1980

Events from the year 1980 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Jimmy Carter (D-GA)
* Vice President: Walter Mondale (D-MN)
* Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (MN)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tip O'Neill (D-MA)
* Senate Majority Leader: Robert Byrd (D-WV)
* Congress: 96th
==Events==
===January===
* January 1 – The comic strip The Far Side debuts in newspapers.
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 7 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation approving $1.5 billion in loan guarantees to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
* January 20 – Super Bowl XIV: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Los Angeles Rams 31–19 at Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The game was shown to the Americans held hostage in Iran.
* January 24
** The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad is ordered liquidated due to bankruptcy and debt owed to creditors.
** The 5.8 Mw Livermore earthquake shakes the East Bay area of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). This first event in a doublet earthquake is followed two days later by a 5.4 Mw shock. Total financial losses from the events is $11.5 million.
* January 27 – Canadian Caper: Six United States diplomats, posing as Canadians, manage to escape from Tehran, Iran as they board a flight to Zürich, Switzerland.
* January 28 - The 180' coast guard buoy tender USCGC BLACKTHORN collided with the 600' tanker SS CAPRICORN in the Tampa Bay shipping channel. The coast guard vessel capsized and sank after becoming entangled in CAPRICORN'S anchor chain. 23 of BLACKTHORN'S 50 crew members perished in the accident.
===February===
* February 2
** The New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot takes place begins; 33 inmates are killed and more than 100 inmates injured.
** Abscam: FBI personnel target members of the Congress of the United States in a sting operation.
* February 3 – The New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot ends.
* February 13 – The XIII Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
* February 15 – David Sanborn releases his fourth solo studio album, Hideaway, in the United States.
* February 22 – The United States Olympic Hockey Team defeats the Soviet Union in the medal round of the Winter Olympics, in the Miracle on Ice.
===March===
* March 1 – The Voyager 1 probe confirms the existence of Janus, a moon of Saturn.
* March 5 – Channel Islands National Park is established.
* March 21
** Mafioso Angelo Bruno is assassinated in Philadelphia.
** U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
* March 22 – The Georgia Guidestones are erected in Elbert County, Georgia.
* March 27 – Silver Thursday: A steep fall in silver prices, resulting from the Hunt Brothers attempting to corner the market in silver, leads to panic on commodity and futures exchanges.
* March 31 – Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad operates its final train.
===April===
* April 1 – New York City's Transport Works Union Local 100 goes on strike, which continues for 11 days.
* April 7 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions, following the taking of American hostages on November 4, 1979.
* April 14 – The 52nd Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Johnny Carson, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Robert Benton's Kramer vs. Kramer wins five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film is tied with Bob Fosse's All That Jazz in receiving nine nominations. 8-year-old Justin Henry, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, notably becomes the youngest Oscar nominee in any category.
* April 15 – A mass exodus of Cubans to the United States known as the Mariel boatlift begins. It ends on October 31 by agreement between the two countries.
* April 21 – Rosie Ruiz wins the Boston Marathon, but is later exposed as a fraud and stripped of her award.
* April 24
** Operation Eagle Claw, a commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages, is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops are killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
** Pennsylvania Lottery Scandal: the Pennsylvania Lottery is rigged by six men including the host of the live TV drawing, Nick Perry.
===May===
* May 3 – Cari Lightner, a 13-year-old girl, is killed by a drunk driver in Fair Oaks, California. Her mother, Candy, forms the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
* May 4 – The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare splits into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.
* May 7 – Paul Geidel, convicted of second-degree murder in 1911, is released from prison in Beacon, New York, after 68 years and 245 days (the longest-ever time served by an inmate).
* May 9
** James Alexander George Smith "Jags" McCartney, the Turks and Caicos Islands' first Chief Minister, is killed in a plane crash over New Jersey.
** In Florida, the Liberian freighter Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, sending 35 people (most of whom were in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapses.
** In Norco, California, 5 men robbed a bank, leading to a shootout and pursuit that left 2 of the robbers dead, 1 sheriff deputy killed, 33 police vehicles destroyed, and 11 people, consisting of 8 officers, a civilian, and 2 other perpetrators wounded.
