1983
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 - 1983 - 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988
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| Table of contents |
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2 Year in topic 3 Births 4 Deaths 5 Nobel Prizes 6 Fictional References to the Year |
Events
January
- January 1 - Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor
- Saturday, January 1, 1983 - the ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
- January 2 - The musical Annie is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows (Uris Theatre on Broadway, New York City).
- January 19 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, is arrested in Bolivia.
- Wednesday, January 19, 1983 - The Apple Lisa personal computer is announced.
- January 22 - Bjorn Borg retires from tennis after winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.
- January 26 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
February-April
- February 16 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
- February 23 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
- February 24 - A special commission of the United States Congress releases a report critical of the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
- March 8 - President Ronald Wilson Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire."
- March 23 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Wilson Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."
- April 7 - During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).
- April 18 - The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 63 people.
- 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-September
- May 17 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
- June 18 - Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
- June 27 - The Internet Domain Name System was invented by Paul Mockapetris.
- July 7 - Samantha Smith flies to the Soviet Union (see Monday, April 25, 1983).
- July 23 - Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 crash-lands in Gimli, Manitoba.
- August 4 - Thomas Sankara become President in Upper Volta.
- August 18 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
- August 21 - Benigno Aquino, Jr, Philippines opposition leader, assassinated in Manila.
- September 1 - Cold War: Korean Air Flight KAL-007 is shot down by a Soviet jet fighter when the commercial aircraft entered Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die.
- September 6 - The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
- September 26 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war
October
- October 12 - Japan's ex Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and sentenced to 4 years in jail.
- October 23 - United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut destroyed by suicide bomber, killing 241.
- October 25 - United States invades Grenada.
- October 27 - Pope John Paul II visits Mehmet Ali Agca in prison to forgive him. Ali Agca is a 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, US President Ronald Wilson 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 17 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded.
- 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).
unknown dates
- Democratic reform in power in Argentina.
- American Public Radio founded; changes its name to the current Public Radio International in 1994
- IBM announces the IBM PC XT
Year in topic
- 1983 in film
- 1983 in literature
- 1983 in music
- 1983 in sports
- March 6 - The United States Football League begins its first year of competition
- 1983 in television
- February 28 - Over 125 million Americanss tune in to watch the final episode of M*A*S*H
- March 7 - The Nashville Network (TNN) begins broadcasting.
Births
- January 18 - Utada Hikaru, Japanese-American R&B singer
- March 14 - Taylor Hanson, musician
- May 2 - Rose Falcon, actress/singer
- May 27 - Bobby Convey, American soccer player
- November 18 - Jon Johansen, programmer
Deaths
January-July
- January 11 - Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian and educationist
- January 15 - Meyer Lansky, mobster
- January 23 - George Cukor, director
- January 28 - Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia
- February 4 - Karen Carpenter, singer, dies of anorexia nervosa
- February 12 - Eubie Blake, musician, songwriter
- February 14 - Lina Radke, German athlete
- February 25 - Tennessee Williams, playwright
- March 3 - Herge, Belgian comics creator
- March 8 - William Walton, composer
- March 15 - Rebecca West, writer
- March 23 - Barney Clark, first artificial heart recipient
- April 4 - Gloria Swanson, actress
- April 22 - Earl 'Fatha' Hines, musician
- May 15 - Meyer Lansky, gangster
- May 18 - Frank Aiken, Irish Foreign Minister (1959-1969)
- May 19 - Jean Rey, President of the European Commission
- June 12 - Norma Shearer, Academy Award winning actress
- June 18 - Marianne Brandt, industrial designer and Bauhaus participant
- July 1 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect
- July 23 - Georges Auric, composer, member of Les Six
- July 29 - Raymond Massey, actor
August-December
- August 21 - Benigno Aquino Jr, Philippine opposition leader
- September 25 - Leopold III of Belgium
- September 26 - Tino Rossi, Corsican singer
- October 28 - Otto Messmer, creator of Felix the Cat
- November 7 - Germaine Tailleferre, composer
- December 2 - Fifi D'Orsay, actress
- December 6 - Lucienne Boyer, French singer
- December 25 - Joan Miro, surrealist painter
unknown dates
- Stan Rogers, Canadian musician
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, William Alfred Fowler
- Chemistry - Henry Taube
- Medicine - Barbara McClintock
- Literature -William Golding
- Peace - Lech Walesa
- Economics - Gerard Debreu
Fictional References to the Year
- "1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)", by Jimi Hendrix, from his album Electric Ladyland (1968)