- January 18
- Iran accepts US offer of US$7.9 billion in frozen assets for the release of hostages. [1]
- January 19
- United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity. [1] [119]
- January 20
- Admiral Stansfield Turner, US Navy (Retired), ends term as 12th director of US Central Intelligence Agency. [1]
- Ronald Reagan succeeds Jimmy Carter, becoming the 40th President of the United States. [1] [119] [474.100]
- Minutes after Ronald Reagan takes office as US President, the United States frees almost US$8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days, ending the Iran hostage crisis. [1] [119] [129]
- January 21
- The first De Lorean DMC-12 automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. [119]
- January 22
- Angela Buchanan takes office as US Treasurer. [472.24]
- January 23
- First Richard Nixon museum opens (San Clemente, California). [1]
- January 25
- 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrive back in US. [1]
- January 28
- Olympic Glory oil tanker at Galveston Bay, Texas, spills one million gallons of oil in a ship collision. [1]
- William J Casey becomes the 13th director of US Central Intelligence Agency (until 1987). [1]
- January 30
- 8th American Music Awards: Kenny Rogers wins. [1]
- January 31
- 38th Golden Globes: Ordinary People, Coal Miner's Daughter. [1]
- February 5
- Military jury in North Carolina convicts Robert Garwood of collaborating with enemy. [1]
- February 8
- Operation Pipe Wrench begins, as the US government begins transfer of 56 tons (1.633 million troy ounces) of gold on three tractor-trailers from New York Assay Office to the Bank of England, as ransom payment to Iran for the release of hostages. [671.3]
- February 10
- A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198. [1] [119]
- February 12
- Admiral Bobby R Inman, US Navy, becomes deputy director of US Central Intelligence Agency. [1]
- US President Ronald Reagan names Angela Marie Buchanan as Treasurer of the US. [644.18]
- February 13
- Rupert Murdoch buys The Times and The Sunday Times for £12 million. [119]
- February 17
- Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate loss in US history. [1]
- February 24
- Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Scarsdale Diet doctor Tarnower. [1]
- February 25
- US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. [1]
- 23rd Grammy Awards: "Sailing" by Christopher Cross, Billy Joel win. [1]
- March 6
- After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time. [1] [5] [119]
- March 7
- First homicide at Disneyland, 18-year old is stabbed to death. [1]
- March 12
- Walter R T Witschey installs world's largest sundial in Richmond, Virginia. [1] [5]
- March
- Angela M. Buchanan is appointed US Treasurer. [474.15]
- March 19
- Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia. [1] [119]
- March 20
- Angela M. Buchanan begins term as 37th Treasurer of the US. [548.99]
- Jean Harris sentenced 15-to-life for slaying of Scarsdale Diet Doctor. [1]
- March 23
- US Supreme Court upholds law making statutory rape a crime only for men. [1]
- US Supreme Court rules states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teen-age girls sought abortions. [1]
- March 25
- (to March 26) Bowers and Ruddy Galleries auctions part of the Garrett coin collection. Some highlights:
- 1804 Draped Bust dollar, Class III: US$400,000;
- 1787 Brasher gold doubloon: US$625,000.
