Chrnongraphy of events from 1 January 1980 to 31 December 1989

Page last modified 9/11/2021

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(+9999) = Day count from end of World War Two in Europe. �Easter Sundays derived from https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm

For dates from 1/1/1990 click here

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31/12/1989, Sunday (+16,308) Ryan Sheckler, athlete, was born.

30/12/1989, Saturday (+16,307) The US and the Vatican were negotiating over ending the refuge of ex-dictator Manuel Noriega, who had fled to the Vatican Embassy in Panama City to avoid capture and extradition to the USA. At one stage the US lost patience and played rock music at full volume outside the Embassy continuously from loudspeakers erected by the US forces.

29/12/1989, Friday (+16,306) (1) Riots in Hong Kong after forcible repatriation of Vietnamese boat people began.

(2) The Czechs elected playwright Vaclav Havel as President.

28/12/1989, Thursday (+16,305) (1) A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit Newcastle, New South Wales, killing 13 people injuring 100.

(2) Alexander Dubcek, the reformist leader sacked in 1968 was elected leader of Czechoslovakia�s federal assembly.

27/12/1989, Wednesday (+16,304) (Egypt, Syria) Egypt and Syria resumed full diplomatic relations.

26/12/1989, Tuesday (+16,303) Nobel Prize winning Irish dramatist Samuel Beckett died in Paris, aged 83.

25/12/1989, Monday (+16,302) (1) The Bank of Japan announced a large rise in interest rates, leading to the collapse of Japan�s bubble economy.

(2) President Ceausescu and his wife were tried and shot. On 27/12/1989 the Romanian press was freed.

24/12/1989, Sunday (+16,301) Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega gave himself up to the Papal Nuncio in Panama City, having dodged US troops trying to capture him.

23/12/1989, Saturday (+16,300) The Bank of Japan announced a major interest rate rise, leading to the peak and bursting of the Japanese �bubble� economy.

22/12/1989, Friday (+16,299) (1) Berlin�s Brandenburg Gate reopened, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

(2) A Romanian revolution overthrew President Nicolae Ceausescu. Ceausescu�s son Nicu was arrested, and the Queen cancelled Nicolae�s honorary knighthood. Ion Iliescu took over as President.

21/12/1989, Thursday (+16,298) The USA invaded Panama and ousted General Noriega. Noriega sought refuge in the Vatican Mission, where he remained until 3/1/1990. He then surrendered to US forces.

20/12/1989, Wednesday (+16,297) President Nicolae Ceausescu declared a state of emergency. His last public appearance with his wife Elena was in Bucharest on 21/12/1989. As he addressed the crowd of 100,000, in University Square, there were catcalls of �murderers of Timisoara�. Ceausescu was hustled back indoors and Romanian television ceased broadcasting the event. This was the signal for a general uprising that afternoon, and the Securitate began firing indiscriminately into the crowd. Many were wounded or killed but the crowd sensed the army was now with them, except for diehard factions of the Securitate.

19/12/1989, Tuesday (+16,296) Lithuania called for independence from the USSR.

18/12/1989, Monday (+16,295) The EEC signed a 10-year trade pact with the USSR.

17/12/1989, Sunday (+16,294) (1) In the town of Timisoara, in Transylvania, Romania, troops fired on 10,000 demonstrators in Timisoara, killing 2,000. Ethnic Hungarians within Romania were protesting against the suppression of the Hungarian language in schools, also books in Hungarian.

(2) Brazil held its first free elections in 29 years. Ferdinand Collor de Mello defeated Jose Sarney. Brazil faced a massive foreign debt burden; interest payments ate up 40% of export earnings. The IMF imposed austerity measures on Brazil, despite recent rapid growth in the economy, to guarantee loan repayments. Prices rose, wages were cut, and annual inflation stood at 700%. Economic problems increased calls for democracy.

16/12/1989, Saturday (+16,293) Lee van Cleef, movie star, died.

15/12/1989, Friday (+16,292) In Bulgaria, 50,000 demonstrators outside Parliament demanded the end of Communist rule.

14/12/1989, Thursday (+16,291) (1) Chile held its first free elections in 16 years. years. The winner was the Christian Democrat, Patricio Alwyn.

(2) Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov died.

13/12/1989, Wednesday (+16,290) (1) In South Africa, President F W de Klerk met with ANC leader Nelson Mandela for the first time.

(2) Hong Kong began to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese boat people by plane.

12/12/1989, Tuesday (+16,289) New York heiress Leona Helmsley was fined US$ 7 million and sentenced to 4 years prison for tax evasion. She had said �only little people pay taxes�.

10/12/1989, Sunday (+16,287) (1) In Mongolia, Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj announced the establishment of a democratic movement within the country.

(2) Czechoslovakia convened a �Government of National Understanding; Gustav Husak was removed from the office of President.

7/12/1989, Thursday (+16,284) A gunman claiming to hate feminists massacred 14 women at the University of Montreal.

6/12/1989, Wednesday (+16,283) In Colombia, 40 were killed by a bomb at the security police headquarters.

5/12/1989, Tuesday (+16,282) Czechoslovakia opened its border with the West.

4/12/1989, Monday (+16,281)

3/12/1989, Sunday (+16,280) The East German leader Egon Krenz and the politbureau resigned. A USSR-USA summit was held in Malta. The Cold war was declared over at 12.55pm that day.

2/12/1989, Saturday (+16,279) VP Singh, leader of the Janata Dat Party, replaced Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister of India, although Rajiv�s Congress Party remained the largest single party.

1/12/1989, Friday (+16,278) (1) The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II met in Rome, ending 70 years of hostility between the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviet Union.

(2) The East German Parliament voted to remove the Communist monopoly on power.

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30/11/1989, Thursday (+16,277) (1) Rebels in the Philippines attacked Cory Aquino�s palace and three military bases.

(2) The Red Army, a West German terrorist group, blew up Alfred Herrhausen, head of the Deutschebank in Frankfurt.

28/11/1989, Tuesday (+16,275)

27/11/1989, Monday (+16,274) Czech workers staged a 2-hour general strike, organised by the Civic Forum political opposition.

26/11/1989, Sunday (+16,273) The Bulgarian government voted to disband the secret police.

24/11/1989, Friday (+16,271) (1) President Ceausescu was re-elected as leader of Romania. However in Czechoslovakia the Communist leadership resigned.

(2) Czechoslovak General Secretary Gustav Husak resigned.

22/11/1989, Wednesday (+16,269) A bomb exploded in West Beirut near the motorcade of the Lebanese President, Rene Moawad, killing him and 23 others.

21/11/1989, Tuesday (+16,268) North Carolina celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

20/11/1989, Monday (+16,267) Major anti-government demonstrations in Czechoslovakia.

18/11/1989, Saturday (+16,265)

17/11/1989, Friday (+16,264) In Czechoslovakia, students protesting peacefully in Prague were severely beaten by riot police. This sparked a revolution which toppled the Communist government on 29/12/1989. Protestors grew from 200,000 on 19/11/1989 to an estimated 500,000 on 20/11/1989.

16/11/1989, Thursday (+16,263) A pillar of apartheid was removed when the South African President, F W de Klerk removed beach access restrictions which separated racial access. The Separate Amenities Act, permitting Whites to monopolise public space, was also to be repealed.

15/11/1989, Wednesday (+16,262) Lech Walesa, leader of the Polish Solidarity movement, addressed a Joint Session of the United Nations Congress.

14/11/1989, Tuesday (+16,261) Czechoslovakia lifted travel restrictions.

13/11/1989, Monday (+16,260) Hans Modrow was elected Prime Minister of East Germany.

11/11/1989, Saturday (+16,258)

10/11/1989, Friday (+16,257) (1) (Bulgaria) The rule of Bulgarian President, Todor Zhikov ended after 35 years in power, as Soviet support for him fell away. The Berlin Wall had collapsed the day before. Zhikov was later sentenced to 7 years house arrest for embezzlement of State funds, but was acquitted by the Bulgarian Supreme Court of inciting racial hatred (see 10/5/1989). He died in 1998.

(2) Bulldozers began to demolish the Berlin Wall.

9/11/1989, Thursday (+16,256) The East German government lifted the Iron Curtain to allow free travel between East and West Berlin. Thousands of East Berliners visited the West. 100,000 East Berliners visited West Berlin. The Berlin Wall originally went up on 13/8/1961.

8/11/1989, Wednesday (+16,255) In Virginia, Douglas Wilder became the first Black Governor in the USA.

7/11/1989, Tuesday (+16,254) The entire East German Government resigned, replaced the following day with Hans Modrow as Prime Minister.

6/11/1989, Monday (+16,253) David Dinkins became the first African-American mayor of New York City.

5/11/1989, Sunday (+16,252) Refugees were reportedly leaving East Germany at the rate of 300 an hour.

4/11/1989, Saturday (+16,251) See 7/10/1989. Pro-democracy rallies sparked by Gorbachev�s visit to East Germany resulted a million-strong protest in East Germany.

3/11/1989, Friday (+16,250) Political unrest in Bulgaria.

1/11/1989, Wednesday (+16,248)

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30/10/1989, Monday (+16,246) Seamus Hayes, show jumping champion, died.

29/10/1989, Sunday (+16,245) 60,000 took part in an ANC (Africa National� Congress) rally in South Africa.

26/10/1989, Thursday (+16,242) Mrs Thatcher�s Chancellor, Mr Nigel Lawson, resigned. Sir Alan Walters, part-time financial advisor to Mrs Thatcher, had derided the European Monetary System that Mr Lawson wanted the UK to join as �half baked�, in an article in 1988. This caused a public and embarrassing� row between Mrs Thatcher and Mr Lawson. However on 8/10/1990 Mrs Thatcher reluctantly agreed to her Chancellor, John Major, taking the UK into the Exchange Rate Mechanism. However on �Black Wednesday� in 1992 the UK was ignominiously forced out of the ERM, along with the Italian Lira, by currency speculators.

24/10/1989, Tuesday (+16,240) Fake US TV preacher Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined US$ 500,000 for swindling millions of dollars out of his followers.

23/10/1989, Monday (+16,239) 62 members of the Lebanese Parliament agreed to an equal power distribution between Christians and Muslims.

21/10/1989, Saturday (+16,237)

19/10/1989, Thursday (+16,235) The Guildford Four had their convictions quashed after serving 15 years for the IRA Guildford and Woolwich pub bombings.

18/10/1989, Wednesday (+16,234) (1) San Francisco was hit by the Loma Prieta earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. At least 273 people were killed and 650 injured. Many of the deaths occurred when the top deck of the Nimitz Freeway collapsed onto a lower road deck, crushing motorists.

(2) Erich Honecker was dismissed as General Secretary of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany).

16/10/1989, Monday (+16,232) At a committee of the Convention in International Trade of Endangered Species, at Lausanne, Switzerland, a ban on the international ivory trade was passed by 76 votes to 11.

9/10/1989, Monday (+16,225) East Germans in Leipzig demonstrated, demanding the legalisation of opposition groups and democratic reforms.

8/10/1989, Sunday (+16,224) Armand Traore, French footballer, was born,

7/10/1989, Saturday (+16,223) (1) On a visit to East Germany, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev urged the East German government to introduce reforms. See 4/11/1989.

(2) The Hungarian Communist party changed its name to the Socialist Party.

6/10/1989, Friday (+16,222) Sophia Thomalla, German television actress, was born.

5/10/1989, Thursday (+16,221) In Paris, the Moulin Rouge celebrated its centenary.

4/10/1989, Wednesday (+16,220) (1) 10,000 East Germans left Prague by train for West Germany.

(2) Millions of fleas were released in the Norfolk Broads to eat algae clogging up the waterways.

3/10/1989, Tuesday (+16,219) The Shetland Island of Foula was shocked by its first crime in over 80 years. A Land Rover had been vandalised; a 17-year-old was later convicted and fined �50.

2/10/1989, Monday (+16,218) Liesbeth Ribbius Peletier, 1st female advisor of State in The Netherlands, died.

1/10/1989, Sunday (+16,217) Pakistan rejoined the Commonwealth after 17 years.

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30/9/1989, Saturday (+16,216) Jordan Taylor, US basketball player, was born.

29/9/1989, Friday (+16,215) Georges Ulmer, French composer died (born 1919)

28/9/1989, Thursday (+16,214) Ex-President Marcos of the Philippines died in Honolulu.

27/9/1989, Wednesday (+16,213) Hungary abolished its restrictive emigration laws.

26/9/1989, Tuesday (+16,212) Over 1,500 East German refugees occupied the West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw.

25/9/1989, Monday (+16,211) Archaeologists opened the Titus of the Rhine grave in Amsterdam.

24/9/1989, Sunday (+16,210) The Arab League negotiated a ceasefire in Lebanon.

23/9/1989, Saturday (+16,209) Mara Scherzinger, German actress, was born.

22/9/1989, Friday (+16,208) The IRA bombed the Royal Marines School in Deal. 10 bandsmen were killed and 22 injured.

21/9/1989, Thursday (+16,207) Hurricane Hugo with 140 mph winds battered South Carolina and Georgia. The Caribbean was also badly affected.

20/9/1989, Wednesday (+16,209) Musical "Miss Saigon," premiered in London.

19/9/1989, Tuesday (+16,205) Poland became the first country in Eastern Europe to end one-party rule, as Solidarity�s Tadeusz Mazowiecki became Prime Minister.

18/9/1989, Monday (+16,204) Serge Ibaka, basketball player, was born/.

17/9/1989, Sunday (+16,203) The northeast Caribbean was hit by Hurricane Hugo.

16/9/1989, Saturday (+16,202) Hungary opened its border with Austria to refuges fleeing the East on 11/9/1989. At least 16,000 East German refugees cross from Hungary into Austria.

15/9/1989, Friday (+16,201) US writer Robert Penn Warren, born 24/4/1905 in Guthrie, Kentucky, died in Stratton, Vermont.

14/9/1989, Thursday (+16,200) US performed a nuclear test at Nevada.

13/9/1989, Wednesday (+16,199) 20,000 demonstrated against Apartheid in South Africa, and the killing of 23 protestors during the Whites-only elections the previous week. Protestors were from all races.

10/9/1989, Sunday (+16,196) Hungary began accepting many refugees from East Germany. Hungary opened its border with Austria, providing a route to the West. The East German Government condemned the move as �treachery�.

1/9/1989, Friday (+16,187) The US broke off diplomatic relations with Panama.

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31/8/1989, Thursday (+16,186) (1) The Soviet Republic of Moldavia�s Parliament voted to make Moldavian, not Russian, the official language.

(2) Libya and Chad signed a peace agreement ending 25 years of war.

29/8/1989, Tuesday (+16,184) Peter Scott, yachtsman, died (born 14/9/1909).

27/8/1989, Sunday (+16,182) The Medellin drugs cartel declared guerrilla war on the Colombian Government, after President Virgilio Barco reinstated extradition to the USA, a process abandoned by the courts after bribery and threats of violence.

26/8/1989, Saturday (+16,181) The Mini celebrated its 30^th birthday. In 1959 just 20,000 were made; in 1970 the figure was 381,000, after the car had won several rallies and been adopted by public figures such as John Lennon, Peter Sellers, Twiggy and Marianne Faithfull.

25/8/1989, Friday (+16,180) Voyager 2 sent back pictures of Neptune and its moon, Triton, flying within 5,000 kilometres of the planet.

24/8/1989, Thursday (+16,179)

23/8/1989, Wednesday (+16,178) 2 million Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians formed an uninterrupted 600 kilometre human chain to demand independence from Moscow. Hungary removed all border restrictions with Austria.

22/8/1989, Tuesday (+16,177) British Telecom launched the first �pocket phones� which worked within 100 metres of a base station.

21/8/1989, Monday (+16,176)

20/8/1989, Sunday (+16,175) The Thames pleasure cruiser Marchioness was hit by a dredger; 51 young persons attending a party on board were killed. She was hit by the sand dredger Bowbelle under Southwark Bridge in the early hours of the morning. Survivors said the dredger loomed up in the night without lights.

19/8/1989, Saturday (+16,174) Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Solidarity became Prime minister of Poland, the first non-Communist PM in 42 years.

18/8/1989, Friday (+16,173) The Qantas Boeing 747-400 Spirit of Australia flew non-stop from London to Sydney in 19 hours 10 minutes.

17/8/1989, Thursday (+16,172) Richard Hart, accused of theft, became Britain�s first electronically tagged suspect and was allowed home.

3/8/1989, Thursday (+16,158)

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28/7/1989, Friday (+16,152) In Iran, Rafsanjani became the new elected President.

27/7/1989, Thursday (+16,151) More �boat people� were arriving in Hong Kong, hoping to reach California.

24/7/1989, Monday (+16,148) Japan�s Liberal Democratic Party suffered its first defeat in 30 years, forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Sosuke Uno. A scandal involving Uno�s former mistress ruined his career.

20/7/1989, Thursday (+16,144) The Burmese opposition leader, Aung Suu Kyi, was placed under house arrest, after public campaigning. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 whilst still in captivity.

19/7/1989, Wednesday (+16,143) General Wojciech Jaruselski, who imposed martial law in 1981, was elected President of Poland by 270 votes out of 537, However he was the only candidate, 233 voted against and 34 abstained. Solidarity declared the vote illegal. Poland was bankrupt with a resentful population.

17/7/1989, Monday (+16,141) Soviet miners went on strike.

15/7/1989, Saturday (+16,139) Georgians and Abkhazians clashed in the Abkhazia region of Georgia; 11 were killed and 127 injured.

14/7/1989, Friday (+16,138) Margaret Thatcher upset French festivities on Bastille Day when she denied that the French Revolution had inspired Human Rights.

11/7/1989, Tuesday (+16,135)

5/7/1989, Wednesday (+16,129) (1) In the US, Colonel Oliver North was fined US$ 150,000 and given a suspended prison sentence for his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

(2) The TV series Seinfeld began.

4/7/1989, Tuesday (+16,128) Rodgers Kola, Zambian footballer, was born.

3/7/1989, Monday (+16,127) Britain stated there would be no automatic right of abode in the UK for Hong Kong citizens concerned about life under future Chinese rule.

2/7/1989, Sunday (+16,126) An IRA car bomb exploded in Hannover, Germany; the first of a series of IRA attacks on British troops in West Germany.

1/7/1989, Saturday (+16,125) The average UK house price was �61,514.

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27/6/1989, Tuesday (+16,121) Laurence Olivier, British actor, died.

22/6/1989, Thursday (+16,116) (1) Ireland�s first universities established since independence in 1922 were set up: Dublin City University and University of Limerick.

(2) In China, seven students were shot after televised show trials following the Tiananmen Square protests.

(3) The captain of the Herald of Free Enterprise was charged with manslaughter.

21/6/1989, Wednesday (+16,115) (1) The first public executions of Tiananmen Square demonstrators began in China.

(2) British police arrested 250 people for celebrating the Summer solstice at Stonehenge.

19/6/1989, Monday (+16,113) The second round of elections to the Polish National Assembly. Solidarity won an overwhelming victory.

14/6/1989, Wednesday (+16,108) Ronald Reagan was given a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth.

13/6/1989, Tuesday (+16,107) (1) Mikhail Gorbachev and Chancellor Kohl agreed that East and West Germany should be reunited.

(2) The wreck of the German battleship Bismarck which was sunk in 1941, was discovered 600 miles west of Brest, France.

12/6/1989, Monday (+16,106) Live TV broadcasts from the House of Commons began, after MPs voted 293 to 69 in favour. Live radio broadcasts began on 9/6/1975.

9/6/1989, Friday (+16,103) In China, the show trials of the leaders of the Tiananmen Square demonstration began.

6/6/1989, Tuesday (+16,100) There was hysteria at the funeral of Ayatollah Khomenei in Tehran.

4/6/1989, Sunday (+16,098) (1) Poland held partially-free elections. The result was a major embarrassment for the country�s leaders as Solidarity won the lion�s share of the vote. On a turnout of 62% - smaller than Solidarity had hoped for � the union�s candidates had by 6/6/1989 won all Warsaw�s constituencies except Zoliborz, where the result was still awaited. In some constituencies Solidarity won over 80% of the vote cast. Few government candidates won over 18% of the votes cast.

(2)� Massacre in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, as troops opened fire and brought in tanks. On early morning Sunday 4^th June the army entered the Square. 2,600 were killed and 10,000 injured as soldiers fired on demonstrators, and tanks drove over them.

(3) Ali Khamenei was appointed Supreme Leader of Iran.

3/6/1989, Saturday (+16,097) (1) Death of the Ayatollah Khomeini, religious leader of Iran. Born in 1900, Khomeini attended several Islamic schools before moving to the city of Soq in 1922 where he became a Shiite scholar. Khomeini�s spite against western influences and his advocacy of Islamic purity won him many followers and in the 1950s he was acclaimed as an Ayatollah, or major religious leader. Thrown out of Iran in 1964 he continued his fight against the Shah in exile. In 1979 his influence caused massive riots in Tehran, forcing the departure of the Shah. Unpopular in the West, Khomeini is mainly remembered for reinstating Islamic punishments and for a long and exhausting war with Iraq.

(2) Liquid gas stored beside a railway in Chelyabinsk, USSR, exploded, killing 800.

1/6/1989, Thursday (+16,095)

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30/5/1989, Tuesday (+16,093) Food riots in Argentina threatened the economic reforms of the new President, Carlos Menem.

29/5/1989, Monday (+16,092) Burma changed its name to Myanmar.

28/5/1989, Sunday (+16,091) Don Revie, footballer, died (born 10/7/1927).

26/5/1989, Friday (+16,089) Donald Revie, footballer, died.

20/5/1989, Saturday (+16,083)

17/5/1989, Wednesday (+16,080) The Communist Government of Czechoslovakia freed playwright Vaclav Havel after he served just three months of a nine month sentence.

16/5/1989, Tuesday (+16,079) The first successful hole-in-the �heart operation on an adult was performed at the Brook Hospital, Greenwich, London. The patient was 66-year-old Eileen Molyneaux.

15/5/1989, Monday (+16,078) Carlos Menem won the presidential elections in Argentina.

14/5/1989, Sunday (+16,077) Gorbachev visited China, the first Soviet leader to do so since the 1960s.

10/5/1989, Wednesday (+16,073) 300,000 Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity left Bulgaria for Turkey. Bulgaria had begun a process of �Bulgarisation� against its ethnic minorities such as the Roma and Pomak communities in 1984, encouraging (or forcing) them to adopt Bulgarian surnames. From 1985 onwards, the Bulgarian military stepped up �assimilation� efforts, including assault, rape, imprisonment and even execution of those who resisted. Then on 10/5/1998 Bulgaria relaxed exit restrictions and on 29/5/1989 the Bulgarian President, Todor Zhikov, asked Turkey to accept all Bulgarian Muslims who wished to emigrate.

8/5/1989, Monday (+16,071) Slobodan Milosevic became President of Serbia.

7/5/1989, Sunday (+16,070) In Panama, General Noriega was defeated in elections. However he ignored the result and remained in power.

4/5/1989, Thursday (+16,067) The US space shuttle launched the Magellan probe to make a radar map of the surface of Venus.

2/5/1989, Tuesday (+16,065) (1) The Iron Curtain began to break down. Hungary dismantled 150 miles of barbed wire fence, opening its border to Western Europe.

(2) China imposed martial law as pro-democracy protestors camped in Tiananmen Square.

(3) Kampuchea announced it would revert to being called Cambodia.

1/5/1989, Monday (+16,064) A riot at Risley Remand Centre began, in protest at conditions there. It ended three days later with the promise of an enquiry.

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26/4/1989, Wednesday (+16,059) Bangladesh was hit by a huge tornado, 1.6km wide. All houses in an area of 6 square kilometres were obliterated. 1,300 died, 12,000 were injured and over 80,000 left homeless.

21/4/1989, Friday (+16,054) Nintendo began selling Game Boys in Japan.

20/4/1989, Thursday (+16,053) A gun turret on US battleship Iowa exploded, killing 47 sailors.

19/4/1989, Wednesday (+16,052) Daphne du Maurier, writer, died.

18/4/1989, Tuesday (+16,051) An explosion at Cormorant Alpha oil platform led to the shutdown of 25% of North Sea oil production.

17/4/1989, Monday (+16,050) (1) Chinese students demonstrated in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, calling for democracy.

(2) In Poland, Solidarnosc was legalised after an 8-year ban.

15/4/1989, Saturday (+16,048) Football fans were crushed at Hillsborough stadium, Sheffield. 95 Liverpool fans were crushed against steel fences designed to prevent a pitch invasion after police opened gates to let more fans in, to see the semi final of the FA cup. 200 were injured.

11/4/1989, Tuesday (+16,044) Douglas Smith, champion jockey, died (born 21/11/1917).

10/4/1989, Monday (+16,043) Michael Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcycle racer, was born.

9/4/1989, Sunday (+16,042) Red Army soldiers massacred Georgian demonstrators in Tbilisi�s main square, killing 20 people. Poison gas was allegedly used.

8/4/1989, Saturday (+16,041) 40 soviet submariners died when a nuclear powered Mike class submarine caught fire, and refused assistance from Western merchant ships.

7/4/1989, Friday (+16,040) President Gorbachev of the USSR visited Britain, and invited Queen Elizabeth II to visit Moscow.

6/4/1989, Thursday (+16,039) The UK Government announced it was to abolish the �job for life� guarantee to all dockworkers.

5/4/1989, Wednesday (+16,038) (1) The Polish Trades Union Solidarnosc won the right to contest partially-free elections in Poland and to publish its own newspaper. Solidarnosc had been banned by the Polish Government under General Jaruzelski since 1982.

(2) Vietnam announced it would withdraw its troops from Cambodia by September 1989.

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31/3/1989, Friday (+16,033) The Master of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker was sacked for drunkenness.

29/3/1989, Wednesday (+16,031) In France, President Mitterrand inaugurated the huge glass Louvre Pyramid.

28/3/1989, Tuesday (+16,030) The remains of the Piper Alpha oil rig were sent to the bottom of the North Sea.

27/3/1989, Monday (+16,029)

26/3/1989, Sunday (+16,028) The first free elections were held in the USSR. Pro-reform candidates won many seats.

25/3/1989, Saturday (+16,027) Oil from the 987 foot tanker Exxon Valdez was spilled on the Alaskan coast. She had run aground on 24/3/1989 and was holed in Prince William Sound. 35,000 tons of crude oil polluted 100 miles of coastline.

24/3/1989, Friday (+16,026) US Congress agreed to renew a US$ 40 million aid programme for the Right-wing Contra rebels fighting the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua. Funding ceased due to the Iran-Contra scandal.

22/3/1989, Wednesday (+16,024) (Environment) The University of Wuppertal, Germany, inaugurated a research programme to monitor the Earth�s ozone layer. The system comprised a satellite spectroradiometer to be launched into orbit in 1993.

15/3/1989, Wednesday (+16,017) 15,000 Hungarians marched in Budapest, calling for democracy.

14/3/1989, Tuesday (+16,018) In the USA, the Bush administration announced a ban on the import of semi-automatic assault rifles.

12/3/1989, Sunday (+16,106) (Computer) The original proposal for the World Wide Web was submitted by Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist at CERN.

8/3/1989, Wednesday (+16,010) (1) China declared martial law in Tibet.

(2) The Vatican dismissed Archbishop Paul Marcinkus from his position as chief of the Vatican�s bank. which had made losses of� US$ 88 million.

7/3/1989, Tuesday (+16,009) Chinese troops fired on Tibetan monks and civilians demanding independence in Lhasa. Some reports said hundreds died. China annexed Tibet in 1950, and protests for Tibetan independence had been growing since 1985.

