Explore 25 historical moments from 1983 — 24 events, 0 birthdays, and 1 notable deaths.
Thirty years after his death, the International Olympic Committee presented commemorative medals to the family of American athlete Jim Thorpe. Thorpe had been stripped of his gold medals for playing semi-professional baseball before the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Singaporean communist activist Tan Chay Wa was executed on January 18, 1983. This led to a widely publicized trial of his brother for engraving "subversive" material on the gravestone.
The Irish-bred racehorse Shergar was stolen by gunmen. They demanded a £2 million ransom for his return.
The Ash Wednesday bushfires devastated large areas of South Australia and Victoria, resulting in 75 deaths and 2,676 injuries.
On March 8, 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals.
Palestinian girls in the West Bank reported breathing difficulties and strange odors, leading to accusations of poison gas attacks.
Harold Washington was elected as the first African-American mayor of Chicago on April 12, 1983.
The first issue of The Jakarta Post was published in Indonesia.
The West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from what were claimed to be Adolf Hitler's diaries. These documents were later exposed as forgeries.
After an emergency landing due to an in-flight fire, 23 passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 were killed when a flashover occurred as the aircraft's doors opened.
Pioneer 10 passed the orbit of Neptune, becoming the first man-made object to venture beyond the proximity of the major planets in the Solar System.
An Iranian teenager and nine other women were hanged in Shiraz for their membership in the Baháʼí Faith.
Aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman and third person overall in space.
A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet crashed into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea, killing all 23 people on board.
American schoolgirl Samantha Smith visited the Soviet Union as the personal guest of Soviet premier Yuri Andropov, becoming known as "America's Youngest Ambassador".
Hurricane Alicia made landfall near Galveston, Texas, causing $3 billion in damage and 21 fatalities.
A Soviet jet interceptor shot down the civilian Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Sakhalin, killing all 269 people on board.
Typhoon Ellen dissipated after causing widespread destruction, destroying hundreds of homes across Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Thirty-eight Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners hijacked a meals lorry and escaped from HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. This was one of the largest prison escapes in British history.
Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov averted a potential nuclear war by correctly identifying a missile attack warning as a false alarm.
American software developer Richard Stallman announced plans for the Unix-like operating system GNU, the first free software developed by the GNU Project.
Six robbers broke into a Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport in London and stole £26 million in gold, diamonds and cash.
Raúl Alfonsín became the first democratically elected president of Argentina to take office after more than seven years of military dictatorship. His inauguration was on December 10, 1983.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a car bomb outside Harrods department store. The attack killed six people and injured about 90 others.
No births recorded for 1983.
Spanish painter and sculptor Joan Miró dies in Palma, Majorca at age 90.
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