See:
Wikipedia.
Events:
January 1 - Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor.
Saturday, January 1, 1983 - the
ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol,
creating the Internet.
January 2 - The musical Annie is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows (Uris
Theatre on Broadway, New York City).
January 19 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, is arrested in Bolivia.
Wednesday, January 19, 1983 - The Apple Lisa personal computer is announced.
January 22 - Bjorn Borg retires from tennis after winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon
championships.
January 26 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
February 16 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives
of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
February 23 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and
evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
February 24 - A special commission of the United States Congress releases a report critical
of the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
March 8 - President Ronald Wilson Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire."
March 23 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Wilson Reagan makes his initial
proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan
"Star Wars."
April 7 - During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first
space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).
April 25 - Maine schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader
Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
May 17 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal
from Lebanon.
June 18 - Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space on the Space Shuttle
Challenger.
July 7 - Samantha Smith flies to the Soviet Union (see Monday, April 25, 1983).
July 23 - Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 crash-lands in Gimli, Manitoba.
August 4 - Thomas Sankara become President in Upper Volta.
August 18 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$1 billion
in damage (1983 dollars).
August 21 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, assassinated in Manila.
September 1 - Cold War: Korean Air Flight KAL-007 is shot down by a Soviet jet
fighter when the commercial aircraft entered Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die.
September 6 - The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007,
stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
September 26 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.
October 12 - Japan's ex Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei found guilty of taking a $2 million
bribe from Lockheed and sentenced to 4 years in jail.
October 23 - United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut destroyed by
suicide bomber, killing 241.
October 25 - United States invades Grenada.
October 27 - Pope John Paul II visits Mehmet Ali Agca in prison to forgive him. Ali Agca
is a Turkish gunman, who attempted to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
October 30 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military
rule are held.
November 2 - Martin Luther King Day: At the White House Rose Garden, US President
Ronald Wilson Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of
every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
November 17 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded.
November 26 - Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly UK£26
million are taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport (only a fraction
of the gold was ever recovered, and only two men were convicted of the crime).
Unknown dates:
The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 40 people.
Internet Domain Name System invented by Paul Mockapetris.
IBM announces the IBM PC XT.
1983 in
film:
May 25 - Return of the Jedi.
Wednesday, November 23, 1983 - Terms of Endearment.
The Big Chill.
The Right Stuff.
1983 in sports
March 6 - The United States Football League begins its first year of competition.
1983 in
television:
February 28 - Over 125 million Americans tune in to watch the final episode of M*A*S*H.
March 7 - The Nashville Network (TNN) begins broadcasting.
Births:
January 18 -
Utada Hikaru, Japanese-American R&B singer.
March 14 -
Taylor Hanson, musician.
April 6 -
Kristy Anna van den Houten.
April 14 -
Sebastiaan (Bas) van den Houten.
April 16 -
Martijn Christiaan van den Houten.
May 2 -
Rose Falcon, actress/singer.
May 27 -
Bobby Convey, American soccer player.
May 28 -
Emmely Schot.
November 18 -
Jon Johansen, programmer.
December 8 -
Gerritdina Frederika (Esther) Dennekamp.
December 30 -
Lauren Priest, dietrician/dancer.
Deaths:
January 11 -
Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian and educationist.
January 15 -
Meyer Lansky, mobster.
January 23 -
George Cukor, director.
January 28 -
Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia.
February 4 -
Karen Carpenter, singer, dies of anorexia nervosa.
February 6 -
Gerrit de Vente.
February 12 -
Eubie Blake, musician, songwriter.
February 25 -
Tennessee Williams, playwright.
March 3 -
Herge, Belgian comics creator.
March 8 -
William Walton, composer.
March 15 -
Rebecca West, writer.
March 23 -
Barney Clark, first artificial heart recipient.
April 4 -
Gloria Swanson, actress.
April 22 -
Earl 'Fatha' Hines, musician.
May 15 -
Meyer Lansky, gangster.
May 16 -
Sara Jozina van den Houten.
May 18 -
Frank Aiken, Irish Foreign Minister (1959-1969).
May 19 -
Jean Rey, President of the European Commission.
June 12 -
Norma Shearer, Academy Award winning actress.
July 22 -
Neeltje Baart.
July 23 -
Georges Auric, composer, member of Les Six.
July 29 -
Raymond Massey, actor.
August 6 -
Jacobus van den Houten.
August 21 -
Benigno Aquino Jr., Philippine opposition leader.
September 10 -
Adriaan Andries Lemson.
September 25 -
Leopold III of Belgium.
September 26 -
Tino Rossi, Corsican singer.
October 28 -
Otto Messmer, creator of Felix the Cat.
November 7 -
Germaine Tailleferre, composer.
November 19 -
Leonard John van Houten.
December 2 -
Fifi D'Orsay, actress.
December 6 -
Lucienne Boyer, French singer.
December 12 -
Sander van den Houten.
December 25 -
Joan Miro, surrealist painter.
To my Homepage.