6/3/1989, Monday (+16,008) Harry Andrews, actor, died aged 77.

5/3/1989, Sunday (+16,007) As environmental awareness grew worldwide, the Ozone Layer Conference opened in London.

4/3/1989, Saturday (+16,006) (1) Pope John Paul II branded Salman Rushdie�s novel The Satanic Verses blasphemous for suggesting that part of the Koran was inspired by the Devil.

(2) Train crash at Purley station, London, killed 5 and injured 94.

3/3/1989, Friday (+16,005) Robert McFarlane was fined $20,000, plus two years� probation, for his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

2/3/1989, Thursday (+16,004) All 12 EC nations agreed to ban the production of CFCs by 2000.

1/3/1989, Wednesday (+16,003) A curfew was imposed in Kosovo; protests continued at alleged intimidation of the Serb minority.

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23/2/1989, Thursday (+16,025) Stanley Pins and Martin Flieschmann announced Cold Fusion at the University of Utah.

28/2/1989, Tuesday (+16,002) (1) The Venezuelan President Peres faced food riots as prices rose.

(2) Hereford Cathedral dropped plans to sell the Mediaeval Mappa Mundi to raise money.

27/2/1989, Monday (+16,001) Belgrade imposed emergency powers in Kosovo as Yugoslavia�s Serbs attempted to resist secession by ethnic Albanians.

25/2/1989, Saturday (+15,999)

24/2/1989, Friday (+15,998) A cargo door fell off a Boeing 747 over the Pacific, killing 51.

23/2/1989, Thursday (+15,997) The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee rejected, 11�9, President Bush's nomination of John Tower for Secretary of Defense.

22/2/1989, Wednesday (+15,996) Death of Aldo Jacuzzi, American manufacturer of the eponymous baths.

21/2/1989, Tuesday (+15,995) (1) Czech writer Vaclav Havel was jailed for anti-government demonstrations.

(2) Two members of Winnie Mandela�s bodyguard were charged with the murder of 14-year-old Stompie Mocketsi.

19/2/1989, Sunday (+15,993)

18/2/1989, Saturday (+15,992) In Afghanistan., President Najibullah imposed a State of Emergency to bolster his authority.

17/2/1989, Friday (+15,991) Scientists warned of a threat to the ozone layer over the Arctic.

16/2/1989, Thursday (+15,990) Harley Street kidney specialist Dr Raymond Crockett resigned over a �cash for kidneys� scandal in which organs were taken from poor Turks for wealthy patients.

15/2/1989, Wednesday (+15,989) The United National Party won the Sri Lankan parliamentary election.

14/2/1989, Tuesday (+15,988) (1) Ayatollah Khomeini issued a �fatwa� ordering Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie. Rushdie had published the �Satanic Verses� which angered Muslims worldwide. On 7/3/1989 Iran severed relations with the UK.

(2) Union Carbide agreed to pay US$ 470 million to the Indian Government in compensation for the 1984 Bhopal disaster.

(3) The first of 24 satellites for the Global Positioning System were placed in orbit.

(4) Skyphone, the world�s first satellite telephone service, was launched on a British Airways flight from London to New York.

13/2/1989, Monday (+15,987) The Salvadoran Army attacked Encuentros Hospital, and raped its patients.

12/2/1989, Sunday (+15,986) 12 people died in riots in Pakistan over Salman Rushdie�s �Satanic Verses�.

11/2/1989, Saturday (+15,985) Political Parties were allowed in Hungary.

10/2/1989, Friday (+15,984) The People�s National Party was elected, under Michael Manley. Austerity measure continued.

7/2/1989, Tuesday (+15,981) Violent storms and updraughts caused a rain of sardines over the town of Ipswich, Australia.

5/2/1989, Sunday (+15,979) Rupert Murdoch launched Sky TV.

3/2/1989, Friday (+15,977) (1) General Stroessner of Paraguay was ousted after eight terms and 35 years in office.

(2) British Telecom banned �chatlines�, because some people got addicted to them and ran up huge bills which they couldn�t pay.� One 12-year-old ran up a bill of �6,000. The Internet had yet to arrive.

2/2/1989, Thursday (+15,976) The last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan, ending 9 years of bitter war against the Mujaheddin rebels. 120,000 Soviet soldiers marched north along the Salang Highway, leaving behind much armament. These rebels then marched on Kabul and Jalabad and threatened President Najibulah. Najibulah imposed martial law as Mujaheddin rockets fell on Kabul.

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27/1/1989, Friday (+15,970) Sir Thomas Octave Sopwith, designer of the World War One biplane called the Sopwith Camel, died.

23/1/1989, Monday (+15,966) Death of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali. He was aged 78, and had lived as a recluse since his wife, Gala, died in 1982. Art collectors were troubled by revelations that Dali had signed blank canvasses for others� to paint.

20/1/1989, Friday (+15,963) George Herbert Walker Bush was sworn in as 41^st US President.

19/1/1989, Thursday (+15,962) Police in Prague used tear gas and water cannon to break up a large demonstration commemorating the 20^th anniversary of the death of Jan Palach, a student who burnt himself to death in protest at the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The 1989 protests were led by Vaclav Havel, a dissident writer who led the Charter 77 human rights movement.

18/1/1989, Wednesday (+15,961) Astronomers discovered a pulsar in the remnants of Supernova 1987A.

17/1/1989, Tuesday (+15,960) A gunman shot five children dead and injured 39 others at a Californian school playground.

15/1/1989, Sunday (+15,958)

14/1/1989, Saturday (+15,957) British Muslims held public burnings of Salman Rushdie�s The Satanic Verses.

13/1/1989, Friday (+15,956) The �Friday the 13^th� virus hit hundreds of IBM computers across Britain.

12/1/1989, Thursday (+15,955) Former Ugandan President Idi Amin was expelled from Zaire; he sought refuge in Senegal.

11/1/1989, Wednesday (+15,954) President Reagan delivered his farewell speech to the USA.

10/1/1989, Tuesday (+15,953) Cuban troops began withdrawing from Angola.

9/1/1989, Monday (+15,952) A British Midland Boeing 737 fell short of the runway at East Midlands Airport and ended up on the M.1 motorway, near Kegworth. 47 died in the 12 week old aircraft, 15 seconds away from landing at the airport. Reports suggested the pilot shut down the wrong, good, starboard, engine after being warned of an engine failure. Witnesses saw the port engine on fire.

8/1/1989, Sunday (+15,951) The Soviet Union promised to eliminate its chemical weapons.

7/1/1989, Saturday (+15,950) Emperor Hirohito of Japan died, aged 87. He had ruled for more than 62 years. 500,000 people lined the streets for his funeral on 24/2/1989; US & British war veterans protested that their countries should not honour a war criminal. Hirohito had opposed war with the USA in the 1930s, he was also against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and Japan�s alliance with Nazi Germany. In 1941 he proposed peace with Washington, but was persuaded by the War Minister and his generals to hit Pearl Harbour. He was buried near his father�s mausoleum in the Imperial Palace Gardens in Japan; his son Akihito, 55, succeeded him.

6/1/1989, Friday (+15,949) James Durbin, US pop singer, was born.

5/1/1989, Thursday (+15,948) A US aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean shot down two Libyan fighter aircraft.

4/1/1989, Wednesday (+15,947) British Muslims in Bradford ritually burnt a copy of Salman Rushdie�s The Satanic Verses.

3/1/1989, Tuesday (+15,946) The first commercial advertisement appeared in the Russian newspaper Izvestia.

2/1/1989, Monday (+15,945) Ranasinghe Premadasa was sworn in as President of Sri Lanka.

1/1/1989, Sunday (+15,944) Namibia was granted independence from South Africa.

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31/12/1988, Saturday (+15,943) In the Pakistani capital Islamabad, the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi and his Pakistani counterpart Benazir Bhutto signed the first agreement between the two countries for 16 years.

30/12/1988, Friday (+15,942) In the USA, Colonel Oliver North subpoenaed Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush to testify in the Iran-Contra trial.

27/12/1988, Tuesday (+15,939)

22/12/1988, Thursday (+15,934) The withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola was announced.

21/12/1988, Wednesday (+15,933) Terrorists blew up a Pan-Am jumbo jet carrying more than 270 passengers over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All the passengers and 17 in Lockerbie itself died in the crash, on the evening of the 21^st. The flight was from Frankfurt to the USA via Heathrow. The bomb had been hidden in a transistor radio in the hold. After a three year investigation two Libyans, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi were blamed for the bombing. However the Libyan leader, Colonel Gadhafi, refused to extradite the two men, so the U.N. imposed sanctions on Libya, under pressure from America. Eventually the two men were extradited to Holland to face a year-long trial under Scottish law, under which Megrahi was found guilty and Fhimah was acquitted.

19/12/1988, Monday (+15,931)

16/12/1988, Friday (+15,928) Edwina Curry, Britain�s Junior Health Minister, resigned over her statement a fortnight earlier that most British eggs were contaminated with salmonella. Egg sales plummeted and famers demanded compensation.

15/12/1988, Thursday (+15,927) The USA resumed contacts with the PLO, after a 13-year boycott.

14/12/1988, Wednesday (+15,926) (1) Yasser Arafat, PLO leader, renounced terrorism and accepted Israel�s right to exist within secure borders.

(2) In Spain, 8 million workers went on strike against government economic policies.

13/12/1988, Tuesday (+15,925) In Brazzaville, South Africa signed an accord granting independence to Namibia.

12/12/1988, Monday (+15,924) A major train crash at Clapham Junction, south London. 38 died and 113 were injured as two morning rush hour trains collided. An express train ran into the back of a London commuter train that had stopped on the line to report a faulty signal. A third train was derailed and a fourth was stopped in time to avoid a further collision.

11/12/1988, Sunday (+15,923) An Ariane rocket carrying an Astra 1A satellite to bring 16 TV channels to Britain was launched from French Guyana.

10/12/1988, Saturday (+15,922) Severe earthquake, 6.9 on the Richter scale, hit Armenia. 100,000 were reported to have died as the cities of Spitak and Leninakan were flattened. However the death toll was later reduced to 25,000. 15,000 were injured and 400,000 left homeless.

9/12/1988, Friday (+15,921) The Michael Hughes Bridge, Sligo, Ireland, officially opened.

8/12/1988, Thursday (+15,920) The new Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, released 1,000 political prisoners.

7/12/1988, Wednesday (+15,919) (1) Yasser Arafat recognised the existence of Israel.

(2) Gorbachev cut the Red Army by 10%.

(3) Nelson Mandela was moved to a luxury house within the grounds of Pollsmoor Prison.

6/12/1988, Tuesday (+15,918) US rock star Roy Orbison died of a heart attack, aged 52.

5/12/1988, Monday (+15,917) Elizabeth Gleadle, Canadian Athlete, was born.

4/12/1988, Sunday (+15,916) Edwina Curry rashly claimed that most British eggs were infected with salmonella. She had to resign on 16/12/1988.

3/12/1988, Saturday (+15,915) Michela Quattrociocche, Italian film actress, was born.

2/12/1988, Friday (+15,914) A 110 mph cyclone in Bangladesh left thousands dead and 5 million homeless.

1/12/1988, Thursday (+15,913) (China) The Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qian Qichen, visited Moscow.

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30/11/1988, Wednesday (+15,912) Benazir Bhutto became the first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan; the first female leader of an Islamic country. These were the first democratic elections in Pakistan for 11 years. Her father, Zufilqar Ali Bhutto, was leader of Pakistan from 1971 until he was deposed in a military coup headed by General Zia in 1977; Zufilqar was hanged in 1979. Benazir inherited the leadership of the People�s Party and was an ongoing annoyance to the military regime until Zia died in 1987 in a plane crash.

21/11/1988, Monday (+15,904) Brian Mulroney was elected Prime Minister of Canada.

18/11/1988, Friday (+15,900) (Environment) Two years after a serious pollution incident damaged the Rhine River, the first warning station in a chain of sensors was installed at Huningue, France, to monitor the river for pollutants.

17/11/1988, Thursday (+15,899) The Netherlands became the second country to connect to the Internet, after the USA.

16/11/1988, Wednesday (+15,898) The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declared that Estonia is �sovereign�, adopting their own constitution, but stopped short of declaring independence.

15/11/1988, Tuesday (+15,879) (Space exploration) The USSR launched an unmanned space shuttle, Buran.

14/11/1988, Monday (+15,896) In Algiers, the Palestine National Council declared a Palestinian State on the West Bank and Gaza.

10/11/1988, Thursday (+15,892) The oil tanker Odyssey spilled 140,000 tons of crude oil off the coast of Canada.

9/11/1988, Wednesday (+15,891) The Pentagon unveiled its new �Stealth� fighter plane, supposedly invisible to enemy radar. It used radar-absorbent materials and a �faceted� surface that reflected radar signals at odd angles.

8/11/1988, Tuesday (+15,890) (1) George Bush became Republican president of the USA, defeating George Dukakis of the Democrats.

(2) In the UK, the death toll from AIDS reached 1,002, with 1,862 cases reported. A government report issued on 30/11/1988 feared that up to 50,000 in the UK could be HIV+ and that by 1992 17,000 AIDS deaths might have occurred.

(3) Salman Rushdie won the Whitbread Prize for his book, The Satanic Verses.

5/11/1988, Saturday (+15,887)

1/11/1988, Tuesday (+15,883) Batman�s faithful sidekick, Robin, was killed off by The Joker after a reader�s poll of DC Comics voted he should go.

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31/10/1988, Monday (+15,882) General Galtieri of Argentina was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment because of his incompetent management of the Falklands War.

30/10/1988, Sunday (+15,881) The head of the Unification Church, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, presided over a mass wedding of 6,516 couples in Korea.

29/10/1988, Saturday (+15,880)

27/10/1988, Thursday (+15,878) Frank Devlin, badminton champion, died (born 16/1/1900).

26/10/1988, Wednesday (+15,877) Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised to free all political prisoners by the end of the year.

18/10/1988. Tuesday (+15,869) The Home Secretary Douglas Hurd banned all broadcasts involving terrorist spokesmen.

16/10/1988, Sunday (+15,867) Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and SDLP leader John Hume shared the Nobel Peace Prize, for their part in forging the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement.

13/10/1988, Thursday (+15,864) The Turin Shroud was declared to be a fake; it was dated to between 1260 and 1390.

12/10/1988, Wednesday (+15,863) The USSR offered US$600 million reparations to Afghanistan.

11/10/1988, Tuesday (+15,862) Women were allowed to study for the first time at Magdalene College, Cambridge, UK. Male students wore black armbands and the porter flew a black flag.

8/10/1988, Saturday (+15,859) John Milburn, footballer, died.

5/10/1988, Wednesday (+15,856) The Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was defeated in a plebiscite meant to reinforce his rule. 55% voted against him.

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29/9/1988, Thursday (+15,850) NASA recommenced space flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster.

26/9/1988, Monday (+15,847) The Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson flew home from the Seoul Olympics in disgrace after being stripped of his 100m medal after failing a drugs test. He had run the 100m 2 days earlier in a record time of 9.79 seconds but was found to have taken steroids. Afterwards Ben Johnson divided his time between his family in Toronto and acting as personal bodyguard for Libya�s Colonel Gaddafi.

25/9/1988, Sunday (+15,846) (Christian, Women) In the USA, Barbara Harris, a divorcee, was elected first woman bishop in the Anglican Church, to serve as Bishop of Massachusetts (inaugurated 11/2/1989).

24/9/1988, Saturday (+15,845) Large and angry protests against the World Bank and IMF meetings in West Berlin.

23/9/1988, Friday (+15,844) Arwel Hughes, Welsh composer, died aged 79.

22/9/1988, Thursday (+15,843) Brazil reached an agreement with its creditors to reschedule debts of US$62.1 billion.

21/9/1988, Wednesday (+15,842) State of Emergency proclaimed in Nagorno-Karabakh.

20/9/1988, Tuesday (+15,841) 20 million were made homeless in floods in Bangladesh.

19/9/1988, Monday (+15,840) Thiemo de Bakker, Dutch tennis player, was born.

18/9/1988, Sunday (+15,839) In Haiti, General Namphy was deposed in a military coup.

17/9/1988, Saturday (+15,838) The 24^th Olympic Games opened in Seoul.

16/9/1988, Friday (+15,837) (1) A military junta seized power in Burma.

(2) 1,330 were reported to have died in floods in Bangladesh.

15/9/1988, Thursday (+15,836) The Federation of Yugoslavia looked increasingly fragile as 200,000 Serbs protested in Belgrade against persecution of them in the province of Kosovo by ethnic Albanians. Kosovo was the home of Serbian culture, and had a Serbian king for two centuries. By 1988 it was populated by 1.7 million ethnic Albanians and only 200,000 Serbs. Serbs make up 40% of Yugoslavia�s 23 million population. Serbians organised more mass anti-Albanian demonstrations on 25/9/1988.

14/9/1988, Wednesday (+15,835) On route to Sydney, a 6-man expedition arrived in Delhi in a London taxi. Its meter, on London rates, showed a fare of �13,200.

13/9/1988, Tuesday (+15,834)

6/9/1988, Tuesday (+15,827) 11 year old Thomas Gregory from London became the youngest person to swim the Channel.

5/9/1988, Monday (+15,826) Britain now had 1,730 reported cases of AIDS and 949 deaths.

4/9/1988, Sunday (+15,825) Nutritionists blamed junk food for Britain�s increased youth violence.

2/9/1988, Friday (+15,823)

1/9/1988, Thursday (+15,822) Luis Walter Alvarez, researcher into subatomic particles, born 13/6/1911 in San Francisco, California, died in Berkeley, California.

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31/8/1988, Wednesday (+15,821) Widespread flooding in Bangladesh left 25 million homeless.

28/8/1988, Sunday (+15,818) The longest trial in Spanish history came to an end after 15 months. Alleged sales of toxic olive oil had killed 600 and injured thousands more.

21/8/1988, Sunday (+15,811) British licencing laws were relaxed to allow pubs to open for 12 hours a day.

20/8/1988, Saturday (+15,810) Thaddeus Joseph Jones US jazz trumpeter, died.

19/8/1988, Friday (+15,809)

18/8/1988, Thursday (+15,808)� In Hong Kong, the Light Rail Transit line between Tuen Mun and Yuen Long, 23 km, opened.

17/8/1988, Wednesday (+15,807) General Zia ul Haq of Pakistan died when his aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from a military demonstration of US tanks at Bahawalpur for Islamabad. The US ambassador to Pakistan was on board. A bomb or missile attack was suspected.

16/8/1988, Tuesday (+15,806) IBM introduced software for artificial intelligence.

15/8/1988, Monday (+15,805) IRA bomb in Omagh killed 29.

14/8/1988, Sunday (+15,804) Enzo Ferrari, racing car designer and builder, died at his home in Modena aged 90.

11/8/1988, Thursday (+15,801) Devastating floods brought chaos to Sudan. After 13 hours of rain, 1.5 million people had been made homeless and an unknown number drowned.

8/8/1988, Monday (+15,798) (1) The Iran-Iraq war ended after 8 years, and 1 million casualties. A further 1.7 million were wounded, 1.5 million made homeless, and US$ 400 billion of the two country�s resources had been expended. Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran accepted resolution 598 of the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire, despite earlier pledging to fight until total victory had been achieved.

(2) Angola, South Africa, and Cuba agreed a ceasefire in the Angolan Civil War.

(3) A popular uprising in Myanmar against the military rule there. The uprising was timed for this day as 8888 was deemed an auspicious date. However the people did not succeed, but the revolt was brutally suppressed by the army, with some 3,000 people killed.

3/8/1988, Wednesday (+15,793) Matthias Rust was freed from prison in Russia.� He had served 14 months of a 4-year sentence for flying a plane from Germany to land in Red Square, Moscow.

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29/7/1988, Friday (+15,788) Unmarried couples sharing a house rushed to beat the Conservative Chancellor Lawson�s 1/8 deadline after which unmarried couples would no longer be able to claim two lots of tax relief on a joint mortgage of �30,000 each. This sparked a record mortgage lending in the UK in the 3^rd quarter of 1988 of �3.6 billion, up from �2.2 billion in the 2^nd quarter 1988. House prices soared in what became known as the Lawson Boom, followed by the negative equity of the early 1990s as house prices fell again.

28/7/1988, Thursday (+15,787) Paddy Ashdown was elected leader of the SDP.

26/7/1988, Tuesday (+15,785) New York celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

11/7/1988, Monday (+15,770) 8,500 people in the UK were known to be carrying the AIDS virus.

7/7/1988, Thursday (+15,766) (1) The first of two Soviet probes was sent to study Phobos, a moon of Mars. The second probe was launched on 12/2/1988. Later, Phobos I was accidentally sent a �suicide� instruction.

(2) Tottenham Hotspur Football Club paid a record �2 million transfer fee to Newcastle United for Paul Gascoigne.

6/7/1988, Wednesday (+15,765) 173 men died in an explosion on the Piper Alpha oilrig in the North Sea. Many more were injured as a series of explosions wrecked the rig whilst they slept. The 12-year-old rig was 120 miles off the Aberdeen coast. Flames shot 400 feet into the air and only 62 survived, many by jumping over 100 feet into the sea. The heat could be felt one mile away, and hampered rescue efforts. 165 oil workers and 2 rescue workers were killed.

5/7/1988, Tuesday (+15,764) The Church of England voted for the ordination of women.

3/7/1988, Sunday (+15,762) The US cruiser Vincennes mistakenly shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 286 people on a flight from Bandar Abbas to Dubai. The US believed the aircraft was a fighter plane.

1/7/1988, Friday (+15,760) The average UK house price was �51,405.

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27/6/1988, Monday (+15,755) Train crash at Gare de Lyons, Paris, 57 killed.

26/6/1988, Sunday (+15,755) Vietnam said its troops would withdraw from Kampuchea, formerly Cambodia.

25/6/1988, Saturday (+15,754) Virginia celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

21/6/1988, Tuesday (+15,750) (1) The Myanmar regime imposed martial law in the face of student protests.

(2) New Hampshire celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

19/6/1988, Thursday (+15,745) In Haiti, Leslie Manigat, civilian President, was deposed in a military coup and replaced by General Henri Namphy.

14/6/1988, Tuesday (+15,743) In the UK, top executives pay was rising at 22% a year, compared with a national average of 8.5%.

13/6/1988, Monday (+15,742) The first beauty contest was held in the USSR.

10/6/1988, Friday (+15,739)

5/6/1988, Sunday (+15,734) Kay Cottee sailed into Sydney harbour, the first woman to sail solo round the world non-stop.

4/6/1988, Saturday (+15,733) Sir Douglas Nicholls, Governor of South Australia, the first aborigine to hold this position and to receive a knighthood, died.

1/6/1988, Wednesday (+15,730)

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27/5/1988, Friday (+15,725) In Canada, a man who �sleepwalked�, drove over to his mother�s house and killed her with an iron bar, was acquitted of murder.

26/5/1988, Thursday (+15,724) Andrew Lloyd Webber�s musical Cats opened in Moscow with a British and American cast.

25/5/1988, Wednesday (+15,723) The Iranians suffered reverses on land in their war against Iraq. They were driven off the Fao Peninsula and off land east of Basra (both in Iraq).

24/5/1988, Tuesday (+15,722) (1) In the UK, the controversial Section 28 law was passed. This made the promotion of homosexuality in schools illegal.

(2) Snow fell in the Syrian Desert and Damascus had ten hours of snowfall for the first time in 50 years.

(3) Liverpool�s Albert Dock, restored as a business and leisure centre, was opened by the Prince of Wales.

23/5/1988, Monday (+15,721) South Carolina celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

21/5/1988, Saturday (+15,719)

20/5/1988, Friday (+15,718) British licensing laws were liberalised. The Licensing Act received Royal Assent, and 65,000 pubs in England and Wales could now open 11am to 11pm Monday to Saturday.

19/5/1988, Thursday (+15,717) In India, Sikh rebels occupying the Golden Temple in Amritsar surrendered.

17/5/1988, Tuesday (+15,715) Sainsbury announced sales of over �5 billion in the UK in 1987, selling 10.7% of all UK groceries.

15/5/1988, Sunday (+15,713) Soviet troops began leaving Afghanistan. On 15/4/1988 Mr Eduard Shevardnaze, the Soviet Foreign Minister set the seal on the Kremlin�s decision to withdraw more than 100,000 Soviet troops in Afghanistan, after 8 � years of occupation. Some 155,000 troops would be withdrawn by 15/5/1988, and the remainder, as many troops as this again, would go by 15/2/1989. But Washington said it would continue to supply arms to the Mujaheddin who were fighting the Soviet-backed government in Kabul. During the Soviet occupation, up to one million Afghans were said to have been killed and over a third of the population had fled.

13/5/1988, Friday (+15,711) Chet Baker, US jazz trumpeter, died.

11/5/1988, Wednesday (+15,709) Soviet spy Kim Philby died in Moscow aged 76.

10/5/1988, Tuesday (+15,708) President Mitterand of France won a second term. The Right was split, but the far Right Jean Marie Le Pen got 14.38% of the vote, 4 million votes. In Marseilles, Le Pen led with 28% of the vote.

9/5/1988, Monday (+15,707) The new Australian Parliament building in Canberra was inaugurated.

7/5/1988, Saturday (+15,705) Boston saw the first meeting of people who claimed to have been abducted by aliens.

3/5/1988, Tuesday (+15,701) Carl Erhardt, ice hockey player, died (born 13/2/1897).

2/5/1988, Monday (+15,700) In Poland, thousands of shipyard workers went on strike, and 7 Solidarnosc union leaders were detained.

1/5/1988, Sunday (+15,699) Tamil guerrillas set off a land mine in Sri Lanka under a bus, killing 26 passengers.

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30/4/1988, Saturday (+15,698) The World Expo 1988 opened in Brisbane, Australia.

29/4/1988, Friday (-15,697) (1) The worst industrial unrest in Poland since the 1981 martial law crackdown on Solidarnosc. Workers demanded large pay rises after the Polish government raised food prices by 40%, rents by 50%, and electricity by 100%; a spell of austerity was needed to restore economic stability, said the government.

(2) McDonalds announced plans for 20 restaurants in Moscow to sell the �Bolshoi Mac�.

28/4/1988, Thursday (-15,696) Sian Edwards, 28, became the first woman to conduct at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

27/4/1988, Wednesday (+15,695) David Scarboro, British actor, died (born 1968)

26/4/1988, Tuesday (+15,694) The Swiss food giant Nestle bid �2.1 billion for the York confectioners, Rowntree. On 23/6/1988 Rowntree accepted a �2.55 billion bid from Nestle. Nestle already owned 12% of Rowntree, and Suchard owned 29.9% of Rowntree. Both Swiss companies want Rowntree, maker of brands like Kit Kat, Quality Street, and Smarties, as a bridgehead into the European Community.

25/4/1988, Monday (+15,693) In Israel, John Demanjuk, known as Ivan the Terrible, was sentenced to death for war crimes relating to the gas chambers at Treblinka concentration camp.

20/4/1988, Wednesday (+15.688)

18/4/1988, Monday (+15,686) The USA retaliated against Iran for its mining of the Gulf. After warning the Iranians to evacuate, US warships destroyed Iranian oil platforms at Sirri and Sisan. Iranian boats fired back and were sunk by the US.

17/4/1988, Sunday (+15,685) Louise Nevelson, sculptor born in Kiev, Russia, in 23/9/1900, died in New York.

16/4/1988, Saturday (+15,684) The Palestine Liberation Organisation�s chief military commander, Khalil al Wazir, was assassinated at his Tunis home; the PLO blamed an Israeli hit squad. Mr Wazir had organised many attacks from Lebanon into Israel, and orchestrated the Palestinian intifada in the Occupied Territories.

