1980

HISTORY & POLITICS

U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to
bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage.

A series of deadly tornadoes strikes Grand Island, Nebraska, causing over $300m
in damage, killing 5 people and injuring over 250.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs a bill requiring 19- and 20-year-old males to register for a peacetime military draft, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The command council of Iraq orders its army to "deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets," initiating the Iran-Iraq War.

Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn, when it flies within 77,000 miles of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth.

Former Beatle John Lennon dies in the hospital after being shot outside his New York City apartment by Mark David Chapman.


MUSIC

Call Me - Blondie
Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd
Magic - Olivia Newton-John
Rock With You - Michael Jackson
Do That To Me One More Time - Captain & Tennille
Fame - Irene Cara
Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me, Girl - The Spinners
Funkytown - Lipps, Inc., Lipps, Inc.
Little Jeannie - Elton John
Upside Down - Diana Ross
He's So Shy - The Pointer Sisters
Please Don't Go - KC & the Sunshine Band
Turning Japanese - The Vapors
Rapper's Delight - Sugar Hill Gang
Whip It - Devo
Escape (The Piña Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
It's Still Rock n' Roll To Me - Billy Joel
Sailing - Christopher Cross
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen

TELEVISION

Dallas: Millions of viewers tune into the U.S. TV soap opera Dallas to learn who shot lead character J.R. Ewing. The "Who shot J.R.?" event is a national obsession.
 
Magnum, P.I: Starring: Tom Selleck & John Hillerman
The adventures of a Hawaii based private investigator.
 
MOVIES

The Empire Strikes Back: Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams
While Luke takes advanced Jedi training from Yoda, his friends are relentlessly pursued by Darth Vader as part of his plan to capture Luke.
 
Stir Crazy: Starring: Richard Pryor & Gene Wilder
Skip and Harry are framed for a bank robbery and end up in a western prison. The two eastern boys are having difficulty adjusting to the new life until the warden finds that Skip has a natural talent for riding broncos with the inter-prison rodeo coming up.

Urban Cowboy: Starring: John Travolta
Bud is a young man from the country who learns about life and love in a Houston bar.
    
Friday the 13th: Many years after two summer camp councilors are killed at Camp Crystal Lake, the owner decides to reopen, which sparks a series of grisly murders.
 
American Gigolo: Starring: Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo
Julian is the highest paid lover in Beverly Hills. He leaves women feeling more alive than they've ever felt before. Except one.
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SPORTS

The United States Olympic Hockey Team defeats the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the Winter Olympics, in the Miracle on Ice.

United States boycotts the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup.

Dale Earnhardt #2 won the NEXTEL Cup (formerly Winston Cup).

PEOPLE WHO DIED

John Mauchly (b. 1097) - American physicist and inventor of ENIAC (1st general purpose electronic digital computer) & UNIVAC I (1st commercial computer made in the USA).
Jimmy Durante (b. 1893) - American actor, singer & comedian.
Jesse Owens (b. 1913) - American track and field athlete who won 4 gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Jean-Paul Sartre (b. 1905) - French existentialist philosopher and writer who declined his win of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Luis Muñoz Marín (b. 1898) - Poet, journalist, politician (1st democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico and considered one of the most important 20th century political figures in the Americas) & was called the "Father of the Modern Puerto Rico."
Ian Curtis (b. 1956) - Lead singer of the British band Joy Division.
Peter Sellers (b. 1925) - English comedian and actor best known for his Inspector Clouseau roles in Pink Panther films.
Tex Avery (b. 1908) - American cartoonist and creator of Looney Toons.
John Lennon (b. 1940) - British singer, songwriter, guitarist, one of the founders of The Beatles, painter, author and political activist.

PEOPLE WHO WERE BORN

Alicia Keys - Musician (singer and pianist) & Actress (Smokin' Aces)
Nick Carter - Singer & member of Backstreet Boys
Chelsea Clinton - Daughter of former U.S. president Bill Clinton & U.S. senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Venus Williams - American tennis player
Jessica Simpson - Singer / Actress - as Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard, Amy in Employee of the Month, & herself on MTV's reality show Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica