June 1, 1981 (Monday)

• A mobile laser weapon, intended to destroy missiles in flight, failed in testing by the U.S. Air Force at the United States Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in California
  California
  California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
  
  . The high-intensity laser had been fired, from a flying KC-135A Stratotanker (similar to a Boeing 707
  Boeing 707
  The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
  
  ), at a Sidewinder missile that was moving at 2,000 miles per hour. "The test failed," said Colonel Bob O'Brien, "and we don't know why.".
• The first issue of China Daily
  China Daily
  The China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country...
  
  , an English language newspaper operated by the Communist Party of China
  Communist Party of China
  The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
  
  , was published. A sister paper to the official Chinese language People's Daily
  People's Daily
  The People's Daily is a daily newspaper in the People's Republic of China. The paper is an organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China , published worldwide with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. In addition to its main Chinese-language edition, it has editions in English,...
  
  , the paper gave a nod to capitalism by carrying advertising.
• Born: Carlos Zambrano
  Carlos Zambrano
  Carlos Alberto Zambrano is a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher with the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball. Zambrano, who stands 6' 5" and weighs 260 pounds, was signed by the Cubs as a free agent in 1997 and made his debut in 2001...
  
  , pitcher for the Chicago Cubs
  Chicago Cubs
  The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
  
   and 3 time winner of Silver Slugger Award; in Puerto Cabello
  Puerto Cabello
  Puerto Cabello is a city on the north coast of Venezuela. It is located in Carabobo State about 75 km west of Caracas. As of 2001, the city has a population of around 154,000 people. The city is the home to the largest port in the country and is thus a vital cog in the country's vast oil...
  
  , Venezuela
  Venezuela
  Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
  
  
• Died: Carl Vinson
  Carl Vinson
  Carl Vinson was a United States Representative from Georgia. He was a Democrat and the first person to serve for more than 50 years in the United States House of Representatives...
  
  , 97, U.S. Congressman (D-Ga.) from 1914 to 1965

June 2, 1981 (Tuesday)

• Ron Settles
  Ron Settles
  Ron Settles was a California State University, Long Beach & Banning High School football player who was arrested by the Signal Hill Police Department in 1981. The morning after his arrest, he was found severely beaten and hanging in his jail cell. A huge furor erupted afterwards over the...
  
  , 21, running back for California State University, Long Beach
  California State University, Long Beach
  California State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
  
  . Settles was found hanged in his jail cell, three hours after he had been stopped in Signal Hill, California
  Signal Hill, California
  Signal Hill is a small city in California located in the Greater Los Angeles area. Signal Hill, completely surrounded by the city of Long Beach, was incorporated on April 22, 1924, roughly three years after oil was discovered in Signal Hill. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
  
  , for speeding, then booked on other charges.. A coroner's jury later ruled 5-4 that the death was not a suicide. Represented by Johnnie Cochran
  Johnnie Cochran
  Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. was an American lawyer best known for his leadership role in the defense and criminal acquittal of O. J...
  
  , Settles's parents sued the city and eventually settled the case in January 1983 for $1,000,000.
• Died: Rino Gaetano
  Rino Gaetano
  Salvatore Antonio "Rino" Gaetano , was an Italian singer-songwriter.-Biography:Rino Gaetano was born in Crotone, in the southern Italian region of Calabria...
  
  , 30, Italian singer-songwriter, of injuries in an auto accident

June 3, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Wayne Williams
  Wayne Williams
  Wayne Bertram Williams is an American serial killer who committed most of the Atlanta Child Murders that occurred in 1979 through 1981. In January 1982, Williams was found guilty of the murder of two adult men...
  
  , 23, was taken into custody by the FBI, at his home at 1817 Penelope Road N.W. in Atlanta. Though not arrested, Williams was questioned for almost 12 hours by agents investigating the "Atlanta child murders" of 28 young persons, most of them children. Released the next morning, Williams was questioned by reporters and his name became known worldwide. He remained free, though under surveillance, until his arrest on June 21, when he was charged with the murder of 27 year old Nathaniel Cater.
• Died: Carleton S. Coon
  Carleton S. Coon
  Carleton Stevens Coon, was an American physical anthropologist, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, lecturer and professor at Harvard, and president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.-Biography:Carleton Coon was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts to a...
  
  , 76, American anthropologist and archaeologist

June 4, 1981 (Thursday)

• James Earl Ray
  James Earl Ray
  James Earl Ray was an American criminal convicted of the assassination of civil rights and anti-war activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr....
  
  , the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, was stabbed 22 times by four of his fellow inmates at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
  Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
  Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary last named Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex was a large maximum-security prison near the town of Petros in Morgan County, Tennessee, operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction...
  
   near Petros, Tennessee
  Petros, Tennessee
  Petros, is an unincorporated town in Morgan County, Tennessee, United States, located on State Route 116.Petros is historically a coal mining town and is also the home of Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. Some of the town and coal mine scenes for the movie October Sky were filmed...
  
  .. Ray survived the murder attempt, and died on April 23, 1998, thirty years after the King assassination. Although Ray refused to identify the attackers, three African-American prisoners were later convicted of the attempt and had at least 20 years added to their prison sentences.

June 5, 1981 (Friday)

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
  
   reported that 5 homosexual
  Homosexuality
  Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
  
   men in Los Angeles
  Los Ángeles
  Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
  
  , California
  California
  California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
  
   have a rare form of pneumonia
  Pneumonia
  Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
  
   seen only in patients with weakened immune system
  Immune system
  An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...
  
  s (the first recognized cases of AIDS
  AIDS
  Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
  
  ).

