1982
1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
President Brezhnev announces March 16 that the Soviet Union is halting the deployment of new nuclear missiles in Europe and says Americans are evading serious negotiations on strategic-arms limitations (see "Zero Option" proposal, 1981). U.S. officials dismiss the unilateral move as a propaganda ploy; President Reagan outlines a two-phase proposal for arms reduction May 9, with each superpower being allowed 850 ballistic missiles (down from 2,350 for the Soviet Union, 1,700 for the United States), long-range bombers to remain at present levels of 400 for the United States, 350 for the USSR, and a reduction in the number of Soviet SS-18 land-based missiles. U.S.-Soviet negotiations on limiting medium-range nuclear weapons in Europe resume at Geneva May 20 after a 2-month hiatus. A rally against the nuclear arms race brings 800,000 demonstrators into New York's Central Park June 12 demanding a "nuclear freeze" that would bring a moratorium on atomic weapons development. Allied leaders oppose such a freeze, arguing that it will solidify Moscow's advantage, since the USSR already has its missiles emplaced at bases east of the Ural Mountains. Lieut. Gen. Edward L. Rowny, 65, U.S. Army (ret.), opens new talks with chief Soviet negotiator Viktor Karpov at Geneva June 29; medium-range arms negotiator Paul H. Nitze and his Soviet counterpart Yuli A. Kvitsinsky walk in the woods outside Geneva on a rainy afternoon in July, sit down on a log in the Jura Mountains, and agree on a "joint exploratory package for consideration of both governments"; their "walk in the woods" formula allows each superpower to deploy 75 launchers in Europe, the Soviet SS-20 missiles to have three warheads each, the NATO Tomahawk cruise missiles to have four, with the United States agreeing not to deploy Pershing II missiles (but see 1983).
Islamic fundamentalists threaten to bring down the government of Syria's president Hafez al-Assad in February. Not himself a Muslim (he belongs to the Alawi sect and professes to rule in the name of Baathism), Assad locates the source of the rebellion at Hama, and to squelch it he has his artillery batter fundamentalist neighborhoods there, leveling the country's fourth largest city and killing somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 people in a merciless crackdown. Survivors take refuge in Afghanistan, Lebanon's wild Bekaa Valley, or in Europe or America. Syria will not have another problem with religious extremists in this century, but Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, 25, raises money to support Afghanistan's mujahideen guerrillas in their efforts to resist Soviet occupation forces and will propagate a murderous interpretation of Islam doctrine that many jobless young Muslims will embrace. Youngest of some 20 sons of the late construction magnate Mohammed bin Laden, Osama was raised in air-conditioned luxury and received a degree in civil engineering from King Abdul Aziz University at Jidda in 1979 (see 1991).
Islamic terrorists at Paris assassinate an Israeli diplomat April 3, Israel's prime minister Menachem Begin warns of PLO guerrilla activities and arms buildups, and Israel hits PLO strongholds in Lebanon April 21—the first Israeli strike since last year's cease-fire. The PLO has allegedly staged 130 guerrilla attacks inside Israel during the cease-fire, and Defense Minister Gen. Ariel Sharon mobilizes forces for an invasion designed to rid southern Lebanon of Palestinian guerrillas (see 1981). Israeli forces complete their withdrawal from the Sinai April 25 under terms of the 1978 Camp David accord. Israeli planes raid PLO bases south of Beirut May 9; PLO forces respond with artillery fire across the border. Israel's ambassador to Britain is critically wounded at London June 3 by terrorists more extreme than the PLO. Israel invades Lebanon June 6, captures medieval Beaufort Castle June 7, downs dozens of Soviet-built Syrian MIGs (weaponry made in Russia proves itself no match for Israel's U.S.- and French-made arms and aircraft), destroy Syrian surface-to-air missiles in the Bekaa Valley, and reach the outskirts of Beirut June 10.
Saudi Arabia's Khalid ibn Abdel Aziz Al Saud dies at Tali June 13 at age 68. The new king is Abdel's diabetic brother Fahd, 60, who has called Israel's Menachem Begin a "fanatic Zionist."
Israeli jets bomb West Beirut civilian areas July 27, killing 120 and injuring 232. U.S. ships land 800 Marines at Beirut August 25 to evacuate 8,000 PLO guerrillas after heavy fighting has brought mediation by U.S. envoy Philip Habib. Lebanon's president-elect Bashir Gemayel is killed in a bomb explosion September 14 at the headquarters of his Christian Falangist Party (he is later succeeded by his brother Amin Gemayel, 40). Israeli forces move into West Beirut September 16, too late to prevent a massacre of Palestinians by Christian Falangists. The bloodshed brings fresh demands for Prime Minister Begin's resignation (see 1983). About 1,200 U.S. Marines land in Lebanon September 29 as part of an international peace-keeping force and take up positions around Beirut International Airport.
Iranian forces recover the port city of Khurramshahr May 24, taking 30,000 Iraqi prisoners in the ongoing war (see 1981). Syria has reportedly supplied Iran with Soviet-built weapons (see 1984). Former Iraqi president Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr dies of heart disease at Baghdad October 4 at age 68.
Polish police use tear gas and water cannon to break up Solidarity rallies August 31 (see 1981). The nation's Roman Catholic primate urges the release of imprisoned Solidarity leader Lech Walesa. Former communist leader Wladyslaw Gomulka dies of cancer at Warsaw September 1 at age 77; Walesa is released November 14 after 11 months' internment on orders from Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, who has met with Archbishop Josef Glemp (see 1983).
West Germany's coalition government unravels in late September as the Free Democrats quit the government of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who has opposed nuclear freeze proposals; Schmidt is ousted in a no-confidence vote and CDU leader Helmut Kohl, 52, is elected chancellor of the Bonn republic October 1. He has backing from the Free Democrats and will remain chancellor until September 1998, helping to unite East and West Germany (see 1989).
International disarmament advocate Philip J. Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker (of the City of Derby), dies at London October 8 at age 91; former French premier Pierre Mendès-France at Paris October 18 at age 75.
Spanish voters elect a socialist government October 29 for the first time since 1937. Felipe Gonzalez becomes prime minister and there is dancing in the streets of Madrid.
Leonid I. Brezhnev dies November 10 at age 75 after 17 years as Soviet party secretary. He is succeeded in that position by former KGB head Yuri V. Andropov, 68, who will rule for only 15 months before succumbing to a chronic kidney ailment.
A Vietnam War memorial dedicated at Washington, D.C., November 13 displays the names of all 57,692 killed or missing U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen etched into black granite. (The monument was designed last year by Yale architecture student Maya Ying Lin, now 22.)
Guatemala's four leading leftist factions put aside their ideological and strategic differences in January to form a coalition which will strengthen the insurgency that has gone on since the early 1960s and will continue until 1996 (see 1972). Dictator Romeo Lucas Garcia is overthrown March 23 in a coup by a three-man military junta and charged by Amnesty International with responsibility for at least 5,000 political murders since his election in 1978. Gen. José Efrain Rios Montt, 55, assumes dictatorial power in June and continues the repression of his predecessor.
Surinam's military establishes a Revolutionary Front, Vice Premier Andre Haakmat is dismissed and flees to the Netherlands, the civilian government of President Henk R. Chin A Sen resigns February 4, and a four-man military council announces February 5 that it has taken direct control of the government at Paramaribo (see coup attempt, 1981). The military-controlled civilian government resigns December 9, virtual martial law is imposed December 10, the Netherlands government claims that the so-called escapees were actually executed, and it suspends economic aid December 12 until such time as democracy is restored (Surinam's economy has been dependent on an agreement signed in 1975 which obliged the Dutch to subsidize their former colony to the tune of $1.25 billion over a period of 10 to 15 years). The United States also suspends its $1.5 million economic and miilitary aid program (see 1983).
