1981
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1981 was a free year.
Events
January
January 1 - Greece becomes a member of the European Community.
January 20 - Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States.
March
March 11 - Under the slogan "Republic of Kosovo", student demonstrations of Kosmet Albanians broke out in Pristina, which covered the whole of Kosmet in the following weeks.
March 30 - John Hinckle Jr. tries to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan, who passed away with minor injuries.
April
May
May 13 - At St. Peter's Square in Rome, assassin Mehmet Ali Agca wounds Pope John Paul II.
May 15 - Sergei Krajger is elected President of the Presidency of the SFRY.
May 24 - Ecuador's President Jaime Roldos Aguilera and seven people are killed when a bomb explodes on a plane.
Jun
June 5 - The Centers for Disease Control reports a group of cases of pneumocystis pneumonia among homosexuals in Los Angeles, which were the first reported cases of AIDS.
June 6 - At least 800 people die in the worst accident in the history of the railway, when seven wagons of a crowded passenger train derailed and fell into the Kosa River in the state of Bihar in India.
June 7 - Israeli planes destroy Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad.
Jul
July 17 - 114 people are killed and more than 200 are injured in a crash on a suspension track at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City.
August
August 12 - IBM launches IBM Personal Computer, the first in a series of IBM-compatible personal computers.
August 19 - Two US F-14s shoot down two Libyan Su-22 planes while the US Navy conducts military exercises in Sidra Bay.
September
September 10 - Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" painting is returned to Spain.
September 27 - The hijacking of a JAT plane on the Titograd-Belgrade route; passengers and crew members managed to escape.
October
October 6 - Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated.
October 27 - A Soviet S-363 submarine runs aground in Swedish territorial waters.
November
December
December 13 - General Wojciech Jaruzelski starts a state of war in Poland, the work of the independent trade union "Solidarity" is banned, and thousands of trade union activists are detained.
December 14 - The Knesset extends Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to Gola�
