31.3.16

31/1/81: 53rd Academy Awards

On Tuesday 31 March 1981 the 53rd Academy Awards "Oscars" ceremony took place in Los Angeles. The event had been postponed from the previous night due to the assassination attempt on President Reagan.

The awards for Best Picture went to Ordinary People, for which Robert Redford also picked up award for Best Director. Timothy Hutton was awarded Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film, which also won the Best Adapted Screenplay award.

Robert Redford with Best Director Award. pic. IMDB 
Robert de Niro won Best Actor award for his role in Raging Bull, which also won the Best Editing award. Best Original Score went to Fame, as did Best Song. A Special Achievement Award went to The Empire Strikes Back.


30.3.16

30/3/81: Ronald Reagan assasination attempt

On Monday 30 March 1981 an assassination attempt was made on the US President Ronald Reagan.

John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to shoot  Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C., at around 2.27 PM local time, just after the president had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO. Hinckley was armed with a .22 revolver with exploding bullets and was only ten feet away from Reagan when he began shooting. Hinckley’s first shot hit press secretary James Brady and other shots wounded a police officer Thomas Delahanty and a Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy. The sixth and final shot hit Reagan’s limo and then ricocheted into the President’s chest.

pic. reaganlibrary.archives.gov  - taken seconds after the assassination attempt on President Reagan. James Brady and police officer Thomas Delahanty lie wounded on the ground

Shortly afterwards, Reagan was subjected to an emergency thoracotomy lasting 105 minutes. He came close to death losing over half of his blood volume in the emergency room and during surgery to remove the bullet. He left the hospital thirteen days later. 

pic. crimemagazine.com
James Brady became permanently disabled from his gunshot wound and became an ardent supporter of gun control as a result of this event. He died on August 4, 2014, 33 years after the shooting. His death was ruled a homicide, caused by the gunshot.

At his trial in 1982, in Washington, D.C., charged with 13 offenses, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21,  and has since remained under constant institutional psychiatric care.


source: history.com, wikipedia


29.3.16

29/3/81: first London marathon


On Sunday 29 March 1981, the very first London Marathon took place. It had been organised and directed by Christopher Brasher, a former sports editor for The Observer newspaper.

After taking part in the 1979 New York Marathon, Brasher convinced himself that London could do what New York had done. Within a year, he had achieved the far more difficult task of convincing the police and the relevant London boroughs. He had hoped for 4,000 runners on the big day in March 1981; in the event, more than 7,000 started from Greenwich Park - and most made it to the finish outside Buckingham Palace.


A 25lb cannon was fired to start the race in Greenwich Park at 9am. Some two hours, 11 minutes and 48 seconds later the marathon finished in a tie with American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen crossed the finish line at Constitution Hill.






source: guardian archivesvirginmoneylondonmarathon.com
pics: bt.com



27.3.16

27/3/81: 'Warning strike' in Poland

On Friday 27 March 1981 the four-hour 'warning strike' took place in Poland, one of the largest in the history of the Polish labour movement and certainly the largest in the history of the former Soviet bloc.



pic: V&A

26.3.16

26/3/81: Social Democratic Party (SDP) founded in UK

On Thursday 26 March 1981 the Social Democrats launched their new political party in the UK pledging to "reconcile the nation" and "heal divisions between classes".

The party was founded by the so-called 'Gang of Four', the four Labour Party defectors Roy Jenkins, David Owen, William Rodgers and Shirley Williams.

pic: Keystone/Getty Images

The SDP went on to form the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the Liberal Party in June 1981, under the joint leadership of Roy Jenkins and Liberal leader David Steel.


source: BBC On This Day

25.3.16

25/3/1981: International Year of the Disabled People - special stamp issue (UK)

On 25 March 1981 the Royal Mail issued four special stamps to commemorate the International Year of the Disabled People



The four stamps depicted Blind Man with Guide Dog (14p), Hands spelling 'Deaf' in Sign Language (18p), Disabled Man in Wheelchair (22p), Disabled Artist painting with Foot, (25p )


Source: collectgbstamps

24.3.16

24/3/81: Ronnie Biggs rescued after kidnap

On Tuesday 24 March 1981 Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was rescued by Barbados police following his kidnapping. The 52-year-old, on the run from UK police, was found on a yacht which had broken down seven miles from the coast of Barbados.

