100 Fun Facts About 1983

Which astronaut became the first American woman in space on Challenger's STS-7 flight, aged just 32?

Sally Ride was only the third woman in space, after two Soviet cosmonauts, and NASA engineers infamously asked whether 100 tampons would be enough for her six-day flight.

Which Star Wars film, released on 25 May, was the year's highest-grossing film worldwide?

Return of the Jedi opened six years to the day after the original Star Wars, and an early teaser trailer had advertised the film as Revenge of the Jedi.

Which series ended with a 2½-hour finale watched by 106 million Americans on CBS, a record that stood until 2010?

M*A*S*H ran for 11 seasons about a war that lasted three years, and its finale, 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen', drew 77 percent of everyone watching television that night.

Which robbery at a Heathrow warehouse netted three tonnes of gold from a gang expecting only cash?

Brink's-Mat's £26 million haul was partly laundered by Kenneth Noye, who melted the bars down and mixed in copper to disguise where the gold had come from.

Which trio of future Labour leaders won their first Commons seats in June's Thatcher landslide?

Blair, Brown and Corbyn arrived as Labour shed over three million votes on a manifesto Gerald Kaufman called 'the longest suicide note in history'.

Which Soviet duty officer judged a satellite warning of five incoming US missiles on 26 September to be a false alarm?

Stanislav Petrov reasoned that a real US first strike would mean hundreds of simultaneous launches, not five; the alarm was later traced to sunlight glinting off high-altitude clouds.

Which airline's Flight 007, New York to Seoul via Anchorage, was shot down by a Soviet fighter with 269 aboard?

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 had drifted into Soviet airspace with a US congressman aboard, and Reagan responded by ordering GPS opened to civilian use once it was ready.

Truck bombs killed 241 US servicemen and 58 French paratroopers at peacekeepers' barracks in which city on 23 October?

Beirut's twin bombings were France's worst military loss since the Algerian War, and within months the multinational peacekeeping force had pulled out of Lebanon altogether.

Which Caribbean island did the US invade in Operation Urgent Fury, citing 600 American medical students there?

Grenada's prime minister, Maurice Bishop, had been deposed by hardliners in his own party and was executed six days before the landings, and the US feared Soviet use of an airstrip Cubans were helping to build.

Which missile-defence programme, announced by Reagan on 23 March, was nicknamed 'Star Wars' after a Ted Kennedy jibe?

The Strategic Defense Initiative got its nickname from a newspaper report the next day of Kennedy's 'reckless Star Wars schemes' jibe, and Lucasfilm later sued two lobby groups over the term and lost.

Which West German magazine paid 9.3 million marks for sixty Hitler diaries that proved to be Konrad Kujau forgeries?

Stern's scoop had been authenticated by the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who changed his mind at the very press conference called to announce publication.

Which coin entered British circulation on 21 April, replacing a banknote that stayed legal tender until 1988?

The £1 coin arrived because pound notes were wearing out after about nine months each, while the Royal Mint reckoned a coin could last 40 years or more.

Which ITV breakfast station launched on 1 February with a 'Famous Five' of presenter-shareholders led by David Frost?

TV-am's news-heavy launch lost viewers so quickly that a puppet, Roland Rat, brought in that Easter, was famously credited with saving the station.

An IRA car bomb outside which London department store killed six people on 17 December, a week before Christmas?

Harrods' bombers phoned a warning 37 minutes beforehand, but the area was not cleared, and the IRA Army Council said it had not authorised the attack.

From which prison did 38 IRA inmates break out of H-Block 7 on 25 September, the UK's biggest peacetime escape?

The Maze breakout was planned by Bobby Storey and Gerry Kelly, who took orderly jobs in H7 to study its weak points, and one prison officer died during it.

Which Derby winner, victorious by a record ten lengths, was kidnapped from the Aga Khan's Irish stud in February?

Shergar's kidnappers demanded £2 million and went unpaid, and a former IRA member later said the theft was an IRA operation to raise money for arms.

