This Year in History 1980: What Happened in 1980?

By Kerry Butters

This Year in History 1980 by Kerry Butters is a reference Book from that year, included in it are things in the News, Famous Births and Deaths, Weddings, cost of living, Music and Sport, 1980 Fun Facts etc. Everything 1980. UK and USA Facts, Great for Birthday presents or Anniversaries, Look out for other years in the series or maybe buy your own birth year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Book Publishing
• Release date: Jul 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9788834151495

Book preview

MAJOR NEWS EVENTS OF 1980

January

January 1 Chrysler UK renamed Talbot

January 1 International Decade of Water & Sanitation begins

January 1 Mob storms Russian embassy in Tehran

January 1 Premier Adbou Diouf becomes president of Senegal

January 1 Sweden changes order of succession to throne

January 1 Victoria is crowned princess of Sweden.

January 1 Australian Open Women's Tennis: In an all-American final Barbara Jordan wins her first and only Grand Slam singles title; beats Sharon Walsh 6-3, 6-3

January 1 66th Rose Bowl: #3 Southern California beats #1 Ohio State, 17-16

January 1 46th Sugar Bowl: #2 Alabama beats #6 Arkansas, 24-9

January 1 46th Orange Bowl: #5 Oklahoma beats #4 Florida State, 24-7

January 2 British Steel workers go on a national strike

January 2 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Guillermo Vilas retains title for 4th and last Grand Slam win; beats American John Sadri 7-6, 6-3, 6-2

January 3 Gold hits record $634 an ounce

January 3 Babrak Karmal defends the Soviet-backed coup in first public appearance since taking power as President of Afghanistan

January 6 1940's Radio Hour closes at St James Theater NYC after 105 performances

January 6 Indira Gandhi's Congress Party wins’ elections in India

January 6 Phil Flyers set NHL record of 35 straight games without a defeat

January 6 The beginning of the first GPS epoch.

January 6 AFC Championship, Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Houston Oilers, 27-13

January 6 NFC Championship, Tampa Stadium: Los Angeles Rams beat Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 9-0

January 7 Minn ends Philadelphia Flyers' NHL record 35 game unbeaten streak ends

January 7 American President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation to bail out the Chrysler Corporation with a 1.5-billion-dollar loan

January 8 Islander Glenn Resch's 20th shut-out Opponent-Canucks 3-0

January 8 NCAA decides to sponsor women's championships in 5 sports

January 9 63 beheaded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

January 10 Last broadcast of The Rockford Files on NBC

January 11 Debut of first The Pretenders album Pretenders

January 12 Phoenix point guard Mike Bratz begins NBA free throw streak of 57 games during a 107-96 loss at the Golden State Warriors

January 12 Björn Borg of Sweden wins his first of 2 season-ending ATP Masters Grand Prix tennis titles outclassing American Vitas Gerulaitis 6–2, 6–2 at Madison Square Garden, NYC

January 13 King of Schnorrers closes at Playhouse Theater NYC after 63 performances

January 13 Head of narcotic brigade arrested for drug smuggling in Belgium

January 13 Togo's constitution becomes effective

January 14 Shakuntala Devi, mentally multiplies 2 13-digit #s in 28 sec

January 15 Pam Gems' Piaf! premieres in London

January 16 Paul McCartney is arrested at Tokyo International Airport for possession of marijuana; he is sent to jail for nine days before being deported

January 17 NASA launches Fltsatcom-3

January 17 A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb prematurely detonates on a passenger train near Belfast, killing three and injuring five (including the bombers)

January 18 Gold reaches $1,000 an ounce

January 18 Pink Floyd's album The Wall hits #1

January 18 Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell & Ian Schrager sentenced to 3½ years in prison for tax evasion & fined $20,000

January 20 President Jimmy Carter announces US boycott of Olympics in Moscow

January 20 US female Figure Skating championship won by Linda Fratianne

January 20 US male Figure Skating championship won by Charles Tickner

January 20 Super Bowl XIV, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA: Pittsburgh Steelers beat LA Rams, 31-19; MVP: Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, QB

January 21 Gold hits record $850 an ounce

January 21 Les Henson, Virginia Tech, makes 89' 3" basketball field goal

January 22 Russian dissidents Andrei Sakharov & Jelena Bonner arrested in Moscow and banished to Gorky

