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1981

1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-February

• January - Sarawak chamber found
  
  
• January 1 - Greece enters the EEC
  
  
• January 1 - Palau becomes self-governing
  
  
• January 4 - Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper
  
  
• January 13 - Donna Griffiths, a schoolgirl in Pershore, Worcestershire, UK, begins a uncontrollable series of sneezes that end September 16 1983 - after 978 days
  
  
• January 16 - Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and her husband
  
  
• January 19 - United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity
  
  
• January 20 - Ronald Reagan succeeds Jimmy Carter as President of the United States of America. Minutes after Reagan becomes president, Iran releases 52 American hostages that had been held captive for 444 days - Iran hostage crisis ends.
  
  
• February 4 - Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the Prime Minister of Norway
  
  
• February 9 - Polish Prime Minister Józef Pinkowski resigns and is replaced by General Wojciech Jaruzelski
  
  
• February 10 - A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198
  
  
• February 14 - Australia withdraws recognition of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia
  
  
• February 23 - Antonio Tejero, with members of the Guardia Civil enters the Spanish Congress of Deputies, and stops the session, where Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo was going to be named president of the government. The coup d'état would fail thanks to King Juan Carlos.
  
  

  March-April

  
  
  

''Columbia'' launches on the STS-1.]]

• March 1 - Bobby Sands, an IRA member, begins hunger strike for political status in Long Kesh prison - he dies May 5, the first of ten men.
  
  
• March 6 - After 19 years hosting the ''CBS Evening News'' Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
  
  
• March 7 - Colombian guerillas execute US bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman for being a CIA agent
  
  
• March 11 - Chilean president Augusto Pinochet sworn in for an eight-year term as president.
  
  
• March 19 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
  
  
• March 30 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr., whose family had connections with the vice president. Two police officers and James Brady are also wounded.
  
  
• April 11 - Riot in Brixton, South London - rioters throw petrol bombs, attack police and loot shops.
  
  
• April 12 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: ''Columbia'' launches on the STS-1 mission.
  
  
• April 15 - The Australian Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock resigns from cabinet accusing the Australian Prime Minister Fraser of gross disloyalty.
  
  
• April 18 - A Minor League baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning was not played until June 23rd).
  
  

  May

  
  
  
• May - Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon Basin
  
  
• May 6 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
  
  
• May 10 - In the second round of the presidential elections in France (French presidential election, 1981), François Mitterrand beats Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
  
  
• May 13 - Pope John Paul II is shot at and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St. Peter's Square in Rome to address a general audience. (Two days after Christmas in 1983, Pope John Paul went to the prison to meet and forgive his would-be assassin)
  
  
• May 21 - In France, socialist François Mitterrand becomes president of the Republic.
  
  
• May 22 - Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, imprisoned for life for 13 counts of murder
  
  
• May 25 - In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
  
  
• May 26 - The Italian government resigns over its links to the fascist Masonic cell P-2
  
  
• May 30 - Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman assassinated in Chittagong.
  
  

  June-July

  
  
  

Prince and Princess of Wales return to Buckingham Palace following their wedding watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.]]

• June 5 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (these were the first recognized cases of AIDS).
  
  
• June 6 - Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into the River Kosi, in Bihar, India - about 800 dead
  
  
• June 7 - Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor
  
  
• June 13 - At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager Marcus Sargeant fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
  
  
• June 22 - Hamas attacks a travel agency in Greece - two dead
  
  
• June 22 - Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr deposed
  
  
• June 29 - Morris Edwin Robert armed with a machine gun holds hostages in the FBI section in Atlanta Federal Building. After three hours the hostages are rescued - Robert is shot
  
  
• July 17 - Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby killing 114
  
  
• July 17 - Israeli bombers destroy the PLO HQ in Beirut
  
  
• July 27 - Wheel of Fortune premiers in Australia on the Seven Network.
  
  
• July 29 - Lady Diana Spencer marries Charles, Prince of Wales.
  
  

  August-October

  
  
  
• August 1 - MTV (Music Television) is launched.
  
  
• August 5 - Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
  
  
• August 7 - ''The Washington Star'' ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
  
  
• August 12 - The original IBM PC released in the United States.
  
  
• August 19 - Gulf of Sidra incident (1981). Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sends two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two US fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroyed the Libyan fighters.
  
