The Gazette & Colorado Springs
1980-1997
1980
Ray D. Nixon power plant opens south of Fountain.
Iran hostage crisis.
U.S. boycotts Moscow Summer Olympics after vote at Antlers Hotel.
1981
Springs declared All American City.
Record 21 murders rattle citizenry and police.
1982
Pikes Peak Center opens.
City annexes Briargate.
1983
Ground broken Falcon Air Force Base.
New City Hall at Nevada and Colorado avenues dedicated.
Chapel Hills Mall opens.
1984
Gazette daily circulation reaches 100,000.
1985
Gazette announces $7.7 million expansion plan.
Frank Aries purchases Banning-Lewis Ranch for $92.5 million.
1986
Gazette pays $30 million to Oklahoma Publishing Co. to buy out rival paper Colorado Springs Sun; Sun's last edition published Feb. 26, ending 39-year rivalry.
Local economy hits skids.
City hosts World Cycling Championships.
Space shuttle Challenger explodes.
1987
Gazette drops afternoon edition, ending 100-year tradition; new design unveiled in June, earning Gazette national and international recognition.
1988
Sky Sox return to city.
Aries property annexed, ballooning size of city.
1989
William Thayer Tutt dies.
Aries defaults on Banning-Lewis property.
Berlin Wall dismantled; Cold War ends.
1990
Reporter Dave Curtin wins Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, the Gazette's first.
Foreclosures reach record levels as area economy continues to sag.
1991
Disastrous weekend: 25 die in airliner crash, 10 women die in nursing home fire.
Gambling legalized in Cripple Creek, turning old mining town into boomtown.
Persian Gulf War.
1994
N. Christian Anderson succeeds E. Roy Smith as publisher.
Gazette launches GT OnLine, its first electronic newspaper.
Broadmoor World Arena torn down.
New Colorado Springs Airport opens.
1995
Broadmoor hosts U.S. Women's Open golf tournament.
Truck bomb destroys Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
1996
Gazette teams with Century Communications and Source Media to produce the Interactive Channel.
Work begins on Colorado Springs World Arena.
1997
Gazette drops Telegraph from masthead.
Bob Isaac resigns after 18 years as city's first mayor.