Explore 4219 historical events from 1980–1989.
Benigno Simeón "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was a Filipino politician and journalist who served as a senator of the Philippines (1967–1972) and governor of the province of Tarlac (1963–1967…
Benigno Aquino Jr., Filipino journalist and politician (born 1932)
Kalevi Kotkas was an Estonian-born Finnish athlete, specializing in high jump, discus throw and shot put. He became the first ever European champion in high jump, in 1934 in Turin,…
Kalevi Kotkas, Estonian-Finnish high jumper and discus thrower (born 1913)
Scott Nearing was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living. In 1915, he was dismissed from a teaching…
Scott Nearing, American economist, educator, and activist (born 1883)
The Jakarta Post is a daily English-language newspaper in Indonesia. The paper is owned by PT Bina Media Tenggara and based in the nation's capital, Jakarta.
The first issue of The Jakarta Post was published in Indonesia
The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. They were developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft…
A Sikorsky S-61 helicopter operated by British Airways crashed in thick fog in the Celtic Sea, killing 20 of the 26…
Stern is an illustrated, broadly left-liberal, weekly current affairs magazine published in Hamburg, Germany, by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. Under the editorship (1…
The West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from the purported diaries of Adolf Hitler, later revealed to be
Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of …
A team of researchers led by French virologist Luc Montagnier published their discovery of HIV, but were not then certai
The Benton fireworks disaster was an industrial disaster that occurred on May 27, 1983, on a farm near Benton, Tennessee. A powerful explosion at an unlicensed fireworks factory pr…
An explosion at an illegal fireworks factory near Benton, Tennessee, killed eleven people
An emergency landing is a premature landing made by an aircraft in response to an emergency involving an imminent or ongoing threat to the safety and operation of the aircraft, or …
After an emergency landing due to an in-flight fire, 23 passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 were killed when a flash
Pioneer 10 is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Pioneer 10 became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the esca…
Pioneer 10 passed the orbit of Neptune, becoming the first man-made object to leave the proximity of the major planets o
Mona Mahmudnizhad was an Iranian Baháʼí who, in 1983, together with nine other Baháʼí women, was sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran, on the grounds of being a member of …
Iranian teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and nine other women were hanged in Shiraz because of their membership in the Baháʼí
Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century s…
Aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman and third one overall in space
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and …
A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet crashed into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea, killing all 23 people on board.
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previo…
After writing a letter to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov, American schoolgirl Samantha Smith visited the Soviet Union as…
Sega Corporation is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade…
Sega's first home video game console, the SG-1000 (pictured), was released in Japan.
Madonna Louise Ciccone is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Queen of Pop", she is known for her continual reinvention and versatility in mus…
American musician Madonna released her self-titled debut album, which set the standard for the genre of dance-pop for…
Jean-Baptiste Philippe Ouédraogo, also referred to by his initials JBO, is a Burkinabé physician and retired military officer who served as President of Upper Volta from 8 November…
Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, the president of Upper Volta, was ousted in a coup d'état led by Thomas Sankara.
Hurricane Alicia was a small but powerful tropical cyclone that caused significant destruction in the Greater Houston area of Southeast Texas in August 1983. Although Alicia was a …
Hurricane Alicia made landfall near Galveston, Texas, causing $3 billion in damage and 21 fatalities.
The Bijon Setu massacre refers to the killing of 16 sadhus and a sadhvi of the Ananda Marga, at Bijon Setu, West Bengal, India, on 30 April 1982. The killings remain unresolved, wi…
The Bijon Setu massacre occurs in Calcutta, India
Pope John Paul II was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in t…
Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit Canterbury Cathedral
Shlomo Argov was an Israeli diplomat. He was the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, whose attempted assassination led to the 1982 Lebanon War.
The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street; he survives but is left paralyse
VASP Flight 168, a Boeing 727-212 registered PP-SRK, was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from São Paulo to Fortaleza, Brazil which, on June 8, 1982, crashed into a mountainsi…
VASP Flight 168 crashes in Pacatuba, Ceará, Brazil, killing 128 people
Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 13 June 1982 until his death in 2005. Prior to his ascension, he was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 1…
Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid
Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker, dubbed "God's Banker" by the press because of his close business dealings with the Holy See. He was a native of Milan and was chairman of Banco…
Italian banker Roberto Calvi's body is discovered hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, England