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Calendar year
1981 by topic Subject By country Lists of leaders Birth and death categories Establishments and disestablishments categories Works category
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1981 .
1981 (MCMLXXXI ) was acommon year starting on Thursday of theGregorian calendar , the 1981st year of theCommon Era (CE) andAnno Domini 2nd millennium , the 81st year of the20th century , and the 2nd year of the1980s decade.
Calendar year
February 4 –Gro Harlem Brundtland becomesPrime Minister of Norway .[ 10] February 8 – In Greece, 20 fans ofOlympiacos F.C. and 1 fan ofAEK Athens die, while 54 are injured, after a stampede at theKaraiskakis Stadium inPiraeus , possibly because Gate 7 does not open immediately after the end of the game.February 9 – Polish Prime MinisterJózef Pińkowski resigns and is replaced by GeneralWojciech Jaruzelski .[ 11] February 14 –Stardust fire : A fire at the Stardust nightclub inArtane, Dublin , Ireland, in the early hours kills 48 young people and injures 214.[ 12] unlawful killings .[ 13] February 17 –22 –Pope John Paul II visits thePhilippines .February 23 –1981 Spanish coup d'état attempt ("23-F"):Antonio Tejero , with members of theGuardia Civil , enters theSpanish Congress of Deputies and stops the session whereLeopoldo Calvo-Sotelo is about to be named president of the government. The coup fails after being denounced by KingJuan Carlos .[ 14] February 24 – A powerfulMs Athens , killing 22 people, injuring 400 people and destroying several buildings and 4,000 houses, mostly inCorinth and the nearby towns ofLoutraki ,Kiato andXylokastro .April 12 : FirstSpace Shuttle launch:Columbia May –Daniel K. Ludwig abandons theJari project in theAmazon basin . May 1 –Pensions in Chile : The newChilean pension system, based on privatepension funds , begins.May 4 – TheEuropean Law Students' Association (ELSA) was founded in Vienna by law students from Austria, West Germany, Poland and Hungary.May 6 – A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selectsMaya Lin 's design for theVietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., from among 1,421 other entries.May 11 – The Jamaicanreggae singerBob Marley dies at age 36 fromcancer .May 13 –Pope John Paul II assassination attempt :Pope John Paul II is shot byMehmet Ali Ağca , aTurkish gunman, as he entersSt. Peter's Square inVatican City to address a general audience. The Pope recovers.[ 20] May 15 – A prison officer, 31-year-oldDonna Payant , disappears at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York. She is later found to have been murdered by convicted serial killerLemuel Smith . It is the first time a female prison officer has been killed while on duty in the United States.[ 21] May 21 –François Mitterrand becomes the first socialist President of theFrench Fifth Republic .May 22 – Serial killerPeter Sutcliffe is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on 13 counts of murder and 7 of attempted murder in England.May 25 – InRiyadh , theGulf Cooperation Council is created amongBahrain ,Kuwait ,Oman ,Qatar ,Saudi Arabia and theUnited Arab Emirates .May 26 – The ItalianForlani government resigns over its links to the fascist Masonic cellPropaganda Due .May 30 –Bangladeshi PresidentZiaur Rahman is assassinated inChittagong .[1] May 31 –Burning of Jaffna library , one of the most violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the century.June 5 – TheCenters for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States report that fivehomosexual men in Los Angeles have a rare form ofpneumonia seen only in patients with weakenedimmune systems , the first recognized cases ofAIDS .June 6 –Bihar train disaster : Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into theBagmati River inBihar , India, killing between 500 and 800.June 7 – TheIsraeli Air Force destroysIraq 'sOsirak nuclear reactor, killing ten Iraqi troops and a French technician.June 10 – Alfredo Rampi, a 6-year-old boy, falls into an artesian well in Vermicino, near Rome. After nearly three days of failed rescue attempts followed with bated breath from all over Italy, Alfredo dies inside the well, at a depth of 60 meters (200 ft).June 13 – At theTrooping the Colour ceremony in London, teenagerMarcus Sarjeant fires 6 blank shots close to QueenElizabeth II , startling her horse.