Panama formally assumes responsibility for policing the Canal Zone April 1 under terms of the 1977 treaty with the United States.
Argentine forces invade Britain's Falkland (Maldive) Islands April 2 and seize South Georgia Island April 3, Britain imposes a blockade April 12, British commandos invade South Georgia April 25, a British submarine sinks Argentina's only cruiser May 2 with a loss of more than 320 lives, the Admiralty uses the QE2 to bring troops to the South Atlantic, Washington expresses support for its NATO ally, British troops return in force to the Falklands May 14, fierce fighting brings heavy casualties to both sides in the next few weeks, and Argentine forces surrender June 14. Argentina has lost more than 1,000 men including those who went down with the cruiser General Belgrano, Britain 243. Argentina has lost 74 planes and seven helicopters, says Britain; Britain has lost 48 planes, says Argentina (see 1983).
The Canada Act approved by the British Parliament March 25 makes Canada wholly independent (see 1981). She gets her own constitution April 17 as Elizabeth II signs the Constitution Act at Ottawa, it replaces the North America Act of 1867, and Elizabeth proclaims Canada's independence.
Mexican voters elect Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, 47, president July 4 as falling oil prices force peso devaluations and bring the country to the edge of financial disaster. While Madrid has been secretary of planning and budget (and deputy director general of Pemex) the greatest economic surge in the nation's history has become the worst economic crisis in 6 decades.
The Boland Amendment to the defense appropriations bill wins unanimous approval from Congress December 8, banning use of defense funds to support CIA efforts to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandanista government. President Reagan's budget address February 6 has called for much higher military appropriations and less spending on social programs, and Congress has voted 346 to 68 to increase military spending by 6 percent after inflation (Reagan had asked for a 13 percent boost) over fiscal 1982. Congressmen Edward P. Boland (D. Mass.) and Tom Harkin (D. Iowa) have introduced the amendment, which limits the activities of the CIA by making it illegal to support Nicaragua's "Contras" (see 1984).
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe dismisses his home minister Joshua Nkomo and charges him with having plotted a coup d'état (see 1980). Nkomo's soldiers desert the army and go home, Mugabe sends his presidential guard and North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade into Matabeleland, where in the next 5 years they will kill more than 10,000 people, including many villagers (see 1983).
The London headquarters of South Africa's outlawed African National Congress are bombed March 14 in a scheme that has required sending bomb parts to London in a diplomatic pouch and assembling them in the South African embassy (see 1979). No one is killed in the attack, which has been ordered by South Africa's minister of police Louis le Grange (see 1984).
An Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution comes within three states of being ratified, but the deadline for ratification passes June 30 (see Falwell, 1980). ERA opponent Phyllis Schlafly's 7-year-old Eagle Forum has joined with the Moral Majority, the American Conservative Union, along with Catholic, Baptist, Orthodox Jewish, and Mormon groups to reach state legislators on an individual basis; Schlafly will turn her organization's attention to helping Nicaragua's contra rebels, working for parental rights in U.S. public schools, and revising public school curricula.
Members of the English Collective of Prostitutes stage a sit-in at a church in central London's King's Cross red-light district in November to protest police harassment following complaints from residents. A local official investigates their grievances and recommends changes in the 1959 Street Offenses Act with regard to soliciting. Parliament amends the law to remove prison sentences for soliciting and loitering for prostitution, but the prostitutes charge that police are making more arrests and that magistrates are imposing heavier fines.
France's premier Pierre Mauroy, 53, signs a law February 11 that nationalizes five major industrial groups and 39 private banks. Economists estimate the cost of nationalization at about $7 billion.
Washington announces June 11 that heavy tariffs will be imposed on some steel imports in order to help struggling U.S. steelmakers, whose foreign competitors receive government subsidies.
The NASDAQ system begun early in 1971 creates a National Market System in April to provide detailed, up-to-the-minute information on the most actively traded issues in response to a Securities and Exchange Commission directive that the public be provided with more information. By May 1983 there will be 184 stocks on the National Market System, with terminals showing trades 90 seconds after they occur; the terminals show the bid and offering prices, the high and low of the last trade, and the volume.
The Federal Reserve Board led by Paul Volcker cuts short-term interest rates by ½ of 1 percent August 13 in an effort to revive the U.S. economy. It is the third such cut in a month, and this time it does the trick, beginning a rise in both the economy and the stock market. Volcker announces October 2 that the war against inflation has gone too far and that he is abandoning his experiment with monetarism.
Mexican Treasury Secretary Jesus Silva Herzog tells foreign bankers August 20 that his country cannot pay even the interest on her foreign debt, which has grown to $60 billion as a result of falling oil prices, rising interest rates, and profligate spending by the government of former president José López Portillo. Brazil, Argentina, and more than 20 other countries follow suit; U.S. and other foreign banks grant delays in interest payments and make new loans to tide the debtor nations over.
The Garth-St Germain Depository Institutions Act signed into law by President Reagan October 15 removes "artificial" regulatory restraints on federally-insured savings & loan companies, whose earnings have been hurt by soaring interest rates. The state of California has decided to let the thrift institutions loan money to real-estate hustlers, and some other states have followed suit; allowed to pay depositors higher rates of interest, freed to make more aggressive loans and investments, and largely unregulated because Reagan budget cuts have reduced inspection personnel, S&L officers will in many cases make reckless deals, accruing losses that will cost U.S. taxpayers at least $150 billion to "resolve" failed thrifts plus at least $350 billion in interest by 2029 (see 1988).
Recession continues throughout most of the world, international trade declines, and unemployment in the United States reaches 10.8 percent in November—the highest since 1940; the number of Americans living below the poverty line is the highest in 17 years, but the inflation rate falls to 6.1 percent in August and an 18-month U.S. recession ends in November.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average breaks through 1,000 October 11 as cash-heavy institutional investors pour money into the market. The average falls to 776.92 August 12 but rises 38.81 points August 17 and begins a rally that will continue for 18 years.
A U.S. tax reform measure approved by Congress August 19 cuts back on the tax reductions enacted last year; it has become clear that those tax cuts were based on wildly optimistic budget projections, and the eternally optimistic President Reagan has agreed to a sharp rollback of corporate tax cuts and a smaller rollback of individual income tax tax cuts. The new law tightens loopholes that have permitted rich people to avoid taxes, it undoes about one-third of last year's cuts, and it raises taxes on cigarettes. Critics call it the end of the "supply-side" economic experiment, supporters say the president has acted responsibly to stem the rise in deficits. Unemployment near year's end is at the highest level since the Great Depression, but investors see lower inflation plus lower interest rates encourage investors.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a record high of 1072.55 December 27; it closes December 31 at 1046.55, up from 875.00 at the end of 1981.
Exxon Corp. announces January 5 that the Libyan government has agreed to pay it compensation for the assets it gave up in November of last year after 25 years of operations in Libya. The Financial Times of London reports January 20 that the Libyans have paid $95 million for assets valued at about $120 million. Libya's hard currency reserves dwindled last year to $9 billion, down from a peak of $14 billion, and her wells have been producing only 800,000 to 900,000 barrels per day, down from 2.1 million in 1979. Libya's Muammer el-Qaddafi threatens the United States with war if U.S. ships or planes violate his country's self-proclaimed territorial waters in the Gulf of Sidra, the Reagan administration charges Libya with supporting international terrorism (plotting to blow up a U.S. social club at Khartoum in November of last year), and it imposes an embargo on Libyan oil March 10 (the United States has been importing about 25 percent of Libya's oil output—some 150,000 barrels per day valued at roughly $2 billion per year). Qaddafi responds by calling President Reagan a "destructive person" and a "terrorist" but says he is prepared to resume relations with the United States. Other U.S. oil companies operating in Libya say they will bypass the embargo by exchanging Libyan crude in Europe for oil that can be imported by the United States, but Mobil Corp. notifies the Libyan government April 13 that it will surrender all of its exploration and production activities in Libya effective July 13 (see politics, 1986).
The U.S. federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel goes up by 5¢ per gallon December 23.
Itaipu Dam is completed on the Upper Paraná River north of the 25-year-old Ciudad del Este (originally Puerto Presidente Stroessner), Paraguay, at the border between Brazil and Paraguay, which have jointly funded one of the world's largest hydroelectric projects. Under construction since 1975, the hollow gravity dam is 643 high, it curves across nearly five miles (eight kilometers) of the Alto Paraná, it creates a reservoir that stretches 100 miles (160 km) northward, completely submerging the once spectacular Guaira Falls, and its 18 massive turbine generators can produce 12,000 megawatts of electricity.
Braniff International Airways files for bankruptcy May 14 after 52 years of operation, a victim of over-expansion and a weak economy. It is the first major U.S. airline to fold. Northwest Airlines obtains routes to South American cities and begins the first direct flights to China in more than 30 years (see 1958).
The Boeing 767 makes its commercial debut September 8 on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Denver. The plane can seat 211 as compared with 147 on the 707 introduced in 1958, 145 on the 727 introduced in 1964, and 452 on the 747 introduced in 1970. There are 1,760 727s in service, 530 747s, 600 707s. Overcapacity plagues the world's financially troubled airlines; few order 767s.
A Boeing 737 crashes into Washington's 14th Street Bridge January 13 after takeoff from National Airport. Only five of the 79 aboard are rescued and four other people are killed on the bridge; a Japan Air Lines DC-8 from Fukuoka plunges into Tokyo Bay February 9, killing 24 of its 174 passengers and crew. Neurotic pilot Seiji Katagiri has thrown two of the plane's four engines into reverse as it approached Haneda Airport despite efforts by the flight engineer to restrain him; a Chinese jetliner from Guangzhou (Canton) crashes near Guilin in April, killing all 112 aboard; a Brazilian VASP Airlines jet crashes near Fortaleza June 8, killing all 137 aboard; a Pan Am 727 takes off in a rainstorm from Moisant Airport, New Orleans, July 8 and crashes, killing all 145 aboard plus four on the ground; a time bomb explodes August 12 on a Pan Am flight from Tokyo to Honolulu, killing Toru Ozawa, 16, and injuring 15 others. A Greek court will convict Palestinian terrorist Mohammed Rashid, now 35, of the bombing in 1988, and he will be imprisoned until 1996.
Aircraft manufacturer T. Claude Ryan of 1927 Spirit of St. Louis fame dies at San Diego September 11 at age 84; altimeter inventor Paul Kollsman at Los Angeles September 26 at age 82; Leroy Grumman at Manhasset, Long Island, October 4 at age 87; aviatrix Jean Batten on the island of Majorca November 22 at age 73 from an infection caused by a dog bite.
The Checker taxi assembly line at Kalamazoo, Mich., closes in July after 60 years of production. New York City's taxi fleet still contains thousands of the capacious cabs (rear legroom: 46.3 inches, rear headroom: 34.5 inches), but they get only 11 miles per gallon as compared to 17 for the stock-model Chevrolets and Fords that have begun to replace them (rear legroom: 39.5 and 39.6 inches, rear headroom: 37.9 and 38 inches). By 1993 only 10 Checkers will still be picking up fares in New York; and by March 1997 there will be only one licensed Checker in the city's fleet of 12,053 yellow cabs, obliging passengers to squeeze into stock cars designed for highway performance and showroom appeal but not for use as taxis.
Unemployed UAW workers put up signs at Detroit telling owners of Japanese cars to park them in Tokyo.
Honda starts making Accords at Marysville, Ohio, in November as Japanese autos account for 22.6 percent of all U.S. automobile sales, up from 3.7 percent in 1970, despite voluntary quotas on imports (see Honda, 1980). By 1991 the Marysville plant will have built more than 350,000 Hondas.
Sun Microsystems is founded in February at Palo Alto, Calif., by former Stanford University students Scott McNealy, 27, Vinod Khosla, and Andy Bechtolsheim (Sun is an acronym for Stanford University Network), who will make their "Silicon Valley" reputation by selling engineering computer workstations. The son of a prominent Detroit auto executive, McNealy has an MBA degree and has been working for a workstation company, Khosla grew up in New Delhi reading Electronic Engineering Times and will be CEO until he quits in 1984, Bechtolsheim designs hardware but will later move to Cisco Systems (see 1984), and Sun's emphasis under McNealy's leadership will be on serving Internet subscribers (see Java, 1995).
Silicon Graphics is founded by former Stanford University assistant professor James "Jim" Clark, 38, and six of his students to produce three-dimensional computer graphics programs. Clark sees a way for desktop PCs to visualize information for industry, and his company will grow in 14 years to have 7,200 employees, generating $2.2 billion in annual revenues (see World Wide Web, 1991).
Compaq Computer Corp. is founded at Houston, Texas, to produce portable, 20-pound "clones" of the IBM personal computer introduced last year. Sales will reach $504 million by 1985, and Compaq will grow to become for a while the world's leading seller of PCs (see 1986).
Intel introduces the 80286 microchip; it contains 134,000 transistors, up from 29,000 in the 8088 of 1978 (see 1985).
Chinese-born Bell Laboratories physicist Daniel C. (Chee) Tsui, 43, and his German-born colleague Horst L. (Ludwig) Störmer, 33, observe the Hall effect in semiconductors at temperatures close to absolute zero and under very powerful magnetic fields. Building on the observations made in 1980 by Klaus von Klitzing, they find that the Hall effect varies in fractional increments as well as stepwise (see Laughlin, 1983).
Nobel chemist William F. Giauque dies at Berkeley, Calif., March 28 at age 86; Nobel zoologist Karl von Frisch at Munich June 12 at age 95; chemist George B. Kistiakowsky of cancer at Cambridge, Mass., December 7 at age 82.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines are introduced in Britain (see Damadian, 1977). They cost 50 percent more than CAT-scanning devices (see 1974) but give physicians a superior new diagnostic tool, permitting them to monitor blood flowing through an artery, see the reaction of a malignant tumor to medication, etc.
German-born U.S. astronomy student Martine Kempf, 23, uses a rental PC to design a computer program that responds to spoken commands. Her father, a polio victim, designed a hand-controlled motorcar and has made a business designing cars for the handicapped. She has seen German children whose mothers took thalidomide and who were born without hands to maneuver their wheelchairs. Kempf will start a company in California's "Silicon Valley" to manufacture and market her invention, and within 4 years her Katalivox will be used to operate voice-activated microscopes and wheelchairs, but Katalivox will find its biggest market in microsurgery, where it will enable physicians to operate magnifying equipment without using their hands.
U.S. medical-school graduates flock to enter the field of cosmetic surgery, which has become the fastest-growing specialty, and newspapers in some cities are full of advertisements for breast enlargements. The FDA declares breast implants "a potentially unreasonable risk of injury" but does not pursue further research (see 1985; 1988). Plastic surgeons begin using liposuction, or suction lipectomy, a fat-scraping and vacuuming technique introduced from Europe, to enlarge women's breasts; the vanity procedure will result in at least 11 deaths—and probably more than twice that many—in the next five years, usually from the release of fat emboli into the heart, lungs, and brain. Most women who want breast augmentation opt for silicone-gel implants.