Biggs was taken from a bar in Rio de Janeiro on 18 March where he was due to meet some new friends. The men turned up and bundled Biggs into a waiting car. From there it is believed they took him by plane to the coast where they boarded a yacht bound for Barbados. The kidnap was thought to be an attempt to get Mr Biggs extradited to serve the rest of his sentence in the UK.



Biggs had been on the run since 1965 when he escaped form Wandsworth Prison in the UK, where he was serving a thirty year sentence after The Great Train Robbery of 1963.

source and pic.: art-sheep.com


23.3.16

23/3/81: Mike Hailwood dies in a road accident

On Monday 23 March 1981, British motor-cycle racer Mike Hailwood died following a road traffic accident in Warwickshire, England.



Born Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood in 1940, he was also known as "Mike The Bike" because of his natural riding ability on bikes with a range of engine capacities. Later in his career he went on to compete in Formula One and other classes of car racing, becoming one of the few men to compete at Grand Prix level in both motorcycle and car racing.

Getty Images
The fatal accident had occurred two days earlier when Hailwood was driving with his two young children Micehlle and David. Michelle died instantly, and of the three only David survived. At his funeral Hailwood's pall bearers included James Hunt, John Surtees and Giacomo Agostini.

source: independent.co.uk




22.3.16

22/3/81: Soyuz 39 lanched into space

On Sunday 22 March 1981 the Soyuz 39 manned space flight was launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, formerly of the Soviet Union.



The mission was notable for the fact that, it carried the first Mongolian cosmonaut, Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa (b. 1947, pictured above right), as well as the Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dzhanibekov (left), making it part of the Soviet Interkosmos space program.




Soyuz 39 docked safely with the Salyut 6 space station a day later, where the two cosmonauts joined the resident crew to carry out scientific experiments, including studies of Mongolia from space.

source and pics: spacefacts.de

21.3.16

21/3/81: Doctor Who: Tom Baker's final episode

On Saturday 21 March 1981 actor Tom Baker made his final appearance as Doctor Who in the long running BBC TV series of the same name.



Baker (b. 1934) began his most famous acting role in June 1974, making him the 'Fourth Doctor', taking over from Jon Pertwee in the final episode of Planet of the Spiders. He completed his role in the fourth and final episode of Logopolis in 1981, which  introduced Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor at the very end of the story via the traditional 're-generation' method.



Episodes featuring Davison as the Fifth Doctor began broadcasting in January 1982.


source: tardis.wikia.com

20.3.16

20/3/81: The Final Conflict (Omen III) movie released

On Friday 20 March 1981 The Final Conflict, the third movie in the Omen series, was released.




19.3.16

19/3/81: New issue of 'Look-In' magazine

Thursday 19 March 1981 saw the new issue of Look-In magazine for week ending Saturday 21 March 1981, featuring pop group Abba on the front cover.


The magazine feature on Abba was entitled 'Abba's seven Super years' and looked back over their career which dated back to their Eurovision Song Contest win in 1974. The group had also just had a number one album and single in the UK (Super Trouper and the title track), although they would release just one more studio album at the end of 1981 before splitting up.

Look-In was a weekly magazine, targeted towards young people, based on ITV programmes in the UK. It featured a mix of pop music, quizzes, competions and TV programmes, which were also represented by comic strips. It ran from 1971 to 1994.

source and pic: mag-a-zone.blogspot.com

18.3.16

18/3/81: Mt. Etna volcano erupting

One of Etna's most dramatic and destructive eruptions occurred between 17 and 23 March 1981 on the north-northwestern flank of the volcano in Sicily. The town of Randazzo narrowly escaped destruction.
Randazzo, Sicily on 18 March 1981
On Wednesday 18 March, the lava flow passed between Randazzo and Montelaguardia and entered into the bed of the Alcantara river. On its course, it interrupted several major roads, the Circumetnea railway and the Italian State railway (FS) as well as power lines, causing a temporary blackout in Randazzo. The flow eventually stopped on 20 March.


