What Happened in 1982 — Events, Births & Deaths

Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes the first Latin American to hold the title of Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Breakup of the Bell System: In the United States, AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.

Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.

World Airways Flight 30 overshoots the runway at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, and crashes into Boston Harbor. Two people are missing and presumed dead.

US Army General James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from captivity by the Red Brigades.

Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner".

The Intel 80286 is released, which introduced protected mode memory. The IBM PC/AT and its clones used this CPU.

Hama massacre: The government of Syria attacks the town of Hama.

Japan Air Lines Flight 350 crashes near Haneda Airport in an attempted pilot mass murder-suicide, killing 24 of the 174 people on board.

The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 workers.

Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus.

Syzygy: All nine planets recognized at this time — Mercury to Pluto — align on the same side of the Sun.

Fifteen people are killed when Widerøe Flight 933 crashes into the Barents Sea near Gamvik, Norway.

The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London.

Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom.

NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.

Guatemala's government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García, is overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt.

Bangladeshi President Abdus Sattar is deposed in a bloodless coup led by Army Chief Lieutenant general Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who suspends the Constitution and imposes martial law.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, D.C.

The Canada Act 1982 receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982.

Space Shuttle program: STS-3 mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.

Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh is arrested.

American-Israeli reservist Alan Harry Goodman carries out a mass shooting at the Dome of the Rock, killing two Palestinians and injuring at least seven others.

Constitution Act, 1982 Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.

Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.

Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.

The Bijon Setu massacre occurs in Calcutta, India.

Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands War.

Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.

Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.

During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet.

Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.

Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.

Falklands War: HMS Coventry is sunk by Argentine Air Force A-4 Skyhawks.

Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit Canterbury Cathedral.

Falklands War: The British Army defeats the Argentine Army at the Battle of Goose Green.

Cold War: Spain joins NATO.

The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street; he survives but is left paralysed.

1982 Lebanon War: The war begins as forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.

Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.

Bluff Cove Air Attacks during the Falklands War: Fifty-six British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two landing ships, RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram.

VASP Flight 168 crashes in Pacatuba, Ceará, Brazil, killing 128 people.

Lebanon War: The Syrian Arab Army defeats the Israeli Defense Forces in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub.

A nuclear disarmament rally and concert is held in New York City.

Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.

Battles of Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge, during the Falklands War.

Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley conditionally surrender to British forces ending the war.

Italian banker Roberto Calvi's body is discovered hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, England.

The People's Armed Police is de facto founded; it is officially established 10 months later on April 5, 1983.

The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide opens in Tel Aviv, despite attempts by the Turkish government to cancel it, as it included presentations on the Armenian genocide.

The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.

John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

"The Jakarta Incident": British Airways Flight 009 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.

Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4.

Aeroflot Flight 8641 crashes in Mazyr, Belarus, killing 132 people.

Three Iranian diplomats and a journalist are kidnapped in Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remains unknown.

Space Shuttle program: Columbia lands at Edwards Air Force Base at the end of the program's final test flight, STS-4. President Ronald Reagan declares the Space Shuttle to be operational.

While attempting to return to Sheremetyevo International Airport, Aeroflot Flight 411, an Ilyushin Il-62, crashes near Mendeleyevo, Moscow Oblast, killing all 90 people on board.

A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein results in the Dujail Massacre over the next several months.

Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 145 people on board and eight others on the ground.

Italy defeats West Germany 3–1 to win the FIFA World Cup.

Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre.

In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped.

Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.

Outside Santa Clarita, California, actor Vic Morrow and two children are killed when a helicopter crashes onto them while shooting a scene from Twilight Zone: The Movie.

Heavy rain causes a mudslide that destroys a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, killing 299.

The Helsinki Metro, the first rapid transit system of Finland, is opened to the general public.

A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii, killing one passenger and injuring 15 others.

Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon.

Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claim to be avenging the massacre of 1+1⁄2 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian genocide.

Meitnerium, a synthetic chemical element with the atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.

The United States Air Force Space Command is founded.

The international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees following Israel's 1982 Invasion of Lebanon leave Beirut. Five days later, several thousand refugees are massacred in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by Phalange forces.

Spantax Flight 995 crashes at Málaga Airport during a rejected takeoff, killing 50 of the 394 people on board.

President-elect of Lebanon Bachir Gemayel is assassinated.

Lebanon War: The Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon takes place.

Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board system.

NFL season: American football players in the National Football League begin a 57-day strike.

Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a constructive vote of no confidence.

EPCOT Center (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) opens at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Sony and Phillips launch the compact disc in Japan; on the same day, Sony releases the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind.

Tylenol products are recalled after bottles in Chicago laced with cyanide cause seven deaths.

Poland bans Solidarity and all other trade unions.

The hull of the Mary Rose is recovered, over four hundred years after her sinking during the battle of the Solent.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a war on drugs.

During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.

A gunfight breaks out between police officers and members of a religious cult in Arizona. The shootout leaves two cultists dead and dozens of cultists and police officers injured.

The Spanish general election begins fourteen years of rule by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, Ohio; a Honda Accord is the first car produced there.

