1981

1981 is a common year starting on Thursday.

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1978 1979 1980 - 1981 - 1982 1983 1984

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Events

January-February

January - Sarawak Chamber found
January 1 - Greece enters the EEC
January 1 - Palau becomes self-governing
January 4 - Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper
January 10 Townsville International Airport opens (aus)
January 16 - Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and her husband
January 19 - United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity
January 20 - 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.
February 4 - Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the Prime Minister of Norway
February 9 - Polish Prime Minister 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
Febuary 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'tat would fail thanks to King Juan Carlos.
February 24 - Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower, the author of the bestseller The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet

March-April

March 1 - Bobby Sands, an IRA member, begins hunger strike in Maze prison - he dies May 5.
March 6 - After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
March 10 - Franois Mitterrand elected the president of France.
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 29 - First running of the London Marathon.
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.
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.

May

May - Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon
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, Franois Mitterrand beats Valry Giscard d'Estaing.
May 13 - Pope John Paul II is shot at and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Agca, 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 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 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.

June-July

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 - Release of Raiders of the Lost Ark starring Harrison Ford and directed by Steven Spielberg
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 Bani Sadr 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
July 17 - Hyatt Hotel disaster: 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 29 - Lady Diana Spencer marries Charles, Prince of Wales.

August-October

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 19 - Gulf of Sidra incident (1981). Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sends two Sukoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two US fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroyed the Libyan fighters.
August 28 - South African troops invade Angola
August 31 - A bomb explodes at the US Army base in Ramstein, West Germany injuring 20 people
September 4 - An explosion at a mine in Zalizin, Checkoslovakia - 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.
October 6 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who were part of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization, who opposed his negotiations with Israel
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.

November-December

November 1 - Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom
November 13 - The first Friday the 13th event held by motorcyclists in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada
November 23 - Iran-Contra scandal: 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 Thursday, December 17)
December 1 - A Yugoslavian DC-9 crashes into a mountain while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica killing 178
December 4 - South Africa grants "homeland" Ciskei independence (not recognized outside South Africa)
December 11 - El Mozote massacre - in El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians
December 13 - Wojciech Jaruzelski declares the state of martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity
December 15 - A car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 61 people. This is the first modern suicide bombing. Syrian intelligence is blamed.
December 20 - The Penlee lifeboat disaster off the coast of South-West Cornwall
December 28 - The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born (Norfolk, Virginia)

unknown dates

US President Ronald Reagan appoints the first female US Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor
The Pac-Man video game is introduced in the US
IBM PC released
Millennium Renactment of the translation of Saint Edward the Martyr's relics from Wareham to Shaftesbury
Mauritania abolishes the institution of slavery.
Tylenol Scare
James Tobin wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
Mike Cooley, Bill Mollison and Patrick van Rensburg / Education with Production win the Right Livelihood Award
The counter-culture wire service LNS ceases operations.
Public funding of election Campaigns introduced in NSW

Year in topic

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 theatre

May 11 - the first performance of the history-making musical, Cats.

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.
September 26 - Australian Rules Football: Victorian Football League Grand Final, Carlton Blues 12.20 (92) def Collingwood Magpies 10.12 (72)
Unknown - South African rugby team tours New Zealand and causes violent protest.

1981 in television

January 20 - Comedian Andy Kaufman ruins sketches and starts a brawl live on the air during ABC's Fridays.
August 1 - MTV debuts on Cable television, playing music videos 24 hours a day
November 16 and November 17 - Luke and Laura's wedding on General Hospital becomes one of the most watched weddings in television history, second only to the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.