What happened in 1981

50 events　World 3, Japan 1, North America 11, Europe 14, USSR / Russia 1, Asia 3, Middle East 7, Latin America 6, Africa 3, Oceania 1

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Highlights of 1981

World3

  • Aug 12The original Model 5150 IBM PC (with a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 processor) is released in the United States at a base price of $1,565.
  • Oct 6Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a military parade.
  • Nov 4Venera program: Venera 14 is launched to Venus.

Japan1

  • Jul 9Donkey Kong is released in Japan by Nintendo, marking the first release in both the Donkey Kong and Mario series of games. The arcade game proves to be Nintendo's first major hit.

North America11

  • Jan 21The first DeLorean automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
  • Mar 19Two or three workers are killed and four are injured during a ground test of Space Shuttle Columbia at Kennedy Space Center in the United States.
  • Mar 30Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan: U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr.; two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.
  • Apr 12The Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia, with NASA astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen, launches on the STS-1 mission, returning to Earth on April 14. It is the first time a crewed reusable spacecraft has returned from orbit.
  • May 6A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., from among 1,421 other entries.
  • Jun 12Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film of the Indiana Jones franchise is released in theaters in the United States.
  • Jun 18The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter makes its first flight at Groom Lake (Area 51), Nevada.
  • Jul 1Wonderland murders: The Wonderland Gang of cocaine dealers is brutally murdered in Los Angeles. Eddie Nash is suspected of involvement, but will never be convicted.
  • Jul 17Hyatt 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.
  • Aug 1The first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) is launched in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
  • Sep 26The Boeing 767 airliner makes its first flight.

Europe14

  • Jan 15Pope John Paul II receives a delegation led by Polish Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa at the Vatican.
  • Feb 231981 Spanish coup d'état attempt ("23-F"): Antonio Tejero, with members of the Guardia Civil, enters the Spanish Congress of Deputies and stops the session where Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo is about to be named president of the government. The coup fails after being denounced by King Juan Carlos.
  • Mar 11981 Irish hunger strike: Bobby Sands, a Provisional Irish Republican Army member, begins a hunger strike for political status at HM Prison Maze (Long Kesh) in Northern Ireland, dying on May 5, the first of 7 IRA and 3 INLA hunger strikers to die.
  • Apr 4UK pop group Bucks Fizz's song "Making Your Mind Up" wins the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland.
  • Apr 111981 Brixton riot: Rioters in south London, UK, throw petrol bombs, attack police and loot shops.
  • Apr 26French presidential election: A first-round runoff results between Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterrand.
  • May 13Pope John Paul II assassination attempt: Pope John Paul II is shot by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he enters St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to address a general audience. The Pope recovers.
  • May 26The Italian Forlani government resigns over its links to the fascist Masonic cell Propaganda Due.
  • MayAer Lingus flight 164 is hijacked just before landing at London Heathrow airport. The flight continues on to France before the hijacker who reportedly demanded for the releasing of the third secret of Fatima, is subdued.
  • Jul 29A worldwide television audience of over 750 million people watch the Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London, UK.
  • Sep 27TGV high-speed rail service between Paris and Lyon, France, begins.
  • Dec 1An Inex-Adria Aviopromet McDonnell Douglas MD-80 strikes a mountain peak and crashes while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
  • Dec 13Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, to prevent the dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
  • Luxor AB presents the ABC 800 computer.

USSR / Russia1

  • Oct 30Venera program: Venera 13 is launched to Venus.

Asia3

  • May 30Bangladeshi President Ziaur Rahman is assassinated in Chittagong.
  • May 31Burning of Jaffna library, one of the most violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the century.
  • Jun 6Bihar train disaster: Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into the Bagmati River in Bihar, India, killing between 500 and 800.

Middle East7

  • Jan 20Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days, minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as the 40th President of the United States, ending the Iran hostage crisis.
  • May 25In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created among Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
  • Jun 7Operation Opera: The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, killing ten Iraqi troops and a French technician.
  • Aug 301981 Iranian Prime Minister's office bombing: Eight people, including the country's president and prime minister, are killed when a briefcase explodes in the building. The office of Iran's Prosecutor General blames the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
  • Sep 27Iran–Iraq War: Iranian forces break the Siege of Abadan in Operation Samen-ol-A'emeh.
  • Oct 14Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat during a parade, by servicemen who belong to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization led by Khalid Islambouli and oppose his negotiations with Israel.
  • Dec 151981 Iraqi embassy bombing in Beirut: An Islamic Dawa Party car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Lebanon, killing 61 people in one of the earliest significant post-World War II suicide attacks.

Latin America6

  • Jan 10Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensive, gaining control of most of Morazán and Chalatenango departments.
  • May 11The Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley dies at age 36 from cancer.
  • Jun 18The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States is founded.
  • Sep 21Belize, formerly British Honduras, gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
  • Nov 1Antigua and Barbuda gains independence from the United Kingdom.
  • Dec 11El Mozote massacre: In El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians.

Africa3

  • Aug 19Gulf of Sidra incident: Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi sends two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two U.S. Navy fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The U.S. jets destroy the Libyan fighters.
  • Nov 251981 Seychelles coup d'état attempt: A group of mercenaries led by Mike Hoare take over Mahe airport. Most of them escape by a commandeered Air India passenger jet; six are later arrested.
  • Dec 31A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the PNDC led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.

Oceania1

  • Sep 26The Sydney Tower opens to the public in Australia.