Timeline of the 80s, 1981

This is a list of important events the occured during 1981. Exact dates are listed when known.

  • The 1st launch of a space shuttle (Columbia)
  • Reagan fires the striking air traffic controllers and breaks up their union.
  • Pope shot by insane Turk, May 13.
  • Sandra Day O'Connor becomes first female Supreme Court Justice
  • Mitterand becomes French president (and will remain pres. well into the 90s)
  • Prince Charles and Diana Spencer marry on July 29
  • Luke and Lauras's Wedding (General Hospital), Most watched wedding in history next to Charles and Diana.
  • Dynasty premiers in primetime hours and becomes a hit.
  • The US Agriculture Department trys making ketchup a school lunch vegetable
  • The first IBM-PC's begin to roll of the lines.
  • The first DeLorean sports cars roll off the assembly line.
  • August 1, The birth of MTV, the 24 hour-a-day music television station
  • Private satelite dishes are given the ok by the FCC
  • Fruit fly break out in California.
  • Regan starts toying with the Libyains, and deploys ships in the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya claimed rights to even though no one else recognized it as theirs.
  • Pac-Man is introduced in the US and sparks a huge craze.
  • Spain allows legal divorces.
  • Poland government crushes the Solidarity movement.
  • The first reports of homosexual men dying due to a mysterious breakdown of the bodies' immuminzation system. Later it becomes known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, aka AIDS and researches realize it can strike anyone.
  • 52 American hostages released in January after 14 months in captivity in Iran
  • Antigua gained its independence November 1,1981
  • Assasination attempt on Ronald Regean on March 30, 1981 by John Hinkley