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Home: On this Day: 1981

Famous birthdays, deaths and events of 1981


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Birthdays


Deaths
  • January 1 - Hephzibah Menuhin, American-Jewish concert pianist (b. 1920)
  • January 4 - Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and composer (I'll Never Smile Again) (b. 1914)
  • January 6 - A. J. Cronin, Scottish writer (b. 1896)
  • January 7 - Alvar Lidell, UK radio broadcaster (b. 1908)
  • January 8 - Matthew "Stymie" Beard, American actor (b. 1925)
  • January 9 - Kazimierz Serocki, Polish composer (b. 1922)
  • January 10 - Katherine Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)
  • January 10 - Richard Boone, American actor (b. 1917)
  • January 11 - Beulah Bondi, American actress (b. 1888)
  • January 14 - John O'Grady, Australian writer (Nino Culotta) (b. 1907)
  • January 16 - Bernard Lee, English actor (b. 1908)
  • January 17 - Loukas Panourgias, Greek footballer (b. 1899)
  • January 23 - Samuel Barber, American composer (b. 1910)
  • January 25 - Adele Astaire, American dancer (b. 1897)
  • January 31 - Cozy Cole, American jazz drummer (b. 1909)
  • February 1 - Donald Wills Douglas, Sr.
  • February 1 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
  • February 6 - Hugo Montenegro, American film music composer (b. 1925)
  • February 6 - Frederika of Hanover, Queen Consort of Greece (b. 1917)
  • February 7 - Frederika of Hanover, Queen of Greece (b. 1917)
  • February 9 - Bill Haley, American musician (Bill Haley & His Comets) (b. 1925)
  • February 15 - Mike Bloomfield, American musician (b. 1943)
  • February 18 - John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1895)
  • February 26 - Howard Hanson, American composer (b. 1896)
  • February 26 - Robert Aickman, English writer and conservationist (b. 1914)
  • March 4 - Yip Harburg, American lyricist (b. 1896)
  • March 4 - Torin Thatcher, Indian actor (b. 1905)
  • March 5 - Yip Harburg, American lyricist (b. 1896)
  • March 6 - George Geary, English cricketer (b. 1893)
  • March 15 - René Clair, French film director (b. 1898)
  • March 17 - Paul Dean, American baseball player (b. 1913)
  • March 27 - Mao Dun, Chinese writer (b. 1895)
  • March 30 - DeWitt Wallace, American publisher (b. 1889)
  • March 31 - Enid Bagnold, British playwright (b. 1889)
  • April 5 - Bob Hite, American singer (Canned Heat) (b. 1945)
  • April 7 - Norman Taurog, American film director (b. 1899)
  • April 12 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
  • April 26 - Jim Davis, American actor (b. 1909)
  • May 9 - Ralph Allen, English footballer (b. 1906)
  • May 11 - Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1945)
  • May 16 - Ernie Freeman, American pianist and arranger (b. 1922)
  • May 18 - Arthur O'Connell, American actor (b. 1908)
  • May 18 - William Saroyan, American author (b. 1908)
  • May 21 - Patsy O'Hara, Irish hunger striker (b. 1957)
  • May 21 - Raymond Mccreesh, Irish hunger striker (b. 1957)
  • May 23 - Gene Green, American baseball player (b. 1933)
  • May 23 - Rayner Heppenstall, English novelist (d. 1911)
  • May 23 - George Jessel, American actor (b. 1898)
  • May 25 - Fredric Warburg, British publisher and author (b. 1898)
  • May 30 - Don Ashby, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1955)
  • June 1 - Carl Vinson, U.S. Congressman (b. 1883)
  • June 9 - Allen Ludden, TV game show host (b. 1917)
  • June 23 - Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer (b. 1907)
  • July 1 - Carlos de Oliveira, Portuguese writer (b. 1921)
  • July 1 - Rushton Moreve, American bass player (b. 1948)
