Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar).
Events of 1981
January
- January 1 - Palau becomes self-governing.
- January 4 - Sheffield police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, a 34-year-old lorry driver, on suspicion of being the Yorkshire Ripper who has killed 13 women and attacked seven others over the last six years.
- January 5 - Margaret Thatcher carried out a Cabinet reshuffle, sacking Norman St. John-Stevas.
- January 6 - Brazilian double decker boat Novo Amapo capsized Amazon River, Belem de Cajari, Macapa, Brazil, 230 killed.
- January 13 - Donna Griffiths, a schoolgirl in Pershore, Worcestershire, UK, begins an 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 17 - Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos lifted Martial Law.
- 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, becoming the 40th President of the United States. Minutes later, Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days, ending the Iran hostage crisis.
- January 21 - The first De Lorean DMC-12 automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
- January 22 - Fowzi Nejad, sole survivor of the terrorists from the Iranian Embassy siege in London, pleads guilty to manslaughter of two hostages and gets jailed for life.
- January 24 - The British Labour Party special conference at Wembley decides that leadership elections should be by electoral college.
- January 25 - Four former Labour cabinet ministers (Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, William Rodgers and David Owen) issue the Limehouse Declaration, leading to the formation of the Social Democratic Party.
- January 25 - Chiang Ching ('Madame Mao') is sentenced to death in the People's Republic of China.
- January 25 - The Oakland Raiders win Super Bowl XV, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- January 27 - Indonesian passenger ship Tamponas 2 catches fire and capsizes in the Java Sea, killing 580.
February
- February 4 - Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the Prime Minister of Norway.
- February 8 - nineteen fans of Olympiacos FC and two fans of AEK Athens died and 54 injured after a stampede at the Karaiskaki Stadium in Pireus, possibly because Gate 7 did not open immediately after the end of the game.
- 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 8 and injures 198.
- February 13 - Rupert Murdoch buys The Times and The Sunday Times for £12 million.
- February 14 - Stardust fire: a fire at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, Ireland in the early hours killed 48 and injured 214
- 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 is about to be named president of the government. The coup d'état fails thanks to King Juan Carlos.
- February 24 - A powerful, magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Athens, killing 16 people, injuring thousands and destroying several buildings, mostly in Corinth and the nearby towns of Loutraki, Kiato and Xylokastro.
March
- March 1 - Bobby Sands, a Provisional Irish Republican Army member, begins a hunger strike for political status in Long Kesh prison (he dies May 5, the first of 10 men).
- March 6 - After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
- March 10 - Sir Geoffrey Howe announces the British budget, which raises taxes in the middle of a recession.
- March 11 - Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet is sworn in as President of Chile for another 8-year term.
- March 17 - In Italy the Propagande Due Masonic Lodge is discovered.
- March 19 - Three workers are killed and 5 injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
- March 26 - The British Social Democratic Party was launched at the Connaught Rooms in London.
- March 29 - The first London Marathon starts with 7,500 runners.
- March 30 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.
- March 31 - The 53rd Academy Awards, hosted by Johnny Carson, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Robert Redford's directorial debut in Ordinary People wins Best Picture and Best Director.
April
May
- May - Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon Basin.
- May 1 - Start of the new Chilean pension system, based on private pension funds.
- May 6 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
- May 7 - The Greater London Council election results in a small Labour majority. On May 8, Ken Livingstone becomes Leader of the Council.
- May 10 - In the second round of the presidential elections in France, François Mitterrand beats Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
- May 10 - In Italy a popular referendum rejects the abrogation of the law allowing abortion.
- May 13 - Pope John Paul II is shot and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he enters St. Peter's Square in Rome to address a general audience.
- May 15 - Donna Payant is murdered by serial killer Lemuel Smith - the first time a female prison officer has been killed on-duty in the United States.
- May 21 - In France, Socialist François Mitterrand becomes President.
- May 22 - Peter Sutcliffe is found guilty of being the Yorkshire Ripper. He is sentenced to life imprisonment on 13 counts of murder and seven of attempted 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 Propaganda Due.
- May 30 - Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman is assassinated in Chittagong.
June
- June 5 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 5 homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (the first recognized cases of AIDS).
- June 6 - Bihar train disaster: Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into the River Kosi in Bihar, India; about 800 die.
- June 7 - The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.
- June 12 - Major League Baseball goes on strike, forcing the cancellation of 38 percent of the schedule.
- June 13 - At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, Marcus Sarjeant fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
- June 21 - Wayne Williams, a 23-year-old African American, is arrested and charged with the murders of 2 other African Americans. He will later be suspected of 28 others, in the Atlanta child murders.
- June 22 - Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr is deposed.
- June 26 - Couples For Christ, a Christian charismatic organization, established in the Philippines.
- June 29 - Morris Edwin Robert, armed with a machine gun, holds hostages in the FBI section at the Atlanta, Georgia Federal Building. After 3 hours the hostages are rescued and Robert is shot (dead?).
July
- July 2 - The Wonderland Gang was brutally murdered in a massacre that involved Eddie Nash.
- July 3 - The Toxteth riots start after a mob save a youth from being arrested.
- July 8 - California Governor Jerry Brown, faced with a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation, chooses to delay the aerial spraying of malathion, in favor of continuing ground-based eradication efforts.
- July 10 - Mahathir bin Mohamad became the 4th prime minister of Malaysia.
