Timeline December 1981

Events in December 1981 16

• 1934 – 1981 Marty Feldman (1934-1981) Died 2 December 1981, aged 47 British comedian and actor Marty Feldman, known for his bulging eyes and for films including Young Frankenstein, died of a heart attack in Mexico City on 2 December 1981 while filming Yellowbeard. He had earlier made his name as a writer and performer on British television comedy. He co-wrote for shows including The Frost Report and At Last the 1948 Show.
• 1971 – 1981 Basel Institute for Immunology Joined the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland. Despite knowing almost nothing about immunology, he applied molecular biology techniques to one of the field's greatest mysteries: how do vertebrates produce millions of different antibodies from a small number of genes?
• 1974 – 1981 Peter Cat Jazz Bar Opened Peter Cat, a jazz bar in the basement of a building in Kokubunji on the western outskirts of Tokyo, named after his pet cat. He and Yoko ran the bar together — she met the public while he washed dishes, mixed drinks and spun records from a collection of 3,000 jazz albums. They were so deep in debt they could not afford heating, warming themselves by sleeping with their cat. In 1977 they relocated the bar to Sendagaya in central Tokyo.
• 1975 – 1981 The Washington Star Joined The Washington Star, where he drew from the heart of American political power. Created his trademark character Punk, a small penguin who appeared in the corner of his cartoons offering ironic commentary.
• 1980 – 1981 Amadeus on Broadway Originated the role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Broadway production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, earning his first Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. He lost to his co-star Ian McKellen, who played the jealous Salieri.
• 1981 1981: Nelson Piquet Brabham Brazilian Piquet won the first of his three titles in a tight battle with Carlos Reutemann and Jacques Laffite.
• 1981 Austrian Kammersangerin Named Austrian Kammersangerin, one of the highest honours for opera singers in Austria, by the Vienna State Opera.
• 1981 French Citizenship Became a French citizen, eventually choosing to write exclusively in French.
• 1981 Independent Syndication When the Washington Star folded, chose to work independently through Universal Press Syndicate rather than join another newspaper — the first major political cartoonist of the twentieth century to work without editorial oversight from a home publication.
• 1981 Intrusions — First Novel Published her first novel, Intrusions, an experimental metafictional work in the style of John Barth. It differed markedly from the naturalistic fiction she would later become known for.
• 1981 Joined MIT Recruited to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he joined the Center for Cancer Research and would spend the rest of his career.
• 1981 South Shore Cultural Center Jazzfest Founded the Jazzfest at the South Shore Cultural Center, creating another vital platform for jazz performance on Chicago's South Side.
• 1981 – 1983 Martial Law in Poland Jaruzelski’s Crackdown A brutal period where the communist government attempted to crush the Solidarity movement.
• 1981 Martial law declared in Poland Government crackdown suspends Solidarity activities General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law across Poland on 13 December 1981, suspending civil liberties and interning thousands of opposition activists. The move was aimed at crushing the independent trade union movement and averting Soviet intervention. Martial law remained in force until 1983.
• 1981 Israel annexes the Golan Heights Golan Heights Law extends Israeli jurisdiction over occupied territory The Israeli Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law on 14 December 1981, extending Israeli civil law and administration over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967. The move was not recognized internationally and the UN Security Council declared it null and void. The status of the territory has remained disputed since.
• 1981 First American test-tube baby is born Elizabeth Carr born via IVF in Virginia Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first child conceived through in vitro fertilization in the United States, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on 28 December 1981. She was the world's fifteenth IVF baby, following the technique's introduction in Britain in 1978. Her birth marked the establishment of IVF as a viable fertility treatment in the US.