Chronology year 1981

January 1981

• Ronald Reagan assumes the presidency of the United States, succeeding Jimmy Carter.
• The 52 American hostages held in Iran for 444 days are released hours after Reagan's inauguration.
• Death of musician Bill Haley, pioneer of rock and roll, at age 55.
• Premiere of the TV show Dynasty in the USA.
• The San Francisco 49ers beat the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XV — corrected: Super Bowl XV was played between the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles, with the Raiders winning.
• Release of Phil Collins' album Face Value, his first successful solo work.

February 1981

• Release of Phil Collins' album Face Value on the international charts.
• Premiere of the animated series The Smurfs in the USA.
• Attempted coup d'état in Spain: military invades Congress in Madrid on February 23 — event known as 23-F.
• Organization of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).
• Launch of the electronic game Ms. Pac-Man by Midway.

March 1981

• Attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr., in Washington D.C.
• Premiere of the TV show Hill Street Blues in the USA.
• Release of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, by Steven Spielberg.
• Death of French semiologist and writer Roland Barthes, in Paris.
• Launch of the electronic game Frogger by Konami.
• Organization of the Grammy Awards.

April 1981

• Beginning of the AIDS epidemic identified by the US CDC, with the first cases reported.
• Premiere of the series Hill Street Blues in prime time.
• Bob Marley, Jamaican singer, dies in Miami on May 11 — note: Bob Marley died in May, not April.
• Tom Watson's victory in the Golf Masters.
• Launch of Nintendo's Donkey Kong electronic game in the USA.

May 1981

• Death of Jamaican singer Bob Marley, in Miami, aged 36, on May 11.
• Holding of the Eurovision Festival, with the victory of the group Bucks Fizz representing the United Kingdom.
• Release of the film Superman II in cinemas.
• Attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square, Vatican, by the Turkish Ali Ağca.
• Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in London, on July 29 — the wedding took place in July.

June 1981

• Official start of the AIDS epidemic: the CDC publishes a report on five cases of rare pneumonia in homosexuals, marking public recognition of the disease.
• MTV premieres — Music Television — in the USA, on August 1st — MTV debuted in August.
• John McEnroe's victory over Björn Borg at Wimbledon, ending the Swede's reign of five consecutive titles.
• Organization of the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom.

July 1981

• Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in London, on July 29, watched by 750 million people around the world.
• Tragedy at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City: collapse of walkways kills 114 people.
• John McEnroe's victory in the Wimbledon tournament.
• Launch of the IBM PC, IBM's first personal computer.

August 1981

• Launch of MTV — Music Television — in the USA, on August 1st, with the video Video Killed the Radio Star by Buggles.
• NASA launches the space shuttle Columbia on the STS-2 mission.
• Launch of the IBM PC, revolutionizing personal computing.
• Organization of the Edinburgh Festival.
• Birth of singer Beyoncé Knowles, in Houston, Texas, on September 4 — Beyoncé was born in September.

September 1981

• Birth of singer Beyoncé Knowles, in Houston, Texas, on September 4th.
• Death of Princess Grace Kelly in a car accident in Monaco — Grace Kelly died in September 1982, not 1981.
• Premiere of the Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago — the program premiered in 1986 on national television.
• John McEnroe's victory in the US Open tennis.
• Assassination of the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, during a military parade, on October 6 — the assassination occurred in October.

October 1981

• Assassination of the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, during a military parade in Cairo, on October 6.
• Expanded opening of the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
• Los Angeles Dodgers victory in the baseball World Series.
• Release of the film Blade Runner — Blade Runner was released in June 1982.

November 1981

• Release of the album Private Eyes by the duo Hall & Oates.
• Death of American actor William Holden, on November 12.
• John McEnroe's victory in the tennis Masters.
• Launch of the electronic game Donkey Kong Jr. by Nintendo.
• Organization of the Berlin Film Festival.

December 1981

• Declaration of Martial Law in Poland by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, suppressing the Solidarność movement.
• Premiere of the TV series The Young Ones in the United Kingdom.
• San Francisco 49ers victory in Super Bowl XVI — Super Bowl XVI was played in January 1982.
• Release of the album Ghost in the Machine by the band The Police.
• End of the year marked by the growth of the AIDS epidemic and the tensions of the Cold War.