{{yearbox|
in?= |
cp=19th century|
c=20th century |
cf=21st century |
yp1=1978 |
yp2=1979 |
yp3=1980|
year=1981 |
ya1=1982 |
ya2=1983 |
ya3=1984 |
dp3=1950s |
dp2=1960s |
dp1=1970s |
d=1980s |
dn1=1990s |
dn2=2000s |
dn3=2010s |
}}
{{C20YearInTopic}}
'''1981''' '''(MCMLXXXI)''' is a Common_year_starting_on_Thursday of the Gregorian_calendar.
==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_13 - Donna_Griffiths, a schoolgirl in Pershore, Worcestershire, UK, begins a 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_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 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.
===March-April===
Image:Shuttle.jpg launches on the STS-1.]]
* 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.
* 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).
===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_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===
Image:Charles_Diana_wedding.jpg and Princess of Wales return to Buckingham_Palace following their wedding watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.]]
* 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_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
* 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.
===August-October===
* 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_12 - The original IBM_PC released in the United States.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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_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.
===November-December===
Image:Antigua_and_barbuda_flag_large.png.]]
* 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_25-November_26 - Group of mercenaries lead by Mike_Hoare take over Mahe airport in the Seychelles in a Coup attempt. Most of the mercenaries escape by a commandeered Air_India passenger jet, six are later arrested
* 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===
* Millennium Renactment of the translation of Saint Edward_the_Martyr's relics from Wareham to Shaftesbury
* Mauritania abolishes the institution of Slavery.
* 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 New_South_Wales, Australia
* The State_Council_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China listed the four cities (Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Guilin) as where the protection of historical and cultural heritage as well as natural scenery should be treated as a prior project.
* Cuba suffers a major outbreak of Dengue_hemorrhagic_fever, with 344 203 cases. http://w3.whosea.org/en/Section10/Section332/Section521_2454.htm
* Computer_and_Video_Games_(magazine) begins publication.
==Births==
===January-March===
* January_1 - Zsolt_Baumgartner, Hungarian race car driver
* January_3 - Eli_Manning, American football player
* January_6 - Mike_Jones, American rapper
* January_12 - Quentin_Griffin, American football player
* January_15 - El_Hadji_Diouf, Senegalese footballer
* January_15 - Howie_Day, American singer and songwriter
* January_17 - Scott_Mechlowicz, American actor
* January_20 - Jason_Richardson, American basketball player
* January_20 - Owen_Hargreaves, Canadian-born footballer
* January_21 - Dany_Heatley, German-born hockey player
* January_22 - Chantelle_Anderson, American basketball player
* January_22 - Willa_Ford, American singer, television hostess, and actress
* January_22 - Beverley_Mitchell, American actress
* January_25 - Alicia_Keys, American musician
* January_28 - Elijah_Wood, American actor
* January_31 - Justin_Timberlake, American musician
* February_3 - Alisa_Reyes, American actress
* February_10 - Natasha_St-Pier, Canadian singer
* February_11 - Kelly_Rowland, American singer (Destiny's_Child)
* February_14 - Erin_Torpey, American actress
* February_15 - Jenna_Morasca, American television personality
* February_17 - Paris_Hilton, American actress and heiress
* February_18 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
* February_22 - Jeanette_Biedermann, German singer and actress
* February_24 - Lleyton_Hewitt, Australian tennis player
* February_27 - Josh_Groban, American singer
* March_1 -Ana_Hickmann, Brazilian model
* March_2 - Bryce_Howard, American actress
* March_3 - Lil'_Flip, American rapper
* March_9 - Antonio_Bryant, American football player
* March_11 - David_Anders, American actor
* March_11 - Lee Evans, American football player
* March_11 - LeToya_Luckett, American musician (Destiny's_Child)
* March_16 - Andrew_Bree, Irish swimmer
* March_28 - Julia_Stiles, American actress
===April-June===
* April_1 - Hannah_Spearritt, British singer (S_Club_7)
* April_2 - Bethany_Joy_Lenz, American actress and singer
* April_10 - Michael_Pitt, American actor
* April_14 - Mary_Castro, American model and actress
* April_17 - Hanna_Pakarinen, Finnish singer
* April_19 - Hayden_Christensen, Canadian actor
* April_19 - Catalina_Sandino_Moreno, Colombian actress
* April_19 - Troy_Polamalu, American football player
* April_22 - Ken_Dorsey, American football player
* April_28 - Jessica_Alba, American actress
* May_5 - Craig_David, British singer
* May_5 - Danielle_Fishel, American actress
* May_11 - Lauren_Jackson, Australian basketball player
* May_13 - Sunny_Leone, Canadian entertainer
* May_15 - Jamie-Lynn_DiScala, American actress
* May_19 - Klaas-Erik_Zwering, Dutch swimmer
* May_20 - Sean_Conlon, English musician (5ive)
* May_20 - Lindsay_Taylor, American basketball player
* June_1 - Carlos_Zambrano, Venezuelan Major_League_Baseball player
* June_7 - Anna_Kournikova, Russian tennis player
* June_7 - Larisa_Oleynik, American actress
* June_9 - Natalie_Portman, Israeli-born actress
* June_13 - Christopher Robert Evans, American actor
* June_12 - Adriana_Lima, Brazilian model
* June_21 - Brandon_Flowers, American singer and keyboardist (The Killers)
===July-September===
