Timeline August 1981

Events in August 1981 17

• 1901 – 1981 Melvyn Douglas (1901-1981) Died 4 August 1981, aged 80 American actor Melvyn Douglas, a two-time Academy Award winner for Hud and Being There, died in New York City on 4 August 1981. His career spanned five decades, from romantic leading roles opposite Greta Garbo in the 1930s to character parts in his later years. He was also active in Democratic politics.
• 1921 – 1981 Vera-Ellen (1921-1981) American dancer and actress, partner of Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Danny Kaye.
• 1923 – 1981 Paddy Chayefsky (1923-1981) Died 1 August 1981, aged 58 American screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, the only person to win three solo Academy Awards for screenwriting, died in New York City on 1 August 1981. He wrote Marty, The Hospital, and Network, the last a scathing satire of television news that proved prophetic. His 1976 Network screenplay is widely regarded as one of the finest in film history.
• 1981 US Open 1981 Men: John McEnroe · Women: Tracy Austin
• 1981 MTV launches Music Television begins broadcasting in the United States MTV began broadcasting on American cable television on 1 August 1981, opening with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll" and the video for The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star". The channel built a 24-hour format around music videos and reshaped the marketing of pop music.
• 1981 US air traffic controllers strike Reagan fires thousands of striking PATCO controllers Members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization walked out on 3 August 1981 demanding better pay and working conditions. President Reagan declared the strike illegal and fired roughly 11,000 controllers who refused to return to work. The union was decertified and the action weakened the American labor movement for years afterward.
• 1981 – present Roger Federer Tennis Legend One of the greatest tennis players of all time and a global ambassador for Switzerland.
• 1981 Roger Federer born Basel, Switzerland, 8 August 1981 Roger Federer was born in Basel, Switzerland. His father Robert is Swiss, his mother Lynette is South African, giving Roger dual citizenship. He began playing tennis aged 8 and became Swiss junior champion at 14.
• 1981 IBM PC launches on Intel 8088 IBM launches the IBM PC on 12 August 1981, powered by Intel's 8088 processor running at 4.77MHz. The IBM PC's open architecture — using standard components including Intel chips and Microsoft DOS — allows clone manufacturers to build compatible machines, creating an enormous market for Intel processors. Every IBM PC clone that follows must use an Intel-compatible processor (or an exact clone of one). The IBM PC launch is the most important moment in Intel's history — it creates the x86 PC ecosystem that sustains Intel for four decades.
• 1981 IBM PC — the machine that defined personal computing IBM announces the IBM Personal Computer (model 5150) on 12 August 1981, using an Intel 8088 processor and Microsoft DOS operating system — both sourced from outside suppliers in an unprecedented departure from IBM's vertically integrated model. The decision to use outside suppliers and publish an open architecture is made partly to move fast (the PC is developed in just 12 months) and partly to avoid antitrust scrutiny. The IBM PC defines the personal computer standard; within two years it has 75% market share. It also contains the seeds of IBM's eventual decline: competitors can clone it.
• 1981 IBM launches the IBM Personal Computer Model 5150 establishes the PC industry standard IBM released the IBM Personal Computer (model 5150) on 12 August 1981, running Microsoft's newly written MS-DOS operating system. Its open architecture made it the basis for the "IBM-compatible" PC industry that followed. The machine reshaped business and home computing over the following decade.
• 1981 Microsoft releases MS-DOS Operating system ships with the first IBM PC Microsoft released version 1.0 of MS-DOS on 12 August 1981 as the operating system for the newly launched IBM Personal Computer. Microsoft had acquired the underlying code, originally known as QDOS, and adapted it for IBM. MS-DOS became the dominant operating system for personal computers through the 1980s.
• 1981 Pretenders release Pretenders II Second album With Message of Love and Talk of the Town.
• 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident First Tomcat kills Two F-14s from USS Nimitz shoot down two Libyan Su-22s that fired on them over the Gulf of Sidra — the Tomcat's first air-to-air victories.
• 1981 Tattoo You Sixteenth album — August 24, 1981 Tattoo You, released on August 24, 1981, spent nine weeks at number 1 in the US and reached number 2 in the UK. Largely assembled from outtakes from previous sessions, it included "Start Me Up" — one of their most enduring anthems.
• 1981 Voyager 2 flies by Saturn Second spacecraft to survey Saturn and its moons NASA's Voyager 2 probe made its closest approach to Saturn on 25 August 1981, returning detailed images of the planet's rings and moons. It confirmed and extended discoveries made by Voyager 1 the previous year. The spacecraft continued on toward Uranus and Neptune.
• 1981 Vera-Ellen dies in Los Angeles Vera-Ellen dies aged 60.