Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
STS-1

STS-1

: STS-1 is also an abbreviation for Synchronous Transport Signal (level)-1 in the SONET hierarchy.
Mission insignia
image:STS-1 flight insignia.png
Mission statistics
Mission:STS-1
Shuttle:Columbia
Launch pad: 39A
Launch:April 12, 1981
6:00:03 a.m. CST (12:00:03 UTC)
Landing:April 14, 1981
12:20:57 p.m. CST (18:20:57 UTC)
Edwards AFB, Runway 23
Duration: 2 days, 6 hours,
20 minutes, 53 seconds
Orbit altitude: 166 nautical miles (307 km)
Orbit inclination: 40.3 degrees
Orbits: 36
Distance traveled:1,074,000 miles (1,728,000 km)
Crew photo
image:STS-1 crew.jpg
Crew members John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen pose in ejection escape suits (EES) with small model of space shuttle.
The first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, launched April 12, 1981, returned April 14. Space Shuttle Columbia orbited the earth 36 times in this 54.5 hour mission.

Crew


- Commander: John W. Young (flew on Gemini 3, Gemini 10, Apollo 10, Apollo 16, STS-1, & STS-9)
- Pilot: Robert Crippen (flew on STS-1, STS-7, STS-41-C, & STS-41-G) The crew of STS-2 served as backup for this mission.
- Backup Commander: Joe Engle
- Backup Pilot: Richard Truly

Mission parameters


- Mass:
  - Orbiter Liftoff: 99,453 kg
  - Orbiter Landing: 88,662 kg
  - DFI payload: 4,909 kg
- Perigee: 240 km
- Apogee: 251 km
- Inclination: 40.3°
- Period: 89.4 min

Mission highlights

The first launch of the Space Shuttle occurred on April 12, 1981, when the orbiter Columbia, with two crew members, astronauts John W. Young, commander, and Robert L. Crippen, pilot, lifted off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, at the Kennedy Space Center -- the first of 24 launches from Pad A. It was exactly 7 a.m. EST. A launch attempt, 2 days before, was scrubbed because of a timing problem in one of the Columbia's general purpose computers. Not only was this the first launch of the Space Shuttle, but it marked the first time that solid fuel rockets were used for a U.S. manned launch. The STS-1 orbiter, Columbia, also holds the record for the amount of time spent in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) before launch -- 610 days, time needed for replacement of many of its heat shield tiles. Primary mission objectives of the maiden flight were to check out the overall Shuttle system, accomplish a safe ascent into orbit and to return to Earth for a safe landing. All of these objectives were met successfully and the Shuttle's worthiness as a space vehicle was verified. The only payload carried on the mission was a Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) package which contained sensors and measuring devices to record orbiter performance and the stresses that occurred during launch, ascent, orbital flight, descent and landing. The 36-orbit, 933,757-mile-long flight lasted 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes and 32 seconds. Landing took place on Runway 23 at Edwards AFB, Calif., on April 14, 1981, at 10:21 a.m. PST. Post-flight inspection of the Columbia revealed that an overpressure wave which occurred when the SRB ignited resulted in the loss of 16 heat shield tiles and damage to 148 others. In all other respects, however, Columbia came through the flight with flying colors, and it was to fly the next four Shuttle missions. Columbia was returned to Kennedy Space Center from California on April 28 atop its 747 carrier aircraft.

Mission insignia

The art work for the official mission insignia was done by artist Robert McCall.

Anniversary

Yuri's Night is an international celebration held on April 12 every year to commemorate the first human in space and the first Space Shuttle launch.

See also


- Space science
- Space shuttle
- List of manned spaceflights to the ISS
- List of space shuttle missions
- List of human spaceflights chronologically

Media

Image:Columba.sts-1.training.triddle.jpg| Image:Space shuttle.sts-1.crawler.triddle.jpg| Image:Columba.sts-1.launch_pad_arival.triddle.jpg Image:Columbia.sts-1.pad at night.triddle.jpg| Image:Shuttle.jpg| Image:Sts1-liftoff-columbia.triddle.jpg| Image:Columbia landing on Rogers dry lake.triddle.jpg| Image:Columbia.sts-1.egress.triddle.jpg|

External links


- [http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/chron/sts-1.htm NASA PAO page about STS-1]
Previous mission:
None		 Space Shuttle program Next mission:
STS-2
STS-001 STS-001 ja:STS-1

Synchronous optical networking

The Synchronous optical network, commonly known as SONET, is a standard for communicating digital information using lasers or light emitting diodes (LEDs) over optical fiber as defined by GR-253-CORE from Telcordia. It was developed to replace the PDH system for transporting large amounts of telephone and data traffic and to allow for interoperability between equipment from different vendors. The more recent Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) standard developed by ITU (G.707 and its extension G.708) is built on experience in the development of SONET. Both SDH and SONET are widely used today; SONET in the U.S. and Canada, SDH in the rest of the world. SDH is growing in popularity and is currently the main concern with SONET now being considered as the variation. SONET differs from PDH in that the exact rates that are used to transport the data are tightly synchronized to network based clocks. Thus an entire network can operate synchronously, though the presence of different timing sources allow for different circuits within an SONET signal to be timed off of different clocks (through the use of pointers and buffers.) SDH was made possible by the existence of atomic clocks. Both SONET and SDH can be used to encapsulate earlier digital transmission standards, such as the PDH standard, or used directly to support either ATM or so-called Packet over SONET networking. As such, it is innaccurate to think of SONET as a communications protocol in and of itself, but rather as a generic and all-purpose transport container for moving both voice and data.

Structure of SONET/SDH signals

The basic SONET signal operates at 51.840 Mbit/s and is designated STS-1 (Synchronous Transport Signal one). The STS-1 frame is the basic unit of transmission in SONET. The Synchronous Transport Module level 1 (STM-1) is the basic signal rate of SDH. The two major components of the STS-1 frame are the transport overhead and the synchronous payload envelope (SPE). The transport overhead (27 bytes) comprises the section overhead and line overhead. These bytes are used for signalling and measuring transmission error rates. The SPE comprises the payload overhead (9 bytes, used for end to end signalling and error measurement) and the payload of 774 bytes. The STS-1 payload is designed to carry a full DS-3 frame. When the DS-3 enters a SONET network, path overhead is added, and that SONET network element is said to be path terminating. Where multiple DS-3 paths are multiplexed, the SONET NE is said to be line terminating. The entire STS-1 frame is 810 bytes. The STS-1 frame is transmitted in exactly 125 microseconds on a fiber-optic circuit designated OC-1 (optical carrier one). In practice the terms STS-1 and OC-1 are sometimes used interchangeably, though the OC-N format refers to the signal in its optical form. It is therefore incorrect to say that an OC-3 contains 3 OC-1s: An OC-3 can be said to contain 3 STS-1s. Three OC-1 (STS-1) signals are multiplexed by time-division multiplexing to form the next level of the SONET hierarchy, the OC-3 (STS-3), running at 155.52 Mbit/s. The multiplexing is performed by interleaving the bytes of the three STS-1 frames to form the STS-3 frame, containing 2430 bytes and transmitted in 125 microseconds. The STS-3 signal is also used as a basis for the SDH hierarchy, where it is designated STM-1. Higher speed circuits are formed by successively aggregating multiples of slower circuits, their speed always being immediately apparent from their designation. For example, four OC-3 or STM-1 circuits can be aggregated to form a 622.08 Mbit/s circuit designated as OC-12 or STM-4. The highest rate that is commonly deployed is the OC-192 or STM-64 circuit, which operates at rate of just under 10 Gbit/s. Speeds beyond 10 Gbit/s are technically viable and are under evaluation. Where fiber exhaust is a concern, multiple SONET signals can be transported over multiple wavelengths over a single fiber pair by means of Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM). Such circuits are the basis for all modern transatlantic cable systems and other long-haul circuits.

SONET/SDH and relationship to 10 Gigabit Ethernet

Another fast growing circuit type amongst data networking equipment is 10 Gigabit Ethernet - while similar in rate to OC-192/STM-64, and, in its wide area variant, encapsulating its data using a light-weight SDH/SONET frame so as to be compatible at low level with equipment designed to carry those signals, it does not provide any interoperability at the bitstream level with other SDH/SONET systems.

SONET/SDH data rates

SONET/SDH system management protocols

SONET equipment is often managed with the TL1 protocol. TL1 is a traditional telecom language for managing and reconfiguring SONET network elements. TL1 (or whatever command language a SONET Network Element utilizes) must be carried by other management protocols, including SNMP, CORBA, and XML. SONET Network Management is a large, difficult, and arcane subject, but there are some features that are fairly universal. First of all, most SONET NEs have a limited number of management interfaces defined. These are:
- Electrical Interface. The electrical interface (often 50 ohm)sends SONET TL1 commands from a local management network physically housed in the Central Office where the SONET NE is located. This is for "local management" of that NE and, possibly, remote management of other SONET NEs.
- Craft Interface. Local "craftspersons" can access a SONET NE and issue commands through a dumb terminal or terminal emulation program running on a laptop.
- SDH has dedicated Data Communciation Channels DCC for management traffic. According to ITU-T G. 7712 there are three modes used for management:
- IP only stack, using PPP as data-link
- OSI only stack, using LAP-D as data-link
- Dual (IP+OSI) stack using PPP or LAP-D with tunneling functions to communicate between stacks. An interesting fact about modern SONET NEs is that, to handle all of the possible management channels and signals, most NEs actually contain a router for routing the network commands and underlying (data) protocols.

SONET Network Architectures

Currently, SONET (and SDH) have a limited number of architectures defined. These architectures allow for efficient bandwidth usage as well as protection, and are key in understanding the almost worldwide usage of SONET and SDH for moving digital traffic. The three main architectures are:
- Linear APS (Automatic Protection Switching) SONET Linear APS Networks contain 4 fibers: 2 working in each direction, and two protect.
- UPSR (Unidirectional Path Switched Ring)In a UPSR two (path-level) copies of protected traffic are sent in either direction around a ring. A selector at the egress determines the higher-quality copy and decides to switch, if deterioration in one copy occurs. UPSRs tend to sit nearer to the edge of a SONET network and, as such, are sometimes called "collector rings".
- BLSR (Bidirectional Line Switched Ring) BLSR comes in two varieties, a 2-fiber BLSR and 4-fiber BLSR. BLSRs switch at the line layer. Unlike UPSR, BLSR does not send redundant copies from ingress to egress. Rather, the ring nodes adjacent to the failure reroute the traffic "the long way" around the ring. BLSRs trade cost and complexity for bandwdith efficiency as well as the ability to support "extra traffic", which can be pre-empted when a protection switching event occurs. BLSRs can operate within a metropolitan region or, often, will move traffic between municipalities.

