This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 1980

	January 2nd	In the United Kingdom, steel workers go on strike over pay issues, it was the first national strike in Britain in more than fifty years.
	January 7th	Indira Gandhi was elected to power in India, three years after she had lost it.
	February 12th	American actress, Christina Ricci, was born in California. Her first appearance in film was alongside Winona Ryder and Cher in the hit movie Mermaids. Her break came when she received the role of Wednesday Addams in the blockbuster, Addams Family, series of films.
	February 14th	The XIII Winter Olympic Games opened in Lake Placid, New York.
	February 19th	Australian musician, Bon Scott, died at the age of 33. He was the lead singer of the AC/DC heavy metal rock band who died after a night of heavy drinking.
	March 14th	A commercial jet crashed during an emergency landing near Warsaw, Poland, resulting in the death of 87.
	March 27th	The oil platform, Alexander Kielland, collapsed in the North Sea, 123 of 212 crewmen die.
	March 31st	American sports legend, Jesse Owens, died at the age of 67. He had taken part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany where he won four gold medals, under the eyes of Adolf Hitler.
	April 7th	The United States severed all diplomatic ties with Iran not long after it became an Islamic republic, under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini.
	April 15th	French philosopher and writer, Jean-Paul Sartre, died at the age of 75 in Paris. He is considered as one of the great philosophers and writers of the 20th century and was a proponent of the existentialism movement. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1964, but he declined to accept it, stating that he did not want to align himself with any institution.
	April 18th	The British colony of Rhodesia is renamed to 'The Republic of Zimbabwe' after gaining its independence.
	April 29th	British film director, Alfred Hitchcock, died at the age of 80. He was one of the most influential film directors of his generation, who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres.
	May 5th	British SAS soldiers storm the Iranian embassy in London after a six day siege. Embassy personnel were taken hostage six days before by a team of armed Iranians who opposed Ayatollah Khomeini and demanded freedom for the southern Iranian province of Khuzestan.
	June 1st	The news channel, Cable News Network (CNN), began broadcasting.
	June 7th	American writer, Henry Miller, died at the age if 88. He is considered as on of the most influential writers of the 20th century, having written such classics as the "Tropic of Cancer" and the "Tropic of Capricorn".
	June 27th	An Aerolinee Itavia passenger jet crashed near Ustica, Italy, resulting in the death of 81 people.
	July 7th	Sharia was instituted in Iran. Sharia is the imposition of Islamic law on all aspects of both public and private life.
	July 19th	Turkish Prime Minister, Nihat Erim, was shot to death by two members of the leftist militant group Dev Sol.
	July 24th	British actor, Peter Sellers, died at the age of 54. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest comedic actors of the 20th century. In 1964 at the age of 39, Sellers had suffered a near-fatal heart attack which considerably damaged his heart and complicated his life up until his death, which again was caused by a massive heart attack. Oddly enough, his son, also died of a heart attack 26 years to the day after his father's death.
	July 30th	Vanuatu gained its independence. Until its independence the island nation was jointly governed by both England and France.
	August 2nd	Bombing of the Bologna railway station took place in Italy, resulting in the death of 85 people.
	August 19th	A Saudia airlines passenger flight burned up upon making an emergency landing at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All 301 people on board died in the accident.
	August 31st	The Solidarity trade union was formed in Poland in what was then the Lenin Shipyards. It was lead by Lech Walesa and was a major anti-communist movement in Poland, which even managed to survive the Martial Law that was imposed upon Poland in order to destroy the union.
	September 12th	A military coup took place in Turkey.
	September 22nd	Iraq invaded Iran signalling the beginning of the eight year long and bloody conflict between Iran and Iraq.
	September 23th	Bob Marley performed his last concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as the last concert of the Uprising Tour. He had been diagnosed with cancer 3 years earlier which claimed his life the following year.
	November 7th	American actor, Steve McQueen, died at the age of 50. He died from a heart attack after he had undergone surgery which was intended to treat the rare form of lung cancer he was suffering from.
	November 21st	A fire broke out at the famous MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas resulting in the death of 87 people.
	November 23th	A number of strong earthquakes hit Southern Italy, resulting in the death of over 4500 people.
	December 4th	Members rock group Led Zeppelin officially announced the band's breakup.
	December 8th	British musician, John Lennon, was murdered in New York City.
	December 18th	American singer, Christina Aguilera, was born in Staten Island, New York. She is one of the most successful young singers of the new century.
	December 30th	The television series The Wonderful World of Disney was cancelled by the NBC channel after 25 years of production.

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