Timeline January 1981

Events in January 1981 18

• 1889 – 1981 Beulah Bondi (1889-1981) American actress who played James Stewart's mother four times, including in It's a Wonderful Life.
• 1893 – 1981 Harold Urey (1893-1981) Died 5 January 1981, aged 87 American chemist Harold Urey, who won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering deuterium, died in La Jolla, California, on 5 January 1981. He also contributed to the Manhattan Project and later pioneered research into the chemical origins of life. His work with student Stanley Miller produced the influential Miller-Urey experiment.
• 1896 – 1981 A. J. Cronin (1896-1981) Died 6 January 1981, aged 84 Scottish novelist A. J. Cronin, author of The Citadel and Dr. Finlay's Casebook, died in Montreux, Switzerland, on 6 January 1981. His novels, often drawing on his early career as a physician, were international bestsellers and several were adapted for film and television. The Citadel influenced debate over the founding of Britain's National Health Service.
• 1977 – 1981 Carter presidency 39th President — 1977 to 1981 Jimmy Carter served as the 39th President from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981. He brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, but the Iran hostage crisis and economic stagflation cost him re-election.
• 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 – 1982 Arthur Won an Academy Award for Best That You Can Do, the theme from the film Arthur, co-written with then-wife Carole Bayer Sager.
• 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 Greece joins the European Economic Community Tenth member state accedes on 1 January 1981 Greece formally became the tenth member state of the European Economic Community on 1 January 1981. Its accession followed years of association agreements and political negotiation after the restoration of Greek democracy in 1974. It was the first Mediterranean and Balkan country to join the bloc.
• 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 Beulah Bondi dies in Woodland Hills Beulah Bondi dies aged 91.
• 1981 Iran hostage crisis ends American hostages released after 444 days The 52 American hostages held at the US embassy in Tehran were released on 20 January 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan's presidential inauguration. Their release followed the Algiers Accords negotiated between the United States and Iran. The crisis had lasted 444 days since November 1979.
• 1981 – 1989 Reagan presidency 40th President — 1981 to 1989 Ronald Reagan served as the 40th President from January 20, 1981 to January 20, 1989. Reaganomics cut taxes and deregulated the economy. His arms build-up and "peace through strength" strategy contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 production begins Stainless-steel sports car enters production in Northern Ireland The DeLorean Motor Company began production of the DMC-12 sports car at its factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, in January 1981. The gull-winged, stainless-steel car was the sole model produced by John DeLorean's company. Production ended the following year amid the company's financial collapse.
• 1981 Gang of Four sentenced in China Verdicts delivered in trial of Mao-era radicals A Chinese special court delivered verdicts against the Gang of Four, including Mao Zedong's widow Jiang Qing, on 25 January 1981, for crimes committed during the Cultural Revolution. Jiang Qing received a suspended death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment. The trial was presented as a formal repudiation of the Cultural Revolution's excesses.