SONET Synchronization

Like management, Synchronization of SONET and SDH networks is a difficult and arcane subject. Remember that a SONET NE will transport and/or multiplex traffic that has originated from a variety of different Synch sources. In addition, a SONET NE may have a number of different synchronization options to choose from, which in some cases it will do so dynamically based on Synch Status Messages and other indicators. As for Synchronization sources available to a SONET NE, these are:
- Local External Timing. This is generated by an atomic Cesium clock or a satellite-derived clock by a device located in the same central office as the SONET NE. the interface is often a DS1, with Synch Status Messages supplied by the clock and placed into the DS1 overhead.
- Line-derived timing. a SONET NE can choose (or be configured) to derive its timing from the line-level, by monitoring the S1 Synch Status bytes to ensure quality.
- Holdover. As a last resort, in the absence of higher quality timing, a SONET NE can go into "holdover", until higher quality external timing becomes available again. In this mode a SONET NE uses its own timing circuits to time the SONET signal. An interesting and hard-to-troubleshoot issue in SONET Networks is the existence of "timing loops". With a timing loop, SONET NEs in a network are each deriving their timing from another NE, and back again to initial NE, like a snake biting it's own tail. This network loop will eventually see it's own timing "float away" from any external SONET networks, causing mysterious bit errors, the source of which can be hard to find (unless the presence of the timing loop is detected). In general, a SONET Network that has been properly configured will never find itself in a timing loop, but it is sometimes hard to avoid this without sophisticated network management tools.

Next Generation SDH

SONET/SDH was originally developed primarily to transport multiple DS1s (ie T1s), DS3s (ie, T3s), and other groups of multiplexed 64kbit/s pulse-code modulated voice traffic. The ability to transport ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) traffic was another early application. In order to support large ATM bandwidths, the technique of concatenation was developed, whereby smaller SONET multiplexing containers (eg, STS-1) are inversely multiplexed to build up a larger container (eg, STS-3c) to support large data-oriented pipes. (Another example is STS-3c Packet-over-SONET.)SONET was therefore able to transport both voice and data simultaneously. One problem with the traditional concatentation, however, is inflexibility. Depending on the data and voice traffic mix that must be carried, there can be a large amount of unused bandwidth left over, due to the fixed sizes of concatenated containers. Virtual Concatentation allows for a more arbitrary gluing-together of lower order multiplexing containers to build larger containers of fairly arbitrary size, without the need for intermediate SONET NEs to support that particular form of concatenation. Virtual Concatenation now often leverages X.86 or Generic Framing Procedure(GFP) protocols in order to map payloads of arbitrary bandwidth into the virtually concatenated container. Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) allows for dynamically changing the bandwidth via dynamically virtually concatenating multiplexing containers based (ostensibly) on short-term bandwidth needs in the network.

See also


- Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching

External links


- [http://www.commsdesign.com/design_corner/OEG20020425S0003 Ethernet-over-Sonet Tutorial: Part 2]
- [http://fibers.org/articles/fs/9/3/3/1 Next-generation SDH and MSPP]
- [http://img.lightreading.com/heavyreading/pdf/hr20031114_esum.pdf The Future of SONET/SDH] (pdf)
- [http://www.corrigent.com/CS_products_SONET.html SONET/SDH]
- [http://comm.disa.mil/itu/r_g0700.html ITU-T defining standards]
- [http://www.pcc.qub.ac.uk/tec/courses/network/SDH-SONET/SDH-SONET.html The Queen's University of Belfast SDH/SONET Primer]
- [http://www.acterna.com/united_kingdom/technical_resources/pocket_guides/sdh_guide1.html SDH Pocket Handbook from Acterna]
- [http://www.acterna.com/united_kingdom/technical_resources/pocket_guides/sonet_guide.html SONET Pocket Handbook from Acterna]
- [http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/netspeeds.html Network Connection Speeds Reference]
- [http://rfc-ref.org/RFC-TEXTS/4207/index.html Synchronous Optical Network / Synchronous Digital Hierarchy Encoding for Link Management Protocol Test Messages] Category:Fiber optics Category:Network protocols ja:Synchronous Digital Hierarchy

Space Shuttle Columbia

Space Shuttle Columbia (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) was the first space shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. Its first mission, STS-1, lasted from April 12 to April 14, 1981. On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on its 28th mission; all seven crew members aboard were killed (see Space Shuttle Columbia disaster).