15/4/1988, Friday (+15,683) North Korean President Kim Il Sung received 43,000 gifts as he instituted lavish celebrations for his 76^th birthday.

14/4/1988, Thursday (+15,682) In the Geneva Agreement, the USSR agreed to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan. President Caesescu of Romania announced plans to demolish 8,000 villages and forcibly resettle their population in urban areas.

13/4/1988, Wednesday (+15,681) Allison Williams, US actress, was born.

12/4/1988, Tuesday (+15,680) China�s National People�s Congress voted to allow private enterprise and the transfer of use of land between private individuals. They did not, however, allow outright private ownership of land.

9/4/1988, Saturday (+15,677) (Space exploration) The landmark work A Brief History of Time was published by Stephen Hawking.

7/4/1988, Thursday (+15,675) Gorbachev, in Geneva, signed a peace accord on Afghanistan.

5/5/1988, Tuesday (+15,673) In the US, Eugene Antonio became the country�s first Black Roman Catholic Archbishop.

4/4/1988, Monday (+15,672) The Midlands-based TV soap opera �Crossroads� ended on episode 4,510. The first episode was broadcast in November 1964.

3/4/1988. Sunday (+15,671) Easter Sunday. Ethiopia and Somalia concluded a peace agreement, ending 11 years of border conflict.

2/4/1988, Saturday (+15,670) Israeli troops killed six Palestinians, the highest total in a single day so far. On 6/4/1988 the first Israeli civilian victim of the fighting died, a 15-year old girl.

1/4/1988, Friday (+15,669) Iraq was accused of using poison gas on Kurdish villagers.

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30/3/1988, Wednesday (+15,667)

29/3/1988, Tuesday (+15,666) Plans were unveiled by Canadian developers for an 888-foot tower block, costing �3 billion, at Canary Wharf, London Docklands, to be completed by 1992.

28/3/1988, Monday (+15,665) Roll-out of the new Airbus A320.

26/3/1988, Saturday (+15,663)

24/3/1988, Thursday (+15,661) In Israel, Mordecai Vanunu was found guilty of revealing Israeli nuclear secrets to the Sunday Times.

23/3/1988, Wednesday (+15,660) In Nicaragua, Contra commanders and Government officials signed a 60-day ceasefire agreement.

22/3/1988, Tuesday (+15,659) In Australia, doctors turned off the life support system of a terminally ill female patient for the first time.

21/3/1988, Monday (+15,658) Lee Cattermole, English footballer, was born.

20/3/1988, Sunday (+15,657) Iraqi planes attacked the Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island, killing 54. Two supertankers were hit and exploded into flames. The Iraqis had more fighter planes than the Iranians. Iraq and Iran continued to fire missiles into each other�s capital cities.

19/3/1988, Saturday (+15,656) In Belfast, 2 British soldiers were lynched at IRA funerals.

18/3/1988, Friday (+15,655) Percy Thrower, horticulturalist, died.

17/3/1988, Thursday (+15,654) Grimes, Canadian musician, was born.

16/3/1988, Wednesday (+15,653) News broke that Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons on Halabja, a Kurdish town. 5,000 Kurds died.

15/3/1988, Tuesday (+15,652) The Conservative Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, cut the standard rate of income tax from 27% to 25%. The highest rate was cut from 60% to 40%. Total tax cuts in his budget amounted to �4 billion, mostly going to higher income earners. On 20/3/1988 a survey in the UK found 60% of the population opposed these tax cuts.

14/3/1988, Monday (+15,651) (China, Vietnam) Three days of conflict between China and Vietnam began over the disputed Spratly Islands.

13/3/1988, Sunday (+15,650) (Railway Tunnels) The Seikan Tunnel, 53.85km long, Japan, opened on the Honshu-Hokkaido line.

12/3/1988, Saturday (+15,649) The British �1 note ceased to be legal tender, and was replaced by the �1 coin.

11/3/1988, Friday (+15,648) Katsuhiko Nakajima, Japanese professional wrestler, was born.

10/3/1988, Thursday (+15,647) The Chinese Army occupied Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, after large anti-Chinese demonstrations by Tibetans.

9/3/1988, Wednesday (+15,646) Ronald Cove-Smith, rugby player, died (born 26/11/1899)

6/3/1988, Sunday (+15,643) Three IRA terrorists shot dead by SAS men in Gibraltar; they were allegedly planning a bomb attack.

4/3/1988, Friday (+15,641) Israel banned all foreign journalists as the Arab unrest continued.

3/3/1988, Thursday (+15,640) (1) The Liberals and the SDP merged to form the Social and Liberal Democratic Party.

(2) Dick Chipperfield, British circus man, died aged 83.

2/3/1988, Wednesday (+15,639) The Soviet Army was sent to Azerbaijan to quell unrest there. Tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia grew. Azerbaijan rejected a call for the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh to be returned to Armenian control; Karabakh had been part of Azerbaijan since 1921, although mainly populated by Armenians. Armenia invaded and occupied large parts of Azerbaijan lying between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

1/3/1988, Tuesday (+15,638) Soviet troops enforced a curfew in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, following ethnic unrest.

=============================================================================

29/2/1988, Monday (+15,637) (1) In the UK, prescription charges rose by 20p to �2.60 per item from 1/4/1988. In February 2003 they were �6.20 an item, up 158.3% on February 1988. Over this period the RPI rose 72%.

(2) In South Africa, Archbishop Desmond \Tutu was arrested for illegally demonstrating outside the Parliamentary building in Cape Town. He was protesting against the death sentence imposed on the Sharpeville Six for killing a Black Councillor.

23/2/1988, Tuesday (+15,631)

21/2/1988, Sunday (+15,629) The grave of the warrior queen Boadicea discovered under platform 8 of Kings Cross railway station, London.

20/2/1988, Saturday (+15,628) The Regional Soviet of Nagorny Karabakh voted to transfer the region from Azerbaijan to Armenia.

15/2/1988, Monday (+15,623)

9/2/1988, Tuesday (+15,617) In Britain, the House of Commons voted to allow proceedings to be televised.

8/2/1988, Monday (+15,616) Soviet President Gorbachev announced that Russian troops were to begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in May 1988.

7/2/1988, Sunday (+15,615) In Haiti, Leslie Manigat was inaugurated as President, ending 2 years of military rule.

6/2/1988, Saturday (+15,614) (1) Massachusetts celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

(2) A survey in the UK found that out-of-order phone boxes and Post Office queues were the top irritants of modern life.

5/2/1988, Friday (+15,613) 3.8 million plastic noses were sold for the first ever Comic Relief Red Nose Day. �15 million was raised.

4/2/1988, Thursday (+15,612) The Soviet Union posthumously rehabilitated Nikolai Bukharin and 9 other Soviet leaders executed or imprisoned after the 1938 show trials.

3/2/1988, Wednesday (+15,611) In the USA, the Democrat-controlled House of Democrats rejected President Reagan�s request for US$36.25 million to support the Nicaraguan Contras.

2/2/1988, Tuesday (+15,610) In London, 2,000 nurses and other health workers held a one-day strike over pay.

=====================================================================================

1/2/1988, Monday (+15,609) Two Arab youths were shot dead by Israeli settlers as the violence in Israel continued, from January 1988.

29/1/1988, Friday (+15,606) Junior Health Minister (Conservative), Edwina Curry, told people they should forego holidays to pay for private health care.

26/1/1988, Tuesday (+15,603) Australia celebrated its bicentennial.

25/1/1988, Monday (+15,602) Ramsewak Shankar was inaugurated as President of Surinam, ending 8 years of military rule.

24/1/1988, Sunday (+15,601) (Biology) Biochemist Charles Glen King, who first isolated vitamin C, died in Westchester, Pennsylvania.

20/1/1988, Wednesday (+15,597) The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, cracked down hard on the Palestinians. Beatings were routine and charity aid to the strike-hit West Bank and Gaza Strip was banned by Israel.

17/1/1988, Sunday (+15,594) Nicaraguan Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega, offered a ceasefire to the Contras.

16/1/1988, Saturday (-15,593) Ballard Berkeley, British actor, died aged 83

15/1/1988, Friday (+15,592) Arab uprising in Israel began. Sporadic violence had occurred on 8/1/1988.

14/1/1988, Thursday (+15,591) Georgy M Malenkov, Prime Minister of the USSR (1953-55), died.

13/1/1988, Wednesday (+15,590) (1) Chiang Ching Kuo, President of Taiwan since 1978, died. Lee Teng Hui became President of Taiwan. The first Taiwan-born leader of the country, he was a reforming technocrat who accelerated the pace of economic liberalisation.

(2) One in every 61 babies born in New York in December 1987 had the AIDS virus. Doctors believed up to 40% of them would develop AIDS. In the UK, there were 1,277 AIDS cases; 697 had died from the disease.

12/1/1988, Tuesday (+15,589) (Space exploration) The USSR launched Phobos-2, to rendezvous with the Martian moon, Phobos.

11/1/1988, Monday (+15,588)

9/1/1988, Saturday (+15,586) Connecticut celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

8/1/1988, Friday (+15,585) Violence in Gaza and Jerusalem as young Palestinians protested after Friday prayers. See 15/1/1988.

6/1/1988, Wednesday (+15,583)

4/1/1988, Monday (+15,581) (India) Indian Kami Bheel, who possessed the world�s longest moustache at 7ft 10 inches from tip to tip, was found decapitated.

3/1/1988, Sunday (+15,580) An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon killed 21 people.

2/1/1988, Saturday (+15,579) Georgia celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

=====================================================================================

31/12/1987, Thursday (+15,577)

29/12/1987, Tuesday (+15,575) (Medical) Prozac made its debut in the USA. It was initially developed as a drug to treat high blood pressure, but the success seen in animals in this area failed to materialise with humans. However it found a role as an anti-depressant. Before Prozac and other drugs, depression, sometimes romantically referred to as �melancholy�, could lead to committal to a mental institution in the most severe cases, so sufferers were reluctant to seek treatment. Prozac boosts the level of serotonin in the brain by preventing its destruction after it has delivered its message; it is a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor or SSRI. Although some patients have alleged that it changes personality, even leading to suicide attempts, some 35 million people (2006) take it worldwide.

28/12/1987, Monday (+15,574) Tunisia and Libya restored diplomatic relations.

27/12/1987, Sunday (+15,583) Lily Luahana Cole, English actress, was born.

26/12/1987, Saturday (+15,572) (Railway Tunnels) The Jundushan railway tunnel, China, on the Datong to Quinhuangdao line, opened.

25/12/1987, Friday (+15,571) Israeli security forces cracked down on Arab rioters.

24/12/1987, Thursday (+15,570) Joop den Uyl, former Dutch Prime Minister, died.

23/12/1987, Wednesday (+15,569) Tommaso Bellazzini, Italian footballer, was born.

22/12/1987, Tuesday (+15,568) Prime Minister Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Joshua Nkomo agreed to unite the ZANU (PF) and ZAPU parties.

21/12/1987, Monday (+15,567) 2,000 killed in a ferry disaster in The Philippines.

20/12/1987, Sunday (+15,566) Iraq claimed it had repulsed an attack by two Iranian brigades 125 miles north of Basra. Iran claimed it was a successful lightning raid.

19/12/1987, Saturday (+15,565) Gary Kasparov took the world chess title, defeating fellow Russian Anatoly Karpov.

18/12/1987, Friday (+15,564) New Jersey celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

17/12/1987, Thursday (+15,563) Gustav Husak resigned as General Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party; succeeded by Milos Jakes.

15/12/1987, Tuesday (+15,561)

12/12/1987, Saturday (+15,558) Pennsylvania celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

11/12/1987, Friday (+15,557) At Christies auction house, London, Charlie Chaplin�s cane and bowler sold for �82,500, and his boots for �38,500.

9/12/1987, Wednesday (+15,555) The Intifada, the popular Palestinian uprising against Israeli authority, began.

8/12/1987, Tuesday (+15,554) Gorbachev and Reagan signed an arms reduction treaty, to eliminate medium range nuclear missiles from Europe.

7/12/1987, Monday (+15,553) Delaware celebrated the 200^th anniversary of its statehood.

1/12/1987, Tuesday (+15, 547) Digging began on the Channel Tunnel.

====================================================================================

25/11/1987, Wednesday (+15,541) The Category 5 typhoon, Nina, hit the Philippines, with 165 mph winds and a major storm surge, killing 1,036 people.

24/11/1987, Tuesday (+15,540) Li Peng succeeded Zhao Ziyang as Chinese Prime Minister.

23/11/1987, Monday (+15,539) Of the 128 new airlines created in the USA after deregulation, only 37 were still in business.

21/11/1987, Saturday (+15,537)

18/11/1987, Wednesday (+15,534). The worst fire in the history of the London Underground killed 31 at King�s Cross. An accumulation of rubbish and fluff under a wooden escalator had been ignited by a cigarette end. Sprinklers had not been installed despite a recommendation in 1984 for them, and administrative errors meant passengers were still disembarking from Piccadilly Line trains as the fire spread. A �no smoking� rule came into force across the London Underground on 24/11/1987.

17/11/1987, Tuesday (+15,533) The UK Government announced plans for a Community Charge (Poll Tax) to be levied in 1990.

16/11/1987, Monday (+15,532)

13/11/1987, Friday (+15,529) The first criminal conviction based on genetic fingerprinting saw a rapist sentenced to 8 years at Bristol Crown Court.

12/11/1987, Thursday (+15,528) President Gorbachev sacked Boris Yeltsin as head of the Communist Party after Yeltsin criticised him for the slow pace of perestroika (reconstruction).

11/11/1987, Wednesday (+15,527) (Price) Van Gogh�s painting, Irises, sold for US$53.9 million, the highest price paid for a painting.

10/11/1987, Tuesday (+15,526) David Warburg, real tennis champion, died.

9/11/1987, Monday (+15,525) A bomb explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killed 32.

8/11/1987, Sunday (+15,524)� An IRA bomb exploded at a Remembrance Day service at Eniskillen, N Ireland, killing 11 people.

1/11/1987, Sunday (+15,517)

====================================================================================

26/10/1987, Monday (+15,511) The City Airport in the London Docklands opened for short landing and take-off aircraft.

25/10/1987, Sunday (+15,510) At the 13^th Communist Party Congress in Beijing, Deng Xiaopoing resigned as Party leader.

22/10/1987, Thursday (+15,507) The first volume of the Gutenberg Bible became the world�s most expensive book when it was sold at auction at New York for US$ 5.39 million.

19/10/1987, Monday (+15,504) �Black Monday� on Wall Street wiped millions off stock prices around the world. Wall Street ended the day a record 22% lower, 508 points down, a bigger fall than in the 1929 crash. The FT in London fell almost 250 points, threatening the UK government�s sell-off of BP shares. There were concerns that the US trade deficit, now at US$ 15.7 billion, and a 40% fall in the value of the Dollar, would cause higher interest rates.

16/10/1987, Friday (+15,501) A severe hurricane hit Britain. 19 people died when storms battered the south of England, as winds of up to 100 mph tore up trees by the roots. Kew Garden recorded a gust of 94 mph and lost trees overnight that had taken 200 years to grow. Property damage was between �100 and �600 million. This was stated to be the worst storm in Britain since 1707.

15/10/1987, Thursday (+15,500) The Queen abdicated as monarch of Fiji.

11/10/1987, Sunday (+15,496) A sonar survey of Loch Ness failed to find any trace of the monster.

6/10/1987, Tuesday (+15,491) (Fiji) Colonel Rabuka declared Fiji a Republic.

2/10/1987, Friday (+15,487) 6 Buddhist monks in Tibet protesting against the Chinese occupation were killed by the Chinese. On 6/10/1987 China banned all foreigners from visiting Tibet.

1/10/1987, Thursday (+15,486) (Earthquake) (1) A 20-second earthquake hit Los Angeles, killing 7 and injuring 100. The 6.1 magnitude quake hit the morning rush hour at 7.40 am, and was the strongest in the area since 1971.

(2) 48 year old surrogate grandmother Mrs Pat Anthony gave birth to triplets for her daughter Karen Ferriera-Jorge in Johannesburg, South Africa.

======================================================================================

30/9/1987, Wednesday (+15,485) At the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Susan Lazarchick had the first successful transplant of the body�s most complex joint, the knee.

29/9/1987, Tuesday (+15,484) John M Poindexter resigned from the US Navy over the Iran-Contra affair.

27/9/1987, Sunday (+15,482) 27/9.1987, Nationalist demonstrations broke out in Lhasa, Tibet, against Chinese rule there imposed in 1950 (see 7/10/1950). Furthermore, China had been encouraging poor Han Chinese to resettle in Tibet, competing for job opportunities and housing with poorer indigenous Tibetans. The Chinese were at first taken by surprise, having believed that the Tibetans were subjugated and pacified.

25/9/1987, Friday (+15,480) (Fiji) The second coup of 1987 in Fiji, led by Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka. He opposed what he saw as domination of the Fijian economy by Indian-ethnicity families.

24/9/1987, Thursday (+15,479) Grey Damon, US TV actor, was born.

23/9/1987, Wednesday (+15,478) The book, Spycatcher, memoirs of former British intelligence officer Peter Wright, was to be published in Australia despite opposition by Britain�s MI5.

22/9/1987, Tuesday (+15,477) In the UK, the Home Secretary prohibited the sale of semi-automatic rifles.

21/9/1987, Monday (+15,476) The US seized an Iranian ship in the Gulf.

20/9/1987, Sunday (+15,475) Michael Stewart, US playwright, died aged 63.

19/9/1987, Saturday (+15,474) The Pope concluded his visit to the US.

18/9/1987, Friday (+15,473) Americo Tomas, 14^th President of Portugal, died (born 1894).

17/9/1987, Thursday (+15,472) In Britain, the Liberal Party Assembly voted for merger talks with the SDP.

16/9/1987, Wednesday (+15,471) 70 countries signed an agreement in Montreal to save the ozone layer, to freeze CFC production (used as a refrigeration gas) at current levels and halve it within 12 years. The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica had been discovered in 1984.

15/9/1987, Tuesday (+15,470) West Germany established diplomatic relations with Albania.

13/9/1987, Sunday (+15,468)

11/9/1987, Friday (+15,466) The British Conservative government announced plans to abolish the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).

10/9/1987, Thursday (+15,465) Ben Baker, British athletics (high jump) champion, died (born 15/2/1892)

9/9/1987, Wednesday (+15,464)

7/9/1987, Monday (+15,462) The world�s first conference on artificial life began, at Los Alamos National Laboratories, USA.

6/9/1987, Sunday (+15,461) The historic Venice regatta was held without gondoliers for the first time since 1315. The gondoliers were on strike as a protest against the damage to the fabric of Venice caused by powerboats.

5/9/1987, Saturday (+15,460) Without prior notice, the Myanmar Government declared the 25, 35 and 75 Kyat banknotes were demonetised and worthless, not exchangeable for any other currency. The move was aimed at black marketeers operating along the Myanmar-Thailand border, and in fact this trade was halted within days. However it also meant that ordinary Burmese citizens lost 80% of their wealth, and tourists were left with worthless currency. The move led to serious popular unrest in Myanmar in 1988, culminating in the �8888� uprising of * August 1988.

4/9/1987, Friday (+15,459) Matthias Rust was sentenced to four� years in a Soviet labour camp, however he was released on 3/8/1988. See 28/5/1987.

3/9/1987, Thursday (+15,458) Coup in Burundi. The Military Committee for National Redemption was founded.

2/9/1987, Wednesday (+15,457) Philips introduced the CD-video.

1/9/1987, Tuesday (+15,456) Belgium became one of the first countries to ban smoking inside public buildings, a decade before Britain followed suit.

=====================================================================================

31/8/1987, Monday (+15,455) Petros Kravaritis, Greek footballer, was born.

30/8/1987, Sunday (+15,454) In Britain, Dr David Owen announced the formation of the breakaway �continuing SDP� Party.

26/8/1978, Wednesday (+15,450) The funeral and burial of Rudolf Hess.

19/8/1987, Wednesday (+15,443) Michael Ryan, 27, shot dead 16 people in Hungerford, Berkshire, and injured another 14, then shot himself dead. He had been depressed by the death of his father. A former paratrooper, he had a large gun collection.

17/8/1987, Monday (+15,441) Former top Nazi Rudolf Hess, born 1894, committed suicide in Spandau Prison, Berlin, after 46 years spent there.� He was 93 when he died. He had been the only inmate, and demolition of the prison began almost immediately.

15/8/1987. Saturday (+15,439) (1) Caning was officially banned in Britain, except in independent schools.

(2) Sextuplets, three boys and four girls, were born to Susan Halton in Liverpool�s Oxford Street Hospital. �Their combined weight was 9 � pounds. None survived; the last lived until 31/8/1987.

10/8/1987, Monday (+15,434) One person a day was dying of AIDS in Britain.

7/8/1987, Friday (+15,431) The leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua signed a peace plan in Guatemala City to end the 10-year conflict in the region.

6/8/1987, Thursday (+15,430) In Britain, the SDP voted to merge with the Liberal Party. Dr David Owen resigned as SDP leader.

5/8/1987, Wednesday (+15,429) Georg Gassman, German politician, died.

4/8/1987, Tuesday (+15,428) Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka agreed to surrender arms to the� Indian peacekeeping force.

3/8/1987, Monday (+15,427) The US Irangate hearings ended.

====================================================================================

31/7/1987, Friday (+15,424) 400 Iranian pilgrims died in clashes with Saudi security forces in Mecca.

26/7/1987, Sunday (+15,419) A heatwave in Greece killed over 1,000 people.

24/7/1987, Friday (+15,417) Author Jeffery Archer won a record �500,000 libel damages against The Star newspaper over allegations that he had paid a prostitute, Monica Coghlan, �70 for sex. See 19/7/2001.

14/7/1987, Tuesday (+15,407) Taiwan legalised opposition Parties.

11/7/1987, Saturday (+15,404) The world population was officially stated to have attained 5 billion.

5/7/1987, Sunday (+15,398) Ernest Ward, rugby player, died (born 30/7/1920).

4/7/1987, Saturday (+15,397) Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, 73. was convicted in France, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1/7/1987, Wednesday (+15,394) (1) The EU passed the Single European Act.

(2) The average UK house price was �43,165.

====================================================================================

28/6/1987, Sunday (+15,391) Emrys Lloyd, champion fencer, died (born 8/9/1908).

22/6/1987, Monday (+15,385) Fred Astaire, US actor, died.

19/6/1987, Friday (+15,382) 21 died and 45 were injured in a Basque separatist car bomb in an underground car park in Barcelona. Amongst the dead were several young children. The atrocity alienated all but the most militant ETA supporters; with Franco gone, the organisation now lacked any real purpose.

18/6/1987, Thursday (+15,381) UK unemployment figures fell below 3 million.

17/6/1987, Wednesday (+15,380) (Environment) The Dusky Seaside Sparrow became extinct as the last individual died.

12/6/1987, Friday (+15,375) (1) In the Central African Republic, Bokassa was found guilty of treason and murder, but acquitted of cannibalism. He was sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to life in prison. Six years later, President Andre Kolingba freed him in an amnesty; he died of a heart attack shortly afterwards.

(2) Mrs Thatcher elected Prime Minister with a majority of 101. She was the first PM to achieve a third term for 160 years. The Conservatives won 375 seats, Labour 229, Alliance 22 and Nationalists 6.

10/6/1987, Wednesday (+15,373) (Korea) President Chun of South Korea named his successor as General Roh Tae Woo. This provoked demonstrations because Roh, close friend of Chun, had supported his coup against the military after the 1979 assassination of Park.

======================================================================================

28/5/1987, Thursday (+15,360) A 19-year-old West German, Mathias Rust, evaded Soviet air defences and landed a light plane in Red Square, Moscow, from Helsinki, Finland. He was immediately detained, and released on 3/8/1988.

17/5/1987, Sunday (+15,349) Iraqi Exocet missiles hit the USS Stark in the Gulf, killing 37 and injuring 21 sailors. Baghdad said it was an accident.

15/5/1987, Friday (+15,347) Rita Hayworth, US actress, died of Alzheimer�s Disease.

14/5/1987, Thursday (+15,346) A coup toppled the Fiji Government, in protest at the influence of Indians in the administration.

12/5/1987, Tuesday (+15,344) 12/5/1987, Rajiv Gandhi imposed direct Federal rule from New Delhi on the mainly Sikh province of Punjab, removing its provincial autonomy. The Sikhs in Punjab had wanted their own country, separate from India as Pakistan was, at Independence in 1947, but this did not happen. They have been agitating for independence ever since. Under Indira Gandhi�s rule (1966-84), which was nominally democratic but veered towards autocracy, especially in times of crisis, the Punjab was even subdivided by creating the new Province of Haryana, to weaken Punjab identity, and attacked the Sikhs at the Golden temple, Amritsar (see 6/6/1984). The Direct Rule was in revenge for the assassination of his mother, Indira Gandhi on 31/10/1984. The immediate cause of Rajiv Gandhi�s move was the assassination of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, a Sikh politician who had collaborated closely with both Indira and Rajiv, by militant Sikh separatists. Sikh Separatism in the Punjab remains a major issue in Indian politics.

11/5/1987, Monday (+15,343) Klaus Barbie went on trial in Lyon for WW2 war crimes.

10/5/1987, Sunday (+15,342) In elections in Malta, the Nationalist Party defeated the ruling Labour Party.

9/5/1987, Saturday (+15,341) Abufemi Awolowo, Nigerian politician, died.

8/5/1987, Friday (+15,340) Nine IRA gunmen were killed in a battle with police and soldiers in County Armagh, in an attack on a RUC post at Loughgall.

3/5/1987, Sunday (+15,335)

1/5/1987, Friday (+15,333) Electrification of the Kings Cross (London) line reached as far north as Peterborough.

=====================================================================================

30/4/1987, Thursday (+15,332) In Britain, the Court of Appeal ruled that a man could not prevent a woman who was carrying his child from having an abortion.

25/4/1987, Saturday (+35,327) In Britain, an IRA car bomb killed Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and Lady Gibson.

20/4/1987, Monday (+15,322) In Algiers, the Palestinian National Council re-elected Arafat as leader, but with reduced power.

19/4/1987, Sunday (+15,321) Easter Sunday.

16/4/1987, Thursday (+15,318)

14/4/1987, Tuesday (+15,316) Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev out-manoeuvred the White House by proposing sweeping arms cuts, beyond those envisaged by US President Reagan.

13/4/1987, Monday (+15,315) Portugal and China agreed to the return of Macao to China in 1999.

12/4/1987, Sunday (+15,314) Elections in Fiji won by an Indian-dominated coalition.

11/4/1987, Saturday (+15,313) Primo Levi, Italian Jewish writer, died aged 67.

10/4/1987, Friday (+15,312) Shay Mitchell, Canadian actress, was born.

9/4/1987, Thursday (+15,311) The UK government launched an inquiry into the Al Fayed takeover of Harrods.

8/4/1987, Wednesday (+15,310) Francis C Denebrink, US naval officer, died aged 90

7/4/1987, Tuesday (+15,309) The Herald of Free Enterprise was righted (capsized 6/3/1987). On 8/4/1987 104 more bodies were found inside the ship.

5/4/1987, Sunday (+15,307)

3/4/1987, Friday (+15,305) Myra Hindley confessed to two more murders, in an attempt to prove her rehabilitation.

2/4/1987, Thursday, (+15,304) Buddy Rich, US jazz musician, died aged 69 (born 1917).

