1983
1983 (
MCMLXXXIII) was a
common year starting on Saturday of the
Gregorian calendar.
January
*
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 8 - A riot breaks out in the
Sing Sing prison,
New York.
*
January 10 -
Mafia hitman Roy DeMeo is found dead in the trunk of his own car.
*
January 15 -
Mafioso Meyer Lansky dies at
Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.
*
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 - 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 involving 105 women.
*
February 3 - Australian Prime Minister
Malcolm Fraser is granted a double dissolution of both houses of parliament for elections for 5 March. Bob Hawke replaces Bill Hayden as federal ALP leader.
*
February 6 -
Klaus Barbie is offically 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 bushfires in
Victoria and
South Australia claim the lives of 76 people in one of
Australia's worst ever fires.
*
February 18 -
Wah Mee massacre - 13 people are killed in an attempted
robbery in
Seattle, Washington.
*
February 23 - The US
Environmental Protection Agency announces its intention to buy out and evacuate the
dioxin-contaminated community of
Times Beach, Missouri.
*
February 24 - A special commission of the
U.S. Congress releases a report critical of the practice of
Japanese internment during
World War II.
*
February 25 -
U.S. playwright
Tennessee Williams is found dead in his
hotel room.
*
February 28 - The TV series
M*A*S*H ends after 11 years and 251 episodes on
CBS.
March
*
March 1 - The Irish band
U2 releases its 3rd album
War*
March 1 -
Balearic Islands and
Madrid become
autonomous communities of
Spain*
March 1 -
Swatch introduce their first watches
*
March 5 -
Bob Hawke elected
Prime Minister of Australia.
*
March 8 -
IBM releases the
IBM PC XT.
*
March 8 -
President Ronald Reagan calls the
Soviet Union an "
evil empire."
*
March 11 - Australia's
First Hawke Ministry sworn in,
Andrew Peacock becomes Federal Opposition leader
*
March 16 - Demolition of the
radio tower Ismaning, the last radio tower in Germany built of
wood.
*
March 23 -
Strategic Defense Initiative:
President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."
*
March 23 - The
Apatosaurus is made the
official state dinosaur of
Guam.
April
*
April 7 - During
STS-6,
Challenger astronauts
Story Musgrave and
Don Peterson perform the first
space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).
*
April 11 National Economic Summit held In Canberra
*
April 12 British film Gandhi wins 8
Oscars.
*
April 12 -
Harold Washington is elected the first
African American mayor of
Chicago.
*
April 15 - American Public Radio founded; changes its name to the current
Public Radio International in
1994*
April 15 - The first non-American
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 the
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 the "
Hitler Diaries" (later found to be forgeries).
*
May 9 - Pope
John Paul II retracts the ban of
Galileo Galilei*
May 11 -
Aberdeen FC win the
European Cup Winners Cup - beating
Real Madrid 2-1 in the final played in Gothenburg, Sweden.
*
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.
*
May 29 -
67th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race:
Tom Sneva wins his first race after three previous runner-up finishes.
June
*
Shipbreaking begins on the beach at
Alang in
Gujarat.
*
June 9:
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 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 of Australia blocks construction of the
Franklin Dam in
Tasmania.
*
July 7 -
Samantha Smith flies to the
Soviet Union (see April 25).
*
July 13 -
Black July massacre of Tamils in
Sri Lanka.
*
July 16 -
Sikorsky S-61 disaster: helicopter crash off the
Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
*
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 and
ethnic cleansing 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 Commission over claims raised by ABC (
Australian Broadcasting Corporation) programme
Four Corners which claimed, he attempted to influence the NSW magistracy.
August
*
August 4 -
Thomas Sankara became President in
Upper Volta.
*
August 18 -
Hurricane Alicia hits the
Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$3.8 billion (2005 dollars)
*
August 18 - 5 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, was found guilty of this in March 1984)
*
August 21 -
Benigno Aquino, Jr.,
Philippines opposition leader, assassinated in
Manila just as he returns from exile
*
August 24 - Old
Philadelphia Arena is destroyed by arson
*
August 30 - The
Space Shuttle Challenger (
STS-8) lifts off, carrying
Guion S. Bluford, the first
African-American astronaut, into space.
*
August 31 -
Cold War:
Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a
Soviet jet fighter when the commercial aircraft entered Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die.
September
*
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 Brower 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 in
England stops sneezing after 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.
*
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 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 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 - Plan to abolish
Greater London Council announced.
