19/09/1981: Simon & Garfunkel play in Central Park

On Saturday 19 September 1981, popular folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel played a concert in Central Park as part of a fund-raising event for the redevelopment and maintenance of the run-down green space in the middle of Manhattan. Around $51,000 was raised.

pic.: unattributed on dailymail.co.uk

The concert was recorded and was later released as The Concert in Central Park album and went gold in the UK and double platinum in the USA.


Film of the concert was produced for television broadcast and the upcoming home video market. HBO televised the film, Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park, on February 21, 1982, five days after the album was released. The film was later released for sale in VHS, CED Videodisc, Laserdisc, and DVD formats. It sold more than 50,000 copies in the US, where it earned Gold certification for a music long form video.

pic.: discogs.com

source: wikipedia

04/07/81: Wimbledon Men's Singles final: McEnroe vs. Borg

Saturday, 4 July 1981.

McEnroe beat Borg to win his first Wimbledon title, ending Borg's five year run.

Borg also went on to lose to McEnroe at the 1981 US Open.

Borg and McEnroe pictured prior to the Wimbledon final.

29/06/81: Francois Mitterand on TIME Magazine front cover

source: TIME magazine archive

22/6/81: Mark Chapman pleads guilty

On Monday 22 June, 1981, Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to the murder of John Lennon.

Chapman killed the former Beatle six months earlier and was sentenced to 20 years-to-life in prison.

He still remains behind bars to this day.

source: razmatazmag.com

23/05/81: Donald and Ivana Trump

On Saturday 23 May 1981, Donald Trump and wife Ivana are photographed as they attend the wedding ceremony of John Kluge and Patricia Gay at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

The Trumps had themselves married in 1977 in a lavish society wedding, and became leading figures in New York society during the 1980s. They both worked on several massive projects, including the construction of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The couple had three children: Donald John Jr. (b. 1977), Ivanka Marie (b. 1981), and Eric Fredrick (b. 1984). 

Their divorce was settled in 1992.

source: wikipedia.

28/4/81: Ronald Reagan's Address on the Program for Economic Recovery

On Tuesday 28 April 1981 President Ronald Reagan gave a speech to a joint session of Congress outlining his government's plans for economic recovery and US fiscal programmes.

"I believe it's essential that the Congress approve this package, which I believe will lift the crushing burden of inflation off of our citizens and restore the vitality to our economy and our industrial machine," he said. "The American people now want us to act and not in half measures. They demand and they've earned a full and comprehensive effort to clean up our economic mess."

see also: realclearpolitics

full text of speech here

Also on this day, actress and model Jessica Alba is born in Pomona, California. 

17/4/81: Budding pop singer Madonna writes to her brother

On Friday 17 April 1981 (Good Friday) budding pop star Madonna Ciccone (b. 1958) sends a letter to her brother Christopher in Detroit telling him of how her career in the music business is progressing in New York. She tells him how she is now working with new manager CAmille Barbone and getting her own band together.
She also tells him how she is now living near Madison Square Gardens, "where someday I'll play", further adding, "I've written some great rap tunes, they're great to dance to...''.

Madonna released her first single in late 1982, and her first album in July 1983. She went on to play two shows at Madison Square Gardens in June 1985.

source: Nate Sanders /the-saleroom.com

 Madonna Underground Club Performance in New York City. 1981/ pic. madonna scrapbook

14/04/81: STS-1 Space Shuttle Columbia lands safely at Edwards Air Force Base

12/04/81: Columbia Space Shuttle launched

On Sunday 12 April 1981 the Columbia Space Shuttle was launched into space for the first time. The shuttle program was officially referred to as the Space Transportation System (STS), giving this flight the name STS-1. Launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission had a two-person crew: commander, John Young, a veteran of Gemini and Apollo, and the pilot, Bob Crippen.

The Columbia shuttle was the first "re-usable" spacecraft which was to launch like a rocket and land like an aircraft. The two solid rocket boosters that helped push the shuttle into space would also be re-used, after being recovered from the ocean. Only the massive external fuel tank would burn up as it fell back to Earth.

The mission was a success and the shuttle returned safely to Earth on 14 April. The program would go on complete twenty-seven successful missions into space, although its twenty-eighth and final mission resulted in tragedy as it burned up on re-entry in February 2003, killing its seven crew members.

Twenty years previously, on April 12, 1961, the era of human spaceflight began when Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth in his Vostock I spacecraft. The flight lasted 108 minutes.

5/04/81: Masada mini-series on ABC

On Sunday 5 April 1981 the  TV mini-series Masada began showing on ABC Television in the USA. The historical drama, based on the historical novel The Antagonists by  Ernest K. Gann on the siege of the Masada citadel in Israel by legions of the Roman Empire, ran for four episodes shown on consecutive nights.

The series starred Peter O'Toole, Peter Strauss, Barbara Carrera and Anthony Quayle.

Masada was shown on BBC One in the UK  over two weeks in February 1983. It has since been made available on DVD.

source: tysonstv, tv.com, IMDb

31/1/81: 53rd Academy Awards

On Tuesday 31 March 1981 the 53rd Academy Awards "Oscars" ceremony took place in Los Angeles. The event had been postponed from the previous night due to the assassination attempt on President Reagan.

