1981

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Template:Yearbox Template:C20YearInTopic 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 European Community, which later became the European Union.
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

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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).
April 24 - First round in the French presidential election, 1981. Runoff between Valery Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterand

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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

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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 12 - Major League Baseball goes on strike, forcing the cancellation of 38 percent of the schedule.
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 9 - Major League Baseball resumes from strike with the All-Star Game in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.
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.
September 19 - The second Wranslide occurs in NSW with the Wran government re-elected for a third term with an increased majority and reducing the Liberal Party to just 14 members in the Legislative Assembly.

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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.