Assassination Attempt (March 30): President Reagan is shot while leaving the Washington Hilton. Reagan is rushed to a hospital, where he walks in and collapses. Doctors remove a bullet from Reagan's left lung. Press secretary James Brady suffers a wound to the head that will leave him permanently disabled. A Secret Service agent and a police officer are also shot but will recover.

	Aftermath of the assassination attempt

On June 21, 1982, gunman John W. Hinckley Jr. will be found not guilty by reason of insanity. He had believed that shooting the president would impress actress Jodie Foster.

Shuttle Soars (April 12): The space shuttle Columbia is launched on its maiden flight.

Tuning In: MTV, the first 24-hour music channel, aimed at 12- to 34-year-olds, is launched by Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Co. to 2.5 million subscribers in 48 states.

Targeting the Pope (May 13): Pope John Paul II is shot twice by escaped Turkish convict Mehmet Ali Agca, 23. The pontiff undergoes more than five hours of surgery to remove portions of his intestine.

New Plague (June 5): The official announcement of what will become known as the AIDS epidemic appears in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, issued by the Centers for Disease Control. It reports five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia among homosexual men in Los Angeles. A month later, The New York Times reports that 41 young men, most of them gay, have contracted Kaposi's sarcoma. The disease, usually not fatal, has quickly killed eight of the men. Doctors initially call the disease "gay-related immunodeficiency" (GRID). But its spread to other groups leads to a broader term -- acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

A Peacemaker Killed (Oct. 6): As thousands look on, men in Egyptian army uniforms open fire during a military parade, assassinating Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian leader who made peace with Israel.