Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar).
Contents (full)
1 Events of 1981 - Jan. . Feb. . March . April - May . June . July . Aug. - Sept. . Oct. . Nov. . Dec. - Undated . Ongoing . Fictional 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Nobel prizes - Templeton Prize 5 See also - Notes - External links
January
- January - The subterranean Sarawak chamber is discovered in Borneo.
- January 1 - Greece enters the European Community, which later becomes the European Union.
- January 1 - Palau becomes self-governing.
- January 4 - Sheffield police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.
- January 5 - Margaret Thatcher carried out a Cabinet reshuffle, sacking Norman St. John-Stevas.
- January 7 - Snow in Palermo and Sicily.
- January 13 - Donna Griffiths, a schoolgirl in Pershore, Worcestershire, UK, begins an uncontrollable series of sneezes that end September 16, 1983 - after 978 days.
- January 16 - Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and her husband.
- January 19 - United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
- January 20 - Ronald Reagan succeeds Jimmy Carter, becoming the 40th President of the United States. Minutes later, Iran releases 52 Americans held 444 days.
- January 21 - The first De Lorean DMC-12 automobile, a stainless steel sportscar with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
- January 22 - Fowzi Nejad, sole survivor of the terrorists from the Iranian Embassy siege in London, pleaded guilty to manslaughter of two hostages and was jailed for life.
- January 24 - The British Labour Party special conference at Wembley decides that leadership elections should be by electoral college.
- January 25 - Four former Labour cabinet ministers (Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, William Rodgers and David Owen) announce the formation of the Council for Social Democracy.
- January 25 - Chiang Ching ('Madame Mao') was sentenced to death in China.