Whose self-titled debut album, released by Sire Records on 27 July, yielded 'Holiday', 'Lucky Star' and 'Borderline'?

Madonna's 'Holiday' had been offered to Mary Wilson of the Supremes and to Phyllis Hyman before it became her breakout single.

Which a cappella group of former actors took a cover of Yazoo's 'Only You' to the UK Christmas number one?

Flying Pickets took their name from the 1970s miners' strikes some members had supported, and began singing a cappella in the 7:84 theatre company's play One Big Blow.

Which Brian De Palma remake of a 1932 gangster film cast Al Pacino as Cuban refugee Tony Montana?

Scarface's 'Say hello to my little friend' sits at 61 on AFI's list of movie quotes, and Oliver Stone wrote the script in Paris to get away from his own cocaine habit.

The Black Adder, first shown on BBC1 on 15 June, imagines that which king won the Battle of Bosworth?

Richard III wins in The Black Adder, only for Rowan Atkinson's Edmund, arriving late for the battle, to behead him by mistake, which puts Edmund's own father on the throne.

Which ITV comedy-drama, launched on 11 November, made stars of Jimmy Nail, Tim Healy, Kevin Whately and Timothy Spall?

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet followed British builders working on a site in Düsseldorf, and Nail, who had never acted, only auditioned because his girlfriend Miriam suggested it.

Which club, after a 2–2 draw immortalised by 'and Smith must score', beat Brighton 4–0 in the FA Cup final replay?

Manchester United only got a replay because Gary Bailey saved Gordon Smith's shot in the last seconds of extra time, and Brighton had just been relegated from the First Division.

Which Scottish club under Alex Ferguson beat Real Madrid 2–1 in Gothenburg to win the European Cup Winners' Cup?

Aberdeen won it in extra time with a diving header from substitute John Hewitt, and Real's coach Alfredo Di Stéfano said they had what money can't buy: a soul, a team spirit.

Which Brazilian, 14 points behind Alain Prost with three races left, won the first Formula One title in a turbo car?

Nelson Piquet won at Monza and Brands Hatch, then cruised home third in South Africa after Prost's turbo failed on lap 35, and Renault and Prost split acrimoniously within days.

Which American won the 100 metres, long jump and relay at the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki?

Carl Lewis beat Calvin Smith into second place only five weeks after Smith had broken the 100 m world record with 9.93, and the two then won relay gold together.

Which team beat the Miami Dolphins 27–17 in Super Bowl XVII, with John Riggins rushing for a record 166 yards?

The Washington Redskins trailed until Riggins broke a 43-yard touchdown run on fourth down with ten minutes left, capping a season cut short by a players' strike.

Corbiere's win made Jenny Pitman the first woman to train the winner of which famous race?

Grand National glory came to Pitman again in 1995 with Royal Athlete, though her Esha Ness had passed the post first in 1993 only for the race to be declared void.

Which singer, born in north London on 14 September, won five Grammys in one night in 2008?

Amy Winehouse performed by satellite from a London studio because her US visa had not come through in time, and Rehab alone took both Record and Song of the Year.

Which actor, born in Melbourne on 11 August, played Kim Hyde in Home and Away before Hollywood made him a superhero?

Chris Hemsworth was reportedly rejected for Thor at first, then given a second chance to read for the part that made him famous.

Which Ukrainian-born actress, born 14 August, was cast in That '70s Show at 14 after saying she 'would be 18'?

Mila Kunis never said when she would be 18, and the producers who worked out the fib kept her anyway; she had reached Los Angeles aged seven as a religious refugee.

Which actor, born in Saint Helier, Jersey, on 5 May, later played Superman in Man of Steel and Geralt in The Witcher?

Henry Cavill first met Russell Crowe, his future screen father in Man of Steel, as a 16-year-old schoolboy at Stowe when Crowe was filming there.

Which actress, born 23 February, beat a stutter through class plays before her Oscar nod for Oppenheimer?

