1983

1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January

• January 2 - The musical Annie is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows at the Uris Theatre on Broadway, New York City.
• January 8 - A riot breaks out at Sing Sing prison, New York.
• January 19 - High ranking Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
• January 22 - Björn Borg retires from tennis after winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.
• January 24 - Twenty-five members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Aldo Moro.
• January 26 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released by IBM.
• January 26 - Red rain falls in the UK, caused by sand from the Sahara Desert in the droplets.
• January 31 - Seatbelt use for drivers and front seat passengers becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.

February

• February 2 - Giovanni Vigliotto goes on trial for multiple counts of bigamy involving 105 women.
• February 3 - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser is granted a double dissolution of both houses of parliament for elections on March 5. Bob Hawke replaces Bill Hayden as federal ALP leader.
• February 6 - Klaus Barbie is officially charged with war crimes.
• February 7 - Iran opens an invasion in the southeast of Iraq.
• February 13 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims 1983 "The Year of the Bible".
• February 16 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 76 people in one of Australia's worst fires ever.
• February 18 - Wah Mee massacre: 13 people are killed in an attempted robbery in Seattle, Washington.
• February 23 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announces its intention to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
• February 24 - A special commission of the Congress of the United States releases a report critical of the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
• February 25 - United States playwright Tennessee Williams is found dead in his hotel room.
• February 28 - M*A*S*H (TV series) ends after 11 years and 251 episodes on CBS.

March

• March 1 - The Irish band U2 releases its 3rd album War.
• March 1 - The Balearic Islands and Madrid become autonomous communities of Spain.
• March 1 - Swatch introduces their first watches.
• March 5 - Bob Hawke is elected Prime Minister of Australia.
• March 8 - IBM releases the IBM PC XT.
• March 8 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
• March 9 - Anne Burford resigns as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency amid scandal.
• March 11 - Australia's First Hawke Ministry is sworn in; Andrew Peacock becomes Federal Opposition leader.
• March 16 - The Transmitter Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany, is demolished.
• March 23 - Strategic Defense Initiative: U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."
• March 23 - The Apatosaurus is made the official state dinosaur of Guam.

April

• April 7 - STS-6: Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts Story Musgrave and Donald H. Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).
• April 11 - The National Economic Summit is held in Canberra, Australia.
• April 12 - The British film Gandhi wins 8 Oscars.
• April 12 - Harold Washington is elected the first African American mayor of Chicago.
• April 15 - American Public Radio is founded (becomes Public Radio International in 1994).
• April 15 - The first non-American Disney theme park opens in Japan as Tokyo Disneyland.
• April 18 - The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 63 people.
• April 22 - Soviet Embassy official Valery Ivanov is expelled from Australia for allegedly trying to recruit spies in the Australian government.
• April 23 - Stern magazine in West Germany announces it has the Hitler Diaries.
• April 23 - Corinne Hermès wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 for Luxembourg with the song, Si la vie est cadeau.
• April 25 - Manchester, 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

• May 6 - Stern magazine publishes the "Hitler Diaries" (later found to be forgeries).
• May 9 - Pope John Paul II retracts the ban on Galileo Galilei.
• May 11 - Aberdeen FC wins the European Cup Winners Cup - beating Real Madrid 2-1 in the final played in Gothenburg, Sweden.
• May 16 - London police begin the use of wheel clamps on illegally-parked vehicles.
• May 16 - NSW Premier Neville Wran steps down, in response to allegations raised by ABC program Four Corners that he attempted to influence the NSW Majestry.
• May 17 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
• May 25 - Return of the Jedi opens in the United States.
  

  

  G-7 Economic Summit in Williamsburg, Virginia
• May 28 - The 9th G7 summit begins at Williamsburg, Virginia.
• May 29 - Indianapolis 500: Tom Sneva wins his first race after three previous runner-up finishes.

June

• Shipbreaking begins on the beach at Alang in Gujarat.
• June 9 - Conservative Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1979, wins a landslide victory (42% of the popular vote) over Michael Foot, who led a highly-divided and weakened Labour Party which earned only 28% of the vote. The much improved economy (after 2-3 years of restructuring), her victory in the Falkands, as well as shrinking unemployment rates consolidates her election victory.
• June 13 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system.
• June 18 - STS-7: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
• June 25 - India wins the Prudential world cup 1983.

