1981 in history
Here are some light-hearted facts about 1981, designed to serve as a prep sheet for a radio feature on 1981.
I created this page because when I needed some notes to create a few talking points about 1981 in Ireland I couldn't find any suitable sources, so I thought I'd share what I did find. It applies to 1981 in Britain too.
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1981
A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watched the Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London on July 29th. More than 30 million viewers watched in Britain.
Muhammad Ali finally retired with a career record of 55 wins and 5 defeats.
At Wimbledon, John McEnroe lost his temper with an umpire. He shouted "you cannot be serious".
A long winter saw severe snow storms across the UK in December.
Ronald Regan is elected president and in the same year he was shot in the chest in Washington.
Ozzy Osborne bit the heads of two doves at a press conference.
Garret FitzGerald replaced Charles Haughey as an Taoiseach.
1981 Launches
The IBM Personal Computer was released, with the slogan "life begins with a disk drive". It cost $1,565 and was designed so you could use your TV as the display monitor - an actual monitor cost more.
The DeLorean DMC-12 sports car with its big gull-wing doors was introduced in this year. It was made in Dunmurry (Northern Ireland), and the opening of the factory was a major boost for the area.
The car was produced incredibly fast, but despite its iconic status it performed very poorly, with the company eventually going bankrupt. [NB: don't mix this up with Back To The Future, which made the car famous but didn't come out for a while yet.]
Nintendo released Donkey Kong. The character Mario was originally named "Jumpman". Shortly before it was released, a man called Mario interrupted a meeting to collect Nintendo's rent - Nintendo later decided to rename Jumpman as "Mario".
Queen's Greatest Hits was released, and became the best-selling album in the UK.
Trivial Pursuit was first released.
The musical 'Cats' premieres in London's West End.
The first Homebase opened in Croydon.
A French chef claimed to have invented both chocolate molten cake and lava cake.
The first London Marathon took place with 7,500 runners taking part. The race was a tie between Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen, with a time of 2:11:48.
The first Great North Run took place with 12,264 runners taking part. Olympian Mike McLeod won with a time of 1:03.
Arcade game Frogger was released.
The first game of paintball was played in Henniker, New Hampshire, using a device Charles Nelson had created to mark trees from a distance.
The first ever Slane Concert was held at Slane Castle (Ireland) featuring performers Thin Lizzy, Hazel O'Connor, The Bureau, Megahype, Rose Tattoo, Sweet Savage, and U2 in the summer of this year.
The first IRFU match went ahead in South Africa after a 20-year absence.
The Ilac Centre opened its doors in Dublin. Its name stands for Irish Life Assurance Company.
1981 in Film
Superman II was the biggest film of the year.
Other big films include The Cannonball Run, For Your Eyes Only, The Four Seasons and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
1981 in TV
Big TV shows of the year (not premiers): The Benny Hill Show, To The Manor Born, Shelley, Dallas, The Dukes of Hazzard and Magnum P.I.
Only Fools and Horses was first aired in this year. Viewing figures were disappointing and the show was about to be cancelled, but the repeats did quite well and they decided to give it another go.
Tom Baker left Doctor Who after seven years and was replaced by Peter Davison.
Postman Pat was first broadcast on BBC1.
American childrens' programme Scooby Doo was shown on British TV for the first time.
Bergerac, Falcon Crest, Dynasty, Finders Keepers, Bullseye, Danger Mouse and Hill Street Blues were all shown on TV for the first time.
The first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) was launched. The first song was Video Killed The Radio Star.
In this year the Eurovision Song Contest came from the RDS in Dublin, presented by Doireann Ni Bhriain. UK pop group Bucks Fizz won with 'Making Your Mind Up'.
While these facts about 1981 have been checked against third-party sources (and have been used on air before!), they are provided in good faith to inspire your research and no guarantee is made about their accuracy or their uniqueness. You can use the facts however you wish: most people just take a couple of points they remember and talk around then.
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