1981

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

• 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 Delbrück, 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

• 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
• Economics - James Tobin

Computing

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