A new Surgeon General's Report issued in March by U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, 65, calls cigarette smoking the chief preventable cause of death. Lung cancer kills about 111,000 Americans, up from 18,313 in 1950. More than 30 million Americans have quit smoking since 1964, but smoking-related healthcare costs the nation $13 billion, while the loss of production and wages costs another $25 billion. Lung cancer deaths among women will surpass breast cancer deaths by the mid-1980s.
Iowa-born University of California (UC) Medical School neurologist Stanley B. Prusiner, 40, claims to have isolated the agent that causes scapie, a sheep disease related to the rare but fatal neurodegenerative disorders, called spongiform encephalopathies, that cause progressive dementia and, finally, death in animals and humans. Prusiner became interested in the disorders when he was a resident at UC San Francisco 10 years ago and had a patient die of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. Unlike any other pathogenic agent such as a bacterium or virus, this one (Prusiner calls it a prion) consists entirely of protein and lacks the genetic material needed for replication (see consumer protection, 1989; 1996).
A Chicago assassin laces bottles of Tylenol capsules with cyanide, seven die in late September, and Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson promptly recalls the product October 5, destroying 31 million Tylenol capsules on store shelves and in home medicine chests (see 1961). Reintroduced in triple-sealed safety packages, Tylenol will regain 95 percent of its top market share in 3 months.
The first artificial heart intended as a permanent replacement is implanted December 2 at the Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City (see Cooley, 1968); before dying of multiple organ failure March 23 of next year, retired dentist Barney B. Clark, 61, will live 112 days with the aluminum and plastic Jarvik-7 device designed by Midland, Mich.-born biomedical engineer Robert K. (Koffler) Jarvik, 36, still working. Jarvik has worked as a laboratory assistant at the Medical Center to Dutch-born kidney dialysis pioneer Willem Kolff. A patient given his device must remain connected via tubes to a compressed-air machine, so although they cannot really serve as permanent replacements the Jarvik-7 and subsequent Jarvik-designed hearts will be widely used for people awaiting natural transplants (see 2001).
Pope John Paul II makes the first visit to Britain of any pontiff since 1531. He embraces the Archbishop of Canterbury May 29 and they pray together at the tomb of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.
World Jewish Congress founder Nahum Goldmann dies of kidney failure at Bad Reichensthal, West Germany, August 29 at age 87 (an ardent Zionist, he had never been to Israel).
The White House announces January 8 that it approves giving tax-exempt status to South Carolina's Bob Jones University and other schools alleged to practice racial discrimination (Bob Jones University relinquished its federal tax exemption in the 1970s rather than give up its rules forbidding interracial dating and a dress code that has mandated skirts for women, neckties for men). President Reagan has reversed an 11-year policy but softens his stance January 12 in response to a storm of protest (see Supreme Court decision, 1983).
The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5 to 4 June 15 that children of illegal aliens have the right to a free public-school education (Phyler v. Doe). Chief Justice Burger writes a dissenting opinion and is joined by Justices White, Rehnquist, and O'Connor, but William J. Brennan writes in his majority opinion, "Whatever his status under the immigration laws, an alien is surely a 'person' . . . Aliens, even aliens whose presence in this country is unlawful, have long been recognized as 'persons' guaranteed due process of law by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments." Public school districts may require proof that a child lives within the district attendance zone, the court says, but may not ask for green cards, citizenship papers, or the like.
The Padeia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto by philosopher Mortimer Adler, now 79, explains the project he has established at his Institute for Philosophical Research. Taking its name from the Greek word for "upbringing," the project aims to humanize and democratize public schools by using the Socratic method to provide all students with a traditional humanist education.
Former California school superintendent Max L. Rafferty is killed in an automobile accident near Troy, Ala., June 13 at age 65, having opposed teaching evolution, railed against public schools in the 1960s for not teaching patriotism, and fought sex education, busing, and teachers' strikes; Stanford University provost emeritus Frederick E. Terman dies of heart failure at Palo Alto December 19 at age 82, having helped develop the university's electronics program and encouraged the growth of California's "Silicon Valley."
American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) agrees January 8 to be broken up in settlement of an antitrust suit filed in 1974. AT&T will retain its long-distance lines, its Western Reserve manufacturing arm, and Bell Laboratories, spinning off its 22 regional and local companies (see 1983). The company employs 1 million people, but it has failed to capitalize on the breakthroughs of its Bell Labs and has had no incentive to lay fiber-optic cables, which were invented by Bell Labs and Corning Glass and would speed up communications, facilitate use of the Internet, but make AT&T's copper wires obsolete. The breakup spurs the growth of long-distance telephone rivals such as MCI (see 1963), which does lay fiber-optic cables and by next year will have more than 15,000 employees, up from 1,500 in 1980.
"Voicemail" is patented by former Texas Instruments engineer Gordon Matthews, 46, who organized VMX (Voice Message Express) at Dallas 3 years ago, applied for a patent, had his wife, Monika, record the first greeting, and sells the first system to 3M. The proprietary system costs so much that only the largest corporations can afford it, but Dialogic Communication Corp. founded this year at Franklin, Tenn., develops software to process incoming and outgoing calls and will quickly become a leading maker of voice-processing equipment. Kazuo Hashimoto of 1960 Ansafone fame will invent the first digital telephone answering device next year.
"Electronic mail" via fax machines gains popularity as third-generation Japanese technology cuts transmission time to 20 seconds per page, down from 6 minutes with first-generation machines, and thus reduces telephone charges from $4 per page to less than $1 (see 1976). The new machines are cheaper than earlier models but compatible with them. By year's end there are 350,000 U.S. fax installations, up from 69,000 in 1975; a digital standard makes it possible to send fax messages overseas, the first directory of users will be out next year, and by 1985 there will be 500,000 fax machines worldwide (see 1990).
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) votes 6 to 1 April 1 to reject a contention by the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC) that the "Fairness Doctrine" in effect since 1949 compels broadcasters to sell air time to political action committees (see 1981). The commission affirms earlier decisions that broadcasters are required to sell air time only to legally qualified political candidates, but FCC chairman Mark S. Fowler delivers an address to the National Association of Broadcasters at Dallas April 7 attacking the "Fairness Doctrine"; it is "one thing for stations to follow principles like fairness and equal time," he says, but "it's another when the government enforces those rules. That, I call censorship."
France's Parlement ends the state monopoly in radio, permitting private local stations to broadcast in addition to Radio France but not allowing the "profit-oriented" stations to carry advertising (which will remain illegal until 1984). The private stations will combine into networks such as NRJ, Nostalgie, and Skyrock; the state radio broadcasts on various frequencies that include France Inter, France Musique, France Culture, Radio Bleue (for the elderly), and FIP (a music channel that also provides local news) (see France Info, 1987).
Adobe Systems is founded by former Xerox computer scientists John Warnock and Charles Geschke, who have worked at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and developed a programming language (it will later be called PostScript) that describes the exact position, shape, and size of letters and graphics in mathematical terms on a computer-generated page. Xerox has declined to bring the technology to market, Warnock and Geschke have named their company after a creek near their homes, and they will license their system next year to Apple Computer (see LaserWriter, 1985).