1/4/1987, Wednesday (+15,303) Japan privatised its railways, to seven companies.

====================================================================================

31/3/1987, Tuesday (+15,302) In the �Baby M� case, the US Supreme Court denied parental rights to surrogate mothers.

30/3/1987, Monday (+15,301) �Sunflowers�, the painting by Vincent Van Gogh, was sold for �24,750,000 at Christie�s auction, London.

24/3/1987, Tuesday (+15,295)

20/3/1987, Friday (+15,291) The drug AZT was launched to combat AIDS.

19/3/1987, Thursday (+15,290) Three men were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of PC Blakelock on Broadwater Farm Estate, Tottenham, north London.

14/3/1987, Saturday (+15,285)

10/3/1987, Tuesday (+15,281) (1) The Roman Catholic Church banned contraception by artificial means.

(2) The Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey was re-elected for a third term.

9/3/1987, Monday (+15,280) (Road traffic) The Chrysler Motor Corporation announced its purchase of the ailing American Motors Corporation.

8/3/1987, Sunday (+15,279) Milana Vayntrub, TV actress, was born.

7/3/1987, Saturday (+15,278) Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar became the first cricketer to score 10,000 runs in Test Cricket.

6/3/1987, Friday (+15,277) The ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized, after leaving Zeebrugge with her bow doors open. 193 people died, out of 650 on board. The bow doors of the 7,951 ton roll-on-roll-off vessel had been left open as she left Zeebrugge, and water had entered the car deck and destabilised her. She did not sink completely because of a shallow sandbank beneath. Sea temperature was just 3 C, which would kill a person in 15 minutes.

1/3/1987, Sunday (+15,272)

====================================================================================

23/2/1987, Monday (+15,266) (Space exploration) A tank full of 7,000 tons of ultrapure water detected a flash of neutrinos at the same time as a supernova was seen, proving the theory that supernovae collapsed into neutron stars.

22/2/1987, Sunday (+15,265) Andy Warhol, American pop artist famous for his pictures of soup cans, died. He was born on 6/8/1926 to Czechoslovak immigrants in Pittsburgh.

19/2/1987, Thursday (+15,262) The US lifted sanctions on Poland.

17/2/1987, Tuesday (+15,260) In Ireland, elections returned Fianna Fail as the largest Party.

16/2/1987, Monday (+15,259) John Demanjuk, also known as Ivan the Terrible, a former car worker who had lived in the US for 40 years, went on trial in Israel accused of murdering hundreds of Jews at Treblinka� He was the second war criminal to be tried in Israel after Adolph Eichmann.

15/2/1987, Sunday (+15,258) The World Health Organisation announced that a total of 38,401 AIDS cases had been reported in 85 countries. The AIDS virus had been discovered in the USA on 23/4/1984.

14/2/1987, Saturday (+15,257) Bola Sete, guitarist, died aged 63.

13/2/1987, Friday (+15,256) London�s property boom resulted in the sale of a 5 foot 6 inch by 11-foot broom cupboard being put on the market for �36,000.

12/2/1987, Thursday (+15,255) Lang Jefferies, Canadian actor, died aged 55.

11/2/1987, Wednesday (+15,254) (1) The US tested an atom bomb in Nevada.

(2) British Airways was privatised and floated on the London Stock Exchange.

10/2/1987, Tuesday (+15,253) In the USSR, 140 political dissidents were released.

8/2/1987, Sunday (+15,251)

5/2/1987, Thursday (+15,248) (1) (Space) Japan launched the Astro-C satellite to observe neutron stars and Black Holes, using X rays and gamma rays.

(2) SOGAT called off its picket of Rupert Murdoch�s Wapping plant.

4/2/1987, Wednesday (+15,247) Death of US pianist Liberace, unofficially of AIDS. The official cause of death was a brain tumour.

===================================================================================

29/1/1987, Thursday (+15,241) President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines put down a second attempted coup against her two-year-old administration. Rebels supporting ex-dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda abandoned the TV station in Manila they had occupied on 27/1/1987. Loyalist troops had thwarted the rebels by cutting power to the TV station.

27/1/1987, Tuesday (+15,239) In the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev proposed reforms including secret ballots for electing party officials.

24/1/1987, Saturday (+15,236) 162 police and 33 demonstrators were injured in clashes outside Rupert Murdoch�s News International plant in Wapping, east London.

21/1/1987, Wednesday (+15,233) In Austria, a coalition government under Dr Franz Ranitzky took office.

20/1/1987, Tuesday (+15,232) Terry Waite, envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was taken hostage in Lebanon. He was not released until 18/11/1991. His captors knew he was linked to the Irangate scandal and believed he was a CIA spy. In fact he had been sent by the Archbishop of Canterbury to negotiate the release of other hostages in Lebanon.

16/1/1987, Friday (+15,228) The first US commercial for condoms was aired, shown on KRON in San Francisco.

5/1/1987, Monday (+15,217) Genetic fingerprinting was first used to catch a murderer, Colin Pitchfork. Police asked all men in Narborough, Leicestershire, to take DNA tests after two 15 year old girls were killed.

2/1/1987, Friday (+15,214) The traditional golliwogs in Enid Blyton�s Noddy books were replaced by neutral gnomes to remove any taint of racism.

1/1/1987, Thursday (+15,213) The town of Frobisher Bay in Canada�s Northwest territories changed its name to Iqaluit. In 1999 it would become capital of Nunavut.

=====================================================================================

31/12/1986, Wednesday (+15,212) Esso announced that it was disinvesting in South Africa.

30/12/1986, Tuesday (+15,211) The use of canaries in UK coal mines was discontinued.

29/12/1986, Monday (+15,210) Harold Macmillan, Lord Stockton, former Conservative Prime Minister 1957-1963, died, aged 92.

23/12/1986, Tuesday (+15,204) The aircraft Voyager landed in California, to become the first aircraft to fly round the world without refuelling.

17/12/1986, Wednesday (+15,198) Mrs Davina Thompson made medical history at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK, when she was given a new heart, lungs, and liver.

16/12/1986, Tuesday (+15,197) Bokassa was, to his surprise, deported from France to face trial in the Central African Republic.

====================================================================================

30/11/1986, Sunday (+15,181)

26/11/1986, Wednesday (+15,177) Malcolm Nokes, athlete (hammer throwing) died.

25/11/1986, Tuesday (+15,176) US Vice-Admiral Pointdexter and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North were dismissed from the Security Council after revelations that money from arms sales to Iran had been channelled to Nicaraguan Contra guerrillas. Weapons were covertly sold to Iran to secure the release of 7 US hostages held by pro-Hezbollah groups in Lebanon, and the profits from the sales diverted to back Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

21/11/1986, Friday (+15,172) The UK Government began an AIDS awareness advertising campaign focussed on safe sex.

10/11/1986, Monday (+15,161) President Ershad announced an end to martial law in Bangladesh.

9/11/1986, Sunday (+15,160) Israel announced that Mordechai Vanunu, 31, was in �lawful detention� in Haifa but denies he was kidnapped from Britain. On 5/10/1986 the Sunday Times had printed Vanunu�s revelations about Israel�s nuclear arsenal at Dimona, backed up with his photographs. He never collected his money, and was probably lured into a honeytrap by a female Mossad agent, then sent in diplomatic baggage to Jerusalem.

8/11/1986, Saturday (+15,159) Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician, died.

6/11/1986, Thursday (+15,157)

4/11/1986, Tuesday (+15,155) Democrats won control of the US Senate.

3/11/1986, Monday (+15,154) Joaquim Chissano was elected President of Mozambique.

2/11/1986, Sunday (+15,153) Britain�s first artificial heart transplant operation was performed at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge.

1/11/1986, Saturday (+15,152) (Environment) A spill of toxic chemicals turned the River Rhine red.

====================================================================================

31/10/1986, Friday (+15,151)

29/10/1986, Wednesday (+15,149) The final section of the M.25 London Orbital Motorway was opened.

28/10/1986, Tuesday (+15,148) King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dismissed Sheikh Yamani from his post at the Oil Ministry. King Fahd was dissatisfied with the low price Yamani had set for Saudi oil.

27/10/1986, Monday (+15,147) It was the �Big Bang� day on the London Stock Exchange, the day the money market was deregulated. But a computer failed and a shambles ensued.

26/10/1986, Sunday (+15,146) (1) Buses in all the UK, except Northern Ireland and London, were deregulated.

(2) Jeffery Archer resigned as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party after allegations that he had made a payment to a prostitute to leave the UK, to avoid a scandal.

20/10/1986, Monday (+15,140) Yitzhak Shamir succeeded Shimon Peres as Israeli Prime Minister.

13/10/1986, Monday (+15,133)

12/10/1986, Sunday (+15,132) Queen Elizabeth II visited China, the first British monarch to visit the country.

11/10/1986, Saturday (+15,131) Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik to discuss intermediate arms limitations. The talks ended in failure.

10/10/1986, Friday (+15,130) An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale hit San Salvador, killing some 1,500 people.

6/10/1986, Monday (+15,126) In Britain a new newspaper, The Independent, began publication.

2/10/1986, Thursday (+15,122) The US imposed sanctions on South Africa.

===================================================================================

22/9/1986, Monday (+15,112) At Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, a 2 � month old baby became the youngest heart and lung transplant patient.

21/9/1986, Sunday (+15,111) (1) The Stockholm Accord was signed, at a 35-nation conference. Advance warning of troop movements by NATO or the Warsaw pact was agreed.

(2) In the UK, Prince Charles stated on TV that he talked to his plants.

16/9/1986, Tuesday (+15,106) James Brough, rugby player, died (born 5/11/1903).

13/9/1986, Saturday (+15,103) The Mount Data Peace Accord was signed between the Government of the Philippines and the Cordillera People's Liberation Army ending the latter's campaign for greater autonomy for the Cordillera region.

8/9/1986, Monday (+15,098) In Sunderland, the Japanese car maker Nissan opened a factory.

7/9/1986, Sunday (+15,097) Bishop Desmond Tutu was appointed Archbishop of Cape Town, the first Black head of the South African Anglicans.

6/9/1986, Saturday (+15,096) Arab terrorists killed 21 at an Istanbul synagogue.

===================================================================================

31/8/1986, Sunday (+15,090) UK sculptor Henry Moore, born 1898, died aged 88.

24/8/1986, Sunday (+15,083) Wallis Simpson died.

23/8/1986, Saturday (+15,082) Riots continued in Soweto, South Africa, with 13 dead and over 70 injured.

21/8/1986, Thursday (+15,080) Volcanic activity around Lake Nyos, Africa, caused nearly 2,000 people to die from CO₂ poisoning.

17/8/1986, Sunday (+15,076) Boeing celebrated the roll-out of its 5,000^th airliner.

16/8/1986, Saturday (+15,075) Ryan Price, champion jockey, died.

14/8/1986, Thursday (+15,073) In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was jailed by General Zia.

6/8/1986, Wednesday (+15,065) A storm dumped a record 328 mm or rain in one day on Sydney, Australia.

=====================================================================================

24/7/1986, Thursday (+15,052) MPs in the UK voted to abolish the cane in state schools.

23/7/1986, Wednesday (+15,051) Prince Andrew married Miss Sarah Ferguson in Westminster Abbey, and was created Duke of York.

22/7/1986, Tuesday (+15,050)

18/7/1986, Friday (+15,046) Stanley Rous, footballer, died (born 25/4/1895).

12/7/1986, Saturday (+15,040) In Northern Ireland, over 100 were injured in Orange Day clashes between Catholics and Protestants.

1/7/1986, Tuesday (+15,029) Average wages in the UK were �9,625 per year. GPs got �18,772, 195% of average. Teachers got �11,128, 116% of average. Train drivers got �10,608, 110% of average. Factory workers got �7,436, 77% of average. The average UK house price was �37,627.

====================================================================================

30/6/1986, Monday (+15,028) Broad Street Station, London, closed to make way for the new Broadgate Development.

29/6/1986, Sunday (+15,027)

27/6/1986, Friday (+15,025) (Railways) The Eisenertz to Vordenberg railway closed. It was built to carry iron ore from Eisenertz, but foreign ore undercut the mine here.

26/6/1986, Thursday (+15,024) In Dublin, a referendum to amend the Irish Constitution and allow divorce in limited circumstances was overwhelmingly defeated. Some women had voted against, as the benefits a divorcee would be entitled to were uncertain.

20/6/1986, Friday (+15,018) Movement of sheep in Cumbria was banned because of radiation residues from Chernobyl.

13/6/1986, Friday (+15,011) Benny Goodman, US jazz musician, died.

10/6/1986, Tuesday (+15,008) Queen Elizabeth II made Bob Geldof a knight, for his fundraising activities.

9/6/1986, Monday (+15,007) Humphrey Hicks, croquet champion, died (born 20/5/1904).

8/6/1986, Sunday (+15,006) Kurt Waldheim was elected president of Austria, amid controversy over his alleged collaboration with the Nazis in World War Two.� He was inaugurated on 8/7/1986.

3/6/1986, Tuesday (+15,001) Italy released some 8,000 prisoners, including suspected terrorists, to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the republic.

====================================================================================

27/6/1986, Tuesday (+14,994) In a referendum, 63% of Irish voters rejected a proposal to amend the Constitution so as to permit divorce. See 27/2/1997.

26/5/1986, Monday (+14,993) The EU adopted a starred flag.

25/5/1986, Sunday (+14,992) Bob Geldof�s Race Against Time had 30 million people worldwide running for Sport Aid to raise money for the starving in Africa.

18/5/1986, Sunday (+14,985) Sri Lankan forces attempted to gain control over the Jaffna Peninsula in the north, held by Tamil rebels.

16/5/1986, Friday (+14,983) Ex-President Galtieri of Argentina was jailed for negligence during the Falklands War.

9/5/1986, Friday (+14,976) Tenzing Norgay, or Tensing, the first joint conqueror of Everest, died.

4/5/1986, Sunday (+14,971) Babrak Karmal resigned as General Secretary of of the People�s Democratic (Communist) Party of Afghanistan. He was succeeded by Najibullah, former head of the secret police.

3/5/1986, Saturday (+14,970) Violent protests at Wapping between pickets and police.

2/5/1986, Friday (+14,969)

1/5/1986, Thursday (+14,968) 1.5 million Black workers went on strike in South Africa

====================================================================================

30/4/1986, Wednesday (+14,967) After unusually high radiation levels were detected in Scandinavia, the USSR acknowledged that an accident had taken place at Chernobyl.

26/4/1986, Saturday (+14,963) The nuclear power station at Chernobyl, near Kiev, suffered a major fire, explosion, and radiation leak. 31 were killed directly, but many thousands more were exposed to radiation. Unseasonably warm weather on 25/4/1986 led to number 4 reactor being shut down; with coolant systems down, an engineer ordered more power to test a turbine; this caused the no.4 reactor to explode.

24/4/1986, Thursday (+14,961) Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, for whom a British King abdicated, died in Paris aged 89.

23/4/1986, Wednesday (+14,960) (1) The UK Government dissolved the Northern Ireland Assembly. After four years of operation, it had become a platform for Unionist attacks on the Anglo-Irish Agreement, signed in 1985.

(2) President P W Botha of South Africa announced there would be no more arrests under the hated �pass laws� whereby Black people had to carry their passes at all times.

17/4/1986, Thursday (+14,954) In Libya, three British hostages were murdered in revenge for British participation in US air raids on Libya.

15/4/1986, Tuesday (+14,952) The USA launched air strikes against Libya, in retaliation for Libya�s alleged support of terrorism, and a bombing in a Berlin nightclub. Libya had also fired two missiles at the US radar base on Lampedusa; both missed. Benghazi and Tripoli were bombed, killing at least 100 people, including Gaddaffi�s 15-month-old adopted daughter, Hanna. The departure of the US planes from British airfields caused widespread protests in the UK. On 17/4/1986 two British hostages in Lebanon were killed in retaliation for the US raids.

14/4/1986, Monday (+14,951) 2.2 lb (1 kg) hailstones fell in Golalganj district, Bangladesh, killing 92 people.

13/4/1986, Sunday (+14,950) Pope John Paul II visited a synagogue in Rome, the first time a modern Pope had visited a synagogue.

12/4/1986, Saturday (+14,949) (Aviation) Heathrow Airport, London, opened its fourth terminal.

8/4/1986, Tuesday (+14,945) Clint Eastwood was elected Mayor of his native city, Carmel, California.

====================================================================================

31/3/1986, Monday (+14,937) (1) The Greater London Council was abolished, along with other Metropolitan Councils in large UK cities; municipal responsibilities passed to the individual Boroughs. Mrs Thatcher saw the GLC, led by Ken Livingstone, as too Left wing. Mrs Thatcher especially objected to the GLC�s Fares Fare policy, involving subsidy of transport fares.

(2) Fire badly damaged Hampton Court Palace, London.

30/3/1986, Sunday (+14,936) Easter Sunday. James Cagney, US actor, died.

29/3/1986, Saturday (+14,935) The first test-tube quintuplets were born, in London.

21/3/1986, Friday (+14,927)

20/3/1986, Thursday (+14,926) In France, Jacques Chirac, Gaullist, was appointed Prime Minister.

19/3/1986, Wednesday (+14,925) The engagement between Prince Andrew and Miss Sarah Ferguson was announced.

18/3/1986, Tuesday (+14,924) UK Income Tax was reduced to 29%.

17/3/1986, Monday (+14,923) The US$ reached its lowest post war rate against the Japanese Yen.

16/3/1986, Sunday (+14.922) In French elections, the opposition won a narrow majority ending five years of Socialist rule.

13/3/1986, Thursday (+14,919) (Space exploration) The Russian spacecraft Soyuz T15 made the first ferry between space stations.

7/3/1986, Friday (+14,913) South Africa lifted the State of Emergency imposed in July 1985.

6/3/1986, Thursday (+14,912) Georgia O�Keefe, artist, died in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

5/3/1986, Wednesday (-14,911) Andrew Jenks, US filmmaker, was born.

4/3/1986, Tuesday (+14,910) The first issue of the newspaper �Today� appeared; it was published by Eddie Shah.

3/3/1986, Monday (+14,909) Jed Collins, US football player, was born.

2/3/1986, Sunday (+14,908) The Queen signed a formal proclamation giving Australia legal independence from Britain. Britain first shipped convicts to Australia in 1788; Australia had been self-governing since 1901.

1/3/1986, Saturday (+14,907) Ely Cathedral became the first cathedral in Britain to levy an admission charge.

======================================================================================

28/2/1986, Friday (+14,906) The Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, was assassinated, and his wife Lisbeth wounded, in an ambush in central Stockholm.

27/2/1986, Thursday (+14,905) The United States Senate allowed its debates to be televised on a trial basis.

26/2/1986, Wednesday (+14,904) The European Court ruled that the retirement age for men and women should be the same. The British Government did nothing to equalise retirement ages or pension rights.

25/2/1986, Tuesday (+14,903) (1) Right-wing President Marcos, who had ruled since 1965, was forced to flee the Philippines, after defeat by Corazon Aquino (born 1933). Mrs Aquino�s husband had been shot by Marcos� troops in 1983. President Marcos fled to the roof of the palace and were whisked away by US helicopters.

(2) President Gorbachev of the USSR first used the term �Perestroika� (restructuring) in a speech to the 27^th Congress of the Communist Party.

23/2/1986, Sunday (+14,901)

22/6/1986, Saturday (+14,900) In the Philippines, Defence Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Deputy Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos took over the HQ of the Philippines Defence Ministry and declared opposition to President Marcos and support for Corazon Aquino.

21/2/1986, Friday (+14,899) Shigechiyo Izumi, the world�s oldest man, died in Japan aged 120.

20/2/1986, Thursday (+14,898) Francisco Paolo Mignone, composer, died aged 88.

19/2/1986, Wednesday (+14,897) The USSR launched the Mir space station.

18/2/1986, Tuesday (+14,896)

16/2/1986, Sunday (+14,894) Clashes between police and 5,000 pickets at Rupert Murdoch�s Wapping newspaper plant. Murdoch had moved production of The Sunday Times and News of the World to Wapping to outflank striking print workers; the papers were being produced by managers and journalists.

15/2/1986, Saturday (+14,893) In the Philippines, President Marcos declared himself the victor in elections. Opposition members walked out in protest.

14/2/1986, Friday (+14,892)

12/2/1986, Wednesday (+14,890) The Channel Tunnel agreement was signed in Canterbury. Britain and France had agreed to build the Tunnel on 24/1/1986.

11/2/1986, Tuesday (+14,889) As Gorbachev continued to liberalise the USSR, political prisoners including Anatoly Scharansky and Yuri Orlov were released and allowed to leave the country.

7/2/1986, Friday (+14,885) Baby Doc Duvalier was ousted from government in Haiti, ending 28 years of one-family rule there. He fled to exile in France, taking perhaps US$ 100 million with him. In Port-au-Prince, members of Duvalier�s secret police, the Tonton Macoutes, were lynched by an angry mob.

2/2/1986, Sunday (+14,880) Women voted for the first time in Liechtenstein.

=====================================================================================

28/1/1986, Tuesday (+14,875) The US space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after take-off on its 10^th flight, killing 7 astronauts. 90 seconds after blast off from Cape Canaveral, and nine miles up. An �O� ring failed due to the extreme and unseasonal cold; ice had to be chipped from the shuttle before take-off. The fuel tanks containing liquid hydrogen and oxygen ignited. Rescue ships reached the crash site a few miles offshore but were held up for an hour due to the rain of burning debris. There were five men and two woman on board, including a schoolteacher, Mrs Christa McAutcliffe. It was President Reagan�s idea to send a schoolteacher into space, and she won the competition from over 11,000 applicants. Her husband and two children were amongst the thousands of spectators. The space shuttle fleet was grounded for three years, and this disaster was a factor in the termination of the shuttle programme in 2011.

24/1/1986, Friday (+14,871) US spacecraft Voyager 2 passed within 51,000 miles of the cloud tops of Uranus. The space probe detected an ocean of water some 6,000 miles deep.

23/1/1986, Thursday (+14,870) Joseph Beuys, German performance artist, died aged 64.

22/1/1986, Wednesday (+14,869) In India, three Sikhs were sentenced to death for the murder of Indira Gandhi.

21/1/1986, Tuesday (+14,868)

20/1/1986, Monday (+14,867) Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel, after an historic agreement in Lille. The expected cost was �5 billion. Trains were expected to run by April 1993. A Channel Bridge was rejected as too hazardous, but it was hoped to add a road tunnel early in the 21^st century.

19/1/1986, Sunday (+14,866) The first computer virus, called Brain, began to spread.

15/1/1986, Wednesday (+14,862) Soviet President Gorbachev spoke of the continuing occupation of Afghanistan as a �bleeding wound�.

9/1/1986, Thursday (+14,856) Michael Heseltine resigned from Mrs Thatcher�s Cabinet, claiming she was stifling debate.

8/1/1986, Wednesday (+14,855) President Reagan froze Libyan assets in the US. Mrs Thatcher refused to join the US in this action.

1/1/1986, Wednesday (+14,848) (1) (European Union) Spain and Portugal became the 11^th and 12^th members of the EC.

(2) (Whaling) The International Whaling Commission (IWC) placed a moratorium on commercial whaling. However some nations, including Norway, Iceland and Japan, continued to hunt whales under the guise of �scintific research� which was permitted by the IWC. However the ban had had a beneficial effect. In 1900, before commercial whaling took off, there were 200,000 blue whales worldwide. They were hunted for their ,massive oil content; 30,000 were killed in 1931 alone. Their population plummeted to just 1,500 in the 1960s. Since the IWC ban, they have recovered to a population of around 4,500 in 2005.

====================================================================================

30/12/1985, Monday (+14,846) In Pakistan, General Zia ended martial law.

29/12/1985, Sunday (+14,845) Dian Fossey, US zoologist and conservationist, died.

28/12/1985, Saturday (+14,844) Fernand Braudel, French historian, died aged 83.

27/12/1985, Friday (+14,843) At Rome and Vienna airports, Abu Nidal terrorists opened fire, killing 18 and injuring 120.

26/12/1985, Thursday (+14,842) Harold P Warren, US film director, died (born 1928).

25/12/1985, Wednesday (+14,841) Comic Relief, a global poverty relief charity, was founded.

23/12/1985, Monday (+14,839)

===================================================================================

21/11/1985, Thursday (+14,807) Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev ended their meeting with an agreement to reduce their nuclear arsenals by a mutual 50%.

20/11/1985, Wednesday (+14,806) Microsoft released its first version of Windows, Windows 1.0.

19/11/1985, Tuesday (+14,805) Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, the first such meeting for 6 years.

17/11/1985, Sunday (+14,803)

16/12/1985, Saturday (+14,802) 8,000 Americans had now died of AIDS.

15/11/1985, Friday (+14,801) The Anglo-Irish agreement was signed in Belfast by Mrs Thatcher and Dr Fitzgerald.

14/11/1985, Thursday (+14,800) Holmfriour Karlsdottir of Iceland, 22, was crowned the 35th Miss World.

13/11/1985, Wednesday (+14,799) Nevado del Ruiz, a volcano in Colombia, dormant since 1845, erupted, sending mudflows down into the town of Armero, killing almost all the population of 25,000.

9/11/1985, Saturday (+14,795) John Conroy, hockey player, died (born 27/11/1928).

3/11/1985, Sunday (+14,789) In New Zealand, two French agents pleaded guilty to the sinking of the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, and the manslaughter of the photographer on board.

2/11/1985, Saturday (+14,788) The South African Government imposed emergency restrictions on the reporting of unrest.

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30/10/1985, Wednesday (+14,785)

27/10/1985, Sunday (+14,782) Julius Nyerere retired as President of Tanzania after 24 years. He was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi.

26/10/1985, Saturday (+14,781)The Australian Government gave the Aborigines the landmark of Ayers Rock, now known by its Aboriginal name, Uluru.

24/10/1985, Thursday (+14,779) Wayne Rooney, English footballer, was born.

22/10/1985, Tuesday (+14,777)

20/10/1985, Sunday (+14,776) Harry Wragg, champion jockey, died.

19/10/1985, Saturday (+14,774) Coal miners in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire set up the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM).

18/10/1985, Friday (+14,773) Bryn Jones, footballer, died.

17/10/1985, Thursday (+14,772) In Britain, the House of Lords voted to allow doctors to prescribe contraceptives to girls aged under 16 without parental consent, despite a campaign against this by Catholic mother Mrs Victoria Gillick.

16/10/1985, Wednesday (+14,771) Claude Stroud, actor, died.

15/10/1985, Tuesday (+14,770) Sir Clive Sinclair, maker of the C5 electric tricycle, called in the receivers.

10/10/1985, Thursday (+14,765) Orson Welles, US actor, died aged 70.

7/10/1985, Monday (+14,762) (1) Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean, killing a US passenger. The terrorists surrendered two days later.

(2) Riots erupted in Broadwater Farm Estate, Tottenham, London, after a Black woman, Cynthia Jarrett, collapsed and died whilst police searched her home. Within hours, police were lured to the estate by fake 999 calls and then came under attack from bricks, stones, petrol bombs, and were even shot at. From 6.30 pm until well after midnight both Black and White youths fought 500 police in riot gear. PC Blakelock, 40, was hacked to death.

2/10/1985, Wednesday (+14,757) Hollywood actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS, aged 59.

1/10/1985, Tuesday (+14,756) (1) Rioting in Toxteth, Liverpool.

(2) The Israeli Air Force bombed the PLO HQ in Tunis.

=====================================================================================

30/9/1985, Monday (+14,755) Charles Richter, the US seismologist who devised the Richter Scale, died.

