1981: The Year in Review
d
January 1981
January 1981. D
19 January 1981. United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
20 January 1981. Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days within minutes of Ronald Reagan succeeding Jimmy Carter as the President of the United States, ending the Iran hostage crisis.
21 January 1981. The first DeLorean DMC-12 automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
February 1981
February 1981. D
9 February 1981. Polish Prime Minister Józef Pinkowski resigns and is replaced by General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
23 February 1980. Antonio Tejero, with members of the Guardia Civil, enters the Spanish Congress of Deputies and stops the session where Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo is about to be named president of the government. The coup d'état fails thanks to King Juan Carlos.
March 1981
March 1981. D
30 March 1981. U.S. 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.
April 1981
April 1981. D
12 April 1981. The Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia (John Young, Robert Crippen) launches on the STS-1 mission, returning to Earth on April 14. It is the first time a manned reusable spacecraft has returned from orbit.
May 1981
May 1981. D
13 May 1981. The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a trained sniper from Turkey, while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck 4 times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately, and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt.
June 1981
June 1981. D
5 June 1981. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 5 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).
July 1981
July 1981. D
7 July 1981. President Ronald Reagan nominates the first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, to the Supreme Court of the United States.
August 1981
August 1981. D
September 1981
September 1981. D
October 1981
October 1981. D
6 October 1981. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who belong to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization; they opposed his negotiations with Israel.
November 1981
November 1981. D
December 1981
December 1981. D
13 December 1981. Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, to prevent the dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.