istoryworld
All Events
The small firm of Microsoft wins the contract to provide the operating system of the IBM personal computer
The USA ends all aid to Nicaragua and provides funds to train and equip the Contras in neighbouring Honduras
Archbishop Oscar Romero, an exponent of liberation theology, is killed as he celebrates Mass in San Salvador
Italian academic Umberto Eco publishes The Name of the Rose, a medieval murder mystery
The threat of a hunger strike persuades the British government to authorize S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru), a television channel broadcasting in Welsh
A US helicopter mission fails disastrously in its attempt to rescue the embassy hostages in Tehran
US author Sam Shepard's play True West has its premiere in New York
A coup in Uganda brings Milton Obote back into power, and he is confirmed as president in a subsequent general election
The song O Canada, exacty a century old, is officially adopted as the country's national anthem
Electrician Lech Walesa emerges as the leader of a strike in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms secures new aspects of Canada's national identity
US basketball champion Magic Johnson begins 12 years with the Los Angeles Lakers
Martin Scorsese directs Robert de Niro in Raging Bull
US choreographer Mark Morris founds his own company, the Mark Morris Dance Group, based in New York
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerges in India from previous Hindu nationalist groups and wins the first of several general ellections in 1996
A trade union, Solidarnośc (Solidarity), is formed by strikers in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland
Lech Walesa is elected chairman of the newly formed Polish trade union movement Solidarnośc (Solidarity)
Saddam Hussein invades Iran, beginning an 8-year war that will bring massive human cost
Republican Ronald Reagan wins the US presidential election against the incumbent Jimmy Carter
Beatle John Lennon is murdered by a psychopath on the steps of his and Yoko Ono's apartment block in New York
100 years after her death George Eliot is given a memorial stone (denied to her in 1880) in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner
Just five hours before he is shot and killed, Annie Leibovitz takes a famous studio photograph of John Lennon naked and Yoko Ono clothed
Gail Martin in California and Martin Evans and Matthew Kaufman in Cambridge independently discover ways of extracting stem cells from mice embryos
Iran releases the US embassy hostages immediately after the end of Jimmy Carter's presidency
The SDP hives off from Britain's Labour party – and seven years later merges with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats
