| 1983-07-23
The Sri Lankan Civil War begins with the killing of 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Terrorist group. In the subsequent riots of Black July, about 1,000 Tamils are slaughtered, some 400,000 Tamils flee to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, India and many find refuge in Europe and Canada.
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| 1983-04-07
During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk.
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| 1983-12-17
The IRA bombs Harrods Department Store in London, killing six people.
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| 1983-01-18
The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.
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| 1983-01-27
The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō, breaks through.
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| 1983-10-13
Ameritech Mobile Communications (now AT&T) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.
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| 1983-07-11
A Boeing 727 crashes into hilly terrain after a tail strike in Cuenca, Ecuador, claiming 119 lives.
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| 1983-07-23
Gimli Glider: Air Canada Flight 143 runs out of fuel and makes a deadstick landing at Gimli, Manitoba.
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| 1983-12-31
The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.
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| 1983-11-05
Byford Dolphin diving bell accident kills five and leaves one severely injured.
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| 1983-01-19
Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
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| 1983-10-09
Rangoon bombing: attempted assassination of South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan during an official visit to Rangoon, Burma. Chun survives but the blast kills 17 of his entourage, including four cabinet ministers, and injures 17 others. Four Burmese officials also die in the blast.
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| 1983-05-17
Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
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| 1983-10-19
Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and executed in a military coup d'état led by Bernard Coard.
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| 1983-12-05
Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina.
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| 1983-09-17
Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.
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| 1983-09-15
Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
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| 1983-05-20
First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo individually.
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| 1983-11-02
U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
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| 1983-07-16
Sikorsky S-61 disaster: a helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
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| 1983-02-22
The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opens and closes on the same night at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.
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| 1983-02-23
The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
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| 1983-11-07
1983 United States Senate bombing: a bomb explodes inside the U.S. Capitol Building.
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| 1983-12-14
The 3rd Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.
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| 1983-06-28
The Mianus River Bridge collapses over the Mianus River in Connecticut, killing 3 drivers in their vehicles.
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| 1983-04-25
American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
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| 1983-05-20
A car-bomb explosion kills 17 and injures 197 in the centre of Pretoria, South Africa.
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| 1983-04-25
Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.
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| 1983-03-08
President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
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| 1983-10-25
Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état.
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| 1983-07-25
Black July: 37 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.
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| 1983-09-12
A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros.
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| 1983-05-16
Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebels against the Sudanese government.
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| 1983-10-23
Lebanon Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.
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| 1983-02-08
The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.
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| 1983-02-14
United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher is later convicted of fraud.
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| 1983-04-22
The German magazine Der Stern claims that the "Hitler Diaries" had been found in wreckage in East Germany; the diaries are subsequently revealed to be forgeries.
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| 1983-07-20
The Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to remain in southern Lebanon.
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| 1983-09-27
Richard Stallman announces the GNU project to develop a free Unix-like operating system.
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| 1983-02-23
The Spanish Socialist government of Felipe González and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding company founded by entrepreneur José María Ruiz Mateos.
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| 1983-09-26
Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.
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| 1983-08-18
Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 people and causing over USD $1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
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| 1983-09-23
Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations.
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| 1983-11-15
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is founded. Recognised only by Turkey.
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| 1983-12-10
Democracy is restored in Argentina with the assumption of President Raúl Alfonsín.
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| 1983-09-19
Saint Kitts and Nevis gains its independence.
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| 1983-07-19
The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
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| 1983-10-22
Two correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires the Supermax model of prisons.
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| 1983-12-19
The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro.
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| 1983-11-26
Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are stolen from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport.
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| 1983-04-18
A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
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| 1983-10-29
Over 500,000 people demonstrate against cruise missiles in The Hague, Netherlands.
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| 1983-01-19
The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
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| 1983-07-07
Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
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| 1983-07-24
George Brett batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident".
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| 1983-01-01
The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
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| 1983-04-04
Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space (STS-6).
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| 1983-10-21
The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
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| 1983-03-06
The first United States Football League game is played.
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| 1983-02-18
Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
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| 1983-10-04
Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph (1,019 km/h), driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
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| 1983-05-17
The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds), in response to the Appalachian Observer's Freedom of Information Act request.
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| 1983-10-30
The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military rule are held.
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| 1983-07-21
The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−129 °F).
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| 1983-09-12
The USSR vetoes a UN Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet shooting down of a Korean civilian jetliner on September 1.
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| 1983-05-01
Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis is awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.
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| 1983-09-23
Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, killing all 117 people on board.
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| 1983-11-27
Avianca Flight 011, a Boeing 747 crashes near Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 181.
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| 1983-09-06
The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
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| 1983-12-05
ICIMOD is established and inaugurated with its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal, and legitimised through an Act of Parliament in Nepal in the same year.
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| 1983-05-06
The Hitler diaries are revealed as a hoax after examination by experts.
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| 1983-05-26
A strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 104 people and injures thousands. Many people go missing and thousands of buildings are destroyed.
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| 1983-04-13
Harold Washington is elected as the first African-American mayor in Chicago's history.
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| 1983-01-17
The tallest department store in the world, Hudson's, flagship store in downtown Detroit closes due to high cost of operating.
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| 1983-10-12
Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and is sentenced to 4 years in jail.
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| 1983-09-23
Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa becomes the first African boxing world heavyweight champion.
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| 1983-06-18
Mona Mahmudnizhad together with nine other Bahá'í women, is sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran because of her Bahá'í Faith.
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| 1983-11-29
Soviet war in Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.
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| 1983-09-25
Maze Prison escape: 38 republican prisoners, armed with 6 handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of the Maze prison. It is the largest prison escape since WWII and in British history.
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| 1983-07-01
A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
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| 1983-07-27
Black July: 18 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the Sinhalese prisoners, the second such massacre in two days.
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| 1983-06-13
Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the solar system.
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| 1983-12-07
An Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco DC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid Barajas International Airport, killing 93 people.
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| 1983-06-18
Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
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| 1983-03-04
Bertha Wilson is appointed the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.
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| 1983-11-17
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded.
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| 1983-02-16
The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75.
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| 1983-07-15
A terrorist attack is launched by Armenian militant organisation ASALA at the Paris-Orly Airport in Paris; it leaves 8 people dead and 55 injured.
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| 1983-08-21
Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport).
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| 1983-05-18
In Ireland, the government launches a crackdown, with the leading Dublin pirate Radio Nova being put off the air.
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| 1983-03-23
Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.
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| 1983-03-16
Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
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| 1983-09-01
Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die, including Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
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| 1983-07-22
Martial law in Poland is officially revoked.
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| 1983-02-24
A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
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