Events from the year 1981 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Jimmy Carter (D-Georgia) (until January 20) Ronald Reagan (R-California) (starting January 20) Vice President: Walter Mondale (D-Minnesota) (until January 20) George H. W. Bush (R-Texas) (starting January 20) Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (Virginia) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tip O'Neill (D-Massachusetts) Senate Majority Leader: Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) (until January 3) Howard Baker (R-Tennessee) (starting January 3) Congress: 96th (until January 3), 97th (starting January 3)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events January
January 16 – Women in Housing and Finance: conduct first meeting in New York City. January 19 – United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity. January 20 – Ronald Reagan is sworn in as the 40th president of the United States, and George H. W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd vice president. Minutes later, Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days, ending the Iran hostage crisis. January 25 – Super Bowl XV: The Oakland Raiders defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 27–10 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
February February 10 – A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198. February 18 – President Reagan delivers his first address to the 97th Congress.
March
March 6 – After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time. March 19 – Three workers are killed and five are injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia. March 21 – Michael Donald is lynched in Mobile, Alabama. March 30 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded. March 31 – The 53rd Academy Awards, hosted by Johnny Carson, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Robert Redford's directorial debut, Ordinary People, wins four awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. David Lynch's The Elephant Man and Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull tie in receiving eight nominations each.
April
April 12 – The Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia (John Young, Robert Crippen) launches on the STS-1 mission, returning to Earth on April 14. April 18 – A Minor League Baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning is not played until June 23). April 26 – The 5.9 Westmorland earthquake shook the Imperial Valley of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing $1–3 million in damage.
May May 11 – The Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley dies at age 36 from cancer. May 15 – Donna Payant is murdered by serial killer Lemuel Smith, the first time a female correctional officer has been killed on-duty in the United States.
June June – The United States enters the severe early 1980s recession, exactly a year after the more minor 1980 recession ended; the unemployment rate is 7.2% June 5 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California, have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (the first recognized cases of AIDS). June 12 Major League Baseball goes on strike, forcing the cancellation of 38 percent of the schedule. Raiders of the Lost Ark, directed by Steven Spielberg is released as the first film of the Indiana Jones film series. June 21 – Wayne Williams, a 23-year-old African American, is arrested and charged with the murders of two other African Americans. He is later accused of 28 others, in the Atlanta child murders. June 29 – Morris Edwin Robert, armed with a machine gun, holds hostages in the FBI section at the Atlanta, Georgia Federal Building. After three hours, the hostages are rescued and Robert is killed in a shootout with federal agents.
July
July 7 – President Reagan nominates the first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, to the Supreme Court of the United States. July 8 – California Governor Jerry Brown, faced with a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation, chooses to delay the aerial spraying of malathion, in favor of continuing ground-based eradication efforts. July 9 – First release of Donkey Kong and debut of Mario. July 10 – Walt Disney Productions' 24th feature film, The Fox and the Hound, is released after a six-month delay due to the departure of Don Bluth and his animation team from the studio. The film receives mixed-to-positive reviews and is a box office success. July 17 Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby, killing 114. Israeli aircraft bomb Beirut, destroying multi-story apartment blocks containing the offices of PLO associated groups, killing approximately 300 civilians and resulting in worldwide condemnation and a U.S. embargo on the export of aircraft to Israel. July 27 – Adam Walsh, 6, is kidnapped from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida.
August
August 1 – MTV (Music Television) is launched on cable television in the United States. August 5 – President Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work. August 7 – The Washington Star ceases publication after 128 years. August 9 – Major League Baseball resumes from the strike with the All-Star Game in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. August 10 – Exactly two weeks after his disappearance, the severed head of 6-year-old Hollywood, Florida native Adam Walsh is found in a canal in Vero Beach, Florida; to this day the rest of the boy's body has never been recovered. August 12 – The original Model 5150 IBM PC (with a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 processor) is released in the United States at a base price of $1,565. August 19 Gulf of Sidra incident (1981): Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi sends 2 Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept 2 U.S. fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroy the Libyan fighters. President Ronald Reagan appoints the first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor. August 24 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, after being convicted of murdering John Lennon in Manhattan eight months earlier. August 31 – A bomb explodes at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, West Germany, injuring 20 people.