29/9/1985, Sunday (+14,754) 209 people have been arrested in rioting in Brixton.

28/9/1985, Saturday (+14,753) Riots erupted in Brixton after a Black woman, Cherry Groce, was shot during a police raid.

26/9/1985, Thursday (+14,751) The British Government announced �1 million funding to stop the spread of AIDS.

22/9/1985, Sunday (+14,747) French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius admitted that French agents had sunk the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand, on 10/7/1985. The French Defence Minister was forced to resign.

19/9/1985, Thursday (+14,744) (Earthquake, Mexico) Major earthquake in Mexico resulted in 4,700 dead and 30,000 injured.� The quake measured 8.1 on the Richter Scale, killing 9,000 people and injuring a further 30,000. 95,000 were made homeless. A second quake the following day hampered rescue operations.

17/9/1985, Tuesday (+14,742) Fashion designer Laura Ashley died after falling downstairs at her home.

16/9/1985, Monday (+14,741) In China, 10 Politburo members and 64 members of the Central Committee resigned to make way for younger replacements.

13/9/1985, Friday (+14,738)

11/9/1985, Wednesday (+14,736) Jock Stein, footballer, died (born 5/10/1923).

10/9/1985, Tuesday (+14,735) John Stein, footballer, died.

9/9/1985, Monday (+14,734) Race riots erupted in Handsworth, Birmingham.

4/9/1985, Wednesday (+14,729) The wreck of The Titanic was photographed by a remote-controlled submarine on the seabed off Newfoundland.

2/9/1985, Monday (+14.727) In Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot retired.

1/9/1985, Sunday (+14,726) A joint US-French expedition found the wreck of the Titanic off Newfoundland.

====================================================================================

27/8/1985, Tuesday (+14,721) President Buhari of Nigeria was overthrown in a coup, and replaced by Major General Babangida.

23/8/1985, Friday (+14,717) (Germany) Hans Tiedge, Head of West German counter-intelligence, was discovered to be an East German agent.

22/8/1985, Thursday (+14,716) 34 died at Manchester Airport when a Boeing 737 burst into flames on the runway.

17/8/1985, Saturday (+14,711) Iraqi jet fighters carrying French Exocet missiles bombed the main Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island.

12/8/1985, Monday (+14,706) In Japan� a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people.

7/8/1985, Wednesday (+14,701) BBC journalists went on strike after the UK Government intervened to cancel on episode of Real Lives which featured an interview with Martin McGuiness of Sinn� Fein.

6/8/1985, Tuesday (+14,700) In Hiroshima, tens of thousands marked the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the city.

====================================================================================

27/7/1985, Saturday (+14,690) Ugandan President Milton Obote, who regained power in 1980 after being deposed by Idi Amin in 1971, was overthrown in a military coup. He was replaced by General Tito Okello.

25/7/1985, Thursday (+14,688) Film star Rock Hudson was admitted to hospital suffering from AIDS.

24/7/1985, Wednesday (+14,687) (Arts) Alice DG Miller, US screenwriter, died (born 28/6/1894).

23/7/1985, Tuesday (+14,686) John Wardle, cricketer, died (born 8/1/1923).

21/7/1985, Sunday (+14,684)

20/7/1985, Saturday (+14,683) State of emergency imposed in 36 areas of South Africa.

19/7/1985, Friday (+14,682) In Italy, 261 died when a dam burst, flooding the tourist resort of Tesero.

13/7/1985, Saturday (+14,676) Live Aid pop concerts in Britain and America raised over �50 million for famine victims in Africa. Bob Geldof performed at Wembley.

10/7/1985, Wednesday (+14,673) The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was blown up in Auckland harbour, New Zealand. Limpet mines had been attached to the ship, killing one crewmember. French security forces were implicated. The Rainbow Warrior was to have taken part in a protest against French nuclear tests at Mururoa atoll in the south Pacific.

8/7/1985, Monday (+14,671) The UK lifted its ban on trading with Argentina.

2/7/1985, Tuesday (+14,665) The General Synod of the Church of England approved the ordination of women, despite strong opposition within the Church.

1/7/1985, Monday (+14,664) The average UK house price was �34,378.

====================================================================================

30/6/1985, Sunday (+14,663) The US hostages from a TWA jet hijacked by two Shi�ite gunmen on 24/6/1985 and diverted to Beirut, were released, following Syrian intervention.

27/6/1985, Thursday (+14,660)

24/6/1985, Monday (+14,657) Keith Hardcastle, Britain�s longest surviving heart transplant patient, died 6 years after his operation.

23/6/1985, Sunday (+14,656) An Air India jet broke up in mid air off Ireland, killing all 239 on board.

22/6/1985, Saturday (+14,655) Patricia Ward, tennis player, died (born 27/2/1929).

15/6/1985, Saturday (+14,648) Percy Fender, cricketer, died (born 22/8/1892).

6/6/1985, Thursday (+14,639) A skeleton, conformed on 21/6/1985 as that of Nazi Josef Mengele, was unearthed in Argentina,

5/6/1985, Wednesday (+14,638) The UK Government approved Stanstead as London�s third airport site.

4/6/1985, Tuesday (+14,637)

3/6/1985, Monday (+14,636) In Italy, compulsory Roman Catholic instruction in schools ended and Catholicism was no longer the state religion.

2/6/1985, Sunday (+14,635) President Jayewardene of Sri Lanka discussed the ethnic violence in his country with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

1/6/1985, Saturday (+14,634) A TWA airliner flying from Athens to Rome was hijacked by Islamist terrorists and forced to fly to Beirut, where the hostages were held for 17 days.

====================================================================================

31/5/1985, Friday (+14,633) 500,000 tons of food had been delivered to alleviate a severe famine in Ethiopia, as millions starved.

30/5/1985. Thursday (+14,632) The death of Roy Plomley, who created the long running radio series Desert Island Discs in 1941.

29/5/1985, Wednesday (+14,631) Europe�s worst football riot saw 41 Italian and Belgian football fans dead at the Liverpool versus Juventus match at the Heysel stadium, Belgium. Spectators were crushed when a wall collapsed under the weight of fans trying to escape rampaging British supporters. On 2/6/1985 FIFA imposed a worldwide ban on British football fans.

28/5/1985, Tuesday (+14,630)

25/5/1985, Saturday (+14,627) A cyclone and tidal wave killed over 20,000 people in Bangladesh.

20/5/1985, Monday (+14,622) Israel freed 1,150 Palestinians in exchange for three Israelis.

19/5/1985, Sunday (+14,621) Shi�ite Muslim militia attempted to drive out the Palestinians from the Lebanese refugee camps of Sabra, Shatila and Bourj-el-Barajneh, near Beirut.

14/5/1985, Tuesday (+14,616) Tamil violence spread across Sri Lanka.

12/5/1985, Sunday (+14,614) Prince Andrew opened the new Falkland Islands Airport, which had cost the UK �276 million.

11/5/1985, Saturday (+14,613) Fire broke out in the main stand of Bradford City football ground, killing 56 spectators and injuring over 170.� A cigarette or match ignited accumulated rubbish under the stands.

10/5/1985, Friday (+14,612) The World Health Organisation announced that AIDS cases were doubling every year in the USA and Europe. Worldwide, 11,000 AIDS cases had been reported since the virus was discovered on 23/4/1984.

5/5/1985, Sunday (+14,607)

1/5/1985, Wednesday (+14,603) May Day celebrations in Gdansk, Poland. 10,000 Solidarity supporters clashed with police.

====================================================================================

30/4/1985, Tuesday (+14,602) Britain�s first Black bishop, Wilfrid Wood, was appointed.

25/4/1985, Thursday (+14,597)

23/4/1985, Tuesday (+14,595) New Coke was introduced by the Coca Cola company, and production of the original Coke was halted.� A few months later in July 1985 the company had to admit the new product was a flop and reverted to the original soft drink.

22/4/1985, Monday (+14,594) In Argentina, the trial began of nine former military leaders, including Galtieri.

15/4/1985, Monday (+14,587) South Africa abolished racial sex laws. Interracial marriages were now legal.

13/4/1985, Saturday (+14,585) Oscar Nemon, Croatian sculptor, died aged 79.

11/4/1985, Thursday (+14,583) (1) An 18-month old boy became the first British baby to die of AIDS.

(2) In Albania, Communist leader Enver Hoxha died, aged 78,after 41 years in power. He was succeeded as Head of the Albanian Communist Party by Ramiz Alia.

8/4/1985, Monday (+14,580) Rupert Murdoch bought Twentieth Century Fox.

7/4/1985, Sunday (+14,579) Easter Sunday.

6/4/1985, Saturday (+14,578) Coup in Sudan, led by General Swar al Dahab.

3/4/1985, Wednesday (+14,575)

1/4/1985, Monday (+14,573) The UK Government imposed an alcohol ban on selected football grounds.

=====================================================================================

31/3/1985, Sunday (+14,572) In Britain, the National Coal Board announced a record loss of �2,225 million.

30/3/1985, Saturday (+14,571) Harold Peary, actor, died of a heart attack aged 76.

29/3/1985, Friday (+14,570) Luther Terry, US Surgeon-General whose report in 1964 concluded that smoking caused cancer, died.

28/3/1985, Thursday (-14,569) Marc Chagall, French painter (born 7/7/1887 to poor Jewish parents in Vitebsk, Russia), died in St Paul de Vence. He had moved to Berlin in 1922, and then to Paris in 1932. In 1941 he fled to the US to escape the advancing Nazis, returning to France after World War Two ended.

24/3/1985, Sunday (+14,565)

21/3/1985, Thursday (+14,562) In South Africa, 19 died when police opened fire on a crowd of Black people on the 25^th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre.

20/3/1985, Wednesday (+14,561) The Belgian Parliament approved the deployment of Cruise Missiles.

19/3/1985, Tuesday (+14,560)

18/3/1985, Monday (+14,559) (1) Both Iran and Iraq claimed victory in one of the biggest battles in the Gulf War, six days after an Iranian offensive began near Basra.

(2) Australian Seven Network TV launched a new soap, Neighbours.

17/3/1985, Sunday (+14,556) Expo '85, World's Fair, opened at Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. It ran until September 16.

16/3/1985, Saturday (+14,557) American journalist Terry Anderson was kidnapped in Lebanon, see 4/12/1991.

15/3/1985, Friday (+14,556) (1) Brazil returned to civilian rule under President Jose Sarney, after 21 years of military rule.

(2) In Britain, blood donors were now to be tested for AIDS.

(3) On the Internet, the first .com name was registered, symbolics.com, by the Symbolics Corporation. However .edu names still predominated.

14/3/1985, Thursday (+14,555) As the situation in Lebanon deteriorated, the USA evacuated its officials from the country.

12/3/1985, Tuesday (+14,553)

11/3/1985, Monday (+14,552) (1) In the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev (54 years old) succeeded Konstantin Chernenko, who died on 10/3/1985. See 13/2/1984.

(2) The Al-Fayed brothers won control of the House of Fraser Group to become owners of Harrods.

10/3/1985, Sunday (+14,551) Death of Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party since 1984.

7/3/1985, Thursday (+14,548) Dr Alec Jeffreys, at Leicester University, discovered a method of creating �genetic fingerprints� from DNA in blood, semen or saliva.

4/3/1985, Monday (+14,545) In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of leaded fuel for motor vehicles.

3/3/1985, Sunday (+14,544) End of the 12 month miner�s strike which began on 5/3/1984. 153 of Britain�s 174 coal mines went on strike; some mines in Nottinghamshire and Kent stayed working.. One of the most powerful images of this strike was the �Battle of Orgreave� � see 29/5/1984. The result was not only a defeat for the National Union of Miners but for the whole trades union movement under the Thatcher government; the miners had failed to secure any agreement on pit closures. A large number of miners deserted the NUM and set up the Democratic Union of Mineworkers, after being refused a strike ballot by the NUM leader Arthur Scargill. The strike was officially estimated, by the Coal Board, to have cost it �1.75 billion. However Mr Scargill put the real cost at over �5 billion, or enough to keep every pit open and to employ every miner in work for 32 years.

The strike was triggered by a National Coal Board plan to close 20 pits and shed 20,000 miner�s jobs, under the leadership of the American, Ian McGregor. The NCB made a 5.2% pay offer to the miners.

2/3/1985, Saturday (+14,543)

1/3/1985, Friday (+14,542) (1) Uruguay returned to civilian rule under President Sanguinetti after 12 years of military dictatorship under which inflation had risen to 66% and foreign debt rose to US$ 3 billion.

(2) The Pentagon officially accepted the theory that nuclear war would lead to a prolonged �nuclear winter�.

======================================================================================

28/2/1985, Thursday (+14,541) 9 RUC men were killed by an IRA attack on Newry police station.

25/2/1985, Monday (+14,538) 49% of UK miners have returned to work, 51% remain on strike.

22/5/1985, Friday (+14,535) The UK� reached an all-time low against the US$ of $1.0765.

20/2/1985, Wednesday (+14,533) The Irish Dail passed a Bill to allow shops to sell contraceptives.

19/2/1985, Tuesday (+14,532) The BBC began broadcasting Eastenders. 13 million people watched the first episode, in which the pensioner Reg Cox died in his Albert Square home.

16/2/1985, Saturday (+14,529) Israel began to withdraw from Lebanon.

11/2/1985, Monday (+14,524) The Pound fell below US$1.10.

5/2/1985, Tuesday (+14,518) Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer, was born.

====================================================================================

29/1/1985, Tuesday (+14,511) Oxford University refused to award Mrs Thatcher an honorary degree because of her policies on education.

28/1/1985, Monday (+14,510) The case against the civil servant Clive Ponting, charged with leaking information about the sinking of the Belgrano, opened.

25/1/1985, Friday (+14,507) In a case that divided American society, New York subway vigilante Bernard Goetze (born 7 November 1947) was told by a Grand Jury that he would not face charged of murder for shooting four Black youths at close range on 22 December 1984; he would be tried for illegal possession of handguns. Goetze served 8 months of a 1-year sentence on the handgun charge; one of his victims, rendered a quadriplegic by the shooting, was awarded US$ 43 million in a civil judgement against Goetze.

23/1/1985, Wednesday (+14,505) A House of Lords debate was televised live for the first time.

22/1/1985, Tuesday (+14,504) Arthur Bryant, English historian, died aged 85.

20/1/1985, Sunday (+14,502)

19/1/1985, Saturday (+14,501) Thomas Richards, athlete (marathon), died.

18/1/1985, Friday (+14,500) Protests continued at Greenham Common USAF base; a protester managed to enter the base.

17/1/1985, Thursday (+14,499) British Telecom announced it was to phase out the famous red telephone boxes.

16/1/1985, Wednesday (+14,498) Matt Holloway, New Zealand rugby player, was born.

13/1/1985, Sunday (+14,495|)

11/1/1985, Friday (+14,493) The Shkoder(Albania) - Podgorica freight line opened.

10/1/1985, Thursday (+14,492) (Tech) Clive Sinclair launched the C5, a battery-powered tricycle. Priced at �399, the C5 could be driven by 14 year olds without a licence, insurance or helmet, and was not subject to road tax. A factory that could produce 200,000 C5s a year was to open at Merthyr Tydfil in June 1985.

7/1/1985, Monday (+14,489)

4/1/1985, Friday (+14,486) Mrs Kim Cotton, believed to be the first commercial surrogate mother in Britain, gave birth to a girl.

3/1/1985, Thursday (+14,485) Ethiopian Jews settled in Israel.

2/1/1985, Wednesday (+14,484)

1/1/1985, Tuesday (+14,483) The first mobile phone call in the UK was made, by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.

===================================================================================

31/12/1984, Monday (+14,482) Rajiv Ghandi became Prime Minister of India. In the UK, the � p coin ceased to be legal tender. A useful emergency screwdriver disappeared from people�s pockets.

26/12/1984, Wednesday (+14,477) Terence Johnson, long distance walker, died.

23/12/1984, Sunday (+14,474) Terrorist bomb killed 29 on a train in Bologna, Italy.

22/12/1984, Saturday (+14,473) Dom Mintoff resigned as President of Malta.

19/12/1984, Wednesday (+14,470) (1) Rajiv Ghandhi won the Indian elections by a large majority.

(2) Ted Hughes was appointed Poet Laureate in succession to Sir John Betjeman.

(3) Mrs Thatcher signed an agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.

15/12/1984, Saturday (+14,466) (Space exploration) The USSR launched the Vega-1 space probe, which made a close approach to Halley�s Comet.

14/12/1984, Friday (+14,465) A group of rock stars led by Bob Geldof formed �Band Aid� to raise money for Ethiopian famine victims.

10/12/1984, Monday (+14,461) Bishop Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign against Apartheid.

3/12/1984, Monday (+14,454) The Union Carbide disaster at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh State, India. 410 died immediately as 30 tons of poison gas (methyl isocyanate) leaked; the final toll was 4,000 dead and 20,000 seriously injured; 150,000 required hospital treatment.

2/12/1984, Sunday (+14,453) The Thatcher government was accused of �gross incompetence� in Parliament as shares in the newly privatised British Telecom commanded an opening premium of nearly 90%. Films on included Ghostbusters and Gremlins.

1/12/1984, Saturday (+14,452) King Hussein of Jordan held talks with President Mubarak of Egypt on peace initiatives for the West Bank.

===================================================================================

30/11/1984, Friday (+14,451) Tamil Tigers began a purge of Sinhalese from north east Sri Lanka, killing 127 people.

28/11/1984, Wednesday (+14,449)

26/11/1984, Monday (+14,447) The US restored full diplomatic relations with Iraq (severed in 1967).

25/11/1984, Sunday (+14,446) Bob Geldof and other rock stars recorded �Do They Know It�s Christmas� for the Band Aid famine relief initiative in Ethiopia. All proceeds from sales of the songs would go towards famine relief.

22/11/1984, Thursday (+14,443) The Law Lords upheld the Government�s ban on Union membership at GCHQ Cheltenham.

20/11/1984, Tuesday (+14,441) The North Wales branch of the NUM voted to end the strike.

19/11/1984, Monday (+14,440) An explosion at the PEMEX chemical plant at Ecatepec, Mexico, killed 540.

10/11/1984, Saturday (+14,431)

8/11/1984, Thursday (+14,429) (Space exploration) The USA retrieved a satellite from space.

7/11/1984, Wednesday (+14,428) (1) (USA) President Reagan won the US elections, for a second term, with a landslide victory. His opponent Walter F Mondale lost in 49 states and only carried his home state, Minnesota, by 3,761 votes.

(2) (Railways) The Tynda to Urgal railway, Russia, opened.

6/11/1984, Tuesday (+14,427) (1) In Dublin, the High Court froze striking British coal mineworkers money after a court decision that the strike, now in its� 35^th week, was illegal and that the Union must pay a fine within 14 days or have its assets seized.

(2) Chile�s president Pinochet re-imposed a state of emergency.

5/11/1984, Monday (+14,426) Daniel Ortega was elected President of Nicaragua.

4/11/1984, Sunday (+14,425) British Air Force began food airlift to famine-struck province of Tigre, Ethiopia.

3/11/1984, Saturday (+14,424) Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi was cremated.

2/11/1984, Friday (+14,423) Velma Barfield became the first woman to be executed in the USA since 1962.

1/11/1984, Thursday (+14,422) Rajiv Ghandi, son of Indira, was sworn in as Indian Prime Minister.

====================================================================================

31/10/1984, Wednesday (+14,421) (1) ACAS talks between the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Coal Board broke down again.

(2) Mrs Indira Ghandi, Prime Minister of India, 67, was shot dead by a Sikh member of her bodyguard, whilst in New Delhi. Beant Singh, one of the attackers, was then shot dead by other loyal bodyguards. She was succeeded by her son, Rajiv Ghandi. Indira Ghandi was cremated on 3/11/1984. The assassination was in revenge for Indian troops storming the Golden Temple of Amritsar.

30/10/1984, Tuesday (+14,420) The body of pro-Solidarity priest Father Jerzy Popieluszko, 37, was found by police frogmen in a reservoir in Wloclawek Reservoir, northern Poland. He had been kidnapped 12 days earlier; hardline opponents of Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski were suspected.

25/10/1984, Thursday (+14,415) The hepatitis virus was identified.

23/10/1984, Tuesday (+14,413) The Police Federation in Britain said that from now all Police Forces in England and Wales should be equipped with plastic bullets. The end was announced for the old �H� shaped TV aerials, used for the old 405-line service. The 43 transmitters broadcasting on this frequency were to be closed to make way for the growing number of mobile and car phones.

21/10/1984, Tuesday (+14,406) Francois Truffaut, French film director, died aged 52.

14/10/1984, Sunday (+14,404) Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, died aged 66.

12/10/1984, Friday (+14,402) Five people died and more than 30 were injured when the IRA planted as bomb at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, where the Conservatives were holding their annual Party Conference. Mrs Thatcher herself had just left a bathroom that was destroyed, but escaped injury as she sat in the lounge of her suite writing a speech. She still gave the speech the following day. However 5 were killed and over 30 others injured, including Margaret Tebbit, wife of the Trade and Industry Secretary, who was paralysed from the neck down.

10/10/1984, Wednesday (+14,400) Arthur Scargill was fined �1,000, and the NUM �200,000, for contempt of court.

9/10/1984, Tuesday (+14,399) Jordan mended relations with Egypt when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited Amman. Egypt had been despised by the Arab world since the late President Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with |Israel at Camp David in 1979. Now King Hussein of Jordan met with Arab hostility for mending relation with Egypt, a move sparked by problems in the Jordanian economy arising from a downturn in trade resulting from the Iran-Iraq war.

======================================================================================

26/9/1984, Wednesday (+14,386) China and the UK signed an initial agreement to hand Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

21/9/1984, Friday (+14,381) Violence at Maltby Colliery, near Rotherham, as the miners strike went on.

20/9/1984, Thursday (+14,380) 40 died when a suicide bomber attacked the US Embassy in Beirut.

18/9/1984, Tuesday (+14,378)

17/9/1984, Monday (+14,377) France and Libya reached agreement on the withdrawal of both countries� troops from Chad by mid-November.

16/9/1984, Sunday (+14,376) Miami Vice was first broadcast on NBC TV.

15/9/1984, Saturday (+14,375) Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David) was born to Diana, Princess of Wales.

14/9/1984, Friday (+14,374) Shimon Peres became Prime Minister in Israel.

12/9/1984, Wednesday (+14,376) The British High Court granted an injunction against the Greenham Common peace camp.

9/9/1984, Sunday (+14,369) Ian MacGregor, Chairman of the National Coal Board, arrived in Edinburgh for talks with Arthur Scargill.

5/9/1984, Wednesday (+14,365) Western Australia became the last Australian State to abolish capital punishment.

4/9/1984, Tuesday (+14,364) A large car bomb killed 23 at the US Embassy in Beirut.

3/9/1984, Monday (+14,363) 14 died in rioting in Sharpeville and other Black townships around Johannesburg.

=================================================================================

28/8/1984, Tuesday (+14,357) The space shuttle Discovery made its maiden flight.

22/8/1984, Wednesday (+14,351) �Coloureds� were allowed to vote in South African elections.

21/8/1984, Tuesday (+14,350) Half a million people in Manila demonstrated against the rule of Ferdinand Marcos, on the first anniversary of the assassination of Benigno Aquino. Marcos had ruled since 1972.

18/8/1984, Saturday (+14,347) Clive Ponting, a civil servant, was charged with an offence under the Official Secrets Act, relating to information allegedly passed on to an MP about the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the General Belgrano during the Falklands War.

8/8/1984, Wednesday (+14,337) In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe announced plans for a one-Party State.

5/8/1984, Sunday (+14,334) Richard Burton, Welsh actor, died aged 58.

4/8/1984, Saturday (+14,333) Violent clashes between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka.

3/8/1984, Friday (+14,332) The Republic of Upper Volta changed its name to Burkina Faso.

1/8/1984, Wednesday (+14,330)

====================================================================================

29/7/1984, Sunday (+14,327) Svetlana Savitskaya, first woman to walk in space, returned to earth, from the Salyut-7 space station.

28/7/1984, Saturday (+14,326) The 23^rd Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles.

27/7/1984, Friday (+14,325)

26/7/1984, Thursday (+14,324) G H Gallup, US survey pioneer, died aged 82.

25/7/1984, Wednesday (+14,323) Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space.

23/7/1984, Monday (+14,321) An Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel halfway between Montreal and Edmonton. A mistake had been made in fuelling after a switch from gallons to litres. The pilot, a gliding enthusiast, succeeded in safely gliding the plane to a disused military base at Gimli; the plane was dubbed the Gimli Glider.

21/7/1984, Saturday (+14,319) (1) Poland granted amnesty to 652 political prisoners.

(2) The man who popularised jogging, James J Fixx, had a heart attack and died whilst out running in Vermont, aged 52.

19/7/1984, Thursday (+14,317) Jacques Delors was nominated as President of the European Commission from January 1985.

16/7/1984, Monday (+14,314) The High Court ruled that the Government�s ban on Trades Unions at GCHQ Cheltenham was legal. The Lords voted to abolish the Greater London Council (GLC) and other Metropolitan Authority elections.

14/7/1984, Saturday (+14,312) In New Zealand general elections, the Labour Party defeated the ruling National Party

12/7/1984, Thursday (+14,310) In the USA, G Ferraro became the first woman to run for Vice President.

10/7/1984, Tuesday (+14,308) National dock strike in Britain over use of unauthorised labour.

9/7/1984, Monday (+14,307) (1) A bolt of lightning set fire to the roof of York Minster. The 700 year old building suffered serious damage to the south transept.

(2) British Rail�s catering division, Travellers Fare, increased the price of a cup of tea from 20p to 22p, and coffee from 30p to 32p.

5/7/1984, Thursday (+14,303)

1/7/1984, Sunday (+14,299) (1)The average UK house price was �31,050.

(2) Argentina�s football star, Diego Maradonna, was signed by Naples for �1million.

====================================================================================

30/6/1984, Saturday (+14,298) Lillian Hellman, US screenwriter, died aged 77.

29/6/1984, Friday (+14,297) Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dismissed the Governor and the Police Chief of Punjab.

24/6/1984, Sunday (+14,292) David Milford, rackets champion, died.

22/6/1984, Friday (+14,290) The first Virgin Atlantic flight left Gatwick for New York. The single fare was �99.

6/6/1984, Wednesday (+14,274) Indian troops stormed the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar. 712 Sikhs and 90 soldiers were killed.

=====================================================================================

30/5/1984, Wednesday (+14,267) Prince Charles castigated modern architecture, in a speech to the Royal Institute of British Architects at Hampton Court, London.

29/5/1984, Tuesday (+14,266) The �Battle of Orgreave� occurred during the Miner�s Strike. 84 people were arrested and 69 injured (41 police, 28 miners) when 4,000 police held back 7,000 pickets who were trying to prevent coking coal being moved out of Orgreave to the British Steel works at Scunthorpe. Two convoys of 34 lorries raced through the picket lines with supplies for the blast furnaces. Mr Arthur Scargill, leader of the National Union of miners, was blamed for inflaming the situation. The miner�s strike was then 12 weeks old, having begun on 5/3/1984. It lasted until 3/3/1985.

28/5/1984, Monday (+14,265) Eric Morecambe, comedian on the Morecambe and Wise show, died in Cheltenham.

19/5/1984, Saturday (+14,256) Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate since 1972, died aged 78.

14/5/1984, Monday (+14,251) Australia introduced a one-dollar coin.

13/5/1984, Sunday (+14,250) A huge explosion at the Russian naval base of Severomorsk, on the Kola Peninsula. Fires burnt for 5 days afterwards. The Northern Fleet, some 150 ships, was effectively out of action for 6 months. The cause may have been inadequate radar shielding causing a detonation in the missile stores, where warheads, propellants and detonators were all stored in too-close proximity.

