July 1, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Eastern Airlines Flight 984 was scheduled to depart Guatemala City
  Guatemala City
  Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
  
   for Miami at 3:30 pm, but mechanical problems delayed the takeoff. As baggage was being prepared for loading on the Boeing 727, a time bomb exploded inside one of the suitcases at 4:15, when the jet would have been in flight over the Caribbean.
• Typhoon Kelly struck the Philippines
  Philippines
  The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
  
   and killed more than 150 people in and around Legaspi City.
• Andrija Artukovic
  Andrija Artukovic
  Andrija Artuković was a Croatian politician and a member of the Ustaše movement. Artuković was convicted of war crimes committed against minorities in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II...
  
  , Nazi collaborator who had served as the Minister of the Interior for the Independent State of Croatia
  Independent State of Croatia
  The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
  
   before taking up residence at Seal Beach, California
  Seal Beach, California
  -Neighborhoods:Seal Beach encompasses the Leisure World retirement gated community with roughly 9,000 residents. This was the first major planned retirement community of its type in the U.S...
  
  , was ordered deported to Yugoslavia
  Yugoslavia
  Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
  
   to stand trial for war crimes.
• Wonderland murders
  Wonderland Murders
  The Wonderland murders, also known as Four on the Floor or Laurel Canyon Murders, occurred in Los Angeles in 1981, when four people were killed in a drug-related scenario involving porn star John Holmes and was allegedly masterminded by Los Angeles businessman and drug dealer Eddie Nash.-Robbery...
  
  : Four bodies were found in a home at 8763 Wonderland Avenue in the hills above Los Angeles
  Los Ángeles
  Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
  
  , along with a seriously injured woman. All five had been bludgeoned with a steel pipe. Neighbors had heard screams earlier in the morning, but nobody called the police until 12 hours later. Pornographic movie star John Holmes
  John Holmes (pornographic actor)
  John Curtis Holmes better known as John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd , was one of the most prolific male porn stars of all time, appearing in about 2,500 adult loops, stag films, and pornographic feature movies in the 1970s and 1980s...
  
   and nightclub owner Eddie Nash
  Eddie Nash
  Eddie Nash is a former nightclub and restaurant manager in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted gangster and drug dealer; he is best known as the alleged mastermind of the Wonderland Murders.-Early life:...
  
   were both indicted for the killings; both were acquitted.
• The Canadian Union of Postal Workers
  Canadian Union of Postal Workers
  The Canadian Union of Postal Workers or CUPW is a public sector trade union representing postal workers employed at Canada Post as well as private sector workers outside Canada Post.-Activities:...
  
   walked out on strike at midnight. Mail delivery was halted for six weeks, finally resuming on August 11.

July 2, 1981 (Thursday)

• Iran hostage crisis
  Iran hostage crisis
  The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...
  
  : The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that then-President Jimmy Carter
  Jimmy Carter
  James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
  
   had acted within his authority when he agreed in the Algiers Accords
  Algiers Accords
  The Algiers Accords of January 19, 1981, were brokered by the Algerian government between the United States and Iran to resolve the Iran hostage crisis. The crisis arose from the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and the taking hostage of the American staff there...
  
   to release frozen Iranian assets no later than July 19, in return for the release of 52 American hostages from Iran
  Iran
  Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
  
  . The decision, made only 8 days after the Court heard arguments, cleared the way for $2.3 billion to be transferred from U.S. banks to Iran. Earlier on the same day, eight of the former hostages sued Iran in federal court, seeking $5,000,000 apiece, despite a waiver of the right to sue as part of the same accords.

July 3, 1981 (Friday)

• 1981 England riots
  1981 England riots
  In 1981, the United Kingdom suffered serious riots across many major cities in England. They were perceived as race riots between communities, in all cases the main motives for the riots were related to racial tension and inner-city deprivation. The riots were caused by a distrust of the police...
  
  : A race riot began in Southall
  Southall
  Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated west of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt...
  
  , London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  , as a group of white "skinheads" clashed with British Asian
  British Asian
  British Asian is a term used to describe British citizens who descended from mainly South Asia, also known as South Asians in the United Kingdom...
  
  s. The next day, black British
  Black British
  Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...
  
   youths in the Toxteth section of Liverpool
  Liverpool
  Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
  
   fought with police, and within a week, disturbances broke out in other English cities.
• 1981 Wimbledon Championships – Women's Singles: Chris Evert Lloyd defeated Hana Mandlikova
  Hana Mandlíková
  Hana Mandlíková is a former Czech professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia and later Australia. During her career, she won four Grand Slam singles titles – two at the Australian Open, one at the French Open, and one at the US Open...
  
   in straight sets, becoming the first woman in 14 years to win the tournament without losing a single set. In seven matches, she lost only 26 games.
• The New York Times became the first major newspaper to report on the existence of AIDS
  AIDS
  Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
  
  , with a report on page 20, headlined "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals". Initially referred to as "GRID" (for "Gay Related Immune Disorder"), the illness would later be named Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The news, picked up by CNN the next day, was based on an article in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, entitled "Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis Pneumonia Among Homosexual Men- New York City and California".
• Died: Ross Martin
  Ross Martin
  Ross Martin was a Polish-born American Emmy-nominated actor known for playing Artemus Gordon in the western TV series The Wild Wild West, starring Robert Conrad, and Andamo on Mr...
  
