January
Main article: January 1981
January – The subterranean Sarawak Chamber is discovered in Borneo.
January 1
Greece enters the European Community, which later becomes the European Union.
Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
January 6 – The Brazilian double decker boat Novo Amapo capsizes in the Amazon River, Belem de Cajari, Macapá, Brazil; 230 are killed.
January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensive, gaining control of most of Morazán and Chalatenango departments.
January 15 – Pope John Paul II receives a delegation led by Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa at the Vatican.
January 16 – Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and her husband.
January 17 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos lifts martial law.
January 19 – United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
January 20 – Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days within minutes of Ronald Reagan succeeding Jimmy Carter as the 40th President of the United States, ending the Iran hostage crisis.
January 21 – The first DeLorean DMC-12 automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
January 23 – An earthquake of 6.8 magnitude in Sichuan, China kills 150.
January 25
Jiang Qing ("Madame Mao") is sentenced to death in the People's Republic of China.
In South Africa the largest part of the town Laingsburg is swept away within minutes by one of the strongest floods ever experienced in the Great Karoo.
January 27 – The Indonesian passenger ship Tamponas 2 catches fire and capsizes in the Java Sea, killing 580.
February
Main article: February 1981
February 4 – Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes Prime Minister of Norway.
February 8 – 20 fans of Olympiacos and 1 fan of AEK Athens die, while 54 are injured, after a stampede at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, possibly because gate 7 does not open immediately after the end of the game.
February 9 – Polish Prime Minister Józef Pińkowski resigns and is replaced by General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
February 14
Stardust fire: A fire at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, Ireland in the early hours kills 48 and injures 214.
Australia withdraws recognition of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
February 23 – Antonio Tejero, with members of the Guardia Civil, enters the Spanish Congress of Deputies and stops the session where Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo is about to be named president of the government. The coup d'état fails thanks to King Juan Carlos.
February 24 – A powerful, magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Athens, killing 22 people, injuring 400 people and destroying several buildings and 4000 house, mostly in Corinth and the nearby towns of Loutraki, Kiato and Xylokastro.
March
Main article: March 1981
March 1 – Bobby Sands, a Provisional Irish Republican Army member, begins a hunger strike for political status in Long Kesh prison (he dies May 5, the first of 10 men).
March 11 – Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet is sworn in as President of Chile for another 8-year term.
March 17 – In Italy the Propaganda Due Masonic Lodge is discovered.
March 19 – Three workers are killed and 5 injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
March 29 – The first London Marathon starts with 7,500 runners.
March 30 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; 2 police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.
April
Main article: April 1981
April 1 – Daylight saving time is introduced in the Soviet Union.
April 4 – The UK pop group Bucks Fizz wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1981 with the song, "Making Your Mind Up".
April 11 – 1981 Brixton riot: Rioters in south London throw petrol bombs, attack police and loot shops.
April 12 – The Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia with NASA astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen launches on the STS-1 mission, returning to Earth on April 14. It is the first time a manned reusable spacecraft has returned from orbit.
April 12: First Space Shuttle launch: Columbia, April 12, 1981.
April 15 - The first Coca Cola bottling plant in China is opened. [1]
April 18
A Minor League Baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning is not played until June 23).
The rock band Yes splits up (regrouping in 1983).
April 26 – French presidential election: A first-round runoff results between Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterrand.
April 26 – Monarcas Morelia ascends to the Mexican Primera division.
May
Main article: May 1981
May – Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon Basin.
May 1 – The new Chilean pension system, based on private pension funds, begins.
May 5 – Bobby Sands, Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer and elected member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, dies aged 27 while on hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.
May 6 – A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
May 11 – Bob Marley, dies aged 36 from cancer.
May 13 – Pope John Paul II is shot and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman who is allegedly on orders from the Soviet KGB to shoot him, as he enters St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to address a general audience. The Pope successfully recovers.
May 15 – Donna Payant is murdered by serial killer Lemuel Smith, the first time a female prison officer has been killed on-duty in the United States.
May 21 – In France, Socialist François Mitterrand becomes President.
May 22 – Peter Sutcliffe is found guilty of being the Yorkshire Ripper. He is sentenced to life imprisonment on 13 counts of murder and 7 of attempted murder.
May 25 – In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
May 26 – The Italian government resigns over its links to the fascist Masonic cell Propaganda Due.
