Encyclopedia > 1980

Article Content

1980

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

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

Years: 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 - 1980 - 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985

See also:

Events

January 5 - Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer
January 7 - President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation.
January 11 - Nigel Short, 14 years old, is the youngest chess player to be awarded the degree of International Master.
January 22 - Andrei Sakharov is arrested in Moscow
January 26 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations[?]
February 2 - Abscam: Reports surface that FBI personnel were targeting members of the United States Congress in a sting operation.
February 4 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Bani-Sadr[?] as president of Iran
February 23 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
March 3 - Pierre Trudeau returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
March 14 - In Poland, a plane crashes during an emergency landing near Warsaw killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others.
March 18 - In Russia, a Vostok rocket explodes on its launch pad during a fueling operation killing 50.
March 21 - President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
March 24 - Archbishop Oscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
April 7 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions following the taking of American hostages on November 4, 1979.
April 25 - A commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops were killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
April 30 - Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
May 9 - In Florida, a Liberian freighter named the Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge[?] over Tampa Bay[?] sending 35 people (most of whom were in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed.
May 18 - Mount Saint Helens erupts in Washington killing 57 and causing US$ 3 billion in damage.
May 24 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran.
August 25 - Microsoft announces their version of UNIX, Xenix

Summer Olympic Games in Moscow USSR
War begins between Iran and Iraq
Invasion of Afghanistan by USSR
November - Ronald Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter in the U.S. presidential election

Comedian Richard Pryor gets badly burned trying to freebase cocaine

Art, Culture & Fashion

1980 in film
1980 in literature
- A Confederacy of Dunces[?] by John Kennedy Toole
- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
1980 in music
- December 8 - Former Beatle John Lennon is shot and killed in New York City
1980 in sports
1980 in television
- February 14 - Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from CBS Evening News.
- December 30 - After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time TV series The Wonderful World of Disney[?] is cancelled by NBC.
- CNN is launched as the first 24 hour a day news network.

Births

January 28 - Nick Carter, musician
February 11 - Matthew Lawrence[?], actor.
February 11 - Natasha Bobo, actress.
February 12 - Christina Ricci, actress
February 27 - Chelsea Clinton, daughter of President Bill Clinton
September 30 - Martina Hingis, Swiss tennis player
December 30 - Eliza Dushku, actress

Deaths

January 3 - Joy Adamson, conservationist and author of Born Free[?] (killed by a servant in northern Kenya).
January 8 - John Mauchly, co-inventor of the ENIAC computer
January 10 - George Meany[?], labor leader
January 18 - Sir Cecil Beaton[?], fashion designer
January 29 - Jimmy Durante, actor, singer, comedian, vaudevillian
January 30 - Professor Longhair, King of New Orleans music
February 7 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer
February 13 - David Janssen, actor
February 19 - Bon Scott[?], musician ("AC/DC")
March 5 - Jay Silverheels, actor
March 29 - Mantovani[?], musician
March 31 - Jesse Owens, American athlete
April 4 - Red Sovine[?], country music entertainer
April 29 - Alfred Hitchcock, film director
May 18 - Ian Curtis, band member of Joy Division
May 28 - Rolf Nevanlinna, mathematician (*1895)
June 7 - Henry Miller, writer
June 23 - Clyfford Still, painter
July 24 - Peter Sellers, actor
October 25- Victor Galindez, boxing light heavyweight world champion, in car race accident.
December 2 - Romain Gary, writer
December 8 - John Lennon, musician
December 31 - Marshall McLuhan (author)
Clement Martyn Doke South African linguist

Nobel Prizes

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!