[421.125]
- March 30
- US President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., hotel. Six shots are fired, hitting Reagan, White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and District of Columbia policeman Thomas Delahaney. None is killed. (Suspect John Hinckley Junior is later found not guilty by reason of insanity.) [1] [119] [129]
- March 31
- First Golden Raspberry Awards: Can't Stop the Music wins. [1]
- The 53rd Academy Awards, hosted by Johnny Carson, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Robert Redford's directorial debut in Ordinary People wins Best Picture and Best Director. Robert De Niro wins Best Actor; Sissy Spacek wins Best Actress. [1] [119]
- April 9
- US submarine George Washington rams Japanese freighter Nisso Maru. [1]
- April 11
- US President Ronald Reagan returns to the White House from hospital after being shot on March 30. [1] [129]
- April 12
- Space Shuttle Columbia (John Young, Robert Crippen) launches on the maiden Space Transit System-1 mission. [1] [119]
- April 13
- Washington Post's Janet Cooke wins Pulitzer Prize for "Jimmy's World" (later admits story was a hoax and returns prize). [1]
- April 14
- First Space Shuttle - Columbia 1 - returns to Earth. [1]
- April 15
- Janet Cooke says her Pulitzer award-winning 8-year-old heroin addict story is a lie; Washington Post relinquishes Pulitzer Prize on fabricated story. [1]
- April 21
- US furnishes US$1 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia. [1]
- April 24
- US ends grain embargo against USSR. [1]
- April 26
- Largest US bank robbery (Tucson, Arizona), more than US$33 million stolen. [1]
- April 27
- Xerox introduces the Xerox 8010 Star Information System. It features graphics display, word processor, mouse, laser printer, Ethernet, and software for combining text and graphics Priced at about $16,000, the computer is not a commercial success. During its lifetime, 100,000 units are produced. [4]
- April 30
- 16th Academy of Country Music Awards: Barbara Mandrell and George Jones win. [1]
- May 1
- Harrison Williams (Senator-Democrat-New Jersey) convicted on FBI Abscam charges. [1]
- May 6
- US expels Libyan diplomats. [1]
- A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Lin's design for the US Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries. [119]
- May 13
- Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded while passing through Saint Peter's Square in Rome, in an open car. Four shots are fired by Mehmet Ali Agca, two striking the Pope, the other two wounding American Ann Odre and Jamaican Rose Hill. [1] [119] [129]
- May 15
- Donna Payant is murdered by serial killer Lemuel Smith - the first time a female prison officer has been killed on-duty in the United States. [119]
- May 21
- Kim Seelbrede of Ohio is crowned 30th Miss USA. [1]
- May 25
- Daniel Goodwin scales outside of Chicago's Sears Tower in 7 hours. [1]
- May 26
- Marine jet crashes on flight deck of USS Nimitz, killing 14. [1]
- May 29
- US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. [1]
- June 1
- Production of Chevrolet Corvette cars begins at a new plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. The first Corvette is a two-tone Beige over Dark Brown 1981 model. [8]
- June 5
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (the first recognized cases of AIDS). [1] [119]
- June 10
- The Reagan administration requests authorization from Congress to sell silver beginning in October to help balance the federal budget. [474.215]
- June 13
- In Salem, Oregon, USA a building is hit by a falling meteorite. [521]
- June 18
- US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart retires. [1]
- June 19
- Boeing commercial Chinook 2-rotor helicopter is certified. [1]
- June 22
- Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing John Lennon. [1]
- June 23
- Amanda Maccaro becomes first American to win Russian Ballet Competition. [1]
- July 1
- Laurel Canyon California murders (four die, one wounded). [1]
- July 8
- California Governor Jerry Brown, faced with a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation, chooses to delay the aerial spraying of malathion, in favor of continuing ground-based eradication efforts. [119]
- US Senate confirms Sandra Day O'Conner to US Supreme Court (99-0). [1]
- July 10
- Buena Vista releases the animated feature film The Fox and the Hound to theaters in the US. This is the first major animated film effort of the "new generation" of Disney artists. [6]
- July 14
- US Senate confirms Donna Pope as US Mint director. [513.22] ([648.20])
- July
- Donna Pope begins term as US Mint Director. [474.15]
- July 17
- Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby, killing 114, injuring 200. [1] [119]
- Israeli aircraft bomb Beirut, destroying multi-storey apartment blocks containing the offices of PLO associated groups, killing approximately 300 civilians and resulting in worldwide condemnation and a U.S. embargo on the export of aircraft to Israel. [119]
- July 31
- Arnette Hubbard installed as president of the US National Bar Association. [1]
