Historical Events in 1981 (Part 2)

Events 201 - 400 of 764

Sports History

Mar 28 Martina Navratilova beats 16 year old American tennis prodigy Andrea Jaeger 6-3, 7-6 in the final of the WTA Tour Championships at Madison Square Garden, NYC

Mar 29 Peter Stone's musical "Woman of the Year" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 770 performances
Mar 29 Tiina Lehtola ski jumps female record 110m
Mar 29 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

Historic Event

Mar 29 Jorge Rafael Videla resigns as President and dictator of Argentina, handing the reins to Roberto Viola

Mar 29 AIAW Women's Basketball Championship, Louisiana Tech beat Tennessee 79-59 in Eugene

Sports History

Mar 30 43rd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Indiana beats North Carolina, 63-50; Hoosiers' future Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas is named Tournament Most Outstanding Player

Ronald Reagan is Shot

Mar 30 US President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded in an assassination attempt by John Hinckley, three others are also wounded

The scene moments after John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan on March 30, 1981

Mar 30 "Chariots of Fire" directed by Hugh Hudson and starring Ben Cross and Ian Charleson premieres at a Royal Command Film Performance (Best Picture 1982)
Mar 31 1st Golden Raspberry Awards: "Can't Stop the Music" wins

Academy Awards

Mar 31 53rd Academy Awards: "Ordinary People", Robert De Niro & Sissy Spacek win

Film & TV History

Apr 1 CNN airs a videotape that shows that Tamara Rand predicted that Reagan is in danger from someone named Jack Humley (a hoax)

Apr 1 Daylight saving time is introduced in the USSR.

Sports History

Apr 1 Edmonton center Wayne Gretzky has an assist (his 103rd) in the Oilers 4-4 tie with Colorado Rockies to break Bobby Orr's 10-year mark for most assists in a single NHL season

Apr 2 Belgium's 4th government of Martens resigns
Apr 2 Heavy battle between Christian militia & Syrian army in East Lebanon
Apr 3 Arnie Boldt of Saskatchewan jumps 6' 8.25," with 1 leg
Apr 3 Race riots in London's Brixton area, England
Apr 4 Henry Cisneros becomes 1st Mexican-American mayor (San Antonio)
Apr 4 135th Grand National: Bob Champion aboard 10/1 hope Aldaniti wins by 4 lengths from 8/1 favourite Spartan Missile
Apr 4 26th Eurovision Song Contest: Bucks Fizz for United Kingdom wins singing "Making Your Mind Up" in Dublin
Apr 5 Philadelphia Flyers amass a record 2,621 penalty minutes
Apr 6 Yugoslav government sends troops to Kosovo
Apr 6 Belgian government of Mark Eyskens forms
Apr 7 Willem Klein mentally extracts 13th root of a 100-digit # in 29 sec

Album Release

Apr 7 "Street Songs" 5th studio album by Rick James is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1981)

Apr 8 Islanders scored 9 goals against Toronto in playoffs

Sports History

Apr 9 LA Dodgers Fernando Valenzuela's 1st start, beats Astros 2-0

Apr 9 US sub George Washington rams Japanese freighter Nisso Maru
Apr 10 Computer glitch keeps Space Shuttle Columbia grounded
Apr 10 France performs nuclear test
Apr 10 Imprisoned Provisional IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands elected to British Parliament for Northern Ireland county of Fermanagh and South Tyrone

Boxing Title Fight

Apr 11 Larry Holmes beats Trevor Berbick by unanimous decision in Las Vegas to retain his WBC heavyweight boxing title

Apr 11 Race riot in London area of Brixton
Apr 11 Ronald Reagan arrives home from hospital after Hinkley shot him

US Masters Golf

Apr 12 45th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Tom Watson wins his second green jacket and 5th major title by 2 strokes over Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller

Apr 12 Maiden voyage Space Transit System-space shuttle Columbia launched
Apr 13 Pulitzer prize awarded to Beth Henley for "Crimes of the Heart"
Apr 13 Wash Post Janet Cooke wins Pulitzer Prize (later admits story a hoax)
Apr 14 1st Space Shuttle, Columbia 1, returns to Earth
Apr 15 Janet Cooke says her Pulitzer award-winning story about an 8-year-old heroin addict is a lie, Washington Post relinquishes Pulitzer Prize on fabricated story
Apr 16 "Copperfield" opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 13 performances

Music History

Apr 17 Carl Gottlieb's movie "Caveman", starring Ringo Starr, Shelley Long, Barbara Bach, Dennis Quaid, Jack Gilford, and John Matuszak premieres