  
• August 19 - US President Ronald Reagan appoints the first female US Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor.
  
  
• August 28 - South African troops invade Angola.
  
  
• August 31 - A bomb explodes at the US Army base in Ramstein, West Germany injuring 20 people.
  
  
• September 4 - An explosion at a mine in Zalizin, Czechoslovakia - 65 dead.
  
  
• September 10 - Picasso's painting "Guernica" is moved from New York to Madrid.
  
  
• September 15 - The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, at 150 years old, when it operates under its own power outside Washington, DC.
  
  
• September 18 - France abolishes capital punishment.
  
  
• October 6 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who were part of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization, who opposed his negotiations with Israel.
  
  
• October 10 - The Ministry for Education of Japan issues the jōyō kanji.
  
  
• October 14 - Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
  
  
• October 21 - Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
  
  

  November-December

  
  
  

Flag of Antigua and Barbuda.]]

• November 1 - Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom
  
  
• November 13 - The first Friday the 13th event held by motorcyclists in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada
  
  
• November 23 - Iran-Contra scandal: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua
  
  
• November 25-November 26 - Group of mercenaries lead by Mike Hoare take over Mahe airport in the Seychelles in a coup attempt. Most of the mercenaries escape by a commandeered Air India passenger jet, six are later arrested
  
  
• November 30 - Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on Thursday, December 17)
  
  
• December 1 - A Yugoslavian DC-9 crashes into a mountain while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica killing 178
  
  
• December 4 - South Africa grants "homeland" Ciskei independence (not recognized outside South Africa)
  
  
• December 11 - El Mozote massacre - in El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians
  
  
• December 13 - Wojciech Jaruzelski declares the state of martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity
  
  
• December 15 - A car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 61 people. This is the first modern suicide bombing. Syrian intelligence is blamed.
  
  
• December 20 - The Penlee lifeboat disaster off the coast of South-West Cornwall
  
  
• December 28 - The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born (Norfolk, Virginia)
  
  

  unknown dates

  
  
  
• Millennium Renactment of the translation of Saint Edward the Martyr's relics from Wareham to Shaftesbury
  
  
• Mauritania abolishes the institution of slavery.
  
  
• James Tobin wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
  
  
• Mike Cooley, Bill Mollison and Patrick van Rensburg / Education with Production win the Right Livelihood Award
  
  
• The counter-culture wire service LNS ceases operations.
  
  
• Public funding of election Campaigns introduced in New South Wales, Australia
  
  
• The State Council of the People's Republic of China listed the four cities (Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Guilin) as where the protection of historical and cultural heritage as well as natural scenery should be treated as a prior project.
  
  
• Cuba suffers a major outbreak of Dengue hemorrhagic fever, with 344 203 cases. http://w3.whosea.org/en/Section10/Section332/Section521_2454.htm
  
  
• Computer and Video Games (magazine) begins publication.
  
  

  Births

  
  
  

January-March

• January 1 - Zsolt Baumgartner, Hungarian race car driver
  
  
• January 3 - Eli Manning, American football player
  
  
• January 6 - Mike Jones, American rapper
  
  
• January 12 - Quentin Griffin, American football player
  
  
• January 15 - El Hadji Diouf, Senegalese footballer
  
  
• January 15 - Howie Day, American singer and songwriter
  
  
• January 17 - Scott Mechlowicz, American actor
  
  
• January 20 - Jason Richardson, American basketball player
  
  
• January 20 - Owen Hargreaves, Canadian-born footballer
  
  
• January 21 - Dany Heatley, German-born hockey player
  
  
• January 22 - Chantelle Anderson, American basketball player
  
  
• January 22 - Willa Ford, American singer, television hostess, and actress
  
  
• January 22 - Beverley Mitchell, American actress
  
  
• January 25 - Alicia Keys, American musician
  
  
• January 28 - Elijah Wood, American actor
  
  
• January 31 - Justin Timberlake, American musician
  
  
• February 3 - Alisa Reyes, American actress
  
  
• February 10 - Natasha St-Pier, Canadian singer
  
  
• February 11 - Kelly Rowland, American singer (Destiny's Child)
  
