1981

Years :	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
Years:	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century

1981 by topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology
Archaeology - Aviation - Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science
By country
Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Mexico - South Africa
Other topics
Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Religious leaders Video gaming
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths

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

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Events

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January

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 an 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 18 - Historic Ottawa Wine Tasting of 1981 confirms that superior wines could be made outside of France
January 19 - United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity
January 20 - President-elect 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.

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February

February 4 - Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the Prime Minister of Norway
February 8 - 21 fans of the Greek Olympiacos FC lose their lives and 54 more get injured after a stampede at the Karaiskaki Stadium in Pireus. The deadly incident was most probably caused due to the fact that Gate 7 of the stadium did not open immediately after the end of the game.
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.
February 24 - Shortly before 11 PM local time, a powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake hits Athens, killing 16 people, most of which die because of related heart attacks. The quake's epicentre is located in the eastern Corinthian Gulf, near the tiny Alkyonides Islands, approximately 60 Km west of the city. Dozens of buildings collapse in the nearby towns of Loutraki, Kiato and Xylocastro. A 6.4 magnitude aftershock that strikes the area a few hours later, at 4:30 a.m local time, results in the damage or collapse of an additional number of buildings in the previously mentioned towns.

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March

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.

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April

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).

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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 15 - Donna Payant is murdered by serial killer Lemuel Smith: the first time a female prison officer has been killed on-duty in the United States.
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 24 - Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: Bobby Unser wins for a third time for both he as a driver and Roger Penske as a car owner, but race sanctioning-body USAC temporarily strips him of victory over accusation of illegally passing other cars under a caution period (see racing flags). After team appeal, Unser's win is reinstated on October 8.
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.

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June

The newlywed 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

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July

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.

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August

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 11 - The original Model 5150 IBM PC with a 4.77 Mhz Intel 8088 processor was released in the United States at a base price of $1,565.
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.

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September

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.

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October

October 6 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who were part of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization, they 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.

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November

Flag of Antigua and Barbuda.

November 1 - Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom
November 9 - The demolition of the Berlin Wall was started, signaling the end of the Cold War
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 led 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)

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December

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 8 - No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13
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)

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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. [1]
Computer and Video Games (magazine) begins publication.

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Births

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January

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 31 - Justin Timberlake, American musician

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February

February 3 - Alisa Reyes, American actress
February 10 - The Reverend Tholomew Plague, American Drummer for (Avenged Sevenfold)
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 18 - Ivan Sproule, Northern Irish footballer
February 20 - Majandra Delfino, American actress
February 22 - Jeanette Biedermann, German singer and actress
February 24 - Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player
February 27 - Josh Groban, American singer

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March

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 19 - Kolo Toure, Ivorian football player
March 26 - Matthieu Delpierre, French football player
March 27 - Terry McFlynn, Northern Irish footballer
March 28 - Julia Stiles, American actress

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April

April 1 - Hannah Spearritt, British singer (S Club 7)
April 2 - Bethany Joy Lenz, American actress and singer
April 9 - Milan Bartovič, Slovak ice hockey player
April 10 - Gretchen Bleiler, American snowboarder
April 10 - Michael Pitt, American actor
April 14 - Mary Castro, American model and actress
April 17 - Hanna Pakarinen, Finnish singer
April 18 - Audrey Tang, Taiwanese free software programmer
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
April 29 - George McCartney, Northern Irish footballer

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May

May 1 - Alexander Hleb, Belarusian football player
May 5 - Craig David, British singer
May 5 - Danielle Fishel, American actress
May 11 - Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
May 12 - Kentaro Sato, Japanese composer
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
May 27 - Alina Cojocaru, Romanian ballerina

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June

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 10 - Hoku Ho, Hawaiian singer and musician
June 12 - Adriana Lima, Brazilian model
June 13 - Christopher Robert Evans, American actor
June 21 - Brandon Flowers, American singer and keyboardist (The Killers)

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July

July 2 - Alex Koroknay-Palicz, American youth rights activist
July 2 - Paul Anthony Finn, Irish singer and songwriter (The Flaws)
July 7 - Synyster Gates, American guitarist for (Avenged Sevenfold)
July 8 - Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player
July 23 - Michelle Williams, American singer (Destiny's Child)
July 23 - Steve Jocz, Canadian drummer (Sum 41)
July 24 - Summer Glau, American actress (Firefly)
July 31 - M. Shadows, American singer for (Avenged Sevenfold)

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August

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
August 29 - Lanny Barbie, American actress

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September

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

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October

October 1 - Jamelia, British singer
October 3 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Swedish footballer
October 5 - Enrico Fabris, Italian speed skater
October 11 - Beau Brady, Australian actor
October 13 - Vernon Carey, National Football League center
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)

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November

November 1 - LaTavia Roberson, American musician (Destiny's Child)
November 2 - Tatiana Totmianina, Russian figure skater
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 11 - Bryant McFadden, American football player
November 17 - Sarah Harding, British singer
November 26 - Natasha Bedingfield, British singer
November 26 - Aurora Snow, American actress

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December

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 11 - Zacky Vengeance, American guitarist for (Avenged Sevenfold)
December 13 - Amy Lee, American singer (Evanescence)
December 15 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)
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 - Shizuka Arakawa, Japanese figure skater
December 29 - Angela Via, American singer
December 30 - Haley Paige, American actress

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Deaths

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January

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)

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February

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)

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March

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)
March 23 - Beatrice Tinsley English astronomer

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April

April 7 - Norman Taurog, American film director (b. 1899)
April 12 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
April 18 - James H. Schmitz, German-born American science fiction writer (b. 1911)
April 27 - John Aspinwall Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1916)