July

• July 1 - A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea, crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
• July 1 - The High Court of Australia blocks construction of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania.
• July 7 - Samantha Smith flies to the Soviet Union (see April 25).
• July 16 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster: a helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
• July 20 - The government of Poland announces end of martial law and amnesty for political prisoners.
• July 22 - Australian Dick Smith completes his solo circumnavigation in a helicopter.
• July 23 - Gimli Glider: Air Canada Flight 143 crash-lands in Gimli, Manitoba.
• July 23 - The Black July Tamil massacre occurs in Sri Lanka.
• July 24 - George Brett is expelled from a baseball game in Yankee Stadium, New York, after charging an umpire who called him out for having more pine tar on his bat than technically allowed.
• July 25 - Anti-Tamil riots break out in Sri Lanka, leaving over 3,000 Tamils massacred and millions of dollars worth of their property destroyed. This genocide is the beginning of a deadly civil war and ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka.
• July 25 - Metallica releases their debut album Kill 'Em All.
• July 28 - New South Wales premier Neville Wran is exonerated by the Street Royal Commission, over claims raised by ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) programme Four Corners, that he attempted to influence the NSW magistracy.

August

• August 4 - Thomas Sankara becomes President in Upper Volta.
• August 18 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$3.8 billion (2005 dollars) in damage.
• August 18 - Five people are killed and 18 others injured when a road train is deliberately driven into a motel at Ayers Rock (Uluru), NT (The driver, Douglas Edward Crabbe, is convicted in March 1984).
• August 21 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, is assassinated in Manila just as he returns from exile.
• August 24 - The Old Philadelphia Arena is destroyed by arson.
• August 30 - STS-8: Space Shuttle Challenger carries Guion S. Bluford, the first African-American astronaut, into space.

September

• September 1 - Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed.
• September 4 - Six men walk underwater across the Sydney Harbor - 82.9 km in 48 hours.
• September 5 - Tom Brokaw becomes lead anchor for NBC Nightly News.
• September 6 - The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
• September 16 - Donna Griffiths of Pershore in England stops sneezing after a continual series of sneezes for 978 days (since January 13, 1981).
• September 17 - Vanessa Lynn Williams becomes the first African-American to be crowned Miss America, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
• September 23 - Violence erupts in New Caledonia between native Kanaks and French expatriates. The French government withdraws the promise of independence.
• September 23 - Mass outbreak in Maze prison: 38 prisoners hijack a lorry and crash out of the gate; 1 guard is killed and 5 others injured. Nineteen of the prisoners are later apprehended.
• September 25-September 26 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.
• September 26 - Australia wins America's Cup.
• September 27 - The GNU Project is announced publicly on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups.

October

• October 2 - Neil Kinnock is elected leader of the British Labour Party.
• October 4 - Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph, driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.
• October 4 - Hooters opens up in Clearwater, Florida.
• October 7 - A plan to abolish the Greater London Council is announced.
• October 9 - The Rangoon bombing kills South Korea's Foreign Minister, Lee Bum Suk, and 21 others.
• October 12 - Japan's former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed, and sentenced to 4 years in jail.
• October 19 - Maurice Bishop, the Prime Minister of Grenada, and 40 others are executed in a military coup.
• October 21 - At the 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures, the metre is defined in terms of the speed of light as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
• October 22 - In Bonn, West Germany, people demonstrate for nuclear disarmament.
• October 23 - Simultaneous suicide truck-bombings destroy both the French and the United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 US servicemen, 58 French paratroopers and 6 Lebanese civilians.
• October 24 - Arthur Hutchinson kills 3 members of the Laitner family and rapes their daughter in the Sheffield suburb of Dore.
• October 25 - United States troops invade Grenada at the behest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica, a member of the Organization of American States.
• October 27 - Pope John Paul II visits his would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Ağca in prison to forgive him.
• October 30 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after 7 years of military rule are held.

