Year retrospective · 1980s

1983

1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1983rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 983rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 83rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1980s decade.

Recorded events

10

top entries

Notable births

30

Notable deaths

30

Decade

1980s

Timeline

Defining events of 1983

  1. 1983 Harold Washington is elected as the first black mayor of Chicago.

    Illinois politician and 51st mayor of Chicago

    Harold Lee Washington was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st mayor of Chicago. In April 1983, Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city's mayor at the age of 60. He served as mayor from April 29, 1983, until his death in 1987.

  2. 1983 Cold War: American 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.

    1947–1991 geopolitical rivalry between US and USSR

    The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars.

  3. 1983 Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.

    First spacecraft to visit Jupiter and the outer Solar System (1972–2003)

    Pioneer 10 is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Pioneer 10 became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California.

  4. 1983 The West German news magazine Stern begins publishing excerpts from the purported diaries of Adolf Hitler, later revealed to be forgeries.

    German weekly news magazine

    Stern is an illustrated, broadly left-liberal, weekly current affairs magazine published in Hamburg, Germany, by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. 8 million, the largest in Europe's for a magazine of its kind.

  5. 1983 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space on STS-6.

    1972–2011 United States human spaceflight program

    S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft.

  6. 1983 The People's Armed Police is officially founded.

    Chinese paramilitary organization

    The People's Armed Police Force, abbreviated PAP, is a Chinese gendarmerie organization primarily responsible for internal security, riot control, counter-terrorism, disaster response, law enforcement and maritime rights protection as well as providing support to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during wartime.

  7. 1983 During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
  8. 1983 Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 21 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
  9. 1983 Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. is assassinated at Manila International Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor).
  10. 1983 Aeroflot Flight 5463 crashes into Dolan Mountain while approaching Almaty International Airport in present-day Kazakhstan, killing all 90 people on board.

Arrivals

Born in 1983

Ólafur Ingi Skúlason 1983– Icelandic footballer
Sean Taylor 1983– American football player (1983–2007)
Jamie Chung 1983– American actress (born 1983)
Andrew Dost 1983– American songwriter (born 1983)
Ryan Merriman 1983– American actor (born 1983)
Hannes Sigurðsson 1983– Icelandic footballer (born 1983)
Jennifer Heil 1983– Canadian freestyle skier (born 1983)
Rubén Palazuelos 1983– Spanish footballer
Jelena Dokic 1983– Australian tennis player (born 1983)
Luke Kibet 1983– Kenyan long-distance runner
Claudio Bravo 1983– Chilean footballer (born 1983)
Hunter Pence 1983– American baseball player (born 1983)

Farewells

Died in 1983

Gerry Hitchens English footballer
Theodore Stephanides Greek-British doctor and biologist (1896–1983)
Walter Slezak Austrian-born actor (1902–1983)
Earl Hines American jazz pianist (1903–1983)
Erol Güngör Turkish social psychologist (1938–1983)
Rolf Stommelen German racing driver (1943–1983)
Jimmy Bloomfield English footballer and manager (1934–1983
George Balanchine Georgian-American ballet choreographer (1904–1983)
Muddy Waters American blues musician (1913–1983)
Edouard Wyss-Dunant Swiss physician and alpinist
Ira Gershwin American lyricist (1896–1983)
Nikolaus Pevsner German-British historian (1902–1983)

On the charts

Culture of 1983

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