History

Construction began on Columbia in 1975 primarily in Palmdale, California. Columbia was named after the Boston-based sloop Columbia captained by American Robert Gray, which explored the Pacific Northwest and became the first American vessel to circumnavigate the world; the name also honored Columbia, the Command Module of Apollo 11. After construction, the orbiter arrived at John F. Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979 to prepare for its first launch. On March 19, 1981 during preparations for a ground test, five workers were asphyxiated during a nitrogen purge, resulting in two deaths. The first flight of Columbia (STS-1) was commanded by John Young (a space veteran from the Gemini and Apollo eras) and piloted by Robert Crippen, a rookie who had never been in space before, but who served as a support crew member for the Skylab missions and Apollo-Soyuz. It launched April 12, 1981 and returned April 14, 1981 after orbiting the earth 36 times. In 1983, Columbia launched the first mission (STS-9) with 6 astronauts, including the first non-American astronaut on a space shuttle, Ulf Merbold. On January 12, 1986 Columbia took off with the first Hispanic American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, as well as the first sitting member of the House of Representatives in space, Bill Nelson. Another first was announced on March 5, 1998 when NASA named their choice of U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins as commander of a future Columbia mission making Collins the first woman commander of a space shuttle mission. Eileen Collins

Prototype orbiter

Unlike its sister orbiters, Columbia was different from the beginning, right up to its destruction in 2003. One of the most notable features was the black "chines" located on the upper wing surfaces. In addition, for the first four flights, the orbiter was equipped with modified SR-71 Blackbird ejection seats, that were made inactive after STS-4 and removed after STS-9. It also lacked, until its return to space in 1986, a heads-up display for the commander and pilot, and had an "all-tile" thermal protection system, which was later replaced with Nomex felt blankets. Other major differences include the orbiter retaining the internal airlock, although it was retrofitted for an external airlock for flights to the International Space Station, along with having, until its last retrofitting, wing markings bearing an American flag on the left (port) wing and a "USA" on the right (starboard) wing--these were replaced with the newer NASA "meatball" logo on the left wing and the American flag and "Columbia" name on the right. Like Atlantis and Discovery, Columbia also had the new MEDS "glass cockpit" display installed during its last retrofit. Another feature, located on the tailfin, was the so-called "STILTS" pod, which was used to measure infrared and other thermal readouts during long-duration missions. The tailfin was also modified to incorporate the drag chute first used on Endeavour.

Final mission

Nomex] Main article: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster On its final mission, the craft was carrying the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, and the first female astronaut of Indian birth, Kalpana Chawla. Other crew members on the final flight included Rick Husband (commander), Willie McCool (pilot), Michael P. Anderson, Laurel Clark, and David M. Brown. On the morning of February 1, 2003, the shuttle re-entered the atmosphere after a 16-day scientific mission. NASA lost radio contact at about 9 a.m. EST, only minutes before the expected 09:16 a.m. landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Video recordings show the craft breaking up in flames over Texas, at an altitude of approximately 39 miles (63 km) and a speed of 12,500 mph (5.6 km/s). In the months following the tragedy, NASA scientists determined that a hole was punctured in the leading edge on one of Columbia's wings, made of a Carbon-Carbon composite. The hole had formed when a piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank peeled off during the launch 16 days earlier, puncturing the edge of the wing. Hot ionized gases, called plasma, entered the interior of the wing, destroying the support structure and causing the rest of the shuttle to break apart during the intense heat of re-entry. The collected debris of the vessel are currently stored in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center; recovered items are occasionally loaned for research into the hypersonic flight regime.

Flights

Space Shuttle Columbia flew 28 flights, spent 300.74-days in space, completed 4,808 orbits, and flew 125,204,911 miles in total, including its final mission. plasma

See also


- List of space shuttle missions

External links


- [http://caib.nasa.gov/ Columbia accident investigation board]
- [http://www.chrisvalentines.com/sts107/index.html Columbia Disaster Multi-Media]
- [http://www.io.com/~o_m/clfaq/clfaq.htm Columbia Loss FAQ]
- [http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/orbiters.html Orbiter Vehicles]
- [http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/columbia.html Shuttle Orbiter Columbia (OV-102)]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/01/national/01WEB-SHUT.html New York Times coverage of the shuttle]
- [http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2003/02/01 Scripting News' roundup of links about the shuttle]
- [http://geology.heroy.smu.edu/~dpa-www/columbia/ NVAR and TXAR Infrasound of Explosion of Space Shuttle Columbia] Category:Manned spacecraft Category:Space Program Deaths Category:Space Shuttle program ja:コロンビア (オービタ)

1981

1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-February


- January - Sarawak chamber found
- January 1 - Greece enters the EEC
- January 1 - Palau becomes self-governing
- January 4 - Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper
- January 13 - Donna Griffiths, a schoolgirl in Pershore, Worcestershire, UK, begins a 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 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 as President of the United States of America. Minutes after Reagan becomes president, Iran releases 52 American hostages that had been held captive for 444 days - Iran hostage crisis ends.
- February 4 - Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the Prime Minister of Norway
- 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 eight and injures 198
- 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 was going to be named president of the government. The coup d'état would fail thanks to King Juan Carlos.

March-April

Juan Carlos.]]
- March 1 - Bobby Sands, an IRA member, begins hunger strike for political status in Long Kesh prison - he dies May 5, the first of ten men.
- March 6 - After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
- March 7 - Colombian guerillas execute US bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman for being a CIA agent
- March 11 - Chilean president Augusto Pinochet sworn in for an eight-year term as president.
- March 19 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
- March 30 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr., whose family had connections with the vice president. Two police officers and James Brady are also wounded.
- April 11 - Riot in Brixton, South London - rioters throw petrol bombs, attack police and loot shops.
- April 12 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
- April 15 - The Australian Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock resigns from cabinet accusing the Australian Prime Minister Fraser of gross disloyalty.
- April 18 - A Minor League baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning was not played until June 23rd).

