The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet[1] and the first mobile cellular telephone call. I was already a master of the Speak and Spell and was taking computer classes on a Mac, so technology grew up with me, I suppose.
- March 23 – Strategic Defense Initiative: U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan “Star Wars”.
- March 25 – Motown celebrates its 25th anniversary with the television special Motown 25, during which Michael Jackson performs “Billie Jean” and introduces to the world the moonwalk.
- April 4 – First flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
- April 15 – Tokyo Disneyland opens.
- April 18 – The April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut kills 63 people.
- April 18 – Channel broadcasting is founded by Disney (the Disney Channel).
- May 25 – Return of the Jedi opens in theatres.
- June 18 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-7 mission.
- August 30 – Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American in space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-8 mission.
- September 16 – Ronald Reagan announces that the Global Positioning System (GPS) will be made available for civilian use.
- September 17 – Vanessa L. Williams becomes the first African-American to be crowned Miss America, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
- September 18 – U.S. heavy metal band Kiss officially appears in public without makeup for the first time on MTV.
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: At the White House Rose Garden, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honorAmerican civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Music in 1983 was all about Michael Jackson, The Eurythmics, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, The Police, and Duran Duran. Perhaps the biggest year for post-punk. Here are a few songs from the year because it’s one of my favorites. And let us not forget, it was the release of R.E.M.’s Murmur, which is stil amazing.
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