January 22 PGA begins a senior golf tour

January 22 West Indies beat England 2-0 to win cricket's 1st World Series Cup

January 25 Bani Sadr elected president of Iran

January 25 Dutch government demands boycott of Olympics

January 25 Highest speed attained by a warship, 167 kph, USN hovercraft

January 25 Paul McCartney is released from Tokyo jail & deported

January 26 175,000 pay to hear Frank Sinatra sing in Rio de Janeiro

January 26 Islanders & Whalers play a NHL penalty-free game

January 26 Israel & Egypt establish diplomatic relations

January 26 Mary Decker became 1st woman to run a mile in under 4½ minutes

January 27 Comin' Uptown closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 45 performances

January 27 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: NFC beats AFC, 37-27; MVP: Chuck Muncie, New Orleans Saints, RB

January 27 Robert Mugabe returns to Rhodesia after 5 years in exile

January 28 37th Golden Globes: Kramer vs. Kramer, Dustin Hoffman & Sally Field win

January 28 USCGC Blackthorn (WLB-391) collides with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa Florida and capsizes killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.

January 28 New York coach Red Holzman wins his 600th NBA game, only the second (after Red Auerbach) coach at the time to reach the plateau, as the Knicks beat Golden State, 107-103

January 29 6 Iranian-held US hostages escape with help of Canadians

January 29 Cleveland Cavaliers beat LA Lakers 154-153 in quadruple OT

January 30 Edward Albee's Lady from Dubuque premieres in NYC

January 31 Police storm occupied Spanish embassy in Guatemala City, killing 41

February

February 1 Sears Radio Theater moves from CBS to Mutual Broadcasting System

February 1 Soap opera Love of Life ends a 28-year run

February 1 Call Me single released by Blondie (Billboard Song of the Year 1980)

February 2 FBI releases details of Abscam, a sting operation that targeted 31 elected & public officials for bribes for political favours

February 2 Mexican boxer Salvador Sánchez dethrones Danny Little Red Lopez as WBC world featherweight champion with a 13th-round TKO in Phoenix, AZ; Lopez champion since November 1976, 8th defence

February 3 Larry Holmes TKOs Lorenzo Holmes in 6 for heavyweight boxing title

February 3 Mohammed Ali tours Africa as President Carter's envoy

February 3 30th NBA All-Star Game, Capital Centre, Landover, Md: East beats West, 144-136 (OT); MVP: George Gervin, San Antonio Spurs, SF

February 4 Bani Sadr sworn in as premier of Iran

February 4 Studio 54 holds its grand closing party on its last night in business

February 5 32nd NHL All-Star Game, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit: Wales Conference beats Campbell Conference, 6-3; MVP: Reggie Leach, Philadelphia Flyers, RW

February 5 Egyptian parliament votes to end boycott of Israel

February 6 John Wayne Gacy goes on trial for the murder of 33 young men in Cook County, Illinois

February 9 Rick Barry, Houston, is 1st in NBA to score 8 3-pointers in a game

February 10 Ianford Wilsons Talley's Folly premieres in NYC

February 12 Canterbury Tales opens at Rialto Theater NYC for 16 performances

February 12 NY Islanders 2nd scoreless tie, vs Winnipeg Jets

February 12 Richard Hadlee becomes NZ's top wicket-taker with 117

February 13 Apollo Computer Inc. incorporated

February 13 NZ beats West Indies by one wicket in cricket at Dunedin

February 13 XIII Winter Olympic Games open in Lake Placid, New York

February 14 West Side Story opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 341 performances

February 14 US launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares

February 14 Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins first of 3 gold medals at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics when he takes out 30k event; also wins relay and 50k gold

February 15 American speed skater Eric Heiden wins 500m in Olympic record 38.03s; first of record 5 gold medal sweep of events at Lake Placid

February 15 Wayne Gretzy assists on NHL-record-tieing 7 goals

February 15 East German speed skater Karin Enke wins first of 3 career Olympic gold medals with victory in the 500m at Lake Placid Winter; wins 1,000m & 1,500m in Sarajevo (1984)

February 15 Soviet cross-country skier Raisa Smetanina claims her 3rd of 4 career Olympic gold medals in the 5k event at Lake Placid; also wins 10k and relay gold (Innsbruck 1976) and relay (Albertville 1992)

February