* May 11 – Mobster Henry Hill is arrested for drug possession.
* May 16 – The Department of Education begins operations.
* May 17 – A Miami, Florida court acquits four white police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, provoking three days of race riots.
* May 18 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage.
* May 21 – The Empire Strikes Back is released.
* May 22 – Pac-Man, the best-selling arcade game of all time, is released.
* May 23 – Stanley Kubrick's horror film, The Shining, based on the 1977 novel of the same name, is released.
* May 24
** The New York Islanders win their first Stanley Cup, from a goal by Bobby Nystrom in overtime of game six of the Stanley Cup playoffs' final round.
** The International Court of Justice calls for the release of U.S. Embassy hostages in Tehran.
* May 25 – Indianapolis 500: Johnny Rutherford wins for a third time in car owner Jim Hall's revolutionary ground effect Chaparral car; the victory is Hall's second as an owner.
* May 29 – Vernon Jordan is shot and critically injured in an assassination attempt in Fort Wayne, Indiana by Joseph Paul Franklin (the first major news story for CNN).
===June===
* June 1 – The Cable News Network (CNN) is officially launched.
* June 2 – The 1980 recession ends.
* June 3
** U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy wins several primaries, including California, on 'Super Tuesday', but not enough to overtake President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic Party nomination.
** A series of deadly tornadoes strikes Grand Island, Nebraska, causing over US$300 million in damage, killing five people and injuring over 250.
* June 9 – In Los Angeles, comedian Richard Pryor is badly burned trying to freebase cocaine.
* June 10 – A Unabomber bomb injures United Airlines president Percy Wood in Lake Forest, Illinois.
* June 20 – Augusta AVA becomes the first federally recognized American Viticultural Area.
* June 23 – The 1980 United States heat wave claims 1,700 lives.
* June 27 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs Proclamation 4771, requiring 19 and 20-year-old males to register for a peacetime military draft, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
===July===
* July 1 – The unemployment rate peaks at 7.8%, the highest in four years.
* July 15 – A severe and destructive thunderstorm strikes four counties in western Wisconsin, including the city of Eau Claire. It causes over US$250 million in damage, and one person is killed.
* July 16 – Former California Governor and actor Ronald Reagan is nominated for U.S. President, at the Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan. Influenced by the Religious Right, the convention also drops its long standing support for the Equal Rights Amendment, dismaying moderate Republicans.
===August===
* August 10 – Hurricane Allen, after becoming a Category 5 storm and the strongest hurricane of the season, hits southeastern Texas as a Category 3.
* August 14
** U.S. President Jimmy Carter defeats Senator Ted Kennedy to win renomination at the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City.
** Actress Dorothy Stratten is murdered in Los Angeles (southern California), apparently raped and shot by her estranged husband Paul Snider before he kills himself.
* August 26 – Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing begins in Stateline, Nevada, part of an extortion plot.
* August 27 – Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing ends.
===September===
* September 18 – 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion begins: Liquid fuel in an LGM-25C Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile explodes at a missile launch facility north of Damascus, Arkansas.
* September 19
** 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion ends.
** The Robert Redford-directed film Ordinary People, based on the novel by Judith Guest, premieres. Redford's directorial debut later wins him his first Oscar, and wins three other Academy Awards, and five Golden Globe awards.
* September 29 – The Washington Post publishes Janet Cooke's story of Jimmy, an 8-year-old heroin addict (later proven to be fabricated).
* September 30 – Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel and Xerox introduce the DIX standard for Ethernet, which is the first implementation outside of Xerox, and the first to support 10 Mbit/s speeds.
===October===
* October 14 – The Staggers Rail Act is enacted, deregulating American railroads.
* October 15 – James Hoskins murdered his girlfriend earlier that morning and forced his way into WCPO's television studio in Cincinnati, holding nine employees hostage for several hours before releasing them and taking his own life.
* October 21 – World Series: The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals, 4 games to 2, to win their first World Series Title.
* October 28 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan debate in Cleveland, Ohio. Reagan's genial, witty performance causes him to overtake Carter in the polls.
===November===
* November 4 – 1980 United States presidential election: Republican challenger and former Governor Ronald Reagan of California defeats incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter, exactly one year after the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis.