*
October 9 -
Rangoon bombing kills
South Korea's Foreign Minister,
Lee Bum Suk, and 21 others.
*
October 12 -
Japan's former Prime Minister
Tanaka Kakuei found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from
Lockheed and sentenced to
four years in jail.
*
October 19 -
Maurice Bishop, the Prime Minister of
Grenada, and 40 others are executed in a military coup.
*
October 21 - At the seventeenth 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 - A
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 troops invade
Grenada at the behest of Dame Eugenia Charles of
Dominica, a member of the
Organization of American States.
*
October 27 -
Pope John Paul II visits
Mehmet Ali Ağca in prison to forgive him. Ali Ağca is the
Turkish gunman who attempted to kill Pope John Paul II in
1981.
*
October 30 - The first democratic elections in
Argentina after
seven years of military rule are held.
November
*
November 2 -
Martin Luther King Day: At the
White House Rose Garden,
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 3 - The Reverend
Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for the
Democratic Party nomination for
U.S. President.
*
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 were 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
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 -
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 10 - End of
Military rule and restoration of
Democracy in
Argentina.
*
December 13 - The
Denver Nuggets and the visiting
Detroit Pistons combined for an
NBA record 370 points, with Detroit winning in triple
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 29 - The Reverend
Jesse Jackson travels to
Syria to secure the release of U.S. Navy Lieutenant
Robert Goodman, who had been held by the Syrians after being shot down over the country on a reconnaisance mission.
*
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
* The
Dodge Caravan, the first minivan to enter production, is released as a
1984 model.
*
Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program launched in U.S.
*
Flashdance and
Return of the Jedi are box-office hits.
*
Gerard Debreu wins the
Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel* The
immunosuppressant cyclosporine was approved by
FDA, leading to a revolution in the field of transplantation.
* In
Australia, the
Northern Territory decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults
* Kellogg's introduces Crispix cereal.
*
Leopold Kohr, the people of
Belau,
Amory and
Hunter Lovins /
Rocky Mountain Institute and
Manfred Max-Neef /
CEPAUR win the
Right Livelihood Award*
McDonald's introduces the
McNugget*
MyFamily was founded.
*
Roxanne Pulitzer divorces
Herbert Pulitzer*
Kary Mullis discovers
polymerase chain reaction while working for Cetus
* The
De Lorean Motor Company ceases production.
January-March
*
January 2 -
Kate Bosworth, American actress
*
January 8 -
Chris Masters, American wrestler
*
January 18 -
Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
*
January 19 -
Hikaru Utada, Japanese singer and songwriter
*
January 24 -
Scott Speed, American racecar driver
*
February 7 -
Elin Grindemyr, Swedish model
*
February 8 -
Jim Verraros, American singer
*
February 19 -
Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer and actress
*
February 19 -
Ryan Whitney, American hockey player
*
February 23 -
Mido, Egyptian footballer
*
February 27-
Devin Harris, American basketball player
*
March 10 -
Carrie Underwood, American singer
*
March 14 -
Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer
*
March 14-
Taylor Hanson, American musician
*
March 15 -
Sean Biggerstaff, British actor
*
March 21 -
Bruno Langley, British actor
*
March 28 -
Ryan Ashington, English footballer
April-May
*
April 10 -
Ryan Merriman, American actor
*
April 13 -
Schalk Burger, South African rugby player
*
April 14 -
Simon Burnett, British swimmer
*
April 15 -
Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player
*
April 17 -
Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan
Major League Baseball player
*
April 21 -
Paweł Brożek, Polish footballer
*
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 13 -
Natalie Cassidy, British actress (
EastEnders)
*
May 14 -
Amber Tamblyn, American actress
*
May 27 -
Bobby Convey, American soccer player
*
May 30 -
Jennifer Ellison, British actress
June-July
*
June 6 -
Joe Rokocoko, New Zealand rugby player
*
June 8 -
Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player
*
June 13 -
Jason Spezza, Canadian hockey player
*
June 15 -
Julia Fischer, German violinist
*
June 17 -
Lee Ryan, British singer
*
June 18 -
