1981 - Wikipedia

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s

Years: 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 - 1981 - 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986

See also:

Events

Ronald Reagan succeeds Jimmy Carter as President of the United States of America
January 1 - Greece enters the European Community
January 1 - Palau becomes self-governing
January 19 - United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity
January 20 - Iran releases 52 American hostages that were captive for 444 days minutes after Ronald Reagan becomes president.
February 10 - A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.
February 11 - Polish Prime Minister Jozef Pinkowski[?] replaced by Wojciech Jaruzelski
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'etat would fail thanks to King Juan Carlos.
February 24 - Jean Harris[?] is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower[?], the author of the bestselling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet[?]
March 6 - After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
March 19 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
March 29 - First running of the London Marathon
March 30 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named John Hinckley, Jr.. Two police officers and James Brady are also wounded.
April 12 - Columbia 1 mission, first launch of a Space Shuttle
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 13 - Mehemet Ali Agca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Square[?] in Rome.
May 25 - In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
June 7 - Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor
July 29 - Diana Spencer marries Charles Windsor, also known as Princess Diana and Prince Charles
December 13 - Wojciech Jaruzelski declares the state of martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity
December 28 - The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born (Norfolk, Virginia).

US President Ronald Reagan appoints the first female US Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor
Pope John Paul II is shot at and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St. Peter's Square[?] 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)
The Pac-Man video game is introduced in the US

Art, Culture & Fashion

1981 in film
- June 12 - Raiders of the Lost Ark starring Harrison Ford
- Chariots of Fire
- On Golden Pond
1981 in literature
1981 in music
- Grandmaster Flash]'s "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel" is the first recording to use scratching
1981 in sports
- January 25 - Super Bowl XV Oakland Raiders (27) def. Philadelphia Eagles (10)
- July 24-August 2 - First World Games held in Santa Clara[?], California
- August 21 - Salvador Sanchez defeats Wilfredo Gomez by a knockout in 8 to retain his WBC world Featherweight boxing title in Las Vegas.
- September 16 - Sugar Ray Leonard knocks out Thomas Hearns in round 14, in Las Vegas, to unify the world's Welterweight boxing championship.
1981 in television
- January 20 - Comedian Andy Kaufman ruins sketches and starts a brawl live on the air during ABC's Friday's.
- August 1 - MTV debuts on Cable television, playing music videos 24 hours a day
- Luke and Lauras's Wedding on General Hospital, becomes the most watched wedding in television history, other than the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Births

January 25 - Alicia Keys, singer, musician
January 28 - Elijah Wood, actor
January 29 - Jonny Lang[?], musician
January 31 - Justin Timberlake, musician
February 9 - Zhang Ziyi, actress
February 9 - John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban
June 7 - Anna Kournikova, tennis player
December 2 - Britney Spears, singer

Deaths

January 6 - A.J. Cronin, writer
January 10 - Richard Boone[?], actor
January 23 - Samuel Barber, American composer
January 25 - Adele Astaire, dancer
February 9 - Bill Haley, musician ("Bill Haley and the Comets")
February 15 - Mike Bloomfield[?], musician
March 9 - Max Delbr�ck, German biologist
April 7 - Norman Taurog[?], director
May 7 - Eddit Rabbitt[?], musician
May 11 - Bob Marley, reggae musician
May 18 - William Saroyan, author
June 28 - Terry Fox, cancer activist
October 6 - Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president (assassinated)
October 16 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general
November 22 - Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, German medical doctor[?] and biochemist[?]
December 28 - Allan Dwan, pioneer film director

Nobel Prizes

Computing

ZX81 launched, probably the start of the 1980s home computing phenomenon.