WORLD HISTORY · 1982 日本語
Events of 1982Showa 57 (Japan) · Year of the Dog
What happened in 1982?
In 1982, the Tohoku and Joetsu Shinkansen bullet train lines, serving northeastern Japan and the Sea of Japan coast, opened one after the other. Around the world, the Falklands War broke out and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died.
- JAL Flight 350 crashes off HanedaAsia
- Falklands War beginsLatin America
- UN Convention on the Law of the Sea adoptedWorld
- Israel invades LebanonMiddle East
- Tohoku Shinkansen opens between Omiya and MoriokaAsia
- Nagasaki flood causes heavy damageAsia
- Brezhnev dies; Andropov succeeds himEurope
- Joetsu Shinkansen opens between Omiya and NiigataAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1982 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 57 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Dog |
| Age of people born in 1982 | Turn 44 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1981 (Showa 56) ／ 1983 (Showa 58) |
| Events | 106 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 1982
Our birthday pages list 936 people born in 1982. Here are some of them.
- William, Prince of WalesBorn June 21 · turns 44 this year · Heir to the British throne, elder son of King Charles III, known for his enviro…
- Eddie RedmayneBorn January 6 · turns 44 this year · English actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Theory of Everyt…
- Jessica BielBorn March 3 · turns 44 this year · American actress who rose to fame on TV's 7th Heaven and later earned Emmy and…
- Kelly ClarksonBorn April 24 · turns 44 this year · American pop singer who won the first season of American Idol and now hosts her…
- Anne HathawayBorn November 12 · turns 44 this year
- Osamu MukaiBorn February 7 · turns 44 this year
- Ai OtsukaBorn September 9 · turns 44 this year
- Mao KobayashiBorn July 21 · turns 44 this year
- Kumi KodaBorn November 13 · turns 44 this year
- Shin-Soo ChooBorn July 13 · turns 44 this year
- Nonito DonaireBorn November 16 · turns 44 this year
- Hyun BinBorn September 25 · turns 44 this year
Show 28 more
- Alan RitchsonBorn November 28 · turns 44 this year
- Kirsten DunstBorn April 30 · turns 44 this year
- Alison BrieBorn December 29 · turns 44 this year
- Priyanka ChopraBorn July 18 · turns 44 this year
- David NalbandianBorn January 1 · turns 44 this year
- Egidio ArévaloBorn January 1 · turns 44 this year
- Lasse NilssonBorn January 3 · turns 44 this year
- Park Ji-yoonBorn January 3 · turns 44 this year
- Peter ClarkeBorn January 3 · turns 44 this year
- Danny SullivanBorn January 4 · turns 44 this year
- Kang Hye-jungBorn January 4 · turns 44 this year
- Richard LoganBorn January 4 · turns 44 this year
- Janica KostelićBorn January 5 · turns 44 this year
- Nori AokiBorn January 5 · turns 44 this year
- Gilbert ArenasBorn January 6 · turns 44 this year
- Israel DamonteBorn January 6 · turns 44 this year
- Roy AsotasiBorn January 6 · turns 44 this year
- Tiffany PollardBorn January 6 · turns 44 this year
- Francisco RodríguezBorn January 7 · turns 44 this year
- Hannah StockbauerBorn January 7 · turns 44 this year
- Lauren CohanBorn January 7 · turns 44 this year
- Gaby HoffmannBorn January 8 · turns 44 this year
- Catherine, Princess of WalesBorn January 9 · turns 44 this year
- Sharrod FordBorn January 9 · turns 44 this year
- Julien BrellierBorn January 10 · turns 44 this year
- Tomasz BrzyskiBorn January 10 · turns 44 this year
- Clint GreenshieldsBorn January 11 · turns 44 this year
- Son Ye-jinBorn January 11 · turns 44 this year
Events of 1982 (timeline · 106)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes the first Latin American to hold the title of Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Breakup of the Bell System: In the United States, AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.
World Airways Flight 30 overshoots the runway at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, and crashes into Boston Harbor. Two people are missing and presumed dead.
US Army General James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from captivity by the Red Brigades.
Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner".
The Intel 80286 is released, which introduced protected mode memory. The IBM PC/AT and its clones used this CPU.
Japan Air Lines Flight 350 crashes near Haneda Airport in an attempted pilot mass murder-suicide, killing 24 of the 174 people on board.
The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 workers.
Syzygy: All nine planets recognized at this time — Mercury to Pluto — align on the same side of the Sun.
Fifteen people are killed when Widerøe Flight 933 crashes into the Barents Sea near Gamvik, Norway.