  , 61, American TV actor (Artemus Gordon on The Wild Wild West). Martin, a native of Poland, was playing tennis in 100 degree heat at Ramona, California, when he collapsed.
• Died: Wen-Chen Chen, Carnegie Mellon University professor from Taiwan, was killed by security police during a vacation in his homeland.

July 4, 1981 (Saturday)

• 1981 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles: After losing the first set, 4-6, to Björn Borg
  Björn Borg
  Björn Rune Borg is a former world no. 1 tennis player from Sweden. Between 1974 and 1981 he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles and six French Open singles titles...
  
  , John McEnroe
  John McEnroe
  John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...
  
   won the finals with three straight sets (7-6, 7-6 and 6-4), but not without outraging his hosts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
  All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
  The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club , also known as the All-England Club, based at Aorangi Park, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Grand Slam tennis event still held on grass...
  
   by his outbursts against the officials.
• Kenji Urada
  Kenji Urada
  Kenji Urada was one of the first persons reported to have been killed by a robot. On July 4, 1981, Urada was employed as a 37-year old maintenance engineer at a Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant. While working on a broken robot, he failed to turn it off completely, resulting in the robot pushing...
  
  , an employee at the automated Kawasaki Heavy Industries
  Kawasaki Heavy Industries
  is an international corporation based in Japan. It has headquarters in both Chūō-ku, Kobe and Minato, Tokyo.The company is named after its founder Shōzō Kawasaki and has no connection with the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa....
  
   factory, became what was reported as the first person to be killed by a robot. However, an American worker Robert Williams of the Ford Motor Company plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, had been killed by a robot two years earlier, on January 25, 1979.

July 5, 1981 (Sunday)

• Israeli legislative election, 1981
  Israeli legislative election, 1981
  Elections for the tenth Knesset were held in Israel on 30 June 1981. Despite last minute polls suggesting a victory for Shimon Peres's Alignment, Menachem Begin's Likud won by just one seat...
  
  : After initial doubts about whether his Likud
  Likud
  Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
  
   party had been defeated by the Labor Party of Shimon Peres
  Shimon Peres
  GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
  
  , Prime Minister Menahem Begin was able to declare victory in the closest election in the history of Israel
  Israel
  The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
  
  . Under the Israeli system of government, representation in Parliament was based upon the proportion of the overall balloting. With 718,941 votes, Likud had 37.1% for 48 seats, while the 708,356 for Labour was 36.6% for 47 seats, giving Begin the right to assemble the coalition in the 120 seat Knesset.
• Rajan Mahadevan
  Rajan Mahadevan
  Rajan Srinivasan Mahadevan is a numerically gifted memorist born in Madras, India in 1957. Rajan moved to Mangalore in 1959. He discovered his exceptional ability to memorize numbers at the very young age of 4 during a party hosted by his family...
  
   recited pi
  Pi
  ' is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter. is approximately equal to 3.14. Many formulae in mathematics, science, and engineering involve , which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants...
  
   to 31,811 digits before an audience in Mangalore
  Mangalore
  Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about west of the state capital, Bangalore. Mangalore lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, and is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in south western...
  
  . The event took 3 hours and 49 minutes, including a total of 26 minutes of breaks, and was sponsored by the local Lions Club International, Lion Seva Mandir. The record stood until 1987, when Hideaki Tomoyoni repeated the first 40,000 digits.
• Died: Manuel Urrutia, 81, former President of Cuba
  President of Cuba
  --209.174.31.28 18:43, 22 November 2011 The President of Cuba is the Head of state of Cuba. According to the Cuban Constitution of 1976, the President is the chief executive of the Council of State of Cuba...
  
   who was installed, and later deposed, by Fidel Castro
  Fidel Castro
  Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
  
   following the 1959 Revolution

July 6, 1981 (Monday)

• On trial in Los Angeles
  Los Ángeles
  Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
  
   under accusation of being the Hillside Strangler
  Hillside Strangler
  The Hillside Strangler is the media epithet for two men, cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, who were convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing girls and women ranging in age from 12 to 28 years old during a four-month period from late 1977 to early 1978...
  
  , Kenneth Bianchi took the witness stand in his own defense. After initially denying his involvement in the slayings of ten young women, Bianchi unexpectedly began a detailed confession and calmly described each of the murders in detail.

July 7, 1981 (Tuesday)

• "I'm pleased to announce that upon completion of all the necessary checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I will send to the Senate the nomination of Judge Sandra Day O'Connor
  Sandra Day O'Connor
  Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
  
   of the Arizona Court of Appeals for confirmation as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court." With those words, U.S. President Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
  
   named O'Connor as the 102nd person, and first woman, to ever serve on the nation's highest court.
• Piloted by Stephen Ptacek, the Solar Challenger
  Solar Challenger
  |-See also:-External links:*...
  
  crossed the English Channel
  English Channel
  The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
  
   in an airplane powered entirely by the Sun
  Sun
  The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
  
  . Built by Paul MacCready
  Paul MacCready
  Paul B. MacCready, Jr. was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the Kremer prize...
  
  , the plane, covered with 16,128 solar cell
  Solar cell
  A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
  
  s, took off from France
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
   at Cormeilles-en-Vexin
  Cormeilles-en-Vexin
  Cormeilles-en-Vexin is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France.-References:** -External links:* *...
  
  , then traveled 160 miles (257.5 km) in 5 hours and 23 minutes and landed in England at the RAF Base at Manston
  Manston
  Manston is the name of a number of settlements:* Manston, Dorset* Manston, Kent** location of RAF Manston* Manston, Leeds...
  
