Top News Stories from 1981

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Ronald W. Reagan
Vice President: George Bush
Population: 229,465,714
Life expectancy: 74.1 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 58.6
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000) 52.6
More U.S. Statistics...

Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $3,115.90 billion
Federal spending: $678.25 billion
Federal debt $994.8 billion
Median Household Income(current dollars): $19,074 billion
Consumer Price Index: $90.9
Unemployment: 7.6%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.15 ($0.18 as of 3/22/81; $0.20 as of 11/1/81)

Sports

Super Bowl
Oakland d. Philadelphia
World Series
LA Dodgers d. NY Yankees
NBA Championship
Boston d. Houston
Stanley Cup
NY Islanders d. Minnesota
Wimbledon
Women: Chris Evert Lloyd d. H. Mandlikova (6-2 6-2)
Men: John McEnroe d. B. Borg (4-6 7-6 7-6 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Pleasant Colony
NCAA Basketball Championship
Indiana d. North Carolina
NCAA Football Champions
Clemson (12-0-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Drama: Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley
Academy Award, Best Picture: Ordinary People, Ronald L. Schwary, producer (Paramount)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Elias Canetti (Bulgaria)
Album of the Year: Christopher Cross, Christopher Cross (Warner Bros.)
Song of the Year: "Sailing," Christopher Cross
Song of the Year: "Sailing," Christopher Cross, songwriter
Miss America: Susan Powell (OK)
More Entertainment Awards...

Events

  • MTV goes on the air running around the clock music videos, debuting with "Video Killed the Radio Star."
  • The Supreme Court rules to allow television cameras in the courtroom.
  • Pacman-mania sweeps the country.

Movies

  • Raiders of the Lost Ark, Chariots of Fire, On Golden Pond, Reds, Atlantic City

Books

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Roald Hoffmann (US) and Kenichi Fukui (Japan), for applying quantum-mechanics theories to predict the course of chemical reactions
Physics: Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur L. Schawlow (both US), and Kai M. Siegbahn (Sweden), for developing technologies with lasers and other devices to probe the secrets of complex forms of matter
Physiology or Medicine: Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel (both US), and Torsten N. Wiesel (Sweden), for studies vital to understanding the organization and functioning of the brain
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...
  • AIDS is first identified. Background: Understanding AIDS
  • IBM introduces its first personal computer, running the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS). Background: Computers and Internet
  • The 236-m.p.h. TGV, Europe's first high-speed passenger train, begins operating out of Lyons, France.
  • The FDA approves the use of the artificial sweetener aspartame (Nutrasweet). Background: Health & Nutrition

Death

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