The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London.
Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom.
NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.
Guatemala's government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García, is overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt.
Bangladeshi President Abdus Sattar is deposed in a bloodless coup led by Army Chief Lieutenant general Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who suspends the Constitution and imposes martial law.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, D.C.
The Canada Act 1982 receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982.
Space Shuttle program: STS-3 mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
American-Israeli reservist Alan Harry Goodman carries out a mass shooting at the Dome of the Rock, killing two Palestinians and injuring at least seven others.
Constitution Act, 1982 Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands War.
Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.
Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.
During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet.
Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.
Falklands War: The British Army defeats the Argentine Army at the Battle of Goose Green.
The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street; he survives but is left paralysed.
1982 Lebanon War: The war begins as forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.
Bluff Cove Air Attacks during the Falklands War: Fifty-six British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two landing ships, RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram.
Lebanon War: The Syrian Arab Army defeats the Israeli Defense Forces in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub.
Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley conditionally surrender to British forces ending the war.
Italian banker Roberto Calvi's body is discovered hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, England.
The People's Armed Police is de facto founded; it is officially established 10 months later on April 5, 1983.
The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.
The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide opens in Tel Aviv, despite attempts by the Turkish government to cancel it, as it included presentations on the Armenian genocide.
John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
"The Jakarta Incident": British Airways Flight 009 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4.
Space Shuttle program: Columbia lands at Edwards Air Force Base at the end of the program's final test flight, STS-4. President Ronald Reagan declares the Space Shuttle to be operational.
Three Iranian diplomats and a journalist are kidnapped in Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remains unknown.
While attempting to return to Sheremetyevo International Airport, Aeroflot Flight 411, an Ilyushin Il-62, crashes near Mendeleyevo, Moscow Oblast, killing all 90 people on board.
A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein results in the Dujail Massacre over the next several months.
Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 145 people on board and eight others on the ground.
Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre.
In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped.
Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
Outside Santa Clarita, California, actor Vic Morrow and two children are killed when a helicopter crashes onto them while shooting a scene from Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Heavy rain causes a mudslide that destroys a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, killing 299.
The Helsinki Metro, the first rapid transit system of Finland, is opened to the general public.
A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii, killing one passenger and injuring 15 others.
Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon.
Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claim to be avenging the massacre of 1+1⁄2 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian genocide.
Meitnerium, a synthetic chemical element with the atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
The international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees following Israel's 1982 Invasion of Lebanon leave Beirut. Five days later, several thousand refugees are massacred in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by Phalange forces.
Spantax Flight 995 crashes at Málaga Airport during a rejected takeoff, killing 50 of the 394 people on board.
Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons 🙂 and 🙁 on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board system.
NFL season: American football players in the National Football League begin a 57-day strike.
Sony and Phillips launch the compact disc in Japan; on the same day, Sony releases the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind.
EPCOT Center (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) opens at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a constructive vote of no confidence.
Tylenol products are recalled after bottles in Chicago laced with cyanide cause seven deaths.
During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
A gunfight breaks out between police officers and members of a religious cult in Arizona. The shootout leaves two cultists dead and dozens of cultists and police officers injured.
The Spanish general election begins fourteen years of rule by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, Ohio; a Honda Accord is the first car produced there.
Channel 4, the British free-to-air public broadcast television channel funded by its commercial activities, starts broadcasting.
Colonel Saye Zerbo, president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Colonel Gabriel Yoryan Somé.
Space Shuttle Columbia launches from the Kennedy Space Center on STS-5, the first operational mission of the Space Shuttle program.
USSR: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.
Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas. Kim's subsequent death (on November 18) leads to significant changes in the sport.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.
Reverend Caesar "Butch" Conde leads first worship service of the Bread of Life Ministries International in the Philippines.
Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.
At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.
A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri, that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombs a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland, killing eleven soldiers and six civilians.
In Texas, Charles Brooks Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
The Senior Road Tower collapses in less than 17 seconds. Five workers on the tower are killed and three workers on a building nearby are injured.
The 6.0 Ms North Yemen earthquake shakes southwestern Yemen with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 2,800, and injuring 1,500.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1982 in the Japanese calendar?
1982 was Showa 57 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1982?
1982 is the Year of the Dog.
How old is someone born in 1982?
They turn 44 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1982?
In 1982, the Tohoku and Joetsu Shinkansen bullet train lines, serving northeastern Japan and the Sea of Japan coast, opened one after the other. Around the world, the Falklands War broke out and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.