Apr 17 New York Islander Dennis Potvin's 3 playoff power-play goals vs Edmonton Oilers tie NHL record
Apr 17 Ranger's Anders Hedberg is 2nd to score on a Stanley Cup penalty shot
Apr 18 Longest game in Professional Baseball: Pawtucket Red Sox tie Rochester Red Wings 2-2 in 32 innings (game resumed 23rd June)
Apr 19 Oakland A's runs record to 11-0
Apr 19 William Finn's musical "March of Falsettos" premieres in NYC
Apr 20 85th Boston Marathon: Toshihiko Seko of Japan wins men's race in 2:09:26; Allison Roe of New Zealand takes women's title in 2:26:46
Apr 20 Final performance of TV show "Soap" airs
Apr 20 Rocker Papa John Phillips arrested for drug possession
Apr 20 "Fire and Smoke" single released by Earl Thomas Conley (Billboard Song of the Year 1981)
Apr 21 US furnish $1 billion in arms to Saudi-Arabia
Apr 22 10,000 copper workers in Chile strike
Apr 22 Almost 1 million West German metal workers go on strike
Apr 22 Dodgers rookie Fernando Valenzuela tosses his 3rd shutout in 4 starts
Apr 22 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Apr 22 More than $3.3 million is stolen from the First National Bank of Arizona in Tucson in the then largest US bank robbery in history

Sports History

Apr 24 Bill Shoemaker wins his 8,000th race, 2000 more than any other jockey

Apr 24 San Antonio blocks 20 Golden State shots to set NBA reg game record
Apr 24 US ends grain embargo against USSR
Apr 25 Seattle Mariners MLB manager Maury Wills is suspended for 2 games after ordering Kingdome grounds crew to enlarge batter's boxes by one foot
Apr 25 More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan
Apr 26 "Copperfield" closes at ANTA Theater, NYC, after 13 performances

Music History

Apr 27 Paul McCartney's solo rock band Wings breaks-up

Apr 27 1st female soccer official is hired by NASL
Apr 27 Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse
Apr 28 Galician current Statute of Autonomy
Apr 28 "We’re Fighting Back" premieres on CBS in the US, based on the formation of the Guardian Angels

Baseball Record

Apr 29 MLB Philadelphia Phillies Steve Carlton is 1st lefty to strike out 3,000 batters

Apr 29 NFL Draft: South Carolina running back George Rogers first pick by New Orleans Saints
Apr 30 "Can-Can" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 5 performances

Music Awards

Apr 30 16th Academy of Country Music Awards: Barbara Mandrell and George Jones win

Sports History

May 1 Tennis player Billie Jean King acknowledges a lesbian relationship with Marilyn Barnett - becoming first prominent sportswoman to come out

May 1 Harrison Williams (Sen-D-NJ) convicted on FBI Abscam charges
May 1 Radio Shack releases Model III TRSDOS 1.3
May 2 107th Kentucky Derby: Jorge Velásquez on Pleasant Colony wins in 2:02
May 2 Radio Shack re-releases Model III TRSDOS 1.3 with 2 fixes
May 3 "Can-Can" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 5 performances
May 3 "Moony, Shapiro Songbook" opens & closes at Morosco Theater NYC
May 4 Rockline premieres on KLOS FM in Los Angeles
May 4 Silvana Cruciata runs 15k female world record (49:44.0)
May 4 Yankee Ron Davis strikes out 8 consecutive Angels, ran record of 13 strikeouts of last 14 faced, also saved Gene Nelsons 1st win, 4-2
May 5 16th and final MLB pre-season Mayor's Trophy Game prior to inter-league play; NY Mets beat NY Yankees, 4-1 to hold 8-7-1 edge
May 5 After 66 days on hunger strike, 26 year old Provisional IRA member and British MP Bobby Sands dies in the Maze Prision. Nine more hunger strikers die in the next 3 months.
May 6 "Inacent Black" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 14 performances
May 6 US expels Libyan diplomats
May 8 Ron Davis pitches 10th consecutive strike out, 1 short of record
May 9 Kazimiroff Blvd in Bronx named for a Bronx historian

The Motherland Monument

May 9 The Motherland Monument at 62 m (203 ft) high is opened in Kyiv, Ukraine in ceremony attended by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev

Historic Event

May 10 François Mitterrand defeats Valery Giscard d'Estang for Presidency of France

May 10 Montreal Expo Charlie Lee no-hits SF Giants, 4-0

Music Premiere

May 11 Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Cats" (based on poetry by T. S. Eliot) directed by Trevor Nunn first premieres in the West End, London

May 12 "Lena Horne: Lady, Music" opens at Nederlander, NYC: runs for 333 performances
May 12 NY Islanders tie their own record with two shorthanded playoff goals in a period vs Minnesota North Stars
May 13 Dinamo Tbilisi wins 21st European Cup Winner's Cup against Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany 2-1 in Düsseldorf