Channel 4, the British free-to-air public broadcast television channel funded by its commercial activities, starts broadcasting.

The Salang Tunnel fire in Afghanistan kills 150–2000 people.

Colonel Saye Zerbo, president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Colonel Gabriel Yoryan Somé.

Space Shuttle Columbia launches from the Kennedy Space Center on STS-5, the first operational mission of the Space Shuttle program.

USSR: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.

Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas. Kim's subsequent death (on November 18) leads to significant changes in the sport.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.

Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.

Reverend Caesar "Butch" Conde leads first worship service of the Bread of Life Ministries International in the Philippines.

Michael Jackson releases Thriller, the best-selling music album of all time.

At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.

A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri, that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.

The China adopts its current constitution.

The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombs a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland, killing eleven soldiers and six civilians.

In Texas, Charles Brooks Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

The Senior Road Tower collapses in less than 17 seconds. Five workers on the tower are killed and three workers on a building nearby are injured.

The 6.0 Ms North Yemen earthquake shakes southwestern Yemen with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 2,800, and injuring 1,500.

Eva Asderaki, Greek tennis umpire

Adam Lambert, American singer, songwriter and actor

Becky Bayless, American wrestler

Ivars Timermanis, Latvian basketball player

Li Na, Chinese tennis player

Matt Prior, South African-English cricketer

Jonathan Fanene, American football player

Brad Jones, Australian footballer

Hana Kobayashi, Venezuelan singer

Landon Powell, American baseball player and manager

Nellie McKay, British-American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress

Ty Dolla Sign, American singer, songwriter, and musician

Uğur Boral, Turkish footballer

Samuel C. Morrison, Jr., Liberian-American journalist, producer, and screenwriter

Ali Wong, American comedian and actress

Kaká, Brazilian footballer

Novlene Williams-Mills, Jamaican sprinter

Buakaw Banchamek, Thai kick-boxer

Adrián González, American baseball player

Adebayo Akinfenwa, English footballer

Kevin Amankwaah, English footballer

Hasan Kabze, Turkish footballer

Brett Firman, Australian rugby league player

Justine Henin, Belgian tennis player

Yelena Isinbayeva, Russian pole vaulter

Nadia Petrova, Russian tennis player

Shailaja Pujari, Indian weightlifter

Rain, South Korean singer and actor

Mikhail Youzhny, Russian tennis player

Brandon Jacobs, American football player

Misty Upham, American actress (died 2014)

Shonette Azore-Bruce, Barbadian netball player

Sophia Bush, American actress and director

Alicia Vela-Bailey, American stunt performer, stunt double, actress, dancer, and choreographer

Hakim Warrick, American basketball player

Alecko Eskandarian, American soccer player and manager

Sakon Yamamoto, Japanese race car driver

Omari Banks, Anguillan cricketer

Stefania Spampinato, Italian actress

Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spanish tennis player

DeMarcus Ware, American football player

Ruhila Adatia-Sood, Kenyan journalist and radio host (died 2013)

Carlos Delfino, Argentine–Italian basketball player

Yakhouba Diawara, French basketball player

Vincent Enyeama, Nigerian footballer

Elvan Abeylegesse, Ethiopian-Turkish runner

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarusian politician

Peter Budaj, Slovak ice hockey player

Alessandro Cibocchi, Italian footballer

Arvydas Eitutavičius, Lithuanian basketball player

Leono, Mexican wrestler

Alfredo Talavera, Mexican footballer

Rob Burrow, English rugby player (died 2024)

Tyson Chandler, American basketball player

Esra Gümüş, Turkish volleyball player

Miloš Pavlović, Serbian racing driver

Annemiek van Vleuten, Dutch cyclist

Yunel Escobar, Cuban-American baseball player

Charles Itandje, French footballer

Boaz Myhill, American-Welsh footballer

Jana Pittman, Australian hurdler

Michael Copon, American actor, singer, and producer

Samkon Gado, Nigerian-American football player

Kumi Koda, Japanese singer-songwriter and actress

Ryan Fitzpatrick, American football player

Michael Garnett, Canadian ice hockey player

Roman Harper, American football player

Pablo Pérez Companc, Argentine race car driver

Ervin Santana, Dominican baseball player

Dmitry Tursunov, Russian tennis player and coach

Dan Hamhuis, Canadian ice hockey player

Ricky Nolasco, American baseball player

Mohammad Asif, Pakistani cricketer

David Cook, American singer-songwriter

Primo Colón, Puerto Rican wrestler

Philip Humber, American baseball player

Tom Payne, English actor

Shawn Andrews, American football player

Rob Edwards, Welsh footballer

Ethan Kath, Canadian keyboard player, songwriter and producer

Chris Rene, American singer-songwriter and producer

Cedric Benson, American football player (died 2019)

Beau Garrett, American actress and model

François Gourmet, Belgian decathlete

Curtis Glencross, Canadian hockey player

Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (born 1895)

Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and academic (born 1905)

Abu Al-Asar Hafeez Jullundhri, Pakistani poet and composer (born 1900)