June 6, 1981 (Saturday)

• Bihar train disaster
  Bihar train disaster
  In the Bihar train disaster on June 6, 1981, a passenger train carrying 800 or more passengers between Mansi and Saharsa, India derailed and plunged into the river Bagmati while it was crossing a bridge....
  
  : Seven cars of an overcrowded passenger train fell off the tracks into the Bagmati River near Bihar
  Bihar
  Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
  
  , India
  India
  India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
  
  . Although initial estimates placed the death toll as high as 3,000 people, the figure was later revised to about 800.. The train had been enroute from Banmankhi
  Banmankhi
  -Geography:It is located at at an elevation of 37 m above MSL.This town is famous for its sugar mills. Places of tourist interest include Kajha Kothi, Kali Bari Mandir, Matha Asthan and Katihar.-Location:...
  
   to Samastipur
  Samastipur
  Samastipur is a city and a municipality in Samastipur district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is headquarters of the Samastipur district.It is situated on the banks of Burhi Gandak River.-Demographics:...
  
  , carrying passengers inside and on the roofs of its cars, and the engineer reported that he had stopped on the bridge after seeing a cow on the tracks. At the same time, heavy winds tipped the cars, five of which were swept downriver.

June 7, 1981 (Sunday)

• Operation Opera
  Operation Opera
  Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....
  
  : The Israeli Air Force
  Israeli Air Force
  The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
  
   destroyed Iraq
  Iraq
  Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
  
  's Osirak nuclear reactor in a raid that lasted 1 minute and 20 seconds. Eight F-16 jet fighters and six F-15s from the Etzion Airbase at 3:55 pm in Israel, arriving over the target in Iraq at 6:35 pm local time. Timed for a Sunday evening when more than 100 foreign scientists would be off for the day, the attack killed ten Iraqis and one Frenchman. Among the pilots was Ilan Ramon
  Ilan Ramon
  Ilan Ramon was a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, and later the first Israeli astronaut....
  
  , who would later become Israel's first astronaut and would die on the last voyage of the space shuttle Columbia
  STS-107
  -Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter Liftoff: **Orbiter Landing: **Payload: *Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 39.0°*Period: 90.1 min- Insignia :...
  
  .. Israel's Prime Minister Menahem Begin defended the raid despite world wide condemnation, saying "There will never be another Holocaust in the history of the Jewish people. Never again, never again."
• Born Anna Kournikova
  Anna Kournikova
  Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova is a Russian retired professional tennis player. Her beauty and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars worldwide, despite the fact that she never won a WTA singles title. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name...
  
  , Russian tennis player, in Moscow; and Larisa Oleynik
  Larisa Oleynik
  Larisa Romanovna Oleynik is an American actress. She came to fame in the mid-1990s, after starring in the title role of the popular television series, The Secret World of Alex Mack, and has also appeared in theatrical films, including The Baby-Sitters Club and 10 Things I Hate About You...
  
  , American actress (The Secret World of Alex Mack
  The Secret World of Alex Mack
  The Secret World of Alex Mack is an American television series that ran on Nickelodeon from October 8, 1994 to January 15, 1998, replacing Clarissa Explains It All on the SNICK line-up. It also aired on YTV in Canada and NHK in Japan, and was a popular staple in the children's weekday line-up for...
  
  ), in Santa Clara, CA

June 8, 1981 (Monday)

• Iran's President
  President of Iran
  The President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in, and the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; although subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state...
  
  , Abulhassan Banisadr made a speech at the Iranian Air Force base in Shiraz
  Shiraz
  Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...
  
  , exhorting officers and airmen to "resistance of dictatorship". The speech outraged Iran's de facto leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, who removed Banisadr from command of the armed forces two days later. Banisadr went into hiding on June 12 as opponents called for his execution, finally escaping to France
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
   on July 29. Many of his supporters were arrested and executed in the months that followed the critical speech.
• By a vote of 4-2, the council of the city of Morton Grove, Illinois
  Morton Grove, Illinois
  Morton Grove is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 22,451 at the 2000 census.The Village President of Morton Grove since April 27, 2009, is Daniel J...
  
  , passed ordinance No. 81-11, prohibiting the possession of handguns within city limits, and for residents to turn in their weapons to police

June 9, 1981 (Tuesday)

• United Auto Workers
  United Auto Workers
  The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...
  
   President Douglas Fraser
  Douglas Fraser
  Douglas Andrew Fraser was an American union leader. He was president of the United Auto Workers from 1977 to 1983, and an adjunct professor of labor relations at Wayne State University for many years...
  
   announced that UAW officials had voted unanimously to rejoin the AFL-CIO
  AFL-CIO
  The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
  
   after a 13 year absence. In 1968, Walter Reuther
  Walter Reuther
  Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century...
  
   had led the UAW to separate from the larger labor union after disagreements with AFL-CIO President George Meany
  George Meany
  William George Meany led labor union federations in the United States. As an officer of the American Federation of Labor, he represented the AFL on the National War Labor Board during World War II....
  
  .
• Born Natalie Portman
  Natalie Portman
  Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
  
  , Israeli-born American film actress, as Natalie Hershlag, in Jerusalem
• Died: Allen Ludden
  Allen Ludden
  Allen Ludden was an American television personality, emcee and game show host, perhaps most well known for hosting various incarnations of the game show Password between 1961 and 1980.-Early years:...
  