The remains of a stately country house nr. Randazzo, some time after the eruption 


sources and pics.: INGV, volcanodiscovery.com


17.3.16

17/3/81: 'Jealous Guy' by Roxy Music at no. 1 (UK)

On Tuesday 17 March 1981 a cover version of the John Lennon song 'Jealous Guy' by British band Roxy Music was at no. 1 in the UK for the second of two weeks.




The band had added the song to their live set during their tour following the death of Lennon in December 1980. It was intended to be a one off tribute performance at a show in Dortmund on 19th December. It has featured in every Roxy Music or Bryan Ferry solo tour since, including Live Aid in 1985.

Despite a long and successful career this single would be Roxy Music's only number 1 in the UK. The full length version of the song is 6:10 long. A live version can be heard on the Roxy Music album Heart Still Beating (1990)

Source. Viva Roxy Music

16.3.16

16/3/81: Time magazine (Alexander Haig cover)

On 16 March 1981, Time magazine featured the US Secretary of State Alexander Haig on its front cover.



Haig (b. 1927) was a veteran of both the Korean and the Vietnam wars and had served as NATO Supreme Commander from 1974–79. His term in office under Ronald Reagan was relatively short and his comments and actions often met with controversy both at home and abroad. He resigned from his post in June 1982. His memoirs, Inner Circles: How America Changed The World, were published in 1992. Haig died in 2010.

14.3.16

14/3/81: Michael L Kennedy marries Victoria Gifford


OnSaturday 14 March 1981 Michael LeMoyne Kennedy married Ms. Victoria Gifford in New York City.

pic.: Corbis Images

Michael L. Kennedy was the nephew of former American President, John F Kennedy, assassinated in 1963, and the sixth child of Robert F. Kennedy, also assassinated in 1968. 

Michael died in 1997 after a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado. That same year he had been accused of (but not charged with) statutory rape, and had separated from Victoria.

source: Time.com archive

12.3.16

12/3/81: Bucks Fizz: 'Making Your Mind Up' released

On Thursday 12 March 1981 the debut single by British vocal group Bucks Fizz was released. Making Your Mind Up was the UK's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, which was to be held in Dublin in April.



The release of the single came the day after Bucks Fizz won the qualifying Song For Europe contest which had been transmitted live on BBC One the previous evening.



source: BBC genome, discogs

11.3.16

11/3/81: 'Today Tonight' : Slum army housing in Dublin


On Wednesday 11 March 1981, a report was shown on RTE Eire denouncing the slum housing conditions at the Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin, Rep. of Ireland. the report was by report by Forbes McFall.

Click picture below for link to full video report.

 Links to RTE.ie



source. rte.ie/archives via twitter

10.3.16

10/3/81: UK Budget presented to Parliament; UK Top 40

On Tuesday 10 March 1981 a new UK budget was presented to Parliament by teh Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe.

pic.: ssplprints.com
This was Howe's second budget and the second of the Thatcher leadership and was presented at a time of significant economic hardship in the UK. Inflation was running at 15% and manufacturing output was down by 9% over the previous year with unemployment up by one million. In budget measures, the price of a pint of beer went up 4p, spirits went up 60p, wine up 12p, and 20 cigarettes up 13p. Petrol duty went by by up a significant 20p per gallon.

Geoffrey Howe would become Thatcher's longest serving cambinet minister, resigning in November 1990, just three weeks before Thatcher's own resignation. He died in 2015.

sources: guardian, wikipedia.


Roxy Music go to no.1 in the UK with the John Lennon song Jealous Guy. 
Duran Duran and New Order make their Top 40 debuts.

9.3.16

9/3/81: Charles & Diana's first official night out

On the vening of Monday 9th March 1981, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, now engaged to be married, attended a charity concert at the Goldsmith's Hall in London.



