The following events occurred in February 1982:
February 1, 1982 (Monday) The Senegambia Confederation was created as a partial union of the two West African nations of Senegal and The Gambia, pursuant to an agreement signed on December 12."Gambia Enters Union with Senegal on Wary Note", by Pranay B. Gupte, The New York Times, February 1, 1982, p.A-2 After Gambia declined to move toward a closer union, Senegal would end the Confederation on September 10, 1989. The American television show Late Night with David Letterman premiered at 12:30 in the morning on NBC and began an 11-year run which would end in 1993 with Letterman's transfer to the CBS network and the premiere of The Late Show with David Letterman. The most powerful commercial computer chip up to that time, the Intel 80286, was introduced by the Intel company, with the power to expand a computer memory to 16 megabytes, compared to the one megabyte 8086. Born: Gavin Henson, Welsh professional rugby union player with 33 caps for the Wales national team; in Pencoed, Mid Glamorgan Andrea Minguzzi, Italian Greco-Roman wrestling champion and 2008 Olympic gold medalist; in Castel San Pietro Terme Sandra Linkevičienė, Lithuanian women's basketball player and EuroLeague star; in Kretinga, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet UnionSandra Linkevičienė. fibaeurope.com
February 2, 1982 (Tuesday)
The Hama massacre began in Syria as the Syrian army worked on suppressing a rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Syrian city. The government of President Hafez Assad was dominated by Alawite Muslims while the brotherhood was largely composed of Sunni Muslims. On the first day of the massacre, the members of a government security force were killed while trying to raid a Brotherhood hangout. Within three weeks, Hama, Syria's fifth larrgest city, was in ruins."Syria Said to Raze Part of Rebel City", by John Kifner The New York Times, February 21, 1982, p.1 Belgium's Senate joined the January 18 vote by Chamber of Deputies to grant Prime Minister Wilfried Martens power to enact economic reforms by decree for the remainder of the year. A Cuban hijacker took control of Air Florida Flight 710, a Boeing 737 jetliner with 77 people on board, shortly after the Boeing 737 took off from Miami to Key West. After the jet landed in Havana, the passengers and rew were returned to Miami later in the day."Air Florida Jetliner Is Hijacked to Cuba", The New York Times, February 3, 1982, p.A-12"Air Florida Boeing 737-200 2 February 1982", Aviation Safety Network In the U.S., the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that a new analysis had discovered at least four more small moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the number of known Saturnian satellites to 21."Four More Small Moons of Saturn Are Detected in Voyager 2 Photo", The New York Times, February 3, 1982, p.A-13 Born:Filippo Magnini, Italian competitive swimmer and world champion in the 100m freestyle event in 2005 and 2007; in Pesaro
February 3, 1982 (Wednesday) Syria's President Hafez al-Assad ordered the nation's army to purge the Muslim Brotherhood from the city of Harran. Estimates of deaths and disappearances from a bombing campaign range from 10,000 to 40,000 civilians. Leonid Brezhnev, head of state of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, presented an arms-control plan for both the USSR and the U.S. to reduce their nuclear weapons in Europe by two-thirds."Brezhnev Offers Deep Arms Cuts in Europe by '90", by John F. Burns, The New York Times, February 4, 1982, p.1 The next day, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced the American plan for elimination by both sides of all nuclear missiles in Europe. All 36 people aboard a French Foreign Legion chartered Nord 2501 Noratlas airplane were killed when the aircraft crashed into the side of Mount Garbi following takeoff from Djibouti. The victims were mostly members of a platoon of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment.Aviation Safety Network accident description The highest ranking Soviet military officer in the Soviet embassy in Washington was expelled from the United States after being declared persona non grata by the U.S. Department of State. Major General Vasily Chitov had been taken into custody by the FBI after a high-speed car chase, after which he had been found with incriminating documents, but released without being arrested for espionage because of diplomatic immunity. The popular video game Ms. Pac-Man, a sequel to Namco's Pac-Man, was introduced at a press conference at Sherman Oaks, California, by an American company, General Computer Corporation, following a licensing agreement with Namco. The Eastman Kodak Company unveiled its new product, the disk camera, which used a disk cartridge rather than rolls of film."Kodak's New Sales Focus Is On Film-Disk Camera", The Commercial Appeal (Memphis TN), February 4, 1982, p.19 The lowest priced model, the Disc 4000, had a suggested retail price of $67.95, equivalent to $204 forty-years later in 2022. Born: Jalal Hosseini, Iranian footballer with 115 caps for the Iran national team; in Bandar AnzaliJalal Hosseini at PersianLeague.com Vera Brezhneva (stage name for Vira Viktorivna Halushka), Ukrainian singer and actress; in Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Died: Anton Hartman, 63, South African conductor for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, and professor at the University of the WitwatersrandMalan, J. (ed). 1982. South African Music Encyclopedia vol. 2, Cape Town, p 171: Oxford University Press.
February 4, 1982 (Thursday) Henk Chin A Sen was dismissed from his figurehead position as President of Suriname by Dési Bouterse, who had taken over leadership of the South American nation in a 1980 military coup. Bouterse installed Fred Ramdat Misier as the new president.