7/5/1984, Monday (+14,244) Moscow announced it would boycott the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, in revenge for the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

2/5/1984, Wednesday (+14,239) Queen Elizabeth II opened the Liverpool International Garden Festival..

1/5/1984, Tuesday (+14,238) Reagan concluded a visit to China.

===================================================================================

30/4/1984, Monday (+14,237)

27/4/1984, Friday (+14,234) The UK Government expelled 30 Libyan diplomats.

24/4/1984, Tuesday (+14,231)

23/4/1984, Monday (+14,230) The discovery of the AIDS virus was announced in the USA.

22/4/1984, Sunday (+14,229) Easter Sunday.

19/4/1984, Thursday (+14,226)

18/4/1984, Wednesday (+14,225) (Biology) Kenneth S Cole, US biophysicist, died.

17/4/1984, Tuesday (+14,224) In London, the Libyans opened fire from their People�s Bureau, killing 25 year-old policewoman, Yvonne Fletcher. A police siege of the Libyan Embassy began and on 22/4/1984 the UK Government broke off diplomatic relations with Libya. The siege ended on 27/4/1984 and 30 Libyans from the Bureau were deported. The British Ambassador and other diplomats returned from Tripoli.

16/4/1984, Monday (+14,223) Count Basie, US jazz pianist, died aged 79.

15/4/1984, Sunday (+14,222) Alexander Trocchi, Scottish writer, died aged 58.

13/4/1984, Friday (+14,220) India captured most of the Siachen glacier on its disputed Kashmir frontier with Pakistan.

12/4/1984, Thursday (+14,219) The Bill to privatise British Telecom was passed by the UK Parliament. A Bill to privatise BT was put before Parliament in 1983, but was opposed by the Trades Unions, and was lost to the General Election of 1983. It was reintroduced soon after the election and guillotined so as to speed it up.

10/4/1984, Tuesday (+14,217)

9/4/1984, Monday (+14,216) In Derbyshire, over 100 miners were arrested in violence connected with the miners� strike.

8/4/1984, Sunday (+14,215) Pyotr Kapitza, Soviet low-temperature physicist, died aged 89.

7/4/1984, Saturday (+14,214) (Space exploration) The space shuttle Challenger was launched on its 5^th mission.

6/4/1984, Friday (+14,213) Arthur �Bomber� Harris, Britain�s wartime bomber commander, died aged 91.

5/4/1984, Thursday (+14,212) India imposed detention without trial in Punjab.

4/4/1984, Wednesday (+14,211) Bailiffs evicted women from the Greenham Common protest site.

3/4/1984, Tuesday (+14,210) India declared Punjab a �dangerously disturbed area�.

1/4/1984, Sunday (+14,208) Marvin Gaye, US soul singer, died.

=====================================================================================

30/3/1984, Friday (+14,206) Karl Rahner, German Jesuit priest, died aged 80.

22/3/1984, Thursday (+14,198) British civil servant Sarah Tisdall was jailed for 6 months for leaking to The Guardian the Cruise Missiles were on their way to Britain.

18/3/1984, Sunday (+14,194) The Oxford and Cambridge boat race was run on a Sunday for the first time. The day before, the race had been abandoned because the Cambridge boat had been damaged in a collision.

15/3/1984, Thursday (+14,191) Only 21 of Britain�s 174 coal mines were working as strikes against the Coal Board�s 5.2% pay offer, and its pit closure programme became official. The strike was to drag on for a year.

14/3/1984, Wednesday (+14,190) Gerry Adams was shot and injured in an attempt to assassinate him.

13/3/1984, Tuesday (+14,189) In the UK, Mr Nigel Lawson delivered his first Budget.

9/3/1984, Friday (+14,185)

7/3/1984, Wednesday (+14,183) Donald Maclean, British Foreign Office official and Soviet secret agent who fled to the USSR in 1951, died aged 70.

6/3/1984, Tuesday (+14,182) Start of the 12 month miner�s strike. See 3/3/1985, and 29/5/1984 � Orgreave. Miners from 100 pits threatened with closure went on strike. The strike had been precipitated by the decision by the National Coal Board, announced 1/3/1984, to close Cortonwood Colliery. The NCB planned to close a total of 21 collieries and make 20,000 employees redundant.

5/3/1984, Monday (+14,181) Scientists warned of a �Greenhouse Effect� amid growing concern that carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels was damaging the environment.

4/3/1984, Sunday (+14,180) The speaker of the Iranian Parliament claimed that 400 Iranian soldiers had been killed by Iraqi chemical weapons.

3/3/1984, Saturday (+14,179) John Monaghan, boxer, died (born 21/8/1920).

2/3/1984, Friday (+14,178) Louis Basile, actor, died aged 48.

1/3/1984, Thursday (+14,177) A joint South African-Angolan monitoring commission began monitoring South African troop withdrawal from Angola.

====================================================================================

29/2/1984, Wednesday (-14,176) Pierre Trudeau announced he was stepping down after 15 years as Canadian Prime Minister.

28/2/1984, Tuesday (+14,175) French farmers protested against foreign meat imports into France. There was a meat glut in Europe and President Mitterand�s government had ended rail subsidies for transport� of agricultural produce from Brittany. Farmers hijacked and burned lorries with agricultural produce from other EEC member states, or gave the lorries contents away to hospitals and schools. Farmers also blockaded railway lines and Channel ports, and main roads. In one incident farmers ransacked government offices in Brest, Brittany.

27/2/1984, Monday (+14,174) Iraq began a blockade of the main Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island, and threatened to attack tankers loading there.

26/2/1984, Sunday (+14,173) US marines pulled out of Beirut.

13/2/1984, Monday (+14,160) Konstantin Chernenko became the leader of the USSR. See 11/3/1985. Yuri Andropov had died on 7/2/1984. Andropov came to power in 16/6/1983.

11/2/1984, Saturday (+14,158) Iraq began bombing non-military targets in Iran.

10/2/1984, Friday (+14,157) Harold MacMillan was awarded an earldom, on his 90^th birthday. He chose the name of Stockton from his first constituency in 1924.

9/2/1984, Thursday (+14,156) Yuri Andropov, Soviet leader, died after only 15 months in office. He was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko.

8/2/1984, Wednesday (+14,155)

7/2/1984, Tuesday (+14,154) Bruce McCandless made the first space walk without an attachment to the spacecraft, from the space shuttle Challenger.

6/2/1984, Monday (+14,153) President Gemayel of Lebanon ordered a 24-hour curfew, as Shi�ite Muslim and Drize militias overran West Beirut.

3/2/1984, Friday (+14,150) The space shuttle Challenger was launched on its 4th mission.

1/2/1984, Wednesday (+14,148) The UK Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, announced the forthcoming abolition of the halfpenny coin.

=====================================================================================

26/1/1984, Thursday (+14,142) The Governor of the Maze Prison resigned after a critical report on IRA prisoner escapes.

25/1/1984, Wednesday (+14,141) The Government announced that Trades Unions would be illegal at GCHQ Cheltenham.

24/1/1984, Tuesday (+14,140) The first Apple Macintosh computer went on sale.

20/1/1984, Friday (+14,136) Johnny Weissmuller, US actor who played Tarzan, died

14/1/1984, Saturday (+14,130) Ray Kroc, US business entrepreneur who developed the McDonalds fast food chain, died aged 81.

13/1/1984, Friday (+14,129) A cooling tower at Fiddlers Ferry power station, Lancashire, collapsed in high winds. Turbulence caused by the closely grouped towers was blamed.

12/1/1984, Thursday (+14,128)

11/1/1984, Wednesday (+14,127) Two British lorry drivers were hijacked by French farmers as they drove through France; the farmers were protesting at cheap meat imports into France.

10/1/1984, Tuesday (+14,126) General Zia of Pakistan freed Benazir Bhutto, daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had been executed in 1979.

1/1/1984, Sunday (+14,117) In Nigeria, a 19-member Supreme Military Council assumed power.

====================================================================================

31/12/1983, Saturday (+14,116) Brunei became independent from the UK. It joined ASEAN, becoming the 6^th member, in 7/1/1984. The new State derived considerable wealth from its offshore oil reserves.

27/12/1983, Tuesday (+14,112) Pope John Paul II met his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali, in a prison cell in Rome after conducting a Christmas service at the prison.� There were growing rumours that the Bulgarian secret services were involved in the assassination attempt.� Ali had been imprisoned for life for the crime.

25/12/1983, Sunday (+14,110) An IRA bomb exploded in London�s Oxford Street.

20/12/1983, Tuesday (+14,105) The PLO were forced out of Lebanon. The Syrian Army forced Yasser Arafat and 4,000 supporters to leave Tripoli, under arrangement of safe passage out by the UN.

17/12/1983, Saturday (+14,102) 6 died and 91 were injured when an IRA bomb exploded outside Harrods in London.� 5 died and 91 were injured.

10/12/1983, Saturday (+14,095) An IRA bomb exploded at London�s Woolwich Barracks.

9/12/1983, Friday (+14,094) The 1,000^th Boeing 737 was produced.

6/12/1983, Tuesday (+14,091) Turkey�s National Security Council dissolved, ending three years of military rule.

3/12/1983, Saturday (+14,088) Women peace campaigners broke into Greenham Common US airbase.

====================================================================================

30/11/1983, Wednesday (+14,085) Microsoft Word was first released.

28/11/1983, Monday (+14,083) The Thatcher government announced an end to the monopoly by opticians on the sale of glasses.

26/11/1983, Saturday (+14,081) 6,800 gold bars worth �25 million were stolen from the Brinks-Mat security warehouse at Heathrow Airport. Only a fraction of the gold was ever recovered, and only 2 men were ever convicted of the crime.

25/11/1983, Friday (+14,080) Anton Dolin, English ballet dancer, died aged 79.

18/11/1983, Friday (+14,073) In Liverpool Janet Walton, 31, gave birth to sextuplets, all girls.

15/11/1983, Tuesday (+14,070) (1) The Turkish part of Cyprus declared independence. Led by Rauf Dektash, the �republic� was recognised only by Turkey.

(2) �The Greenham Common women�s group mounted their first protest against the US cruise missiles sited there. The first cruise missiles had arrived in the UK on 13/11/1983.

14/11/1983, Monday (+14,069) The world�s largest airport opened near Riyadh. The King Khalid International Airport covered 86 square miles of desert and cost �2.1 billion.

13/11/1983, Sunday (+14,068) The first Cruise Missiles arrived at Greenham Common.

12/11/1983, Saturday (+14,067) (1) Gerry Adams was elected leader of Sinn� Fein.

(2) The Lord Mayor�s show in London featured the first woman Mayor, Dame Mary Donaldson.

8/11/1983, Tuesday (+14,063) Betty Nuthall, tennis champion, died (born 23/5/1911).

4/11/1983, Friday (+14,059) The Governor of Grenada declared a State of Emergency.

1/11/1983, Tuesday (+14,056) Edward Phelps, rowing champion, died (born 17/6/1908).

====================================================================================

30/10/1983, Sunday (+14,054) The first democratic elections were held in Argentina after 7 years of military rule.

25/10/1983, Tuesday (+14,049) 2,000 US Marines invaded Grenada to restore order after, on 19/10/1983, Grenada�s army had murdered the Prime Minister (Maurice Bishop) and taken power. Britain opposed the US invasion. The US said it had saved Grenada from becoming a Soviet-Cuban colony.

23/10/1983, Sunday (+14,047) A suicide truck bomber destroyed the US Marine Corps barracks at Beirut International Airport, killing 241 US servicemen.

22/10/1983, Saturday (+14,046) The announcement by Washington that Pershing II and Cruise Missiles were to be deployed in Europe precipitated large anti-nuclear demonstrations in Britain, Germany and Italy.

19/10/1983, Wednesday (+14,043) Left-wing coup in Grenada. Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was killed.

16/10/1983, Sunday (+14,040) Cecil Parkinson (see 14/10/1983) was succeeded by Norman Tebbit

14/10/1983, Friday (+14,038) British Trade and Industry Secretary Cecil Parkinson resigned after revelations of adultery with his secretary Sarah Keays emerged.

12/10/1983, Wednesday (+14,036) The Chinese Communist Party began its biggest purge of membership since the Cultural revolution. The records of 40 million Party members were to be reviewed. The Anti Spiritual Pollution Campaign was launched, with the (initial) approval of Deng Xiaoping. It was an attempt to roll back economic reform and Western influence. Individualism and hedonism were condemned, as were academics who promoted alternatives to Communism.

10/10/1983, Monday (+14,034) Shamir became Prime Minister in Israel.

7/10/1983, Friday (+14,031) Plans to abolish the Greater London Council were announced.

6/10/1983, Thursday (+14,030) The Indian Government took over direct control of Punjab Province in response to growing unrest there.

5/10/1983. Wednesday (+14,029) Lech Walesa, leader of the Polish trade union Solidarnosc, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2/10/1983, Sunday (+14,026) Neil Kinnock, 41, became leader of the British Labour Party. Roy Hattersley was his deputy.

====================================================================================

27/9/1983, Tuesday (+14,021) Jose Mar�a de Tavira Bianchi, Mexican actor, was born

26/9/1983, Monday (+14,020) The Soviet Union�s early warning system appeared to show missiles had been fired from the USA. However the officer in charge, Stanislav Petrov, chose to delay any response. In fact satellites had spotted reflections of sunlight from the ground.

25/9/1983, Sunday (+14,019) 38 IRA prisoners escaped from the Maze prison; a prison guard was stabbed to death during the escape.

24/9/1983, Saturday (+14,018) In Italy, the executives responsible for the Seveso dioxin disaster were jailed.

18/9/1983, Sunday (-14,012) St Kitts and Nevis became independent.

10/9/1983, Saturday (+14,004) The heaviest man in the US, Jon Browner Minnoch, died weighing 362 kg. When admitted to hospital in March 1978, he weighed 635 kg, or 102 stone.

8/9/1983, Thursday (+14,002) The UK Government made it obligatory for NHS hospitals to allow private contractors to tender for catering, cleaning and laundry services.

4/9/1983, Sunday (+13,998) (1) In Lebanon, civil war broke out in the Chouf Mountains following Israel�s withdrawal.

(2) Earthquake at Pozzuoli, Naples, caused major panic, as people feared another eruption of nearby Vesuvius.

3/9/1983, Saturday (+13,997) Ellie Lambeti, Greek actress, died (born 1926).

2/9/1983, Friday (+13,996) Israel�s Prime Minister Menachem Begin resigned, and was replaced by Yitzhak Shamir.

1/9/1983, Thursday (+13,995) A Korean airliner was shot down by Soviet fighter planes after it had strayed into USSR airspace, killing 269 people.

===================================================================================

31/8/1983, Wednesday (+13,994) Russell Doig of Surrey won a special prize for catching a salmon in the Thames, the first salmon caught there for 150 years. The fish weighed 6 lb.

30/8/1983, Tuesday (+13,993) (Space exploration) The third flight by the Challenger space shuttle.

28/8/1983, Sunday (+13,991)

21/8/1983, Sunday (+13,984) The Philippines opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, was shot dead minutes after returning home from exile. Born in 1932, Benigno became a Senator at 35 and was the leader of the opposition to Philippines leader Ferdinand Marcos during the period of martial law from 1972. Had martial law not been declared and the Presidential elections due for 1973 been run, it is generally accepted that Benigno Aquino would have won. In fact Aquino was arrested in November 1977 on charges of murder and subversion. In 1980, suffering from a heart condition, Aqiuion was allowed to leave for exile and treatment in the USA. His assassination was widely believed to be on the orders of Marcos, and it unleashed protests that led to the collapse of the Marcos Presidency; in February 1986, Benigno�s widow, Cory Aquino, became President of the Philippines.

20/8/1983, Saturday (+13,983) US President Reagan lifted the ban on exports of pipe-laying equipment to the USSR.

19/8/1983, Friday (+13,982) France sent a further 3,500 troops to assist President Hissein Habre of Chad.

18/8/1983, Thursday (+13,981) Hurricane Alicia hit the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$ 3.8 billion (in 2005 terms) damage.

14/8/1983, Sunday (+13,977) French police intercepted a large consignment of arms intended for the IRA.

12/8/1983, Friday (+13,975) 17 people were killed in Santiago, Chile, in protests against General Pinochet.

11/8/1983, Thursday (+13,974) Faya Largeau in Chad fell to Libyan troops.

9/8/1983, Tuesday (+13,972)

7/8/1983, Sunday (+13,970) France sent paratroopers to supplement 500 �military instructors� in Chad.

6/8/1983, Saturday (+13,969) The oil tanker Castillio de Bellver spilled 255,000 tons of crude oil off Cape Town, South Africa.

5/8/1983, Friday (+13,968) A bomb killed 15 at a Lebanese mosque.

4/8/1983, Thursday (+13,967) Bettino Craxi became Italy�s first Socialist Prime Minister.

2/8/1983, Tuesday (+13,969) Libyan planes bombed Faya Largeau in Chad.

==================================================================================

29/7/1983, Wednesday (+13,959) Luis Brunel, Spanish film maker, died aged 83.

28/7/1983, Thursday (+13,960) Sri Lanka imposed a ban on political parties advocating partition of the island between Tamils and Sinhalese.

27/7/1983, Wednesday (+13,959) Blair Redford, US actor, was born.

26/7/1983, Tuesday (+13,958)� Mrs Victoria Gillick lost her case in the High Court to prevent doctors prescribing contraceptives to girls under 16 without parental consent.

25/7/1983, Monday (+13,957) The Sri Lankan Government imposed a curfew following attacks on the Tamil community.

24/7/1983, Sunday (+13,956) Georges Auric, French composer, died aged 84.

23/7/1983, Saturday (+13,955) Civil war began in Sri Lanka.

22/7/1983, Friday (+13,954) Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski lifted martial law after 19 months.

21/7/1983, Thursday (+13,953) The world's lowest temperature was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at -89.2 C (-128.6 F).

20/7/1983, Wednesday (+13,952) The Israeli Cabinet agreed on a partial withdrawal of troops from Lebanon, to south of the Chouf Mountains.

19/7/1983, Tuesday (+13,951)

18/7/1983, Monday (+13,950) Donald Cockell, boxer, died (born 22/9/1928).

15/7/1983, Friday (+13,947) Armenian terrorists set off a bomb at Paris airport.

1/7/1983, Friday (+13,933) In the UK, a pint of milk cost 21p, and a loaf of bread cost 42p, equivalent to �0.87 in 2003. Actual 2003 price was �0.65. A pint of lager cost �0.61, equivalent to �1.27 in 2003. Actual 2003 price was �2.25. 20 cigarettes cost �1.05, equivalent to �2.18 in 2003. Actual 2003 price was �4.55. A gallon of four-star petrol cost �1.65, equivalent to �3.42 in 2003. Actual 2003 price was �3.32. The TV licence cost �46, equivalent to �95.42 in 2003; actual 2003 price was �116. A family car cost �5,811, equivalent to �12,053 in 2003. Actual 2003 price was �11,145. The average UK house cost �27,622, equivalent to �57,297 in 2003. Actual 2003 price was �129, 443. Average weekly earnings were �147.40, equivalent to �305.75 in 2003. In fact, 2003 weekly earnings were �464.70.

====================================================================================

28/6/1983, Tuesday (+13,930) Alexander Borromeo, Filipino footballer, was born.

27/6/1983, Monday (+13,929) Britain announced plans to build a new airport in the Falkland Islands, costing �215 million.

26/6/1983, Sunday (+13,928) Yasser Arafat was expelled from Syria.

18/6/1983, Saturday (+13,920) Sally Ride became the first woman in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, with four male astronauts.

16/6/1983, Thursday (+13,918) Andropov was elected Soviet leader of the USSR. However he died on 7/2/1984.

14/6/1983, Tuesday (+13,916) Protests in Santiago, Chile, against the rule of General Pinochet.

13/6/1983, Monday (+13,915) (1) The US spacecraft Pioneer 1 became the first man-made object to leave the Solar System.

(2) Roy Jenkins resigned as leader of the SDP, to be replaced by David Owen.

12/6/1983, Sunday (+13,914) Michael Foot resigned as leader of the Labour Party.

11/6/1983, Saturday (+13,913) British Cabinet reshuffle. Nigel Lawson became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Geoffrey Howe became Foreign Secretary, Leon Brittan became Home Secretary, and Cecil Parkinson became Trade and Industry Secretary.

10/6/1983, Friday (+13,912) Mrs Thatcher won her second term as Prime Minister. She gained a majority of 144 seats. The Conservatives won 397 seats, Labour won 209, Nationalists 4, and the Liberal/SDP Alliance won 23 seats. Mr Nigel Lawson became Chancellor of the Exchequer. The vote was split 42% Conservative, and 28% Labour. Michael Foot was Labour leader, with a divided and weakened party. The Falkland victory, as well as declining unemployment, assured her victory.

9/6/1983, Thursday (+13,911) In Portugal, a centre-Left coalition took office under Mario Soares.

1/6/1983, Wednesday (+13,903) Caroline Bradley, equestrian showjumping, died (born 14/4/1946).

====================================================================================

25/5/1983, Wednesday (+13,896) The USA agreed to export high-technology items to China.

24/5/1983, Tuesday (+13,895) A large IRA bomb damaged the Andersonstown police station in Belfast.

23/5/1983, Monday (+13,894) (Russia) Radio Moscow announcer Vladimir Danchev praised Afghan Muslims for standing up to Russia; he was removed from the air. After some 6 months in a psychiatric hospital, he returned to work.

22/5/1983, Sunday (+13,893) (Biology) Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, died.

21/5/1983, Saturday (+13,892) The US made AIDS top health priority.

19/5/1983, Thursday (+13,890)

17/5/1983, Tuesday (+13,888) Israel, Lebanon, and the US signed an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

16/5/1983, Monday (+13,887) London police began using wheel clamps to curb illegal parking.

9/5/1983, Monday (+13,880) (1) Mrs Thatcher called a General Election.

(2) Pope John Paul II retracted the ban on Galileo Galilei.

6/5/1983, Friday (+13,877) West Germany pronounced that the �Hitler Diaries� were a fake, made from paper not available until at least 1955.� The magazine Stern was swindled out of an undisclosed sum for the �diaries�. See 23/4/1983.

4/5/1983, Wednesday (+13,875) President Reagan affirmed his backing for the Right-wing Contras in their battle against the Sandinistas.

1/5/1983, Sunday (+13,872) (1) (Medical) The HIV virus that caused AIDS was identified

(2) (Poland) Polish police broke up demonstrations in 20 Polish cities.

====================================================================================

30/4/1983, Saturday (+13,871) George Balanchine, Russian dance director, died aged 79.

27/4/1983, Wednesday (+13,868)

24/4/1983, Sunday (+13,865) Turkey restored political parties.

23/4/1983, Saturday (+13,864) The German weekly magazine Stern announced it had possession of hitherto unknown �Hitler Diaries�. See 6/5/1983.

22/4/1983, Friday (+13,863) Lech Walesa, leader of Polish trades union Solidarnosc, returned to work at the Gdansk shipyard.

21/4/1983, Thursday (+13,862) In Britain, the �1 coin entered circulation for the first time. One pound notes were replaced in England and Wales, but remained in circulation in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

18/4/1983, Monday (+13,859) The US Embassy in Beirut was hit by a car bomb, killing 63 people.

15/4/1983, Friday �(+13,856) The first non-American Disney theme park opened, near Tokyo.

14/4/1983, Thursday (+13,855) The first cordless telephone was introduced in Britain.

12/4/1983, Tuesday (+13,853) Chicago got its first Black mayor.

4/4/1983, Monday (+13,845) (Space exploration) The space shuttle Challenger was launched.

3/4/1983, Sunday (+13,844) Easter Sunday.

2/4/1983, Saturday (+13,843) (Football) Felix Borja, Ecuadorian footballer, was born

1/4/1983, Friday (+13,842) Thousands of CND supporters formed a human chain linking Greenham Common to Burghfield, in protest at the installation of Cruise Missiles.

=====================================================================================

31/3/1983, Thursday (+13,841) President Reagan of the US halted further sales of F-16 fighter aircraft to Israel until it fully withdrew from Lebanon.

30/3/1983, Wednesday (+13,840) (Sport) Donald Cerrone, athlete, was born.

29/3/1983, Tuesday (+13,839) The first laptop computer went on sale, in the USA. It was the TRS-80 Model 100, and came with 8k or 24k of memory.

28/3/1983, Monday (+13,838) Ian McGregor became chairman of the British Coal Board.

27/3/1983, Sunday (+13,837) (Sport) Robert Guerrero, US boxer, was born.

26/3/1983, Saturday (+13,836) Anthony Blunt, the Queen�s former art adviser, and Soviet spy, died.

23/3/1983, Wednesday (+13,833) President Reagan proposed his �Star Wars� missile defence system, calling the Soviet Union an �evil empire�.

18/3/1983, Friday (+13,828) King Umberto II of Italy, in exile since 1946, died in a Geneva clinic aged 78.

17/3/1983, Thursday (+13,827) Mrs Thatcher was the target of an IRA letter bomb campaign.

15/3/1983, Tuesday (+13,825) Rebecca West, British author, died aged 90.

10/3/1983, Thursday (+13,820) (Biology) Ulf von Euler, Swedish biochemist, died.

9/3/1983, Wednesday (+13,819) Joshua Nkomo fled Zimbabwe.

8/3/1983, Tuesday (+13,818) Sir William Walton, English composer, died on the island of Ischia.

7/3/1983, Monday (+13,817) (Sport) Taylor Tankersley, US baseball player, was born.

6/3/1983, Sunday (+13,816) Australian Christopher Massey set a world water skiing speed record of 143.08 mph.

5/3/1983, Saturday (+13,815) The Labour politician Bob Hawke won elections in Australia and became Prime Minister. He succeeded Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who had been in office for seven years.

2/3/1983, Wednesday (+13,812) The last episode of M*A*S*H, watched by 125 million viewers around the world.

====================================================================================

24/2/1983, Thursday (+13,806) Tennessee Williams, US playwright (born 26/3/1911) died in New York City.

23/2/1983, Wednesday (+13,805) Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor, died in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, aged 93.

20/2/1983, Sunday (+13,802)

16/2/1983, Wednesday (+13,798) Arson was suspected as forest fires raged in South Australia, making 8,500 homeless.

15/2/1983, Tuesday (+13,797) The Christian Phalangist militia withdrew from Beirut, allowing the Lebanese Government control over the city.

12/2/1983, Saturday (+13,794)

9/2/1983, Wednesday (+13,791) Dennis Nilsen, mass murderer, was arrested after human remains were found at his house in Muswell Hill, north London.� Nilsen, 37 years old, confessed to police to the murders of 15 men over 4 years.

8/2/1983, Tuesday (+13,790) Shergar, the 1981 Derby Winner, owned by the Aga Khan, was stolen from his stable in County Kildare and a �2 million (US$ 3.7 million) ransom demanded. The horse was never seen again; it probably became catfood.

7/2/1983, Monday (+13,789) (1) Iran opened a new offensive in the south-east of Iraq.

(2) The Polish Communist Party suffered a financial crisis as many members refuse to pay their dues.

6/2/1983, Sunday (+13,788) The trial of Klaus Barbie began in Lyons, France. Known as the �Butcher of Lyons� during World War Two, Barbie deported hundreds of French Resistance fighters and Jews on trains to Nazi death camps Barbie was tracked down to Bolivia by Nazi-hunters Serge and Beatie Klarsfeld in 1971 but not extradited until 1983.