  , landing at 4:47 p.m.
• Died: Peace Pilgrim (Mildred Norman), 62, American pacifist who attracted attention to her causes by walking across the United States; in an auto accident near Knox, Indiana
  Knox, Indiana
  Knox is a city in Center Township, Starke County, Indiana, United States. The population was 3,704 at the 2010 census. Knox is also within the Chicago Metropolitan Area along with the City of Valparaiso. The city is the county seat of Starke County. The city was founded in 1851 and is named after...
  
  

July 8, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Lt. Adriano Bomba of Mozambique
  Mozambique
  Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
  
   flew a Soviet-built MiG-17 jet fighter into South Africa
  South Africa
  The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
  
   and then signaled to intercepting forces that he wished to surrender. Bomba, a black African defector, was given asylum by the white minority government that ruled the nation during the apartheid era, in return for military intelligence.
• Born: Anastasia Myskina
  Anastasia Myskina
  Anastasiya Andreyevna Myskina is a professional tennis player from Russia. She won the 2004 French Open singles title, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to win a Grand Slam main draw singles title. Subsequent to this victory she rose to number 3 on the WTA ranking, becoming the first...
  
  , Russian tennis player, 2004 French Open winner; in Moscow
  Moscow
  Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
  
  
• Died: Irish Republican Joe McDonnell, at the Long Kesh
  Maze (HM Prison)
  Her Majesty's Prison Maze was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from mid-1971 to mid-2000....
  
   Internment Camp after a 61-day hunger strike
  1981 Irish hunger strike
  The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during The Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners...
  
  .

July 9, 1981 (Thursday)

• The Minitel
  Minitel
  The Minitel is a Videotex online service accessible through the telephone lines, and is considered one of the world's most successful pre-World Wide Web online services. It was launched in France in 1982 by the PTT...
  
   videotex
  Videotex
  Videotex was one of the earliest implementations of an "end-user information system". From the late 1970s to mid-1980s, it was used to deliver information to a user in computer-like format, typically to be displayed on a television.In a strict definition, videotex refers to systems that provide...
  
   system for the general public was given its first test, in the town of Velizy, France
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
  , before being taken nationwide.
• Died: Meyer Levin
  Meyer Levin
  Meyer Levin was a Jewish-American novelist, known for works on the Leopold and Loeb case and the Anne Frank case.-Leopold and Loeb case:...
  
  , 65, American Jewish novelist

July 10, 1981 (Friday)

• Ken Rex McElroy was murdered in Skidmore, Missouri
  Skidmore, Missouri
  Skidmore is a city in Nodaway County, Missouri, United States. The population was 342 at the 2000 census. The small farming community which has a yearly "Punkin' Show", has made international headlines with high profile murders....
  
   by several unknown gunmen as a group of 60 people, frustrated with McElroy's continued violations of the law, gathered. The example of vigilante justice has been recounted in books and a made-for-TV movie
• The Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, cult leader from India, purchased a 39 square miles (101 km²) ranch near Antelope, Oregon
  Antelope, Oregon
  Antelope is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 46.-History:The Antelope Valley was probably named by members of Joseph Sherar's party who were packing supplies to mines in the John Day area. Sherar became known as the operator of a toll bridge...
  
   and named the haven Rajneeshpuram
  Rajneeshpuram
  Rajneeshpuram, Oregon was an intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, briefly incorporated as a city in the 1980s, which was populated with followers of the spiritual teacher Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.- History :...
  
  .
• The Israeli Defense Forces began a regular bombardment of Palestine Liberation Organization
  Palestine Liberation Organization
  The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
  
   strongholds in Lebanon
  Lebanon
  Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
  
  . The siege escalated after the Palestinian guerillas began shelling Israeli settlements. Until a July 24 ceasefire, 450 Palestinians and Lebanese, and 6 Israelis, died

July 11, 1981 (Saturday)

• 1981 England riots
  1981 England riots
  In 1981, the United Kingdom suffered serious riots across many major cities in England. They were perceived as race riots between communities, in all cases the main motives for the riots were related to racial tension and inner-city deprivation. The riots were caused by a distrust of the police...
  
  : Rioting in the U.K. reached its height, with thousands of people fighting with police in cities across England. In addition to London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  , violence flared in Liverpool
  Liverpool
  Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
  
  , Birmingham
  Birmingham
  Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
  
  , Sheffield
  Sheffield
  Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
  
  , Nottingham
  Nottingham
  Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
  
  , Hull
  Kingston upon Hull
  Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
  
  , Manchester
  Manchester
  Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
  
  , Preston and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
• The Writers Guild of America
  Writers Guild of America
  The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
  
   ended its 13-week strike, which had begun on March 2.

July 12, 1981 (Sunday)

• Three days of torrential rains began in China
  China
  Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
  
  's Sichuan
  Sichuan
  ' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
  
   Province, with up to 18.8 inches (477.5 mm) raising the level of the Yangtze River
  Yangtze River
  The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
  
   and its tributaries as much as 16.5 feet (5 m). Initial reports from the Xinhua news agency reported 3,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries. The official numbers were revised two weeks later, but the toll was still high, with 753 dead, 558 missing, 28,140 injured and 1.5 million people left homeless.
• Died: William A. Keeler, President of ARCO
  ARCO
  Atlantic Richfield Company is an oil company with operations in the United States as well as in Indonesia, the North Sea, and the South China Sea. It has more than 1,300 gas stations in the western part of the United States. ARCO was originally formed by the merger of East Coast-based Atlantic...
  
