1983

history

Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). It was designated as the Chinese Year of the Boar, and Yin Water.

Events of 1983

January

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  • January 1 - The New Jersey Transit Police Department is created in the state of New Jersey.
  • January 2 - The musical Annie is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows at the Uris Theatre on Broadway, New York City.
  • January 3 - Kilauea begins slowly erupting on the Big Island of Hawaii and is still flowing as of 2008.
  • January 19 - Apple Inc releases the Apple Lisa personal computer.
  • January 19 - High ranking Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
  • January 22 - Björn Borg retires from tennis after winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.
  • January 24 - Twenty-five members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Aldo Moro.
  • January 26 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released for IBM-PC compatible computers.
  • January 26 - Red rain falls in the UK, caused by sand from the Sahara Desert in the droplets.
  • January 31 - Seatbelt use for drivers and front seat passengers becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.

February

March

April

  • April 18 - The April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut kills 63 people.
  • April 22 - Reactor shut-down due to failure of fuel rods at Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, Russia
  • April 25 - Manchester, Maine schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov, after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.

May

  • May 6 - Stern Magazine publishes the "Hitler Diaries" (which are later found to be forgeries).
  • May 16 - NSW Premier Neville Wran steps down, in response to allegations raised by the ABC program Four Corners, that he attempted to influence the NSW Magistracy.
  • May 17 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
  • May 26 - A powerful earthquake and tsunami in northern HonshÅ«, Japan kills 104 and injures 163.
  • May 28 - The 9th G7 summit begins at Williamsburg, Virginia.

June

  • June 9 - United Kingdom general election, 1983: Conservative Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1979, wins in a landslide victory over Michael Foot (42% of the popular vote).
  • June 13 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the solar system.
  • June 16 - Cork Graham, a teenaged war correspondent and treasure hunter, is imprisoned by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for 11 months on false charges of spying for the CIA.
  • June 18 - STS-7: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
  • June 25 - India wins the Prudential Cricket World Cup.
  • June 30 - Total loss of coolant at Embalse nuclear power plant, Argentina. It was classified as a Accident With Local Consequences - level 4 at the International Nuclear Event Scale

July

  • July 1 - A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet, en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea, crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
  • July 1 - The High Court of Australia blocks construction of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania.
  • July 1 - Technical failure causes release of Iodine-131 from Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant, Germany
  • July 7 - Samantha Smith flies to the Soviet Union (see April 25).
  • July 15 - The Nintendo Entertainment System goes on sale in Japan.
  • July 16 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster: a helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
  • July 20 - The government of Poland announces the end of martial law and amnesty for political prisoners.
  • July 21 - The lowest temperature on earth is recorded in Vostok Station, Antarctica with −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).
  • July 22 - Australian Dick Smith completes his solo circumnavigation in a helicopter.
  • July 23 - Gimli Glider: Out of fuel, Air Canada Flight 143 glides in to land in Gimli, Manitoba.
  • July 23 - The Black July communal riot occurs in Sri Lanka. These anti-Sri Lankan Tamil riots leave over 1,000 Tamils massacred and millions of dollars worth of their property destroyed. This pogrom is the beginning of a deadly Sri Lankan civil war.
  • July 23 - Heavy massive rain and mudslides at western Shimane prefecture, Japan, kill 117.
  • July 28 - New South Wales premier Neville Wran is exonerated by the Street Royal Commission, over claims raised by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) programme Four Corners, that he attempted to influence the NSW magistracy.

August

  • August 1 - America West Airlines begins operations out of Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada.
  • August 4 - Thomas Sankara becomes President of Upper Volta.
  • August 16 - The Bill first airs as Woodentop.
  • August 18 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$3.8 billion (2005 dollars) in damage.
  • August 18 - Five people are killed and 18 others injured when a road train is deliberately driven into a motel at Ayers Rock (Uluru), NT (the driver, Douglas Edward Crabbe, is convicted in March 1984).
  • August 21 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, is assassinated in Manila just as he returns from exile.
  • August 24 - The Old Philadelphia Arena is destroyed by arson.
  • August 26 - Heavy rain triggers flooding at Bilbao(Spain) and surrounding areas, killing 45 people and causing millions in damages.
  • August 30 - STS-8: Space Shuttle Challenger carries Guion S. Bluford, the first African-American astronaut, into space.