  , 63, American game show host (Password), and husband of comedienne Betty White
  Betty White
  Betty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and...
  
  

June 10, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Six-year old Alfredo Rampi
  Alfredo Rampi
  Alfredo Rampi, nicknamed Alfredino which translates as "little Alfredo" , was an Italian child who died after falling down a well near Vermicino, a village near Frascati, on Wednesday 10 June 1981.-The incident:...
  
   fell into an unprotected artesian well while playing on a neighbor's property in Frascati
  Frascati
  Frascati is a town and comune in the province of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with science, being the location of several international scientific...
  
  , Italy
  Italy
  Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
  
  . Over the next three days, the nation, and later the world, followed the attempt to save the boy's life. At one point, a rescuer was within reach of Alfredo, but the boy slipped 100 feet further down the well. By Saturday, Alfredo had died, and the property owner was arrested. The young man's body was recovered on July 11.
• Died: Jenny Maxwell
  Jenny Maxwell
  Jenny Maxwell was an American film and television actress, probably best remembered for her role in the 1961 Elvis Presley film Blue Hawaii.- Biography :...
  
  , 39, American film actress, murder victim

June 11, 1981 (Thursday)

• A 6.8 earthquake struck Iran's Kerman province at 10:56 am local time, destroying the town of Golbaf and killing 1,027 people.
• Irish general election, 1981
  Irish general election, 1981
  The Irish general election of 1981 was held on 11 June 1981, three weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on 21 May. The newly elected 166 members of the 22nd Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 30 June when a new Taoiseach and government were appointed....
  
  : The political party Fianna Fáil
  Fianna Fáil
  Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
  
  , led by Taoiseach
  Taoiseach
  The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...
  
   (Prime Minister) Charles Haughey
  Charles Haughey
  Charles James "Charlie" Haughey was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving three terms in office . He was also the fourth leader of Fianna Fáil...
  
  , lost its majority in the 166 seat Dáil Éireann
  Dáil Éireann
  Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
  
  . The Fine Gael
  Fine Gael
  Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
  
   assembled a coalition, and its leader, Garret FitzGerald
  Garret FitzGerald
  Garret FitzGerald was an Irish politician who was twice Taoiseach of Ireland, serving in office from July 1981 to February 1982 and again from December 1982 to March 1987. FitzGerald was elected to Seanad Éireann in 1965 and was subsequently elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD in 1969. He...
  
  , was elected the new Taoiseach by the Dáil on June 30, beating Haughey by a thin 81-78 margin.

June 12, 1981 (Friday)

• 1981 Major League Baseball strike: After MLB players walked out on strike at midnight, the first of 713 games to be cancelled was the 1:35 pm game between the Chicago Cubs
  Chicago Cubs
  The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
  
   and the visiting San Diego Padres
  San Diego Padres
  The San Diego Padres are a Major League Baseball team based in San Diego, California. They play in the National League Western Division. Founded in 1969, the Padres have won the National League Pennant twice, in 1984 and 1998, losing in the World Series both times...
  
  . The last game, the Seattle Mariners
  Seattle Mariners
  The Seattle Mariners are a professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington. Enfranchised in , the Mariners are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Safeco Field has been the Mariners' home ballpark since July...
  
  ' 8-2 win over the visiting Baltimore Orioles
  Baltimore Orioles
  The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
  
  , had ended at 9:54 pm local time on June 11.. The strike would last until August 1.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
  Raiders of the Lost Ark
  Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
  
  , which would become the highest grossing film of the year, premiered in the United States, and subsequently was released in other nations.
• Born Adriana Lima
  Adriana Lima
  Adriana Lima is a Brazilian model, best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2000, and as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics from 2003 to 2009...
  
  , Brazilian model, in Salvador, Bahia
  Salvador, Bahia
  Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
  
  , Brazil

June 13, 1981 (Saturday)

• At the Trooping the Colour
  Trooping the Colour
  Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and the Commonwealth armies. It has been a tradition of British infantry regiments since the 17th century, although the roots go back much earlier. On battlefields, a regiment's colours, or flags, were used as rallying points...
  
   ceremony in London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  , 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant
  Marcus Sarjeant
  Marcus Simon Sarjeant is notable for firing six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1981.-Background:...
  
   fired six shots at Queen Elizabeth
  Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
  Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
  
  , who was riding on horseback. The gun was a cartridge pistol that fired blanks, and the Queen was able to bring her startled horse, "Burmese
  Burmese (horse)
  Burmese , a black RCMP Police Service Horse mare, was given to Queen Elizabeth II by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and ridden by the queen for Trooping the Colour for eighteen consecutive years from 1969 to 1986.-Royal Service:...
  
  ", under control, but the act demonstrated the vulnerability of Britain's reigning monarch. Serjeant, who testified that he had been unable to obtain a real pistol prior to the event, was convicted under the Treason Act 1842
  Treason Act 1842
  The Treason Act 1842 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was passed early in the reign of Queen Victoria...
  
  , and spent three years in jail, before quietly being released in October of 1984. He subsequently changed his name and began a new life.
• Born Chris Evans
  Chris Evans (actor)
  Christopher Robert "Chris" Evans is an American actor. He played Cary Baston on the television series Opposite Sex, and transitioned to a film career, starring in several hits, including Not Another Teen Movie , Fierce People , Fantastic Four, sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , and...
  
