Read this year's headlines in our monthly calendar of events and discover snippets about everyday life with our FLASHBACK facts. It's time to go back to the inaugural launch of the space shuttle, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, Botham's Ashes, CND protests and the summer of riots. It's time to go back to... 1981.
Timeline '81 Close All
January |
The hunt for Yorkshire Ripper ends when lorry driver Peter Sutcliffe is arrested in Sheffield |
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"One In Ten" (Daily Mirror) – with the latest rise in unemployment 10% of the working population is without a job |
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Minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as US President the 52 American hostages held captive in Iran are released |
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Mike Read is the new host of Radio 1's Breakfast Show |
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Labour MPs Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, Bill Rodgers and David Owen (the "Gang of Four") form the Social Democratic Party (SDP) |
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Japanese car manufacturer Datsun announces it will open a UK factory - Teeside is one of the possible locations |
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The Beat's Too Nice To Talk To is in the Top 10 |
The most watched TV show this year is ITV's The Benny Hill Show
February |
Rock ‘n' Roll pioneer Bill Haley dies from a heart attack at the age of 53 |
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Margaret Thatcher meets Ronald Reagan during a four-day visit to the US |
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Despite a £500M profit British Gas is to raise its prices by 25% this year |
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French-owned Talbot cars is to close its Glasgow factory with a loss of nearly 5,000 jobs |
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The Times and The Sunday Times are bought by Rupert Murdoch's News International |
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Football League matches kick off on a Sunday for the first time |
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Ultravox's Vienna is the unofficial No. 1 |
A single ticket to New York costs £77 with British Airways
March |
Ronald Reagan survives an assassination attempt in Washington |
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The Sinclair ZX81 computer is released – it will sell 1.5M units worldwide |
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Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer announce their engagement |
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Bobby Sands begins a hunger strike at Prison Maze demanding IRA inmates to be recognised as political prisoners |
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Tom Baker makes his final appearance as Dr Who – Peter Davison is the new doctor |
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Over 7,000 runners start the first-ever London Marathon |
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(We Don't Need This) Fascist Grove Thing by Heaven 17 is a minor hit |
A new mortgage carries an interest rate of 15%
April |
The Space Shuttle Colombia blasts off from Cape Kennedy on its maiden voyage |
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Riots erupt in Brixton – more than 300 people are injured and 150 buildings damaged in one of the worst civil disturbances in Britain |
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Aldaniti ridden by Bob Champion holds off favourite Spartan Missile to win the Grand National |
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Hunger striker Bobby Sands wins the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election |
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The Compact Disc is demonstrated for the first time in Europe |
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Steve Davis wins the World Snooker Championship |
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Bucks Fizz win the Eurovision Contest and top the UK charts with Making Your Mind Up |
A Mothers Pride sliced white loaf costs 29p at ASDA
May |
IRA prisoner Bobby Sands dies after a 66-day hunger strike |
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Peter Sutcliffe stands trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering 13 women |
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The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats opens at the New London Theatre |
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The 100th FA Cup is won by Tottenham Hotspur after they defeat Manchester City in a replay |
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Reggae superstar Bob Marley dies of cancer in Florida |
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Pope John Paul II survives an assassination attempt at St Peter's Square in Vatican City |
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Treason by Teardrop Explodes makes the Top 20 |
Top Of The Pops is shortened to 30 minutes and starts at 7:30pm
June |
Wanting to become famous Marcus Sarjeant fires 6 blank shots at the Queen during the Trooping the Colour |
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Israel is widely condemned after an air raid destroys a French-built nuclear reactor in Iraq |
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The 12th James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only opens in UK cinemas |
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Prince Phillip causes uproar after he says that the unemployed were complaining about their enforced leisure time |
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Seven Britons die after an explosion on a Greek container ship in Rotterdam Harbour |
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Shergar wins the Derby |
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Bruce Springsteen's The River is his second UK hit |
The Ford Cortina remains Britain's bestselling car
July |
More than 20M viewers watch the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer |
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Race riots explode in Toxteth Liverpool – more follow in other major cities across the UK |
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The police receive a bumper 13% pay rise – a long-serving constable now earns £10K a year |
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Steven Spielberg's Raiders Of The Lost Ark is released in the UK |
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John McEnroe beats Bjorn Borg to win his first Wimbledon singles title |
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Thirty-year-old actress Jane Seymour weds her third husband |
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The stunning Ghost Town by The Specials is the UK No. 1 |
UK unemployment rockets by one million to reach 2.61M
August |
Ian Botham's incredible performances as batsman and bowler help England win the ashes against Australia |
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Thirteen people die when a Wessex helicopter carrying gas rig workers crashes in the North Sea |
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The IBM PC is released in the US – it will eventually standardise the computer market |
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Video Killed The Radio Star is the first video aired on US music channel MTV |
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Steve Ovett sets a new mile world record only for Sebastian Coe to break it 48 hours later |
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Moira Stuart is BBC's first black newsreader |
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Duran Duran have their biggest hit yet with Girls On Film |
From the ad pages: "Love A Babycham"
September |
Women camp at Greenham Common to protest against the deployment of nuclear weapons at the US airbase |
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The first episode of comedy Only Fools And Horses airs on BBC1 |
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Dennis Healey narrowly defeats Tony Benn in the election for the Labour Party deputy leaderd |
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Norway beat England in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo |
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Practical joke show Game For A Laugh with Jeremy Beadle debuts on ITV |
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Simon & Garfunkel hold a free concert in New York – the audience is estimated to be half a million |
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Soft Cell's incredible cover of Tainted Love is No. 1 |
Newspaper bingo sweeps Britain with tabloids introducing card-based games
October |
Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during an army parade |
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The hunger strikes at Prison Maze end – in total 10 inmates have died |
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Bryan Robson moves from West Bromwich Albion to Manchester United for a record £1.5M |
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The premiere of Jaws on ITV draws 23M viewers and is the most watched TV event of the year |
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Brazilian Nelson Piquet driving a Brabham Ford wins the F1 Championship |
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The first episode of Brideshead Revisited is broadcast on ITV |
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Invisible Sun by The Police peaks at No. 2) |
The average UK house price is £23,798
November |
Bomb expert Bob Howorth dies while trying to defuse an IRA bomb in a Wimpy restaurant in London's Oxford Street |
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Shirley Williams wins the Crosby by-election overturning a Conservative majority of 20,000 |
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England come through a World Cup qualifying group for the first time in 20 years with a 1-0 win over Hungary at Wembley |
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Tomorrow's World gives the first public demonstration of the CD player and plays a promotional copy of Living Eyes by The Bee Gees |
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Actress Natalie Wood drowns in mysterious circumstances while on a boat trip off the Californian coast |
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The first issue of Computer & Video Games magazine hits the newsagents |
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Queen and David Bowie's unique collaboration Under Pressure is No. 1 |
The cost of a colour TV licence is £46 – black and white £15
December |
The Penlee lifeboat disaster claims the lives of 16 people who die in heavy seas off Cornwall |
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Film actress Elizabeth Taylor separates from her sixth husband Senator John Warner |
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The first case of AIDS in the UK is diagnosed |
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The Commodore VIC-20 is the first colour computer priced under £200 – it will be the first micro to sell 1M units worldwide |
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Severe snow storms hit the UK – even Big Ben freezes making the famous clock lose an hour |
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The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is Ian Botham |
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Human League's huge hit Don't You Want Me is No. 1 |
At Debenhams an Atari TV Games Centre costs £93.95