Sri Lanka's President J. R. Jayewardene announced that presidential elections would be held for the first time in the island nation, to take place on October 20. The Broadway musical Pump Boys and Dinettes held the first of 573 performances, premiering at the Princess Theatre and running until June 18, 1983. Died: Alex Harvey, 46, Scottish rock and blues musician known for leading The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, died from a heart attack in Belgium shortly after completing a European concert tour."Rock star Alex Harvey, a survivor from skiffle", The Guardian (London), February 5, 1982, p.2 Kenichi Yamamoto, 56, Japanese yakuza crime boss and successor to Kazuo Taoka, died of liver disease six months after Taoka's death. Konrad Morgen, 72, Nazi German investigating judge and SS officer who prosecuted corruption and illegal acts (which he defined as those not authorized directly by Adolf Hitler) within the organization, later a witness for the prosecution in the Nuremberg trials before resuming his judicial career in West Germany Marion S. Wyeth, 92, American architect known for designing (in 1924) the Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, originally for Marjorie Merriweather Post, later used by U.S. president Donald Trump"Marion S. Wyeth, PB Architect, Dies", Palm Beach (FL) Daily News, February 7, 1982, p.1
February 5, 1982 (Friday) Based in London, the low-cost airline Laker Airways halted operations, leaving 6,000 passengers stranded and debts of £270 million. All flights were canceled and in one case, a flight that had already departed with309 passengers from London to the Canary Islands "was called back, apparently out of concern that it might be seized abroad to satisfy debts.""Laker in Bankruptcy Owing $300 Million; All Flights Canceled", by William Borders, The New York Times, February 6, 1982, p.1 An airplane crash killed all 53 people on board a Republic of Korea Air Force C-123 Provider transport during a training mission. Along with its crew of six, the airplane was transporting 47 members of the ROK Army's special forces, the 707th Special Mission Group and was approaching the airport on Jeju Island when it struck the ground near Mount Halla. The government of West Germany, led by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, won a vote of confidence by a margin of 269 to 226."Schmidt wins vote of confidence; sought to reassure allies, critics", by Hal Piper, The Sun (Baltimore), February 6, 1982, p.A 2
The Tacit Blue stealth aircraft, developed by the Northrop Corporation, secretly made its first flight, conducted at the U.S. Air Force Area 51 within the remote Nevada Test and Training Range and flown by test pilot Richard G. Thomas. The aircraft's existence would remain a secret until the Tacit Blue project's declassification on April 30, 1996. At the conclusion of an emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly to consider Israel's December 17 annexation of the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, the Assembly voted, 86 to 21, to approve General Assembly Resolution 37/123A, a non-binding resolution calling for an international boycott of Israel."U.N. Assembly Asks Israel's Isolation", The New York Times, February 6, 1982, p.1 Iran held its first annual International Holy Quran Competition, with competitors from 12 nations showing their skills in memorizing the entirety of the central religious text of Islam, the Quran, and in reciting the Tahqiq."30-Year Record of International Quran Competitions", Mashreq News (in Persian) The Mask, a popular series of comic books that would be adapted for a popular 1994 film and a syndicated television cartoon, was created by freelance author and artist Mike Richardson."Mark Richardson, "Introduction: Behind the Mask", in The Mask: The Collection (Dark Horse Comics, 1993) Born: Jenn Suhr, American pole vaulter and 2012 Olympic gold medalist for the women's pole vault; in Fredonia, New York Rodrigo Palacio, Argentine footballer with 27 caps for the Argentina national team; in Bahia Blanca Filippo Strocchi, Italian stage actor and singer; in Modena Died: Dr. Neil Aggett, white South African labor leader, was found hanged in his jail cell."White Aide of Nonwhite South African Union Found Hanged in Cell", The New York Times, February 6, 1982, p.6 Peter Opie, 63, English children's forklorist who, with his wife, Iona Balfour Opie, wrote multiple literary analyses of children's folklore, including The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951), The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959), and The Classic Fairy Tales (1974) Grigori Shneyerov Schneerson, 79, Soviet Russian musicologist and author known for his studies and criticism of music produced in China, the U.S., England, France, and Germany.
February 6, 1982 (Saturday) American spree killer Robert Dale Henderson, who had murdered 12 people in a three week period from January 14 to February 4, approached a deputy sheriff at the Aqui Esta Shopping Center at Punta Gorda, Florida and voluntarily surrendered to Charlotte County deputy sheriff Curtis Moore."Drifter admits to spree of at least 13 slayings", by Edna Buchanan and Dory Owens, The Miami Herald, February 7, 1982, p.1A"'I'm Robert Dale Henderson. I'm Wanted For Homicide In Several States: A Man Leaves His Brutal mark", Tampa Tribune and Times, February 21, 1982, p.1A Gordon would be executed in the electric chair at the Florida State Prison on April 21, 1993. In the Philippines, the populist political party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (Philippine Democratic Party') was founded in Cebu City by Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel and other people in opposition to both the government of President Ferdinand Marcos and Marcos' ruling party, the KBL Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL). In 1983, PDB would merge with the Laban to form the party PDP-Laban of Benigno Aquino, which took a majority of seats in the Philippine House of Representatives and the Philippine Senate in elections in 1987.