November

• November 2 - Martin Luther King Day: At the White House Rose Garden, U.S. President Ronald 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 3 - The Reverend Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for the 1984 Democratic Party presidential nomination.
• November 5 - The worst offshore diving accident ever, happens on board the Byford Dolphin rig in the North Sea of the coast of Norway. Five divers are killed and one severely wounded in an explosive decompression accident.
• November 11 - Ronald Reagan becomes the first U.S. President to address the Diet, Japan's national legislature.
• November 13 - The first United States cruise missiles arrive at Greenham Common Airbase in England amid protests from peace campaigners.
• November 15 - The Turkish part of Cyprus declares independence.
• November 16 - A jury in Gretna, Louisiana acquits Ginny Foat of the murder of Argentine businessman Moses Chaiyo.
• November 17 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded.
• November 24 - Lynda Mann, 15, is found raped and strangled in the village of Narborough, England (Colin Pitchfork is sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988).
• 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 is ever recovered, and only 2 men are convicted of the crime.
• November 30 - Microsoft Word is first released.

December

• December 9 - The Australian Dollar is floated, by Federal treasurer Paul Keating. Under the old flexible peg system, the Reserve Bank bought and sold all Australian dollars and cleared the market at the end of the day. This initiative is taken by the government of Bob Hawke.
• December 10 - Military rule ends and democracy is restored in Argentina.
• December 13 - The Denver Nuggets and the visiting Detroit Pistons combine for an NBA record 370 points, with Detroit winning in triple overtime, 186-184.
• December 17 - A discotheque fire in Madrid, Spain, kills 83 people.
• December 17 - A Provisional IRA car bomb kills 6 Christmas shoppers and injures 90 outside Harrods in London.
• December 29 - The Reverend Jesse Jackson travels to Syria to secure the release of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman, who has been in Syrian captivity after being shot down over the country on a reconnaissance mission.
• December 31 - Brunei gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• December 31 - Two bombs explode in France. One on the Paris train kills 3 and injures 19. The other at Marseille station kills 2 and injures 34.

Unknown dates

• The Dodge Caravan, the first minivan to enter production, is released as a 1984 model.
• Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program launched in U.S.
• Flashdance and Return of the Jedi are box-office hits.
• Gerard Debreu wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
• The immunosuppressant cyclosporine was approved by FDA, leading to a revolution in the field of transplantation.
• In Australia, the Northern Territory decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults
• Kellogg's introduces Crispix cereal.
• Leopold Kohr, the people of Belau, Amory and Hunter Lovins / Rocky Mountain Institute and Manfred Max-Neef / CEPAUR win the Right Livelihood Award
• McDonald's introduces the McNugget
• MyFamily was founded.
• Roxanne Pulitzer divorces Herbert Pulitzer
• Kary Mullis discovers polymerase chain reaction while working for Cetus
• The De Lorean Motor Company ceases production.

Births

January-March

• January 2 - Kate Bosworth, American actress
• January 4 - Spencer Chamberlain, American musician (UnderOATH)
• January 8 - Chris Masters, American wrestler
• January 17 - Johannes Herber, German basketball player
• January 18 - Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
• January 19 - Hikaru Utada, Japanese singer and songwriter
• January 20 - Mari Yaguchi, Japanese singer and DJ
• January 23 - David Firth, British flash animator
• January 24 - Scott Speed, American racecar driver
• February 7 - Elin Grindemyr, Swedish model
• February 8 - Jim Verraros, American singer
• February 8 - Atiba Hutchinson, Canadian footballer
• February 18 - Juelz Santana, American Rapper
• February 19 - Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer and actress
• February 19 - Ryan Whitney, American hockey player
• February 23 - Mido, Egyptian footballer
• February 27 - Devin Harris, American basketball player
• March 10 - Carrie Underwood, American singer
• March 10 - Reena Virk, Canadian murder victim (d. 1997)
• March 14 - Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer
• March 14 - Taylor Hanson, American musician
• March 15 - Sean Biggerstaff, British actor
• March 21 - Bruno Langley, British actor
• March 28 - Ryan Ashington, English footballer

