1983

Years: 1980 1981 1982 - 1983 - 1984 1985 1986
Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1983 in architecture 1983 in aviation 1983 in film 1983 in literature 1983 in music 1983 in sports 1983 in television 1983 in Canada

Events

February 7 - Iran opens an invasion in the southeast of Iraq
Wednesday, February 16, 1983 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
Wednesday, February 23, 1983 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
Thursday, February 24, 1983 - A special commission of the United States Congress releases a report critical of the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.

Tuesday, March 1, 1983 - Balearic Islands and Madrid become autonomous communities of Spain
Tuesday, March 1, 1983 - Swatch introduce their first timepieces
Tuesday, March 1, 1983 - Duran Duran's album Rio goes gold
Tuesday, March 8, 1983 - President Ronald Wilson Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
May 16 - London police begin to use wheel clamps to illegally-parked vehicles
Wednesday, March 23, 1983 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."
Friday, March 25, 1983 - Pop singer Michael Jackson performs his Moonwalk dance maneuver for the first time during his performance of Billie Jean on the Motown 25 TV special, which would air nationally on NBC on May 16

Thursday, April 7, 1983 - During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).
Friday, April 15, 1983 - American Public Radio founded; changes its name to the current Public Radio International in 1994
Monday, April 18, 1983 - The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 63 people.
Monday, April 25, 1983 - 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 6 - Stern magazine publishes "Hitler Diaries" (later found to be forgeries)
Tuesday, May 17, 1983 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Thursday, August 4, 1983 - Thomas Sankara become President in Upper Volta.
Thursday, August 18, 1983 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
Sunday, August 21, 1983 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, assassinated in Manila.

Thursday, September 1, 1983 - 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
Tuesday, September 6, 1983 - 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 23 - Mass outbreak in Maze prison - 38 prisoners hijack a lorry and crash out of the gate - one guard dead, 5 injured. 19 of the prisoners were later apprehended
Monday, September 26, 1983 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov refuses to launch Soviet ballistic missiles on despite of (false) computer reports

October 2 - Neil Kinnock is elected leader of the British Labour Party
October 7 - Plan to abolish Greater London Council announced
Wednesday, October 12, 1983 - 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 19 - President of Grenada, Maurice Bishop and 40 others are shot in a military coup
Sunday, October 23, 1983 - United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut destroyed by suicide bomber, killing 241.
October 23 - A suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International airport in Lebanon kills 241 US soldiers
October 24 - Arthur Hutchinson kills three members of Laitner family and rape their daughter in the Sheffield suburb of Dore
Tuesday, October 25, 1983 - United States invades Grenada.
Thursday, October 27, 1983 - 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
Sunday, October 30, 1983 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military rule are held.

Wednesday, November 2, 1983 - 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 13 - The first US cruise missiles arrive at Greenham Common airbase in England amid protests from peace campaigners
November 15 - The Turkish part of Cyprus declares independence
November 16 - A jury in Gretna, Louisiana acquits Ginny Foat of the murder of Argentine businessman Moses Chaiyo
Thursday, November 17, 1983 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded
Saturday, November 26, 1983 - 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).
December 17 - A fire at a discotheque in Madrid, Spain, kills 83 people
December 17 - An IRA car bomb kills six Christmas shoppers outside Harrods in London
December 31 - Brunei gains independence from United Kingdom
December 31 - Two bombs explode in Marseilles. One on the Paris train kills 3 and injures 19. Other at Marseille station kills 2 and injures 34