Emily Blunt found that using voices other than her own let her speak fluently, and she has worked with the American Institute for Stuttering since 2006.

Which network made TCP/IP its standard on 1 January, a changeover its engineers called 'flag day'?

ARPANET's switch retired the older Network Control Protocol after the Pentagon made TCP/IP standard for all military computer networking.

Who succeeded Michael Foot as Labour leader on 2 October, becoming at 41 the party's youngest leader up to then?

Neil Kinnock took 71% of the electoral college vote, and Roy Hattersley's election as deputy completed what was billed as a left-right 'dream ticket'.

Who became the first African American in space on STS-8, the shuttle programme's first night launch and landing?

Guion Bluford rode Challenger into orbit on 30 August, a launch pushed into darkness by the needs of its main payload, an Indian satellite, and he flew three more shuttle missions.

Which Canadian made the first maximum 147 break at the World Snooker Championship, in a match that finished at 3:51 am?

Cliff Thorburn's 147 came in the fourth frame against Terry Griffiths and started with a fluked red; exhausted, he went on to lose the final 18–6 to Steve Davis.

Which airline's Boeing 767 ran dry mid-flight after a pounds-kilograms mix-up and glided onto a Manitoba racetrack?

Air Canada Flight 143 glided from 41,000 feet to a former RCAF base at Gimli that had become a motorsports park, with no serious injuries among the 61 passengers.

Which team swept the Lakers in the NBA Finals after Moses Malone's playoff prediction of 'Fo, Fo, Fo'?

The Philadelphia 76ers made Malone's boast miss by a single game: they swept the Knicks and the Lakers but lost once to Milwaukee, finishing the playoffs 12–1.

Which NASA probe crossed Neptune's orbit on 13 June, the first human-made object to pass beyond the major planets?

Pioneer 10 left the planets behind at Neptune because Pluto, then still counted as a planet, was closer to the Sun than Neptune from 1979 to 1999 on its lopsided orbit.

Which non-Eon Bond film brought back Sean Connery as 007 four months after Roger Moore's Octopussy?

Never Say Never Again was a remake of Thunderball and Connery's first Bond in twelve years, and it opened bigger than Octopussy but earned less overall.

Which Dirty Harry film, the only one Clint Eastwood directed himself, made the line 'Go ahead, make my day' famous?

Sudden Impact's 'make my day' was borrowed by Ronald Reagan in March 1985, when he told business leaders his veto pen was drawn and ready for any tax increase Congress sent him.

Which mother-daughter drama with Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger won five Oscars, including Best Picture?

Terms of Endearment won Jack Nicholson an Oscar in a part James L. Brooks had written for Burt Reynolds, who turned it down to make the racing comedy Stroker Ace instead.

Which singer and drummer, half of a sibling duo, died on 4 February aged 32 from complications of anorexia nervosa?

Karen Carpenter's death brought anorexia nervosa to wide public attention for the first time, and her family set up a foundation to fund research into eating disorders. She had been due to sign her divorce papers that day.

Which Philippine opposition leader was shot dead on the tarmac at Manila airport on 21 August, back from US exile?

Ninoy Aquino's killing revived opposition to Ferdinand Marcos and pushed his widow Corazon into politics; the People Power revolt made her president in 1986, and Manila's airport was renamed after him in 1987.

Which Swede, winner of five straight Wimbledon titles, shocked tennis by retiring in January aged just 26?

Björn Borg had won 11 majors by 25 but lost all four US Open finals he reached; McEnroe tried in vain to talk him out of quitting, and a brief 1991 comeback went nowhere.

Which Kenny Rogers–Dolly Parton duet, written by the Bee Gees and named after a Hemingway novel, topped the US chart?

Islands in the Stream began as a Kenny Rogers solo: by his account he struggled with it for four days before Barry Gibb decided they needed Dolly Parton, who happened to be in the building.

Which theme park, the first Disney park built outside America, opened on 15 April?