5/2/1983, Saturday (+13,787) Klaus Barbie was extradited from Bolivia to France to face Nazi war crimes charges.

4/2/1983, Friday (+13,786) US President Reagan condemned the violence associated with a strike of truck drivers.

3/2/1983, Thursday (+13,785) In the UK, unemployment reached an all-time high of 3,224,715, as Thatcherite monetarist policies began to bite.

2/2/1983, Wednesday (+13,784) The US and USSR began START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) in Geneva.

====================================================================================

30/1/1983, Sunday (+13,781) Nigeria expelled 2 million foreigners from its territory. The country�s oil boom of the 1970s had diverted much infrastructure into the oil sector, with much migration into the cities. Basic infrastructure collapsed and debt and poverty were major problems. Nigerian President Shehu Shagari made foreigners the scapegoats for Nigeria�s problems.

26/1/1983, Wednesday (+13,777) (Space) IRAS, the Infra-Red Astronomy Satellite, was launched. It observed astronomical phenomena from bodies too cool to emit visible light. It stopped functioning on 22/11/1983.

19/1/1983, Wednesday (+13,770) The Nazi war criminal, Klaus Barbie, was arrested in Bolivia.

18/1/1983, Tuesday (+13,769) In Britain, the Franks Report exonerated the Thatcher Government of any blame for Argentina invading the Falkland Islands on 2/4/1982.

17/1/1983, Monday (+13,768) The start of Breakfast TV on BBC with Frank Bough and Selina Scott.

10/1/1983, Monday (+13,757) Carwyn James, rugby player, died.

8/1/1983, Saturday (+13,759) During a 5-day morale-boosting trip by Mrs Thatcher to the Falkland Islands, she spoke to troops aboard the HMS Antrim.

7/1/1983, Friday (+13,758) The US sent arms to Guatemala.

6/1/1983, Thursday (+13,757) In a reshuffle of the British Cabinet, Michael Heseltine became Defence Secretary.

3/1/1983, Monday (+13,754) Poland formed new trade unions.

====================================================================================

20/12/1982, Monday (+13,740) Artur Rubenstein, Polish-American pianist, died aged 95.

19/12/1982, Sunday (+13,739) Poland lifted martial law. In May 1981 more than 3,000 Poles were arrested when Polish police used teargas and water cannons� to break up anti-government demonstrations in Warsaw. Other serious riots took place in the Polish cities of Szcecin, Wroclaw, the steel town of Nova Huta, and the Baltic port of Gdansk where Solidarnosc began. In October 1981 Solidarnosc and Rural Solidarnosc were banned, but their leader, Lech Walesa, who had been held in prison since late 1981, was released on 12/11/1982.

17/12/1982, Friday (+13,737)

15/12/1982, Wednesday (+13,735) The border between Spain and Gibraltar opened for the first time in 13 years, to pedestrians only.

14/12/1982, Tuesday (+13,734) In Ireland, Dr Garrett Fitzgerald was elected Prime Minister as head of a Labour-Fine Gael coalition.

12/12/1982, Sunday (+13,732) 30,000 women formed a human chain around the 14.5 km (9 mile) perimeter fence of the Greenham Common US airbase in Berkshire to protest at the installation of 96 Cruise Missiles there.

8/12/1982, Wednesday (+13,728) The UK Government banned Danny Morrison and Gerry Adams from entering the UK mainland.

7/12/1982, Tuesday (+13,727) The first execution by lethal injection was carried out in the USA, in Texas, on Charles Books Jr.

6/12/1982, Monday (+13,726) An IRA bomb in the Droppin Well pub in BallyKelly killed 19 people and injured 66.

5/12/1982, Sunday (+13,725) The Greater London Council invited Danny Morrison and Gerry Adams to London, causing outrage.

2/12/1982, Thursday (+13,722) At the University of Utah, 61 year old retired dentist Barney Clark became the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart. He lived for 112 days with the device.

====================================================================================

23/11/1982, Tuesday (+13,713) In the USA, TV commercials were deregulated, removing restrictions on length and content.

22/11/1982, Monday (+13,712) Ramiz Alia became new Head of State in Albania, succeeding Haxhi Lleshi.

19/11/1982, Friday (+13,709)

16/11/1982, Tuesday (+13,706) Ivor Jones, rugby player, died.

15/11/1982, Monday (+13,705) (Rail Tunnels) The Haruna rail tunnel, 15.35 km long, Japan, also the Nakayama Tunnel, 14.65 km long, also the Uonuma Tunnel, 8.65 km long, als0 the Shin Shimizu Tunnel, 13.5 km long, opened.

13/11/1982, Saturday (+13,703)

12/11/1982, Friday (+13,702) (Poland) In Poland, Lech Walesa was freed after one year�s detention.

11/11/1982, Thursday (+13,701) (Ireland) Sinn Fein and the SDLP boycotted the opening of the new Northern Ireland Assembly.

10/11/1982, Wednesday (+13,700) (1) (Russia) Leonid Illyich Brezhnev, Soviet leader for 18 years, died of a heart attack aged 75. He was succeeded by Yuri Andropov.

(2) Geoffrey Prime was jailed for 15 years for spying.

9/11/1982, Tuesday (+13,699) Thousands of Soviet troops died in a fire inside the Salang Pass road tunnel, Afghanistan.

8/11/1982, Monday (+13,698) James Dickinson, footballer, died (born 24/4/1925).

7/11/1982, Sunday (+13,697) Salvador Contreras, Mexican composer, died aged 71

6/11/1982, Saturday (+13,696) Sowelu, Japanese pop singer, was born in Tokyo, Japan.

5/11/1982, Friday (+13,695) Jacques Tati, French film-maker, died aged 74.

4/11/1982, Thursday (+13,694) Soft landing on Venus by the Soviet space probe Venera 14.

3/11/1982, Wednesday (+13,693) EH Carr, English historian of Soviet Russia, died aged 90.

2/11/1982, Tuesday (+13,692) Democrats made large gains in US mid-term elections. The Republicans retained control of the Senate.

1/11/1982, Monday (+13,691) Channel 4 began transmitting. It aimed to cater to minority audiences. The TV show Countdown was launched.

===================================================================================

31/10/1982, Sunday (+13,690) The Thames Flood Barrier was raised for the first time.

30/10/1982, Saturday (+13,689) New Constitution in Portugal ended the influence of the military in government.

29/10/1982, Friday (+13,688) Nicolas Gob, Belgian actor, was born/

28/10/1982, Thursday (+13,687) The Socialist Party won Spanish elections, and Felipe Gonzalez was elected Prime Minister.

24/10/1982, Sunday (+13,683)

20/10/1982, Wednesday (+13,679) Sinn Fein won five seats in elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

19/10/1982, Tuesday (+13,678) The Northern Ireland Office announced that support for the loss-making De Lorean car plant in Belfast would end, causing its closure. Around UK� 70 million of Government money had gone into the factory, sited in an area of 21% unemployment. The gull-winged car design failed to attract buyers during a recession in America, and high executive salaries and the costs of New York offices did not help. The closure would cost some 1500 jobs in Belfast.

18/10/1982, Monday (+13,677) Pierre Mendes France, French politician, died aged 75.

17/10/1982, Sunday (+13,676) (Football) Nick Riewoldt, Australian footballer, was born.

16/10/1982, Saturday (+13,675) (Medical) Hans Hugo Selye, Austrian endocrinologist who pioneered studies on stress, died.

15/10/1982, Friday (+13,674) Imran Naqvi, actor, was born.

14/10/1982, Thursday (+13,673) 5,837 people were married simultaneously in Seoul, South Korea; the world�s largest

mass wedding.

13/10/1982, Wednesday (+13,672) Strikes in Polish shipyards were suppressed by the military.

12/10/1982, Tuesday (+13,671), A Falklands Victory Parade was held in the City of London.

11/10/1982, Monday (+13,670) King Henry VIII�s flagship Mary Rose was raised at Southsea, Hampshire, having sunk in 1545. �This was the culmination of 17 years research on the wreck, involving almost 25,000 dives.

10/10/1982, Sunday (+13,669) The US imposed trade sanctions on Poland.

9/10/1982, Saturday (+13,668) (Jewish) In an attack on a synagogue in Rome, 1 died.

8/10/1982, Friday (+13,667) The trades union Solidarnosc was outlawed in Poland.

7/10/1982, Thursday (+13,666) In the UK, the major banks cut their base rate from 10.5% to 10%..� British Steel warned that one or more of its large plants would have to close.

3/10/1982, Sunday (+13,662)

2/10/1982, Saturday (+13,661) Neil Kinnock was elected leader of the Labour Party in Britain.

1/10/1982, Friday (+13,660) In Germany, the Christian Democrat leader Helmut Kohl was elected, replacing Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of West Germany.

=====================================================================================

28/9/1982, Tuesday (+13,657)

27/9/1982, Monday (+13,656) On the opening day of the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool, delegates voted to exclude the left-wing group Militant Tendency.� The Labour Party began to move to the Right.

26/9/1982, Sunday (+13,655) US President Reagan sent marines into Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission; Italian and French troops were also to arrive, and Syrian and Israeli forces would leave Lebanon. In Israel, 300,000 Israelis had demonstrated against their country�s involvement in the massacres (see 17/9/1982).

25/9/1982, Saturday (+13,654) 400,000 people marched in Israel demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

22/9/1982, Wednesday (+13,651) The TUC staged a �day of action� in support of the NHS workers pay claim.� UK unemployment rose to 3,343,075 in September.

19/9/1982, Sunday (+13,648) In Sweden, the Social Democrats won the elections.

18/9/1982, Saturday (+13,647) Christian Phalangist militiamen entered West Beirut refugee camps and massacred 800 Palestinians.

17/9/1982, Friday (+13,646) (1) Lebanese Christian militia massacred hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Lebanon. This was in revenge for the assassination of Christian president-elect Bashir Gemayel, replaced by his brother Amin.

(2) The British aircraft carrier Invincible returned from the Falklands, with Prince Andrew on board, to a rapturous welcome at Portsmouth.� UK inflation dropped to 8%.

16/9/1982, Thursday (+13,645) Israeli troops now controlled all of Beirut.

15/9/1982, Wednesday (+13,644) In response to the assassination of the Lebanese President, Israeli troops fought their way into West Beirut

14/9/1982, Tuesday (+13,643) Mr Bachir Gemayel, President-elect of Lebanon, was killed when a terrorist bomb destroyed his party HQ in Christian East Beirut.

13/9/1982, Monday (+13,642) A report by Lord Shackleton on proposals for the economic development of the Falkland Islands recommended investment of �100 million.

5/9/1982, Sunday (+13,634) Douglas Bader, the famous WW2 pilot with two artificial legs, died. He was born on 21/2/1910.

3/9/1982, Friday (+13,632) Anti-Mafia chief murdered in Rome.

2/9/1982, Thursday (+13,631) The Israeli Government totally rejected President Reagan�s new Middle East Peace Plan, and on 5/9/1982 announced that 13 new settlements were to be built in Gaza and the West Bank.

1/9/1982, Wednesday (+13,630) At the 12^th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, Hua Guofeng, who had succeeded Chairman Mao, was removed from the Politburo.

===================================================================================

31/8/1982, Tuesday (+13,629) Israel ousted the PLO from Beirut, Lebanon.

29/8/1982, Sunday (+13,627) The officially-recognised synthesis of element 109, Meitnerium at the Institute for Heavy Ion Research, Darmstadt, Germany.

26/8/1982, Thursday (+13,624) Argentina lifted the ban on political parties.

20/8/1982, Friday (+13,618) A multinational force landed in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. French troops arrived on 21^st August, and US Marines on the 25^th.

15/8/1982, Sunday (+13,613) (Biology) Hugo Theorell, Swedish biochemist, died.

14/8/1982, Saturday (+13,612) Barclays Bank opened on a Saturday, for the first time in 13 years.

12/8/1982, Thursday (+13,610) Israeli jets bombed West Beirut. The city was divided by the Green Line.

5/8/1982, Thursday (+13,603) John Charnley, British orthopaedic surgeon, died aged 70.

4/8/1982, Wednesday (+13,602) The UN censured Israel, as its troops were still in Lebanon.

====================================================================================

29/7/1982, Thursday (+13,596) Vladimir Zworykin, Russian-born US pioneer of TV technology, died aged 92.

27/7/1982, Tuesday (+13,594) Israeli jet fighters attacked West Beirut, killing 120 including civilians.

26/7/1982, Monday (+13,593) The West German rescue ship, Cape Anamur, entered its home port of Hamburg with 285 Vietnamese boat people who were fleeing the Communist regime which took over South Vietnam after the withdrawal of the USA. Boat people faced a perilous journey even before they tried to find asylum, facing dangers such as rape, robbery, murder, and abduction on the seas from pirates.

25/7/1982, Sunday (+13,592)

23/7/1982, Friday (+13,590) The International Whaling Commission decided to end whaling by 1986.

22/7/1982, Thursday (+13,589) Britain lifted the 200-mile exclusion zone around the Falkland Islands.

21/7/1982, Wednesday (+13,588) The Reverend Moon, of the Unification Church or Moonies, married 4,000 in a mass ceremony in New York.

20/7/1982, Tuesday (+13,587) IRA bombs killed many in London�s Hyde and Regent Parks. The first bomb exploded at 10.43.a.m. as members of the Queen�s cavalry were passing. Four soldiers were killed and many civilians wounded by the bomb which was packed with 4 and 6 inch nails, also killing many horses. The second bomb went off under the bandstand at Regents Park at 12.55.p.m. where members of the Royal Green Jackets were giving a concert. 7 soldiers were killed and 28 injured.

17/7/1982, Saturday (+13,584) Robert John, footballer, died (born 3/2/1899).

13/7/1982, Tuesday (+13,580) Iranian troops entered Iraq, attempting to take Basra, but were repulsed.

12/7/1982, Monday (+13,579) Hostilities between Britain and Argentina, over the Falklands, officially ceased.

9/7/1982, Friday (+13,576) An intruder entered the Queen�s bedroom at Buckingham Palace.� Michael Fagan, 35, asked the Queen for a cigarette whilst sitting on the end of her bed in Buckingham Palace.

7/7/1982, Wednesday (+13,574) Hungary became a member of the World Bank.

6/7/1982, Tuesday (+13,573) In Britain, Lord Franks was appointed to Chair of the Committee of Privy Councillors to investigate the background to the Falklands Invasion.

5/7/1982, Monday (+13,572)

4/7/1982, Sunday (+13,571) The men�s finals of Wimbledon were scheduled for a Sunday for the first time. Jimmy Connors beat his fellow-American John McEnroe.

3/7/1982, Saturday (+13,570) (Israel) In Israel, Peace Now organised a protest against the war in Lebanon; 100,000 Israelis took part. However a counter-demonstration was organised by supporters of the war, with 200,000 people, many bussed in from distant Israeli towns.

2/7/1982, Friday (+13,569) Roy Jenkins was elected leader of the SDP.

1/7/1982, Thursday (+13,568) The average UK house price was �24,851.

====================================================================================

29/6/1982, Tuesday (+13,566)

28/6/1982, Monday (+13,565) (Rail Tunnels) The Furka Base Tunnel, Switzerland, 15.381 km long, opened on the Furka-Oberalp line.

27/6/1982, Sunday (+13,564) (Space exploration) The US space shuttle Columbia made its fourth flight.

23/6/1982, Wednesday (+13,560) (Rail Tunnels) The Ichinoseki Tunnel, Japan, 9.74 km long, was opened on the Ichinoseki-Katami line.

21/6/1982, Monday (+13,558) (UK Royal) Prince William (Arthur Philip Louis) was born in London to Prince Charles (Prince of Wales) and Princess Diana.

18/6/1982, Friday (+13,555) (Argentina, Falklands Islands) Fourteen Argentinean Army Generals at an army base decided unanimously to depose General Galtieri, who had taken on the UK to claim the Falklands Islands. By declaring an end to all hostilities, the 10,600 Argentinean PoWs still held on the Falklands could be repatriated.

17/6/1982, Thursday (+13,554) The body of Roberto Calvi, a key figure in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge, London. Archbishop Marcinkus, President of the Vatican Bank, was also linked to the affair.

15/6/1982, Tuesday (+13,552)

14/6/1982, Monday (+13,551) Argentinean forces formally surrendered to British forces on the Falkland Islands.�

13/6/1982, Sunday (+13,550) King Khalid of Saudi Arabia died.� His brother, Fahd, became King.

12/6/1982, Saturday (+13,549) 800,000 marched for peace in New York City.

11/6/1982, Friday (+13,548) The QE2 liner returned to Southampton, from the Falklands, carrying the survivors from three wrecked British warships.

10/6/1982, Thursday (+13,547) Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German film-maker, died aged 36.

9/6/1982, Wednesday (+13,546) Israeli forces in Lebanon were just 3 kilometres south of Beirut Airport and had reached the Beirut to Damascus Highway, where they were fighting against Syrian forces.

8/6/1982, Tuesday (+13,545) British troops landed near Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.

7/6/1982, Monday (+13,544) (1) The FAN (Armed Forced of the North) rebels in Chad, backed by Libya, entered the capital, N�Djamena and replaced President Oueddei Goukoni with President Hissene Habre (42). Chad has a long history of conflict between the nomadic Arab Muslim north and the Black Christian south.

(2) Graceland, the mansion in Memphis, Tennessee where Elvis Presley lived until his death in 1977, was opened to the public.

6/6/1982, Sunday (+13,543) Israel invaded Lebanon, eventually penetrating as far north as Beirut.� The UN Security Council demanded that Israel withdraw.

5/6/1982, Saturday(+13,542) Scott Speer, US film-maker, was born.

4/6/1982, Friday (+13,541) Israeli jets bombed guerrilla bases in Lebanon in retaliation for the Argov shooting.

3/6/1982, Thursday (+13,540) Israeli Ambassador, Argov, was shot by Palestinians.

2/6/1982, Wednesday (+13,539) Jewel Staite, Canadian actress, was born.

1/6/1982. Tuesday (+13,538) British forces continued their advance in the Falkland Islands, (see 2/4/1982), fighting with the Argentineans 12 miles from Port Stanley. The Argentinian forces surrendered on 14/6/1982, the day Port Stanley was recaptured. Total casualties were 254 British and 750 Argentine lives.

=====================================================================================

31/5/1982, Monday (+13,537) Jonathan Tucker, US film director, was born.

30/5/1982, Sunday (+13,536) Spain joined NATO.� She became the 16^th member and the first to join NATO since West Germany was admitted in 1955.

29/5/1982, Saturday (+13,535) (1) Pope John Paul II visited Canterbury Cathedral with the Archbishop. On 30/5/1982 he visited Coventry Cathedral, and spoke of his hope for an end to war.

(2) Battle of Goose Green in the Falkland Islands. British paratroopers defeated a larger Argentine force in the first land battle of the war.

28/5/1982, Friday (+13,534) (1) British troops reached Darwin in the Falklands Islands.

(2) Pope John Paul II landed at Gatwick Airport, becoming the first Pope to visit the United Kingdom for 450 years.

27/5/1982, Thursday (+13,533) Natalya Neidhart, Canadian wrestler, was born.

26/5/1982, Wednesday (+13,532) Kielder Water, a large reservoir in Northumbria, opened.

25/5/1982, Tuesday (+13,531) HMS Coventry and the merchant ship Atlantic Conveyor were sunk in the Falkland War, with the loss of 32 lives. The loss of Atlantic Conveyor was a disaster that could soon have meant the end of the British attempt to regain the Falklands.

24/5/1982, Monday (+13,530) Iranian troops retook Khorramshahr.

22/5/1982, Saturday (+13,528)

21/5/1982, Friday (+13,527) Argentine rockets sunk the British cruiser Ardent; 22 men died. On 24/5/1982 another British cruiser, the Antelope, was sunk, with 8 men lost.� On 25/5/1982 Argentine Exocet missiles destroyed HMS Coventry, a destroyer, and the Cunard container ship Atlantic Conveyor; 32 people were killed. This day 5,000 UK troops landed at San Carlos Bay on the Falkland Islands and raised the Union Jack.

20/5/1982, Thursday (+13,526) (Science) Merle Anthony Truve, US physicist, died.

18/5/1982, Tuesday (+13,524)

13/5/1982, Thursday (+13,519) The EEC banned the rubber bullets being used by police in Northern Ireland.

12/5/1982, Wednesday (+13,518) (1) A Spanish priest, Juan Hernandes, tried to stab Pope John Paul II with a bayonet as he visited the Fatima shrine on a pilgrimage.

(2) The QE2 sailed south to join the Falkland Islands Task Force.

10/5/1982, Monday (+13,516)

6/5/1982, Thursday (+13,512) Hungary joined the International Monetary Fund.

5/5/1982, Wednesday (+13,511) Secretary Janet Smith in the computer science department at Vanderbilt University was injured when she opened a package from the Unabomber.

4/5/1982, Tuesday (+13,510) An Argentinean Exocet missile sank the British ship HMS Sheffield. 20 men were killed.

3/5/1982, Monday (+13,509)

2/5/1982, Sunday (+13,508) The Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed and sunk by British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror, off the Falkland Islands. 800 of the 1,042 crew survived. The General Belgrano, originally called The Phoenix, had been sold to Argentina by the |USA after World War Two, and was the last surviving warship from Pearl Harbour.

1/5/1982, Saturday (+13,507) British naval forces, the HMS Hermes under commander Sandy Woodward, entered the Argentine exclusion zone around the Falklands, and the Falklands War began. Stanley Airport was bombed by UK forces.

======================================================================================

25/4/1982, Sunday (+13,501) Israel withdrew from the Sinai, after 15 years of occupation. Britain recaptured South Georgia from Argentina.

22/4/1982, Thursday (+13,498) Ricardo Ezecson dos Santos Leite, Brazilian footballer, was born.

20/4/1982, Tuesday (+13,496) Andrew Sandham, cricketer, died.

19/4/1982, Monday (+13,495) The USA banned its citizens from tourist trips to Cuba.

17/4/1982, Saturday (+13,493) Salisbury, capital of Zimbabwe, was renamed Harare.

15/4/1982, Thursday (+13,491) The 5 men who killed Sadat in Egypt were executed. They were Muslim fundamentalists who disagreed with Sadat�s negotiating with Israel.

12/4/1982, Monday (+13,488) 12,000 Argentinean troops were stationed in the Falklands.

11/4/1982, Sunday (+13,487) Easter Sunday.

10/4/1982, Saturday (+13,486)

6/4/1982, Tuesday (+13,482) (1) A blizzard dumped 1-2 feet of snow in the north-eastern US, unprecedented for April.

(2) Britain banned the import of Argentinean products.

5/4/1982, Monday (+13,481) The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, resigned, as a British invasion fleet left Portsmouth for the Falklands. On 18/3/1982 an Argentine scrap-metal dealer had raised the Argentine flag on South Georgia, a sign of intention from Argentina that was not interpreted correctly by the British Foreign Office. See 1/5/1982.

4/4/1982, Sunday (+13,480) The British Falkland Islands Garrison surrendered to Argentina.

3/4/1982, Saturday (+13,479) The UN Security Council voted in favour of a resolution that Argentina withdraw from the Falklands.

2/4/1982, Friday (+13,478) Argentina launched an invasion of the Falkland Islands. On 4/4/1982 Argentina seized South Georgia, a Falklands dependency. British forces set out from the UK on 5/4/1982 and landed in the Falklands on 21/5/1982. South Georgia was recaptured on 25/4/1982 with no casualties. See 1/6/1982.

====================================================================================

31/3/1982, Wednesday (+13,476) A new offensive by Iran in the 16-month old Iran/Iraq war broke the military stalemate that had already taken 100,000 lives. By the end of March the Iranians claimed to have taken 16,000 Iraqi prisoners, and by May the Iranians had taken the key border town of Khorramshahr and begun to invade Iraqi territory. In the next few months all Iranian territory was freed from Iraqi forces. President Saddam Hussein of Iraq reacted by launching air attacks on Iranian oil installations in the Gulf. Iraq was losing the war and called for a ceasefire but Iran was determined to press on and oust President Hussein from power.

25/3/1982, Thursday (+13,470) In Scotland, Roy Jenkins of the SDP won Glasgow Hillhead in a by-election from the Conservatives.

24/3/1982, Wednesday (+13,469) Military coup in Bangladesh.

23/3/1982, Tuesday (+13,468) Military coup in Guatemala.

22/3/1982, Monday (+13,467) The US space shuttle Columbia made its third flight.

21/3/1982, Sunday (+13,466) Marjorie Pollard, hockey and cricket champion, died (born 3/8/1899).

20/3/1982, Saturday (+13,465) Jose Moreira, Portuguese footballer, was born.

19/3/1982, Friday (+13,464) Argentine scrap metal merchants landed on uninhabited South Georgia and raised the Argentine flag, starting the Falklands War.

14/3/1982, Sunday (+13,459) (Electrical) Nikolay Petrovich, Soviet electrical engineer, died

11/3/1982, Thursday (+13,456) Britain announced it was to purchase Trident II submarine based missiles to replace Polaris.

10/3/1982, Wednesday (+13,455) The USA embargoed oil imports from Libya, alleging Libyan involvement in terrorist groups.

9/3/1982, Tuesday (+13,454) (Sport) Mirjana Lucic, Croatian tennis player, was born.

8/3/1982, Monday (+13,453) R A Butler, UK Conservative politician, died aged 79.

7/3/1982, Sunday (+13,452) (Medical) Margulies Lazar, US physician, died.

5/3/1982, Friday (+13,450)

4/3/1982, Thursday (+13,449) Landon Donovan, US footballer, was born.

3/3/1982, Wednesday (+13,448) The Queen formally opened the Barbican Centre, London.

2/3/1982, Tuesday (+13,447)

1/3/1982, Monday (+13,446) Soft landing on Venus by the Soviet space probe Venera 13.

====================================================================================

28/2/1982, Sunday (+13,445) Natalia Vodianova, Russian philanthropist, was born.

23/2/1982, Tuesday (+13,440) Greenland, a Danish territory, with home rule, voted to leave the EC.

20/2/1982, Saturday (+13,437) Charles Haughey won the Irish elections.

19/2/1982, Friday (+13,436) In Belfast, the De Lorean car company went into liquidation.

18/2/1982, Thursday (+13,435) Tina Carver, actress, died aged 58.

17/2/1982, Wednesday (+13,434) General Jaruselski imposed martial law in Poland as he cracked down on Solidarnosc.

16/2/1982, Tuesday (+13,433) Roll out of the first A310 aircraft.

15/2/1982, Monday (+13,432) 84 died when a storm wrecked an oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland.

13/2/1982, Saturday (+13,430)

6/2/1982, Saturday (+13,423) Ben Nicholson, English painter, died aged 87.

5/2/1982, Friday (+13,422) Freddie Laker�s Laker Airlines collapsed owing �270 million; 6,000 passengers were stranded.

1/2/1982, Monday (+13,418) Senegal and Gambia formed a loose federation.

=====================================================================================

26/1/1982, Tuesday (+13,412) UK unemployment hit 3 million.

19/1/1982, Tuesday, (+13,405) London�s new Billingsgate market opened on the Isle of Dogs, three days after the old Billingsgate in Lower Thames Street, EC3, closed.

14/1/1982, Thursday (+13,400) Mark Thatcher, son of UK prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was found alive after getting lost in the Sahara during the Paris-Dakar car rally.

13/1/1982, Wednesday (+13,399) An Air Florida jet crashed into the frozen Potomac River near the White House, killing 78.