May


- May - Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon Basin
- May 6 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
- May 10 - In the second round of the presidential elections in France (French presidential election, 1981), François Mitterrand beats Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
- May 13 - Pope John Paul II is shot at and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St. Peter's Square in Rome to address a general audience. (Two days after Christmas in 1983, Pope John Paul went to the prison to meet and forgive his would-be assassin)
- May 21 - In France, socialist François Mitterrand becomes president of the Republic.
- May 22 - Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, imprisoned for life for 13 counts of 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 P-2
- May 30 - Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman assassinated in Chittagong.

June-July

Chittagong return to Buckingham Palace following their wedding watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.]]
- June 5 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (these were the first recognized cases of AIDS).
- June 6 - Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into the River Kosi, in Bihar, India - about 800 dead
- June 7 - Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor
- June 13 - At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager Marcus Sargeant fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
- June 22 - Hamas attacks a travel agency in Greece - two dead
- June 22 - Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr deposed
- June 29 - Morris Edwin Robert armed with a machine gun holds hostages in the FBI section in Atlanta Federal Building. After three hours the hostages are rescued - Robert is shot
- 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 bombers destroy the PLO HQ in Beirut
- July 27 - Wheel of Fortune premiers in Australia on the Seven Network.
- July 29 - Lady Diana Spencer marries Charles, Prince of Wales.

August-October


- August 1 - MTV (Music Television) is launched.
- August 5 - Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
- August 7 - The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
- August 12 - The original IBM PC released in the United States.
- August 19 - Gulf of Sidra incident (1981). Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sends two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two US fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroyed the Libyan fighters.
- August 19 - US President Ronald Reagan appoints the first female US Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor.
- August 28 - South African troops invade Angola.
- August 31 - A bomb explodes at the US Army base in Ramstein, West Germany injuring 20 people.
- September 4 - An explosion at a mine in Zalizin, Czechoslovakia - 65 dead.
- September 10 - Picasso's painting "Guernica" is moved from New York to Madrid.
- 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 18 - France abolishes capital punishment.
- October 6 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who were part of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization, who opposed his negotiations with Israel.
- October 10 - The Ministry for Education of Japan issues the jōyō kanji.
- October 14 - Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
- October 21 - Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece.

November-December

Prime Minister of Greece
- November 1 - Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom
- November 13 - The first Friday the 13th event held by motorcyclists in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada
- November 23 - Iran-Contra scandal: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua
- November 25-November 26 - Group of mercenaries lead by Mike Hoare take over Mahe airport in the Seychelles in a coup attempt. Most of the mercenaries escape by a commandeered Air India passenger jet, six are later arrested
- November 30 - 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 Thursday, December 17)
- 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 11 - El Mozote massacre - in El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians
- December 13 - Wojciech Jaruzelski declares the state of martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity
- December 15 - A car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 61 people. This is the first modern suicide bombing. Syrian intelligence is blamed.
- December 20 - The Penlee lifeboat disaster off the coast of South-West Cornwall
- December 28 - The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born (Norfolk, Virginia)

unknown dates


- Millennium Renactment of the translation of Saint Edward the Martyr's relics from Wareham to Shaftesbury
- Mauritania abolishes the institution of slavery.
- James Tobin wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
- Mike Cooley, Bill Mollison and Patrick van Rensburg / Education with Production win the Right Livelihood Award
- The counter-culture wire service LNS ceases operations.
- Public funding of election Campaigns introduced in New South Wales, Australia
- The State Council of the People's Republic of China listed the four cities (Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Guilin) as where the protection of historical and cultural heritage as well as natural scenery should be treated as a prior project.
- Cuba suffers a major outbreak of Dengue hemorrhagic fever, with 344 203 cases. [http://w3.whosea.org/en/Section10/Section332/Section521_2454.htm]
- Computer and Video Games (magazine) begins publication.

Births

January-March


- January 1 - Zsolt Baumgartner, Hungarian race car driver
- January 3 - Eli Manning, American football player
- January 6 - Mike Jones, American rapper
- 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 20 - Jason Richardson, American basketball player
- January 20 - Owen Hargreaves, Canadian-born footballer
- January 21 - Dany Heatley, German-born hockey player
- January 22 - Chantelle Anderson, American basketball player
- January 22 - Willa Ford, American singer, television hostess, and actress
- January 22 - Beverley Mitchell, American actress
- January 25 - Alicia Keys, American musician
- January 28 - Elijah Wood, American actor
- January 31 - Justin Timberlake, American musician
- February 3 - Alisa Reyes, American actress
- 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 17 - Paris Hilton, American actress and heiress
- February 18 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
- February 22 - Jeanette Biedermann, German singer and actress
- February 24 - Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player
- February 27 - Josh Groban, American singer
- March 1 -Ana Hickmann, Brazilian model
- March 2 - Bryce Howard, American actress
- March 3 - Lil' Flip, American rapper
- March 9 - Antonio Bryant, American football player
- March 11 - David Anders, American actor
- March 11 - Lee Evans, American football player
- March 11 - LeToya Luckett, American musician (Destiny's Child)
- March 16 - Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
- March 28 - Julia Stiles, American actress