Assassination Attempt

May 13 Pope John Paul II is shot and critically wounded by Turkish gunman Mehemet Ali Agca in St Peter's Square, Vatican City

May 14 35th NBA Championship: Bost Celtics beat Houston Rockets, 4 games to 2
May 14 NASA launches space vehicle S-192

Sports History

May 15 "Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island" airs

Music Single

May 15 George Harrison releases single "All Those Years Ago" in UK: the song was a tribute to John Lennon, and featured Ringo Starr on drums, and Paul and Linda McCartney on backing vocals

Musician, Activist and Photographer Linda McCartney

May 15 Len Barker of Cleveland pitches perfect game vs Toronto
May 15 SCTV Network 90, sequel to Second City Television, debuts on NBC
May 15 Soyuz 40 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Romanian) to Salyut 6

#1 in the Charts

May 16 "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes hits #1 for next 9 weeks

May 16 106th Preakness: Jorge Velásquez aboard Pleasant Colony wins in 1:54.6
May 16 Houston shortstop Craig Reynolds hits 3 triples as Astros beat Chicago Cubs, 6-1
May 17 "Inacent Black" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 14 performances
May 17 Islanders score 5 power play goals against Flyers in a playoff
May 19 Pirate Jim Bibby gives up a leadoff single to Brave Terry Harper, then retires next 27 batters
May 19 5 British Army soldiers are killed when their armoured vehicle is ripped apart by a Provisional Irish Republican Army roadside bomb near Bessbrook, County Armagh
May 21 François Mitterrand becomes president of France
May 21 Kim Seelbrede, (Ohio), crowned 30th Miss USA
May 21 Stanley Cup Final, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY: NY Islanders win back-to-back titles; beat Minnesota North Stars, 5-1 for 4 games to 1 series win

Music History

May 21 Reggae musician Bob Marley receives a Jamaican state funeral

May 22 Soyuz 40 returns to Earth
May 23 Peter Sutcliffe is convicted for the "Yorkshsire Ripper" murders of 13 women at the Old Bailey in London and sentenced to life sentences for each
May 23 Barcelona fascists take 200 people hostage
May 23 NASA launches Intelsat V satellite, no. 501

Sports History

May 23 Puerto Rican boxer Wilfred Benítez (22) becomes the youngest 3-division world champion in history by knocking out WBC World Super Welterweight champion Maurice Hope in 12 rounds in Las Vegas

May 24 Indianapolis 500: Bobby Unser crosses finish line ahead of Mario Andretti; Unser disqualified for pit lane infraction, later reinstated for his 3rd race victory
May 24 Hostage situation ends at Central Bank in Barcelona, Spain

Baseball Record

May 25 Boston Red Sox Carl Yastrzemski (41) is 4th to play 3,000 MLB baseball games (Cobb, Musial & Aaron)

May 25 Daniel Goodwin scales outside of Chicago's Sears Tower in 7 hours
May 25 Rangers' Bill Stein sets AL record with 7 consecutive pinch hits
May 26 Marine jet crashes on flight deck of USS Nimitz, killing 14
May 26 The Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due)
May 27 John Hinckley attempts suicide by overdosing on Tylenol
May 27 Lenny Randle tries to blow a slow roller foul but umpire says no
May 27 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
May 27 34th Cannes Film Festival: "Man of Iron" directed by Andrzej Wajda wins the Palme d'Or
May 27 25th European Cup: Liverpool beats Real Madrid 1-0 at Paris
May 29 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
May 30 "Nightline" extends from 4 nights to 5 nights a week (Friday)
May 30 Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman is shot by group of rebel officers
May 30 LA Dodgers are quickest to get 1,000,000 attendance in a season in only 22 games

Film & TV History

Jun 2 Barbara Walters famously asks Katharine Hepburn “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?”

Jun 3 Pope John Paul II released from hospital after assassination attempt
Jun 4 54th National Spelling Bee: Paige Pipkin wins spelling sarcophagus

Sports History

Jun 5 Astro's Nolan Ryan passes Early Wynn as all-time walk leader (1,777)

Jun 5 AIDS Epidemic officially begins when US Centers for Disease Control reports on pneumonia affecting five homosexual men in Los Angeles
Jun 5 George Harrison releases "Somewhere in England", his ninth studio album, includes John Lennon tribute "All Those Years Ago" (Featuring Paul and Ringo)
Jun 5 World's first today in history program with editable data "TODAY", invented by Michael Butler runs for the first time on a mainframe computer
Jun 6 113th Belmont: George Martens aboard Summing wins in 2:29
Jun 6 Maya Yang Lin wins competition to design the Vietnam War Memorial
Jun 6 A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati river, killing 268 officially with another 300 or more missing