May 30 – Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman is assassinated in Chittagong.
June
Main article: June 1981
June 5 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 5 homosexual men in Los Angeles have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (the first recognized cases of AIDS).
June 6 – Bihar train disaster: Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into the Bagmati River in Bihar, India, killing between 500 and 800.
June 7 – The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor killing ten Iraqi troops and a French technician.
June 13 – At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, Marcus Sarjeant fires 6 blank shots at Elizabeth II.
June 18
The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States is founded.
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter makes its first flight at Groom Lake (Area 51), NV.
June 22 – Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr is deposed.
June 27 – The first game of paintball is played in Henniker, New Hampshire.
July
Main article: July 1981
July 2 – The Wonderland Gang is brutally murdered in a massacre involving Eddie Nash.
July 3 – The Toxteth riots in Liverpool, UK start after a mob saves a youth from being arrested. Shortly afterward, the Chapeltown riots in Leeds start after increased racial tension.
July 7 – United States President Ronald Reagan nominates the first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, to the Supreme Court of the United States.
July 8 – Irish Republican Joe McDonnell dies at the Long Kesh Internment Camp after a 61-day hunger strike.
July 9 – Donkey Kong is released, marking the first Donkey Kong title and Mario title arcade smash hit game developed by Nintendo.
July 10 – Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia.
July 16-July 21 – England become the first team this century to win a test match after following on when they beat Australia by 18 runs at Headingley cricket ground, Leeds, England.
July 17
Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby, killing 114.
Israeli aircraft bomb Beirut, destroying multi-story apartment blocks containing the offices of PLO associated groups, killing approximately 300 civilians and resulting in worldwide condemnation and a U.S. embargo on the export of aircraft to Israel.[2]
In Bolivia, General Luis Gracia Meza leads a bloody coup d'état against the elected government of Lidia Gayler.
July 19 – The 1981 Springbok Tour commences in New Zealand, amid controversy over the support of apartheid.
July 21 – Tohui The Panda is born in Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, the first panda to ever be born and survive in captivity outside of China.
July 29 – A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
August
Main article: August 1981
August 1 – The first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) is launched.
August 9 – Major League Baseball resumes from the strike with the All-Star Game in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.
August 12
The original Model 5150 IBM PC (with a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 processor) is released in the United States at a base price of $1,565.
Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Salomon Islands and Tuvalu recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
August 19
Gulf of Sidra incident (1981): Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sends two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two U.S. fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroy the Libyan fighters.
August 24 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, after pleading guilty to murdering John Lennon in Manhattan 8 months earlier.
August 28 – South African troops invade Angola.
August 31 – A bomb explodes at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, West Germany, injuring 20 people.
September
Main article: September 1981
September 1 – Gregorio Conrado Álvarez is inaugurated as a military de facto President of Uruguay.
September 4 – An explosion at a mine in Záluží, Czechoslovakia, kills 65 people.
September 8 – the first episode of the extremely popular British sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Big Brother is shown on BBC One.
September 10 – Picasso's painting "Guernica" is moved from New York to Madrid.
September 15 – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, at 150 years old, when it operates under its own power outside Washington, D.C.
September 17 – Ric Flair defeats Dusty Rhodes to win his first World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in Kansas City.
September 18 – France abolishes capital punishment.
September 19 – Simon & Garfunkel perform The Concert in Central Park, a free concert in New York in front of approximately half a million people.
September 20 – The Brazilian river boat Sobral Santos capsizes in the Amazon River, Óbidos, Brazil, killing at least 300.
September 21 – Belize gains independence from the United Kingdom.
September 25
Sandra Day O'Connor takes her seat as the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Rolling Stones begin their Tattoo You tour at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
September 26
The Boeing 767 airliner makes its first flight.
The Sydney Tower opens to the public.
September 27 – TGV high-speed rail service between Paris and Lyon, France begins.
September 28 – The British children's animated TV series Danger Mouse debuts on ITV.
October
Main article: October 1981
October 2 – English rock band The Police releases Ghost in the Machine.
October 5 – Raoul Wallenberg becomes a posthumously honorary citizen of the United States.
October 6 – Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who belong to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization led by Khalid Islambouli; they opposed his negotiations with Israel.
October 10 – The Ministry for Education of Japan issues the jōyō kanji.
October 14 – Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt 1 week after Anwar Sadat's assassination.