April-June


- April 1 - Hannah Spearritt, British singer (S Club 7)
- April 2 - Bethany Joy Lenz, American actress and singer
- April 10 - Michael Pitt, American actor
- April 14 - Mary Castro, American model and actress
- April 17 - Hanna Pakarinen, Finnish singer
- April 19 - Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor
- April 19 - Catalina Sandino Moreno, Colombian actress
- April 19 - Troy Polamalu, American football player
- April 22 - Ken Dorsey, American football player
- April 28 - Jessica Alba, American actress
- May 5 - Craig David, British singer
- May 5 - Danielle Fishel, American actress
- May 11 - Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
- May 13 - Sunny Leone, Canadian entertainer
- May 15 - Jamie-Lynn DiScala, American actress
- May 19 - Klaas-Erik Zwering, Dutch swimmer
- May 20 - Sean Conlon, English musician (5ive)
- May 20 - Lindsay Taylor, American basketball player
- June 1 - Carlos Zambrano, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- June 7 - Anna Kournikova, Russian tennis player
- June 7 - Larisa Oleynik, American actress
- June 9 - Natalie Portman, Israeli-born actress
- June 13 - Christopher Robert Evans, American actor
- June 12 - Adriana Lima, Brazilian model
- June 21 - Brandon Flowers, American singer and keyboardist (The Killers)

July-September


- July 8 - Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player
- July 23 - Michelle Williams, American singer (Destiny's Child)
- July 24 - Summer Glau, American actress (Firefly)
- August 4 - Marques Houston, American singer and actor
- August 5 - Carl Crawford, baseball player
- August 5 - Kō Shibasaki, Japanese singer and actress
- August 8 - Vanessa Amorosi, Australian singer and songwriter
- August 8 - Roger Federer, Swiss tennis player
- August 8 - Meagan Good, American actress
- August 16 - Taylor Rain, American actress
- August 24 - Chad Michael Murray, American actor
- August 25 - Rachel Bilson, American actress
- September 1 - Clinton Portis, American football player
- September 4 - Beyoncé Knowles, American singer (Destiny's Child) and actress
- September 8 - Jonathan Taylor Thomas, American actor
- September 16 - Alexis Bledel, American actress
- September 21 - Nicole Richie, American actress
- September 22 - Rocco Baldelli, baseball player
- September 26 - Christina Milian, Afro-Cuban singer, songwriter and musician
- September 26 - Serena Williams, American tennis player
- September 30 - Dominique Moceanu, American gymnast

October-December


- October 1 - Jamelia, British singer
- October 3 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Swedish footballer
- October 11 - Beau Brady, Australian actor
- October 15 - Elena Dementieva, Russian tennis player
- October 20 - Willis McGahee, American football player
- October 22 - Michael Fishman, American actor
- October 28 - Milan Baros, Czech footballer
- October 29 - Amanda Beard, American swimmer
- October 30 - Ivanka Trump, American model
- October 31 - Irina Denezhkina, Russian writer
- October 31 - Frank Iero, American guitarist (My Chemical Romance)
- November 1 - LaTavia Roberson, American musician (Destiny's Child)
- November 3 - Jackie Gayda, American professional wrestler
- November 4 - Vince Wilfork, American football player
- November 8 - Azura Skye, American actress
- November 11 - Natalie Glebova, Canadian pageant winner (2005 Miss Universe)
- November 26 - Natasha Bedingfield, British singer
- November 26 - Aurora Snow, American actress
- December 2 - Britney Spears, American singer
- December 3 - Brian Bonsall, American actor
- December 4 - Lila McCann, American singer
- December 7 - Ben Adams, British singer (a1)
- December 13 - Amy Lee, American singer (Evanescence)
- December 15 - Kyle McKain, American Club DJ
- December 15 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)
- December 21 - Shizuka Arakawa, Japanese figure skater
- December 27 - Yuvraj Singh, Indian cricketer
- December 28 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, first American test-tube baby
- December 28 - Sienna Miller, American-born actress
- December 29 - Angela Via, American singer
- December 30 - Haley Paige, American actress

Deaths


- January 5 - Harold C. Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)
- January 5 - Lanza del Vasto, Italian-born philosopher, poet, and activist (b. 1901)
- January 6 - A.J. Cronin, Scottish novelist (b. 1896)
- January 10 - Katherine Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)
- January 23 - Samuel Barber, American composer (b. 1910)
- February 1 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
- February 9 - Bill Haley, American musician (b. 1925)
- February 15 - Karl Richter, German conductor (b. 1926)
- February 20 - Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, magazine editor, socialite (b. 1904)
- February 26 - Howard Hanson, American composer (b. 1896)
- March 6 - George Geary, English cricketer (b. 1893)
- March 7 - Kiril Kondrashin, Russian conductor (b. 1914)
- March 9 - Max Delbrück, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
- April 7 - Norman Taurog, American film director (b. 1899)
- April 12 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
- April 27 - John Aspinwall Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1916)
- May 9 - Nelson Algren, American author (b.1909)
- May 11 - Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
- May 11 - Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1945)
- May 18 - William Saroyan, American author (b. 1908)
- June 1 - Carl Vinson, U.S. Congressman (b. 1883)
- June 19 - Lotte Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (b. 1899)
- June 28 - Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (b. 1958)
- August 14 - Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (b. 1894)
- September 1 - Albert Speer, Nazi official (b. 1905)
- September 2 - Dame Enid Lyons, Australia politician (b. 1897)
- September 8 - Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (b. 1913)
- September 8 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
- September 9 - Sir Robert (Bob) Askin, Premier of New South Wales (b. 1907)
- September 12 - Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1896)
- October 2 - Harry Golden, American journalist (b. 1902)
- October 6 - Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b. 1918)
- October 16 - Stanley Clements, American actor (b. 1926)
- October 16 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
- November 7 - Will Durant, American philosopher and writer (b. 1885)
- November 22 - Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1900)
- November 29 - Natalie Wood, American actress (drowned) (b. 1938)
- December 28 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born film director (b. 1885)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Kai M. Siegbahn
- Chemistry - Kenichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann
- Medicine - Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel, Torsten N. Wiesel
- Literature - Elias Canetti
- Peace - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Templeton Prize


- Dame Cicely Saunders Category:1981 als:1981 ko:1981년 ja:1981年 simple:1981 th:พ.ศ. 2524

April 14

April 14 is the 104th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (105th in leap years). There are 261 days remaining.

Events


- 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum. Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is killed.
- AD 69 - Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne.
- 1028 - Henry III, son of Conrad, was elected king of the Germans.
- 1205 - Battle of Adrianople between Bulgars and Crusaders.
- 1450 - Battle of Formigny. French attack and nearly annihilate English, ending English domination in northern France.
- 1471 - In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeated the Lancastrians under Warwick at the battle of Barnet; the Earl of Warwick was killed and Edward IV resumed the throne.
- 1632 - Battle of Rain, Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
- 1775 - The first abolition society in the North America was established. The "Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage" was organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
- 1828 - Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
- 1849 - Hungary declared itself independent of Austria with Louis Kossuth as its leader.
- 1860 - The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California.
- 1861 - At the start of the American Civil War, the battle of Fort Sumter ended after the Confederates under Beuaregard bombarded the fort with 4,000 shells. The first causualty of the Civil War died when his cannon backfired.
- 1864 - Battle at the Düppeler Schanzen: The Prussian Army defeats the Danish and finally separates Schleswig from Danmark, Schleswig becomes a part of Germany.
- 1865 - Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth; he dies the next day.
- 1890 - The Pan American Union was founded by the First International Conference of American States at their meeting in Washington. Known originally as the International Bureau of American Republics, William Elleroy Curtis became its first director.
- 1894 - Thomas Edison demonstrates the kinetoscope, a device for peep-show viewing using photographs that flip in sequence, a precursor to movies.
- 1910 - President William Howard Taft becomes the first president to throw out the first baseball on opening day.
- 1912 - The British ocean liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage, plunging beneath the waves and taking with it over 1,500 lives at about 2:20 a.m. the following morning.
- 1931 - Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the 2nd Spanish Republic.
- 1935 - "Black Sunday", the worst dust storm of the Dust Bowl.
- 1935 - Babe Ruth played his first National League game in Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. He was playing for the Boston Braves, not his old team the Red Sox, in this, his last year of pro ball in the major leagues. In this season, Ruth played 28 games, getting 13 hits and six home runs, before retiring.
- 1940 - Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway, occupying key points, preparatory to a larger force arriving two days later.
- 1944 - Huge explosion rocks the Bombay harbour killing 300 and causing a loss of 20 million pounds at that time. See: Bombay Explosion (1944).
- 1956 - Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago, Illinois. It was the demonstation of the first practical and commercially successful format called 2" Quadruplex.
- 1962 - Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1964 - A Delta rocket's third-stage motor prematurely ignites in an assembly room at Canaveral, killing 3.
- 1965 - In Cold Blood killers Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, convicted of murdering four members of the Herbert Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, are executed by hanging at the Kansas State Penitentiary For Men in Lansing, Kansas.
- 1969 - At the Academy Awards, a tie between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand results in the two sharing the Best Actress Oscar; Hepburn also becomes the only actress to win three Best Actress Oscars.
- 1981 - The Space Shuttle Columbia passes its first test flight.
- 1986 - In retaliation for the April 5 bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin in which two U.S. servicemen were killed, Ronald Reagan ordered major bombing raids against Tripoli and Benghazi, in Libya, which killed 60 people.
- 1986 - 2.2 lb (1 kg) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.
- 1988 - USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. U.S. retaliates against Iran on April 18 with Operation Praying Mantis, the world's largest naval battle since World War II.
- 2003 - Human Genome Project successfully completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.
- 2003 - Jean Charest's Parti libéral du Québec defeats Bernard Landry and the Parti Québécois in Quebec's general elections.