  • July 3 - Ross Martin, Polish-American actor (b. 1920)
  • July 8 - Wild Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (b. 1902)
  • July 10 - Ken Rex McElroy, American hog rustler (b. 1936)
  • July 16 - Harry Chapin, American musician (b. 1942)
  • July 27 - William Wyler, French-born film director (b. 1902)
  • July 28 - Fr. Stanley Rother, Roman Catholic Priest
  • July 29 - Robert Moses, American urban planner (b. 1888)
  • August 1 - Paddy Chayefsky, American writer (b. 1923)
  • August 4 - Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
  • August 14 - Dudley Nourse, South African cricketer (b.1910)
  • August 18 - Anita Loos, American screenwriter (b. 1889)
  • August 19 - Jessie Matthews, English actress (b. 1907)
  • August 21 - Michael Devine, the last man to die in the 1981 Irish hunger strike (b. 1954)
  • August 26 - Lee Elhardt Hays, American folksinger (b. 1914)
  • August 27 - Valery Kharlamov, Soviet ice hockey player (b. 1948)
  • August 28 - Béla Guttman, Hungarian footballer (b. 1900)
  • August 29 - Lowell Thomas, American writer and broadcaster (b. 1892)
  • August 30 - Vera-Ellen, American actress (b. 1921)
  • September 1 - Albert Speer, Nazi official (b. 1905)
  • September 1 - Ann Harding, American actress (b. 1901)
  • September 3 - Alec Waugh, English writer (b. 1898)
  • September 6 - Christy Brown, Irish author (b. 1932)
  • September 9 - Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst (b. 1901)
  • September 12 - Eugenio Montale, Italian poet
  • September 14 - Furry Lewis, American blues guitarist (b. 1899)
  • September 15 - Harold Bennett, English actor (b. 1899)
  • September 15 - Rafael Mendez, Mexican trumpet virtuoso (b. 1906
  • September 22 - Harry Warren, American composer and lyricist (b. 1893)
  • September 23 - Chief Dan George, Canadian actor (b. 1899)
  • September 24 - Patsy Kelly, American actress (b. 1910)
  • September 27 - Robert Montgomery, American actor (b. 1904)
  • October 2 - Hazel Scott, West Indian-born singer (b. 1920)
  • October 4 - Freddie Lindstrom, Major League Baseball Hall of famer (b. 1905)
  • October 5 - Gloria Grahame, American actress (b. 1923)
  • October 7 - Albert Cohen, Greek-born Swiss novelist (b. 1895)
  • October 15 - Philip Fotheringham-Parker, British racing driver (b. 1907)
  • October 17 - Albert Cohen, Swiss author (b. 1895)
  • October 29 - Georges Brassens, French singer (b. 1921)
  • November 10 - Abel Gance, French film director
  • November 12 - William Holden, American actor (b. 1918)
  • November 14 - Robert Bradford, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1941)
  • November 16 - William Holden, American actor (b. 1918)
  • November 21 - Harry Von Zell, American announcer (b. 1906)
  • November 25 - Jack Albertson, American actor (b. 1907)
  • November 26 - Max Euwe, Dutch chess player (b. 1901)
  • November 27 - Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress (b. 1898)
  • November 29 - Fredric Wertham, German psychologist (b. 1895)
  • November 29 - Natalie Wood, American actress (b. 1938)
  • December 20 - Dimitris Rontiris, Greek actor and director (b. 1899)
  • December 21 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born American director and screenwriter (b. 1885)
  • December 26 - Savithri, Indian actress (b. 1937)
  • December 26 - Amber Reeves, feminist writer (b. 1887)
  • December 27 - Hoagy Carmichael, American composer and singer (b. 1899)
  • December 28 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born film director (b. 1885)
  • December 29 - Miroslav Krleža, Croatian writer (b. 1893)
  • December 30 - Alfie Anido, Filipino actor (b. 1959)