October 16 – Gas explosions at a coal mine at Hokutan, Yūbari, Hokkaidō, Japan kill 93.
October 21 – Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
October 22 – The founding congress of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Organization faction led by Hareram Sharma and D. P. Singh begins.
October 27 – Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground outside the Karlskrona, Sweden military base.
November
Main article: November 1981
November 1: Antigua and Barbuda.
November 1 – Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
November 9 – Edict No. 81-234 abolishes slavery in Mauritania.
November 12 – The Church of England General Synod votes to admit women to holy orders.
November 16 – Luke and Laura marry on the U.S. soap opera General Hospital; it is the highest-rated hour in daytime television history.
November 18 – COMDEX Fall, IBM introduces the IBM PC; Scientific Solutions announces the first PC add-in cards.
November 23 – Iran–Contra affair: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
November 25–November 26 – A group of mercenaries led by Mike Hoare take over Mahe airport in the Seychelles in a coup attempt. Most of the mercenaries escape by a commandeered Air India passenger jet; 6 are later arrested.
November 30 – Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin negotiating intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings end inconclusively on Thursday, December 17).
December
Main article: December 1981
December 1 – An Inex-Adria Aviopromet McDonnell Douglas MD-80 strikes a mountain peak and crashes while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
December 4 – South Africa grants homeland Ciskei independence, not recognized outside South Africa.
December 7 – Rotary International charters the Rotary Club of Grand Baie, Mauritius.
December 8
The No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13.
Arthur Scargill becomes President-elect of the National Union of Mineworkers.
December 10 – During the Ministerial Session of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, Spain signs the Protocol of Accession to NATO.
December 11
Boxing: Muhammad Ali loses to Trevor Berbick; this proves to be Ali's last-ever fight.
El Mozote massacre: In El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians.
December 13 – Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, to prevent the dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
December 15 – A car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 61 people; Syrian intelligence is blamed.
December 17 – American Brigadier General James L. Dozier is kidnapped in Verona by the Italian Red Brigades.
December 20 – The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurs off the coast of South-West Cornwall.
December 21 – Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern Africa (PTA).
December 28 – The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia.
December 31 – A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the PNDC led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
Main article: January 1981
January – The subterranean Sarawak Chamber is discovered in Borneo.
January 1
Greece enters the European Community, which later becomes the European Union.
Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
January 6 – The Brazilian double decker boat Novo Amapo capsizes in the Amazon River, Belem de Cajari, Macapá, Brazil; 230 are killed.
January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensive, gaining control of most of Morazán and Chalatenango departments.
January 15 – Pope John Paul II receives a delegation led by Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa at the Vatican.
January 16 – Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and her husband.
January 17 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos lifts martial law.
January 19 – United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
January 20 – Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days within minutes of Ronald Reagan succeeding Jimmy Carter as the 40th President of the United States, ending the Iran hostage crisis.
January 21 – The first DeLorean DMC-12 automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
January 23 – An earthquake of 6.8 magnitude in Sichuan, China kills 150.
January 25
Jiang Qing ("Madame Mao") is sentenced to death in the People's Republic of China.
In South Africa the largest part of the town Laingsburg is swept away within minutes by one of the strongest floods ever experienced in the Great Karoo.
January 27 – The Indonesian passenger ship Tamponas 2 catches fire and capsizes in the Java Sea, killing 580.
February
Main article: February 1981
February 4 – Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes Prime Minister of Norway.
February 8 – 20 fans of Olympiacos and 1 fan of AEK Athens die, while 54 are injured, after a stampede at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, possibly because gate 7 does not open immediately after the end of the game.
February 9 – Polish Prime Minister Józef Pińkowski resigns and is replaced by General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
February 14
Stardust fire: A fire at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, Ireland in the early hours kills 48 and injures 214.
Australia withdraws recognition of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
February 23 – Antonio Tejero, with members of the Guardia Civil, enters the Spanish Congress of Deputies and stops the session where Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo is about to be named president of the government. The coup d'état fails thanks to King Juan Carlos.
February 24 – A powerful, magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Athens, killing 22 people, injuring 400 people and destroying several buildings and 4000 house, mostly in Corinth and the nearby towns of Loutraki, Kiato and Xylokastro.
March
Main article: March 1981
March 1 – Bobby Sands, a Provisional Irish Republican Army member, begins a hunger strike for political status in Long Kesh prison (he dies May 5, the first of 10 men).
