Explore 4219 historical events from 1980–1989.
Peter Mennin was a prominent American composer, teacher and administrator. In 1958, he was named Director of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and in 1962 became President of …
Peter Mennin, American composer and educator (born 1923)
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas.
Alberto Ginastera, Argentinian pianist and composer (born 1916)
Alf Francis was a motor racing mechanic and racing car constructor.
Alf Francis, German-English motor racing mechanic and racing car constructor (born 1918)
Richard Buckminster Fuller Jr. was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in hi…
Buckminster Fuller, American architect, designed the Montreal Biosphère (born 1895)
Harry Haag James was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band to great commercial success from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band …
Harry James, American trumpet player and actor (born 1916)
Christopher Gordon Blandford Wood was a British rock musician, best known as a founding member of the rock band Traffic, along with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason.
Chris Wood, English saxophonist (born 1944)
Frank James Reynolds was an American television journalist for CBS and ABC News.
Frank Reynolds, American soldier and journalist (born 1923)
Georges Auric was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, France. He was considered one of Les Six, a group of artists informally associated with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie. B…
Georges Auric, French composer (born 1899)
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the…
Luis Buñuel, Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1900)
Kenneth Millar, known mainly by the pseudonym Ross Macdonald, was an American-Canadian writer of crime fiction. He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern…
Ross Macdonald, American-Canadian author (born 1915)
Gabrielle Roy was a Canadian author from St. Boniface, Manitoba. She became one of the major voices in French-language literature in Canada, known for her portrayals of working-cla…
Gabrielle Roy, Canadian engineer and author (born 1909)
Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian and American actor. Known for his commanding stage-trained voice, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the t…
Raymond Massey, Canadian-American actor and screenwriter (born 1896)
James David Graham Niven was an English actor, soldier, raconteur, memoirist and novelist. Niven was known as a handsome and debonair leading man in classic Hollywood films. His ac…
David Niven, English military officer and actor (born 1910)
Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist, best remembered for his songwriting collaboration with Arthur Schwartz. According to historian Stanley Green, Diet…
Howard Dietz, American songwriter and publicist (born 1896)
Lynn Fontanne was an English actress. After early success in supporting roles in the West End and United States, she married the American actor Alfred Lunt in 1922, with whom she c…
Lynn Fontanne, English actress (born 1887)
James Lee Jamerson was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s, and is now regarded as one of the greates…
James Jamerson, American bass player (born 1936)
Judy Canova, born Juliette Canova, was an American comedienne, actress, singer, and radio personality who appeared on Broadway and in films. She hosted her own eponymous network ra…
Judy Canova, American actress and comedian (born 1913)
Joan Violet Robinson was a British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. One of the most prominent economists of the century, Robinson incarnated t…
Joan Robinson, English economist and author (born 1903)
Klaus Sperber, known professionally as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor and baritone noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona.
Klaus Nomi, German singer-songwriter and actor (born 1944)
Theodor Burchardi was an Admiral with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. He was responsible…
Theodor Burchardi, German admiral (born 1892)
Carolyn Sue Jones was an American actress of television and film. She began her film career in the early 1950s and by the end of the decade, in 1958, had achieved recognition with …
Carolyn Jones, American actress (born 1930)
Howard Earl Averill, nicknamed "the Rock", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a center fielder from 1929 to 1941, including 1…
Earl Averill, American baseball player (born 1902)
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable English-language songs of the 20th c…
Ira Gershwin, American songwriter (born 1896)
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner was a German-British historian who specialised in the areas of art and architecture. He is best known for his monumental 46-volume series of coun…
Nikolaus Pevsner, German-English historian and scholar (born 1902)