears & Cheryl Tiegs August 27 – Ronald Reagan & George H. W. Bush September 3 – Geraldine Ferraro September 10 – Science of Conception September 17 – Brian Mulroney September 24 – America's Upbeat Mood October 1 – Andrei A. Gromyko October 8 – The Supreme Court (Warren E. Burger, John Paul Stevens, Lewis F. Powell Jr., William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O'Connor, Thurgood Marshall, William J. Brennan Jr., Byron White & Harry Blackmun) October 15 – Crackdown on the Mafia October 22 – Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Walter Mondale & Geraldine Ferraro October 29 – Ronald Reagan & Walter Mondale November 5 – New Concern with Civility November 12 – Indira Gandhi November 19 – Ronald Reagan November 26 – Astronauts Rescue Satellite December 3 – America's Banks December 10 – William DeVries December 17 – Disaster Strikes Bhopal December 24 – Video Cassette Recorders December 31 – David Lean

1985

January 7 – Peter Ueberroth, Man of the Year January 14 – Nancy Reagan January 21 – Donald Regan January 28 – Ronald Reagan's Second Term February 4 – Pope John Paul II February 11 – Soviet Defector Tells All February 18 – Failing Farms February 25 – Cocaine Wars March 4 – T. Boone Pickens March 11 – Star Wars program March 18 – Larry Bird & Wayne Gretzky March 25 – Mikhail Gorbachev April 1 – Lee Iacocca April 8 – Bernhard Goetz April 15 – Vietnam, a Decade Later April 22 – U.S. Tourists April 29 – V. E. Day: 40th Anniversary May 6 – New Theory on Dinosaurs May 13 – Ronald Reagan May 20 – New Drinking Habits May 27 – Madonna June 3 – Nuclear Threat June 10 – Ronald Reagan's Tax Package June 17 – Spy Scandal Grows June 24 – Hijacked: TWA Flight 847 July 1 – Terrorism (Captain John Testrake & a hijacker) July 8 – Special Issue: Immigrants July 15 – Steven Spielberg July 22 – Ronald Reagan Enters Hospital July 29 – Hiroshima August 5 – South Africa August 12 – Growing Threat of AIDS August 19 – Pete Rose August 26 – American Food September 2 – Jerry Falwell September 9 – Mikhail Gorbachev September 16 – Philip Michael Thomas & Don Johnson September 23 – Deng Xiaoping September 30 – Earthquake Shatters Mexico October 7 – Trade Wars: Congress v. Ronald Reagan October 14 – Toxic Waste October 21 – U.S. Strikes Back at Terrorism (Achille Lauro hijacking) October 28 – Ronald Reagan, Hosni Mubarak, Bettino Craxi & Yasser Arafat November 4 – Garrison Keillor November 11 – Prince Charles & Princess Diana November 18 – Ronald Reagan & Mikhail Gorbachev November 25 – Volcano Strikes Colombia December 2 – Ronald Reagan & Mikhail Gorbachev December 9 – Teenage Pregnancy December 16 – Halley's Comet December 23 – Corporate Mergers