The couple were greeted by hoards of paparazzi photographers eager to get pictures of Diana in her 'little black dress'.

 




8.3.16

8/3/81: International Women's Day '81

Poster designed by New Mexico born artist Juan R. Fuentes for International Women's Day in 1981 (source: juanrfuentes.com)




Photographs showing an International Women's Day protest march in Lecce, Southern Italy, also in 1981. (source: generazioni.net La casa delle donne)




7.3.16

7/3/81: FA Cup Sixth Round


The sixth round of FA Cup games were played on Saturday 7 March 1981.

Out of four matches, there were three replays, which took place on 10–11 March. Tottenham Hotspur were the only team to get through to the semi finals without a replay.

Results:
Tottenham Hotspur 2–0 Exeter City

Middlesbrough 1–1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
replay: Wolverhampton Wanderers    3–1 Middlesbrough

Everton   2–2 Manchester City
replay: Manchester City 3–1 Everton

Nottingham Forest 3–3 Ipswich Town
replay: Ipswich Town      1–0 Nottingham Forest


pic: Getty images
The picture shows Ipswich Town manager Bobby Robson (1933 -2009) during their match against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in Nottingham. Ipswich would eventually be beaten by runners-up Manchester City in the semi finals but still under Robson would go on to win the UEFA Cup in 1981, and finish as league runners-up in 1981 and 1982.

Robson became the England national team manager from July 1982, eventually taking England to the World Cup semi-final in 1990.

5.3.16

5/3/81: Duran Duran debut on Top of the Pops

On Thursday 5 March 1981, pop group Duran Duran appear on Top of the Pops for the first time with their debut single Planet Earth.





For more of this Top of the Pops show see: TOTP81.


3.3.16

3/3/81: Charles & Di's night at the opera

On Tuesday 3 March 1981 it was announced that the wedding between Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer would take place at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July. That evening, the couple attended the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London for a performance of "L'Africane."

pic: pinterest

Source: (date) princessdianabookboutique

2.3.16

2/3/81: Black People's Day of Action

On Monday 2 March 1981 several thousand people took to the streets of London to protest the New Cross Massacre on 18 January, where a suspected racist fire-bomb attack killed thirteen black youths (aged 15-22) at 439 New Cross Rd, London SE14. The march went from Deptford, scene of the fire, to Fleet Street, home to many of the UK's national newspapers, and then to Downing St.


The protest was against the alleged brutal police treatment of survivors, racist media reporting, ongoing racial attacks and the silence of the British government and Queen resulting in the slogan, “13 dead and nothing said!”. The London Black People's Day of Action demonstration in 1981 began a year of uprisings that would set the streets of Britain ablaze as Black communities in London, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool rose up in revolt against prejudice and oppression.

source: The Blacklist Pubobv.org.uk





Also on this day.... two new asteroids were discovered by Dr. Schelte J. “Bobby” Bus, astronomer at the University of Hawaii Astronomy Institute.


The two asteroids were both named after science-fiction writers:  4923 Clarke, after Arthur C. Clarke, and 5020 Asimov after Isaac Asimov.




1.3.16

1/3/81: Second Irish hunger strike begins

On Sunday 1st March 1981 former IRA Commanding Officer Bobby Sands began a hunger strike in HM Prison Maze. It was the second strike of its kind after the one involving seven prisoners which had lasted 53 days in late 1980.

1980 hunger strikers (pic. Irish Times)
Although the British government had initially conceded to prisoners' demands, thus ending the strike, it became clear during the first months of 1981 that this was not the case and Sands began the new strike alone. He was joined by other prisoners at staggered intervals.

In a by-election held in April in the Northern Irish constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone Sands was elected member of the British Parliament although again the government stood fast against the prisoners' demands and the IRA, PM Margaret Thatcher refusing to give in to "criminals".

Bobby Sands pic. Irish Times

Bobby Sands died on 5 May 1981 after 66 days of the hunger strike.

source: CAIN (University of Ulster), Irish Times.