April-May

• April 2 - Yung Joc, American Rapper
• April 10 - Ryan Merriman, American actor
• April 13 - Schalk Burger, South African rugby player
• April 14 - Simon Burnett, British swimmer
• April 15 - Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player
• April 17 - Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
• April 21 - Paweł Brożek, Polish footballer
• April 22 - Matt Jones, American football player
• April 22 - Sean Muir, American playwright
• April 23 - Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakian tennis player
• May 11 - Matt Leinart, American football player
• May 11 - Holly Valance, Australian actress and singer
• May 13 - Natalie Cassidy, British actress (EastEnders)
• May 14 - Amber Tamblyn, American actress
• May 18 - Vince Young, American football player
• May 27 - Bobby Convey, American soccer player
• May 30 - Jennifer Ellison, British actress

June-July

• June 6 - Joe Rokocoko, New Zealand rugby player
• June 8 - Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player
• June 9 - Vic Zhou, Chinese actor and singer
• June 13 - Jason Spezza, Canadian hockey player
• June 15 - Julia Fischer, German violinist
• June 17 - Lee Ryan, British singer
• June 18 - Billy Slater, Australian Rugby League
• June 24 - Alexander Beyer, German actor
• June 30 - Cheryl Tweedy, British singer
• July 1 - Marit Larsen, Norwegian musician
• July 2 - Michelle Branch, American singer
• July 6 - Gregory Smith, Canadian-born American actor
• July 8 - Elizabeth Del Mar, American pornographic actress
• July 11 - Marie Eleonor Sernehlot, Swedish-born American singer (A*Teens)
• July 12 - Megumi Kawamura, Japanese model
• July 13 - Liu Xiang, Chinese athlete
• July 18 - Aaron Gillespie, Drummer(Underoath)
• July 21 - Eivør Pálsdóttir, Faroese singer and composer
• July 21 - Kellen Winslow Jr., American football player
• July 23 - Bec Cartwright, Australian actress
• July 23 - Aaron Peirsol, American swimmer

August-November

• August 5 - Sam Stacey, British model
• August 6 - Robin van Persie, Dutch football player
• August 14 - Mila Kunis, Ukrainian-American actress
• August 16 - Nikos Zisis, Greek Basketball Player
• August 19 - Tammin Sursok, Australian actress
• August 21 - Chantelle Houghton, British reality TV star
• August 23 - Nicol David, Malaysian squash player
• August 24 - Christopher Parker, British actor
• August 28 - Luke McAlister, New Zealand Rugby Union Player
• September 1 - José Antonio Reyes, Spanish football player
• September 17 - Jennifer Peña, American singer
• September 21 - Maggie Grace, American actress
• September 21 - Joseph Mazzello, American actor
• September 24 - Randy Foye, American basketball player
• September 26 - Samantha Hammel, American producer, actress and singer
• October 4 - Risa Kudo, Japanese gravure idol
• October 5 - Nicky Hilton, American model and socialite
• October 10 - Alyson Hau, Hong Kong Radio DJ
• October 14 - Vanessa Lane, American porn star
• October 17 - Michelle Ang, Australian actress
• October 24 - Brian Vickers, American race car driver
• October 29 - Amit Sebastian Paul, Swedish-born American singer (A*Teens)
• October 29 - Richard Brancatisano, Australian actor/musician (Power Rangers: Mystic Force)
• October 30 - Diana Karazon, Jordanian singer
• November 8 - Blanka Vlašić, Croatian high jumper
• November 11 - Philipp Lahm, German footballer
• November 14 - Lil Boosie, American Rapper
• November 16 - Fallon Bowman, South African-born guitarist (Kittie)
• November 18 - Mila J, American singer/rapper
• November 18 - Jon Johansen, Norwegian computer programmer

December

• December 6 - Bryan Habana, South African rugby player
• December 9 - Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer
• December 10 - Patrick Flueger, American actor (Law & Order: SVU, The 4400)
• December 12 - Katrina Elam, American singer
• December 12 - Brad Smith, American football player
• December 13 - Otylia Jędrzejczak, Polish swimmer
• December 15 - René Duprée, Canadian professional wrestler
• December 17 - Erik Christensen, Canadian hockey player
• December 20 - Lucy Pinder, British model
• December 31 - Sayaka Ichii, Japanese singer

