September 25, 1981: Sydney Tower opensSeptember 25, 1981: O'Connor becomes first woman justice on U.S. Supreme CourtSeptember 27, 1981: TGV high-speed train begins operations
Typhoon Agnes struck South Korea, bringing with it the heaviest rainfall seen on the Korean peninsula in the 20th century, with as much as 28 inches (71 cm) falling over the next two days.[1] The final toll was 120 people dead or missing.[2]
Roger Hargreaves' children’s book series, Little Miss (the female counterpart to the Mr. Men series) were first published. The thirteenth books in the initial series were "Little Miss Bossy", "Little Miss Naughty", "Little Miss Neat", "Little Miss Sunshine", "Little Miss Tiny", "Little Miss Trouble", "Little Miss Helpful", "Little Miss Magic", "Little Miss Shy", "Little Miss Splendid", "Little Miss Late", "Little Miss Scatterbrain" and "Little Miss Greedy".
Albert Speer
Died:
Albert Speer, 76, German Nazi architect and war minister
InEgypt, a nationwide arrest of 1,536 people, most of them Islamist activists, was carried out on orders of President Anwar Sadat. One of those seized was Mohammed Islambouli, leader of the Islamic Association branch at Assiut University. His younger brother, Egyptian army Lt. Khalid Islambouli, a member of the group Jihad, was so outraged that he vowed to get revenge on Sadat. A few days later, Khalid was assigned to be part of a military parade scheduled for October 6 to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Egypt's attack on Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and used the opportunity to conspire with fellow members of Jihad to carry out an assassination.[7]
The United States Department of Agriculture proposed new regulations concerning nutritional requirements for the federally subsidized school lunch program. Both ketchup and pickle relish were classified as vegetables for purposes of defining a balanced meal. The USDA withdrew the proposal three weeks later after a reporter from the Washington Post called attention to the new rules.[8]
Louis Delamare, France's ambassador to Lebanon, was assassinated in Beirut. Delamare was being driven home when four gunmen pulled alongside his BMW and opened fire.[10]
At 8:51 a.m. on the day of its bicentennial, Los Angeles got what was nicknamed "the birthday quake", a tremor of 5.8 magnitude, the strongest since the 1971 quake that had killed 65 people.[11]
Sobhuza II celebrated his 60th anniversary as King of Swaziland, in a ceremony attended by Egypt's President Sadat and Britain's Princess Margaret. Sobhuza was the first monarch since Queen Victoria to observe a diamond jubilee.[12]
Pope Shenuda III, head of the Coptic Christian ChurchofEgypt, was deposed from his job by President Anwar Sadat, who charged that Muslim and Christian extremists were conspiring to overthrow the government.[13] Three years after Sadat's assassination, Shenuda, who had been exiled to the monastery of Saint Bishoi, was allowed by President Hosni Mubarak to return to Cairo.[14]
In the largest jailbreak within a Communist nation, 154 inmates escaped from a jail in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The mass breakout happened after a riot that began when a 17-year-old burglary suspect had been shot during an attempted escape.[16]
Nawal El Saadawi was arrested as part of the roundup of Sadat's opponents, and stayed in the Barrage Prison until November 25. She later recounted the story in her book, "Mozakerati fi signel nissa" ("Memoirs from the Women's Prison", 1983)[17]
The People's Court made its syndicated television debut on 39 television stations in the United States. Created by producer Ralph Edwards, the show presented real small claims court cases, with the litigants agreeing to dismiss court proceedings and to go before retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Wapner. Of the $800 provided by the producers for each case, the amount not awarded to the plaintiff ($750 maximum) would be divided evenly between both sides. The very first case saw a landlady receive an award of $614.[18]
The government of Malaysia, as part of its New Economic Policy program and the efforts of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, engineered the takeover of the British-owned rubber plantation company, Guthrie Group Ltd The government investment company, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), purchased majority control of the stock in an early-morning buy on the London Stock Exchange of most of the shares of Guthrie in what was later called the "Dawn Raid attack" that achieved its goal within four hours after the market opened.[19] The Guthrie Group's 312.5 square miles (809 km2) of land was then redistributed by the government to Malaysian farmers.[20]
Indian newspaper owner Jagat Narain, 92, was assassinated by three gunmen after publishing articles critical of Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Sikh demands for a separate nation. On September 20, Bhindranwale surrendered to the police, but was released on October 14 by orders of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.[25]
In a hastily called referendum, voters in Egypt overwhelmingly endorsed Sadat's crackdown against religious and political opponents, with a reported 99.45% of nearly 11 million ballots in favor, and only 33,561 against.[27]
John Carta, a 35-year-old unemployed stonemason from New Rochelle, New York, became the first person to parachute on to the World Trade Center. Carta jumped from a plane at an altitude of 10,000 feet, then guided himself to a landing on to the observation deck on Tower Two.[28]
Iran's Ayatollah Mir Asadollah Madani, who became the Imam for Tabriz after the 1979 assassination of the Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Qazi Tabatabaei, was himself assassinated while conducting the Jumu'ah, the Muslim Friday prayer service.[29] Madani was approached near the end of the service by a man who was carrying a grenade, and who then detonated it. In addition to Madani and the assassin, six worshipers were fatally injured.
A small plane crashed into the Swing AuditoriuminSan Bernardino, California, damaging the venue beyond repair. The crash happened at 4:40 in the afternoon and a 30 foot (9.1 m) -high hole was torn into the side of the auditorium when the Cessna 310 struck the building. The pilot, owner of a small chain of restaurants, was killed instantly along with his passenger.[30][31] The venue had no casualty insurance and could not be rebuilt.[32]
The Smurfs began a nine-season run on NBC Saturday morning television.[33]
The National Assembly of France voted 329–129 to remove most of the powers of the prefects in France's 95 departments, in the first step toward decentralization of government. The bill still needed to pass the Senate and the signature of President Mitterrand to become law.[34]
Two days of elections began in Norway, and the Labor Party lost its majority in the 155 member Storting. Labor, led by Gro Harlem Brundtland, retained 67 seats, but the Conservatives, led by supply side economist Kare Willoch, claimed victory with 54 seats and a potential coalition of 79.[35]
Nikolai Glushkov, Chairman of the State Prices Commission in the Soviet Union, confirmed rumors that had caused a run on stores, announcing sharp price increases for the following day, doubling the price of gasoline from the equivalent of $1.06 a gallon to $2.12. Glushkov also increased prices on tobacco and liquor, saying that it was in response to requests from workers "to limit the demand for them". He also said that prices for synthetic fabrics, household appliances, medicines and some watches would be cut by up to 37%, and noted that meat, dairy and bread prices had been unchanged for nearly 20 years.[37]
General Frederick J. Kroesen, commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, was slightly injured in an assassination attempt in West Germany. Two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at his armor-plated car as he was being driven through Heidelberg.[38]
AnAeroflot passenger airplane with 33 people on board was making its approach for a landing at the Russian city of Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky when it was struck by a Soviet Army helicopter on a training mission. All 33 on the plane, and 7 on the helicopter, were killed.[45]
For the first time, China launched three satellites into orbit, on a rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The feat led some observers to speculate that China had gained the ability to launch multiple nuclear warheads[48] or that it had set up an early warning system against missile attacks.[49]
Karen Williams, a stewardess on board World Airways Flight 32, a DC-10, was crushed to death in the airplane's service elevator during a flight from Baltimore to London.[50]
The initial public offering of stock in The Home Depot was made at $12.00 per share as the company was listed on the NASDAQ exchange.[53] The stock was worth 20 times as much within two years, and with 13 successive stock splits over the next 18 years, the value of a 1981 share of stock was worth 370 times as much, so that initial investment of $5,000 in 1981 would have been worth $1.8 million in 1999.[54] By 2010, the $5,000 investment would have been worth more than six million dollars.[55]
U.S. National Security Adviser Richard Allen announced plans by the Reagan Administration to create a radio station that would broadcast to Cuba, patterned after Radio Free Europe.[56] Though initially set to launch in January 1982, Radio Marti did not start transmission until May 20, 1985.[57]
A day after meeting for the first time, U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, and U.S.S.R. Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko issued a joint statement that the two nations would resume discussions on controlling the growth of nuclear weapons in Europe, beginning on November 30 in Geneva.[58]
[edit]Black-footed ferret: not extinctA Boeing 767-200
Believed to have become extinct in 1975, the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) was rediscovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming by a dog, which had attacked and killed the animal. The following month, a live ferret was found in the same area.[62]
