1980

Events

   * January 1 - Changes to the Swedish Act of Succession creates Victoria
     of Sweden, Crown Princess over her younger brother
   * January 5 - Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal
     computer
   * January 7 - President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5
     billion in loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation.
   * January 11 - Nigel Short, 14 years old, is the youngest chess player to
     be awarded the degree of International Master.
   * January 22 - Andrei Sakharov is arrested in Moscow
   * January 26 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations
   * February 2 - Abscam: Reports surface that FBI personnel were targeting
     members of the United States Congress in a sting operation.
   * February 4 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Bani-Sadr as
     president of Iran
   * February 23 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament
     would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
   * March 3 - Pierre Trudeau returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
   * March 14 - In Poland, a plane crashes during an emergency landing near
     Warsaw killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others.
   * March 18 - In Russia, a Vostok rocket explodes on its launch pad during
     a fueling operation killing 50.
   * March 21 - President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will
     boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
   * March 24 - Archbishop Oscar Romero is killed by gunmen while
     celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
   * April 7 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and
     imposes economic sanctions following the taking of American hostages on
     November 4, 1979.
   * April 25 - A commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy
     hostages is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue
     helicopters. Eight United States troops were killed in a mid-air
     collision during the failed operation.
   * April 30 - Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
   * May 9 - In Florida, a Liberian freighter named the Summit Venture hits
     the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay sending 35 people (most of
     whom were in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the
     bridge collapsed.
   * May 18 - Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington killing 57 and causing
     US$ 3 billion in damage.
   * May 24 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release U.S.
     embassy hostages in Tehran.
   * July 30 - Vanuatu gains independence.
   * August 25 - Microsoft announces their version of UNIX, Xenix
   * September 5 - The St. Gothard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the
     world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.32 km) stretching
     from Goschenen to Airolo.
   * October 30 - El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace treaty to put the
     border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the
     International Court of Justice.

   * Summer Olympic Games in Moscow USSR
   * War begins between Iran and Iraq
   * Invasion of Afghanistan by USSR
   * November - Ronald Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter in the U.S. presidential
     election

   * Comedian Richard Pryor gets badly burned trying to freebase cocaine

   * SCART plug was made mandatory to all televisions sold in France.

Art, Culture & Fashion

   * 1980 in film
        o Ordinary People
        o Coal Miner's Daughter
        o The Elephant Man
        o Raging Bull
        o The Blues Brothers
        o Caddyshack
        o The Empire Strikes Back
   * 1980 in literature
        o A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
        o The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
   * 1980 in music
        o December 8 - Former Beatle John Lennon is shot and killed in New
          York City
   * 1980 in television
        o February 14 - Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from CBS
          Evening News.
        o December 30 - After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time TV
          series The Wonderful World of Disney is cancelled by NBC.
        o CNN is launched as the first 24 hour a day news network.

Births

   * February 11 - Matthew Lawrence, actor.
   * February 11 - Natasha Bobo, actress.
   * February 12 - Christina Ricci, actress
   * February 27 - Chelsea Clinton, daughter of President Bill Clinton
   * June 17 - Venus Williams, Tennis Player
   * September 12 - Yao Ming, Chinese NBA star
   * September 30 - Martina Hingis, Swiss tennis player
   * December 30 - Eliza Dushku, actress

Deaths

   * January 3 - Joy Adamson, conservationist and author of Born Free
     (killed by a servant in northern Kenya).
   * January 8 - John Mauchly, co-inventor of the ENIAC computer
   * January 10 - George Meany, labor leader
   * January 18 - Sir Cecil Beaton, fashion designer
   * January 29 - Jimmy Durante, actor, singer, comedian, vaudevillian
   * January 30 - Professor Longhair, King of New Orleans music
   * February 7 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer
   * February 13 - David Janssen, actor
   * February 19 - Bon Scott, musician ("AC/DC")
   * March 5 - Jay Silverheels, actor
   * March 16 - Tamara de Lempicka, Art Deco painter
   * March 29 - Mantovani, musician
   * March 31 - Jesse Owens, American athlete
   * April 4 - Red Sovine, country music entertainer
   * April 29 - Alfred Hitchcock, film director
   * May 18 - Ian Curtis, band member of Joy Division
   * May 28 - Rolf Nevanlinna, mathematician (*1895)
   * June 7 - Henry Miller, writer
   * June 23 - Clyfford Still, painter
   * July 24 - Peter Sellers, actor
   * August 7 - Jacqueline Cochran, American aviatrix
   * October 25- Victor Galindez, boxing light heavyweight world champion,
     in car race accident.
   * December 2 - Romain Gary, writer
   * December 8 - John Lennon, musician
   * December 31 - Marshall McLuhan (author)
   * Clement Martyn Doke South African linguist

Nobel Prizes

   * Physics - James Watson Cronin, Val Logsdon Fitch
   * Chemistry - Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert, Frederick Sanger
   * Medicine - Baruj Benacerraf, Jean Dausset, George D Snell
   * Literature - Czeslaw Milosz
   * Peace- Adolfo Perez Esquivel
   * Economics - Lawrence Klein

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