Deaths

January-March

• January 10 - Roy DeMeo, Mafia hitman (b. 1942)
• January 11 - Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist and educator (b. 1894)
• January 15 - Meyer Lansky, Russian-born gangster (b. 1902)
• January 23 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (b. 1908)
• January 24 - George Cukor, American film director (b. 1899)
• January 28 - Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1890)
• January 28 - Billy Fury, British Rock 'n' Roll artist of the 1960s
• February 4 - Karen Carpenter, American singer (b. 1950)
• February 12 - Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter (b. 1887)
• February 14 - Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)
• February 22 - Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
• February 25 - Tennessee Williams, American playwright (b. 1911)
• March 3 - Hergé, Belgian comics creator (b. 1907)
• March 3 - Arthur Koestler, Austrian writer (b. 1905)
• March 8 - William Walton, English composer (b. 1902)
• March 9 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
• March 15 - Rebecca West, English-born writer (b. 1892)
• March 17 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
• March 27 - Elsie Eaves, American civil engineer, George Norlin Silver Medal from the University of Colorado (b. 1898)

April-June

• April 4 - Gloria Swanson, American actress (b. 1897)
• April 22 - Earl 'Fatha' Hines, American musician (b. 1903)
• April 30 - McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield, American musician (b. 1915)
• May 8 - John Fante, American writer (b. 1909)
• May 14 - Roger J. Traynor, American judge (b. 1900)
• May 18 - Frank Aiken, Irish Foreign Minister (b. 1898)
• May 19 - Jean Rey, President of the European Commission (b. 1902)
• May 21 - Kenneth Clark, British art historian (b. 1903)
• May 22 - Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
• May 31 - Jack Dempsey, American heavyweight champion boxer (b. 1895)
• June 2 - Stan Rogers, Canadian musician (b. 1949)
• June 12 - Norma Shearer, Canadian-born actress
• June 18 - Marianne Brandt, German industrial designer (b. 1893)
• June 25 - Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (b. 1916)

July-September

• July 1 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect (b. 1895)
• July 4 - John Bodkin Adams, alleged English murderer (b. 1899)
• July 7 - Vicki Morgan, American model (murdered) (b. 1952)
• July 20 - Frank Reynolds, American journalist (b. 1923)
• July 23 - Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899)
• July 29 - Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
• July 29 - David Niven, English actor (b. 1910)
• August 16 - Earl Averill, baseball player (b. 1902)
• August 21 - Benigno Aquino Jr., Filipino politician (b. 1932)
• September 1 - Larry McDonald, U.S. Congressman (plane crash) (b. 1935)
• September 10 - Felix Bloch, Swiss-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
• September 10 - Jon Brower Minnoch, heaviest man who ever lived (b. 1941)
• September 25 - King Léopold III of Belgium (b. 1901)
• September 26 - Tino Rossi, Corsican singer (b. 1907)

October-December

• October 6 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, American Catholic archbishop (b. 1921)
• October 8 - Joan Hackett, American actress (b. 1934)
• October 18 - Willie Jones, baseball player (b. 1925)
• October 23 - Jessica Savitch, American journalist (drowned in a car accident) (b. 1947)
• October 28 - Otto Messmer, American cartoonist (b. 1892)
• November 7 - Germaine Tailleferre, French composer (b. 1892)
• November 15 - John Le Mesurier, British actor (b. 1912)
• December 2 - Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress (b. 1904)
• December 6 - Lucienne Boyer, French singer (b. 1903)
• December 8 - Slim Pickens, American actor (b. 1919)
• December 11 - Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (b. 1897)
• December 21 - Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (b. 1919)
• December 23 - Colin Middleton, Northern Irish artist (b. 1910}
• December 25 - Joan Miró, Catalan painter (b. 1893)
• December 28 - Dennis Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (drowned) (b. 1944)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, William Alfred Fowler
• Chemistry - Henry Taube
• Medicine - Barbara McClintock
• Literature - William Golding
• Peace - Lech Wałęsa
• Economics - Gerard Debreu

Templeton Prize

• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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