   Gas and Oil Company, and his wife Anita, were murdered by their 14 year old son, David, at their home in North Dallas
  North Dallas
  North Dallas is an expensive area of numerous communities and neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas . The phrase "North Dallas" is also sometimes used to include any suburb or exurb north of Dallas proper within the metropolitan area. The majority of North Dallas is located in Dallas County while a small...
  
  .
• Died: Edward H. Little, 100, former soap salesman who built the Colgate-Palmolive
  Colgate-Palmolive
  Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products . Under its "Hill's" brand, it is also a manufacturer of...
  
   Company into one of the worlds largest manufacturers of grooming products.

July 13, 1981 (Monday)

• Ben Plucknett
  Ben Plucknett
  Walter Harrison Plucknett was an American track and field athlete, known primarily for the discus throw. In 1981, he broke the existing world record with a throw of 233'7", and broke the record again with a throw of 72.34 m on July 7, 1981...
  
  , the world record holder for the discus throw
  Discus throw
  The discus throw is an event in track and field athletics competition, in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than his or her competitors. It is an ancient sport, as evidenced by the 5th century BC Myron statue, Discobolus...
  
  , was banned for life by the International Association of Athletics Federations
  International Association of Athletics Federations
  The International Association of Athletics Federations is the international governing body for the sport of athletics. It was founded in 1912 at its first congress in Stockholm, Sweden by representatives from 17 national athletics federations as the International Amateur Athletics Federation...
  
  , after his urine tested positive for anabolic steroids. Plucknett's July 7 record of 237 feet, 4 inches, and an earlier mark of 233'7", were stricken, and the official world record reverted to the 233'5" mark set by Wolfgang Schmidt
  Wolfgang Schmidt
  Wolfgang Schmidt is a former German track and field athlete, who competed for East Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics and won the silver medal in the discus throw. A former world record holder, he also won several medals at the European Championships in Athletics. Schmidt made headlines in 1982...
  
   of East Germany.
• Born: Ágnes Kovács
  Ágnes Kovács
  Ágnes Kovács is a former Hungarian swimmer. She won the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney in 200 m breaststroke....
  
  , Hungarian swimmer, in Budapest
  Budapest
  Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
  
  

July 14, 1981 (Tuesday)

• Max Hugel, a millionaire who had been appointed by CIA Director William Casey to serve as Deputy Director for Clandestine Operations, despite having "no visible qualifications" resigned hours after the Washington Post broke a story headlined, "Spymaster Is Accused of Improper Stock Practices."

July 15, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Aspartame
  Aspartame
  Aspartame is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in some foods and beverages. In the European Union, it is codified as E951. Aspartame is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide. It was first sold under the brand name NutraSweet; since 2009 it...
  
  , the artificial sweetener marketed as NutraSweet
  NutraSweet
  The NutraSweet Company makes and sells NutraSweet, their trademarked brand name for the artificial sweetener aspartame, and Neotame.Aspartame was accidentally discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter, a chemist with a master's degree working under Dr. Kurt Rorig, PhD, in charge of new drug research...
  
  , was approved for sale in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration
  Food and Drug Administration
  The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
  
  . Initially, the product was cleared only for use at home, but would later be okayed as a food additive.

July 16, 1981 (Thursday)

• Mahathir bin Mohamad
  Mahathir bin Mohamad
  Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad . is a Malaysian politician who was the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, making him Malaysia's longest serving Prime Minister. His political career spanned almost 40 years.Born and raised in Alor Setar, Kedah, Mahathir...
  
   was sworn in as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia
  Prime Minister of Malaysia
  The Prime Minister of Malaysia is the indirectly elected head of government of Malaysia. He is officially appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the head of state, who in HM's judgment is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of that House of Representatives , the...
  
  , succeeding Hussein Onn
  Hussein Onn
  Tun Hussein bin Dato' Onn who is of 3/4 Malay and 1/4 Circassian ancestry was the third Prime Minister of Malaysia, ruling from 1976 to 1981. He was granted the soubriquet Bapa Perpaduan...
  
  , who retired because of ill health. Mahathir would serve for 22 years, retiring in 2003.
• Died: Harry Chapin
  Harry Chapin
  Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter best known in particular for his folk rock songs including "Taxi", "W*O*L*D", and the number-one hit "Cat's in the Cradle". Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key player in the creation of the...
  
  , folk singer and hunger activist, was killed in a car wreck near Jericho, New York
  Jericho, New York
  Jericho is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the CDP population was 13,567. The area is served by the Jericho Union Free School District, the boundaries of which differ somewhat from those of the hamlet...
  
   on the Long Island Expressway. Chapin had shifted lanes into the path of a Rickel Home Centers
  Rickel
  Rickel was a home improvement store chain based in northern New Jersey. The Rickels' first store opened in 1953 and for three decades Rickel was the leading hardware, plumbing, heating and electrical retailer in its region...
  
   truck, which was unable to avoid a collision with his car, and died of a ruptured aneurysm caused by the impact. A jury later found Chapin to be 40% at fault in the accident, with the driver primarily liable, and awarded $7,200,000 to his widow.

July 17, 1981 (Friday)

• Hyatt Regency walkway collapse
  Hyatt Regency walkway collapse
  The Hyatt Regency hotel walkway collapse was a collapse of an interior suspended skywalk system that occurred on July 17, 1981, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, killing 114 people and injuring 216 others during a tea dance. At the time, it was the deadliest structural collapse in U.S...
  