  , American film actor (Fantastic Four), in Sudbury, MA
• Died: George Walsh
  George Walsh
  George Walsh was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 81 films between 1914 and 1936.He was born in New York, New York and died in Pomona, California from pneumonia. He was the younger brother of film director Raoul Walsh...
  
  , 92, American silent film leading man

June 14, 1981 (Sunday)

• California Medfly Crisis: A mistake was made in the implementation of sterile insect technique
  Sterile insect technique
  The sterile insect technique is a method of biological control, whereby overwhelming numbers of sterile insects are released. The released insects are normally male as it is the female that causes the damage, usually by laying eggs in the crop, or, in the case of mosquitoes, taking a bloodmeal from...
  
  , a means of controlling insect populations by releasing sterile bugs to mix with fertile ones of the same species during breeding season, thereby lowering the number of new larvae. When an infestation of millions of the Mediterranean fruit flies began destroying crops throughout the state, the state agricultural department discovered that the flies released on June 14 weren't sterile, and that the effort to reduce the population had inadvertently increased it.
• Voters in Switzerland
  Switzerland
  Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
  
  , where women were not allowed to vote in national elections until 1971, approved an equal rights amendment to that nation's Constitution.

June 15, 1981 (Monday)

• The State of Oklahoma forgot to execute convicted murderer James William White, who had been sentenced to die by lethal injection
  Lethal injection
  Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...
  
  , in what would have been the first use in the United States of that form of capital punishment
  Capital punishment
  Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
  
  . A reporter from the UPI made a phone call to Oklahoma's Court of Criminal Appeals the next day to inquire about White's status. The Court discovered that nobody had filed an appeal required by state law, and that the state corrections department had incorrectly listed White's sentence as 999 years rather than death.
• In an 8-1 decision, the United States Supreme Court held in the case of Rhodes v. Chapman (452 U.S. 337) that the placing of two prison inmates in a cell designed for one was not a violation of the Eighth Amendment
  Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
  The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...
  
   protection against cruel and unusual punishment
  Cruel and unusual punishment
  Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person...
  
  , as long as overall conditions at the prison were adequate. The Court reversed rulings at the district and appellate court level in a class action lawsuit brought by inmates of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
  Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
  The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison in Lucasville, Ohio, United States. The prison was constructed in 1972 and currently contains the death house for Ohio where death row inmates are executed...
  
   in Lucasville, Ohio
  Lucasville, Ohio
  Lucasville is a census-designated place in Scioto County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,588 at the 2000 census. The village of Lucasville was laid out by Captain John Lucas in June 1819 and recorded August 7, 1819. Captain Lucas built the first tavern in the village and kept it until...
  
  .

June 16, 1981 (Tuesday)

• U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig
  Alexander Haig
  Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. was a United States Army general who served as the United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford...
  
   announced that the United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   would, for the first time, sell weapons to the People's Republic of China
  People's Republic of China
  China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
  
  .
• Ferdinand Marcos
  Ferdinand Marcos
  Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
  
   was re-elected to a new six-year term as President of the Philippines
  President of the Philippines
  The President of the Philippines is the head of state and head of government of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines...
  
  , receiving a reported 18,309,360 votes, 86% of the total number cast. Alejo Santos
  Alejo Santos
  Alejo S. Santos was a Filipino soldier and World War II hero who parlayed his fame into a political career. His prestige was somewhat marred in later life when he agreed to run as the only candidate against Ferdinand Marcos in the widely-suspect 1981 Philippine presidential election.-Early life...
  
   had the highest total of eleven other candidates, with 1,716,499 or roughly 10%.
• Stanko Todorov
  Stanko Todorov
  Stanko Todorov Georgiev was a Bulgarian communist politician.Todorov was born in Pernik Province. Before and during World War II he was a worker. He became interested in communism, and joined the underground Bulgarian Communist Party in 1943...
  
  , who had been Prime Minister of Bulgaria since 1971, was replaced by Grisha Filipov
• Died: Jule Gregory Charney
  Jule Gregory Charney
  Jule Gregory Charney was an American meteorologist who played an important role in developing weather prediction. He developed a set of equations for calculating the large-scale motions of planetary-scale waves...
  
  , 64, American meteorologist and mathematician; Edward Boatner
  Edward Boatner
  Edward Boatner was an African American composer who wrote many popular concert arrangements of Negro spirituals.-Biography:...
  
  , 83, African-American concert singer; and John S. Knight
  John S. Knight
  John Shively Knight was an American newspaper publisher and editor.He was born in Bluefield, West Virginia to Charles Landon Knight and Clara Scheifly. He attended Cornell University but never graduated, leaving early to enlist in the Army. While at Cornell he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa...
  
  , 86, American newspaper publisher

June 17, 1981 (Wednesday)

• The largest submarine ever built up to that time, the 560 foot long USS Ohio, began its first sea trials, departing from the shipyards of Groton, Connecticut
  Groton, Connecticut
  Groton is a town located on the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 39,907 at the 2000 census....
  
   shortly before 5:00 am. Built at a cost of $1.2 billion, and capable of carrying 24 of the Trident missiles, which could each deliver five nuclear warheads, the sub was immediately shadowed by the Soviet surveillance ship Ekvator, which had anchored outside of U.S. territorial waters
  Territorial waters
  Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...
  
  , 12 nautical miles off of the coast of Long Island.
• Born Amrita Rao
  Amrita Rao
  Amrita Rao is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films.Beginning her career as a model, Rao made her acting debut with Ab Ke Baras...
  