* July_8 - Anastasia_Myskina, Russian tennis player
* July_23 - Michelle_Williams, American singer (Destiny's_Child)
* July_24 - Summer_Glau, American actress (Firefly)
* August_4 - Marques_Houston, American singer and actor
* August_5 - Carl_Crawford, baseball player
* August_5 - Kō Shibasaki, Japanese singer and actress
* August_8 - Vanessa_Amorosi, Australian singer and songwriter
* August_8 - Roger_Federer, Swiss tennis player
* August_8 - Meagan_Good, American actress
* August_16 - Taylor_Rain, American actress
* August_24 - Chad_Michael_Murray, American actor
* August_25 - Rachel_Bilson, American actress
* September_1 - Clinton_Portis, American football player
* September_4 - Beyoncé_Knowles, American singer (Destiny's_Child) and actress
* September_8 - Jonathan_Taylor_Thomas, American actor
* September_16 - Alexis_Bledel, American actress
* September_21 - Nicole_Richie, American actress
* September_22 - Rocco_Baldelli, baseball player
* September_26 - Christina_Milian, Afro-Cuban singer, songwriter and musician
* September_26 - Serena_Williams, American tennis player
* September_30 - Dominique_Moceanu, American gymnast
===October-December===
* October_1 - Jamelia, British singer
* October_3 - Zlatan_Ibrahimovic, Swedish footballer
* October_11 - Beau_Brady, Australian actor
* October_15 - Elena_Dementieva, Russian tennis player
* October_20 - Willis_McGahee, American football player
* October_22 - Michael_Fishman, American actor
* October_28 - Milan_Baros, Czech footballer
* October_29 - Amanda_Beard, American swimmer
* October_30 - Ivanka_Trump, American model
* October_31 - Irina_Denezhkina, Russian writer
* October_31 - Frank_Iero, American guitarist (My_Chemical_Romance)
* November_1 - LaTavia_Roberson, American musician (Destiny's_Child)
* November_3 - Jackie_Gayda, American professional wrestler
* November_4 - Vince_Wilfork, American football player
* November_8 - Azura_Skye, American actress
* November_11 - Natalie_Glebova, Canadian pageant winner (2005 Miss Universe)
* November_26 - Natasha_Bedingfield, British singer
* November_26 - Aurora_Snow, American actress
* December_2 - Britney_Spears, American singer
* December_3 - Brian_Bonsall, American actor
* December_4 - Lila_McCann, American singer
* December_7 - Ben_Adams, British singer (a1)
* December_13 - Amy_Lee, American singer (Evanescence)
* December_15 - Kyle_McKain, American Club DJ
* December_15 - Thomas_Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)
* December_21 - Shizuka_Arakawa, Japanese figure skater
* December_27 - Yuvraj_Singh, Indian cricketer
* December_28 - Elizabeth_Jordan_Carr, first American test-tube baby
* December_28 - Sienna_Miller, American-born actress
* December_29 - Angela_Via, American singer
* December_30 - Haley_Paige, American actress
==Deaths==
* January_5 - Harold_C._Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)
* January_5 - Lanza_del_Vasto, Italian-born philosopher, poet, and activist (b. 1901)
* January_6 - A.J._Cronin, Scottish novelist (b. 1896)
* January_10 - Katherine_Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)
* January_23 - Samuel_Barber, American composer (b. 1910)
* February_1 - Geirr_Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
* February_9 - Bill_Haley, American musician (b. 1925)
* February_15 - Karl_Richter, German conductor (b. 1926)
* February_20 - Baron Nicolas_de_Gunzburg, magazine editor, socialite (b. 1904)
* February_26 - Howard_Hanson, American composer (b. 1896)
* March_6 - George_Geary, English cricketer (b. 1893)
* March_7 - Kiril_Kondrashin, Russian conductor (b. 1914)
* March_9 - Max_Delbrück, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel_Prize_in_Physiology_or_Medicine (b. 1906)
* April_7 - Norman_Taurog, American film director (b. 1899)
* April_12 - Joe_Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
* April_27 - John_Aspinwall_Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1916)
* May_9 - Nelson_Algren, American author (b.1909)
* May_11 - Odd_Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
* May_11 - Bob_Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1945)
* May_18 - William_Saroyan, American author (b. 1908)
* June_1 - Carl_Vinson, U.S. Congressman (b. 1883)
* June_19 - Lotte_Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (b. 1899)
* June_28 - Terry_Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (b. 1958)
* August_14 - Karl_Böhm, Austrian conductor (b. 1894)
* September_1 - Albert_Speer, Nazi official (b. 1905)
* September_2 - Dame Enid_Lyons, Australia politician (b. 1897)
* September_8 - Bill_Shankly, Scottish football manager (b. 1913)
* September_8 - Hideki_Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
* September_9 - Sir Robert (Bob) Askin, Premier of New South Wales (b. 1907)
* September_12 - Eugenio_Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1896)
* October_2 - Harry_Golden, American journalist (b. 1902)
* October_6 - Anwar_Sadat, President_of_Egypt, recipient of the Nobel_Peace_Prize (assassinated) (b. 1918)
* October_16 - Stanley_Clements, American actor (b. 1926)
* October_16 - Moshe_Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
* November_7 - Will_Durant, American philosopher and writer (b. 1885)
* November_22 - Hans_Adolf_Krebs, German physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel_Prize_in_Physiology_or_Medicine (b. 1900)
* November_29 - Natalie_Wood, American actress (drowned) (b. 1938)
* December_28 - Allan_Dwan, Canadian-born film director (b. 1885)
==Nobel Prizes==
* Physics - Nicolaas_Bloembergen, Arthur_Leonard_Schawlow, Kai M. Siegbahn
* Chemistry - Kenichi_Fukui, Roald_Hoffmann
* Medicine - Roger_W._Sperry, David_H._Hubel, Torsten_N._Wiesel
* Literature - Elias_Canetti
* Peace - United_Nations_High_Commissioner_for_Refugees
==Templeton_Prize==
* Dame Cicely Saunders
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