1982

Years: 1979 1980 1981 - 1982 - 1983 1984 1985

Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s

Events of 1982

January

• January 8 – AT&T agrees to divest itself into 22 subdivisions.
• January 11 – Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara during the Paris-Dakar rally. He is rescued January 14.
• January 13 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78. On the same day, a Washington Metro train derails to the north, killing 3 (the system's first, and worst, fatal accident).
• January 26 – Mauno Koivisto is elected President of Finland.
• January 27 – The Garret Fitzgerald government of the Republic of Ireland is defeated 82-81 on its budget; Fitzgerald announced his resignation.
• January 28 – U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces after 42 days of captivity under the Red Brigades.

February

• February 1 – Senegal and Gambia form a loose confederation.
• February 3 – Syrian president Hafez al-Assad orders the army to purge the city of Harran of the Muslim Brotherhood.
• February 9 – Japan Airlines Flight 350 crashes in Tokyo Bay due to thrust reversal on approach to Tokyo International Airport, killing 24 people among the 174 people on board.
• February 15 – The oil platform Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing all 84 rig workers aboard.
• February 18 – The Republic of Ireland general election gives a boost to Fianna Fáil.

March

• March 9 – Charles Haughey becomes Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland.
• March 10 – The United States places an embargo on Libyan oil imports, alleging Libyan support of terrorist groups.
• March 10 – Syzygy: all 9 planets align on the same side of the Sun. See also Jupiter effect.
• March 19 – The Falklands War approaches: Argentines land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war.
• March 26 – A ground breaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC.

April

• April 2 – Falklands War begins: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
• April 4 – Falklands War: The British Falkland Islands government surrenders, placing the islands in Argentinean control.
• April 5 – Falklands War: The Royal Navy task force sails to recapture the Falklands.
• April 12 – Falklands War: A 200-mile 'total exclusion zone' around the Falklands proclaimed by the United Kingdom comes into effect.
• April 17 – By Proclamation of the Queen of Canada on Parliament Hill, Canada patriates its constitution, granting full political independence from the United Kingdom; included is the country's first entrenched bill of rights.
• April 25 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula per the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

May

• May 1 – Falklands War: A Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bomber takes off from Ascension Island and bombs Stanley Airport.
• May 1 – A crowd of over 100,000 attends the first day of the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. The fair is kicked off with an address by President Ronald Reagan. Over 11 million people attend the fair during its six month run.
• May 2 – Falklands War: The nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano killing 323 sailors.
• May 2 – The Weather Channel (United States) airs on cable television for the first time.
• May 4 – Falklands War: HMS Sheffield is hit by an Exocet missile, and burns out of control; 20 sailors are killed. The ship sank on May 10.
• May 5 – A Unabomber bomb explodes in the computer science department at
  Vanderbilt University; secretary Janet Smith is injured.
• May 12 – Spanish priest Juan María Fernández y Krohn tries to stab Pope John Paul II with a bayonet during the latter's pilgrimage to the Fatima, Portugal shrine.
• May 21 – Falklands War: Royal Marines and paratroopers from the British Task Force land at San Carlos Bay on the Falkland Islands and raise the Union Flag.
• May 22 – Falklands War: HMS Ardent is sunk by Argentine aircraft, killing 22 sailors.
• May 23 – Falklands War – HMS Antelope of the Royal Navy explodes, two killed.
• May 24 – Iranian troops retake Khorramshahr.
• May 24 – KGB head Yuri Andropov is appointed to the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• May 25 – Falklands War: the merchant navy ship Atlantic Conveyor is sunk by an Argentine Exocet missile, killing 12 and depriving British forces of the helicopters intended to be used in the later stages of the conflict.
• May 28 – British troops reach Darwin, Falkland Islands.
• May 29 – Falklands War: In the Battle of Goose Green, British paratroopers defeat a larger force of Argentine troops in the first land battle of the war.
• May 30 – Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO and the first nation to enter the alliance since West Germany's admission in 1955.
• May 31 – Falklands War: The Battle of Stanley is fought.

