1980

1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday.

Years: 1977 1978 1979 - 1980(MCMLXXX) - 1981 1982 1983
Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Template:C20YearInTopic

Events

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January-February

January 1-April 1 - National steel strike in the United Kingdom
January 1 - Changes to the Swedish Act of Succession creates Victoria of Sweden, Crown Princess over her younger brother
January 4 - American president Jimmy Carter proclaims, with support of the European Commission, a grain embargo against the USSR.
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 9 - In Saudi Arabia, 63 Muslim fanatics are beheaded for their part in the siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca in November 1979
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
january 27 - Merchant banker Frank Nugan found dead in his car at Bowenfels near Lithgow NSW (Aus)
February 2 - Abscam: Reports surface that FBI personnel were targeting members of the U.S. Congress in a sting operation.
February 4 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran
February 23 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.

March

March 1 - Voyager 1 probe confirms that Janus (moon of Saturn) exists
March 3 - Pierre Trudeau returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
March 4 - Robert Mugabe is elected Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
March 10 - Jean Harris shoots doctor Herman Tarnower, the inventor of the Scarsdale diet
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 - On Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia 50 persons were killed at an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.
March 20 - The pirate radio station Radio Caroline sinks
March 21 - President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
24 March - Australia Olympic Committee announces it will send an Olympic delegation to Moscow despite objections by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser
March 24 - Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador
March 26 - A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reef gold mine in South Africa falls 1.2 miles down - 23 dead
March 27 - The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.

April

April 1 - The Mariel Boatlift begins.
April 7 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions following the taking of American hostages on Sunday, November 4, 1979
April 10 - Spain and United Kingdom agree to reopen the border between Gibraltar and Spain, closed since 1969
April 18 - Zimbabwe's formal independence from United Kingdom. Robert Mugabe takes his post as a Prime Minister
April 21 - Rosie Ruiz wins the Boston Marathon but is later exposed as a fraud and stripped of her award
April 24-25 - Operation Eagle Claw, 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
- Iranian Embassy Siege – 6 Iranian-born terrorists take over Iranian embassy in London, UK. SAS attacks May 5 – one terrorist survives
- Luis Muñoz Marín, first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico, dies at the age of 82.
- Queen Juliana of the Netherlands abdicates, and her daughter Beatrix ascends to the throne.

May-June

May 7 - Paul Geidel, convicted of second-degree murder in 1911, is released from prison in Beacon, New York, after 68 years and 245 days - the longest-ever time served by an inmate
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 18 - Gwangju Massacre: Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations, calling for democratic reforms.
May 20 - Referendum in Quebec where the population rejects by a vote of 60% the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
May 24 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release of U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran.
June 1 - Comedian Richard Pryor is badly burned trying to freebase cocaine.
June 3 - A series of deadly tornadoes strikes Grand Island, Nebraska, causing over $300m in damage, killing five people and injuring over 250.
June 10 - Apartheid: The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a statement by their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela which says in part 'UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!'[1] (http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/64-90/anvil.html)
June 19 - Iraqi security forces shoot dead three gunmen who attacked the British embassy in Baghdad. The unknown attackers were killed in the embassy gardens by Iraqi security men, sent at the urgent request of the British ambassador, Alex Stirling.
June 23 - Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, dies in an air crash
June 25 – Muslim Brotherhood assassination attempt against Syrian president Hafez al-Assad fails. Assad retaliates by sending the army against them
June 26 - The fascist NAR group places a bomb on a plane that crashes into the sea near Naples - 81 people dead
June 29 - Vigdis Finnbogadottir becomes the president of Iceland

July-August

July 15 - A severe and destructive thunderstorm strikes four counties in western Wisconsin, including the city of Eau Claire. It caused over $250m in damage, and one person was killed.
July 19 - Former Turkish Prime Minister Nihat Erim is killed by two gunmen in Istanbul, Turkey.
July 19 — August 3 - Summer Olympic Games in Moscow USSR
July 30 - Vanuatu gains independence
August 2 - Armed Revolutionary Nuclei fascists group plants a bomb in a waiting room at Bologna railway station in Northern Italy - 84 dead
August 14 - Lech Walesa leads the first of many strikes at the Gdansk shipyard
August 17 - In Australia, baby Azaria Chamberlin disappears from a campsite at Ayers Rock (Uluru), reportedly taken by a dingo

September-October

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.
September 12 - Military coup in Turkey lead by Kenan Evren. It stopped political violence among gangs, but was the beginning of stronger state violence which lead to the execution of many young activists.
September 17 - After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.
September 17 - Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is killed in Paraguay
September 22 - The command council of Iraq ordered its army to "deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets," initiating the Iran-Iraq War.
September 26 - The Mariel Boatlift officially ends.
September 29 - Washington Post publishes Janet Cooke's story of Jimmy, an 8-year-old heroin addict (later proven to be fabricated)
October 18 - Fraser Government re-elected for a third consecutive term in Australia
October 27 - Six IRA prisoners in Maze prison refuse food and demand status as political prisoners - hunger strike lasts until December
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.

November

November 4 - U.S. presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter by a wide margin.
November 12 - Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn when it flies within 77,000 miles of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth
November 20 - The trial of the Gang of Four begins in China.
November 21 - A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada kills 87 people.
November 23 - A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 4,800 people.

December

December 8 - John Lennon is shot outside his New York apartment, by Mark Chapman.
December 16 - During a summit on the island of Bali, the OPEC decides to raise the price of petroleum by 10%.