Sony Corp. and Philips introduce the CD-ROM—a compact computer disk with a Read-Only Memory that can be used to read (and download) millions of words, pictures, symbols, sound, music, and film. Bremerton, Wash.-born Battelle Memorial Institute physicist James Russell, now 51, invented the first digital-to-optical recording and playback system in 1970 after years of work; the CD is a round piece of plastic 4/100ths of an inch thick and 12 centimeters in diameter, and the CD player uses a laser beam to find and read the data stored as bumps on the disc's acrylic surface. Physical sound waves from a CD hit a microphone's diaphragm and create a complex series of vibrations that are converted into electrical pulses; the electrical current is then converted to a digital code, a binary language of 1s and 0s; the binary data are etched by a laser onto a glass master disc, which is used as a mold. To play a CD, a laser scans its underside, converting the "pits" and "flats" to flashes of light, the on-and-off light is converted to binary code (1 = on, 0 = off), the binary code is converted to numerical values that are used to produce an electrical current without causing any wear and tear on the stored data, and the current is amplified and converted back to sound waves by a loudspeaker. Personal computer (PC) makers rush to incorporate CD-ROM drives into their machines, and install faster microprocessors to accommodate the needs of the CD-ROMs; other companies crank out speakers for use with computers, CD-ROMs will in many cases supplant printed reference books (which are costlier and much harder to update; see 1983).
The Philadelphia Bulletin ceases publication January 29 following a long strike after nearly 135 years in which it became the city's major daily.
Times of London editor Harold Evans, 53, resigns March 12 following a widely publicized dispute with owner Rupert Murdoch, who guaranteed last year that he would respect the paper's editorial independence but has reportedly tried to get the Times to back the Thatcher government's monetarist economic policy and U.S. policy in El Salvador; he replaces Evans with Charles Douglas-Home, 44, a nephew of the former Conservative prime minister, and circulation will rise under the new editor's leadership from under 300,000 per day to nearly 500,000, but Douglas-Home will die in 1985.
Journalist and former Nieman fellowship curator Louis M. Lyons dies of lymphoma at Cambridge, Mass., April 11 at age 84; cartoonist Hal Foster of "Tarzan" and "Prince Valiant" fame of a heart attack at Spring Hill, Fla., July 27 at age 89.
USA Today begins publication September 15. Keeping stories brief and making wide use of color, Gannett's paper is the only national daily except for the Christian Science Monitor and Wall Street Journal (although the New York Times prints editions in several cities and has worldwide distribution). Derided as "McPaper," USA Today will lose a lot of money before beginning to turn a profit in 1993.
Tygodnik Powszechny editor Jerzy Turowicz, now 70, marks the first anniversary of martial law in Poland December 13 by devoting six pages of his eight-page weekly to a new translation of the Old Testament Book of Job (see 1968).
Hallmark Inc. cofounder Joyce C. Hall dies at Kansas City, Mo., October 29 at age 91, having served as CEO of the family's greeting-card company for 56 of its 72 years.
The Weather Channel debuts on U.S. cable television. Good Morning America weathercaster John Coleman has proposed the idea of a 24-hour weather show to Norfolk, Va.-based Landmark Communications head Frank Batten, who insists on including regional broadcasts in order to sell the channel to advertisers in local markets; Landmark develops a technology that permits national programming interspersed with forecasts tailored to more than 300 areas, but graphics are crude, the new channel loses more than $10 million its first year, and it will continue to lose money for several years until it develops an audience large enough to attract advertisers and receive subscription fees from cable providers.
Electronic sound-recording pioneer Harry F. Olson dies at Princeton, N.J., April 1 at age 80; television picture tube (and electron microscope) inventor Vladimir Zworykin at Princeton July 29 at age 92.
The U.S. space shuttle Columbia deploys two communications satellites and lands at Edwards Air Force Base, California, November 16 after a successful inaugural mission.
Nonfiction: The Fate of the Earth by New York-born writer Jonathan Schell, 39; America in Search of Itself: The Making of the President 1956-1980 by Theodore H. White; Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security by John Lewis Gaddis; The Puzzle Palace: A Report on NSA, America's Most Secret Agency by Atlantic City, N.J.-born, Natick, Mass.-raised journalist James Bamford, 36, who has worked as a private investigator at Boston; Stalin's American Policy: From Entente to Detente to Cold War by William Taubman; The Past Has Another Pattern: Memoirs by George Ball, now 72; The Pursuit of Virtue, and Other Tory Notions by George Will; The Truants: Adventures among the Intellectuals by philosopher William Barrett, now 68, who has been an associate editor of Partisan Review and worked with the likes of Albert Camus, Sidney Hook, Mary McCarthy, Dwight McDonald, Delmore Schwartz, and Lionel Trilling. "In no age of history has the intellectual been more influential upon human affairs than in the modern world," he writes; All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity by Marshall Berman; The Muslim Discovery of Europe by Bernard Lewis; The Extended Phenotype: The Gene as the Unit of Selection by zoologist Richard Dawkins; Thirty Million Theories of Grammar by linguist James D. McCawley; The Disappearance of Childhood by New York University professor Neil Postman, 51, who says television is steeping children's minds with information (e.g., sex, illness, death) once reserved for elders, replacing curiosity with apathy, arrogance, and cynicism, short-circuiting education and moral development; Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez by San Francisco-born Hispanic writer Rodriguez, 38; If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi; Letters from a Faint-Hearted Feminist by Egyptian-born British author Jill Tweedie, 48, who writes for the Guardian about feminist issues; In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory in Women's Development by New York-born Harvard psychologist Carol Gilligan, 46; Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth by New York-born University of Pennsylvania English professor Nina Auerbach, 39.
Sociologist-educator-author Helen M. Lynd dies at Warren, Ohio, January 30 at age 85; bacteriologist-author René Dubos at New York February 20 (his 81st birthday).
Fiction: The Color Purple by Alice Walker; A Good Man in Africa by Accra (Ghana)-born British novelist William Boyd, 30; The Safety Net by Heinrich Böll; Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally is based on the wartime career of the late Oskar Schindler; The Great Fire of London by English novelist Peter Ackroyd, 32; The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies begins the "Cornish Trilogy"; Providence by Anita Brookner; Berry Patches (his first novel) by Soviet poet Yevgeny A. Yevtushenko; Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez (who wins the Nobel Prize for literature); Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa; Baltasar and Blimunda (Memorial do Convento) by José Saramago, who gains international renown for the first time with his story of an 18th-century war veteran who joins with a visionary in an effort to reach the heavens by means of a flying machine powered by human wills; The Dean's December by Saul Bellow; Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler; Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer; Bech Is Back by John Updike; The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. by George Steiner, now 52, who is a literature professor at the University of Geneva; Space by James Michener; The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espiritos) by Chilean novelist Isabel Allende, 40, a niece of the late Salvador Allende Gossens; Farewell to the Sea (Otra vez el mar) by Reinaldo Arenas, who escaped Cuba in the Mariel boatlift of 1980 (his original manuscript was confiscated by the Cuban government); The Valley of Horses by Jean Auel; A Wild Sheep Chase (Hitsuji o magaru boken) by Haruki Murakami; White Horses by Alice Hoffman; A Bigamist's Daughter by Brooklyn-born novelist Alice McDermott, 29; "A" Is for Alibi by California mystery novelist Sue (Taylor) Grafton, 42, introduces the female cop-turned-private detective Kinsey Millhone; Indemnity Only by Chicago mystery novelist Sara Paretsky, 35, introduces the feminist private investigator V. I. Warshawsky.
Mystery writer Dame Ngaio Marsh dies at Christchurch, New Zealand, February 18 at age 82; novelist-poet-essayist George Perec of lung cancer at his native Paris March 3 at age 46; novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand at New York March 6 at age 77; Nancy Drew-Hardy Boys-Tom Swift writer Harriet Adams of a heart attack while watching The Wizard of Oz on television at Potterville, N.J., March 27 at age 89; novelist-short story writer John Cheever of cancer at Ossining, N.Y., June 16 at age 70; novelist Djuna Barnes at New York June 19 at age 90; Richard Lockridge after a series of strokes at Tryon, N.C., June 19 at age 83; John Gardner in a motorcycle accident near Susquehanna, Pa., September 14 at age 49; Richard Jessup of cancer at Nokomis, Fla., October 22 at age 57; Frank Swinnerton at Cranleigh, Surrey, November 6 at age 98.
