1980 Calendar
What Happened In Year 1980?
- January 27, 1980 – Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian caper.
- February 4, 1980 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.
- February 16, 1980 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Metal Monkey in Chinese astrology.
- February 24, 1980 – The United States Olympic Hockey team completes their Miracle on Ice by defeating Finland 4-2 to win the gold medal.
- February 29, 1980 – Gordie Howe of the then Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
- March 20, 1980 – The Radio Caroline ship, Mi Amigo founders in a gale off the English coast.
- March 21, 1980 – US President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
- March 27, 1980 – Silver Thursday: A steep fall in silver prices, resulting from the Hunt Brothers attempting to corner the market in silver, led to panic on commodity and futures exchanges.
- May 18, 1980 – 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
- May 20, 1980 – In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
- May 24, 1980 – The International Court of Justice calls for the release of United States embassy hostages in Tehran, Iran. The hostages would not be freed until the following January.
- June 3, 1980 – The 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak. Seven tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska takes five lives, 357 single-family homes, 33 mobile homes, 85 apartments, 49 businesses and $300 million in damages all told, according to National Weather Service and American Red Cross statistics on the deadly storm.
- July 20, 1980 – The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
- August 14, 1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.
- September 1, 1980 – Major General Chun Doo-hwan becomes president of South Korea, following the resignation of Choi Kyu-hah.
- October 25, 1980 – Proceedings on the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction conclude at The Hague.
- November 20, 1980 – Lake Peigneur drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole. The resulting whirlpool sucked the drilling platform, several barges, houses and trees thousands of feet down to the bottom of the dissolving salt deposit.
- November 28, 1980 – Iran–Iraq War: Operation Morvarid – Over 70% of Iraqi Navy was destroyed by Iranian Navy in The Persian Gulf. The Iranian Navy’s Day.
- December 8, 1980 – John Lennon, an English musician (former member of The Beatles), and peace activist, is murdered by Mark David Chapman, a mentally unstable fan, in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City.
- December 24, 1980 – Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, an incident called “Britain’s Roswell”.
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