- August 1
- MTV music video TV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles. [1] [119]
- August 3
- The American Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) goes on strike. [1] [119]
- August 5
- Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work. [1] [119]
- August 7
- The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication. [119]
- August 10
- The Richard Nixon Museum in San Clemente closes. [1]
- August 12
- At the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, and in Boca Raton, Florida, IBM announces the IBM Personal Computer, model 5150. The PC features a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 CPU, 16 kB RAM (expandable to 256 kB), 40 kB ROM, one 5.25-inch floppy drive (160 kB capacity), for US$1565. A fully loaded version with color graphics costs US$6000. [1] [4] [5] [119]
- August 13
- US President Ronald Reagan signs the Economic Recovery Act of 1981, effective December 31. [603.116]
- August 19
- U.S. President Ronald Reagan appoints Sandra Day O'Connor as a US Supreme Court Justice. [119]
- August 24
- Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life for John Lennon's murder. [1] [119]
- August 28
- John Hinckley Jr pleads innocent in attempt to kill US President Ronald Reagan. [1]
- US National Centers for Disease Control announces high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. [1]
- August 31
- A bomb explodes at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, West Germany, injuring 20 people. [119]
- September 10
- Picasso's painting Guernica is moved from New York to Madrid, Spain. [119]
- September 11
- A small plane crashes into the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino damaging the venue beyond repair. [119]
- September 12
- Elizabeth Ward (Arkansas) is crowned Miss America. [1]
- September 13
- 33rd Emmy Awards (Hill Street Blues big winner). [1]
- September 15
- The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, at 150 years old, when it operates under its own power outside Washington, DC. [119]
- US Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor for Supreme Court. [1]
- September 19
- Simon and Garfunkel perform The Concert in Central Park, a free concert in New York in front of approximately a half a million people. [1] [119]
- September 25
- Sandra Day O'Connor sworn in as US Supreme Court justice. [1] [5] [119]
- September 26
- First flight of the Boeing 767 airliner. [119]
- Disney's weekly TV show moves to CBS, making it the first prime-time series to have appeared on all three major networks. The show is renamed Walt Disney, airing on Saturdays from 8:00 to 9:00. [6]
- September 28
- Joseph Paul Franklin, avowed racist, sentenced to life imprisonment for killing two black joggers in Salt Lake City, Utah. [1]
- September 29
- US Senate confirms Elizabeth Jones as US Mint chief engraver. [551.22]
- October 5
- Deceased Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg becomes an honarary American citizen. [1]
- October 8
- US President Ronald Reagan greets predecessors Jimmy Carter, Gerald R Ford, and Richard Nixon before sending them to Egypt for Anwar Sadat's funeral. [1]
- October 11
- Unknown rocker Prince opens for Rolling Stones at Louisiana Coliseum. [1]
- October 22
- American Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization decertified. [1]
- US national debt tops US$1 trillion. [1]
- October 27
- Elizabeth Jones is sworn in as 11th Chief Engraver at the US Mint. [480.4] [485.40] (September 10 [546.36])
- Andrew Young, former United Nations Ambassador, elected mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. [1]
- November 10
- Walt Disney Productions and Westinghouse Broadcasting announce an agreement to produce a family-oriented cable television service. [6]
- November 12
- Second shuttle mission, first time a spacecraft is launched a second time (Columbia 2). [1] [119]
- November 14
- Second Space Shuttle Mission - Columbia 2 - returns to Earth. [1]
- November 23
- US President Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua. [119]
- November 30
- In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe. (The meetings end inconclusively on December 17.) [119]
- December 2
- Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco opens at 11:30 AM. [1]
- December 3
- US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. [1]
- December 4
- US President Ronald Reagan allows US Central Intelligence Agency to engage in domestic counter-intelligence (order number 12333). [1]
- December 5
- American general James Lee Dozier is kidnapped in Verona by Italian Red Brigades. [119] (December 17 [1])
- December 8
- The No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13. [119]
- December 9
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police officer Daniel Faulkner is shot and killed during a routine traffic stop of a vehicle driven by William Cook, Mumia Abu-Jamal's younger brother. [119]
- December 11
- Spacelab I arrives at Kennedy Space Center. [1]
- December 31
- CNN Headline News debuts. [1]
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