Poetry: Letters from a Father and Other Poems by Mona Van Duyn; Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief: New and Selected Poems by Maxine Kumin.
Poet-critic Horace Gregory dies at Shelburne Falls, Mass, March 11 at age 83; poet-playwright Archibald MacLeish at Boston April 20 at age 89; poet-painter Kenneth Rexroth of a heart ailment at Montecito, Calif., June 6 at age 76; poet-novelist Robert Graves at Daya, Majorca, December 7 at age 90; Louis Aragon at Paris December 24 at age 85.
Juvenile: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by English writer Sue Townsend, 36, whose story aired as a BBC radio series (The Secret Diary of A. Mole) in January; Count Karlstein by English author and playwright Philip Pullman, 35; Summer Switch by Mary Rodgers; Saving Amelia Earhart by Carol Fenner; The Animal, the Vegetable, and John D. Jones by Betsy Cromer Byars; On Top of Spaghetti by Philadelphia-born folk singer Tom Glazer, now 68, who has become famous for his parody of "On Top of Old Smoky" (illustrations by Tom Garcia).
Painting: All Colored Cast I and All Colored Cast II by French-born New York graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, 21; Keyhole, Beam (oil on three canvases) by Elizabeth Murray; Monuments to the Stag by Joseph Beuys; Two Candles by Gerhard Richter; Hollywood Hills House (oil and charcoal collage on canvas) by David Hockney.
Sculpture: The Holocaust (bronze) by George Segal for San Francisco's Lincoln Park; Eyes (marble) by Louise Bourgeois.
Theater: Pump Boys and Dinettes by playwrights John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schwind, and Tim Warner 2/4 at New York's off-Broadway Princess Theater, 573 perfs.; The Dining Room by New York-born playwright (and MIT literature professor) A. R. (Albert Ramsdell) Gurney, 42, 2/11 at New York's Playwrights Horizons Theater, with John Shea, 607 perfs.; Noises Off by English playwright Michael Frayn, 48, 2/23 at London's Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, with Paul Eddington, Patricia Routledge; The Factory Girls by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness, 28, 3/11 at Dublin's Abbey Theatre; Agnes of God by Altoona, Pa.-born playwright John Pielmeier, 33, 3/30 at New York's Music Box Theater, with Elizabeth Ashley, Geraldine Page, Amanda Plummer, 25, 599 perfs.; Good by the late C. P. Taylor 4/20 at London's Aldwych Theatre (after opening 9/2/81 at The Warehouse), with Alan Howard as a physician in Nazi Germany; "Master Harold" . . . and the Boys by Athol Fugard, now 49, 5/4 at New York's Lyceum Theater with Zakes Mokae, Lonny Price, 344 perfs.; Top Girls by Caryl Churchill 9/1 at London's Royal Court Theatre, with Gwen Taylor, Deborah Findlay, Carol Hayman; True West by Sam Shepard 10/17 at New York's Cherry Lane Theater, with John Malkovich, 762 perfs.; Foxfire by English-born U.S. playwright Susan (Mary) Cooper, 46, and actor Hume Cronyn 11/10 at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater, with Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, 213 perfs.; The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard 11/16 at London's Strand Theatre, with Felicity Kendal, Roger Rees; Extremities by Trenton, N.J.-born playwright William Mastrosimone, 34, 12/22 at New York's West Side Arts Theater, with Susan Sarandon, James Russo, 317 perfs.; Whodunnit by Anthony Shaffer 12/30 at New York's Biltmore Theater, with St. Louis-born actor George Hearn, 48, Barbara Baxley, 157 perfs.
Actor Stanley Holloway dies at Littlehampton, Sussex, January 30 at age 91; actor Victor Jory at Santa Monica, Calif., February 12 at age 79; director Lee Strasberg of Actors Studio fame of a heart attack at New York February 17 at age 80; playwright Peter Weiss of a heart attack at Stockholm May 10 at age 65; actress Cathleen Nesbitt at London August 2 at age 93; playwright Howard Sackler of a pulmonary thrombosis on the Balearic island of Ibiza October 14 at age 52.
Television: Cagney and Lacey 3/25 on CBS with Reading, Pa.-born actress Meg Foster, 33 (later Los Angeles-born actress Sharon Gless, now 38) as New York detective Christine Cagney, Madison, Wis.-born actress (Ellen) Tyne Daly, 35, as her partner Mary Beth Lacey (to 5/16/1988); Wogan on BBC-1 with Terry Wogan (late-night chat and music show; to 1992); Family Ties 9/22 on NBC with Edmonton-born actor Michael J. Fox, 21, as Alex P. Keaton; Meredith Baxter, 37, as his mother, Elyse (to 5/17/1989); Silver Spoons 9/22 on NBC with Ricky Schroder, Joel Higgins, Erin Gray, John Houseman (to 9/7/1986); Cheers 9/29 on NBC with San Diego-born actor Ted Danson, 34, Fort Wayne, Ind.-born actress Shelley Long, 33, Brooklyn, N.Y.-born actress Rhea Perlman, 34 (to 8/19/1993); Remington Steele 10/1 on NBC with Encino, Calif.-born actress Stephanie Zimbalist, 25, as private detective Laura Holt, Irish-born actor Pierce Brosnan, 31, as the man she hires to bear the firm name (to 4/17/1987); St. Elsewhere 10/26 on NBC with Beverly, Mass.-born actor David Morse, 29, Ed Flanders, 47 (to 5/25/1988).
Radio comedian Goodman Ace dies in his Ritz Tower apartment at New York July 18 at age 83; television producer Worthington Miner at New York December 11 at age 82.
Films: Andrzej Wajda's Danton with Gerard Depardieu; Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial with Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas; Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo with Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale; Jerzy Skolimowski's Moonlighting with Jeremy Irons; Sydney Pollack's Tootsie with Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Wareham, Mass.-born actress Geena (née Virginia) Davis, 33; George Roy Hill's The World According to Garp with Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close. Also: Eric Rohmer's Le Beau Mariage with Beatrice Romand; Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva with Frederic Andrei, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez; Paul Bartel's Eating Raoul with Bartel, Mary Woronov; Walter Hill's 48 HRS with Nick Nolte, Roosevelt, N.Y.-born comedian Eddie Murphy, 21; Richard Attenborough's Gandhi with English actor Ben Kingsley, 38; Rainer Maria Fassbinder's Lola with Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl; George Miller's The Man from Snowy River with Kirk Douglas, Tom Burlinson; Margarethe von Trotta's Marianne and Juliane with Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa; Constantin Costa-Gravas's Missing with Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek; Kohei Oguri's Muddy River with Nobutaka Asahara, Takahiro Tamura; Anne Claire Poirier's Over Forty with Roger Blay, Monique Mercure; Robert Towne's Personal Best with Mariel Hemingway, Scott Glenn, Patrice Donnelly; Ed Stabile's Plainsong with Jessica Nelson, Teresanne Joseph, Lyn Traverse; Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist with Craig T. Nelson, Houston-born actress JoBeth Williams, 31; Susan Seidelman's Smithereens with Susan Berman; Sidney Lumet's The Verdict with Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling.
