1980

1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday.

Years:
1977 1978 1979 - 1980 - 1981 1982 1983
Decades:
1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1980 in aviation
1980 in film
1980 in literature
1980 in music
1980 in sports
1980 in television

Table of contents

1 Events

1.1 January-February
1.2 March-April
1.3 May-August
1.4 September-October
1.5 November
1.6 unknown dates

2 Year in topic
3 Births

3.7 January-August
3.8 September-December

4 Deaths

4.9 January-April
4.10 May-November
4.11 December
4.12 unknown dates

5 Nobel Prizes

Events

January 1 - Changes to the Swedish Act of Succession creates Victoria of Sweden, Crown Princess over her younger brother
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 11 - Nigel Short, 14 years old, is the youngest chess player to be awarded the degree of International Master.
January 22 - Andrei Sakharov 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 United States Congress in a sting operation.
February 4 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran
February 23 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.

March 1 - Voyager 1 probe confirms that Janus (moon of Saturn) exists
March 1 - Patti Smith marries former MC5 member Fred Sonic Smith
March 3 - Pierre Trudeau returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
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 - In Russia, a Vostok rocket explodes on its launch pad during a fueling operation killing 50.
March 21 - President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
March 24 - Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
March 27 - The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.
April 2 - Kenneth Tynan, theatre critic, born in Birmingham, England in 1927.
April 7 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions following the taking of American hostages on November 4, 1979.
April 25 - A commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops were killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
April 30 - Luis Muñoz Marín, first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico, dies at the age of 82.

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 18 - Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington killing 57 and causing US$ 3 billion in damage.
May 24 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran.
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]
July 17 - Saddam Hussein is selected president of Iraq, replacing Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.
July 19 - Former Turkish Prime Minister Nihat Erim is killed by two gunmen in Istanbul, Turkey.
July 30 - Vanuatu gains independence.
August 25 - Microsoft announces their version of UNIX, Xenix

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 22 - The command council of Iraq ordered its army to "deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets," initiating the Iran-Iraq War.
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.

November 4 - U.S. presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter by a wide margin.
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 21 - A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada kills 87 people.
November 23 - A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 4,800 people.