Births


- 1336 - Emperor Go-Kogon of Japan (d. 1374)
- 1527 - Abraham Ortelius, Flemish cartographer and geographer (d. 1598)
- 1572 - Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1632)
- 1578 - King Philip III of Spain (d. 1621)
- 1629 - Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician & astronomer (d. 1695)
- 1714 - Adam Gib, Scottish religious leader (d. 1788)
- 1788 - David G. Burnet, interim president of the Republic of Texas (d. 1870)
- 1827 - Augustus Pitt-Rivers, English archaeologist (d. 1900)
- 1868 - Peter Behrens, German architect and designer (d. 1940)
- 1872 - Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Islamic scholar and translator (d. 1953)
- 1886 - Ernst Robert Curtius, Alsatian philologist (d. 1956)
- 1897 - Claire Windsor, American actress (d. 1972)
- 1902 - Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Ukrainian rabbi (d. 1994)
- 1904 - Sir John Gielgud, English actor (d. 2000)
- 1907 - François Duvalier, Haitian politician (d. 1971)
- 1917 - Marvin Miller, American labor activist
- 1921 - Thomas Schelling, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1925 - Abel Muzorewa, Prime Minster of Zimbabwe
- 1925 - Gene Ammons, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1974)
- 1925 - Rod Steiger, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1930 - Bradford Dillman, American actor
- 1933 - Morton Subotnick, American composer
- 1935 - Erich von Däniken, Swiss writer
- 1936 - Kenneth Mars, American actor
- 1936 - Frank Serpico, American policeman
- 1940 - Loretta Lynn, American singer
- 1941 - Julie Christie, British actress
- 1941 - Pete Rose, baseball player
- 1942 - Valeri Brumel, Russian athlete (d. 2003)
- 1942 - Valentin Lebedev, cosmonaut
- 1945 - Ritchie Blackmore, English guitarist
- 1949 - John Shea, American actor
- 1951 - Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist and composer
- 1960 - Brad Garrett, American actor
- 1961 - Robert Carlyle, British actor
- 1966 - David Justice, baseball player
- 1966 - Greg Maddux, baseball player
- 1968 - Anthony Michael Hall, American actor
- 1973 - Adrien Brody, American actor
- 1974 - Da Brat, American rapper
- 1975 - Amy Dumas, American professional wrestler
- 1977 - Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress
- 1983 - James McFadden, Scottish footballer

Deaths


- 1132 - Prince Mstislav of Kiev (b. 1076)
- 1279 - Duke Boleslaus of Greater Poland
- 1322 - Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord Badlesmere, English soldier (b. 1275)
- 1345 - Richard Aungerville, English bishop and writer (b. 1287)
- 1471 - Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, English kingmaker (b. 1428)
- 1574 - Louis of Nassau, Dutch general (killed in battle) (b. 1538)
- 1578 - James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, consort of Mary I of Scotland
- 1599 - Henry Wallop, English statesman
- 1662 - William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English statesman (b. 1582)
- 1682 - Avvakum, Russian priest and writer (b. 1621)
- 1716 - Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington, British admiral
- 1721 - Michel Chamillart, French statesman (b. 1652)
- 1759 - George Frideric Handel, German composer (b. 1685)
- 1785 - William Whitehead, English writer (b. 1715)
- 1792 - Maximilian Hell, Slovakian astronomer (b. 1720)
- 1912 - Henri Brisson, French statesman (b. 1835)
- 1914 - Hubert Bland, English co-founder of the Fabian Society (b. 1855)
- 1917 - Ludovich Lazarus Zamenhof, Polish creator of Esperanto (b. 1859)
- 1925 - John Singer Sargent, English artist (b. 1856)
- 1930 - Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian writer (b. 1893)
- 1935 - Amalie Emmy Noether, German mathematician (b. 1882)
- 1964 - Rachel Carson, American writer and environmentalist (b. 1907)
- 1968 - Al Benton, baseball player (b. 1911)
- 1975 - Fredric March, American actor (b. 1897)
- 1986 - Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (b. 1908)
- 1995 - Burl Ives, American singer and actor (b. 1909)
- 1999 - Ellen Corby, American actress (b. 1911)
- 1999 - Anthony Newley, British actor and singer (b. 1931)
- 2000 - Phil Katz, American computer programmer (b. 1962)
- 2001 - Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances


- New Year Celebrations in parts of India and whole of Sri Lanka
- Baisakhi - [Celeberations in Punjab, India]
- Poila Baisakh - [Celeberations in Bengal, India]
- Vishu - [Harvest festival in Kerala, India]
- Black Day - informal celebration day for single people in South Korea
- Youth Day in Angola

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/14 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/4/14 Today in History: April 14] ---- April 13 - April 15 - March 14 - May 14 -- listing of all days ko:4월 14일 ja:4月14日 simple:April 14 th:14 เมษายน

1981

1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-February


- January - Sarawak chamber found
- January 1 - Greece enters the EEC
- January 1 - Palau becomes self-governing
- January 4 - Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper
- January 13 - Donna Griffiths, a schoolgirl in Pershore, Worcestershire, UK, begins a 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 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 as President of the United States of America. Minutes after Reagan becomes president, Iran releases 52 American hostages that had been held captive for 444 days - Iran hostage crisis ends.
- February 4 - Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the Prime Minister of Norway
- 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 eight and injures 198
- 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 was going to be named president of the government. The coup d'état would fail thanks to King Juan Carlos.

March-April

Juan Carlos.]]
- March 1 - Bobby Sands, an IRA member, begins hunger strike for political status in Long Kesh prison - he dies May 5, the first of ten men.
- March 6 - After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
- March 7 - Colombian guerillas execute US bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman for being a CIA agent
- March 11 - Chilean president Augusto Pinochet sworn in for an eight-year term as president.
- March 19 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
- March 30 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr., whose family had connections with the vice president. Two police officers and James Brady are also wounded.
- April 11 - Riot in Brixton, South London - rioters throw petrol bombs, attack police and loot shops.
- April 12 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
- April 15 - The Australian Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock resigns from cabinet accusing the Australian Prime Minister Fraser of gross disloyalty.
- April 18 - A Minor League baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning was not played until June 23rd).

May


- May - Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the