The following events occurred in September 1981:
September 1, 1981 (Tuesday) Typhoon Agnes struck South Korea, bringing with it the heaviest rainfall seen on the Korean peninsula in the 20th century, with as much as 28 inches (71 cm) falling over the next two days."Typhoon Agnes leaves 51 dead", Montreal Gazette, September 5, 1981, p8 The final toll was 120 people dead or missing."Agnes", in Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate, Volume 1 (Michael Allaby, ed.) (Infobase Publishing, 2002) p13 David Dacko, who had recently been re-elected, quit as President of the Central African Republic, turned over control to army commander General Andre Kolingba."Central African president resigns", Milwaukee Journal, September 1, 1981, p2 General Kolingba remained in power until 1993.Pierre Kalck, Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic (Scarecrow Press, 2005) Roger Hargreaves' children’s book series, Little Miss, made its debut as the female counterpart to his popular Mr. Men series of books, with the publication of Little Miss Bossy.
Died: Albert Speer, 76, German Nazi architect and war minister Ann Harding, 79, American actress
September 2, 1981 (Wednesday) Mohammad Reza Mahdavi was approved as Iran's third Prime Minister in as many months."New Prime Minister", Milwaukee Journal, September 3, 1981, p10
September 3, 1981 (Thursday) The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 18, 1979, went into effect by its own terms after being ratified by at least 20 nations. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights In Egypt, a nationwide arrest of 1,536 people, most of them Islamist activists, was carried out on orders of President Anwar Sadat. One of those seized was Mohammed Islambouli, leader of the Islamic Association branch at Assiut University. His younger brother, Egyptian army Lt. Khalid Islambouli, a member of the group Jihad, was so outraged that he vowed to get revenge on Sadat. A few days later, Khalid was assigned to be part of a military parade scheduled for October 6 to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Egypt's attack on Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and used the opportunity to conspire with fellow members of Jihad to carry out an assassination.Caryle Murphy, Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience (Simon and Schuster, 2002) p62; "Sadat sweep jails 500", Vancouver Sun, September 4, 1981, p1 Born: Fearne Cotton, British television presenter, as Fearne Wood in Northwood, London
September 4, 1981 (Friday)
The United States Department of Agriculture proposed new regulations concerning nutritional requirements for the federally subsidized school lunch program. Both ketchup and pickle relish were classified as vegetables for purposes of defining a balanced meal. The USDA withdrew the proposal three weeks later after a reporter from the Washington Post called attention to the new rules."Q: When Is Ketchup a Vegetable? A: When Tofu Is Meat", by Ward Sinclair, Washington Post, September 9, 1981, pA7; Manning Marable, Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1990 (University Press of Mississippi, 1991) p183; "Plan to count ketchup a vegetable left school lunch planners in a pickle", Miami News, September 30, 1981, p6A An explosion at a mine in Záluží, Czechoslovakia, killed 65 people. Another 40 were rescued."Mine blast kills 65", Milwaukee Journal, September 4, 1981, p2 Louis Delamare, France's ambassador to Lebanon, was assassinated in Beirut. Delamare was being driven home when four gunmen pulled alongside his BMW and opened fire."French envoy slain", Milwaukee Journal, September 4, 1981, p2 At 8:51 a.m. on the day of its bicentennial, Los Angeles got what was nicknamed "the birthday quake", a tremor of 5.8 magnitude, the strongest since the 1971 quake that had killed 65 people."Strong quake jolts L.A. area", Milwaukee Journal, September 4, 1981, p3 Sobhuza II celebrated his 60th anniversary as King of Swaziland, in a ceremony attended by Egypt's President Sadat and Britain's Princess Margaret. Sobhuza was the first monarch since Queen Victoria to observe a diamond jubilee."King hits 60 years on the throne", Milwaukee Journal, September 4, 1981, p2 Born: Beyoncé Knowles, American actress and R&B singer (Destiny's Child); in Houston
September 5, 1981 (Saturday) Pope Shenuda III, head of the Coptic Christian Church of Egypt, was deposed from his job by President Anwar Sadat, who charged that Muslim and Christian extremists were conspiring to overthrow the government."Sadat rips religious extremists", Milwaukee Journal, September 6, 1981, p1 Three years after Sadat's assassination, Shenuda, who had been exiled to the monastery of Saint Bishoi, was allowed by President Hosni Mubarak to return to Cairo.Otto Friedrich and August Meinardus, Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity (American University in Cairo Press, 2002) p80 John Barnes, who would become England's greatest black soccer football player, made his professional debut at age 17, playing for the last 15 minutes of Watford F.C.'s game against Oldham Athletic.Dave Hill, Out of His Skin: The John Barnes Phenomenon (WSC Books Limited, 2001) p74 In the largest jailbreak within a Communist nation, 154 inmates escaped from a jail in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The mass breakout happened after a riot that began when a 17-year-old burglary suspect had been shot during an attempted escape."154 Polish inmates stage huge escape", Spokane Daily Chronicle, September 7, 1981, p2
September 6, 1981 (Sunday) Nawal El Saadawi was arrested as part of the roundup of Sadat's opponents, and stayed in the Barrage Prison until November 25. She later recounted the story in her book, "Mozakerati fi signel nissa" ("Memoirs from the Women's Prison", 1983)Nawal El Saadawi, The Nawal El Saadawi Reader (Palgrave Macmillan, 1998) p23, p58
