1981

Centuries: Year in Review 20th Century (19th century - 20th century - 21st century)

Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s

Years: 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 - 1981 - 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986

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Births

• June 7 - Anna Kournikova, tennis player
• December 2 - Britney Spears, singer

Deaths

• October 16 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general

Events

• February 11 - Polish Prime Minister Jozef Pinkowski replaced by Wojciech Jaruzelski.
• April 12 - Columbia 1 mission, first launch of a Space Shuttle
• Ronald Reagan succeeds Jimmy Carter as President of the United States of America
• December 13 - Wojciech Jaruzelski declares the state of martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity

Sport

• January 25 - Super Bowl XV Oakland Raiders (27) def. Philadelphia Eagles (10)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Kai M. Siegbahn
• Chemistry - Kenichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann
• Medicine - Roger W Sperry, David H Hubel, Torsten N Wiesel
• Literature - Elias Canetti
• Peace - [[The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees.
• Economics - James Tobin

Computing

• ZX81 launched, probably the start of the 1980s home computing phenomenon.