  , Indian film actress, in Mumbai
  Mumbai
  Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
  
  
• Died: Yitzhak Zuckerman, 66, Polish leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
  Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
  The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
  
   who helped thousands of his fellow Jews escape the Nazi invasion, and continued to search for the Nazis after emigrating to Israel
  Israel
  The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
  
  ; Sir Richard O'Connor, 91, British general who led the fight against Italy
  Italy
  Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
  
   in North Africa during World War II; and Zerna Sharp
  Zerna Sharp
  Zerna Addis Sharp was an U.S. author, writer and teacher. She became known for creating the Dick and Jane beginning readers, and many other readers for children. Sharp noted the reduced reading ability of children during her travels and urged a new reading format for primers...
  
  , 91, American educator, who, beginning in 1924, created the "Dick and Jane
  Dick and Jane
  Dick and Jane were the main characters in popular basal readers written by William S. Gray and Zerna Sharp and published by Scott Foresman, that were used to teach children to read from the 1930s through to the 1970s in the United States...
  
  " primers
  Primer (textbook)
  A primer is a first textbook for teaching of reading, such as an alphabet book or basal reader. The word also is used more broadly to refer to any book that presents the most basic elements of a subject....
  
   used for four decades in American schools.

June 18, 1981 (Thursday)

• Potter Stewart
  Potter Stewart
  Potter Stewart was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. During his tenure, he made, among other areas, major contributions to criminal justice reform, civil rights, access to the courts, and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.-Education:Stewart was born in Jackson, Michigan,...
  
   retired from the United States Supreme Court after a service that began in 1958, clearing the way for the appointment of the first woman to serve on "the highest court in the land". Stewart explained the next day that he had quit after receiving a letter in 1980 from Donna Gallus, a senior at Technical High School
  Technical Senior School
  Technical Senior High School is located at 233 12th Avenue South in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. It is one of St. Cloud's two major public high schools, the other being Apollo. The school's first building was built in 1917, with another building added in the 1970s to handle the student population. There...
  
   in St. Cloud, Minnesota
  St. Cloud, Minnesota
  St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 65,842 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stearns County...
  
  . As part of a social studies assignment to write to a national figure, Gallus had asked why Stewart was still on the Court after 22 years, and that the letter, said Stewart, "sort of started me thinking".
• The F-117A Nighthawk "Stealth" fighter made its first flight, with Lockheed test pilot Hal Farley at the controls.
• The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) was created by the signing of the Treaty of Basseterre, with Antigua and Barbuda
  Antigua and Barbuda
  Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands...
  
  , Dominica
  Dominica
  Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
  
  , Grenada
  Grenada
  Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
  
  , Montserrat
  Montserrat
  Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...
  
  , St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines
• The first genetically-engineered
  Genetic engineering
  Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
  
   vaccine, created by Genentech
  Genentech
  Genentech Inc., or Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology corporation, founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. Trailing the founding of Cetus by five years, it was an important step in the evolution of the biotechnology industry...
  
   to protect livestock against hoof-and-mouth disease, was announced by U.S. Secretrary of Agriculture John Block in a visit to Sacramento
  Sacramento
  Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
  
  .
• Born Ella Chen
  Ella Chen
  Chen Chia-Hwa , more commonly credited as Ella, is the oldest member of the Taiwanese girl group S.H.E. Her name 'Ella', which means courage, was given after the personality test given by HIM Management Co....
  
   (Chen Chia-Hwa), Taiwanese singer with S.H.E., in Pingtung
• Died: Pamela Hansford Johnson
  Pamela Hansford Johnson
  Pamela Hansford Johnson, Baroness Snow was an English novelist, playwright, poet, literary and social critic.-Career:...
  
  , 79, English poet, novelist, playwright, literary and social critic

June 19, 1981 (Friday)

• Celine Dion
  Celine Dion
  Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
  
   made her debut at age 13, on a local Montreal talk show, the Michel Jasmin Show, in conjunction with her first single, Ce n'était qu'un rêve
  Ce N'etait Qu'un Reve
  "Ce n'était qu'un rêve" is a debut single by Quebecer singer Céline Dion, released on June 19, 1981 in Quebec, Canada. It was included on her first album La voix du bon Dieu....
  
  (literally, "It Was Just a Dream")
• In what was described as "a make-or-break proposition" for the European Space Agency
  European Space Agency
  The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...
  
   and its efforts to have its own space program, the third launch of an Ariane rocket was successful (the 1979 mission reached orbit, but a 1980 launch failed). Lifting off from French Guiana
  French Guiana
  French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
  
  , the 155 foot tall rocket carried into orbit the Meteostat 2 weather satellite, and India
  India
  India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
  
  's first geostationary satellite, the APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment.
• Superman II
  Superman II
  Superman II is the 1980 sequel to the 1978 superhero film Superman and stars Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty, Sarah Douglas, Margot Kidder, and Jack O'Halloran. It was the only Superman film to be filmed by two directors...
  
  premiered in the United States, more than 7 months after its world premiere in Australia on December 4, 1980. Prior to its American debut, it had been seen in seven European nations, as well as Argentina and Japan.
• Died: Henri Busignies, 76, electronics inventor who had 140 patents for aerial navigation; Lotte Reiniger
  Lotte Reiniger
  Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director.- Early life :Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899...
  
  , 82, German-born silhouette animator; and Juan Jose Crespo, Basque nationalist, in the 66th day of his hunger strike at Carabanchel Prison
  Carabanchel Prison
  Carabanchel Prison was constructed by political prisoners after the Spanish Civil War between 1940 and 1944 in the Madrid's neighbourhood of Carabanchel. It was one of the biggest prisons in Europe until its closure in 1998...
  
