1st January » The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
19th January » Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
19th January » The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
13th February » A Cinema Statuto fire e.g cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people.
14th February » United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
16th February » The Ash Wednesday fires known as Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria (Australia) or Victoria and South Australia kill 75.
18th February » Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle, Washington. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
23rd February » The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins called dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
24th February » A special commission of the United States Congress known as U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese American internment known as Japanese internment during World War II.
2nd March » Compact Discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan.
4th March » Bertha Wilson is appointed the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.
6th March » The first United States Football League game is played.
8th March » U.S. President of the United States known as President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
11th March » Pakistan Project-706 named successfully conducts a Cold fission known as cold test of a nuclear weapon.
16th March » Demolition of the Transmitter Ismaning or radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
23rd March » Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.
4th April » Space Shuttle 'Space Shuttle Challenger or Challenger' STS-6 e.g makes its maiden voyage into space.
7th April » During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Donald H. Peterson known as Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk.
18th April » A suicide bomber April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing known as destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
22nd April » The German magazine 'Stern (magazine) e.g Stern' claims that the "Hitler Diaries" had been found in wreckage in East Germany; the diaries are subsequently revealed to be Forgery called forgeries.
25th April » American student named schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear warfare known as nuclear war.
1st May » Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis is awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.
6th May » The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after examination by experts.
17th May » Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an May 17 Agreement e.g agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
18th May » In Republic of Ireland known as Ireland, the government launches a crackdown, with the leading Dublin pirate Radio Nova (Ireland) known as Radio Nova being put off the air.
20th May » First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal 'Science (journal) named Science' by Luc Montagnier.
26th May » A strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 104 people and injures thousands. Many people go missing and thousands of buildings are destroyed.
27th May » Benton fireworks disaster: a massive explosion at a secret unlicensed fireworks plant near Benton, Tennessee, kills eleven, injures one, and causes damage within a radius of several miles.cite web url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=1
13th June » 'Pioneer 10' becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune (the furthest planet from the Sun at the time).
18th June » Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
1st July » A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
7th July » Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of List of leaders of the Soviet Union known as Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
15th July » Orly Airport attack is launched by Armenian militant organisation Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia named ASALA at the Paris-Orly Airport in Paris; it leaves 8 people dead and 55 injured.
16th July » 1983 British Airways Sikorsky S-61 crash called Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
19th July » The first Michael W. Vannier or three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a X-ray computed tomography named CT is published.
22nd July » Martial law in Poland is officially revoked.
23rd July » 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers are killed after a Four Four Bravo known as deadly ambush by the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
23rd July » Gimli Glider: Air Canada Flight 143 runs out of fuel and makes a deadstick landing at Rural Municipality of Gimli or Gimli, Manitoba.
24th July » The Black July anti-Tamil riots begin in Sri Lanka, killing between 400 and 3,000. Black July is generally regarded as the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
24th July » George Brett batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "George Brett known as Pine Tar Incident".
25th July » Black July: Thirty-seven Sri Lankan Tamil people Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are Welikada prison massacre massacred by the fellow Sinhalese people Sinhalese prisoners.
27th July » Black July: Eighteen Sri Lankan Tamil people Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada Welikada Prison high security prison in Colombo are Welikada prison massacre massacred by Sinhalese people Sinhalese prisoners, the second such massacre in two days.
18th August » Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
21st August » Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now renamed 'Ninoy Aquino International Airport').
1st September » Cold War: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet Union Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die, including United States Congress Congressman Larry McDonald Lawrence McDonald.
6th September » The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
12th September » A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros.
12th September » The Soviet Union or USSR vetoes a United Nations Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet shooting down of a Korean civilian jetliner on September 1.
15th September » Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
17th September » Vanessa L. Williams e.g Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.
19th September » Saint Kitts and Nevis gains its independence.
23rd September » Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations.
23rd September » Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa becomes the first African boxing world heavyweight champion.
23rd September » Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, killing all 117 people on board.
25th September » Maze Prison escape: 38 republican prisoners, armed with six handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of Maze (HM Prison) called the Maze prison. It is the largest prison escape since WWII and in British history.
26th September » USSR e.g Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident known as correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike
27th September » Richard Stallman announces the GNU project to develop a free Unix-like operating system.
4th October » Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of Convert 633.468 mph km/h, driving Thrust2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
9th October » Rangoon bombing: attempted assassination of South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan during an official visit to Yangon named Rangoon, Burma. Chun survives but the blast kills 17 of his entourage, including four cabinet ministers, and injures 17 others. Four
13th October » Ameritech Mobile Communications (now AT&T Inc.) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.
21st October » The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
22nd October » Two Prison officer or correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary, Marion named United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires the Supermax model of prisons.
23rd October » Lebanon Civil War: The United States Marine Corps U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is 1983 Beirut barracks bombing hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A France French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58
30th October » The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military rule are held.
2nd November » U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
5th November » Byford Dolphin diving bell accident kills five and leaves one severely injured.
7th November » 1983 United States Senate bombing: a bomb explodes inside the United States Capitol. No one is injured, but an estimated $250,000 in damage is caused.
15th November » Northern Cyprus named Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is founded. Recognized only by Turkey.
17th November » The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico.
5th December » Dissolution of the National Reorganization Process called Military Junta in Argentina.
7th December » An Iberia (airline) e.g Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco McDonnell Douglas DC-9 named DC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 93 people.
10th December » Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín.
12th December » The Australian Labor government led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating floats the Australian dollar.
14th December » The third Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.
17th December » Provisional Irish Republican Army Provisional IRA members Harrods bombing detonate a car bomb at Harrods Department Store in London London, England, United Kingdom. Three police officers and three civilians are killed.
19th December » The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the FIFA World Cup Trophy Jules Rimet Trophy known as Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
31st December » The AT&T Corporation or AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.