March 11 – Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet is sworn in as President of Chile for another 8-year term.
March 17 – In Italy the Propaganda Due Masonic Lodge is discovered.
March 19 – Three workers are killed and 5 injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
March 29 – The first London Marathon starts with 7,500 runners.
March 30 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; 2 police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.
April
Main article: April 1981
April 1 – Daylight saving time is introduced in the Soviet Union.
April 4 – The UK pop group Bucks Fizz wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1981 with the song, "Making Your Mind Up".
April 11 – 1981 Brixton riot: Rioters in south London throw petrol bombs, attack police and loot shops.
April 12 – The Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia with NASA astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen launches on the STS-1 mission, returning to Earth on April 14. It is the first time a manned reusable spacecraft has returned from orbit.
April 12: First Space Shuttle launch: Columbia, April 12, 1981.
April 15 - The first Coca Cola bottling plant in China is opened. [1]
April 18
A Minor League Baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning is not played until June 23).
The rock band Yes splits up (regrouping in 1983).
April 26 – French presidential election: A first-round runoff results between Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterrand.
April 26 – Monarcas Morelia ascends to the Mexican Primera division.
May
Main article: May 1981
May – Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon Basin.
May 1 – The new Chilean pension system, based on private pension funds, begins.
May 5 – Bobby Sands, Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer and elected member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, dies aged 27 while on hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.
May 6 – A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
May 11 – Bob Marley, dies aged 36 from cancer.
May 13 – Pope John Paul II is shot and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman who is allegedly on orders from the Soviet KGB to shoot him, as he enters St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to address a general audience. The Pope successfully recovers.
May 15 – Donna Payant is murdered by serial killer Lemuel Smith, the first time a female prison officer has been killed on-duty in the United States.
May 21 – In France, Socialist François Mitterrand becomes President.
May 22 – Peter Sutcliffe is found guilty of being the Yorkshire Ripper. He is sentenced to life imprisonment on 13 counts of murder and 7 of attempted murder.
May 25 – In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
May 26 – The Italian government resigns over its links to the fascist Masonic cell Propaganda Due.
May 30 – Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman is assassinated in Chittagong.
June
Main article: June 1981
June 5 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 5 homosexual men in Los Angeles have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (the first recognized cases of AIDS).
June 6 – Bihar train disaster: Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into the Bagmati River in Bihar, India, killing between 500 and 800.
June 7 – The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor killing ten Iraqi troops and a French technician.
June 13 – At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, Marcus Sarjeant fires 6 blank shots at Elizabeth II.
June 18
The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States is founded.
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter makes its first flight at Groom Lake (Area 51), NV.
June 22 – Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr is deposed.
June 27 – The first game of paintball is played in Henniker, New Hampshire.
July
Main article: July 1981
July 2 – The Wonderland Gang is brutally murdered in a massacre involving Eddie Nash.
July 3 – The Toxteth riots in Liverpool, UK start after a mob saves a youth from being arrested. Shortly afterward, the Chapeltown riots in Leeds start after increased racial tension.
July 7 – United States President Ronald Reagan nominates the first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, to the Supreme Court of the United States.
July 8 – Irish Republican Joe McDonnell dies at the Long Kesh Internment Camp after a 61-day hunger strike.
July 9 – Donkey Kong is released, marking the first Donkey Kong title and Mario title arcade smash hit game developed by Nintendo.
July 10 – Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia.
July 16-July 21 – England become the first team this century to win a test match after following on when they beat Australia by 18 runs at Headingley cricket ground, Leeds, England.
July 17
Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby, killing 114.
Israeli aircraft bomb Beirut, destroying multi-story apartment blocks containing the offices of PLO associated groups, killing approximately 300 civilians and resulting in worldwide condemnation and a U.S. embargo on the export of aircraft to Israel.[2]
In Bolivia, General Luis Gracia Meza leads a bloody coup d'état against the elected government of Lidia Gayler.
July 19 – The 1981 Springbok Tour commences in New Zealand, amid controversy over the support of apartheid.
July 21 – Tohui The Panda is born in Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, the first panda to ever be born and survive in captivity outside of China.
July 29 – A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
August
Main article: August 1981
August 1 – The first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) is launched.
August 9 – Major League Baseball resumes from the strike with the All-Star Game in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.
