istoryworld
Events relating to europe
British snooker player Steve Davis wins the first of six world championship titles
16-year-old ballerina Sylvie Guillem joins the Paris Opera Ballet
Polish prime minister Wojciech Jaruzelski imposes martial law and suspends Solidarnośc (Solidarity)
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats, based on the Old Possum poems by T.S. Eliot, opens in London
5000 Argentinian troops land in the Falkland Islands, provoking war with Britain
Michael Frayn's farce Noises Off opens in London's West end
British troops recapture Port Stanley, after which the Argentinian forces in the Falklands surrender
The leader of the Argentinian junta, Leopoldo Galtieri, resigns three days after the Falklands defeat
Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona is sold to Barcelona for a new record fee of £5 million, almost double the highest previous figure
British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, promoter of the punk style, shows a collection called Punkature
US fillm actress Grace Kelly is killed in a car accident in Monte Carlo
The trade union movement Solidarnośc (Solidarity) is declared illegal by the Polish government
After 18 years as General Secretary of the Communist party in the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev dies in office
British economist Nicholas Kaldor attacks monetarism in The Economic Consequences of Mrs Thatcher
Ronald Harwood's play The Dresser is partly inspired by the British actor Donald Wolfit
Philips and Sony jointly introduce a new device, the compact disc
Rudolf Nureyev begins a successful 6-year period as artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet
Polish union leader and activist Lech Walesa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Olivier Messiaen's opera St Francis of Assisi has its premiere in Paris
Luc Montagnier, at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, discovers a new human retrovirus that he names LAV (later changed to HIV)
On his 90th birthday Harold Macmillan is given Britain's last hereditary peerage, as Earl of Stockton
British skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean earn a perfect score for their Bolero programme in the Sarajevo winter Olympics
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and union leader Arthur Scargill begin a bitter personal struggle in the miners' strike
English athlete Daley Thompson sets an Olympic and world record in the decathlon at the Los Angeles Olympics
Diego Maradona is sold to Napoli for a new record fee of about £5 million, two years after being sold to Barcelona for £3 million