Events
  • January 1 - The Republic of Greece is admitted into the European Community.
  • January 1 - The Republic of Palau achieves self-government though it is not independent from the United States.
  • January 19 - Iran Hostage Crisis: 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 twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as U.S. President.
  • January 25 - Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death.
  • January 28 - Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in the United States helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.
  • February 10 - A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.
  • February 11 - 100,000 gallons (380 m³) of radioactive coolant leak into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear plant in Tennessee, contaminating 8 workers.
  • February 13 - A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
  • February 14 - Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
  • February 23 - 23-F, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
  • February 24 - Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.
  • February 24 - An earthquake registering 6.7 on the Richter scale hits Athens, killing 16 people and destroying buildings in several towns west of the city.
  • March 6 - After 19 years presenting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
  • March 30 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.
  • April 1 - Daylight saving time is introduced in the USSR.
  • April 11 - A massive riot in Brixton, South London, results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.
  • April 11 - President Ronald Reagan returns to the White House from the hospital, 12 days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt.
  • April 12 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
  • April 14 - STS-1
  • April 25 - More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
  • April 27 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
  • April 28 - Galician current Statute of Autonomy.
  • 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 - François Mitterrand takes office as the first Socialist President of France.
  • May 12 - Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a republican campaign for political status to be granted to IRA prisoners.
  • May 13 - Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
  • May 21 - Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara both die on hunger strike in Maze prison.
  • 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 Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due).
  • June 5 - The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five people in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.
  • June 6 - A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati river. The government places the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing; however, it is generally believed that the actual figure is closer to 1,000 killed.
  • June 7 - The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera. The facility could have been used to make nuclear weapons.
  • June 11 - Richter Scale 6.9 magnitude Golbaf earthquake at Iran, killing at least 2,000.
  • June 13 - At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
  • June 18 - The AIDS epidemic is formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California.
  • June 24 - The Humber Bridge is opened to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years.
  • June 25 - Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.
  • July 9 - Senegalese political parties Party of Independence and Work and Democratic League
  • July 16 - Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister until he retired on October 31, 2003, making him Asia's longest-serving political leaders (22 years as Prime Minister of Malaysia).
  • July 17 - A walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri collapses killing 114 people and injuring more than 200 caused by structural failure.
  • July 27 - British television: On Coronation Street, Ken Barlow marries Deirdre Langton, which proves to be a national event, with massive viewer numbers earned for the show.
  • July 29 - Marriage of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.
  • July 31 - General Omar Torrijos of Panama dies in a plane crash.
  • July 31 - 42-day strike of Major League Baseball ends in the United States.
  • August 1 - MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles.
  • August 3 - Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front-Suxxali Reew Mi.
  • 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 10 - The head of John Walsh's son Adam is found in Hollywood, Florida. This event will later prompt the U.S. Congress to pass the Missing Children's Act to give the Federal Bureau of Investigation greater authority to track the disappearance of children, as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It also makes Walsh a national spokesman against crime and eventually leads to the establishment of the FOX Network television series America's Most Wanted.
  • August 12 - The IBM Personal Computer is released.
  • August 19 - Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
  • August 24 - Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
  • August 25 - Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn
  • August 28 - The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
  • September 1 - A coup d'état in the Central African Republic overthrows President David Dacko.
  • September 11 - A small plane crashes into the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California damaging it beyond repair.
  • September 15 - The United States Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court.
  • September 15 - The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, DC.
  • September 15 - Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations.
  • September 18 - Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.
  • September 21 - Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom.
  • September 21 - Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female supreme court justice.
  • September 25 - Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the 102nd Justice sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and the first woman to hold the office.
  • September 26 - Baseball: Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.
  • October 3 - The Hunger Strike by Provisional Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends after seven months and ten deaths.
  • October 3 - The Communist Party of Namibia is founded at a conference in Angola.
  • October 5 - Raoul Wallenberg becomes an honorary U.S. citizen.
  • October 6 - President of Egypt, Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated.
  • October 9 - Abolition of capital punishment in France.
  • October 14 - Citing official misconduct in the investigation and trial, Amnesty International charges the U.S. government with holding Richard Marshall of the American Indian Movement as a political prisoner.
  • October 14 - Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
  • October 15 - Professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson leads what is thought to be the first audience wave in Oakland, California.
  • October 22 - The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for its strike the previous August.
  • October 22 - The founding congress of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Organisation faction led by Hareram Sharma and D.P. Singh begins.
  • October 22 - The TGV railway service Paris-Lyon is inaugurated.
  • October 27 - The Soviet submarine U 137 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.
  • November 1 - Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
  • November 12 - The Space Shuttle Columbia becomes the first spacecraft to be launched twice.
  • November 23 - Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
  • November 30 - Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17).
  • December 1 - A Yugoslavian Inex Adria Aviopromet DC-9 crashes in Corsica killing all 180 people on-board.
  • December 1 - The AIDS virus is officially recognized.
  • December 4 - South Africa grants independence to the Ciskei "homeland" (not recognized by any government outside South Africa).
  • December 10 - The United Nations General Assembly approves Pakistan's proposal for establishing nuclear free-zone in South Asia.
  • December 10 - During the Ministerial Session of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, Spain signes the Protocol of Accession to NATO.
  • December 11 - El Mozote massacre: Salvadoran armed forces kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the country's civil war.
  • December 13 - General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
  • December 14 - Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.
  • December 17 - Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigade in Verona, Italy.
  • December 17 - The Senegambia Confederation is founded.
  • December 19 - Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.
  • December 28 - The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia.
  • December 31 - Coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.


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