- 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 aircraft bomb Beirut, destroying multi-storey apartment blocks containing the offices of PLO associated groups, killing approximately 300 civilians and resulting in worldwide condemnation and a U.S. embargo on the export of aircraft to Israel.[1]
- July 19 - The 1981 Springbok Tour commences in New Zealand, amid controversy over the support of Apartheid.
- July 21 - Tohui The Panda, is born in Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico, DF. It is the first Panda to ever be born and survive in captivity outside of China.
- July 29 - Lady Diana Spencer marries Charles, Prince of Wales.
August
September
- September 4 - An explosion at a mine in Záluží, Czechoslovakia, kills 65 people.
- September 10 - Picasso's painting "Guernica" is moved from New York to Madrid.
- September 11 - A small plane crashes into the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino damaging the venue beyond repair.
- September 14 - Margaret Thatcher appoints Cecil Parkinson as Chairman of the Conservative Party.
- 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 16 - In Britain, the Liberal Party Assembly votes for an electoral pact with the new Social Democratic Party.
- September 18 - France abolishes capital punishment.
- September 19 - The second Wranslide occurs in New South Wales, with the Wran government re-elected for a third term with an increased majority, and reducing the Liberal Party of Australia to just 14 members in the Legislative Assembly.
- September 19 - Simon and Garfunkel perform The Concert in Central Park, a free concert in New York in front of approximately a half a million people.
- September 20 - Belize becomes independent.
- September 20 - Brazilian river boat Sobral Santos capsized Amazon River, Óbidos, Brazil, killing at least 300.
- September 25 - Sandra Day O'Connor takes her seat as the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Rolling Stones begin their tour in support of Tattoo You at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
- September 26 - First flight of the Boeing 767 airliner.
- September 27 - TGV high speed rail service between Paris and Lyon, France begins.
- September 27 - Denis Healey retained the post of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, beating Tony Benn by 50.426% to 49.574%.
October
November
December
- 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 5 - American general James Lee Dozier is kidnapped in Verona by Italian Red Brigades.
- December 8 - The No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13.
- December 8 - Arthur Scargill became President-elect of the National Union of Mineworkers.
- December 9 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police officer Daniel Faulkner is shot and killed during a routine traffic stop of a vehicle driven by William Cook, Mumia Abu-Jamal's younger brother.
- December 11 - El Mozote massacre: In El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians.
- December 13 - Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, to prevent the dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
- December 15 - A car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 61 people. Syrian intelligence is blamed.
- December 20 - The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurs off the coast of South-West Cornwall.
- 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 PNDC led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January-February
- January 1 - Zsolt Baumgartner, Hungarian race car driver
- January 1 - Rashod Moulton, National Football League player
- January 1 - Eden Riegel, American actress
- January 2 - Maxi Rodriguez, Argentina and Atletico Madrid footballer
- January 3 - Eli Manning, American football player
- January 6 - Mike Jones, American rapper
- January 6 - Jérémie Renier, Belgian actor
- January 7 - Alex Auld, Canadian ice hockey goaltender
- January 8 - Xie Xingfang, Chinese badminton player
- January 8 - Genevieve Cortese, American actress
- January 8 - Jeff Francis, Canadian pitcher
- January 9 - Euzebiusz Smolarek, Polish footballer
- January 11 - Jamelia, British singer
- 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 17 - Ray J, American rapper and singer
- January 20 - Jason Richardson, American basketball player
- January 20 - Owen Hargreaves, Canadian-born footballer
- January 21 - Dany Heatley, German-born hockey player
- January 21 - Gillian Chung, Hong Kong singer (Twins)
- January 22 - Chantelle Anderson, American basketball player
- January 22 - Willa Ford, American singer, television hostess, and actress
- January 22 - Beverley Mitchell, American actress
- January 22 - Ben Moody, American guitarist (formerly of Evanescence)
- January 24 - Brandon Henschel, American actor and dancer
- January 25 - Tose Proeski, Macedonian singer (d. 2007)
- January 27 - Greg Owens, Australian Footballer (Central Coast Mariners)
- January 27 - Alicia Molik, Australian tennis player
- January 28 - Elijah Wood, American actor and music producer
- January 29 - Jonny Lang, American musician
- January 30 - Dimitar Berbatov, Bulgarian national football team captain and Tottenham Hotspur player
- January 31 - Justin Timberlake, American musician
- February 3 - Alisa Reyes, American actress
- February 10 - The Reverend Tholomew Plague, American drummer (Avenged Sevenfold)
- 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 15 - Olivia, American R&B singer
- February 16 - Lupe Fiasco, American hip-hop artist
- February 17 - Joseph Gordon Levitt, American actor
- February 17 - Paris Hilton, American model, heiress, and socialite
- February 18 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
- February 18 - Ivan Sproule, Irish footballer
- February 19 - Vitas, Russian singer
- February 20 - Chris Thile, American mandolinist
- February 20 - Majandra Delfino, American actress
- February 22 - Jeanette Biedermann, German singer and actress
- February 24 - Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player
- February 26 - Maria Sansone, American journalist and Internet personality
- February 27 - Josh Groban, American singer
March-April
- March 1 - Ana Hickmann, Brazilian model
- March 1 - Adam LaVorgna, American actor
- March 1 - Brad Winchester, American ice hockey player
- March 2 - Bryce Howard, American actress
- March 3 - Lil' Flip, American rapper
- March 4 - Carol Banawa, Filipina singer
- March 6 - Ellen Muth, American actress
- March 9 - Antonio Bryant, American football player
- March 10 - Kristen Maloney, American gymnast
- March 11 - David Anders, American actor
- March 11 - Lee Evans, American football player
- March 11 -
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