June

• June 6 – The 1982 Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
• June 6 – The United Nations Security Council votes to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
• June 8 – President Ronald Reagan becomes the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.
• June 8 – Falklands War, British landing ship logistic RFA Sir Galahad is destroyed, killing 48.
• June 8 – VASP Flight 168, a Boeing 727 passenger jet, crashes into forest Fortaleza, killing 137.
• June 12 – A rally against nuclear weapons draws 750,000 to New York City's Central Park.
• June 13 – Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.
• June 14 – The Falklands War ends: A formal surrender is agreed this day.
• June 18 – Argentine military dictator Leopoldo Galtieri resigns, in the wake of his country's defeat in the Falklands War.
• June 19 – The body of "God's Banker", Roberto Calvi, chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
• June 30 – The Equal Rights Amendment falls short of the 38 states needed to pass; Phyllis Schlafly and other leaders of the Religious Right take credit for its defeat.

July

• July 4 – Four Iranian diplomats are kidnapped upon Israel's invasion of Lebanon.
• July 9 – Pan Am Flight 759 (Boeing 727) crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 146 on board and 8 on the ground.
• July 9 – Intruder Michael Fagan visits Queen Elizabeth II in her bedroom for a chat.
• July 16 – In New York City, The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $25,000 for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
• July 20 – The Provisional IRA detonates 2 bombs in central London, killing 8 soldiers, wounding 47 people, and leading to the deaths of 7 horses.
• July 23 – The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling by 1985-1986.

August

• August 4 – The United Nations Security Council votes to censure Israel because its troops are still in Lebanon.
• August 7 – Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini resigns.
• August 12 – Mexico announces it is unable to pay its large foreign debt, triggering a debt crisis that quickly spread throughout Latin America.
• August 17 – The first compact discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.
• August 20 – Lebanese Civil War: A multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. French troops arrive August 21, U.S. Marines August 25.

September

• September 3 – Italian general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa is killed in a mafia ambush.
• September 5 – Iowa paperboy Johnny Gosch is kidnapped.
• September 14 – Lebanese President-elect Bachir Gemayel is assassinated in Beirut.
• September 18 – The Lebanese Christian Militia – the Phalange – kill thousands of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps with the approval of Israeli troops in Lebanon.
• September 23 – Amin Gemayel, brother of Bachir, is elected president of Lebanon.
• September 25 – In Israel, 400,000 marchers demand the resignation of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
• September 29-October 1 – The Tylenol scare is sparked when 7 people in the Chicago area die after ingesting capsules laced with potassium cyanide.

October

• October 1 – Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a Constructive Vote of No Confidence.
• October 8 – Poland bans Solidarity after having suspended it on 13 December 1981.
• October 11 – The Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII of England that sank in 1545, is raised.
• October 15 – The Garn - St Germain Depository Institutions Act deregulates the U.S. savings and loan industry.
• October 20 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem at least 63 and probably many more people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
• October 27 – In Canada, Dominion Day is officially renamed to Canada Day.
• October 28 – The Socialist Party wins the election in Spain; Felipe González is elected Prime Minister.

November

• November 3 – A gasoline tanker explodes in the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan, killing at least 2,000 people.
• November 6 – Camerun president Ahmadou Ahidjo resigns, replaced by Paul Biya.
• November 12 – In the Soviet Union, former KGB head Yuri Andropov is selected to become the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Leonid I. Brezhnev.
• November 13 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.
• November 14 – The leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, Lech Wałęsa, is released from 11 months of internment near the Soviet border.
• November 27 – Yasuhiro Nakasone becomes Prime minister of Japan.
• November 28 – Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.
• November 29 – Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37, stating that the Soviet Union should withdraw from Afghanistan.

December

• December 7 – The first U.S. execution by lethal injection is carried out in Texas.
• December 23 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency recommends the evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri due to dangerous levels of dioxin contamination.
• December 26 – Time Magazine's Man of the Year is given for the first time to a non-human, the computer.

Deaths

• November 10 - Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1906)

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