Billy Slater, Australian Rugby League
*
June 24 -
Alexander Beyer, German actor
*
June 30 -
Cheryl Tweedy, British singer
*
July 2 -
Michelle Branch, American singer
*
July 6 -
Gregory Smith, Candian-born American actor
*
July 11 -
Marie Eleonor Sernehlot, Swedish-born American singer (
A*Teens)
*
July 12 -
Megumi Kawamura, Japanese model
*
July 13 -
Liu Xiang, Chinese athlete
*
July 21 -
Eivør Pálsdóttir, Faroese singer and composer
*
July 21 -
Kellen Winslow Jr., American football player
*
July 23 -
Bec Cartwright, Australian actress
*
July 23 -
Aaron Peirsol, American swimmer
August-November
*
August 5 -
Sam Stacey, British model
*
August 6 -
Robin van Persie, Dutch football player
*
August 14 -
Mila Kunis, Ukrainian-American actress
*
August 19 -
Tammin Sursok, Australian actress
*
August 21 -
Chantelle Houghton, British reality TV star
*
August 23 -
Nicol David,
Malaysian squash player
*
August 24 -
Christopher Parker, British actor
*
September 1 -
Jose Antonio Reyes, Spanish football player
*
September 17 -
Jennifer Peña, American singer
*
September 21 -
Maggie Grace, American actress
*
September 21 -
Joseph Mazzello, American actor
*
September 24 -
Randy Foye, American basketball player
*
September 26 -
Samantha Hammel, American producer, actress and singer
*
October 4 -
Risa Kudo, Japanese gravure idol
*
October 5 -
Nicky Hilton, American model and socialite
*
October 14 -
Vanessa Lane, American porn star
*
October 17 -
Michelle Ang, Australian actress
*
October 24 -
Brian Vickers, American race car driver
*
October 29 -
Amit Sebastian Paul, Swedish-born American singer (
A*Teens)
*
October 29 -
Richard Brancatisano, Australian actor/musician (
Power Rangers: Mystic Force)
*
October 30 -
Diana Karazon, Jordanian singer
*
November 8 -
Blanka Vlašić, Croatian high jumper
*
November 11 -
Philipp Lahm, German footballer
*
November 16 -
Fallon Bowman, South African-born guitarist (
Kittie)
*
November 18-
Mila J, American singer/rapper
*
November 18 -
Jon Johansen, Norwegian computer programmer
December
*
December 6 -
Bryan Habana, South African rugby player
*
December 9 -
Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer
*
December 10 -
Patrick Flueger, American actor (
Law & Order: SVU,
The 4400)
*
December 12 -
Katrina Elam, American singer
*
December 12 -
Brad Smith, American football player
*
December 13 -
Otylia Jędrzejczak, Polish swimmer
*
December 15 -
René Duprée, Canadian professional wrestler
*
December 17 -
Erik Christensen, Canadian hockey player
*
December 20 -
Lucy Pinder, British model
*
December 31 -
Sayaka Ichii, Japanese singer
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)
*
January 28 -
Billy Fury, British
Rock 'n' Roll artist of the
1960s*
February 4 -
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 laureate (b.
1905)
*
March 15 -
Rebecca West, English-born writer (b.
1892)
*
March 17 -
Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1903)
*
March 27 -
Elsie Eaves, American civil engineer,
George Norlin Silver Medal from the University of Colorado (b.
1898)
April-June
*
April 4 -
Gloria Swanson, American actress (b.
1897)
*
April 22 -
Earl 'Fatha' Hines, American musician (b.
1903)
*
April 30 -
McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield, American Musician (b.
1915)
*
May 8 -
John Fante, American writer (b.
1909)
*
May 14 -
Roger J. Traynor, American judge (b.
1900)
*
May 18 -
Frank Aiken, Irish Foreign Minister (b.
1898)
*
May 19 -
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)
*
May 31 -
Jack Dempsey, American heavyweight champion boxer (b.
1895)
*
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 20 -
Frank Reynolds, American journalist (b.
1923)
*
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 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 player (b.
1925)
*
October 23 -
Jessica Savitch, American journalist (drowned in a car accident) (b.
1947)
*
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 8 -
Slim Pickens, American actor (b.
1919)
*
December 11 - Sir
Neil Ritchie, British general (b.
1897)
*
December 21 -
Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (b.
1919)
*
December 23 -
Colin Middleton, Northern Irish artist (b.
1910}
*
December 25 -
Joan Miró, Catalan painter (b.
1893)
*
December 28 -
Dennis Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (drowned) (b.
1944)
*
Physics -
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar,
William Alfred Fowler*
Chemistry -
Henry Taube*
Medicine -
Barbara McClintock*
Literature -
William Golding*
Peace -
Lech Wałęsa*
Economics -
Gerard Debreu*
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