  

June 20, 1981 (Saturday)

• In Tehran
  Tehran
  Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
  
  , demonstrations by the People's Mujahedin of Iran
  People's Mujahedin of Iran
  The People's Mujahedin of Iran is a terrorist militant organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran....
  
   (PMOI) against the dismissal of Iran
  Iran
  Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
  
  's President Banisadr became violent, and a wave of arrests and executions of PMOI members followed. According to some accounts, the Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the Islamic Revolutionary Guards to fire into the crowd and more than 100 demonstrators were killed. In another account, the PMOI battled with the Guards, with 15 dead on each side. In the first three weeks after the demonstration, 195 of Banisadr's supporters had been tried and executed. By year's end, the government had announced a total of 1,656 executions before a firing squad.
• Boxer Alexis Arguello
  Alexis Argüello
  Alexis Argüello , also known by the stage name El Flaco Explosivo , was a Nicaraguan professional boxer and politician...
  
  , who had previously been featherweight world champion (1974-77) and junior lightweight champion (1978-80) became lightweight world champion, beating Jim Watt in a 15 round bout in London.
• Born Alisan Porter
  Alisan Porter
  Alisan Porter is an American actress, singer and dancer.-Life and career:Porter was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Porter is Jewish. Her maternal grandmother, whose father Joseph Klein was a prominent Worcester rabbi, ran the Charlotte Klein Dance Center in Worcester...
  
  , American film actress (Curly Sue), in Worcester, Massachusetts
  Worcester, Massachusetts
  Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
  
  

June 21, 1981 (Sunday)

• French legislative election, 1981
  French legislative election, 1981
  French legislative elections took place on 14 June and 21 June 1981 to elect the 7th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 10 May 1981 François Mitterrand was elected President of France. He became the first Socialist to win this post under universal suffrage...
  
  : France's Socialist Party
  Socialist Party (France)
  The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
  
   won control of the 491 member Assemblée nationale, more than doubling its number of seats from 117 to 285 for a majority. After 23 years in power, the coalition of Conservative parties dropped its share from 274 to 147. Pierre Mauroy
  Pierre Mauroy
  Pierre Mauroy is a French Socialist politician and former Prime Minister under François Mitterrand . Mauroy also served as Mayor of Lille from 1973 to 2001. Mauroy is currently emeritus mayor of Lille.-Biography:...
  
  , who had formed an interim government while elections were being held, was appointed Prime Minister of France
  Prime Minister of France
  The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
  
   by President Francois Mitterrand.
• In the deadliest accident to ever happen at Washington State's Mount Ranier National Park, 10 mountain climbers and their guide were killed when tons of ice fell without warning, sweeping them into a 100 foot deep crevasse
  Crevasse
  A crevasse is a deep crack in an ice sheet rhys glacier . Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the sheer stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rates of movement...
  
  , and burying them under 70 feet of ice. That afternoon, in the worst accident to ever happen at Oregon's Mount Hood
  Mount Hood
  Mount Hood, called Wy'east by the Multnomah tribe, is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of northern Oregon. It was formed by a subduction zone and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States...
  
  , five mountain climbers were killed when a group of 16, linked by ropes for safety during their descent, fell 2,500 feet down the side of the mountain.

June 22, 1981 (Monday)

• On the opening day of the Wimbledon
  The Championships, Wimbledon
  The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
  
   tennis tournament, American John McEnroe
  John McEnroe
  John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...
  
  , ranked #2 in the world, stunned the crowd with an unprecedented display of temper. Beginning with the 12th game his first-round match against Tom Gullikson
  Tom Gullikson
  Tom Gullikson is a tennis coach and former professional tennis player from the United States.-Career:...
  
  , McEnroe began berating the umpire, Edward James, when calls went against him. In the 9th game of the second set, McEnroe shouted to James "You can't be serious! You are an incompetent fool, an offense against the world!" McEnroe's antics continued all the way to his victory in the championship match.
• One day after Iran's Parliament, the Majlis
  Majlis of Iran
  The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
  
  , voted 177–1 in favor of a resolution finding President Abolhassan Banisadr incompetent to hold office, the Ayatollah Khomeini, de facto leader of Iran, dismissed him. "I did not want today to happen," Khomeini wrote in a published declaration addressed to Banisadr, "but you did not listen to my advice. You did not stop your interest in these corrupt and criminal groups and they drew you to your destruction..." The President was replaced by a triumvirate
  Triumvirate
  A triumvirate is a political regime dominated by three powerful individuals, each a triumvir . The arrangement can be formal or informal, and though the three are usually equal on paper, in reality this is rarely the case...
  
   consisting of Ayatollahs Mohammed Beheshti and Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Rajai.

June 23, 1981 (Tuesday)

• The Pawtucket Red Sox
  Pawtucket Red Sox
  The Pawtucket Red Sox are the minor league baseball Triple-A affiliates of the Boston Red Sox and belong to the International League...
  
   beat the Rochester Red Wings
  Rochester Red Wings
  The Rochester Red Wings are a minor league baseball team based in Rochester, New York. The team plays in the International League and is the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins major-league club. The Red Wings play in Frontier Field, located in downtown Rochester.The Red Wings were an...
  