  : At 7:05 pm, a fourth floor skywalk at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri
  Kansas City, Missouri
  Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
  
   broke from its moorings and dropped onto a second floor walk directly below, and then both fell into the hotel lobby below. Both walkways and the lobby were crowded with people who had gathered for a dance; 114 were killed and 185 more injured. Ultimately, the disaster was traced to a flaw in design and construction. While the original plan was for the two walkways to hang separately, nuts and bolts intended to bear the weight of the fourth floor were holding the weight of both. The failure of a single nut under the stress led to the chain reaction.
• Israeli bombing of Beirut Aircraft from Israel bombed a residential area of West Beirut
  Beirut
  Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
  
   that housed PLO headquarters. Ten apartment buildings were destroyed, more than 300 people were killed and 800 or more injured. Most were civilians.
• The Nissan Motor Company announced that it was phasing out the name "Datsun
  Datsun
  Datsun was an automobile marque. The name was created in 1931 by the DAT Motorcar Co. for a new car model, spelling it as "Datson" to indicate its smaller size when compared to the existing, larger DAT car. Later, in 1933 after Nissan Motor Co., Ltd...
  
  " for its cars and trucks sold outside of Japan.

July 18, 1981 (Saturday)

• Jack Henry Abbott, a convicted murderer turned author of the bestseller In the Belly of the Beast
  In the Belly of the Beast
  In the Belly of the Beast is a book written by Jack Abbott and published in 1981.Jack Abbott was an American career criminal and the book consists of his letters to Norman Mailer about his experiences in what Abbott saw as a brutal and unjust prison system...
  
  , had been paroled in June with the influence of author Norman Mailer
  Norman Mailer
  Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
  
  . Abbott and two friends walked into a Manhattan cafe called Binibon, and he got into an argument with Richard Adan over use of a restroom. Abbott stabbed Adan to death and then fled the scene. Ironically, Abbott's return to crime took place as the praise of his book was being printed in that Sunday's New York Times Book Review. Abbott was captured two months later, convicted of the murder, and spent the rest of his life in prison until hanging himself in 2002.

July 19, 1981 (Sunday)

• At the summit of Western leaders in Ottawa
  Ottawa
  Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
  
  , French President Francois Mitterrand
  François Mitterrand
  François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
  
   revealed to U.S. President Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
  
   the existence of the Farewell Dossier
  Farewell Dossier
  The Farewell dossier was the collection of documents that Colonel Vladimir Vetrov, a KGB defector , gathered and gave to the French DST in 1981–82, during the Cold War....
  
  , 4,000 pages of Soviet documents that had been supplied to France by former KGB Colonel Vladimir Vetrov
  Vladimir Vetrov
  Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov was a high-ranking KGB spy during the Cold War, who decided to covertly release to France and NATO valuable information on the Soviet Union's clandestine program aimed at stealing technology from the West.Vetrov was assigned the code-name Farewell by the French...
  
  , codenamed "Farewell". The material showed that the Soviets had, after years of infiltration, been stealing American technological research and development. While other advisers to the National Security Council
  National Security Council
  A National Security Council is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security...
  
   were looking for ways to stop the leaks, Gus Weiss proposed the idea of creating defective technology and allowing it to be stolen. The first trial was for computer programs which, months after being applied to operate the Siberian gas pipeline, began to fail. The existence of the Farewell Dossier remained a secret until 1997.

July 20, 1981 (Monday)

• David A. Kirwan, a 24 year old tourist at Yellowstone National Park
  Yellowstone National Park
  Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
  
  , jumped into the alkaline (pH 9) and scalding (202 F) Celestine Pool to save his dog. The dog died within moments and its body dissolved in the hot spring. Kirwan, burned over his entire body, was airlifted to Salt Lake City and died the next day.
• Martina Navratilova became an American citizen at a ceremony in Los Angeles
  Los Ángeles
  Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
  
  . Until then, the women's tennis star, who had defected from Czechoslovakia
  Czechoslovakia
  Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
  
  , had lived in fear that she would be kidnapped and returned for trial.
• Died: Lou Peters, Cadillac dealer from Lodi, California
  Lodi, California
  Lodi is a city located in , in the northern portion of California's Central Valley. The population was 62,134 at the 2010 census. The California Department of Finance's population estimate as of January 1, 2011 is 62,473....
  
  , whose cooperation with the FBI led to the conviction of organized crime leader Joe Bonanno earlier in the year. The Bureau named the Louis E. Peters Memorial Service Award in his honor.

July 21, 1981 (Tuesday)

• Tohui The Panda was born in Chapultepec Zoo
  Chapultepec Zoo
  -References:* - * on the Zoo at "Giant Panda Planet.com"* of the Zoo at "Mexico Desconocido Online"* at "The Good Zoo Guide Online"...
  
   in Mexico City
  Mexico City
  Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
  
  , the first giant panda to ever be born and survive in captivity outside of China
  People's Republic of China
  China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
  
  . Tohui was the second child of Ying Ying, who accidentally crushed her first one.
• The U.S. Postal Service, the American Postal Workers Union
  American Postal Workers Union
  The American Postal Workers Union is a labor union in the United States. It represents employees of the United States Postal Service who are clerks, maintenance employees, and motor vehicle service workers...
  
   and the National Association of Letter Carriers
  National Association of Letter Carriers
  The National Association of Letter Carriers is an American labor union, representing non-rural letter carriers employed by the United States Postal Service...
  
   reached a $4.8 billion agreement and averted the threatened walkout of 500,000 post office employees. The prior contract had expired at 12:01 the day before, but workers remained on the job as negotiations continued.