Tokyo Disneyland and its sister park DisneySea are the only Disney parks Disney holds no stake in: the Oriental Land Company owns and runs them and pays Disney royalties for the characters.

Which geneticist, working on maize at Cold Spring Harbor, won an unshared Nobel Prize in Medicine for 'jumping genes'?

Barbara McClintock was the first woman to win that prize unshared and the first American woman to take any unshared science Nobel; skepticism had made her stop publishing her transposon data, decades before the field caught up.

Which quarterback, born in Chico, California, on 2 December, was MVP of Super Bowl XLV for the Green Bay Packers?

Aaron Rodgers slid to the 24th pick of the 2005 draft and sat three seasons behind Brett Favre before taking over; he later became only the fifth player to win NFL MVP in consecutive seasons.

Who was crowned the first African-American Miss America on 17 September, then gave up the title over Penthouse photos?

Vanessa Williams went on to a number-one single with 'Save the Best for Last' and three Emmy nominations as Wilhelmina Slater in Ugly Betty; the pageant apologised to her on stage 32 years later.

Which 1983 holiday film follows nine-year-old Ralphie Parker's campaign to be given a Red Ryder air rifle?

A Christmas Story is based on Jean Shepherd's book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, and Shepherd himself narrates the film as the adult Ralphie.

Which NBC action series, launched in January 1983, follows four Vietnam veterans on the run who work as mercenaries?

The A-Team got a flying start: its first regular episode aired straight after Super Bowl XVII and drew more than a quarter of the television audience.

In which 1983 thriller does Matthew Broderick play a teenage hacker who dials into a NORAD supercomputer by mistake?

WarGames so unsettled President Reagan that he ordered a national security review, which led to the first presidential directive on computer security.

Which dolls, sold with a birth certificate and adoption papers, set off shop brawls among holiday shoppers in 1983?

Cabbage Patch Kids were so scarce that Coleco cancelled its advertising while it tried to keep up with demand, shipping 3.3 million dolls that year.

Which McDonald's menu item, held back by a supply shortage, finally went on sale across the United States in 1983?

Chicken McNuggets were conceived in the late 1970s and tested in select markets in 1981, but there was no system to supply enough chicken for a national launch.

Which Japanese company launched its Family Computer console in July 1983 with three ports of its own arcade games?

Nintendo's president wanted a console cheap enough for any household, and the Famicom reached American test markets two years later as the NES.

Which band topped the US chart for eight weeks in 1983 with Every Breath You Take, the year's biggest hit?

The Police scored their only US number one with it, though Sting has called the song sinister and said people misread it as a gentle love song.

Which rock guitarist recorded the solo on Michael Jackson's 1983 single Beat It as an unpaid favour?

Eddie Van Halen thought the invitation was a prank call, then recorded two takes of the solo free of charge.

Which rock band dropped their trademark face paint for an MTV appearance in September 1983, launching an unmasked era?

Kiss timed the reveal to the release of the album Lick It Up, which became their first record to be certified gold since 1980.

Which company won US approval in 1983 for the DynaTAC, the first handheld cellular phone to go on commercial sale?

Motorola's DynaTAC took roughly ten hours to charge for just 30 minutes of talk time, and it cost $3,995 when it reached buyers a year later.

Which 1983 film stars Jennifer Beals as a Pittsburgh steel-mill welder who longs to become a professional ballerina?

Flashdance became the third-highest-grossing film of the year in the United States, though most of Beals's dancing was performed by a body double.

Which 1983 comedy gave Tom Cruise his breakout role as a teenager left home alone by his parents?

Risky Business earned Cruise the first Golden Globe nomination of his career, and it was also the directing debut of its writer, Paul Brickman.

Which 1983 road comedy sends Chevy Chase's Griswold family across America to the theme park Walley World?

National Lampoon's Vacation grew from a short story John Hughes wrote for the magazine, and it gave model Christie Brinkley her first acting role.