* November 8 – The 7.3 Mw Eureka earthquake shook the North Coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing six injuries and $2–2.75 million in losses.
* November 10 – Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn, when it flies within 77,000 miles (124,000 km) of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth.
* November 20 – A Texaco oil rig breaks through to a mine under Lake Peigneur.
* November 21
** Millions of viewers tune into the U.S. soap opera Dallas to learn who shot lead character J. R. Ewing. The "Who shot J. R.?" event is a national obsession.
** MGM Grand fire: A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip kills 85 people.
===December===
* December 8
** John Lennon is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City.
** Berkeley Breathed's comic strip Bloom County debuts in newspapers.
* December 11 – CERCLA is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
* December 14 – Four people are murdered and four others are injured by two armed robbers at Bob's Big Boy on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.
* December 26 – Richard Chase, the "Vampire of Sacramento," kills himself by overdose at San Quentin State Prison.
==Memoriam==
* January 1 – Frank Wykoff, relay sprinter (aged 70; Altadena, CA, USA)
* January 8 – John Mauchly, physicist and inventor (aged 72; Ambler, PA, USA)
* January 10
** Hughie Critz, baseball player and scout (aged 79; Greenwood, MS, USA)
** George Meany, plumber and trade union leader (aged 85; Washington, DC, USA)
** Bo Rein, American football player and coach (aged 34; Atlantic Ocean)
* January 17 – Barbara Britton, actress (aged 59; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* January 19 – William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice (aged 81; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* January 23 – Leonard Strong, actor (aged 71; Glendale, CA, USA)
* January 25 – David Newell, actor (aged 75; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 29 – Jimmy Durante, actor, singer and comedian (aged 86; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* January 30
** Professor Longhair, musician (aged 61; New Orleans, LA, USA)
** Warren Smith, singer and guitarist (aged 47; Longview, TX, USA)
* February 1 – Jack Bailey, television host (Queen for a Day) (aged 72; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* February 2 – William Howard Stein, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (aged 68; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 6 – Albert Kotin, abstract expressionist painter (aged 72; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 8 – Isadora Bennett, publicity agent (aged 79; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 12 – Muriel Rukeyser, poet (aged 66; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 13
** David Janssen, actor (aged 48; Malibu, CA, USA)
** Mike Monroney, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma from 1951 to 1969 (aged 77; Rockville, MD, USA)
* February 17 – Jerry Fielding, conductor and music director (aged 57; Toronto, ON, Canada)
* February 18 – Gale Robbins, singer and actress (aged 58; Tarzana, CA, USA)
* February 20
** Joseph Banks Rhine, parapsychologist (aged 84; Hillsborough, NC, USA)
** Alice Roosevelt Longworth, eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt (aged 96; Washington, DC, USA)
* February 23 – Robert Hayden, poet and essayist, first African-American Poet Laureate (aged 66; Ann Arbor, MI, USA)
* February 27 – George Tobias, actor (aged 78; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 28 – James Goff, American football and basketball head coach (aged 67; Tucson, AZ, USA)
* February 29 – Gil Elvgren, pin-up artist (aged 65; Sarasota, FL, USA)
* March 3 – Roger Davis, actor (aged 96; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 10 – Herman Tarnower, medical doctor and diet guru (aged 69; Purchase, NY, USA)
* March 11 – Maud Hart Lovelace, author (aged 87; Claremont, CA, USA)
* March 18 – Jessica Dragonette, singer (aged 80; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 21 – Peter Stoner, mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist (aged 91; Long Beach, CA, USA)
* March 25
** James Wright, poet (aged 52; New York City, NY, USA)
** Milton H. Erickson, psychiatrist (aged 78; Phoenix, AZ, USA)
* March 28 – James Hayes, American-born Filipino Roman Catholic, Jesuit archbishop, missionary and servant of God (aged 91; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines)
* March 30 – David Sharpe, actor (aged 70; Altadena, CA, USA)