French Open Women's Tennis

Jun 6 French Open Women's Tennis: Czech teenager Hana Mandlíková beats Sylvia Hanika of Germany 6-2, 6-4 for her only French singles crown

Tennis Player and Four-Time Major Champion Hana Mandlikova

Jun 7 35th Tony Awards: "Amadeus" & "42nd Street" win
Jun 7 Israeli F-15/F-16 destroys alleged Iraqi plutonium production facility

French Open Men's Tennis

Jun 7 French Open Men's Tennis: Björn Borg of Sweden wins 11th and final career Grand Slam title; Open era record 6th French title; beats Ivan Lendl 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1

Jun 8 15th Music City News Country Awards: Mandrell Sisters win
Jun 8 Seattle Mariners draft Mike Moore #1
Jun 10 IRA's Joseph Doherty escapes from Crumlin Road Jail

Baseball Record

Jun 10 Pete Rose ties Stan Musial's NL record of 3,630 hits

Sports History

Jun 10 Sebastian Coe of England sets 800m record (1:41.73) in Florence

Jun 10 Seven Brothers Square in Bronx named honoring 7 Santini Bro Moving Co
Jun 11 Cannibal Issei Sagawa kills Dutch student
Jun 11 Mariners beat Orioles 8-2 at Kingdome, then players go on strike
Jun 11 Richter Scale 6.9 magnitude Golbaf earthquake in Iran, kills at least 2,000

Film Premiere

Jun 12 "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (the first Indiana Jones film) directed by Stephen Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford premieres

Jun 12 Baseball players begin a 50 day strike, their 3rd strike
Jun 12 Larry Holmes TKOs Leon Spinks in 3 for WBC heavyweight boxing title
Jun 12 Only candidate Hassan Gouled Aptidon wins Djibouti Presidential election
Jun 13 39 Unification church couples wed in Germany

Historic Event

Jun 13 Teenager fires 6 blank rounds at Queen Elizabeth II

Historic Event

Jun 13 Tom Snyder interviews Charles Manson on "Tomorrow"

LPGA Championship

Jun 14 LPGA Championship Women's Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC: Donna Caponi Young sinks 15 foot birdie putt on 18th to beat Jerilyn Britz and Pat Meyers by 1 stroke

Jun 14 No Nukes concert at Hollywood Bowl
Jun 17 Battle between Muslims & Christians in Cairo, 14 killed
Jun 18 Kimberley Ann Smith, of NC, 17, crowned America's Junior Miss
Jun 18 US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart retires
Jun 18 Test cricket debut of Terry Alderman, v England at Trent Bridge
Jun 18 Vaccine to prevent hoof & mouth disease announced
Jun 18 The AIDS epidemic is formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California
Jun 19 Boeing commercial Chinook 2-rotor helicopter is certified
Jun 19 European Space Agency's Ariane carries 2 satellites into orbit
Jun 19 Heaviest known orange (2.5 kg) exhibited, Nelspruit, South Africa
Jun 19 India's APPLE satellite, 1st to be stabilized on 3 axes, launched
Jun 19 Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England opens: Hawkwind and Ginger Baker headline; other performers include New Order, Taj Mahal, Aswad, Gordon Giltrap, Judie Tzuke, Gong, Matumbi, Robert Hunter, Supercharge, and Talisman
Jun 20 Guitarist Gerry Cott quits Boomtown Rats
Jun 20 Mudjahedin uprises against Iran regime
Jun 20 Pope John Paul II hospitalized for 55 days for infection
Jun 21 12-bottle case of 1979 Napamedoc Cabernet wine auctioned for $24,000
Jun 21 US Open Men's Golf, Merion GC: David Graham wins his second major title and becomes the first Australian to win the US Open, 3 strokes ahead of runners-up George Burns and Bill Rogers

Music History

Jun 21 Donald Fagen and Walter Becker disband their rock group Steely Dan

Jun 21 Bread riots in Casablanca, Morocco, kill 66 people (government figure vs opposition estimate of 637)
Jun 21 Socialists and communists win French parliamentary election
Jun 22 2 Habash terrorists attack a travel agency in Greece killing 2
Jun 22 Iranian president Bani Sadr deposed

Sports History

Jun 22 John McEnroe's famous 'You cannot be serious' rant in 1st round win over Tom Gullikson at Wimbledon

Music History

Jun 22 Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing former Beatle John Lennon

Jun 23 "This Was Burlesque" opens at Princess Theater NYC for 28 performances
Jun 23 Longest game in Professional Baseball: Pawtucket Red Sox finally beat Rochester Red Wings 3-2 in 33 innings (game began 18th April)
Jun 23 Amanda Maccaro becomes 1st American to win Russian Ballet Competition
Jun 23 French government of Mauroy forms, with 4 communists
Jun 23 NYC Mayor Koch turns down a $7,500 offer to perform comedy