  , 3-2, in the 33rd inning of a game
  Longest professional baseball game
  The Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings, two teams from the Triple-A International League, played the longest game in professional baseball history. It lasted for 33 innings over eight hours and 25 minutes...
  
   that had started 67 days earlier. The game had been halted in the early morning of April 19
  April 1981
  January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - DecemberThe following events occurred in April 1981.-April 1, 1981 :...
  
  , tied 2-2 after 32 innings and more than 8 hours of game time. The game ended 18 minutes after it resumed, with Dave Koza's single bringing in Cliff Speck for the game winner. Future MLB stars Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs
  Wade Boggs
  Wade Anthony Boggs is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He spent his 18-year baseball career primarily with the Boston Red Sox, but also played for the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays...
  
   participated for Rochester and Pawtucket, respectively.
• The first execution under the new criminal procedure law of the People's Republic of China
  People's Republic of China
  China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
  
   took place at Nanjing
  Nanjing
  ' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
  
  . On June 10, rules were changed to allow death sentences to be approved by intermediate People's Court
  People's Court
  The People's Court may refer to:* local people's courts of the People's Republic of China* Vietnamese People's Court* People's Court , a court established by Adolf Hitler to deal with those accused of political offences...
  
  s, previously reserved to the nation's Supreme Court. A murderer named Luo, whose arrest, trial, conviction and appeal took place over an 8-day period, was publicly executed a rally attended by 10,000 people.
• Died: Zarah Leander
  Zarah Leander
  Zarah Leander was a Swedish actress and singer.Leander began her career in the late 1920s, and by the mid 1930s her success in Europe, particularly in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, led to invitations to work in the United States...
  
  , 74, Swedish-born actress in German film, described as "the greatest screen idol of the Third Reich" Alice A. Kuzniar, The queer German cinema (Stanford University Press, 2000)p57

June 24, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Miracle of Međugorje: Six young people in Yugoslavia
  Yugoslavia
  Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
  
   first saw what they believed to be an apparition of The Virgin Mary
  Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)
  Roman Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is based on Holy Scripture: In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a virgin. The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God through Mary thus signifies her honour as Mother of God...
  
  . Ivanka Ivankovic, who saw it first, was joined by her sister Vicka Ivankovic, Mirjana and Ivan Dragicevic, Marija Pavlovic and Jakov Colo. Although the local Catholic bishop, Pavo Zanic, felt that the apparitions had been "a case of collective hallucination", Pope John Paul II approved pilgrimages to the area in 1986, and tens of thousands of believers have visited Međugorje (now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
  
  ) since then.
• Soldiers in the army of Uganda
  Uganda
  Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
  
   killed 86 people, mostly women and children, in a massacre at the city of Arua
  Arua
  Arua is a town in Arua District, Northern Uganda. An important local commercial centre, it is a base for a large refugee population from Southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is an aid distribution centre for those nations.-Location:...
  
  .
• Died: Paul Butler, 89, multimillionaire who founded Butler Aviation Company and who was largely responsible for the creation of Oak Brook, Illinois
  Oak Brook, Illinois
  Oak Brook is a village in DuPage and Cook Counties, in Illinois. The population was 8,702 at the 2000 census. A suburb of Chicago, it is the headquarters of McDonald's and Lions Clubs International.-History:...
  
  . Butler, whose net worth was estimated at between 50 and 125 million dollars, was struck by a car while standing in the street in front of his home to take photographs.

June 25, 1981 (Thursday)

• In a double-bout in Houston, WBC welterweight champion Sugar Ray Leonard
  Sugar Ray Leonard
  Sugar Ray Leonard is an American retired professional boxer and occasional actor. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother's favorite singer, Ray Charles...
  
   TKO's Ayub Kalule in the 9th round to win the WBA's junior middleweight boxing championship, and Thomas Hearns
  Thomas Hearns
  Thomas "Hitman" Hearns is a retired American boxer. Nicknamed the "Motor City Cobra" and more famously "The Hitman", Hearns became the first boxer in history to win world titles in four divisions. He would also become the first fighter in history to win five world titles in five different divisions...
  
   defended his title against challenger Pablo Baez. The double bill set up a September 16 bout between Leonard and Hearns
• Rostker v. Goldberg
  Rostker v. Goldberg
  Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 , was a decision of the United States Supreme Court holding that the practice of requiring only men to register for the draft was constitutional....
  
  : In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that women were exempt from draft registration
• Born Simon Ammann
  Simon Ammann
  Simon Ammann is a Swiss ski jumper, and double Olympic Champion at both 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics.Ammann was born in Grabs, Switzerland, to Margit and Heinrich Ammann and raised in Unterwasser, Switzerland. He has two brothers and three sisters. He married Yana Yanovskaya on 25 June 2010...
  
  , Swiss ski jumper, in Grabs
  Grabs
  Grabs is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Werdenberg in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-History:Grabs is first mentioned in 841 as Quaravedes. In 979 it was mentioned as Quadravedes, then in 1235 as Grabdis and in 1253 as Graps.-Geography:Grabs has an area, , of...
  
  , four-time Olympic gold medalist (2002 and 2010)

June 26, 1981 (Friday)

• Hua Guofeng
  Hua Guofeng
  Su Zhu, better known by the nom de guerre Hua Guofeng , was Mao Zedong's designated successor as the Paramount Leader of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China. Upon Zhou Enlai's death in 1976, he succeeded Zhou as the second Premier of the People's Republic of China...
  
   formally resigned as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, the position that he had held since the death of Mao Zedong
  Mao Zedong
  Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
  
   in 1976.
• The film Stripes
  Stripes (film)
  Stripes is a 1981 American comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman, starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P. J. Soles, and John Candy. It also featured several actors in their first significant film roles, including John Larroquette, Sean Young, John Diehl, and Judge Reinhold. It was one...
  