  
• February 14 - Erin Torpey, American actress
  
  
• February 15 - Jenna Morasca, American television personality
  
  
• February 17 - Paris Hilton, American actress and heiress
  
  
• February 18 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
  
  
• February 22 - Jeanette Biedermann, German singer and actress
  
  
• February 24 - Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player
  
  
• February 27 - Josh Groban, American singer
  
  
• March 1 -Ana Hickmann, Brazilian model
  
  
• March 2 - Bryce Howard, American actress
  
  
• March 3 - Lil' Flip, American rapper
  
  
• March 9 - Antonio Bryant, American football player
  
  
• March 11 - David Anders, American actor
  
  
• March 11 - Lee Evans, American football player
  
  
• March 11 - LeToya Luckett, American musician (Destiny's Child)
  
  
• March 16 - Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
  
  
• March 28 - Julia Stiles, American actress
  
  

  April-June

  
  
  
• April 1 - Hannah Spearritt, British singer (S Club 7)
  
  
• April 2 - Bethany Joy Lenz, American actress and singer
  
  
• April 10 - Michael Pitt, American actor
  
  
• April 14 - Mary Castro, American model and actress
  
  
• April 17 - Hanna Pakarinen, Finnish singer
  
  
• April 19 - Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor
  
  
• April 19 - Catalina Sandino Moreno, Colombian actress
  
  
• April 19 - Troy Polamalu, American football player
  
  
• April 22 - Ken Dorsey, American football player
  
  
• April 28 - Jessica Alba, American actress
  
  
• May 5 - Craig David, British singer
  
  
• May 5 - Danielle Fishel, American actress
  
  
• May 11 - Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
  
  
• May 13 - Sunny Leone, Canadian entertainer
  
  
• May 15 - Jamie-Lynn DiScala, American actress
  
  
• May 19 - Klaas-Erik Zwering, Dutch swimmer
  
  
• May 20 - Sean Conlon, English musician (5ive)
  
  
• May 20 - Lindsay Taylor, American basketball player
  
  
• June 1 - Carlos Zambrano, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
  
  
• June 7 - Anna Kournikova, Russian tennis player
  
  
• June 7 - Larisa Oleynik, American actress
  
  
• June 9 - Natalie Portman, Israeli-born actress
  
  
• June 13 - Christopher Robert Evans, American actor
  
  
• June 12 - Adriana Lima, Brazilian model
  
  
• June 21 - Brandon Flowers, American singer and keyboardist (The Killers)
  
  

  July-September

  
  
  
• July 8 - Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player
  
  
• July 23 - Michelle Williams, American singer (Destiny's Child)
  
  
• July 24 - Summer Glau, American actress (Firefly)
  
  
• August 4 - Marques Houston, American singer and actor
  
  
• August 5 - Carl Crawford, baseball player
  
  
• August 5 - Kō Shibasaki, Japanese singer and actress
  
  
• August 8 - Vanessa Amorosi, Australian singer and songwriter
  
  
• August 8 - Roger Federer, Swiss tennis player
  
  
• August 8 - Meagan Good, American actress
  
  
• August 16 - Taylor Rain, American actress
  
  
• August 24 - Chad Michael Murray, American actor
  
  
• August 25 - Rachel Bilson, American actress
  
  
• September 1 - Clinton Portis, American football player
  
  
• September 4 - Beyoncé Knowles, American singer (Destiny's Child) and actress
  
  
• September 8 - Jonathan Taylor Thomas, American actor
  
  
• September 16 - Alexis Bledel, American actress
  
  
• September 21 - Nicole Richie, American actress
  
  
• September 22 - Rocco Baldelli, baseball player
  
  
• September 26 - Christina Milian, Afro-Cuban singer, songwriter and musician
  
  
• September 26 - Serena Williams, American tennis player
  
  
• September 30 - Dominique Moceanu, American gymnast
  
  

  October-December

  
  
  
• October 1 - Jamelia, British singer
  
  
• October 3 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Swedish footballer
  
  
• October 11 - Beau Brady, Australian actor
  
  
• October 15 - Elena Dementieva, Russian tennis player
  
  
• October 20 - Willis McGahee, American football player
  
  
• October 22 - Michael Fishman, American actor
  
  
• October 28 - Milan Baros, Czech footballer
  
  
• October 29 - Amanda Beard, American swimmer
  
  
• October 30 - Ivanka Trump, American model
  
  
• October 31 - Irina Denezhkina, Russian writer
  
  
• October 31 - Frank Iero, American guitarist (My Chemical Romance)
  
