In history, year 1981 has its own importance and known for many memorable events like famous birthdays, inventions, natural disaster, treaties, change of rulers, special days etc. Find below a list of important historical events which happened during the year 1981.
| Date/Month | Event / Incidence / Incident |
|---|
| 02 january | English serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, the 'Yorkshire Ripper',was arrested in Sheffield, ending one of the largest policeinvestigations in British history. |
| 08 january | A local farmer reported a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence,France, claimed to be 'perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time'. |
| 09 january | U.S. Representative Raymond F. Lederer was convicted of bribery and conspiracy for his role in the Abscam scandal, but continued to serve his term for three more months. |
| 15 january | Hill Street Blues, one of American television's most critically acclaimed shows, aired its pilot episode, 'Hill Street Station'. |
| 28 january | Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in the United States helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut. |
| 13 february | Sewer explosion caused by the ignition of hexane vapor destroyed more than two miles (3 km) of streets in Louisville,Kentucky, US. |
| 01 march | LPGA Olympic Gold Golf Classic won by Sally Little. |
| 05 march | The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, was launched bySinclair Research and went on to sell over 1.5 million units around theworld. |
| 27 march | The Solidarity movement in Poland staged a warning strike, the biggest strike in the history of the Eastern Bloc, in which at least 12 million People walked off their jobs for four hours. |
| 29 march | Dick Beardsley and Inger Simonsen jointly won the first running of the London Marathon. |
| 30 march | Trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, obsessed fan John Hinckley, Jr. shot and wounded U.S. President Ronald Reagan and three others outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. |
| 03 april | The Osborne 1 , the first successful portablecomputer, was unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in SanFrancisco. |
| 02 may | General Motor Corporation acquired Chevrolet Motor Company on May 2, 1918 as a separate division. Chevrolet Motor Company was founded on November 3, 1911 by William C. Durant who was also the founder of General Motors. |
| 05 may | After sixty-six days without food, Irish republican Bobby Sandsdied of starvation in HM Prison Maze. |
| 10 may | François Mitterrand was elected to be the first socialist President of the French Fifth Republic. |
| 13 may | Mehmet Ali Agca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981 in St. Peter’s square at Vatican City. He was forgiven by Pope after being sentenced to life in prison by an Italian Court. On June 26, 2000, Pope released the ‘Third Secret of Fatima’ in which he said that assassination attempt was the fulfillment of this secret. |
| 13 may | Mehmet Ali Agca shot and critically wounded Pope John Paul IIin Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City. |
| 21 may | The Italian government released the membership list ofPropaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that had been implicatedin numerous Italian crimes and mysteries. |
| 31 may | An organized mob of police and government-sponsoredparamilitias began burning the public library in Jaffna, Sri Lanka,destroying over 97,000 items in one of the most violent examples ofethnic biblioclasm of the 20th century. |
| 05 june | The Centers for Disease Control recorded a cluster ofPneumocystis pneumonia cases among homosexual men in Los Angeles, thefirst reported cases of AIDS. |
| 07 june | Israel air force destroyed Osirak nuclear reactor of Iraq. The attack was done during operation opera. The Israeli air force carried out a surprise attack on Osirak nuclear reactor. This reactor was a purchase of Iraq from France and was under construction. |
| 07 june | The Israeli Air Force attacked and disabled the Osirak nuclear reactor, assuming it was producing plutonium to further an Iraqi nuclear weapons program. |
| 13 june | English teenager Marcus Sarjeant fired six blank shots at QueenElizabeth II as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colourceremony. |
| 18 june | United States Air Force (USAF) The F-117 was the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight. The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft that was developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United. |
| 24 june | The Humber Bridge opened, connecting the East Riding ofYorkshire and North Lincolnshire in England, at the time the longestsingle-span suspension bridge. |
| 28 june | Seventy-three leading officials of Iran's Islamic Republican Party were killed when a bomb exploded at the party's headquarters in Tehran. |
| 30 june | President's rule imposed in Assam. President's rule refers to Article 356 of the Constitution of India deals with the failure of the constitutional machinery of an Indian state. In the event that government in a state is not able to function as per the Constitution, the state comes under the direct control of the central government, with executive authority exercised through the Governor instead of a Council of Ministers headed by an elected Chief Minister accountable to the state legislature. |
| 09 july | Donkey Kong game was released by Nintendo. It was a video game designed by Nintendo. It became very famous and was listed in the best video games those times. The Donkey Kong video game was an arcade, character played game which was later developed into Mario. It has a storyline game play. |
| 09 july | Nintendo released the arcade game Donkey Kong, which featured the debut of Mario, one of the most famous characters in video game history. |
| 16 july | Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Malaysia's fourth prime minister, a post which he held for 22 years, making him the country'slongest-serving one. |
| Date/Month | Name / Profession / Country |
|---|
| 02 January | Hanno Balitsch / Footballer / Germany |
| 03 March | Emmanuel Pappoe / Footballer / Ghana |
| 03 March | Julius Malema / Politician / South Africa |
| 07 January | Alex Auld / Ice Hockey Player / Canada |
| 12 April | Brian Vandborg / Cyclist / Denmark |
| 13 July | Mirco Lorenzetto / Cyclist / Italy |
| 15 May | Jamie-Lynn Sigler / Actress / United States of America |
| 16 April | Maya Dunietz / Singer / Israel |
| 16 November | Caitlin Glass / Actress / United States of America |
| 17 June | Kyle Boller / Footballer / United States of America |
| 20 May | Lindsay Taylor / Basketball Player / United States of America |
| 20 November | Kimberley Walsh / Actress / United Kingdom |
| 20 September | David McMillan / Footballer / United States of America |
| 21 May | Anna Rogowska / Pole Vaulter / Poland |
| 22 February | Jeanette Biedermann / Singer / Germany |
| 25 October | Austin Winkler / Writer / United States of America |
| 26 October | Sam Brown / Actor / United States of America |
| 26 June | Natalya Antyukh / Hurdler / Russia |
| 27 May | Marcelo Bonan / Footballer / Brazil |
| 30 September | Dominique Moceanu / Gymnast / United States of America |
| Year | Name / Profession / Country |
|---|
| 02 April | Kapil Sharma / Actor / India |
| 07 November | Anushka Shetty / Actress / India |
| 08 October | Mona Singh / Actress / India |
| 29 October | Riya Sen / Actress / India |
| 24 November | Celina Jaitley / Actress / India |
| 12 December | Yuvraj Singh / Cricketer / India |
| 27 November | Divya Khosla Kumar / Actress / India |
| 09 December | Diya Mirza / Actress / India |
| 30 April | Kunal Nayyar / Actor / India |
| 07 June | Amrita Rao / Actress / India |
| 02 July | Anupama Verma / Actress / India |
| 10 April | Prasad Barve / Actor / India |
| 07 July | Mahendra Singh Dhoni / Cricketer / India |
| 14 October | Gautam Gambhir / Cricketer / India |
| 25 February | Anuj Sahni / Actor / India |
| 24 November | Celina Jaitley / Actress / India |
| 31 January | Amrita Arora / Actress / India |
| 27 March | Akhil Kumar / Boxer / India |
| 07 July | Mahendra Singh Dhoni / Player / India |
| 02 November | Isha Deol / Actress / India |