10/1/1982, Sunday (+13,396) Shawbury, Shropshire experienced the lowest temperature ever recorded in England, -26 C. The lowest ever temperature recorded in the UK was this day, -27.2 C, at Braemar, Aberdeenshire. This equalled the record set in 1895, and was equalled again in 1995.

8/1/1982, Friday (+13,394) Spain ended its 12-year siege of Gibraltar and reopened the frontier. In return Britain ended its opposition to Spain joining the EEC and NATO. See 27/12/1978.

3/1/1982, Sunday (+13,389) South Korea finally lifted a nightly curfew imposed 36 years earlier.

======================================================================================

31/12/1981, Thursday (+13,386) (1) Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings seized power in Ghana, ousting President Limann whom he accused of ruining the economy.

(2) Doctors became aware of a new disease that destroyed the immune system and appeared to be common in homosexuals. This was to be known as AIDS.

29/12/1981, Tuesday (+13,384) President Reagan of the US introduced economic sanctions against the USSR for forcing Poland to adopt martial law.

28/12/1981, Monday (+13,383) The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, was born in Norfolk, Virginia.

25/12/1981, Friday (+13,380)

22/12/1981, Tuesday (+13,377) General Leopoldo Galtieri became President of Argentina.

21/12/1981, Monday (+13,376) Cyril Simpson, rackets champion, died (born 10/2/1899).

17/12/1981, Thursday (+13,372) The Law Lords ruled the Greater London Council�s cheap fares policy, effectively subsidised from rates, was illegal.

15/12/1981, Tuesday (+13,370) A car bomb destroyed the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, killing 61 people. This was the first modern suicide bombing. Syria was blamed.

12/12/1981, Saturday (+13,367) The Communists outlawed the Polish Trade Union Solidarity, and imposed martial law in Poland.

8/12/1981, Tuesday (+13,363) Arthur Scargill became leader of the National Union of Mineworkers.� He succeeded Joe Gormley.

5/12/1981, Saturday (+13,360) Elizabeth Canham, a British theology teacher, was ordained priest in the USA. She was the first British woman to become a priest.

4/12/1981, Friday (+13,359) South Africa created the �independent� Republic of Ciskei as a �homeland� for Black people; this was not recognised outside South Africa.

2/12/1981, Wednesday (+13,357)

======================================================================================

30/11/1981, Monday (+13,355) The US and USSR began arms talks in Geneva.

29/11/1981, Sunday (+13,354) Natalie Wood, US actress, died.

28/11/1981, Saturday (+13,353) The National Party won a very narrow election victory in New Zealand.

27/11/1981, Friday (+13,352)

26/11/1981, Thursday (+13,351) Shirley Williams became the first SDP (Social Democratic Party) MP, beating the Tories and Labour inti 2^nd and 3^rd place at the Crosby by-election. In 4^th place was the Monster Raving Loony Party candidate, Tarquin Fin-tim-bin-whim-lin-bus-stop-F�Tang-F�tang-Ole-Biscuitbarrel.

25/11/1981, Wednesday (+13,350) An Arab Summit Conference in Fez quickly reached deadlock over peace plans for the Middle East.

22/11/1981, Sunday (+13,347) Hans Krebs, British biochemist, died aged 81.

20/11/1981, Friday (+13,345) (Russia, Germany) The USSR contracted to supply natural gas to West Germany.

19/11/1981, Thursday (+13,344) Civil war began in Chad as the rebel FAN (Armed Forces of the North) army backed by Libya fought to oust President Goukoni Oueddei, who himself had been installed with Libyan backing following the assassination of President Francois Tombalbaye in 1975. Tombalbaye had been the first President since Chad gained independence on 11/8/1960. See 7/6/1982.

18/11/1981, Wednesday (+13,343) France formally abandoned the use of the guillotine.

16/11/1981, Monday (+13,341)

14/11/1981, Saturday (+13,339) IRA gunmen killed Robert Bradford, Unionist MP for Belfast South.

13/11/1981, Friday (+13,338) Shawn Yue, Hong Kong actor, was born.

12/11/1981, Thursday (+13,337) The US Space Shuttle Columbia became the first space vehicle to make a second trip.

11/11/1981, Wednesday (+13,336) Antigua and Barbuda joined the United Nations.

10/11/1981, Tuesday (+13,335) Hosni Mubarak became President of Egypt.

9/11/1981, Monday (+13,334) Jobi McAnuff, Jamaican footballer, was born.

8/11/1981, Sunday (+13,333) Tim Brookshaw, champion jockey, died (born 25/3/1929).

7/11/1981, Saturday (+13,332) James Dear, rackets champion, died (born 17/3/1910).

5/11/1981, Thursday (+13,330)

2/11/1981, Monday (+13,327) CB or Citizen�s Band Radio became legal in Britain.

1/11/1981, Sunday (+13,326) Antigua and Barbuda became independent from Britain.

=====================================================================================

31/10/1981, Saturday (+13,325) Blake Hall station on the Central Line, London Underground, closed. It had been the least-used station on the network, with an average 6 passengers a day.

30/10/1981, Friday (+13,324) Mark Lyons, leader of voluntary euthanasia group Exit, was jailed for 2 � years, for aiding and abetting suicide.

29/10/1981, Thursday (+13,323) Hosein Musavi became Prime Minister of Iran.

24/10/1981, Saturday (+13,318) 150,000 marched from London to Greenham Common in a protest against nuclear weapons.

22/10/1981, Thursday (+13,316) David Burghley, athletics, died.

18/10/1981, Sunday (+13,312) The first Socialist government in Greece was elected under Andreas Papandreou.

16/10/1981, Friday (+13,310) Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader, died in Tel Aviv.

15/10/1981, Thursday (+13,309) Norman Tebbit made his famous remark that his father �got on his bike� to look for work; the unemployed were angry.

6/10/1981, Tuesday (+13,300) President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, 62, was assassinated in Cairo, whilst attending a military parade celebrating Egyptian successes in the Yom Kippur war of 1973. ��Vice President Hosni Mubarak became President.� Army members who were part of Islamic Jihad organisation killed Sadat, opposing his negotiations with Israel, which led to the historic Camp David Agreement of 1979.

3/10/1981, Saturday (+13,297) The seven-month hunger strike at The Maze Prison, Belfast, ended. 10 Republican prisoners at The Maze Prison, Belfast, had died, including the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Bobby Sands. The inmates wanted the status of political prisoners.

2/10/1981, Friday (+13,296) Hojatoleslam Ali Khameini was elected President of Iran.

=================================================================================

28/9/1981, Monday (+13,292) William Shankly, footballer, died (born 2/9/1913).

26/9/1981, Saturday (+13,290) Graham Christopher Stack, footballer, was born.

25/9/1981, Friday (+13,289) Sandra Day O�Connor became the first woman appointed to the US Supreme Court.

24/9/1981, Thursday (+13,288)

22/9/1981, Tuesday (+13,286) The TGV was inaugurated in France. It ran at 300 kph (186 mph), was a quarter of a mile long, and set a record speed of 513.3 kph on 18/5/1990.

21/9/1981, Monday (+13,285) Belize formerly British Honduras, became independent from Britain.� This was the last British colony on the American mainland.� A border dispute with Guatemala, which had delayed independence, remained unresolved.

19/9/1981, Saturday (+13,283)

18/9/1981, Friday (+13,282) Under President Mitterrand, France abolished the guillotine and capital punishment.

17/9/1981, Thursday (+13,281) (1) Plans to close the Royal Docks, London, were finalised.

(2) Twelve divers began a successful operation to recover 431 gold ingots, valued at �48 million, from HMS Edinburgh, which was sunk in the Barents Sea off northern Norway in 1942.

16/9/1981, Wednesday (+13,280) The British Labour Party, at its Llandudno Conference, voted for an electoral alliance with the SDP.

15/9/1981, Tuesday (+13,279) Sadat expelled 1,500 Soviets from Egypt.

14/9/1981, Monday (+13,278) Marcus Serjeant, who had fired blank shots at the Queen on 30/6/1981, was jailed for 5 years.

13/9/1981, Sunday (+13,277)

12/9/1981, Saturday (+13,276) Eugenio Montale, Italian poet, died aged 84.

11/9/1981, Friday (+13,275) In Tehran, a grenade killed one of Khomeini�s aides, Ayatollah Madani.

10/9/1981, Thursday (+13,274)

8/9/1981, Tuesday (+13,272) Terence Mansergh, hockey champion, died.

7/9/1981, Monday (+13,271) Christy Brown, Irish author, died.

3/9/1981, Thursday (+13,267) President Sadat began a crackdown against dissidents, arresting 1,536 of them on a single night.

1/9/1981, Tuesday (+13,265) British garages started selling petrol by the litre rather than the gallon.

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30/8/1981, Sunday (+13,263) In Tehran, a bomb attack killed President Ali Rajai, Prime Minister Hojatolislam Bahonar, and Colonel Dagsgerdi.

28/8/1981, Friday (+13,261) South African troops invaded Angola.

27/8/1981, Thursday (+13,260) Moira Stuart was appointed the BBC�s first Black female newsreader.

26/8/1981, Wednesday (+13,259) President P W Botha conformed that South African troops were fighting alongside guerrillas in Angola.

25/8/1981, Tuesday (+13,258) In the USA, John Chapman was jailed fror life (minimum 25 years) for the murder of John Lennon.

16/8/1981, Sunday (+13,249) The USSR postponed Polish debt repayments and increased supplies of raw materials and consumer goods to Poland.

9/8/1981, Sunday (+13,242) In the USA, President Reagan announced the decision to proceed with the neutron bomb.

8/8/1981, Saturday (+13,241) Rioting in Northern Ireland following the death of the 9th hunger striker and ten years of internment.

7/8/1981, Friday (+13,240) In Poland, 1 million Solidarity members went on strike, in protest over food shortages.

5/8/1981, Wednesday (+13,238) President Reagan fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.

3/8/1981, Monday (+13,236) In Poland, Solidarnosc blockaded Warsaw city centre in protest at food shortages.

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29/7/1981, Wednesday (+13,231) Marriage of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (born 14/11/1948), to Lady Diana Spencer. The wedding was at St Paul�s Cathedral, London, and was watched on TV by 700 million viewers worldwide. The design of Diana�s wedding dress had been kept a close secret until she emerged from Clarence House on the wedding day; then� Ellis Bridals made a copy that went on sale in Debenhams, Oxford Street, just 5 hours later, for �450. 750 million people watched the ceremony.

27/7/1981, Monday (+13,229) British Telecom was created.

24/7/1981, Friday (+13,226) Muhammad Ali Rajai was elected President of Iran.

23/7/1981, Thursday (+13,225) The Polish Government announced plans to cut rations and quadruple food prices.

19/7/1981, Sunday (+13,221) Efforts by the Red Cross to end the hunger strikes at the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, failed.

17/7/1981, Friday (+13,219) (1) Queen Elizabeth II formally opened the Humber Bridge, then the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world.� It had opened to traffic on 24/6/1981.

(2) Israeli bombers destroyed the PLO HQ in Beirut.

15/7/1981, Wednesday (+13,217) Rioting in Brixton, London.

12/7/1981, Sunday (+13,214) Frederick Rimell, champion jockey, died.

10/7/1981, Friday (+13,212) Following the riots in Toxteth, riots broke out in other British cities. Riots in Moss Side (Manchester) and Wood Green (London). Brixton saw riots on 15/7/1981. Hull, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Reading, preston and Chester also saw riots.

7/7/1981, Tuesday (+13,209) The first crossing of the English Channel by a solar-powered aircraft, Solar Challenger.

5/7/1981, Sunday (+13,207) Youth rioted in Toxteth, Liverpool for a second night running. There were also riots in Brixton and Southall in London.

2/7/1981, Thursday (+13,204) William Gillespie, footballer, died (born 6/8/1892).

1/7/1981, Wednesday (+13,203) The average UK house price was �23,954.

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30/6/1981, Tuesday (+13,202) (1) (Ireland) Garret Fitzgerald became Prime Minister of Ireland, leading a Fine Gael � Labour coalition.

(2) Menachem Begin�s Likud Party did well in Israeli elections. The Israeli air strike at Osirak, Iraq, had helped him.

28/6/1981, Sunday (+13,200) (1) In Tehran, a bomb attack killed Ayatollah Beheshti, the Chief Justice and Head of the Islamic Republican Party, also four other Government Ministers.

(2) Asians rioted in Southall, west London, after racist aggression by skinhead youths.

24/6/1981, Wednesday (+13,196) The Humber Bridge opened to traffic, and the Humber Ferry, the diesel powered Faringford, made its last crossing between Hull and New Holland. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Bridge on 17/7/1981. Work on the Bridge had begun in 1973, but there had been plans for a bridge, or even a tunnel, for several decades before. When opened it was the world�s longest single-span suspension bridge, at 1,410 metres, or 4,636 feet.

22/6/1981, Monday (+13,194) Hamas attacked a travel agent in Greece, killing two people.

21/6/1981, Sunday (+13,193) In French elections, Socialists won a landslide victory in the second round of elections to the National Assembly. The new Assembly included three Communists.

16/6/1981, Tuesday (+13,188) The Liberals formed an alliance with the SDP.

13/6/1981, Saturday (+13,185) Marcus Sarjeant fired blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II during the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London.� He was later charged with treason;. he said he was protesting against high unemployment.

12/6/1981, Friday (+13,184) In Poland, General Jaruzelski reshuffled the government to deal with the economic crisis.

11/6/1981, Thursday (+13,183) Fianna Fail lost the general election in Ireland.

9/6/1981, Tuesday (+13,181) Brett Clouthier, Canadian ice hockey player, was born.

7/6/1981, Sunday (+13,179) (Islam, Israel) Israeli planes bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor then under construction at Osirak, Iraq.

5/6/1981, Friday (+13,177) The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California, had a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems. These were the first recognised cases of AIDS.

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30/5/1981, Saturday (+13,171) President Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (born 1936) was assassinated.

23/5/1981, Saturday (+13,164) The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, 34 year old lorry driver, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder 7 others, over a period of four years. He was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years. He had been charged with murder on 5/1/1981.

20/5/1981, Wednesday (+11,161) Iker Casillas Fernandez, Spanish footballer, was born

17/5/1981, Sunday (+13,158) (Italy, Morals) In a referendum, Italy voted to legalise abortion.

13/5/1981, Wednesday (+13,154) (1) Pope John Paul II, seriously injured in the stomach, survived an assassination attempt in St Peter�s Square in Rome, by a Turkish terrorist, Mehmet Ali Agca, in front of 20,000 people. Agca had escaped from Turkey where he was being held for murder; he shot the Pope �in protest at American and Russian imperialism�.

(2) Queen Elizabeth II opened the �Shopping City� in Wood Green, north London. It had taken seven years to build.

12/5/1981, Tuesday (+13.153) Rioting in Belfast after hunger strikers Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes have died.

11/5/1981, Monday (+13,152) Bob Marley, reggae musician, died of cancer aged 36.

10/5/1981, Sunday (+13,151) Socialist Francois Mitterand was elected President of France. He defeated Valery Giscard D�Estaing.

8/5/1981, Friday (+13,149)

7/5/1981, Thursday (+13,148) Bobby Sands was buried in a Republican section of Belfast�s Milltown Cemetery.

6/5/1981, Wednesday (+13,147) The USA expelled all Libyan diplomats.

5/5/1981, Tuesday (+13,146) The IRA prisoner Bobby Sands died on the 66^th day of his hunger strike in the Maze prison, Belfast. Riots broke out in Belfast.� He was serving a 14-year sentence for firearms offences.

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23/4/1981, Thursday (+13,134) British unemployment reached 2.5 million.

20/4/1981, Monday (+13,131) Steve Davis won the world snooker championship at Sheffield, UK, beating Doug Mountjoy 18-12.

19/4/1981, Sunday (+13,130) Easter Sunday.

14/4/1981, Tuesday (+13,125) The space shuttle Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force base, California, after 2 days in space.

12/4/1981, Sunday (+13,123) The USA launched its first space shuttle, Columbia, from Cape Canaveral, crewed by Robert Crippen and John Young.

11/4/1981, Saturday (+13,122) (1) Riots in Brixton. Mobs of youths went on the rampage, throwing petrol bombs, looting shops, and attacking police. Over 300 civilians, and 65 police officers, were injured.� Over three days of unrest, 779 crimes were reported.� The riots were sparked by a controversial initiative to cut street crime, the �stop and search� laws, and were the worst riots in London for a century.

(2) Bobby Sands won the by-election, see 15/3/1981.

10/4/1981, Friday (+13,121)

9/4/1981, Thursday (+13,120) Nature magazine published a paper with the longest-ever scientific word, with 207,000 letters.

8/4/1981, Wednesday (+13,119) Omar Bradley, US senior army officer, died aged 88.

6/4/1981, Monday (+13,117)

4/4/1981, Saturday (+13,115) Oxford won the boat race with the first ever lady cox, Sue Brown.

3/4/1981, Friday (+13,114) Riots in Brixton and Southall.

1/4/1981, Wednesday (+13,112) Clarence Hearn, Australian footballer, died �(born 13/11/1905).

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30/3/1981, Monday (+13,110) President Reagan, 70 years old, survived an assassination attempt by John Hinckley. He was wounded, a bullet in the left lung, outside Washington�s Hilton Hotel. The shooter, John Hinckley III, arrested at the spot, had used a .22 calibre shot; had he used a .45 the bullet, which lodged just 3 inches from Reagan�s heart, would have killed him.

29/3/1981, Sunday (+13,109) The first London Marathon was run, with 6,700 competitors; the Norwegian, Inge Simonsen, won.

28/3/1981, Saturday (+13,108) Julia Stiles, US actress, was born.

27/3/1981, Friday (+13,107) Polish workers staged a General Strike in protest at police harassment of the Solidarnosc Union. The Polish leader, General Jaruzelski, was considering banning Solidarnosc and declaring martial law.

26/3/1981, Thursday (+13,106) The �Gang of Four� (Roy Jenkins, David Owen, William Rodgers and Shirley Williams) launched the UK�s Social Democratic Party (SDP).

19/3/1981, Thursday (+13,099)

15/3/1981, Sunday (+13,095) Bobby Sands, IRA hunger striker, stood as Republican candidate for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by election. See 11/4/1981.

14/3/1981, Saturday (+13,094) Ken Barrington, cricketer, died (born 24/11/1930).

12/3/1981, Thursday (+13,092)

11/3/1981, Wednesday (+13,091) Chilean President Augusto Pinochet was sworn in for an 8-year term as President.

10/3/1981, Tuesday (+13,090) Death of Sir Maurice Oldfield, the British intelligence chief thought to be the model for �M� in Ian Fleming�s James Bond novels.

5/3/1981, Thursday (+13,085)

2/3/1981, Monday (+13,082) Phil MacPherson, rugby player, died (born 14/12/1903).

1/3/1981, Sunday (+13,081) Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA, began a hunger strike for political status at Long Kesh Prison. He died on 5/5/1981, the first of 10 such deaths.

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28/2/1981, Saturday (+13,080) In the first 8 weeks of 1981, 451 Vietnamese boat people arrived in Hong Kong, twice as many as in the same period in 1980.� In nearby Macao, 240 Vietnamese refugees were arriving every day.� Many were moving on from China, which had taken 250,000 Vietnamese since 1979.� The Hong Kong government asked the Chinese to step up naval surveillance along the Chinese coast.

26/2/1981, Thursday (+13,078)

24/2/1981, Tuesday (+13,076) (1) Just before 11am local time, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake hit Athens. 16 people died, mainly due to heart attacks. The epicentre was in the eastern Corinthian Gulf, near the Alkyonides Islands, 60 km west of Athens. A further aftershock, magnitude 6.4, hit that afternoon, causing further damage in nearby towns.

(2) Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer announced their engagement.

23/2/1981, Monday (+13,075) In Spain, Fascist army officers loyal to the memory of dictator Francisco Franco stormed the Cortes (Parliament) ands held hundreds hostage. The rebel leader, Colonel Tejero de Molina, took the podium, gun in hand, to announce a coup. Meanwhile the Francoist General Jaime del Bosch, the man behind the coup, declared a state of emergency in eastern Spain and mobilised his troops. King Juan Carlos, that evening, made a TV broadcast saying he had ordered the army to suppress the revolt. King Carlos was counting on the support of the people and most of the army. The return of the Spanish monarchy after Franco�s death in 1975 had brought the first free elections in Spain for 40 years. The Fascist rebels hesitated, and Spanish democracy was saved.

22/2/1981, Sunday (+13,074) Guy Butler, athlete, died (born 25/8/1899).

21/2/1981, Saturday (+13,073) The Guardian raises its price from 18p to 20p. In June 2001 it raised its price from 45p to 50p, and in September 2002 the price rose to 55p.

20/2/1981, Friday (+13,072) Peter Sutcliffe was charged with the murder of 13 women.

19/2/1981, Thursday (+13,071) Frank Merrik, composer, died aged 94.

18/2/1981, Wednesday (+13,070) Mrs Thatcher promised more money for the miners to avert a strike.

17/2/1981, Tuesday (+13,069) In south Wales, miners threatened to strike over pit closures.

15/2/1981, Sunday (+13,067) British Football league matches were played on a Sunday for the first time.

12/2/1981, Thursday (+13,064) Rupert Murdoch bought the Times.

10/2/1981, Tuesday (+13,062) The National Coal Board announced plans to close 50 pits employing 30,000 miners. The miners called for a national strike.

9/2/1981, Monday (+13,061) General Jaruselski, Defence Minister, became Prime Minister of Poland. He had close links with the USSR and promised a crackdown on Solidarity and its leader Lech Walesa.

7/2/1981, Sunday (+13,060)

6/2/1981, Friday (+13,058) British pair Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won the European figure skating championship.

5/2/1981, Thursday (+13,057) Geoffrey Dyson, athlete, died (born 22/6/1914).

3/2/1981, Tuesday (+13,055) Gro Harlem Brundtland became the first woman Prime Minister of Norway.

1/2/1981, Sunday (+13,053) Norway elected its first woman Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland.

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29/1/1981, Thursday (+13,050) Adolfo Suarez resigned as Spanish Prime Minister; succeeded 10/2/1980 by Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo.

25/1/1981, Sunday (+13,046) (1) The �Gang of Four�, Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams, and Bill Rodgers, broke away from the British Labour Party to set up the Social Democratic Party. The SDP was launched on 26/3/1981.

(2) The Chinese �Gang of Four� and Mao Tse Tung�s 67 year old widow were sentenced to death.

24/1/1981, Saturday (+13,045) A 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan, China, killed 150 people and injured 300.

23/1/1981, Friday (+13,044) Samuel Barber, US composer, died aged 70.

22/1/1981, Thursday, (+13,043) Thomas Weston, champion jockey, died.

21/1/1981, Wednesday (+13,042) The US hostages in Iran were released. 50 men and 2 women were flown out of Iran after 444 days in captivity.� The US had agreed to freeze the assets of the deposed Shah, end trade sanctions, and unfreeze Iranian assets in the USA.� The hostages were flown to Algiers, then to Wiesbaden, Germany, to be greeted by Ex-President Carter. The hostage crisis began when the US allowed the ailing Shah of Iran to enter for medical treatment.

20/1/1981, Tuesday (+13,041) Ronald Reagan, Republican, sworn in as President of the USA; the oldest person to take this office. He was elected on 4/11/1980, with a landslide majority. The Republicans gained control of the Senate for the first time in 26 years.

19/1/1981, Monday (+13,040) Thirteen Black people died in a fire at Deptford, south London., during an all-night party.� The West Indian community suspected the fire had been started by racists.

17/1/1981, Saturday (+13,038)

16/1/1981, Friday (+13,037) In Northern Ireland Bernadette McAliskey, nee Devlin, former |MP, was shot dead by 3 Loyalist gunmen.

15/1/1981, Thursday (+13,036) El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf, Senegalese footballer, was born.

12/1/1981, Monday (+13,033)

5/1/1981, Monday (+13,026) The Yorkshire Ripper murderer, a lorry driver called Peter Sutcliffe, was arrested in Sheffield.

4/1/1981, Sunday (+13,025) The Broadway show Frankenstein opened and closed on this night, losing US$ 2 million.

2/1/1981, Friday (+13,023)

1/1/1981, Thursday (+13,022) (1) Greece became the 10^th member of the European Community.

(2) Palau became self-governing.

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31/12/1980, Wednesday (+13,021) Marshal Mcluhan, Canadian philosopher, died aged 69.

27/12/1980, Saturday (+13,017) Egypt and Syria resumed diplomatic relations after a 10-year break.

24/12/1980, Wednesday (+13,014) Death of German commander Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, who was briefly Fuhrer in 1945.

20/12/1980, Saturday (+13,010) Ashley Cole, English footballer, was born.

18/12/1980, Thursday (+13,008) Death of Soviet statesman Alexei Kosygin, aged 77, Prime Minister of the USSR 1964-80.

17/12/1980, Wednesday (+13,007) Professor Alan Walters was appointed as personal economic advisor to Mrs Thatcher.

16/12/1980, Tuesday (+13,006) Harland �Colonel� Sanders, founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain, died aged 90.

13/12/1980, Saturday (+13,003)

10/12/1980, Wednesday (+13,000) In the first elections in Uganda for 18 years, Dr Milton Obote was declared the winner.

9/12/1980, Tuesday (+12,999) Jos� Roberto de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer, was born.

8/12/1980, Monday (+12,998) (1) UK unemployment passed the 3 million mark for the first time since 1935. Mrs Thatcher held a summit meeting in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey about closer co-operation between the UK and Eire.

(2) �John Lennon, born 9/10/1940 in Liverpool during an air raid, was shot dead in New York by Mark David Chapman. See 26/5/1969.

6/12/1980, Saturday (+12,996)

4/12/1980, Thursday (+12,994) Francisco Sa Carneiro, Prime Minister of Portugal, died in an air crash. He was succeeded on 21/12/1980 by Francisco Pinto Balsemao.

3/12/1980, Wednesday (+12,993) Sir Oswald Moseley died in exile at his home in Paris.

2/12/1980, Tuesday (+12,992) McKinley National Park, USA, (now Denali), was enlarged to 15,000 square miles.

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27/11/1980, Thursday (+12,987) Four Welsh Nationalist extremists were jailed for arson attacks on holiday homes.

24/11/1980, Monday (+12,984) British Chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe announced �1.06 billion reduction in public spending and a �3 billion increase in taxation.

23/11/1980, Sunday (+12,983) (Earthquake, Italy) A series of earthquakes in southern Italy killed 4,800 people, and left 300,000 homeless.

22/11/1980, Saturday (+12,982) Mae West, American film star in the 1930s, died aged 88.

21/11/1980, Friday (+12,981) (1) A Bill was presented in the UK Parliament separating the UK post from the telephone services.

(2) The episode of Dallas in which it was revealed who shot JR broke all viewing records.

20/11/1980, Thursday (+12,980) The trial for treason of the Gang of Four former Chinese leaders opened in Beijing.

15/11/1980, Saturday (+12,975)

11/11/1980, Tuesday (+12,971) Jens Bergenstrom, Swedish ice hockey player, was born.

10/11/1980, Monday (+12,970) Michael Foot, a 67-year-old left winger was elected leader of the Labour Party. He defeated Denis Healey, much to the surprise and delight of the Tories; Healey had a populist appeal.

7/11/1980, Friday (+12,967) Steve McQueen, Hollywood actor who performed many of his own stunts, died of cancer.

4/11/1980, Tuesday (+12,964) In US Presidential elections, the former Republican Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, defeated Democrat Jimmy Carter by a wide margin, exactly one year after the Iranian hostage crisis began. Reagan became the 40^th President.

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31/10/1980, Friday (+12,960) (1) The Polish Government recognised Solidarity.