Actor Hans Conreid dies of a heart attack at Burbank January 5 at age 64; Virginia Bruce of cancer at Woodland Hills, Calif., February 24 at age 72; TV and film comic John Belushi is found dead of an apparent cocaine and heroin overdose at age 33 March 5 in a rented bungalow at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont. His girlfriend Cathy Smith will be indicted on murder charges next year; Celia Johnson dies of heart failure at her Oxfordshire home April 25 at age 73; screen star Romy Schneider of cardiac arrest at Paris May 29 at age 43; director Rainer Werner Fassbinder is found dead of an apparent drug overdose at his Munich home June 10 at age 36; actor Curt Jurgens dies of heart failure at Vienna June 18 at age 66; Kenneth More of Parkinson's disease at London July 12 at age 67; actor Vic Morrow is killed outside Los Angeles July 23 at age 53 along with two Vietnamese children, aged 6 and 7, when a helicopter crashes during the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie; Henry Fonda of heart and lung ailments at Los Angeles August 12 at age 77; Ingrid Bergman of cancer at London August 29 at age 67; Princess Grace of Monaco (née Grace Kelly) of a brain hemorrhage September 14 at age 52 following an automobile accident near La Turbie, France; director King Vidor of congestive heart failure at Paso Robles, Calif., November 1 at age 88; Jacques Tati of a pulmonary embolism at Paris November 5 at age 74; Anne Baxter after a stroke at New York December 12 at age 62; producer Sam Spiegel on Saint-Martin in the Caribbean December 31 at age 82.
Film musicals: George T. Nierenberg's documentary Say Amen, Somebody with gospel singers who include Willie Mae Ford Smith, now 78, and gospel creator Thomas A. Dorsey, now 82; David Leivick, Frederick A. Ritzenberg, and James Cleveland's concert film Gospel with the Southern California Community Choir, Walter Hawkins and the Hawkins Family, Mighty Clouds of Joy, Shirley Caesar, Twinkie Clark and the Clark Sisters; Jim Brown's documentary The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time! with Lee Hays, Pete Seeger; Blake Edwards's Victor/Victoria with Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.
Stage musicals: Forbidden Broadway (revue) 1/15 at Palsson's Theater, New York, with Gerard Alessandrini, music and lyrics by Alessandrini; Nine 5/9 at the 46th Street Theater with Puerto Rico-born singer-dancer Raul Julia (Raul Rafael Carlos Julia y Arcelay), 42, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, book by Arthur Kopit based on the 1963 Fellini film 8½, 739 perfs.; Windy City 7/20 at London's Victoria Palace Theatre, with Dennis Waterman as Hildy Johnson, Anton Rodgers as Walter Burns, music by English composer Tony Macaulay, 38, book and lyrics by English writer Dick Vosburgh, who has adapted The Front Page of 1928; Little Shop of Horrors 7/27 at New York's off-Broadway Orpheum Theater, with Ellen Green, music by Alan Menken, book and lyrics by 32-year-old Baltimore-born playwright-lyricist Howard Ashman, 2,209 perfs.
Burt Shevelove dies at his London apartment April 8 at age 66; onetime musical star Elsie Randolph at her native London October 15 at age 77.
Film opera: Franco Zeffirelli's La Traviata with Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, Cornell MacNeil.
Opera: Jessye Norman, now 37, makes her U.S. stage debut 11/22 with the Opera Company of Philadelphia.
Composer Carl Orff dies at his native Munich March 29 at age 86, having written 17 operas; Czech-born soprano Maria Jeritza dies at Orange, N.J., July 10 at age 94.
Warsaw-born ballet company founder Dame Marie Rambert dies at London June 12 at age 94.
Pianist Glenn Gould dies of a stroke at Toronto October 4 at age 50; Arthur Rubinstein at his Geneva home December 20 at age 95.
Popular songs: "Up Where We Belong" by Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, lyrics by Will Hennings (for the film An Officer and a Gentleman); Toto IV (album) by the veteran rock group Toto; "Always on My Mind" by Johnny Christopher, Mark James, and Wayne Carson; "Ebony and Ivory" by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder; "A Celebration" and War (album) by the Irish rock band U2; The Nylon Curtain (album) by Billy Joel; Tug of War (album) by Paul McCartney with his memorial to John Lennon "Here Today"; Times of Our Lives (album) by Judy Collins; "That's What Friends Are For" by Carol Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach.
Sony introduces the world's first compact disk (CD) player; 52nd Street by Billy Joel is the first CD (see 1985).
Jazz pianist-composer Thelonius Sphere Monk dies of a stroke at Englewood, N.J., February 16 at age 64; trumpeter and Big Band orchestra leader Charlie Spivak of cancer at Greenville, S.C., March 1 at age 77; country and western singer Marty Robbins of a heart attack at Nashville December 8 at age 57.
Kate Smith, now 73, receives the Medal of Freedom from President Reagan October 26 for inspiring the nation with her renditions of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," which she has been singing since 1938.
Sportswriter Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith dies of heart failure at Stamford, Conn., January 15 at age 76.
San Francisco beats Cincinnati 26 to 21 at Pontiac, Mich., January 24 in Super Bowl XVI, but the National Football League Players Association stages a walkout September 21, forcing the cancellation of half the NFL's 224 scheduled games in a strike that goes on for 57 days. The players break new ground in professional sports by obtaining a wage scale based on longevity and severance pay for players cut by their team; they fail to obtain a union-controlled salary fund and a fixed percentage of NFL television revenues (see 1987).
Jimmy Connors wins in men's singles at Wimbledon, Martina Navratilova in women's singles; Connors wins his 4th U.S. Open singles title, Chris Evert-Lloyd wins in women's singles.
Italy wins the World Cup (soccer) championship, defeating West Germany 3 to 1 at Madrid's 90,089-seat Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Some 340 soccer fans are crushed to death at a Moscow stadium October 20 in a disaster blamed on faulty crowd-control procedures by police (the incident is covered up).
The St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers 4 games to 3.
Reebok aerobic shoes gain on Nike running shoes (see 1979). Having started Reebok International with British financing, Paul B. Fireman has failed to crack the athletic-shoe market in any big way but now introduces the $45 Freestyle glove-leather aerobic-dance shoe in fashion colors and meets with enormous success. Reebok will cultivate the inner-city market for basketball shoes, battle Nike for athlete endorsements, and overtake Nike in sales for several years before Nike regains the lead (see Rockport, 1985).
Brooklyn-born shoe designer Kenneth Cole, 36, rents a broken-down trailer and opens for business selling a line of women's footwear that includes an $84 pair of stonewashed-denim boots. He will introduce a line of sportswear in 1998, and by 1999 his company will have estimated sales of $300 million, with 41 retail stores from Atlanta to Amsterdam.
Couturier Pierre Balmain dies of cancer at Neuilly June 29 at age 68, having opened branches at New York and Caracas plus boutiques selling handbags, luggage, scarves, and furniture as well as ready-to-wear. His longtime personal assistant Erik Mortensen takes over the enterprise and will head it until July 1990.
The Italian ready-to-wear firm Dolce & Gabbana founded by Palermo-born designer Domenico Dolce, 24, and Venetian-born designer Stefano Gabbana, 19, will launch its first major women's collection in 1985, open showrooms at Milan 2 years later, and continue into the 21st century with men's and women's clothing influenced by Hollywood glitz.
Derbyshire designer Vivienne Westwood (originally Vivienne Isabel Swire), 41, shows her Savages collection, having opened London boutiques with her partner Malcolm McLaren since 1971 under names such as Let It Rock; Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die; Sex; Seditionaries; World's End; and Nostalgia of Mud. Her sadomasochistic 1976 Bondage collection appealed to the punk rock and biker set with black leather and rubber garments, she has insisted that sex was fashion, offered pornographic t-shirts and extreme shoe styles, had a show of her off-the-wall designs last year at Paris, and continues to look for ways to shock.
An Atlanta court finds photographer Wayne B. Williams, 23, guilty February 27 of having killed two boys and sentences him to two consecutive life terms (see 1980). The Public Safety Commissioner says the conviction "clears" 23 of 30 killings.
