1981 Calendar
What Happened In Year 1981?
- January 18, 1981 – Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).
- January 20, 1981 – Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated, at age 69 the oldest man ever to be inaugurated as U.S. President, Iran releases 52 American hostages.
- February 5, 1981 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Metal Rooster in Chinese astrology.
- April 12, 1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) launches on the STS-1 mission.
- April 25, 1981 – More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
- May 6, 1981 – A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
- May 25, 1981 – In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
- June 5, 1981 – The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five people in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.
- June 7, 1981 – The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq’s Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera. The facility could have been used to make nuclear weapons.
- June 17, 1981 – Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: In the Hyatt Regency Hotel the 2nd and 4th floor walkways collapse crushing 144 people to death, this was the worst structural failure in the United States.
- August 7, 1981 – The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
- August 10, 1981 – Murder of Adam Walsh: the head of John Walsh’s son is found. This inspires the creation of the television series America’s Most Wanted.
- September 15, 1981 – Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations.
- September 19, 1981 – Simon & Garfunkel reunite for a free concert in New York’s Central Park.
- October 14, 1981 – Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected as the President of Egypt one week after the assassination of the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat.
- October 22, 1981 – The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for its strike the previous August.
- November 30, 1981 – 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 December 17).
- December 1, 1981 – A Yugoslavian Inex Adria Aviopromet DC-9 crashes in Corsica killing all 180 people on board.
- December 4, 1981 – South Africa grants independence to the Ciskei “homeland” (not recognized by any government outside South Africa).
- December 11, 1981 – El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.
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