1980
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years: 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 - 1980 - 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985
See also:
Events
- January 1 - Changes to the Swedish Act of Succession creates Victoria of Sweden, Crown Princess over her younger brother
- January 4 - Hemanshu Desai is born in Mulund, Mumbai, India.
- January 5 - Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer
- January 7 - President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation.
- January 11 - Nigel Short, 14 years old, is the youngest chess player to be awarded the degree of International Master.
- January 22 - Andrei Sakharov is arrested in Moscow
- January 26 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations
- February 2 - Abscam: Reports surface that FBI personnel were targeting members of the United States Congress in a sting operation.
- February 4 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Bani-Sadr as president of Iran
- February 23 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
- March 3 - Pierre Trudeau returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
- March 14 - In Poland, a plane crashes during an emergency landing near Warsaw killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others.
- March 18 - In Russia, a Vostok rocket explodes on its launch pad during a fueling operation killing 50.
- March 21 - President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
- March 24 - Archbishop Oscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
- April 7 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions following the taking of American hostages on November 4, 1979.
- April 25 - A commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops were killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
- April 30 - Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
- May 9 - In Florida, a Liberian freighter named the Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay sending 35 people (most of whom were in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed.
- May 18 - Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington killing 57 and causing US$ 3 billion in damage.
- May 24 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran.
- July 17 - Saddam Hussein is selected president, replacing Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.
- July 30 - Vanuatu gains independence.
- August 25 - Microsoft announces their version of UNIX, Xenix
- September 5 - The St. Gothard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.32 km) stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.
- September 22 - The command council of Iraq ordered its army to "deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets," initiating the Iran-Iraq War.
- October 30 - El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace treaty to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.
- November 4 - U.S. presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter by a wide margin.
- November 12 - Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest aproach to Saturn when it flies within 77,000 miles of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth.
- Summer Olympic Games in Moscow USSR
- War begins between Iran and Iraq
- Invasion of Afghanistan by USSR
- Comedian Richard Pryor gets badly burned trying to freebase cocaine
- SCART plug was made mandatory to all televisions sold in France.
Year in topic
- 1980 in film
- 1980 in literature
- 1980 in music
- December 8 - Former Beatle John Lennon is shot and killed in New York City
- 1980 in sports
- 1980 in television
- February 14 - Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from CBS Evening News.
- December 30 - After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time TV series The Wonderful World of Disney is cancelled by NBC.
- CNN is launched as the first 24 hour a day news network.
Births
- February 11 - Matthew Lawrence, actor.
- February 11 - Natasha Bobo, actress.
- February 12 - Christina Ricci, actress
- February 27 - Chelsea Clinton, daughter of President Bill Clinton
- June 17 - Venus Williams, Tennis Player
- September 12 - Yao Ming, Chinese NBA star
- September 30 - Martina Hingis, Swiss tennis player
- December 30 - Eliza Dushku, actress
Deaths
- January 3 - Joy Adamson, conservationist and author of Born Free (killed by a servant in northern Kenya).
- January 8 - John Mauchly, co-inventor of the ENIAC computer
- January 10 - George Meany, labor leader
- January 18 - Sir Cecil Beaton, fashion designer
- January 29 - Jimmy Durante, actor, singer, comedian, vaudevillian
- January 30 - Professor Longhair, King of New Orleans music
- February 7 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer
- February 13 - David Janssen, actor
- February 19 - Bon Scott, musician ("AC/DC")
- March 5 - Jay Silverheels, actor
- March 16 - Tamara de Lempicka, Art Deco painter
- March 29 - Mantovani, musician
- March 31 - Jesse Owens, American athlete
- April 4 - Red Sovine, country music entertainer
- April 29 - Alfred Hitchcock, film director
- May 18 - Ian Curtis, band member of Joy Division
- May 28 - Rolf Nevanlinna, mathematician (*1895)
- June 7 - Henry Miller, writer
- June 13 - Walter Rodney, historian, political figure
- June 23 - Clyfford Still, painter
- July 7 - Dore Schary, stage/motion picture personality
- July 24 - Peter Sellers, actor
- August 7 - Jacqueline Cochran, American aviatrix
- August 14 - Dorothy Stratten, murdered Playboy playmate
- October 25- Victor Galindez, boxing light heavyweight world champion, in car race accident.
- December 2 - Romain Gary, writer
- December 8 - John Lennon, musician
- December 16 - Hellmuth Walter, engineer and inventor
- December 31 - Marshall McLuhan (author)
- Clement Martyn Doke South African linguist