August 12
The original Model 5150 IBM PC (with a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 processor) is released in the United States at a base price of $1,565.
Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Salomon Islands and Tuvalu recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
August 19
Gulf of Sidra incident (1981): Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sends two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two U.S. fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroy the Libyan fighters.
August 24 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, after pleading guilty to murdering John Lennon in Manhattan 8 months earlier.
August 28 – South African troops invade Angola.
August 31 – A bomb explodes at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, West Germany, injuring 20 people.
September
Main article: September 1981
September 1 – Gregorio Conrado Álvarez is inaugurated as a military de facto President of Uruguay.
September 4 – An explosion at a mine in Záluží, Czechoslovakia, kills 65 people.
September 8 – the first episode of the extremely popular British sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Big Brother is shown on BBC One.
September 10 – Picasso's painting "Guernica" is moved from New York to Madrid.
September 15 – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, at 150 years old, when it operates under its own power outside Washington, D.C.
September 17 – Ric Flair defeats Dusty Rhodes to win his first World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in Kansas City.
September 18 – France abolishes capital punishment.
September 19 – Simon & Garfunkel perform The Concert in Central Park, a free concert in New York in front of approximately half a million people.
September 20 – The Brazilian river boat Sobral Santos capsizes in the Amazon River, Óbidos, Brazil, killing at least 300.
September 21 – Belize gains independence from the United Kingdom.
September 25
Sandra Day O'Connor takes her seat as the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Rolling Stones begin their Tattoo You tour at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
September 26
The Boeing 767 airliner makes its first flight.
The Sydney Tower opens to the public.
September 27 – TGV high-speed rail service between Paris and Lyon, France begins.
September 28 – The British children's animated TV series Danger Mouse debuts on ITV.
October
Main article: October 1981
October 2 – English rock band The Police releases Ghost in the Machine.
October 5 – Raoul Wallenberg becomes a posthumously honorary citizen of the United States.
October 6 – Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who belong to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization led by Khalid Islambouli; they opposed his negotiations with Israel.
October 10 – The Ministry for Education of Japan issues the jōyō kanji.
October 14 – Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt 1 week after Anwar Sadat's assassination.
October 16 – Gas explosions at a coal mine at Hokutan, Yūbari, Hokkaidō, Japan kill 93.
October 21 – Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
October 22 – The founding congress of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Organization faction led by Hareram Sharma and D. P. Singh begins.
October 27 – Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground outside the Karlskrona, Sweden military base.
November
Main article: November 1981
November 1: Antigua and Barbuda.
November 1 – Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
November 9 – Edict No. 81-234 abolishes slavery in Mauritania.
November 12 – The Church of England General Synod votes to admit women to holy orders.
November 16 – Luke and Laura marry on the U.S. soap opera General Hospital; it is the highest-rated hour in daytime television history.
November 18 – COMDEX Fall, IBM introduces the IBM PC; Scientific Solutions announces the first PC add-in cards.
November 23 – Iran–Contra affair: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
November 25–November 26 – A group of mercenaries led by Mike Hoare take over Mahe airport in the Seychelles in a coup attempt. Most of the mercenaries escape by a commandeered Air India passenger jet; 6 are later arrested.
November 30 – Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin negotiating intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings end inconclusively on Thursday, December 17).
December
Main article: December 1981
December 1 – An Inex-Adria Aviopromet McDonnell Douglas MD-80 strikes a mountain peak and crashes while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
December 4 – South Africa grants homeland Ciskei independence, not recognized outside South Africa.
December 7 – Rotary International charters the Rotary Club of Grand Baie, Mauritius.
December 8
The No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13.
Arthur Scargill becomes President-elect of the National Union of Mineworkers.
December 10 – During the Ministerial Session of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, Spain signs the Protocol of Accession to NATO.
December 11
Boxing: Muhammad Ali loses to Trevor Berbick; this proves to be Ali's last-ever fight.
El Mozote massacre: In El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians.
December 13 – Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, to prevent the dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
December 15 – A car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 61 people; Syrian intelligence is blamed.
December 17 – American Brigadier General James L. Dozier is kidnapped in Verona by the Italian Red Brigades.
December 20 – The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurs off the coast of South-West Cornwall.
December 21 – Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern Africa (PTA).
December 28 – The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia.
December 31 – A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the PNDC led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.