1980: Encyclopedia II - 1980 - Events

1980 - Events

1980 - January

• January 1–April 1 - National steel strike in the United Kingdom.
• January 1 - Changes to the Swedish Act of Succession creates Victoria of Sweden, Crown Princess over her younger brother.
• January 4 - American president Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
• January 5 - Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer.
• January 7 - President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation.
• January 9 - In Saudi Arabia, sixty three Muslim fanatics are beheaded for their part in the siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca in November, 1979.
• January 11 - Nigel Short, fourteen years old, is the youngest chess player to be awarded the degree of International Master.
• January 22 - Andrei Sakharov, a Russian scientist and human right activist, is arrested in Moscow.
• January 26 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
• February 2 - Abscam: Reports surface that FBI personnel were targeting members of the U.S. Congress in a sting operation.

1980 - February

• February 4 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.
• February 15 - In Vanuatu, followers of John Frum's cargo cult on the island of Tanna declare secession as the nation of Tafea.
• February 23 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
• February 25 - Coup in Surinam ousts government of Henck Arron. Leaders Desi Bouterse and Rou Horb replace it with National Military Council.
• February 27 - M-19 guerrillas begin the Dominican embassy siege in Colombia, holding sixty people hostage, including fourteen ambassadors.

1980 - March

• March 1 - Voyager 1 probe confirms the existence of Janus, a moon of Saturn.
• March 3 - Pierre Trudeau returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
• March 4 - Robert Mugabe is elected Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
• March 14 - In Poland, a plane crashes during an emergency landing near Warsaw, killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others.
• March 18 - Fifty people are killed at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia when a Vostok-2M rocket explodes on its launch pad during a fueling operation.
• March 20 - The pirate radio station Radio Caroline sinks.
• March 21 - President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
• March 21 - Mafioso Angelo Bruno assassinated in Atlantic City.
• March 24 - Australia Olympic Committee announces it will send an Olympic delegation to Moscow, despite objections by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.
• March 24 - Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
• March 26 - A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reef gold mine in South Africa falls 1.2 miles, killing twenty-three.
• March 27 - The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.

1980 - April

• April 1 - The Mariel boatlift begins.
  • New York City's Transport Worker Union 100 goes on strike, which continues for 11 days.
• April 7 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions following the taking of American hostages on Sunday, November 4, 1979.
• April 10 - Spain and United Kingdom agree to reopen the border between Gibraltar and Spain, closed since 1969.
• April 18 - Zimbabwe's formal independence from the United Kingdom. Robert Mugabe takes his post as a Prime Minister.
• April 21 - Rosie Ruiz wins the Boston Marathon, but is later exposed as a fraud and stripped of her award.
• April 24–April 25 - Operation Eagle Claw, a commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages, is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops are killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
• April 27 - The Dominican embassy siege ends with all hostages released and the guerrillas flying to Cuba.
• April 30
  • Iranian Embassy Siege - Six Iranian-born terrorists take over Iranian embassy in London, UK. SAS retakes the Embassy on May 5 — one terrorist survives.
  • Luis Muñoz Marín, first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico, dies at the age of 82.
  • Queen Juliana of the Netherlands abdicates, and her daughter Beatrix ascends to the throne.

1980 - May

• May 7 - Paul Geidel, convicted of second-degree murder in 1911, is released from prison in Beacon, New York, after 68 years and 245 days - the longest-ever time served by an inmate
• May 9 - In Florida, a Liberian freighter named the Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay sending 35 people (most of whom were in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed
• May 10 - Namco releases iconic Pac-Man arcade game
• May 17 - Florida court acquits 4 police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie. Three days of race riots follow
• May 18 - Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage
• May 18 - Gwangju Massacre: Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations, calling for democratic reforms.
• May 20 - Referendum in Quebec where the population rejects by a vote of 60% the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
• May 24 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release of U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran.
• May 25 - Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: Johnny Rutherford wins for a third time in car owner Jim Hall's revolutionary ground effect Chaparral car; the victory is Hall's second as an owner.
• May 26 - John Frum supporters in Vanuatu storm government offices in the island of Tanna. Vanuatu government troops land the next day and drive them away
• May 26 - In South Korea, military government forces and pro-democracy protesters clash - 2000 protesters die