Which game show, created by Merv Griffin, began its nightly syndicated run in September 1983 with Pat Sajak as host?

Wheel of Fortune had been an NBC daytime show since 1975; the evening edition became the longest-running syndicated game show in the United States.

Which Jim Henson puppet series, first shown in 1983, is set in a cave system shared with the hard-working Doozers?

Fraggle Rock was planned from the start as an international co-production, so that broadcasters in different countries could air their own versions.

Which character did the second player control in the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros., set in New York's sewers?

Luigi began as a palette swap of Mario, who became a plumber here because of the game's network of giant pipes.

Which country singer, born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in March 1983, won the fourth season of American Idol?

Carrie Underwood was raised on her parents' farm in nearby Checotah, and Forbes later declared her the most successful American Idol winner.

Which actor, born in November 1983, joined the US Marines after 9/11 and later played Kylo Ren?

Adam Driver enlisted shortly after the September 11 attacks, and Juilliard, which had once rejected him, accepted him on his second audition.

Which Swiss brand launched its first twelve plastic watches in Zürich in March 1983 to counter cheap quartz rivals?

Swatch was pitched as a second watch: a cheap, fashionable timepiece that people would buy as a casual accessory.

Which singer's 1983 debut album, featuring Girls Just Want to Have Fun, made history with four top-five US singles?

Cyndi Lauper's earlier band, Blue Angel, had flopped commercially; the solo album's cover was shot that summer by the photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Which team won the 1983 NCAA basketball title on a last-second dunk, sending coach Jim Valvano running across the court?

NC State were a sixth seed facing top-ranked Houston; Lorenzo Charles caught a team-mate's desperation shot as it fell short and dunked it to win 54–52.

Which quarterback, picked first in the 1983 NFL draft by the Baltimore Colts, forced a trade to the Denver Broncos?

John Elway threatened to play baseball full-time for the New York Yankees, who had drafted him in 1981, unless the Colts traded him.

Which software product did Microsoft first show to the public in November 1983, two years before it went on sale?

Windows began as an answer to a rival: Bill Gates started the project after seeing VisiCorp demonstrate its Visi On software at the 1982 COMDEX show.

Which NSA contractor, born in North Carolina in June 1983, leaked classified surveillance files to journalists in 2013?

Edward Snowden flew to Hong Kong to hand over the documents, having worked at Booz Allen Hamilton for two months in order to gather more of them.

Which cartoon hero, based on a Mattel toy line, made his television debut in September 1983 battling Skeletor?

He-Man's series existed to sell toys: Mattel commissioned it after regulators relaxed a ban on toy-based children's programming, and rival studios soon copied the idea.

Which 1983 Francis Ford Coppola film pits Tulsa's poor Greasers against the affluent Socs?

The Outsiders exists because a California school librarian and her students urged Coppola to film S. E. Hinton's novel.

Which star directed, co-wrote, co-produced and played the lead in the 1983 musical film Yentl?

Barbra Streisand became the first woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Director with it, on her first film as a director.

Which metal band fired guitarist Dave Mustaine shortly before recording their 1983 debut album Kill 'Em All?

Metallica had planned a much cruder title and a toilet-bowl cover, but changed both after distributors feared the album would not sell.

Which singer's 1983 album Let's Dance featured the then-unknown Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar?

David Bowie recorded it in New York in December 1982, and it turned him into a mainstream superstar, becoming his best-selling album.

Which synth-pop duo reached US number one in 1983 with Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), recorded in a warehouse attic?

Eurythmics made the track in a small studio above the London warehouse where they lived, a success that encouraged other musicians to record at home.

Which chemist at California's Cetus Corporation invented the polymerase chain reaction for copying DNA in 1983?

Kary Mullis shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the method, although he had little experience in molecular biology when he joined the firm.

At which laboratory did experiments led by Carlo Rubbia detect the W and Z bosons in 1983?

CERN's find was rewarded with unusual speed: Rubbia shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for it the very next year.

