PAST SIMPLE

The past simple is used to talk about actions and states which we see as completed in the past.

We use it to talk about a specific point in time.

I saw her in the street yesterday.
He came back last Thursday.
We didn't agree to the deal.
We can also use it to talk about a period of time.

We lived in Japan for five years.
She was in London from Monday to Thursday last week.
When he was living in New York, he went to all the bars and clubs he could.
You will often find the past simple used with time expressions such as these:

Yesterday
three weeks ago
last year
in 2002
from March to June
for a long time
for 6 weeks
in the 1980s
in the last century
in the past