1980 - June

• June 1 - Comedian Richard Pryor is badly burned trying to freebase cocaine.
• June 3 - A series of deadly tornadoes strikes Grand Island, Nebraska, causing over $300m in damage, killing five people and injuring over 250.
• June 10 - Apartheid: The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a statement by their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela which says in part 'UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!'[1]
• June 10 - Unabomber bomb injures Percy Wood, president of the United Airlines in Lake Forest, Illinois
• June 19 - Iraqi security forces shoot dead three gunmen who attacked the British embassy in Baghdad. The unknown attackers were killed in the embassy gardens by Iraqi security men, sent at the urgent request of the British ambassador, Alex Stirling.
• June 22 - West Germany beat Belgium 2-1 to win Euro 80
• June 23 - Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, dies in an air crash
• June 23–September 6 - Heat Wave of 1980
• June 25 - Muslim Brotherhood assassination attempt against Syrian president Hafez al-Assad fails. Assad retaliates by sending the army against them
• June 26 - A DC-9 belonging to the Italian Airline Itavia crashes into the sea near Naples after an explosion occurs in the air - 81 people dead - a bomb or a missile is suspected to be the cause of the accident but no culprits will ever be found
• June 29 - Vigdis Finnbogadottir becomes the president of Iceland

1980 - July

• July 9 - Pope John Paul II visits Brazil. Seven people crush to death in a crowd meeting him
• July 15 - A severe and destructive thunderstorm strikes four counties in western Wisconsin, including the city of Eau Claire. It caused over $250m in damage, and one person was killed.
• July 19 - Former Turkish Prime Minister Nihat Erim is killed by two gunmen in Istanbul, Turkey.
• July 19–August 3 - Summer Olympic Games in Moscow, USSR.
• July 30 - Vanuatu gains independence

1980 - August

• August 2 - A terrorist bombing at the railway station in Bologna, Italy kills 85 people and wounds more than 200.
• August 2 - Hurricane Allen hits landfall on Haiti and Jamaica in a Category 5, it reached Category 3 on Southern Texas on August 9 causing $2.6 billion on damage.
• August 14 - Lech Wałęsa leads the first of many strikes at the Gdańsk shipyard
• August 17 - In Australia, baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from a campsite at Ayers Rock (Uluru), reportedly taken by a dingo

1980 - September

• September 5 - The St. Gothard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.32 km) stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.
• September 12 - Military coup in Turkey lead by Kenan Evren. It stopped political violence among gangs, but was the beginning of stronger state violence which lead to the execution of many young activists.
• September 17 - After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.
• September 17 - Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is killed in Asuncion, Paraguay
• September 22 - The command council of Iraq ordered its army to "deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets," initiating the Iran-Iraq War.
• September 26 - The Mariel Boatlift officially ends.
• September 29 - Washington Post publishes Janet Cooke's story of Jimmy, an 8-year-old heroin addict (later proven to be fabricated)
• September 30 - Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel and Xerox introduce the DIX standard for Ethernet, which was the first implementation outside of Xerox, and the first to support 10 Mbit/s speeds.

1980 - October

• October 14 - The Staggers Rail Act is enacted, deregulating American railroads.
• October 18 - Fraser Government re-elected for a third consecutive term in Australia
• October 27 - Six IRA prisoners in Maze prison refuse food and demand status as political prisoners - hunger strike lasts until December
• October 30 - El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace treaty to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.
• October 31 - Polish government recognizes Solidarity.
• October 31 - Mohammad Reza Shah, eldest son of the late shah of Iran, proclaimed himself the rightful successor to the Peacock Throne.

1980 - November

• November 4 - U.S. presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger former Governor Ronald Reagan of California defeats incumbent Democrat President Jimmy Carter by a wide margin exactly one year after the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis.
• November 12 - Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn when it flies within 77,000 miles of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth
• November 20 - The trial of the Gang of Four begins in China.
• November 21 - A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada kills 87 people.
• November 21 - Millions of viewers tune into the TV soap opera Dallas to learn who shot lead character J.R. Ewing. The event is an international obsession.
• November 23 - A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 4,800 people.

1980 - December

• December 8 - John Lennon is shot outside his New York apartment, by Mark Chapman.
• December 16 - During a summit on the island of Bali, the OPEC decides to raise the price of petroleum by 10%.
• December 26 - Richard Chase, the "Vampire of Sacramento", kills himself by overdose on San Quentin prison death row

1980 - Unknown dates

• Lawrence Klein is awarded the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
• Hassan Fathy and Plenty International / Stephen Gaskin are awarded the Right Livelihood Award.
• Victoria, Australia, decriminalises homosexual acts between consenting adults.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki