1983





Events

   * January - Apple Lisa introduced by Apple Computer.
   * January 1 - 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.
   * January 19 - 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 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 Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire."
   * March 23 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald 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 April 25).
   * July 23 - Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 crash-lands in Gimli.
   * 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 - Korean Airlines flight 007 shot down while off course
     over Soviet territory [[1]].
   * October 23 - United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut destroyed by
     suicide bomber, killing 241.
   * 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 25 - United States invades Grenada.
   * Barbara McClintock receives Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovery of
     the first transposons in maize in 1940.
   * The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 40 people.
   * Internet Domain Name System invented by Paul Mockapetris.
   * Democratic reform in power in Argentina.

Art, Culture & Fashion

   * 1983 in film
        o May 25 - Return of the Jedi
        o Terms of Endearment
        o The Big Chill
        o The Right Stuff
   * 1983 in literature
   * 1983 in music
   * 1983 in sports
        o March 6 - The United States Football League begins its first year
          of competition
   * 1983 in television
        o February 28 - Over 125 million Americans tune in to watch the
          final episode of M*A*S*H
        o March 7 - The Nashville Network (TNN) begins broadcasting.

Births

   * May 2 - Rose Falcon, actress/singer
   * December 30 - Lauren Priest, dietrician/dancer

Deaths

   * January 23 - George Cukor, director
   * February 4 - Karen Carpenter, singer, dies of anorexia nervosa
   * 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 19 - Jean Rey, President of the European Commission
   * June 12 - Norma Shearer, Academy Award winning actress
   * July 23 - Georges Auric, composer, member of Les Six
   * July 29 - Raymond Massey, actor
   * August 21 - Benigno Aquino Jr., Philippine opposition leader
   * September 25 - Leopold III of Belgium
   * October 28 - Otto Messmer, creator of Felix the Cat
   * November 7 - Germaine Tailleferre, composer
   * December 2 - Fifi D'Orsay, actress
   * December 25 - Joan Miro, surrealist painter
   * Buckminster Fuller, American architect
   * Stan Rogers, Canadian musician

Nobel Prizes

   * Physics - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, William Alfred Fowler
   * Chemistry - Henry Taube
   * Medicine - Barbara McClintock
   * Literature -William Golding
   * Peace - Lech Walesa
   * Economics - Gerard Debreu