[ 22] [ 23] June 18 June 22 – Iranian presidentAbolhassan Banisadr is deposed.June 27 July 1 –Wonderland murders : TheWonderland Gang of cocaine dealers is brutally murdered in Los Angeles.[ 27] Eddie Nash is suspected of involvement, but will never be convicted.[ 28] July 3 – TheToxteth riots inLiverpool , England, start after a mob prevents a youth from being arrested. Shortly afterward, theChapeltown riots inLeeds start amid increased racial tension.July 7 – United States PresidentRonald Reagan nominates the first woman,Sandra Day O'Connor , to theSupreme Court of the United States .[ 29] July 9 –Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Mario smash hit arcade game developed byNintendo in Japan.July 10 July 16 –21 – England become the first team this century to win a cricket Test match after thefollow-on when they beat Australia by 18 runs atHeadingley cricket ground, Leeds, England.July 17 July 19 – The1981 Springbok Tour commences in New Zealand, amid controversy over the support ofapartheid .July 21 –Panda Tohui is born inChapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, the first panda to ever be born and survive in captivity outside of China.July 29 – A worldwide television audience of over 750 million people watch theWedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer atSt Paul's Cathedral in London, UK.[ 32] July 30 –1981 Polish hunger demonstrations : As many as 50,000 demonstrators, mostly women and children, take to the streets inŁódź to protest about food ration shortages inCommunist Poland .[ 33] August 1, 1981: MTV cable network begins September –Little Miss Bossy Little Miss Mr. Men September 1 –Gregorio Conrado Álvarez is inaugurated as a militaryde facto President of Uruguay .[ 41] September 4 – Anexplosion at a mine inZáluží ,Czechoslovakia , kills 65 people.September 7 – British plantation companyGuthrie is taken over by theMalaysian government after successfully purchasing shares to become the major shareholder. This is famously called the 'Dawn Raid attack'.[ 42] September 10 –Picasso 's paintingGuernica Madrid .September 15 September 17 –Ric Flair defeats Dusty Rhodes to win his first World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship inKansas City .September 18 – France's National Assembly votes to abolishCapital punishment in France .[ 43] September 19 –Solidarity Day march , in support of organized labor, draws approximately 250,000 people in Washington, D.C.September 20 – The overcrowded ferry boatSobral Santos II Amazon River ,Ób ,idos, Brazil , killing at least 300 people.[ 44] September 21 –Belize , formerlyBritish Honduras , gains its independence from the United Kingdom.September 22 – ANorthrop F-5 crashes during amilitary exercise , inBabaeski , Turkey, killing 1 crew and 65 soldiers on ground.[ 45] September 25 –Sandra Day O'Connor takes her seat as the first female justice of theU.S. Supreme Court .September 26 September 27 –TGV high-speed rail service between Paris andLyon , France, begins.September 27 –29 –Iran–Iraq War : Iranian forces break theSiege of Abadan inOperation Samen-ol-A'emeh .[ 47] October 5 –Raoul Wallenberg posthumously becomes an honorary citizen of the United States.October 6 – Egyptian PresidentAnwar Sadat isassassinated during a military parade.October 10 – The Ministry for Education of Japan issues thejōyō kanji .[ 48] October 14 – Vice PresidentHosni Mubarak is elected President ofEgypt , one week after the assassination ofAnwar Sadat during a parade, by servicemen who belong to theEgyptian Islamic Jihad organization led byKhalid Islambouli and oppose his negotiations withIsrael .[ 49] October 16 – Gas explosions at a coal mine at Hokutan,Yūbari, Hokkaidō , Japan, kill 93 people.October 21 –Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece .[ 50] October 22 – The founding congress of theNepal Workers and Peasants Organization faction led by Hareram Sharma and D. P. Singh begins.October 26 –Urho Kekkonen , the 8thPresident of Finland , resigns after being the longest-serving Finnish president since 1956.[ 51] October 27 –Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground outside theKarlskrona , Sweden, military base, leading to a minor international incident.