Danish-born New York financial consultant Claus von Bulow, 55, is found guilty March 16 of having tried to murder his wife, Pittsburgh heiress Martha "Sunny" von Bulow (née Sharp), 50, who married him in 1966 and since December 1980 has been in an irreversible coma induced by a double injection of insulin administered at their Newport, R.I., mansion. He has contended that his wife was suicidal and gave herself the overdose, but a housemaid has found a black bag containing hypodermic needles in his closet and has testified that she once observed him just watch while his wife went into shock. Von Bulow had stood to inherit $14 million tax free; he draws a 30-year prison sentence May 7 (but see 1985).
The U.S. Supreme Court rules 6 to 3 June 1 in United States v. Ross that police are empowered to conduct warrantless searches of luggage, packages, or other closed containers in automobiles if they have "probable cause" to believe that they contain incriminating evidence.
More than 25 million Americans smoke marijuana, spending $24 billion on the controlled substance. President Reagan announces a war on drugs October 14, putting his emphasis on marijuana rather than on the addictive drugs heroin and cocaine (see medicine [crack cocaine, "Just Say No,"] 1983).
The Bangladesh National Assembly building dedicated at Dhaka (formerly Dacca) is an architectural wonder designed by the late U.S. architect Louis I. Kahn.
Oregon's Portland Public Service Building is completed to designs by architect Michael Graves.
Houston's 75-story Texas Commerce Tower is completed to designs by I. M. Pei.
The Fragrant Hills Hotel designed by I. M. Pei opens just outside Beijing.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes August 23 that new rules be adopted to reduce lead emissions from automobile exhausts (see Bush, 1981). Newer cars cannot use leaded gasoline, and the EPA knows that older cars and trucks will eventually be scrapped, but while refiners are producing more unleaded gasoline they have also been increasing the lead content of their leaded gasoline to raise octane ratings and improve the performance of older vehicles. The proposed rules would require them to limit lead content to 1.1 grams per gallon; smaller refiners have complained that they do not have enough capital to meet that standard, so the EPA rule would let those refiners add up to 2.5 grams per gallon, but it would cut in half the number of refiners classified as "small" from 159 to 74, forcing the others to conform to the 1.1-gram limit. Environmentalists have objected to an announcement earlier in August that the Reagan administration would ease regulation of leaded gasoline; they praise the new EPA proposal, while industry sources condemn it (see 1987).
An earthquake on the western Arabian peninsula December 13 registers 6.0 on the Richter scale and kills about 1,500.
Soviet food shortages in January produce widespread grumbling in Moscow. The government draws down grain reserves and increases imports to maintain livestock herds as crops fail for the fourth consecutive year. A CIA analysis of the diet finds that conditions have greatly improved, with greater reliance on meat and dairy products and less on bread and potatoes.
Philadelphia-born MIT brain researcher Richard (Jay) Wurtman, 44, and his research nutritionist wife, Judith receive a U.S. patent for use of the French diet drug dexfenfluramine (see book, 1979). Wurtman has discovered that insulin raises brain levels of the amino acid tryptophan, which, in turn, is a raw material for production not only of niacin but of the brain chemical serotonin. Serotonin has been found to play a key role in regulating mood, and Judith Wurtman's studies have shown that the moods of obese subjects rise sharply after they have eaten high-carbohydrate biscuits. Premenstrual women and smokers trying to quit tend to eat more carbohydrates, but overeaters seem to snack less and lose weight when given serotonin drugs such as dexfenfluramine (see Interneuron, 1988).
Nestlé Alimentana S.A. issues guidelines March 16 for compliance with the voluntary international code that discourages unnecessary use of infant formula and encourages breast-feeding (see 1981). A 5-year boycott of Nestlé products has persuaded the world's largest supplier of infant formula to change its marketing practices, blamed by many for contributing to countless infant deaths in developing countries (Nestlé distributes formula in 140 countries). Nestlé has been distributing free samples directly to mothers and promoting formula as a modern and superior alternative to mothers' milk; the company agrees to curtail distribution in hospitals and healthcare centers, saying it will provide samples only if they are requested by a physician or qualified medical professional (see 1984).
A U.S. Committee on Nitrate, Nitrite, and Alternative Curing Agents in Food reports in April that radiation and acid-producing chemicals may someday be used as substitutes for nitrates as preservatives for cured meats, but more research is needed to make them feasible (see 1977; radiation of produce, 1984). Nitrates and nitrites are used in foods primarily to prevent the growth of the deadly bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which multiplies in the absence of oxygen and produces botulism, but the preservatives are also added to sausages and luncheon meats to impart a characteristic color and flavor. Concentrations of nitrates and nitrites in processed meats have been reduced since the discovery that ascorbate and erythrobate can also prevent the growth of the botulinum organism, and the committee recommends that vitamins C and E be added to bacon to prevent conversion of nitrite to potentially carcinogenic nitrosamines. (Whether nitrites are harmful when consumed as a component of the foods in which they naturally occur—vegetables, dairy products, grains, and water—remains unknown, nor is it known whether nitrosamines formed in the stomach after the ingestion of nitrate and nitrite additives are carcinogenic; see fish, 1983).
Coca-Cola Co. introduces Diet Coke July 8 (see 1981; Diet Pepsi, 1965); sweetened with aspartame, it has no calories, contains the same amount of caffeine as regular Coca-Cola, and is cheaper to produce than regular Coke; the company will promote it more heavily to increase its profits, and it will retain its 19-year-old Tab brand only because of continued consumer demand (see New Coke, 1985).
London's Billingsgate Market closes after roughly 1,000 years of selling fish and other foods.
The Los Angeles restaurant Spago opens in February with picture windows overlooking Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, where it will be grossing $6 million per year by 1990. Started on a shoestring (Spago is Italian for string) by Austrian-born chef Wolfgang Puck, 31, the place has an airy, whitewashed dining room, designed by Puck's wife and partner, Barbara Lazaroff, and features gourmet pizzas (when some fine smoked salmon arrives, the bread runs out, and there is no time to bake more bread, he will create smoked salmon pizza) and fancy desserts.
Burger King launches an advertising campaign September 27 with claims that people prefer the taste of its $1.39 Whopper to the Big Mac promoted by McDonald's.
Kansas City Bar-B-Cue chef Arthur Bryant collapses at his restaurant and dies December 28 at age 80 (see 1946). Semi-retired, he has always said, "I don't hire me no barbecue cook. I'm my own barbecue cook," but while some wonder how long the place can continue without him it will still be going strong in 2005.
Preliminary Chinese census results released July 1 show that children born in the baby boom after the famine of 1959-1961 will soon reach marriage and child-bearing age, threatening the goal of holding population size to 1.2 billion by the year 2000. The Chinese constitution is amended to state that family planning is a citizen's duty; it orders the adoption of provincial or local laws to make compliance with the one-child rule mandatory, even at the risk of disregarding minority rights and even if coercion is required. A woman pregnant without permission must attend study classes, where she is threatened until she consents to an abortion (some abortions are performed in the third trimester). Any woman who refuses IUD insertion, sterilization, or abortion receives repeated visits at home from the cadres until her family breaks under the strain. A Chinese newspaper notes that if female infanticide is not stopped immediately there will be a serious imbalance between the sexes 20 years hence, but Qian Xin Zhong, the woman in charge of state family planning, says female infanticide cannot be blamed on the one-child policy since it existed long before (she ignores the fact that such infanticide had almost disappeared before the law was imposed). Beijing announces final census results October 27: China's population has grown to 1.008 billion (skeptics suggest that many births are not reported and the actual population figure is much higher).
1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
