John Paul II makes an emotional and influential return to Poland, the country of his birth

Peter Shaffer's play about Mozart, Amadeus, has its premiere in London

Lord Mountbatten is killed by an IRA bomb that explodes on his boat in the bay of Donegal

British artist Richard Long lays out his Slate Circle at the Tate Gallery in London

A conference in London, at Lancaster House, finally achieves agreement on Southern Rhodesia

Italian academic Umberto Eco publishes The Name of the Rose, a medieval murder mystery

Electrician Lech Walesa emerges as the leader of a strike in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland

A trade union, Solidarnośc (Solidarity), is formed by strikers in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland

Lech Walesa is elected chairman of the newly formed Polish trade union movement Solidarnośc (Solidarity)

Rebels storm the Spanish parliament in Madrid and briefly hold the members hostage, in a military coup that fails

The Kremlin appoints a general, Wojciech Jaruzelski, as prime minister of Poland

Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan share a common economic viewpoint, following the policy known as monetarism

War Music is the first instalment of Christopher Logue's version of the Iliad

Francçois Mitterrand defeats Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in the French presidential election

Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children uses the moment of India's independence to launch an adventure in magic realism

Australian entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch buys Britain's establishment newspaper, The Times, and its related titles

A Turkish assailant in St Peter's Square in Rome shoots and seriously wounds John Paul II

The Humber Bridge crosses the Humber estuary in Britain, and is the world's longest suspension bridge with a main span of 4626 feet (1410m)

Karlheinz Stockhausen's Thursday from Light, the first of a seven-part opera cycle, is performed in Milan

Prince Charles marries Diana Spencer in St Paul's Cathedral in London

English author Anita Brookner publishes her first novel, A Start in Life

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