WHAT HAPPENED IN 1981.
Look what happened the 1981.

An earthquake registering 6.7 on the Richter scale hits Athens, killing 16 people and destroying buildings in several towns west of the city. (24. February 1981)

Provisional Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike in HM Prison Maze. (1. March 1981)

The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 1.5 million units around the world. (5. March 1981)

After 19 years of presenting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time. (6. March 1981)

The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours. (27. March 1981)

President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. Another 2 people are wounded at the same time. (30. March 1981)

The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. (3. April 1981)

The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force mounts an attack on H-3 Airbase and destroys about 50 Iraqi aircraft. (4. April 1981)

The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collides with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it. (9. April 1981)

A massive riot in Brixton, South London, results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries. (11. April 1981)

The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place - the STS-1 mission. (12. April 1981)

STS-1 – The first operational space shuttle, Columbia (OV-102) completes its first test flight. (14. April 1981)

The longest professional baseball game is begun in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The game is suspended at 4:00 the next morning and finally completed on June 23. (18. April 1981)

More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan. (25. April 1981)

Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery. (26. April 1981)

Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse. (27. April 1981)

Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27. (5. May 1981)

A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries. (6. May 1981)

François Mitterrand wins the presidential election and becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French Fifth Republic. (10. May 1981)

Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a Republican campaign for political prisoner status to be granted to Provisional IRA prisoners. (12. May 1981)