September 1981 in History

Events in History

Sep 1 Uruguay's Ruling Council names Gregorio Álvarez as transitional President (he rules till 1985)

Sep 2 USSR performs underground nuclear test
Sep 4 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Sep 9 Vernon E Jordan resigns as president of National Urban League
Sep 10 "Guernica" painting by Pablo Picasso returns to Spain
Sep 11 2nd government of Van Agt forms in Netherlands
Sep 12 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand: "All hell breaks loose" as anti-tour supporters fight police and planes flour-bomb the deciding third match won by the All Blacks 25-22 [1]
Sep 13 April Moon sets women's handbow distance record of 1,039 yds & 13"
Sep 13 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Sep 14 Judge Wapner & People's Court premiere on TV

Sep 15 Pope John Paul II publishes encyclical "Laborem exercens" against capitalism/Marxism

Sep 15 The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.

Sep 15 US Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor for the US Supreme Court

Sep 15 Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations.
Sep 18 Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.
Sep 19 Satellites China 10 & 11 launched into Earth orbit by B-1 rocket
Sep 20 Joe Danelo kicks then NY Giant record 55 yard field goal
Sep 21 Belize (British Honduras) gains independence from UK
Sep 22 Sandra Day O'Connor appointed to US Supreme Court
Sep 24 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Sep 25 Sandra Day O'Connor sworn in as the 1st female US Supreme Court Justice
Sep 26 USSR performs underground nuclear test
Sep 27 Iran defends its besieged port of Abadan, driving back Iraqi forces
Sep 28 Joseph Paul Franklin, avowed racist, sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 2 black joggers in Salt Lake City
Sep 30 French parliament votes to abolish the death penalty, led by Minister of Justice Robert Badinter
Sep 30 Last game at Minn's Metropolitan Stadium, lose to KC 5-2

Sep 11 Dylan Klebold, American Columbine High School Massacre co-perpetrator, born in Lakewood, Colorado (d. 1999)
Sep 15 Mark Duggan, Englishman whose shooting death sparked widespread riots in England, born in London (d. 2011)
Sep 20 Joanie Dodds, America's Next Top Model contestant
Sep 29 Siarhei Rutenka, Belarusian handball player, born in Minsk, Soviet Union

Sep 1 German architect and Nazi leader (Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production), dies of a stroke at 76

Sep 1 Bùi Thanh Liêm, Vietnamese cosmonaut, dies in a MiG-21 crash at 32
Sep 3 Alec Waugh, English novelist (Island in the Sun), died after suffering a stroke at 83
Sep 5 Ayatollah Ali Qoddusi, prosecutor-general of Iran, assassinated
Sep 6 Christy Brown, Irish author (b. 1932)
Sep 8 Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist (Nobel 1949), dies at 74
Sep 8 Roy Wilkins, American civil rights activist and longtime executive director of NAACP, dies at 80
Sep 9 Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst and semanticist, dies at 80
Sep 12 Eugenio Montale, Italian poet and translator (Xenia-Nobel 1975), dies at 84
Sep 13 William Loeb, publisher of Manchester Union Leader, NH, dies at 75
Sep 19 Joke Kool-Smit, Dutch feminist, dies
Sep 27 Coenraad van Emde Boas, Dutch sexologist, dies at 77
Sep 28 Romulo Betancourt, President of Venezuela (Acción Democrática: 1945-48, 1959-64) known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", dies at 73