1983

Years: 1980 1981 1982 - 1983 - 1984 1985 1986
Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
\Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1983 in architecture 1983 in aviation 1983 in film 1983 in literature 1983 in music 1983 in sports 1983 in television 1983 in Canada

Table of contents

1 Events

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

2 Year in topic
3 Births
4 Deaths

4.7 January-July
4.8 August-December

5 Nobel Prizes
6 Fictional References to the Year

Events

January 1 - Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor
January 1 - the ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
January 1 - compulsory wearing of seat belts becomes law in the UK.
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 - Björn Borg retires from tennis after winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.
January 26 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.

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 1 - Balearic Islands and Madrid become autonomous communities of Spain
March 1 - Swatch introduce their first timepieces
March 1 - Duran Duran's album Rio goes gold
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 17 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
June 13 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system. [1]
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 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 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)[1].

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
McDonald's introduces the McNugget