1981 was aight. I had everything I needed — a Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine, crayons, stickers, and I was making mucho cash off the tooth fairy as you can see in the pic. Also, in the pic, you can’t really see it, but my cousin is wearing an eyepatch. I have more photos of her with the eyepatch, but I won’t post them because that’s kinda mean. I mean, she wasn’t even a pirate.
To the facts:
- January 19 – United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
- January 20 – Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days within minutes of Ronald Reagan succeeding Jimmy Carter as the 40thPresident of the United States, ending the Iran hostage crisis.
- January 21 – The first DeLorean DMC-12 automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line inDunmurry, Northern Ireland.
- March 11 – Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet is sworn in as President of Chile for another 8-year term.
- March 30 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; 2 police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.
- April 12 – The Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia with NASA astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen launches on the STS-1mission, returning to Earth on April 14. It is the first time a manned reusable spacecraft has returned from orbit.
- June 5 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 5 homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (the first recognized cases of AIDS).
- July 7 – President Ronald Reagan nominates the first woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, to the Supreme Court of the United States.
- July 9 – I turned 7 AND Donkey Kong is released, marking the first Donkey Kong title and Mario title arcade smash hit game developed by Nintendo.
- July 29 – A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
- August 1 – The first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) is launched.
- August 24 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, after pleading guilty to murdering John Lennon in Manhattan 8 months earlier.
I remember spending the night with my Aunt Vicki and watching the wedding of Princess Diana. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. She was so beautiful and Prince Charles looked so old to me. I was a Disney obsessed child, so seeing a real Princess’ wedding was a Disney movie brought to life. In 1997 I would watch her funeral on television and cry.
Music in 1981 was the jam. Here’s my favorite song from that year, “Tempted” by Squeeze.
Film in 1981 was great because of On Golden Pond, Chariots of Fire, and Arthur, but here’s one of my favorites, The Fox and the Hound — the scene where Tod meets Copper and Copper says “I’m a hound dog,”
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