September

  • September 1 - Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed.
  • September 4 - Six men walk underwater across the Sydney Harbor - 82.9 km in 48 hours.
  • September 5 - Tom Brokaw becomes lead anchor for NBC Nightly News.
  • September 6 - The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
  • September 16 - Donna Griffiths of Pershore in England stops sneezing after a continual series of sneezes for 978 days (since January 13, 1981).
  • September 17 - Vanessa Lynn Williams becomes the first African-American to be crowned Miss America, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
  • September 19 - Saint Kitts and Nevis becomes an independent state.
  • September 23 - Gulf Air Flight 771 crashes in the United Arab Emirates after a bomb exploded in the baggage compartment, killing 117.
  • September 23 - Violence erupts in New Caledonia between native Kanaks and French expatriates. The French government withdraws the promise of independence.
  • September 25 - Maze Prison escape: 38 Irish republican prisoners, armed with 6 handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of HMP Maze, in the largest prison escape since WWII and in British history.
  • September 25–26 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.
  • September 26 - Australia wins America's Cup.
  • September 27 - The GNU Project is announced publicly on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups.

October

  • October 2 - Neil Kinnock is elected leader of the British Labour Party.
  • October 4 - Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph, driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.
  • October 7 - A plan to abolish the Greater London Council is announced.
  • October 9 - The Rangoon bombing kills South Korea's Foreign Minister, Lee Bum Suk, and 21 others.
  • October 12 - Japan's former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed, and sentenced to 4 years in jail.
  • October 15 - Montreal designer Andy Jean-baptiste is born in Saint-Justine hospital
  • October 16 - World Series: The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0 in Game 5, to win the series 4 games to 1 for their 3rd World Championship.
  • October 19 - Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, and 40 others are executed in a military coup.
  • October 21 - At the 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures, the metre is defined in terms of the speed of light as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
  • October 22 - In Bonn, West Germany, people demonstrate for nuclear disarmament.
  • October 23 - Simultaneous suicide truck-bombings destroy both the French and the United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen, 58 French paratroopers and 6 Lebanese civilians.
  • October 24 - Arthur Hutchinson kills 3 members of the Laitner family and rapes their daughter in the Sheffield suburb of Dore.
  • October 25 - United States troops invade Grenada at the behest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica, a member of the Organization of American States.
  • October 25 - Microsoft Word is first released.
  • October 27 - Pope John Paul II visits his would-be assassin Mehmet Ali AÄŸca in prison to forgive him.
  • October 30 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after 7 years of military rule are held.

November

December

  • December 2 - Michael Jackson's world famous music video for "Thriller" is broadcast for the first time. It becomes the most often repeated and famous music video of all time, increasing his own popularity and record sales of the album "Thriller".
  • December 4 - Lt. Bobby Goodman of the United States Navy is shot down over Lebanon and captured by the Syrians.
  • December 5 - ICIMOD is established and inaugurated with its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal, and legitimised through an Act of Parliament in Nepal this same year.
  • December 7 - Two Spanish passenger planes collide on the foggy runway at a Madrid airport, killing 90.
  • December 9 - The Australian Dollar is floated, by Federal treasurer Paul Keating. Under the old flexible peg system, the Reserve Bank bought and sold all Australian dollars and cleared the market at the end of the day. This initiative is taken by the government of Bob Hawke.
  • December 10 - Military rule ends and democracy is restored in Argentina.
  • December 11 - Grêmio (Brazil) becomes the new soccer world champion, after beating Hamburger SV (Germany) by 2-1.
  • December 13 - The Denver Nuggets and the visiting Detroit Pistons combine for an NBA record 370 points, with Detroit winning in triple overtime, 186-184.
  • December 17 - A discotheque fire in Madrid, Spain, kills 83 people.
  • December 17 - A Provisional IRA car bomb kills 6 Christmas shoppers and injures 90 outside Harrods in London.
  • December 27 - A propane explosion in Buffalo, New York kills 5 firefighters and 2 civilians.
  • December 29 - The Reverend Jesse Jackson travels to Syria to secure the release of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman, who has been in Syrian captivity since being shot down over the country during a reconnaissance mission.
  • December 31 - Brunei gains independence from the United Kingdom.
  • December 31 - Two bombs explode in France; 1 on the Paris train kills 3 and injures 19. The other at Marseille station kills 2 and injures 34.

Undated

Ongoing

Births

January–March

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April–June

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July–September

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October-December

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Deaths

January–March

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April–June

July–September

October–December

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Nobel Prizes

Templeton Prize

  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

External links

Notes


home | This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. See full license termsIt uses material from the Wikipedia article "1983 ". | compliance | January 06th 2009