September 7, 1981 (Monday) The People's Court made its syndicated television debut on 39 television stations in the United States. Created by producer Ralph Edwards, the show presented real small claims court cases, with the litigants agreeing to dismiss court proceedings and to go before retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Wapner. Of the $800 provided by the producers for each case, the amount not awarded to the plaintiff ($750 maximum) would be divided evenly between both sides. The very first case saw a landlady receive an award of $614."TV: 'People's Court', 'Reality' in the Morning", New York Times, September 8, 1981; "Law: Oyez! Don't Touch That Dial", TIME Magazine, September 7, 1981 The government of Malaysia, as part of its New Economic Policy program and the efforts of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, engineered the takeover of the British-owned rubber plantation company, Guthrie Group Ltd. The government investment company, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), purchased majority control of the stock in an early-morning buy on the London Stock Exchange of most of the shares of Guthrie in what was later called the "Dawn Raid attack" that achieved its goal within four hours after the market opened."Guthrie falls to Malaysians; PNB wins control after surprise four-hour market swoop", The Guardian (London), September 8, 1981, p22 The Guthrie Group's of land was then redistributed by the government to Malaysian farmers.Tim Bunnell, Malaysia, Modernity and the Multimedia Super Corridor: A Critical Geography of Intelligent Landscapes (Taylor & Francis, 2004) At Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico, two-year-old filly Special Effort won the All American Futurity to become quarter horse racing's first AQHA Triple Crown Winner."'Effort' wins Futurity", The Morning News (Wilmington DE), September 8, 1981, pB4 At the same track, Special Effort had won the "Kansas Futurity" and the "Rainbow Futurity" earlier in the year."All American Futurity winner dies", by Felix F. Chávez, El Paso (TX) Times, May 15, 2017 The first issue of the American weekly newsmagazine Education Week was published.Thomas C. Hunt, Encyclopedia of Educational Reform and Dissent, Volume 2 (SAGE, 2010) p330 Died: Edwin Link, 77, American inventor who created the first flight simulator.
September 8, 1981 (Tuesday) Stephen King's horror novel about a crazed St. Bernard dog, Cujo, was first published.Michael R. Collings, Scaring Us to Death: The Impact of Stephen King on Popular Culture (Wildside Press LLC, 1997) p50 Born: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, American TV actor, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Died: Hideki Yukawa, 74, Japanese theoretical physicist, 1949 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Roy Wilkins, 80, leader of the NAACP.
September 9, 1981 (Wednesday) Indian newspaper owner Jagat Narain, 92, was assassinated by three gunmen after publishing articles critical of Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Sikh demands for a separate nation. On September 20, Bhindranwale surrendered to the police, but was released on October 14 by orders of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.Ananth V. Krishna, India Since Independence: Making Sense Of Indian Politics (Pearson Education India, 2011) pp273-274 Born: Julie Gonzalo, Argentinian actress, in Buenos Aires Ivan Elez, Croatian footballer, in Split City, Yugoslavia Nancy Wu, Hong Kong TV actress, in Hong Kong Died: Jacques Lacan, 80, French psychiatrist and founder of the Lacanian technique of psychoanalysis Rusudana Nikoladze, 96, Georgian chemist and educator
September 10, 1981 (Thursday) Picasso's painting "Guernica" was returned to the Museo del Prado in Madrid after having been kept at New York's Museum of Modern Art since 1939. Transfer of the painting had been kept secret until its arrival."Picasso's 'Guernica' goes home", Glasgow Herald, September 11, 1981, p5 In a hastily called referendum, voters in Egypt overwhelmingly endorsed Sadat's crackdown against religious and political opponents, with a reported 99.45% of nearly 11 million ballots in favor, and only 33,561 against."Sadat referendum victory put at 99.45%", Milwaukee Journal, September 11, 1981, p2 John Carta, a 35-year-old unemployed stonemason from New Rochelle, New York, became the first person to parachute on to the World Trade Center. Carta jumped from a plane at an altitude of 10,000 feet, then guided himself to a landing on to the observation deck on Tower Two."Parachutist courts fine, Milwaukee Journal, September 11, 1981, p2
September 11, 1981 (Friday) Iran's Ayatollah Mir Asadollah Madani, who became the Imam for Tabriz after the 1979 assassination of the Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Qazi Tabatabaei, was himself assassinated while conducting the Jumu'ah, the Muslim Friday prayer service."Grenade Blast Kills Key Iran Clergyman", by J. Michael Kennedy, Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1981, pI-5 Madani was approached near the end of the service by a man who was carrying a grenade, and who then detonated it. In addition to Madani and the assassin, six worshipers were fatally injured. A small plane crashed into the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California, damaging the venue beyond repair. The crash happened at 4:40 in the afternoon and a -high hole was torn into the side of the auditorium when the Cessna 310 struck the building. The pilot, owner of a small chain of restaurants, was killed instantly along with his passenger."Plane crashes into Swing hall, two die", by Mark Lundahl, San Bernardino County (CA) Sun, September 12, 1981, p1"2 Die as Plane Crashes Into San Bernardino Auditorium", by Lorraine Bennett, Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1981, pI-30 The venue had no casualty insurance and could not be rebuilt."Swing Auditorium not insured, may be demolished", by Mark Lundahl, San Bernardino County (CA) Sun, September 13, 1981, p1 Born: Dylan Klebold, American mass murderer in the Columbine High School massacre; in Lakewood, Colorado (d. 1999) Died: Frank McHugh, 83, American film actor
September 12, 1981 (Saturday)