September September 10 – Picasso's painting "Guernica" is moved from New York City to Madrid. September 11 – A small plane crashes into the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California, damaging the venue beyond repair. September 15 – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, at 150 years old, when it operates under its own power outside Washington, DC. September 17 – Ric Flair defeats Dusty Rhodes to win his first World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in Kansas City. September 19 – Simon & Garfunkel perform The Concert in Central Park, a free concert in New York in front of approximately half a million people. September 25 Sandra Day O'Connor takes her seat as the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Rolling Stones begin their Tattoo You tour at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
October October 28 The thrash metal band Metallica forms in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees, 4 games to 2, to win their fifth World Series Title.
November November 12 – STS-2: Space Shuttle Columbia (Joe Engle, Richard Truly) lifts off for its second mission. November 16 – Luke and Laura marry on the U.S. soap opera General Hospital; it is the highest-rated hour in daytime television history. November 23 – Iran-Contra scandal: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua. November 30 – Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin negotiating intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings end inconclusively on Thursday, December 17).
December
December 5 – American general James L. Dozier is kidnapped in Verona by the Italian Red Brigades. December 8 – The No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13. December 11 – Boxing: Muhammad Ali loses to Trevor Berbick; this proved to be Ali's last-ever fight. December 28 – The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia.
Ongoing Cold War (1947–1991) Iran hostage crisis (1979–1981) Early 1980s recession (1981–1982) The Wayne Chicken Show (since 1981), held in Wayne, Nebraskahttp://www.chickenshow.com/events/ April 11, 2012
Births
January
January 1 Kelly Fremon Craig, screenwriter, producer, and film director Eden Riegel, actress January 2 JT Daly, musician, producer, songwriter, and visual artist, and frontman for Paper Route Kirk Hinrich, basketball player January 3 – Eli Manning, football player January 4 Alicia Garza, civil rights activist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Aaron Schwartz, actor January 5 Chris Drake, tennis player Brooklyn Sudano, actress January 6 Ejiro Evero, English-born football player and coach Betty Gabriel, actress Camila Grey, singer/songwriter and guitarist Mike Jones, rapper Mobetta, jazz trumpeter, producer, and composer January 7 Marquis Daniels, basketball player Jinxx, guitarist and member of Black Veil Brides January 8 – Genevieve Cortese, actress January 9 Sam Arora, politician Nate Boyer, football player and Army Green Beret Cedric Cobbs, football player Caroline Lufkin, singer January 10 Matt Brown, mixed martial artist Brian Joo, R&B singer Jared Kushner, investor January 11 – Mary Beth Decker, model and television personality January 12 – Quentin Griffin, football player January 13 Reggie Brown, football player Shad Gaspard, wrestler (d. 2020) January 14 – Trieste Kelly Dunn, actress January 15 Elvin Ayala, boxer Charleene Closshey, actress, musician, composer, and producer Alex Cremidan, baseball player Howie Day, singer/songwriter Pitbull, hip-hop musician and record producer January 16 – Kurt Sauer, ice hockey player January 17 Flash Brown, pornographic actor, model, and basketball player Scott Mechlowicz, actor Ray J, rapper and singer January 19 – Elizabeth Tulloch, actress January 20 John Baker, baseball player Annie Black, politician Erika Davies, jazz vocalist and actress Jason Richardson, basketball player Clarke Tucker, politician January 21 Amanda Aday, actress Damane Duckett, football player Josh Revak, politician Josh Riley, lawyer and politician January 22 Chantelle Anderson, basketball player Cameron Echols, basketball player Willa Ford, singer, television hostess, and actress Beverley Mitchell, actress Ben Moody, guitarist Raymond Raposa, singer/songwriter and frontman for Castanets (d. 2022) January 23 Dan Antoniuk, soccer player Nathan Baskerville, politician Chuckie Campbell, musician, poet, fiction writer, editor, publisher, and educator Miss Eighty 6, rapper January 24 – Carrie Coon, actress January 25 – Alicia Keys, singer, pianist and actress January 26 – Ronald Dupree, basketball player January 27 – Gorilla Zoe, rapper January 28 – Elijah Wood, actor and producer January 29 – Jonny Lang, musician January 30 – Jonathan Bender, basketball player January 31 – Justin Timberlake, singer/songwriter, actor, record producer, and member of NSYNC
February
February 1 Bayard Elfvin, soccer player John Gemberling, actor and comedian Gina Ortiz Jones, politician February 2