1983: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Events

January 1983

• Saturday, January 1, 1983 - Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor
• Saturday, January 1, 1983 - the ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
• Saturday, January 1, 1983 - compulsory wearing of seat belts becomes law in the UK.
• Sunday, January 2, 1983 - The musical Annie is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows (Uris Theatre on Broadway, New York City).
• Wednesday, January 19, 1983 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, is arrested in Bolivia.
• Wednesday, January 19, 1983 - The Apple Lisa personal computer is announced.
• Saturday, January 22, 1983 - Björn Borg retires from tennis after winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.
• Wednesday, January 26, 1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.

February 1983

• Wednesday, February 16, 1983 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
• Wednesday, February 23, 1983 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
• Thursday, February 24, 1983 - A special commission of the United States Congress releases a report critical of the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.

March 1983

• Tuesday, March 1, 1983 - Balearic Islands and Madrid become autonomous communities of Spain
• Tuesday, March 1, 1983 - Swatch introduce their first timepieces
• Tuesday, March 1, 1983 - Duran Duran's album Rio goes gold
• Tuesday, March 8, 1983 - President Ronald Wilson Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
• Wednesday, March 23, 1983 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."
• Friday, March 25, 1983 - Pop singer Michael Jackson performs his Moonwalk dance maneuver for the first time during his performance of Billie Jean on the Motown 25 TV special, which would air nationally on NBC on May 16

April 1983

• Thursday, April 7, 1983 - During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).
• Friday, April 15, 1983 - American Public Radio founded; changes its name to the current Public Radio International in 1994
• Monday, April 18, 1983 - The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 63 people.
• Monday, April 25, 1983 - 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 1983

• Tuesday, May 17, 1983 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

June 1983

• Monday, June 13, 1983 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system. [1]
• Saturday, June 18, 1983 - Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
• Monday, June 27, 1983 - The Internet Domain Name System was invented by Paul Mockapetris.

July 1983

• Thursday, July 7, 1983 - Samantha Smith flies to the Soviet Union (see Monday, April 25, 1983).
• Saturday, July 23, 1983 - Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 crash-lands in Gimli, Manitoba.

August 1983

• Thursday, August 4, 1983 - Thomas Sankara become President in Upper Volta.
• Thursday, August 18, 1983 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
• Sunday, August 21, 1983 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, assassinated in Manila.

September 1983

• Thursday, September 1, 1983 - Cold War: Korean Air Flight KAL-007 is shot down by a Soviet jet fighter when the commercial aircraft entered Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die.
• Tuesday, September 6, 1983 - The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
• Monday, September 26, 1983 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war

October 1983

• Wednesday, October 12, 1983 - Japan's ex Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and sentenced to 4 years in jail.
• Sunday, October 23, 1983 - United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut destroyed by suicide bomber, killing 241.
• Tuesday, October 25, 1983 - United States invades Grenada.
• Thursday, October 27, 1983 - 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.
• Sunday, October 30, 1983 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military rule are held.

November 1983

• Wednesday, November 2, 1983 - Martin Luther King Day: At the White House Rose Garden, US President Ronald Wilson Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
• Thursday, November 17, 1983 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded.
• Saturday, November 26, 1983 - Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly UK£26 million are taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport (only a fraction of the gold was ever recovered, and only two men were convicted of the crime)[2].

unknown dates

• Democratic reform in power in Argentina.
• IBM announces the IBM PC XT
• McDonald's introduces the McNugget

• 1983 in film
  • Wednesday, May 25, 1983 - Return of the Jedi
  • Wednesday, November 23, 1983 - Terms of Endearment
  • The Big Chill
  • The Right Stuff
• 1983 in literature
• 1983 in music
• 1983 in sports
  • Sunday, March 6, 1983 - The United States Football League begins its first year of competition
• 1983 in television
  • Monday, February 28, 1983 - Over 125 million Americans tune in to watch the final episode of M*A*S*H
  • Monday, March 7, 1983 - The Nashville Network (TNN) begins broadcasting.