July 22, 1981 (Wednesday)

• FTC
  Federal Trade Commission
  The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
  
   Commissioner Michael Pertschuk
  Michael Pertschuk
  Michael Pertschuk is a consumer and public health advocate, author and former government official. He served as consumer counsel and later chief counsel and staff director to the U.S...
  
   announced the most comprehensive regulations ever applied to the American funeral industry, ending deceptive practices after a nearly ten year study. Among the changes were a requirement for funeral homes to itemize their prices, and a prohibition against a common practice of requiring the bereaved to buy a casket even for a cremation
  Cremation
  Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
  
  .
• Mehmet Ali Agca
  Mehmet Ali Agca
  Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...
  
   was sentenced to life imprisonment for his attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II
  Pope John Paul II
  Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
  
   on May 13
  May 1981
  January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - DecemberThe following events occurred in May 1981.-May 1, 1981 :...
  
  .

July 23, 1981 (Thursday)

• Centralia mine fire: A coal mine fire, burning since May 27, 1962, broke to the surface in the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania
  Centralia, Pennsylvania
  Centralia is a borough and ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005, 9 in 2007, and 10 in 2010, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962...
  
  . Condemning and buying all the property in the town was less expensive than trying to extinguish the fire, so the 1,000 residents of Centralia were relocated over the next several years. The virtual ghost town
  Ghost town
  A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
  
   had 20 residents by 2003.
• An artificial heart
  Artificial heart
  An artificial heart is a mechanical device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used in order to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in case transplantation is impossible...
  
   was implanted into a human being for the second time in history (the first was in 1969), as Dr. Denton Cooley placed the Akutsu-III into Willibrod Meuffels, a 26-year old Netherlands man undergoing bypass surgery at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston. Meuffels remained on the TAH for 55 hours until receiving a donor heart, dying from complications ten days later.
• Died: Kazuo Taoka
  Kazuo Taoka
  was one of the most prominent yakuza Godfathers.Known as the "Godfather of Godfathers", Taoka was third kumicho of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization, from 1946 to 1981....
  
  , 68, Japanese organized crime boss who built the Yamaguchi-gumi
  Yamaguchi-gumi
  is Japan's largest and most infamous yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe pre-WWII....
  
   gang into Japan's largest yakuza
  Yakuza
  , also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
  
   group; and Harvey Fletcher
  Harvey Fletcher
  Harvey Fletcher was an American physicist. Known as the "father of stereophonic sound" he is credited with the invention of the audiometer and hearing aid...
  
  , 96, American inventor and pioneer in acoustical engineering
  Acoustical engineering
  Acoustical engineering is the branch of engineering dealing with sound and vibration. It is the application of acoustics, the science of sound and vibration, in technology. Acoustical engineers are typically concerned with the manipulation and control of sound....
  
  .

July 24, 1981 (Friday)

• Kosmos 1275, a Soviet satellite that had been launched on June 4, was struck by debris while in orbit 600 miles (965.6 km) over Alaska, breaking into more than 140 pieces of space junk.
• American mediator Philip Habib
  Philip Habib
  Philip Charles Habib was a Lebanese-American career diplomat known for work in Vietnam, South Korea and the Middle East...
  
   brokered a cease-fire between Israel
  Israel
  The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
  
   and the PLO, temporarily halting the Lebanese Civil War
  Lebanese Civil War
  The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
  
  .
• In one of the largest alleged UFO sightings, thousands of people in China claimed to have observed a bright object surrounded by "Saturn-like rings" in Tibet, flying for seven minutes. China's official Xinhua News Agency
  Xinhua News Agency
  The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...
  
   reported the story eleven days later.

July 25, 1981 (Saturday)

• The very first World Games
  World Games
  The World Games, first held in 1981, are an international multi-sport event, meant for sports, or disciplines or events within a sport, that are not contested in the Olympic Games...
  
  , a quadrennial international competition for non-Olympic sports, began in Santa Clara, California
  Santa Clara, California
  Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
  
  . Organized by Hal Uplinger
  Hal Uplinger
  Harold F. Uplinger was an American professional basketball player and television producer.A 6'4" guard from Long Island University, Uplinger spent the 1953-54 NBA season with the Baltimore Bullets, scoring 86 points in 23 games.He worked for CBS in Los Angeles and New York...
  
  , the events ran until August 3.
• 1981 Springbok tour
  1981 Springbok Tour
  The 1981 South African rugby union tour of New Zealand was a controversial tour of New Zealand by the South Africa national rugby union team, known as "the Springboks"...
  
  : Anti-apartheid protestors in Hamilton, New Zealand
  Hamilton, New Zealand
  Hamilton is the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, and Hamilton City is the country's fourth largest territorial authority. Hamilton is in the Waikato Region of the North Island, approximately south of Auckland...
  
   forced the cancellation of the second game of the 16 game tour by the South African national rugby union team (the Springboks) and the host team, Waikato
  Waikato Rugby Union
  The Waikato Rugby Union is the official governing body of rugby union in the Waikato area in the North Island of New Zealand. Its senior representative team competes in the ITM Cup , and won the inaugural Air New Zealand Cup in 2006.Waikato Rugby Union was founded in 1921...
  