  
• November 1 - LaTavia Roberson, American musician (Destiny's Child)
  
  
• November 3 - Jackie Gayda, American professional wrestler
  
  
• November 4 - Vince Wilfork, American football player
  
  
• November 8 - Azura Skye, American actress
  
  
• November 11 - Natalie Glebova, Canadian pageant winner (2005 Miss Universe)
  
  
• November 26 - Natasha Bedingfield, British singer
  
  
• November 26 - Aurora Snow, American actress
  
  
• December 2 - Britney Spears, American singer
  
  
• December 3 - Brian Bonsall, American actor
  
  
• December 4 - Lila McCann, American singer
  
  
• December 7 - Ben Adams, British singer (a1)
  
  
• December 13 - Amy Lee, American singer (Evanescence)
  
  
• December 15 - Kyle McKain, American Club DJ
  
  
• December 15 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)
  
  
• December 21 - Shizuka Arakawa, Japanese figure skater
  
  
• December 27 - Yuvraj Singh, Indian cricketer
  
  
• December 28 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, first American test-tube baby
  
  
• December 28 - Sienna Miller, American-born actress
  
  
• December 29 - Angela Via, American singer
  
  
• December 30 - Haley Paige, American actress
  
  

  Deaths

  
  
  
• January 5 - Harold C. Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)
  
  
• January 5 - Lanza del Vasto, Italian-born philosopher, poet, and activist (b. 1901)
  
  
• January 6 - A.J. Cronin, Scottish novelist (b. 1896)
  
  
• January 10 - Katherine Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)
  
  
• January 23 - Samuel Barber, American composer (b. 1910)
  
  
• February 1 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
  
  
• February 9 - Bill Haley, American musician (b. 1925)
  
  
• February 15 - Karl Richter, German conductor (b. 1926)
  
  
• February 20 - Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, magazine editor, socialite (b. 1904)
  
  
• February 26 - Howard Hanson, American composer (b. 1896)
  
  
• March 6 - George Geary, English cricketer (b. 1893)
  
  
• March 7 - Kiril Kondrashin, Russian conductor (b. 1914)
  
  
• March 9 - Max Delbrück, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
  
  
• April 7 - Norman Taurog, American film director (b. 1899)
  
  
• April 12 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
  
  
• April 27 - John Aspinwall Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1916)
  
  
• May 9 - Nelson Algren, American author (b.1909)
  
  
• May 11 - Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
  
  
• May 11 - Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1945)
  
  
• May 18 - William Saroyan, American author (b. 1908)
  
  
• June 1 - Carl Vinson, U.S. Congressman (b. 1883)
  
  
• June 19 - Lotte Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (b. 1899)
  
  
• June 28 - Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (b. 1958)
  
  
• August 14 - Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (b. 1894)
  
  
• September 1 - Albert Speer, Nazi official (b. 1905)
  
  
• September 2 - Dame Enid Lyons, Australia politician (b. 1897)
  
  
• September 8 - Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (b. 1913)
  
  
• September 8 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
  
  
• September 9 - Sir Robert (Bob) Askin, Premier of New South Wales (b. 1907)
  
  
• September 12 - Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1896)
  
  
• October 2 - Harry Golden, American journalist (b. 1902)
  
  
• October 6 - Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b. 1918)
  
  
• October 16 - Stanley Clements, American actor (b. 1926)
  
  
• October 16 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
  
  
• November 7 - Will Durant, American philosopher and writer (b. 1885)
  
  
• November 22 - Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1900)
  
  
• November 29 - Natalie Wood, American actress (drowned) (b. 1938)
  
  
• December 28 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born film director (b. 1885)
  
  

  Nobel Prizes

  
  
  
• Physics - Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Kai M. Siegbahn
  
  
• Chemistry - Kenichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann
  
  
• Medicine - Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel, Torsten N. Wiesel
  
  
• Literature - Elias Canetti
  
  
• Peace - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees==Templeton Prize==
  
  
• Dame Cicely SaundersCategory:1981af:1981
  
  

ar:1981