1983
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'''1983''' '''(MCMLXXXIII)''' is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January
January 2 - The musical ''Annie'' is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows (Uris Theatre on Broadway, New York City).
January 8 - Riot in the Sing Sing prison
January 10 - Mafia hitman Roy DeMeo is found dead in a trunk of his own car
January 15 - Mafia|Mafioso Meyer Lansky dies at Mount Sinai hospital
January 19 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war crime|war criminal, is arrested in Bolivia.
January 22 - Björn Borg retires from tennis after winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.
January 24 - 25 members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Aldo Moro
January 26 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
January 31 - Seatbelt use for drivers and front seat passengers becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.
February
February 2 - Giovanni Vigliotto goes on trial for multiple counts of bigamy - 105 women
February 3 - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser is granted a double dissolution of both houses of parliament for a double dissolution election for the March 5. Bob Hawke replaces Bill Hayden as federal ALP leader
February 4 - Karen Carpenter(The Carpenters) died of Cardiac Arrest due to a prolonged battle with Anorexia Nervosa.
February 6 - Klaus Barbie is charged with war crimes
February 7 - Iran opens an invasion in the southeast of Iraq.
February 13 - US President Ronald Reagan proclaims 1983 "The Year of the Bible".
February 16 - The Ash_Wednesday_fires|Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria (Australia)|Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 76 people in one of Australia|Australia's worst ever fires.
February 19 - Benjamin Ng and Willie Mak kill 13 in an attempted robbery in Seattle, Washington
February 23 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
February 24 - A special commission of the Congress of the United States|U.S. Congress releases a report critical of the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
February 25 - US playwright Tennessee Williams found dead in his hotel room
March
March 1
Balearic Islands and Madrid (autonomous community)|Madrid become Autonomous communities of Spain|autonomous communities of Spain
Swatch introduce their first timepieces
March 5 - Madame Chiang Kai-shek's birthday
Bob Hawke Elected Australia|Australian Australian Prime Minister|Prime Minister
March 8 - IBM releases the IBM PC XT
March 8 - President of the United States|President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
March 11 - Hawke Ministry sworn in, Andrew Peacock becomes Federal Opposition leader
March 16 - Demolition of the Transmitter Ismaning|radio tower Ismaning, the last radio tower in Germany built of wood.
March 23 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President of the United States|President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."
April
April 7 - During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Donald H. Peterson|Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).
April 11 National Economic Summit held In Canberra
April 15 - American Public Radio founded; changes its name to the current Public Radio International in 1994
April 15 - The first non-American Walt Disney Parks and Resorts|Disney theme park opens in Japan as Tokyo Disneyland
April 18 - The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 63 people.
April 22 - Soviet embassy official Valery Ivanov is expelled from Australia for allegedly trying to recruit spies in the Australian government.
April 23 - ''Stern'' magazine in West Germany announces it has Hitler diaries
April 25 - 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 "Hitler Diaries" (later found to be forgeries).
May 9 - Pope John Paul II retracts the ban of Galileo Galilei
May 16 - London police begin the use of wheel clamps on illegally-parked vehicles.
May 16 - NSW Premier Neville Wran steps down in response to allegations rasied by ABC program Four Corners That he Attempted to influence the NSW Majestry
May 17 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
May 25 - Return of the Jedi opens in the United States.
June
Shipbreaking begins on the beach at Alang in Gujarat.
9 June: Conservative Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1979, won a landslide victory (42% of the popular vote) over Michael Foot, who led a highly-divided and weakened Labour Party which earned only 28% of the vote. The much improved economy (after 2-3 years of restructuring), her victory in the Falkands, as well as shrinking unemployment rates consolidated her election victory.
June 13 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system.
June 18 - Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
July
July 1 - A North Korea|North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashed into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
July 1 - High Court Blocks construction of the Franklin Dam In Tasmania
July 7 - Samantha Smith flies to the Soviet Union.
July 16 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster 1983|Sikorsky S-61 disaster: helicopter crash off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities
July 18 - Michael Litton was born.
July 20 - Government of Poland announces end of the martial law and amnesty for political prisoners.
July 22 - Australian Dick Smith completes his solo circumnavigation in a helicopter
July 23 - Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 crash-lands in Gimli, Manitoba.
July 25 - The outbreak of anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka which left over 3,000 Tamils massacred and millions of dollars worth of their property was destroyed. This genocide is the beginning of a deadly civil war in Sri Lanka.
July 25 - Metallica released their debut album Kill 'Em All.
July 28 New South Wales premier Neville Wran exonerated by Street Royal Commision over claims raised by ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) program Four Corners (TV series)|Four Corners which claimed,he attempted to influence the NSW majestry
August
August 4 - Thomas Sankara became President in Upper Volta.
August 18 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
August 18 - 5 people are killed and 18 others injured when a road train is deliberatly driven into a motel at Ayers Rock (Uluru) NT (The driver, Douglas Edward Crabbe, was found guilty of this in March 1984)
August 21 - In the Philippines, opposition politician Benigno Aquino is assassinated just as he returns from exile
August 24 - Old Philadelphia Arena is destroyed by arson
August 21 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, assassinated in Manila
September
September 1 - Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union|Soviet jet fighter when the commercial aircraft entered Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die.