  , starring Bill Murray
  Bill Murray
  William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
  
   and Harold Ramis
  Harold Ramis
  Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
  
  , premiered in the United States, before being shown worldwide.

June 27, 1981 (Saturday)

• In a major break from the cult of personality that had been inspired by the late Chairman Mao Zedong
  Mao Zedong
  Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
  
  , "Resolution on Certain Historical Issues of the Party Since the Founding of the PRC" was approved by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. A 119-page document faulted Mao for the Cultural Revolution
  Cultural Revolution
  The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
  
   that lasted from May 1966 until Mao's death in October 1976, described as "responsible for the most severe setback and heaviest losses suffered by the party, the state and the people", but added that "an error comprehensive in magnitude and protracted in duration... was the error of a great proletarian revolutionary."
• The "Banjul
  Banjul
  -Transport:Ferries sail from Banjul to Barra. The city is served by the Banjul International Airport. Banjul is on the Trans–West African Coastal Highway connecting it to Dakar and Bissau, and will eventually provide a paved highway link to 11 other nations of ECOWAS.Banjul International Airport...
  
   Charter
  Charter
  A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
  
  , or the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
  African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
  The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights is an international human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent....
  
  , was adopted by the 51 members of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) at its meeting in the capital of The Gambia
  The Gambia
  The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....
  
  , to take effect October 21, 1986

June 28, 1981 (Sunday)

• The Tehran
  Tehran
  Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
  
   headquarters of the Iran
  Iran
  Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
  
  's Islamic Republican Party
  Islamic Republican party
  The Islamic Republican Party was a political party in Iran, formed in mid-1979 to assist the Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini establish theocracy in Iran...
  
   was destroyed at 9:05 pm by a powerful bomb that killed 74 government leaders as they met in Tehran. The Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, Secretary-General of the party, Chief Justice, and second-in-command to the Ayatollah Khomeini, was speaking at the meeting when the bomb, hidden in a trash basket near the podium, exploded. The roof of the two story IRP hall collapsed, killing nearly all of the 90 people inside at the time. In addition to Beheshti, four cabinet ministers, six deputy ministers, and 27 members of parliament were killed.
• Giovanni Spadolini
  Giovanni Spadolini
  Giovanni Spadolini was a liberal Italian politician, the 45th Prime Minister of Italy, newspaper editor, journalist and a noted historian.-Biography:Spadolini was born in Florence....
  
   became the 65th Prime Minister of Italy
  Prime minister of Italy
  The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
  
  . As leader of the Italian Republican Party
  Italian Republican Party
  The Italian Republican Party is a liberal political party in Italy.The PRI is party with old roots that originally took a left-wing position, claiming descent from the political position of Giuseppe Mazzini...
  
   (PRI), he was the first premier since 1945 to be from a party other than the Christian Democrats.
• Fifty members of the Lighthouse Gospel Tract Foundation in Arizona waited in vain for The Rapture
  The Rapture
  The Rapture is an Indie rock band based in New York City. The band mixes influences from many genres including post-punk, acid house, disco, electronica and rock, pioneering the post-punk revival genre...
  
  , after predicting June 28, 1981 for the date of the return of Jesus
  Jesus
  Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
  
  . On July 10, the group's leader revised the new date to August 7, 1981.
• Born Mara Santangelo
  Mara Santangelo
  Mara Santangelo is a former professional female tennis player from Italy. She retired from the sport on 28 January 2011.-Tennis career:...
  
  , Italian tennis player, in Latina
• Died: Terry Fox
  Terry Fox
  Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox , was a Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research...
  
  , 22, Canadian athlete and cancer activist&
• Born Amy Elizabeth Rachel

June 29, 1981 (Monday)

• Hu Yaobang
  Hu Yaobang
  Hu Yaobang was a leader of the People's Republic of China who served as both Chairman and Party General Secretary. Hu joined the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s, and rose to prominence as a comrade of Deng Xiaoping...
  
   was elected as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, to succeed Hua Guofeng
  Hua Guofeng
  Su Zhu, better known by the nom de guerre Hua Guofeng , was Mao Zedong's designated successor as the Paramount Leader of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China. Upon Zhou Enlai's death in 1976, he succeeded Zhou as the second Premier of the People's Republic of China...
  
  . After the position of Chairman was abolished the following year, Hu continued as General Secretary, until he was dismissed on January 16, 1987, and replaced by Zhao Ziyang.

June 30, 1981 (Tuesday)

• Israeli legislative election, 1981
  Israeli legislative election, 1981
  Elections for the tenth Knesset were held in Israel on 30 June 1981. Despite last minute polls suggesting a victory for Shimon Peres's Alignment, Menachem Begin's Likud won by just one seat...
  
  : In the closest election in Israel's history, the Menahem Begin's Likud
  Likud
  Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
  
   Party won 48 seats, and the Labor Party led by Shimon Peres
  Shimon Peres
  GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
  
   had 47, with neither holding a majority in the 120 seat Knesset
  Knesset
  The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
  
  . Likud eventually negotiated a coalition with the National Religious Party (6), Agudat Israel (4) and TAMI (3) to reach 61 seats.
• Eight former guards of the Maidanek concentration camp were convicted of war crimes by a West German court, bringing to an end a trial that had begun on November 24, 1974.