[ 52] October 30 –Venera program :Venera 13 is launched toVenus .November 1 :Antigua and Barbuda .December 1 – AnInex-Adria Aviopromet McDonnell Douglas MD-80 strikes a mountain peak and crashes while approachingAjaccio Airport inCorsica , killing all 180 people on board.December 4 – South Africa grantsCiskei independence, not recognized outside South Africa.December 7 –Rotary International charters the Rotary Club of Grand Baie,Mauritius .December 8 December 10 – During the Ministerial Session of theNorth Atlantic Council inBrussels , Spain signs theProtocol of Accession toNATO .December 11 December 13 –Wojciech Jaruzelski declaresmartial law in Poland , to prevent the dismantling of the communist system bySolidarity .December 15 –1981 Iraqi embassy bombing in Beirut : AnIslamic Dawa Party car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy inLebanon , killing 61 people in one of the earliest significant postwarsuicide attacks .December 17 – American Brigadier GeneralJames L. Dozier is kidnapped inVerona by the ItalianRed Brigades .December 20 – ThePenlee lifeboat disaster : While attempting to rescue those on board theUnion Star off the coast of South-WestCornwall (England), the lifeboatSolomon Browne is lost with all crew. Sixteen people in all are killed.[ 58] December 28 – The first Americantest-tube baby ,Elizabeth Jordan Carr , is born inNorfolk, Virginia .December 31 – Acoup d'état inGhana removesPresident Hilla Limann 'sPNP government and replaces it with thePNDC led byFlight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings .January to March – Heavy snowcauses several houses and buildings to collapse in northwestern Japan; 152 are killed. Cuba suffers a major outbreak ofdengue fever , with 344,203 cases.[ 59] Use ofcrack cocaine , a smokeable form of the drug, first reported in the United States and Caribbean.[ 60] Luxor AB presents theABC 800 computer.Polybius Portland, Oregon ; there is no evidence for its existence.TheState Council of the People's Republic of China lists the cities of Beijing,Hangzhou ,Suzhou andGuilin as those where the protection of historical and cultural heritage, as well as natural scenery, should be treated as a priority project. Pepsi enters China.[ 61] Around the end of 1981, China becomes the first country ever to reach a population of 1 billion.[ 62] ^ Federal Trust for Education and Research (2003).Guide to the EU Institutions ISBN 978-1-903403-09-9 ^ Economist Publications (1988).The World in Figures ISBN 978-0-8161-8954-0 ^ Vinocur, John (January 7, 1981)."WAR VETERANS COME TO BURY, AND TO PRAISE, DOENITZ" .The New York Times .ISSN 0362-4331 . RetrievedSeptember 16, 2023 . ^ "Thousands at funeral for Hitler's successor – UPI Archives" .UPI . RetrievedSeptember 16, 2023 .^ Angelika Schlunck (2000).Amnesty Versus Accountability: Third Party Intervention Dealing with Gross Human Rights Violations in Internal and International Conflicts ISBN 978-3-87061-894-0 ^ W. J. Twierdochlebow (1985).Solidarność: A Biblio-historiography of the Gdansk Strike and Birth of Solidarity Movement ^ ʻAlī Rāhnamā; Farhād Nuʻmānī (1990).The Secular Miracle: Religion, Politics, and Economic Policy in Iran ISBN 978-0-86232-938-9 ^ Scientific Event Alert Network (National Museum of Natural History (U.S.)) (1981).SEAN Bulletin ^ Mark S. Hoffman (1990).The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1990 ISBN 978-0-88687-559-6 ^ Christine Ingebritsen (2006).Scandinavia in World Politics ISBN 978-0-7425-0965-8 ^ Neal Ascherson (1982).The Book of Lech Wałęsa ISBN 978-0-671-45684-9 ^ Fetherstonhaugh, Neil; McCullagh, Tony (2001).They Never Came Home: The Stardust Story ISBN 978-1-903582-09-1 ^ Moore, Aoife (April 18, 2024)."Jury delivers unlawful killing verdict in Stardust inquest" .BBC News . RetrievedApril 18, 2024 . ^ Daily Report. West Europe ^ "Client Challenge" .www.ft.com . RetrievedSeptember 14, 2025 .^ "The history of the London Marathon" .Sky HISTORY TV channel . RetrievedSeptember 28, 2025 .^ Childs, David (1995).Britain since 1939 : progress and decline . Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan. p. 201.ISBN 9781349239672 ^ " .archive.nytimes.com .^ "China loses its allure" .The Economist . January 23, 2014.^ First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life ^ William Moses Kunstler; Sheila Isenberg (1994).My Life as a Radical Lawyer ISBN 978-1-55972-265-0 ^ "13 June 1981: Queen shot at by youth" . BBC. June 13, 1981. RetrievedAugust 18, 2010 .