Chronology year 1983

January 1983:

• The Internet takes another step towards its creation when ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) is moved to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol).
• Kīlauea, one of Hawaii's active volcanoes, erupts. It continues to erupt until 2018, making it the longest observed eruption since records began.
• Launch of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). This is the first satellite telescope to survey the sky using infrared, resulting in some unexpected discoveries. These included six new comets and evidence of other solar systems centered around the stars Vega and Fomalhaut.
• The United Kingdom is hit by red rain. The weather phenomenon has been dubbed blood rain and is caused by winds in the Sahara desert, causing sand to enter the atmosphere. This sand is then transported back to earth in raindrops. On this date, the sand in the rain is so dense that the drops appear red in color.
• The Seikan Tunnel connects the North Island of Honshu and the South Island of Hokkaido in Japan for the first time. Construction began in 1971, after being planned since 1939, and incorporates the world's longest tunnel section under the seabed.
• Although originally released as a B-side in 1981, Men at Work's single Down Under is topping the charts.

February 1983:

• The Carpenters singer and drummer, Karen Carpenter, dies from complications caused by the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, aged 32.
• The Australian bushfires in Victoria and South Australia, known as the Ash Wednesday bushfires, destroy around 2,000 homes and kill 75 people, 17 of whom are firefighters battling the blaze.
• Nellie's massacre takes place in India. More than 2,000 Muslims are killed as part of the Assam Movement. Most of the victims are women and children who were in the region as Muslim immigrants from East Bengal.
• Michael Jackson's Thriller goes to #1 on the US Billboard 200 album charts for 37 weeks, setting a world record for the amount of time an album stays at #1.
• The most watched finale of a TV show ever aired, 105.9 million viewers tuned in to see the final episode of MAS*H. It remains the biggest television event of all time (in terms of number of viewers) until Super Bowl XLIV in 2010.

March 1983:

• Los Angeles is hit by a tornado with wind speeds between 183 mph and 157 mph. Buildings and properties were destroyed, but there was no loss of life. 30 people were reported injured, making it the most destructive and dangerous tornado in California history.
• Although already available in Japan and Europe, Sony and Philips have launched their CD players in America. Although a CD player costs over $1,000, they prove to be extremely popular.
• Although the patent is not filed until 1984, Chuck Hull invents 3D printing, although he calls it stereolithography.
• The fainting epidemic begins in the West Bank. Up to 1,000 young Arabs living in the West Bank have fallen ill with symptoms of nausea, abdominal pain and fainting. Accusations of chemical warfare, deliberately targeting schools, are made by Palestinian and Israeli leaders. The CDC investigates and the incident is considered a case of mass hysteria.
• Popayán earthquake in Colombia kills 267 people. Local infrastructure and buildings are devastated, resulting in new laws that require high-risk earthquake zones to have earthquake-resistant homes. Previously, it was believed that buildings less than two stories tall were not susceptible to earthquake damage.

April 1983:

• In Berkshire, a protest by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament creates a human chain made up of tens of thousands of people. The chain is 14 miles long and stretches between three nuclear weapons centers.
• One of the main events of 1983 was the biggest money robbery in British history. £6 million in cash is taken at gunpoint from a Security Express van during a robbery. Actress Barbara Windsor's ex-husband, Ronnie Knight, and his brother have been jailed for 22 years after being arrested for the crime in 1984.
• Astronauts Peterson and Musgrave perform the first spacewalk of the space shuttle program during NASA's STS-6 mission. The spacewalk lasts more than four hours.
• David Copperfield surprises the studio audience by making the Statue of Liberty disappear.
• German magazine publisher Stern announces the discovery of 25 diaries written by Adolf Hitler. The diaries turn out to be a fake after being forensically tested.
• The unmanned spacecraft Pioneer 10 crosses the orbit of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft to go beyond our solar system.

May 1983:

• Earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale hits Coalinga, California.
• Two independently researched scientific articles are published with proof that AIDS is caused by the retrovirus HIV. The publication is one of the biggest medical events of 1983.
• David Bowie's single, Let's Dance, reaches #1 on the US Billboard chart. Let's Dance is Bowie's only single to reach number one in the UK and US.
• Return of the Jedi is released for the first time and becomes the highest-grossing film of 1983.
• An earthquake in the Sea of ​​Japan creates a tsunami that kills 100 people.