January 1983

• Tuesday, January 18, 1983 - Utada Hikaru, Japanese-American R&B singer

March 1983

• Monday, March 14, 1983 - Taylor Hanson, musician

April 1983

• Friday, April 15, 1983 - Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian NHL player
• Sunday, April 17, 1983 - Miguel Cabrera, Major League Baseball All-Star

May 1983

• Monday, May 2, 1983 - Rose Falcon, actress/singer
• Friday, May 27, 1983 - Bobby Convey, American soccer player

June 1983

• Monday, June 6, 1983 - Joe Rokocoko, New Zealand rugby player
• Tuesday, June 21, 1983 - Nadia Yvonne Lopez Ayuna, Mexican singer (La Academia contestant)

July 1983

• Saturday, July 2, 1983 - Michelle Branch, pop singer
• Monday, July 11, 1983 - Marie Eleonor Sernehlot, oldest of the A-Teens

September 1983

• Saturday, September 17, 1983 - Jennifer Peña, Tejano singer

October 1983

• Saturday, October 29, 1983 - Amit Sebastian Paul, member of A-Teens

November 1983

• Friday, November 18, 1983 - Jon Johansen, programmer

January 1983

• Tuesday, January 11, 1983 - Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian and educationist
• Saturday, January 15, 1983 - Meyer Lansky, mobster
• Sunday, January 23, 1983 - George Cukor, director
• Friday, January 28, 1983 - Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia

February 1983

• Friday, February 4, 1983 - Karen Carpenter, singer, dies of anorexia nervosa
• Saturday, February 12, 1983 - Eubie Blake, musician, songwriter
• Monday, February 14, 1983 - Lina Radke, German athlete
• Friday, February 25, 1983 - Tennessee Williams, playwright

March 1983

• Thursday, March 3, 1983 - Hergé, Belgian comics creator
• Tuesday, March 8, 1983 - William Walton, composer
• Tuesday, March 15, 1983 - Rebecca West, writer
• Wednesday, March 23, 1983 - Barney Clark, first artificial heart recipient

April 1983

• Monday, April 4, 1983 - Gloria Swanson, actress
• Friday, April 22, 1983 - Earl 'Fatha' Hines, musician (b. 1903)

May 1983

• Wednesday, May 18, 1983 - Frank Aiken, Irish Foreign Minister (1959-1969)
• Thursday, May 19, 1983 - Jean Rey, President of the European Commission

June 1983

• Thursday, June 2, 1983 - Stan Rogers, Canadian musician
• Sunday, June 12, 1983 - Norma Shearer, Academy Award winning actress
• Saturday, June 18, 1983 - Marianne Brandt, industrial designer and Bauhaus participant

July 1983

• Friday, July 1, 1983 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect
• Thursday, July 7, 1983 - Vicki Morgan, fashion model
• Saturday, July 23, 1983 - Georges Auric, composer, member of Les Six
• Friday, July 29, 1983 - Raymond Massey, actor

August 1983

• Tuesday, August 16, 1983 - Earl Averill, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1902)
• Sunday, August 21, 1983 - Benigno Aquino Jr., Philippine opposition leader

September 1983

• Sunday, September 25, 1983 - Leopold III of Belgium
• Monday, September 26, 1983 - Tino Rossi, Corsican singer

October 1983

• Thursday, October 6, 1983 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, tenth bishop (seventh archbishop) of the Roman Catholic diocese of New York (b. 1921)
• Friday, October 28, 1983 - Otto Messmer, creator of Felix the Cat

November 1983

• Monday, November 7, 1983 - Germaine Tailleferre, composer

December 1983

• Friday, December 2, 1983 - Fifi D'Orsay, actress
• Tuesday, December 6, 1983 - Lucienne Boyer, French singer
• Sunday, December 25, 1983 - Joan Miró, surrealist painter

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

• "1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)", by Jimi Hendrix, from his album Electric Ladyland (1968)