^ Guard: I Saw Shots Being Fired At Queen , Sky News on-line, by Alastair Bruce, 11 June 2016, accessed 9 October 2016.^ M. Leann Brown (1994).Developing Countries and Regional Economic Cooperation ISBN 978-0-275-94960-0 ^ "Complete History of Paintball" .Paintball Award . May 2021. RetrievedMay 15, 2021 .^ "NAMM Exhibitor Manual-Summer 1981" . namm.org. RetrievedJune 16, 2018 .^ Lemons, Stephen (June 9, 2000)."Return to Wonderland" .Salon . ^ Timnick, Lois (March 21, 1990)."Trial Begins for 2 in Grisly Laurel Canyon Murders of Mid-1981" .Los Angeles Times ^ Graya: A Magazine for Members of Gray's Inn ^ Shukor Omar (2003).The Malay Lost World: With Emphasis on Entrepreneurship ISBN 978-983-037-120-7 ^ "The Bombing of Beirut".Journal of Palestine Studies 11 (1):218– 225. 1981.doi :10.1525/jps.1981.11.1.00p0366x . ^ "The Royal Wedding of HRH The Prince of Wales and the Lady Diana Spencer" . BBC One. July 29, 1981.Archived from the original on August 3, 2019. RetrievedDecember 25, 2019 .^ Quarterly Economic Review of Poland, East Germany ^ Jan-Patrick Stolpmann (May 2011).MTV: The (r)evolution & Impact Between 1981 - 1994 ISBN 978-3-640-91967-3 ^ Texas Business Review ^ Tompkins V, Bruccoli M, Baughman J, Layman R, Bondi V, Bargeron E, McConnell T, Tidd, J (1996).American Decades: 1980-1989 ISBN 978-0-8103-8881-9 ^ John Norton Moore; Robert F. Turner (1995).Readings on International Law from the Naval War College Review, 1978-1994 ^ Jacqueline Audrey Kalley; Elna Schoeman; Lydia Eve Andor (1999).Southern African Political History: A Chronology of Key Political Events from Independence to Mid-1997 ISBN 978-0-313-30247-3 ^ "Missile is Fired by North Koreans at U.S. Spy Plane Near the DMZ" .The New York Times . August 27, 1981.^ United Press International (September 14, 1981)."Iranian Says Secretary to Premier Hid Fatal Bomb in Teheran Office" .The New York Times . RetrievedMarch 14, 2017 .^ Arthur S Banks; William Overstreet; Thomas Muller (April 15, 2008).Political Handbook of the World 2008 ISBN 978-0-87289-528-7 ^ Shakila Yacob; Nicholas White (May 2011). "The 'Unfinished Business' of Malaysia's Decolonisation: The Origins of the Guthrie 'Dawn Raid'Modern Asian Studies .44 (5). ^ Council of Europe (2004).The Death Penalty: Beyond Abolition . Council of Europe Pub. p. 196.ISBN 9789287153333 ^ "300 Die as Amazon Boat Sinks" .The New York Times . RetrievedJanuary 5, 2019 .^ "Accident Northrop F-5A 64 13340" .Aviation Safety Network . RetrievedNovember 9, 2023 .^ Michael John Haddrick Taylor (1982).Boeing ISBN 978-0-7106-0420-0 ^ William F. Hickman (1982).Ravaged and Reborn: The Iranian Army, 1982 : a Staff Paper ISBN 978-0-8157-3611-0 ^ Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts: LLBA ^ Amnesty International Report ISBN 9780939994021 ^ Intelligence Digest ^ Lähteenmäki, Lauri (October 10, 2016)."Dramaattinen kuva Ylen uutuusdokumentissa hauraasta Kekkosesta – ensimmäinen eroilmoitus presidenttiydestä sensuroitiin" .Ilta-Sanomat . RetrievedOctober 26, 2025 . ^ Nigel West (2010).Historical Dictionary of Naval Intelligence ISBN 978-0-8108-6760-4 ^ United States. Visa Office (1984).Report of the Visa Office ^ Edward H. Lawson; Mary Lou Bertucci (1996).Encyclopedia of Human Rights ISBN 978-1-56032-362-4 ^ "HISTORY >> Grey Cup >> 1981 | CFL.ca | Official Site of the Canadian Football League" . Archived fromthe original on August 19, 2013. RetrievedAugust 23, 2017 .^ "European Severe Weather Database" .www.eswd.eu .^ Tickler, Peter (1987).The modern mercenary : dog of war, or soldier of honour . Wellingborough, Northamptonshire New York, N.Y: P. Stephens Distributed by Sterling Pub. Co. p. 100.ISBN 9780850598124 ^ Disasters: A Bibliographic Guide ISBN 978-1-85143-049-9 ^ "Dengue Bulletin 23 - DHF Epidemics in Cuba, 1981 & 1997: Some Interesting Observations" . Archived fromthe original on January 4, 2005. RetrievedMay 26, 2005 .^ "DEA History Book, 1876–1990" (drug usage & enforcement),US Department of Justice , 1991, USDoJ.gov webpage:DoJ-DEA-History-1985-1990 . ^ "Archived copy" (PDF) . Archived fromthe original (PDF) on June 11, 2013. RetrievedJuly 12, 2013 .{{cite web }}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link )^ "Chinese Population Hits 1 Billion" .History Channel Australia . June 19, 2016. Archived fromthe original on April 22, 2019.
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