  . New Zealand History Online]. Before the scheduled match could begin, 300 protestors occupied the field at Rugby Park, despite the presence of 4,700 police. The game was cancelled at 3:10 pm after word was received that a pilot had stolen a Cessna plane and was flying toward the stadium, which was crowded with 27,000 fans. Nevertheless, the controversial tour continued with a game four days later at Wellington
  Wellington
  Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
  
  

July 26, 1981 (Sunday)

• After six years, the FBI brought "Operation Donnie Brasco" to an end. Undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone
  Joseph D. Pistone
  Joseph Dominick Pistone, alias Donnie Brasco, , is a former FBI agent who worked undercover for six years infiltrating the Bonanno crime family and to a lesser extent the Colombo crime family, two of the Five Families of the Mafia in New York City...
  
   had infiltrated the Bonanno crime family
  Bonanno crime family
  The Bonanno crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
  
   starting in 1975, using the alias Donnie Brasco and gathering evidence for the Bureau. When the family's boss, Dominic Napolitano, asked Pistone to carry out a hit against Bruno Indelicato, his FBI handlers decided that Pistone/Brasco would be discovered. Only after Pistone's assignment ended did FBI agents inform Napolitano that his trusted aide had been an informant. Napolitano would be killed by the Bonanno mob on August 17 for making the mistake.
• Swelled by a downpour that had happened hours earlier and far upriver, the Tanque Verde Falls
  Tanque Verde Falls
  Tanque Verde Falls are a series of waterfalls in Tanque Verde Canyon east of Tanque Verde, Arizona and Tucson, Arizona. Tanque Verde Ridge of the Rincon Mountains lies to the south and Agua Caleinte Hill to the north...
  
   in Arizona
  Arizona
  Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
  
   was the site of a flash flood
  Flash flood
  A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
  
   that killed eight people without warning.
• Born: Maicon
  Maicon
  Maicon is a Brazilian given name. It may refer to:*Maicon Douglas Sisenando, Brazilian international association football player born in 1981 and currently playing for Italian club Internazionale and the Brazilian national team....
  
   (Maicon Douglas Sisenando), Brazilian soccer football player, in Novo Hamburgo
  Novo Hamburgo
  Novo Hamburgo is a city in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.Its population is 237,044 . The city covers an area of 217 square kilometers, and the average temperature is 19°C, a mild one for the region...
  
  

July 27, 1981 (Monday)

• Adam Walsh, age 6, was kidnapped from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida
  Hollywood, Florida
  -Demographics:As of 2000, there were 59,673 households out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.5% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.2% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of...
  
  , and murdered. His father, hotel executive John Walsh
  John Walsh
  John Edward Walsh is an American television personality, criminal investigator, human and victim rights advocate and formerly the host, as well as creator, of America's Most Wanted...
  
  , became an activist for missing children and for crime prevention, and would later become host for the television program America's Most Wanted
  America's Most Wanted
  America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
  
  . Serial killer Ottis Toole
  Ottis Toole
  Ottis Elwood Toole was an American serial killer, arsonist and cannibal. Toole was an accomplice of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas...
  
  , who confessed to the crime in 1983 and then recanted, died in 1996. Investigators concluded in 2008 that Toole had been the perpetrator and closed the case.
• Rod Brock, owner of Seattle Computer Products
  Seattle Computer Products
  Seattle Computer Products was a Seattle, Washington microcomputer hardware company which was one of the first manufacturers of computer systems based on the 16-bit Intel 8086 processor...
  
   and of the 86-DOS disk operating system designed by one of its former employees (Tim Paterson
  Tim Paterson
  Tim Paterson is an American computer programmer, best known as the original author of MS-DOS, the most widely used personal computer operating system in the 1980s....
  
  ), sold all rights to the program to Microsoft
  Microsoft
  Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
  
   for $50,000. Renamed MS-DOS
  MS-DOS
  MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
  
  , the system earned Microsoft billions of dollars.
• In a nationally televised speech, President Reagan explained, in simple terms, his proposal for the largest tax cut in U.S. history, and said, asked for the public to "contact your Senators and Congressmen. Tell them of your support for this bipartisan proposal.". Americans followed suit, and two days later, the bill passed the House 238-195, and the Senate 89-11.
• Born: Li Xiaopeng
  Li Xiaopeng
  Li Xiaopeng may refer to:*Li Xiaopeng , Olympic gymnast*Li Xiaopeng , professional soccer player*Li Xiaopeng , son of former premier Li Peng...
  
  , Chinese gymnast, 4 time Olympic gold medalist, world championships in vault (1999, 2002, 2003) and parallel bars (1998, 2002, 2006), in Changsha
• Died: William Wyler
  William Wyler
  William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
  
  , 79, American film director and winner of 3 Oscars (The Best Years of Our Lives
  The Best Years of Our Lives
  The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell, a United States paratrooper who lost both hands in a military training accident. The film is about three United States...
  
  , Mrs. Miniver (film)
  Mrs. Miniver (film)
  Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright. Based on the fictional English housewife created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, the film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture,...
  
  and Ben-Hur
  Ben-Hur (1959 film)
  Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...
  
  )
• Died: Paul Brunton
  Paul Brunton
  Paul Brunton was probably born as Hermann Hirsch of German Jewish origin. Later he changed his name to Raphael Hurst, and then Brunton Paul and finally Paul Brunton. He was a British philosopher, mystic, traveler, and guru...
  
  , 81, British mystic

July 28, 1981 (Tuesday)

• An earthquake
  Earthquake
  An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
  
   of magnitude 7.3 struck the Kerman province of Iran
  Iran
  Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
  
  , around Shahdad
  Shahdad
  Shahdad is a city in and the capital of Shahdad District, in Kerman County, Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 4,097, in 1,010 families....
  