The Boeing 767 airliner made its first flight, taking off from Everett, Washington at 11:55 am. Piloted by Tom Edmonds and Lew Wallick, along with John Britt, the jet reached an altitude of 17,000 feet and a speed of 260 miles per hour, and landing again at 1:58 p.m.[63]
Born:
Serena Williams, American professional tennis player, ranked No. 1 in the world on five occasions from 2002 through 2010; in Saginaw, Michigan
The first commercial run of the TGV high-speed rail service train began, traversing the 300-mile distance between Paris and Lyons. At 6:15 am, the Train a Grande Vitesse pulled out of the Gare de Lyon in Paris with 772 passengers, then accelerated along the high-speed line at Saint-Florentin at 156 miles per hour, arriving in Lyons at 9:05 am.[64]
The hijacking of a Yugoslavian JAT Boeing 727 was thwarted after a fire alarm was sounded and the 101 passengers and 7 crew escaped unharmed. The plane had been seized the night before during a flight from DubrovniktoBelgrade, flew to Athens for refueling, then landed at the Cypriot city of Larnaka, where the escape took place.[65]
After stock analyst Joseph Granville had predicted over the weekend that a "Blue Monday" would see stock prices fall, record sell-offs took place. In Tokyo, where the markets opened first, the Nikkei 225 fell 302.84 points, the largest single-day drop on record, and when the London Stock Exchange opened, the FT Index dropped a record 29.4 points. Less drastic declines happened in Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Zürich and Paris. Stock prices fell initially in New York and Toronto, but rallied later in the day.[66] Tokyo and London made strong recoveries the next day.[67]
President Reagan issued Executive Order 12324 to halt the flow of refugees from Haiti into the United States. Since 1978, almost 50,000 Haitian citizens fled the regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier and most were detained in South Florida. Reagan ordered the U.S. Coast Guard to intercept and board any refugee vessels and return them to their nation of origin.[68]
U.S. Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) completed a filibuster at 10:27 a.m., yielding the floor after beginning a speech of more than 16 hours the day before. Proxmire, famous for his monthly "Golden Fleece Award" for wasteful government spending, had spoken out against U.S. Senate approval of a bill to raise the debt ceiling above one trillion dollars. The cost of his speech to taxpayers, most of it for printing in the Congressional Record, was estimated at $64,674.[69]
A 17-year-old Mojahed assassin detonated a hand grenade, killing Iranian Shia cleric Abdolkarim Hasheminejad, the local Islamic Republican Party leader, along with himself after infiltrating the party headquarters in the city of Mashhad in Iran.[70][71]
The United States' debt ceiling was raised to one trillion dollars for the first time in history, the day after the U.S. Senate, by a margin of 64–34, approved an increase of the government's credit limit from $985 billion to $1,079,000,000,000. President Reagan signed the legislation at 8:15 pm in Washington.[72]
Pakistani commandos stormed a hijacked Indian Airlines jet and rescued all 45 hostages, two hours before a deadline for action. The plane had been seized the day before by three Sikh nationalists, then flown to Lahore.[73]
^Caryle Murphy, Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience (Simon and Schuster, 2002) p62; "Sadat sweep jails 500", Vancouver Sun, September 4, 1981, p1
^"Q: When Is Ketchup a Vegetable? A: When Tofu Is Meat", by Ward Sinclair, Washington Post, September 9, 1981, pA7;
Manning Marable, Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1990 (University Press of Mississippi, 1991) p183; "Plan to count ketchup a vegetable left school lunch planners in a pickle", Miami News, September 30, 1981, p6A
^"Mine blast kills 65", Milwaukee Journal, September 4, 1981, p2
^"French envoy slain", Milwaukee Journal, September 4, 1981, p2
^Chris Roush, Inside Home Depot: How One Company Revolutionized an Industry through the Relentless Pursuit of Growth (McGraw-Hill Professional, 1999) p2
