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

• 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
  • Ordinary People
  • Coal Miner's Daughter
  • The Elephant Man
  • Raging Bull
  • The Blues Brothers
  • Caddyshack
  • The Empire Strikes Back
• 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

• Physics - James Watson Cronin[?], Val Logsdon Fitch[?]
• Chemistry - Paul Berg[?], Walter Gilbert, Frederick Sanger
• Medicine - Baruj Benacerraf[?], Jean Dausset[?], George D Snell[?]
• Literature - Czeslaw Milosz
• Peace- Adolfo Perez Esquivel[?]
• Economics - Lawrence Klein