American Girl 1980's Historical Character Doll: Courtney Moore (RELEASING OCTOBER 2020!)
- Admin
- Dec 4, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 4, 2020
American Girl's releasing a 1980's historical character next October! Her name will be Courtney Moore.

1980's may not seem historical, but Julie was released 31 years after 1976 (the latest events in her stories), and 1984 will be 36 years ago next year.
Here's a look at historical events around 1982-1986 to get an idea of what Courtney's stories may bring us:
1982
-The Cold War is still raging
-The Commodore home computer was released
-The first computer virus was found
-The World's Fair is held in Knoxville, TN
-A rally against nuclear weapons is held in Central Park and attracts 750,000 people
-America joins the Lebanese Civil War
-Epcot opens in Disney World
-The U.S savings industry is deregulated
-The early 1980s recession ends
-The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opens
-Thriller, the highest-selling album of all time, releases
-E.T, the highest-grossing movie of the 80's, releases
-The Equal Rights Amendment fails to pass
-The first emojis were posted
-The first International Day of Peace is held
1983
-The Internet is invented
-The first cell phone call occurs
-A dixoin-infected community, Times Beach, Missouri, is evacuated by the EPA
-The last episode of M*A*S*H airs, setting a record for most TV viewers that has not yet been broken
-Michael Jackson introduces the moonwalk
-Disney Channel launches
-A schoolgirl named Samantha Smith is invited to the Soviet Union after Soviet leader Yuri Andropov received a letter from her against nuclear war
-The third Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi, releases
-The Midwest is hit with a drought
-Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space
-The GPS is announced to become available for civilian use
-Vanessa L. Williams becomes the first African-American Miss America
-The last nuclear scare of the Cold War is held
-AT&T is founded
-The Chicken McNugget is released
1984
-The first Martin Luther King Jr day is held
-Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi is released (not important to Courtney, but important to me!)
-The Mac computer is released
-The first untethered space walk happens
-TED talks are created
-The US pulls out of the Lebanese Civil War
-President Ronald Reagan calls for a international ban on chemical weapons
-The AIDS virus is discovered
-The Soviet Union boycotts the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
-Tetris is released
-Ghostbusters and The Terminator are released
-Beverly Burns becomes the first female Boeing 747 captain
-Ronald Reagan jokes that he signed legislation that will 'ban Russia forever'
-Jeopardy begins airing
-Happy Days is cancelled
-Ronald Reagan wins re-election
-Minivans are created
-And a lady named Pleasant Rowland started thinking of an awesome idea...
1985
-The charity single We Are The World is recorded
-William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart patient to leave the hospital
-The Maxxum 700, the first autofocus single-lens camera, is released
-New Coke is released... and discontinued.
-44 tornadoes hit America and Ontario
-The Discovery Channel launches
-Route 66 is decommisioned
-Back To The Future is released
-Live Aid concerts are held to raise money for the Ethiopian famine... and Queen kills it.
-Samantha Smith (remember the girl who wrote to the Soviet Union in '83?) dies in a plane crash
-The first smoking ban in a restaurant is passed
-The wreck of the Titanic is found
-Super Mario Bros releases
-The first Nintendo system releases in America
-The first version of Windows is released
1986
-American Girl was founded!
-Green Day is created
-The first PC virus, Brain, spreads
-Pixar is founded
-The Senate outlaws genocide and allows its debates to be televised
-A hacker known as Captain Midnight hacks HBO
-5 million people form a human chain from New York to California to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness
-The Statue of Liberty celebrates its centennial
-Fox is launched
-The first 3D printer is sold
There's a lot that AG can do with this! I'm excited for an 80's doll... but this will make my parents feel old... my mom is Courtney's age now.
Oh, good job, thank you for clarifying! : ) Interesting! Ed did have some influence. We live in California and there’s a definite distinction here with Victorian vrs Edwardian architecture and fashion within a certain community. Mark Twain wrote “The Gilded Age”, Edwardian America satire. I guess nothing is so cut and dry!
@AGLife To clarify, Samantha isn't an Edwardian doll. America never had an Edwardian period. Our "Victorian" period was an off-shoot of the Victorian era in England. It didn't coincide with Queen Victoria's actual rule, but her influence. Just like our WWII era began in 1941, while the world's began in 1933, we never had an Edwardian period. American Victorianism was said to have lasted until 1914 by many historians. Even Rebecca could have fallen in that category. Edward had no influence on America. We did usher into the Progressive Era at that time though, which Samantha could also be properly called. Putting that history degree to work right now.
Honestly everyone’s complaining about this doll but what I see is: Stranger Things custom doll opportunity 😍 they better release a supercom as an accessory I swear.
Two things.
one: why the rant about Julie? She is probably the worst thing that ever happened to me, AG, and the world.
Two: I see you guys wanting a 20’s doll, no joke, I sent in a whole description and storyline for one named Dorothy Patterson.
The other sad thing is I think the 1980’s are even childhood innocence completely went down the drain and children became sexualized and wanted to be adults. I would like my children to be distanced from that.