June 1983:

• A fire in the bathroom of Air Canada Flight 797, killing 23 people. As a result of this tragedy, the aviation authority mandated that all passenger jets must be equipped with smoke detectors, cabin floor lighting, fire extinguishers and that all flight crew be trained in fire safety. It is also ordered that materials for making seats inside aircraft be made from a more flame-retardant material.
• In Queensland, Australia, a message in a bottle is found on the beach. It was written 73 years earlier by a passenger aboard the SS Arawatta in 1910 while traveling between Cairns and Brisbane.
• In the general elections in the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative party, remains prime minister.
• Using a robotic arm, the STS-7 mission is the first time a space shuttle has recovered a satellite from orbit.
• The Russian Soyuz T-9 space mission launches, taking cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov to the Salyut 7 space station.

July 1983:

• Athlete from the United States, Calvin Smith takes 0.02 seconds off the 100m world record set in 1968, covering the distance in 9.93 seconds.
• In Virginia, a girl is born by cesarean section, despite her mother having been brain dead for 84 days.
• The arcade game Mario Bros. is released in Japan. The arcade game, produced by Nintendo, paves the way for future Mario games to become one of Nintendo's greatest creations.
• Australian aviator Dick Smith sets the world record for being the first person to fly alone around the world in a helicopter.

August 1983:

• John Slain sets the world record for the largest building made from playing cards. He uses 3.91 million cards and his record stands until 1992.
• Another military coup in Guatemala. Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores overthrows the dictator and former general Efraín Rios Montt.
• Storm Alicia becomes a hurricane and hits Texas. 22 people die and billions of dollars in damage are caused before the hurricane finally dissipates.
• After swimming for a total of 15 hours and 27 minutes, 12-year-old Samantha Druce becomes the youngest person to swim the English Channel.

September 1983:

• Korean Airlines Flight 007 from New York to Seoul via Alaska is shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor, killing all 269 people on board.
• United States President Ronald Regan announces that GPS will be made available to the public, although it was originally intended for military use only.
• For the first time, the American rock band Kiss appears on MTV without makeup.
• 117 people die when Gulf Air Flight 771 crashes in the United Arab Emirates. The accident was caused by a bomb in the luggage compartment that exploded as the plane approached Abu Dhabi International Airport.
• The Soviet Union's nuclear warning system is activated. Fortunately, Stanislav Petrov, who controlled the system, believed the warning was a false alarm and did not report it. It was later confirmed that the system was faulty.
• The Soviet Soyuz T-10 spacecraft explodes. The crew survives using the launch escape system and then goes on to complete future missions.

October 1983:

• In the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, the land speed record is set by Richard Noble, traveling at 650.88 mph in the British Thrust2 car.
• Paul McCartney releases his album Pipes of Peace in the United Kingdom.
• More than a million people protest against nuclear weapons at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament march in London.
• 400,000 protest in Brussels, Belgium against the stockpiling of US and Russian cruise missiles in central Europe.
• First release of the infamous Microsoft Word processing system, although the first version designed for the Windows operating system was not released until 1989.
• The sovereign state of Grenada is invaded by the United States as an effort to stop Soviet-Cuban militarization.
• In The Hague, Netherlands, the largest non-violent protest against nuclear cruise missiles takes place. More than 550,000 people participate in the peace movement.
• After seven years of military rule, the first democratic elections are held in Argentina.

November 1983:

• American cruise missiles arrive in the UK at the RAF base at Greenham Common, Berkshire.
• In Liverpool, England, 31-year-old Janet Walton gives birth to six girls after fertility treatment. The babies are the first all-female sextuplets to survive.
• Aeroflot Flight 6833 in Soviet Georgia is hijacked, resulting in a 2-day standoff. The seven hijackers try to divert the flight to Turkey, but the pilot, refusing to give in to their demands, passes through Tbilisi airport and later lands there. The hostage situation ends when the plane is raided by an elite Soviet special unit. Three of the hijackers die, along with three crew and two passengers.
• The Day After, an American film describing what would happen if a nuclear war broke out, is shown on TV for the first time.
• Kidnapped beer magnate Alfred Heineken, who has been missing since November 9, 1983, is released by police in Amsterdam.

December 1983:

• Michael Jackson's video for Thriller airs on MTV for the first time.
• At Harefield hospital in England, the first complete heart and lung transplant is successfully performed.
• 93 people die when two jets collide on the runway at Madrid airport, Spain.
• The American Embassy in Kuwait is hit by a truck loaded with plastic explosives. The detonation does not go as planned and only five people die, but at the same time, five other explosions are also attempted. Targets include the French Embassy, ​​an oil refinery, the control tower at Kuwait International Airport, as well as petrochemical and water plants. Although the bombs explode, few people are injured because the bombs do not detonate properly.
• The Who announce that the group is splitting up (for the first time) because Pete Townshend, the group's guitarist, wants to leave the band.
• A car bomb kills six people and injures 90 when it explodes outside Harrods in London. The IRA issued a warning 37 minutes before the bombing, but the site was not evacuated.