* March 31 – Jesse Owens, track and field athlete (aged 66; Tucson, AZ, USA)
* April 2 – Stanley Forman Reed, Supreme Court Justice (aged 95; Huntington, NY, USA)
* April 4 – Red Sovine, country and folk singer-songwriter (aged 62; Nashville, TN, USA)
* April 15
** Raymond Bailey, actor (aged 75; Irvine, CA, USA)
** Marshall Reed, film and television actor (aged 62; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* April 18 – Antonio Caponigro, gangster (aged 68; Bronx, NY, USA)
* April 19 – Charles Seel, actor (aged 82; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* April 20 – Katherine Kennicott Davis, composer (aged 87; Littleton, MA, USA)
* April 28 – Thomas G. W. Settle, record-setting balloonist and admiral (aged 84; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* May 1 – Henry Levin, film director and actor (aged 70; Glendale, CA, USA)
* May 30 – Carl Radle, bassist (aged 37; Claremore, OK, USA)
* June 1 – Rube Marquard, baseball player and manager (aged 93; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* June 7
** Richard Bonelli, opera baritone (aged 91; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Philip Guston, painter (aged 66; Woodstock, NY, USA)
** Henry Miller, writer (aged 88; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 12 – Milburn Stone, actor (aged 75; La Jolla, CA, USA)
* June 23 – Clyfford Still, painter (aged 75; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* July 7
** Dore Schary, film writer, director and producer (aged 74; New York City, NY, USA)
** Dan White, actor (aged 72; Tampa, FL, USA)
* July 15 – Ben Selvin, orchestra leader and recording artist (aged 82; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 17 – Don "Red" Barry, actor (aged 68; North Hollywood, CA, USA)
* July 25 – Tony Catalano, American football player (aged 85; Boise, ID, USA)
* July 26 – Allen "Farina" Hoskins, actor (aged 59; Oakland, CA, USA)
* July 31 – Bobby Van, actor, singer, and dancer (aged 51; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 1 – Strother Martin, actor (aged 61; Thousand Oaks, CA, USA)
* August 2 – Donald Ogden Stewart, writer (aged 85; London, England, UK)
* August 9 – Elliott Nugent, actor (aged 83; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 14
** Paul Snider, Canadian murderer (aged 29; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Dorothy Stratten, Canadian model, actress, and murder victim (aged 20; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 15 – William Hood Simpson, general (aged 92; San Antonio, TX, USA)
* August 27 – Douglas Kenney, comedy writer and author (aged 33; Kauai, HI, USA)
* September 3
** Barbara O'Neil, actress (aged 70; Cos Cob, CT, USA)
** Duncan Renaldo, actor (aged 76; Goleta, CA, USA)
* September 6 – Hale Woodruff, artist (aged 80; New York City, NY, USA)
* September 30 – John McGuire, actor (aged 69; Dublin, Ireland)
* October 2 – Eric Hass, four-time Socialist Labor candidate (aged 75; Santa Rosa, CA, USA)
* October 10 – Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, actor (aged 49; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 27 – Red Conkright, football player and coach (aged 66; Houston, TX, USA)
* October 28 – Leon Janney, actor (aged 63; Guadalajara, Mexico)
* October 31 – Elizebeth Smith Friedman, cryptographer (aged 88; Plainfield, NJ, USA)
* November 1 – Sherri Jarvis, murder victim who was unidentified for 41 years (aged 14; Huntsville, TX, USA)
* November 7 – Steve McQueen, actor (aged 50; Ciudad Juárez, Mexico)
* November 9
** Carmel Myers, actress (aged 81; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Victor Sen Yung, actor (aged 66; North Hollywood, CA, USA)
* November 29 – Dorothy Day, journalist and social activist (aged 83; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 4 – Stanisława Walasiewicz (Stella Walsh), track and field athlete, born in Poland (aged 69; Cleveland, OH, USA)
* December 8 – John Lennon, British musician, singer, songwriter, and murder victim (aged 40; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 11 – Dorothy West, actress (aged 89; Davenport, FL, USA)
* December 14 – Elston Howard, baseball player (aged 51; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 16 - Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (aged 90; Louisville, KY, USA)
* December 26 – Richard Chase, serial killer (aged 30; San Quentin, CA, USA)
* December 28 – Sam Levene, actor (aged 75; New York City, NY, USA)
==External links==
* 1980 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 21