  . Initial death estimates were as high as 5,000 people, but the United Nations
  United Nations
  The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
  
   later concluded that 1,500 had died in the sparsely populated province.
• Died: Rolf Wütherich
  Rolf Wütherich
  Rudolf Karl Wütherich was a German mechanic and race car driver. The former skydiver was a personal friend of James Dean and became famous for being in the car with the actor in his fatal car crash on September 30, 1955. Wütherich, himself badly injured, received hate mail from Dean fans who...
  
  , 54, mechanic who had been passenger with James Dean
  James Dean
  James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
  
   in Dean's fatal car accident on September 30, 1955. Like Dean, Wütherich was killed while driving a Porsche at high speed, losing control in the German village of Kupferzell
  Kupferzell
  Kupferzell is a town in the district of Hohenlohe in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The largest neighbouring towns are Künzelsau and Schwäbisch Hall . The town is named after the Kupfer river that flows through it....
  
  .
• Died: Father Stanley Rother
  Stanley Rother
  Stanley Francis Rother was a Catholic priest and missionary to Guatemala. He was murdered by a death squad, believed to be made up of right-wing extremists and elements of the Guatemalan Army, on July 28, 1981....
  
  , American missionary who had been a Roman Catholic priest in Santiago Atitlán
  Santiago Atitlán
  Santiago Atitlán is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala. The town is situated on Lago de Atitlán, which has an elevation of . The town sits on a bay of Lago Atitlan between two volcanos. Volcan San Pedro rises to west of town; Volcan Toliman rises to southeast of town. Volcan...
  
  , Guatemala
  Guatemala
  Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
  
  , for 13 years, was murdered by Guatemalan soldiers

July 29, 1981 (Wednesday)

• A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watched the Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer
  Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer
  The wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Frances Spencer took place on Wednesday, 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, United Kingdom. Their marriage was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" and the "wedding of the century". It was watched by an estimated global TV...
  
   at St Paul's Cathedral
  St Paul's Cathedral
  St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
  
   in London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  .
• Abolhassan Banisadr
  Abolhassan Banisadr
  Abulhassan Banisadr is an Iranian politician, economist and human rights activist who served as the first President of Iran from 4 February 1980 after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the abolition of the monarchy until his impeachment on 21 June 1981 by the Parliament of Iran...
  
   and Massoud Rajavi
  Massoud Rajavi
  Massoud Rajavi , is the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the leader of People's Mujahedin of Iran , an opposition organization active inside and outside of Iran. After leaving Iran in 1981, he resided in France and Iraq...
  
   escaped Iran to Evreux
  Évreux
  Évreux is a commune in the Eure department, of which it is the capital, in Haute Normandie in northern France.-History:In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century CE, was named Mediolanum Aulercorum, "the central town of the Aulerci", the Gallic tribe then inhabiting the area...
  
  , near Paris
  Paris
  Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
  
  
• Born: Fernando Alonso
  Fernando Alonso
  Fernando Alonso Díaz is a Spanish Formula One racing driver and a two-time World Champion, who is currently racing for Ferrari....
  
  , Spanish race car driver, Formula One world champion in 2005 and 2006; in Oviedo
  Oviedo
  Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....
  
  
• Died: Robert Moses
  Robert Moses
  Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
  
  , 92, American urban planner who oversaw the growth of New York City
  New York City
  New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
  
   and Long Island
  Long Island
  Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
  
  .

July 30, 1981 (Thursday)

• Dawda Jawara
  Dawda Jawara
  Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, GCMG was the first leader of The Gambia, serving first as Prime Minister from 1962 to 1970 and then as President from 1970 to 1994....
  
  , the President of the Gambia, was deposed in a coup while a guest at the royal wedding in Britain. Kukoi Sanyang declared himself leader of the West African nation, but was driven out when the surrounding nation of Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
   intervened with 3,000 troops and restored Jawara to power. Later in the year, the two nations agreed to form the Senegambia Confederation
  Sénégambia Confederation
  Senegambia, officially the Senegambia Confederation, was a loose confederation between the West African countries of Senegal and its neighbour the Gambia, which is almost completely surrounded by Senegal. The confederation came into existence on 1 February 1982 following an agreement between the...
  
  , a merger that lasted ten years.
• Born: Nicky Hayden
  Nicky Hayden
  Nicholas "Nicky" Patrick Hayden , nicknamed the The Kentucky Kid, is an American professional motorcycle racer, who won the MotoGP World Championship in 2006.-Beginnings and AMA Championship:...
  
  , American motorcycle racing champion (2006), in Louisville, Kentucky
  Louisville, Kentucky
  Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
  
  

July 31, 1981 (Friday)

• 1981 Major League Baseball strike: In New York, federal mediator Kenneth Moffett announced that the major league owners and players had agreed to end the strike. The All-Star game, set for August 9 in Cleveland, would mark the return of baseball, and regularly scheduled games would resume on August 10.
• Died: General Omar Torrijos
  Omar Torrijos
  Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was the Commander of the Panamanian and National Guard and the de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981...
  
  , 52, military leader of Panama
  Panama
  Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
  
  , and head of state from 1972-1978. Torrijos and six other people had taken off from Penonomé in a storm, bound for Coclesito, and the plane crashed into the Cerro Julio mountain.
• Died: Joe Gqabi, African National Congress
  African National Congress
  The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
  
   representative in Zimbabwe, was assassinated as he backed out of his driveway in Harare
  Harare
  Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...