Which country's Turkish-occupied north declared independence in 1983 as a state recognised only by Turkey?

Cyprus had been split since Turkey invaded in 1974, and the UN Security Council rejected the declaration as legally invalid, urging members not to recognise it.

Which Antarctic research station recorded −89.2 °C in July 1983, the lowest air temperature ever measured on Earth?

Vostok Station kept the record even after satellites detected colder ice surfaces, because those readings are not comparable with air measured by thermometers at ground level.

Which South American country returned to democracy in 1983 by electing Raúl Alfonsín after a military dictatorship?

Argentina's new president set up a commission on the disappeared, which led to the Trial of the Juntas and the sentencing of the former regime's leaders.

Which 1983 ABC television film showed a nuclear strike on Kansas and drew more than 100 million viewers in one night?

The Day After was followed by a live ABC debate whose panel included Carl Sagan and Henry Kissinger, while hotlines with counsellors stood by for upset viewers.

Which 1983 ABC miniseries starred Richard Chamberlain as an outback priest caught in a forbidden love affair?

The Thorn Birds, from Colleen McCullough's best-selling novel, was the second most-watched miniseries in history at the time, behind only Roots.

Which biopic, filmed with more than 300,000 extras, won eight Oscars including Best Picture at the 1983 Academy Awards?

Gandhi used those extras for a single funeral scene, the most recorded for any film, and Ben Kingsley won Best Actor in the title role.

Which 1983 film about the Mercury Seven astronauts won four Oscars but failed at the box office?

The Right Stuff adapted Tom Wolfe's 1979 book and also follows Chuck Yeager, the test pilot shown breaking the sound barrier.

Which film director made Michael Jackson's Thriller video in 1983 after Jackson saw An American Werewolf in London?

John Landis's video doubled sales of the album, and in 2009 it became the first music video chosen for the US National Film Registry.

Which country's yacht won the America's Cup in 1983, ending the New York Yacht Club's 132-year hold on the trophy?

Australia II came back from 3–1 down, helped by a winged keel so radical that the New York club argued the boat was not legal.

Which Polish trade union leader won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize but had his wife collect it for him?

Lech Wałęsa feared that Poland's government would not let him back into the country if he left to accept the prize in person.

Which Maine schoolgirl spent two weeks in the USSR in July 1983 as the guest of its leader, Yuri Andropov?

Samantha Smith had written to Andropov the year before and received a personal reply inviting her; the trip made her known as America's Youngest Ambassador.

Which Royals slugger had a home run against the Yankees disallowed in July 1983 for excess pine tar on his bat?

George Brett's homer was restored when the league president upheld the Royals' protest; the game resumed 25 days later and Kansas City won 5–4.

Which country, priced at 66–1 by bookmakers, beat the West Indies at Lord's to win the 1983 Cricket World Cup?

India were playing their first final and were bowled out for just 183, a total many thought the defending champions would reach easily.

Which former Gestapo chief of Lyon, long sheltered in Bolivia, was extradited to France in 1983 to stand trial?

Klaus Barbie had been helped to escape Europe by US intelligence after the war, and the United States apologised to France for it that same year.

At which Paris research centre did Luc Montagnier's team isolate the virus later named HIV in 1983?

The Pasteur Institute team found it in a lymph node biopsy from a patient at risk of AIDS, work that brought Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi a share of the 2008 Nobel Prize.

Which computer, unveiled in January 1983 at $9,995, was the first mass-market machine with a graphical interface?

The Apple Lisa shared a name with Steve Jobs's daughter, a link he later confirmed to his biographer; its ideas were reworked into the cheaper Macintosh.

Which video game company buried truckloads of unsold cartridges in a New Mexico landfill in 1983?

Atari's burial was long dismissed as an urban legend, until a 2014 excavation dug up the games, among them copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Which British novelist, a former schoolteacher who wrote Lord of the Flies, won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature?

William Golding drew on the classroom for his famous novel: he once set his pupils into two groups to fight each other.