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 10 - Jon B. Minnoch, heaviest man in USA, dies weighing 362 kg. When he was admitted to hospital in March 1978, his weight was 635 kg
September 16 - Donna Griffiths of Pershore, England, stops sneezing after continuous series of sneezes for 978 days, since January 13 1981
September 23 - Violence erupts in New Caledonia between native Kanaks and French expatriates. The French government withdraws the promise of independence
September 23 - Mass outbreak in Maze (HM Prison)|Maze prison - 38 prisoners hijack a lorry and crash out of the gate - one guard dead and 5 others injured. 19 of the prisoners are later apprehended.
September 23 - Barbara Turnbull, an 18 year old Canada|Canadian girl, was shot in the neck and became paralyzed for life during a store robbery in Mississauga, Ontario|Mississauga, Canada.
September 25-September 26|26 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.
September 27 - The GNU project was announced publicly on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups.
October
October 2 - Neil Kinnock is elected leader of the British Labour Party (UK)|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 - Plan to abolish Greater London Council announced.
October 12 - Japan's ex Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and sentenced to 1987|4 years in jail.
October 19 - Maurice Bishop, the President of Grenada, and 40 others are shot in a military coup
October 22 - In Bonn, West Germany people demonstrate for nuclear disarmament
October 23 - A 1983 Beirut barracks bombing|suicide truck-bombing destroys the United States Marine Corps barracks at Beirut International Airport, killing 241 US servicemen.
October 24 - Arthur Hutchinson kills three members of Laitner family and rapes their daughter in the Sheffield suburb of Dore.
October 25 - United States invades Grenada.
October 27 - Pope John Paul II visits Mehmet Ali Ağca in prison to forgive him. Ali Ağca is the Turkey|Turkish gunman who attempted to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981
October 30 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after 1976|seven years of military rule are held.
November
November 2 - Martin Luther King Day: At the White House Rose Garden, President of the United States|President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
November 5 - The worst offshore diving accident ever to take place, happened on board the Byford Dolphin rig in the North Sea of the coast of Norway. Five divers where killed and one severely wounded in an explosive decompression accident.
November 11 - President Reagan became the first U.S. chief executive to address the Diet, Japan's national legislature.
November 13 - The first United States|US cruise missiles arrive at Greenham Common airbase in England amid protests from peace campaigners.
November 15 - The Turkish part of Cyprus declares independence.
November 16 - A jury in Gretna, Louisiana acquits Ginny Foat of the murder of Argentine businessman Moses Chaiyo.
November 17 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded.
November 24 - 15-year-old Lynda Mann is found raped and strangled in the village of Narborough, England (Colin Pitchfork is sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988)
November 26 - Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly UK£26 million are taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport. Only a fraction of the gold was ever recovered, and only two men were convicted of the crime.
November 30 ASIO agents bungle a training exercise on the Melbourne Sheraton
Microsoft Word is first released.
December
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 was taken by the government of Bob Hawke.
December 13 - The Denver Nuggets and the visiting Detroit Pistons combined for an NBA record 370 points, with Detroit winning in triple Overtime (sport)#basketball|overtime, 186-184.
December 17 - A fire at a discotheque in Madrid, Spain, kills 83 people.
December 17 - An PIRA car bomb kills six Christmas shoppers and injures 90 outside Harrods in London.
December 31 - Brunei gains independence from United Kingdom.
December 31 - Two bombs explode in France. One on the Paris train kills 3 and injures 19. The other at Marseille station kills 2 and injures 34.
Unknown dates
Democratic reform in power in Argentina.
Roxanne Pulitzer divorces Herbert Pulitzer
Gerard Debreu wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
Leopold Kohr, the people of Palau|Belau, Amory Lovins|Amory and Hunter Lovins / Rocky Mountain Institute and Manfred Max-Neef / CEPAUR win the Right Livelihood Award
McDonald's introduces the McNugget
In Australia, the Northern Territory decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults
The immunosuppressant cyclosporine was approved by Food and Drug Administration|FDA, leading to a revolution in the field of transplantation.
Flashdance and Return of the Jedi are box-office hits.
Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program launched in U.S.
Kellogg's introduces Crispix cereal.
