By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
January 26, 2005
08:55 AM EST (13:55 GMT)
Buddy Baker lifted his long-standing Daytona hex in record-setting style in the 22nd Daytona 500 on Feb. 17, 1980, leading 143 laps on his way to becoming the first winner to top $100,000 in earnings. His average speed of 177.602 mph was a new record for 500-mile races.  |  | NASCAR ACCELERATION | |
| ALSO IN 1980 ... |
| • | Pierre Trudeau returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada (Mar. 3) |
| • | In Poland, a plane crashes during an emergency landing near Warsaw killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others (March 14) |
| • | Referendum in Quebec where the population rejects by a vote of 60% the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada (May 20) |
| • | The Cable News Network, or CNN, is launched in the United States (June 1) |
| • | Washington Post publishes Janet Cooke's story of Jimmy, an 8-year-old heroin addict -- it was later proven to be fabricated (Sept. 29) |
Courtesy: Wikipedia
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"Dallas" was the No. 1 television show in 1980. The Dallas Mavericks played their first game on Oct. 11. The population of Dallas was 974,078. In 1980, Namco released Pac-Man, the most popular arcade game of all time. More than 300,000 legitimate Pac-Man machines were sold worldwide -- and perhaps as many counterfeit ones. Other top video games released that year included Battlezone and Defender. Hooked on playing Pac-Man after a recording session, songwriters Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia wrote a song about it. "Pac-Man Fever" hit No. 1 in 1982. Former NASCAR.COM writer Tim Packman worked at Lancaster Speedway as a high school junior in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1980. If Baker had driven from his hometown of Charlotte to play Pac-Man with J.R. Ewing at the Southfork Ranch, the 1,028-mile trip would have taken nearly 19 hours by Cadillac Fleetwood limo -- list price of $24,343 -- or five hours and 47 minutes at Baker's race-winning average. Because of that country's invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter announced a grain embargo against the Soviet Union on Jan. 4. Two months later, Carter announced that the U.S. Olympic team would boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. The situation in Iran continued to worsen. On Feb. 23, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini asked Iran's parliament to decide the fate of the American embassy hostages. The United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7. Two weeks later, after mechanical problems grounded the helicopters that planned to rescue the hostages, eight troops were killed in a mid-air collision. In May, the International Court of Justice called for the release of the hostages. Inflation continued at its record pace -- 13.5 percent -- while gasoline prices jumped to $1.25 a gallon. On Nov. 4, with the issues of Afghanistan, Iran and inflation still on voters' minds, Republican challenger Ronald Reagan handily defeated the incumbent President. "The Empire Strikes Back", the second episode in the Star Wars trilogy, was released on May 21 and grossed $290 million. Ron Luciano wrote "The Umpire Strikes Back" in 1982. The Empire State Building in New York is 1,453 feet, 8 9-/16 inches tall. On April 21, Rosie Ruiz won the Boston Marathon but was stripped of her award when it was learned that she took a subway during the race and ran the final mile. Over 100 runners will race up a total of 1,576 steps and 86 floors in the 28th annual Empire State Building Run-Up on Feb. 1, 2005. When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, the top 1,300 feet disappeared within minutes. The blast area covered an area of more than 150 square miles and sent thousands of tons of ash into the upper atmosphere. The blast also triggered the largest landslide in recorded history, sending ash and rocks, some the size of large buildings, tumbling across a 14-mile area. The landslide also spilled into Spirit Lake, sending millions of gallons of water surging down the mountain. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band hit the charts with "Fire Lake" in May. John Lennon was shot and killed by Mark Chapman on Dec. 8, just a few hours after the former Beatle had been asked to sign an autograph by the gunman. Current drivers born in 1980:
• Casey Atwood (Aug. 25)
• Shane Hmiel (May 15)
• Kasey Kahne (April 10)
• Steadman Marlin (Oct. 29)
• Paul Menard (Aug. 21)
• Martin Truex Jr. (June 29) → Click here for more Daytona Countdown. | 