The awards for Best Picture went to Ordinary People, for which Robert Redford also picked up award for Best Director. Timothy Hutton was awarded Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film, which also won the Best Adapted Screenplay award.

Robert Redford with Best Director Award. pic. IMDB 

Robert de Niro won Best Actor award for his role in Raging Bull, which also won the Best Editing award. Best Original Score went to Fame, as did Best Song. A Special Achievement Award went to The Empire Strikes Back.

30/3/81: Ronald Reagan assasination attempt

On Monday 30 March 1981 an assassination attempt was made on the US President Ronald Reagan.

John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to shoot  Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C., at around 2.27 PM local time, just after the president had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO. Hinckley was armed with a .22 revolver with exploding bullets and was only ten feet away from Reagan when he began shooting. Hinckley’s first shot hit press secretary James Brady and other shots wounded a police officer Thomas Delahanty and a Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy. The sixth and final shot hit Reagan’s limo and then ricocheted into the President’s chest.

pic. reaganlibrary.archives.gov  - taken seconds after the assassination attempt on President Reagan. James Brady and police officer Thomas Delahanty lie wounded on the ground

Shortly afterwards, Reagan was subjected to an emergency thoracotomy lasting 105 minutes. He came close to death losing over half of his blood volume in the emergency room and during surgery to remove the bullet. He left the hospital thirteen days later. 

pic. crimemagazine.com

James Brady became permanently disabled from his gunshot wound and became an ardent supporter of gun control as a result of this event. He died on August 4, 2014, 33 years after the shooting. His death was ruled a homicide, caused by the gunshot.

At his trial in 1982, in Washington, D.C., charged with 13 offenses, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21,  and has since remained under constant institutional psychiatric care.

source: history.com, wikipedia

16/3/81: Time magazine (Alexander Haig cover)

On 16 March 1981, Time magazine featured the US Secretary of State Alexander Haig on its front cover.

Haig (b. 1927) was a veteran of both the Korean and the Vietnam wars and had served as NATO Supreme Commander from 1974–79. His term in office under Ronald Reagan was relatively short and his comments and actions often met with controversy both at home and abroad. He resigned from his post in June 1982. His memoirs, Inner Circles: How America Changed The World, were published in 1992. Haig died in 2010.

14/3/81: Michael L Kennedy marries Victoria Gifford

OnSaturday 14 March 1981 Michael LeMoyne Kennedy married Ms. Victoria Gifford in New York City.

pic.: Corbis Images

Michael L. Kennedy was the nephew of former American President, John F Kennedy, assassinated in 1963, and the sixth child of Robert F. Kennedy, also assassinated in 1968. 

Michael died in 1997 after a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado. That same year he had been accused of (but not charged with) statutory rape, and had separated from Victoria.

source: Time.com archive, 

6/3/81: Walter Cronkite's last CBS Evening News

15/2/81: NBC News Update With Jane Pauley

A brief news bulletin broadcast on NBC, February 15, 1981.

   

News items include the Polish Communist leader in Czechoslovakia, the Atlanta murders, the cost of heating oil, and a possible Beatles reunion after the death of John Lennon.

Jane Pauley (b. 1950) was a newsreader and anchorwoman on NBC's Today news programme from 1976-1989 and from 1992-2003, she co-hosted NBC's Dateline NBC. In 2004 she began her own daytime talkshow which was then cancelled after one season.

Source: youtube, wikipedia.

10/2/81: Las Vegas Hilton fire

On Tuesday 10 February a huge fire broke out in the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, causing the death of eight people and injuring some 200 more.

pic: reviewjournal.com

23 year old hotel busboy Philip Bruce Cline was later charged for starting the fire and was given eight consecutive life sentences as well as being charged for arson. Interviewed in 2011 Cline said he still hopes the Pardons Board will give him a chance at freedom."I don't think I deserve to die in here, but I did what I did. I'm responsible for that," he said. (source)

The Hilton fire came three months after a fire in the MGM Hotel also in Las Vegas the previous November in which 87 people died. The Hilton was in fact being fitted with new anti-incendiary and safety equipment in the aftermath of the MGM tragedy.

Source: Clark County, NV website

4/2/81: Congressman Jon C. Hinson arrested

On Wednesday 4 February Congressman Jon C. Hinson, a Republican of Mississippi, was arrested on a morals charge in a public men's room in the Longworth House Office Building.

Hinton (b. 1942) was charged for attempted sodomy, at the time a criminal act in the U.S., to which he pleaded not guilty in court.  Hinson later received a 30-day jail sentence, which was suspended, and a year's probation, on condition that he continue counselling and treatment.

He resigned from his post in Congress in April, and became a gay rights activists throughout the following years. He died from respiratory failure in 1995.

source: nyt archive, wikipedia

29/1/81: President Reagan's first press conference

28/1/81: actor Elijah Wood born

On Wednesday 28 January 1981 Elijah Jordan Wood was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA.

A child movie actor since 1989, Wood became best known for his role as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003).

Source IMDb