Births
January-March
January 2 - Kate Bosworth, American actress
January 18 - Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
January 19 - Hikaru Utada, Japanese singer and songwriter
February 7 - Elin Grindemyr, Swedish model
February 8 - Jim Verraros, American singer
February 23 - Ahmed Hossam|Mido, Egyptian footballer
March 10 - Carrie Underwood, American singer
March 14 - Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer
March 14 - Taylor Hanson, American musician
March 21 - Bruno Langley, British actor
April-June
April 13 - Schalk Burger, South African rugby player
April 15 - Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player
April 17 - Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
April 22 - Matt Jones, American football player
April 22 - Sean Muir, American playwright
April 23 - Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakian tennis player
May 11 - Matt Leinart, American football player
May 11 - Holly Valance, Australian actress and singer
May 14 - Amber Tamblyn, American actress
May 27 - Bobby Convey, American soccer player
May 30 - Jennifer Ellison, British actress
June 4 - Ivan, Italian writer
June 6 - Joe Rokocoko, New Zealand rugby player
June 8 - Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player
June 30 - Cheryl Tweedy, British singer
July-September
July 2 - Michelle Branch, American singer
July 11 - Marie Eleonor Sernehlot, Swedish musician (A-Teens)
July 13 - Liu Xiang, Chinese athlete
July 21 - Eivør Pálsdóttir, Faroese singer and composer
July 21 - Kellen Winslow Jr., American football player
July 22 - Shelby Belle, Canadian actress
July 23 - Rebecca Cartwright, Australian actress
July 23 - Aaron Peirsol, American swimmer
August 6 - Robin van Persie, Dutch football player
August 14 - Mila Kunis, Ukrainian actress
August 19 - Tammin Sursok, Australian actress
August 23 - Nicol David, Malaysian squash player
August 24 - Christopher Parker, British actor
September 17 - Jennifer Peña, American singer
September 21 - Maggie Grace, American actress
October-December
October 2 - Efren Ramirez, American actor
October 5 - Nicky Hilton, American model and socialite
October 24 - Brian Vickers, American race car driver
October 30 - Diana Karazon, Jordanian singer
November 16 - Fallon Bowman, South African-born guitarist (Kittie)
November 18 - Jon Johansen, Norwegian computer programmer
December 6 - Bryan Habana, South African rugby player
December 12 - Katrina Elam, American singer
December 12 - Brad Smith, American football player
December 13 - Otylia Jędrzejczak, Polish swimmer
December 15 - René Goguen|René Duprée, Canadian professional wrestler
December 18 - Ryan Dowling, American Singer/Songwriter/Mandolinist for the band The Tipplin' Weigh
December 20 - Lucy Pinder, British model
Deaths
January-March
January 11 - Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist and educator (b. 1894)
January 15 - Meyer Lansky, Russian-born gangster (b. 1902)
January 23 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (b. 1908)
January 24 - George Cukor, American film director (b. 1899)
January 28 - Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1890)
February 4 - Carpenters|Karen Carpenter, American singer (b. 1950)
February 12 - Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter (b. 1887)
February 14 - Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)
February 22 - Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
February 25 - Tennessee Williams, American playwright (b. 1911)
March 3 - Hergé, Belgian comics creator (b. 1907)
March 3 - Arthur Koestler, Austrian writer (b. 1905)
March 8 - William Walton, English composer (b. 1902)
March 9 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
March 15 - Rebecca West, English-born writer (b. 1892)
March 17 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
April-June
April 4 - Gloria Swanson, American actress (b. 1897)
April 22 - Earl Hines|Earl 'Fatha' Hines, American musician (b. 1903)
May 8 - Frank Aiken, Irish Foreign Minister (b. 1898)
May 8 - John Fante, American writer (b. 1909)
May 14 - Roger J. Traynor, American judge (b. 1900)
May 19 - Jean Rey (politician)|Jean Rey, President of the European Commission (b. 1902)
May 21 - Kenneth Clark, British art historian (b. 1903)
May 22 - Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
June 2 - Stan Rogers, Canadian musician (b. 1949)
June 12 - Norma Shearer, Canadian-born actress
June 18 - Marianne Brandt, German industrial designer (b. 1893)
June 25 - Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (b. 1916)
July-September
July 1 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect (b. 1895)
July 4 - John Bodkin Adams, alleged English murderer (b. 1899)
July 7 - Vicki Morgan, American model (murdered) (b. 1952)
July 23 - Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899)
July 29 - Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
July 29 - David Niven, English actor (b. 1910)
August 16 - Earl Averill, baseball player (b. 1902)
August 21 - Benigno Aquino Jr., Filipino politician (b. 1932)
September 1 - Larry McDonald, U.S. Congressman (plane crash) (b. 1935)
September 10 - Felix Bloch, Swiss-born physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
September 25 - King Léopold III of Belgium (b. 1901)
September 26 - Tino Rossi, Corsican singer (b. 1907)
October-December
October 6 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, American Catholic archbishop (b. 1921)
October 8 - Joan Hackett, American actress (b. 1934)
October 18 - Willie Jones (baseball)|Willie Jones, baseball player (b. 1925)
October 28 - Otto Messmer, American cartoonist (b. 1892)
November 7 - Germaine Tailleferre, French composer (b. 1892)
November 15 - John Le Mesurier, British actor (b. 1912)
December 2 - Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress (b. 1904)
December 6 - Lucienne Boyer, French singer (b. 1903)
December 11 - Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (b. 1897)
December 21 - Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (b. 1919)
December 25 - Joan Miró, Catalan painter (b. 1893)
Nobel Prizes
Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, William Alfred Fowler
Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry - Henry Taube
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine - Barbara McClintock
Nobel Prize in literature|Literature - William Golding
Nobel Peace Prize|Peace - Lech Wałęsa
Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel|Economics - Gerard Debreu
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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